Snowflake Challenge #9

Challenge #9

In your own space, list your Fandom Wrap categories.

Okay to start off, I just want to say this is such a cool and fun prompt. I always love those year-in-review things haha.

What are your top five fandoms for 2021 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
1. Genshin Impact (56 hours on r/GenshinImpact; 30 fics totaling 500k+ words read on Ao3; and several pieces of fanart)
2. Merlin (19 fics totaling 600k+ words read on Ao3)
3. Harry Potter (9 fics totaling 177k+ words read on Ao3 and lots of time in r/HPSlashFic and r/HPfanfiction)
4. Fire Emblem (7 fics totalling 22k+ words read on Ao3, SO much time in r/firemblem, r/FireEmblemHeroes, and r/shitpostemblem)
5. Supernatural (8 fics totaling 166k+ words read on Ao3)

Genshin Impact was the clear winner here. I only started playing it in June, but it quickly took over as The Thing Everything I Do Revolves Around. The rest were a bit more up in the air, but I had compiled some Ao3 stats at the start of the year, so I used those. Although I read a lot more SPN than Fire Emblem, I'm just not involved with the fandom at all outside of reading, so I decided to put FE higher.

What are your top five fandom spaces in terms of time spent? (AO3, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Dreamwidth, and others)
1. Ao3
2. Reddit
3. Discord
4. Tumblr
5. Twitter

Ao3's the big one. A bulk of my fandom interaction is through reading fic, so that's gotta be #1. Tumblr's fairly low since as much as I'm on it, I've just been too lazy to update my following list. My dashboard is just a lot quieter than it used to be, and it's mostly just memes and my mutual's fandoms, not mine haha. My activity on Twitter is 90% retweeting stuff that I saw on Reddit lol I don't really use it on its own.

What are the top five ways you interacted in these fandoms? (Reading fanfic, writing, commenting, watching videos, chatting with friends, making art, or anything else you can think of).
1. Reading fic
2. Sharing/Reblogging/Retweeting fanart
3. Posting screenshots
4. Making art
5. Daydreaming

What things did you create that took the most time?
1. I planned and started this huge Genshin cross stitch project based on a series of artworks I really liked. They're meant to be gifts, but a couple thousand stitches in, I kind of realized the time and energy commitment was just too much. I'm extra not feeling it now especially because I used the same designs in the christmas presents I gave my friends... We'll see lol

2. Drawing all the Genshin characters from memory

3. My Ao3 Year in Review, a spreadsheet compiling all the fics I read in 2021 along with their word counts and tags so I could see what my top fandoms and tags were (sorry I'm not sharing that one though haha)

4. I set up bots in my Genshin discord channel to post what you can farm each day

5. Art for the Kazuha Big Bang

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Snowflake Challenge #8

Challenge #8

In your own space, celebrate a personal win from the past year: it can be a list of fanworks you're especially proud of, a gift of your time to the community, a quality or skill you cultivated in yourself, something you generally feel went well.

One day last year, I got the idea to draw every playable Genshin character from memory. And somehow, surprisingly... I did it????

( Read more... )

And then I thought: Okay... but what if I then went back and redrew all of them but with references? And somehow I did that too!

( Read more... )

It was just a really fun project, and a lot bigger than something I'd usually attempt. So, I was really proud that I saw it through to the end :)

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Snowflake Challenge #7

Challenge #7

In your own space, tell us about 3 fandom resources, spaces, or communities you use or enjoy. (One or two is fine, especially if you're in a smaller fandom!)

• The subreddit r/GenshinGays and particularly its official Discord has been one of my favorite places for Genshin Impact info, fanworks, and such. The majority of Genshin fanworks and discussion in most places tends to revolve around waifus (aka the female characters with a big focus on how attractive they are), so it's really nice to have a community focused on the male characters. The discord is especially great because they have a dedicated leaks channel where they share leaks for upcoming updates from reputable sources. It's highly curated so you don't get a lot of wild speculation. They also have a co-op challenge where you can ask for help fighting tough bosses and such, which has been a lifesaver haha
  
  
• Another subreddit I love is r/otomegames. That one's focused on what are basically dating visual novels where the main character is a girl and all the love interests are guys. They post memes, sales, play-alongs, and all kinds of stuff. I've only played a tiny fraction of the games they talk about, but the energy in that subreddit is just so positive and fun.
  
  
• Rounding off my list with another subreddit because I seem to spend all my non-gaming time on reddit nowadays lol is r/HPSlashFic. Actually wait, let me rec both this one and the main subreddit, r/FanFiction, because both are really welcoming fanfiction communities with strict rules and moderation that ensure it doesn't devolve into a bash-fest. r/HPSlashFic is mostly centered around fanfic recs, and I've found a lot of really interesting things to read through it. r/FanFiction is mostly writer-focused and is a multi-fandom space where writers will talk about their struggles while writing and posting fic, celebrate any milestones they reach, and things like that.
  
  

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Snowflake Challenge #6

Challenge #6

In your own space, Create something.

There's been this drawing challenge floating around the Genshin subreddit, and yesterday, I finally got around to doing it!

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Snowflake Challenge #5

Challenge #5

In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.

Oh jeez this list could honestly be endless. I guess the latest on my mind has been fanfic. I have a few ideas that've been bouncing around my head, but the talent and energy requirements seem far too high for me haha. I'm always kind of scared of writing fic though. Part of it is my high expectations. Especially since I'd really only be writing for myself, it's frustrating that I can't really write in a way I enjoy reading... at least sometimes. Sometimes I'm really amused by my own works lol but I think that's just a by product of me finding myself really funny lmaoooo. I like serious, well developed stories though, and those are a struggle for me to write. The other part of it is just the cringe. I just.... can't get over the inner cringe. Especially because I wish I could write more serious fic, being serious about it is even more embarrassing. I honestly have the utmost respect for fic writers, even those who are still learning and maybe not putting out the most impressive works... but I find it really, really hard to hope for or allow myself that same kindness.

As for what I'd like to write, I really am such a sucker for the completely off the wall random stuff that has such a narrow appeal. Those crack pairings taken seriously. Those crossovers born of nothing more than really loving two completely unrelated series at the same time. There's other people out there who share my interests, and I know it because I've stumbled upon their works occasionally and they're like saviors to me. I want to do that. I want to write the random fic that will pop in someone's head one day, and they'll wonder "I wonder if anyone has actually done this?" and someone has!!! Me! Or someone's just browsing randomly and stumbles upon my work and thinks "I never would've thought of this but it works????" Anyway that's my dream I've been far too cowardly to approach. Maybe one day lol

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