timepiececlock (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timepiececlock) wrote2008-06-20 11:12 am
timepiececlock) wrote2008-06-20 11:12 am
Meme - fandom and writing
I was tagged by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redbrunja, and it's been a while since I did a vanity meme.
How about a brief introduction of yourself?
I've been active in fandom for over 8 years now, though I discovered fanfic back when I was 13 or 14. I used to just read and write fic, and it wasn't until Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I joined forums and later LJ and got into reviewing, discussing, analyzing, and obsessing over shows. That was also the first fandom where I was a moderator at a forum, though the great fandom migration to Livejournal eventually killed Crumbling Walls.
I watch anime, tv, film, and read books. I rarely read manga (only 3 titles, really), and I generally don't read American comics. I'm a Jossfan and a Buffy follower for life and while I love Jedi and Han Solo and Leia, I tend to have a lot opinion of Star Wars apologists. There's just some things you can't apologize for, and simply have to mock. I'm nearing the end of my quest to read/listen to all the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.
Fabulous! And what got you into fanfiction to begin with?
I was dreaming it up and even scribbled it on note-paper once in middle school before I discovered fan sites on the internet and realized what I was doing.
I see, so what kind of fanfiction do you like to write?
I like drama and I like parody. Romantic drama tends to be what I write most, but I've a huge soft spot for humor, and my humorous fics always get the highest response count.
Do you tend to write the same pairings/characters? Or are you a fandom whore?
I tend to latch onto pairings and characters, though I will play in other sandboxes if I'm feeling a need for change.
What is your most popular fanfic and why do you think people like it so much?
series:Culture Clash - because it's ridiculous, and because kind people have pimped it everywhere
one-shot: Most Dramatic Gut-Wrenching Tragic Rape Fic Ever - because it's ridiculous, and because kind people have pimped it everywhere
Forget other people, what is the fanfic you’ve written you’re most proud of?
Short list ...I've written a lot of fandoms, over 130 fics, and my opinions changed over time:
This Is Your Life - Spike after Shanshu, after BTVS season 7, and how life changes. This is the fic I am still the most proud of, though it was one of my least popular.
Whose Hearts Are Mountains - Because it was my first real effort at mature sexual content.
Don't Look Back - Faye Valentine and Spike Spiegel, because of the figurative language.
Hands - Because Roy Mustang angst is an mythology unto itself, and so fun to write.
Moments In A Love Story - my obligatory Bulma/Vegita fic, and even though I'm better at writing now, I still love this one.
Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing you struggle with?
When I'm inspired it's easy, when I'm trying to force it it's very difficult, which is why I am so erratic with updates and my stories are so short. The most difficult aspects are 1) managing long-term plots with varrying layers of audience-reveal, and 2) committment to finish. I also obsess over whether the dialogue sounds like the characters talking or sounds like me talking.
Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character.
I wrote this the yesterday, foroctopedingenue, and it's my first and probably only attempt at Discworld fic, unedited:
Are there any fanfiction trends/clichés you can’t stand or are just sick of?
Female characters being sexually threatened then rescued by the male character and this scene being used as a catalyst for romantic feelings or thrills. HATE THAT SHIT.
Are you guilty of any of fanfiction trends/clichés you now hate? Or any other ones?
I have never, that I know of, written a scene like the one I described above.
For other cliches... I've done all of them except the self-insertion, I think. Forced marriage, insanity, capture/kidnapping, memory loss, prophecies, blood bonding or soul bonding, fantasies & dreams, telepathy, rescue fics, reverse-rescue fics, Sudden Realization of Feelings, inexplicable redemptions, trapped in a closet, everything. I've seen all of them done badly, and I've done most of them myself. Sometimes seriously, often in parody.
What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you still like/participate in it?
Sailor Moon and The X Files. Yep, I'm a pre-Livejournal fan. No, I hardly ever read for those fandoms now, but I have fond memories.
Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them you love to write.
Link to my six most favorite pairings of all fandom ever, but add Katara/Zuko since that's the one I've written most the last two years. I like writing about them because I like both people in the ship, and because the world they're set in has epic potential, and because they're pyrokinetics and aquakinetics and that shit is just fun. Also, I have a weakness for action heroines paired with redeemed!bad boys. ::coughBuffyversecough::.
Also add Doctor/Rose, because they are happiness cubed. And add Vash/Meryl, because they will never not be sweet and genuine.
What would you call your writing “style”?
I've been writing fic for so long that I vascillate a lot from fandom to fandom and from story to story. At some point I've tried everything I've come across in other fics... from script fics to no dialogue at all to stream of thought to dialouge without identifying quotation marks to narratively-broken structure.
In parody I tend to draw from books I've read, mostly Douglas Adams. In drama... I have a lot of dialogue, but I also like description, and sometimes I don't get the balance write. Dialogue is my favorite to write, though also the hardest by far. In the last couple years I've been trying to use adverbs as rarely as possible, I've been trying to use the word "said" more instead of annoying cliche descriptors, and I've been trying to show more than tell. I like to try to use dialogue to convey the events as much as description, and I've been trying to use description to convey the mood without explicitly telling it. My goal is brevity, and conveying the most content with the least amount of words. It's an on-going goal.
Do you read other people’s fanfics? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
All the freaking time. I read romance the most, but I like gen action fics. Especially in fandoms like Naruto, where there is a huge cast. Right now I'm reading primarily Avatar fic, but I'm sampling other fandoms as well. I tend to follow specific authors more than fandoms.
Name one thing you’d LOVE to write, but have been too afraid or shy to do.
At one point I conceived and began writing a fic that would be a hardcore darkfic, borderline horror, that involved Kabuto/Kakashi slash and hatesex and violence. Basically Kabuto kidnaps Sasuke after the exams, then Kakashi hunts them down, seduces Kabuto (while Sasuke is tied up in the closet), and either maims or kills him before being able to rescue Sasuke. I never went all the way because I realized that all that I know about men having sex with men comes from novels, fandom, or television, and I just didn't want to make some egregiously horrible anatomical error. [ex: The 40 Year old Virgin and sandbags] I am pretty sure I could fake it just fine, but that would mean glossing over content or being vague, neither of which would work in a fic of this kind. That was four years ago and I've since lost interest.
Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?
Yes. I am too neurotic for a beta reader, most days. And yes, I'd say I have a medium-size ego bloatation problem. It's bigger than is socially acceptable (it's still in the fandom acceptable range), but it hasn't got its own zip code yet, so expansion is still a viable prospect.
When you write, is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?
Music is a tool I use 80% of the time. I like it, but the tone of what I hear has such a dramatic affect on my tone and even content that I have to pre-select my soundtrack or I'll end up writing something totally different. Other than that, I like quiet and I hate tv background noise.
What inspires you?
The most random menial things: doing the dishes, stop lights, smells. Music also does it, so do other media works like books, tv, film. I also get inspired to rewrite other people's badly written fic, but I don't usually indulge that because it's in poor taste.
Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and yourself as a writer?
Tag some friends, because they’ll hate you for it.
If you want it, do it.
redbrunja, and it's been a while since I did a vanity meme.How about a brief introduction of yourself?
I've been active in fandom for over 8 years now, though I discovered fanfic back when I was 13 or 14. I used to just read and write fic, and it wasn't until Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I joined forums and later LJ and got into reviewing, discussing, analyzing, and obsessing over shows. That was also the first fandom where I was a moderator at a forum, though the great fandom migration to Livejournal eventually killed Crumbling Walls.
I watch anime, tv, film, and read books. I rarely read manga (only 3 titles, really), and I generally don't read American comics. I'm a Jossfan and a Buffy follower for life and while I love Jedi and Han Solo and Leia, I tend to have a lot opinion of Star Wars apologists. There's just some things you can't apologize for, and simply have to mock. I'm nearing the end of my quest to read/listen to all the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.
Fabulous! And what got you into fanfiction to begin with?
I was dreaming it up and even scribbled it on note-paper once in middle school before I discovered fan sites on the internet and realized what I was doing.
I see, so what kind of fanfiction do you like to write?
I like drama and I like parody. Romantic drama tends to be what I write most, but I've a huge soft spot for humor, and my humorous fics always get the highest response count.
Do you tend to write the same pairings/characters? Or are you a fandom whore?
I tend to latch onto pairings and characters, though I will play in other sandboxes if I'm feeling a need for change.
What is your most popular fanfic and why do you think people like it so much?
series:Culture Clash - because it's ridiculous, and because kind people have pimped it everywhere
one-shot: Most Dramatic Gut-Wrenching Tragic Rape Fic Ever - because it's ridiculous, and because kind people have pimped it everywhere
Forget other people, what is the fanfic you’ve written you’re most proud of?
Short list ...I've written a lot of fandoms, over 130 fics, and my opinions changed over time:
This Is Your Life - Spike after Shanshu, after BTVS season 7, and how life changes. This is the fic I am still the most proud of, though it was one of my least popular.
Whose Hearts Are Mountains - Because it was my first real effort at mature sexual content.
Don't Look Back - Faye Valentine and Spike Spiegel, because of the figurative language.
Hands - Because Roy Mustang angst is an mythology unto itself, and so fun to write.
Moments In A Love Story - my obligatory Bulma/Vegita fic, and even though I'm better at writing now, I still love this one.
Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing you struggle with?
When I'm inspired it's easy, when I'm trying to force it it's very difficult, which is why I am so erratic with updates and my stories are so short. The most difficult aspects are 1) managing long-term plots with varrying layers of audience-reveal, and 2) committment to finish. I also obsess over whether the dialogue sounds like the characters talking or sounds like me talking.
Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character.
I wrote this the yesterday, for
octopedingenue, and it's my first and probably only attempt at Discworld fic, unedited:[mild Night Watch spoilers]
Sam Vimes knew that he was young and stupid--people seemed to tell him often enough--but he was good at walking, and walking was something Sergeant-at-arms Keel did a lot. The Sarge didn't seem keen on horses, though he'd settled that business about the stolen feed quickly enough. Sam was fairly certain that Keel knew which end of a horse ate the carrot, but probably only because the other end was smellier. That satisfied Sam because thought pretty much the same, except that he'd bring the carrot home for soup before handing it out to an animal fatter than him.
An animal, perhaps, exactly like the monster of an equine currently trying to squeeze over the top left edge of the barricade. Its front shoes scrabbled and caught on out-jutting pieces of wood and slab while the half where the carrot comes out was trying to do the same from a higher elevation.
"Lance Constable."
"Yes Sarge?"
"I was just walking past when I happened to notice that someone added a horse to our barricade."
"Yes Sarge."
"Not what I'd've chosen, but not a bad material, either. There's a lot of weight on those, and this one makes for a nice speckled wall."
"A bit squishy for a wall, Sarge."
"Noisy too," said Keel when Sergeant Colon attempted to slide a walking stick underneath its unmentionable zone for leverage.
"Yes, Sarge." There was a curse and then the sound of wood cracking and collapsing, then back again to the shriek of a horse that doesn't like people leveraging its unmentionables.
"How are you planning to get it out, Lance Constable?"
"Well, sir, after Colon was done trying the walking stick thing that Wally Wiglet's grandmother suggested," a wizened little woman several feet along the barricade waved a sock at them, "I was going to try luring it forward with some vegetables from the carts that The People brought over."
"Bribery. Very patriotic."
"Thank you, Sarge."
"How do you suppose they got it to go up there in the first place?"
"Dunno, sir. Poor eyesight?"
Are there any fanfiction trends/clichés you can’t stand or are just sick of?
Female characters being sexually threatened then rescued by the male character and this scene being used as a catalyst for romantic feelings or thrills. HATE THAT SHIT.
Are you guilty of any of fanfiction trends/clichés you now hate? Or any other ones?
I have never, that I know of, written a scene like the one I described above.
For other cliches... I've done all of them except the self-insertion, I think. Forced marriage, insanity, capture/kidnapping, memory loss, prophecies, blood bonding or soul bonding, fantasies & dreams, telepathy, rescue fics, reverse-rescue fics, Sudden Realization of Feelings, inexplicable redemptions, trapped in a closet, everything. I've seen all of them done badly, and I've done most of them myself. Sometimes seriously, often in parody.
What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you still like/participate in it?
Sailor Moon and The X Files. Yep, I'm a pre-Livejournal fan. No, I hardly ever read for those fandoms now, but I have fond memories.
Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them you love to write.
Link to my six most favorite pairings of all fandom ever, but add Katara/Zuko since that's the one I've written most the last two years. I like writing about them because I like both people in the ship, and because the world they're set in has epic potential, and because they're pyrokinetics and aquakinetics and that shit is just fun. Also, I have a weakness for action heroines paired with redeemed!bad boys. ::coughBuffyversecough::.
Also add Doctor/Rose, because they are happiness cubed. And add Vash/Meryl, because they will never not be sweet and genuine.
What would you call your writing “style”?
I've been writing fic for so long that I vascillate a lot from fandom to fandom and from story to story. At some point I've tried everything I've come across in other fics... from script fics to no dialogue at all to stream of thought to dialouge without identifying quotation marks to narratively-broken structure.
In parody I tend to draw from books I've read, mostly Douglas Adams. In drama... I have a lot of dialogue, but I also like description, and sometimes I don't get the balance write. Dialogue is my favorite to write, though also the hardest by far. In the last couple years I've been trying to use adverbs as rarely as possible, I've been trying to use the word "said" more instead of annoying cliche descriptors, and I've been trying to show more than tell. I like to try to use dialogue to convey the events as much as description, and I've been trying to use description to convey the mood without explicitly telling it. My goal is brevity, and conveying the most content with the least amount of words. It's an on-going goal.
Do you read other people’s fanfics? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
All the freaking time. I read romance the most, but I like gen action fics. Especially in fandoms like Naruto, where there is a huge cast. Right now I'm reading primarily Avatar fic, but I'm sampling other fandoms as well. I tend to follow specific authors more than fandoms.
Name one thing you’d LOVE to write, but have been too afraid or shy to do.
At one point I conceived and began writing a fic that would be a hardcore darkfic, borderline horror, that involved Kabuto/Kakashi slash and hatesex and violence. Basically Kabuto kidnaps Sasuke after the exams, then Kakashi hunts them down, seduces Kabuto (while Sasuke is tied up in the closet), and either maims or kills him before being able to rescue Sasuke. I never went all the way because I realized that all that I know about men having sex with men comes from novels, fandom, or television, and I just didn't want to make some egregiously horrible anatomical error. [ex: The 40 Year old Virgin and sandbags] I am pretty sure I could fake it just fine, but that would mean glossing over content or being vague, neither of which would work in a fic of this kind. That was four years ago and I've since lost interest.
Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?
Yes. I am too neurotic for a beta reader, most days. And yes, I'd say I have a medium-size ego bloatation problem. It's bigger than is socially acceptable (it's still in the fandom acceptable range), but it hasn't got its own zip code yet, so expansion is still a viable prospect.
When you write, is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?
Music is a tool I use 80% of the time. I like it, but the tone of what I hear has such a dramatic affect on my tone and even content that I have to pre-select my soundtrack or I'll end up writing something totally different. Other than that, I like quiet and I hate tv background noise.
What inspires you?
The most random menial things: doing the dishes, stop lights, smells. Music also does it, so do other media works like books, tv, film. I also get inspired to rewrite other people's badly written fic, but I don't usually indulge that because it's in poor taste.
Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and yourself as a writer?
Tag some friends, because they’ll hate you for it.
If you want it, do it.