(no subject)
This question was asked over on Tumblr, but since it might interest a few people who don't follow me there, I'm posting it here, too.
Anonymous asked you: If they take the M-Rated fics off FF(.)Net, will you still write a FOTW sequel?
My answer to this will come in two parts - one that addresses the purely technical side (= the archive question) and one that addresses the writing.
Let's start with ffn and a quick recap of the situation:
M-rated fiction *is* allowed, under their terms of service. They object to MA(dult) fiction, and yes, they say explicit descriptions of sex or violence turn a fiction MA and they don't want it on the site. It's been that way since 2002. For the past ten years, though, a gazillion stories that violate those rules have been put on their site and the ffn staff hasn't done much to prevent it. Personally, I doubt they will start wading through those now and filter them. I seriously doubt they have the staff for that. I think they just put that notice up now to cover their asses legally.
That said - the moment they censor a story of mine, I would take all of them off ffn and post them exclusively to Livejournal and the AO3 from then on.
What's the AO3, you say? I'm glad you ask. It's the Archive of Our Own, and it's the bestest thing ever since whipped cream. It is a fan-created, fan-run, non-profit, non-commercial archive for transformative fanworks - not only fanfiction, but fanart, fanvids, and podfic, and it was born out of a very simple thought of one of the founders: "Because I want us to own the fucking servers."
Yes, you read that right. The whole archive is firmly in the hand of fans, who not only believe in the rights of authors and in not censoring content - they also fight for these rights. It is multifannish and built on open-source archiving software designed and built by and for fans. It is hosted on servers owned by the OTW and therefore it's not vulnerable to a commercial hosting company deciding they don't like our fanworks. And they frequently engage in lawsuits when it comes to issues with transformative works - which includes *everything*, from manips/edits to fiction and fanvids. Because, yes, technically every single one of us could get sued one day for copyright violation, if the studio gets it in their head to pursue the issue.
If you're intrigued now, please take a moment for a closer look at their policies, what the OTW is about and what they mean for the fandom as a whole, and if you agree with what they stand for, support them. Spread the word, even if you just reblog this. They need it. (And donations, for that matter, to keep the archive running, but that's another matter, and I'll just leave that statement here.)
They don't have open registration yet because they want the strain on the servers to be manageable and keep it all running without crashing anything. I do have an invite, though, so if anyone desperately needs an account, holler. (I will need your email address for that, and I'd like to ask only those to contact me who will definitely create an account, preferably soon. I do get just one invite at a time, if it's given away, I don't get a new one until it's been used up.)
Now, for the writing site of things...
If you ask that question, I'm afraid you seriously misunderstood every single reason I have for writing.
I don't care all that much about ffn. It's just a platform, and it helped me reach a really broad audience. I've made quite a few friends there who aren't on other platforms. In fact, it took me almost a year until I started posting my stories there because I wasn't too impressed with the overall quality. It didn't really seem like my thing. I'm glad I went there in the end, but ffn never was and never will be my main home. If they would ever start censoring me, I would flip them the finger, tell people in my profile where they can find me from now on and never look back.
Yes, some people would no longer leave me reviews, which would be sad - but even though reviews are awesome, they're also not the reason I write. Feedback is nice, yes - VERY nice even, I'll admit that, and yes, I always check my inbox after posting like a crack whore. But since most of the feedback these days consists of "Great job! More!"... no, that's not really the reason I keep writing. (I desperately miss some of the talks I had with the people who were active in this fandom when I started out. Some of them used to go over my stuff almost line by line, telling me what worked and what didn't and how they reacted to certain passages. That was incredible. It really helped me grow as an author and made me aware of a lot of things. It not only left me with the impression that they really appreciated the amount of work I put into it, it was also goddamn inspiring, because very often these discussions would lead to more story ideas.) So no, feedback is not the reason I write, even though it can sometimes encourage a speedy encore.
I write because I love my stories. Because I am attacked by these ideas and they want out, and since nobody else bothers to write the outrageous things in this fandom, I have to do it myself, or I'll never get the stories I desperately crave.
And I *want* to tell these stories. Because they make for such pretty pictures in my head, and so much yumminess, and there are so many unexplored possibilities in these characters - which also makes it so insanely frustrating to see that 99% of the writers in my fandom (= the het side of NCIS) don't even scratch the surface of what *can* be done. Yes, it sounds snobbish, but trust me, I've been in other fandoms. I've seen what people can do. I've basked in creativity that makes me feel small and insignificant because it brings people together and provokes them to make amazing things that boggle the mind. (Like, podcasts. God, how I wish someone would make a podcast out of "Flavor", like they did for "Written by the Victors" in SGA fandom! But alas, in my corner of fandom that will never happen. *sighs*)
Go ahead, prove me wrong. I'd love that, actually. I'd love people to feel challenged now and get their gears going and think beyond vows and babies. I want "Dreamland" and "Scratch" and "Flavor" to be as commonplace in this fandom as this kind of story is in others. I'd love to stop getting reviews like "Only you! Only you can come up with something like this and make it work!" because it would mean that others picked up the theme and started thinking outside the box of... normalcy. I want people to turn their frelling brains on and start using them. It's not that hard. Thousands of other fans (in other fandoms) do it every day, and they tell stories of mermaids and undercover ops and gender swaps. And yes, they do it in a way that works, just as well as my stories work within the canon of my fandom.
So, will I keep writing? And will I write the sequel to "Flavor", even if it isn't allowed on ffn?
Fuck, yes, I will. There's no other way. I need to. Because no one else is going to do it for me. And I want this story to be told, just so I can read it when I'm in the mood for something like that.