Dear Outsiders,
from Carrie
Dear Outsiders,
It occurred to me today as I sat down to my computer that life can be awfully one-sided sometimes. The majority of the people in this world go through their days cheerfully oblivious of others, taking and taking as though every considerate act on the part of another person is due them by right. Strangers who hold open the door are dismissed from one's thoughts after a short nod of the head or "thank you." Library volunteers, working at no charge, are accused of being too slow or incompetent when books begin to pile up near the checkout counter. Overworked teachers are sneered at by students, when, on one day of five, they have no time to give extra help, though they may stay late into the evenings every other day to see that the students understand the material.
In short, there's a lot of kindness out there in the world that goes unappreciated, on a daily basis. And sometimes a single lapse or mistake, a single moment reserved for oneself, can negate in people's minds all the good that said person has done in the past. People take and take and never give back anything in return.
So, what's my point? What keeps this entire post from being OT?
I've seen the same behavior online towards writers and archivists. I've seen it in the demands made by the fans, "aren't you done your next chapter yet?" and "Why haven't you updated your archive?" Worse, I realized that in the years I've been reading fanfiction (and it has been quite a while), I've written to authors only a handful of times myself, and to archivists, almost never. Aside from a spot of beta-reading here and there, I've contributed very little to any aspect of fanfiction--no praise, no thanks, no constructive criticism, nothing. While I usually take care to let people know they're appreciated IRL, I don't do the same on the internet, and that makes me a hypocrite. And _that's_ unacceptable. I've gotten a lot of pleasure from fanfiction over the years, and that deserves some recognition.
So....
Thank you, writers, for your creativity; thank you for caring enough about the characters you write to flesh them out and remind fans why _they_ love the characters, too. Thank you for the hours of great reading and entertainment, for the twists on storylines, for the humor, the drama, the filks, the MSTies, the suffering, the casual moments, even (gasp!) the angst. Thank you, Alexandra Nigro, for your X-Men Elseworlds stories; thank you, Indigo, for your romanticism; thank you, Alara, for Magneto and for Erik; thank you, Valerie Jones, for your wonderful plots; thank you PoiLass, for your humor; thank you, Kielle, for the "X" MSTing; thank you, Darqstar, for X-S; thank you, Karolina Phillips, for the dark side of Rogue. Many thanks to _all_ the writers out there, whether you've written one story or ten, for having the courage to post your stories, and for sharing them with me. Thanks for the collaborations. Thank you for your brilliance.
And the archivists: thank you for devoting your time, effort, and money to ensure that fans can find these wonderful stories. Thank you for collecting and storing these stories on your hard drive and allowing them to eat up your space, and thank you for taking the time to organize them for the fans who don't want to wade through a sea of stories. Thank you for gathering scattered articles and items of interest from across the web and bringing them together for readers to enjoy. Thank you for establishing message boards and Thanks, Kielle, for CFAN, and thanks, Lori, for your enormous archives. Thanks, Alara, for sparing my computer from having to load graphics, and thanks, Alykat, for the easy navigation. Thanks to all those who gather speficic genre or character stories, i.e. only erotic stories, only slash stories, only stories about the less popular characters.
And, finally, thanks in a big way to everyone who sets up mailing lists like this one to draw fans together and keep the fanfic flowing. It's appreciated enormously.
Fanfic does occupy a lot of my time, and I can't really express how glad I am that it's out there for me to enjoy. I have very little talent in the way of creative writing, myself (analytical writing is my forte), and that makes me appreciate those who do have that talent all the more. Different takes on characters, situations comic companies have passed over, insight into thoughts and motivations, little details that help flesh out and define the characters--all these apects of fanfiction combine to make it wonderful. Kudos to all those out there who have taken the extra step, tapped a storyline's potential and extended it into a fanfic. For as long as there is someone to write, there'll be an appreciative reader right here.
Thanks again to everyone who has shared their writing with me.
Whew. Okay, _now_ I'm embarrased. :)
Incidentally, I'm Carrie. Pleased to meet'cha :) Goodnight. :)
Until another time,
--Carrie
Return to the Praise Page