Poll: When fan fiction meets real life, what happens?

[thefourthvine]

In America at this time of year, we get extremely used to answering invasive questions from total strangers. So I thought I'd conduct a poll that could yield potentially interesting results.

Basically, I'm curious about how you handle the interaction between your real life and your fan life; as someone who just recently invited a real-life, pre-fandom friend to view this rather fannish LJ, I find this a topic of relevance right now. And it's sure less depressing than all the political polls I've been reading.


[Poll #370787]

Comments

[fairestcat]

If you've got a Someone Special, does that person know you're into fan fiction, slash, etc.?

As it happens, my girlfriend not only is into slash, she commented above. *kisses commodorified* So, yeah. My Someone Special knows I'm into slash. I beta for her, actually.

Does anyone in your real life (besides that Someone Special, if applicable) know about this fan fiction/slash/smut thing?

I really don't seperate my fannish life and my real life at all. My roommate, who I originally met in online SF fandom (The Lois Bujold mailing list to be specific) is a fanfic and slash reader. We regularly jokingly refer to ours as "the slashiest household ever"

Most of my friends these days are fannish, but not all of them. Some are in different aspects of fandom, ie traditional book-based SF fandom and such. I make no secret of the fact that I'm a fanfic fan and that I read slash as well as het. Kind of like my sexuality, I don't go out of my way to bring it up, but if it comes up I'm happy to discuss it and I don't lie, but I may be more or less circumspect depending on what I expect to be the response/comfort level of the other party.

Like commodorified said, when I don't talk about something its mostly out of respect for other people's comfort levels not out of concerns for keeping things secret. So, for example, my mother knows I read and edit slash and she even knows my fandoms, it comes up in conversation sometimes and while she doesn't understand it, she doesn't have a problem with it. My father knows I'm fannish and has heard me mention fanfic and that my girlfriend writes fanfic, but its not something he'd be interested in discussing with me, so it just doesn't come up much and when it does I say less then I would to my mother.

If you've told someone from your real life about this whole fan fiction/slash/smut thing, how did he or she take it?

I've really never had a problem with this. I tend to work gradually into explanations with people who's reaction I'm not sure of but I also never apologize for or demean my own fannishness and the combination seems to have served me well.

On the other hand, I am also blessed with a liberal family. I move in a mostly fannish friend group and I live in one of the more liberal cities out there, so I recognize that I'm very lucky in those ways.