Editor’s Note: Claire here! I am so grateful to Jo, Wolf and Pan for agreeing to be interviewed. I’ve been a part of this club since the beginning and joining was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made; not only have I been able to extend my love of whump and fanfiction, but I’ve also been able to make some really great friends! So thank you to the three of you for allowing me to share this.
Please, introduce yourselves!
Jo – fyeahvulnerablemen on Tumblr. And nothing posted but I leave kudos from damevinteren.
Wolf – flyingwolf29 – I go by Missed_Whumportunities on AO3 but haven’t posted anything so far – I also have two WIPs posted on ff.net where I go by FlyingWolf29.
Pan – I go by pan2fel or whumpershaven on most websites, and I mostly recommend fanfiction I read or curate my AO3 bookmarks.
How did Fic Club start? Who was involved in setting it up and what inspired you to do so?
Wolf – Pan had the idea in October 2018.
Jo – Pan came up with the idea around October 14th, 2018 and we discussed it on Telegram for a couple of days. We went over the basics and did some brainstorming about the server theme and structure. She posted about it on her blog, asking for feedback then she created the server.
Pan – Wow I wouldn’t have known the date without checking it, thanks guys! 2018, that feels like quite some time ago now. I remember that I was very – mh – frustrated is a strong word, but let’s go with it – frustrated that there were all those whump-writing servers popping up all over the place. I am not very much of a writer; I dabble here and there, but usually I am way more passionate about reading and so I came up with the idea – why not create a space for readers, where they can come together and talk about whumpy fanfiction? Jo was the first I threw my idea at and it kinda stuck.
Wolf, as you weren’t involved in setting it up, what inspired you to join?
Wolf – I saw a few posts from Pan, regarding Round Tables and fics that were discussed. Many of the fics I saw that got recommended looked good so I got interested and sent an ask to get an invite to the Discord channel. Best decision I’ve ever made.
So how exactly does this club work? How do you go about choosing fics that you think everyone will enjoy reading?
Jo – Starting out, the club went by fic themes or specific whumpy tropes; insomnia, head injury, sentinel/guide, flashbacks, punctured lung, etc.
Pan – I picked a handful of whumpy themes and we voted on those, and then we had some time to come up with fics featuring these themes, on which we voted again. It was very elaborate. It took a lot of effort and unless you had a very good fanfiction system, it was hard to come up with things to recommend.
Jo: Then we started recommending our favorite fics, characters or fandoms and it expanded from there. If the story is very long or has multiple parts, we will agree on meeting after 2 weeks or do a check in and see where we all are.
Wolf – We usually recommend 2 fics each and give the group a few days to vote on them. There are three types of votes: interested, don’t mind, not interested.
Pan: Compared to the first set up, that means we sometimes end up reading fics that aren’t super whumpy, but that’s fine.
I decide what to recommend based on the mood I am currently in without thinking what the others might like, because when I vote I try to have an open mind and also give fics a chance that I wouldn’t go looking for myself – that includes different whumpees/characters but also unknown fandoms. You never know what gem you’re missing. Hence I try to recommend based on my own reading wishes. However, it’s important to note that we don’t read/discuss each other’s own fics.
As far as “how does a meeting work?” goes – pretty much as you would expect a usual book club to work. We’re meeting every 1-2 weeks for about an hour and in the beginning we had a list of questions we went through every meeting, e.g. “What did you think?”, “Did it give you whumperflies?”, “What was your favorite scene?”, “What would you change if you could change one scene/detail?”, or “What do you expect/do you wish for part 2?”. Nowadays the discussion is more relaxed and we let it just go wherever someone is pushing it. It’s all written – we don’t do Voice Chat (yet).
What do you enjoy most about Fic Club?
Wolf – Being able to discuss whump with like-minded people that I now consider friends. I’ve been reading fanfic for over 15 years and it has always been something I kept close to the vest, especially as I was always drawn towards the whump genre and thought maybe I was being weird for it. Being able to share my thoughts on these fics is so amazing and weight-lifting. I am very glad I joined. It has also allowed me to discover new fandoms and authors that I’ve binged since then. And fangirling (fanwhumping?) with friends is always nice.
Jo – Discussing (flailing?) over an awesome fic with friends is the most rewarding experience! It makes me really happy but also helps me see or think things about the fic that I may not have noticed or understood. Especially in a fandom I may not be familiar with. Our discussions make the fic itself much more enjoyable and some stories really stick with me because of it.
Pan – Everything? It’s just so wholesome to share this very specific hobby with others – to be able to talk about the whump in-depth. It feels very comfortable to have this group of people who are reading the same fanfiction and who commit to this event and regularly meet up to discuss it. It’s different to just flailing about it to random people who might or might not have read it.
What kind of thing do you discuss about the fics that are selected?
Wolf – We usually discuss which were our favorite parts of the fic, what we thought of the whump, the characters, the story, etc. We also go off on a LOT of tangents about what we would change – usually it’s adding more whump.
Jo – Sometimes we have a set of questions we like to follow. For example, pacing, writing style, what gave us whumperflies, what we liked or didn’t like about the fic or characterization. Other times we have an open discussion and just discuss everything that comes to mind. And as Wolf said we go on lots of tangents and add more whump, or rewrite whole parts to make it whumpier. Haha!
Pan – Everything goes, really. Details in the fics, characters and their choices, interactions between different characters, whump… It’s hard to put into a few words. It’s also surprising how often we fall in love with the Original Characters of a fic we read.
Do you think that your reading habits have changed at all since joining Fic Club, either in terms of reading fanfiction or original fiction?
Pan – Mh in terms of what I read, it didn’t change all too much. Fortunately…Unfortunately? The core group has a very similar taste in fanfiction, fandoms and whumpees, but as I said before I try to be open about fics I usually wouldn’t choose. Although these kinds of fics aren’t recommended very often. Maybe my habits changed with regards to commitment. Once we choose a fic, I am committed and with very few exceptions will finish reading it, no matter my thoughts.
Wolf – I’d say maybe a little bit. I now bookmark fics that I’ve enjoyed, so that I can recommend them on other reading rounds. I read a LOT of fics so it’s easy to get lost in them sometimes. I also pay more attention to smaller details, like things I’d like to discuss with the group. I’ve also discovered that I can download the fics from AO3 on my e-reader and can read them whenever and wherever I want! Thanks Pan!
Jo – Majorly! I’ve been reading fanfic most of my life but for many years I wasn’t able to read anything. Real life was just too hectic. Then I went through some health issues and didn’t have the mental energy to read. Joining the club has honestly changed my life and rebuilt a part of myself. It got me back into reading and it’s been so amazing and fun to share this experience with others.
And what about fandom preferences? Do you guys have preferred fandoms, and have you been introduced to any new ones through reading fics together?
Wolf – I think the fandom that comes back the most is Stargate Atlantis. I personally am very happy about this because I think Shep whump is THE whump I will almost always enjoy. We also enjoy Hawaii Five-O, The Mandalorian, The Old Guard and many others. I’ve discovered Teen Wolf and Final Fantasy XV thanks to the group. Also White Collar. I find it a bit harder to get into stories from fandoms that I don’t follow, since I find that, for me at least, whump is less enjoyable with unknown characters. But thanks to all the whump blogs I follow on tumblr I get to know MANY fandoms without ever watching the shows.
Jo – I preferred reading fandoms are Stargate, Smallville, Supernatural, Teen Wolf, NCIS LA, White Collar, The Old Guard, The Witcher and many more. But through the club I have been introduced to The Mandalorian, Sentinel/Guide stories, Hawaii Five 0, Final Fantasy Kingsglaive, and MCU. And expanded my reading on Teen Wolf and Stargate especially.
Pan – We have a bunch of fandoms we come back to every now and then, as the other two have already mentioned. With regards to novelty I read a few new fics with different whumpees in fandoms I like, and I was also able to peek into fandoms I am not very familiar with or usually don’t read fics in, like Star Trek, Critical Role, The Witcher and The Old Guard. I think it’s fun and beautiful that people in the group are so excited about a specific fic or fandom that they recommend it, even though they are aware that some of us don’t know the fandom or characters (yet). It’s this hope and trust that I really love.
Do you guys have any hopes for the club in the future? Anything you want to bring back or try differently?
Wolf – Well if more people want to join us for a discussion they’re more than welcome. Personally I enjoy the club the way it is :). Ooooh but it might be nice to co-write stories together!
Jo – I enjoy our small group currently, but it would be fun to have more people join! Maybe have more groups and discussion running parallel to one another based on a theme or a character and have a dedicated channel for each.
Pan – I really love the group we currently have, and I agree that a few more faces who might bring different perspectives to the discussion would be fun – people whose preferences we don’t know yet 😀 but it’s a lot of commitment that not a lot of people are ready to make. Apart from that I would love to blog more about the fics we read. I did that in the beginning, but real life got busy and I lost track of that. I think it would be fun getting back into it. Overall I agree that expanding sounds fun.
Because this is an interview about a book club which discusses fanfiction, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t ask this – do you have any recommendations for readers? Either fics that you’ve read through Fic Club or your own personal favourites.
Wolf – I can definitely recommend a few authors that we’ve repeatedly read from. On AO3 I discovered IreneClaire and tari_roo. Personally one of my favorite fanfics is on ff.net, it’s titled: A Time to Heal, written by PyroDragon2006. It has 54k of good Sheppard whump and angst.
There is also an unfinished fic in the Jurassic World fandom, titled: It’s not the Raptor DNA, written by SkullsandDuggery. It’s standing at a whole 720k right now, and I have to tell you it’s great – not totally whump-focused but the story and the characters are just amazing. Off the top of my head I’d also give you the Pushing Boundaries series on AO3, written by Macx. It’s also in the Jurassic World fandom. Go give them a read if you’d like. You can come message me on Tumblr @flyingwolf29 if you want to talk about them.
Jo – Off the top of my head I’d recommend the-wandering-whumper (water4willows), CatLovePower, Pan2fel, ClaraCivry (Kat_of_Dresden), aravenwood, gaelicspirit, Itar94, Bubbly88Tay, Phoenix-cry and Sweet Lu.
And some recent fics I’ve read that I really enjoyed:
Malasadas For The Healing Soul by thoughtreflex – Hawaii 5 0
walk inland by ScribeofArda – The Old Guard
we are the raven and the ghost by Itar94 – Stargate Atlantis
We Go Together by ManicRavingsofaLunatic – The Old Guard
Judgement by Sweet Lu – NCIS: LA
Pan – Uff. Don’t make me choose! That’s evil. Overall you can check out my AO3 account pan2fel and go through my bookmarks, but here are a few fics I really love:
The Raven’s Blade I: A Distant Light by Valandhir– it’s a Hobbit/LotR rewrite focusing on Kili.
No One Chooses This Life by lapsus_calami – a Teen Wolf/Supernatural Crossover, where Stiles trains with Dean and his father.
Of Ghosts and Gremlins by AlkalineTeegan – a NCIS fanfic featuring the Tony & Palmer friendship you didn’t know you needed.
Big Brother is Watching You by SgtReckless – a Teen Wolf fanfiction in which Stiles travels back in time and becomes a badass hunter.
Any last words, comments, etc?
Wolf – I’d say go read Pan and Sunai’s fics, they’re awesome! And if you’re into whump, definitely go give Jo a follow. Her blog is a gift to all whumpers, it’s so amazing.
Jo – If you’re looking to get into reading and explore fic outside your favorite fandoms, definitely give the server a try! The server also has dedicated channels just for fanfic and there is a large archive available and easily searchable. I have made some great friends on our little server and to be honest it has really helped me through some tough times. Much love to our whole server, and to Pan, Wolf, and Sunai especially. ❤
Pan – Thank you, my fellow Round Table Members 🙂 I love you with all my heart. And yeah, if you (reader) want to read and discuss fics with a bunch of lovely idiots, feel free to check our server out: https://discord.gg/BPyvGcJ
wince magazine 