I don't think NDF sells it, but I do think it is speaking primarily to an audience that wanders by, that, as you say, saw those Simm eps and was casually interested? That's an interesting case in that--NDF doesn't need to really sell anything, it could as easily be another pairing, it pretty much just operates from the belief that you are willing to see these people get together Because Hot Men With Some Plausible In-Canon Chemistry (plausible as in, you could make a case, and not--this is a fic born of a ton of OTP passion and analysis). It does what it does quite well, but it stopped meaning anything to me when I was properly in that pairing, when I'd thought and felt more about that canon and those characters. It works REALLY well for an audience that's come in from Buffy fic, with its conventions, and is within a certain bandwidth of interest and canon-knowledge. I'm not calling it out for not working for me--I think if it worked better for me, it might well be less popular. I'm damn sure there's K/S like that as well...
I def respect the most, of my own stuff, stories that are doing a lot of work. But you can do a LOT of work with a story and have it be about other stuff, rather than 'why does this pairing work?'. And I do think--why these people, why these people,. why these people must get boring for the writer and readers who presumably think 'yes, these people.' Idk, I just think spending a LOT of energy on that can push a fic's focus onto that, and keep it from being about, idk, Avon and trust in a relationship, whatever. There's two ways of viewing it though, like wave-particle duality in re: light: either 'why these people' is a strand of work the fix is doing, a/the PROJECT of a fix, or it's an element that must ALWAYS be successfully incorporated, like characterisation (though even that bends when we need to write a crack fic).
A bigger fandom might be different in many ways, but not, I think, in that way? Like, where does one go for that sense of evolving conversation/community now, Tumblr? Though I'll maintain, also, I am not the main event. There's a heritage fandom of like listserv people for one who were big/around ages/who I barely know about, and further it's That Fic, not me. Maybe not even other fix, outside of Yuletide.
Oh yeah, I remembered your ire about that one. But I bet they thought they were giving money's worth/that they didn't feel it excessive, so it's time and taste as well as pairing-commitment--which makes the 'is this the shape of the story, or a cancerous tumor on it?' question so hard to call. What do we know other than shifting, subjective opinions? :/
I def respect the most, of my own stuff, stories that are doing a lot of work. But you can do a LOT of work with a story and have it be about other stuff, rather than 'why does this pairing work?'. And I do think--why these people, why these people,. why these people must get boring for the writer and readers who presumably think 'yes, these people.' Idk, I just think spending a LOT of energy on that can push a fic's focus onto that, and keep it from being about, idk, Avon and trust in a relationship, whatever. There's two ways of viewing it though, like wave-particle duality in re: light: either 'why these people' is a strand of work the fix is doing, a/the PROJECT of a fix, or it's an element that must ALWAYS be successfully incorporated, like characterisation (though even that bends when we need to write a crack fic).
A bigger fandom might be different in many ways, but not, I think, in that way? Like, where does one go for that sense of evolving conversation/community now, Tumblr? Though I'll maintain, also, I am not the main event. There's a heritage fandom of like listserv people for one who were big/around ages/who I barely know about, and further it's That Fic, not me. Maybe not even other fix, outside of Yuletide.
Oh yeah, I remembered your ire about that one. But I bet they thought they were giving money's worth/that they didn't feel it excessive, so it's time and taste as well as pairing-commitment--which makes the 'is this the shape of the story, or a cancerous tumor on it?' question so hard to call. What do we know other than shifting, subjective opinions? :/
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