fan fic preferences
A while back, laure001 posted over at the carrie_quinn comm and asked if people liked Happy fics, angsty fics, depressing fics, tragic fics?. I gave an answer but as it relates to fan fic generally as opposed to just Homeland fan fic, I decided to post it over here at my own livejournal as well :)
I'm a boring person to ask as the type of fic I like reading depends on my mood at the time so I don't really have a preference one way or the other for happy/angsty/domestic/light/fluffy etc. What I read is largely determined by the writing style rather than the genre as such.
I like a fairly minimalist style of writing, believable dialogue and believable characterisation. I generally find it difficult reading sex scenes in fic, not because I'm prudish but because they are so difficult to write and are the most likely type of writing to pull me out of a world i.e. I will realise I'm not in Homeland/Star Wars etc but feel like i am reading an erotic romance novel.
I go through periods of really hating the present tense, third person narrative ("she picks up the cup and stares into his eyes as she takes a sip") but have come to the conclusion that it's the default setting for fan fic writing, so will often write that way myself even though my preference is third person past tense ("she picked up the cup and stared into his eyes as she took a sip"). Sometimes I go through and rewrite the tenses in my fan fic depending on how I'm feeling. If you ever see mixed tenses, chances are it's because I've been struggling about whether I want to do third person past or third person present. Sometimes third person present feels a bit more immediate but sometimes it feels wanky. Sometimes third person past just reads better but sometimes it can sound a bit child-like and distancing.
I pretty much can't read first person narrative in fic although I know that it's the default setting for young adult fiction and a lot of chick lit ("I stare at him over the top of my cup as I take a sip"). I only write in this fashion if that's how the show does it e.g. Jessica Jones has a first person narration so when I wrote my Jessica-Malcolm fic "Why Are You Here?", I overcame my loathing and used first person narrative.
I hate alternating shifting points of view as it's too New Adult fiction for me i.e. one chapter from His perspective (first person narrative) one chapter on the same thing from Her perspective. ("I looked at him") and then in the next chapter: "i saw her looking at me". It's just too duplicative and in a lot of the novels, the 'male' voice just sounds like a more emotional version of the female but with more swearing...
My preference if capturing both perspectives is to adopt the omniscient narrator style of writing where it's "he thought" and "she thought".
laure001 also mentioned: There is something I think nobody has done in this fandom yet - I think! It's the... let's call it "the XIXe century narrator point of view". You know, the "Dear reader" thing.
"Dear reader, don't judge our heroine too harshly. Think about it - wouldn't you have done the same, considering the inducement?"
This style is so much fun... and so full of possibilities.
That's definitely a style I hadn't ever thought about writing so had my go at it here for Homeland.
I actually don't read a huge amount of fic because usually my only reasons for fic are:
I don't purport to hold myself out as a proper writer and what I write is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. The target audience for my writing is generally for myself (although I do of course respond to prompts :) and I choose to share it with others in case it helps them feel better in the same way it makes me feel better but in all the fandoms in which I'm active, there are much better writers than me so if they've already addressed something I'm usually content with going with what they have. That being said, there are the occasional moments when something they write inspires me to write something similar/related.
I have some writers I follow quite loyally and read quite diligently because I know that I like their writing style. With authors I don't know, I'm a lot more cautious.
*
In terms of generalisations about popularity on fics, fics that get more kudos/comments (based purely on my own fic):
I'm a boring person to ask as the type of fic I like reading depends on my mood at the time so I don't really have a preference one way or the other for happy/angsty/domestic/light/fluffy etc. What I read is largely determined by the writing style rather than the genre as such.
I like a fairly minimalist style of writing, believable dialogue and believable characterisation. I generally find it difficult reading sex scenes in fic, not because I'm prudish but because they are so difficult to write and are the most likely type of writing to pull me out of a world i.e. I will realise I'm not in Homeland/Star Wars etc but feel like i am reading an erotic romance novel.
I go through periods of really hating the present tense, third person narrative ("she picks up the cup and stares into his eyes as she takes a sip") but have come to the conclusion that it's the default setting for fan fic writing, so will often write that way myself even though my preference is third person past tense ("she picked up the cup and stared into his eyes as she took a sip"). Sometimes I go through and rewrite the tenses in my fan fic depending on how I'm feeling. If you ever see mixed tenses, chances are it's because I've been struggling about whether I want to do third person past or third person present. Sometimes third person present feels a bit more immediate but sometimes it feels wanky. Sometimes third person past just reads better but sometimes it can sound a bit child-like and distancing.
I pretty much can't read first person narrative in fic although I know that it's the default setting for young adult fiction and a lot of chick lit ("I stare at him over the top of my cup as I take a sip"). I only write in this fashion if that's how the show does it e.g. Jessica Jones has a first person narration so when I wrote my Jessica-Malcolm fic "Why Are You Here?", I overcame my loathing and used first person narrative.
I hate alternating shifting points of view as it's too New Adult fiction for me i.e. one chapter from His perspective (first person narrative) one chapter on the same thing from Her perspective. ("I looked at him") and then in the next chapter: "i saw her looking at me". It's just too duplicative and in a lot of the novels, the 'male' voice just sounds like a more emotional version of the female but with more swearing...
My preference if capturing both perspectives is to adopt the omniscient narrator style of writing where it's "he thought" and "she thought".
laure001 also mentioned: There is something I think nobody has done in this fandom yet - I think! It's the... let's call it "the XIXe century narrator point of view". You know, the "Dear reader" thing.
"Dear reader, don't judge our heroine too harshly. Think about it - wouldn't you have done the same, considering the inducement?"
This style is so much fun... and so full of possibilities.
That's definitely a style I hadn't ever thought about writing so had my go at it here for Homeland.
I actually don't read a huge amount of fic because usually my only reasons for fic are:
- filling in gaps that I would have liked to have seen
- therapy i.e. rewriting something that happened in canon that I didn't like.
- therapy - getting something awful out of the way so that I don't have to think about it anymore. So last year I wrote a fic in which I killed off Quinn so that we could read the letter. I felt bad doing it but it had to happen. I cheated and used a drabble - 100 words.
- see if any fic exists that addresses what i wanted to see;
- if it exists, I read it
I don't purport to hold myself out as a proper writer and what I write is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. The target audience for my writing is generally for myself (although I do of course respond to prompts :) and I choose to share it with others in case it helps them feel better in the same way it makes me feel better but in all the fandoms in which I'm active, there are much better writers than me so if they've already addressed something I'm usually content with going with what they have. That being said, there are the occasional moments when something they write inspires me to write something similar/related.
I have some writers I follow quite loyally and read quite diligently because I know that I like their writing style. With authors I don't know, I'm a lot more cautious.
*
In terms of generalisations about popularity on fics, fics that get more kudos/comments (based purely on my own fic):
- fic with sex is more popular than without
- shippy fic is definitely more popular than friendship/gen fic
- fic about major characters is generally more popular than fic about secondary characters
- canon pairing fic is more popular than non-canon (but that is because i write het not slash. Some fandoms the slash pairings are way more popular).