After almost a year... the time has finally come. Conversations in Fandom: A Byler Fandom Journal (Issue 1 of ?) is officially here. A collection of unique fanworks and analyses that I believe exemplifies and pushes the boundary of fandom is ready to read in journal format.
Click here to access the journal
Here is a sneak peek featuring a preview of some of the work from our contributors!
(click for higher resolution)
Special thanks to all of the talented contributors:
For more information about this project and the future of this even, please read below.
Hello all. Robin here to speak a bit candidly with you all. I bet many of you have the same question:
Why did it take it take so long?
I do wanna start by apologizing to the contributors, my team, and everyone else for the journal taking much longer than expected, and that is entirely my fault. I've explained this in an earlier post, but the delay was due to my lack of experience in running a project like this, a combined lack of motivation due to the slow output of promo from the show, as well as other personal life factors.
Some of you may already know that my grandma passed away earlier this year, which was a big contributor to the delay in this journal. I had lost a lot of my drive to proceed, but with the help of my journal team and other fandom friends, I was able to finally push through and get everything put together.
Will there be another Byler Journal in the future?
If I'm being honest... I'm not sure.
I did slap an "Issue 1" label on it for the potentiality of future volumes, however I currently don't have plans for another Journal in the near future. If there were, it would probably be based on fandom interest and how motivated I would personally be to take on a project like this again, rather than making it a yearly event like the Big Bang or Bylerween (which are two other fandom events that I STRONGLY suggest you check out). Maybe the new season release will send me into overdrive, and you may see an announcement for a new issue of the journal within the next few months, although there is no guarantee. Based on personal life things happening, there is also a good chance that I may be in a very different place in my life and wouldn't be able to continue running a fandom project like this.
Would you consider leaving the journal in someone else's hands for future releases?
Since this project is a little personal to me, probably not, although I don't want to gatekeep this style of project from anyone, and if this type of thing seems like something you would want to put together for yourself, then by all means, please do it! Literary journals were not my original idea anyways, so it's not like I'd be able to gatekeep anyways, but it's not like I want to.
Anyways, I want to finish this off by sincerely wishing thanks again to everyone that helped make this project a possibility. I hope that you all enjoy these amazing contributions as much as I do!
After many months and many set backs, the first draft of the journal has finally been put together. There are certainly some tweaks that need to be made, but we are much closer to finally putting it out there!
If you are a contributor to the journal, you will be receiving a proof of your work in our journal either to your email or discord. Please stay tuned!
hi!! any updates on the journal?? thanks again for all your hard work on this !
Hi! Thank you for the message. Apologies for the late response. I just finished sending out messages to all of the contributors, so now I can let everyone else know what's going on.
First off, the journal is still happening, but it's been slow moving and likely will continue to be. There's a few reasons for this. The first two are the road blocks that come with doing a project like this for the first time, and general lack of motivation from the lack of content being put out by the show. Hopefully with the teaser will really light a fire for everyone!
The third reason is that I recently lost my grandma, and that really affected my motivation and drive for this project. I'm slowly bouncing back, but it's little by little.
I decided to make a compromise in order to continue doing this project while making the amount of work more feasible for me and my team. I decided that for this go around of the journal that we would only be accepting one submission per contributor. I hope that if I continue this project in the future that I am able to expand the size of the project.
I wanna end by thanking everyone for their patience and continued support.
Thank you to everyone who showed interest and submitted material. You should be hearing from our team shortly.
I wish I could give a more precise timeline for you all, but things are currently slow moving as I figure out the best process for this project. I thank both my team all of the contributors for their patience and understanding.
Keep on the lookout for future updates, and I hope everyone had a great Will Byers Day!
Just a reminder that submissions for our first ever journal is due Saturday, March 22nd. If you have any interest in being a part of this project, I recommend getting your work in ASAP.
Click here to submit to our journal
If you have any questions, please reach out to @pinkeoni
One of these weeks the poll won't be posted late, I swear!
Hi everyone, we have another poll question for all of you.
Something interesting about Will's character is that he shares many tropes with some very popular female characters in the horror genre. In fact, if Will were in any other piece of media, he would likely be a girl.
Which one of these Will/horror girl parallels is your favorite?
Laura Palmer (death/disappearance becomes the inciting incident)
Mina Harker/Ellen Hutter (haunted by the repressed sexuality demon)
Regan MacNeil (possessed child)
Carol Anne Freeling (taken to another world)
Rosemary Woodhouse (gives birth to the son of the Devil)
Sally Hardesty (last one alive/Final Girl)
Other (please elaborate in tags!)
Voting ended onFeb 12, 2025
Please feel free to elaborate on any of your answers! We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
If you are interested in contributing work to our journal, check out our submission form
One of these weeks the poll won't be posted late, I swear!
Hi everyone, we have another poll question for all of you.
Something interesting about Will's character is that he shares many tropes with some very popular female characters in the horror genre. In fact, if Will were in any other piece of media, he would likely be a girl.
Which one of these Will/horror girl parallels is your favorite?
Laura Palmer (death/disappearance becomes the inciting incident)
Mina Harker/Ellen Hutter (haunted by the repressed sexuality demon)
Regan MacNeil (possessed child)
Carol Anne Freeling (taken to another world)
Rosemary Woodhouse (gives birth to the son of the Devil)
Sally Hardesty (last one alive/Final Girl)
Other (please elaborate in tags!)
Voting ended onFeb 12, 2025
Please feel free to elaborate on any of your answers! We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
If you are interested in contributing work to our journal, check out our submission form
This week's topic: Characters are versatile, and sometimes what fans love them for can also be considered a flaw. All of these options are qualities that fans love Will for— but they are also some of his biggest weaknesses.
What is your favorite of Will Byers' best traits that is also one of his weaknesses?
Kindness/Self-sacrificial nature
Shy nature/Inability to stand up for himself
Supernatural spy/supernatural target
His betting habit (see description below)
Other (please elaborate)
Voting ended onFeb 3, 2025
*Will's "betting habit" refers to him cheating Dustin out of a magazine, wanting to cheat in Vegas, but also placing bets on other people's feelings such as how Mike feels about him and how El feels about Mike.
Please feel free to elaborate on any of your answers! We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
If you are interested in contributing work to our journal, check out our submission form
This week's topic: Characters are versatile, and sometimes what fans love them for can also be considered a flaw. All of these options are qualities that fans love Will for— but they are also some of his biggest weaknesses.
What is your favorite of Will Byers' best traits that is also one of his weaknesses?
Kindness/Self-sacrificial nature
Shy nature/Inability to stand up for himself
Supernatural spy/supernatural target
His betting habit (see description below)
Other (please elaborate)
Voting ended onFeb 3, 2025
*Will's "betting habit" refers to him cheating Dustin out of a magazine, wanting to cheat in Vegas, but also placing bets on other people's feelings such as how Mike feels about him and how El feels about Mike.
Please feel free to elaborate on any of your answers! We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
If you are interested in contributing work to our journal, check out our submission form
Hello everyone, hope you all had a nice holiday! We wanted to get back into the swing of our weekly polls to lead up to our new submission deadline which is now March 22nd.
Today, we're balancing things out by having a poll focused on Mike. For every season, we are shown one if Mike's core strengths, being the man with the plan, and we'd like to know your favorite clever plan of Mike's that helped save the day.
Which of Mike's smartest moments is your favorite?
Figuring out Will is still alive (s1)
Realizing the hospital massacre trap (s2)
The sauna test (s3)
"See? Physics." (s3)
NINA pen number (s4)
Other
Voting ended onJan 27, 2025
Please feel free to elaborate on any of your answers! We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
If you are interested in contributing work to our journal, check out our submission form
Hello everyone, hope you all had a nice holiday! We wanted to get back into the swing of our weekly polls to lead up to our new submission deadline which is now March 22nd.
Today, we're balancing things out by having a poll focused on Mike. For every season, we are shown one if Mike's core strengths, being the man with the plan, and we'd like to know your favorite clever plan of Mike's that helped save the day.
Which of Mike's smartest moments is your favorite?
Figuring out Will is still alive (s1)
Realizing the hospital massacre trap (s2)
The sauna test (s3)
"See? Physics." (s3)
NINA pen number (s4)
Other
Voting ended onJan 27, 2025
Please feel free to elaborate on any of your answers! We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
If you are interested in contributing work to our journal, check out our submission form
Hello, Robin here, hope you are all having a lovely holiday.
As you probably know, this is my first year running this project. As such, I'm learning a lot as we go along and making adjustments as needed. Something that I've learned is not to underestimate the holiday season.
The official submission deadline has been extended to March 22nd, 2025
This new deadline is not only to give you guys plenty of time to submit your work, but also to take some of the stress off of my team.
If you are interested in submitting work, follow this link to our submissions Google Form
Hello, Robin here, hope you are all having a lovely holiday.
As you probably know, this is my first year running this project. As such, I'm learning a lot as we go along and making adjustments as needed. Something that I've learned is not to underestimate the holiday season.
The official submission deadline has been extended to March 22nd, 2025
This new deadline is not only to give you guys plenty of time to submit your work, but also to take some of the stress off of my team.
If you are interested in submitting work, follow this link to our submissions Google Form
Hello all. We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! After that holiday break, we wanted to jump back in with our weekly polls.
Our polls will not always be strictly about Byler as a couple, and may feature only one half of them, but we will try to alternate poll topics to keep it balanced.
Today, we wanted to ask about a highly anticipated, yet hotly debated part of season 5— that being Will's possible powers. What kind does he have? Does he have more than one? Or none at all?
What possible powers do you think Will Byers could have?
Electricity/lights
Time Manipulation
Manifestation/Creation
Fire/Pyrokinesis
Other (put in tags)
More than one
None
Voting ended onDec 9, 2024
Please feel free to elaborate in the tags or as a comment on this post. We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
FYI: If you are interested, check out our submission form
Hello all. We hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! After that holiday break, we wanted to jump back in with our weekly polls.
Our polls will not always be strictly about Byler as a couple, and may feature only one half of them, but we will try to alternate poll topics to keep it balanced.
Today, we wanted to ask about a highly anticipated, yet hotly debated part of season 5— that being Will's possible powers. What kind does he have? Does he have more than one? Or none at all?
What possible powers do you think Will Byers could have?
Electricity/lights
Time Manipulation
Manifestation/Creation
Fire/Pyrokinesis
Other (put in tags)
More than one
None
Voting ended onDec 9, 2024
Please feel free to elaborate in the tags or as a comment on this post. We encourage healthy conversation, and would like to keep any fighting or name-calling off of this post.
FYI: If you are interested, check out our submission form
After speaking with my team as well as receiving feedback from a few potential contributors, I have decided to make a small adjustment to the submission rules that will affect the type of work that can be submitted in relation to how much that work is about Byler.
In order to keep thing consistent, each submission must be about Mike and/or Will, but if you decide to put your focus on one character over the other, your work does not need to be about their relationship so long as it is through the lens of Byler. For example, you could have an analysis that is solely about Mike without mentioning his relationship with Will, as long as it is made with the understanding that his story arc will lead him to be together with Will in the end.
We hope that this small rule adjustment encourages more people to submit their amazing work, even if it is more heavily focused on one side of Byler than the other. If you are interested in submitting, you can do so here!
Hello, everyone! Leading up to our submission deadline, we wanted to start a series of weekly polls to get everyone engaged in conversation. These polls are designed specifically with Byler in focus. Down below is a poll that you are welcome to participate in and share with others.
For today's poll question, we are exploring the parallels of Byler towards other iconic pairings or ships in the show. Plenty of characters parallel Byler with canon evidence such as Nancy and Barb's friendship or Joyce and Hopper's romance. So, this week we ask you this question...
Which Stranger Things duo is your favorite that parallels Byler?
Nancy and Barb
Lucas and Max
Joyce and Hopper
Jason and Chrissy
Other - please list in tags your choice of a Byler paralleling duo and explain
Voting ended onNov 19, 2024
FYI: If you are interested, check out our submission form
