Metafandom

General Meta

executrix - Presumed Televised: Send in the Bears Now that the new TV season has kicked off, I note that many people on my Flist have a full calendar of new and old shows to watch, and it's an important status marker what they try to watch in broadcast and what gets slung onto the TiVo for later viewing that may never happen.

faithfulreader - Gay Sex Tips (Part VI) I watched Brokeback with my friend and I remember how she asked me in a shocked whisper (referring to the scene in the tent), ‘Just like that?’ And I said, ‘Um, sort of– yeah, just like that. Did you expect roses and serenades?’ She was officially freaked out, but in the end she loved the movie more than I did.

painless_j - A How To Guide: themed lists Recently I've been quiet about new themed searches/lists. Am busy and distracted with other shiny stuff. :) But when I was a bit more active in searching for fics, I was asked to make a list on this or that topic rather often. And when I was asked, I sometimes refused. You see, I'm here having fun rather than fulfilling wishes, or fulfilling wishes only when it's fun for me too. So when I wasn't interested in the suggested theme, I often replied, "Why don't you do it yourself?" To which I often got the answer like, "Nobody knows me, so I won't collect as many fics as you will" or "But I don't know fandom as well as you do," or something else along these lines.
So here is some helpful advice and a "How To guide" for those who'd possibly like to do it but are reluctant because of this and that.

florahart - On Writing Crack So, I don't really do meta, but I kind of want to talk about writing crackfic and what I think that means, and what I think are good ways to do it (and maybe not-good ways). I think there are a coupleof good ways, and a whole lot of bad ones, and that the latter involve attempting to create plot out of crack and failing to actually think about how the plot and the crack work together.

cereta - Yeah, it's Saturday night. Wanna make something of it? You know, of all the little repeated quirks that show up on [info]fanficrants (yeah, yeah, I know), there's one that really, truly, puzzles me. Not outrages, not makes me want to facepalm (or better yet, facepalm the poster), just...puzzles. It goes something like this:
"OMG, people write fanfic for that?"

On Reading, Writing and Vidding

penknife - On writing effective dialogue Five thoughts on writing effective dialogue (other than "please don't spell everything funny to show that a character has an accent," which is another post entirely)

Djinn - Point of View Point of View (POV) seems like an easy thing. It's the eyes and voice through which you tell a story. But it's not an easy thing, and even in pro novels, you see POV errors. Why is it so hard?

permetaform - [vidding tutorial] Keyframes Okay, so instead of whining at my computer, I'm taking a break from exporting by re-posting my keyframes tutorial that I'd accidentally deleted awhile ago....

giandujakiss - Vids and Fanfic My detachment from the QL and LFN fan communities was, I think, a handicap, because so much of my HL and S&H vids were inspired by other fans. When I posted my HL vid, Nancy Boy, I explicitly referenced fanfic that had influenced me; but, in fact, my entire take on the D/M relationship, and the S&H relationship, comes from the fan community.

dragonsinger - Disheartened Writers Lately, it seems harder and harder to write a plotty het story in a mostly slash world. I've seen really good stories featuring het couples and original characters go virtually unnoticed because of their content, and it's a shame.

Links, Polls, etc

cereta - Grading Hell Theater: Pick the Moment Pick a source, any source. Run through as much or little of the cast of characters as you like, and try to pin a moment or series of moments when each person went from, "Yeah, I kind of like her/he's pretty" to "OMG LOVE!"

synecdochic - Writing methods poll