A surefire way to get me to remove you from my flist ;)

[caer]

I tried looking for other entries/articles/essays/writings on baby!fic, but all I found were a few vague sentences on it. Seems like it's not really talked about a lot :/ So, I shall try drawing up my thoughts without the aid of a reference (although, I have to admit, it feels weird not having other sources for an argument). I'll also try not to

Comments

[heartsways]

This post is made of awesome. You see, as a femslash person, the one thing that can guarantee me scrolling past fic is babies. Specifically, lesbians with babies. Sometimes it feels as though every lesbian in the world should feel the urge to procreate or give birth otherwise...well, otherwise you're a failure to humanity itself

[caer]

Sometimes it feels as though every lesbian in the world should feel the urge to procreate or give birth otherwise...well, otherwise you're a failure to humanity itself.
Dude, I feel like that's a whole other issue unto itself O_O In fact, I've been reading a little on the gender roles and dynamics of homosexual pairings in fic (I don't read slash myself, but still find the topic very interesting), and this feels like it falls somewhat under that. I'm thinking about doing a post on the subject, but I'll have to research it farther before that happens o.O

To be fair, caviarandmeths brought up that point first =) But ITA with But when you simply transplant your own desires and wishes onto that character, then there's no "author" process going on. Sometimes it really annoys me that people write what they WANT to see happen (even if it means the characters are OoC), instead how things SHOULD happen. The lines can get fuzzy between the two, and I don't quite know how to explain it, but I never feel like with my stories that that's what I want to happen

[heartsways]

Ooh, now you've got me started thinking about this. I wonder how many different types of fanfic there are - you picked up on the "wish fulfilment" fic, where there's a whole heap of projection onto the characters. But I wonder if that comes from something more - the author's psyche is such a tangled web and it's often really difficult to discern WHY someone writes something. I mean, there are a whole bunch of people out there who write characters that aren't on the show any more and will continue to do so. In a way, there's that wish-fulfilment coming into play - where you get to be The Powers That Be. I guess some people just go a little crazy with all that power, heh.

I look forward to your musings on the subject - I really like talking about fanfic. So thanks for this!

[shiparker]

My attempt to write a Mark +1 fic it was kind of dreadful. So that one was deleted and it's lucky buried among a bunch of drabbles. I curl under the bed when I remember that. Must be because as much as kid loves me I cannot be natural around them. In fact I feel uncomfortable around pregnant women often, I HATE when people makes me touch other people's belly, probably will never have a kid, hate to talk with the 'baby voice' like the kid is retarded or something. Not that I hate kinds, it's just... UH... NO. As far as reading goes, I also have some problems with baby fics

[heartsways]

.The other side of the coin is when a ship actually needs the kid, due the reedeming quality of the storyline. Let me explain, I take Sawyer and Kate for example. Lost has mythology and somehow their are linked to their childhood/children/bad parents and I think when an author writes a baby for them it's like a full circle and the characters finally finding peace.

Yes! But that shows a clear and defined understanding of characters and the themes/issues that define them. Which is fine with me - if I feel like a writer really has a hold on a character, I tend to trust them and where they want to go with a story. It's when the writer clearly has no idea who the person is that they're writing about and then just projects "stuff" onto them that it all tends to fall apart for me.

Like the points you made here. :)

[shiparker]

I also loved the points you made in your post as well *high five*. Glad we are all in a somewhat common place as far as OOC-Kid stories goes.

I do agree with what you wrote. I guess it takes a lot of understandment of the characters to sell something and you start with the characters. Always. All the stories, no matter if they're soaps, SCI FI... whatever, starts and ends with characters.

[nursebadass]

I think I'm addicted to reading your journal. You put down about a million things I agree with. Me, being the selfappoined Burke/Cristina queen (I need an abbreviated form of that..) I don't do baby!fic really much at all. I can't see Cristina in the mom role too much. I can just a tiny bit, but I don't know that it's something that I would ever tackle writing and so many write Cristina so badly that I just don't know if I'd ever be interested in reading that.

Of course, if Owen Hunt continues to Izzie-fy Yang she'll probably go right on ahead and have a litter for him.

[caer]

Baby!fic is hard to pull off just because the characterization is (more so) so subjective. Like caviarandmeths mentioned, you get a lot of authorial self-inserts, and I generally find them to be too sappy for my tastes. The kids themselves often seem too cutesy in everything they do, and...yeah, not for me.

I think we caught a glimpse of how competent Cristina as a mom would be when she had to take care of Bailey's baby, LOL. Some characters/pairings just aren't suited for babies (for whatever reason), and to see people try to write them in that setting (and epically fail) turns me off for the whole genre.

[nursebadass]

Yeah, it was too funny- Cristina handled the sleeping thing well, though. You know that Burke would totally be the mom in that case. Well, until Owen is done destroying her. :/

I think you can carefully insert a baby with any pairing, it's just how you do it. And like you said, a lot of people tend to do a self-insert and it's never true to character.