Weekly Fic Discussion

[lachrymosy]

(Bi)Weekly Fic Discussion

Welcome back to our (now every other) Weekly Fic Discussion post!

This post can be used for any kind of fic discussion you want, but there are also a few prompt questions each week. You can reply to all of them, one of them, or none of them if you have something else you want to talk about!

Feel free to post WIP snippets, ask others' opinion on characterization, share a clip that has broken your brain, etc.!

This week's prompt questions:

• What was the first Kpop fandom you read/wrote for?


• Tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote (any fandom).

Comments

[andersenmom]

the first Kpop fandom I ever wrote for was DBSK, when they were five. I miss them - they were so much a vocal group and I miss the a capella they used to do.

The plot of my first fanfic? I came to Kpop through Arashi - Jpop - and so I mixed the two. It was something about Xiah Junsu and Ohno Satoshi doing a duet. It's still up on my dreamwidth account.

ETA: Have any of you ever done research and had to rewrite most of what you'd already written? it's so frustrating!

ETA 2: My very first fanfic? that was 40 years ago, and I have no clue (definitely a self-insert fic). It was Duran Duran, though.

[lachrymosy]

Ahh DBSK! That was quite a big ficdom for the time iirc? Also loving that Jpop/Kpop crossover—there was a lot of that back then!

Ooh what kind of research messed up your writing (if you can share)? I definitely have gotten derailed mid-writing trying to get some details right on a fic, which is most annoying when deep down I know I could just handwave them away but I feel obliged to get them right anyway...

[andersenmom]

It was about hospitals. Like, they have really strict rules about visiting hours and who can stay outside of them, so I had to fix that part. I haven't checked into funeral rites and traditions yet, but I need to do that before I have to write that.

DBSK's fanclub made the Guiness book of World records: at their height, Casseopeia had 8M members. So, yeah, it was big.

[celli]

Ah, Duran Duran! How cool is that??

[andersenmom]

I feel so old sometimes.

[nagi_schwarz]

Awesome that your first fanfic was for a band you liked!

[andersenmom]

It's been musicians almost exclusively since then, with a few exceptions.

[celli]

My first reading/writing kpop fandom was BTS; I started reading fic for them in 2017 but didn't write anything until last year. (And I've since written/podficced 35 work, oops!

My very first fic ever was a crossover between two shows (Highlander and due South) and it was supposed to have action/adventure and all sorts of things. Except I never finished it. Double oops!

[andersenmom]

No oops at all! 35 is a respectable number of fics. Not finishing? I have a zillion of those. I still don't finish some. There's nothing wrong with not finishing it.

That sounds like a great crossover!

[celli]

YOu know, it was a great idea, I stand by it. :)

[lachrymosy]

I'm not part of it myself but I've heard BTS fic is quite good! That's awesome that you jumped in and have written and podficced so much!

I love the creative crossovers and things that people come up with! Always so cool to see. Who cares if you didn't finish it—it sounds great!

[celli]

I really enjoy BTS fic. My only "complaint" is that there's so much more of it than I'm capable of reading - my AO3 marked for later list is a mountain I'll never climb!

[bookishdagger]

35 is so impressive, you should pat yourself on the back for that!!

[nagi_schwarz]

I feel you on spending a long time reading a fandom before writing in it. Glad you took the plunge!

[lachrymosy]

The first Kpop fandom I ever wrote for (and read for, as far as I can remember) was the Wonder Girls. I can't actually remember the first fic I read but I do remember the first fic I wrote, which was mostly a genfic about the unpleasant side of idol life, so... nothing has changed in my RPF interests haha.

I remember the very first fic I ever posted was a Harry/Hermione fic about the final battle or something, maybe right before or after book 5 came out? That fic is lost to time and the depths of fanfiction.net, assuming I didn't delete it, though I bet I did. I suspect that technically the first fic I wrote was some handwritten Mary Sue OC-insert Harry Potter fic, like textbook Mary Sue with changing eye colors, unreasonable amounts of power, thinly veiled wish fulfillment, etc. Looking back on it, it was super fun haha. Handwritten Mary Sue fic really has its purpose!

[celli]

I love a good Mary Sue. :)

This is the second reference to Wonder Girls I've read today - I wonder if that's a sign and I should fire up Spotify!

[lachrymosy]

You definitely should! Their album tracks are really so amazing... justice for the Wonder Girls discography :(

[andersenmom]

Oh, yeah, mary Sue. I had a lot of those, too, but I wrote most of them before there was an internet or anything, so at the time I had no idea what I was doing or what it was called. Glad to have finally found my people. Yay RPF writers!

[lachrymosy]

Something in the young writer must just spontaneously manifest a Mary Sue haha! Honestly, Mary Sues may not necessarily lead to great literary insight but they were absolutely fun to write!

[andersenmom]

I maintain that Mary Sue is definitely something everyone starts with, because it's what we know, and thus... I really think she's a step in the process.

[blackcatofmisery]

For as much as Mary Sues are trash-talked, I think they are simply fun. What's greater than this weird, all-powerful and adored character? It's sort of a way to create our ideal self or work through our own feelings, and while I don't sit and read the many stories with such depictions, I have a weird affection for them?

=^..^=~

[lachrymosy]

I agree! I remember when I first was getting into fanfiction, there were whole blogs that solely existed to trash talk people's Mary Sues, Mystery Science Theater style. At the time I remember thinking they were quite funny but in retrospect why did people want to make fun of young writers having fun?

I think eventually the world of the Mary Sue just gets less interesting because it is false, it is a fantasy, but... you know, sometimes I want to be the Mary Sue of my life story even now. I'm glad there's been a reevaluation of Mary Sues hehe

[blackcatofmisery]

Those blogs sound awful. Breaking things down methodically is one thing, but blatant trash-talking helps nothing and no one. Happily, you recognize the negative impact now. A sign of growth, like lovely literary flower~

My fortune cookie take is that there's a time and a place for things, even Mary Sues. Your time may not match up with others', and vice versa, and that is just a part of art and life. I love seeing threads on Tumblr and wherever that defend "cringe" like Mary Sues, because they are important.

[bookishdagger]

mary sue fic was so popular for a reason!! wish fulfillment doesn't always have to be a bad thing

[lachrymosy]

Agreed! Tbh a lot of idol group member x original character and Y/N fic is still essentially Mary Sue fic... and while I don't read it myself, I do love that for them haha.

[nagi_schwarz]

Every fic you write is practice, and also isn’t it nice to be able to look back and know you’ve grown as a writer?

[hitokage]

I think the first fic I wrote for Kpop fandom was Taebin/Seven? Alas, all that early stuff got lost in a computer crash (and then theft), so the earliest I still have access to is OT5 DBSK, which is pretty close to the same time, only I actually published some of that out where I could theoretically claim it back again. (But probably won't, because trash fans managed to chase me out TWICE, so fuck that.)

Uh, the first fic I ever wrote was almost forty years ago and a self-insert Greek mythology MESS that I'm not at all sorry to not have anymore. XD It wasn't meant for anyone else anyway, so it's fine.

[blackcatofmisery]

RIP your computer. I've killed a few in my time. No idea what all I lost before finally saving things on USBs or in the cloud (which has also messed up a few times 🙄). I am sorry you've experienced such negativity from other fans. They forget the basics of fandom and just sink to new lows the more I hear of them throughout various fandoms.

Self-insert mythology, though. That's unique. A good setting for very wild possibilities. 👍

=^..^=~

[hitokage]

Xuxi is my eighth, and while he's not as bling bling as some of his predecessors, he trundles along nice and solid and I appreciate him for that. As many times as I've lost fics to technical troubles, one would think I'd be better about keeping backups, but... not so much. XD

IDK, mythology is kinda rife with Mary Sues, it's the perfect place to start telling stories. I remember being obsessed with Greek myth for awhile, especially the story of Psyche & Eros. I wanted sooo badly to be rescued from my boring, mundane life, that writing stories became an escape.

[blackcatofmisery]

Long live Xuxi! There's still time for us to learn, because I still have a bad habit of keeping backups only so up-to-date... But until the next household technological apocalypse happens, I won't change my ways.

I think it's rather sad to feel so strongly that the only outlet is fantasy, but it's what has driven so much creativity and art. Even Mary Sues have their time and place of great importance.

[nagi_schwarz]

Your first fanfic sounds epic (pun not intended).

[hitokage]

Oh the Mary Sues I wrote and rewrote for myself back in the day... I worked through a lot of childhood and teenaged angst that way and I'm a little sorry I don't have those stories anymore, but. :shrug:

[andersenmom]

Stories were DEFINITELY how I worked (and still work) through things going on in my life. Writing is such an amazing outlet.

[blackcatofmisery]

I think the first Kpop fandom I read for was SHINee, but I first wrote for EXO. Pretty sure. It's been a long while since The Beginning.

The very first fanfic I wrote, however, was way before I knew Kpop was a thing. Maybe first grade or something, there was some assignment to write a story. No idea the specifics, but I was always making stories and drawing stories and read a lot of mysteries. Through my brother, I was introduced to the Boxcar Children. The first fanfic I can recall (only because I found and recycled it recently) was for the Boxcar Children. I didn't read it; it was tossed with a pile of other old school assignments.

I can much more confidently date my first Kpop fic. It was a SeKai (EXO) fic posted in November, 2013, and it was about questioning the future and likelihood of being together as older people. One of the few canon-compliant stories I wrote before falling for the appeal of AUs.

=^..^=~

[bookishdagger]

omg the boxcar children!!!! i loooved those books as a kid, if i had read fic that young i definitely would have read fic for the boxcar children

[blackcatofmisery]

I didn't even know that fanfiction was a thing until years later, but I would've read it as a little kid, too. Written by kids for kids? What better way to encourage reading and creativity? I imagine lots of self-inserts, going on grand adventures.

[bookishdagger]

The first kpop fandom I read for was BTS, which was also my first RPF fandom! The first fandom I wrote for was Seventeen, though.
My first fanfic ever was...okay, so when I was in middle school I loved the show My Babysitter's a Vampire and I had just read Twilight a few years prior. I guess the vampire crossover potentials were crackling in my brain, so I wrote fic about Reneesme as like, a secret childhood friend of Sarah and Erica. The fic was truly and profoundly terrible and I never finished it. That was actually the last fic I wrote until this time last year, and the last fic I posted until this January. So really my history is just that fic and then everything I've posted in the last 9 months lol

[blackcatofmisery]

Humble fic beginnings, but we all start somewhere. uwu What drew you to writing Seventeen versus BTS?

=^..^=~

[bookishdagger]

honestly i think a big part of it was timing! right around the time my friends started convincing me that maybe i could write fic i got suuuper dragged into caratdom...part of it also was that bts had just gone on their break starting that summer, so there wasn't as much time for me to really actively develop writing worms and whatnot. i do have some Thoughts percolating in the back of my mind but honestly they don't occupy a tonnn of my fic brain. not saying i'll never write them--i wrote bts fic for a friend for a secret santa exchange this past year, and i'll never say never, but i honestly have sooo many fic ideas for other groups that i don't necessarily see it happening Soon. but then again a namgi moment could happen and drive me crazy enough to write fic about it, who knows

[blackcatofmisery]

Makes sense; timing is important. It's more fun getting into a fandom with activity and not just spotty updates, even if fans do a pretty good job keeping interest alive. Keep those ideas noted somewhere, though, because like you said, you never know when inspiration will hit. 👀👀👀

[thistidalwave]

ok my fandom origins were also in twilight so i fully respect this vampire crossover energy. incredible stuff from middle school you.

[bookishdagger]

i was onto something i just Could not execute...it's funny though, my fic reading energy was much more occupied by harry potter (sigh) and percy jackson and maximum ride than twilight...i mean i read twilight fic but not THAT much....and yet....

[thistidalwave]

u kno, sometimes it be like that. and i really think that twilight was such a rich text for Writing fic in particular bc of a) how many terrible gaps and Things to Fix/Change there were, and b) it is full of mary sues who can become YOUR mary sue EASILY. a perfect fandom in that sense.

[kpopwinemom]

I actually don't know what the first k-pop fic I read would be! It could be from any number of fandoms, because I tend to look for specific tropes and if a fandom shows up, and the fic looks good, I'll read it.

This is how I got into k-pop fandom, actually: I already listened to some k-pop music (Exo, Big Bang, Super Junior, Girls Generation) and BTS was getting a lot a lot of fic appearing for them, AND their albums were showing up at the Target near my house. So it sort of compiled and I was like, well, everything around me is coming UP BTS so I might as well start getting into them fandom-wise. So in that regard, they were definitely the first k-pop group I started to seek out content for!

I don't even remember the first fic I wrote, I was writing them in my head really really young, and I'm honestly not sure what the first one I would have posted would have been, either - it might have been one for Max Ride, in 2006. I would have been in middle school. I simply refuse to give you more info on that account!

The first fic I posted to Ao3 is a Homestuck fic from 2011, the first BTS is a Namjoon/Yoongi HC piece from 2019, and the first fic on my current account was posted in 2021, and it's a Joshua/Junhui fake dating one shot!

[moriendum]

amazing that you've been posting on ao3 since 2011! I was still very much lost in the livejournal/asianfanfics maze back then, ao3 would've been so helpful lol

[kpopwinemom]

I definitely joined really early on! One of my livejournal kinkmemes adopted it quickly - there must have been some founders in the group, or friends of founders, and so it was common practice to crosspost to AO3!

[nagi_schwarz]

The first K-pop fandom I ever read for was Astro, but the first one I wrote for was Monsta X at a friend’s request.

The first fanfic I ever wrote was when I was still in single digits and it was for The Dark Crystal and my elder sister illustrated it for me.

[andersenmom]

Lucky, to have someone to illustrate it! I have never had mine illustrated.

[nagi_schwarz]

My sister always loved doing fanart from video games and stuff (Super Mario!) and so it was a collaborative effort. When I got older, I'd write children's stories for her kids (before I had kids of my own lol) and she'd illustrate those as well.