Your creative fandom pursuits are not a waste of time.
I hand-coded a fansite in 2001. The results would make your teeth hurt today but I learned about HTML and CSS.
A piece of meta went semi-viral in 2003. That taught me about traffic and analytics and what the Internet likes. Consulting to improve web site traffic was a tidy side income for me last year.
I never made the leap from fanfiction to original fiction, or writing
for novelisations of Star Trek and Doctor Who – but I have fandom
friends who did.I got my last job because of WordPress and Tumblr. I explained what tags were as part of an information architecture demonstration. Yes, I know. Still: hired!
I got my current job because of the online content skills gleaned over 15 years in fandom. “You’re a digital native.”
Creating art, stories, meta, videos, zines, shirts, RPing, managing a series of stories, tracking your traffic, responding to comments and debate, being part of a community – it’s all good.
Your creative fandom pursuits are not a waste of time.
Create and do what you love! Your passions can not only give you happiness but also knowledge and experience.
Co-signed.