[Rhapsody]

[MetteBL]

Dear Fanwriters,

We are closing the survey now and would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your replies and kind words. We want you to know that all your answers are very important to us and we will treat them all with respect.

We have got the impression that some of you are very interested in the results of the survey, and we think that you are entitled to some kind of response, now that you have taken your time to fill out the survey. We will not publish the answers in their entirety, as we feel that it would break the confidence you have shown us. We will however give a short summary of the conclusions of the paper when we have finished it in December so you can see what have become of your answers.

Once again: Thank you all!

Yours respectfully,
Heidi Buus Winther Jensen &
Mette Bundgaard Laursen

[Rous]

I guess I missed the survey. But, I agree with those who want to keep writing anonymous. I have few friends and none of them are interested in fanfic, so that pretty much leaves me on my own. As for the husband, his philosophy is if I cannot make money with it, why waste my time. To him, it is useless. Nevermind that I just enjoy it. Or that it fulfills something deep inside me. That is just his way of thinking, and perish the thought that I may disagree with him.

[Alassante]

[Rhapsody]

[MetteBL]

Dear NancyBrooke, SpaceWeavil,ghettoelleth, Rhapsody, Maram68, Neniel, inglor, krazykataave, NeumeIndil, Rous and Alassante,

I’ve just read the discussion you have had in this thread and I must say that it is very interesting. I’m very happy that NancyBrooke brought up the subject of anonymity, because it made me realize that it could be a very important aspect of being a member of an online community, but I must confess that neither I nor my study partner had thought about it (although we obviously should have).

I write this because I hope that you will help us (once again, but this time on a more personal level) to make some things clear and to make us understand the topic of fanfiction and fanwriters better.

But first let me start by elaborating the subject of our paper a bit. The working title of our paper is “Fanfiction and identity in online communities”. Its purpose is to explore what it means for a person to be a fan, to use that fandom in a creative fashion, and publish creative writings in a community, where it is received by people with the same interest.

“Why are they interested in this particular subject?” you might ask. “Do they have a hidden agenda that will make us all look like a bunch of geeks?” Concerns like these are very understandable, since fans in general haven’t always been treated nicely in both factional and fictional literature. But I can assure you that our work is not driven by prejudice or the need to stigmatize anybody. It is driven by curiosity – by a need to find out more about the world we live in.

The first time I heard about fanfiction was when I read an article in a magazine about the subject. They had interviewed a 14-year-old boy, who was a huge fan of Star Wars and wrote stories about it to publish on the internet. From the article I learned that a lot of people did it – wrote fanfiction that is – and there were thousands of these stories on the net. I honestly didn’t know what to think. Part of me was prejudicially thinking: “That’s so typical! These kids just want to have influence on everything. Why can’t they just leave these stories alone, and make up their own universe!” But at the same time I was curios: “What is it in modern society that makes people write these things? And why is it becoming such “a big thing”?” But what interested me the most was that they said in the article that there wasn’t much literature on the subject, because nobody had done any research on it. That is why I just had to investigate it some more, and luckily my study partner found the subject equally fascinating. We just couldn’t seem to grasp that nobody had taken an interest in something that was so important to an increasing number of people. (We later found out that the authors of the article hadn’t done their research properly, because there is in fact a lot of literature on fans and fanfiction.)

Now that I have revealed the prejudice I had against the subject to begin with, I hope that you won’t think ill of me or the paper for that reason. I blame the article because the picture it portrayed of fanfiction and fanwriters isn’t quite fair to the truth – or at least what I have come to think of as the truth. I have read some fanfiction stories, and some of them were actually very good – not at all something you would expect to come across after having read that article. That, combined with the literature I have read on the subject and the survey we did, has made my view on fanfiction change drastically.

Now you know a little more about the paper we are doing and why we are doing it. As I mentioned in the beginning, I hope that some of you will help us understand some things better.
First of all I would like to know if it is ok for me to quote you on some of the things you have said in this thread?

And then here are a lot of questions which I hope you will take a look at:

I get the impression that some aspects of anonymity/secrecy are important to some of you (though it is not important to others). Do I understand you correctly if I say:
You feel that it is necessary to keep your fanwriting identity a secret in real life, because you have experienced/expect that people, who don’t share your interest in fanfiction will not take you seriously? And if this is true, why do you think people will react like that – is it because they don’t really know what fanfiction is, or do you think it is because they know what it is, but they think ill of it (or a completely different reason)?

If I understood correctly what you, NeumeIndil, said then you wouldn’t have a problem with shedding your anonymity to the people you have come to know in the forum (my interpretation: because you know they share your interest in fanwriting/you know you won’t be prejudiced/you will be accepted for who you are?), but you would like to keep your fanwriting activities a secret to people in real life, because you don’t find the same tolerance for your interests there.(?) Does anyone else feel like this (that anonymity to the other forum members doesn’t mean that much to you)?

If someone comes up to you at a social gathering and asks you about your hobbies, do you say that you write fanfiction? Do people respond positively? Would it be different if you said that you wrote fiction?

To those of you who expressed a need to keep your fanwritings a secret: do you feel that it is frustrating to have to keep it a secret, or do you feel that it is nice to keep this side of you to yourself?

Did any of you write fanfiction before you joined a fanfiction forum? If yes, how did you feel about writing, when you didn’t have like-minded people to share it with?

From the survey I can see that most of you are very happy to be part of a community. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Does it give you something which your social network in real life cannot give you?

I’m sorry about the length of this, and I hope you don’t think that I am out of line in asking all of these questions. I don’t expect you to answer all of them. Some of them are more or less giving expression of my assumptions so far, and I hope that you will correct me if I assume wrongly. Once again I find myself relying on your good will and understanding.

Yours respectfully,

Mette B. Laursen

PS. If I can quote you on some of the things you have said in this thread, I should like very much to know a few details about you, if you feel comfortable sharing them: 1) your age, 2) your gender, 3) your occupation, 4) your residence (USA/Europe). Please let me know in a private massage, if you feel comfortable doing so.

[SpaceWeavil]

[Rous]

[melissaofaharon]

I am a bit new to this particular online community, and this fandom in general, but I thought there were some questions I could answer.

I have written since I was about 13, most of it fan fiction in one form or another. I did not post anything to a community out of choice, but I did share my stories with different individuals. In this community, I am working on a story to post here.

I feel that fan fiction is often an overlooked part of being a "fan" of something. It allows creativity, and in online communities, friendships to develop that may not otherwise happen. It seems to be a more touchy subject of writing any type of fan fiction when you devulge it in public (in person). Most people are curious to know what you write, and if it is not in their interests, they might cast it off as "silly". Online communities, whether we use our real names or not, write or just read and encourage, are offered still a small part of being anonomous. (Most) people will not meet each other in person, due to time, money, distance, etc etc. I am not saying they will not be friends, telephone, write letters, etc, but there is a "safeway" that the internet gives.
Melissa

[Rhapsody]

I replied by means of a PM.

[Rous]

[Rhapsody]

[ghettoelleth]

[Sulriel]

Interesting discussion. It really highlights our individualities.

My husband is supportive of just about anything as long as it doesn't interfer (too much) with dinner.

What I ran into when I started writing fanfic was that most people didn't know what it is, so then you have to explain it, ..so then you have to explain why you want to write someone else's stories instead of your own, then you have to explain why you can't sell it ... - it gets to be a drawn-out process on occasion. It's easier just to say "Elf Smut - for fun."

My family and friends know I write fanfic. My local writers friends, for the most part, don't. In this area, it is highly disproved of, it's regarded as, at best, a type of larva stage for writers. - it's not talked about in polite circles.

I keep my IDs separate, to a point, but I think most people that know me, know my RL name, I don't go to any great pains to keep it secret - more that it makes it easier to easier to sort the mail. I used my RL name for a long time until I got in a series of tangles with MSN and ended up with a couple of more creative IDs. - hence the character name ...

...did I actually managed not to answer any of the questions ...

[RobinKa]