sign of getting old

[kaigou]

Used to be, stories came down the pike, and I'd read at least the first chapter, no attention paid to warnings, ratings, or pairings. Less time, less energy, less inclination, and an author who doesn't list pairings will get the delete key from me faster than anything. (The old n+? at least tells me there's a reason the author doesn't want to state the pairing.) Yes, no pairing listed will launch delete action even faster than finding seven misspellings in the first two paragraphs, or use of the dreaded fanon cliches -- banged boy or little one or the ever popular braided baka and if I see so much as a perfect anywhere and the next word starts with an s, shwooooop, and that would be the sound of my mail program sending yet another email down the chutes.

No rating, no warning, no pairing, no nothing, no read.

*stomps off*

Comments

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

What if the lack of a pairing in the header is indicative that the story is not a pairing story?

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Then normally this is indicated by the label of genfic.

Which is why I said: no pairing, no warning, no rating, no nothing, no read. It's not actually that hard to list even the basics on each posted chapter, now, is it? Sheesh.

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that's what genfic meant.

*is stoopid*

I can't believe how much I used to read. I mean, I read almost everything. To say that I'm selective now would be an understatement. I've also gotten to the point that if I'm in the middle of a fic and it isn't holding my attention, I'll delete it--and I'm the kind of person who hates to leave something unread.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Yep, genfic, "general fiction" seems to be fandom euphemism for "does not contain romance". But then, we also move through a fandom in which 99.9% of the stories out there are romance-based, no matter what else they might have as a veneer (fantasy, action, thriller, supernatural).

Don't worry; I don't recall you've ever written anything resembling a genfic. As a matter of fact, you have a very non-genfic piece that you've been taunting us might be close to having the next chapter finished. Hmmm, I wonder where that could be...

[okaasan59.livejournal.com]

you've been taunting us might be close to having the next chapter finished. Hmmm, I wonder where that could be...

*hangs head in shame*

It is fairly close to being finished...as in about 3/4 of the chapter is written. But knowing how slowly I write and how much I have yet to do before we leave for the holiday (in about 30 hours, yikes!)...I think it's more realistic to anticipate a New Year's posting rather than a Christmas one. *sigh* I suck.

[ex-cozzybob450.livejournal.com]

Personally, I hate giving pairings away. I believe a story should be read to find out, and if you give them away, it takes all the fun out of it. But everyone has their quirks, so I give.

Even when there isn't a pairing, I always state the characters involved. It kills me like a saw to the head, but I do it.

So it makes me mad when others don't. Because if I have to they have to. You know. Misery loves company and all that crap.

I hate listing warnings too. You pick up a book by John Grisham (sp? late), Johnny doesn't say, "Hey! Yo! I had this little girl raped in the first part, so if you don't like it, just turn your pretty little head and plug your ears, hrm?" No. Johnny writes, and you read, and then you're shocked to hell, going, OH MY LORD GOD WHAT THE HELL AM I READING!? And you put the book down. That simple.

Same thing with Harry Potter. Rowling doesn't say, "Yo! I just killed off your favorite character! I'll warn you ahead of time just so you can prepare for it, see, because I know you just LOVED Sirius Black so bad..." But alas, no. Sirius just falls through the curtain, over and over and over again, and there's no warning, no nothing, nothing you can do about it. Done. Gone. Over.

But then, fanfiction and fangirls and fanboys are all different. They're insane. Even more insane than Neil Gaimen or that Pratchett fellow. So I give. And the other fanficcers must give too.

It sucks, but...

*shrug*

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't exactly read a Grishom novel expecting all of the characters to live, however. Nor would I be in the mood for a romance and expect halfway through to have the main characters die in a horrible accident with a combine engine. The problem isn't that fanficcers need to give warnings, or ratings, or even pairings; it's that their summaries so often suck.

But no, the majority (sometimes myself included) can't be bothered to post anything, and sometimes we get ff.net's version: "please read, I suck at summaries." I'd certainly never buy a book that said, "we couldn't be bothered to include a blurb because we suck at summaries." The blurb is going to tell me if it's action, adventure, romance, mystery -- if it's a thriller, it'll tell me whether there's a potential love interest, too, or whether I can expect guns and things blowing up. Some idea of the genre and the language used in the blurb will also tell me if it's a straight-up adult flick like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels or if I've accidentally picked up Bridges of Madison County. Failing anything like that consistently from fanfic writers (and blurbs *are* hard, it's true; I struggle over them and I'm trying to do this professionally!), we fall back on ratings, warnings, and pairings.

To not even bother with that minimal amount bugs the hell out of me. It's annoying. Bluntly. And no, if there's no pairing, I won't read. I don't have time to "read and find out", unless the surprise is supposed to be part of the point. I certainly don't have the energy. I'm reading fanfic solely for specific, personal gratification and sometimes that means I get to be snippy and say, take your 2x5 and shove it, because I won't read it. Nyah. It does mean, however, that a story with 1x2x1 on it might actually get read for a paragraph or two -- until I hit a fanon cliche, and then it's trashed with the rest.

HP and fiction like that is exempt, to some degree, because I expect it to throw me for a loop (after I know the basic premise and genre). I'm also expecting it to be filled with something other than secondary characters who could be mistaken for cardboard, leaden dialogue, derivative plot, and ridiculously purple description -- but this is also why I loathe published romance fiction. What I can forgive in fanfic, I won't in published, and vice versa. I can forgive amateurish fanfic, but I won't forgive a sudden deathfic when I wasn't warned unless (and I am guilty of this myself) the short piece was intended as a larger message-piece. If it's just for the general "oh, I made you cry!" then...sheesh.

Bed now. Really.

[ex-cozzybob450.livejournal.com]

That's why I usually make a point to have some sort of a summary when I post into communities or MLs... unless I forget, of course. But when you think about it, not many fanfic writers bother with summaries outside of an actual archive, and I guess that part would annoy even me. I often find myself judging what a fic will be about by warnings and pairings listed because there's no summary given. Which is a bad way of doing things, even if it does work.

I understand that you don't have time or patience to "wait and see," I hardly have any time myself, but as a writer who barely knows what pairings she is going to write ahead of time, it annoys me when I have to list them in in-progress multi-parts, where the story is still being written--I could be giving you the wrong pairings, ne? My solution has been to not post in-progress fics anywhere except my journal until it's done, but even then, I still have to list the pairings because people ask for them. When I say, "It's about Zechs doing blah, blah and blah," that isn't enough. I could give the best summary in the universe, and all they want to know is who's on top of who and if they're gonna get down and dirty.

But in fanfiction, you write for your readers, so I give. I'm not complaining, really, I'm just stating the fact that it annoys the hell out of me sometimes. You've got a point and it does make sense, it really does. Every fanfic writer should list the pairings and warnings involved properly--even in genfics, you should list the main characters. Fanfiction is not the same as published writing no matter how we might dream of it, and we do things differently around here. But it still annoys me. I guess I'm just a stubborn hypocrite, lmao.

I think it's all based on what you read. I don't have a problem with reading something really bizarre like 13x9 (I have read this very recently and enjoyed it, yes) and then turning around to read a classic 1x2, and that's exactly the way I write. I don't think in terms of pairings. I think in terms of characters... if that makes sense. I mean, if I want to read about Duo, I'm looking for the number 2, not where he is or with who or what. I could give a damn who he's taking to bed if it's not a PWP.

Okay, now I'm not making sense. Sorry. Long day, late night... but the next time I'm labelling a fic, I'll think of you, ne? I can at least do that for you. ;)

Which reminds me. I did read that fic you were talking about, the death fic? You might say that it was intended as a larger message and it was a beautiful fic, sure, but I was pissed as hell when Heero just DIED just like that with no warning. I felt cheated. Of course, that might have been the point, so nevermind.

How does one judge if a fic should be labelled for death or some other thing? I mean, if it's for a certain message or part of the literature in the piece, you don't want the readers to know ahead of time. It's like knowing the ending to Million Dollar Baby. A girl can get into some serious fights about that sort of thing. But I dunno. We lasted this long, didn't we? And I forgave you after you wrote Nothing Like the Sun. ;D

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

it annoys me when I have to list them in in-progress multi-parts, where the story is still being written--I could be giving you the wrong pairings

Since I post as I write, in stories where pairings may develop, I start with the one I'm aiming for (if I have it clearly in mind), and add "others as they develop." I've done that for several stories, and as long as I didn't mind gritting my teeth and smiling politely when I got distressed emails assuring me that so-and-so "wouldn't read until the story was done and the pairings were set in stone", then it worked for folks. Sometimes I start a story with multiple pairings and it just doesn't work out that way; I can think of at least two stories where I'd planned on a pairing and it never happened. (Actually, Nothing Like the Sun was supposed to be a 4x5x4!)

But it's still one thing to say "I'm just not going to tell you the pairing" versus a warning of "pairings tbd as story develops" and then add the pairings as they show up in the story.

As for 25 Years? Yeah. I felt cheated, too, when I had to attend funerals of friends who'd been beaten to death in gay bashings. That was sort of my point; too often the fandom's younger crowd likes to see the romanticism of it and forget there are Real Homosexuals out there, and that shit happens to them. I'm not normally one to mix activism and fiction in a conscious sense, but that was one time I felt strongly about it.

Besides, it was for an angst contest, which (at the time) pretty much put a neon sign over its head that it wouldn't end happily, however it ended.

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

I'm with you 100%. If I don't know what I'm getting into before I start reading, I won't read. Or, I'll skim through the story to see if there's a pairing or subject I won't like. I'm not going to waste my time reading something that will likely piss me off.

Reading is supposed to be about entertainment. If there are things I don't like to read, that will upset me, I want to be able to avoid them. If I'm not warned and I read something I don't like, that author may never get a second chance from me. If I'm warned and still read, it's my own fault and I can't complain.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Which is the same thing as when we purchase (or check out from the library) published fiction, only then we can go read someone's review in the NY Book Review or online, and say, "hmm, this sounds like A Very Sad Story. Skip!" Or we can look to an author's previous works and figure that the new pieces are going to be roughly similar, or at least have the same sensibilities.

Which, tangentially, is why I'm always surprised when authors act startled at the notion that they shouldn't write outside their genre without a great deal of warning to the fans. They seem surprised by the notion that fans would feel betrayed; I suppose after enough time in fandom, I can get this. I sure as hell got a bit of "how could you" wailing the first time I wrote a story in which 03 and 04 were not together, or at least, not apart and wanting to be together. It turned me into an unpredictable writer and no longer a "safe bet" for readers who wanted some idea ahead of time before plunking their asses down before the computer and committing any amount of energy to my stories. Why would it be any different if one has always written historical fantasy and suddenly tries to jump over into writing westerns?

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Meh, I'm rather iffy about how much actual info I give in those summaries. I'll give warnings, occasional pairings, but other than that I just do a little lead-in babble and then do my thing.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

That's still *something* as opposed to absolutely nothing. I will sometimes read a story if its warnings intrigue me, but if it's one of those "I'm not going to tell you the pairing because I want to trick you into reading one you wouldn't normally read!" that's a little different from a pairing warning of "I'm not sure of the pairings yet, but will add them as the story develops". I've done the latter; I loathe the former -- especially when we get hints of long hair and blue eyes and it turns out to be a 6x1x6, a pairing that I simply cannot, under any circumstances, ever see working unless it's a complete and total AU, with a good dose of OOC. In which case, why not make it ofic and call it quits on the fanfic?

But that's another tangent, I suppose.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can definitely agree that it's something. I'll at least warn people about probable squicks and pairings (and I've never done one of those "I haven't decided the pairings yet" things because I don't post until a story's done) but I tend to go along for the ride a lot with the GWA folks. Most of the writers over there are at least decent, unlike the majority at ff.net, and if I don't like the writer or the story, well... I know where the back button is. ;)

I hear you on the 1x6x1 - it's pretty, and I can maybe see drunk!angry!competitive!sex in a PWP, but other than that... too different, and their similarities are all the type that would have them at each others' throats in a relationship.

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the warnings on squicks are a big one. For all that I've written about some pretty wild stuff, there are some things even I have no interest in; at least a blurb in published fiction will imply situations, or I can read a review that may even discuss, nominally, the plot points that might turn readers off.