fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2958 ]

[ SECRET POST #2958 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2958 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 054 secrets from Secret Submission Post #423.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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So the annual Big Convention is coming up and I have no time to make a new cosplay so I sit around bitterly watching everybody else make their stuff and fantasize furiously about all the awesome things I would make if I only had the time.

Any fandom stuff you want to do/participate in but can't, for whatever reason?

misery loves company

In general, I'm sick of fests either being gen or ship/kink based.

Also, am I the only one who thinks it's silly when you HAVE to claim a prompt, and more than one person can't use the same one? It almost seems like grade school or something in a way I can't quite explain.

Wait, what would you want the fests to be based on, then? Just free for all type thing?

AYRT - Anything, honestly? I don't mind that some are shippy, but why not do a character based fest? Some sort of wacky theme?

Wait, that's a rule? I don't participate in these things so I'm not familiar with how they work, but that does sound silly to me. The same basic idea can result in wildly different stories.

AYRT - A very common one. I think the idea is so 20 people don't do two, and no one else's prompt gets picked, but... still.

idk, seems to me like the idea is so that all the prompts will be filled?
Imagine filling someone else's prompt but not getting anything for yours... that would kind of suck. I can kind of see why they'd do it. But it also sucks if it's just a first-come-first-served type thing. I get the frustration.

Well… not exactly the same but- recently I've come across a new fandom that I really can't stand. I love the canon, but the fans seem to be evenly divided between old (in term of how long they've been fans, not actual age), bitter fans that only like things ironically and basically suck all enjoyment out of fanon, and new, overly excited fans that can't stand criticism, see everything through fan goggles and will rarely hold any meaningful discussions.

I can't find any crowd I like and this is incredibly frustrating.

Yay for conventions. I'm going to Dragoncon this year. I can't make costumes, though. I really want to go as a Jedi because my dad is going as one and I want us to have matching costumes, but I can't find a jedi robe in my size.

I know there's a lot of commissioners who won't take Star Wars jobs because Museum Replicas has the license to produce SW costumes. Their robes are expensive but nice, so if they don't fit you, might want to hunt for a commissioner who isn't scared of Lucasfilm and will do you a plain brown robe under the table.

Fortunately for you, if you have literally any access to a sewing machine and about $20, robes are possibly the easiest thing in the world to make yourself. This website (http://www.degraeve.com/jedirobe/) has all the parts in the same place, but you can definitely find a more tailored robe pattern at your local fabric store if you're willing to put in a little more money and effort. If you don't have a sewing machine handy and you aren't willing to try to sew it by hand (which is a terrible idea that will take you days), fabric glue or superglue may also work but I have no experience with it.

If you have a decent pattern for it, even if you can't find anybody to sew, worst case you can hot glue the seams. If it's done carefully the result won't be that bad (and definitely better than not having a robe at all!).
But seriously, making a robe is extremely easy :) you should definitely try to make it happen!

I will be going to the con - I've been lecturing at cons for the past few years. So at least that will be fun.

...do a hall costume?

I can't bring myself to, anon :( for me the fun of cosplaying is about feeling absolutely awesome about what I'm wearing, and hall costumes don't do it for me.
I'm going to wear a cosplay I made for my sister last year, which I've never worn, so at least it'll feel kind of "new" in that sense.
But really, what I like most about cosplay is the making, almost more than the actual wearing.

There is all of one convention in Norway and it is an Anime one, so none for me. I would love to go to a convention at some point, a friend and I do plan on catching up on the San Diego one once in our lives. But then again there is an entire ocean dividing me from doing that in the near future.

Also related, I would love to go to a Formula 1 race this Summer, but the tickets are hella expensive so I don't think I can afford it. I'm also thinking of trying to catch a Snooker tournament as they are a lot cheaper, but no one wants to go with me to that.

...you make me feel kind of guilty that for all the years there's been Formula 1 in Jerusalem I never actually bothered going >_>
I guess I should have checked it out, oops.

Conventions are quite fun! I personally do like the smaller ones, I think - I want to go to a big one someday (also across the sea from me, woe), but I think it'll be kind of scary.

:(( I hope you find somebody to go with you to the Snooker!

Honestly, I find most conventions WAY overstimulating and exhausting. I can only table at about three or four a year, and I haven't been to a con as an ATTENDEE in years.

I kinda wish I had more stamina for conventions, since a lot of them are really cool, but most of them are just way too big, loud, and shiny for me. I burn out in half an hour. Tiny little zine fairs and craft fairs seem to be my limit.

--Rogan

I agree, tabling at conventions can be super exhausting. I have friends who are constantly going to cons and I don't understand how they do it. You need to know about it months to a year ahead of time, the costs of a table, travel costs, merchandise costs... and a hell of a lot more things I need to do before I even get to the convention that take up time.

Then you are there anywhere from 2-4 days. Talking to people all day (which exhausts me since I'm a natural introvert) and not eating much because there's no official break time for people with tables.

Like I always have a blast running a table and I prefer it to being just an attendee, but it is DAMN exhausting.

Oh lord, yeah, I know/knew some folks who conned all the time. I don't know what they're made of.

I manage to get by because I am very picky about how I pick my cons. For instance, this year, the only two I know for certain I'll do is a small comics con that I've done well at four four years running, and where the tables are very cheap. (They've also given me a free table in the past because it was a weirdly shaped, weirdly positioned one that nobody wanted, only for it to turn out everyone know associates me with that table.) The other is a DID con, which also has a free table because I'm a speaker. It'll still cost a wad, on account of being far away, but I'll be the only comics guy there and have been meaning to travel there a while.

I also only do two-day cons, AT MOST. I prefer one. The DID con is going to be intense, because it'll be for THREE. That way, I can recuperate afterward.

And I ALWAYS pack a lunch and snacks for every day I'm there. No way am I flubbing my meal plan because of a con. I need that energy!

--Rogan

I've never been to a one day convention but then I don't always do small conventions because I never know if they'll be worth it. I would love to do more small cons but my problem is I know I need to make sales to make up the costs, and I'm more likely to do that at larger conventions that are multiple day (I still haven't done HUGE conventions but those are the ones you need to book well in advance so I haven't gotten the chance yet.)

Are there and cons you would recommend?

And haha I always have food or a friend who will get me some, but I still end up often not eating because I'm busy talking to people. It often takes me forever to eat because every time I take a bite, someone comes around.

Hmm, depends, what you selling?

I'm in kinda a weird position in most comic cons because I have a niche genre: educational mental health comics. So big cons are actually BAD for me, because nobody comes to SDCC to buy a comic about dissociation, you know what I mean? Also, because my comics are educational, I want as many people to get them as possible, so I sell them as CHEAPLY as possible. None of my comics cost more than $5 these days. One day, I hope to have a comic with fancy things like a spine or color, but not for a while.

Even if I were to completely sell out of every comic I can carry, I would not make more than $300. So I focus mostly on axing my overhead and getting into the cheapest cons I can, because if I only have to shell out $20 for a table and it's within walking distance, well then, I can afford to gamble. But I could never afford to go to, say, SPX. I literally COULD NOT make back the cost of going!

This means I often end up at weird little podunk cons purely because I manage to schmooze my way in at the last minute, hitch a ride, or find crashspace that makes it affordable for me to go.

Since I'm recovering from an eating disorder, I'm on a pretty strict meal plan, and have strict hours. Another system member WILL force-feed me if I try and resist. If new people come by, well, I just have to mumble at them through a face full of sandwich.

--Rogan

Re: fandom frustration

(Anonymous) - 2015-02-09 04:28 (UTC) - Expand

Re: fandom frustration

lb_lee - 2015-02-09 04:40 (UTC) - Expand

Remember that I live in a tiny country XD We only have two anime conventions a year (with about 2500 attendees), and they're only one day long.
The longest convention is I think 4-5 days, but nobody actually gets hotels or anything because like I said, tiny country, and that one is more catch-all fantasy/sci-fi (with one anime day). Then there's I think one or two other small conventions throughout the year for fantasy and sci-fi.
All the cons are very small, and you really know the people after a time or two. I mean I already know who's competing in the cosplay competition, and I'd know my chances of winning were I to compete XD
It's so small that usually if you pick something even a little bit obscure you can be the only person in that cosplay in the entire convention.

I usually lecture at cons these days. This way I get free entry, but not a lot of work. Before that I used to make musicals, though, and THAT was utterly exhausting (never got any sleep at all the night before, running on fumes, and I didn't even see anything but backstage at the con, nor have energy for anything else. but it was fun)

Ah shit, I'm sorry, I foolishly assumed you were in the US too, or the EU. Dumb of me. Yeah wow, that's a totally different con environment, and really interesting! The small anime cons you describe sound pretty analagous to MICE's one-day time, far as numbers go. But I imagine if that's ALL there is, it'd be tough if your fandom's obscure. I'm not sure if there are any little craft fairs; if so, it might be worth trying.

Oh man, I'd ASSUME musicals would give you no time to breathe. I knew some theatre majors, they never seemed to sleep or eat.

--Rogan

s'ok, people tend to assume US/EU for most international spaces. I don't really bother hiding my country anymore, though.

Anime merch would never find much audience at a craft fair, and tbh most comics wouldn't either. Geekdom of that sort is pretty niche, so if you want attention you need to go to where the niche people are hanging out. You can sell decently, but probably not enough to make a real living off of, unless you manage to branch out.

Ours were all volunteer musicals... we did three anime parodies, worked on the third one for a year and a half (you can actually see it online, with subs). It was a great time, and I learned a lot, and nowadays I have no idea how I ever had the time for it XD
Imagine making a musical with a whole bunch of volunteer teenagers... with irritable parents... making them come to rehearsals for that thing they volunteered for because they wanted to do it...

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