Fic Writing and Connecting

[paulamcg]

Challenge #5

Comment to someone you haven't ever interacted with before or introduce yourself to someone you've briefly interacted with and friend/follow them.



For the last couple of weeks I’ve been glad to spend most of my fandom time on talking to new friends. Having already commented once on Snowflake Challenge # 5, I’m now making a new comment inviting people here. If there’s anyone more or less new who’s found the way here, welcome and please feel free to say hi and anything else you want to!

I’ve managed to continue the HP – or rather RL (and yes, I find it appropriate that RL stands for real life as well as Remus Lupin) – fics I started in late December, focusing on one of them, which is still not longer than 1600 words, while the other is only 440 words. I’m in no hurry, and happy with just writing a bit almost every day. Even though both stories are for fests, they are not gifts, and I feel free enough to write what and how I want. In any case, both are still being written in third person.

I’ve met excellent writers, wonderful people with whom I’ve got various, surprising things in common. And I’ve got a praising review of a fic at AO3 (and can’t resist linking to it: Sense of Strategy).

More generally, I’m happy to have revived hopes for a community where people could support, review, share and rec each other’s writing and make visible any kind of queer and subversive stories, as well as stories which are usually disregarded at the outset due to features in the narrative style. (*Cough* First-person narrative… *cough*… is perhaps not the only feature like that.) Because while it’s essential that we dare write whatever we want, (and I hope necessarian won’t mind I’m paraphrasing her Challenge-Four post) it's a huge part of fandom experience to be able to share your work and get people telling you what they liked about it: it helps improve writing, and it's a valuable source of social connection, and fandom is at its best when it's about sharing other people's works, too.

Now I'm off to read fic so as to comment and rec and do my little share in making 2020 a year of reccing.

Comments

[author_by_night]

I really don't even notice first person narrative! I mean, I notice it on an obvious level, I know what it is, but it's not like "ugh, this is the narrator talking at me." The only format that bugs me is second person, and even that can work for me depending on how it's done. I've read second person pieces where someone's actually being spoken to, so the format makes sense.

So back to first person, it's fine, and in fact make work better with some characters. Remus, for example, is a more withholding person, so it makes sense that you write him in first person. I've written a lot of short stories in first person because it fits those characters, although my fanfics tend to be third person. But like I said, I don't really think about it when other people write in first person. I'm more focused on the story as it's being told.

Input from other writers made me a better writer. Even negative input! (Although this was on websites where negative input was welcome. Including FictionAlley. I would be more careful on Ao3.)

fandom is at its best when it's about sharing other people's works, too.

It really is.

ETA: By the way, remember how I said your name looked familiar to me? We probably crossed paths on FA too, but I also looked at your LJ, and we have a few friends and fests in common. So that's probably a huge part of it. It makes sense really, we were both in MWPP!Fandom, after all. :)

[paulamcg]

Thank you for your reassuring words! Yes, I remember asking you if you chose the one among my fics to read because it was in third person, and you said no – because of the topic.

After that I've discussed first-person narrative on this DW post of mine, and got confirmation for my suspicion that there is common bias against first-person fic. Many people seem to think that first-person voices are too hard to write well, and require a special reason or a spectacular opening so as to give a first-person story a chance.

I find it wonderful about your attitude that you admit even second person can work, albeit only in exceptional cases. Above all, it's comforting to know that there are people around who don't hesitate to read a first-person fic. My goal is exactly to make this narrative device transparent, so as to let the readers simply share the character's experience.

The beginning of my first-person-and-present-tense style was in my very first short fics, in which I needed this technique for my post-Azkaban Sirius, mainly for the practical reason that he was unable to think of Remus's name and therefore Remus needed to be the only "he" in the text. After that I don't think I've chosen first person for more withholding characters, but it's interesting to hear you've done that. Instead, I've used a third-person voice for Remus (in addition to the novel) only a few times when he's been essentially less confident in his identity (and in a recent gift fic, in which I wanted all five viewpoint characters in the more popular third person).

Oh yes, negative feedback or so-called constructive criticism, mainly on FictionAlley has had an important role in my development as a writer, too – also in the development of my first-person style. I'd love to have that kind of honest reviewing relationships with other writers again, but I suppose I need reassurance and recognition so badly that I hope we can first revive the culture of simply commenting (and saying what we like about the stories) and reccing more.

Yes, I believe our paths crossed on FA and/or LJ, and it's lovely we're finally interacting more.

[perspi]

What an interesting conversation! I cut my teeth in House MD fic back when most of fandom was on LJ, and one comm was 'The Clinic' - specifically for the kind of writing improvement and concrit that has kind of disappeared in fandom culture lately.

From there I ended up with a cadre of 'first readers' - I had access filters for those who were interested in reading drafts of fic as I write them and I invited them to comment, squee, and critically pick at stuff with no obligation to do so. It was basically like a beta circle, without any one person expected to jump in and do the beta work. It worked really well for a while!

My writing has pretty much gone nonexistent, lately, but I'm hoping to do a bit more this year, and maybe some of my old first readers will want to dive in again. But it sounds to me like that same kind of system you're hoping for?

Best of luck with your writing this year!

[paulamcg]

Thank you! You are making the conversation a lot more interesting!

I don't think I ever saw an LJ community like the Clinic you describe. There were threads for discussing writing problems at FictionAlley Park, and the review exchange threads led to reviews including a lot of concrit.

I've never heard of a system of first-reader cadre, but now I can start hoping for something like that! I used to discuss drafts of my fic in personal messages and emails and in the chatroom with a few of the writer friends I made at my first fandom home, the small Snitch Forums in 2004 or so.

Having returned to fandom last year, until October I had no contacts at all, and wrote and published fic in isolation, even without a beta reader. I do hope for more interaction this year.

Thank you for coming over with such a wonderful contribution, and best luck to you, too – with writing and with reviving the first-reader system!