30 days of fanfiction meme (day 11... and now it's day 12)

[petronia]

11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

I'm more clear on my hobby horse tropes and settings than genres, I think (particularly "fandom genres"). At this point I can no longer write any fic without it turning out that I'd been unconsciously recreating a story I'd already written, or at least plotted mentally. My cold comfort is that at least each iteration is better written than the last... so far. Maybe in another ten years or so they'll start degenerating.

Stuff that turns up in my stories, that I've noticed, that other ppl tell me they've noticed:

* organized crime
* travelogues
* works of art (paintings, records, designer frocks) and ppl's opinions about them
* alcohol and drugs, but not smoking (a Dischism)
* YEARNING FROM ACROSS THE POSTHUMAN DIVIDE
* weather (another Dischism)
* band reunions (not band formations or breakups)
* a physical space, eg. bedroom or office, as shorthand for personality ("but I believe I must date it from first seeing his beautiful grounds...")
* consultancies (more a choice of fandom)
* interviews
* humour where no one is being intentionally funny or witty (I don't like writing "banter" or "repartee")
* action (words) standing in for emotion (words)
* bishounen!

As for fannish genres, I have to go by elimination. I don't write what fandom considers long stories - novella-length at best. I don't write h/c. I've written PWPs, but I think I write sex more naturally elided, by picking out telling details (I'm very bad at writing blow-by-blow anything). I can't plot "backward" from the kink, as my failed k_b participation proved. I don't write crack, if crack means OOC. I intend character sketches, then they turn into something else. I write the occasional crossover, so there is that.

Somewhere in there are two clusters of preoccupations: one centred around perception and creativity, the other around... teamwork and unspoken competence, or something like that. I'm more likely to write about Team Evil Pragmatic than Team Good, not even because Good Is Boring, but because Evil Is Hilarious. Eg., psychopathic assassins who're roommates because everyone has to live somewhere, due to work constraints (the Schwarz way of life is not dissimilar to that of, say, fashion models). There is probably something of this in my immediate instinct at the end of XM:FC that Team Erik would be more interesting to follow around, even though Charles is actually the pragmatic one (the "genetics" of X-Men is worse than that of JoJo - think about that - but assuming an actual Darwin's Radio scenario? Obfuscate, buy time, wait for demographics to do the bulk of the work!). I think Emma Frost's characterization in the thing is a travesty, but structurally speaking, she's Schuldig with boobs. Riptide can be Nagi. I'm ruining this for people, aren't I?

Comments

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

I'm ruining this for people, aren't I?

Actually, you're giving me the vague desire to see XM:FC!

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I was tired and drunk when I wrote this. XD The movie is good fun. Emma Frost really is Schuldig with boobs in the fanfic, only considerably less impetuous. (I am enjoying the fan discussions re: the usages and ethics of telepathy, it's all v. comfortably familiar. XD) Aya, I am sure, desperately wished at points that he had the superpower of tossing around large metal objects.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

You do drugs while writing fanfic?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

LOOOOL um no. XD But I have a tendency to forget to make ppl smokers even when they canonically are.

[bladderwrack.livejournal.com]

the "genetics" of X-Men is worse than that of JoJo

What does this mean? likely percentage of team members still alive by the end of the arc? surely not

[petronia.livejournal.com]

JoJo has the occasional teeny nod in the direction of how these things work in reality eg. kids tend to have abilities that somewhat resemble their parents' in kind. I don't even think this is the case in X-Men. XD;;

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

Haha, Emma Frost was kind of the most horrible thing about XM:FC; not only was January Jones totally bleh in the role, but they wrote her as kind of a bored dilettante whereas she really should be a manipulative bitch (I really wish they'd written her more like Adelle DeWitt from Dollhouse, who is my go-to for manipulative, morally ambiguous bitch who nonetheless eventually falls on the good guys' side).

Also I think the X-Men comics at least will frequently have a nod to superpowered genetics: all of Scott and Jean's kids (well, their one actual kid that was raised in the future, and then their two alternate-universe children who were adopted by them in this one) have telepathic/telekinetic powers like their mom. As the movies haven't done much with parents and children, I guess the jury's still out there?