To couple or to not-couple? First-Time vs. Established-Relationship Fics
belmanoir's excellent post on writing sex for ds_workshop brought up an interesting point, one that I've been mulling over for the past few days. In the comments to Bel's post, china_shop linked to resonant8's Smut Rants, and one entry in particular caught my eye. Resonant was writing about her smut pet peeves and said:
"A first-time story is a particular kind of pleasure. A ( Read more... )
"A first-time story is a particular kind of pleasure. A ( Read more... )
I think the specific complaint Res was making when she wrote that entry was about stories that seem like they're FT, but half way through (or near the end) turn out to be ER. That often bugs me too: if it's ER, I want to know that it's ER fairly early on, usually. Otherwise I have a mistaken impression of what's going on, and while the author may enjoy giving the story that twist, I find it distancing as a reader. Most of the time. (Nothing is absolute. :-)
Res also says, in the comments:
What I like -- what I read slash for -- are stories about relationship transitions. About moments when people take a risk, face a fear, overcome resistance and gain a deeper intimacy.
First-time stories are guaranteed to deliver that, just by virtue of being first-times.
You would think established-relationship stories could do that as well, but very few of them do. Mostly they're either basically gen stories ( ... )
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that there needs to be momentum forward in an ER story for it to be more than a PWP -- and that can be surprisingly hard to do, I think.
See, that's interesting! I've heard that from several people who avoid est-rel stories: they're "boring" or "lack momentum" and as a result they prefer first-time fic. I'm not sure it's inherent in the form, but more a signal that the writer didn't have a good basis for the plot, or didn't set up the conflict. And those problems can crop up in first-time fic, but perhaps they're harder to identify because the structure of a first-time story is a bit more forgiving. Hmmm.
I just rarely think of them as dramatic stories; even when there is a transition, there's usually less at stakeI think this is what Res meant by her "lesser" assessment: it's harder to see what's at stake in est-rel stories unless it's the relationship itself, and ( ... )
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I think with FT fic you have a set structure -- the basic romance plot: attraction, doubt, possibly misunderstanding, making a move, acceptance, resolution, sex. ;-) That can be drawn out, and the elements can move around all over the place -- the sex to nearer the beginning, the misunderstanding to later on -- but there is a clear path and we've probably all read enough of them that our subconsciouses can figure that out in a satisfying way in our sleeps.
With ER, you pretty much have to make your own map.
I think the common problems with FTs are different from the problems with ERs, though. With FTs it's more things like a failure to establish the obstacles to getting together, a lack of UST, too much assumption within the story that they're OTP, an improbable/annoying misunderstanding or uncharacteristic failure to communicate, etc ( ... )
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I'm not so interested in the stakes being external to the relationship because I mostly read for the guys and how they feel about each other.
What she dorked. When an outside influence comes in and causes problems, it's almost like a Mary Sue coming between them: not my bag of tea.
CS quoted Res:
What I like -- what I read slash for -- are stories about relationship transitions. About moments when people take a risk, face a fear, overcome resistance and gain a deeper intimacy.
Well, that would partially explain why I so dearly adore Res' writing.
I think the reason I prefer FT stories in general is many times ER stories are, as china_shop mentioned, more about the schmoop. The point of the snippet is to paint a snapshot of them together, and that's a lovely thing. But I'm an angst whore, especially when writing ( ... )
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