General Fandom

regan_v: Other Places, Other Spaces... But Still The OTP: Alternate Universes and Alternate Settings — "So, the AU ideas and roles often seem to suit particular canon characters. But in practice, to write it persuasively is very difficult. And I think it's because character (as Fabula pointed out to me) derives from personal history and cultural or social context. If you take away the whole context, and thus the person's own history, how do you then keep the character recognizable and persuasive? How do you explain to us how he turned out this way?"

to_cry_about: Word counts; extended narratives in dialogue — "Writers have known for a long time that what feels interminable to us is just a paragraph that the reader probably skims in a second. Writing speeches is hell for the same reason. While James Joyce apocryphally struggled with seven words, the reader is trolling along at a good clip in search of the lede, the hott sexings, the prettiest simile."

topaz_eyes: On Reader Feedback, Reccing and Being Recced — "In the end you have to ask yourself, why do you write? Is it for the joy of writing, the drive to tell your stories, for fandom adoration? In the end, is it going to matter?"

Regarding the Representation of Minorities

abydosangel: Elusive Illusions In America — "America needs to get beyond the need to see images that portray a 'safe' and 'non-illusion threatening' portrayal of ALL people. Forget about the 'good old day's' - they never existed and do away with 'people being in their place'. Our places are whatever whatever we have made them - and that's something that the media will just have to accept and stomach."

nardasarmy: Oh there I am... — "I had never seen that part of myself on television before, presented in such a way as if it were just a given. Like my existence, the existence of the LGBT community was simply understood as part of society as a whole. Understood enough to sell cars with that image. A gay couple bought a car to go to the beach, and they bought it off a lot and drove it to the beach and hey there two guys sitting in the living room being a couple, wouldn't you like a car like them? Somewhere out there, Mr and Mr Curtain Hanging Homebodies looked up and saw themselves."

Specific Fandom Meta
( Cut for spoilers in the following fandoms: Pirates of the Caribbean )

Polls / Questions

bibliotech: this isn't meta, is it? let's hope not — "1. Do you prefer recs with commentary (reasons why the reccer is reccing this particular story or not)? 2. Are there any genres that you can read in one fandom, and not in another?"

minim_calibre: [Writing] On styles, structure, and stalls — "So, writers, riddle me this: how do you write? What are your habits? What's fast, and what's slow? Where do you stall out most often? Does your taste in writing at all echo your taste in reading? When do you decide that a touch of exposition's just the thing, where telling shows more than showing tells?"