Day 16: I was only going to put this in my private notes for the day, but I felt the need to share my thoughts in the public notes. I truly hope each writer I contact or read or discuss for the T50BTSFF Ao3 project truly knows how their work has affected people. These writers inspire and motivate others to write and create. Honestly I’ve put off researching on other authors until I read their fanfics so I don’t cloud my judgement or find something upsetting. As a member of the fanfiction community, I’ve seen many things. I experienced the Dirty Laundry Klance incident in 2016 firsthand and felt the after effects of the Hamilton cannibal mermaid incident. I’ve seen authors rise in popularity and get slashed down and harassed by those who though they were morally right. I have many fears when coming into this project, but I’ll only share one here. The rest are in my private notes, which will be publicly published in 5 years. I fear the truth. Some people, after they’ve written fanfiction, do not want to be found again or ever talk about their work again. I respect such, but I fear it. In this moment in time, it is one of the only moments I can be doing this. Many of the authors and readers from 2016-2017, which is where a majority of the T50 are from, could have moved on or are extremely hard to track down. Even in some of my notes, I am omitting information to protect the identities and my own private life. I am just an anonymous collector of information and I wish history to respect that. My analysis and documentation should be shared publicly if possible, but there’s a lot to respect and move on from. Personally, I find that I’m at the right place at the right time. We need to start documenting these fanfics now because if we wait any later, it’ll be too late. I’m already planning on releasing some essays and writing pieces about the BTS fanfiction culture, general fanfiction culture, and some of the commonalities in the T50BTSFF. Already, I’ve found that a majority of the fanfics are explicit. In the T50BTSFF Ao3 project, I’ll be including both complete and incomplete works. So in the end, I might not actually do only 50 fanfics.
From there, I might move on to do T100, but let’s wait on that decision. Also, there’s an entire drabble collection in the T50 that I’ll probably do individual notes on for each drabble. Here’s some observations about the T50:
-A majority of the works were started in 2017 or 2020 -> Indication of rising and falling popularity in fanfiction reading culture. 2017 = BTS’s first spike in popularity into the west with DNA. 2020 = COVID-19 Pandemic, people have more time to read and write.
-Majority of the works contain sexual content -> Displays BTS’s older userbase, sexualization of gay relationships, gay fetishization, there’s been people who’ve written about this MLM phenomena in fanfiction already and I’ll probably write my own piece on it at the end of 2021.
-Taekook is a majority of the fics for the T50 -> Most popular ship in the fandom, obsession, fan behavior analysis will have to do later
-Most popular ship combination is Taekook, Yoomin, Namjin
I’m going to have to read some things I’m uncomfortable with for this project. I’m okay with that. Some of these word counts are pushing 600k though, so I’m going to have to start keeping a more consistent reading schedule. Also some of these fanfictions have sequels, which I’ll also be reading and including in the project. Overall, the T50BTSFF Ao3 project should have both the T50 when searching for All Works and for Complete Works Only. I’m going to see how I feel at the end of 2021 before deciding if I should do the T50BTSFF on Wattpad or not. I’m determined to follow through with this project. Even if I disappear for a bit because of real life, I will return. On 11:59 of December 31st, 2021, I will take one last inhale and submit the last fully complete Fanlore page for the 50th most hit BTS fanfic on Ao3. Then at midnight, I will exhale and find my project done. It will happen, I will manifest it into being. I promise this to myself and whoever may read this in the future that I will finish this project. Nothing in the world can stop me. After the project is done, I will carry on maintenance for the pages for as long as I can. In this moment in time that God or whichever higher power has given me because of quarantine, I will use it to its fullest and make a mark in history for fandom. I say this to an empty crowd, but be prepared. I will help fandom history make our mark.
(Day 23 repost onto Tumblr)








