My Bucket List: What I’ve Wanted to Do in Fandom

[paulamcg]

I’m very much a goals-what-goals writer who focuses only on the story and writing it. When gracerene and malenkayacherepakha’s fandom bucket lists made me start thinking about this, I came up with a chronological list of what I’ve hoped for and done in the HP fandom since 2003. I’m just bolding what I haven’t done yet. I trust there’ll be more hopes if not actual goals, perhaps one at a time.

Discuss Rowling’s canon on a fan forum
Write and post some fic
Get comments from readers
Discuss my fic with readers
Discuss fic with other writers
Improve my writing while working on, posting and discussing a long chaptered fic
Write and post short stories
Help restore the forums after hacking and host general fanfic discussion threads
Read more extensively and write reviews
Get a one-shot fic uploaded on Fiction Alley
Get reviews on FA
Make friends with fellow writers on FA
Work with a beta
Work as a beta
Get a fic Niffled (recced by a nominated reccer) on FA
Post fic on Live Journal
Make friends with fellow writers on LJ
Post on LJ communities
Write more and shorter fics
Get invited to be a member of a genfic community on LJ
Write a 100-word drabble
Participate in a fest on LJ
Have art made on the basis of my fic
Have fic included in rec lists
Meet my very special writer friend and beta in so-called real life
Complete the long chaptered fic
Post the long chaptered fic on FA and LJ
Know for sure that some people have read and enjoyed the whole of that chaptered fic
Get comments on the chaptered fic on LJ and FA (on LJ on each post, on FA on some)
Have fic nominated for an award (the chaptered fic)
Write at least one more short fic
Still read and comment
Have a fic written for a prompt in a fest in which I don’t write (in late 2010)
(Since February 2019)
Write, complete and publish (on LJ) short stories regularly while expecting no feedback
Write less subtle slash
Write het
Write sex scenes
Write with references to real-world places, times and cultural events/elements
Write a multi-pov fic
Write a double drabble for a fest
Post new and old fic on AO3
Read and comment on fic on AO3
Make friends with fellow writers on Dreamwidth
Participate in a fest on DW
Participate in an exchange on DW
Write extra treats in an exchange
Participate in the Fandom Snowflake Challenge
Discuss fic and writing on DW
Read and comment on fic in other fandoms (without being familiar with the canon)
Participate in a fest arranged only on Tumblr and AO3
Participate in an anonymous fest
Participate in the Firewhiskey Fest
Write a fill for a comment meme
Write a (kind of) kink fic
Write femslash
Write an asexuality fic
Write about a truly rare pair
Get the femslash fic to the Master List on Tumblr
Write diverse fic that works separately while still keeping it all consistent with and meaningful for the story I started by writing the chaptered fic
Participate in a het fest (working on this at the moment)
Write a pinch hit
Have a podfic made of my fic
Have a fic translated
Have a fic remixed
Have a fanlore page
Have more discussion on fic and on writing

Comments

[author_by_night]

You've accomplished quite a lot!


I need to talk more about fic writing. I don't write much fic anymore, but I am actually very pro-fanfic even if it's not as central to my life as it once was.

[paulamcg]

Thank you! I think I’ll edit the post and say it’s a list of what I’ve done – not achieved – as it’s just natural things people are happy to do when writing fic is central in their lives. This list rather shows that I’ve never had such bigger goals to achieve someday as participating in a Big Bang next year. My long-term hopes are related to readers' response to my fic.

[gracerene]

Ooo, write a pinch hit is a great one!

[paulamcg]

Thank you (also for making me fix the term to be the noun)! I’ve included this single hope related to writing fic, because I had a plan of pinch-hitting at Femme Fest and (just over a week ago) was going to claim one of the offered pinch hits – when my laptop stopped working.

[malenkayacherepakha]

This is a great list - you've done so much! Good luck with your remaining goals.

[paulamcg]

Thank you! It looks a lot because I made the list so detailed – including all the natural things for a fanfic writer to do.

[a_belladonna]

Your list made me think. :) I'm not sure I could make one myself because I've never really had any hopes/plans/goals in fandom. Everything that's happened has just happened along the way. :)

[paulamcg]

I can relate somehow. Reading other writers’ bucket lists, I’ve felt I’ve never had a list of goals in my mind. But I enjoyed (once again) writing some kind of a history of my fandom life, and realised that at each point I must have had a hope – sometimes even an ambition – for the next step.

[a_belladonna]

Of course, I can understand that. :) It's an interesting way for sure to make an inventory of sorts of one's life in fandom.
Especially since it's been so many years, suddenly. :)

[paulamcg]

Thanks! it's been so many years, suddenly. I don’t actually feel such suddenness, perhaps because there were long, hard, fanfictionless years in between. But I enjoy making inventory for myself and for potential readers around – none of whom have known me at all before last year, except one, perhaps, in 2009 and 2010.

[a_belladonna]

True, I've had a similiar "fandom drought" in between - but I guess the suddenness hit me because I realised that when I was knitting a scarf for the GoF UK meet-up, my oldest niece was a newborn baby, and this autumn she's turning 15. :)
Where did those years go?

Perhaps I should try make an inventory too - it is a fun way to get to know the other people on your flist, especially with newcomers on it. I'd say you've accomplished a lot, I'm not sure my list would be as long. :)

[paulamcg]

Yes, make and post an inventory! I’m sure you’ve accomplished more than I could guess. Remember, I was surprised you wrote smut!

[a_belladonna]

I will! I suspect it'll take me a few days to put together, though. :)

[paulamcg]

Yay! I’ll be looking forward to it.

[enchanted_jae]

You've accomplished so much! Wow!

[paulamcg]

Thank you! But the list is made long by such things like make friends on three different platforms. And like write sex scenes (sixteen years after entering fandom):)