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

(whee, poll!)

Only about four of my female friends know I'm into slash and fan fiction and really know what that means (acceptance ranges, but it's all tolerated). Strangely, nearly all my male friends know I like slash, and they're all totally cool with it! Okay, so they make fun of me sometimes, but they really have no problem with it, which I found surprising yet great.

My mum and dad have accepted I like gay films. But I don't think they'd be able to wrap their minds around me slashing, and more importantly, writing about it.

I can think of only one awkward moment of overlap -- my boyfriend showed one of my racier stories (NC-17 snuff, as it happened) to his roommate because he knew his roommate liked some of the original work it was based on, although the roommate had never read fanfic before. He did this without telling me, and before I'd met his roommate. So, the first time I finally did meet the guy. . ."By the way, umm, interesting story." "Huh?" "The one where. . ." :ambyr turns bright red:.

His roommate was more or less ok with the story, so it wasn't too awkward, but I chewed my boyfriend out pretty heavily afterwards. I don't want people's first impression of me to be the smut, you know? Unless they're also into it, of course, and we can swap recs :-).

I'm not sure how to answer the "does anyone in your RL know?" question, mainly because my social life is almost entirely made up of fellow slashers whom I met online! So yes, all my friends know because they do it too, but there was no disclosure to be made. *g*

And I'd *love* to tell my mum, because I think she could actually be converted, but my dad would hit the roof. So, nope. Not going there.

I made the decision recently, when I started looking for a new job, to add "fandom and fan fiction" as hobbies on my CV. Haven't been called on it yet, but I'm looking forward to when it happens.

"Geechiness". What a FANTASTIC word!

As far as "serious current relationship" and whether that person knows of my deep and abiding love for slash: No, she doesn't, because she's eight, and that's just not appropriate. :-D I know, it's cheating, what with the kid and all.

Also: Did you get my e-mail of last week? If not, nothing big; I'll try to figure out ways to work it into LJ conversations. ;-)

I hope everything's okay. MWAH!

A "fan" of mine "outed" me to my brother; I told my not-quite-ex, and when he got mad at me, he "outed" me to my mom. Seeing as how 90% of my output is smutty slash, this has been an interesting year... Interestingly enough, the slash doesn't bother my mom--she's just anti-porn.

Polyamorous. Very married. One husband, one wife, one boyfriend, one girlfriend, two not -exactly-stepkids.

*whew*

It looks like more when I write it down.

I'm fairly open. If I keep my mouth shut it's usually to avoid making someone else uncomfortable; it doesn't worry me especially. My real name is on my lj.

there is no separation of anything for me. ;) But my little sister now has an LJ.

First of all, I'd like to note that I clicked the "Male, or most male" dot for gender, while I am biologically female.

And secondly, no one in my life knows that I ever read fanfiction let alone smut, and certainly not slash. Homophobic family. Erg.

You know my whole sad and sordid tale. BUT! My best friend from high school is coming to watch slashy badflicks with me and

cranberryink Saturday. I will suck her in to teh pr0n yet. Mmm. Shared pr0n is better than even just pr0n in general!

The only people know in real life who know about the slash thing are people I met *through* the slash thing. Other than that, I pretty much keep fandom and real life separate.

I'm pretty honest about my fandom ties with the people I know. I think I've told a pretty even mix of guys and girls among my rl friends (but they're all roleplayers, so y'know...).

My friends have three basic types of responses. Some of them are supportive and possibly fannish themselves. Some of them will listen if I babble, but aren't interested. And some of them tease the hell out of me for it, but not in a bad way, more like a "I don't get it" way. Most of the teasing comes from guy friends who are Very Straight.

Poly, so "dating" doesn't really cover it, but the answer I gave is kinda closeish, in that I have at least one partner who qualifies as such.

I've always been really open about sexuality related stuff, and have had pictures of my genital piercings online and readily accessible for years, for example. I have been at parties where people from my work, including my then-boss, have ended up somehow at the computer looking at my piercing photos. So the slash thing's not something I bother to hide, and just about everyone knows about it. The guys at work were teasing me about it just today in fact (though it degenerated into a Trek vs Anime geekwar pretty quickly -- ah, computer nerds). My dad's read some of my PG-13ish Master and Commander stuff, too. And my LJ pre-dates my interest in slash, so many of the people who read it are RL friends and acquaintances.

Condescendingly Amused.

The reaction of most people I've told.

But my cousin's on LJ and he's cool.

anyone in my Real Life: a decent number of people, but i wouldn't say "most". i do believe in separation of life and fandom, but that's hard to maintain. :-) i think what it is, really, is that a decent number of fans have come into my Real Life, and there's a few people in Real Life who are aware as well.

how did they take it: i was going to choose "fairly well", but i don't know that there was temporary geechiness. basically i think the position of my non-fannish-but-aware friends is "sure, whatever".

My husband is kind of an art snob. He knows I *read* slash, but he doesn't know I *write* it. Therefore, he doesn't know my pseud, about my LJ, etc. Frankly, I just don't want to deal with the ridicule. He knows about my thing for gay porn though, and is cool with that--hell, he'll get gay porn for me. It's the *fan* thing he has issues with.

And just in general, I've kept separation between fanlife and "RL" -- I don't think my business clients or my fairly conservative family would be cool with it. Friend-wise, I've been subtly rearranging my friendships over the past 5 years or so -- most of my "RL" friends now *are* fan-friends.

Most of my RL friends know that I'm into fanfic, particularly slash. Most of my RL friends are also huge SciFi geeks, roleplayers, and incredibly open-minded. A large percentage also identify as bisexual. Slash and fanfic is not a problem with them. Only a few of my RL friends are fannish, but we swap recs and watch fannish stuff together.

But for the first time in ages I'm dating a guy. I recently told him about my sexual orientation ("queer") which he handlded really well. But Lord altmighty he is not going to find out about my fannish activities. He's not going to understand the entire scene - not unless I spend a large amount of time subtly preparing him.

I'm also keeping quiet in job-related enviroments.

Would you coinsider it more or less strange if I didn't really like slash, but I find it really amusing to read someone write about writing slash, especially when that someone shares my obsessive-compulsive nature in regard to grammar, unnecessary synonyms, and mentally unstable Gotham superheroes? Because, while I've already answered the poll, there's not really an option up there that describes my only slashy experiences.

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

Almost everyone knows, but some of my friends and family just don't -get- it. How do you explain fan activities to people who don't even own a computer? How do you explain LJ?

"You see, it's just like having a real diary, except the whole world can read it."

"Can you lock it? Like that little one I gave you for your birthday?"

"Yes! Yes, you can! But most people don't. They want everyone to read their smut."

"I remember when you used to hide your diary under the mattress--"

"Mom. Focus."

"Well, you did. Then you would scream because your brothers would read it--"

"MOM! I'm trying to explain--"

"Shhh, my show is on. You know the one with the two cops. Those boys are just so cute. And they are such good friends."

Yeah, that's my life. And I won't take up any more of your LJ space.

My answer re: signifcant other was for my last one. And oddly, one I broke up with over 15 years ago who found me again via my slash fiction. Most of my real life friends are fannish and know about slash in varying degrees with some variations in comfort with it although nobody has run away screaming form me because of it, at most its just not a topic we dicuss.

My parents know, including slash, although I haven't shared anything NC-17ish with them I have shared one of my less explict stories and they have seen almost all of my vids, including all the slashy ones.

My coworkers all know or have had a chance to find out I'm fannish. Several have seen my vids, one was having fun showing the slash ones to her husband and while none of them are into the same mode of fandom as I, I have had regular discussions of fannish books and shows (including OZ and general happy squeeing over Beecher/Keller stuff). That being said I don't generally bring it up as a topic of conversation at work except to say that I'm off to another con. *g*

I kinda fall into this category myself *g*. The overwhelming percentage of the slash I read is reading the recs here, but I only actually click through to maybe two or three stories a month. Slash qua slash doesn't do much for me, but I dig the awesome rec writing.

I guess that makes me a Fourth Vine fangirl?

Hmm. Well, my husband knows about fanfic in general, because I was in a het fandom a while back. He even went to a mini-con type thing with me, and I was pretty well known as a big (het) smut writer.

So quite honestly, at this point he knows about fanfic, and knows that I write it, but I'm 99% sure he still thinks it's het. I think the slash thing would freak him out completely.

No one other than him knows *anything* about my fannish life. None of my friends, my family - no one. They think I go to writers conferences, and that my friends I see in RL from fandom are all like - budding novelists. And to be honest - I dont really try and clarify that point to them too often *g*

Wonderful poll!

Heh, my close co-workers know I have an internet journal after a watercooler discussion on blogs but not my name or even what service I use.

As far as family and friends, everyone knows I write "short stories for myself and my friends", but my in-laws would be appalled to know I write slash. My family would be perfectly happy with the slash, but would be appalled to learn that I write fanfic. Priorities, you know.

My husband finds it all very amusing and I've pulled a couple of RL friends not only into reading, but also writing. Fear my persuasion!

Does anyone in your real life know about this fan fiction/slash/smut thing?

I've told my mother and sister about the "smut" thing, but not the "fan fiction" thing. I don't see anything particularly strange about being interested in gay sex, but gay sex between TV characters? That's embarrassing. I'm working on that.

Most of my friends who know about slash are slashers themselves - that's how we met.

I wouldn't even consider going into a relationship with someone I didn't feel I could tell about slash. It's a fairly big part of my life.

I'm assuming you got my 2nd email the other day.

All my friends know, though some think it's cool and some prefer never to speak of it beyond, "so you're writing again? That's cool!" The '(sometimes underage) (sometimes gay) wizard/mutant/slayer/superhero' part is what throws them. They're okay with the porn, but the "why don't you write your own characters" thing is prevalent.

The only people I don't want to know are my employers. Which means of course that I shouldn't even be answering this now.

Oops.

Reactions of those I've "outed" myself to has varied from "Hey, that's pretty hot/cool/weird/shocking"; the dive is both becaues of the slash and because of the fannish thing. Like Rowan, I have some non-fannish friends/family who mock me for that alone.

My husband knows of (and fondly tolerates) my fannishness. He knows I meet online friends in person, and go to cons. He knows I wear slash goggles and beta fanfic occasionally (with the implication I read it, although he has no idea how graphic it can get). I don't think he quite understands why so many of my friends are gay, bi or lesbian, but there you go. He dones not know my fannish pseud and we don't speak much of livejournal, so I don't thin he knows I blog as much as I do.

You might as how it is he doesn't know these things--well, he was gone 6 mos. last year and is currently gone for a year (he's in the Guard). In the past I spent a lot of my time with him or with him and our son; family came before online play. When he gets home, he's going to think I am addicted to the Net, I just know it. *g*

Some co-workers found out about my fannish activities (because I was too open with people I considered friends,only it turns out disappointingly that they aren't really my friends, just friendly work acquaintances), and with two of them I regretted it, although nothing bad has happened from it. I just feel uneasy with exposing myself that way when it's not mutual. Not that I am that interested in their personallives, but...mutuality is a safety thing, I guess.

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