People in your 'real life'

Aaaaahhh!!! The darn computer ate my post! ::Fumes::

To cut a long story short, my friends know I love Star Wars, but only a few know I write fanfic. My mum and sis know I write fanfic as well, though my parents keep on calling my scribblepad a diary. Why, I will never understand. Parents! ::Rolls eyes::



= Clare =

 

At first, I didn't tell anyone at all. About 3 months after I started writing my first fic, I told my husband, because he started complaining about the amount of time I spent online (he thought I was having a cyber-affair with someone ). He's not a big SW fan, but he read my fic and asked (of course) why I was wasting my time writing for free. Now he tolerates it, as long as I limit my time and don't turn him into a "computer widower."

My son knows about my writing and he thinks it's "awesome" that his mom loves SW as much as he does.

Anyone else? Nah, my parents and friends would definitely not understand, and I kind of like having a place where only I can go.

 

I can't even talk about writing at sf cons, as people tend to assume that I'm there to point and giggle condescendingly.

You make a good point, Lisse. I am a pretty stereotypical geek-chick in appearance, so I can get away with things, but I've seen the way people seem to respond to anything that smacks of "mundane" culture -- "Oh, no! He's a good looking guy! We can't have him in the movie!" "We know things that those skinny little surface-types don't suspect!" Or, my favorite (when the great N'Sync argument was raging), "I don't want to share a theater with the type of people who listen to N'Sync."

It's ridiculous, and self-defeating. SF only benefits from having more fans from different backgrounds, and a lot of the "types" they're so worried about would benefit from SF/F if it wasn't so ghettoized and associated with the "SF-type." (Related tangent: I often find myself wanting to smack the producers of "Just Shoot Me" for the way they present Finch's fandom. These guys are obviously not hooked in to the real fan world at all, and that's too bad, because he's, like, the only fan portrayed on tv.)

If you want to ease into the cons to talk without worrying about reforming the community (though it needs it), absurd as it sounds, try wearing a costume. That would give a definite sign of being "one of us," and it's definitely one that wouldn't have to dog you outside the con, since it packs away and no one has to see it.

 

Wow! It's great to hear all your replies--it's interesting to see that a lot of people want to keep it to themselves. I'm that way myself...I never let anyone (save my 12-year-old brother, and my mother, a little bit) know what I did on here. They never read what I wrote, though. I would bounce some ideas off of my bro, who is a SW fan himself and loved hearing me tell him all the stories about the galaxy far, far away.

Then I got engaged, and my fiancé found out that I wrote on here. He didn't understand how I could spend so much time reading or writing. I had to explain that reading and writing were always such a big part of my life, and it helped me get out mixed up emotions, or calmed me down when I was upset. It's a release, and it allows me to use my imagination to its fullest. We got married, and he still doesn't completely understand it, but he's seen that it makes me happy, and he encourages me to write.

I think for a lot of people, we get on here to get away from everyone else, to find some release for ourselves...a hideaway or a haven, if you would.

 

All anyone knows is that I'm on the computer. According to my mom, I'm playing games 24/7. My dad says I'm just wasting time. My brother says I'm a loser that spends all day looking at Star Wars junk. My sister is the only one who knows that I write fanfiction. She doesn't understand, though, that I write not to maybe get some money later. I write to escape from the problems and troubles of Real Life. If someone else reads it and enjoys it, that's just an added bonus.

 

Release?? Never really thought about it, until now. I guess you're right.

 

Hm...I used to go around screaming things, but then I decided I would shut up once and for all, and I've been doing a decent job of that. Essentially, people know I write; if they ask what, I mention science fiction. If they're interested, I mention Star Wars. If then they're interested, I give them the link to the boards. If the result is blank stares for any of the questions, I just drop the subject. Overall, people just know I love to write, or they don't know me at all. And that's just fine.

||| flyby |||

 

One real-life friend knows where and as who I post. A lot of people know I hang out on an SW board, but not which or what.

A few folks know I write occasional fan fic (not a lot though).

 

Hmm, a lot of people have mentioned that their family doesn't understand why they write so much for free. Amazing, because that thought has never even crossed my mind!

 

My grandmother is the only other story teller in the family, and she just loves to read anything I write, even thought she may be completely lost on some of the stuff. (I think she saw the OT when it came out in theaters then occasionally when my cousin and I would watch them on tape)

My mom actually reads some of my stuff for grammar, and my dad refuses to listen to it. My sister barely tolerates it, but I still bounce plot ideas off her head. In fact she's really good at coming up with quick witted humorous things that characters can say.

Then my brother is desperatly trying to become a fanfiction writer, he is failing miserable at the moment. But I figure that if I beat him enought with the metaphorical grammer whip he'll begin to see why he needs to actually let people correct his sentace structure, plot, characterization etc... He has some doozies of ideas though.

Then there are my friends. Two know that I write this stuff, fellow sci-fi geeks. My beast friend doesn't and I doubt she'll find out, she couldn't even watch the first five minutes of SW! (Which really bothers me, because if she was a fan she would pull of an awsome leia. She's 5' and has a very simmilar face to Carrie Fisher.)

 

Well I have a couple friends who come here all the time, such as GoldenVeila, and I have a few SW friends, we all like ff.n, my parents know I come out of the office laughing all the time and I spend a huge amount of time on the net, but they have never read any of my stories, nor would I want them to. There is only one person on Earth that has acctually been given the honor of reading my stories and that is my friend Eitak.