escritoireazul | Entries tagged with fandom: 30 days of fanfic

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( All 30 Days )

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

Oof, I'm not sure I'm prepared to dive into this discussion right now. I have no energy and no brain at the moment. In short, I believe warnings are important, and that "Choose Not to Warn" is a valid warning in and of itself. Warnings are complicated, and a lot of times, the things that may trigger something the worst in me (though not all warnings are because of triggers) is not anything I would have seen coming. So complicated from both sides, creator and consumer. I pretty much always want to know if: there is explicit rape, the "crazy" person is the bad guy because they are "crazy" or lots of gaslighting, and if there is animal harm or death. Also, for visual media, I want to know if there's a lot of shaky cam or first person POV, because it triggers my vertigo. I realize pretty much none of this answer actually addresses the question, though.

( All 30 Days )

14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?

Whatever works best for the story. I've written explicit adult only stories, I've written the sweetest of sweet all ages fic. I've also written dark all ages and sweet, fluffy adult only. Often, it's harder for me to write the soft, fluffy things than it is to write dark or sexually explicit (or dark and sexually explicit) fic.

The hardest thing for me to write is humor.

( All 30 Days )

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

Generally canon, though my writing can be influenced, intentionally or not, by other people's writing, just like everyone else's. I don't tend to have a set personal fanon; there are generally plenty of places where the canon doesn't answer all the questions (or gives multiple contradictory answers to one question), and while I like to explore different possibilities in my reading and writing, I don't usually get so hooked on one that I can't enjoy others. (I love to hear people's personal head canons.)

( All 30 Days )

12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

I'm not sure I've ever heard this called an "adaptation" before. Maybe a fusion? I do a lot of crossovers, but I'm never sure whether some of the things I do are crossover or fusion (or adaptation) or alternate universe. Werewolves everywhere is probably an alternate universe in any given situation, unless it is a specific type of werewolves appearing in a non-werewolf fandom, but something like Everyone's a Vampire Slayer is more a fusion (adaptation)? Or is that a crossover even if characters from BtVS don't show up?

I once wrote a version of the Princess Bride with BtVS characters (and commentary from members of one of the mailing lists as the outer story frame). I frequently write werewolves into non-werewolf fandoms, and I often explore what it would be like for any given female character to become a Vampire Slayer after what happened at the end of BtVS.

( All 30 Days )

11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

I prefer to write long, plotty adventures with monsters and magic, but I usually save that for non-fic writing anymore, so fic is where I write shorter character introspections or little romances. Which is interesting, because romance is what I struggle at in my non-fic writing. I want to write fun contemporary teen romance, I just need it to be all about the monster plot instead. /o\

( All 30 Days )

10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?

Yes. I've written a couple of gifts where I didn't even like the source material (Dawson's Creek, for example), but because I wanted to write a specific gift, I did the research I needed in order to write the characters and the pairings my friends liked. This doesn't happen often, but sometimes the desire to give a story is greater than my opinions on the source material, characters, or pairings could ever be.

I've been poking at MCU fic for awhile now, and can't find a character voice that I feel I am writing well, so that's been an issue.

( All 30 Days )

9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

... Well, this is going to take awhile. I probably should have actually read all the prompts before I decided to do this, because these "for each fandom" prompts are a little ridiculous when you're talking about sixty-two fandoms.

( 62 fandoms, people )

( All 30 Days )

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Well, that presupposes that I care if my characters are labeled Mary Sues. I think it is, in general, an overused term these days attached to female characters arbitrarily, whether they are original characters in fanfic or original characters in professional writing. So.

I write fewer OCs now than I did when I first started, mostly because I write shorter stories now than when I first started, and so focus more on a specific character than on a grand rollicking adventure in the world as a whole. But in general, I use OCs now the same as I did then, which was to help tell the story I wanted to tell. (I also use OCs less in fanfic now because I tend to start creating them and realize I want to tell a story about them not in a fanfic world.)

( All 30 Days )

7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

I grew to love Star through writing Lost Boys fic and meta. Mostly, though, reading and writing fic doesn't change my mind so much as broaden my views on characters; I may not agree with any specific characterization, but I love seeing new sides to characters through other people's interpretations. This is part of the appeal of online fandom, for me.

When it comes to writing, the more I write a character, the more I grow to love that character, generally.

( All 30 Days )

6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

Pretty binary language there, meme. I prefer writing female or gender queer characters. I prefer reading about them, too. I have little interest in cis male characters, particularly straight white dudes.

I'm particularly a fan of writing girls and women in their late teens and early twenties, when they're having such interesting transitions in who they are and how much they can control their lives. Add monsters and magic, and I'm sold.

A brief Yuletide note: I was talking to

carlyinrome the other day about what she's going to request for Yuletide, and now I'm curious. What are you guys nominating/requesting/wanting to write? I'm not sure yet what I want to do. Without having looked at eligibility or anything, I'm thinking about asking for fix-it fic for Jurassic World (NEEDS MORE WOMEN. NEEDS MORE LEX AND TIM. ETC.) I should rewatch Werewolf: Beast Among Us, because last year I posted about how I wanted Yuletide fic for it. We'll see if that remains true. Just found my post about the Next Step and how I might want it for Yuletide. I haven't watched anything since that season ended, so I should try to catch up. I might ask for the Agent Pendergast series again; I'd still love a Corrie Swanson Appreciation Life story. And after talking about the Village with Sister K for awhile recently, I may finally request it + werewolves, which I've always wanted. (Maybe not, though. Seems a little too specific for Yuletide.)

( All 30 Days )

5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?

This question is for someone with a different writing style, I think. I don't believe that characters can do anything; it's all the writer. And yes, sometimes in the writing (or outlining, or between the two of them, depending on what kind of project I'm working on at the time), I work out that the story needs more or less of something, and sometimes that involves adding a character I didn't intend to write, but that's all about working through the story, not about a character trying to push their way into the fic.

I have a very pragmatic way of looking at my writing process, I think.

( All 30 Days )

4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

I guess? I have favorite characters in media, and I have characters I write about frequently because I have stories to tell about them. Sometimes, those characters are the same, but not always. I tend to write about characters that hook my attention somehow, and often those characters have similar qualities, so I guess that part is like the "speaking" to me part of the question. (Examples: Tough, angry girls and women. characters who listen more than they speak. Characters with monsters inside. Anyone played by Michelle Rodriguez.)

I write about these characters, because these are the characters that interest me, whose stories I want to expand, examine, change, because these qualities intrigue me and inspire me and ring truth inside me. They make me want to tell stories, and so I do.

( All 30 Days )

3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

ARE YOU SHITTING ME? SIXTY-TWO FUCKING FANDOMS, MEME. SIXTY-FUCKING-TWO.

Well, the last one took three days to finish. Let's do this.

( 62 fandoms, people )

Wow, that went much faster. No explanations, for the most part, just names, that was the way to go. Takeaway: if Michelle Rodriguez is in the movie, her character is my favorite, and WEREWOLVES ALWAYS WEREWOLVES.

( All 30 Days )

2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.

Ha. Well, if you're sure... This is more or less in the order I first wrote in each. Numbers are taken from AO3.

There are 62 fandoms listed. I'm cutting it.

( There are 62 fandoms. )

My take-away: IS IT YULETIDE TIME YET?

( All 30 days )

I've seen this going around, and it looks like a good set of themed prompts, since I just finished that personal meme. (Of course, considering how long that took me, I'll still be answering this in 2020, but whatever.)

1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

Technically, I've been telling fannish stories since I first started telling stories as a small child, and I wrote my first fanfic in high school, when a project for 1984 turned into a short story my teacher loved. I started writing and posting fanfic online in 1999, though, after reading a ton of it and spending a lot of time on mailing lists. There was no real decision to start writing fic. I always told stories, I always wrote, and it just made perfect sense to start sharing stories with the people who I was talking to so often.

My first online fandom was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, specifically the Willow/Angel mailing list, and its spinoff. The women there, many of whom I'm still friends with, had a huge influence on the woman I've become over the past two decades. The fanfic is only a small part of that.

Even back then, I loved monsters and teenage girls being heroes and chosen families, so BtVS hit a lot of my buttons. Add that to how awesome the other fans were, how friendly and funny and smart, how willing they were to take a teenager under their wings, well, I had an excellent time in fandom, long after I was no longer watching and analyzing the show every week.

Some of the same things still appeal to me, which is probably why I sometimes write Buffy fic to this day. In particular, I love the way that the series finale opens the world up to Slayers everywhere, and what that does to the girls and women who were forcibly called. (And the ethics of how Buffy becomes what she's railed against by the end.)

(Though I like some of the things in the comics, they don't tend to exist in my canon when I write fic. Mostly because I haven't read very many.)

I don't have an appropriate icon. Sad.