Fandom Primer
The fandom manifesto is the intro to the media you’re a fan of or the intro to your relationship with the media.
So, example A is going to be the introducing other people to your fandom side of things.
Brief
This step isn’t totally necessary, but it’s nice to have before a cut. This is four lines or rest that give the name of the media, the creator, genre, release dates, status information and where to access it. You can pick and choose as much of this as you like, but it’s basically the first line you’d have on a wikia page.
Example:
Beyond the End by DuskDragonXII is an ongoing fantasy comedy webcomic that started in 2016. It was initially released on Tapas, before later being released on Webtoon and Webcomics.
DuskDragonXIII really flexes their love of stuff like Devilman, Monochrome Factor, Orphen, Neo Yokio, and some other series! Their influence shines through a lot of this and mwah I love to see it!
Summary
Now that you have the brief version there, you can move onto the plot summary. You can either start your rambling version where you can just talk wildly about all the stuff you love and probably try to avoid spoiling too much if you don’t want to risk spoiling it for anyone who potentially hasn’t already got into the thing. Alternatively, you can write it more in the style of a book blurb;
- Avoid using names, but introduce the main characters by concepts an unfamiliar audience will understand
- Introduce the main conflict of the story
- Describe how it escalates and why the situation matters to the protagonist
Also, if you’re talking about anything that has a definitive edition, this is a good place to dedicate an extra paragraph saying how the two versions differ and which you believe is best to consume for the better experience (or if it’s multiple versions, which order you recommend, or if it doesn’t matter). You might want to say a video games definitive edition is the best way to play it, or you might want to say that the movie edition of a show leaves out important information or that something that looks like a definitive edition is, in fact, completely unrelated and newbies could have potentially fallen for that trap.
Remember, this is your manifesto, so you get to decide what you recommend. It doesn’t have to agree with the general consensus. Say what you truly believe.
Example:
An angel is cast down from Heaven with no explanation as to why. With all the worlds gone, he finds himself in Purgatory among those from the beforeworld and the native inhabitants. Desperate for answers, he befriends a Purgatorian centaur, another fallen angel (now turned demon), and a strange cat-like creature that borders between Hell and Death. They set off together to get him back to Heaven.
He doesn’t want revenge. He doesn’t want back in. He just wants to know what he did wrong.
But something strange is happening with Heaven.
Content Warnings
Content warnings are a bit on the newer side of things, so you probably won’t see them much in older manifestos. But, it’s good practice to offer suitable warning. If you’re the type to go, “I can’t recommend this! There’s too much questionable content!” this is a good place to address that. You can give ample warning as well as give context for specific things. You can say this contains something but it presents it in this way, or it can be avoided by doing xyz.
I personally recommend presenting this as a table with spoiler tags.
Example:
| CW | Context |
|---|---|
| Religion | Religion is a prominent theme in the series |
| Character Death | Multiple characters die both temporarily and permanently |
| Possessiveness | Lucifer is frequently described as possessive of Halcyon |
| Anger issue framed negatively | Multiple characters comment on Lucifer having issues with his temper and make judgements of him based on it. |
Cast
This is your opportunity to introduce all the main characters (and sneak in any blorbo that isn’t a main character and pretend they totally are and you’re not at all biased don’t worry about it!)
Typically, this is where you can post a picture of the character and give their name and their role in the story. You can talk as much as you like, spoil however much your heart desires. You’ll probably be wanting to use this space to sell people on the characters and concept, so… just be as passionate as feels right to you. Maybe don’t give the full character manifesto (we can get to that later) but feel welcome to show all the passion you want!
Example:
End (short for Endymion) was cast down from Heaven without having his charges read. He’s only a new angel, having been born shortly before the end of the worlds as a new recruit. He struggled with training as a fighter, despite it being his supposed calling, and ended up trying to be a healer despite that failing. His dead name came from a martyr from when Lucifer fell, but he always struggled to live up to what that name meant. He’s sheltered and has had little exposure to the worlds and beliefs outside his home in Heaven and sometimes needs to learn the hard way that things aren’t like what he was taught. Except that means straying further from what he was told was the path of an angel, further from the path of God, but maybe closer to being a good person?
Additional Notes
So, if you have some important notes that you need to share, you can just add an extra area to slot those in. It might be something about the series availability, or tips for playing it if it’s a video game, or maybe you’re talking about h*******k and you’re going to want to talk about the impact of the Flash death on the experience and the difference between print books and etc. etc. etc. yada yada yada you get the gist.
Example:
While Beyond the End is available on multiple websites, I personally recommend using Tapas as it’s got the fastest updates and none of the chapters are split up. However, DuskDragonXIII is planning on moving it to an independent website, but it’s a lengthy process due to the length of it.
Once you’re caught up, you can also sign up for DuskDragonXIII’s patreon to get chapters a month early AND there’s a tier for you to get merchandise.
Shipping, Picspam, The Works
This is your last little brag area. This is basically the “anything I think will sell this to people” kind of space. So, if you’re like “oh this series has great art”, you can spam all the art (make sure to format it to look nice, there’s some simple CSS in the code section you can use) that you haven’t had a chance to show. You can talk about the popular ships and give a bit of a taster on those; couple of screencaps or quotes or mention what tropes are super popular in the fandom. You can also talk about “oh, such-and-such worked on this, you may know them for-” and there might be a more popular fandom linked to it that will draw people in.
You can also use this space to link to the Ao3, Dreamwidth groups, Pixiv tags, etc. so people can have a skim through those and see if the content the fandom is putting out appeals to them.
How to Access
Be sure to make sure you’ve covered the best places to access the media. Link to where it’s legally available (if it is) or if people would need to look for secondhand copies or copies in the original language, etc.
If you have an opinion like “oh this translation wasn’t good, you should read this one”, “the compilation movie leaves out a lot of important stuff”, “this movie is an alternate universe and not the same as the original series”, “this movie was made by Americans and completely removed all cultural context”, “not the one with the blue people”, or anything else – it’s good to let people know. Give them the steps for accessing the version you think is best so that they don’t feel overwhelmed looking for it themselves.
You can also take the time to explain your reasoning or the differences between versions so that people can know if what bothered you will bother them. Maybe you don’t like the dub because you don’t like dubs, they might love dubs. Maybe the dub changed a song to America the Beautiful and you think that’s funny and the reader will potentially want to avoid that. Or you might say here’s why the definitive edition is better and they can go “that does sound better; I’ll get that!”
And with that, you can call your pitch done. There might be more you want to add, and you’re welcome to! It’s your manifesto! Do whatever you want!
Other Type of Manifesto
Now on to example B, which is the intro to your relationship with the fandom. This can be a lot less detailed, but if you want the more detailed version, you can use segments from the previous example and work them in.
The way I’ve seen this used is giving a fast overview that people can skim for what information they want and you can give as little detail as you want. You can simplify it to one word answers if you wish.
Some categories you can include:
- What year you consumed it
- What series you watched if there are multiple or remakes
- Your OTP, favourite characters, scenes, writer, artist, etc.
- Other ships, characters, scenes, etc. that you liked
- Your preferred type of fan content
- Your favourite tropes in fanfiction, favourite fanfiction author, favourite fanartist, etc.
- Fanfic, fanart, meta, etc. recommendations
- Squicks, Landmines, NOTPs; however you want to address content you do not enjoy seeing
- Any extra thoughts or comments you have or facts that linger in your mind, etc. Things you might want to share with anyone who wants to know how you feel about the media.
I think these are really cool to use to give an overview of how you’re interacting with a media and they’re much more personal. However, it can be overwhelming if you have a lot of fandoms you need to cover. Maybe just create these as you are focusing on them and fill them while your brain is full of worms.