Hats wanted: an apocalyptic discussion post.
I'm so bad at hiatuses. *facepalm* (Bear with me, I've spent the better part of a day surrounding by whooping Superbowl-crazed idiots, shoved into a corner scribbling tragic gen fic. devilyouwere, I'm looking at you right now
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I do tend to find sex out of place in about 99% of most apocafics, but I think it largely depends on how the story is structured. If it's a very plot-driven one (like, for example, my apocabigbang) then I think sex would actually cheapen it; but if it's a very tightly character-driven story (i.e. my spn_j2_bigbang) then sex is a-okay.
The ending doesn't have to be happy so long as it has hope.
Yes, god, this. This is exactly the way I see it. I almost don't want my apocafics to have a happy ending, you know, because it just seems...unrealistic is a silly word to use since we're talking about fic after all, but really, unrealistic. The apocalypse, whatever kind you choose to explore, is about loss and struggle and rebuilding. I just can't see one where no one comes out without a scratch, but I so absolutely love it when all the despair is capped off by this small group of humans finding their common ground and binding together and discovering hope. That's, yeah, that's what it's all about.
(Omg unrelated, but I swear I'm still podficcing things for you. I had all of them but on recorded and then I sent it to myself and played it on another computer as a test drive, and the file didn't work. ajshdjkasdhlasjdks and I can't change it back ashdjkahdjlskhajksds so I have to re-recorrrrrrd, ugh. But I am still sending them, goddammit. I'm sorry it's taking so long. D:)
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I am awfully excited to read your apocabigbang, ngl. I think i've said to you before that I hate when fics have porn added just for the sake of it, and a lot of the time i'll skip past it to get back to the fic. Yummy as it is, when it's not acting as a plot device there's really no point. A lot of writers make the mistake of adding porn because they know it'll get them reviews, it makes me sad.
Even fanfic has to have realism to it, especially something as long as a big bang fic. Riding off into the sunset holding hands has its place but definately not in the apocalypse. Maybe it depends on the type of apocalypse: nuclear, disease, fire and brimstone... there are endless possabilities. But I think that even if you somehow divert it there's still the clean up afterwards, licking your wounds and setting the world to rights. I can definately see that people would create strong bonds and yeah, of course there'd be things like 'omg we almost died/omg we're alive' sex, because they're human and lets face it - that shit would make you horny. But I highly doubt there'd be time for romance. So to end on an 'We're alive, what happens now?' note seems to me more appropriate.
Why does it always take me so long to get to the point? /o\
(I know how busy you are, don't even worry about it <3 I'm not exactly Mrs Productivity myself (though I am drinking right now so odds are i'll write something later when i'm omg drunken.) It'll be done when it's done and I shall squee all over it/you then.)
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Thank you! I hope it isn't a total disappointment. :D I really hate gratuitous porn too. I hate that the cardinal rule for most bigbang writers is: "when all else fails, PORN!" Because sometimes that just cheapens the story and makes the characters, Idk, brittle and campy. We all know I love some good porn, but sometimes it's more destructive to the fic than anything.
The whole "adding porn to get reviews" is just so, so sad to me too. If your story isn't good enough to sell to people without gratuitous sex, then you have no business writing it anyway. And if your story is such that you have to add in sex just to make it interesting then, well, I'm sorry but find another hobby. Sounds harsh but hey, truth hurts, right? ;)
Yes, definitely there's still the long and laborious process of rebuilding after the dust settles, that weird "okay, what now?" stage that I love so much. That might actually be my favorite thing about apocafic, tbh, the part where everyone picks up the strands of an old life and tries to make something from it. Plus it's very open and ambiguous and left to the reader's interpretation, which I love sfm in fic. That's one of the reasons why I really liked your deancas_xmas fic, actually, because it was so open-ended it's like you could make your own canon at the end. You know? I love that in fic. I wish more writers did that instead of tying everything off with a nice little bow. (Uh, I'm one of those writers who does that, actually. I need to get better at that. Ahem.)
(Eeeeeee. So long as you didn't think I forgot or something. I'm just a complete dolt when it comes to audio recording and I must have fucked something up the first go-round. DAMMIT, AND I EVEN HAD LULZY BLOOPERS I WAS GOING TO SEND YOU.)
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