Dead Air/Other Fic Comms/Reviews

POSTED BY: biggrstaffbunch
UPDATED: Tuesday, July 3, 2007 02:39
VIEWED: 19536
PAGE 2 of 5

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I'm not going to write non-canon smut on LJ, no matter that it might get me more feedback!

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LOL! Don't send THAT to me to preview. I'll send it back unopened :P

And if YOU are bitchy, what the heck am I? Lol! Don't answer that. I'm bitchier and pickier than you are! :)

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Yeah… I feel like there are a few random FFF writers who can’t take the trouble to open any old paperback they have lying around and seeing the obvious differences from what they post. Things like… capitalizing the beginning of a sentence. Using quotations, and the punctuation around them. Sentence and paragraph lengths. Just using sentences and paragraphs for criminy's sake!

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I've got to comment on this because I completely agree. If someone can't be bothered to get the punctuation right, I will rarely bother to read it. It detracts too much from my enjoyment of the story.

As an aside, I post my stuff here and at fanfiction.net, and, when I remember, my web site, but I don't post any of my stuff on my LJ page - it just directs people here. I dont' find LJ easy to use and, really, I don't need to post my stuff on every little site possible.

"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."

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that folk start to read a story that sounds interesting to them and then stop reading when they realise it won't focus on their favourite pairing (or any pairing at all). Now I'll be first to admit that I might start reading a story, but at the first drop of Rayne, I'm gone. (In case you weren't already aware of it, that's one pairing that truly sickens me.)

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No, you might be right. It all depends on my mood if I want to read a real big plot driven story (and, I'm sorry, but, there are SO few authors out there who are good enough that can suck me into one)that doesn't have any, or much on my favorite pairing.

Even if my favorite pairing is in a story, BUT there is something like Rayne, or River/Mal or an OC/BDH, I will probably not read it as it typically makes me wince - mostly, because of the characterization.

Someone enlighten me and tell me what a 'BNF' is?

"A government is a body of people usually notably ungoverned."

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Originally posted by Leiasky:

Even if my favorite pairing is in a story, BUT there is something like Rayne, or River/Mal or an OC/BDH, I will probably not read it as it typically makes me wince - mostly, because of the characterization.

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I have to agree with you too. I'll admit I have my preferred pairing and look for headers and keywords that indicate I'll get to read some of that in a story, but if it's a pairing I do not like (several of which you mention here) then I won't usually read. I'll have to see some pretty good writing for it to pull me in, make me believe it's possible and/or actually make me leave feedback.

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Someone enlighten me and tell me what a 'BNF' is?

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It stands for Big Name Fan.

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I'd hate to think, and somebody PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, that folk start to read a story that sounds interesting to them and then stop reading when they realise it won't focus on their favourite pairing (or any pairing at all).

Think it depends on the person, rather than a whole. I'll happily read gen, or a pairing that's new but if it's one that squirks me (mainly Book pairings to be fair) or there's a sudden squirk I will stop reading. I'll pretty much try anything but I do tend to steer away from reading a WIPs-unless the authors got a storyboard or most written.

It's just a personal preference purely because I've found a few a really enjoy and then they've gone unfinished and ive been disapointed. Also because i'm so impatient, i like to wait for the whole thing.

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What?!? People aren't giving YOU feedback?!?

Some people ought to be kicked in the shins.

I'm no LJ expert, but from the LJs I've been to, there's never a HUGE amount of feedback. I don't know why. Maybe because it's a relatively small community (Firefly fanfic writers).

I used to visit an X-Files message board called Idealists Haven. There was an entire board set aside for Fanfic: where people could promote their work, recommend fics, request fics, get feedback, find betas, ask character questions and just generally chat with each other... We need something like that. FFF.net is great, but the format doesn't lend itself to easy interaction between people.

Here's what I'm talking about: http://community.idealistshaven.com/forums/index.php?s=7655f86294618da
9d7938c4a082901bd

What we really need is one big Firefly fanfic website where every Firefly fic that gets written (good and bad) could be archived. FFF.net has the largest archive that I've found, but again... formating makes it hard to read and there's too few search options.

Here's another example: www.gossamer.org

Gossamer is huge and it probably takes a lot of time and money to run it (as does Haven). Still, with Browncoats being as organized and driven as we are, I can't believe that no one has done this yet.

Any computer whizes out there wanna give it a try?



ETS: Hey! What are you and Mal4Prez doing hanging out here anyway? Shouldn't you both be writing? Yes. Yes, I think so. We're due another chapter of TIYBOD and where, oh where is Ch. 14, Ms. Prez? Hmmm? Back to work, the both of you!!! Scram!

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Correction! Oh ho! Very sneaky! I almost missed you, 2x2! Does 'Choices' ring a bell? Still waiting on the epilogue over here! *waves*

Okay. My stalking duties are done for the day.

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Originally posted by 2x2:
I mean, there was a time when I pretty much stopped frequenting here because it seemed (from my perspective) that 99% of what was being posted was Simon/Kaylee smut - a canon pairing, but not one that I am interested in reading that much, do the nasty over and over again (smut for the sake of smut, as it were). But when I went to LJ, everything was Mal/Simon Mal/Simon Mal/Simon!!!

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I remember the S/K glut. It was everywhere - sexsexsex! And now it's all about River/whoever sex/love/sex/marriage/sex/babies/sex...

OK, I don't know shit about fic and fandom; this firefly thing is all I've ever done. But I ask those of you who know: is it normal in other fandoms for the fic to be so focused on pairings? Is it that just the nature of thing that it be mostly based on fantasies?

Thing is, it just seems wrong here. Firefly is not a romance thing. There is that, and it's great, but it's not the point of the show. And yet, it does sometimes seem like 99% of the fic.

To me, Firefly is about many things before it's about two people - any two people - being a pair. Things like:

- the folks who fall through the cracks of an almost utopian society
- how a group of these outcasts can create a home together (jetflair's idea of non-romantic Love)
- how war just about destroys a good man, and yet he goes on
- how another man can take the reverse path (Book going from a possibly Bad Alliance character to a man of principle)
- how a government can take advantage of people (River and the reavers) in the name of good
- how a naive, innocent, and pure young woman can be wa-ay sexually active without it making her *dirty* Oh, and she's also a mechanical genius. :p
- how a woman sells her body but is nonetheless a respected, powerful figure
- why this woman was driven to leave her comfy position to take up with the outcasts (is there a statement here about how the utopia isn't so utopian?)
- how extreme angst and snarky humor can exist side by side. Not only to entertain the viewers, but it seems like a survival mechanism for Mal and Zoe
- speaking of Mal and Zoe, how a man and woman (both het and both sexy as hell) can have such a strong bond without sexual tension. I mean - my lord! - how often do you see this in any form of fiction?
- And yes: it is about the attractions that spring up between some of these people, and now they may or may not act on it

My frustration is that fic writers throw most of this extremely good stuff aside to focus on sexual and romantic fantasies. All this worry about *pairings* does little justice to the amazing verse that Joss set up. The man is asking some tough questions with this show, and making wicked interesting statements. Things about sexuality (and I don't mean porn), feminism, masculinity, basic human needs (physical, emotion, and spiritual), violence, the potential good and evil of governments and corporations...

Maybe there was a time before the BDM when fans talked about all this meaty stuff, and writers tried to carry it on. If so, I'm sad I missed all that. I really don't see much of it now.

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I know! *despairs* And I've read so much fanfic, I'm paranoid that I've lost my 'true vision' of the characters now, having been exposed to so much 'fanon' now. It's depressing.

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Indeed. It's like the characters have become bland vanilla barbie dolls that writers use to play out their own fantasies.

(Woo-hoo! The Bitch is out today!!)

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I’m not going to into the whole OOC problem, because it’s hard to define In Charcter with so little canon…

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Hmmm... I'll grant you that ;o) But I still think we were shown enough to get a basic feel for each of the characters, enough to know when something feels blatantly OOC - at least, in my world ;o)

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I absolutely agree, but there's been threads and threads about defining IC, and I've had my say about it. I'm done arguing that... for now anyway.

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I simply don't have the time to spend weeding through a fic, trying

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