The Why

I created this site to fill what I thought was a major gap in the hanfic world. I felt like we had become disorganized and scattered, and that we didn’t have any real system for or convention of thinking about and discussing our fics like I have seen in other fandoms. I had considered it for a while, and seeing that HansonFiction.com was closing gave me the final push to go for it. Plus, I felt there needed to be a record of who and what we are. We are an odd fandom, indeed. So here I am and here this place is. It’s kind of like a newsletter or a magazine — or maybe more like a primer on hanfic. I don’t know. It is what it is and hopefully it is interesting and useful to other readers and writers of hanfic.

 

The What

The name of the domain comes from Hanson’s song “Dancing in the Wind” from their third studio album, Underneath. The second verse of the song is as follows:

Just don’t walk away
When I’ve got you in my arms tonight
And I’ve got something to say
There are still rules to break
And this music is a place to hide
Isn’t it just a game we play

I really felt like that sentiment — “the music is a place to hide” — is one that really defines the fandom. So it was only appropriate that it be the inspiration for the name.

 

The Layouts

Originally, the site ran off blogger, before they stopped allowing you to set it up on a domain of your own. I briefly converted it back to pure html, then php, with a blog that ran on WordPress, but I wasn’t happy with that. In August 2010, I moved the entire site to WordPress and went through several layouts before I felt like I had any clue how WordPress themes worked at all. Here are a few thumbnails of the past layouts, with some missing.

December 2009 — Blue	December 2009 – February 2010 — Green
March 2010 — Hiatus	April 2010 — Black and Peach
May – June 2010 — Shout It Out	July 2010 – May 2011 — Futuristic
June 2011 — Grungy	July – October 2011 — Dark Wood
Nov. 2011 – Sep. 2012 — Green and Coral	October 2012 – February 2013 — Banditos
February – December 2013 — Suit and Tie	January 2014 – May 2014 — Already Home
June 2014 – November 2014 — The Teal Thing	December 2014 – February 2017 — Hot Pink

 

The Sections

Directory — This one is the biggest part of the site. It was originally put together for another website, with help from Renee P. The first version had only 600 links. It’s been through four layouts and now has nearly 4000 links.

Spotlights — This section is the one that gets updated the most often, since it’s a monthly thing, although I do sometimes have to put it on hiatus. The goal is to feature websites that will be of interest to hanfic readers and writers, point them toward some brand new stories and allow authors to shine a little and talk about themselves and their writing. It’s had more layouts than I can count.

Articles — This section has languished a bit, with only a few articles and two or three layouts. The idea is for it to be a more formal and less timely version of a blog. It’s open to anyone who wants to submit an article on hanfic, the band or the fans.

Reviews — The newest section, launched early in 2012 with just a few reviews of my own and one of Brittney’s. In September, I revamped it with a new layout and began a Year of Reviews, where I would review a story from each era each month for the next year. I’m now in my third year of reviews.

The rest of the site’s content is meant to add together to provide something of a primer and a few resources. Anything that doesn’t have its own section is just something a bit smaller than the sections, but still (I hope) interesting and informative. This other content is added sporadically, as I decide it would be fun and add it.

 

The Buttons

Here are some banners you can use to link back to this site. Please save them to your own server.