A while back, I posted about ratings. I think I mentioned that I practically never use them for my Swedish stories/fics. We don’t require them (yet anyway), and I really don’t think they’re necessary. In fact, I was amazed when I found out about ratings/warnings, but since I want to be read, naturally I complied.
When I first started writing fan fiction everyone used the MPAA ratings so that’s what I did Then I found that FanFiction.net and FictionPress use the FictionRatings system and I switched to that instead. Having a separate system (quite apart from the legal aspect that I’m not going to go into) for fiction makes sense.
I also made up my own system that I use on my site (in addition to the FR system). It’s very simple, if not very detailed. Green means G and PG/K and K+, Yellow means PG-13/T and Red means R and NC-17 or M and MA respectively.
Yesterday I quite suddenly realized that there’s another system, one specifically for fan fiction. I was amazed. After all, I’ve been into fan fiction for about ten years (how time flies!) and I’d never heard of this before. While I haven’t had time to update my fan fiction site yet (too busy with RL) I will definitely include the Fan Rated Ratings System. I’ll still use the FR system though and still keep a page with the old MPAA ratings as a reference.
So, apparently, even after ten years, there’s something new to learn. Great. In fact the past months or so (which have brought me much personal pain and worry) have at least given me a couple of new fandom-related things to try and by now, use: Dreamwidth and Archive of Our Own. Maybe I should also mention the terrific Fan Wikis (though they aren’t completely new).
So, now it’s official. The 1990’s are retreating even further into the past. From now on, I’m going to have to consider stories/tv series/movies etc from the 1990’s ‘historic’. It feels odd, I had barely grown used to the ‘noughties’ and now we’re in the tens? Anyway, X files, Roswell and all those ‘big’ 90’s series are now historic in the sense that you can hardly see them as contemporary anymore. Not like Heroes, FlashForward, Being Human etc. Scary, but I guess you just have to accept it and move on. Maybe it would be easier if the tv series, movies and music were just better.
Everything is possible, nothing is ever really over.
Fanfiction is a creative outlet for you. You don’t intentionally write it, it just happens. You find inspiration in several fandoms, but are not obsessed with only one.
You like to explore “what if” situations. What if this character had never made this very choice? What if this event had taken place sooner, never, elsewhere? What if these people had never met?
You are likely to write Alternative Universes, fan seasons or sequels and just follow your (sometimes pretty strange) plot bunnies.
Cute fan videos based on a likewise cute short film I saw a couple of years ago. These guys were pretty much beginners and despite that they did such a great job. Well done.
The weird thing is I know I’ve seen the blond guy somewhere in real life. Can’t think where it might have been, but I’m sure I recognized him as soon as I saw him in the movie. Well, I guess all mysteries can’t be solved…
