General Fandom Meta
dorrie6 - dorrie6 fanfiction and 'shipping statements When I post a fic that is a 'shipping statement, I'm hoping to start a discussion, I guess. I look to the comments as the conversation following my statement, and I'm anxious to get people to join in. The fic, for me, is as much a meta discussion as it is a piece of fanfiction.

fabu - Tl;dr thoughts on fannish interactions, obligations, etc. As we make decisions about how to spend our time, we need to understand that other people's decisions may be based, in part, on our own behavior, and that's fair. If I choose not to friend someone back because my flist is already too large for me to read and comment on all my friends' posts, that person may decide not to comment on my posts or to defriend me. That's not "mean" or "unfair" - it's just that this person values interaction with the people on her flist more than she does reading posts by people who don't (appear to) read hers.

erinya - Fandom Netiquette for Newbies a Navigational Guide I've noticed that there are lots of newcomers participating in PotC fandom on LJ these days, which is wonderful. But I also know that LJ fandom can be daunting to a newbie. There are quite a few unwritten rules and conventions of courtesy that are taken for granted by those of us who have been around for awhile, and people sometimes react strongly when these conventions are broken.

starkeymonster - Fandom, WTF The idea that interracial sex is an illicit thrill is one that her audience is implicitly agreeing with. She states that by having implied interracial gay sex, the episode becomes amazing. She isn't focusing on chemistry between people of two different races. This is about a generic black man almost, but not quite, penetrating Dean.

impertinence - My bitchy two cents What LFA wrote was pretty obnoxious and stupid, yes. But is it really worth saying you want your stomach pumped? Is fetishization so terrible that you don't even have the words for it? Reading her idiocy makes you physically ill? She's not reinforcing negative stereotypes about black people; she's not saying "omg! Gordon is going to rape Dean because that's what black people do, HELLS YEAH." She's saying black-on-white is hot.

nyrehtak - Thoughts on fanmixes. A fanmix entails mixing, making sure the songs complement one another, that they flow well from one song to the next. Does that mean you can't shift from techno to classical to pop? Absolutely not. But you have to be aware of what you're doing, or more specifically, have a reason for mixing them in that way, a reason that's apparent when you listen to the mix.

On Reading and Writing
chicklet_girl - steps onto soapbox Just a few things that were knocking around in my head while getting ready for work this morning -- and with my afternoon meeting canceled, I find myself with the time to write them up.
Reading is Fundamental: A Manifesto for Fanfic Readers

notpoetry - on screenplay writing, sexual tension, and slash fandom (and a dash of postmodernism) But since the essential element of these men's relationship is their friendship, that's something we focus on and write about in our stories. People write big, plot-heavy stories that follow all the elements of major motion pictures, including having one of the payoffs be the two main characters getting together. Except in our stories, the two main characters are men. A lot of stories carry no trace of that "After School Special" mindset toward homosexuality, where being gay is presented as some big secret that the character is terrified of getting out because he's afraid of what people will say.

penknife - On realism in writing realism means that I can believe the interactions between the characters as being a way that real people might reasonably behave in their situation. It doesn't mean the characters have to act in the way that would be the most statistically likely for real people.

paceus - Writing Sex Conjunctions I realized that using the conjunctions “and, and, and, until” really makes sense in a sex scene: there’s a build-up and the release, just as with what the characters are doing. Using the lot of the word “and” also creates an urgent, breathless feeling, as if everything is happening at once -- also long sentences overall work like this: they’re a little overwhelming, but it’s good, because the characters are overwhelmed as well.

princessofg - Intimatopia Genre Intersections Between Slash and the Mainstream by Elizabeth Woledge I thought: AHA! WNGWJLEO (We're Not Gay, We Just Love Each Other), which is a convention of slash that does get its utilizers accused sometimes of naivete, disingenuousness or a deeply buried kinda-squicky homophobia. OTOH, people who like the WNG trope often say that they don't see it as a slap to "real" homosexuality but as an effort to talk about love and attraction that transcend sexual plumbing. It's not about biology, they say, it's about love and connection, separate from the accident of what body you wear.

neery - Fanfic and books I find that I have far less patience for books I don't enjoy than I used to have. As a kid, I'd go to the library once a week, check out eight to ten books, and then read all of them - the most appealing ones first, but when I was through with those, all the rest of them, too. There are a lot of books where I read past the first chapter only because I'd run out of anything better, and it was too cold and rainy to go back to the library just then.

toft_froggy - About Writing I don't think authors have any more right than anyone else to say what their writing is about, or what's in it; that's one of the reasons I love fic so much. But that's actually why I find it so amazing to go back to stories I've written again and again, because from the moment I let other people read them, they're not mine anymore, they detach themselves from me and they're something I can examine. Each time I go back to them I've got more distance on them and I find something new about them that I didn't know was there.

Specific Meta, cut for spoilers in ( The Chronicles of Amber, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince )

Polls, Quizzes, Etc.
thelana - Romance clichees in fanfic My first thought was, where have I heard that before? Oh, right, just every Harlequin romance, ever. Which made me wonder:

skuf - skuf Slash writers demographics (multi-fandom pimpage much appreciated!) I'm getting tired of seeing outside articles (i.e. written by people not in fandom) state that most slash is written by middle-aged, heterosexual, stay-at-home moms. I believe it is a myth perpetuated by the fact that most of those articles seem to build on other outside articles.

sockkpuppett - Demon Tongue-Wannabee - Vidding questions and answers Now I pummel you with those questions and a couple more.

lemurgrrrl - Slash and AIDS I've always wondered what the effect of AIDS was on them, especially since I have not yet seen mention of AIDS in any Pros fic and have only once seen it mentioned in a S&H fic. (I refer to it in my second S&H/Brokeback Mountain crossover, which takes place in 1983.) Was it avoided because it killed the "fantasy" aspect of slash? Did people move away from slash for a time, instead of having to confront the disease? Or what?