All my life, my tryst with HP fanfiction has been a very private thing- I've never talked to people about it, mostly because I've never met anyone with that common obsession. I've just realized, however, that perhaps it isn't as idiosyncratic an interest as I've always assumed...

A couple of hours ago, I was eating lunch with a close friend and had an angsty, wallow-in-emotions sort of conversation with her. Near the end, we drifted onto the topic of stupid private quirks and she revealed somewhat abashedly that she read HP fanfiction.

*insert OMG-ME-TOO moment*

The question I'm posing is: Is your fascination with fanfiction a public interest that you share with friends, or is it deeply private? What about DLP?

And furthermore, if it is a very private matter, do you ever wish that it could be more public?



EDIT: I just emailed my friend a link to DLP. Act normal, everyone! >_<

 

My stance on things that I consider to be excessively nerdy tends to be "keep it private unless you know the other person would be into it too," so yeah, private.

 

I agree with DV, unless I know the other person is really interested it and if it is a girl that the girl is not into yaoi, then I would not talk about it at all.

 

I keep fanfiction private too. I even do all my writing on FFnet's document manager.

 

Private. My brother knows that I read fanfiction, and one or two of my nerdier friends do as well, but the majority of my associates are unaware, and will probably stay that way for the foreseeable future.

 

Private. It's serious business. I know a lot of people who have read the books, but I never told anyone about fanfiction.

Btw: There is an age old thread, for reference: http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=4131

 

Dark Minion beat me to it re: old thread.

Private, mostly. My family and a couple facebook friends from childhood know. Aside from that, I keep it close.

I have two "big-three"-published speculative fiction authors down the hall from me at work. Given that fanfiction is considered among the professional ranks as the Velvet Elvis of writing, I'm not about to confess to writing it around the water cooler. (All they know is that I occasionally write short stories, but that I'm spectacularly unsuccessful at getting my fiction published).

 

Private. The only person who knows I read ff is my brother who doesn't care one way or another. Basically, its like DV said "keep it private unless you know the other person would be into it too."

 

PRIVATE.

Most people don't even know how obsessed about HP I am. It's one of those things where you would feel really awkward sharing it because most people would start to look at you in a weird light. Most of the kids who read Fanfiction in my school are classified as the gothic kids who keep to themselves and cut. >.>

I have, however, told a few people before (like 2), but they don't know that I still continue to read fanfiction. Most people think I quit like 3-4 years ago.

 

Haven't told a single soul. I do know that one of my friends writes Twilight fanfiction but I'm not about to start talking about fanfiction with her.

I think a friend and some of my family know but I'm not about to ask if they know in case they actually don't know.

 

Private, I once tried to get my best friend into it. Boy did that backfire gloryously. Now I only talk about it when really sure that I'm on the same level with someone.

 

Never mentioned it. Since the HBP movie just came out, I whip out a fun fact or two whenever the conversation comes up, but otherwise I keep it on the DL.

 

Well, some of my friends know but they are not into it so we generally don't talk about it. On a side note, you would expect to meet a lot more people writing/ reading fanficton then you actually do, it is kind of weird.

 

This. I know a girl who's (or was ?) into it too, but she's on the dark side of the fandom, so...

Private.

 

On FF.net, there's about 400,000 stories in HP alone. That translates into at least 200,000 members.

That's a pretty sizable number. =/

Which means that since we don't meet any other fanfiction people, it must be because they're keeping it private as well.

Moral: we should all come out of the closet.

 

I would say that translates into at least a million members. Most people don't write stories. Even more don't even register.

Anyway, my friends know I really liked the HP books when I was younger and still like the series. They don't know that i read FF but I usually shock them with my inzane knowledge of everything.

 

I'm a little bit of both. I don't advertise the fact that I read HP fanfiction, but if someone asks me what I'm reading I will tell them.

 

Private. Most my friends do not read JKR's books. They know I'm an HP fan. They do not know how big a fan I am.

 

I was much more private at first, not mentioning unless the other person was into it as well. But lately, I find it a pretty good subject for avoiding awkward silence when you're out of conversation topics.

Everyone's got their "guilty" passions, so in the end it's not a big deal or something to be ashamed of.