fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2196 ]

[ SECRET POST #2196 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2196 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 060 secrets from Secret Submission Post #314.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - empty image with a text comment ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Genre: Good enough, I think, but it might need rewording? Possibly?

You might want to change the example of "Fandom", though; people might confuse "Supernatural" the show for "supernatural" the genre.

Summary: A two to three sentence paragraph summarizing the plot of a fic to readers. This is used to hook readers into reading your fic. NEEDS MORE INFO

Sometimes authors pick a small excerpt from their story that contains tantalizing dialogue or descriptions; others just make a spoiler-less synopsis. Whatever you choose, remember that the summary can gain attention or repeal readers, so make it the most interesting possible.

Avoid clichés such as:

"Will Alice declare her feelings for Bob?" It is obvious that Alice will; romance stories that end with the two protagonists not getting together are so far out the norm it would be a real plot twist. No one is falling for it, in any case.

"This if my first story, be kind!" "Please read and review!" Nobody cares if it's your first story, and if you absolutely want people to go easy on you, mention it inside the story in your author's notes, not in the summary, where word count is at a premium.

Things that are okay to include:

Pairings, if the fandom predominantly cares more about such a thing over the actual plot.

If the story is a one-shot or a drabble collection. This might be moot if the website you are posting in allows you to mark works as complete or in-progress.

Things that you absolutely must include:

The slightest indication of what kind of story the reader is in for. Be vague and artsy if you'd like, but the reader should have at least some idea of what the story is about. (Characters? Basic/initial spoiler-free plot? Is this an epic adventure? A mystery? A silly romp through randomness?)

Definition:

Format: The presentation of the story: how long -roughly- will it be and in what manner is the story being delivered to the readers? In installments? In one piece? Is it short? An epic across 30+ chapters? The readers need to know if they will need to invest time to read it all or if they can read it in one sitting.

Challenge-fic: A story written for a specific challenge issued by a fanfiction or fandom community. Very commonly to communities in LiveJournal, but it's not unheard to find those coming from specific fansites.

Spoiler warnings: These are a must for works that have been recently released (days, weeks, a couple months), or where there is a big plot twist or revelation that many fans might not have reached yet due to the nature of the source material (such as videogames, where the fans might not have completed it; series of books; TV series in progress, etc.). It's best to word the warning to avoid spoiling people on where the spoiler takes place, example:

"Spoilers for second disc of the game."
"Spoilers for end of the series."
"Spoilers for chapter 45 of the manga."
"Spoilers up to the episode "The Reckoning" of Cowboys and Ninjas: The Animated Series."
Etc.

Trigger Warnings: MORE INFO

Warns that your story will touch or deal extensively on sensitive topics that might cause relapses on survivors of tough situations. Examples of common things that need trigger warnings:

Rape, Abuse of minors, Gore, Death, Extreme Violence, Domestic Abuse, Realistic depictions of Warfare, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, etc.

There are many more topics that people might insist you include or that you might want to include yourself, especially those regarding phobias like descriptions or pictures snakes, spiders and other feared creatures, claustrophobia, depictions of terrorism or natural disasters, emotional abuse, and many others.

What requires a Trigger Warning (TW, tw) or not is a very, very debated subject, and the best compromise that is usually reached is: No one can force you to add anything you don't want to, but it is very considerate if you decide to listen and you'll ignite less ire if you play it safe. So, it's up to your discretion.

Just in case, do some research if the topic is new to you. Google "trigger warnings", "trigger warnings in fanfiction", "should I add trigger warnings" etc. and have at it.

Kink Warnings: MORE INFO

As you will no doubt have noticed from the emphasis on pairings and sex in the "labels" section, fandom as a whole is usually fixated on the romantic and sexual side of fanfiction, with some exceptions. A great many fanfiction stories jump right into smut territory, and some of them to the explore the headtilting of subject matters.

Common kinks that are warned for (as an invitation to those interested and as a warning to those who might want to run the other way):

(Note that this list simply explains the term, and is expressing neither approval nor disapproval of the contents. What is illegal/immoral/ethical/wrong/sick/etc. is a discussion for another place.)

Tent: Tentacles.
Xeno: Alien creatures.
D/s: Dominance and submission play.
BDSM: (someone might want to define this one for me, I forgot what it means orz)
Watersports: Urination.
Guro: Gore.
Torture-fic/Rape-fic: A story revolving around the graphical depiction of that subject.
Shota/Shotacon: An underage boy is involved.
Loli/Lolicon: An underage girl is involved.
Chan/Underage: Someone underage is involved.
Non-con: Short for "non-consensual". Rape.
Dub-con: Short for "dubious consent". In real life: yeah, rape. For the purposes of fiction: it's dubious whether one or more of the involved parties were consenting.

(There are more but I can't think of them.)

I am pretty sure that guro refers specifically to cannibalism or the eating of human (or, I suppose, other types of) flesh, but I may be wrong.

Nope, that'd be vore.

Yeah, I know about vore. I thought guro was the Japanese equivalent? Ah well.

(da)
No, that's vore.

According to Danbooru:

'Guro is a Japanese term derived from the English word “grotesque”. It is a genre of art dealing with themes of gore, mutilation, disfigurement, extreme violence or something that's just weird beyond comprehension(though the last one is considered an archaic definition).

Guro does NOT simply refer to violent or bloody imagery, but in fact EXTREME GRAPHIC violence.'

Cannibalism and vore can be and often are guro, but the term is much broader and more encompassing than that. ...Also, I don't think the more softcore sort of vore (where it's just someone being swallowed whole) would count.

Okay, I'll add some of that info for summary and spoiler warnings. I will list some of the more common warnings (Non-Con/Dub-con, underage, Violence, Abuse, Major Character Death).

Will add info on Trigger Warnings and how it is a personal choice but that some are more common that others (see common warnings above).

For Kink warning I don't really want to list a bunch just because there are hundreds. However, I am going to have a section on Kinks that lists some of the more unusual ones that are not seen outside of fic. For instance BDSM, D/s, watersports are something you can find info on easily. But things like knotting, A/B/O, wing!kink are things that are not really seen in the real world. I'll be asking for help on that sometime in the future.

BDSM and D/s might be worth discussing briefly, if only because a lot of newbie authors don't seem to really understand the difference between those and noncon/dubcon scenarios.

Okay, would you be up to giving me a concise definition of BDSM vs D/s vs noncon vs dubcon? You don't have to but different opinions help :P

BDSM and D/s -ideally, when done right- are all about consent and trust, while noncon and dubcon are outright abuse and manipulation

this is part of why so much rage against 50 shades of grey; it completely mutilated what BDSM is supposed to be like and was someone's shitty dubcon fanfic except that the author didn't realize it was dubcon and didn't warn for it

BDSM: Bondage & Discipline, Domination & Submission, Sadism & Masochism. Describes scenarios in which two or more participants engage in fully consensual kink activities, ranging from "light" BDSM with silk scarves for tying the wrists and open-handed spanking, to "edge" play involving blood, suffocation, or other potentially dangerous scenarios -- and everything in between. Safe-words are commonly used in BDSM to give either participant the power to end the scene at any time.

D/s: Consensual power exchange, involving a "Dominant" and a "submissive" (capitalization deliberate). The submissive agrees to subject themselves to the Dominant's control, taking orders and behaving subserviently. This can describe a single bedroom scene or a "24/7" dynamic that is always in effect, or anything in between. Safe-words are common. Trust is a major theme in D/s, and both participants typically derive satisfaction from the power exchange scenario.

Non-con: Rape. One character chooses to initiate sexual activity with another character who does not consent, or who does not have the power or ability to refuse consent.

Dub-con: Ambiguously non-consensual sexual activity; one or both characters involved in the sexual act may have an impaired ability to consent, even if they appear to consent either initially or later in the sexual act, or it is otherwise uncertain from the reader's perspective whether enthusiastic consent is present.

Edited 2013-01-07 02:46 (UTC)

seems fine by me! I just spew everything I thought could be of use in the hope that something would stick (and hopefully reworded into something more coherent; man, my guides sure turn into tl;dr rants so quickly it's not even funny)

You could note that 'Underage' warnings are not necessarily trigger warnings but legal ones - explicit written material involving minors is considered illegal in Australia, Germany, and a few other places, so some fans may wish to avoid it for their own legal safety. (As we were discussing on one of yesterday's threads, for decades now courts have essentially failed to find any written material obscene, so it's likely that in practice this is never going to affect anyone in fandom. Underage art - particularly lolicon manga - has been the subject of recent prosecutions in the US, so REALLY requires a warning).

Will add this! Thanks for the info, I did not know this.

Also will mention that if wherever you are posting does not include a form for Fandom/Characters/Pairing/Rating/Etc this should be something someone can easily find in your summary.

that completely slipped my mind! yes, definitely do that!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2196 ]

tw: for trigger warnings I guess

Re: tw: for trigger warnings I guess

Re: tw: for trigger warnings I guess

Re: tw: for trigger warnings I guess

Re: tw: for trigger warnings I guess

Re: tw: for trigger warnings I guess

Re: Fanfic Rules update

Re: Fanfic Rules update

Re: Fanfic Rules update

da

Re: Fanfic Rules update

ayrt

Re: Fanfic Rules update

Re: Fanfic Rules update

Re: tw: for trigger warnings I guess

ayrt