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Episode 55: Happy Anniversary #2. Flourish and Elizabeth once again welcome back the guests from the past
year to talk about what’s changed in fandom, on a global level, a
personal level, or both. Global topics included the recent crop of Hugo
winners, Marvel’s Secret Empire storyline, and the intersections between
fandom and U.S. politics. The more personal included the intersections
of fannish and professional identities and the experience of aging in
fandom. To round things out, Flourish and Elizabeth share their own
perspectives, discussing whether fandom ever really changes—or whether
it simply repeats the same patterns over and over again. (show notes coming soon | transcript coming soon)

Happy Anniversary Fansplaining! I’ve been listening to your podcast for about a year now (I think?) and also trying to get more into fandom again over the past year, and like, not direct causality, but hearing you both talk about fandom has been so inspiring and really helped me sort of… legitimize to myself that this is valid, and something I want to do with my time. And has also been so wonderful in terms of hearing about the broader fandom beyond my tumblr dashboard, which I really wouldn’t have otherwise.

Thanks for all that you do, and here’s wishing you another wonderful year!!

Hello! About two(ish) weeks ago, I start listening to your podcast, starting from episode 1, and I just finished it! Loved it, thank you for making it. I was wondering, do you guys know of any places on the internet where a person could expect constructive criticism for their fanfic? Currently, the only irl person reading mine is my sister (yay her!), who is often at a loss for how to critic it. Thanks!

fansplaining:

This is Flourish responding, and Elizabeth can chip in if she has time: in my experience the best thing to do is to befriend fanfic writers (especially ones you like) and then, when you have done this, ask them to help.

On Wattpad’s forums there’s some groups that you can join for con crit, but depending on your writing skill you may find them unhelpful—there is no way to say this in a way that doesn’t make me sound like an asshat, but I found that they tended to be less experienced writers and therefore maybe less helpful to me. But I’m not sure I know of other places where it’s easy to find constructive criticism. Dear listeners, please chip in if you have ideas!

Crit for fic would be so great! I mean, I hear a lot on Fansplaining about how community norms have shifted away from this being a thing, which I get to some extent, but… psyched to see if anyone has any ideas in the notes!

(SIDENOTE, autocorrect tried to change fansplaining to mansplaining -_-;)

When referring to people across different fandoms who are involved in fanfiction, is it “fanfiction fandom” singular, or “fanfiction fandoms” plural? I know I’ve heard you use one or both of these on your podcast I just can’t find it–and can’t find reference to this point of grammar anywhere else!

fansplaining:

Hmmm. Well as a point of grammar, you could probably use either! We definitely fall into the not-so-great fandom trap of referring to fandom at large with a singular “fandom” (and, by extension, “fanfiction fandom.”) Of course, “fandom” as a catch-all doesn’t really mean much—it’s a lazy shorthand that a lot of people in fandom (heh) default to.

Even “fanfiction fandom” doesn’t mean much, right? When we use it, we’re most likely referring to AO3, which is funny since Flourish is writing and reading fic on Wattpad, which has a different culture and different norms. And AO3 itself isn’t a monolith.

It depends on your context, but I’d suggest trying to clarify if you are going to use the singular—if it is one big group, what does that mean to you, etc. We try to do that. (Though maybe we don’t always succeed—we’re working on it!)

Thanks, that’s super helpful! I’ll probably just go with the plural, in that case (though of course trying to say anything that applies to multiple fanfiction fandoms is an issue in itself…) but I really appreciate the in-depth answer.