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fragilistikal asked about what makes me waste my time in the first place.
In other words, how I choose what fandoms to write in. The short answer: any number of reasons, and the more reasons present for a given series, the more likely I am to write fics for it.
First of all, I have to be fascinated with the series to the point that canon is not being produced quickly enough. For example, I love One Piece to death. It's an all-around great series, but I don't mind the wait until next week's chapter. It's the same with Bleach or a number of other series. But if you start talking Death Note? Saiyuki? FMA? No, I need new input and I need it now, and badly.
(Doesn't this sound like a horrible relationship cliché? No, One Piece, there's nothing wrong with you. You're funny and cute and really charming and smart, but I'm just not looking for any sort of relationship right now. It isn't you, it’s me...)
At first, I attempt to address this lack by obsessively chatting up fellow fans about canon and theories based thereon, and for awhile, this works. But eventually it just gets the wheels turning, and then I find myself coming up with theories and ideas and saying, wouldn't this be cool if this happened? That's when I end up on the long road to writing.
I also need a fandom with possibilities. I adore series with airtight canons, but I can't fic them. For instance, I'd love to write more Koori or Farscape, but the creators of those series have done such thorough jobs with their material that I really don’t feel that I have anything to add.
On the other end of the spectrum, it's difficult for me to fic series with vaguely defined canon, because part of the fun for me is writing within the canon framework (more on this below). So while I really like the idea of Botchan/Gremio, I can't do very much with it because there's so little in the source material to interpret. How do I know if my characterization is on? I don't really, so I don't write.
And I do love writing within a canon framework. In many ways, ficcing is an intellectual puzzle – I have this great theory about how Death Note is going to end, but can I make anyone else buy it? Sure, the idea of Gojyou and Hakkai getting it on is nice, but can I write it in such a way that it seems like something they would do in the manga itself?
There always has to be a lack in canon before I'll write fic. Sometimes the lack is wish fulfillment – I want to see Tempou and Kenren having sex. Sometimes it's merely that the series hasn't run its course yet – what is going to happen when Light gets the Death Note back? Sometimes it's a lazy author or question of focus in the original - it's easier for JKR to keep the Dursleys in two dimensions, and they're pretty minor characters, anyway. But all the same, what must it have been like for Petunia Dursley to have the son of a hated rival foisted on her, with no choice in the matter? Why are Harry's guardians so powerful, yet so helpless to do anything significant when it counts? This is a question of plot expediency in canon – you wouldn't have the HP books if adults didn't turn blind eyes to danger. But instead of explaining to her readers, JKR simply doesn't address the questions, and so fanfic steps in to fill the gap for me.
Looking back over every fandom I've written in, I discover that the biggest factor after series infatuation is the presence of two strong personalities I can spark off of one another. Groupfic is not my forte; I have a hard time conceptualising how four or more personalities react to one another. This is one of the reasons my fics are shorter – you can’t really write a good 'n plotty HP or Fullmetal Alchemist fic with only two characters making an appearance.
There is an element of participation or community, and it's fun to write for series where you get feedback, but I will write fanfic for anything as long as I'm sufficiently hooked on it. I've ficced some pretty obscure fandoms – Wild Rock, Okane ga Nai, Megan Whalen Turner novels,...I've even written fanfic for Naono Bohra doujinshi. I just never post any of them, because the likelihood of someone familiar enough with the series stumbling across it and reading it is pretty much nil. So while the presence or lack of community doesn't stop me from writing, it will stop me from sharing.
On the opposite side of that coin, I tend to avoid fandoms that get too big, because I'm a slow writer and part of the fun for me is adding something new to the fandom. I don't do much with HP these days because the HP fandom has already reached its critical mass of DE abduction and Penseive sub!Harry fics. Looking back on it, I realise that I wrote all of my HP fics directly after the release of books four and five, and I'll likely pick the fandom back up once book six comes out.
Same thing for Saiyuki fandom these days – there are enough authors writing in that fandom that most of the possibilities are already being explored, and by people who write more quickly (and better) than I do. (Yes, write fic for me! That way I don't have to put myself through the process.) I can write Gojyou/Hakkai NC-17 like nobody's business, but there's only so many ways anyone can write straight PWP without getting repetitive. Of course, I'm all so flighty; I think I'm done with a fandom for good, only to have new events in canon breathe new life into it for me.
So anyway, there's the long and short of it. Motivations. Yay.
これで以上です。
fragilistikal asked about what makes me waste my time in the first place.In other words, how I choose what fandoms to write in. The short answer: any number of reasons, and the more reasons present for a given series, the more likely I am to write fics for it.
First of all, I have to be fascinated with the series to the point that canon is not being produced quickly enough. For example, I love One Piece to death. It's an all-around great series, but I don't mind the wait until next week's chapter. It's the same with Bleach or a number of other series. But if you start talking Death Note? Saiyuki? FMA? No, I need new input and I need it now, and badly.
(Doesn't this sound like a horrible relationship cliché? No, One Piece, there's nothing wrong with you. You're funny and cute and really charming and smart, but I'm just not looking for any sort of relationship right now. It isn't you, it’s me...)
At first, I attempt to address this lack by obsessively chatting up fellow fans about canon and theories based thereon, and for awhile, this works. But eventually it just gets the wheels turning, and then I find myself coming up with theories and ideas and saying, wouldn't this be cool if this happened? That's when I end up on the long road to writing.
I also need a fandom with possibilities. I adore series with airtight canons, but I can't fic them. For instance, I'd love to write more Koori or Farscape, but the creators of those series have done such thorough jobs with their material that I really don’t feel that I have anything to add.
On the other end of the spectrum, it's difficult for me to fic series with vaguely defined canon, because part of the fun for me is writing within the canon framework (more on this below). So while I really like the idea of Botchan/Gremio, I can't do very much with it because there's so little in the source material to interpret. How do I know if my characterization is on? I don't really, so I don't write.
And I do love writing within a canon framework. In many ways, ficcing is an intellectual puzzle – I have this great theory about how Death Note is going to end, but can I make anyone else buy it? Sure, the idea of Gojyou and Hakkai getting it on is nice, but can I write it in such a way that it seems like something they would do in the manga itself?
There always has to be a lack in canon before I'll write fic. Sometimes the lack is wish fulfillment – I want to see Tempou and Kenren having sex. Sometimes it's merely that the series hasn't run its course yet – what is going to happen when Light gets the Death Note back? Sometimes it's a lazy author or question of focus in the original - it's easier for JKR to keep the Dursleys in two dimensions, and they're pretty minor characters, anyway. But all the same, what must it have been like for Petunia Dursley to have the son of a hated rival foisted on her, with no choice in the matter? Why are Harry's guardians so powerful, yet so helpless to do anything significant when it counts? This is a question of plot expediency in canon – you wouldn't have the HP books if adults didn't turn blind eyes to danger. But instead of explaining to her readers, JKR simply doesn't address the questions, and so fanfic steps in to fill the gap for me.
Looking back over every fandom I've written in, I discover that the biggest factor after series infatuation is the presence of two strong personalities I can spark off of one another. Groupfic is not my forte; I have a hard time conceptualising how four or more personalities react to one another. This is one of the reasons my fics are shorter – you can’t really write a good 'n plotty HP or Fullmetal Alchemist fic with only two characters making an appearance.
There is an element of participation or community, and it's fun to write for series where you get feedback, but I will write fanfic for anything as long as I'm sufficiently hooked on it. I've ficced some pretty obscure fandoms – Wild Rock, Okane ga Nai, Megan Whalen Turner novels,...I've even written fanfic for Naono Bohra doujinshi. I just never post any of them, because the likelihood of someone familiar enough with the series stumbling across it and reading it is pretty much nil. So while the presence or lack of community doesn't stop me from writing, it will stop me from sharing.
On the opposite side of that coin, I tend to avoid fandoms that get too big, because I'm a slow writer and part of the fun for me is adding something new to the fandom. I don't do much with HP these days because the HP fandom has already reached its critical mass of DE abduction and Penseive sub!Harry fics. Looking back on it, I realise that I wrote all of my HP fics directly after the release of books four and five, and I'll likely pick the fandom back up once book six comes out.
Same thing for Saiyuki fandom these days – there are enough authors writing in that fandom that most of the possibilities are already being explored, and by people who write more quickly (and better) than I do. (Yes, write fic for me! That way I don't have to put myself through the process.) I can write Gojyou/Hakkai NC-17 like nobody's business, but there's only so many ways anyone can write straight PWP without getting repetitive. Of course, I'm all so flighty; I think I'm done with a fandom for good, only to have new events in canon breathe new life into it for me.
So anyway, there's the long and short of it. Motivations. Yay.
これで以上です。
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From:
no subject
lol! I so get that. That's em and Kenshin, exactly. And Cowboy Bebop, and Wolf's Rain...
It's really interesting to see what motivates other people to write. For me it's mostly fangirl lust, I suppose. I'm not sure, I'll have to think on it some.
And, incidentally, I'm most definitely not bored of Gojyo/Hakkai smut yet. Anytime you fancy writing some, I'll be here waiting to lap it up. ^_^
From:
no subject
Lust is definitely an important factor to a point. It motivates me to write but won't guarantee that I'll post. I'm just scared of becoming one of those authors with 800 fics that all say the same thing. And while I try to write lemons to the characters, there's a lot of mechanical and descriptive stuff that I can use whatever fandom I'm writing, so if it's hot but basic, I might take it out of an HP fic and save it for a different fandom.
On the 58 front, I have two fics stalled on my HD that I swear I'm going to finish any day now. Um. As soon as the ideas come to me, that is;)
From:
no subject
*eyes own website*
*innocent whistling*
^_~
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Maybe you can convince me that Wild Rock is not actually the cheesiest manga of all time. ("What, no spear jokes?")
Oddly, I just took a quiz yesterday about "Who is the yaoi author for you?", and when I answered honestly, it informed me that the author of Wild Rock should be my all time favorite. Well, who knew.
(It wasn't a very well designed quiz though. Picking all the shounen-ai answers did NOT lead to the obvious Ichiraci authors, but to being informed that I should go back to reading kiddy cartoons.)
From:
no subject
Interesting thing about Wild Rock: I have no idea where the mangaka came from or what happened to her, but I bought the tankoubon because I'm pretty darn convinced I have some FFVII djs she's written under a different name. The art is just too similiar for coincidence.
Can't convince you on the cheesy front, but what I love about WR is how the sex is so hot w/out actually managing to show anything.
I took that quiz and it gave me Nitta Youka, who I like, but not as much as Naono, which is another option.
(And gods help me all, I think a coworker just read this entire post over my shoulder. >.<)
From:
no subject
unless you've been writing Silver Diamond pr0n and holding out on me??). So chances are, it'd be new to me. ^_~(And gods help me all, I think a coworker just read this entire post over my shoulder. >.<)
Urk! Sorry. ^_^;;
From:
no subject
No. There's no such thing as Silver Diamond porn.And how the heck do you know Okane ga Nai, btw?Incidentally, the coworker reading the last post over my shoulder? Got transferred to a school in a different city.
セィッフ！
From:
no subject
That's because people haven't sufficiently explored the possibility of snake slash.OK, I did not just say that.And how the heck do you know Okane ga Nai, btw?
Someone pimped it in the strangely-named community
and the manga, the artbook, and the drama CDs...It's so wrong, and yet such a guilty pleasure. (Though Ayase is so feminine, he could make Sailor Moon look butch.) I was especially cracking up over the whole "raising a small pet" analogy in the first volume.
From:
no subject
And I totally haven't been talking to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fragilistikal since, like, Chapter III about the possibility of Narushige/Kou tentacle porn, oh no, no, no.It's so wrong, and yet such a guilty pleasure. (Though Ayase is so feminine, he could make Sailor Moon look butch.) I was especially cracking up over the whole "raising a small pet" analogy in the first volume.
Okay, I was really wondering, because I know OGN through the novels, which are significantly different from the manga and the DCDs. The manga is sweet and cute as all get out, but very, very toned down. I can't get very excited about the DCDs cause they're pretty toned down too, although Kanou's VA gives me the happies like woah.
(I'm glad I asked though, because my OGN features novel!Kanou/Ayase, which may not float your boat.)
From:
no subject
What the heck, I'm curious. What is the plot like in the novels, anyway? And how many are there? I had the vague impression that the three manga were continued in a fourth novel, which is obviously wrong.
From:
no subject
(Yes, write fic for me! That way I don't have to put myself through the process.)
I swear this is my biggest motivation for fic-writing these days. if someone else is doing it already, great! wonderful! perfect! but when I'm dying to read something that doesn't exist...no choice but to do it myself. Damn it. Hence me increasingly writing fic for fandoms no one is in anymore... (why is there no Twin Peaks fic online? whyyyy? stupid getting into shows that were around in the pre-'Net days...)
From:
no subject
If possible, I'd rather have someone else tell the story for me so it can surprise me like the series. It's interesting to get fb from readers/beta readers, because they'll remark on things I've taken as givens, having written the story, and I wonder what it would be like going into it not knowing those things.
Old fandoms are harsh - I still like reading XF and Buffy, but it isn't the same now that the series have wrapped up, there's less room for speculation, and the fandoms have become less vibrant on the whole.
From:
no subject
Heh, when I post multi-part fics I'm often interested to see in reviews that some twists and turns I thought were totally predictable are completely missed by everyone, while things I barely figured out myself in order to write it are obvious to everyone else...
It's terrible frustrating...I just got into Twin Peaks, and desperately would like some good solid juicy fic to continue the series (it was cancelled on a horrible cliffhanger) And none exists! Argh! Though it's not just the old fandoms - I started writing OP because almost no one else seemed to be at the time, and I wanted to read some crew-fic so bad...