Prolificity: Toward a New Definition
Welcome to the third entry of my blog series on How to be a Prolific Fan Author! If you've read the previous two entries, you'll know this isn't going to be a straightforward 'how to' series, despite the name. It's more about me figuring out how to become prolific, and bringing you along for the ride!
In a previous entry, I wrote that Step One of my journey has been to escape the comparison trap. That is, to disentangle my idea of 'prolific' from my mental image of some other writer who seems able to perform feats of productivity that I can only dream about. We're talking about the Nora Robertses and Stephen Kings of the world, only in a fandom context.
I think it's worth noting, by the way, that those supposedly 'prolific' writers may not see themselves that way. The word counts and posting schedules that I find so baffling and miraculous might not seem like a big deal to them at all. And there's a reason for that:
The word 'prolific' has no set definition.
Technically, it means "an artist, author or composer who produces many works." But what does that mean, exactly? How many is 'many?' When it comes right down to it, the only way to define 'many' is through comparison.
At the time of this writing, I have 35 stories (418,548 total words) published on Ao3. Is that 'many?' Sure it is, at least in comparison to the number of published works I had in 2014 when I was first starting out under this pseud. But there are authors who have published hundreds of fics in that time-frame. There are also authors who have published far fewer; they might even consider me 'prolific!'
So where am I going with this?
Well, the bottom line is that there is no external measurement that can define what it means to be Prolific. There is no particular word count, no specific posting frequency, and no number of published works that will bring any of us past the magic threshold of Prolificity. It's like chasing after a rainbow; the goal-posts will always move as you do.
Honestly, the word 'prolific' is kind of toxic. It relies on comparison in order to have meaning, so it invites us to compare ourselves to others, thus sowing the seeds of insecurity and competitiveness. And yet here I am, blogging about how to become *more* of this Prolific thing.
Why is that, you might ask?
Well, I think there are two approaches one could take. If the word 'prolific' makes you feel bad about yourself (as it does me), you could nuke it from your vocabulary and replace it with something healthier. Or you can reclaim the word and make it mean something that actually works for you. That's what I'm trying to do.
I'm taking that second approach of redefining Prolificity in a more personal sense. I'm asking myself: what does MY Prolificity look like? What does it consist of? How can I measure it? Can I assign a threshold beyond which I can feel free to call myself Prolific, by my own definition?
As soon as I started looking at Prolificity that way, rather than in the "why can't I be more like THAT writer over there" kind of way, I quickly realized that it's not just about word-count. Writing many words and publishing frequently might be the cornerstone of Prolificity if you're writing for money, but fandom is more about community.
I realized I need a definition that reflects fannish values, which encompass so much more than just how many words you write or how often you post. And that's what my next entry will be about. Fannish values, at least as I perceive them, and how they're shaping my personal definition of Prolificity. In the meantime...
Do you consider yourself to be a prolific fan author (or artist, or other creator)? Do you have a personal sense of what Prolific means to you? Have you achieved it, or are you still working on it? I would love to hear about it!
Note: This was cross-posted from my Dreamwidth account, which is where most of this blog series is gonna happen. I will put some of the main posts here on Tumblr, but most of the discussion will be taking place on DW. If you want to join the discussion, you can do so here.
