On the other hand...

[wiseheart]

I've been complaining a lot about people falling out of various fandoms (well, mostly the Tolkien one, as fans of the various sci-fi shows seem more persistent). And it's true that it can make an author a little depressed to see that formerly faithful readers lose interest completely. But...


But the fact is, that I've started writing sci-fi in 1967. Granted, I was only 11 back then, but yes, I'm actually that old that I was already writing when the Iron Curtain was still firmly in place. And never stopped since then. I wrote crime stories, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, historic stories... you name them and I've done them.

I finished my first "novel" (because three exercise books full of story counted as a "novel" in those days) when I was twelve. It was a Wild West Story, with full sympathies for the Native Americans who were hunted by the evil white people. This was the first ever story for which I did extensive research. Yes, I used to be a geek, even back then.

I made up my first pieces LOTR fanfic in the late 1970's. Namely:
1) the Elven Sue aka "Legolas' romantic adventures with the red-haired elleth";
2) an utterly melodramatic H/C crossover between LOTR and my own fantasy universe, in which Legolas lived in a tree house in Valinor and Princess Indreâbhan had first appearance, and
3) the fandom's probably worst Faramir/Éowyn het smut story.
Fortunately, this was the time before the Internet, when computers still filled whole rooms, at least ont his side of the pond, and these true horrors never actually got written. But yes, I've made LOTR fanfic before I ever knew the genre existed.

I put toghether my first, 1,500 pages long original fantasy story from some six years' worth of notices in 1985, within ten months.

I've written my first Trekfic in 1989, as this was the year we finally got satellite television and were able to watch foreign channels. In the following couple of years I wrote four novel-length stories, the first of which was Crossroads - yes, the same one I'm translating at a snake's pace into English right now. I've already hated Captain Kirk back then. *g*

I wrote my first German fairy tale in 1995 - quite a few more followed. My first ever English story, a very silly original sci-fi vignette titled An Average Day in 2050, dates back to that time as well.

So, if we do the maths, we come to the following equation (sp?): I've been writing, in one way or another, for at least 38 years. I've been involved with the Tolkien fandom, in one way or another, for 4 years, tops. Fazit: even if anyone I've known in this fandom would fall of it or lose interest or simply disappear from my cyberlife for some unfathomable reason, I'll be still writing in the next... whatever number of years remain for me.

Granted, I'm one of the worst review junkies on the 'Net. But ultimately, I write because I can't live without it. I still have so many stories in me that if I lived a hundred years, it probably still wouldn't be enough to tell all of them. I'll most likely be found dead over my notebook or my keyboard one day.

Yes, I would like to have more readers with more positive feedback, and flamers to die a horrible death. But neither the lack of the former ones, nor the existence of the latter ones would ever stop me from writing. Because, you know, those stories are worth being written, and it'd be a waste not to write them. Even if they are not everyone's cup of tea.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You can bet I'm not. Even though the temptation is serious sometimes. This fandom can be a very lonely place.