A long-overdue introduction
Hi everyone!
I am (relatively) new to Tumblr, meaning I’ve been here listening and watching from afar for a few years now (not in a creepy way. Scratch that, in a totally creepy way), without daring to take a more active role (I don’t even know what ‘a more active role’ would entail to be perfectly honest!).
I’m not even sure how to use most of the features on Tumblr, I had my first computer very late and am very easily confused by everything remotely social-media-like. The most I achieved was a blog that I was too afraid to make public!
But through my best friend, I discovered this new world I was completely unaware of and waow, what a day. I discovered a community that is so rich and diverse and accepting. A community that feeds my desire to learn new things and more importantly, new ways of thinking.
I tune in almost everyday, always excited to see what’s in store for this new day of craziness.
I wanted to get more involved but didn’t know quite how so I decided I would reach out through what I’m passionate about and that’s writing.
I have been writing my whole life but I come from a very isolated place where it was hard to find people with similar interests and I didn’t find anyone to share it with before a very long time. Even then it was difficult. I didn’t push it further because I was shy and afraid what I wrote wasn’t good enough for other eyes than mine.
I kept it all hidden, stubbornly re-writing my poor paragraphs sometimes dozens of time each, thinking about little else for hours on end, practically everyday. It was an inner life that was so full, yet completely unknown by even the people closest to me. The only two times where I dared to open up and share what I did, I was shut down or ignored and it struck me very deeply.
Then I met the right people, or should I say the right person and it changed dramatically. For starters, she introduced me to the merry little world of fanfiction. I couldn’t believe it. I finally found representation, understanding, people that I could sympathize with, understand.
Then, years after gorging myself with all these amazing stories that I never thought I would have access to, I tried it.
Again thanks to that great friend of mine. She supported me, read what I had done (a big first for me!) and gave me the courage to post it.
Through fanfiction and this friendship (yes I am perfectly aware of how corny it sounds, but I don’t care coz it’s fucking true), I discovered a well of creativity so deep, so diverse, so fierce, that it gave me the impetus to write again.
It helped me and inspired me so much with my other works. It helped me get a better English, because it’s not my native language and it’s damn hard. And it also helped me explore a lot of internal questions and doubts I had struggled with and ignored for years.
Posting my fanfictions online for anyone to read was one of the scariest and most liberating experiences of my life.
So here I am now, I posted a few fanfictions online, I have a gazillion more in progress (yeah, I fully embraced the curse). Some of them I’m proud of, other less, but I’m trying to be nicer to myself and to accept that I’m still learning and that they don’t have to be perfect to be shared.
I’d like to try and be more involved in the fanfic community even if I don’t quite know how yet. I’d love to connect with other writers, share moments, tips, advice, stories and more generally, share our passion.
My profile on AO3 is Badam_Luumsss. I mostly read from the Harry Potter fandom, even if I really enjoy works from many other fandoms and that’s what I write (for now).
I would be over the moon if some of you wanted to reach out to me to just chat, hang out, give me advice or share your experience of the fanfic world, guide me on how to connect with people with whom I could have shared interests.
I also wanted to thank all of you, I feel very privileged to be part of a community that is so caring, accepting, tolerant, wholesome, hope-giving, inspiring and batshit crazy (because let’s be honest where would be the fun if not?).
I hope I’ll be able to give back at least a tiny fraction of what I received.
So thank you. And I’ll conclude this lengthy tirade with the famous words of Christopher McCandless:
“Happiness is only real when shared.”
