The Emmys and fanfiction
The Emmys were a bit odd in my little corner of fandom. For those of you who don't know, my most recent fanfic output was a 160,000 word "Sherlock" AU story called Performance in a Leading Role in which Sherlock and John are actors. Sherlock is a highbrow Oscar winner and John is the king of rom-coms, both their careers are in a slump until they co-star in an indie film about a gay couple. The story is about them forming a relationship, getting accidentally outed, dealing with that fallout, and the consequences to their careers both of starring in this highly-acclaimed film (and getting Oscar nominations for it) and of being together. One of the key scenes is late in the story when they accompany each other to the Oscars and are on the red carpet together.
So you can imagine that more than one reader had a bit of a flashback when Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were each other's dates to the Emmys (and man, didn't they both look gorgeous). I was out all day Sunday and when I got home I checked Tumblr and wondered why there were suddenly like 20 new posts in the "performance in a leading role" tag. Then I scrolled down my dash and was like...oh. Heh.
I was, however, relieved to see people saying "Well, that isn't how I pictured it, because I imagined Sherlock and John, not these two." I'm glad to have that distinction preserved, because it was hard work keeping Performance firmly out of the RPF category. A lot of real actors make appearances in it (John is friends with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connolly, Natalie Portman talks to them at a party, etc) but the two main characters are that...characters, and not meant to be skins over the actors who play them.
That story...I have All The Feels about it. It might possibly be the most fun I've ever had writing a story, and I'm proud of how it turned out. I'm writing a follow-up and I wish it was coming faster but life happens.
Of course a lot of people were upset that the show didn't win any Emmys. I was profoundly unsurprised. Honestly, as a lot of OTHER people pointed out, it's amazing that the show got 13 nominations. It only airs in the US on PBS and is not remotely mainstream, certainly not as much as Downton Abbey. Plus there's nothing American awards shows love to reward as much as lengthy explorations of our own history so I figured "Hatfields and McCoys" would walk away with a lot of stuff, plus Kevin Costner got the traditional "your career went to shit but then you came surging back with something awesome so here's an Emmy" award. I didn't watch "Hatfields & McCoys," was it good? It had a lot of awesome people in it.
One of the photos that came out later was one of Tom Hanks (who I guess exec produced that?) sticking his Emmy to the hood of his car with packing tape. Tom Hanks, please never change.
So you can imagine that more than one reader had a bit of a flashback when Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were each other's dates to the Emmys (and man, didn't they both look gorgeous). I was out all day Sunday and when I got home I checked Tumblr and wondered why there were suddenly like 20 new posts in the "performance in a leading role" tag. Then I scrolled down my dash and was like...oh. Heh.
I was, however, relieved to see people saying "Well, that isn't how I pictured it, because I imagined Sherlock and John, not these two." I'm glad to have that distinction preserved, because it was hard work keeping Performance firmly out of the RPF category. A lot of real actors make appearances in it (John is friends with Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connolly, Natalie Portman talks to them at a party, etc) but the two main characters are that...characters, and not meant to be skins over the actors who play them.
That story...I have All The Feels about it. It might possibly be the most fun I've ever had writing a story, and I'm proud of how it turned out. I'm writing a follow-up and I wish it was coming faster but life happens.
Of course a lot of people were upset that the show didn't win any Emmys. I was profoundly unsurprised. Honestly, as a lot of OTHER people pointed out, it's amazing that the show got 13 nominations. It only airs in the US on PBS and is not remotely mainstream, certainly not as much as Downton Abbey. Plus there's nothing American awards shows love to reward as much as lengthy explorations of our own history so I figured "Hatfields and McCoys" would walk away with a lot of stuff, plus Kevin Costner got the traditional "your career went to shit but then you came surging back with something awesome so here's an Emmy" award. I didn't watch "Hatfields & McCoys," was it good? It had a lot of awesome people in it.
One of the photos that came out later was one of Tom Hanks (who I guess exec produced that?) sticking his Emmy to the hood of his car with packing tape. Tom Hanks, please never change.