So Many Fandoms

As a former music teacher, I can also say that "learn the fundamentals first" is the death knell for a vast percentage of beginners, especially adult learners.

I've run into this with drawing several times, where some well-meaning artist has lectured me on needing to study anatomy properly or not use shortcuts like CSP brushes. And oh, believe me, I know. I know exactly how to learn an artistic discipline in a structured way. I just...don't want to!

The thing is, I'm not aiming to be a professional artist. I want to draw my gay little anime guys. I would undoubtedly improve at art much faster if I approached every gay little anime guy drawing as a study exercise. But I would also have quit drawing a decade ago if I couldn't just let myself enjoy drawing imperfect fucked-up little guys with whatever shortcuts I needed to body myself across the finish line.

With my adult piano students, my approach was always "What's your goal?" If their goal was to learn exactly one Elton John songbook to play at parties, then...that's what we did. We'd put tape on the keys to label the notes, and just fuckin go for it. Learning exactly one Elton John songbook is a good and noble musical goal, full stop.

Some of my students needed and enjoyed a more structured approach to learning; if they wanted to be able to play classical music, then yes, scales were going to have to enter the equation at some point. And yet others would learn the Elton John songbook, catch their white whale, and realize they wanted to explore more of the ocean. The scales were still there for them to learn!

Often the choice isn't between "learn art well" and "learn art imperfectly" - the choice is between "learn art imperfectly" and "don't do art at all." To which I say, learn imperfectly! Or, what the hell, don't 'learn' art. Just do, and enjoy the doing of it.

the online discourse about whether or not fanfic writers and fan artists are "real writers / real artists" is not only tiring but it also makes no sense. because by saying "fanfic writers aren't real writers, fan artists aren't real artists, because their art centers around pre-existing characters and because their art cannot legally be monetized" you're saying "art, to me, is not about art itself but about whether or not the thing I consume is about pre-existing characters", you're saying "art, to me, is not about art itself but about whether or not it is profitable" and that makes no sense.

#hello again martin and bosco!! sending you boys round for another go :)

also, you can technically make your ao3 page look aesthetically pretty by applying your own customized skin/layouts on your own ao3 page. according to people who use their own customized skins, it’s easy once you learn how to do it (I personally don’t know how to do it because I’m not interested in learning or applying any fancy skin, and I just use dark mode there) it may not be as easy as decorating twitter or wattpad layout, but that’s because the purpose of ao3 is to archive fanworks, not to be a place for users to show their aesthetic layouts.

once again, ao3 is a non-profit organization, an anti-censorship archive/library that welcomes all kinds of fanfics/fanworks. it doesn’t prioritize “looking aesthetically pretty” because looking aesthetically pretty like a social media platform has never been relevant to its purpose.

I would say that recreating the characterisation, mood and general vibes of an existing work of fiction is in fact a skill in and of itself that's acquired via practice. A common compliment delivered to fanfiction writers is how well they have captured the spirit of the original work. Inexperienced fanfiction writers fail to do this.

When creating an original character you can, ultimately, say anything about them and now it's canon bcos you created them and you said so. conversely, well, if you are covering a well known song and start playing the wrong notes people will notice immediately.

In addition: a lot of fanfiction, IMO, is in actuality a form of metafictional literary analysis. a story where two characters sit down and talk about their feelings about a canonical event? literary analysis, which is of course a skill. Sometimes fanfiction is bad bcos the writer is not good at interpreting texts.