Monday, June 27, 2011

FanficADD: So Many Stories, So Little Time

DISCLAIMER: This is in no way meant to be offensive to people who suffer from ADD/ADHD. If you are offended by this, or are easily offended, you should probably not read my blog...ever.


Lately I have found myself frustrated with Twi-fic. Some of my issues are:

1. I find myself starting a story then becoming bored and moving on, aka flouncing - the bad word - it's the "cunt" of fanfiction. Some of these stories have thousands of reviews and a year ago I probably would've loved them.

2. I have lost count of the WIPs that I'm reading. Sometimes I get behind in a story that I forgot to put on alert because I started reading it from a twitter link. Three months later I get excited when see a tweet about that fic updating and I think "Holy Motherfuck! I was reading that!"

3. I attempt to read all the stories my friends are reading - freaking impossible task.

4. I fail to review as often as I should, then I feel guilty about not reviewing enough.

5. I have no time to do all the things that keep my world functioning. I can't work full-time, clean my house, weed the garden, update the blog more than once a month, read, review, cook supper, host an Independence Day party for 60, etc. Fuck, I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it. I'd love to write a fic. I think I could do it. Riiiight, like I have time for that. When I get around to that, it will be about Bella and Edward falling in love in a nursing home and I'll be doing my own research.

6. Sometimes I just don't know what I want to read. High School fic? Nah. D/s? Nope. Manwhore E? Meh. Vamp fic? Probably not. Some plotlines are being rehashed too often. The stories start to meld together. I start to mix up characters - "Shit. I thought Alice was Edward's sister not Bella's cousin." Then when I finally find one that grabs me, I find out it was plagiarized word-for-word. And worse yet...it was a Harlequin romance.

*Headdesk*

My Posse h00rs and I have discussed that these are all symptoms of a condition we call FanficADD. When it hits me that usually means I should read a "real book" to clear my head. And thanks to my "real life" do-gooder friends that discovered I love to read, I now have a shitload of those on a TBR list as well. It never ends...
 
What are your symptoms of FanficADD? Come on...you can tell me, I'm a doctor physician assistant.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

O M G so true
somedays I just don't want to read ANYTHING I have but I want to read. And AMEN to the trying to read everything my friends are..I have finally determined that I do not HAVE to read every single fic I see tweeted about (although if the Posse is reading it I usually give in happily)

Lfcpam said...

that was perfect...I truly feel like that too. I especially like the nursing home bit. That made me laugh

KlrTwiLuver said...

OMG. I'm so LMAO right now. Each and every point hit home with me.
I have ADD in my own RL, or so says my snarky 20 something daughter.
....Focus, Focus.....I forgot what else I was going to write....Oh well.

xoxo,
Kellie

Livindol said...

U know all of us so well!! Lol... I'm to feel guilty for not reviewing or not leaving a long review *huffs*. I'm thinking that if we any remember if Alice is Edwards brother (99% of the time they are related) or Bellas cousin, then it's either been a long longgg time since an update or we really weren't interested in the first place!

Flove u TOM!!!

Anonymous said...

wait - how did you get in my computer and steal my blog post?????? hah!

this is me exactly! make me sad to realize it may all be winding down. when i was in h.s. - decades ago, we all read these novels that were exactly alike - man, disguised as poor pirate, sailor, slave, etc. gorgeous. falls in love with woman way above him. but wait - in the end, it turns out that the slave is actually some rich prince, blah blah. after reading 100s 0f these books, they finally went out of favor. i'm getting the same feeling about twilight fan fic, makes me sad.

Heather said...

I feel the same way. I have too many WIPs and I'm reading so many that I'm about ready to flounce, but I hold on with hopes that they'll get better. I'm reading so many that I get in a reviewing rut and then I know I suck as a reader. I don't like that. I wish someone would pay me to just sit and read fan fic. Hell, I'd even write hella good reviews for each chapter instead of a few one-liners every 2-3 chappies.

Chye-Lin said...

We tweeted about this issue not that long ago! I'm in the same boat as you except I'm not hosting a big Independence Day bash! I have found some good stories lately that I'm going to write recs about on my blog as soon as I find time... :)

fcat57 said...

This is so me also! No offense taken at all as I'm adhd in real life as well. None of my co workers have seen me without my meds and I still get the nickname OC-tripleD....... My fave list is finally under 600 and I go on fic hunts: I open the mobile and desktop version on my phone searching interesting phrases all while playing a game of solitaire in another window. I rarely watch tv anymore or read real books. (Meaning, STore bought ) and I sleep with an extension cord under my pillow so I can keep my phone charged for my late night reading. Yeah, fanfiction has totally changed my life. Guys have their sports so I don't see the big!

Post a Comment