Fandom Memories...

Growing up is an odd sort of thing. All these responsibilities start falling on to your lap and trying to figure out which issue to tackle first is a struggle.

A lot of the time, I just roam about on the Internet, watching videos and finding new music and just enjoying others' artwork, instead of trying to make my own. I do this to run from my responsibilities, usually for hours at a time. I know it's not really that adult, but that's not what this blog entry is about.

Some of us have the fandoms that we're only casually in, but some of us also have those shows/books/whatever that just mean so much to us, so much more than the others. For many, there's Harry Potter, or Doctor Who, or Sherlock Holmes, but for me, there were two: Avatar the Last Airbender and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.

A strange combination, when you think about it.

With AtLA, it was the first fandom I ever really experienced. At the time, I wasn't really on the Internet outside of Nick.com, so I was still watching just about anything that was on. And then the fandom showed me so many possibilities. I've said before that this show was what got me into video editing in the first place, and that was no lie. With my videos, I owe this show a lot. And yet, I haven't really had the interest to go back to that show. I'm not caught up with Legend of Korra, and all around, there's just this disconnect I feel whenever I think about AtLA.

I guess it's because of how long ago that was. The other day, the show became 9 years old. So many years have passed, and I've basically hopped to a bunch of other fandoms for short periods of time.

Until MLP.

With MLP, I think I got into it mainly because I was latching on to a more childish aesthetic. Just something that would appeal to the part of me that didn't want to grow up. And with the editing skills I had acquired, I was able to make the videos I couldn't make during the days of AtLA. The fun had started all over again. The excitement of waiting for the new episode, the wonderful fan-made music, the fanfics, oh, the fanfics. It was fantastic.

But, like with AtLA, the fun had to end.

With AtLA, the show ended, so I gradually moved on to other things. With MLP, it was more abrupt. With MLP, I realized that the shows quality wasn't really up to my evolving standards. When watching an episode, I would pause and then complain about something in the writing. And after watching that TV movie I'd prefer not to name, my fondness for anything to with that show just started dissolving from there. And when I look back on that time, I feel that same disconnect.

I think that disconnect comes from realizing that there's no going back to that time. AtLA was with me throughout middle school, and MLP was with me at the tail-end of high school, and with those times are the memories I associate with good friends. Friends who I'm not all that close to anymore. And when I sit here and reflect, it does seem like losing interest in these shows was a bit like losing a friend. A show engrossing you for a number of years, and then the interest fading, like best friends who you lose contact with.

And now, I continue to hop to different fandoms, not getting as engrossed. Keeping my distance in some respects. Not wanting to get too involved, because of the inevitability of the fading interest.

I guess it does come with growing up, at least with me. Just kind of realizing what I do and don't have time for. Or maybe I have a slight depression and I haven't had an official diagnosis. Anything's possible, I guess.

FEZ in a nutshell

Because fun.

02-08-14

Something I Noticed...

My imagine has mostly been taken over by an "original" idea. So far, when it comes to these original ideas, I start with characters long before I start with story. With this case, I started off with a look. An outfit. And from that sprang a character. Then I kept thinking of the character. Trying, and failing, to draw him. And then I thought of a situation involving him. And then a few more. And from there, came three more characters.

After a while, I needed to start writing this down. I needed an outline. And when I started writing, I wrote out a sentence for each of the four characters. Today, I finally gave them names.

Out of these four characters, only two of them actually seemed defined. The other two, I'm still having trouble with.

Before, most of my fictional writing consisted of romance, so I thought of these four as pairs, as two couples. I knew that whatever their story ended up being, I wanted these couples to be together. But that may be why I'm having trouble with the other two.

Here's what I noticed: The characters that are more defined and identifiable in my head are characters that sprang from character arc ideas. While I hadn't before known their names, I knew what sort of arc they would go through. The other two, however, were not. When I started thinking of those other characters, I didn't have much of an arc for them, aside from the romance. Those two characters weren't conceived as characters with their own arcs, they were conceived as love interests whose arc revolved around their respective crushes.

So that's something I need to think about from now on. It doesn't matter what trappings of a story I want to incorporate until AFTER I fully understand and know who my characters are.