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dividedbyblueThree weeks for Dreamwidth: Have you written anything, fandom-related or original?
I don’t consider myself a writer, but I wrote a few things. Concerning original work, I wrote some five short comic stories in my native language, Dutch, which I drew too. The shortest was four pages, and the longest, I think, was something like 30 pages. I often have ideas for short stories (mostly things that would work in a comic), and sometimes write short things down that come to mind. Some are ideas, others are just some sentences that I like the sound of, or the image they create in my mind. A few weeks ago, I wrote the text for two other short comics I could make in the future (a one-page and a two-page one).
Concerning fandom writing, when I was about 20 years old, I wanted to write a Xena fanfiction story—general fiction, not romance, because I didn’t consider myself able to write that then. I started writing it in Dutch and quickly realized that I would have no use for it, as most fanwork is in English, and I didn’t feel comfortable writing it in English. I stopped writing the story, and it’s still stored somewhere on my computer, unfinished.
A few years ago, however, I decided to try to write a fanfiction story in English. I had just finished watching Star Trek: Voyager, and knew that Janeway/Seven of Nine was a popular subtext ship way back when the show aired. I had an idea for a tiny story taking place at the end of the show, mixed in with some details present in the Star Trek: Voyager book 'Full Circle’, which I was reading at the time. I posted it on AO3. For anyone interested, it can be read HERE. Please be aware that I couldn’t find a beta-reader for it, and with English not being my first language, there will be grammar errors in it. I started another story after that, a Legends of Tomorrow fanfiction, of which I’ve currently written 2/7 chapters.
I must say that, as far as writing is concerned, be it original (comic) stories or fan stories, it is something that I need to explore more to feel comfortable with it. When I write something like fanfiction, I write very slowly. The (short) comics also always take more time than I expect them to (the drawing as well as the writing). It sometimes makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong. I need to explore a bit how to plan it correctly. I also need to explore what I can do with the short comics I made. One of them, a 15 page story I wrote back in college for an assignment, was planned to have 30 pages but I decided to split it in two ‘cause the assignment was just for a 15 page comic, and only make the first part. I still want to make the second part for that, too.
I don’t consider myself a writer, but I wrote a few things. Concerning original work, I wrote some five short comic stories in my native language, Dutch, which I drew too. The shortest was four pages, and the longest, I think, was something like 30 pages. I often have ideas for short stories (mostly things that would work in a comic), and sometimes write short things down that come to mind. Some are ideas, others are just some sentences that I like the sound of, or the image they create in my mind. A few weeks ago, I wrote the text for two other short comics I could make in the future (a one-page and a two-page one).
Concerning fandom writing, when I was about 20 years old, I wanted to write a Xena fanfiction story—general fiction, not romance, because I didn’t consider myself able to write that then. I started writing it in Dutch and quickly realized that I would have no use for it, as most fanwork is in English, and I didn’t feel comfortable writing it in English. I stopped writing the story, and it’s still stored somewhere on my computer, unfinished.
A few years ago, however, I decided to try to write a fanfiction story in English. I had just finished watching Star Trek: Voyager, and knew that Janeway/Seven of Nine was a popular subtext ship way back when the show aired. I had an idea for a tiny story taking place at the end of the show, mixed in with some details present in the Star Trek: Voyager book 'Full Circle’, which I was reading at the time. I posted it on AO3. For anyone interested, it can be read HERE. Please be aware that I couldn’t find a beta-reader for it, and with English not being my first language, there will be grammar errors in it. I started another story after that, a Legends of Tomorrow fanfiction, of which I’ve currently written 2/7 chapters.
I must say that, as far as writing is concerned, be it original (comic) stories or fan stories, it is something that I need to explore more to feel comfortable with it. When I write something like fanfiction, I write very slowly. The (short) comics also always take more time than I expect them to (the drawing as well as the writing). It sometimes makes me feel like I’m doing something wrong. I need to explore a bit how to plan it correctly. I also need to explore what I can do with the short comics I made. One of them, a 15 page story I wrote back in college for an assignment, was planned to have 30 pages but I decided to split it in two ‘cause the assignment was just for a 15 page comic, and only make the first part. I still want to make the second part for that, too.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-03 11:34 pm (UTC)Inderdaad!
I have a German reader who said the very same thing about how they can grasp much of Dutch without really knowing it. My Dutch is not very advanced (yet) but there are a few little things in German that have become more understandable even to me, not counting the more obvious ones (like kaas - Käse, haha, that's easy).
A sketchbook for putting ideas on paper without caring to make them look perfect seems like a good strategy. Just don't get a fancy sketchbook because that fear of messing up the first page of something that's too pretty is real! I always skip the first page myself so i don't deal with the anxiety of needing to draw something beautiful to greet whoever opens up my sketchbook.
And ah, damn, this is why I shouldn't type messages when someone is speaking to me IRL -- those comms I mentioned are not just for writing, they welcome multimedia fills to their prompts! Hell, I've done drawings for both of them, haha. But I see must explore
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Date: 2025-05-04 04:05 pm (UTC)Yes, the kaas-käse is indeed close. :) In my local dialect, our word for ‘kaas’ even sounds like the German word, but without the ‘e’ at the end. :) It’s fun that learning one language can also help you understand another one a bit. Someone told me that the more Spanish I’ll know, the more I will also be able to understand Portuguese.
That’s a good tip :) I also always feel a bit insecure working in a nice sketchbook. I’m thinking of doing the loose sketches in a Canson Croquis XL ringed sketchbook. I’ve used them before; they have pretty large sizes, and while the paper is thin, it’s nice to work on with pencils. The paper has a yellow tint. And I don’t find them intimidating :)
Good to know, I’ll check them out!
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Date: 2025-05-05 02:59 pm (UTC)Oh, that is fascinating! At the same time that regional variations seem very daunting to foreign learners (“wait, why can’t I understand this person when I’ve studied this language for three years already??” haha), they lend so much vibrancy to languages too. As for Portuguese… Sim, isso é verdade. Aposto que você consegue entender estas palavras perfeitamente bem! Só não conte a ninguém que eu as escrevi… I don’t like to reveal the fact that I speak that and actually very, very few people online know about it ;)
I know that one! I use a smaller, bound Canson sketchbook myself. It technically doesn’t lend itself well to anything but pencils but I’ve used it with other materials and it’s behaved better than I expected, especially when I applied watered-down Chinese ink. The paper does wrinkle a little bit in that case but not enough to convince me to stop, hehe.
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Date: 2025-05-05 11:33 pm (UTC)Sadly, the Dutch spoken in Flanders (Belgium) is notorious for this. There are a lot of local dialects that influence how people talk, but it’s been less noticeable with younger people :)
I understood that without looking something up yay ^^ I won’t tell anyone you know Portuguese ;)
Canson is an excellent brand for papers. Even their lowest-tier sketchbook is still good, in my opinion.