[ SECRET POST #2693 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2693 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 058 secrets from Secret Submission Post #385.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - blank image ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

A former BNF:

[(Anonymous)]

Having been a BNF in the 'old LJ' days back when it was decent and pre LJ days when all we had was ff.net and yahoo mail, and now have dropped out of fandom almost entirely for personal reasons. (F!S is most of my fandom experience right now.) I prefer being invisible. Being a BNF is a lot of stress. There is the supposedly constant need to put out work. You have to be available. Then other BNF's who may not even know that well tend to get catty. You try to organize something and invite everyone to get involved and then get accused of favoritism when only certain people show up even though those accusing of you did get an invite to participate. You google your name and come across reviews of your works that are more or less hateful ripping apart of you and your character instead of the story. Being "Known" is not what it is cracked up to be. It turned into work, not fun.

What I got the most out of it was the rare review that brightened my day because I made someone else feel better with what I was doing. Knowing that I was going to post the next chapter of my fic made someone out there have a better day. I also got a great friend who is my friend in more than just fandom, fandom brought us together but we're beyond that now.

The best advice is find your niche and determine what you want to get out of fandom, then give it.

Re: A former BNF:

[(Anonymous)]

as a current (as well as former in another fandom) BNF I can concur with that. it becomes like a second job. And my real job is exhausting, so to come home from my real job and see my inbox full of messages-- when are you going to finish that fic? why didn't you reblog this from me? i wish you'd get out of this fandom!-- it kinda kills the will to do it anymore

Re: A former BNF:

[tenlittlebullets]

Yeah. It also makes it weirdly hard to make friends--like, friends you can have dumb filthy-minded capslocky conversations with on Skype at 3am, as opposed to people you're on friendly terms with--when everyone's decided you're Hot Shit and thus intimidating. Having an enthusiastic public is nice and makes for a really potent high in the short term, but building up a good group of core friends is way, way more fun and rewarding in the end, especially if you can find a few friends with interests/tastes close enough to your own that you end up engaging hardcore with each other's fic/art/other fan output. If you're at all close to your BNF-y friends, there is a good chance that you are a large part of what makes their fannish existence worthwhile, and that you've already got an audience that's way more valuable than the one you'd get through celebrity. If not, welp, I wish you all the luck in the world at cultivating awesome friendships, finding awesome people, and surrounding yourself with a cabal of filthy enablers and partners in crime. Because really, that's where it's at.

BNFdom, even minor-league BNFdom, also comes with issues about being in the limelight and subject to public scrutiny, but they would be less obnoxious if the fame were all it's cracked up to be. The point isn't to whine that being well known is actually really haaaard u guyz, it's that being well known does not guarantee quality fannish interaction or validation the way forming awesome friendships does.

(If you want the cheap ego boost without paying the price, try dallying in whichever megafandom of the moment catches your interest--the sheer quantity of feedback you get for fic that's remotely readable is kind of mind-boggling. With well-established big fandoms it can be hard to get your foot in the door, but if you can join in that first wave of enthusiasm for the Newest Big Shiny Thing, people will be reading and loving the shit out of everything they can get their hands on.)

Re: A former BNF:

[(Anonymous)]

BNF tears for breakfast!