my journal 101

[poppyseedheart]

Welcome! :) This is a quick intro to me and this journal. I had a different sticky post here but it was three years old so this is my refreshed version!

Some info about your journaler:

• i am an adult in my late 20s
• my pronouns are she/they
• my timezone is PST/PDT depending on the time of year
• i work weird hours
• i like to write :) i am on ao3
• i also participate in fandom by creating podfics, occasionally running events (fests, exchanges, etc), co-hosting the fic clique podcast, and whatever else piques my interest

Some info about the journal itself:

• this is a fannish journal! i'm mostly in kpop rps fandom (skz, zb1, svt, random other groups including the girls) but also post about books, and occasionally podcasts and tv/film. though let's be real it's v rarely tv/film
• about 50% of my posts are access list only — i'm a little picky about my access list, but if we interface semi-regularly i'll probably add you to it!
• feel free to subscribe/comment even if we don't know each other (i like making friends!)
• you always welcome to comment on anything i post; if i didn't want any interaction or feedback i'd just put that entry in my physical journal that's just for me
• my entries are a mix of: writing updates, extended author's notes, media reviews, open-ended questions, reflections on a day or week, meta about fandom or writing, fic rec posts, and the occasional prompt meme

I've seen other folks do this in their intro posts so I'm going to as well: if you've read this and subscribe to my journal, I'd love to hear in the comments an answer to any of the following questions:

• how did we first come across one another?
• what's a piece of media you're loving lately?
• what kinds of dw posts do you love reading?
• what is your favorite way to participate in fandom?
• how long have you been in fandom?

Comments

[hwarium]

hello dw user poppyseedheart <3

I just looove About Posts there's something so fondly early-internet about them and I love getting to know friends better.

To answer your questions:
how did we first come across one another?
when Fic Clique featured [Weight of Heaven]! I latched on to the beautiful minds there

what's a piece of media you're loving lately?
February-April I did a deep dive into all the derivative Greek myth media! So listened to epic the musical, played hades, watched hadestown. Now I'm slowly reading illiad/odyssey (for the first time!) and the characters feel so much more alive because I've got that history

what kinds of dw posts do you love reading?
every dreamwidth post is a fun time for me!! I love slightly meta or anthropologic things, there's something so Camp about being pseudo-academic about fandom. Fic recs always have a special place in my heart because that's how I found fics on livejournal/dreamwidth. Oh! And passion projects like manifestos and pimp posts too!

what is your favorite way to participate in fandom?
meta <3 I love writing fic but some days it feels like pulling teeth, my creative glands dry up when I work haha. Meta feels effortless and massages my hyperfixations in a healthy way

how long have you been in fandom?
gosh! 2008? When I wrote my first fic and started posting on forums.

---
if you're open to sharing I would love to hear your answers to your own questions!

[poppyseedheart]

helloooo hwa thank you for playing in this space with me! i am always so pleased that me having a breakdown over weight of heaven and deciding i had to discuss it publicly brought us together hahaha.

my answers!

1. i first came across myself at birth <3

2. lately i am loving podcasts on less "conventional" self-reflection tools and goal processes. this mostly just means i am allowing myself to embrace a more spiritual approach to life and seeing where that takes me, and listening to other people talk about it in my ears.

3. i love reading people's journal entries just about banal life bc i'm nosy. i also love meta especially about stuff i'm less familiar with. & i loveee a series where people are discussing something in installments or bringing us along on a journey! and rec posts of all kinds.

4. obv i love to write fic. but perhaps my most joyful way of contributing to fandom was hosting little sleepovers on socials. want to keep finding ways to bring that casual communal energy in diff spaces.

5. i've been in fandom since ~2010/2011. in 2010 i searched "glee kurt blaine get together?" and accidentally ended up on fanfiction dot net and eventually made a tumblr and the rest is history hahaha

[infrequencies]

stop i love this! i may redo my own intro post to be a little less cutesy and a little more formal.

anyway!

- how did we first come across one another?
I think Tiffany introduced us? Or via fic? Crawling into your DMs like a weevil over Namgi or Namjalsey? Feels correct.

- what's a piece of media you're loving lately?
Generally speaking, audiobooks! Anything to prevent doom scrolling and also keep me company when driving so I'm not screaming at the Tesla in front of me. It's also been useful for staying on track at work.

More specifically, I cannot stop listening to Sugar in the Tank by Julien Baker and TORRES, and I have been sucked into Love and Deepspace. I have gotten at least 3 other friends sucked into this game.

- what kinds of dw posts do you love reading?
I'm nosy. I love a post. Post it, I'll read it. I don't care.

I really do love a rec list, though, especially for music.

- what is your favorite way to participate in fandom?
Fic writing is fine and fun, but nothing can beat a really good shitpost. I also miss the art of a good ship playlist...

- how long have you been in fandom?
Since I was 12. Which means around 20 years. Which is a terrifying thing to say. Raised in the fiery pits of MuggleNet's fic arhive and HPFF, then ship-specific archives. HOWEVER, fun story: a friend asked me to make a Dramione fic reclist a while back, and after finding an old favorite fic from like, maybe 2009? I went to go see if the author had written anything new after moving their fics to AO3. They haven't - and said they haven't in a long time! - but I found one of my fics in their bookmarks which :') I left a comment on the fic about the full circle moment and it was a very nice interaction. Fandom is cool!

[poppyseedheart]

i'm pretty sure i followed you through kim radicchio, actually! who suggested your account + tiffany + isabel and various others when i was first on kpop twit after posting namjalsey and knew basically no one. i remember you were one of my first mutuals on that account :')

and oh that story about fandom full circles is so lovely. i had a recent experience where i commented on someone's fic and they were like "AHH, YOU!" and had apparently just binge read like all of my fics for a different fandom. it is so sweet to feel connected! why are we here if not to keep the home fires of community burning!

thank you for sharing <3

[bluedreaming]

This is such a nice sticky post! While I like the way mine is built up and updated over so many years, by now it’s also kind of heavy…

- I’m pretty sure it was the first Voiceteam Mystery Box team kpop! I was coming back to fandom after a few years away, and it was so nice to get that push back to kpop fandom, and that first Voiceteam (for me) is still so memorable ♡

- I’m not sure if “loving lately” is quite right since I just finished watching it, but I hadn’t watched a Korean drama in years (I won’t count blueming in 2022 since that’s more of a mini-drama I think? and anyway before that it was starting and not finishing Hotel del Luna back in 2019), but I heard conflicting things about Heesu in Class 2 and it was just so, so good. It was more of a queer drama than a BL, there were characters of different ages, strong family characters, a strong main female character too, it was super cute but also real-ish without being heavy (it wasn’t gritty), the plot plotted right till the end but not in a way that felt like it dragged; it felt like every choice in the production was super intentional, the acting was so good, the space motifs were so nice…it really was the perfect drama for me.

- I love all posts! I don’t necessarily have something to comment on every single post, and I prefer to stick to fannish adjacent stuff, but longer posts, little bitty “Twitter thoughts” type posts, random likes things, links to interesting things, they’re all great!

- I like to “be around” on places like Dreamwidth and Discord, and do a few (not to many!) events during the year, both fic-writing and podficcing. I read a lot of fic, listen to a fair bit of podfic, and try to be better at commenting. I would like to mod more, but modding is a lot, so currently it’s only one event per year.

- I stumbled into fandom in 2014 via the comments on a kpop fanvid/edit. I still have the post-it note with my confused & scribbled notes. I was definitely "fannish" long before then, but not really interactively (apart from family). I was on LiveJournal quite a bit before that for mvs, dramas, and subtitles, etc. (going even further back, probably the first fannish stuff I found online was Tolkien languages/Middle Earth history stuff?) but that feels different than jumping into fic/fic writing/talking to fanworks creators on Twitter.

[poppyseedheart]

team kpop :')) i truly did not know the impact it would eventually have on our little community! and i'm so pleased it brought us together.

omg i love this pitch for heesu in class 2, that sounds so lovely and so perfect for what you were hoping it would be!!

and honestly i think people underestimate the impact of being around. fandom needs folks who will interact! and show signs of life! so many people rn i think are discouraged by the lack of community in online spaces AND are also not necessarily doing their part to contribute to those feelings of connection. so i really do admire how much you've been willing to step into that space and say hey i'm here and i care!!

[bookishdagger]

hello friend!!!

-i feel like i read your namjalsey fic in like 2020 or 2021 or something + some of your svt fics during my baby carat days and then shortly after listened to fic clique + joined the discord!!

-pieces of media i've been loving lately include batman comics/comics in general (as you know) (i've really been enjoying this renaissance), the pitt, and andor (i'm on episode 10 of season 1 and tbh i'm so proud of myself for starting a show and watching it consistently LOL). seeing hadestown also rewired my brain chemistry so there's that too.

-i love media recaps + life updates + meta/fandom analyses....i'm not picky really :D

-well given that i'm in my #notwriting era mostly reading fic + talking to friends + lately in comics fandom reading people's meta. maybe once i end the quarter (on friday! eek!!) i will be #writing again but i haven't finished an ongoing project in almost a year so we shall see. but honestly i'm not sure if writing Was my favorite way to participate in fandom? it was rewarding and wonderful of course but also not those things and many times quite the opposite. i like having friends and feeling like i'm part of a community with those friends + love the collective memory of that. like something about the narratives fans build + the idea that we're building on each others' understanding of canon. so writing is part of that in that i get to be like well here is my brick in the wall of our understanding (sorry this metaphor is a bit tortured) but it's not the be-all end-all for me. yet. or maybe ever. who knows!

-i read my first fic in like 2012 and made my ffn account around the same time (after my mom told me no. it was a whole thing she was not happy). my first fic ever was technically for a middle grade series called the sisters grimm but after that i quickly settled into reading pjo + hp fic and the rest is history!!

[poppyseedheart]

omg namjalsey :')) i still can't believe that was my first kpop fic i really burst onto the scene with some chaos

& i hope you are LIVING IT UP this summer!! congrats on finishing the quarter and another year of school! how has the writing been going, if it has been? (also i def think there are ways to consider collaborative storytelling its own form of being in fandom that overlaps with but is not a perfect venn diagram circle with writing fanfiction)

thank you for being hereeee <3

[zoomieyo]

your new intro is super cute!! its got that perfect at a glance detail and I particularly like the interaction questions- might have to incorporate something similar on my journal...

how did we first come across one another? - I think I was link hopping from mutual subscriptions honestly? I just remember looking for things to read and journals to follow. I think I first interacted on a writing prompt you did.

what's a piece of media you're loving lately? - this essay on again private notebooks.

what kinds of dw posts do you love reading? - I love peeking into other peoples lives and habits like monthly recaps or daily updates but I also really enjoy focused essays.

what is your favorite way to participate in fandom? - I've always been a lurker in regards to fandom, but I love fanfic! I'd like to expand my wings and start writing some.

how long have you been in fandom? - I've been in fannish spaces since 2014 ish? I never really made anything but I liked to browse what others had made online. I mostly just lurked, reblogged stuff (tumblr was my social media of choice) but didn't really talk to others much? I've come out of my shell a little more recently... but my fannish engagement is very minimal... but I love reading/looking at stuff from other people.

[poppyseedheart]

oh i loved that essay on private notebooks! "When we think no one listens, we relax into the genuine." i've been getting back into a journaling practice more consistently this year and realized how far i've roamed from the younger me that was so unselfconscious in my personal reflections. i have to really resist the idea that someone is going to read what i've written in a journal — or, more insidiously, the idea that i'll someday want to pilfer it for the "most authentic" writing i'm capable of; which, obviously, then waters down the authenticity in the first place. really interesting to think about and reminds me of quantum theory & observed electrons behaving differently.

and i love that lurking is a primary source of enjoyment for you! i've been doing more of that as of late and enjoying it too. just hanging out watching people make and talk about cool stuff, and really trying to spend time inside of myself integrating it all.