Dear fanwriters
Mar. 17th, 2013 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabeth1) Don't be afraid to tag your WIP abandoned if they are. It's kind of sad sitting there staring at fic for a year wondering if that 9/? will turn into a 10.
2) A drabble is 100 words precisely. No more, no less. Calling all short fics drabbles is like calling all poetry sonnets.
3) I realise it's not obligatory to provide a Happily Ever After, but writing a pairing just so you can portray one or both as big dumb jerks who hate each other is... I don't get it. Why do that? And why post it to an archive tagged with the / that promises to be all about that pairing? If they get to the end and break up, why would people looking for that / want to read it? Is baffling.
specific to Avengers fic
4) I realise Steve Rogers dating family members of people he previously dated is actual comics canon. I still find it creepy. I mean, sisters is just kind of not classy and liable to turn into arguments at holidays, but niece creeps me out a bit and granddaughter is just... no. What? No. Who does that? Comics have issues.
But, I mention this only to say, I can see where fandom is coming from with this one, but: It really seriously creeps me out if he was shagging both Howard and Tony. I mean, that's the guy's son. That's just... no. Do not want. Emphatically.
If story is properly tagged then I can avoid the things that will make me feel ew and want the brain bleach.
Please to tag fully and appropriately?
Pretty please?
Also,
5) If the fic is tagged Movie verse but is full of characters I've never met and has Tony be about as tall as Cap and both of them blue eyed? That is not movie fic. If the fandom field has movie and comics Avengers in it, or ambiguous fandom which I see a lot, then fair enough, you've just picked all your favourite bits, though I cannot understand not wanting Tony to look like RDJr, to each their own. But if it just says movie? Wrong shelf. Will make me grumpy.
If I was the boss of the world... *shakes fist at sky*
I know, I'm not the boss of anything.
Tumblr style tags on Ao3 I'm not even going to bother doing more than *sigh* about. On Ao3 tags have a purpose. I have been attempting to navigate Tumblr and I can see how people can end up breaking all the things to attempt to bend it to their will, because nothing works zomg why tumblr why arrgh but Ao3 tags were working pretty well.
... well, as these things go.
The difference possible meanings of 'Alternate Univers - Canon' are a bit clumsy. Like, does it mean branching off canon, or something like Stargate where there are alternate universes they've visited in canon. Like, canonical alternates that are part of canon but not where the story usually is set. I can see both. But they clearly need differentiating from High School AUs or D/s AUs or A/B/O or Sentinel/Guide or, I don't know, penguins or ice skaters or whatever.
... sometimes I look at fandom and what manages to become common or standard tropes and I just, I don't know, what, thing, bzuh? *facepalm*
... but I read many of those categories.
(Enough to form cranky opinions about Proper Capitalisation, for instance: If you're going to capitalise Dominant, fair enough. But subs don't get a capital. You have Dominants and submissives, not Doms and Subs. Why do I think that? Because of certain internet conventions I became aware of in the early 90s after I started typing my name all in lowercase because my ISP at the time was case sensitive. Does anyone use that any more? *big shrug* My store of cranky does not thus far run out, and seems to find things to be cranky about all over the place.)
I'm actually interested in the differences and similarities between Sentinel/Guide, D/s and A/B/O. I mean they're all 'verses which amp up the importance of apparently-biological categories while on the one hand stressing power imbalances and on the other mixing them up and making plot out of all the various ways the inequalities can work different than you'd think. Like, Sentinels are big strong alpha dudes who respond to pheremones and get cranky and protective. But their Guides kind of run their lives. So they're mutually in charge, somehow, and it works as a partnership even while being all about the power imbalance in a particular instance. So then there's D/s fic where the ways round things work in bed and in the field can be totally opposite or totally the same, but either way the one giving the orders is not in fact the one with all the power. And then A/B/O has the pheremones and biological imperatives to protect and then people mix it up with if Omegas are submissive or they make Alphas work for their chances or whatever, but however it's set up the stories that aren't just straight up porn seem to explore gender and power and how biology is and isn't the boss of you and they're doing weirdly interesting SF type things. With lots of sex. But remaking humanity to have four or six genders just defamiliarises everything. It's kind of fascinating to watch how the possibilities run, even/especially in the porn, because it's all interacting with the canon characterisations and yet it's taking these icons of masculinity and femininity and just totally remixing what that even means. But people probably don't sit down thinking they'll reveal the constructed and performative nature of gender, they're probably more like, hey, let's say Tony can have babies with Steve! Porn now! But only probably, because Tony and constructed/performed masculinity is a really easy topic, he's got these roles he plays and it reminds me of drag even though his body matches. And with A/B/O there's in some ways a reinscribing of categories of top and bottom that people have been complaining about in slash for ages, usually in terms of making one of them 'the girl'. And it is weird how in fic every height difference is exaggerated, even with pairings where there's no consensus on which direction there is a height difference. Stuff like that, mixed with A/B/O, leads to newly biological categories of difference in preferences. And then there's pheremones and hormones and heat cycles and really actually being out of control and controlled by your chemistry. But all of that gets mixed with characters who save the world a lot, so it's kind of like say, okay, we are chemistry, but fuck it, we still rule.
Applying the same tools about gender construction and representation to A/B/O fic that I've been using all year for my dissertation gets really quite weird. Because there's masculinities, femininities, and then to my eye ways to be a hermaphrodite that still get read in terms of a gender binary. And this isn't just one SF writer doing their thing, it's a trope that gets written about in plural fandoms. What's up with that?
I mean, it's cool people writing whatever springs to mind, everyone's got stories to tell, but why do they sometimes swirl together into these 'verses that take on a fairly consistent form and get applied all over the place? If The Sentinel was as popular on TV as it has been influential on fandom we'd be able to buy all the episodes. And there'd be more of them. By a lot.
Or maybe fandom is in fact quite small and it's all just the same people migrating and bringing their baggage. I mean, I know starting in Highlander fic gave me ideas about how flashbacks fit in a story and how to get to know a character weapon first. We're bringing archaeological layers to each new text. Is cool.
Okay, I'm rambling.
I took the weekend off from Big Thinking so I have nothing to do in particular.
But I think I'm going to watch lots of Doctor Who soon because apparently that's all there is in my head anyway, even when I give it all the options.
... which isn't new.
2) A drabble is 100 words precisely. No more, no less. Calling all short fics drabbles is like calling all poetry sonnets.
3) I realise it's not obligatory to provide a Happily Ever After, but writing a pairing just so you can portray one or both as big dumb jerks who hate each other is... I don't get it. Why do that? And why post it to an archive tagged with the / that promises to be all about that pairing? If they get to the end and break up, why would people looking for that / want to read it? Is baffling.
specific to Avengers fic
4) I realise Steve Rogers dating family members of people he previously dated is actual comics canon. I still find it creepy. I mean, sisters is just kind of not classy and liable to turn into arguments at holidays, but niece creeps me out a bit and granddaughter is just... no. What? No. Who does that? Comics have issues.
But, I mention this only to say, I can see where fandom is coming from with this one, but: It really seriously creeps me out if he was shagging both Howard and Tony. I mean, that's the guy's son. That's just... no. Do not want. Emphatically.
If story is properly tagged then I can avoid the things that will make me feel ew and want the brain bleach.
Please to tag fully and appropriately?
Pretty please?
Also,
5) If the fic is tagged Movie verse but is full of characters I've never met and has Tony be about as tall as Cap and both of them blue eyed? That is not movie fic. If the fandom field has movie and comics Avengers in it, or ambiguous fandom which I see a lot, then fair enough, you've just picked all your favourite bits, though I cannot understand not wanting Tony to look like RDJr, to each their own. But if it just says movie? Wrong shelf. Will make me grumpy.
If I was the boss of the world... *shakes fist at sky*
I know, I'm not the boss of anything.
Tumblr style tags on Ao3 I'm not even going to bother doing more than *sigh* about. On Ao3 tags have a purpose. I have been attempting to navigate Tumblr and I can see how people can end up breaking all the things to attempt to bend it to their will, because nothing works zomg why tumblr why arrgh but Ao3 tags were working pretty well.
... well, as these things go.
The difference possible meanings of 'Alternate Univers - Canon' are a bit clumsy. Like, does it mean branching off canon, or something like Stargate where there are alternate universes they've visited in canon. Like, canonical alternates that are part of canon but not where the story usually is set. I can see both. But they clearly need differentiating from High School AUs or D/s AUs or A/B/O or Sentinel/Guide or, I don't know, penguins or ice skaters or whatever.
... sometimes I look at fandom and what manages to become common or standard tropes and I just, I don't know, what, thing, bzuh? *facepalm*
... but I read many of those categories.
(Enough to form cranky opinions about Proper Capitalisation, for instance: If you're going to capitalise Dominant, fair enough. But subs don't get a capital. You have Dominants and submissives, not Doms and Subs. Why do I think that? Because of certain internet conventions I became aware of in the early 90s after I started typing my name all in lowercase because my ISP at the time was case sensitive. Does anyone use that any more? *big shrug* My store of cranky does not thus far run out, and seems to find things to be cranky about all over the place.)
I'm actually interested in the differences and similarities between Sentinel/Guide, D/s and A/B/O. I mean they're all 'verses which amp up the importance of apparently-biological categories while on the one hand stressing power imbalances and on the other mixing them up and making plot out of all the various ways the inequalities can work different than you'd think. Like, Sentinels are big strong alpha dudes who respond to pheremones and get cranky and protective. But their Guides kind of run their lives. So they're mutually in charge, somehow, and it works as a partnership even while being all about the power imbalance in a particular instance. So then there's D/s fic where the ways round things work in bed and in the field can be totally opposite or totally the same, but either way the one giving the orders is not in fact the one with all the power. And then A/B/O has the pheremones and biological imperatives to protect and then people mix it up with if Omegas are submissive or they make Alphas work for their chances or whatever, but however it's set up the stories that aren't just straight up porn seem to explore gender and power and how biology is and isn't the boss of you and they're doing weirdly interesting SF type things. With lots of sex. But remaking humanity to have four or six genders just defamiliarises everything. It's kind of fascinating to watch how the possibilities run, even/especially in the porn, because it's all interacting with the canon characterisations and yet it's taking these icons of masculinity and femininity and just totally remixing what that even means. But people probably don't sit down thinking they'll reveal the constructed and performative nature of gender, they're probably more like, hey, let's say Tony can have babies with Steve! Porn now! But only probably, because Tony and constructed/performed masculinity is a really easy topic, he's got these roles he plays and it reminds me of drag even though his body matches. And with A/B/O there's in some ways a reinscribing of categories of top and bottom that people have been complaining about in slash for ages, usually in terms of making one of them 'the girl'. And it is weird how in fic every height difference is exaggerated, even with pairings where there's no consensus on which direction there is a height difference. Stuff like that, mixed with A/B/O, leads to newly biological categories of difference in preferences. And then there's pheremones and hormones and heat cycles and really actually being out of control and controlled by your chemistry. But all of that gets mixed with characters who save the world a lot, so it's kind of like say, okay, we are chemistry, but fuck it, we still rule.
Applying the same tools about gender construction and representation to A/B/O fic that I've been using all year for my dissertation gets really quite weird. Because there's masculinities, femininities, and then to my eye ways to be a hermaphrodite that still get read in terms of a gender binary. And this isn't just one SF writer doing their thing, it's a trope that gets written about in plural fandoms. What's up with that?
I mean, it's cool people writing whatever springs to mind, everyone's got stories to tell, but why do they sometimes swirl together into these 'verses that take on a fairly consistent form and get applied all over the place? If The Sentinel was as popular on TV as it has been influential on fandom we'd be able to buy all the episodes. And there'd be more of them. By a lot.
Or maybe fandom is in fact quite small and it's all just the same people migrating and bringing their baggage. I mean, I know starting in Highlander fic gave me ideas about how flashbacks fit in a story and how to get to know a character weapon first. We're bringing archaeological layers to each new text. Is cool.
Okay, I'm rambling.
I took the weekend off from Big Thinking so I have nothing to do in particular.
But I think I'm going to watch lots of Doctor Who soon because apparently that's all there is in my head anyway, even when I give it all the options.
... which isn't new.