As of late, I’ve grown increasingly fond and proud of my fics. I’ve realized that I really love writing them, that it’s a kind of writing that makes me happy, and that it’s a form of creativity that deserves way more credit than it gets. Despite all of this, I’m growing increasingly embarrassed of telling people that I write fics. I need to say it, because I need to explain what the hell I do with so much of my free time, but at the same time I’m aware that people are probably not going to understand what I’m talking about, or think that I’m some kind of weirdo that lives glued to her computer (which is a somehow accurate depiction of me, but still). It’s like the more I’m happy about this, the more I realize how difficult it is to explain it to someone else. Idk, I’m conflicted.
That makes perfect sense. The more you care about something, the more protective you are because people could hurt you more because of it. Plus fanfic has a stigma which is rubbish in my opinion because it takes an awful lot to write fanfic but people outside of fandom can be stuck up about it. They somehow think it’s less and it’s not, it’s just different.
To be honest generally speaking I’ve found it’s not worth trying to explain it. I know you said you need to explain what you do with your free time. If I was you I would just stick with the basic “I write stories” and leave it at that. I doubt you’ll get any followup questions because unless they are also writers, in my experience, they aren’t going to be interested.
Very, very occasionally I get someone in my family ask me about my writing and if I say anything other than “oh it’s going fine” I can see their eyes glaze over like I’m talking in klingon or something. I told my Grandma I was doing NaNo once because she asked, and her response was “didn’t you do that last year?” and I said yes, I do it every year, and she said “why? you’ve already written a book, what’s the point?” and so I kinda gave up.
Somehow it’s more socially acceptable to spend the evening glued to the TV, or playing video games (so long as it’s the right kind of video games), than it is to pen stories. Don’t ask me why, I don’t understand it either. Oh and if somebody does want to talk about your writing chances are it’s because they want something. I was getting quite enthusiastic talking to my cousin once and suddenly got the “I have this idea but I can’t be bothered to write it, so you can do it for me?” question.
In my experience non-writers generally fit into three camps. I’ve met someone from all three of these:
– The first camp is the smallest, in that they think you have magic because crafting a story is so beyond them that they are amazed. This is seriously uncomfortable to be on the receiving end.
– Then there’s a camp where they think writing is easy, that it just happens and they could do it if they wanted. This one is a little insulting but not worth arguing against.
– Then there’s the camp which just plain has no interest in the process, they are happy to consume art but clearly have no thought for the creators. So long as it’s there for them to have, it’s obviously some mythical machine that makes it because people should have real jobs. Anyone that writes is just wasting their time and should do something normal.
I don’t know if you share your stories with people in real life. Personally again in my experience, I believe that somehow knowing the author means people think less of a story. I can not give my stories away to my own family. They won’t even try them, they’ve already made up their mind that they can’t be any good. I’m me, not anyone famous, so why would they waste their time right? So if people offer to read, don’t be disappointed if they end up never getting round to it. That’s just what people are like.
Sorry I think I’m sounding a little bitter. I don’t mean it to come across like that.
I think I also had a point and I think I’ve lost it in my rambling. Basically you should be damn proud of your writing and I’m thrilled that you are happy with it. Don’t let anyone try and diminish that or take it from you. You are doing something productive in your free time. More than that, you are enriching other peoples lives by giving them wonderful stories to read. That’s not little, that’s huge, and so that’s a very worthwhile way of spending your time.
I’m going to shut up now. I had second thoughts about posting this response but Sara told me to go for it, so yeah going for it. I’ll delete if you want 🙂