Open Thread: Oracle Hotline
Jun. 1st, 2018 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mithen posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
superhero_muses--Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
This question on the list made me laugh and I couldn't resist putting it here, because I have zero interest in being original! But at the same time I don't particularly worry about giving readers what they want? The big advantage of fanfic for me is that I don't have to focus on either of those things, I can write whatever cliched trope I enjoy. For me the challenge is seeing if I can execute a cliche in a way that's fun to write and also fun to read.
And I'm having a lot of fun with vampire fic right now, and also with the nonfiction! The nonfiction is an interesting case because I'm writing up a history of my two favorite wrestlers (and have been for more than a year now) and it's clear that fanfic has really been excellent preparation for it? A lot of the (non-slash, of course) ideas and emotions I explored in fic about them have slipped into the history at some level and made it a lot stronger, I think. I only have one more essay to go in it and I am suffering horrible separation anxiety, I have to confess! It's been such a fun project, my faves have gotten a lot of pleasure from it, and I am not sure what I'm going to do with myself when it's done.
This question on the list made me laugh and I couldn't resist putting it here, because I have zero interest in being original! But at the same time I don't particularly worry about giving readers what they want? The big advantage of fanfic for me is that I don't have to focus on either of those things, I can write whatever cliched trope I enjoy. For me the challenge is seeing if I can execute a cliche in a way that's fun to write and also fun to read.
And I'm having a lot of fun with vampire fic right now, and also with the nonfiction! The nonfiction is an interesting case because I'm writing up a history of my two favorite wrestlers (and have been for more than a year now) and it's clear that fanfic has really been excellent preparation for it? A lot of the (non-slash, of course) ideas and emotions I explored in fic about them have slipped into the history at some level and made it a lot stronger, I think. I only have one more essay to go in it and I am suffering horrible separation anxiety, I have to confess! It's been such a fun project, my faves have gotten a lot of pleasure from it, and I am not sure what I'm going to do with myself when it's done.
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Date: 2018-06-01 01:41 am (UTC)*shakes head*
I'm having fun with Flying Dutchmen in Space right now, with an all-female cast. It's (hopefully) a short story because at the same time I'm fighting with my mailing list provider to get something working. And failing. Utterly failing. It's very frustrating so happy place stories are required to compensate.
Have fun with your projects--they both sound great!
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Date: 2019-05-05 12:18 pm (UTC)Right? It's nonsensical! You never give them what they want, exactly, but you give them what the story needs and it usually turns out that's what they want...
Mailing lists sound like the very devil and I'm glad you had something to keep you happy during that time! :)
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Date: 2018-06-01 05:55 pm (UTC)It's not really something that I think about. Even though most of what I write is original stuff, I mostly write for fun, so I write what I want to read. And I take a lot of inspiration from other things I've read and watched. While I do like putting my own twist on things, I don't actively try for originality.
Most of my writing has been the short ficlets for The Museum of Other Worlds. This week, I'm going to try to get the next couple of weeks' worth of ficlets written up in advance so I can focus a bit more on my two other writing projects.
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Date: 2018-06-01 10:32 pm (UTC)I think I'm the same. I feel like exciting writing often lives of the pastiche, the homages and "retelling" that I'm not even sure being focused on being original is all that important. But I'm also not particularly interested to write what I think readers want to read.
I'm to busy to write what I want to read - and that can be the same trope explored over and over.
What you're saying there about cliched tropes there makes so much sense. As long as I like the cliche I don't mind doing it or reading it again and it can be so much fun to develop stories around them.
I'm writing in a post-Infinity War haze still that has kept me going for a couple of weeks now. ;D It's been very productive!
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Date: 2019-05-05 12:20 pm (UTC)Oh my God, and here I am replying after Endgame! Which was not kind to Steve/Tony in some ways, though delicious in others (that first argument was so perfect and fraught!) I hope you found it inspiring and not discouraging--keep playing with those tropes! Tropes forever!
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Date: 2019-05-05 02:15 pm (UTC)Oh, actually pretty much all Steve/Tony fans I talk to loved it. It was absolutely delicious. If by not kind you mean that the ships that are endgame (in Endgame haha) are others that's actually in line with the "Love we never got right" pining trope that the MCU has been playing out for most of us. For me personally it was the ending I hoped for especially for Tony — and now there's the whole of the new MCU!Multiverse that Doctor Strange hinted at before to play in. That is much much kinder than the years of never letting the Avengers be friends at all were ^^
I am writing RBB fics at the moment, but I'm also trying to channel all my Endgame feelings...
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Date: 2018-06-02 04:30 pm (UTC)Writing is pretty steady right now. Hopefully I can get back on some kind of posting schedule again.
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Date: 2019-05-05 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-06-18 07:14 pm (UTC)I think I flop around on this issue quite a lot. On the one hand, I want to be original, but on the other, I want for people to enjoy what I've written. I'm starting to learn to write more for myself and less for an audience though, since I've dug myself a nice little hole in some old dead fandoms and rarepairs. I want to write what I want to write!
Taking over the DCU Bang has taken over quite a bit of my time recently, so I haven't written much for all of June! (Not really, I'm using DCU Bang as an excuse for my lack of motivation, but hey, at least I've kept on top of DCU Bang stuff. XD)
It's really bitter sweet to finish something you've been working hard on for a long time! On the one hand, it's finished, but on the other hand oh no it's finished. I hope it's not hit you too hard, having to say goodbye to such a long project!
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Date: 2019-05-19 06:24 am (UTC)Right?? It's sometimes a hard lesson to learn, but it's got to be done, and being in a smaller fandom or rarepair can be kind of freeing that way!
I hope it's not hit you too hard, having to say goodbye to such a long project!
It was kind of hard, but also nice to have more free time! I kept to a really strict bi-weekly schedule and after that I was more able to set my own pace...