The OFC fic fest
Ok since the idea seems to be drumming up support - here is the Idea Post for an OFC fanfic fest.
OCs are often necessary for fic. There are a lot of fandoms where it is really hard to write fic without having OCs around - for example, any villain-of-the-week show, If you want to write an episodelike fic, recycling just the old villains get old after a while. Or if you want to write an epic fic with stuff that an already epic word has not explored - you will need OCs. Like, people's old friends and parents and new villains and so on.
Say, you want to write a Leverage casefic. In an average episode, we get the victim(s),the Big Bad, the henchmen, innocent bystanders who get conned, the potential law enforcement involvement, the folks at McRory's - and let's face it, some of them are likely to be women. And cue the cries of mary sue and badness. Especially if the canon flirt Eliot hits on one of them.
If the episode Two Live Crew was a fanfic? Far too many people would have branded Eliot's Distaff Counterpart Mikal as a mary Sue. Pretty? check. Badass Israeli? check. Able to mach Eliot? check. UST? check. Obviously asue right?
There is a lot of fic that doesn't get written because people are afraid theitr OCs will be labeled sues. Hell, I know I have a lot of fics I am not writing because I am worried about that label myself - of people flat out refusing to read something I write because it has the evil original female character. And that? that is not okay in my book. Not any more. I refuse to let the fear of teh Sue, internalized misogyny and misguided peer pressure dictate what I write and read.
So what I am saying is - i want to run a fest celebrating original female characters. Multi-fandom, gen or ship, any-length, fic art and everything else fest. Celebrating the fact that there's a lot of awesome worlds out there and awesome people whom we can create to exist in those worlds. (that is.. once nanowrimo is over)
I don't know what to call it, I don't know what to do with it, but dammit, I want to do it, and I will do it. Who's with me?
OCs are often necessary for fic. There are a lot of fandoms where it is really hard to write fic without having OCs around - for example, any villain-of-the-week show, If you want to write an episodelike fic, recycling just the old villains get old after a while. Or if you want to write an epic fic with stuff that an already epic word has not explored - you will need OCs. Like, people's old friends and parents and new villains and so on.
Say, you want to write a Leverage casefic. In an average episode, we get the victim(s),the Big Bad, the henchmen, innocent bystanders who get conned, the potential law enforcement involvement, the folks at McRory's - and let's face it, some of them are likely to be women. And cue the cries of mary sue and badness. Especially if the canon flirt Eliot hits on one of them.
If the episode Two Live Crew was a fanfic? Far too many people would have branded Eliot's Distaff Counterpart Mikal as a mary Sue. Pretty? check. Badass Israeli? check. Able to mach Eliot? check. UST? check. Obviously asue right?
There is a lot of fic that doesn't get written because people are afraid theitr OCs will be labeled sues. Hell, I know I have a lot of fics I am not writing because I am worried about that label myself - of people flat out refusing to read something I write because it has the evil original female character. And that? that is not okay in my book. Not any more. I refuse to let the fear of teh Sue, internalized misogyny and misguided peer pressure dictate what I write and read.
So what I am saying is - i want to run a fest celebrating original female characters. Multi-fandom, gen or ship, any-length, fic art and everything else fest. Celebrating the fact that there's a lot of awesome worlds out there and awesome people whom we can create to exist in those worlds. (that is.. once nanowrimo is over)
I don't know what to call it, I don't know what to do with it, but dammit, I want to do it, and I will do it. Who's with me?