It's (almost) a wrap!

[dolorosa_12]

We're up to the penultimate snowflake_challenge prompt for 2023: In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge.




What were your top 5 fandoms for 2022 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?

I don't really know how to answer this, because the way I do fandom is so weird — I am fannish about a pretty constant (but ever-expanding) list of things, mainly books, and I kind of circle through thinking about them a huge amount of the time (for example, if someone's post about another book reminds me of one of my fannish books, or if someone mentions a trope they like and it reminds me of a trope that's present in one of my fannish books). However, since they're all essentially fandoms-of-one (even at Yuletide it's rare for anyone else to request them), most of my 'interaction' with these fandoms consists of rereading the books or thinking about them.

So I've chosen to list things here that I did typically fannish activities as people here are more likely to understand — writing and engaging with fanworks in a communal sense. By that token:

1. The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay (wrote three fics for it for Yuletide, did the necessary bits of canon review)
2. Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo (wrote a fandomtrees gift in this fandom, did the necessary bits of canon review, read the other Six of Crows fic in the fandomtrees collection and generally chattered with peaked on and off about this fandom in Dreamwidth comments.
3. Sunshine by Robin McKinley (wrote a Yuletide treat in this fandom, did the necessary bits of canon review)
4. The 'Selkie Bride' folktale (wrote a Once Upon a Fic fic in this fandom)
5. Andor (read lots of meta, chatted about it with people in various Dreamwidth comment threads)

What were your top 5 fandom spaces (Discord, Twitter, etc.) you experienced fandom in terms of time spent?
1. Dreamwidth
2. AO3
3. Instagram (in the sense that I use it to keep informed of various professional authors' publishing schedules and events like panel discussions or Instagram Live)
4. Goodreads (in the sense that I use it to log my reading, and books are my main fandom)
5. I don't really know? Maybe I watched a handful of fanvids on Youtube? I subscribe to professional authors' newsletters, so maybe 'my email inbox' should be the answer here?

What are the top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in terms of time? Did you write? Comment? Send positive energy into the universe? Create art?
1. Write Dreamwidth posts (reviews, recs, a little bit of meta) and comment on other people's posts
2. Write fic for exchanges and comment on other people's fic
3. Attend online author events like panels, livestreams, virtual book launches

That's really the only fannish activities I did/do, besides ... reading/watching the things that I'm fannish about.

What were your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions? (i.e. in terms of likes, kudos, reblogs, comments, etc.)

I think it would be too hard to track down my most commented-on Dreamwidth posts of 2022 (which probably were the things that got the most engagement), so I'll go by fic. I'm ranking them by number of comments rather than hits-to-kudos ratios as I feel comments are a more accurate record of engagement.

1. This marigold run (3037 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Sunshine - Robin McKinley
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, Constantine (Sunshine), Yolande (Sunshine)
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat, 5+1 Things
Summary:

Five times Con gave Sunshine an object of power, and one time she returned the favour.

2. The Sea Inside (1687 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Selkie Bride (Scottish Folk Tale)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Selkie (The Selkie Bride)
Summary:

This is a story about the language of the sea, and the language of the land. An earthbound selkie sheds and reclaims many words, and many skins.

3. The Salt Road (1997 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Characters: Inej Ghafa, Kaz Brekker
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, 5+1 Things
Summary:

Five times Inej Ghafa left Ketterdam, and one time she didn't.

4. Sirocco (1221 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Miranda Belmonte/Rodrigo Belmonte
Characters: Miranda Belmonte, Rodrigo Belmonte
Additional Tags: Yuletide Treat
Summary:

'He's thoughtful and generous and his horses seem to like him. I'd say that's a pretty good sign.'

 

Newly engaged, Miranda and Rodrigo size each other up, and decide they like what they see.

5. Like a Ribbon, Unfurling (2230 words) by Dolorosa
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Lions of Al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jehane bet Ishak, Miranda Belmonte
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

Miranda and Jehane meet by chance in a marketplace in Padrino, and speculate about how their lives might unfold.

Have a Top 5 List you'd like to share?? By all means!

I decided to list the top five TV shows I watched/finished watching in 2023 (excluding documentaries).

1. Babylon Berlin
2. Derry Girls
3. Andor
4. The English
5. Yellowjackets

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

Your GGK musings here reminded me: a distant acquaintance made a very fun video about a Jehane cosplay, drawing on historical Jewish dress in Nasrid Granada. Perhaps you'd enjoy it!

[dolorosa_12]

That cosplay video was amazing — I loved all the details about the historical research into material culture, and how to the costume was constructed! Thank you so much for sharing it!

[misbegotten]

My Top 5 TV Shows I Watched in 2022:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 1
Andor, season 1
Reacher, season 1
Bridgerton, season 2
Only Murders in the Building, season 1

[dolorosa_12]

Ooh, I watched most of these too (although in 2022 I watched the second seasons of Bridgerton and Onlly Murders in the Building rather than the first).

[corvidology]

I've always had this theory that 'book fandom' in general remains small because a lot of writers are intimidated about working with canon that's already in written form. I find far more people who admit to being huge fans of books/books series than the number who produce fan works for them.

In a related way, there's the glut of modern AUs in historically set fandoms because writers are intimidated by capturing the period.

[kore]

Oh yeah, that's a very good point.

[corvidology]

Its' just really noticeable to me because when you have fannish friends they talk a lot about books they love but...

[dolorosa_12]

I've heard people say this, and intellectually I understand it, but it's just completely different to the way I approach fic. I only write in book fandoms, and I find the idea of writing for a TV show or film way more intimidating because I feel then that there's this pressure to mirror the dialogue style from canon. But with books, I don't feel any pressure to match the writing style of the source material, because I tend to think of the books (even when they're told in the first person) as being a kind of secondary description of events, like a news story reporting an event that has already happened.

I think only one of my fics really deliberately matches the writing style, and that's because it's in a fandom that is told in first person in a very distinctive voice, with a character who has a constantly running sarcastic and stressed out inner monologue, and I was doing my best to replicate that. But in general, I don't make any attempt to copy the writing style of books, and I avoid offering fic for fandoms whose requesters' prompts seem to want that.

I totally agree with you about the modern AU thing, though — I find it infuriating!

[kore]

I loved that Sunshine fic! It's so great to see it pop up now and then in Yuletide, it's such an interesting book.

Yeah, with Andor I loved the show, watched it a couple of times, read a ton of pro and fan meta, but either I've gotten very picky or very cranky in my old age because none of the fic I saw rang my bells. Probably both, lol.

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you so much for your kind words about my fic! And I agree — I always feel that Yuletide isn't Yuletide if it doesn't include Sunshine, and The Dark Is Rising sequence!

I had very little interest in reading fic for Andor, like you. I felt like I got what I needed out of canon, but was still interested in reading meta that dug into things more deeply.

[kingstoken]

One of these days I have to read Six of Crows, everyone seems to like it.

[dolorosa_12]

It's such a fun set of books (although emotionally wrenching in places).