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#avatar the last airbender has some of the most brutal shipping discourse i have ever seen
reythemandalor · 3 years
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thegoliathbeetle · 7 years
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1, 29, 39, 50, and 51
Thanks for asking!!
1- What was the first fandom you got involved in?
Storm Hawks. It’s how I actually came across the concept of fan fiction. I was so in love with Storm Hawks lol.
29- Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?
Nope! (You can probably tell from all my typos lol). I’m just very impatient, honestly, and it’s torture to wait for someone to read it before I post. Once it’s up I look over it 3 or 4 times and make any changes I think I need to, but yeah most of my writing is unedited. I know, shame. Bleh.
39- What is you greatest strength as a writer?
I want to say characterisation, but lately I’ve done some reading and I realise there’s so much I don’t know about it. It’s been quite eye-opening. I also enjoy writing description, but I have mixed feelings about how good I am at it.
You know what, I think my greatest strength as a writer is that I’m fundamentally arrogant about it. I know rationally that my writing is flawed and full of its own problems, but there’s a part of me that just says, “I’M THE BEST! I’M THE BEST!” That’s why when I face some sort of setback or let down with writing, it doesn’t take long for me to climb back up and shake it off. 
I think it’s good for a writer (or any artist) to be just a little bit arrogant. Not much, just a little. A healthy amount. It keeps you from giving up. 
50- How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?
Well like I said, my first fandom was Storm Hawks. Like I didn’t know anything about fandom before that, I had no idea such a culture existed. (I think I must have been 13/14 or something.) Anyway, after I finished watching all the episodes, I desperately wanted content for a pairing called Aerrow/Piper. I typed “Aerrow/Piper stories” into google on a whim and discovered the fandom! Over the next few days I read every single Aerrow/Piper fic in the entire fanfiction.net archive (it wasn’t a very big fandom!) and after I read it all, writing was the next natural step!
I still remember the first fanfic I ever wrote. It was disastrous. Eeek. 
But fanfiction is what made me a writer, I’ll always admit it. I used to write short stories and stuff before this, but never so consistently, and never with such a hunger to improve. The constructive critique I received in my early days in the fandom boosted my confidence by a lot. I think Storm Hawks was a very kind fandom, because I’m pretty sure I would have been flamed in any other fandom. I was really, unbelievably bad. 
51- Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!
Can I do both hehe
One thing I love is that fanfiction is a great safe space for young writers to hone their craft, especially if the fandom they’re in is positive and encouraging. Not everyone has supportive families or beta readers on hand, so they get most of their writing critiqued from strangers online. It matters what those strangers say. Any writer will tell you how they reload the review/comments section every 5 minutes to see if someone has said anything. This sort of writer/reader interaction is unique to fandom. You don’t always find it in the outside world.
One thing I hate?Antis. 
Fandom is for fun. Bullying people for what they ship is crude and pathetic. I’ve noticed this upsurge of what I call “Righteous Antis”, where they define their stance with a moralistic view of pairings: what’s “problematic” and what isn’t. My opinions on that are for another time. I’m just completely against the culture of bullying that is fostered in certain fandoms. 
Side story: when I entered the Avatar: Last Airbender fandom, I encountered a fandom in the aftermath of a brutal war. The Zutarians vs the Kataangers. I.e those who shipped Zutata (Zuko/Katara), and those who shipped Kataang, (Katara/Aang). There were entire communities and forums meant to bash the other group, parody fics and discourse on which ship was less valid. 
I was a Maiko shipper, which, it seemed, made me a natural ally of the Kataangers. (Yeah, I once mentioned I was a Maiko shipper to someone, and they said “oh then you’re a Kataanger ally”.) 
The whole thing fascinated me. The fandom had really created its own war culture. They called it the Zutara-Kataang war, I think? Or the Zutara vs Kataang war. It was the moment I discovered how complex fandom life really is, and also how insipid fandom fights can be. 
It really just kind of dawned on me how foolish Anti culture is. Why do you waste your time hating on a fictional pairing? Let it be. Do something more worthwhile. 
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