General Fandom Meta

musesfool - i wanna fall in love tonight (on romance and genre) - I mean, seriously. All y'all can talk about how slash is all transgressive and what not [...] but as a genre, shipper fanfiction - and I include both het and slash in that category despite protests from folks on both sides of the divide - is very much one based in large part on romance novel conventions, albeit combined with various other conventions from other genres, based both on the genre of the source text and on the various conventions of fannish writing.

nostalgia_lj - when fandom distracts! - So, really, I'm not convinced that boyslash itself teaches you to write more pragmatically in your romances. I think having to keep people in-character does, and the fact that there's so much slushiness that you feel the need to rebel in some way. I can see how if you're reading only decent boyslash you could see a connection, but dude you can avoid the mush in anything if you're canny about it, and you can hit slushy shite at any boyslash archive within about three clicks of a mouse.

elspethdixon - Reads like fanfic? Great! I'll take it! - Am I the only person in fandom who uses the phrase “reads like fanfiction” as a compliment? As in “contains all of the same elements I love in really well-done fanfiction?”

harriet_spy - Love, all alike - One of the most exciting and appealing aspects of slash for me, even when I was too young to know what slashiness was, was that it was subtextual. Don't roll your eyes--it's not because that made it subversive or transgressive or a potential rebellion against consumer culture or whatnot. I mean that it made it feel like this great secret sliding beneath the words, this electricity in the air that was inexplicable by the situation read literally. There was something more, something deep, wild, and strange between the characters in question. Sensing that thrilled me, and it still can.

thassalia - Sailing My Ship on the High Seas - I must admit to being thrilled at falling for a couple, at that illict buzz that comes from seeing UST running amok all over the screen, but I wouldn't say that a ship is the what draws me into fannishness. It's the story, and the way that the evolution of the characters tells that story.

monanotlisa - Good grief. Bring a thermos with the hot beverage of your choice, willya? - Reading thassalia's post about her fannish take on Farscape, The X-Files, and BSG post made me re-consider...not so much the question she poses -- "what propels the fan boat for me?" -- but the further question of how that fan boat is propelled.

syredronnning - Fandom poll :) - Canons closed or in development? - Last night, I was thinking about my fandoms and suddenly realized that I only have fandoms where canon is already closed and well-defined since years/ages. Which makes me rather curious what my flist has to say about closed vs. developing canon and the reasons why they might appeal to anyone [Poll]

femmenerd - Meta - Rejecting the use of the term "masturbatory" as a blanket condemnation of fanfic - I have heard people outside of fandom refer to fanfic as “masturbatory” and then behave as though that was the end of the discussion – the coffin in the nail for us poor, frivolous fangirls. // And inside of fandom, one often hears people refer to the most derided forms of fanfic [...] as “masturbatory.” [...]// And when I hear these accusations, I cannot dispute the fact that there ARE masturbatory elements in all forms of fanfic, in fantasy in general, but what I can say is this: What in the hell is so wrong with something being masturbatory?

jennyo - Thinky Bullet Points - But the short point is: is part of the reason femslashers get short shrift is because a lot of the best femslash is PG-13, and for some reason, if one can't do great NC-17 epic fic, your genre isn't real enough? Or hot enough?

lisamarie0921 - What is AU? - If a writer makes his or her story canon compliant, then a new book comes out, does it make that writer's fic AU? // I don't think it does.

Fandom-Specific Meta( cut for possible spoilers in the following fandoms: BtVS, HP, L&O:SVU, Marvel Comics, the West Wing )

On Reading/Writing/Creating

janissa11 - Fascinating! - But a tremendous amount of what I do never sees the light of day. I have literally thousands of pages of stories, disconnected scenes, ideas, bunnies, prose and poetry that I've never shown anyone, because there's in a sense no NEED to show anyone. It's for me. I mean, I could go into myriad reasons WHY it's for me, what it does for me, that sort of thing, but the short version is simply that it's self-directed, it's not interactive on any level, it satisfies in and of itself without any need for outside validation or consideration. Which is not to say that I view those writings as perfect -- only that they suit me, that they are the OTHER kind of writing I do.

athenakt - Betas vs Collaborative Authors - When does a beta cease to be a beta and become a collaborative author? Betas are frequently the unsung heroes when it comes to cleaning up and polishing an author's story, yet they're never in the headlines. Usually the authors are more than enthusiastic when thanking and crediting their beta writers, and that's great... but what if a beta turned a passably good story into something wonderful?

yhlee - Worldbuilding: wretched car analogy, or: why you don't get to tell me I should let the wbg. go. - But. When I'm reading I don't give an orbital mind-control spork whether you think the characterization, or the plot, or the nifty language, or the whatever your Ford rode in on, trumps a few niggling details of worldbuilding. I care. It throws me out of the story and you're not reading for me.