A while ago, Dear Author posted Why I Now Hate Erotic Romance, a long letter from someone in the industry discussing what she finds most frustrating about the genre. Her objections to it are about the morality of it, and it's a fairly complex argument, which I do not completely follow ( Read more... )

Does anyone else find they have difficulty getting the emotional work out on so-to-speak paper? When I was co-writing "Nerds of the Earth, take note!, I ended up having to consciously take the brakes off, and write with full on id, and then I threw it at
( Read more... )

When I'm writing, (fiction) there is generally one scene I want to write, or a series of them, and in starting, I'm playing a game of chicken, trying to see how close I can start to that scene. I don't actually like writing, I just want to achieve that scene or scenes. In the case of drabbles, of course, you start at that scene, but frequently ( Read more... )

Recently, and not so recently, I've come across a couple of stories, or had them pointed out to me, within greater fandom, where the history or culture of marginalized groups was employed to make a story more exotic or interesting, with the result the story was offensive ( Read more... )

So, Petronelle pointed me to thebratqueen's two step theory of fanfiction which is very thinky, and got me started. In essence, for those too lazy to click the link, TBQ argues that fanfic should stay within two steps of canon if you want your readers to come with you. They can be two big steps, but they need to be there. ( For example: )

( Random musings on how I read a certain sort of fic )

Various breeds of slash which I'm searching for a terminology for. (Someone else has probably already had this discussion, so if someone can link me to it?) I'm not suggesting that any of these are superior to any other. I don't mean to suggest anything need hew to only one of these categories. I enjoy all of these types, and don't think any of ( Read more... )

There's a "Ten Things I knew about writing" meme going around, that I find very interesting. I found it so interesting I went to ljseek, entered "ten things writing" and nosed around.

Some people have said things that struck me as true, interesting, or just well said. Here's some of the ones that caught my attention.

to_cry_about, here: ( Especially the bit about smug assholes )

And here I am speaking not of my experience of readers, but in my experience as a reader.

What a reader is giving my fic, before the feedback, and praise/criticism, and love/hate, and fanart/public mocking, is attention. First, a reader gives my fic whatever increment of attention they feel is appropriate to evaluating new fic: five minutes, ( Read more... )

I like subtext. It's fun! I like ambiguous situations, which lend themselves to multiple readings. I like to think my writing works without me telling people *how* to read it, and if people sometimes get less from my writing than I hoped, sometimes they get more than I intended, and that rocks pretty hard ( Read more... )