So I've obviously been reading a lot of fanfic and it made me think...
Think of this as a primer for writing in Inception fandom or something. I'm not picking on anybody and I'm also not saying you have to write a specific way. I'm just asking you to think about it.
In no particular order...
Needle vs. Cannulae. You don't leave a needle in someone's vein. You use the needle to get in there, but you leave a cannula. There's a Wiki article, if you need help visualizing.
Saito/EVERYONE. I am all for Saito being the suave, debonair manslut of the team, but people seem to forget that he's married with a mistress. If that's your thing, go for it, but you might want to add a line about the divorce before he pops the question to Cobb or whatevs. Unless Saito is a suave, debonair manslut bigamist, in which case, more power to you. :D
Saito-sama. Saito is not Saito's first name, btw. It's his last name. Jsyk. We don't know his first name, as far as I can tell.
Being Bored By Numbers/Bad Spelling vs. Intelligence. This is has been hashed to death, actually, but I don't think it can be said enough. First the math: Eames looked like he was falling asleep more than anything else. Some people, even very smart people, just don't have a head for numbers. It's like they tune it out and it stops making sense. And even if he can do quadratic equations in his head, that doesn't mean he finds it interesting. Come on, admit it, haven't you ever glazed over in the face of a lot of numbers? It doesn't mean you're stupid, does it? Now, words: It is canon that Eames has spelling issues and I think that's adorable, but it doesn't mean he's dumb by a long shot. See if you can find an unedited manuscript by one of your favorite published authors (they make their way to the intarwebs sometimes) and take a look. A lot of smart people, people whose profession is dealing with words, can't spell very well. It could be a disability like dyslexia or SRD or just a lack of care on Eames' part, but it does not automatically equal dumb. OBVIOUSLY, Eames has a pretty hefty vocabpersonally, I think the whole "Forgive me for wanting a little specificity." "Specifi?" "Specificity." thing seemed directed toward irritating Arthur more than any real trouble with the wordand you don't break out all the psychology crap like he did on the fly if you're an idiot.Cobb: "We need the heir of a major corporation to dissolve his father's empire."
Eames: "You see, right there you have various political motivations and anti-monopolistic sympticals and so forth, but all of that stuff it's, eh...it's really at the mercy of your subject's prejudices, you see. What you have to do is start at the absolute basic."
Cobb: "Which is what?"
Eames: "The relationship with the father."
I'll just leave these here. (Thank you, crotalus_atrox.)
Sharp Dressed Man. Speaking of Eames, let's discuss his suits for a moment. Eames doesn't dress well, it even specifies this in the shooting script. The color, pattern, and fabric choices alone make me want to blind myself and if you disagree that is obv your prerogative BUT YOU'RE WRONG but he's certainly not wearing high fashion. To that end, beyond the colors, the suits are shabby. The cut is all right, I suppose, but if you'll notice, when he's in Fischer's office watching Browning, he's obviously in a much better cut of suit and looks slimmer; it's more flattering and that has to do with more than just not matching mustard yellow with airforce blue (*shudder*). Also, I have heard it said in meta that Eames' suits are of good quality, even if they're ugly. I just want to point out that the godawful pink shirt and stupid yellow shirt fall and move like polyester and all his jackets are pilling. Whether it was good quality when he bought it or not, he looks like he ran those fuckers through a washer/dryer a couple times. :( Uck. (But by all means, put him in a $10,000 suit; I enjoy the imagery.)
Men != Women. This is more for slash writers in general, rather than just directed at Inception fandom: men are biologically different from women and I'm not just talking about outdoor vs. indoor plumbing. Chemically, our makeup is different from men. This is also combined with and compacted by social training, especially for American males. Basically...what I'm trying to say is...boys don't cry like we do. I mean, they cry, obviously, but they don't generally tend to cry as much. It has nothing to do with girls being sissies and everything to do with the chemical makeup of the brain. And that whole social thing. BASICALLY, please think whether Arthur and Eames would sob on each others' shoulders while professing undying love. At least while they're sober.
Larger Doesn't Have To Top. If having Arthur bottom is just what does it for you, then by all means go for it. (Personally, I slot them both into the Switch Hitter category. :p) I just want to make sure that people understand that just because Arthur is physically smaller than Eames, that doesn't mean he has to bottom. Also, penetration doesn't have to go from top to bottom. It can, obviously it can, but it doesn't HAVE TO. There's no rule book that says, "Top sticks it in." If you want to go strictly by gay menwhich I am obviously not because I have a vagina, but I HAVE had a lot of gay male friends that like to talk too much :pI have been told that it's personal preference. And just because the top wants to do the penetrating this time doesn't mean he'll want to next time. Alternately, if you're female, think about it from a girl's perspective...you know, if you're into toys. :D But honestly, THINK ABOUT IT. It doesn't HAVE to only work one way, all the time. If that's what you like, that's fine, but there are other options if you want to break out of it.
The Dreamer Builds The World, The Subject Populates It. I'm seeing this pretty often, actually. While it is apparently true that the dreamer can accidentally populate a dream with their subconscious (Cobb with Mal and Yusuf with the rain, also it was mentioned in the shooting script), the whole thing is based on the concept of dreamer = creator, subject = population. I'm running into a lot of confusion on that point, with the dreamer creating AND populating and the subject just kind of hanging out by himself. When the projections attack the dreamer, it is because the dreamer is the foreign object. Remember, they're supposed to be the mental equivalent of white blood cells. That means the projects are not natural to the dreamer, the projections are natural to the subject. Make sense?
One Level vs. Multiple Levels. Double and triple level dreams are not common. It's stated repeatedly that 3 levels haven't been done before. Anyway, why do they need multiple levels for a simple extraction? Multi-levels are supposed to be for more complicated problems.
Anyone have anything else to add? I love this fandom. ♥
ETA:
Epithets. Point Man isn't a title. No, really. (Actually, there seems to be some confusion about what a point man is. In the military, a point man is the soldier out front, acting as a lookout. It can also mean someone who's taking the initiative on a project or venture. For Arthur, I think it means that he's taking care of all the details? Thoughts?) It's also not something you should use in place of Arthur's name. You also shouldn't use Architect, Forger, Extractor, or anything else. I know, especially when it's slash, that it can get confusing with all the he/his, but feel free to use their names. It's okay if it's a little repetitive, it'll happen, nobody minds.