Fanfic woes

[wiseheart]

Don't look behind the tag. Nothing to see there, honestly. Just my usual seething about the injustice of fandom(s).

I've come to believe that it doesn't pay off to put lots of work and thought and love into one's stories. It doesn't matter whether you write good stuff or not. It doesn't matter whether you're Teh Ebol Slasher or a raging homophobe. It doesn't matter if you're writing genfic, het, slash, drabbles or epic novels. Whatever you might write, if you're cursed (as I am), you'll always, always happen to be read by people who prefer the exact opposite.

The Atlantis fandom is flooded by godawful shipper stuff, where grown men are bawling all the time because their Twu Wub (TM) doesn't love them. I actually saw one where the main problem was Shep returning to Earth without telling Rodney he wubs him. Or the other way round, I'm not sure. Not that it would count, of course. And another one where Rodney's main problem is that he's too fat and Shep has to comfort him. *gags* Apparently, they have nothing more important to do in the frigging Pegasus galaxy.

There's fluff, BDSM, kink, high school fic, group orgies, rampant AUs that have nothing to do with the show than the characters' names - just nothing about why they're there in the first place. Okay, there are exceptions. A few. But as a whole, the Atlantis fandom is a sorry place to be. There's no characterization, no serious plots, no world-building, no nothing.

And I've really thought people would be interested in well thought-out stories with detailed background. I'm an idiot, obviously. Or, as McKay would put it, a bloody moron. One that doesn't learn from her previous experiences in other fandoms.

As I can see it, in sci-fi, there are two sorts of readers. The men want hair-raising adventures and technobabble, and they're totally freaked out when there's as much as a hint of romance in a story, even het. Slash is much worse for them, of course; after all, in het romances they can drool over the description of big tits.

The women want sex. Period. Either tooth-achingly sweet fluff, or pr0n. The kinkier and dirtier, the better. With godawful how-to-do description of the mechanics on boy-on-boy action. The so-called "beauty" of the participants is described in lovely detail (which is a matter of taste, anyway), and the boys (assumedly grown men) behave like hysterical school girls.

Honestly, I usually read a very broad palette of genres. I'm one of the rare people who actually enjoy Mpreg. The only things I don't read are Real Person stuff, underage pr0n and torture. But it's increasingly difficult to find stories on the Net. Stories with an actual plot beyond the question how the participants (regardless of gender) finally can get into the sack together.

Granted, fanfic always contained a great percentage of utter crap. But it seems to me that things are getting worse. Back in the good old times of the original Battlestar Galactica we used to have wonderful, novel-length stories like "Mapping the Genome" by Anna and "Out of the Past" by Karen. They were AUs, with a wonderful twist on canon, yet as close to canon as possible, and excellently written, both in style and grammar-verse.

The Andromeda-fandom already showed signs of deterioration, but there still were good writers and good stories. Anna's stuff again, and "The Recreation of the Warrior" by Kit Mason, to name only two of the authors. Oh, and Liane Burwell. But the crap percentage was depressing there, too.

Today, nobody seems to want to write - or read - longer stories. By the time one gets really interested in something, the story is over, because the author can't be bothered to dwell on it any longer. Nobody has patience, authors and readers alike.

This is the place where I would whine about nobody carig for my stories, but I'll save you the routine. You know the whole thing by heart already. It's still depressing, though.


I've linked the few stories I still like to telekis_vendiak. Just in case someone wants to read good sci-fi. There are a few Tolkienfic recs, too, but fewer. I've all but stopped reading Tolkienfic... or writing it.

Comments

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

Some people are simply too dull for words, I know your fics are better than most of theirs. Let them read and write their boring fics, I know your fics are better.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

That's very sweet of you, Dís. *hugs*
But the sad truth is, I barely find anything read-worthy, either. I can't always read my own stuff, you know - even if there aren't much more people who do read it. *g*

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I need to get writing on my own fics. *Glóin grumbling in the background "why don´t you start writing then"* I have a couple I am working on, I hope that helps you.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! If I'm completely uninspired to write anything Tolkien-related, I'd love to at least read something nice. :)

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

I had better get started then. :) *Glóin nodding in approval*

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see you and Glóin in such complete agreement. *g*

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

It is better than facing the risk of getting his axe in my head, not to mention other parts of my body.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

You must have an... erm... stormy relationship. *g*

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

It is a bit stormy when he thinks I am a slow writer, other than that we are friends. *g*

[disthrainsdotte.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add. *hugs back*

[jilba.livejournal.com]

This isn't just fanfic. It sounds horribly like most novels I read these days, and yes, people prefer the shorter ones, and the no brainers, not something complex you need to engage your mind for.

Most TV is the same. I think it's a society trend, myself.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Which doesn't shed a positive light at society's standards, does it?
It's very frustrating, actually. I think I've grown a lot as a writer and do a much better job than, say, twenty or thirty years ago, but people just aren't interested.

And all that rudeness and hostility just tires me out. At Wraithbait, I got lectured by a very rude archivist (not Alyse, she's a sweetheart) for my apparently terrible grammar that makes my stuff barely legible. At the same time, they allow stuff with such a horrible grammar that my eight-term-class (made up by utter morons) would gurgle in shock.

[jilba.livejournal.com]

People not being interested is modern society again I think.

As for the Wraithbait archivist, I think there are plenty of people she should chew out over grammar way ahead of you! Ignore her, she's probably jealous of the excellent writing you do!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Hey, flattery will get you to almost everywhere. *g*

Do you happen to have a specific wish? I can't guarantee anything, though. RL is being a bitch lately. *le sigh*

[jilba.livejournal.com]

Tis not flattery, tis the truth, my dearest!

As for something...short and sweet if possible, a plot bunny that's been bugging you, even if it's something within a larger story. For some reason, Boromir has been haunting my dreams....

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll see what I can do. Unfortunately, my tolkien muse has completely abandoned me last time some obnoxious nitpicker told me I turned Boromir into a pervert.

How about some sci-fi? I've updated a lot on [Unknown site tag], both Star Trek and original Galactica, and also Andromeda and Atlantis. I don't know whether you get to see these shows over there, though.

And I've put up a lot of vampire and Queer as Folk stuff to hiddenrealms, too. If you don't know the shows in question in either genre, now that LJ has made it easier to post pictures, the stuff is illustrated, so you can get an idea whom you are dealing with.

Just an offer, of course, as long as my Tolkien muse is on strike.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

The sci-fi is on otherworlds_lib, of course. Apparently, I've messed up the tag. Again. And you can't edit comments. Drat.

[jilba.livejournal.com]

No, you can only remove them, double drat!

I shall happily go off to look, and thanks so much!

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're seeing this fandom devolution. I know two great writers who used to write SG - one of them is now focusing on her original novel, and the other is coping with a divorce and a new job and, again, that nagging original writing.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I've been pushing the reworking of my original fantasy novel (a mere 1,500 pages) farther and farther into the future for some twenty-one years or so...

But the worse thing in the SG-fandom (both SG-1 and Atlantis) is the rabid 'shipping. I've just got a bit chewed out for not putting up sufficient warnings everywhere that my own Atlantis stories aren't Sheppard-friendly. It's ridiculous.

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. I see so much crap fanfic out there in all categories. Bad spelling, bad grammer, ridiculous incoherant plots, unoriginal OC's, and those horrible shipper stories that just flood out the few interesting stories. I know that I'm not the best writer in the world but I'd like to think that I'm at least above-average. It's very frustrating when I see some crappy story with tons of reviews while mine get only a few.

But I decided years ago that I was writing for myself first and everyone else second. If people like my stories, great, if not then, oh well. I've seen fics where the author stated they wouldn't post the next chapter until they got at least five reviews or something. That's not my style. Yes, it sucks when I put up what I think is a good story and it gets a measly two or three reviews but at least they're always positive.

The shipper fics are the worst though. Het, slash, one-sided, threesomes, they're almost all so boring and repetetive. And there are so many people sp dedicated to their ship of choice that if someone wrote something different, they'll throw a fit. It's all so annoying. It amused me though with one of the shows I watch, Heroes. A popular pairing in fanfics was two of the characters, Peter and Claire, despite the fact that they've only had one scene together and Claire is underage. There were tons of fics written pairing the two of them together. But it was just revealed on the show that Peter's brother is Claire's father so Peter is Claire's uncle. I'm hoping this stops the flood of shipper fics for that pair although it may just inspire them to write more in denial. Ugh.

And Atlantis seems particularly bad when it comes to shipper fics and just bad fics in general. I mean there's all these fascinating stories they could do about the Ancients, the Wraith, the various planets and how their societies have adapted because of Wraith attacks. Instead it's all about Shep/McKay or Shep/Weir or Shep/Teyla, or any of the other various pairings that are possible from the show.

There was a really crappy story on ff,net recently where Kav comes to Sheppard after the events of Thirty-Eight Minutes, and demands that Shep show him how to cut his hair like Sheppard's because his own hair was "ugly" in the author's opinion. I considered posting a review stating that I prefer Kav's ponytail to Shep's "bedhead" look but I'd probably get hate mail or something.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, my! Where have you read *that* piece of wisdom?

Personally, I think Ben Cotton had beautiful hair, and it's a crying shame that he had it cut. But I know of personal experience that hair can get brittle if it's been long all the time, so I forgive him. *g*

But it documents fandom's general stupidity if one considers that in the sga_beta comm almost everyone refuses to beta read Kavfic because they "hate the guy".

Spesking of which - when can we count on a new chapter of "Truth and Consequences"? I do love that story! And you're a good writer, never let anyone say anything else!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Forgot to add: the PTB are probably as guilty on this shit (in Atlantis) as the fanficcers. They aren't capable of coming up with any new ideas; they're regurgitating what has already done a gazillion times at SG-1 or Star Trek or whatnot.

Plus, they've killed off interesting supporting characters like Bates, Grodin, etc., exchanging them with completely faceless ones. No offence to Lorne fans, but as far as I can see, the man completely lacks any personality (for me at least, although I'm aware of the fact that it's a matter of taste, ultimately). Bates was so full of quirks and personality faults, I miss him terribly...

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

The last chapter of Truth and Consequences is coming along. I was hoping to post it by the end of this month but that's not going to happen. Definately by the end of March at the latest and hopefully before then.

I was sooooo tempted to leave a polite but negative review of that story. It was so annoying. And worse were the reviews talking about how "funny" it was and how Kavanagh "deserves" as much ridicule as possible. For what? Not kissing Weir's ass? Sigh. I think some people can't think for themselves and just watch shows passively. So when Kav is presented in a bad light on the show, he must be bad despite the logic of his actions.

And not that I want to push my stories, but I'm just wondering if you've read my Andromeda story on ff.net? It's called One Life and focuses on Harper and Tyr in a non-slashy way. I could provide a link if you're interested at all.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I'd be grateful for the link, thanks! My favourite Andromeda characters are Tyr and Harper, both in a slashy and a non-slashy way. Although I loved 1st Season Beka and purple Trance as well. Rev Bem I could never warm to - too preachy for my taste - and I despise Dylan Hunt and his self-righteous idiocy.

As for Kav: I've recced an official Atlantis novel on telekis_vendiak, titled Repository. It has excellent Kav characterization. He's portrayed as a competent scientist, not as a complete moron. I typed up the book's official summary and my short opinion over there, if you're interested. Got the book from larian for Xmas, so it should still be available.

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's the link:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/972149/1/

I liked the purple Trance much better too. She seemed much more annoying and not as friendly when she became golden. Rev Bem was interesting as a character who's struggling to rise above his basic nature. He was preachy at times but I liked him.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I liked it! I'd have loved to see more of the aftermath, but it's nonetheless nice and round as it is. Thanks for the link!

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for the review, too. It always makes me happy when I check my stories and see that the number of reviews has gone up. And you reviewed Truth and Consequences too, thanks. It made my day.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

I consider it my duty as a friend to support people who write in the same fandom and whose stuff I like. Too few people do still make the effort to toss a poor author a bone. I try to say something every time I find a story I like. It doesn't cost that much time, but, as you've said yourself, it can make an author's day.

And no, it doesn't mean that I have much more time than other people. Really, I have not. It's just something I feel very strongly about, especially since I'm not one of those Big Name Fans, either, who get to influence any of my numerous fandoms. So I try to support the other underdogs - who else would do it, right?