Metafandom

• facetofcathy: Links about representation - I want writers (in the general sense) to expand their character palette. But in the specific, I want writers to do it out of a drive to write that particular character as a character, not as an ambassador from planet X!Identity making a special guest appearance in fic now for the very first time. -
  
  (tags: writing fanfic kink oppression)


• bironic: [in kink_bingo] Force Me, Please: On Noncon and Noncon Play in Fanfic - This is an essay about nonconsensual sex (noncon) and noncon roleplay in fanfic, why I love them, why they may work for other people, and how approximately one zillion kinks complement them -
  
  (tags: kink fanfic)


• sailorptah: How to write Fic About Issues without it becoming Issuefic - Issuefic at its worst is didactic, boring, and with cookie-cutter characterization thanks to everything being subsumed by the goal of Making A Point, which is handled with about as much subtlety as a whack-a-mole mallet. (I could go on.)But for the most part, I don't think writers set out to lecture. They just set out to write Non Faily Fic about some srs bsns subject or another, and try too hard. -
  
  (tags: fanfic writing)

• facetofcathy: Links about representation - I want writers (in the general sense) to expand their character palette. But in the specific, I want writers to do it out of a drive to write that particular character as a character, not as an ambassador from planet X!Identity making a special guest appearance in fic now for the very first time. -
  
  (tags: writing fanfic kink oppression)


• bironic: [in kink_bingo] Force Me, Please: On Noncon and Noncon Play in Fanfic - This is an essay about nonconsensual sex (noncon) and noncon roleplay in fanfic, why I love them, why they may work for other people, and how approximately one zillion kinks complement them -
  
  (tags: kink fanfic)


• sailorptah: How to write Fic About Issues without it becoming Issuefic - Issuefic at its worst is didactic, boring, and with cookie-cutter characterization thanks to everything being subsumed by the goal of Making A Point, which is handled with about as much subtlety as a whack-a-mole mallet. (I could go on.)But for the most part, I don't think writers set out to lecture. They just set out to write Non Faily Fic about some srs bsns subject or another, and try too hard. -
  
  (tags: fanfic writing)

• needled_ink_1975: Mind their language! - Please, please don't go grabbing bits of foreign-to-you languages from those "Common Phrases in Language X" websites. You might be able to get away with it if you only use really common words like the translation for 'Okay/all right,' 'Yes,' 'No,' 'Please,' and 'Thank you.' Very often, you won't get away with any more than that. -
  
  (tags: fanfic language)


• elf: Cry OC, and let slip the sues of fic - I've been pondering which fandoms lend themselves to OC-heavy fic, maybe only-OC fic. I'm focusing on "normal" media fandoms, rather than things like games or works of art or songs; I'm not addressing fandoms that many fanfic archives wouldn't acknowledge as sources for fic. I want to think about (and therefore, inflict you) the fandoms that *could* have lots of OC fic, but just don't. -
  
  (tags: characters ocs fanfic)


• petra: [in kink_bingo] Ramp-up Essay: Writing Dirty Talk - My golden rules for writing dirty talk are "What would this character enjoy saying?" and "What would their partner(s) want to hear?" -
  
  (tags: kink writing)


• aris_tgd: [in kink_bingo] Ramp-up Essay: Discipline, and the Line Between Guilt and Shame - if you're writing discipline, if you figure out which side of the guilt/shame divide you're on, it's easier to figure out what kind of emotions need to be present in the scene. And focusing on those emotions can make any kind of writing more immediate, and give your characters something to focus on between counting blows. -
  
  (tags: kink writing)


• pinesandmaples: [in kink_bingo] Ramp-up Essay: Opening the door, or how fanfic changes everything - yes, we create awesome kinky pieces as part of this event, but there are larger implications! There is so much power and potential tied up in each piece we create and release into the wild. Who knows what switches it will flip, and what buttons it will push for someone who is searching? -
  
  (tags: kink sexuality fanfic)

• needled_ink_1975: Mind their language! - Please, please don't go grabbing bits of foreign-to-you languages from those "Common Phrases in Language X" websites. You might be able to get away with it if you only use really common words like the translation for 'Okay/all right,' 'Yes,' 'No,' 'Please,' and 'Thank you.' Very often, you won't get away with any more than that. -
  
  (tags: fanfic language)


• elf: Cry OC, and let slip the sues of fic - I've been pondering which fandoms lend themselves to OC-heavy fic, maybe only-OC fic. I'm focusing on "normal" media fandoms, rather than things like games or works of art or songs; I'm not addressing fandoms that many fanfic archives wouldn't acknowledge as sources for fic. I want to think about (and therefore, inflict you) the fandoms that *could* have lots of OC fic, but just don't. -
  
  (tags: characters ocs fanfic)


• petra: [in kink_bingo] Ramp-up Essay: Writing Dirty Talk - My golden rules for writing dirty talk are "What would this character enjoy saying?" and "What would their partner(s) want to hear?" -
  
  (tags: kink writing)


• aris_tgd: [in kink_bingo] Ramp-up Essay: Discipline, and the Line Between Guilt and Shame - if you're writing discipline, if you figure out which side of the guilt/shame divide you're on, it's easier to figure out what kind of emotions need to be present in the scene. And focusing on those emotions can make any kind of writing more immediate, and give your characters something to focus on between counting blows. -
  
  (tags: kink writing)


• pinesandmaples: [in kink_bingo] Ramp-up Essay: Opening the door, or how fanfic changes everything - yes, we create awesome kinky pieces as part of this event, but there are larger implications! There is so much power and potential tied up in each piece we create and release into the wild. Who knows what switches it will flip, and what buttons it will push for someone who is searching? -
  
  (tags: kink sexuality fanfic)

• snowynight: Asexuality and Femslash - The challenge of asexuality comes from its pervasive invisibility. -
  
  (tags: femslash asexuality)


• redhillbones: Wallaces Wobble But Weevils Fall Down : Race, Class, and Bias in Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars is intentionally racist. It highlights the inequalities perpetrated on persons of color in a world where white persons are predominantly in power and rich. It’s not subtle about it. It wants you to see that these inequalities exist. So, the problem isn’t that VM is racist. The problem is that it’s so intentionally racist that it's easy to miss how it's unintentionally racist as well. -
  
  (tags: vm race racism)


• anivad: here is my J201 term paper. - SurveyFail, Internet Communities and the Subaltern: Giving Voices to the Powerless -
  
  (tags: sexuality fandom)

• snowynight: Asexuality and Femslash - The challenge of asexuality comes from its pervasive invisibility. -
  
  (tags: femslash asexuality)


• redhillbones: Wallaces Wobble But Weevils Fall Down : Race, Class, and Bias in Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars is intentionally racist. It highlights the inequalities perpetrated on persons of color in a world where white persons are predominantly in power and rich. It’s not subtle about it. It wants you to see that these inequalities exist. So, the problem isn’t that VM is racist. The problem is that it’s so intentionally racist that it's easy to miss how it's unintentionally racist as well. -
  
  (tags: vm race racism)


• anivad: here is my J201 term paper. - SurveyFail, Internet Communities and the Subaltern: Giving Voices to the Powerless -
  
  (tags: sexuality fandom)

• elf: Does "fanfic" mean "other people's characters?" - Is a writeup of a D&D game "fanfic?" Does it have to focus on the canonical characters & settings to be fanfic, or is the fact that it's set in a canonical world enough? The more I poke around fanfic things, the more it seems that "fanfic" often means "someone else's characters." Not someone else's settings; not fic inspired by a canonical source; not retelling someone else's stories. Those are acknowledged as fanfic (and Yuletide gets lots of them), but they get the sideways look, the double-take followed by, "oh yeah ... I guess that can be fanfic too." -
  
  (tags: fanfic gaming)


• slagsmacker: Location, Location, Location (or why am I here?) - Posting - Where femslash writers post/why/where femslash writers don't post/why -
  
  (tags: femslash archiving)


• sqbr: Political fanart - I googled "political art" to get some ideas, and came across this post of 50 political artworks. And as I scrolled through thinking about what a transformative version of such art might look like I realised: many of them are transformative already. -
  
  (tags: fanart)


• snowynight: Where 're the femslash little black dress - My hypothesis about the lack of femslash little black dress is thus: There're just not enough female characters. Even nowadays a show can be without one female major character. -
  
  (tags: femslash characters)

• elf: Does "fanfic" mean "other people's characters?" - Is a writeup of a D&D game "fanfic?" Does it have to focus on the canonical characters & settings to be fanfic, or is the fact that it's set in a canonical world enough? The more I poke around fanfic things, the more it seems that "fanfic" often means "someone else's characters." Not someone else's settings; not fic inspired by a canonical source; not retelling someone else's stories. Those are acknowledged as fanfic (and Yuletide gets lots of them), but they get the sideways look, the double-take followed by, "oh yeah ... I guess that can be fanfic too." -
  
  (tags: fanfic gaming)


• slagsmacker: Location, Location, Location (or why am I here?) - Posting - Where femslash writers post/why/where femslash writers don't post/why -
  
  (tags: femslash archiving)


• sqbr: Political fanart - I googled "political art" to get some ideas, and came across this post of 50 political artworks. And as I scrolled through thinking about what a transformative version of such art might look like I realised: many of them are transformative already. -
  
  (tags: fanart)


• snowynight: Where 're the femslash little black dress - My hypothesis about the lack of femslash little black dress is thus: There're just not enough female characters. Even nowadays a show can be without one female major character. -
  
  (tags: femslash characters)

• morgandawn: TEWFIBBA (weacatst)* - Three Easy Ways For Increasing Big Bang Accessibility (while eating a cookie at the same time) -
  
  (tags: bigbangs accessibility ebooks)


• morgandawn: Thoughts about making the Big Bang more accessible - More fans (not just ones with disabilities) are now using eReaders to read Big Bang fic. They're running into a few problems - not being able to access older fic or art when LJs or websites go down (by older I mean sometimes as little as a few months) and the amount of work it takes to reformat multi-part LJ stories into a format that an eReader can use. -
  
  (tags: bigbangs accessibility ebooks)


• helens78: Get your IJ, if you still want it - the number of people who are saying in comments that IJ "isn't your archive" and we "shouldn't expect IJ to archive our journals" are making me see red. I know that a lot of these people are probably kiddos whose primary experience in interactive journaling sites is the constant ephemery of Twitter and Tumblr, but those of us who have been keeping journals one place or another for ten years, and refer back to those entries? Yes, we do expect to be able to come back to our original service and see the archives of our past history, or the past history of our friends. -
  
  (tags: ij archiving deleting)


• dragovianknight: Y'all know I love Insane Journal - But I am really, really not happy about the current purge of journals which haven't been active since January 2010. Not happy about the fact that Squeaky, who supposedly understood fandom and welcomed us, doesn't give a damn about wiping out stories and art and history which may not be archived anywhere else, and not happy about the fact that he set the journals to deleted, and THEN sent out emails telling us how to save our journals if we wanted to keep them. -
  
  (tags: IJ deleting)


• naraht: Is slash necessary? and further fannish fail from me - I continue to be thinky about the potentially problematic nature of saying "I don't have slash goggles, I only see what's actually in the canon." Does seeing clearly and contextually when it comes to queer representation imply a need for slash goggles, or perhaps simply an understanding of how they can operate to redress a long-standing and systemic representational imbalance? Is not being able to see that way a result of internalized heteronormative assumptions? And how is it that I grok The Celluloid Closet but not Kirk/Spock? -
  
  (tags: slash canon subtext)


• lightgetsin: Tumblr - Hi, I’m Light and I’m blind and I read political tumblrs, I read porn tumblrs, I read the fanfic flamingo, I read stupid tumblrs about cats. Please stop deciding I don’t get to like your stuff. -
  
  (tags: tumblr accessibility)


• blueraccoon: what started as one thing, and turned into something else. - I cannot overemphasize how important safewords are. If you start fic without them, you're basically saying that no one has a right to say no, and how fucked up is that? Consent is not implied, and no one should be forced into ANYTHING without it. -
  
  (tags: kink fanfic consent)

• morgandawn: TEWFIBBA (weacatst)* - Three Easy Ways For Increasing Big Bang Accessibility (while eating a cookie at the same time) -
  
  (tags: bigbangs accessibility ebooks)


• morgandawn: Thoughts about making the Big Bang more accessible - More fans (not just ones with disabilities) are now using eReaders to read Big Bang fic. They're running into a few problems - not being able to access older fic or art when LJs or websites go down (by older I mean sometimes as little as a few months) and the amount of work it takes to reformat multi-part LJ stories into a format that an eReader can use. -
  
  (tags: bigbangs accessibility ebooks)


• helens78: Get your IJ, if you still want it - the number of people who are saying in comments that IJ "isn't your archive" and we "shouldn't expect IJ to archive our journals" are making me see red. I know that a lot of these people are probably kiddos whose primary experience in interactive journaling sites is the constant ephemery of Twitter and Tumblr, but those of us who have been keeping journals one place or another for ten years, and refer back to those entries? Yes, we do expect to be able to come back to our original service and see the archives of our past history, or the past history of our friends. -
  
  (tags: ij archiving deleting)


• dragovianknight: Y'all know I love Insane Journal - But I am really, really not happy about the current purge of journals which haven't been active since January 2010. Not happy about the fact that Squeaky, who supposedly understood fandom and welcomed us, doesn't give a damn about wiping out stories and art and history which may not be archived anywhere else, and not happy about the fact that he set the journals to deleted, and THEN sent out emails telling us how to save our journals if we wanted to keep them. -
  
  (tags: IJ deleting)


• naraht: Is slash necessary? and further fannish fail from me - I continue to be thinky about the potentially problematic nature of saying "I don't have slash goggles, I only see what's actually in the canon." Does seeing clearly and contextually when it comes to queer representation imply a need for slash goggles, or perhaps simply an understanding of how they can operate to redress a long-standing and systemic representational imbalance? Is not being able to see that way a result of internalized heteronormative assumptions? And how is it that I grok The Celluloid Closet but not Kirk/Spock? -
  
  (tags: slash canon subtext)


• lightgetsin: Tumblr - Hi, I’m Light and I’m blind and I read political tumblrs, I read porn tumblrs, I read the fanfic flamingo, I read stupid tumblrs about cats. Please stop deciding I don’t get to like your stuff. -
  
  (tags: tumblr accessibility)


• blueraccoon: what started as one thing, and turned into something else. - I cannot overemphasize how important safewords are. If you start fic without them, you're basically saying that no one has a right to say no, and how fucked up is that? Consent is not implied, and no one should be forced into ANYTHING without it. -
  
  (tags: kink fanfic consent)

This is a catchup post for the links we missed posting. Due to size, it is behind the cut.
( Cut due to size )

This is a catchup post for the links we missed posting. Due to size, it is behind the cut.
( Cut due to size )

• sarken: Where do you prefer to read fic? - You know how some authors post the header to their story and then, instead of posting the text, include two clearly-marked links, one of which says something like, "Read this story on Dreamwidth," and the other says something like, "Read this story on Archive of Our Own"? I was just wondering what people do when they see that, so I present you with a poll. -
  
  (tags: reading dreamwidth ao3 poll)

• sarken: Where do you prefer to read fic? - You know how some authors post the header to their story and then, instead of posting the text, include two clearly-marked links, one of which says something like, "Read this story on Dreamwidth," and the other says something like, "Read this story on Archive of Our Own"? I was just wondering what people do when they see that, so I present you with a poll. -
  
  (tags: reading dreamwidth ao3 poll)

• skaredykat: When stories disappear - back again - Given that there is a culture/etiquette of respected pseudonymity in fandom, shouldn't it be extended to publicly viewable activity around a fan's works or presence once that fan is no longer online? That is, let's not make it publicly obvious that we're connecting dots or actively digging up and sharing past traces of their presence? -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• danceswithgary: Very emphatically no - There are so many different reasons for fanworks or journals or blogs to have been deleted and every one is legitimate even if you don't like it because that person owns those items and it's their right to do what they like with them. If the creator has explicitly said they don't mind copies being distributed, that's one thing, but that shouldn't be the default action or assumed to be the case. -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• kikiko_haru: [in riverside_ebook] Deleted Journals. Is the Fic Fair Game? Part 2 - It goes like this... a journal is deleted with all its fic. The author may or may not have expressed their wish as to what to do with fic still out there (ie request that it not be distributed anymore or so on), or maybe you just can't find the LJ-user anymore. But hey! someone over there *points* was industrious enough to save a copy of it to their hard drive and here you come looking for said fic and lo, the journal is gone. What's a fan to do? :O So you plead to the communities looking to see if you can find that industrious person and hope they're wiling to share. But...should one share?? -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• vickyblueeyez: [in fandom_lawyers] Fic from deleted journals, fair game? - Recently an author deleted their fic from LJ and FF.net by deleting their accounts. The author cannot be reached. I've saved said fic as a PDF and don't know if I can distribute it. -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• sophinisba: Profiles on the AO3 - I would really like it if more people would put a little information there, especially links! The three things I would love to see people put in their profiles are-Where else they are on the web (like LJ/IJ/DW)-How to contact them privately-How they feel about uses of their work -
  
  (tags: ao3 podfic)


• vickyblueeyez: Deleted fic lost and found - I'd like to create some kind of lost and found fic community. -
  
  (tags: fanfic fandom poll question)

• skaredykat: When stories disappear - back again - Given that there is a culture/etiquette of respected pseudonymity in fandom, shouldn't it be extended to publicly viewable activity around a fan's works or presence once that fan is no longer online? That is, let's not make it publicly obvious that we're connecting dots or actively digging up and sharing past traces of their presence? -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• danceswithgary: Very emphatically no - There are so many different reasons for fanworks or journals or blogs to have been deleted and every one is legitimate even if you don't like it because that person owns those items and it's their right to do what they like with them. If the creator has explicitly said they don't mind copies being distributed, that's one thing, but that shouldn't be the default action or assumed to be the case. -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• kikiko_haru: [in riverside_ebook] Deleted Journals. Is the Fic Fair Game? Part 2 - It goes like this... a journal is deleted with all its fic. The author may or may not have expressed their wish as to what to do with fic still out there (ie request that it not be distributed anymore or so on), or maybe you just can't find the LJ-user anymore. But hey! someone over there *points* was industrious enough to save a copy of it to their hard drive and here you come looking for said fic and lo, the journal is gone. What's a fan to do? :O So you plead to the communities looking to see if you can find that industrious person and hope they're wiling to share. But...should one share?? -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• vickyblueeyez: [in fandom_lawyers] Fic from deleted journals, fair game? - Recently an author deleted their fic from LJ and FF.net by deleting their accounts. The author cannot be reached. I've saved said fic as a PDF and don't know if I can distribute it. -
  
  (tags: fanfic deleting)


• sophinisba: Profiles on the AO3 - I would really like it if more people would put a little information there, especially links! The three things I would love to see people put in their profiles are-Where else they are on the web (like LJ/IJ/DW)-How to contact them privately-How they feel about uses of their work -
  
  (tags: ao3 podfic)


• vickyblueeyez: Deleted fic lost and found - I'd like to create some kind of lost and found fic community. -
  
  (tags: fanfic fandom poll question)

• helens78: Vote Ticky! - I am in favor of tickys because tickys are a form of communication. They can help engender community and relationships in a way that can enhance comments rather than replacing them or taking away from them. When someone isn't commenting, it's impossible to know if it's because they're lost for words, aren't on a platform suitable for lengthy comments (how many users read the site from smartphones now?), don't have a lot of spoons, have to conserve typing time... or aren't reading and don't care. -
  
  (tags: dw comments)


• forthwritten: fanfiction and my younger self - These stories could express things I didn't know I wanted, didn't know existed. No matter how uncool it might be to admit to reading fanfiction, I can't deny that I'm grateful it's there. -
  
  (tags: fanfic sexuality gender slash)

• helens78: Vote Ticky! - I am in favor of tickys because tickys are a form of communication. They can help engender community and relationships in a way that can enhance comments rather than replacing them or taking away from them. When someone isn't commenting, it's impossible to know if it's because they're lost for words, aren't on a platform suitable for lengthy comments (how many users read the site from smartphones now?), don't have a lot of spoons, have to conserve typing time... or aren't reading and don't care. -
  
  (tags: dw comments)


• forthwritten: fanfiction and my younger self - These stories could express things I didn't know I wanted, didn't know existed. No matter how uncool it might be to admit to reading fanfiction, I can't deny that I'm grateful it's there. -
  
  (tags: fanfic sexuality gender slash)

• melannen: Love & Marriage - One thing I love in a good SF story is ways of doing love, marriage, and romance that don't buy in to our society's idea of love+romance+sex+monogamy all on one single person as the only way to do it.I have a small collection of worlds that have come up with better ways, and I have a great deal of fun trying to fit the 'shipping debates from various fandoms into these other ways of looking at love. -
  
  (tags: poly fanfic)


• synecdochic: LiveJournal's DDoS and Russian Politics - So, people who grumble about "the Russians" taking over LJ should remember that in Russia, LiveJournal isn't just the top blogging platform, it's the blogging platform. It is Russia's free press. It is the tool being used to fight corruption and advance the cause of democracy. And, more practically to LJ users, the Russian-speaking sector of LJ is the reason LJ is still there at all. -
  
  (tags: lj ddos russia)


• caras_galadhon: Things You Should Know When LJ Goes Down-- - Right, so. It looks like the DDoS has subsided for the moment, which means I have a chance to provide a quick post listing ways to keep yourself informed whenever LJ hiccups/goes down/experiences a blackout. -
  
  (tags: lj)


• killabeez: If you love us, you'll archive your fic. - If all this LJ trouble has brought one thing in to sharp relief, it's that what worries me about losing access to LJ is the fic. -
  
  (tags: archiving lj)


• the_shoshanna: sex, and slash sex scenes - At Muskrat Jamboree, I went to a panel on sexuality and slash fandom, and also to one on anal sex (which I went to mostly because I thought it would be hilarious, and it was, but it was also really interesting). And it seems that something I said may have gotten reported around, so I thought I'd repeat and expand on it a bit. -
  
  (tags: slash sexuality)


• lim: Query: on reccing art - I really want your opinions/ideas on this: how to go about reccing art not on deviantArt -
  
  (tags: fanart reccing)

• melannen: Love & Marriage - One thing I love in a good SF story is ways of doing love, marriage, and romance that don't buy in to our society's idea of love+romance+sex+monogamy all on one single person as the only way to do it.I have a small collection of worlds that have come up with better ways, and I have a great deal of fun trying to fit the 'shipping debates from various fandoms into these other ways of looking at love. -
  
  (tags: poly fanfic)


• synecdochic: LiveJournal's DDoS and Russian Politics - So, people who grumble about "the Russians" taking over LJ should remember that in Russia, LiveJournal isn't just the top blogging platform, it's the blogging platform. It is Russia's free press. It is the tool being used to fight corruption and advance the cause of democracy. And, more practically to LJ users, the Russian-speaking sector of LJ is the reason LJ is still there at all. -
  
  (tags: lj ddos russia)


• caras_galadhon: Things You Should Know When LJ Goes Down-- - Right, so. It looks like the DDoS has subsided for the moment, which means I have a chance to provide a quick post listing ways to keep yourself informed whenever LJ hiccups/goes down/experiences a blackout. -
  
  (tags: lj)


• killabeez: If you love us, you'll archive your fic. - If all this LJ trouble has brought one thing in to sharp relief, it's that what worries me about losing access to LJ is the fic. -
  
  (tags: archiving lj)


• the_shoshanna: sex, and slash sex scenes - At Muskrat Jamboree, I went to a panel on sexuality and slash fandom, and also to one on anal sex (which I went to mostly because I thought it would be hilarious, and it was, but it was also really interesting). And it seems that something I said may have gotten reported around, so I thought I'd repeat and expand on it a bit. -
  
  (tags: slash sexuality)


• lim: lim: Query: on reccing art - I really want your opinions/ideas on this: how to go about reccing art not on deviantArt -
  
  (tags: fanart reccing)