Meta Analysis and Other Fandom Stuff
When I was in my teens this television show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer was released. It didn’t pull me into what is affectionately known as meta analysis in the fandom spaces (or was five or so years ago, when I was at my most active) but the show did have me write novel-length fan fiction for the first time in my life. I’d been writing novellas in English since my early teens but in my late teens and early twenties it was fan fiction that helped me hone my grasp of written English and of storytelling as a whole. It also connected me with readers and the thrill of getting weekly feedback. I’ll admit that sometimes I miss it but as I’m now enthralled with the prospect of creating my own worlds from scratch there simply isn’t enough finger-juice (ew) to go around.
It also takes a specific type of show to inspire the fan fiction bug to bite and I’ve not come across such a show in quite a while either. The latest was KinnPorsche a few years back but I’ll get to that.
Fan fiction laid the foundation for what would years later bring me into the wonderful world of analysis. Other building blocks were my university studies as they encouraged the sort of critical thinking that is essential for deeper media comprehension, the sort of thinking that hadn’t quite been taught at high school level even though we’d brushed up against it, as well as my love of screenwriting and it teaching me the ins and outs of story structure and why it matters not only on screen but on any page.
This is why I’m deciding to share some of my analysis on this website.
Meta analysis is about digging into what’s on screen and translating the visual into the written. It’s an immensely rewarding exercise and it teaches us so much in terms of effective storytelling, especially in terms of the structure itself: what can be said without dialogue in the visual medium of film can be said within description on the page.
Study one medium and we understand the other.
At least that’s been part of my journey into writing. And I’d like to share it with you.
TBC.
Happy New Year!!