[ SECRET POST #4435 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4435 ⌋

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

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05.
[The Umbrella Academy, Cha-Cha and Hazel]


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06.
[Death Mark]


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07.
[Casey Affleck]












Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 28 secrets from Secret Submission Post #635.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

For me, "reads like fanfic" is mostly neutral, depending on your priorities. Fanfic tends to have more emphasis on character and mood than plot and pacing, and to be...emotionally indulgent in a deliberate way, targeting some fairly specific kinds of tension and catharsis.

I don't just mean porn, but stuff like H/C and all those reams of "mutual pining" fic - the catharsis there is confession, not consummation. Mainstream stuff often tries to access similar emotional payoffs - see every interminable hetero Will They/Won't They ever - but fanfic has both a defter and a heavier hand with it, distilling it down into a pretty high-octane version of itself.

If a book was logistically meandering but nuanced and intimate, I might enjoy it and consider it objectively good and say it read like fanfic. If a book was myopic and glurgy, I might enjoy or hate it depending on my mood that day, and consider it objectively bad and still say it read like fanfic.

On the other hand, I know some people definitely use the phrase differently to indicate a kind of flashy off-the-wall take on things "season 8 reads like bad fanfic" - because they're using tropey and exaggerated plots - or just to mean that it has a sloppiness about threads and payoffs that comes with fewer expectations/requirements in terms of repeated editing.

In general, I don't think it's a terribly useful phrase out of context unless you verify how an individual person is using it.

[sabotabby]

IA.

When I've use it, there are several different connotations. It might be because it's character-driven, particularly where the characters have tropes I'm weak for. Or it might be because the characters are tropey in a way that I don't like (which, to be fair, is prevalent in genre fiction in general even if the author doesn't have a fannish background). Or there is a certain writing style that I will tolerate in fanfic but might bother me in professional writing, depending on my mood (the Captive Prince, while I enjoyed it, had this in spades).

So...pretty meaningless.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't just mean porn, but stuff like H/C and all those reams of "mutual pining" fic - the catharsis there is confession, not consummation. Mainstream stuff often tries to access similar emotional payoffs - see every interminable hetero Will They/Won't They ever - but fanfic has both a defter and a heavier hand with it, distilling it down into a pretty high-octane version of itself.

I agree with your entire comment, but I especially LOVE this bit. Especially the "both defter and heavier hand" part, because that perfectly articulates something I've been feeling about fanfic for many years - an almost paradoxical quality that fanfic has.