In Soviet Russia, story recs you!
So at the moment, there's some meta discussion going around about reccing.
[Please note that I simply will NOT be drawn into the "is slash gay or not" debate. Because...just no, not gonna go there.]
Basically the issue on the table is "is it acceptable to rec something and be less than 100% enthusiastic about it?" Essentially what I'm examining here is the question: "can I rec with caveats?"
On the surface, this should not be an issue. We recommend stuff with caveats all the time. "Such and such a bar is great! Oh sure, it's kinda noisy when there's a game on, but the drinks are good and they have great bar snacks." "That Bel Ami DVD was really hot but I can't help giggling when the guys don't take their socks off." "It's a great cookbook, but it's not for the novice cook."
And yet if I'm a well known HP reccer and I do a rec that boils down to: "I really enjoyed Jane Doe's latest Harry Potter fic even though I don't totally agree with her version of Lucius," chances are good that someone somewhere is gonna take offense. And I don't mean they're going to sit down and discuss the issue rationally with me, because I think there's room for that. No, I'll get called a Mean Girl and it's possible that Jane Doe might flock her fic. This is, incidentally a version of what happened: a writer got recced in a "guilty pleasure" list and she flocked down all her fic.
Now it's true that the kerfluffle over this was pretty predictable because the term "guilty pleasure" was used and that was sort of asking for trouble. But back away from that and look at the intent. We're talking about fic you wouldn’t give five out of five stars to, fic that you might grade with a B/B+. This isn't badfic or even not-very-good fic, it's just fic that you can't rec without a caveat.
I have a lot of time on my hands to read, I'm too broke to support my book habit, and I also read very quickly. So I read a lot of fic, most of which I wouldn't rec without some sort of caveat. Now I could do a lot of reccing, and I have in fact thought about doing more, but I hesitate for exactly that reason. Most of what I read that I would rec with an utterly glowing review is stuff that is justifiably famous in fandom for being excellent fic. Everything else, including things that I not only read but reread, is flawed in some way.
Think about it and you have to agree it's true. We all know that not everything that's written is A+; the law of averages or even Sturgeon's Law, if you prefer, won't have it any other way. And yet the moment anyone dares to say so, they run into the "we are all unique snowflakes" argument and are labeled a Mean Girl.
I don't want to make this into a post about Mean vs Nice in fandom, but in a way this issue is about that, and about one of fandom's other great divides: "I only write for fun" vs "writing is my craft." This one gets dragged out into the concrit discussion, and really, a rec with caveats can be seen as concrit.
But let's back away from that and get down to what a rec is supposed to be and what it's supposed to accomplish. The whole point is to say "hey I liked this fic and I think some of you might too." At it's simplest it's me the reader trying to get people to read stuff written by you the writer.
How is that a bad thing? Let's say I rec a fic and my rec boils down to: "this fic is somewhat lacking in believable dialog but damn, my undies caught fire when I was reading it." Look at it from my POV here. There are a couple of reasons I might do that. I know that some of my friends would be put off by somewhat unbelievable dialog but might be willing to go with it if they knew that the pay off was hot sex. Also it's possible that I don't want people thinking that I don't know decent dialog when I see it, but honestly, if I were reccing fics I would do my best to leave that aspect behind as that's my own stuff and has nothing to do with the fic.
The point is, though, you the writer might get some new readers after I rec you. This would be even more true if I were known in fandom as a reccer. As it is, my friends know a little about my tastes and so they know where our interests overlap and where they don't.
One thing that often comes up in a discussion like this is the "well you don't know how it feels to have someone you respect damn you with faint praise." Never mind that giving someone's fic a B+ or four out of five stars is hardly damning with faint praise, the fact of the matter is, I know exactly what it feels like.
...a long long epic au with a desert oasis, a loss of identity, some hot sex and lovely wallowy angst, and some mischaracterization that you might be able to ignore in favor of the candy.
...this story is deep and involved, lush and sweaty and almost delirious. it's also highly sentimental, unapologetically mushy. i won't say this doesn't bother me, and i wouldn't call it great literature--but i really love this story.
... first-time pwp. rather silly, suffers from over mushiness. hot sex. sort of cute. soap operay, you know? the fun kind of bad.
Those recs for three of my co-written P/Q fics and are off a ST:TNG rec page put up by someone on my flist. To be honest, I don't even know that she'd say those were B+ stories. And you know what? She's right about every last one of them. Those are good fics, by the way. Fics I'm not at all embarrassed to have written, unlike some of the TNG stuff I wrote back in the day. Thing is, I can think of several people on my flist now who wouldn't read the fics based on that rec. And I can think of others who probably would, either because they trust the reccer or because they like sentimentality and mush.
In the end, everyone wins here. I get some readers I might not have gotten. People who know what I write now and who don't like mushiness can avoid stuff they won't like. And the reccer gets to share fics she enjoyed on one level or another with a wider circle of readers--I knew about these recs because I know her from fandom_wank of all places; I didn't know her back in my TrekSmut days.
So I ask again: How is this a bad thing?
[Please note that I simply will NOT be drawn into the "is slash gay or not" debate. Because...just no, not gonna go there.]
Basically the issue on the table is "is it acceptable to rec something and be less than 100% enthusiastic about it?" Essentially what I'm examining here is the question: "can I rec with caveats?"
On the surface, this should not be an issue. We recommend stuff with caveats all the time. "Such and such a bar is great! Oh sure, it's kinda noisy when there's a game on, but the drinks are good and they have great bar snacks." "That Bel Ami DVD was really hot but I can't help giggling when the guys don't take their socks off." "It's a great cookbook, but it's not for the novice cook."
And yet if I'm a well known HP reccer and I do a rec that boils down to: "I really enjoyed Jane Doe's latest Harry Potter fic even though I don't totally agree with her version of Lucius," chances are good that someone somewhere is gonna take offense. And I don't mean they're going to sit down and discuss the issue rationally with me, because I think there's room for that. No, I'll get called a Mean Girl and it's possible that Jane Doe might flock her fic. This is, incidentally a version of what happened: a writer got recced in a "guilty pleasure" list and she flocked down all her fic.
Now it's true that the kerfluffle over this was pretty predictable because the term "guilty pleasure" was used and that was sort of asking for trouble. But back away from that and look at the intent. We're talking about fic you wouldn’t give five out of five stars to, fic that you might grade with a B/B+. This isn't badfic or even not-very-good fic, it's just fic that you can't rec without a caveat.
I have a lot of time on my hands to read, I'm too broke to support my book habit, and I also read very quickly. So I read a lot of fic, most of which I wouldn't rec without some sort of caveat. Now I could do a lot of reccing, and I have in fact thought about doing more, but I hesitate for exactly that reason. Most of what I read that I would rec with an utterly glowing review is stuff that is justifiably famous in fandom for being excellent fic. Everything else, including things that I not only read but reread, is flawed in some way.
Think about it and you have to agree it's true. We all know that not everything that's written is A+; the law of averages or even Sturgeon's Law, if you prefer, won't have it any other way. And yet the moment anyone dares to say so, they run into the "we are all unique snowflakes" argument and are labeled a Mean Girl.
I don't want to make this into a post about Mean vs Nice in fandom, but in a way this issue is about that, and about one of fandom's other great divides: "I only write for fun" vs "writing is my craft." This one gets dragged out into the concrit discussion, and really, a rec with caveats can be seen as concrit.
But let's back away from that and get down to what a rec is supposed to be and what it's supposed to accomplish. The whole point is to say "hey I liked this fic and I think some of you might too." At it's simplest it's me the reader trying to get people to read stuff written by you the writer.
How is that a bad thing? Let's say I rec a fic and my rec boils down to: "this fic is somewhat lacking in believable dialog but damn, my undies caught fire when I was reading it." Look at it from my POV here. There are a couple of reasons I might do that. I know that some of my friends would be put off by somewhat unbelievable dialog but might be willing to go with it if they knew that the pay off was hot sex. Also it's possible that I don't want people thinking that I don't know decent dialog when I see it, but honestly, if I were reccing fics I would do my best to leave that aspect behind as that's my own stuff and has nothing to do with the fic.
The point is, though, you the writer might get some new readers after I rec you. This would be even more true if I were known in fandom as a reccer. As it is, my friends know a little about my tastes and so they know where our interests overlap and where they don't.
One thing that often comes up in a discussion like this is the "well you don't know how it feels to have someone you respect damn you with faint praise." Never mind that giving someone's fic a B+ or four out of five stars is hardly damning with faint praise, the fact of the matter is, I know exactly what it feels like.
...a long long epic au with a desert oasis, a loss of identity, some hot sex and lovely wallowy angst, and some mischaracterization that you might be able to ignore in favor of the candy.
...this story is deep and involved, lush and sweaty and almost delirious. it's also highly sentimental, unapologetically mushy. i won't say this doesn't bother me, and i wouldn't call it great literature--but i really love this story.
... first-time pwp. rather silly, suffers from over mushiness. hot sex. sort of cute. soap operay, you know? the fun kind of bad.
Those recs for three of my co-written P/Q fics and are off a ST:TNG rec page put up by someone on my flist. To be honest, I don't even know that she'd say those were B+ stories. And you know what? She's right about every last one of them. Those are good fics, by the way. Fics I'm not at all embarrassed to have written, unlike some of the TNG stuff I wrote back in the day. Thing is, I can think of several people on my flist now who wouldn't read the fics based on that rec. And I can think of others who probably would, either because they trust the reccer or because they like sentimentality and mush.
In the end, everyone wins here. I get some readers I might not have gotten. People who know what I write now and who don't like mushiness can avoid stuff they won't like. And the reccer gets to share fics she enjoyed on one level or another with a wider circle of readers--I knew about these recs because I know her from fandom_wank of all places; I didn't know her back in my TrekSmut days.
So I ask again: How is this a bad thing?