How To Find Good Classic Fic

I'm looking into early Star Wars fandom because it's notoriously hard to track down and piece together. I for sure know it existed, but I think a lot of it must have centered around in-person events and screenings given its wider popularity. I'm still gathering info, but what I found while looking around was that Star Wars kind of invaded Star Trek fandom in its early years. Star Trek zines and cons suddenly included Star Wars stories or merch. The lead-up cons to the formation of MediaWest*Con were all Star Trek in origin, but by the third con Star Wars fans seemed to make up half the crowd. The first split the FanQ Awards ever made was into Star Trek and Star Wars.

So. The FanQ Awards. Let me put a pin in them for a second. There's are a lot of old zines and stories going around from fandoms that date back to the 70s. They also happen to be my most-loved fandoms. While there are continuing efforts in some communities to get the zine stories on to Archive Of Our Own (AO3) where they can be listed, tagged, rated, and reviewed, the vast majority of them are offline - plus, even when the story is on AO3, the original impact isn't there. New comments might allude to the story's classic status but none of the contemporary reactions are available.

Popular stories used to be available and spread on Livejournal through curated rec lists (you might follow a fellow fan simply because their rec lists are so great or in tune with your tastes). Experienced fans would make masterlist fic posts that would prime or entice newbies for that show's fandom. I find, though, that with the majority of fandom on the visual-heavy tumblr or searching through their own filters on AO3, there isn't much public group chat about fic anymore.

So, I've developed a system of my own to determine what stories I should pursue. Obviously, the recommendations of older fans I come into contact with are highly valued. Whenever I join a new Discord server it's always lovely to see a backlog of recommendations. Otherwise, I'm left to my own devices, and I've found that using old fandom awards of the past can be a great guide to the best that not only each fandom but that each year had to offer. LJ also frequently had smaller community awards that are worth perusing for that era of fandom, but since the zine works I'm looking at were pre-internet this has become the quickest way for me to add to my TBR pile.

FanQ

For the FanQ awards, which really took off during MediaWest*Con, there were separate sections for Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, Starsky & Hutch, eventually any fandom that was popular enough to get three or more votes. Most of these zines were gen, which is not my preference, but I don't know, I'll read a good gen story if it won an award. And look at all those fandoms I'm obsessed with! The FanQ's ran from 1977-1989, a primo time for burgeoning zine stories and art in general. A lot of the winners are listed on Fanlore with links to the fan's pages, but they are also still available on archival MediaWest*Con pages.

STIFfies

As a reaction to con-sponsored FanQ awards, a non-affiliated slash awards were given at the same con. STIF stands for Slash Talent in Fandom and began in 1992, basically when online slash started really taking off. The focus was still on zines, but I truly believe the popularity afforded to slash from people talking about it through webrings and rec.arts, etc. was what galvanized the fandom. Looking at the listings and winners helps you sort through what fandoms were most popular (The Pros, Blake's 7, Wiseguy) as well as also being relatively well-documented through Fanlore. (Link is to my perfect fandoms year, apparently 1996.)

Huggies, Torinos, and Paula Wilshe

Now we get into some deep lore. Most cons had awards of some kind but the competition between fandoms could be fierce. The Huggy Awards came out of ZebraCon, the Starsky & Hutch convention (modeled pre-MWC Star Trek conventions) started in 1979. It honored both slash and gen and showcased the best zine stories and art within the fandom. While not every single listing is available through fanlore, many of them have links to the story or artwork pages, making it at least easier to find out more about the work. It will also list the zine the work is from, which I can use to target buy the 'best' zines.

The Torinos were only gen but almost every work has an external link. Sometimes to a privately hosted fanpage where you can also view their other works. If it doesn't look like the site it hosted anymore, you can always try your luck on The Wayback Machine and hope someone saved a copy of the original site. The link to "The Sacrifice" by Brit is broken on Fanlore but I was able to find it elsewhere by searching the name and fandom. The Paula Wilshe awards are for the currently running SHareCon (although the awards have stopped) and can all be viewed on that site, which brings us practically to the modern day with fans being awarded for works on AO3 and otherwise.

This is all for one fandom, which means I will have plenty of classic S&H fic to read for the rest of my life. Additionally, sometimes just searching for the name of the awards brings up writer sites that advertise their wins and all their stories are still available, all outside of AO3. In looking at older Star Wars fandom I found out about the Star aWards, opening a whole new resource for me. If you want to try your luck with your own fandom, have at it.