30 Day Fanfic Meme: Day Fifteen
8 - Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.
Day Eight
9 - Pairings - For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?
Day Nine
10 - Pairings - Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
Day Ten
11 - Genre - do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
Day Eleven
12 - Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
Day Twelve
13 - Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write?
Day Thirteen
14 - Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
Day Fourteen
15 - Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
Heres’ one: Warning : Rant ahead.
Warnings. Ugh. I absolutley, positively, hate writing warnings. Especially for archives that require that every possible squick or sex act be listed. Absolutely the big things should be listed. Things like rape, incest, snuff, BDSM, character death, heavy substance abuse or graphic violence. But not only do I hate writing warnings for things I consider part of foreplay or vanilla sex for whatever type of pairing we’re talking about, I hate reading them. It makes it feel like smut by numbers.
If I read “oral, hand job, frottage, anal” in the warning then what’s left for me to read about where the smut is concerned? To me “graphic sex” or “graphic m/m sex” should cover at least two out of the four. If you find things as common as hand jobs a trigger, you really shouldn’t be cruising any fan fiction archive for stories with sexual content. It’s not good for your mental health or the person writing the fic. Seriously.
I personally think these grocery-list type warnings are mostly just search strings to let people cruise for their favorite sex acts to read. Not fandoms or characters. Sex acts. That’s not the kind of reader I want for most of my fics. If they just want to read about “anal, incest” without caring whether we’re talking about Pietro and Wanda Maximoff or Richard and Daniel Zeeman, then I don’t want them reading my fic. (No. I haven’t written either of those.) I write a lot of smut, but I like to think it’s in the context of a fandom and at least adding to the story if not telling it.
I have run across stories that squicked me or came close enough that I really wished I hadn’t read them. But I don’t think I’ve ever thought it was the author’s fault or felt the need to leave some sort of complaint. I went out and found the archive. I either read the warnings or didn’t. I chose to click on the link. I chose to read the story and either keep reading or stop reading when I ran into something that I found disturbing. Even if the author left off one of the biggies in his/her warning, the blame is still at least fifty percent mine. S/he didn’t drop it on my doorstep or stuff it in my mailbox. I went looking for it.
I’m also lazy. I don’t remember every tiny little sex act that occurs in a multi-chaptered fic. I do try to make sure I hit the big ones. But I’m not going to list twenty different “warnings”. Just not happening.
As for the strangest warnings I’ve ever given? How about “Unusual use of mutant abilities during sex?” Or “over-use of the word ‘fuck’.” Or my favorite -- “anything else I feel like throwing in.”
16 - Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17 - Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18 - Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?
19 - When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20 - Do you ever get bunnies from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21 - Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22 - Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23 - When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24 - Betaing - How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25 - Music - Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26 - What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?
27 - Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28 - Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
29 - What is your current project or projects?
30 - Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!
Day Eight
9 - Pairings - For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?
Day Nine
10 - Pairings - Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?
Day Ten
11 - Genre - do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?
Day Eleven
12 - Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?
Day Twelve
13 - Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write?
Day Thirteen
14 - Ratings - how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?
Day Fourteen
15 - Warnings - What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?
Heres’ one: Warning : Rant ahead.
Warnings. Ugh. I absolutley, positively, hate writing warnings. Especially for archives that require that every possible squick or sex act be listed. Absolutely the big things should be listed. Things like rape, incest, snuff, BDSM, character death, heavy substance abuse or graphic violence. But not only do I hate writing warnings for things I consider part of foreplay or vanilla sex for whatever type of pairing we’re talking about, I hate reading them. It makes it feel like smut by numbers.
If I read “oral, hand job, frottage, anal” in the warning then what’s left for me to read about where the smut is concerned? To me “graphic sex” or “graphic m/m sex” should cover at least two out of the four. If you find things as common as hand jobs a trigger, you really shouldn’t be cruising any fan fiction archive for stories with sexual content. It’s not good for your mental health or the person writing the fic. Seriously.
I personally think these grocery-list type warnings are mostly just search strings to let people cruise for their favorite sex acts to read. Not fandoms or characters. Sex acts. That’s not the kind of reader I want for most of my fics. If they just want to read about “anal, incest” without caring whether we’re talking about Pietro and Wanda Maximoff or Richard and Daniel Zeeman, then I don’t want them reading my fic. (No. I haven’t written either of those.) I write a lot of smut, but I like to think it’s in the context of a fandom and at least adding to the story if not telling it.
I have run across stories that squicked me or came close enough that I really wished I hadn’t read them. But I don’t think I’ve ever thought it was the author’s fault or felt the need to leave some sort of complaint. I went out and found the archive. I either read the warnings or didn’t. I chose to click on the link. I chose to read the story and either keep reading or stop reading when I ran into something that I found disturbing. Even if the author left off one of the biggies in his/her warning, the blame is still at least fifty percent mine. S/he didn’t drop it on my doorstep or stuff it in my mailbox. I went looking for it.
I’m also lazy. I don’t remember every tiny little sex act that occurs in a multi-chaptered fic. I do try to make sure I hit the big ones. But I’m not going to list twenty different “warnings”. Just not happening.
As for the strangest warnings I’ve ever given? How about “Unusual use of mutant abilities during sex?” Or “over-use of the word ‘fuck’.” Or my favorite -- “anything else I feel like throwing in.”
16 - Summaries - Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?
17 - Titles - Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?
18 - Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?
19 - When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?
20 - Do you ever get bunnies from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?
21 - Sequels - Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?
22 - Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?
23 - When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?
24 - Betaing - How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?
25 - Music - Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?
26 - What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?
27 - Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?
28 - Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?
29 - What is your current project or projects?
30 - Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!