I need to rant.

ABOUT FANS.

I'm not ranting about my fans because besides the $20 Lasko model from Walgreens sitting on my bedside table, I don't have any to speak of. No, I'm talking about fans.

Annoying fans.

I cut my creative teeth in the world of fanfiction. I loved Harry Potter, and I love Discworld still. I'm nowhere near as involved in any fandoms as I once was (I keep up, but if it ain't on the Discworld blog or facebook page, I don't know about it, and you can forget anything about Harry Potter) but I still check the fanfictions, whatever. It was a big part of making me the writer I am today, for better or for worse, and I do enjoy it to some extent. I don't read everything of course but hey, if it catches my eye, I'll give it a shot.

And sometimes, if it catches my eye for the wrong reason (lol terrible summaries) I will read not the story itself, but I will read the reviews. And this is where you find them. The annoying fans.

I get reviews from them sometimes, too. "You're not following canon - that is impossible" or "I don't agree with your characterization of this character; it's wrong". And a gentle reminder doesn't bother me, what bothers me is "OH HAY I KNOW MORE THAN YOU ABOUT THIS AND NOW I'M GOING TO BE SMUG ABOUT ALL THE WAYS IN WHICH YOU'RE WRONG"

Ladies and gentlemen, the annoying fan.

He can't let anyone have their fun. He knows every detail of every line of every scene of every book. Someone writes something and creates an incongruity? ALERT THEM. Misses a tiny detail about geography. REVIEW TIME. Takes their own view of a character, necessitating swinging that character out of the bounds created by the author? OH GOD SEND THEM A PRIVATE MESSAGE NOW.

The annoying fan updates the wiki of his fandom so that it is painstakingly accurate to the point of being excessive. He includes his original characters in the wiki. The annoying fan creates fan groups for his own work, promotes his stories/art, and views himself as Keeper of Fandom. He advises new writers - and presumably more impressionable - as to what they should write about next, and why that would be a Good Thing for the fandom (the greater good . . .). The annoying fan has a cast of characters that are perfect. They are his perfect girlfriend, they are his perfect best friend, his perfect boss, his perfect self. He slides them into fandom, and pushes them on people, insisting they are canon (and sometimes they are . . . peripherally . . . as in mentioned once) and should be accepted.

NO, ANNOYING FAN. NO. I AM STANDING UP TO YOU.

I will not accept your sort-of-canon character. I will not write about them. I will not change the story I've worked on that reflects my view of the fandom and canon so that it falls more in line with yours. I AM GOING TO WRITE WHAT I WANT TO WRITE, HOW I WANT TO WRITE IT, ANNOYING FAN. YOU ARE NOT THE BOSS OF ME.

It's dangerous, I know, for any kind of person who hopes to later rely on fans to support their work to stand up and rail on them. All fans are good fans, to some extent, and to alienate anyone is not a goal of mine, nor the intent of this post. This post is to encourage all of you who might be fans to be thoughtful. Fandom is a beautiful place; it allows for individuality, for creativity, for joy and happiness in sharing a common interest. I love fandom. But let other people love fandom too, in their own way. It makes them happy. There aren't hard and fast rules in fandom and that's what makes it fun. Hey, I don't get any kicks out of slashing Lupin/Snape but other people do and I'm not going to sit behind my computer and say "that's wrong, that would never happen in canon, stop it." It makes them happy! It doesn't hurt anyone! And it's not my thing and doesn't interest my but oh well!

So please, annoying fans. Give constructive criticism. Read and enjoy. Keep up with the wikis, memorize those details if you want to, post on the message boards. But live and let live. It's not your sandbox - share the toys.