General Fandom

lightgetsin: On romance, the writing of — "Mostly, when I go to write romance in a story, I always feel like I’m failing somehow to do it, that I’m yanking myself and my readers up two or three steps at a time, that I have to resort to 'tell' to get there. I feel wildly lacking in tools, and that just won’t do."

karamarie_mckay: Is It My Turn To Be Marginalized Yet? — "Authors are not vending machines, and readers are not mindless zombies easily bent to the will of evil (or merely prolific) writers. We write our ideas in ways that work for us. We read what appeals to us. The idea that certain types or pairings are discouraged or given third rate status in fandom implies quite a bit more intentional, malicious forethought than can be believed. If there isn’t much of one type or pairing to be found, that’s probably because there aren’t many writers interested in writing that type or pairing."

cesperanza: *head tilt* — "Long time readers of my fiction will know that I had the slogan "Like Men, Only Better" on my website from I dunno, 1998ish, and I'm still trying to write characters who are like men, only improved--and you know, hey, let's come right out with it: I think making men more like women is an improvement."

painless_j: Meta time. Fandom marketing and fic reviews — "There are other people who don't market their fics, but most of us do. We want to be read. Heard. Even those who coquettishly say that they write for themselves/their friends but who put their fic out there in the open, without restricting the access to it to those friends, thus engage in fandom "trade." Their "goods" are now out there on the shelves to be purchased and evaluated, even if they weren't aware of putting them up for such eveluation when they posted the fics."

lordsmerf: 'Spoiled' potential — "And when someone tells a story that utilizes the uninteresting themes at the cost of the interesting ones, it's a clear indication that the author does not properly understand what the character is all about. The author has hit upon the unimportant parts of the character, and in doing so has missed what really matters."

yin_again: Some thoughts on crack!fic — "Having just written a bunch of crack!fic, I took a moment to think about the genre (sub-genre?) a little. 'Cause I'm nerdy like that."

Questions, Polls, Etc.

cereta: Favorite fanfic cliches — "What is your favorite, most beloved, never-gets-old fanfic cliche? The one you wallow in, the one you never get tired of, the one you adore?"

the_moonmoth: Mama, I wrote pornos! — "when you write sex, who's it for?"

the_moonmoth: More Sex! — "why is there so much explicit sex in fanfiction? And has it always been this way (any Fen Elders out there that can comment on How It Used To Be)?"

amanuensis1: It wouldn't be "incubus" either, though I like that one. — "Hey, am I mistaken, or is there really no male equivalent slang to the term "nympho"?"

aerye: Writing — "So, I'm curious about what inspires or dissuades you from writing. Not what inspires the stories themselves, but what circumstances, what environments, what elements aligning in the universe make you more or less inclined to actually sit down and open the WIP folder and add words."

liviapenn: The canon uncertainty principle? — "So-- tell me about fandoms you've been in, and the canon uncertainty principle-- whether uncertainty as to who would end up with who *in canon* made 'shipping more or less contentious. I'm interested."

celandineb: Beta-ing, the writer's perspective — "I've polled about beta-ing before, but today I'm curious about how useful people think beta-ing is; what proportion of writers use beta-readers, why beta-readers do it, and whether fic-readers generally privilege beta-read stories in any way."

celandineb: Beta-ing, the reader's perspective — "This poll is for readers, both ordinary readers and beta-readers."