how much do you read fanfiction, outside your own work and/or circle of friends?
Barely. I'm not very active in fanfiction writing at all, except in a very restricted sense. I also have spurts where I can go for months without any activity before I write anything again. For a fanfiction writer, I'm not very productive and not very well-read. I always thought it was a disadvantage. Now I'm thinking that it may be an advantage. :)
Do you tend to favor work that is very much like yours (in pairing, genre, tropes/cliches used),
No, not really. Although a couple of explorations with pairings completely outside my interest range turned me into a very big fan of them (Spock/Christine in Star Trek, Egon/Janine in Ghostbusters, Daniel/Janet in Stargate, Sesshoumaru/Kagura in Inu Yasha). I don't think I'm well-read enough to know how cliche my work might or might not be. I hope it's not, but it probably is. I'm not even certain what a trope is! I keep seeing this word floating around, since I've joined the Inu Yasha fandom, but I still have no idea what it means.
or do you find yourself reading work by someone who writes something outside your comfort zone?
Well, the above shows some examples of me finding something fun and thoroughly enjoyable when reading outside my comfort zone, but failures include Sesshoumaru/Kagome and Sesshoumaru/Rin pairings in Inu Yasha (I'm afraid not even Tales From the House of the Moon can convert me to Sesshoumaru/Kagome, although I have found one Sesshoumaru/Rin story I could stomach, one Inuyasha/Sango pairing I could stomach, and one Kouga/Inuyasha story I found well-written. These stories haven't converted me to the pairing, but I accept they're well-written stories in their own right (which is how I feel about TFtHotM).
I tend to prefer team-based stories. The whole cast. I don't like ignoring anyone. :)
How much do you fear subconscious plagiarism, if at all?
Quite badly, actually. It's one of the reasons I don't read and write much fanfiction.
Are you even aware of how much your perception of the media around you influences your work?
Sometimes, but not all the time. Occasionally I can see myself doing something that's consciously not what I would normally do just because I'm afraid my natural instinct would result in something that I remembered reading/seeing/hearing and so feeling like it's not my own creation. I suppose it's good to push the boundaries of your comfort zone. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. :)
Mostly, I'm just not very active - in a general sense, anyway.
Do you care?
Not really. I write primarily for myself. Obviously, it's nice to know whether I'm doing a good or bad job and to hear advice on how I can improve, but overall, I write for myself first and foremost. I care enough to want my work to not be a copy of other peoples, but I don't really care if people like or dislike what I write.
no subject
Barely. I'm not very active in fanfiction writing at all, except in a very restricted sense. I also have spurts where I can go for months without any activity before I write anything again. For a fanfiction writer, I'm not very productive and not very well-read. I always thought it was a disadvantage. Now I'm thinking that it may be an advantage. :)
Do you tend to favor work that is very much like yours (in pairing, genre, tropes/cliches used),
No, not really. Although a couple of explorations with pairings completely outside my interest range turned me into a very big fan of them (Spock/Christine in Star Trek, Egon/Janine in Ghostbusters, Daniel/Janet in Stargate, Sesshoumaru/Kagura in Inu Yasha). I don't think I'm well-read enough to know how cliche my work might or might not be. I hope it's not, but it probably is. I'm not even certain what a trope is! I keep seeing this word floating around, since I've joined the Inu Yasha fandom, but I still have no idea what it means.
or do you find yourself reading work by someone who writes something outside your comfort zone?
Well, the above shows some examples of me finding something fun and thoroughly enjoyable when reading outside my comfort zone, but failures include Sesshoumaru/Kagome and Sesshoumaru/Rin pairings in Inu Yasha (I'm afraid not even Tales From the House of the Moon can convert me to Sesshoumaru/Kagome, although I have found one Sesshoumaru/Rin story I could stomach, one Inuyasha/Sango pairing I could stomach, and one Kouga/Inuyasha story I found well-written. These stories haven't converted me to the pairing, but I accept they're well-written stories in their own right (which is how I feel about TFtHotM).
I tend to prefer team-based stories. The whole cast. I don't like ignoring anyone. :)
How much do you fear subconscious plagiarism, if at all?
Quite badly, actually. It's one of the reasons I don't read and write much fanfiction.
Are you even aware of how much your perception of the media around you influences your work?
Sometimes, but not all the time. Occasionally I can see myself doing something that's consciously not what I would normally do just because I'm afraid my natural instinct would result in something that I remembered reading/seeing/hearing and so feeling like it's not my own creation. I suppose it's good to push the boundaries of your comfort zone. At least, that's what I keep telling myself. :)
Mostly, I'm just not very active - in a general sense, anyway.
Do you care?
Not really. I write primarily for myself. Obviously, it's nice to know whether I'm doing a good or bad job and to hear advice on how I can improve, but overall, I write for myself first and foremost. I care enough to want my work to not be a copy of other peoples, but I don't really care if people like or dislike what I write.