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

[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)