Thanks Vonnie! Loves me some BSO.

t hits self about the head and shoulders. Must work! Work!

Rebecca, I just read your Willow piece and it is lovely.

Yes, I meant to tell you before. It's as good as Kyra's, I think.

Hot damn, Nestra - just read the BtVS/Sandman piece. That's lovely. Really lovely. Nails both.

SA is thinking about setting up a Sandman archive. Let's all encourage her, eh? (Unless there is already a big Sandman archive out there somewhere? And if there is - please tell me?)

Thanks, Fay.

Sandman is a weird fandom, I think, in that you're more likely to find crossovers than standalone fic.

Do you know, the notion of a Sandman archive actually makes me uneasy?

I like it in crossovers, but I think my comfort with derivative fiction doesn't extend to full-on Sandman fanfic. In fact, with the exception of the Potterverse, I'm not especially comfortable with book-based (and I realize Sandman is technically a comic, but I think of it as a vast, illustrated book) fanfiction.

Why do you think it's different, Plei?(Just curious, I have no opinion.)

with the exception of the Potterverse

Do you have any idea why this is an exception for you? Not challenging, just curious. (Edit: Damn, erika got there first!)

In fact, with the exception of the Potterverse, I'm not especially comfortable with book-based (and I realize Sandman is technically a comic, but I think of it as a vast, illustrated book) fanfiction.

I'm with you on that feeling about book-based fanfiction (although I'm not sure if my antipathy to HP fic mightn't have as much to do with my dislike of HP as my dislike of litfic). And Sandman falls on the book side rather than the comic side for me as far as that goes.

And yet, I'm perfectly comfortable with comics fanfiction. I think, for me, it has something to do with serial stories. TV and Comics both present ongoing 'verses made up of separate episodes -- fitting another story into (or outside of, for that matter) that timeline feels different, somehow, from litfic, where there's already something that already reads to me as a complete story.

Could just be me, of course.

Part of it is what amych said about serial stories. In the Buffyverse, even though the series has run its course, there are plenty of dropped threads, and plenty of indications within the existing canon of the show that there are many ways things could have gone (see: the Wishverse) but didn't. And, because it's network T.V., there are plenty of things that the creators can't explore within the boundaries of the medium. The same goes, in many respects, for standard comic books.

Unlike Sandman, where everything connects, the Potterverse contains enough throwaway lines and minor characters scattered about for it to feel incomplete. It is possible that this could be read as a critique of her writing.

There is, on occasion, a television show where I feel no urge to read or write fanfiction, because it feels like all the threads are there for a reason, and the story itself is complete. B5, for example.

And, on another level, with comic or T.V./movie fandoms, you're taking one form (primarily visual and dialogue, be it still or moving) and outputting another. Something about that transition adds a layer of distance for me, where if you are taking something that's already in the medium you're working in, rather than transforming something into that medium, it is all a little too close for my tastes.