Post by ava on Sept 21, 2017 18:32:56 GMT -5
Hi, I am Ava and I write as Adelie P., mostly on fanfiction.net.
My father read The Lord of the Rings with me when I was very young – too young to understand it all, but I have very vivid memories of us reading the Battle of the Pelennor Fields chapter over and over again. My father cried and my lifelong love for Eowyn and Eomer started there.
Our bookshelves at home were filled with fantasy and science fiction, all written by white male authors of a certain generation, and a lot of them – much more than Tolkien – overly sexist. This scarred me, I think; I’ve always been obsessed with (original) female characters, rewriting and reimagining stories in my head.
I wrote fanfiction before in the early 2000s, and then just lurked on various archives and lists for more than ten years. The first fanfic I posted, back in 2002, was about a fifth year transfer student at Hogwarts and her romantic adventures with Harry and Draco. I also had a Tenth Walker who was Gandalf’s apprentice and had magical powers. It featured a lot of sex, especially with Boromir. Y’all probably would have flamed me at some point, although I think my OFCs were never nice enough to really be considered Mary Sues.
During my Harry Potter fanfiction days, the boards I was on awarded me the “Most Brutally Honest Critic Award”, but that is a long time ago, and nowadays I am kinder (albeit somewhat less effective). In fact, I’m still a little insecure about giving beta. In my thesis, I have a lot to say about “literary character” and “the possible worlds of fictional universes”, and you know what, none of that is useful feedback for creative writers. I do consider myself fairly comfortable with receiving criticism by now; graduate school helps dull the senses there, and as a literature scholar who likes reception theory I can more easily look at it with a detached eye. It’s just such fun knowing what other readers pay attention to, what bores them, appeals to them, or makes them feel slightly queasy! However, on some days it is still hard because I’m stressed / have reached my limit / crave validation and academia won’t give it to me. Criticism is invaluable to me, though, so I always try to be gracious.
Once upon a time I met my husband in Tolkien fandom; his screen-name was Eomer. Then we discovered we were going to be attending the same university in Scotland. He likes to think my fanfic is about him and laughs at every silly thing I make Eomer say.
My father read The Lord of the Rings with me when I was very young – too young to understand it all, but I have very vivid memories of us reading the Battle of the Pelennor Fields chapter over and over again. My father cried and my lifelong love for Eowyn and Eomer started there.
Our bookshelves at home were filled with fantasy and science fiction, all written by white male authors of a certain generation, and a lot of them – much more than Tolkien – overly sexist. This scarred me, I think; I’ve always been obsessed with (original) female characters, rewriting and reimagining stories in my head.
I wrote fanfiction before in the early 2000s, and then just lurked on various archives and lists for more than ten years. The first fanfic I posted, back in 2002, was about a fifth year transfer student at Hogwarts and her romantic adventures with Harry and Draco. I also had a Tenth Walker who was Gandalf’s apprentice and had magical powers. It featured a lot of sex, especially with Boromir. Y’all probably would have flamed me at some point, although I think my OFCs were never nice enough to really be considered Mary Sues.
During my Harry Potter fanfiction days, the boards I was on awarded me the “Most Brutally Honest Critic Award”, but that is a long time ago, and nowadays I am kinder (albeit somewhat less effective). In fact, I’m still a little insecure about giving beta. In my thesis, I have a lot to say about “literary character” and “the possible worlds of fictional universes”, and you know what, none of that is useful feedback for creative writers. I do consider myself fairly comfortable with receiving criticism by now; graduate school helps dull the senses there, and as a literature scholar who likes reception theory I can more easily look at it with a detached eye. It’s just such fun knowing what other readers pay attention to, what bores them, appeals to them, or makes them feel slightly queasy! However, on some days it is still hard because I’m stressed / have reached my limit / crave validation and academia won’t give it to me. Criticism is invaluable to me, though, so I always try to be gracious.
Once upon a time I met my husband in Tolkien fandom; his screen-name was Eomer. Then we discovered we were going to be attending the same university in Scotland. He likes to think my fanfic is about him and laughs at every silly thing I make Eomer say.