Fandom is SRS, guys

[lettered]

When I write, I do it because something in my gut needs to say something. Often with fanfic, it's saying, "I need to get these characters together!" or "I need to see what happens next!" But whatever the need is, I always get to a point in the writing where I start thinking about it. Lots of time the thinky thoughts--analysis of the need,

Comments

[kita0610]

AM I CRAZY?

Well, yes, but that's besides the point. ;P

I used to ONLY be able to write when I had something SRS to say. That stopped being true a few years back, when I was like, ok, WHY CAN'T I JUST WRITE PORN LIKE EVERYONE ELSE? And then literally FORCED myself to do that. The downside is that for a while after, I couldn't think of anything SRS to say, because all the porn I had never written was taking up all the space in my brain. Or something.

Now it can go either way. And the weird thing (best thing?) is I get that BURNING DESIRE to write, even when it is only "for funsies porn", same as when its SRS BZNS. And that's new.

Integrate. Or something.

(As an aside, my total and complete nothing but ID fantasies are satisfied in RPG, and never see the light of day in fic. That helps too.)

[lynnenne]

Can I just add: Since I've started writing RPG, I've found it a lot easier to (a) write fics "just for fun" and (b) write ANYTHING. Writing is like any other skill: the more you practice it, the easier it gets. So, if you want to start writing just "for funsies," write a little bit of fun every day!

[lettered]

I can't do RP. I have been trying on and off for the past year or so, and I fail so hard. My problem is that even my "crack" "just for fun" impulses tend to be rather serious. I mean, my favorite crack "Angel gets a puppy" fic still has everyone behaving in character and it had intricate plottings and interactions even though I got lazy and never finished. When I RP, I *feel* like I'm writing a fic; I get wrapped up in that world. If people don't reply I get stressed out; I cook up plots I want to happen and then try to make them happen instead of letting them be organic; and I get overwhelmed by POV--i.e. how much of this character do I need to show? Obviously, my problem is that I'm just too tense a person in general :o(

[rahirah]

I once had a light-hearted screwball romantic comedy evolve, over the course of about six revisions, into and angst-ridden psychological exploration of repression and guilt. But that was more because the writer of this one character (it was a shared universe) had set up this cracky premise about the character, and I kept going "But that makes no sense," and picking at it till it bled.

Writing pure crack isn't fun or necessary for me in the way you mean, I guess, because the things I need to write are pretty much always stories where I'm paying attention to canon and believable characterization and plottiness and all that stuff.

[lettered]

Well, what I'm calling "crack" for me usually involves characters behaving in character, and not having plot holes, and such. I can't really write things that are silly and ooc, except every once in a while in like random comment fics, and even then that's rare. I'm not talking about the difference between writing good!fic vs bad!fic, but fic that's just to satisfy your id vs fic that has some . . . philosophical value, I guess.

The things I've read by you tend to have a seamless marriage of both. Like you have Things To Say about what being soulless might mean, but there's also the, "I like these characters and I wanna see them do this!" in there. That's probably how fiction should be, but for me these impulses clash.

[rahirah]

I think that until I got involved in online fandom, I had no idea that the two kinds of writing were different things. Discovering the concept of idfic gave me a couple of "Oh, so that's what's going on there!" moments about things I'd read.

I don't think I'd want to separate them, though, because without the "I like this!" component, stories tend to be sort of... juiceless? I may admire them, but I don't love them. Without the thinky component - I think that depends who you're writing for. The more id-iosyncratic a story is, the narrower the audience gets.

[lettered]

Yeah, I don't think they *should* be separate things. Yet for me, they are naturally, and always have been.

[deathmask_revel]

Great post, J!

And I tend to agree--though I don't usually write anything cracky that ~isn't also serious (see Deathmask), I do tend to write fanfic, on the rare instances I do so, "just for me" so I don't pay a whole lot of attention to whether or not something makes sense in the universe. Except then someone else reads it and whether or not they like it, I start to think, well I'd better shape this up and do it proper-like. But then what usually happens is I stop writing the thing altogether... (again, see Deathmask XD)

PS--can I quote a portion of this, about the being frustrated by meta impulse, in my D9 FicComm?

[lettered]

Yes, you sure can! What is that?

Well, most the "crack" stuff I write, I tend to still try to be in character and have it make sense. Though E, I totally just wrote Spock of Green Gables. PAY NO MIND. But I mean the stuff I do "just for fun" isn't completely mindless. Still, it doesn't have much philosophical in it.

That's interesting about the meta impulse kicking in when you think someone is looking at it. I've had it kick in when I'm writing stuff for myself, but then, yeah, I'm not worried about making the meta "fit" as much, I don't think. But sometimes I do get so overwhelmed even when it's just for me that I stop writing it and go do something else. I can't figure out whether that's because I secretly suspect myself of wanting to publish even things that are *supposed* to be for myself. Um. Sorry to whine at you! Why are we so angsty?

OMG I love your icon.

[deathmask_revel]

XD Because we're writing fanfic? Doesn't that automatically make one angsty?! ;)

Thanks! about the icon--it's a jokey thing that I use in my D9 Comm. Which is District 9, which is that aliens in a slum movie that came out a couple weeks ago and that I love so so so so so much just because, even though it's just a big allagory for the aparthied in South Africa...I don't care. I love it on a scifi nerd level.

And see, the aliens are called "prawns" in a derogatory manner, and a lot of the fic in my FicComm, is of course, prawn pr0n, so I made a "Hardcore prWns" icon to be funny and clever, and then I tripped off to write my own fic, which is surprisingly (even to me) not porny.

Ahem. Anyway.

I miss you guys! <3

[gossymer]

Start out writing "for funsies" and have it turn wicked serious?

That's the reason behind my Avatar OTP really. I came to the realisation that in any relationship, Zuko would be the girl and Toph would always be wearing the pants (metaphorically speaking) and I'd realised they were MEANT for each other, lol XD Then started thinking about it and realised, hey, why not? Especially ten years or so down the line when they're in their twenties, it's not that much of a stretch - and they're both just awesomesauce so imagineing them together makes me incredibly happy :3

[lettered]

That's really interesting. I dunno those characters, but usually my OTPs evolve out of my lizard brain, whereas my meta not only doesn't otp, but focuses on different characters completely! E.g., with Star Trek right now, id is all, "Kirk/Spock Kirk/Spock MINE MINE MINE OMG", where as super ego is all, "let's examine gender identities in the postulation of an idyllic future!" or whatever. But it's cool how thinking about something made your gut see it.

P.S. I love your icon.

[mabus101]

For me, the things I "need" to write are virtually always about the SRS business itself. I'm not a shipper, and even my rare attempts at PWP have turned into deeper stuff instead. It's not just that I don't typically care to write pr0n, I don't even seem to be able to!

I've written some short, light-hearted things, but the longer they go on the more likely they are to turn serious, usually as I search for some way to resolve them. The most egregious case was probably "Electric Wolves", in which the Trio accidentally began bringing horror movie characters to life. It was meant as pure semi-cracky humor, but then Willow ended up wishing (to the djinn from the Wishmaster series) that Tara would just be comfortable with Willow's magic use, which caused the villain from Clive Barker's "Lord of Illusions" to manifest within Tara instead of a separate entity. And from there....well...it got really ugly.

[lettered]

Well, by non-serious stuff, I don't necessarily mean porn; mostly I just mean the stuff that's just for fun.

the longer they go on the more likely they are to turn serious

Someone pointed out that this is the way relationships work irl (you meet someone, you like them, THEN you get into the hardcore issues). I guess it's how everything works, not just relationships. Generally you have to brush the surface of something before getting to the cream filling.

That story sounds awesome!. Though I don't know anything about the movies referenced, sadly.

[mabus101]

Well, by non-serious stuff, I don't necessarily mean porn; mostly I just mean the stuff that's just for fun.

I'm a strange person...I write serious stuff for fun. ;-) No, really. An idea gets hold of me and I start wrestling with it and I write it down. And it's nearly always a serious idea, too--my major longfic right now, DeadWar, is a wild chaotic mess (not my writing; the shape I've gotten the Buffyverse into), but it touches on racism and terrorism and counter-terrorism and free will and all kindsa stuff. But when I'm writing it, it's just a vamp!Buffy story and unless I'm stuck, I'm having loads of fun.

That story sounds awesome!. Though I don't know anything about the movies referenced, sadly.

Surely you'd recognize some of them. :) I mean, I start out with Warren deliberately creating a Darth Vader "hologram". Which is, of course, where things go wrong.

It's here, in four parts, if you want to take a look.. The last part never felt right, because I was trying to shoehorn it back into canon, but people liked it