My show a skill video was a bit hard to decide on but once I got an idea it was fun to make
I decided to do a quick demo of my creative process on rewriting lyrics to a song. This was brought on by the fact I had to do it for a project earlier in the year so I decided that was a skill I learned/improved on.
https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/5a2aaaec-f502-4e99-9848-9788c5218db3
Today I saw an article on Vox from around two weeks ago talking about a recent controversial fic on AO3 (for more information on Ao3 you can refer to this prior post) titled “Sexy Times With Wangxian” (STWW) about the popular pairing from the Chinese drama called “The Untamed” or in Chinese 魔道祖师 or 陈情令. This article caught my eye for more than one reason, a notable one is that my sister has watched the live action drama and the animated version of this show and told me quite a bit about it, another reason is that this very fandom has caused AO3 to become banned in China so of course I’m curious what this show has stirred up this time.
The article claims that STWW is a 200 chapter very explicit fic about the show’s main characters, which on its own isn’t actually that out of the ordinary. What is irritating users all across the platform is what they call “the wall of tags” longer than the list of Jin Ling’s uncles, consisting of 1700+ tags (labels to filter fanfictions) last they counted. I brought it on myself to see if this whole ordeal was real.
First I went to look for the actual fic written by the user Virtual1979, sadly the fic isn’t there as the article said it was suspended but you can see their other works that are stated to be related to STWW.
Next I took a look at the tweets linked and showed in the article. There seems to be nothing out of the ordinary and the picture and video seemed to be taken from the tweeter user themselves. A quick search for the title of the fic on Twitter yielded no helpful results so I moved elsewhere.
I decided to google the fic to see what else has been said on this topic. The underlined link is of the original fic that I checked earlier which would tell you that you have no access to the fic.
I switched over to the “news” tab for some filtered results.I found that there’s only two sites that cover this story, Vox themselves and a blog called Geekiary which they referenced/mentioned. Geekiary has no Wikipedia page and seems to be a just a casual blog so I didn’t look much further there.
Vox does have a page on Wikipedia though! It was created for only a little over 6 years ago and has a YouTube channel created around the same time.
There has been some controversy around this site however but none seem too closely tied in to this particular article.
All in all, I’ve concluded this story to be true. Though I must admit this might not have been the best article to have done this exercise with as it isn’t all facts and more about the author’s opinion as well as commentary, but then again nothing really about fan fiction is that factual.
~
click on the photos to read the text 🙂
~
Link to article from Vox
Often seen as crude or childish and wish fulfillment. Today I will come to its defense and show you all why fanfiction is more than just my escape from reality. As someone who has met some amazing people through fanfiction and is actually in process of writing my own, fanfiction is something I truly hold dear.
My favorite metaphor explaining fanfiction will always be the one comparing it to a sandbox or toy box. The original source built the sandbox and made the toys, but they left it all when they deemed their stories as finished. Others like me will take the toys and make our own stories to expand and explore the world and characters we love or share the stories with others so we can watch new tales unfold together. It brings people together sharing and embracing something they love. We never aimed to steal the spotlight from the source or even discourage one from reading the original, if you think about it, we’re promoting it. It’s because we love the world the original creators created, fell in love with their characters that we want more, more, more.
To those that say fanfiction isn’t creative I would like to open your eyes to the possibilities. Without the same limitations as published writers, fanfics can explore and expand on ideas they can’t or won’t pursue. In this front, you can even argue that fanfiction has potential to be more creative than original fiction. Because of the limited representation in present in media, fanfiction tends to make up for the slack by shedding light on the underrepresented demographics. Fan fiction could be for some people the only place they can see themselves represented. If you see a shred of something not confirmed in a character you can bet that someone has had it explored.
Some avoid fanfiction because they’re under the impression that all fan fiction is poorly written, and for that I feel truly sorry. Perhaps your only experience with fan fiction was on a website call Wattpad. I have personally used Wattpad and I can personally attest to the great original fiction you can find on the plat form, the fan fiction however leaves much to be desired. That is not to say that there is no good quality fan fiction on Wattpad, but it is considerably more difficult to find them. If you truly want to give fanfiction a try, I would suggest Archive of Our Own, it is a site made by, run by and for fans like me. It’s a better alternative to Wattpad or I would say Fanfiction.net because I find it to have a comparably easier to navigate filter system. On top of an easy to navigate site, it also has a wide userbase so I doubt it will be hard to find something that’ll interest you.
Additionally, though I said and proved it’s far more, fanfiction to me personally serves as a nice distraction to life as well as aiding me in processing my thoughts and emotions. The fic I mentioned earlier that I’m working on, I named it Twice Departed, is my exploration of the topic of grief. Due to personal reasons, I found myself in a situation where I’m conflicted on how I should feel, Twice Departed is my way of figuring things out. I hope to share it with the world one day as many others have shared their work when that time comes, I would love to hear some of your opinions about it. Until then, I will keep on writing, catch you on the flip side!
References:
Burns, E., & Webber, C. (2009). When Harry Met Bella. School Library Journal, (Vol. 55 Issue 8), p26-29. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=when-harry-met-bella-fanfiction-is-all-the-rage-but-is-it-plagiarism-or-the-perfect-thing-to-encourage-young-writers
Schaffner, B. (2009). In Defense of Fanfiction. Horn Book Magazine, (Vol. 85 Issue 6), p613-618. Retrieved from https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=in-defense-of-fanfiction
Reagan, M. (2018). Going Down with the (Relation)Ship. Booklist, (Vol. 115 Issue 2), p64.