musings on the renegade angels gift exchange
My Writing:
It's been pretty busy for me the past week, and probably will continue to be till the end of the week, sadly. I think I might also be in a recovery period after churning out my pinch hit. Hopefully the speed in which I wrote it will not announce itself on the exchange list as a poorly written, last minute gig. Looking at some of the stories already posted though, it's clear that some of the stories were--regardless of whether they were actually assigned as pinch hits--written at the 11th hour. Quite a few I read truncated at rather odd moments in the story, indicating to me the author had larger ambitions which couldn't quite be realized in time (and this includes a few of the stories I recced). I will admit that I have been keeping up with the fics posted every day for two reasons equal in weight: to read possibly good fic, and to see if mine has been posted yet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has not been. Also unsurprisingly, this makes me pout like a small child.
Comments:
From what I've seen, the comments have been sprinkled relatively generously on even fic that is--let's say, less polished. Although the earlier fics posted definitely earned more by virtue of being posted when interest was probably highest and everyone still had lots of original comments to make on mediocre fiction (not to paint all the initial offerings with a brush of mediocrity--I'm sure some were quite fine).
As far as commenting myself, I've found myself repeating very similar comments along with a quotation of a line I like in rather consistent form for lack of anything better to say. Commenting on so many stories over the period of days or weeks is bound to lead to repetition, especially when it seems so much of the material and the dynamic is very similar from fic to fic. Let's hope the other writers out there are narcissistic as I am and don't bother reading comments on other stories besides their own. Or, for the sake of the preservation of ego, choose not to compare exact quantity or quality of comments.
Trends:
The consistency of the themes and characterizations emerging from the stories has been interesting as well. Some of it's to be expected (Post season 4, a fair amount of explicit sex with handprint or wing shenanigans, happy endings) and some of it I must admit I didn't quite expect, though that was probably silly on my part (jumping to a point where the relationship has been romantically established, on the road together, Castiel acting very very human). I'm not shocked at the lack of AU's, though I must admit it does disappoint me a little, being an AU addict. I have no particular feeling towards the handprint other than amusement that it exists in the first place (amusement directed at the show).
I'm generally pretty bored with wingfic mostly because one of my previous fandoms went through a protracted wing phase that was at first mildly entertaining for me but ultimately led to intense boredom. Unless anyone does something super original with wings, I've had enough of feather stroking, erogenous zones, wing-instead-of-titty-fucking, and any sort of cutting because feathers have sharp edges. I actually find it more interesting in fic when they're there, but Dean regards them with either a blase attitude or they mildy freak him out (and not in a kinky way). I suppose I should merely be grateful that I did not receive any prompt demanding porn or wingporn or wingedness of any kind.
The Nature of a Gift Exchange:
I know that being a gift exchange inspires writers to hew to a safer set of plotlines and characterizations--hell, it made me. I leave my edgier stuff to my personal time and a small cadre of inexplicably loyal friends and followers rather than risk disappointing a gift recipient. Gift exchanges bring to the surface the fundamental tension between an artist's creative self expression versus the satisfaction and vision of a patron. Since this exchange was set up so everyone is both patron and artist, that may have further homogenized the offerings. I'd hazard a guess and say that most people tried to offer a wider variety of prompts in between 'Totally psyched if someone wrote this!' and 'Acceptable if received' as well as along the difficulty axis, 'I dunno how you'd get them there, but it would be really awesome if you did' and 'Lots of canon support, pretty easy to reach'.
Certain tropes are simply easier to execute in a constrained amount of time: non-AU's, on the road, motel rooms, monsters of the week, dream worlds, long single scenes that end in sex. I'm not knocking any of the tropes since I found myself actively engaging in several, but the nature of the beast does tend to stifle creativity. Most of the fics I recced or liked most weren't the ones that were necessarily most polished and complete, but the ones with the most naked ambition executed half-way decently. I appreciate the effort and slight insanity it takes to engage in a more fantastical idea when you're working within the confines of a recipient's desires and a strict time limit.
Participation:
I'm also intrigued by the high number of participants in the challenge. Of course, part of it is due to the sheer numbers: deancastiel has over 2000 members and 1800 watchers, and a participation rate of even 10% is still 10% of, conservatively, 2000 people. Even factoring in attrition rates and general challenge deadbeats and whatever else, there's still been a heck of a lot of stories posted. Here is my speculation on the main reasons people join:
That should be enough rambling for now. Hopefully, fic parts to come in the next few days.
It's been pretty busy for me the past week, and probably will continue to be till the end of the week, sadly. I think I might also be in a recovery period after churning out my pinch hit. Hopefully the speed in which I wrote it will not announce itself on the exchange list as a poorly written, last minute gig. Looking at some of the stories already posted though, it's clear that some of the stories were--regardless of whether they were actually assigned as pinch hits--written at the 11th hour. Quite a few I read truncated at rather odd moments in the story, indicating to me the author had larger ambitions which couldn't quite be realized in time (and this includes a few of the stories I recced). I will admit that I have been keeping up with the fics posted every day for two reasons equal in weight: to read possibly good fic, and to see if mine has been posted yet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has not been. Also unsurprisingly, this makes me pout like a small child.
Comments:
From what I've seen, the comments have been sprinkled relatively generously on even fic that is--let's say, less polished. Although the earlier fics posted definitely earned more by virtue of being posted when interest was probably highest and everyone still had lots of original comments to make on mediocre fiction (not to paint all the initial offerings with a brush of mediocrity--I'm sure some were quite fine).
As far as commenting myself, I've found myself repeating very similar comments along with a quotation of a line I like in rather consistent form for lack of anything better to say. Commenting on so many stories over the period of days or weeks is bound to lead to repetition, especially when it seems so much of the material and the dynamic is very similar from fic to fic. Let's hope the other writers out there are narcissistic as I am and don't bother reading comments on other stories besides their own. Or, for the sake of the preservation of ego, choose not to compare exact quantity or quality of comments.
Trends:
The consistency of the themes and characterizations emerging from the stories has been interesting as well. Some of it's to be expected (Post season 4, a fair amount of explicit sex with handprint or wing shenanigans, happy endings) and some of it I must admit I didn't quite expect, though that was probably silly on my part (jumping to a point where the relationship has been romantically established, on the road together, Castiel acting very very human). I'm not shocked at the lack of AU's, though I must admit it does disappoint me a little, being an AU addict. I have no particular feeling towards the handprint other than amusement that it exists in the first place (amusement directed at the show).
I'm generally pretty bored with wingfic mostly because one of my previous fandoms went through a protracted wing phase that was at first mildly entertaining for me but ultimately led to intense boredom. Unless anyone does something super original with wings, I've had enough of feather stroking, erogenous zones, wing-instead-of-titty-fucking, and any sort of cutting because feathers have sharp edges. I actually find it more interesting in fic when they're there, but Dean regards them with either a blase attitude or they mildy freak him out (and not in a kinky way). I suppose I should merely be grateful that I did not receive any prompt demanding porn or wingporn or wingedness of any kind.
The Nature of a Gift Exchange:
I know that being a gift exchange inspires writers to hew to a safer set of plotlines and characterizations--hell, it made me. I leave my edgier stuff to my personal time and a small cadre of inexplicably loyal friends and followers rather than risk disappointing a gift recipient. Gift exchanges bring to the surface the fundamental tension between an artist's creative self expression versus the satisfaction and vision of a patron. Since this exchange was set up so everyone is both patron and artist, that may have further homogenized the offerings. I'd hazard a guess and say that most people tried to offer a wider variety of prompts in between 'Totally psyched if someone wrote this!' and 'Acceptable if received' as well as along the difficulty axis, 'I dunno how you'd get them there, but it would be really awesome if you did' and 'Lots of canon support, pretty easy to reach'.
Certain tropes are simply easier to execute in a constrained amount of time: non-AU's, on the road, motel rooms, monsters of the week, dream worlds, long single scenes that end in sex. I'm not knocking any of the tropes since I found myself actively engaging in several, but the nature of the beast does tend to stifle creativity. Most of the fics I recced or liked most weren't the ones that were necessarily most polished and complete, but the ones with the most naked ambition executed half-way decently. I appreciate the effort and slight insanity it takes to engage in a more fantastical idea when you're working within the confines of a recipient's desires and a strict time limit.
Participation:
I'm also intrigued by the high number of participants in the challenge. Of course, part of it is due to the sheer numbers: deancastiel has over 2000 members and 1800 watchers, and a participation rate of even 10% is still 10% of, conservatively, 2000 people. Even factoring in attrition rates and general challenge deadbeats and whatever else, there's still been a heck of a lot of stories posted. Here is my speculation on the main reasons people join:
- You get a gift. There's no quality assurances placed on the gift, though I'm sure most people sign up hoping they win the lotto in terms of drawing a competent writer. In any case, even if the gift isn't one you'd pick out for yourself, strictly speaking, the idea of a story that is catered to you (theoretically) is a pretty appealing one.
- You get a writing exercise. One of the best things about challenges is that they force you to write or risk reputational harm, at least with the challenge administrators (though given their control over the central forum of Dean/Castiel fiction in fandom, that could put a sizable dent in your reputation). Also, prompts can cause you to think about characters/situations/whatever in ways you wouldn't have independently.
- You get to participate in the wider world of fandom. Fandom is an inherently social activity where the whole point is to engage in SPN actively with other fans, form social bonds, and join a community surrounding a thing we all like. Plenty of people are fans of SPN; the vast majority of them don't go online and try to connect to other people by writing fiction set in the universe of SPN, or using the characters of SPN.
- You get the opportunity for wide fandom recognition. The possibility (at least theoretically) for a wider wave of fannish kudos to crash down on you is heightened especially in an anonymous challenge. SPN fandom is a pretty heavily stratified place in terms of BNF's, middling writers, and n00bs/unknowns. I speak in terms of recognition (recs, comments, attention, praise, etc) and not in terms of quality. An anonymous gift exchange holds out the promise (if not the reality) of being judged only on the quality of your work, especially given the standardized format of the posting by the moderators. There's also the possibility that you could end up with a BNF as your recipient and therefore have one bound to recognize you as a result. I don't mean to be cynical about it, but aren't we all just looking for a taste of the pie? If we weren't (at least a little), then we wouldn't bother posting our fic up for the world to read at all.
- You get to make someone else happy. Maybe. If you're lucky. I've gotten some crappy gifts online and in RL over the years. I've also given some myself. Sometimes everyone involved just has to grin and bear it.
That should be enough rambling for now. Hopefully, fic parts to come in the next few days.