These are the crippling fears I struggle with

[weatherfront]

First of all, thank you to the wonderful anonymous person who has made this account a paid one! I think it is my first paid account ever, so I am pretty excited about what to do with it-- thank you very much, I love you ♥ I will use these newfound powers for good, oh god, what are these powers, even!

I have been looking over my inception_bang prompt recently,

Comments

[bookshop]

when in doubt, just look at SGA fandom. IMO (from a mostly outsider pov), the fandom with one of THE MOST repetitive tropes and cyclical phases of writing, but it's also one of the best fandoms ever to be in from a fic-reading perspective. tropes is right; the what is not the point. the *how* is really the point.

i mean there is a reason i will read rentboy!AUs, or gay serial killer AUs, or coffeeshop!AUs, or college!AUs, or boyband!AUs, in any fandom. i've seen it done a million times over, but the pleasure is in seeing *how it happens this time around,* because there's always something new.

TL;DR THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL AND SO ARE YOU ♥

[weatherfront]

This is very, very true. I wonder, though -- repetitions and variations on a setting or plot aside -- if the impact of a certain gimmick or image is dramatically lessened, the second time it's encountered? For example (and this is a silly example), if someone wrote a story in which Mal tucks a pistol into her impressive cleavage in order to hide the weapon-- and then if someone wrote a completely different story about completely different things, but then had a scene in which Mal tucks a pistol into her impressive cleavage in order to hide the weapon, the reaction to the second story may be different in that readers are now aware that Mal's cleavage is somewhere that guns can be hidden, and are thus no longer delightfully surprised when it happens again...?

This example is extra nonsensical because of course everyone has been staring at Marion Cotillard's cleavage this entire time, of course every story should have a scene in which she hides things in it.

[bookshop]

well but. look at the sapiosexuality thread! :DDDDD Everyone was working with the same basic premise, but the execution of it was different every single time. But it was *wonderful* that there were so many fills!

The thing that fanfiction, especially slash fic, gives us is not, ultimately, going to be about plot or setting or worldbuilding, though all those things are awesome. We're drawn to slashfic for the same reason millions of readers are drawn to romance novels even though so many of them rehash the same basic tropes and subjects again and again: we're after the emotional catharsis.

We're essentially a bit like intestinal worms parasites as readers, I think: every time we attach ourselves to new characters and pairing dynamics, we still look for that emotional 'kick'--the payoff, the moment of fulfillment where character A and character B's relationship dynamic shifts (either for better or for the tragically worse). Readers want that over, and over, and over again, which is why we've read it in fandom over and over

[myricarubra]

Oh my gosh, this comment is the best explanation of fandom that I have read so far. We really are a bit like intestinal worms! (My sister had an intestinal worm for a while.) We crave the emotional catharsis of well-loved tropes! The druggie with the fix is a somewhat very apt description of what I am in relation to fan fiction.

[chibi_lurrel]

I am actually doing the same BB prompt as someone else, which was actually a kink meme prompt that I was already working on...so. I can be of no help because this is my fear as well!

[weatherfront]

Oh, that sounds super scary-- I hope everything turns out well! Hopefully they are deciding to take the prompt in a different direction from the one you were going in, or hopefully at least their writing style is drastically different. Something will work out ♥

awkwardly responding to comments in a tardy fashion.

[chibi_lurrel]

Thank you for the heart! I actually just found their summary and it looks like it will be very different, so that's good. Crossovers are filled with possibilities, it seems!

But fandom is an endlessly revolving door of plots and ideas and imagery anyway, so I'm sure whatever you write will be unique in all the ways that count.

[weatherfront]

Hahaha, it will certainly be long! I have no idea how people manage to write things that are that long and that good on a regular basis, it is difficult enough just trying to write something long every couple of years, and even then, 15K just seems so insane!

[acidpop25]

See, whatevs, tropes are tropes for a reason: they work and they're great if done well. I'm much more concerned about the fact that I don't know where in the hell my Arthur/Ariadne/Eames is going or if I have enough meat to the story. So I'm considering switching to a different topic BUT IDK, CANNOT DECIDE.

[weatherfront]

You have so much time to flesh out the plot! Sign-ups have not even ended yet! Then again, that also means that you have enough time to change your topic-- what makes you the most comfortable is always the best, I suppose ♥

[acidpop25]

Well, I'm working on a tighter schedule since I'm also doing a second fic with a co-writer. They'll both be written regardless- one's a kinkmeme fill that's probably going to get out of hand. Egh indecision.

[veils]

Oh my god, the maddest props to you I don't know if I could ever undertake a fic of that magnitude, I cry when I get past the 2000 mark because it feels like my fic is a monster that will eat me from the inside out, starting with my brain.

[weatherfront]

Hahaha, oh, god, this is so true, so true, I think I just do not realize the magnitude of 15K yet... it seems long, but in a vague, outer-space sort of way... yes, even 2K words is nothing to shake a stick at! And 15K! What is that!