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Questions Post #10
-Why did they fuck with Spike and Angel's ages so much? Were they really just not paying attention to what had come before, or were there reasons all the dates got switched around?
-Ok, is it completely OFF to think Spike might like musicals? There's that "76 trombone" line, and he's seen Les Mis in order to tell Angel it's not all that. Any other proof?
-Can Angel ice skate? Don't you think when he asked Buffy to ice skate in What's My Line Part 1 he meant to skate himself? Can David Boreanaz ice skate? How come there's not more cheesy ice!fic? I...I wrote a fic in which Angel says he's going to teach Connor to skate. It was an accident!
-How do you you prefer chapters to be doled out in long fics? Do you want 'em short, so you can zip through 'em? Do you want them just as long as it takes, to cover a scene or get to the point, whether it's 2 pages or 20? Or do you like them long?
-How about the posting of long fics? I've learned from experience a bunch of people stay away from WIPs, but what if *ahem* someone had a really long *finished* fic--would you still want them to post a chapter at a time? How have other people handled this in the past?
-I know writers are whores and always like in depth fb. But as an fb-er do you ever feel slightly uncomfortable leaving extremely long fb? What if the writer replies to your fb, and you want to reply back, does it feel weird having a long conversation in the fb thread of the story? What if the conversation has veered into meta/squee/something not fb, do you ever feel like the writer might not want to talk about it there because it's in the fb thread?
-Picture Anya in your head really quick. Did you think of her as bright blonde/dirty blonde/honey-light-brunette/dark brunette? Short or midlength hair? Curly or straight?
-Is there any change in Anya's soul/conscience/sense of morality/etc when she turns from a demon to a human, and vice versa?
-Has anyone ever done any meta/had an explanation for why Anya liked Wishverse? In "The Wish", she says it's both "wonderful" and "exciting". Of course there's that difficulty establishing her soul/conscience etc as a demon, and also they weren't very careful with Anya as a character there because they didn't know/weren't sure she'd play such a big role later. But later she does talk about enjoying doing awful things to men, but she doesn't at all seem to be a personality that enjoys chaos.
-So. Anya's power source, that necklace. In "The Wish", does she give it to Cordelia? But later, she's wearing it, and Giles has to take it off of her in order to smash it? Is anyone else confused by this?
-What do birds say to each other?
-Am I the only one who likes fake food? Extremely processed food, where you know you can't pronounce a single ingredient? Just me and Xander? Anyone?
-Did you see X3? Did you like it?
-When people write of zee fantasy land nothing recognizable AU, why oh why don't they just write of zee original fic? Srsly.
P.S. When making Angel into a merman or fairy or Renaissance princess, please keep in mind that David Boreanaz has huge ass motherfuckin shoulders. When God made that man's shoulders, he was actually making a door. Then he thought, how about a head on this door? And so he built a head, and said to himself, "Father, Son, Holy Ghost, that is one motherfucking pretty head!" So he added pretty hands and pretty hips and pretty calves to match, but he forgot and left the door part of the shoulders, and to this day that is why David Boreanaz has trouble fitting through doors. And also why when you give him wee slender sloping downward shoulders when you make him into a horsie or blacksmith or bird-man, the baby Jesus motherfuckin cries.
PPS. He also made a pretty pretty neck. I love that neck.
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Oh no, he just tells Connor he's going to go skating with him. Learning to skate is the sequel. I'm not sure what to do with it, actually. I sat down to write bondage and bonding came out.
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You could call it "Icy Ties"! Though you probably shouldn't.
David Boreanaz can skate like a mofo! He's a total hockey buff. I think he's played with CK in celebrity games. Why there hasn't been DB/NHL players RPS, I have no idea. Or maybe there has? Hmmm.
With the preference for chapter length -- I want them as long as they should be to work, which of course is very much a case-by-case and something that makes no sense at all. I guess the thing is this. I want to feel like there's been a significant addition to the story. But then length of that can be long or short. I'd rather have short and something happening than long and meandering, random, feedback-bid type "here's another post!" that doesn't advance anything at all. But I don't want an author to post something really short that does nothing and think, "I rock, because I"m updating." No, dude -- hold back until you've got something in your hands. Of course, it's the definition of something that's precisely the point of contention, I'm sure.
It's funny about reactions to WiPs, because that's so obviously a case-by-case basis for everyone, even if they swear they have policies. Some people say they won't read anything until it's done, but...er...this is LJ, and we all see each other comment, so...*coughs*
But my sense, actually, is that WiPs can keep some people away, but also create a readership with other people. If you have a WiP that you can post at regular intervals, you will have regular, dedicated readers who trust you to show up with a new part of the story for them. It becomes like a contract, and they give fb regularly as the writer posts reguarly.
When I started out in fandom, I had five or six chapters of the story I began posting one chapter a week of, so for a while I was "ahead" and posted once a week. I don't think I got as much fb as I sometimes do now, but I got very consistent fb from people who obviously appreciated the "hey, it's tuesday, time for more of this story!" schedule.
If you add in sex in most of the updates, and post regularly (once or twice a week, or even every night, though how people do that if they don't write in advance I have no idea) you will get readers up the wazoo.
Also just fyi, that first WiP regularly posted did *not* have sex for a number of chapters, and I think that has its own hook as well, giving the sense of "finally!" when there's a 'ship focus to a fic and the characters get together at last.
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When writers don't respond at all to fb, or only reply in very select cases, I stop leaving it (I know, you didn't ask, but it's part of the whole topic for me). When they respond with a simple "thanks" to a longer bit of fb, I'll probably curtail my impulse to leave long fb. But that's more because I'm assuming they're not that into a specific reaction if they don't engage it at all.
If the convo goes off the topic from the story, I'll probably offer to move it to email (and if it's with someone else not the author, I'll definitely email or IM after a little bit instead of squeeing about, say, skee-ball in an LJ story about Spike and Giles's antagonistic relationship.
The only type of fb that I'm a bit nonplussed by in the longer fb category is the kind that's all quotes with no interactions/observations on the reader's part. I always think...well, yes...I did write that fic. That certainly is a section of the fic! If the person doesn't say anything, I'm not sure why they've picked particular passages, though I can assume they've made some kind of impact.
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I'd definitely take it to email in the skee-ball instance...but sometimes I have trouble deciding if I'm going off topic; for instance if I started talking about canon Spike and Giles' relationship in response to a S/G shipper fic, and started talking about how they interacted in specific episodes--I can't decide whether that's still a response to the story, or me just metatating, and me just metatating is fine in reply to a normal post, but I can see where some people might just want comment threads to their fics to be specific replies to their story.
I think the quote stuff is weird too. I'd take it as something positive, I'm just not sure what!
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It just seems like such a lovely opportunity to throw that line out to people who would respond to it, and open up the chance to form ties like that.
And honestly, I can't imagine anyone who is paying attention finding you insincere. I've run into insincere people in fandom/LJ, and you ain't one of them.
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And that's exactly what I tell myself whenever I'm hovering over the post or respond button--it's an opening and something may come of it, and something may not, but why not try?
And thanks.
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But it works on SO many levels. Michael J. Fox could make a guest appearance. I'm so psyched.
Of course, it's the definition of something that's precisely the point of contention, I'm sure.
Exactly. I'm just looking at these big chunks of writing that should be split up, but when I split 'em there's whole chapters in which nothing much seems to have happened. But then one's got to wonder if there are large-ish spaces with nothing happening, whether it's really needed.
I don't mind WIPs, actually. I've been "burned" by lots and lots of them...that is, I've started them and they turned out to be abandoned/never did get finished. But while on a couple of them I do really want to know the end...I'd rather have had the pleasure of reading the unfinished version than not have read it at all.
And ha! I love how you're addressing the how much fb you get idea, and also that idea of "contract". I really enjoy sitting down to a big multi-chaptered fic and being able to gobble it all up, but the few times I've been in on a fic I'm interested in while it's being posted a chapter at a time, it's . . . a little more intense. I get to wonder about it from day to day, and I also tend to read it more like fic then like a novel, which makes me give it more benefit of the doubt. I'm also more likely to fb, partly because some part of me hopes to hurry the posting, but also because I feel more connected to the author. If it's just a big finished fic, again, it feels more like I'm reading a novel, and I feel less compelled to fb.
From the writer POV I'd want to post something a chapter at a time just because I'm a whore like that.
I can't imagine keeping up with a sex every chapter schedule, but that's probably because no matter how I'd post a big long fic, the way I approach it is more like writing a novel--something big and inter-connected. But I suppose if one got to thinking of it as something at exists to be posted chapter by chapter, a more serial format, sex every chapter might not feel gratuitous.
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It can be fun, but it's gratuitous.
For me there's no way to do that even if I wanted. I just like narration and plot too damn much. And my favorite kind of story, when there is a relationship involved, is the slow burn. There have been times I've set out to write PWPs or cracktastic stories, and then the fics turn ensemble focused with attention to character voice, and and and *despairs*
Still, there's a kind of joie de vivre, damn the torpedos, devil-may-care let's see how we can get these people to have sex again attitude I kind of admire with those authors. You go and make those characters have sex again!
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There have been times I've set out to write PWPs or cracktastic stories, and then the fics turn ensemble focused with attention to character voice, and and and *despairs*
Oh yeah oh yeah do I know that feeling. The big long story that has me asking some of these questions is something that was meant to bang out lots of B/A smut within about 5 chapters, and resolve in about 10.
It's 265 pages long so far. *headdesk*