Dizzojay's Dean Dreams

Challenge #7

In your own space, tell us about 3 fandom resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy. (One or two is fine, especially if you're in a smaller fandom!) Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Archive of our Own is a fabulous resource for fanfiction writers.  It’s well set out and relatively easy to use, I’m in the process of gradually exporting my writings from Fanfiction.net to AO3, as I keep hearing opinions that Fanfiction.net seems to be winding down.  I love that AO3 is a not for profit organisation and that it’s run by fans for fans.   I love that it provides protection and legal advocacy for fanfiction writers and their works.  It also seems to attract the best of the best; I’ve found so many long, beautifully written fanfics there.

Deviant art is where I house all my fan art works, it’s just great to have everything in one place.  It’s another site that’s relatively easy to use, and although I’m not active there in terms of communicating with others, It is an arty rabbit hole that’s very easy to fall down!

I couldn’t complete today’s challenge without mentioning my online home, Livejournal.  My journal is 11 years old and through it, I have met so many wonderful friends – many of whom have become real life friends.  My journal is a mixture of fanworks, personal musings, memes and Jensen Ackles appreciation.  More recently, it has also become the place where I report the adventures and misadventures of the two newest additions to my family; Juniper and Nutmeg the ridiculously spoiled houserabbits! 

I'm not saying that I spend a lot of time on Livejournal, but my end of year stats said that to read all the posts I'd made at my journal in 2021 would take 22 hours... *blushes*

As for everyone, the year panned out to be one great big steaming cowpat. With all the Covid chaos, fires, floods, plagues of locusts, Brexshit, and to top it all, the end of Supernatural.

But this post is not here to dwell on the negatives (if I did, I’d be breaching the Lj word limit, no doubt), I’m only going to focus on the fandom positives of the year. So, here goes…

I managed to write more fandom words this year than last year. Last year’s word count was quite low, because of the studying I was doing early in 2019 (27,003). I was aiming to be up to about the 30,000 this year, but inspiration has been a little hard to come by, and in the end I finished up on 27,690. So, yes, a bit disappointing, but more than last year so we’ll call it a win anyway!

Okay, so most of my F/list has done this and I though, 'why not?'.  Most of you have probably heard this story or portions of it at one time or another, but hey ho ... reading isn't compulsory!

I’ve often waxed lyrical about the joys of fandom at my journal, and I never need another excuse to do that, because there’s so much to love about fandom!

Fandom isn’t just a group of people who happen to like the same TV show or film, or book. We’re a family; a community.  We’re a community of like-minded people who all love the same thing and who can openly share their likes, loves, and passions with each other.

And like any community, we interact, we have fun, we take care of the more vulnerable members of our community, we support each other’s dreams and cheerlead each other’s challenges.

But fandom isn’t just an abstract thing; to me it’s a place.  It’s a place with no borders, where us fans, regardless of or race or sexuality or whatever other characteristics we may have can go to belong, to be welcomed into the arms of a community that is accepting and fun; a community that GETS us.

Somehow, friendships made through fandom are easy; easier than friendships forged in real life through work, or school or location.  Real life friendships have to form and evolve.  When you start out, you’re just two disparate strangers working for the same organisation, or living in the same street.  Friendships made through fandom, on the other hand, begin with you both knowing something about each other - what you love and what you have in common. And although those friendships may start out as something as simple and superficial as a shared love of the same TV show, or the same book, they quickly grow into something far more meaningful. 

Many of my fandom friendships have outgrown the computer screen and crossed over into real life, and those friendships have given me more joy than I could ever put into a simple post like this.

Members of fandom are often those of us that society thinks of as ‘weird’ or a bit odd, or on the edge of ‘normal’.  A lot of us probably suffered through school, and have never been regarded as 'cool' or in with the ‘in’ crowd; but in fandom, ‘weirdness’ is embraced, individuality is celebrated, imagination is admired.  Fandom is where you can be yourself, where you can be all that you can be, and more.

The sheer depth of talent and skill within fandom is mindboggling.  To be able to immerse yourself in such a deep and welcoming pool of creativity is a delight and a privilege, and what makes it so special is that all these amazing fanworks, whether they be inspirational art, gripping stories, entertaining videos etc, are all done just for the sheer pleasure of creating them, not for any financial gain.

So yes, I never need any excuse to write a love letter to fandom; everything I’ve written here comes from my personal experience.  Fandom has enabled me to learn new skills, and to rediscover and develop old ones. It has given me friends from all over the world.  Those friends know who they are and how much they mean to me, and if I can give back to them and to fandom generally a fraction of the love and happiness they’ve given me, then my time in fandom will have been very well spent.