[ SECRET POST #2046 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2046 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 021 secrets from Secret Submission Post #292.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - spam secret ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[rapunzelita]

Mostly, the sad reality of it is that they wouldn't get many readers - and, while it's true that you can write fanfic for your own enjoyment, when you put them up on the net, I suspect you kind of expect to have at least a few readers.

It IS a damn shame, though - I'm a tabletop RPG player (World of Darkness pls), and I have heaps upon heaps of characters I love to bits, and I write tons of fic about them all, but I don't think anyone outside of my RPG group would read them. which is fine! Though sometimes I fantasize about writing a really big fanfic in the setting I play in (like, novel-length and all that), because there is potential for telling a really good story. But the simple idea of having to do all the exposition of what the world is like, along with the heap-tons of research for historical accuracy (Victorian era or 1920s, depending on the setting) is a bit staggering. So I just keep writing my ficlets and posting them on GDocs.

[stainless]

True, but my point is that I sometimes think part of the reason they don't get many readers is because it's part of fandom culture that the point of fic is "canon characters doing things," to the point where people seem almost offended if you suggest it needn't be about the canon characters. When people say "I'm here to read about my favorite characters," they often say it snippily, as if everyone is expected to see that that's just self-evidently the point of all this. Which seems odd to me, not because I think it's wrong to care more about established characters than established worldbuilding, but because I wonder why there's so much of one and so little of the other.

My point is just that I'm wondering fandom culture could easily have grown up differently, as a bunch of people who decided to play in established worlds.

Thoughts on an AU of reality, really. :-)

[rapunzelita]

I agree with you! It's a bit of a shame, really. I really love OC-centric fic (provided they're well-written, but that's true of all fic anyway). What I love most about a story is very often characters, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy a character-centric fic about OCs! It is interesting though that the majority of fandom does seem to take OCs almost as an insult to canon characters... As though creating OCs diminished the worth of canon characters because the focus is not on them.

Another mildly unpopular (or less popular) type of fic is crossovers - and I love those so much! Some fandoms are just *made* for crossovers (like The Sandman for instance, or His Dark Materials), and it's a shame that it's not a more popular genre. I really like finding convoluted ways of linking two completely different fandoms in creative ways - it's a really nice mental exercise, and seeing it well-executed is always a joy.

Interesting thoughts, anyway :)

[stainless]

I don't usually like crossovers but I don't see anything wrong with them. I had a lot of fun dragging Megatron to Phyrexia once. :-)

[rapunzelita]

Crossovers can be really interesting, I think, because sometimes you have to think really hard about hw you're going to make the two universes fit together. It's like one of those really difficult wooden puzzles that you have to assemble again: you take two things that have a few common points but also very wide differences and you have to make them look united and smooth like they're just one thing. IT's a very interesting way of exploring the world-building of both worlds. Of course, it's made easier sometimes, for instance when alternate universes are stated to exist in canon (think of Sliders-like stories), or simply when both stories are set in the "normal", non-supernatural contemporary Western World.

But, to take a wonderful example, "A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman is an amazing crossover between Sherlock Holmes and the H P Lovecraft/Cthulhu Mythos. Those two things do no go together very well (Sherlock Holmes is super-rational, Cthulhu is super-irrational to the point of being nihilistic), but Gaiman (who is, I'll admit, my favourite writer) assembles them in such a way that makes them fit together seamlessly.

So yes um I like crossovers very much. Sorry about that.

[brooms]

but because I wonder why there's so much of one and so little of the other.

for the same reason that in any given fandom, for every gen fic, there are probably around 200 shippy fics.

could easily have grown up differently, as a bunch of people who decided to play in established worlds.

idts. fandom culture is the way it is because for a lot of people (i'm tempted to say the majority *), fandom journey begins when they watch or read something and become really into the idea of a certain relationship between canon characters (or canon characters and themselves).

from kirk/spock, to mulder/scully, to bella/edward, to draco malfoy/self-insert.

eta: * - at least the majority of those interested in reading and writing fanfiction. of course, another truckload of people find their way into fandom through their love of comics or pokemon or final fantasy or w/e and become all about collectibles and never touch a fanfic in their entire fandom lives.