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paulamcgDay 8: Crack!fic - We all know it. What's your opinion of it, and if you want, show us an example.
Oh, I love surprising twists in fic. And when close to the opening there's something crazy and innovative, like a canon concept given a new, ridiculous interpretation (or a mundane concept given a fantastic – in HP, magical – equivalent), it can be an exhilarating reading experience when the characters seem real and the writer helps me suspend my disbelief despite all ludicrous details and events.
Here I've now had in mind particularly To All a Good Night by DelphiPsmith. It's got at least some crack elements in it. Crack is perhaps a rather rare genre, and writing good crack fic is probably hard. When I've tried to do something crazy and humorous, I've ended up with sad or bittersweet stories (Human Company and Who's That?).
Day 19: What is something that you associate with a character in fandom, but aren't sure if it's canon or fandom?
My Marauders often call each other Prongs, Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail, and the latter two names are more often than not shortened to Pads and Wormy. I'm almost sure that Pads and Wormy are fandom (or fanon, as we used to say before 2010). I can't remember where I first saw them, but I doubt they are my inventions.
Day 17: Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?
I've had lovely interaction with and friends among fanartists, too. At bigger fests nowadays, I might comment on more fanart than fics, because I'm a slow reader. I'd also be particularly happy to receive a fanart gift, because it could be inspired by something written by me, and I just can't help hoping for reassurances that my writing works and can impress others who create content. In fact, I can't remember ever receiving a fanart gift that wouldn't have been based on one of my stories. I've never heard anyone read a fic by me aloud, and I'd love a pod fic gift.
I still haven't seen many fanvids. I do love watching some favourite music videos on youtube again and again, but I'm only learning to see how perspective, cuts and rhythm or whatever can make a story told in this way evocative.
For a year now I've been aware that I, too, can offer fanart at fests, not as gifts, though – not at exchanges! I only dabble in drawing and painting pictures. I don't have the technical skill (or much of anything else that it takes) to make any kind of moving pictures.
Verbal language, written language in particular has always been my preferred way of communication. And fic, yes! I've always preferred using fiction for dealing with and learning to understand themes that are important to us. The reason why I got addicted to fandom was that fanfic became a means of sharing – a way for me to connect with people intimately.
Day 13: Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.
I'm still not usually eager to read extended and graphic sex scenes. But I'm willing to read them (even when they are almost the whole contents of the fic) and can end up admiring the way one is written (although I'm definitely not the person to best appreciate them), in case I've already interacted with the writer, or the fic is part of a small fest where I hope that other participants, too, will read all the works. Otherwise I seldom choose to read anything rated Explicit/NC-17.
The squicks I encounter more often are related to the writing style. I just can't help paying attention to SPAG errors, because I always read slowly and want to enjoy the way the writer uses language, not only what the characters are like and what happens to them. When I read more than the first paragraph of a fic, I'll end up investing time in sharing the characters' lives, in thinking about how the text works, and in telling the writer what touched me and what I admired in the writing. It doesn't make any sense to do that in case the writer doesn't seem to care that much about making the fic as good as possible.
I think I've learnt not to always take writing so siriusly. Firewhiskey Fic has been a great help. And various other fests and communities, too, have helped me realise that a lot of people (probably most readers in fandom) care mainly about how well stories use the tropes that appeal to them. Now that diversity is emphasised, I can manage not to think that my attitude is wrong, even in case it's rare.
One serious squick for me are any references in the author's notes (or worse, in the summary) to how the fic was churned out quickly and not edited. And just a mention that English is not the writer's language. I won't mind reading fics written by people who aren't native speakers of English, but I tend to regard a statement like “this is not my language” as an excuse for mistakes, because myself I wouldn't let people know that my mother tongue is another language, until after I've had the chance to show to the reader that I manage to write well.
(I do my best to polish the text carefully even before showing it to a beta. When I write a story in English, the language is mine. If it shows in the text that I've got another language, too, I hope it shows only in expressions chosen more carefully, maybe in a strict adherence to grammar, perhaps even in some quirky features in a unique fiction voice – and after all these years, less and less in stilted dialogue and in lack of such shortcuts that native speakers use in conversation)
Some of my serious squicks (including the mention that you aren't a native speaker of English) are such features that I can't possibly condemn in other writers' work. I do click back (and not even consider giving concrit, even though I know I'm not the only one to have advised against the use of such irritating and sometimes confusing epithets) when, after choosing a fic in a big fest dedicated to my OTP (or by clicking on that huge pairing tag, which I seldom do), I encounter “the dark-haired man” where Sirius would have naturally continued to think of his best friend as James or Prongs.
However, I've once again volunteered to get irritated by such epithets on almost every page of the printed book I'm reading. I am beginning to regret my decision to read The Song of Ice and Fire, and it amuses me that it says on the cover: When the writing is this good, it's worth the wait. It's a quote from Entertainment Weekly, not from a Literary Fiction magazine. I must admit the writing has worked in making the story hugely popular. And George R. R. Martin and his publisher have helped me understand that referring to a character with three different epithets in one paragraph (so as to avoid repetition) and other features I'd never use myself are not absolutely wrong or disliked by most readers.
Other such features I find squicky are related to how the writer shows the perspective. These things irritate me in fanfic (but don't stop me from reading more than SPAG errors do) but I can give examples from Martin's book.
Using the pov character's name as the title of a chapter or of a scene. I feel that this practice underestimates the reader, or reveals the writer's uncertainty about or lack of the skill to make the perspective clear naturally in the opening lines.
Using italics to mark some of the sentences as the pov character's thoughts. I can't say this is wrong, but I often feel tempted to ask why the writer has found it necessary. When the whole story (or chapter or scene at least) shows the events as a certain character experiences them, all the observations belong to the contents of that character's mind. If some parts are singled out with a different formatting and (in case the narrative otherwise uses the third person and the past tense) a change of grammatical person and tense, I'm jerked out of the illusion that I'm living also other parts of the story together with the character.
Martin uses way too many perspectives (and characters in general) for my taste, but at least he doesn't change povs within a paragraph. Such uncontrolled pov changes must be the worst squick I can think of, and not rare in fanfic by inexperienced writers.
I dislike the use of italics in other situations, too. I never use italics in dialogue to show which word the character emphasises. I've maintained that the verbal language alone (the words and their order, and the punctuation, which must be accepted as an essential part of written language) without any formatting tricks must be enough to convey the meaning. The rest of the nuances are up to the reader's interpretation. (Now I realise that I may have developed this attitude because in my mother tongue the word order is conveniently free and often used for showing where the emphasis is.) Of course, I don't click back from a fic because of this, but I can't help noticing it too much if there's an italicised word in every line of the dialogue.
I use italics only for the text that the characters sees written – not even for lines from songs if the character sings or hears them without seeing them, and nor for titles of works of art that are only thought of or mentioned or heard by the character.
I'm almost sure there are writers who've been taught at school to use italics differently, even to italicise all thoughts. But I believe that when writing fiction, and not for scientific magazines, we can choose our own rules, and the point is to follow those consistently.
Oh, I love surprising twists in fic. And when close to the opening there's something crazy and innovative, like a canon concept given a new, ridiculous interpretation (or a mundane concept given a fantastic – in HP, magical – equivalent), it can be an exhilarating reading experience when the characters seem real and the writer helps me suspend my disbelief despite all ludicrous details and events.
Here I've now had in mind particularly To All a Good Night by DelphiPsmith. It's got at least some crack elements in it. Crack is perhaps a rather rare genre, and writing good crack fic is probably hard. When I've tried to do something crazy and humorous, I've ended up with sad or bittersweet stories (Human Company and Who's That?).
Day 19: What is something that you associate with a character in fandom, but aren't sure if it's canon or fandom?
My Marauders often call each other Prongs, Moony, Padfoot and Wormtail, and the latter two names are more often than not shortened to Pads and Wormy. I'm almost sure that Pads and Wormy are fandom (or fanon, as we used to say before 2010). I can't remember where I first saw them, but I doubt they are my inventions.
Day 17: Do you prefer art, fic, or vids? Why? Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?
I've had lovely interaction with and friends among fanartists, too. At bigger fests nowadays, I might comment on more fanart than fics, because I'm a slow reader. I'd also be particularly happy to receive a fanart gift, because it could be inspired by something written by me, and I just can't help hoping for reassurances that my writing works and can impress others who create content. In fact, I can't remember ever receiving a fanart gift that wouldn't have been based on one of my stories. I've never heard anyone read a fic by me aloud, and I'd love a pod fic gift.
I still haven't seen many fanvids. I do love watching some favourite music videos on youtube again and again, but I'm only learning to see how perspective, cuts and rhythm or whatever can make a story told in this way evocative.
For a year now I've been aware that I, too, can offer fanart at fests, not as gifts, though – not at exchanges! I only dabble in drawing and painting pictures. I don't have the technical skill (or much of anything else that it takes) to make any kind of moving pictures.
Verbal language, written language in particular has always been my preferred way of communication. And fic, yes! I've always preferred using fiction for dealing with and learning to understand themes that are important to us. The reason why I got addicted to fandom was that fanfic became a means of sharing – a way for me to connect with people intimately.
Day 13: Squicks - What are some things that squick you in fandom - not necessarily "icky", though it can be. From anything involving blood, to bad grammar.
I'm still not usually eager to read extended and graphic sex scenes. But I'm willing to read them (even when they are almost the whole contents of the fic) and can end up admiring the way one is written (although I'm definitely not the person to best appreciate them), in case I've already interacted with the writer, or the fic is part of a small fest where I hope that other participants, too, will read all the works. Otherwise I seldom choose to read anything rated Explicit/NC-17.
The squicks I encounter more often are related to the writing style. I just can't help paying attention to SPAG errors, because I always read slowly and want to enjoy the way the writer uses language, not only what the characters are like and what happens to them. When I read more than the first paragraph of a fic, I'll end up investing time in sharing the characters' lives, in thinking about how the text works, and in telling the writer what touched me and what I admired in the writing. It doesn't make any sense to do that in case the writer doesn't seem to care that much about making the fic as good as possible.
I think I've learnt not to always take writing so siriusly. Firewhiskey Fic has been a great help. And various other fests and communities, too, have helped me realise that a lot of people (probably most readers in fandom) care mainly about how well stories use the tropes that appeal to them. Now that diversity is emphasised, I can manage not to think that my attitude is wrong, even in case it's rare.
One serious squick for me are any references in the author's notes (or worse, in the summary) to how the fic was churned out quickly and not edited. And just a mention that English is not the writer's language. I won't mind reading fics written by people who aren't native speakers of English, but I tend to regard a statement like “this is not my language” as an excuse for mistakes, because myself I wouldn't let people know that my mother tongue is another language, until after I've had the chance to show to the reader that I manage to write well.
(I do my best to polish the text carefully even before showing it to a beta. When I write a story in English, the language is mine. If it shows in the text that I've got another language, too, I hope it shows only in expressions chosen more carefully, maybe in a strict adherence to grammar, perhaps even in some quirky features in a unique fiction voice – and after all these years, less and less in stilted dialogue and in lack of such shortcuts that native speakers use in conversation)
Some of my serious squicks (including the mention that you aren't a native speaker of English) are such features that I can't possibly condemn in other writers' work. I do click back (and not even consider giving concrit, even though I know I'm not the only one to have advised against the use of such irritating and sometimes confusing epithets) when, after choosing a fic in a big fest dedicated to my OTP (or by clicking on that huge pairing tag, which I seldom do), I encounter “the dark-haired man” where Sirius would have naturally continued to think of his best friend as James or Prongs.
However, I've once again volunteered to get irritated by such epithets on almost every page of the printed book I'm reading. I am beginning to regret my decision to read The Song of Ice and Fire, and it amuses me that it says on the cover: When the writing is this good, it's worth the wait. It's a quote from Entertainment Weekly, not from a Literary Fiction magazine. I must admit the writing has worked in making the story hugely popular. And George R. R. Martin and his publisher have helped me understand that referring to a character with three different epithets in one paragraph (so as to avoid repetition) and other features I'd never use myself are not absolutely wrong or disliked by most readers.
Other such features I find squicky are related to how the writer shows the perspective. These things irritate me in fanfic (but don't stop me from reading more than SPAG errors do) but I can give examples from Martin's book.
Using the pov character's name as the title of a chapter or of a scene. I feel that this practice underestimates the reader, or reveals the writer's uncertainty about or lack of the skill to make the perspective clear naturally in the opening lines.
Using italics to mark some of the sentences as the pov character's thoughts. I can't say this is wrong, but I often feel tempted to ask why the writer has found it necessary. When the whole story (or chapter or scene at least) shows the events as a certain character experiences them, all the observations belong to the contents of that character's mind. If some parts are singled out with a different formatting and (in case the narrative otherwise uses the third person and the past tense) a change of grammatical person and tense, I'm jerked out of the illusion that I'm living also other parts of the story together with the character.
Martin uses way too many perspectives (and characters in general) for my taste, but at least he doesn't change povs within a paragraph. Such uncontrolled pov changes must be the worst squick I can think of, and not rare in fanfic by inexperienced writers.
I dislike the use of italics in other situations, too. I never use italics in dialogue to show which word the character emphasises. I've maintained that the verbal language alone (the words and their order, and the punctuation, which must be accepted as an essential part of written language) without any formatting tricks must be enough to convey the meaning. The rest of the nuances are up to the reader's interpretation. (Now I realise that I may have developed this attitude because in my mother tongue the word order is conveniently free and often used for showing where the emphasis is.) Of course, I don't click back from a fic because of this, but I can't help noticing it too much if there's an italicised word in every line of the dialogue.
I use italics only for the text that the characters sees written – not even for lines from songs if the character sings or hears them without seeing them, and nor for titles of works of art that are only thought of or mentioned or heard by the character.
I'm almost sure there are writers who've been taught at school to use italics differently, even to italicise all thoughts. But I believe that when writing fiction, and not for scientific magazines, we can choose our own rules, and the point is to follow those consistently.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-20 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-20 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-06-22 12:48 pm (UTC)I will say it's easier for me to appreciate Remus and Tonks in a pre-DH light. Both as a couple and as characters. But I've already teal deered about that so much in the past several years. I'll just say that I think Deathly Hallows was great, but Remus and Tonks were done wrong. Honestly, and I say this as someone who was a HUGE R/T shipper, I kinda wish they hadn't become canon. I think JK Rowling had so much in mind for them she couldn't fit in, and they just flopped. Remus/Sirius was never canon, but I can't imagine she would've written them well either.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-22 03:38 pm (UTC)I started writing fic in September 2003 (without reading any fic first, and) after seeing only some first chapters for Harry's Sixth Year fics on the forum where I'd found fandom a month before. My first fic became a huge chaptered Remus-pov story set in autumn 1996, and as soon as in early 2004 I included in it some autobiographical letters in which I developed details about his early life and his parents (and e.g. decided that he was born in 1958).
That's why my ficverse was bound to contradict HBP, and at least James and Lily's birth dates, as revealed in DH, contradict the timeline I've continued to build for my fics set in the Marauders' Era. My Remus's background as the son of a witch and a wizard is inherent in his characterisation at all ages, and I've never considered changing it.
I want all the stories I write to take place in the same reality, because that's what I find motivating (although I admit that coming up with different AUs is perhaps a bigger challenge). That's why I don't deal with the events in HBP or DH even when I write future fic about characters of Harry's generation. I can write Cho & Roger set in 2000 and refer to the war in such a general way that the reader doesn't have to know I've ignored the last two books. Of course, when I write Ginny/Luna set in 2009 and we see that Remus is Luna's young daughter's father, the reader knows that I don't follow DH, and I mention that the story is canon divergent after OotP.
The reason my stories are not based on HBP and DH at all is not that I'd dislike those books. But I suppose I like them less than the others, because by the time they came out, I was so hopelessly fond of my own extrapolations and my Remus's story that I couldn't possibly care very much what happened in the “alternative reality”.
There are, however, some features that I'm especially not happy with – including both Remus and Tonks's portrayals in the last two books. I quite agree with you about this... But I'm actually glad that the pairing that flopped where there perhaps wasn't space for its development was R/T, not R/S!
Before my hiatus I felt sad, thinking that people wouldn't care to read a first-five-books-compliant story about Remus and Sirius. But now that it seems to me that Wolfstar fans are interested mainly in Muggle AUs, I don't think I need to worry that my work is based on too small a part of canon. :)
Thank you so much for reading my post and for commenting. <3
no subject
Date: 2021-06-22 06:35 pm (UTC)Oh, totally! I know I've had choice words to say about Rowldemort, and I will never think of her the same again, but Harry Potter such a huge role in my life that I can't not love it even now. I just compartmentalize that love into a more fannish space, and have been doing so for a while anyway. Really, as I've said, fandom was never about her and her alone.
So yes, still love Harry Potter. :)
I want all the stories I write to take place in the same reality, because that's what I find motivating (although I admit that coming up with different AUs is perhaps a bigger challenge).
That makes a lot of sense. It's all part of your larger ficverse. :)
I should try some of the Muggle AUs, now that I'm a bit more into Ao3. That is, depending on the quality - are they any good, or are they just flimsy stories that should be original stories? I can see it going both ways.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-23 06:57 am (UTC)See, I haven't even mentioned the original HP writer's name here. When I fill in the fandom field on AO3, I just type Harry Potter and enter, and my fandom reads Harry Potter – Fandom without her name. I have stated my view of her views in some posts and comments last year, and my conclusion's been that we can go on and encourage each other to keep and make this fandom as subversive and delightfully queer as we want. It's been no problem for me to compartmentalise because I'd ignored what she said in interviews and such since 2004 or so, perhaps even before – and in the last two HP novels! (Back when those books came out, I did criticise – not only R/T, but also – how she dealt with the house elves and the werewolves, and dehumanised enemies, and didn't continue some equality themes I'd thought she'd brought up.)
There must be all kinds of well-written Muggle AUs, too, and I hope you'll find some (in case you can be more interested in fics which ignore the first five books, too, or at least all the magic in them). I can't say much because I've read only a few, and only at Wolfstar and Remus fests, and most of them have been short and, I guess, flimsy stories about blokes named Remus and Sirius, one of whom dresses as a werewolf for a Halloween party and is found attractive by a bored stranger who happens to have a friend called James. I remember reading one which was less flimsy and, in my view, could work wonderfully with other names even though it had more parallels with canon:
my love, take care of yourself by littleoldrachel.