Recently I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not I should continue drawing art for fanfictions. Because of my internal struggle I decided to write out all of the positives that come with drawing fanfiction art as a reminder to myself, and maybe even convince some of you artists out there to consider it in the process.
1.) They deserve it
Fanfiction writers create some amazing stories, sometimes they even create characters or worlds. These things take some serious time and skill! They spend their personal time to create free stories for your enjoyment. Creating art for them is a great kindness to fanfiction writers who have given you ten times that kindness back.
I don’t really give reviews of fanfictions. Mainly because I never know how to explain what I like about a fanfiction without giving them a ten page paper or ending up sounding like a pterodactyl. Drawing art is a great way to show your appreciation without screaming in their faces!
2.) It is great practice
Very rarely do I have something that allows me to draw demonic dolls, blushing demons, a man whose slowly breaking apart and going to space, ghost gangsters, robots with electricity sparking from them, a boy with a bloody knee blaming it on parkour, desperate hugs, two men fighting off ice cold oceans waves, the list goes on and on!
Fanfiction provides some great scenarios for art, that let me branch out and try new things. It’s a great challenge!
3.) It gives them a reason to keep writing
Do you enjoy this fanfiction writers work? Want to keep them excited about writing so that way you can see more great, high quality, work? Well boy oh boy do I have the solution for you! Fanfiction art!
Fanfiction art, at least to me, is a big way to show you care. Writers put time and effort into their pieces and you have given back something that also has time and effort put into it. Seeing that kind of support can really encourage a fanfiction writer! With fanfiction art you are showing that you deeply care about their work, that you are inspired by what they’ve done.
If that’s not a big thumbs up, I don’t know what is!
4.) Positive response
I’ve seen some fanfiction writers response to my art and let me tell you, it’s positively heart warming. The writers who I have drawn for have been so excited with the art! I don’t know about you but seeing someone who deserves something get it is super satisfying. Of all the reactions to my art, fanfiction writers reactions have been the ones I remember the most. There responses kept me smiling for days on end, it’s truly moving.
Don’t be afraid to show them your art!! Let me tell you my art is not perfect but I worked hard on those pieces that I gave those talented writers, and that is enough. It’s the thought that counts, and fanfiction writers deserve as many supportive thoughts as they can get!
As a fanfiction writer, I’ve been very fortunate to receive some beautiful pieces, and some funny pieces, from readers who spent their valuable time creating art of my story, especially my OC.
There are not enough words to express the feeling I get when I see that someone enjoyed my writing enough to create art about it. It’s the ultimate compliment and should never be taken for granted. It’s inspiring and it’s refreshing to see your characters and your story through someone else’s eyes. Sometimes these pieces influence your writing and influence the creation of new scenes.
If you create something based off of a fanfic you’ve read I highly recommend that you share it with the author. Rough, sketched, polished…doesn’t matter. Your piece of work may be the only compliment, comment, or positive reinforcement they’ve received in a while. Trust me, your writer loves it. And sometimes, they need it.
The stages of someone sending me unexpected art based on my fic:
Cry (no really; actual tears from my eyes–THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS).
Internally freak out. Externally freak out (usually involves a lot of bouncing in chair.)
Show someone. Usually husband. Often cat. You know that picture of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith where he’s like “LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE?” – I’m like that. Only “LOOK AT WHAT SOME BEAUTIFUL PERSON HAS DONE.”
Reblog art usually accompanied by excessive use of caps lock and/or exclamation points. (!!!)
Have exceedingly warm happy feeling for days, renewed up every time art is remembered.
Save on computer; look at art every time sad, discouraged, in need of inspiration.
Basically never stop being amazed at how wonderful people are.
Whenever people have made art of my fanfics I’ve just… completely lost the ability to think for the rest of the day. It’s so incredibly overwhelming that someone to take the time to put effort and talent – their amazing, glorious talent – into making something based off things that I, stupid little me, wrote.
Truly, fanart of fanfic is the best gift.
THIIIISSS^^^^
This!
(I love anything people want to do based on my stuff, of course – podfic, remixes (with permission/credit), art, translations: YES YES YES OH WOW YOU LIKED IT THAT MUCH LET ME ADORE YOU)
so very true, i have cried literal tears and squealed. it’s an amazing delightful gift. ❤
(Reminder: I am/was not a gender studies major, nor a student of fandom. This is just an entertainment blog and all that follows is my opinion only.)
This is a highly sensitive topic that people study academically for many fandoms, and I will hardly do it justice here. But I felt it was important to share what I can, anyway. Some links are under the cut for further reading about this topic, even though they do not apply to VC fandom specifically.
The short answer is that, from my experience, yes, most ppl in the VC fandom seem to be women. This is based on the past 20 years of AR’s booksignings I’ve attended, online communities, interviews/articles over the years, AR’s FB (her own posts + comments from her People of the Page), and AR’s Twitter. However, I would add that she absolutely does have fans who are men, NB, agender, genderqueer, transgender, etc. It would be difficult to do a thorough demographic study of all of her fans (current/past/specific time period(s)/etc.), so I wouldn’t know what portion of the fanbase is made up of women.
^What is superfan thinking? Does she think Santiago is a REAL VAMPIRE? Does she want to die? … or, is she simply a groupie of that media and enjoying it as a fantasy situation? We don’t get her backstory in the movie, so we may never know.
^Santiago has had to deal with hecklers and admirers for years so he’s not really fazed by her disrupting his show, and when he shuts her offer down, it draws a laugh from the audience. Laugh at the fan who confessed her love for the fantasy of it all and offered herself as tribute.
Before we specify why women are in VC fandom, one thing to consider is What is fandom?In my opinion, it’s a group of people who are drawn to a shared space bc of a shared interest in specific media. Within that, you still have to reach out to individuals in order to become friends. You don’t necessarily have to agree on every aspect of the media you each enjoy, but having chemistry certainly helps. Participating in fandom can also mean creating/consuming fanworks without having any personal connection with other fans. Sometimes it’s just in posting fic and/or leaving kudos. Some join a skype chat group so that they focus primarily on their personal connections with other fans. It’s a wide spectrum and there are different ways to engage with other fans within a fandom.
Why VC fandom?We all have our reasons for being in VC fandom. I would prefer not to speak for other fans as to their reasons, but everyone is welcome to respond in the comments/reblogs of this post, or message me on/off anon, and I might gather up those responses and add them to this post.
Why I was drawn to VC:
Personally, I’m a woman, and I’m in this fandom bc the canon/fanon is intellectually stimulating to me. I’ve made some of my best friends here. We share a love for these characters and we discuss them at length. This does not mean we 100% support everything the characters do in canon. We enjoy them as fictional characters, not necessarily as role models.
Secondly… I had posted a personal account about my reasons for being into VC canon, but later deleted that post bc I was informed that my reasons weren’t acceptable. That VC was not for straight women. I’ve given it a lot of thought and I’ll briefly tell you my reasons for being attached to VC, under the cut.
Brief historical context:
These books are/were written by a straight white woman, and she’s always advised her fans to “write the book you want to read.” She currently writes for herself, presumably, as she does not use an editor in the traditional sense. She began VC in the early 1970s with the short story, “The Master of Rampling Gate” (which eventually became the full novel IWTV). The short story was published in Redbook magazine at the time, which is/was a magazine for women, and the short story was written in the vein (pun intended!) of the older gothic romance novels that were extremely popular in the ‘60s.
^In fact, this edition of IWTV is straight-baiting, as the only female love interest that Louis might have gotten into that physical position with would be Babette, and that… definitely doesn’t happen.
IWTV is a dissection of Louis’ feelings, and Louis was a stand-in for Anne herself. VC in general has a lot of emotion, both in the dialogue, and the introspection woven into the narrative itself. The fact that these books are mostly written from the 1st person perspective is a very intimate means of communication to the reader, and makes the novels that much more emotionally rich. Some might say that such emotional writing tends to appeal to women.
The books are intimate. There is a constant thread of intimacy throughout which seems to appeal to women of all sexual orientations, in my opinion. I started the series with IWTV when I was 11 yrs old and I’ve heard from other fans of other genders that they also started VC when they were young, even around the age that I did. Being right before puberty, maybe that adds some extra addictive quality to it, that it explores a kind of intimacy when we’re in the phase of life where we’re just becoming interested in sexuality. I remember mooning over pics of Brad Pitt in my table group at lunch, and we would talk about him, but I doubt any of us would have wanted to actually kiss him at the time, we just wanted to speculate about dating and romance!
After the first book, the intimacy continues with TVL, where we get Lestat’s backstory, and as the series progresses, it just keeps going. Whichever book new VC fans enter the series, they’re going to hit that vein, more or less. It’s not as strong in the most current books, but it’s still there. I would say that AR found that the way she wrote the first 2 books was so well-received that she felt validated in her style of writing, that it was appealing to her readers, and continued to produce it.
There’s also quite a lot of wealthporn, where the characters describe their expensive clothes, jewelry, or lavish surroundings, none of them have to hold a dayjob or anything menial like that. Since many of us do not currently enjoy such luxuries of material goods and/or freedom of leisure time, it’s another element that might make it appealing to certain demographics. There’s a ton of wish fulfillment in the books.
Hit the jump for a little more.
My reasons for being into VC
Basically, I was bullied when I was 11 (for having a bad fashion sense and bad teeth), which is right around the time that someone gave me a copy of IWTV. I had always loved horror novels and scary stories as a way to study monsters and see if I could unpack them and better understand them. I drew inspiration from the way the VC characters handled their own obstacles, I loved getting Lestat’s backstory, he was not just a colorful antagonist, he had his own reasons for acting the way he did. Reasons are not EXCUSES, but in understanding monstrous behavior, we can equip ourselves to weather it when we see it in real life. Eventually, I got braces, grew out of my 90′s grunge phase, and while the bullies changed form over time, I learned how to deal with them.
Could I have drawn inspiration from other books/movies/music? Yes! And I did. But VC, for the intimacy of the stories, for the vibrancy of the characters, for so many reasons that I can’t go into on a post I’m trying to keep brief… this is a piece of media that I’ve held onto over the years. Not the only one, but certainly the main one, for me.
A few good posts to check out re: women in fandom:
And I don’t mean to attack you, Anon, but these posts are written with a tone because there is so much criticism of what women in fandom are not allowed to enjoy. Please read at your own risk, but they have some very good points about why women might be into certain things in fandom.
Fandom, after all, is born of a balance between fascination and frustration: if media content didn’t fascinate us, there would be no desire to engage with it; but if it didn’t frustrate us on some level, there would be no drive to rewrite or remake it
[By the way, I usually answer things with a relevant fanart/image/gif, but in this case, I think it’s too serious a topic for that.]
“And I sincerely apologize if I’ve offended you by asking the question.”
No offense taken, it’s a fair question!
I am a little wary that this is a bait set out by those who see things in RP/fiction as “promoting” something in real life. A bait set to invite the kind of anti-shippers who are looking for a way to tear me down regardless of how I respond, when all I ever want to promote is:
(And I’ll quote a relevant piece of it from @ozhawkauthor, but please read the whole post):
“Much (though not all) fandom is about shipping. There are as many possible ships as there are fans, maybe more. You may have an OTP (One True Pairing), you may have a NOTP, that pairing that makes you want to barf at the very thought of its existence.
It’s not up to you to police ships or to determine what other people are allowed to ship. Just because you find that one particular ship problematic or disgusting, does not mean that other people are not allowed to explore its possibilities in their fanworks.
You are free to create contrarian content, to write meta about why a particular ship is repulsive, to discuss it endlessly on your private blog with like-minded persons.
It is not appropriate to harass creators about their ships, it is not appropriate to demand they do not create any more fanworks about those ships, or that they create fanwork only in a manner that you deem appropriate.
These three laws add up to the following:
You are not paying for fanworks content, and you have no rights to it other than to choose to consume it, or not consume it. If you do choose to consume it, do not then attack the creator if it wasn’t to your taste. That’s the height of bad manners.
Be courteous in fandom. It makes the whole experience better for all of us.”
I want to make it very clear that I’m answering this as someone who supports exploring dark themes and taboo topics in fiction/RP. As long as you are not violating real living person’s rights, or invading any real living person’s space*, then you are doing nothing wrong.
I’ve been blocked. I try to tag for things that can be triggering/upsetting to others, but I will not self-censor to appease everyone, so I absolutely support ppl unfollowing/blocking me if what I post makes them uncomfortable.
*Posting your fic/RP with the appropriate warning tags is a form of respecting others’ space and rights. If they don’t like your writing, they can block you, too. Their dashboard is their responsibility.
“I want to do a thread, but I don’t want to trigger anyone or make it look all grim and incestuous.”
I think grim and incestuous could be very interesting to explore; not every fic/RP can be a fluffy Coffee Shop AU!
Re: Concern about triggering anyone, I’ll repeat myself, it is everyone’s responsibility to curate their own fandom experience and as long as you are tagging and putting content under cuts, it is their responsibility to protect themselves. If they are incapable of that, then they should ask a trusted person to monitor their internet use.
People are triggered by many things, not just taboo and darker themed writing. This person’s triggers are Jello, Popsicles, Soup Broth, please read it! And to quote from that post, “a lot of ‘activists’ on tumblr aren’t looking to actually help anyone or make anything better: they’re sadists cruising for new victims.”
TL; DR: Anon, do what you and your partner are comfortable doing.** If RPing it as a ship squicks you both out, don’t do it. If Rping it as a ship is exciting to you both and you want to explore that taboo, go for it! Just be sure to tag it with the right warnings, and add cuts so that ppl will be protected from content they may not want to see.You can also RP privately however you like, there is no rule that says RP must be done publicly.
**If your RP partner is pressuring you to RP something you are uncomfortable with, then I would suggest not RPing that with them, and similarly, if you are pressuring your RP partner to RP something they are uncomfortable with, I would suggest not pressuring them into it.
Hit the jump for my response, cut for length, and discussion about possible incest between fictional characters.
“I’m going to be roleplaying with someone and they want to do a mother/son relationship, like not in the usual way.”
Is there a “usual way” to RP? If you’re suggesting in the ship way, it is something I’m sure exists.
Ppl RP with canon in mind, or without it.
“Like, what is the ACTUAL relationship between Gabrielle and Lestat? What is it really?”
That is a question with a ton of landmines, so I’m not going to say that they are definitely a ship or definitely not, it’s up to the individual reader/RPer to decide based on their reading of canon, or diverge from canon and write the characters however they see fit. This kind of exploration is one of many ways to engage with the characters and I see nothing wrong with canon-compliant or not canon-compliant writing, either way.
Personally, I can see both sides of the argument.
>>Not as a ship: There are some who see them purely as a mother and a son, and DEFINITELY nothing more. She does come to his rescue at the rock concert (how did she know to go to him? She has telepathy, but being his fledgling, she cannot read Lestat’s mind; she could have picked up the warnings from other vampires, or Louis might have contacted her), there are several times in canon when she asserts herself in an authoritative manner. She’s protective of him when he’s in a coma, and she slaps some sense into him when necessary. All these things can be filed under “motherly.”
It’s easy to not ship them, so I don’t really need to provide further canon evidence, they are, biologically, mother and son! There’s nothing more to add to that.
>>As a ship, Unpopular Opinion: one could argue that they can be shipped, because:
A) He becomes her maker, which changes their relationship to him being more of the “parent.”
– During the initial phase of Lestat turning Gabrielle in TVL, as he’s taking her life, he says she’s no longer his mother (to be fair, this is the kind of intimacy a vampire feels when feeding on anyone, but still, worth mentioning):
My
knowledge dimmed and flickered and there was no mother anymore,
no petty need and petty terror; she was simply who she was. She was
Gabrielle.
– Then, once she’s turned, she insists on being called by her name instead of “Mother,” so some take that as proof that she doesn’t see herself as being his mother anymore, in the mortal sense of the word.
B) The act of making a vampire is extremely intimate, it has been compared to childbirth. It’s the most intimate act a vampire can share with anyone. I believe in fanon that it creates a physiological bond between maker and fledgling, so one could extrapolate to say that the act itself could create a ship.
Note: In most maker/fledgling relationships, there is some assumption that turning the fledgling is done to bind maker and fledgling as a ship; essentially making the fledgling into a companion for the maker and the maker into a companion for the fledgling. In this case, Lestat turned Gabrielle in order to save her life, not knowing if he would even survive the act, so I don’t think this was a factor here, neither of them necessarily intending to be in a relationship together, but the physiological bond discussed above would still be a possibility.
Also worth mentioning is that he asks for her consent, as he had not been asked for consent himself, and the question is very clear:
No words again, just the silent thrust of it, and the question, more immense than could ever be put into words, Do you want to come with me now? DO YOU WANT TO COME WITH ME INTO THIS NOW? I hide nothing from you, not my ignorance, not my fear, not the simple terror that if I try I might fail. I do not even know if it is mine to give more than once, or what is the price of giving it, but I will risk this for you, and we will discover it together, whatever the mystery and the terror, just as I’ve discovered alone all else. With her whole
being she said Yes.
^This could be construed as him wanting her for a companion and her agreeing to it.
C) LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX. This is a point of debate for many fans, whether the Ricean vampires can have penetrative sex. In my opinion, in canon they cannot, and while penetrative sex is NOT A REQUIREMENT to a relationship (there are relationships where there is no penetrative sex and they are no less valid than those which do have it, in my opinion), the incestuous aspect of a Lestat/Gabrielle ship is alot less squicky for me knowing that they aren’t able to literally bone in the mortal way. Some would argue that the bloodsharing is more intimate than penetrative sex, and that’s fine, but still, being unable to literally bone is just so much less squicky, in my opinion. But ppl made fanart of essentially that and it was still very funny, to me!
Call it what you will, but the first bloodkiss shared in canon is between Lestat and Gabrielle on the night she is turned.
^^^ALL THAT SAID, I wouldn’t shoot anyone down who ships it, they are both adult fictional characters. One could argue that there is some canon evidence to support it, but canon evidence is unnecessary.
Again, Anon, do what you and your partner are comfortable doing. If RPing it as a ship squicks you both out, don’t do it. If Rping it as a ship is exciting to you both and you want to explore that taboo, go for it! Just be sure to tag it with the right warnings, and add cuts so that ppl will be protected from content they may not want to see. You can also RP privately however you like, there is no rule that says RP must be done publicly.
If your RP partner is pressuring you to RP something you are uncomfortable with, then I would suggest not RPing with them, and similarly, if you are pressuring your RP partner to RP something they are uncomfortable with, I would suggest not pressuring them into it.
i don’t think people really get how little feedback fanfic authors actually get? like the effort to reaction ratio is so abysmally skewed here that a fic nearly 50,000 words long takes an entire year to amass like. 16 comments. someone reblogged a fic i wrote at 4 am and tagged it with a 5-word compliment and i can’t stop thinking about it, not because it was so nice but because half the time you post a fic you’re going to hear nothing and anything feels like so much
fandom culture is so, so good about giving artists the credit they’re due, but we gotta start doing that for writers too. you’ve got no idea how much people put into their stories and get maybe a handful of reblogs and a dozen-odd kudos. that’s not enough. writing is an endurance sport and y’all need to start giving fic writers a reason to endure it and improve their craft. encourage writers like you encourage artists. reblog fics, leave tags, leave comments, acknowledge that these stories do not just spring into being for your entertainment.
every single damn writer i know feels like at least their readers see them as a machine. that’s gotta change.
Twisting innocent people’s words, lying to your friends about a person’s experiences or viewpoints, and spreading these lies to the wider community in an attempt to completely isolate them.
I see that shit on tumblr so much, and for all the warnings we give about how to spot abuse, I never see anyone talking about how this abuse tactic, such a common abuse tactic, is widely employed by lynch mobs on this very website–or else the only people I see talking about it are people who have already been victimized (like myself).
Shipping a certain pairing isn’t abusive.
Writing “problematic” fiction isn’t abusive.
Liking specific characters isn’t abusive.
Standing up for innocent content creators, many of them minors or newcomers to fandom, isn’t abusive.
TRYING TO RUIN SOMEONE’S ONLINE PRESENCE OVER WHAT AMOUNTS TO LITERALLY NOTHING IS ABUSIVE.
So can we talk about this a little more? Please? Because I’m tired of me and a handful of others having to say this over and over again, shouting into the void, in the hopes that maybe some other blogs will pick up just a bit of the slack.
I-want-my-IWTV 