30 Days of Fanfic Writing: Days 19-21 // Young Justice pet peeve
I have a pet peeve about the promotional art that the Cartoon Network put out for Young Justice.
Dear Cartoon Network Promo Department:
Artemis Crock has BROWN EYES. Please fix your promotional art, which gives her blue eyes. And by "fix", I mean "release new art" so that viewers stop associating Artemis with this inaccurate YJ poster. Artemis is half-Vietnamese and her hair is probably (not necessarily, but statistically likely) dyed blond, not naturally blond.
The girl ain't white, so please stop marketing her as if she were.
No love,
Scroll
ETA: So Greg Weisman addressed the eye colour issue and said: "According to our Color Stylist, James Peters, her eyes are dark grey, almost black." Not as clichéd as blue, but seriously, she's half-Vietnamese. Can't you just let her have brown frickin eyes?? Yes, there are East Asian people with grey eyes, but they are a clear minority. It's like they couldn't let her look too East Asian, because oh noes! What if the little white girls don't want to be her any more!
DC Comics does the same thing that Hollywood does, which is stack their casts with blue-eyed characters. I don't pretend the issue is equal in seriousness with stacking casts with white people and marginalising people of colour, but it does highlight Hollywood's narrow definition of acceptable beauty. The world does not really look like this! Instead of an artificial majority of blue-eyed Boy Wonders, we should have a majority of brown-eyed characters. Various shades of brown! That's just genetics, even among white people. It is UTTERLY RIDICULOUS that the only Batkid with brown eyes is Cass.
19) When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
If the plot bunny grabs me hard enough, I'll start writing immediately so that I don't lose momentum. Or if I don't start the actual story, I'll build character profiles or outline the plot. The bunnies that I jot down and put aside are the ones I tend to forget about after a couple of weeks.
20) Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
Occasionally, especially if these people ship the same pairings or have similar taste in fic. As I mentioned previously,
bluflamingo's John/Cam kidfic inspired me to write my own. Sometimes I'll get knee-jerk bunnies (a term I've just invented) wherein I become so agitated by a particular piece of fanon, or by a trend in fandom, that I'll brainstorm a fic to contradict or negate said fanon or trend. That's pretty much how the Brightest Heaven AU got started.
When I was visiting
bluflamingo, we came up with a truly BRILLIANT premise for an SGA fic that subverted fandom's habit of breaking up Rodney/Jennifer for the sake of John/Rodney. It's a really, really awesome idea, if I may say so myself, and does NOT dump on ANY of the characters--not Rodney, not Jennifer, not John, not anyone. And yet it totally twists the break-up trope on its head. Please help me convince
bluflamingo to write this story! Because she would totally do the story justice.
21) Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
Yes, I've written sequels--multiple sequels in the same series, in fact. In Stargate fandom, I have the (1) Red Ribbon series (John/Cam kidfic); (2) Brightest Heaven AU (Jeannie, Carolyn, gen); (3) Tour of Europe (John/Cam AU). All three series are on hiatus... Mostly because I haven't focused enough to write more. I do hope to return to them soon. I also have my Two Roads Diverged series (The West Wing), in which Sam Seaborn becomes President of the United States with Will Bailey as his Chief of Staff. It's more about Will's unrequited love for Sam than it is about Sam being president, mostly because I never got around to developing the political storyline this AU needed. (I'm all about the angsty romance, guys.) The series has been abandoned since I don't write TWW fic any more.
Breaking out the old Sam/Will icon in honour of this post. Dana Whitaker: "You know, Jeremy, Don Quixote was a hero of my father's, and my father would like you. You're a very 'quixotic' character."
1) How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
2) Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.
3) For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?
4) Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?
5) If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?
6) When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?
7) Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?
8) Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
9) Pairings - For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favourite pairings to write?
10) Pairings - Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
11) Genre - do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
12) Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favourite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
13) Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
14) Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
15) Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
16) Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17) Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18) Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?
19) When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20) Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21) Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22) Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favourite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23) When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24) Betaing - How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25) Music - Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26) What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?
27) Where is your favourite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28) Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
29) What is your current project or projects?
30) Do you have a favourite fic you've written? What makes it your favourite? And don't forget to give us a link!
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)
Dear Cartoon Network Promo Department:
Artemis Crock has BROWN EYES. Please fix your promotional art, which gives her blue eyes. And by "fix", I mean "release new art" so that viewers stop associating Artemis with this inaccurate YJ poster. Artemis is half-Vietnamese and her hair is probably (not necessarily, but statistically likely) dyed blond, not naturally blond.
The girl ain't white, so please stop marketing her as if she were.
No love,
Scroll
ETA: So Greg Weisman addressed the eye colour issue and said: "According to our Color Stylist, James Peters, her eyes are dark grey, almost black." Not as clichéd as blue, but seriously, she's half-Vietnamese. Can't you just let her have brown frickin eyes?? Yes, there are East Asian people with grey eyes, but they are a clear minority. It's like they couldn't let her look too East Asian, because oh noes! What if the little white girls don't want to be her any more!
DC Comics does the same thing that Hollywood does, which is stack their casts with blue-eyed characters. I don't pretend the issue is equal in seriousness with stacking casts with white people and marginalising people of colour, but it does highlight Hollywood's narrow definition of acceptable beauty. The world does not really look like this! Instead of an artificial majority of blue-eyed Boy Wonders, we should have a majority of brown-eyed characters. Various shades of brown! That's just genetics, even among white people. It is UTTERLY RIDICULOUS that the only Batkid with brown eyes is Cass.
19) When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
If the plot bunny grabs me hard enough, I'll start writing immediately so that I don't lose momentum. Or if I don't start the actual story, I'll build character profiles or outline the plot. The bunnies that I jot down and put aside are the ones I tend to forget about after a couple of weeks.
20) Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
Occasionally, especially if these people ship the same pairings or have similar taste in fic. As I mentioned previously,
bluflamingo's John/Cam kidfic inspired me to write my own. Sometimes I'll get knee-jerk bunnies (a term I've just invented) wherein I become so agitated by a particular piece of fanon, or by a trend in fandom, that I'll brainstorm a fic to contradict or negate said fanon or trend. That's pretty much how the Brightest Heaven AU got started.
When I was visiting
bluflamingo, we came up with a truly BRILLIANT premise for an SGA fic that subverted fandom's habit of breaking up Rodney/Jennifer for the sake of John/Rodney. It's a really, really awesome idea, if I may say so myself, and does NOT dump on ANY of the characters--not Rodney, not Jennifer, not John, not anyone. And yet it totally twists the break-up trope on its head. Please help me convince
bluflamingo to write this story! Because she would totally do the story justice.
21) Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
Yes, I've written sequels--multiple sequels in the same series, in fact. In Stargate fandom, I have the (1) Red Ribbon series (John/Cam kidfic); (2) Brightest Heaven AU (Jeannie, Carolyn, gen); (3) Tour of Europe (John/Cam AU). All three series are on hiatus... Mostly because I haven't focused enough to write more. I do hope to return to them soon. I also have my Two Roads Diverged series (The West Wing), in which Sam Seaborn becomes President of the United States with Will Bailey as his Chief of Staff. It's more about Will's unrequited love for Sam than it is about Sam being president, mostly because I never got around to developing the political storyline this AU needed. (I'm all about the angsty romance, guys.) The series has been abandoned since I don't write TWW fic any more.
Breaking out the old Sam/Will icon in honour of this post. Dana Whitaker: "You know, Jeremy, Don Quixote was a hero of my father's, and my father would like you. You're a very 'quixotic' character."
1) How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?
2) Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.
3) For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?
4) Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?
5) If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?
6) When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?
7) Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?
8) Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
9) Pairings - For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favourite pairings to write?
10) Pairings - Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
11) Genre - do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
12) Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favourite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
13) Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
14) Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
15) Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
16) Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17) Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18) Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?
19) When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20) Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21) Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22) Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favourite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23) When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24) Betaing - How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25) Music - Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26) What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?
27) Where is your favourite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28) Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
29) What is your current project or projects?
30) Do you have a favourite fic you've written? What makes it your favourite? And don't forget to give us a link!
I prefer comments on Dreamwidth |
comment(s)