Fanfic meme pt 5

[pensnest]

For solariana

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

My babies! Oh, gosh. *ponders* I could answer this question about so many of my stories.

I think I will choose No Man's Fort. This was one of my SeSa fics last December, actually a pinch-hit I picked up because I liked the idea of writing a popslash pairing I had not written before (amazingly, there are a handful of these left).

I thought I would make my life easier by stealing a plot, and as it's always a good idea to steal from the best, I went with Shakespeare, and set up Joey and Kevin as Benedick and Beatrice (not sure which way round, but it doesn't matter). Then I bethought me of an awesome venue, a wartime fort which has been converted into a luxury hotel but which was at some point a kind of holiday cottage of the most spectacular kind, and set it there. And then I had the fun of ferreting out lots of recipes and some information on kitchens—I've read Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" and other info on being a chef, and there was plenty to be found on the wonderful internet.

In the end I was very pleased with the story. Everything seemed to work together so happily, and getting two people from festering resentment and thwarted affection back into happyland just seemed to go so easily. Also, having Chris and Brian plotting together was a fun thing to do. I didn't write it, but I know what happens to Joey and Kevin after the story, too—they set up two restaurants, possibly in Brighton, possibly somewhere else; Joey has the best Italian kitchen in town, and Kevin has a dessert restaurant, and they recommend each other all the time, and Kevin sends a 'guest dessert' of some splendour to Joey's place at weekends, and of course they live together and are very happy and well fed.


45. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

Well. It'd depend…

For an actual Trekkie, TNG vintage, I think it would be The Things That Juliana Didn't Say, which is the first story I ever had a proper beta for (zine editors, in my experience, didn't), and was my serious effort at reconciling some bits of canon that TPTB had not bothered to make consistent. It's also my "Data's origins" story, and I'm still proud of it.

For a True Popslasher, it'd probably have to be Merchandising, because it remains the funniest thing I've ever written (although if there are any True Popslashers around who haven't read it, I'd be very much surprised). On reflection, this would probably work pretty well for non-popslashers too, because it's still funny if you don't know who these people are. I think. I'm pretty sure.

For a slash reader who doesn't know popslash, I think maybe The First Step. It's not really canon-dependent, and the real-life events it refers to are mentioned in the story. Also, I love it dearly. Or Dragon Country, which being AU doesn't really depend on canon stuff either. Although it carries a rape warning.

50. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

I love the way the fanfic community in general, and specific fandom communities in particular, make so much effort to encourage members to write—prompts, challenges, feedback, comments, it all feeds our creativity so brilliantly. These days many fandoms seem to have migrated to Tumblr, which I cannot understand, and AO3 is not such a good community as LiveJournal was for presenting and reccing new stories, but there are still prompts and challenges around.

I hate the way language is being misused these days. It's not just in fanfic, of course—when I come across the word 'reign' being used correctly, I usually double-take because it is so rare. But one of the downsides of a supportive and encouraging community does seem to be that it is not considered reasonable to point out mistakes—so how are people going to learn? I've ranted before on the uses and misuses of words, but it will continue to annoy me. Not least because (a) useful words become useless when nobody understands what they mean—see 'disinterested', and (b) if you don't understand the rules you can't break them to good effect, and if you do understand the rules you can't break them to good effect because nobody will realise that is what you are doing. Grrrr.


The list of questions is in this post.

Comments

[watervole]

I recall being really annoyed with a writer who described Avon as having an aquiline nose. (He doesn't)

Her argument was that it was a nice word and why couldn't she use it to mean what she wanted it to mean...

Of course, to anyone who knows the meaning, it's mad - would make him look like Julius Caesar!

(I beta read every story I published and edited for both grammar, content and plot. I used to spend half my time teaching people creative writing, but it did pay off in the long run. One of my protegees actually went pro.)

[pensnest]

Very Humpty-Dumpty-ish, using words to mean what she wants them to mean! Hmph.

My grammar and language were fine, so the zine editors I sent my stories to generally didn't do a lot (the American one messed around with my commas, which I thought unnecessary). No content/plot editing that I recall, which is a pity as I would have been a grateful recipient.

I assume you published B7 zines? I know you used to advertise in AIR but I can't remember what!

[watervole]

Blake's 7 indeed. Much stuff from them is now on AO3.

I always edited for story - and occasionally rejected submissions from writers who couldn't do plot.

[pensnest]

My impression is that Blake's 7 was a "writerly" fandom, though I was never in it and can't be sure. I strongly approve of zine editors who actually edit!

[watervole]

It was, especially in the later days. There were some incredibly good writers who could do everything from serious literary works, to humour to things that made you look at the world from a whole new angle.

[brandywine28]

I was thinking about No Man's Fort not too long ago, and how the go-to fandom interpretation of Joey is just, like, calmly upbeat and low key confident at all times. And how a snipe-y, easily riled Joey was so much fun to read about for a change! (And totally believable, too. I mean, I bought it. Wholesale.) Awesome.

if you don't understand the rules you can't break them to good effect

This! This is exactly why the little gaffes matter!

[pensnest]

As so often happens, I kinda fell in love with that pairing as I wrote it. I'm sure there are a handful of popslash pairings I have not yet written (though most of them probably involve Brian) so there may be new joy to come. And it is fun to be able to provide a slightly different take on Joey—normally he is laid back and happy, and to put him under a bit of stress makes a nice change.

There's a lovely little poem somewhere about a cat which, having eaten cheese, is waiting with baited breath. So clever!

[turlough]

Merchandising is totally hilarious and will never be forgotten!

Is it even possible to misuse 'disinterested'? I mean, what would it mean if it didn't mean disinterested?! My mind boggles!

[pensnest]

I think most people assume that 'disinterested' means 'uninterested', which it doesn't. And if you use it for, say, a disinterested judge, readers are likely to assume that you mean the judge wasn't interested in the case. Not *my* readers, of course, who are all too smart, but, you know. Them out there.

Pah.