Are you adrift?

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Are you a one-fandom person? Or have you found that your interests and efforts are subject to 'fannish drift,' moving between fandoms or to entirely new ones fairly easily? Is there a show/movie/game or other fandom that came along just in time to ease the pain of one of your most beloved franchises going away?



I've spent more than a few minutes this week googling the name of a TV show that's on the bubble. I'm awaiting and dreading a headline stating it's been cancelled. I'll have mixed feelings when it comes - and I do think it will, because the silence about its future has been deafening and it's darn close to mid-May.

I only say mixed feelings because, in all honesty, the quality of the show has sunk so much that it's almost a trial to watch. And yet... cancellation means the end of all hope. Hope that it can go out with a bang; with well-written episodes, gracefully completed character arcs, and another year of fan fiction to be written.

It's also hard because this was a show that was an unexpected cushion for me when my first fandom love (LOST) ended and the fan artists and writers who loved it quickly dispersed. The speed with which that happened took me by surprise: I'm more used to fandom in a world (the past) where franchises continued to hold their adherents' attention for many years after that last episode aired. Now, it seems to all happen at lightning speed.

I write fic for a few different fandoms now, but I've reached a place where few of them feel like stories that are 'must haves' in my life. That may not be the worst thing, since I've been wanting to put more of my energy into other forms of writing. But I'm still googling my show - and my fingers, I'll admit, are still crossed.

Tell us about how fandom ebbs and flows for you, and share your favorite fannish meta or fan studies that discuss this topic. (Don't hesitate to self-rec!) Maybe in this season of series finales and cancellations, your words will inspire others to hope for more happy, fannish days ahead.

Fanlore: Fanish Drift

“Migratory Slash Fandom” or “Random Militant Slashers.”

The end of an era: Thoughts on leaving kpop fandom

When is a fandom dead?