I guess that while I'm here I might just as well tell my own delurk story. [g] Keeping it in a separate post since it's irrelevant with the previous one.
When I first got hooked onto the internet, back in late June 1998, I immediately discovered fanfic and started to devour every story I could get my hands on. I quickly became accustomed to a few authors' style and got my favourites, for whom I would drop everything and rush to the archive. And since I'd always enjoyed writing, I decided to try my hand at it around the same time as well, with no intent whatsoever to share it with anyone, let alone post it somewhere on the net where
people could read it! No way!
My first brush with delurking was when I sent a feedback email to Debby Stark about her Dawning series. I was so sure she would never reply to me, that no-one would ever want to reply to someone they didn't know at all and who just happened to email them out of the blue about a story they had written (oh the misconceptions!)! But a few days later, much to my surprise, I got a very friendly reply from her where she replied to my comments in details and explained her plot and characterisation choices to me. I was thrilled! But being shy as I am (no, don't laugh, I am truly shy
), I didn't dare reply.
I kept reading fanfic and writing in my own little private corner. Or, I should say, dabbling. I was only just practicing my written English, which, as my teacher that year had told me, wasn't my forte. :p Fanfic reading came to the rescue on that front, and I felt a little more confident after ingesting (no, not literally [g]) thousands of pages. Still, being ESL is what held me back from getting out of lurkdom. Well, that, and the lack of available flat rate offer in my country.
However, when the 1999 Kerth ceremony came, I couldn't resist. After all, I'd sent votes in, and so I wanted to see if the stories I supported would win. I downloaded irc, logged on, and gasped when I saw the huge number of people talking and laughing and cheering at the winners. I remember I was first totally puzzled to see so many of my favourite authors there! Part of me hadn't realised that all those famous names truly existed beyond the electrons on my monitor, until I saw them talk. And I also remember that one of my first comment was to ask them how come they all knew each other. It was amazing. They got into the channel one after another, and under weird nicks, and people immediately greeted them by their real name. I remember (weird things the memory holds back sometimes) that one of them was laughing about sending hubby and kids to McDonald's to get the house for herself during the ceremony.
Everyone was very friendly, and I had a wonderful time. Since they had told me they gathered on #loiscla (old, old channel that isn't used any more AFAIK), I thought I would try this irc thing again soon. That's the worst thing that happened to my phone bill... but one of the best things that happened to me.
A few days later, though, my jaw literally hit the floor when I got an email from one of my favourite authors thanking me for my support (I had told her I'd loved her story on the Kerthchat channel). We started a correspondence from then on, because I happened to tentatively mention that I was trying my hand at writing, and she offered to BR for me. She was my first BR, and even though she's left the fandom and we've lost touch, I'm really grateful for the encouragement and help she provided back then.
Then things went quickly: I joined the ficlist a few weeks after irc, and started to post there, if not regularly, then at least more than I'd ever thought I would. As for the boards, I lurked on the old zoomway.com MBs for a few months before I registered to post my first fanfic (blaming El for twisting my arm to do so, btw [bg]).
And ditto what others mentioned, re.seeing your fanfic-heroes on irc! It's extremely intimidating at first, but quickly you realise they're completely normal people. Their writing leaves you in awe, but their friendliness and generosity are even more amazing.
Kaethel
(who's been very lucky to develop a few close friendships on irc that will probably last a lifetime
)
