Drifting from Fandom?

[mrsluigivargas]

You know what's kinda interesting? I've recently noticed that it seems like the moment I realized I was aromantic, my tolerance for romance in fandom just kinda plummeted to 0. Not that it was already declining; the overzealous presence of Klance in the Voltron fandom did a good job of getting me real sick of romance-centric fanfiction in the first place. Not that there weren't some good romance fics, of course - there were some nice ones. But those ones didn’t do what a lot of the others did: warp the character to fit the pairing or romantic tropes. These character assassinations is probably the reason I don’t like romance in fandom that much. I mean, look at TodoDeku and KiriBaku: a lot of it seems…off most of the time because people wanna just check those boxes. Not that there's anything wrong with checking those boxes! But I don’t like those boxes. So.

Obviously not everything in fandom is romance-centric, but it sure feels that way, doesn’t it? With all the OTPs and shipping wars and stuff. My aromantic self wishes she could find platonic stuff more easily; engaging with fandom seems more of a chore these days otherwise…

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I've recently noticed that it seems like the moment I realized I was aromantic, my tolerance for romance in fandom just kinda plummeted to 0. <<

It's good to know yourself, but the loss of fic can be frustrating.


>> My aromantic self wishes she could find platonic stuff more easily; engaging with fandom seems more of a chore these days otherwise… <<

There are places you can look.

* Some fandoms run strongly to aroace works. These can be queerplatonic or just gen. Sherlock Holmes actually has both: aroace Sherlock&John plus casefic.

* Watch for recommended lists of aroace books, shows, movies, etc. There is more of that now than there used to be. Then look for those fandoms.

* Network with other aroace folk to share recommendations. The bigger the pool of fans working together, the easier it becomes to support writers of platonic content because once one member of the pack catches the trail of a new author then the rest will come check it out.

* Kickstarter has some excellent aroace content. A couple different publishers are putting it out. I've backed a couple anthologies already. I think there's a roleplaying game too. Check the fiction section at least. Also once you've backed a project of a given type, Kickstarter will feed you recs for similar projects at the bottom of every update email that the creator sends out.

* Watch for crowdfunding and other prompt calls where you can ask for what you want and get it.

I write some series with aroace leads, such as The Origami Mage and Path of the Paladins. I have other aroace characters scattered around; here's a list of my QUILTBAG characters. You can also request platonic content in any prompt call; next up is the Tuesday, July 15 bonus fishbowl with a theme of "anything goes."

The next crowdfunding Creative Jam will be July 19-20 with a theme of "Heroism -- Real and Perceived."

dialecticdreamer does a couple of different prompt calls, Feathering the Nest (always fluff and comfort) and Magpie Monday (variable themes). She writes aroace and platonic content very well.

Re: Thoughts

[mrsluigivargas]

I see! Thanks for the suggestions!

I actually saw a set of charts someone made a while ago, about which fandoms had more genfic posted to AO3; I've been using it as a bit of a guiding hand as to what new media/fandoms to get into, lol. Like Minecraft Youtubers and the DPxDC crossover stuff, for instance! Also I'm chewing my way through Murderbot Diaries right now and I saw there's a lot of genfic on AO3 so I'm excited for that, when I finish the books! (which will probably be a while because the audiobooks are hard to get ahold of from the library 🥲). And a few months ago I got around to gathering all the aroace rec lists I've saved over the years on Tumblr and punted the interesting books from those lists to StoryGraph, haha. So I've got those to look forward to, as well!

Good shout about Kickstarter, though; I definitely need to utilize that side more to find things. And I had no idea crowdfunding and prompt calls were a thing! That's cool! I'll have to explore that!

And I'll be sure to check out yours and dialecticdreamer's stuff, as well. I'll admit I poked around a little before going to bed yesterday and am now deathly curious about the Frankenstein's Family series, haha. I'll love to dig into it when I have the time!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I actually saw a set of charts someone made a while ago, about which fandoms had more genfic posted to AO3; I've been using it as a bit of a guiding hand as to what new media/fandoms to get into, lol.<<

That's cool. I can't read stuff on AO3 anymore, but it's popular.

>>And a few months ago I got around to gathering all the aroace rec lists I've saved over the years on Tumblr and punted the interesting books from those lists to StoryGraph,<<

You might think about copying the recs here too.

>> Good shout about Kickstarter, though; I definitely need to utilize that side more to find things.<<

It's one of my favorite places for holiday shopping. :D

>> And I had no idea crowdfunding and prompt calls were a thing! That's cool! I'll have to explore that! <<

I hope you have fun with it.

>> And I'll be sure to check out yours and dialecticdreamer's stuff, as well. <<

Yay!

>> I'll admit I poked around a little before going to bed yesterday and am now deathly curious about the Frankenstein's Family series, haha. I'll love to dig into it when I have the time! <<

I already have a couple prompts for it in today's fishbowl.