[ SECRET POST #2861 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2861 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 052 secrets from Secret Submission Post #409.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

All I ask is that if you tag something "Gen" that it actually BE genfic. Is that so hard? Urgh. Yet SO many writers break this rule.

[(Anonymous)]

This. I can't stand how many "gen" fics I've read that turned out to pairing-heavy. Evidently they were tagged gen because there wasn't an actual explicit sex scene or something.

That said, I do get how it's a grey area. I wish we could come to a consensus on how to use these terms. (Like that's ever gonna happen. *eyeroll*)

[(Anonymous)]

Most of my fics are gen, there are pairings, but they aren't the focus of the story. The plot is. Which for the most part is "How are we gonna survive X plague?", "Do you want to start a rebellion?", and "How to stay alive when everyone else wants you dead."

I consider my stuff Gen, but I label my pairings because otherwise people get their knickers all in a twist. Because "OMG! I can't read a fic unless I know what the pairings are gonna be ahead of time!!!1!1!" and this is true on both FF.net and Ao3.

Gen is also very subjective. I consider Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and pretty much everything canon in the MCU gen. Yes there are pairings but they are not the focus of the story. Yet others would say that all three universes are not gen because there is romance in there.

You aren't gonna please everyone so you have to mark it the best you can.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I get that. I just wish there was a way to filter out "Multi" from straight up "Gen" on AO3. It's not a huge deal but sometimes I just don't want to have to deal with romance -- I want family/friendship or bonding fics.

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT and genuinely curious, where do you stand on canon pairings? Like, if Pepper and Tony are in a fic, wouldn't it be weirder to have them not acting like they're a couple than have a brief moment that acknowledges their canon couple-dom?

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

I totally feel you there. I'm a gen fan myself. I want tightly plotted stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Occasionally I want to feed my ships (I have them) but for the most part give me story any day of the week.

I'm guessing you'd be okay with background relationships so long as they aren't the focus of the story. Honestly, the best way I've found to find genfic on Ao3 is to find an author who writes the kind of stories I like and then see what they have in their bookmarks. I use the same method along with C2s on FF.net. Also there are a metric butt-ton of fics that are labelled as relationship fics that really aren't. Look for the "Slow burn" or "implied relationships" or "Background relationships" tags and that might help. Some authors also use tags to indicate if something is gen with the tag "mostly gen" meaning that there might be a relationship in there but it really isn't the focus.

[dazzledfirestar]

Well, the "multi" tag on AO3 is such a catch all anyway that no matter what you're looking for in there, you're likely going to get a metric fuckton of stuff you aren't into. I mean it's multiple pairings (background or otherwise), poly ships, gen with background... it's a bit of a mess.

[anonymous4]

Yeah, this is the problem I have.

My stories combine shipping with murder and mystery. I've learned better than to label them gen, but I'm always anxious that people who're looking for plotty fics will overlook them because they're archived under the pairing.

On the other hand, I think that, for most people, the 'wrong' pairing is the thing that's most likely to turn them off a story.

[(Anonymous)]

I totally agree that some people won't even consider a fic if it has a pairing they can't stand and get abusive when said pairing shows up even as a background pairing. *Looks pointedly at the Harry Potter and Buffy Fandoms*

Most of my stuff is AU canon divergence with me playing with the butterfly effect of "What if you change this thing" or it's character studies or it's filling in the blanks. The pairings are for the most part canon and secondary to everything else. And you're really damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Hell, I just recently got screamed at because a fic that I clearly labelled was gen and was not going to have any pairings in it other than an adolescent girl with a crush didn't have the pairing that the person wanted even though said characters were the main two characters. They weren't in a relationship but because I had the temerity to label who my main characters are and because they weren't boinking each other, I got screamed at.

In the great realm of Ao3 and expectations you really can't win if don't write smut.

[(Anonymous)]

Some people don't like certain pairings. If a story puts positive focus on a character or dynamic I don't like, it's going to take a lot to make it enjoyable to read. The same can be said for published media.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed.