broken pieces break into me

[pensnest]

I haven't really been following the Thing A Day thing, but Day 8: Crack!fic - well, I've been waiting for this one. Because I love crack.We all know it. (And I wasn't home for most of yesterday so didn't post it then.)

What's your opinion of it, and if you want, show us an example.

I see that "we all know it", but I'm not entirely sure that we all have the same thing in mind. I've seen 'crack' used to describe 'that story I wrote when I was high on sugar', which isn't my idea of it at all. And crack is not (or should not be) badfic either—there is a lot wrong with writing a bad story, but nothing at all wrong with taking an impossible premise and making it work. You can say a lot of things with a genderswap story, if you want to.

I don't, personally define crack as being in the style of writing, either. When I got into popslash it was the humour in the writing that I loved perhaps most of all, but it's perfectly possible to write a story that could happen (even though it probably didn't) in a highly humorous, exaggerated style. Not crack.

My definition of crack is "an impossible premise, followed through". It's usually treated with humour, but doesn't have to be written as outright comedy, and could indeed perfectly well be written as a serious or even sad story. I wrote Unnatural as something that treats the weirdness as sad and scary, not funny, though I suppose that kind of story may be called 'magical realism' instead. To my mind, magical realism is a subset of crack. Crack is bodyswap, it's Mpreg, it's transformation into a kitten or a llama or a couch, it's telepathy, it's genderswap, or it's something else that's an impossible premise. 'MPREG' by Rhys is one of my favourite popslash stories ever.

I love reading it. I used to write a lot of it. There was Justin Junior, in which Lance is impregnated by an alien while he sleeps (no, Justin is not the alien in question, that would have been a quite different story although also crack); there was Round Dance, taking bodyswap to a whole new level (I have never actually seen anyone else do this, though surely it must have happened somewhere); in The BFL the guys find a dragon's egg; in Brown Fur with Blond Tips someone is turned into a teddybear, and in Who's Your Daddy? someone is pregnant (spoiler: it's JC). In Horny, a unicorn shows up, and in The Little Dustbuster That Could, there is a time machine, of sorts. I've done a couple of gender-swaps, of which Happy Birthday, Kirkpatrick is the simple version, and can't see the wood for the 42Ds has a little extra twist going on. Oh, and I have to mention Free Range, in which AJ lays eggs and JC hopes to hatch them, a magnificently cracked request from ravenbat.

A cracked premise doesn't need an explanation, by the way. If someone is, say, inexplicably covered with Chewbacca levels of hair, there *may* be a fan who's a witch and was offended, but there doesn't have to be. Crack is its own justification and its own reward—though I do certainly enjoy cracked stories that Say Something as well as being a fun ride.

Well. There are others, including a guardian angel/guardian demon fic, a remix in which someone is turned into a frog, another story in which everyone is a frog—but I'm thinking that's more of an AU, really—another story in which someone is turned into a frog, quite a few dragon stories of one kind or another, a sparkly vampire, and a slash fairy godpiglet story of which I am very proud. And I produced a very belated 'inappropriate elf' story when I started on American Idol. I think the world needs another inappropriate elf challenge.

In short, crack is a wonderful thing.

Comments

[frausorge]

Crack is delightful indeed! For me, the story doesn't need to be humorous on the surface, but classic crack!fic always has an underlying understanding that the premise is ridiculous, and consequently at least an undertone of humor. Something that's sincerely sad moves out of crack territory. I entirely agree about explanations not being required, though. In fact, often it's even better when there's no explanation attempted.

[pensnest]

It's one of the reasons I took to popslash so readily, I think - that lighthearted tone, as you say an undertone of humour. And it works particularly well with RPF, somehow. My ST:TNG stories were usually more seriously trying to feel like the episodes.

[brandywine28]

Yes! Popslash is THE crack fandom! No one else compares!

[pensnest]

I mentally classified my "Lance turns into a teddybear" story in the 'You Can't Prove It Didn't Happen' category for a while, and then thought, wait, no. It was a way of life.