60% of the time, it works every time

Yuletide=OMG SO MUCH FIC

2012-12-27T14:34:55Z

Happy Yuletide, everyone!

I haven't really been involved in fanfic for quite some time but I'm not going to lie, Yuletide this year has rekindled some of my love for fic. Such a bounty to choose from! So, a few recs, all anonymously written until reveal on January 1st.

30 Rock:
Santamental (Jack/Liz) Not only does this fic feature my secret, shameful 30 Rock OTP, it's freaking HILARIOUS. I'm fairly convinced that Tina Fey is secretly writing fanfic.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell:
A Version of the Truth (Sonmi~451, Hae-Joo) This fic is a classic example of why fanfic can be so satisfying. To me, it deepens the latter half of Sonmi's story and makes some of the decisions she made in the book make more sense. It also brings back two of my favorite characters.

Elementary:
let yourself be found (Holmes, Watson) A lovely meditation of how Joan Watson adjusts to working with Sherlock Holmes.

Solve for X (Holmes, Watson) The story follows Sherlock through the first six weeks of his partnership with Watson, and his plotting to keep her after the six weeks are up. I don't have words to describe how brilliantly the characters are captured here or the author's wonderful use of language. Just go read it.

Three Anniversaries: A Love Story (Holmes, Watson) I really like the summary for this fic: "Not all great love stories are about romance." I adore Holmes and adore Watson in Elementary and I love their partnership, but right now I don't have much desire to see them romantically involved. That's why I'm so thrilled about the great wealth of friendship stories about them and this one is tops, gorgeously illustrating three important anniversaries in the friendship of Sherlock and Joan.

Trust me, I have a plan (Holmes, Watson) OMG, AU with Joan Watson as a mob doctor! YESSS. I adored how Holmes and Watson are still in character while being very different people than their TV versions. And how they manage to work together to outsmart the mob.

Moonrise Kingdom:
The New Penzance Postmark (Sam, Suzy) I'll be upfront and say that I beta read this fic but I'd recommend it under any conditions. This epistolary fic is a lovely exploration of what happens to Sam and Suzy in the future, with a totally awesome cameo from another Wes Anderson film. Plus, the Sam voice in this story is so perfectly drawn that I felt like I could hear him in my head.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
Black Ink (Mi-ran, Jun-sang) First of all, if you haven't read the book, GO GO GO NOW AND READ IT. It's an incredibly moving portrayal of several North Koreans who eventually fled to South Korea. And then read this story, which is beautiful and a little sad, an exploration of Mi-ran and Jun-sang's struggles in their new homes.

Parks and Recreation:
this never would have happened if it weren't for those damn cucumber sandwiches (Leslie, Ann, and virtually every woman on the show) Leslie holds her bachelorette party/scavenger hunt. Hilarity ensues and Leslie struggles with the idea of becoming a married woman. Everyone is perfectly, wonderfully in character.

Suri's Burn Book:
Harriet the Spy Has Nothing on Me Suri, Violet Affleck) Suri solves a mystery threatening the children of celebrities worldwide with the help of Violet Affleck. I'm just going to have to resort to capslock for this one: OMG, SO FUNNY I THOUGHT I RUPTURED SOMETHING. No, seriously, if this could somehow be turned into a movie it would be the best movie ever.

The City and The City by China Miéville:
ITCC (Tyador) Set a few years before the events of the book, Tyador attends a conference of twinned cities around the world.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt:
From a Great Distance (Camilla/Charles) I'm not just recommending this because it was my gift, but because it's exactly, completely what I wanted--an exploration of Camilla and her motivations. I felt like she was somewhat shortchanged in the book and this fic gorgeously fills out her character.

If you read any of these wonderful fics and enjoy them, don't forget to take the time to comment. Comments are so very much appreciated and loved by authors.

I hope everyone has had wonderful holidays. Happy New Year to everyone!

Dear Yuletide Writer

2012-10-15T12:48:35Z

Dear Yuletide Writer,

I'm just thrilled about Yuletide. I already like you because you're writing a fic for me. I love receiving fic in exchanges and not to be frustratingly vague, but I'll be pretty damn happy and excited to receive anything because you wrote it and spent your precious time and energy on it and because it's going to be fun to receive a story outside of my usual fandoms.

So, in other words, let your brain roam free!

Just a few thoughts here:

1. I love angst, I love humor, I love banter, I love introspection, I love crackfic, I love AUs. If it's well-written and characterized, I'm there.

2. While smut in any of my requested fandoms would be awesome, it's not necessary. Nor is romance. I like gen/friendship fic just fine but I'm never against a delightfully romantic fic. Or a smutty one. I tend to like femslash and het better than m/m fic, but I'd never turn my nose up to a well-written m/m story.

3. I tend to prefer character-driven, rather than plot-driven, fic. I love getting into the heads of characters I love (or am fascinated by). However, if you have something really plotty in mind, plot away!

4. I really don't want to read non-con, underage sex, mpreg, or incest (except in one fandom--see below).

5. I love, love, love fic centered around female characters!

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Characters: Camilla and Charles Macaulay

One of my disappointments with this novel (that I otherwise love) is how short-changed Camilla was, characterization-wise. We never really got to know a lot about her and only saw her through Richard's eyes. I'd love to know more about her and her motivations. What was the deal with her relationship with her brother? (This is where the incest exception is, although I'd prefer for it not to be explicit.) Her ending was disappointing, too. Is there any way I could get something of a happy ending for Camilla?

Moonrise Kingdom

Characters: Suzy Bishop and Sam Shakusky

I adored the dreamlike, elegiac quality of this movie. It truly felt like someone's nostalgic memories. I would love to see a story with some of those same qualities, preferably about Suzy and Sam in the future. Whatever became of them? P.S. I'm a sucker for a reunion fic. However, if you're not in a romantic type of mood, I'd be happy with anything that centers around Suzy as an adult. What is she like? How did her experiences as a teenager shape her future?

Louie

Characters: Louie and Pamela

Oh, man. Seriously, anything set in the Louie universe would be A-OK by me. Yes, I'm a dork and I ship Louie and Pamela and would love to see something vaguely happy (as happy as anything can be with Louie) with them. Maybe something from Pamela's POV? Or Louie and Pamela have hilariously terrible sex? However, I'm open to just about anything. A return of Louie's mother or sister would be hilarious. Maybe Liz comes back into his life? I know I said I don't really love m/m slash but anything with Louie and Ramon would be aces. (I swear to God, I would even love Louie/Ramon mpreg. I just love Louie and Ramon that much.)

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Characters: Sonmi~451 and Yoona~939

I really enjoyed Cloud Atlas but the sections I most loved were Sonmi~451's. Her story was a gripping, thrilling, infuriating, and disturbing one, and one that I wish could stand alone as a full novel. I would love to hear Yoona~939's side of the story: her ascension, her relationship with Sonmi~451 and her attempt to escape her life of drudgery and slavery. If that prompt doesn't do it for you, I'd love just about anything set in the world of Nea Se Corpros.

I hope I'm not being too vague, Dear Writer, or too specific. Really and truly, I will be absolutely delighted and grateful for whatever you choose to write for me.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to make my holidays bright!

Dasha

P.S. If you want to see what I've written to get a feel for my tastes, my fic is here or at AO3.

Confessions of a Glory Hound: On Fanfic and Feedback

2010-04-28T15:50:17Z

So, I've been meaning to write a big old thing about feedback for a while now and I'm finally getting to it. It seems particularly timely since there's been a lot of discussion, not always civil, in Big Bang Theory fandom lately.

I'd like to start with some assumptions/disclaimers before I get started.

1) I freely admit that I suck at writing meta-ish stuff.

2) I don't care for the term "reviews." I know it's a commonly used term in a lot of fandoms these days, including BBT fandom, but I find it to be kind of a misnomer. When we talk about reader response to fanfic, it's rarely an actual review of the story in question. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I prefer the old-school term "feedback," since it better describes what the reader is leaving for the writer. So, I'm going to go with feedback here. Your mileage may vary, terminology-wise.

3) I'm not going to touch the question of whether or not fic feedback is an appropriate place for constructive criticism. That's a topic that's been discussed since the time when dinosaurs roamed free in fandom and no one has ever been able to reach consensus on it. I'm not even sure how I feel about it.

4) I'm going to talk specifically about fanfic here since it's the form of fanwork that I'm the most familiar with. I'm sure some of this applies to art, vids, podfics, icons, and other fanworks but I don't feel qualified to speak to all of them.

5) Fanfic and professional writing are two completely different animals. So I'm not going to compare the two at all here. This piece is soley about fan fiction.

6) Writers aren't entitled to feedback from readers. And readers aren't entitled to fic from writers. Just to get that out of the way.

7) This will definitely be a rambling and semi-stream-of-consciousness piece of writing. Consider yourself warned.

Lately, there has been quite a lot of muttering in Big Bang Theory fandom about feedback and whether or not it's acceptable for a fic writer to write not only for herself and the story she wants to tell but to have the public reception of her fic as a motivating factor. The argument has sometimes grown heated and words like "attention whore," "glory hound," and "needy" have been thrown around to describe fic writers who care about receiving feedback and what members of their fandom think about their writing.

I'm going to talk about my own experiences and motivations here. Your mileage may (and probably will) vary greatly.

When I'm well and truly obsessed with a fandom and/or a pairing, I have stories that I need to tell. The fic somehow spontaneously generates in my brain and often the stories begin writing themselves long before I get anywhere near a keyboard or a pad of paper. I sometimes feel like I'm living in two dimensions at once. I can be sitting in a meeting, ostensibly paying attention, and Penny and Sheldon are having an argument in my head. My husband and I are talking about what movie to see over the weekend, but at the same time Laura has shoved Bill onto his rack and is unzipping his trousers. Sometimes when I actually sit down to write (and these are the best times for me), the story is so fully formed in my head that it's all I can do to type fast enough to keep up.

The greatest motivation for me when writing fanfic is telling the story that's currently living in my head and making it the best story it can possibly be. I can't speak for others, but in all the years I've been writing fanfic (twelve years, on and off), I have never heard a writer admit that she writes fic purely for the glory and adulation of it, or to be a BNF, or anything like that. Just about every fic writer of my acquaintance states that she primarily writes because she has a story to tell. Pure and simple.

Glory and adulation, or power within a fandom, is a pretty piss-poor motivation for writing fanfic, in my opinion. Really—what glory and adulation? A handful of glowing feedback comments and maybe some awards, what does it add up to at the end of the day? Fanfic isn't going to make a writer rich or famous. You can't cuddle up to your fandom at the end of the day. Most people can't even put their fandom activities on their resumes, like they can with many other community activities and hobbies.

So, having said all that, does feedback matter to me as a writer? Of course it does. It matters a whole lot. Like many other people in fandom, and in the world at large, I care about what other people think of my work.

Let's talk about my professional work for a minute. I want to do a good job and I want to be respected in my field. It doesn't mean that I need to be showered with compliments every minute of the day (that would get old really quickly), but when I go above and beyond the call of duty, or do a great job on a major project, I'd like to be recognized for that work. I don't think of myself as a particularly needy person. I'm relatively confident of most of my abilities. But I will admit that it's nice to hear that I'm going a good job and that such feedback on my work performance can motivate me to try even harder next time.

It's the same thing with writing fic. I really and truly care about the stories that I write. It doesn't mean that they're perfect and the best stories ever in any given fandom. I'm well aware that there are tons of writers better than I am and that there are a lot of areas where I could stand improvement. All I can do is keep trying to write the best stories I can, to learn from my beta readers and some of the really great writers in my fandom, and keep making the effort to improve my weaknesses.

Because I care about my stories, I also care what readers think of them. Granted, this may not be true for all writers, but it is for me and I'm pretty sure it's true for a great number of fic writers. If we didn't care, we wouldn't post them publicly on the Internet. We'd write a story, feel happy with how it turned out (or maybe not so happy), save it and close the file. Do I let the reception from readers define how I think of myself as a writer and a person? Of course not. That would be kind of needy and sad, I think. But I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not a little disappointed when a story I really care about doesn't get much of a reception at all or when I see a drop in feedback from readers for fanfic (not just my own, but a general drop in the fandom).

Again, feedback isn't my primary motivation for writing fanfic. It might not even be in the top five of my reasons for writing fic. However, I don't think there's anything wrong with admitting that when the general level of enthusiasm for fic and for leaving feedback in a given fandom declines, for whatever reasons, I can find it a less than motivating.

Many of us who write fanfic spend a good deal of time and effort on our writing. Some of us cancel social obligations to finish up a WIP. Some of us secretly write at work. Some of us temporarily ignore our partners, our kids, our other hobbies, because we just have to get this story done or we'll lose our damn minds. Again, we care about what we write. When we post something that means a lot to us, that we've invested a lot of time and care into, and there's a general lack of enthusiasm for it (not because the story's poorly written or boring, but because people just aren't reading, or are reading and not leaving feedback), it can cause something of a dampening effect on that happy obsession that got us writing the fic in the first place.

I want to restate that writers are not entitled to feedback. If you believe that, it's probably time to find a new hobby. But I think it's also important for those who read fic (especially those who don't write themselves) to understand that, yes, most of us do care what you think about our stories. Yes, we do love hearing from you. Yes, it motivates us to write more (even if it's not the main motivation).

Sometimes I hear people say that they don't know what, exactly, to write when leaving feedback on a story they enjoyed. Honestly? Write whatever. "I liked it" is great. Capslocking and keysmashing are fantastic. It doesn’t have to be a twelve-paragraph treatise on how the symbolism of part 23 calls to mind man's inhumanity to man and themes of pastoral beauty previously only explored by Tolstoy in Anna Karenina. I mean, hey, if you want to write that, more power to you! As a Russian major, I'd really dig it, but "that was a fun read" is fantastic, too.

I could probably blather on for another twenty paragraphs (and I didn't even get into fandom as a community and issues of supply and demand) but I'll cut it short and say that I love to write. I love to write fanfic. And I love to receive feedback on my fic. If that makes me a glory hound, so be it. I'll wear the title with pride.

Feel free to discuss in the comments. All are welcome, whether you're on my flist or not. Just keep it respectful, okay?

Fanfic silliness

2008-09-24T15:25:00Z

1. I can't believe it's the last day of xf_pornbattle! I'll be a bit sad when it's over, because it was so much fun, but it will be nice for life to get back to normal.

2. My husband knows about the fanfic. I think I told him about it on our third date or something, even though I hadn't written any at that point for two years. He likes to tease me about it, but he's generally very supportive because it makes me happy and keeps him out of his hair while he studies for law school. Plus, he's a fan of the show.

We had the funniest conversation last night about Erin Blair's story A Twist of Pilot:

ME: So, here's the deal. Fox Mulder is married to Dana Scully-Mulder.

N: Ugh.

ME: It gets better. They have twins named Fox Jr. and Dana Jr.

N: I think I've heard enough...

ME: No, wait. Fox Jr. and Dana Jr. are about to start their first day at the FBI.

N: Oh GOD.

ME: They're going to work with their parents in the X-Files division. Only it's a SURPRISE for the kiddies! And they have a sister named Emily who also works for the FBI.

N: I have to leave now. Maybe even leave the house. Perhaps the state. I'll call you in a few weeks.

ME: Don't go yet. Dana Jr. has a boyfriend, Alex Krycek Jr. He's a criminal profiler and Fox Jr.'s BFF.

N: (wails and tears his garments)

ME: Alex Krycek Sr. has retired from The Evil and now owns a STATIONERY STORE!

N: (eyes a-boggle) A stationery store? Who is this Erin Blair person?

ME: Well, she was kind of a special member of the fandom...

N: No, she's not. She has to be a performance artist. Only a performance artist could reach this level of absurdism. A stationery store, that's GENIUS. If she's not a performance artist, she's definitely some kind of savant.

And then I went to actually check the story and somehow my mind had remembered the story as being much more cracked-out than it really is (although it's plenty cracked-out on its own). Alex Krycek's kid is actually Chris Krycek. And Krycek owns a detective agency in his retirement years, not a stationery store. I was so disappointed.

ME: Krycek owns a detective agency, not a stationery store.

N: That's changes everything. Erin is no performance artist and not a savant, either.

We both sighed with disappointment.

Friending Policy

2008-07-16T02:39:10Z

My LJ is friends-only, for lots of boring reasons.

If you would like to be added to my friends list, please leave a comment on this entry. If I know you from hanging around this community or that, or we have friends in common, I'll most likely add you back after you've commented here.

Please note that I almost never update my LJ anymore.