Rain makes me rambly.
I've been reading Veronica Mars fic, and it's started me thinking about perspectives/points of view in fic, and how certain fandoms seem to lend themselves to certain POVs/tenses, and I thought I'd ramble for a bit.
There is a ton of Veronica Mars fic written in second person, present tense. It really stuck out to me because that perspective is so rare in other fandoms (at least, that I know of), but it fits VMars extremely well. I think a bit of it is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, that fic writers are usually fic readers and reading enough fic in a certain perspective will cause you to associate that POV with the show (e.g., when I've been writing VMars fic in my head over the past few days, it tends to come out in second person). But I also think that it's a perspective that meshes well with the voiceovers on the show, because-and I'm not going to explain this very well, but-second person feels to me as if the subject of the narration is being watched. It's the kind of thing that used to run in my head in high school, the constant narration of my life as if for a future biography or movie. And second person is so very, very high school, so me-centric, with that air of theatricality; it's almost like listening to a journal entry or a confessional with a friend, only with the added drama of someone else saying it about you.
BSG fic, on the other hand, tends to have a lot of present tense, usually either third person limited or third person omniscient. That's an addictive tense for me, and maybe it is to other writers, too, but it strikes me as very appropriate for the world. It's immediate, it's close, very much in keeping with the "realistic" feel of the show and also the characters' heightened sense of time passing. It's a new world, and everything happens now, moment to moment. It's also felt very dreamlike to me when used in certain ways, which works really well for the mythology-themed fic that is one of my favorite aspects of BSG fandom.
I saw a lot of present-tense Alias fic, too, which again, I think was due to a sense of heightened emotion and immediacy. Occasionally, when I'm writing a fic in past tense, I'll slip into present tense, and it's usually in an emotional moment (making out, for example) or in inner monologue (a recent example: "Someday he'll get used to the fact that Kara knows his father much better than he does. Of course, she also knows Lee much better than Adama does; it seems like that should even things out, somehow, but it doesn't. " I had to try several times to get that all into past tense, and it took me a few sentences to realize I'd switched tenses). It's strange, because it used to be that I'd automatically write in third person, and now certain things just seem to come out in certain ways.
Anyway, this might not be interesting to anyone but me, but I'd certainly welcome any thoughts on this little diversion.
Also, listening to the awesome CD voleuse sent me got me thinking, and I wanted to put this out there for the vidders on my list: do you think there are any common characteristics to good vidding songs? Is there such a thing as a "good vidding song," or is it just a question of whatever hits you in the gut?
There is a ton of Veronica Mars fic written in second person, present tense. It really stuck out to me because that perspective is so rare in other fandoms (at least, that I know of), but it fits VMars extremely well. I think a bit of it is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, that fic writers are usually fic readers and reading enough fic in a certain perspective will cause you to associate that POV with the show (e.g., when I've been writing VMars fic in my head over the past few days, it tends to come out in second person). But I also think that it's a perspective that meshes well with the voiceovers on the show, because-and I'm not going to explain this very well, but-second person feels to me as if the subject of the narration is being watched. It's the kind of thing that used to run in my head in high school, the constant narration of my life as if for a future biography or movie. And second person is so very, very high school, so me-centric, with that air of theatricality; it's almost like listening to a journal entry or a confessional with a friend, only with the added drama of someone else saying it about you.
BSG fic, on the other hand, tends to have a lot of present tense, usually either third person limited or third person omniscient. That's an addictive tense for me, and maybe it is to other writers, too, but it strikes me as very appropriate for the world. It's immediate, it's close, very much in keeping with the "realistic" feel of the show and also the characters' heightened sense of time passing. It's a new world, and everything happens now, moment to moment. It's also felt very dreamlike to me when used in certain ways, which works really well for the mythology-themed fic that is one of my favorite aspects of BSG fandom.
I saw a lot of present-tense Alias fic, too, which again, I think was due to a sense of heightened emotion and immediacy. Occasionally, when I'm writing a fic in past tense, I'll slip into present tense, and it's usually in an emotional moment (making out, for example) or in inner monologue (a recent example: "Someday he'll get used to the fact that Kara knows his father much better than he does. Of course, she also knows Lee much better than Adama does; it seems like that should even things out, somehow, but it doesn't. " I had to try several times to get that all into past tense, and it took me a few sentences to realize I'd switched tenses). It's strange, because it used to be that I'd automatically write in third person, and now certain things just seem to come out in certain ways.
Anyway, this might not be interesting to anyone but me, but I'd certainly welcome any thoughts on this little diversion.
Also, listening to the awesome CD voleuse sent me got me thinking, and I wanted to put this out there for the vidders on my list: do you think there are any common characteristics to good vidding songs? Is there such a thing as a "good vidding song," or is it just a question of whatever hits you in the gut?