love ain't nothing more than black magic

So my current fandom pursuit is a Wangxian Star Wars AU, which I've very proudly titled "ignite the stars." 

I've had it on the backburner since forever: since well before my fandom hiatus, actually, and on-and-off again during it, just for funsies, when working on original stuff got to be a little too stressful.

In order to really get myself into that Star Wars headspace again, though, I've been reading some EU books, and God, I'd forgotten just how batshit and fun Star Wars could be. Like, "Palpatine's daddy dom bastard son fighting alien labor unions" levels of batshit. 




I'm doing X-Wing right now, and then I'll probably do something with some Jedi in it, since Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are Jedi in this 'verse. Maybe Jedi Academy, or Young Jedi Knights? The fic is set pre-Imperial, though, so maybe I'll dip into some of the old Obi-Wan stuff. I've never actually read much of that. 

I've also been thinking a lot about like, how much I really want Dreamwidth to stick, even if it's just as a small, quiet counterfandom, and what I think something like that would require in like, legwork. (I'm a former campaign staffer, man, my brain operates in nothing but logistics.)

I think you'd need like, definitive onboarding, for one: beginner's guides for how Dreamwidth works, guides for expectations, guides for what to do when you're first getting in and how to do it. You'd probably need to get some HTML themes / custom layouts with more modern designs, since fandom (and the internet in general) has become widely more aesthetic in sensibility. 

An event might help things, as well: something centered around Dreamwidth, around convincing people to create and be active on Dreamwidth accounts. Maybe centered around like, meta or guides? Dreamwidth seems like it would be perfect for that kind of thing, but fic-specific events might be cool too. Something that requires input and community interaction. 

I honestly think that if you could build a small community separate from Twitter, the growth would follow: have the available resources for people to make and use accounts without getting confused, and then have just a dozen or so accounts with regular activity to show that the community is active. Once you could demonstrate that, I think the exodus (a small exodus, but one that could keep a fire going and a house warm) would follow.

That's all just hip-shooting, though: a thought experiment, more than anything. It'd be cool if we, or anyone, could make it happen, though, in the wake of Twitter being... well. Twitter.