writing about thinking
Feb. 19th, 2002 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanThere was a discussion elsewhere in lj, and unfortunately I can't point you to it because I can't remember where it was, but basically it was about people posting things on fic-lists that are not so much complete fics as snippets, drabbles, improvs, or whatever other term you want to use. That is, the author gets an idea, types a few paragraphs, gives it a title and posts it on a list, just like that.
I hate to make generalizations, so I'll qualify myself first by saying that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, a short fic isn't bad per se. But too often it's just basically a brain-dump, glorified far beyond its merits by being called a fic.
And then, today while crawling the fic-groups to see what's new, I was reminded of another fanfic practice that I also really dislike. It's sort of related to the above. In this "genre," the author introduces the "story" by having a character sit around thinking about how much s/he loves (or, sometimes, hates) another character. Then follows a whole bunch of paragraphs which, basically, recap the plot (of the show itself) thus far. Each incident that has happened in an episode is recounted, with maybe a sentence or two added on about how our POV character feels/felt about that incident. And at the end, our POV character sits there thinking, basically, "wow, all this has happened and I really love(/hate) him/her. I wish I could tell him/her how I feel." Or something like that.
Dude, that's not a fanfic. At most, and I'm being charitable here, that's an expository essay on the history of the characters' interactions and the development of the 'ship. That's something you post to a discussion list under the header "My thoughts on this season's episodes and what they say about the [insert ship here] relationship." That's not something you post on a fic list as a completed story!
I dunno, maybe I'm just being harsh or something. And again, this is a generalization -- there's nothing inherently wrong with writing a story where you go through the episodes one-by-one and analyze how each one has furthered the 'ship. But you have to *add* something to it, you have to give it a form and a plot of your own, more than just "Character A sits around thinking about Character B." You have to make it more, in other words, than just a MightyBigTV episode summary.
I guess basically my problem is that "Character A sits around thinking" is a hard type of fanfic for me to get behind. I'm not saying it's necessarily bad (how many times have I said that now in this one post?) but it's something you really have to put a lot of care and thought into, if you're going to make it a worthwhile story. Because, too often, authors who do that type of fic seem to end up just telling us what we already know.
I hate to make generalizations, so I'll qualify myself first by saying that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean, a short fic isn't bad per se. But too often it's just basically a brain-dump, glorified far beyond its merits by being called a fic.
And then, today while crawling the fic-groups to see what's new, I was reminded of another fanfic practice that I also really dislike. It's sort of related to the above. In this "genre," the author introduces the "story" by having a character sit around thinking about how much s/he loves (or, sometimes, hates) another character. Then follows a whole bunch of paragraphs which, basically, recap the plot (of the show itself) thus far. Each incident that has happened in an episode is recounted, with maybe a sentence or two added on about how our POV character feels/felt about that incident. And at the end, our POV character sits there thinking, basically, "wow, all this has happened and I really love(/hate) him/her. I wish I could tell him/her how I feel." Or something like that.
Dude, that's not a fanfic. At most, and I'm being charitable here, that's an expository essay on the history of the characters' interactions and the development of the 'ship. That's something you post to a discussion list under the header "My thoughts on this season's episodes and what they say about the [insert ship here] relationship." That's not something you post on a fic list as a completed story!
I dunno, maybe I'm just being harsh or something. And again, this is a generalization -- there's nothing inherently wrong with writing a story where you go through the episodes one-by-one and analyze how each one has furthered the 'ship. But you have to *add* something to it, you have to give it a form and a plot of your own, more than just "Character A sits around thinking about Character B." You have to make it more, in other words, than just a MightyBigTV episode summary.
I guess basically my problem is that "Character A sits around thinking" is a hard type of fanfic for me to get behind. I'm not saying it's necessarily bad (how many times have I said that now in this one post?) but it's something you really have to put a lot of care and thought into, if you're going to make it a worthwhile story. Because, too often, authors who do that type of fic seem to end up just telling us what we already know.
