It might help to recognize that when considering fanfic writers, these are individuals within already established *communities* who are being approached, often with no regard for the existing relationships and culturally understood behaviors within those communities.
As an anthropologist, you wouldn't enter a fieldwork situation and start offering farmers tractors, without first coming to an understanding of the particulars of the cultural and individual situations, which would inform your understanding of what the people involved actually wanted and needed, rather than what you from an outsider's uninformed perspective *think* they might want and need.
As with any mentoring relationship, there seem to be two possible solutions. You could keep yourself open and generally express your desire to help, and wait for people to come to you. Or you could opt to build personal relationships with fanfic writers whose work you admire and tailor your approach based on the particulars of each of those relationships.
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yati
no subject
Date: 2007-04-29 07:41 am (UTC)As an anthropologist, you wouldn't enter a fieldwork situation and start offering farmers tractors, without first coming to an understanding of the particulars of the cultural and individual situations, which would inform your understanding of what the people involved actually wanted and needed, rather than what you from an outsider's uninformed perspective *think* they might want and need.
As with any mentoring relationship, there seem to be two possible solutions. You could keep yourself open and generally express your desire to help, and wait for people to come to you. Or you could opt to build personal relationships with fanfic writers whose work you admire and tailor your approach based on the particulars of each of those relationships.