All The Things Friday: Let's See How Far We've Come

[inkvoices]

Welcome to another All The Things Friday! Your co-hosts this week are inkvoices and workerbee73.

First off, a note to say we have a thread at the top of this post for signing up to host, co-host, and/or to suggest themes for future All The Things Fridays. At the moment we have jacedesbff for February 1st and noblealice for February 8th (not sure what topics you folks are going with?)

Comments

[anuna_81]

Oh God, I'm gonna feel bad, but not, blowing my own horn, or whatever the phrase is.

1) One of my favorite stories that I've read, and I think it certainly deserves more love at least on LJ, is frea_o's The woman in the crosshairs. Second chapter is here. No warnings that I can think of and I think it's PG - 13 rating. I love the idea, the entire concept, Frea's fun and precise style, I really love all of it. It's a unique approach to Clint and Natasha, and among all hobbies and pastimes people tend to give Clint, the one used here might make most sense. Lovely and fun and amazing work. You'll laugh all the way through, and you'll feel very happy at the end. :)

Another thing I read recently, and it's just MINDBLOWING is franztastisch's Strange bird. PG - 13 and no warnings, I think. In which Natasha Romanoff's life was saved by a man who was once a hawk. It reads almost like a fairytale, but not quite, the pace is patient, slow, just right, it's written through Natasha's POV which is just wonderful, and it tells a story about those unspeakable things

[inkvoices]

I loved The Woman in the Crosshairs! For all the reasons you said :D Ooo, and adding Strange Bird to my bookmarks to read; it sounds right up my alley.

I did not know that was your first fic in this fandom O.o That is a long, complex, first fic, wow this fandom must have hit you with the ideas bat! No gentle, toe-testing the waters for you, heh.

Out curiosity, is red thread darker in tone/twistier than stuff you've written before? (I don't think I've divided into your non/pre-Avengers stuff yet.) Just wondering if you're like me in that Master Assassins seems to have done that. THE METAPHORS! Ahem. Yeah, love those :D

[anuna_81]

I think you're going to ADORE the Strange Bird. It's absolutely gorgeous and you'll lose yourself in it! *nods excitedly

[lar_laughs]

Is your HP stuff up on your AO3? I don't know why I've suddenly gotten excited about HP again? I think it must be that I'm excited to read the bar's HP.

[anuna_81]

I have one up at AO3, here. Hopefully you won't pull your hair out when you see the pairing. People either love it or hate it, I think.

I do have more! One is about Founders era and I LOOOOVE that one - that was such an experiment! And I'm very fond of this one.

Okay, self promotion done. Running away now. :D

[lar_laughs]

I am the Queen of random pairing! Also, I'm not a stickler for who hooks up with who. If the story grabs me, I don't much care what pairing it is!

[anuna_81]

Aaaah awesome! Some of my friends side eyed me for these stories, giving me Really??! O_o looks. I hope you'll like them, let me know! :)

[lar_laughs]

I will!!!! Thank you!

[inkvoices]

This! I knew I liked you ;)

[lar_laughs]

I am the girl who had a rare impulse to ship Gregory Goyle with just about every girl in the books... until I realized that would be a lot of words and I was really lazy back in those days. It still might be a thing with a select few.

I just really dislike that so many people are missing out on good stories because they don't read certain pairings. Pairing wars are SO STUPID. Reading is not a right, it's a privilege and we shouldn't waste our words on hate. They should be spent on love so that we get more of the good stuff! gah! This is why I should comment more...

[inkvoices]

Heh, I wrote a so many things about Luna fic once and Luna/Greggory slipped into it. Didn't even plan that *grins*.

I don't want to miss out on anything because it isn't 'my ship' or doesn't look like my cup of tea, because new things, y'know? My criteria are generally: a decent grasp of writing (mistakes, sure; text speak and things like that, hell no, not unless you're being funny), an idea that grabs my interest, and that whatever is written the author makes me believe in it. However AU, however different from canon you want a character to be, whatever pairing, but you have to make me believe. And that's it. ...seriously, I don't even limit myself to my own fandoms if something looks interesting enough. Which can be confusing if you have no idea what the source material is about lol.

[shenshen77]

My criteria are generally: a decent grasp of writing (mistakes, sure; text speak and things like that, hell no, not unless you're being funny), an idea that grabs my interest, and that whatever is written the author makes me believe in it.

Can I just commentcrash real quick to say that that I totally agree with you here? I stumbled into most of my fandoms because I read something an author I liked decided to try writing in a new one. And I usually had no idea what they were talking about, but it made me curious about the source... And none of the fandoms I previously read in had as many quality AUs as this has, they are somehow starting to turn into one of my favorite things ;) Because people here make me believe them.

[lar_laughs]

I've discovered a lot of good things that way, too! If I like you and you love something, I want to share that with you! Maybe I don't learn to love it the way that you do but maybe I do. Converts because of mutual love are the best kinds of converts!

I discovered how much fun AUs can be from my last fandom. I still mock the "bakery AU concept" from time to time but AUs are really just character studies in a different setting. Or they should be.

[shenshen77]

I think it is a wonderful way to get into something new!

My previous fandoms didn't really lend themselves to AUs as much and I was mainly reading on FFN. Not the place to go for quality AUs, it seems ;) And yes, most of the time I come out of reading an AU with a better understanding for what makes the characters tick, as it is reduced to the bare bones... Or at least to the interpretation of the author as to what the bare bones of this character are ;) (Also, "bakery AU" sounds wonderfully whacky ;))

[lar_laughs]

When I was getting back into fandom again, I was bouncing around as I tried to find somewhere I wanted to hang out. I kept running into these "Character A runs a bakery and Character B is in love with him and things run amok" stories from all these different fandoms and it just became a thing. So silly!

I love discovering what other people consider to be the bare bones of a character. It helps me come to terms with how I deal with those bones.

I'm glad you're enjoying the AUs! It's sort of fun to be able to play in other settings.

[shenshen77]

Those, yes! In this fandom it seems to always be Clint running a bar or a cafe, Nat being his partner or ex... and then he ends up with Loki or Phil ;) I remember seeing and reading at least two or three of those ;) Silly indeed ;)

Absolutely seconding that! I see better from a distance, to quote Hawkeye, and seeing a character through someone else's eyes helps sort ones own assessment of said character. Especially if the character is taken out of the original context.

I don't think I could ever write one, but I really like reading them now :) And to think that in that AU ATTF months ago I was one of those saying I don't really like AUs... I've come a long way :D And I blame this bar for broadening my horizon and getting comfortable enough to write and post <3