Slashy Nominations 134: Wagons, Roll!

[thefourthvine]

Okay, first, a cry for help. A long time ago, some kind person emailed me a list of body swap stories, including "Being Benton Fraser" and a Farscape story with John in Aeryn's body and Aeryn in Rygel's body (possibly based on an episode). Not too long after, that email account did a spectacular flame-out, the kind fandom can only dream of

Comments

[thefourthvine]

I'm sort of a closet fan fiction style geek; I spend a lot of time watching the way people develop their styles, the way fandom changes or additions affect style, all that. It's sometimes useful - it's made it much easier for me to know which brand-new writers I should be watching most closely, and what part of my reactions to a given story arise from the writer's stylistic differences - but mostly it's just one of those very interesting things you can't help thinking about.

One of the coolest things about SGA for me has been seeing the effects of all the different starting fandoms on the way people write in this relatively new fandom that has not yet had time to develop a real, overarching fandom style. Even now, in the middle of the second season, there's enough variance that I can often work back to the styles for fandoms I don't read by seeing how the authors from said fandom write their first SGA stories. Which is totally useless, but loads of fun.

But I never expected anything as perfectly designed to enthrall the style geek in me as the one-more-time stories from the Getting a Sense of Cliches challenge; it was custom-made for examining fandom influences and perspective shifts. (For example, I formed - although of course cannot yet even begin to support - the opinion that a different level of investment in the characters and fandom produces a different kind of story, while other fandom influences tend to affect style more than content. On the other hand, not much seems to change voice; most authors still write a given character's dialog pretty much the way they always did, allowing for changes due to maturation as a writer.) It was just...wow. I read through most of those stories three times, because that's how long it took me to stop style geeking so I could, you know, actually appreciate the stories.

(And now, of course, I'm wondering about how this interacts with writer awareness, since you were aware that the it felt different when you wrote your story. Raises a lot of interesting cause and effect questions. Hmmm.)

...But, you know, this is probably much more than you wanted to know about my private obsessions. Suffice to say that style is something I always, always notice, because it makes me deeply happy to have stuff like this to think about while I'm waiting in line at the grocery store.

[kassrachel]

More than I wanted to know? No way -- this is the kind of thing that makes me do a little happy dance of fannish geekery. *g*

Writing that story definitely felt different. For one thing, I think my writing's improved in the six years since I first started writing fanfiction; for another, I've read far more widely now than I had then, so my sense of what's possible is greater. (Which is not to say that my Sentinel story for the cliche challenge did anything new or interesting; it was more-or-less what I used to write, e.g. a mildly angsty first time with a happy ending. But, I dunno, I have a broader sense of the context in which my happy little first-time stories exist, I guess.)

I think a lot about having become (more) multifannish -- I mean, I'm not a true fannish butterfly, but I've got about a dozen fandoms now I think, and that was a huge leap for me, a paradigm shift if you will. It happened around the same time that lj became a big fannish phenomenon, and I think a lot about what that means -- whether I became polyfannish because I was now following my friends (regardless of where they went, fandom-wise) instead of following one show at a time, or because I was somehow fannishly mature enough to take that leap. Anyway, I think that whole train of thought dovetails with what you're saying about style -- as my circle of fannish friends started to move from Sentinel into other fandoms, their writing changed in subtle ways (new characters; new voices; but also new influences) and I think we continue to influence each other as we read what our friends (and strangers) write in the new fandoms we fall into.

Anyway. Big geek here. Whee!

[brindel]

Actually, I find it really interesting. I don't know if you have the time/energy to do this, but could you maybe do a post on it? With examples? *looks hopeful*

*Raises hand* Ooh ooh, I second this!

In fact, I was thinking it would make a great post for sg_workshop. (I know *I'd* read it, that's for sure.*g*)

But I will also second the "no pressure, particularly at this time of the year" comment as well.

*gives you solemn puppy-dog eyes anyway, just in case...*

[delurker]

...But, you know, this is probably much more than you wanted to know about my private obsessions.

Actually, I find it really interesting. I don't know if you have the time/energy to do this, but could you maybe do a post on it? With examples? *looks hopeful*

(Although of course, no pressure, particularly at this time of the year.)