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 that define us. It's just completely, completely wonderful. Go read! It will leave you with a happy sigh and filled heart. :)

2) The first thing I created for this fandom was Kobayashi Maru (which turned into a monster and spawned more stories in that same universe and I am sure everyone here has had enough of me and this 'verse and babystories, but guys, please don't kick me out. LOL). M rated, but there isn't anything too explicit. Warnings.... ? Canon compliant violence, but nothing worse than that. On a more serious note, I rarely manage writing something that long and posting it as a completed work and I truly didn't expect people to like it at all, and I was in for a surprise. This bar here is awesome because I feel there's room for diversity and different opinions and views; different approaches we take with these characters. There's even room for babyfic! And kidfic! And nobody is being nasty about it! Thank you all for that. :)

3) Something I'm most proud of? Oh boy. I am torn between Red Thread series I'm co-writing with cybermathwitch.... which can best be described as really intense look at Clint and Natasha dynamics. It's M rated, NSFW stuff, warnings - past abuse, consensual violence/violent sparring, violent sex, blood, it is kind of dark - ish. What I love about it the most is the process of coauthoring and the metaphors we're playing with and I just love Natasha's journey here, her search for her self, for her own design; and how Clint is traveling along and helping her on the way. My other favorite is Only human, where I decided to twist a cliche around and it resulted in an emotional story. I mean, in this one Natasha is trying to get pregnant, and when it doesn't go smoothly? I was just surprised myself how she ended up reacting. It's M rated and not safe for work, and I suppose it could be triggery because of fertility issues.

The best thing? I really love everything I wrote for this bar and this pairing, I had fun with all my fics and that's the biggest reward for a writer. :D

[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*

oh boy, but my ideas are monstrous! Kobayashi is a very good example of that. I started at the end, with the scene of her giving birth and was like, okay, the real story is what happened before and had lead to this. And yes, like you said, the movie, this fandom, this bar, THIS PAIRING, all of it hit me in the feels and all the right buttons. And that fic is also pretty personal in terms what writing it did to me (good things! No worries). I might have rewritten some important things about myself too.

My pre-Avengers stuff isn't as dark as Red Thread. I think. *ponders* But I suppose the darkness was always there and I always toyed with it, and dark-ish characters always had an appeal for me. Not evil-dark but... bruised, shattered people who try and patch themselves up and they're not always good, but they're amazing.

You do read Harry Potter stuff, right? If you're interested in my pre-Avengers work, I've written a few things for Harry Potter (you do read that, right?) and there's one long fic I'm VERY proud of, mostly for the way I've written someone you can easily call dark and really not very nice. *G* I haven't written for too many fandoms, but Avengers, Bourne Legacy and Harry Potter things are what I'm most proud of.

[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