Not very many, if any, of my friends, are 'shippers' or even know what the hell that means. But it's a name given to people in a fandom, who support a certain relationship on the TV show, movie, book, etc. of the person's choice. 'Ships' can be canon, which means, they actually happened on the show/book/movie, or they can be non-canon, which means you just really want these two people to jump in bed and fall in love, even if it makes no sense within the original writer's story. I'm guilty of being both a canon and non-canon shipper. Usually non-canon. Because in my head, I'm the one who knows what's hot, and screw the actual writers. Kidding. Sort of. But I like fantasy. Like even more fantasy than actually giving a crap about fictional people and their romances. How long have I been a 'shipper'? Since I was about 9. Only of course the internet didn't exist, I had no idea there was a thing called 'fan fiction' and I mostly just wrote stories in my diary about the couples I adored and what I wanted to happen to them.
I began writing fanfic in my diary when I was 9, and it was all Princess Leia and Han Solo based. In my head, the movies didn't end at Return of the Jedi. Oh no. I had an entire LIFE planned for them. Of course this was like 1983 and there was no actual audience for such ridiculous things, except my own diary. As I got older, my ship of choice was Lois and Clark, from the TV show of the same name, with Dean Cain and that chick from Desperate Housewives I'm too lazy to Google. But yes, I wrote stories for them. No one ever read them. This was still before the internet made a splash. I just thought I was a supreme weirdo. And that may still be true, yet, I know now, I wasn't alone!
That's the beauty of the internet. I first got this amazing invention a month or two after my son was born, in 1998. I'd heard of it, didn't understand it, but I thought, "I wanna see what the hell this is.." So I signed up for Roseville Online dial-up service for like $10 a month, on an old computer that my mom gave me she found in a storage locker, that had so much porn and viruses on it, I'm shocked it actually ran. But it was free, so whatever, right? I was on the phone constantly to Roseville Online asking, "What the hell is a cookie? Do I want to accept them?" and wondering how to work this new invention I was so clueless about. But flash forward a few months later when I felt like an internet 'pro'. I was super into Buffy the Vampire Slayer, yet I'd missed the first two seasons. I was behind. So I did a search, probably on something lame like 'Infoseek.com' or whatever the hell existed then, and I stumbled upon my very first encounter with fanfic.
I was SO confused. I thought the stories were actual re-caps of what I'd missed on the show. And I got super embroiled in this love story about Spike and Buffy and Willow and Giles, and I thought it was fucking real! I didn't understand the concept of fanfic. This instantly made me a Buffy/Spike shipper, before I even knew the term for it. Then I found out I was reading fiction and not a recap. Which only made me want to write my own fiction! So I did. I think it was 1999 and I became a Buffy/Spike romance writer online, when on the show, Spike was still horrible and evil, and Buffy wanted him dead. Did I care? No. I saw the potential! And I wrote my little heart out, and built a shitty website and suddenly, people knew me! People loved my crappy writing. God only knows, I praised the internet God's for this, since this was the first time my writing had an audience that wasn't my teddy bear. And to be quite fair, it really was awful. Dreadful. So unbelievable and sappy and just plain terrible. I'm embarrassed. But other people loved it! So I kept going.
Over the course of the years, my writing got better, my audience grew, and I was actually respected on the internet in the Buffy world. I took a non-canon ship, and helped make it famous! Of course, it later became canon, etc. But I was a pioneer. I saw the potential YEARS before Joss did. People called their ship 'Spuffy' shippers. I was a leading author of Spuffy fanfic. All because of a story I read, that I didn't even know was fake, and decided to join the effort. If you were a Buffy fan in the early 2000's on the internet, you'd know me by name. I was 'internet famous'. Which means I was no one, but online, I was sort of a God. Who knew being a 'shipper' had this many perks?? I didn't! I lived half my life or more not even knowing such a thing existed. I was late to the game.
But now, Buffy's long over, and my fame is gone. Such is life. I've moved on. I've written Mulder and Scully, Draco and Hermione, Harry and Hermione, etc. I'm still out there. I don't have my own website, though my old one still exists in cyberspace, untouched for the last 13 years or so. Roseville Online never took it down, so it's just there. I can't access it, but it lives. Although Geocities, where I hosted 95% of my stories went under YEARS ago, so the stories come up as lost pages, the site is still there. But now I host shit at fanfiction,net. And I have a nice amount of fans. People dig Harry Potter fiction, just as much as Buffy fiction. But isn't it weird I grew up being something that didn't have a name until I was well into my 20's? So weird. I envy kids and teens now, because I wish there was an internet when I was growing up.
This is one reason why I don't consider myself a 'grown up'. How can I be, when I share writing space with 15 year olds? But who cares, right? I'm still writing. And I am not ashamed to admit I love comments and praise. The bad comments? They come with the territory. But usually if someone hates my work, they just go away. Anyways, that's what a 'shipper' is. It's a term for someone who lives for relationships within fictional worlds. Whether you expand on something real, or make it all up, it doesn't matter. SOMEONE else has your dream. And they wanna read it. And that's what I do with my spare time when I'm not managing a Harry Potter fan page, writing original stories, or pinning pointless bullshit to my Pinterest account.
Long live the shippers! I still think Harry and Hermione should have ended up together... and JK Rowling agrees, and she's the one who wrote the original story! Long live Harmony! That is all. Peace be with you. And romance shall live on....
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