Fandom Meta

telesilla - on crackfic First of all, I firmly believe that the definition of crackfic can vary from fandom to fandom.

hija_paloma - Guys Gone Wild So yes, by all means, keep asking "is there a cult of nice" and "are we putting on a queer minstrel show" and "is it okay that this is a female space" and "is fanfic a legitimate form of artistic expression" and "is RPF in some way more/less okay than FPF?" Keep asking! Keep talking about it. But for the love of god--DO NOT ask, "Why slash?"

tigertrapped - Darkfic Survey Results Whilst my survey wasn't about pornography, or not just pornography (sensitive readers please transplant the word 'erotica' if preferred), this was my main finding - the impact and 'meaning' (if any) of darkfic depends on the reader's interaction with it, what they bring to the fic as a fan, as a reader, and as a person.

Specific Fandom Meta

( Cut for possible Spoilers for the Fandoms: BtVS, VM, SGA, Four Kings, DW )

On Reading and Writing

indefatigable42 in fanficrants - Style, my butt. There are good reasons to use non-standard writing styles that don't fit within the framework of proper grammar. You might try it if you want to communicate something to the reader that you feel you can't do just by manipulating words the way you're 'supposed' to.

minisinoo - Play, Perfection, and Process after Release In the world publishing, it's SO easy to lose sight of why we began writing in the first place. Those of you in the industry know exactly what I'm talking about. There are markets, genre conventions, sales figures, paper costs, deadlines, editorial expectations, and a host of other constraints on what we do. And that's after one's sold a novel in the first place. These days, one sometimes needs an agent to get an agent to make a sale. // The whole business side of publishing can sap the play right out of it. As I've said before, it's a JOB, as much as it's art. Sometimes we write what we know will sell before we can write what we want. Paying dues.

pat_t - [questions for non-writers] But what about those of you who don't write - for whatever reason - time constraints, just don't want to write - whatever.... // What about you? Your ideas? Have you watched an episode and an idea pop up in your head? You know, "I wonder what would happen if Duncan or Methos did this? Said this? What if Joe had done this? Or wouldn't it be great if this happened?" Have you read a story and wished the ending or even just a plot point had gone a different direction? Or have you just had your own story pop up in your head and wished someone else had thought of it and written it for you?

amonitrate - Structure in HL ficThose writers out there who have played with structure and theme, what do you think about when you write in this way? Do you start with a structural idea and then go to the story or does the story come first and the structure later?

Links, Polls, etc

mecurtin - Blogcomment record: blogs & LJ My answer to "why aren't more women blogging?" is that we're on Livejournal instead. I know hundreds upon hundreds of people on LJ, almost all of them female, enough so that I have to make an actual effort to find "men's voices" and become quite disconcerted when people assume the blogosphere is male-dominated.