Toxic Fandom Culture

Waking Up: Neil Gaiman and Toxic Fandom
https://thelearnedfangirl.com/2018/07/waking-up-neil-gaiman-and-toxic-fandom/

There is no shortage of examples [of toxic fandom]. Much of this behavior is based in misogyny and racism, some of it is not, and all of it seems to shriek, “You did not do what I want, therefore you are bad, and I am going to tell the world.”

This is not love. It is not even fandom. It is a mob.

Preach.

I should mention two things about this short essay. First, it's about the author being a fan of Neil Gaiman, not about Neil Gaiman himself. Second, it was written in July 2018. I was going through an intense online experience at the time and wondering what in the world I had done to deserve what was happening, and reading this essay then would have helped me a lot, I think. It's definitely worth saying that, outside of a genuine #MeToo (or similar) situation, no artist or writer deserves this. I'm tentatively hopeful that this sort of culture has started to fade, not in the least because we all have much better things to devote our time and energy to.

Summer Writing Plans

Between on thing and another, I'm in something of a difficult place right now. Thankfully, I finally have room to maneuver, so I've been trying to take a step back from "productivity" and figure out what a healthy and sustainable workday looks like. I think that, for the time being, I might like to experiment with less work. Specifically, how would it feel to focus on fewer projects?

I think I'd like to have two "tracks" in a day. I don't want to say "a morning track" and "an evening track," because I'm not that big on set routines, but something like that - two sustained periods of writing during the day, each devoted to a different project.

Here's what I'd like to spend the rest of the summer doing:

Track One

- I've been invited to contribute a 6,000 word essay about Legend of Zelda to a collection on JRPGs. If I write 2,000 words a week, this will take three weeks, plus another week to edit.

- When I'm done with that, I need to return to the essay about the Hiromi Kawakami story I translated. It's mostly finished, but it needs more research. Assuming that I write 1,000 words a week and edit as I go along, this should take about two weeks to finish.

- Once those two projects are squared away, I should get started on a public lecture I'm supposed to give about Legend of Zelda in the fall. I'm aiming for this to be around 5,000 words, so I think the rough draft will take about three weeks.

Track Two

- I'm going to write Chapter 40 of Malice. I'd like for this to take two weeks, but it could take three. There's no need to rush, after all. After this is done, thus concluding the fourth (of five) story arcs, I'm going to put the novel on hiatus. I'll leave a note at the end of the chapter saying that it will be back in the fall, which is probably true. I'd like to have the novel finished by the end of the year.

- I wrote an original short story a few years ago that I've been thinking about a lot recently. I'd like to return to it and see about submitting it somewhere. My style has changed significantly, so I'm going to say that it will probably take about two weeks to edit properly.

- I want to write a short horror story based on The Tale of Genji. I've already got a rough draft, but it's a mess. If I write 1,000 words a week (emulating Heian prose is not easy), it should take me three weeks to reach a solid length of 3,000 words, and then I'll give the story a week to rest before I edit and submit it.

And after all of that?

WIND WAKER BOOK! WIND WAKER BOOK!!