Some of it is just when you "arrive" as well. I've been online since 1987 and had heavy, heavy involvement in the old ras.* groups starting in around 1990. (I got very involved after the ras.* hierarchy split, if anyone remembers what that even means.) And I ended up writing a monster fic that took off at precisely the time when online fandom was taking off. If I had written it much later, maybe it wouldn't have taken off like it did.
Then, I ended up churning out a bunch of stuff over the next couple years, and I think that quality-wise, I've managed to sustain it fairly nicely. However, that initial boost-launch from putting "Delightful Education" on asfs did give me a lot of inertia. I was also on a mailing list that, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, ended up farming some of the best-known (and best) fic authors out there, including Julia Kosatka and Kellie Matthews. It wasn't conscious; we just gravitated because we liked each other and wound up on a list together. I think we became fic writers at the same time.
None of this was planned. Like most of the companies that hit the stratosphere during the sudden explosion of the net, I think a lot of it was timing. We just happened to be talking and started ficcing when the net and the web exploded, so we got a tremendous boost from it. Those of us who were good authors could ride that boost.
It's convenient, because now it lets me gafiate (except when I poke around idly in metablog :-)) without losing name recognition. *shrug* Although the net/web is so plastic nowdays that it's probably tailed off considerably without my being aware of it. At any rate, for the most part, I just write and keep to myself nowdays.
fandom and timing
Then, I ended up churning out a bunch of stuff over the next couple years, and I think that quality-wise, I've managed to sustain it fairly nicely. However, that initial boost-launch from putting "Delightful Education" on asfs did give me a lot of inertia. I was also on a mailing list that, for absolutely no reason whatsoever, ended up farming some of the best-known (and best) fic authors out there, including Julia Kosatka and Kellie Matthews. It wasn't conscious; we just gravitated because we liked each other and wound up on a list together. I think we became fic writers at the same time.
None of this was planned. Like most of the companies that hit the stratosphere during the sudden explosion of the net, I think a lot of it was timing. We just happened to be talking and started ficcing when the net and the web exploded, so we got a tremendous boost from it. Those of us who were good authors could ride that boost.
It's convenient, because now it lets me gafiate (except when I poke around idly in metablog :-)) without losing name recognition. *shrug* Although the net/web is so plastic nowdays that it's probably tailed off considerably without my being aware of it. At any rate, for the most part, I just write and keep to myself nowdays.