and more of mhalachai's brain spills out on the floor

[mhalachai]

A couple of fics, and a realization about me.

Okay, first: Two additions to teh AB/HP fic list, just in time for Danse Macabre to come out on Tuesday.

Author	Story
Ashalrospeak	Holiday: A medium-sized group of Hogwarts students (plus one professor) are going on a field trip . . . to St Louis. WIP
killingcorvis	Silver Bullets: Remus Lupin has been advised to call for some unlikely help. He contacts Anita Blake and her werewolf pack to help him in the fight against the Dark Lord. WIP

Another is in the wings, but I wanted to ask the author about it first.

THEN: the realization, about me and writing fic and how pairings aren't all they're cracked up to be and how writing sex in fic is not a thing I can do unless it's dysfunctional sex then someone bring the whip and handcuffs.

So I was thinking about the SGA big fic I wanted to write (not the HP/SGA one), and how it was having a hard time coalescing in my head, and I realized it was because of the pairing. I was going to write Sheppard/Teyla/McKay and have those slashes mean something, but then the team angle hit me. Like, they're not going to the alien sex planet. So I stepped back on the slashy sex pairings and I can have the entire story without kinky teamcest and it works just as well if not better.

Then I got to thinking about sex. Like, not sex sex, but the idea of sex in fanfic. Considering my main fandom is Anita Blake, it's maybe a little surprising that all my fic (okay, all but one of the fics) are porn free. I skirt the issue with soft fades because I haven't gotten to a story yet where the sex is necessary to advance the plot. In fact, it's easier if I don't have to worry about the sex to make a point.

Having said that, there's two fics upcoming in which the dysfunctional sex is a vital turning point to the plot. One is the HP/SGA crossover and it's someone that John/Harry should really not be doing. As for the other... well. I think that anything I write with Anita at this stage in Switchback is going to be miles of screwed up trauma issues.

And in light of that comment, a postcard in the style of Post Secrets. But since it's on my LJ, it's not much of a secret. Deal.

I'll start on those summaries for dummaries tomorrow.

Comments

[watcher457.livejournal.com]

i may be a bad girl for it, but dysfunctional sex in fanfiction is fascinating to me, when it's well done.

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

Sex for the sake of it in fic annoys me no end. Don't get me wrong, a little pr0n can be a good thing (if written well, and woo boy are there some good writers out there), but if it doesn't service the story and the point of the fic isn't teh hot sex because the aliens made 'em do it (or whatever) then why bother? A fade lets us use our shiny imaginations for all that...

*g* plus you can always use AUs of your own story for the kinky teamcest if you wanna... *ahems* and what about Ronon? or Ford for that matter? *coughplzcough*

Yeah, well, given the AB universe it is a little surprising that there's not all the same sex time, same sex channel stuff going on. Er... right, the Batman thing doesn't quite work there... o_O *shrugs* it's AB, it's canon. :D Point is, refreshing change to the usual.

I skirt the issue with soft fades because I haven't gotten to a story yet where the sex is necessary to advance the plot.

Yeah... well... *mutters* most of the time I wish LKH felt the same way...

I think that anything I write with Anita at this stage in Switchback is going to be miles of screwed up trauma issues.

*g* as far as I'm concerned, you can take as long as you like with Switchback. I have trouble reading it, particularly atm, and that's a testament to your writing not a criticism. The stuff my Mum is facing, my own issues, painfully writ large with the angst and consequence and seeing someone so inheritly strong and fine with herself as Anita is/was... too hard. *pokes you on all the other fic though*

*hands you a couple of sets of whips and handcuffs* Hey, they are fun to play with! :) I found a pretty full on BDSM etc SGA fic with more pairings than you can shake that pink fluffy leatherbound thing you're holding at... shockingly in need of a beta (*scuffs toe* it's me! It's a sickness!) but beyond the spelling and some grammatical stuff, a really well written fic. The point of all that kinky sexxors was that it did move the plot along in most cases... it was linked somewhere on the SGA newsletter a few issues ago.

*blinks* ... 'k, long comment... sorry, I'll go and sit over there for a while *points at couch*

:)
Jaydeyn

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

*pokes LJ* hey! What happened to my spell-check you ev0l b@stard?

*grumbles*

...

when I'm using this icon on myself... *shakes head* I have issues. Big fat issues...

:)
Jaydeyn

[slythhearted.livejournal.com]

icon love

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

Want take have :) by spyderbyte ... it was pointed out to me by one of the other lovely folks who flock to Mhalachai's writing. As my memory has this incredible resemblance to a sieve, I cannot recall who it was. But they rock. :) Verily. I have made a grand total of one icon in my LJ life and that was a crop of a picture off a forensic website...

:)
Jaydeyn

[plsteward.livejournal.com]

Don't force the smut if you don't wanna. Really, readers can tell when you're doing it just because it's what you were told looked good in the summery & I don't know about others but for me I'm inundated with smut from my fandoms & gen or non sex ship/slash is good.
Plus it's good to know that someone else has the same issues. I can write very metaphysicical sex (it gets real weird too) but anything graphic tends to escape me if it's not part of the plot & just kinda pwp-ish.

[sabriel-0405.livejournal.com]

Writing sex can be hard because it has to further the plot. A lot of fanfic is PWP and sometimes it's a good scene, stand alone, and other times, it isn't. But that's usually because the writer can't write.

Forcing sex into a plot doesn't make a weak plot better and can detract from a good plot. If it makes sense for the characters to be together, it happens naturally. With AB, Anita, Richard and Jean-Claude were supposed to form a tri in all ways back in NiC but Richard wouldn't/couldn't do it. It took two more books for that to happen and then, it wasn't about sex per se, it was about power building. If it was just sex, Richard never could have done it.

Switchback is hard. It's an awesome story but it's painful to write because the future isn't going to unfold the way it did the first time. If you have no memories of that first time, who cares, but when you do? It hurts.

You are supposed to want to torture your fictional characters. That's the point. It's kind of like the newspaper. Newspapers sell more if they write about the murder of 3 than about the two thousand dollars raised by a 5 year old at her neighborhood lemonade stand in one afternoon. (Unless she spiked the lemonade with cynanide making her the youngest mass murderer in history.)

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

I'm not really a fan of smut in fic. Sometiems it can work well, but generally I prefer the hint and fade to black approach. You can fill in your own dysfunciton that way!

[catherinecookmn.livejournal.com]

Whatever you do, don't do it if you feel forced or obligated to do it. (The whole "pairings" obsession, for example: Don't feel obligated to toss in a romantic "pairing" if the story really isn't about that.) I like some smutty stuff, but it's not my be-all and end-all. The story that's eating my own brain right now will only have kissing taking place on-screen, as it were.

[semirose.livejournal.com]

Torturing fictional characters is a good thing. :)

As for sex, really, I enjoy reading good PWP's and like sex in a fic so long as there's a point to it and not just there for the sake of adding sex to the fic. Plus, like I said, with SGA I prefer team fic anyways. If you can make it work without the sex and want to make it work without the sex, then do that. Forcing it won't be fun.

Heh, dysfuntional sex is more fun to read anyways. And now I'm excited again about the SGA/HP.

[gilded_lady]

Personally, I've always felt that if there needs to be a sex scene, then put in a sex scene because without one the story feels disjointed. OTOH, if there doesn't need to be one for the sake of plot, then don't put one in just because you want smut. It is just as disruptive as a necessary sex scene not being there.

Alas, LKH hasn't figured this out yet! But who am I kidding? I'll still be off buying Danse Macabre tomorrow. Between the train wreck factor and the 40% off coupon from Borders, I'm there!

[faith1922.livejournal.com]

Tuesday? Like this Tuesday? I have to wait until the 6th. Sometimes I hate living in Europe. We're so slow.

Anyway, that HP/SGA fic with arry being Sheppard that I don't think I commented on, but love desperately? It festered in my head, turning into yet another stupid plot bunny. It's not right. *whines*. I blame you, you know. You get to read DM before me and you plant plot bunnies in my head. *whines some more*

Anyway, I'm finished ranting. Sorry.

[alydhe.livejournal.com]

*grin* I don't mind that your stories don't have pointless sex. Though a well written sex scene is a pleasure, as well.

As for the kinky stuff, well, I look forward to it. I don't know if you're planning on adding in Ronan to the Teamcest, but if you are then the kinky stuff is inevitable. That episode where he seem to enjoy being ordered around sorta clinched that for any sex scene he's in. ^__^ Ronan is so uke.