Rambles: Switchback and Slashfic

[mhalachai]

Found: An ending to the Switchback saga. Without telling anything, I've been at a loss as to how I was going to wrap it all up. Well, today, in my melodramatic mood (thinking about Switchback always makes me want to metaphorically fling myself off a bridge), I found a way to end it all. The story, I mean. Now all I need to do is write the intervening 90 chapters.

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I was thinking yesterday, about my fic tastes. For the most part, I've self-identified as someone who isn't really into slash (for the sakes of this post, we'll focus on the HP fandom). I've got a few authors who write amazing slash (and I'm not talking the sex... I tend to avoid most sex concepts in HP-land) characterization, and those ones I'll read.

But last night, in my fit of pique, I nostalgically wandered around looking for the first HP slash fic I ever read, The Lodger by mad_martha. It's Harry/Draco, and it's an amazing story, because there are characters that make sense, Draco in particularly. It's a story about two people who aren't able to let go of the past, because the Wizarding World won't let them.

Anyway, I looked at some of her other stuff**, and came to a realization:

It's not that I'm not a slash fan. I just don't like a lot of fic.

I need fic with solid characterization. You want to make Harry gay? Sell me on it. You want to make Dumbledore the bad guy? Make me believe it. Outside a very few items (such as things I deem squicky, such as chan/incest/rape/etc), I'll read anything that the author has invested solid time and effort into making true to the characters as we've seen them so far.

Additionally, I haven't got a lot of time for new fic, so I do tend and try for quality.

I'm going to stop tormenting you all now, and will go eat something before I die.

ETA: ** And her stuff I like, I think I should just add here :)

Comments

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

I'm going to stop tormenting you all now, and will go eat something before I die.

LOL .. really not the point of the post, I realize .. but such a sane and sensible thing to say, and to do. :)

re: fic, and slash . . I have to be really, really sold on the character's perspective to get into slash that involves males (femmeslash being entirely different - I have no problems with that, provided it makes sense for the characters and I like the pairing and all). It's only happened once that I can recall - that I've read a story with a slash pairing and actually enjoyed reading that part. Usually there's just a degree of alienness, of I-do-not-belong-in-this-picture, that makes it just weird to read.

-Sonya

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

PS - I just FINALLY read the chapters of Danse Macabre that're up on LKH's website. Gah! And the book doesn't come out until JUNE!! I mean, I'm not really all that excessively impressed with them, really, but I want to know how it turns out!

-Sonya

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Check your gmail with my theory on that one.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Now I have et, and I am not dying.

What I find interesting is that in a fandom like HP, where most readers/writers are females below the age of 25, there's so little femslash, and what I have found is OOC smut. Anyway.

I was wondering the other day, if I were to write slash in the AB universe, who I'd do... JC/Asher, of course. Nathaniel/anyone. Maybe some JC/Richard with severe issues. Can't see slashing Jason with anyone*, nor Micah. I think my problem (?) is that I use canon characterization to the extremes.

(* One day I may write the Jason/Nathaniel kiss that's mentioned in chapter 39 of Inevitable... in which Jason realizes that no, he's really into chicks. One day....)

[cissasghost.livejournal.com]

The only femmeslash I've ever written was one-shot, canon, and veryveryvery dark .. but as I know I've mentioned to you, I do have a pairing in mind for Tara for AYG, and maybe someday when I'm bored I'll write the story of them. I think it's a pretty decent story, just .. sorta little too romance-ish for me. I get weirded out about writing straight romance without, y'know, wars and multiple personalities.

And .. you *want* to hop on IM and dissect those chapters from Danse Macabre, don't you? *bats eyelashes*

-Sonya

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I must briskly walk off the meal I just ate, then to bed with me. I have to be at work in far too few hours. If you're on IM tomorrow night, I will probably be around to chat.

PS: I want to read that Tara rel'n one day, you know. Totally. My two fave characters.

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

The very first fics of a particular genre often (if not usually) tend to be among the very best of that genre; it's generally because they were written BEFORE anyone thought of turning the story ideas into a "genre", and thus setting them in boring old stone.

I've got much the same problem as you: Too much badfic out there, and life's too short to wade through it all.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Yuppers. If I have spare time, I'm less likely to wade through the Pit of Voles (is that what they're calling FF.net these days?), and instead just write my own badfic.

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I've been trying to explain to my friends who find fanfic weird and scary and full of squicky pairings: you need to read the good stuff.

To paraphrase somebody-or-other, 90% of everything is crap. For instance, I know that there are some really dire novels out there on the shelves, but by luck or judgement I've avoided most of them (every so often I find myself reading one bad enough to assure me that I don't, actually, just love everything I read). It's the same thing for fanfic, only multiplied about a thousandfold.

Give me solid characterisation and pacing and a good dialogue/description balance, and an actual plot, and I don't really care what pairings (if any) the author has in there. Like you said, the author must make me believe.

And you're doing just fine on that front :).

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I've been in the library, flipping through things that make me wonder why this person ever got a contract. Even bestselling authors can sometimes make me wonder what all the fuss is about.


And you're doing just fine on that front :).

Just wait until I start slashing Ron and Remus.

... ok, no. Even I can't come up with a way that might work.

[(Anonymous)]

Sturgeon's Law (http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/s/SturgeonsLaw.html) is the somebody-or-other you're looking for.

[deepfishy.livejournal.com]

Ta muchly! I remembered it was by *some* SF author, but I couldn't remember *who*. (and was lazy, and didn't google)

[lishel_fracrium.livejournal.com]

I completely understand if it's fluffy and out of character I won't and can't read it. *g* would you like some good slash recs sometime?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I can do fluffy, if it's IC fluff.

No thanks on the recs. I haven't got time right now to read anything, to be honest. I haven't even got time to write, which irks me to no end. But I ramble.

[eavling.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, I feel that 'slash' is the perfect medium for love stories, especially fluffy ones. It just creates one more obstacle for the two loves in question to overcome...and fluffy love stories should always have mountains separating the two loves, which they climb from their respective sides to meet at the top where they build a small, cozy cottage and live raising goats...figuratively. It also seems to add one more element of fantasy; it seems to disjoint a female reader one more notch from reality while still addressing in some small amount the way the world works from a different point of view. At least, it seems that way to me.

Mhalachai, you've created a tangle in my mind. One upon which I've felt the need to consider (read: ramble on) further, the completion of which argument (read: ramble with no point nor resolution) can be found on my own page to be read ONLY if one has time.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I live to confuse people.

Anyway, I'm heading over to your LJ to respond to your post. *zips*

[lizey.livejournal.com]

90 intervening chapters?

Eeeexcellent.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's a long LONG story. Well, it's got three parts, so it's a long trilogy. One that I will get done... one day.