#transformative works

[mokka-cream]

People will say anything

[fandomwithbenefits]

Have you ever wanted to join a fandom event, but all the rules seemed scary? The deadlines were way too close? Maybe you weren't sure if you'd be consistently productive and didn't want to disappoint anyone?

"Fandom with Benefits" allows you to have a low-commitment relationship with our monthly events. There are very few rules, and no deadlines, ever.

Every month an event and its theme/prompts are revealed:

Detailed descriptions will be part of the event's post.

FAQ behind the readmore ↓

How do I post something for the event?

Share your creations on AO3, tumblr, or link to what you've shared on another platform (pillowfort, dreamwidth, etc).

On AO3, add your work—or a bookmark of it—to the event's collection.

On tumblr, use both the general #fandomwithbenefits hashtag, and the specific event's hashtag to make sure people can find your post.

Collection links and hashtags will be included in the monthly event's posts. There's no deadline to post to them; it doesn't have to be in the month or even in the year the event was revealed.

We won't be reblogging works here. This space is to find inspiration, not entertainment :)

What are the rules, precisely?

These events are open to all fandoms, all 'ships, any content and rating, as long as it's allowed to be posted on tumblr/AO3. Keep the platform's TOS in mind and remember to tag your works appropriately! Nobody likes to be jumpscared by something they're not into, and it makes your work findable by those who are into it.

There are no size limits, or requirements for the work to be complete or polished. You decide when to share it.

Every event remains open indefinitely. If you come across a three-year old prompt that gets your creativity going—awesome!

Any medium and form is welcome, too! Let the prompts inspire you not only to fanfic and fanart, but also poetry, nail art, handlettering in a conlang, recipes, mixtapes, memes, knitting guides, dioramas, fake movie posters, home decoration, photos of your figurines' adventures, bookbinding, etc.

Credit: Blog avatar designed with lettering.org Blog banner image by fabianwiktor @ pexels.com all graphics designed with inkscape

[roy-co]

Sometimes, when I'm bored, I open a single fanlore page and read it in full. Then if there's another page linked, I'll move onto that one. If not, I backtrack and keep hopping between pages until I'm in a completely different school. I do not go here, but I'm looking around your campus and classrooms then going "damn this is nice" before walking down the road again. Wonderful time to be alive

[s-t-y-x]

I'm sure I'm not the only one to hold or voice such a view but I love the creativity of the TWST OC community. I love seeing all the Disney media and/or folk tales that people draw inspo from for their characters. I especially love seeing multiple OCs based off of the same character or concept and yet still unique. I love seeing people look at the same template and take it in countless different directions. Give me all the Greek God OCs. Give me all the expies from the terrible-yet-great direct-to-video sequels and the underrated television series spinoffs. Give me the expies from 'it's technically owned by Disney' media. Give me the expies of inanimate objects I never would've thought of. Give me your fan schools, your fan dorms, your fan countries and cultures. I love seeing the sheer endless potential of all the creators working within the same sandbox.

[vascarl]

So, I once played a game, a LARP, where the rules were played out using coloured string.

My character was capable of spinning the purple string. In play I'd card together Merino and silk, then drop spin and ply, until I had a ~30cm self stable length of thread.

Depending on the event, it either acted as an amplifier, or represented shape changing, and could substitute for any other colour.

But that's not the point.

In a mythological sense it represented "fairy weave", a cloth so close to perfect it was assumed to have been made of or by magic.

And the game is over. But I want this cloth to exist. So, I bought a kilo of superfine Merino (from the Fibre Arts Shed), and the wrong colour of silk, and set about carding rolags.

Whether I end up with enough yarn for yardage or just a scarf, I will see this made.

(at the wheel, it would take a year if I was to do it with a spindle)

[flowerparrish]

SOAPBOX: On Podfics as Transformative Works

So I decided I wanted to write my SOAPBOX on one thing, after going off on a mini Soapbox the day before challenges dropped for Voiceteam and it gave me an excuse to do it. But then I spent a week thinking about where I wanted this to go, and came up with an adjacent-but-different direction to head it in, whoops?

That said, welcome to my Soapbox on Podfic as a Transformative Work. This will include some of my original ideas such as the inherent podficcer desire to embrace chaos that is evidenced by the way we on the whole flock toward things like texting / social media fics and non-traditional narrative formats, and our desire to embrace the challenge of finding a way to bring those stories to life in audio in a way that fully represents the way they appear on the screen, BUT. More than that, at the core, I really want to talk about WHY podfic is a transformative work, because a lot of people—particularly those who aren't familiar with podfic, and haven't listened to much if any of it—don't seem to understand that it is more than just reading aloud the words of a text.

I get it, I do. At its most basic level, that IS what podfic is, right? That's often how we start to explain podfic; my go-to definition is "you know audiobooks? you know fanfic? cool, imagine audiobooks of fanfic." I stand by that; at its most basic level, that IS what podfic is. And yet one of my favorite things to rant about is that podfic is so much MORE than just an audiobook of a fanfic, or at least DIFFERENT/DISTINCT, in the same way that fanfic as a genre is distinct from traditionally published works. Why? Because podficcers have the same freedom and flexibility, due to the nature of fanworks and the fact that they are created for love and joy, not for profit, to get really weird and experimental with what we're making. You don't have to, obviously; you can make a podfic that is more or less an audiobook of a fanfic and it's perfect valid as a podfic AND as a transformative work—I'll get to that more later. But I think the easiest way to see how transformative something like podfic can be is to listen to something absolutely WILD that a podficcer put their whole soul into, be it through ridiculous voicing or over the top effects, and understand that this is an art not bound by the chains of capitalism in its need to be something that will appeal to the largest possible audience. In fact, podficcers don't get very much interaction on our works, a couple of comments on a single pod is a raging hit as far as we're concerned. People have already done great meta on this point this week, so I won't go too far into it beyond saying—we're not in this for popularity, or even feedback (as nice as it can be to get it); we're doing it for fun and joy and community and, yeah, a little bit of chaos.

Sure, you say, that makes sense. And maybe I can see how a really weird podfic is transformative. But ALL podfic?

Yes. All podfic. Let me put it to you this way: have you ever been in a classroom with a teacher who is just the most boring human you have ever had the misfortune of being forced to learn from? I feel like chances are high most of us have, and if you haven't, you've probably at least witnessed it second-hand from some kind of media. Compare that experience with the joy of learning from someone who is really good at teaching—not just at knowing their subject matter, but at engaging their students in a way that makes learning actually enjoyable, whether or not you're equally invested in the subject.

Podfic is like that. You can have Text-to-Speech read something to you, sure, but comparing it to a real person is like… even if you don't like the real person's style, or the way their audio turned out, it's got LIFE in it. THAT'S what makes podfic transformative. A real person is VOICE-ACTING as they bring a text to life in audio, putting in expression and empathy, and THAT is what makes podfic a transformative form of art.

Do you have to like it? No! Many people don't enjoy listening to audio-based stories, or only enjoy them in certain contexts or formats, and that's fine. But it's not the same thing to say "this isn't for me" and "this isn't actually a work that transforms the original in any way because it's just reading the words aloud". To those people: I challenge you to make a podfic. Any podfic. Learn how to record, and how to narrate, and how to edit, and when you're done, see if you've learned anything from the process about what makes this an art. Because it is enjoyable for those of us who do it, but it is a skill that you learn and practice the same way writing and painting and photo editing and a thousand other skills and art forms are. It is human artistic expression, combined with practical creative skills, and it can be so, so magical. From the most simple narration of a fic to the most complicated multi-voice with sound effects and music, every podfic is a work of art, and in my opinion, if a single person bothers to read this and grapple with that idea, fandom will be better for it.

[andromaex]

people: why does everyone act like ao3 is for queer people???

because for a very long time queer people looked at mainstream media, saw the crumbs they were being offered, and said "fine, i'll do it myself."

fanfiction became one of the few places where queer stories could exist in abundance instead of as a side plot, a joke, a tragedy, or a character who mysteriously disappeared after one season.

ao3 isn't a queer-only website. anyone can use it. but it was built out of fandom spaces that were heavily shaped by queer creators and readers, so of course that influence is everywhere.

it's not that ao3 belongs only to queer people.

it's that queer people helped build the house, decorated half the rooms, and have been hosting the party for years.