Poll: Consensus, Part One

[thefourthvine]

So. I miss talking to and hearing from y'all. But I'm suffering from a tiny problem, namely absence of any ability to finish anything. Someday I hope to be able to write actual useful sentences that connect to other sentences again, but today is not that day, so I'm going to do a themed poll series instead of meta or a themed recs post. (There are only three parts to this themed poll set, but I realize that, from me, three posts is totally massive spamming. My apologies in advance.)

The poll's theme is: consensus.

In part one, below, I'm going to try to establish my relative fannish sanity by consensus. To do so, I need to take you on a brief tour of my brain, focusing on two particular fannish things it does that I'm starting to suspect are - well, weird. (And keep in mine I'm judging myself compared to other fans; we'd already be considered insane by many of Them Folks Out There.)

We will now depart on our trip through TFV's brain. Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.

Imaginary Fandoms. I have, um, imaginary fandoms. I don't mean original fiction that I tell myself - I mean original fandoms, where I come up with, for example, a long and detailed original story, and then entertain myself with considering - and sometimes, um, even writing - various types of fan fiction or kerfluffles or meta that might result from given installments of the story. Sometimes I do, like, a TV series, and cast it with imaginary actors and plan out both FPF and RPF. In my most recent imaginary fandom, I've even begun mentally vidding it.

These imaginary fandoms hit basically all my buttons, of course. I'm not actually going to describe this in any kind of detail, because, um, oh my god so embarrassing that I kind of want to die just from typing it out, but the current one involves time traveling teams (one "temporal scientist" and one assassin-ish type) from the future. The main team, at this point (in my head, we have arrived roughly at book or season three), has uncovered evidence that they are working for - and trapped by, and no, I'm not even going to elaborate on the whole legal enslavement aspect, because I do not want to die of embarrassment - an organization of extremely questionable ethics and purpose, which opposes an organization that also has extremely questionable ethics and purpose. Oh, and the timestream, which they're supposed to protect, is slowly dissolving.

I have assorted mental fan fiction for this story, all carefully tagged to various chapters or episodes. I have, as I said, mental vids. I entertained myself on one long, hideous drive to Pasadena imagining the meta resulting from the end of book or season one.

I'm pretty sure that all this is the very definition of sad and pathetic. But, hey, this is fandom - maybe we all do this. Do you?

Epics That Must Not Be Read. (Term borrowed from the only other person I know for sure has written one of these. She will not be named here - unless she just wants to be - out of mercy for her.) Another thing I do is write these long, involved pieces of FF that are only for an audience of one, and that one person is me. They're always AUs of some kind, and they always start in canon and move sharply away from it, and they always entertain the hell out of me. But only me.

I've written two. The first is a BtVS story that currently stands at 80 pages of actual story, 30 more of notes and dialog, and 5 of outline, plus 10 pages of deleted scenes. It assumes that canon remains the same up to "Once More with Feeling." (Please note that "Once More with Feeling" is the only episode of BtVS season six that I've seen - and I haven't seen any of five or four, either. No, wait - I think I've seen one episode in season four. My point is, the first clue I had to the ETMNBR status of this beast was that I was writing in canon I hadn't seen.) At that point, a single line changes, and this massively alters everything from then on. In terms of timeline, I've written up to where season nine would have been if there had been one, and I know how things will resolve in season ten.

There are only two people in the world who would be interested in this story; one is me, and the other is Best Beloved. We've both read it. I know it's an ETMNBR, so I'm not worried about finishing it. But I re-read it fairly regularly, and I still write on it from time to time, because it entertains me so damned much.

The other one is much more embarrassing because I didn't realize it was an ETMNBR until after I sent it to be beta-read. It's also rather long (and needs to be much, much longer), an AU that assumes canon up to a certain point and then sharply diverges, and entertaining only to me. (My poor, poor betas - some of them actually read the fucker, and provided really helpful, thoughtful, useful comments - in short, they helped me make a story that was interesting only to me even more interesting. To me. At the cost of a lot of their time and effort. I would send them flowers and chocolate except that I'm embarrassed to speak to them.)

Now for consensus. Feel free to judge harshly.

[Poll #851020]

Comments

[out-there.livejournal.com]

The imaginary fandoms thing I don't quite get. Like, I tune into the fun parts of fandom adn love the community feeling of squeeing with company -- and all being silly together -- but I avoid kerfluffle and meta in actual fandoms, so I wouldn't imagine it.

The closest I get is imagining fanfiction to be written about OC's (from other bits of fanfiction). It's not quite the same.

Mind you, this explains a lot about you. Like, I've always wondered how someone who doesnt' get into watching TV, into watching shows, can enjoy fandom so much (and more than that, I wondered what you did with your time. If you're sitting there imagining your own show and how a fictional fandom would react and what would be written about it? That's way cool. And also makes me wish you'd consider writing screenplays, because with that type of creativity, you could totally have a real fandom following you.)


And I don't have Epics That Must Not Be Read. I have Epics That Must Not Be Written. I get far more enjoyment from the act of *writing* stories than reading my own stories, so for me, I wouldn't see the point of putting the effort into writing them when I know that my canonical basis is unsound and the purpose is not to share a story with others but to amuse myself.

In other words, I am very, very shallow. If my writing can't be shared with others -- if I wouldn't want to hear other peoples' opinions of it -- I wouldn't bother writing it in the first place. (It's the feedback principle.)

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

Mind you, this explains a lot about you. Like, I've always wondered how someone who doesnt' get into watching TV, into watching shows, can enjoy fandom so much (and more than that, I wondered what you did with your time. If you're sitting there imagining your own show and how a fictional fandom would react and what would be written about it? That's way cool. And also makes me wish you'd consider writing screenplays, because with that type of creativity, you could totally have a real fandom following you.)
See, I can get being into fandom without ever seeing any source, because after I wandered into fandom with LOTR (which I had read and also saw) I spent a lot of time in many fandoms for which I had never seen canon (with brief divergences - I did manage to see POTC, go me!) and found it quite satisfying, and have only recently moving into fandoms where I see canon.

[bibliokat.livejournal.com]

I said "No, but I don't think it's a sign of active insanity. Enjoy your brain's twistiness," but really I meant: That's AWESOME! I think it shows that you're incredibly creative and smart to think up all the characters and plotlines, etc. that an imaginary fandom entails, and you should be pleased you can entertain yourself like that! Heck, I'd love to know more about your time-travelers;)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

That's AWESOME!

Oh, god. Thank you. You are a perfect example of why I love fandom so much.

Only here could I post a humiliating description of the humiliating story telling itself in my head (and, incidentally, taking up valuable brain space that could be used for remembering how many pints are in a quart and quarts in a gallon, which I have to look up, like, every month or so) and have people going, "Go you!" and "Link?"

*sniffles*

Fandom. Is. Love. And that is all there is to it.

Heck, I'd love to know more about your time-travelers;)

OH MY GOD DO NOT ENCOURAGE ME. Or, more specifically, don't encourage the portion of my brain responsible for coming up with this stuff. It's already chortling, all, "Ah-ha, I have you now. You are helpless in my grasp. Tonight, we will finally deal with the matter of the encrypted anachronistic book. At length, and you are powerless to stop me." (Other people have an evil twin. I have an evil brain sector.)

[ladysorka]

I have imaginary ETMNBR, which all tend to be vastly AU, sometimes of fandoms I don't like to admit I like in the first place (*cough*Gundam Wing*cough*), and have strange gratuitous 'ships, and in one of them the main characters end up saving the world and accidentally starting a religion where they're considered gods. ...yes.

...and then there's the one that's half about politics, as I cheerfully mentally rework over and over again how Tom Riddle would end up Minister for Magic. Um. Yes!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

You are truly a kindred spirit. *emotional embrace*

And, honestly, I would love to read a political Harry Potter story - I mean, an honest to god exploration of politics in the wizarding world. We've seen it from various angles, but - it's like that one XMM gen story that's all about Canadian politics. It's just, it's an inexplicably fascinating concept.

*gripped just by the idea of it*

[fearlessfan.livejournal.com]

The only reason I don't have ETMNBRs on my computer is because I am pretty much incapable of epics - I do, however, have a lot of short fics or fics-in-progress that have an extremely narrow focus and teensy potential audience.

I also think the original fandom thing is pretty awesome and cool, and am jealous! I think I lack the imagination for something like that.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I do, however, have a lot of short fics or fics-in-progress that have an extremely narrow focus and teensy potential audience.

Well, as a lot of people have pointed out in these comments, a story that you think will have a tiny audience might in fact surprise you. (Or not. But it's worth posting to find out, right?)

I also think the original fandom thing is pretty awesome and cool, and am jealous! I think I lack the imagination for something like that.

Wow. I'm surprised (and pleased) that so many people think this is cool, since I think it's the written definition of Geek Activity Supreme.

But the truth is, I'm not imaginative, either. I'm sure there's nothing original about my time-traveling scientist and assassin, just as there was probably nothing truly original about the previous lot (uh - too complicated to explain in a paragraph or two; that one went on for a really long time and took a turn so weirdly slashy it surprised me). It's just, I need to tell myself stories. I think maybe it's part of how I process the world and my life.

Hmmm. Given that, maybe I was born for fandom. Or, no, make that probably.

[brownbetty]

I have ETMNBWritten, which I started out not writing because they were going to be too long and I suck at staying on task, and then later because I took a look at them, realized they all shared a common theme, and suddenly realized they revealed my naked id.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*curious*

And what does your id look like naked?

(And, yeah, I know what you mean - we all have Issues Stories, and that's a big part of both ETMNBR and imaginary fandoms for me. But I bet your id is cool and fascinating and strangely compelling, and now I want those stories you aren't writing. *makes desperate grabby hands*

But I can totally sympathize with the desire not to reveal yourself completely with your writing. Just, just - more stories! By Betty-who-thinks-she-is-not-a-crumble! Always a good thing! And I tend to love the most the ones you describe most disparagingly, so...no, no. I already did the grabby hands once, and twice is beneath my dignity.)

[adbaculum.livejournal.com]

I actually do something in between imaginary fandoms & ETMNBRs. I very frequently create long, uber-elaborate Mary Sue stories based in my fandom of choice. They're sort of like ETMNBRs in that they veer sharply away from canon quite quickly, and they're never, ever something I'd share with someone else because, like you said, omgsoembarassing. My Mary Sue stories, however, never get written down (despite being thought of in a way which would lend itself very well to a story/tv show). Instead, I do what you do with imaginary fandoms: I think of them while in the car, I imagine what would happen if certain events occurred (reactions of characters, of fans, etc.), I think about dialogue, blocking, costume, soundtrack. I have literally been entertained for hours by thinking about these sorts of things.

And, you know, even though I spend a lot of my time thinking about these things, I've never considered talking about it to anyone. If it came down to admitting to this habit, or giving a powerpoint presentation at my next company staff meeting about my current masturbation routine (complete with visual aids), I think I'd chose the presentation, actually.

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

If it came down to admitting to this habit, or giving a powerpoint presentation at my next company staff meeting about my current masturbation routine (complete with visual aids), I think I'd chose the presentation, actually.
That is a priceless mental image, and I cherish it deeply.

[lucia-tanaka.livejournal.com]

Instead of imaginary fandoms... Erm. >.> This is gonna wreck my rep as a halfway sane fangirl. (Whoo, hello oxymoron!)

I have very long, drawn-out fantasties of me suddenly aging to a decent age and being handed the CBS Numb3rs. As all my FList knows, I am woefully disappointed in the show. I think it has stunning potential and never delivers.

So, I daydream a LOT about having the entire thing handed to me. I seduce the wronged actors back, I write out two characters and in one new one, and I lead the whole thing. I've been dreaming of this for... a couple of months now. I've got two seasons fully planned out, with fixing the characterizations and doing special 'arc' plots that span for five episodes.

So, yes. A psuedo-imaginary fandom. *nods*

*hides under a rock*

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I think that just means that you love something and don't enjoy seeing it broken when you know how it could be fixed. That doesn't make you weird. (And, hey, you have a plan. I'm impressed. I mentally fix canons the creators broke all the time - when we came home from seeing The Phantom Menace, Best Beloved and I spent the whole afternoon doing that, and I wasn't in fandom at the time, so I didn't realize we were plotting out fan fiction - but I could never plan it out.)

So, hey, it's a natural instinct to want to take something you love away from the people who are neglecting it and mistreating it. And it's not so much an imaginary fandom as the ultimate fix-it fantasy, I think.

*hauls you out from rock*

*salutes your love for Numb3rs*

And, hey. Random hypothetical question, just because I love posing these: if you could magically get this, get control of Numb3rs, but you actually did have to age up to do it - would you?

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

look. how exactly does your time travel story with the scientist and the assassin differ from orig fic? it sounds like a kickass story that i, for one, would enjoy, esp if it was slashy. why in the world would you be embarrassed about this? why not write it? it could be YOUR VERY OWN NOVEL and it really might ATTRACT FANS!!!

i think this is just great!

the only epics i have resisted writing down are the mary sues and the self insertion fic involving my fandoms. but I have totally enjoyed fantasizing them. i take that back -- i did write out twenty or so pages of a shameless mary sue threesome fic a while back. i only showed it to one person, who did not laugh and who patted me on the head.

i say, quoting mirabile_dictu, SUSPEND SHAME!!!!

if it wants to be written, write it. no extra charge. thanks for the info, too.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I'm still trying to put into words precisely how my imaginary fandom's core story is different than original fiction, but part of it is - it's designed to cater to my every fictional hot button and interest. I have no capacity to be objective about it, and I'm fairly sure that I love it too much to write it well. Plus, I am quite sure it'd be pretty damned dull to anyone but me.

*ponders*

It's tough to articulate precisely how I know that this isn't a brilliant novel waiting to be written. Definitely a topic for the meta I'm writing about this poll.

i say, quoting mirabile_dictu, SUSPEND SHAME!!!!

This should be engraved over the entrance gates to fandom. It is our motto. No, no - it's our mission statement.

[imkalena.livejournal.com]

Wow. *is awed*

There are so many people out there who, unlike me, have serious imagination. The world needs y'all!

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Well, fandom sure does - imagination makes fandom go 'round (and 'round and 'round and 'round until we all get dizzy and fall down whee!). But, hey, you write FF - are you telling me you don't have imagination?

[qem_chibati]

Imaginary fandoms, definetly...


http://afts.theratbox.com/

Though I can't help but wonder would aim for the sky count as an imagionary fandom, or just a fake one. ;)

It started as a joke frm some background second year prince of tennis characters now has it's own little universe with a couple of people writting for it and even it's on lj comm crosse_purposes

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Aim for the Sky is neither imaginary nor fake. I mean, people are producing fan works for it, yes? They are, presumably, fans of it, yes? So, hey, it's a fandom! A shared universe fandom, to be precise - kind of like Pegasus B (though there are differences, including, notably, provenance of the characters).

(I love fannish shared universes. I just, I love the idea of fans saying, "Hey! We can build our own fandom! We have everything we need right here." And then going out and doing it. Awesome.)

[marici.livejournal.com]

Er, I assisted in an ETMNBR, but someone else did the heavy lifting of actually writing it.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

So you were, like, an ETMNBR midwife? Coooool.

(And did it ever see the light of day? 'Cause if so, I'd love a link. I'm writing meta about this stuff, so, hey - I ask on behalf of science.)

[thecomfychair.livejournal.com]

My Epics that Will Never Be Read are never actually written out to more than a page, because a) I have no patience to go further, and b)my "epics" (or insanity, take your pick) are superfluid, as in I'm constantly writing and then re-writing them in my head. Whenever I'm bored, which is very, very often, I take the storyline out and play with it. They always turn out to be ridiculous crossovers in the end

(Since I'm baring all, I might as well admit that my current one is a due South/Wiseguy/RENT (for real, RENT) crossover that involves wormholes and voodoo. And I'll just watch my flist drop considerably now...)

and yes, I have been known to make imaginary vids for them. So you are, without a doubt, not alone. ;)

[delurker.livejournal.com]

Superfluid is a great description!

[carnadosa.livejournal.com]

If I had been born in 1993 instead of 1983 I would have totally been diagnosed with ADD, which tends to manifest in girls as 'daydreaming' which is why it isn't caught as much, but, yes! I totally have imaginary fandoms. The longest running one (like um, 12 years?) has three different current versions (same characters approximately) and has gone through many, many others (and got a lot more X rated). But all of my imaginary fandoms are het because I started them back in the day before I knew about fanfiction or slash.

And then I mostly stopped with the imagainary fandoms because there were real fandoms that were doing the same thing I was doing but they weren't changing the guys that I wanted with other guys into girls (literally as if they had been born female, and ok, that happens sometimes but. Also I totally turned Harry Potter into a girl and put him with Snape before I found fanfiction because the cranky/bad older guy with the younger bouncy/cheerful/slightly naive girl is my favorite troupe ever) which was just the awesomeist thing ever and I wondered why I didn't think of that.

I can't write fiction. I can write really decent non-fiction. But not anything else. And I tend to suck at plot. And coherency.

But I don't think it's weird.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm fascinated by the idea that, pre-fan fiction, you genderswapped one guy in your pairing to achieve het. That's just - wow. Interesting.

I can't write fiction. I can write really decent non-fiction. But not anything else. And I tend to suck at plot. And coherency.

You know, this is almost word-for-word what I said three years ago. Now I have two ETMNBR lurking on my hard drive and a bunch of works in progress and some actual finished and posted fan fiction. (I still suck beyond the telling of it at plot and coherency, too. It's very sad.)

I'm not sure if this a grim warning ("Flee! It's not too late to change your name and move to a different country! Flee before the fiction-writing comes for you, for none can resist its fiendish wiles!") or just one of those irritating just-you-wait things that people do ("Sooner or later, we all write fan fiction. It is our destiny."), but I had to say it. Because I remember writing words just like those so clearly that just reading your comment almost gave me a flashback.

Of course, when I said that, I was very firmly not thinking about the fact that I'd been writing and imagining fan fiction in one way or another since I was a kid. So those weren't so much my days of innocence as they were my days of desperate denial.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I want to hire you to write every episode of every television show in existence. (With slavery. No doubt we can sneak it past the censors somehow.)

My Epic That Must Not Be Read is in handwritten notes, and yes, I still work on it (and have been working on it since 2003). It would cause outrage and possible cataclysm so it will never see the light of day. *continues writing it regardless*

Icarus

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

I want to hire you to write every episode of every television show in existence.

*stands ready to serve if called*

My Epic That Must Not Be Read is in handwritten notes, and yes, I still work on it (and have been working on it since 2003). It would cause outrage and possible cataclysm so it will never see the light of day.

...Wow. And I thought my ETMNBR were problems. At least they aren't cataclysmic. (I admit I'm curious about how they'd cause outrage, but I'm not going to ask on the grounds that that would be making myself part of the problem.)

*continues writing it regardless*

*nods*

Well, naturally. "But no one can ever read it" has never worked on my story-writing lizard brain; it always insists on writing the damned thing anyway.

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

*clutches you and everyone else who has posted*
I am... similar enough to comment, although different. I am only just starting to write, so I never write any of this down, and truth to tell I love the flexibility of it so much I probably wouldn't anyway. But - for as long as I can remember, I have made up stories about things. Often I'm inspired by shows/books/other stuff I read, but it diverges wildly. And I'd never publish it, because plot holes liek whoa.
Unlike you, though, I have many different stories which I cycle through, which eventually get replaced. What they kind've have in common is the same main character (who is me, kinda - definitely my viewpoint character - and yet oddly is a male. I've never figured that out.) who turns up (although he is quite different, really sort of a constant AU) in each one. And they change over time.
As I was pondering this, I had the ephiany (you'll laugh at me when I explain this, because it seems so obvious) that I have been involved in fanfic for ages. When I was younger - like, really young, in my childhood - delurker and I would tell each other stories (that's literally what we called it) where we were each a character from a show we liked and we'd make up stories, telling them with each other in turns. Our youngest sister would listen to us. I can't remember why we stopped - got older and got embaressed, I suspect - but it was a sort of oral fanfic.
Anyway, now I just tell them to myself, and I spend ages thinking about them. Periodically I wonder if other people do it too, so now I feel better. :)

I am impressed that you write yours down, though! And manage to maintain it for so long. And unlike you I don't get involved in their fandoms, but I think that is cool too. :)
And I don't write, and I like the fluidity of them, so I never write any of mine down.

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

Ooh, only I realise I kina lied - one of my universe thing-ies is one where my pov character is an actor, and know about fans (yes, yes, shut up, this is embarressing enough on its own) and another is an AU of a universe I have many AUs for where my pov character is a fan.

[lapillus]

Even with a supposed audience of one it might be worth putting them up somewhere under a(nother) pseud. I've discovered with vids that things I thought were for only me are for at least a couple of other folks, too. And hey, you've already gotten them WRITTEN. My only epic remains firmly in my head and as notes and will never likely get farther than it has in a sharable form (this is one that I think that there at least once might have been an audience for).

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Well, see, to put it up anywhere, I'd have to get it beta-read. And, um, after subjecting a team of brilliant betas to ETMNBR #2, I really don't want to do it again. Those poor, poor people.

But, hmmm. I suppose I could make a deal with myself: if I ever completely finish writing season ten of ETMNBR #1, I could solicit betas like this: "Hey, my first ETMNBR is done! More or less! And I am now seeking betas who are willing to read 100+ pages of it and who are strong enough (or on strong enough medications) to survive the experience."

If I get responses to that, and the betas actually do survive the experience, I suppose I'll post it. At that point, what will I have to lose? (Dignity, yeah, but last time I checked, I didn't have any, so.)

[melannen.livejournal.com]

I don't have ETMNBR because if I ever managed to write 80 pages of *anything* that made a complete story, I would post it. Even if only on my unconnected backup ff.net account under a different pseud. Because what else is ff.net for? I've never actually written one, beyond a few pages, though, despite planning many in detail.

(But I do have plenty of stories that I will never get around to writing, or finishing, even if I still daydream about them, because I've realized that I really have nothing to say with them anymore, and I'd be better off working on something else.)

What you call imaginary fandoms I think is what many of us call "original fic". But, yes, of course I dream up fandoms and fic and complicated AUs and work out all the possible ships and draw cracky genderfuck fanart and think about how the fans will react to this or that. Who doesn't? (Probably the first one like this was the one with the magical flying horses that lived in a castle on a cloud, when I was about five. See, I'd never actually seen any of My Little Ponies, but all the stories people told were cool, so I made up my own cartoon. And merchandise. And fans. I think my version had a lot more sex in it than most Saturday morning cartoons, though.)

... I also have an intricately worked out original fantasy universe that exists only and explicitly for me to set my sexual fantasies in.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Because what else is ff.net for?

That is an excellent point.

What you call imaginary fandoms I think is what many of us call "original fic".

For me, there's a clear and obvious difference between original work and my imaginary fandoms, but I haven't managed to articulate it successfully yet. (Although I'm quite sure it has something to do with the feeling of crawling shame I get from the mere thought of telling other people the stories of my imaginary fandom.) The best I can do is say vague, hand-wavy stuff about quality and button-pushing.

I'm going to figure this out, though, and then I will post meta about it. Because there has to be some difference, or I wouldn't be so ashamed of it, right?

I think my version had a lot more sex in it than most Saturday morning cartoons, though.

Which makes it sound infinitely cooler than most Saturday morning cartoons. (I've never seen any, and despite all descriptions, I'm still not sure what they were about. Although Best Beloved's recent attempt to explain He-Ra to me made me giggle a lot.)

I also have an intricately worked out original fantasy universe that exists only and explicitly for me to set my sexual fantasies in.

...Oh my god. Me too. And now I'm going to go hide somewhere, because I really did not ever see myself confessing to that imaginary world in public.

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

For #2 I clicked for One. Because I've only written one of them. But there have been many in my head over the years.

As for imaginary fandoms. Oh hell yeah. Some of them involve me as a very Mary Sue character. But it's imaginary so I don't have to worry about it. :)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

But there have been many in my head over the years.

I'm starting to think that the brains of fangirls contain enough entertainment material to keep me happy forever.

But it's imaginary so I don't have to worry about it.

I salute your sensible, good-mental-health approach to this. (And, for the record, that's the attitude I have about my own Mary Sue Epic, which is totally unwritten and always will be. It helps me fall asleep, so who cares if fully half of the characters are Mary Sues of one description or another? Not me. But only because I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as telepathy, and so no one can know about my stories.)

[missmollyetc.livejournal.com]

Lord, I write in imaginary fandoms all the time! I have seperate ships! And pairing wars! And then there's the great Canon vs. Fanon debate of '04! Crossovers with other fandoms! And I can never never ever show this story to anyone else because it is COMPLETELY self-indulgent and TOTALLY OTT and I just want to hug it close and never let it go.

So, no. Not Alone at all.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*bonds*

I am so happy I'm not the only one who does this. It is truly a joyous realization.

*cuddles all of fandom close to her heart*

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I clicked the "no, you crazy person" boxes, but it was pretty tongue in cheek. :) It's a completely foreign idea to me (both of them), but if it entertains you, then have at it.

I'm glad you posted this, though, because it and the comments are just fascinating.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

Good to know it was tongue in cheek. (I suspect some people genuinely meant it when they chose those options. And, well, they aren't wrong, but I don't plan to get help. Happy insanity is better than a life of wretched realism, in my book.)

I'm glad you posted this, though, because it and the comments are just fascinating.

It is way cool to see how many people do stuff just like this. And it makes me love fandom even more, which I would have believed was totally impossible if you'd asked me two days ago.

I don't use the word "fandom: to describe my personal dreamscape, but...

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

I have had mental sagas playing out in my daydreams, dreams, and nightmares all my life. I never write them down, and they evolve, but they seem as real to me as any actual fandom or fictional universe. I find them very satisfying, and I never want to share (this is part of my secretive side, because no matter how open I seem, I have lots of secrets and no desire to expose them).

My ETMNBR is really the ETMNBW (W = Written). I am not a writer of fiction; I have no patience for laying out this vision, and frankly the very thought of exposing it to any sort of audience? ::shudders::

Re: I don't use the word "fandom: to describe my personal dreamscape, but...

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*nods*

There's a third category of stories we don't tell, I've realized from reading these comments, and that describes it pretty much perfectly. (I have one, too, but I was embarrassed even to mention it in the poll up there. So I hear you on the secretive omg-telling-people-no side of things, too.)

[minim_calibre]

When I was 13/14, I had an imaginary musical fandom. I drew sketches for their album art, invented all the interviews I had clipped out from magazines, wrote what was essentially FRPF (fake Real Person Fic) about them.

Err.

I got really involved. I haven't done it that much since. Ages ago, icebluenothing was going to have me write some fanfic for his imaginary show, but nothing came of it, and I'm currently without an imaginary fandom.

My ETMNBR is open in another window. 17,386 words so far. When not falling into Winchester Mania, I'm writing about a thousand words a week in it. I love it to pieces. I want to hug and cuddle it. I occasionally forget it's an ETMNBR, and think about areas I need to improve before I ship it off to beta. And there are parts in it (curiously, not the sex parts) that tickle the hell out of me, and I just want to share them. But I can't. Because it's pure id on my part.

I mean, I hate that sathinks is halfway around the world right now, because she's never on IM when I've just whipped out another stunning chapter of cracktastic joy, and she's the only person I'd trust not to stage an intervention on me for writing it.

I did have an opt-in filter crackfic going for a while, and I may someday finish it, but that's not an ETMNBR so much as a You've Been Warned About Reading This Epic. (YBWARTE)

I've actually created a filter for my ETMNBR, but I'm scared to use it.

Because the ETMNBR is totally my baby at this point.

Even if it has a face only a mother wouldn't puke on seeing.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

ha! I knew you would be in here somewhere. I was reading the post, and just thinking, I know min is around here. this is right up her alley.

I think, in many cases, an important component of the ETMNBR is having one other person who will read your crack-epic no matter what. They will talk about it with you if you want, read it, crit it, let you play in that space of your brain for however long you want. It's a Good Thing.

I probably have a couple stories mouldering away in my brain and my hard drive. (Sometimes I think they're the same thing.) But I am not an Epic Writer. So they're more Small Things That Probably Oughtn't Be Shared. (STTPQBS.)

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

On your poll I picked "No, but I don't think it's a sign of active insanity. Enjoy your brain's twistiness" but what I really meant was "Oh, that's so cool! And I really envy your twisty brain and I wish I had one, too!"

[malnpudl.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I forgot to say:

Yes, I have one ETMNBR on my hard drive, but that's not because it's a work of Great And Sprawling Imagination like yours (*envies your twisty brain yet again*) but because it simply sucks. Well, at least 40 percent of it sucks. Maybe 50. Maybe 60. *wince* Which is why it will forever remain on my hard drive... unless it goes the way of WIP Amnesty next year, which is entirely possible, too.

[raucousraven.livejournal.com]

Your "imaginary fandoms" sounds like a serious case of the "original fictions" to me, m'dear. Because that whole thing -- series, fandoms, marysues, squee, snark and meta -- that's all got its own (massive) narrative arc, with complex internecine rivalries and alliances and large amounts of soppy greatness. It works nicely with the ETMNBR thing (and mine is irreparably sappy HnG, and I wish I could fix it, alas). And I am seriously looking forward to your season 4 in which there will be anti-totalitarian government uprisings and sekrit!assassins turning out to be the only loyal ones in the group. Or something. Hey, I just like making everything incredibly AU in my head, so, y'know, you're not alone.

A propos of HnG, you saw the answer_key stuff, right? petronia's was quite thought-provoking, but I'm really waiting for murinae to finish that teasing little AU she's got going on.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

Your "imaginary fandoms" sounds like a serious case of the "original fictions" to me, m'dear.

There's a difference! I'm sure of it! I'm even kind of on the brink of figuring out what it is! (And when I am past that brink, oh, there will be meta aplenty.)

And I am seriously looking forward to your season 4 in which there will be anti-totalitarian government uprisings and sekrit!assassins turning out to be the only loyal ones in the group.

Hmmmm. You could be right about that. I wonder if my assassins are even capable of being loyal, most of them. It's a topic I haven't explored at all, and...

DAMN IT, YOU JUST GAVE ME A BUNNY FOR MY OWN FUCKING IMAGINARY FANDOM. Either you deserve a prize or a major smackdown, and I cannot for the life of me figure out which.

A propos of HnG, you saw the answer_key stuff, right? petronia's was quite thought-provoking, but I'm really waiting for murinae to finish that teasing little AU she's got going on.

Eeee! No, I didn't. I must go check it out immediately.

...What is that? Is it all HnG? I'm excited yet afraid to click at random, and the user info isn't helping me, here.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_whiskers/]

I have nothing very interesting to add on my own behalf that isn't already well represented in the comments. But hey, I had to ask, have you ever read Kage Baker's Company novels? ("In the Garden of Iden" et al?)

Because if not, you should try them. They contain many plot elements in common with your imaginary fandom, and it's all done rather well, and I have to say that now that you put it that way, the whole series really reads like Kage's imaginary fandom (complete with extra novelletes and short stories available only online.)

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

*thoughtful*

I tried the series once, long ago, but I couldn't get into it. And that is intensely weird for me, since normally I am riveted by time travel.

But your comment makes me think I should have another go at it; it was a while ago, and possibly I was just not in the right frame of mind or something. Because, really, when I'm not absorbing a sprawling time-travel series complete with extra stories available only online, what the hell is wrong with me?