lettered | Questions Post #1

Usually I don't ask questions in public settings. I'm shy and also very arrogant; I like to think I know stuff or can find out on my own. But these things have been bothering me, and while I think a few things might be answered by digging through people's old entries or some FAQs, I'd love some answers (and opinions. Some are about opinions. Not the one about Buffy's natural tufted treasure, though. That has to be fact).

General

What does RPS stand for?
I'm aware OTP means pairing of choice, but what do the letters stand for?
Where did the term 'squee' originate and how come so many people use it?

LJ

What's a meme? Does it mean memory?
How do you tag someone? What does it mean?
What does the term "gak" mean?

Fanon

-How do people feel about using fanon? For instance, some fic writers use the name "O'Connor" for Liam (mostly in all-human AUs, which I don't really read, but whatever). Do you frown upon writers who use this name? Does it throw you off when writers don't use this name? Do you yourself consciously just avoid ever getting anywhere near the characters' surnames just to avoid the issue?
-From where did O'Connor-as-Liam's-surname originate, anyway?
-Does Spike have a commonly used last name? What about Faith? What about Darla, whose first name we know isn't hers, and Drusilla, whose first name is almost certianly not hers?
-This is a much debated topic, but is there even a marginal consensus regarding the age of Spike?
-Buffy smells like vanilla in a lot of fics. What's up with that?
-Does canon make Buffy out to be a natural blonde? I.e., is her altar of love, her carnal trap, her eye that weeps most when best pleased, her bearded clam, her garden of eden, her nest of curls blonde in most fics? What? Just asking.
-Is there a generally accepted explanation for how vampires get it up?
-Is the idea that vampires "pretend" to breath in order to look natural a fanon thing, or was it on the show?
-Does nobody use the fact that Angelus wears eye-liner in fics?
-Is Andrew ever a heterosexual in fics?

General again

-Whatever happened to Miss Kitty Fantastico? Did Dawn really shoot her with a crossbow?
-Do vampires sweat?
-What're some (slang) words for the dominant partner in a D/s relationship? I.e., some for the sub are: bitch, punk, sister (in prison), et al. I've just been drawing blank on their counterparts for about a week, now.
-Does anyone besides me hate Joyce Summers' guts in a visceral, it's-even-alright-to-character-bash sort of way?
-Have you ever not been able to find relatively common words for weeks at a time? (I once spent a month looking for the word 'conceited')
-Am I the only (character) Angel squeeing fangirl who didn't find David Boreanaz convincing as Angel at times? (don't get me wrong; most of the time he was great.)
-Can David Boreanaz sing better than Angel?
-What is the IQ of David Boreanaz? Is it really as low as it seems sometimes?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I totally agree with your overall point--I've seen far too many people write to cater to their audiences instead of to themselves, and the result is just bad fic. I write fic because I enjoy doing it, and I post it because I think other people might enjoy it too.

That said, I ask the fanon question because for me, no matter how good the writing is, some things just slam me out of the fic every time (for instance, I'm so used to seeing Liam as "O'Connor" that seeing him as anything else throws me and just keeps throwing me). As you say, they're little details that can't make or break a fic; I was just interested in whether anyone else experiences the slamming sensation ;o)

Since there’s no firm canon on his age at turning, my advice is to write Spike as the age you believe he was. If you are doing your job as a writer, your readers will follow where you lead. (And, in my experience, you are doing your job as a writer.)

Why thank you! And I agree with you here, too--I think it'd be safe to say Spike was anywhere from early 20s to late 30s when he was turned.

About vanilla--at first, I loved this detail, and yeah, I thought it was canon too. I loved it because I think the scent does suit Buffy for the reasons you state--someone else (

dlgood, I think) pointed out how it fit her theme of being golden and sunshiney. Also, I love the scent of vanilla, and I knew a girl once who always wore it. She was nothing like Buffy, but she was beautiful, had golden hair, a lotta charisma, and could change the dynamic in a room just with her scent, I swear. But I've read the vanilla detail SO many times that it's been driving me nutters, lately.

As for a2zmom's point: yes, a woman can coordinate her soap scents etc with her perfume. However, there're other things that contribute to your scent: what you've eaten that day, who you've come in contact with, where you've been. Buffy just out of the shower and just done primping might only smell how she planned to smell, but by the time she has breakfast, coffee, and goes outside to get the mail, she'll smell like a billion different things to discriminating nostrils. Then again, the show never makes it clear just how discriminating vamp nostrils are. Spike can follow Buffy's scent across Sunnydale, but sometimes he can't tell if he's alone in a room or not. Given the inconsistency of the writers, it's probably fair to go either way on the subject.

As someone who's never worn perfume for a single day of her life after she was 8 years old, this subject is fascinating ;o) (speaking of which--even cosmetics have a scent. You just might be able to get scented lipstick, but scented mascera? Mascera has a definitive scent that would mix in with the scent of foundation, blush, eye-shadow, right in there with a billion other things).

Good points about the things that affect scent, and the plethora of scents we're exposed to/covered in. Including that of cosmetics. My editor, who has perfume allergies, is tremendously sensitive to even environmental contaminant scents. One of the members of my group came to a session after she'd used a bathroom at work. The maintenance department had installed some kind of automatic air-freshener. Our editor could smell the air-freshener on her, because her clothes had picked up the odor just from her being in the bathroom. Weird, huh? (And, no, my editor is not a vampire. Although she does tend to get up late, rather than early, and she's a huge Spike fan...)

Anyway, what it comes down to in writing fanfic is the point you are trying to make when the vampire in question is getting a whiff of whatever person/demon/place/thing. Sure, a vampire *might* be able to distinguish the individual scents of personal products, cosmetic products, food, drink and environmental contaminants (or, it might be that being predators, their sense of smell is tuned specifically to blood scents or human pheromones and everything else is fairly indistinct to them) but why is s/he smelling whatever s/he is smelling at that point in the story? You want the sensory description to be evocative, not just an inventory that ends up being distracting.

But to get back to the point you'd asked about, with being thrown out of a fic...one of my favorite science fiction writers, Harlan Ellison, has a saying: "Go please the world." If you use O'Connor so as not to throw people who are used to reading his last name as O'Connor, you will end up irritating people who think O'Connor is overused. There's no compromise that everyone in the fandom is going to be okay with. Again, if you are writing a good story, and drawing your reader in, they'll forgive you for whichever choice you make. Yes, it is true that certain things will pull a reader out of a story, but those things are not the same for all readers. Some are thrown by poor use of language or misspellings, others won't even notice. Some are sticklers for accuracy in historical fics, some won't be bothered even by the most glaring anachronism. And, as discussed, some people find it irritating for Buffy to smell of nothing but vanilla, while others would find it jarring for her to smell of anything else.

Based on what I've read of your fic thus far (I'm about to re-read the first six chapters of TBS in order to properly savor the new seventh chapter) I think you don't have to worry about jarring people so badly in any way that they'll stop reading, no matter what choices you make.

Just my opinion. *G*

Weird, huh? (And, no, my editor is not a vampire. Although she does tend to get up late, rather than early, and she's a huge Spike fan...)

Very weird. But sounds like a cool person to have as an editor :o)

Anyway, what it comes down to in writing fanfic is the point you are trying to make when the vampire in question is getting a whiff of whatever person/demon/place/thing.

Right, I agree. When you write about a character noticing someone's physical appearance, they don't have to notice every feature. They might just notice the eyes, because they are saying something, or the neck, because its...inviting something ;o)

But to get back to the point you'd asked about, with being thrown out of a fic...one of my favorite science fiction writers, Harlan Ellison, has a saying: "Go please the world."

I LOVE Harlan Ellison (and he's so quotable!). I think I found from the answers to my questions that you're absolutely right: it's impossible to please everyone. Not like I didn't know that before, but I think it's funny how almost every person answered the name "O'Connor" annoyed them, whereas that's really the only name that works for me now. I'm not about to change my writing due to other people's opinions--I was just curious, really.

Based on what I've read of your fic thus far (I'm about to re-read the first six chapters of TBS in order to properly savor the new seventh chapter) I think you don't have to worry about jarring people so badly in any way that they'll stop reading, no matter what choices you make.

Once again, thank you! And next time, I won't post a WIP, so people won't have to reread to freshen their memory.

Thanks for your thoughts!

Questions Post #1

Re: Chiming in

Re: Chiming in

Re: Chiming in