First of all, I'm saving up your links to read--I've been meaning to read you for a while. So, thanks!
These were written as part of my fannish dialogue, so no, I wasn't out to write a masterpiece because I wasn't performing in that sense.
This is very...illuminating to me. I don't really write that way, so when I see fics written off the cuff as you describe--as a result of a conversation, etc--I wonder what the author thinks she's doing (er, that sounds very judgmental. It's not an "omg, what is she doing?" but more of a ...curiousity on my part. And interested, benevolent curiosity. I can't spell curiousity.) And here is my answer.
Utterly self-indulgent!
Well, my take on that is you should always be indulging yourself just a bit when you write. Even professionals. Or else it's just crowd-pleasing schlock.
I thought it was necessary to do that; it wasn't really a comment-whoring, or even dialogue-seeking, decision.
I find this really interesting, because when I decide to write a piece with a really distinctive or unique form, I never feel that what I have to say necessitates said form. Sometimes I wonder if I'm kind of forcing my thoughts into a frame in which they don't fit, just because I think the frame is so cool...but generally by the time I'm done content and form have merged and they're not so distinctive to me as when the idea was concieved. I love hearing how different ideas come to different people.
I'm not getting in to the "one shots are inherently less valuable" debate because a) I'm bored of it and b) it makes me feel ouchy.
There needs to be a newbie's guide to wank. Seriously. Or at least, a newbie's guide to Things That Are Always Debated In Fandom (slash, RPS, feminism, concrit, et al).
I just asked janedavitt whether the idea that LJ was the "work table" and archives, etc were "final copies" was behind the fact that there seemed to be so much less short fiction in the latter venues--in archives in particular. I.e., are shorter fics considered "lesser" somehow, as firsts drafts are, and is that why there seem to be less of them in a lot of the fic archives I've seen? (Erm, I did point out that this reasoning doesn't make sense to me, because I'm firmly on the "one shots can be just as valuable" side of this line I didn't know existed, but we won't get into that since it bores or ouches you :o)
If I'd've known that was an old topic of debate, like slash and con crit, I wouldn't've bothered asking!
no subject
These were written as part of my fannish dialogue, so no, I wasn't out to write a masterpiece because I wasn't performing in that sense.
This is very...illuminating to me. I don't really write that way, so when I see fics written off the cuff as you describe--as a result of a conversation, etc--I wonder what the author thinks she's doing (er, that sounds very judgmental. It's not an "omg, what is she doing?" but more of a ...curiousity on my part. And interested, benevolent curiosity. I can't spell curiousity.) And here is my answer.
Utterly self-indulgent!
Well, my take on that is you should always be indulging yourself just a bit when you write. Even professionals. Or else it's just crowd-pleasing schlock.
I thought it was necessary to do that; it wasn't really a comment-whoring, or even dialogue-seeking, decision.
I find this really interesting, because when I decide to write a piece with a really distinctive or unique form, I never feel that what I have to say necessitates said form. Sometimes I wonder if I'm kind of forcing my thoughts into a frame in which they don't fit, just because I think the frame is so cool...but generally by the time I'm done content and form have merged and they're not so distinctive to me as when the idea was concieved. I love hearing how different ideas come to different people.
I'm not getting in to the "one shots are inherently less valuable" debate because a) I'm bored of it and b) it makes me feel ouchy.
There needs to be a newbie's guide to wank. Seriously. Or at least, a newbie's guide to Things That Are Always Debated In Fandom (slash, RPS, feminism, concrit, et al).
I just asked
If I'd've known that was an old topic of debate, like slash and con crit, I wouldn't've bothered asking!