on slash of the boyslash and femslash variety
*reads slash discussion* I always feel like such a rotten ficcer in slash discussions because I don't really care about subtext - not for the purpose of fanfiction. (Though of course I enjoy it for the purpose of squee.) The assumption usually seems to be that either you write based on the subtext (real or perceived), or you write based on teh prettiez and are a very shallow person.
I write based on what I think would make an interesting story. Sometimes there's lots and lots of subtext in canon. Sometimes there's very little, or none at all, or the characters never met. As long as I can make the story credible, I don't care, nor do I see one story as the definite interpretation. For the most part, I don't have OTPs, and when I do, they tend to be canon. ("Don't mess with a machine that works.")
There are even times when lots of subtext can make a story less interesting to me, because I don't write for the sex, either. If you can add romance and still have the same basic relationship, just with added romance, what's the point?
I mean, right now I'm writing Sayid/Sawyer BDSM. A quite possible pairing, to my eyes, but there's no doubt that Sayid and Sawyer with sex and spankings is a whole different kettle of fish from Sayid and Sawyer without sex and spankings.
On a tangential note, I was talking to Cornelia about the lack of femslash among my fics - it's really quite blatant. My gen, het and boyslash fics are all 20-30 each (counting the Birthdayverse as one story), but the femslash ones were 5, and that was counting brief mentions. (But not subtext - My Gift from God didn't count as femslash and By the Last Stage of Lycanthropy didn't count as boyslash.) I pointed out that even fandoms that do have credible pairings often has at least one character in those pairings I don't particularly like. I can see Buffy/Faith or Rory/Paris, but I don't want to write it.
And then we talked about Anne/Diana, since I'm in the process of rewatching the old miniseries and had talked about just how slashy those two are in both book and show.
(Sideline for those of you who haven't read/seen it, which I've come to realize is a lot more than it should be, this is the slashiest bit from the book:
One evening Marilla, coming in from the orchard with a basket of apples, found Anne sitting along by the east window in the twilight, crying bitterly.
"Whatever's the matter now, Anne?" she asked.
"It's about Diana," sobbed Anne luxuriously. "I love Diana so, Marilla. I cannot ever live without her. But I know very well when we grow up that Diana will get married and go away and leave me. And oh, what shall I do? I hate her husband--I just hate him furiously. I've been imagining it all out--the wedding and everything--Diana dressed in snowy garments, with a veil, and looking as beautiful and regal as a queen; and me the bridesmaid, with a lovely dress too, and puffed sleeves, but with a breaking heart hid beneath my smiling face. And then bidding Diana goodbye-e-e--" Here Anne broke down entirely and wept with increasing bitterness.)
But Anne/Diana is one of those pairings I mentioned above, where added romance would just mean added romance and nothing more. As Cornelia pointed out, I could add angst, but Anne's angst tends to run pathetic to a degree I don't particularly like, and in any case, Diana gets happily married at 18. I wouldn't want Anne's melodramatic fantasies to prove true.
And then it struck me: I could write Anne/Katherine. Easily. It would be an interesting pairing, Katherine is more relatable to me than Diana is, and I could still add little hints of former Anne/Diana.
So now I'm writing femslash, and it's all Cornelia's doing. Yay her!
Besides, where femslash is concerned, I still want to write Kiki Strike femslash, possibly even a five things story, since it's one of the few canons I have seen where there are six female main characters and I thoroughly love them all. Trouble is a) there seems to be no fandom, and b) they're children's books, meaning that even if there was a fandom, it'd be full of 12-year-olds and easily shocked.
And I'm not one of those people who can write down a fanfic just for me. For me plus one, sure, but if a tree falls in the wood and all that.
So, poll:
Poll Kiki Strike femslash
I write based on what I think would make an interesting story. Sometimes there's lots and lots of subtext in canon. Sometimes there's very little, or none at all, or the characters never met. As long as I can make the story credible, I don't care, nor do I see one story as the definite interpretation. For the most part, I don't have OTPs, and when I do, they tend to be canon. ("Don't mess with a machine that works.")
There are even times when lots of subtext can make a story less interesting to me, because I don't write for the sex, either. If you can add romance and still have the same basic relationship, just with added romance, what's the point?
I mean, right now I'm writing Sayid/Sawyer BDSM. A quite possible pairing, to my eyes, but there's no doubt that Sayid and Sawyer with sex and spankings is a whole different kettle of fish from Sayid and Sawyer without sex and spankings.
On a tangential note, I was talking to Cornelia about the lack of femslash among my fics - it's really quite blatant. My gen, het and boyslash fics are all 20-30 each (counting the Birthdayverse as one story), but the femslash ones were 5, and that was counting brief mentions. (But not subtext - My Gift from God didn't count as femslash and By the Last Stage of Lycanthropy didn't count as boyslash.) I pointed out that even fandoms that do have credible pairings often has at least one character in those pairings I don't particularly like. I can see Buffy/Faith or Rory/Paris, but I don't want to write it.
And then we talked about Anne/Diana, since I'm in the process of rewatching the old miniseries and had talked about just how slashy those two are in both book and show.
(Sideline for those of you who haven't read/seen it, which I've come to realize is a lot more than it should be, this is the slashiest bit from the book:
One evening Marilla, coming in from the orchard with a basket of apples, found Anne sitting along by the east window in the twilight, crying bitterly.
"Whatever's the matter now, Anne?" she asked.
"It's about Diana," sobbed Anne luxuriously. "I love Diana so, Marilla. I cannot ever live without her. But I know very well when we grow up that Diana will get married and go away and leave me. And oh, what shall I do? I hate her husband--I just hate him furiously. I've been imagining it all out--the wedding and everything--Diana dressed in snowy garments, with a veil, and looking as beautiful and regal as a queen; and me the bridesmaid, with a lovely dress too, and puffed sleeves, but with a breaking heart hid beneath my smiling face. And then bidding Diana goodbye-e-e--" Here Anne broke down entirely and wept with increasing bitterness.)
But Anne/Diana is one of those pairings I mentioned above, where added romance would just mean added romance and nothing more. As Cornelia pointed out, I could add angst, but Anne's angst tends to run pathetic to a degree I don't particularly like, and in any case, Diana gets happily married at 18. I wouldn't want Anne's melodramatic fantasies to prove true.
And then it struck me: I could write Anne/Katherine. Easily. It would be an interesting pairing, Katherine is more relatable to me than Diana is, and I could still add little hints of former Anne/Diana.
So now I'm writing femslash, and it's all Cornelia's doing. Yay her!
Besides, where femslash is concerned, I still want to write Kiki Strike femslash, possibly even a five things story, since it's one of the few canons I have seen where there are six female main characters and I thoroughly love them all. Trouble is a) there seems to be no fandom, and b) they're children's books, meaning that even if there was a fandom, it'd be full of 12-year-olds and easily shocked.
And I'm not one of those people who can write down a fanfic just for me. For me plus one, sure, but if a tree falls in the wood and all that.
So, poll:
Poll Kiki Strike femslash