Everybody's free to get a fandom live journal

by Bernice

Ladies and gentleman of Century 21 Fandom.

Get a Live Journal.

If I could offer you only one tip for fandom interaction, live journal would be it. The long-term benefits of live journal have been proven by fans who have abandoned e-mail, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own extensive experience. I will dispense this advice now.

*backing music begins*

Enjoy the power and beauty of your talent. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your talent ever. But trust me, in a few years, you'll look back at printouts of your old stories and recall what a great time you had writing all this smut and the fabulous feedback you received. You are not the hack you imagine.

Don't worry too much about who will enjoy your writing. Or worry, but know that no matter what you write, someone will be interested in what you are writing, even if it's just yourself. The real troubles in fandom are apt to be the things that you never expected, like the rabid loonie that blindsides you at 4am in some idle chat room.


Do one thing every day that scares that bitch that flamed you.

Beta!

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, remember, some people are very sensitive to criticism - no matter how much they may need it. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours, but ask them for criticism anyway.

Smut!

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes an author you hate gets more feedback than you, sometimes you get more. The writing is fun and, in the end, it's only for yourself.

Remember the good feedback you receive. Forget the flames. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old supportive live journal comments. Throw away the crappy ones.

Draw!

Don't feel guilty if you have an idea for the filthiest, most degrading story out there. The most memorable stories I know stood out from the crowd by taking chances. Some of the most beautiful stories out there rely on well loved cliche.

Get plenty of fish oil. Be kind to your fingers. You'll miss them when they're riddled with tendonitis.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, remember to post about it in live journal every day. In great detail. So will everybody else.

Enjoy your fandom. Use it up in every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the most enjoyable waste of time you'll ever have.

Post, even if you have nothing to post about but the fact that you're bored.

Read the smut, even if you don't like the pairing.

Do not attack people through fandom wank. That will only get you unfriended.

Get to know your local fans. You never know when you'll have a huge falling out over LOTRIPS fandom and never talk to them again. Be nice to other fans in your fandom. They are most likely to link to your live journal and let you see their friends only posts in the future.

Understand that friends come and go depending on what fandoms you're in, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because no one really cares about those things on the net, all they want is the porn.

Get a Greatest Journal once, but give up after finding out it's crap and just use it for icon storage. Get a blog once, then abandon it when you discover Live Journal's friending functions.

Write Porn

Accept certain inalienable truths: Newbies will annoy. Know-it-alls will patronise. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasise that when you were young, you were never an annoying newbie, know-it-alls actually knew something and readers gave feedback to good authors.

Give feedback to good authors.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you'll get a paid journal from an anonymous admirer. Maybe you'll sell enough shit on ebay to pay for it yourself. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your website or by the time it's finished it will explode with unreadable java.

Be careful which beta reader's advice you take, but be patient with those who supply it. In fact, buy them lovely presents and chocolate, because they do a difficult job. Beta reading is a form of power. Dispensing it can be a way of trying to get an author to write just the right kind of porn to scratch the beta reader's itch. This is not a bad thing.

But trust me on the live journal.


_{Based, obviously, on Everybody's Free to Wear Sunscreen (The Sunscreen song).}

Send feedback or I'll cry!