I shouldn’t be so amazed by the talent people involved in fandom bring to the table. I’ve lurked long enough to absorb the high-caliber work created by those engaged in the community. Fiction, art, and film done by individuals around the world brought together for the love of a movie, television series, comic book, or graphic novel. A community of shared interest and fascination with the love of characters and worlds created by others. It’s worshipful and the work many fans generate is beautiful.

As a reader, I didn’t have a true inkling of the amount of time and effort writers and artist expended on the works I was enjoying. Writing my own stories, has brought into focus for me how challenging and time consuming creating works for fandom really is. If the words are flowing well, I average about 500 words per hour and my weekly word count goal is usually 7,500 to 10,000. To complete a story in a timely fashion, I allocate approximately 20 hours of my free time each week to writing. So my evenings and the weekends have become very full since I started writing last year. Between stories, I spend hours in preparation, creating character backgrounds and plotting, so when the time comes to write a story, I’m ready to go. It also, doesn’t account for the hours my beta, Xphil98197 an author in fandom herself, spends on dealing with my comma disability.

Memo. by Rachel Shenton, a 00Q fandom member, is a beautiful piece of fan video editing work that spotlights the fantastic, Ben Whishaw who plays Q in the films Skyfall (2012) and SPECTRE (2015). Rachel told me it took her about six hours to complete. Rachel’s work is a brilliant example of the excessive talent fandom has in its ranks. The direct youtube link to Memo. can be found here.

Becoming a fandom author has opened my eyes and enhanced my appreciation for the works I enjoy. I’m glad, I’m no longer ignorant in this regard.

Best, The Nut.