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Writing minifics
One thing I've been doing quite a lot of, over the last few years, is writing vignettes for prompts, usually on Tumblr (which is well suited to it) but occasionally here on DW as well. It's interesting because these usually aren't complete stories (if they do end up feeling like a complete story, I'll generally post them on AO3), and yet, there is technique to making them feel complete even when they are clearly just a small scene from something longer. Because it's not just a random scene that starts in some random place and stops equally randomly. There is a beginning, a middle, and an end; there's a little bit of scene-setting at the beginning, there's some sort of point to it (even if it's just a joke), and then it ends on a note that feels like, if not an actual ending, then ... punctuation, I guess. It doesn't just stop; there's a little bit of a "pop" at the end there.
Not that I always succeed at this. But this Agent Carter one I posted last night is a good example, I think, of a minific that I'm really happy with; it's clearly a scene from something longer -- it's not complete enough to post on AO3 as a story -- but it's enjoyable to read on its own and doesn't feel unfinished. At least I don't think so.
It's fun. I think this is part of why I keep doing it -- well, that and I love the prompt inspiration and really enjoy writing things for people. But it is an art form of its own, a little bit apart from the skill and technique of writing a fully developed story.
(I need to do a roundup post for last year's ficlets. I kinda meant to do that and then January got away from me and now it's February, help.)
Not that I always succeed at this. But this Agent Carter one I posted last night is a good example, I think, of a minific that I'm really happy with; it's clearly a scene from something longer -- it's not complete enough to post on AO3 as a story -- but it's enjoyable to read on its own and doesn't feel unfinished. At least I don't think so.
It's fun. I think this is part of why I keep doing it -- well, that and I love the prompt inspiration and really enjoy writing things for people. But it is an art form of its own, a little bit apart from the skill and technique of writing a fully developed story.
(I need to do a roundup post for last year's ficlets. I kinda meant to do that and then January got away from me and now it's February, help.)
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But I draw the line at posting an incomplete ficlet as a standalone story on AO3. I mean, again, I'm not going to stop somebody, you do you, etc, but -- it's sort of a matter of expectation, for me. I really enjoy reading ficlets and headcanons and whatnot on Tumblr. On Ao3, however, if I go in expecting a full story and then get what basically amounts to 500 words of someone's WIP or the notes for a story they're not writing, I'm going to backbutton out with extreme prejudice. Different venue, different expectations.
So on the one hand, yeah, it's true that there is no rule on Ao3 that says your stories have to be complete; you can post 10 words and call it a story. And there's one notoriously wanky fandom where the #1 story in a particular pairing's tag is like 50 words bashing that ship. A story that's actually 500 words from the middle of a longer story is well within the bounds of acceptable AO3 fanworks. It's just not something I do.
(Though I got bashed at FFA a little while back because somebody had an issue along those lines with one of my stories, but ffffff WHATEVER, I thought it was a perfectly good ending. XD Mileage obviously varies on what people consider a complete enough story for AO3 purposes, obviously.)
But other people can handle it however! I mean, yes, I might complain about clicking on an AO3 story and finding out it's a headcanon or a chatlog instead, but I don't think they shouldn't do it. The archive is big enough for everybody.
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I’m getting anxious thinking about all the content not archived or backed-up anywhere on Tumblr and Pillowfort. A lot of people don’t practice good personal data management either, so the files on their hard drives get deleted or moved around, so when a Tumblr bot flags a fanwork and deletes it, and the creator doesn’t have access to the file anymore? Bam, gone forever. A mod on Pillowfort has a bad day and goes on a deleting spree without notifying the creators? Bam, gone. It’s fandom in 2003 all over again.
Dreamwidth is more stable and trustworthy than those two sites for sure. But it’s still not set up for archiving the same way AO3 is, for maximum ease of searching and accessing - with the option to orphan works, and comprehensive sitewide tagging, and all of that good stuff. Which is why I think even the headcanons and metas and collaborative chat log storytelling sessions should go on AO3, tagged and labeled for what they are, and most importantly, preserved and available.
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That said, I also feel awkward posting bits and pieces of unfinishd (often never to be finished) stories, but using the "Unfinished Work" tag helps a bit, makes sure people know what they're getting into from the start.
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I think for me ... I dunno, the older I get, the less I worry about it. I'm not saying one can't or one shouldn't, just that I'm becoming increasingly okay with moving on from various fandoms and leaving them (and all the fanworks and discussions that went with them) in the past. The waves of voluntary LJ deletions were a big part of what helped me internalize that, honestly; it's kind of a surprise these days to run across a link to something on LJ from the earlier years and have it still be there (and usually there are big swathes of comments missing if it is). And yeah, some of that was copied to DW, and some was copied to AO3, but it's mostly gone (I used to save fanfic along with links to where I got it from; the vast majority of those no longer work). And obviously it's not that I never lost anything on the internet before (I think all of the message boards and mailing lists that were my main places to interact socially in the late 90s/early 2000s are gone now, taking all the conversations and creative stuff with them). But I think specifically it was LJ that hammered home that all of this was gone -- all this fic, conversations, etc -- and I didn't really miss it; there were plenty of new conversations and new fanworks to move on to.
Like I said, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with wanting to back things up or save stuff. All my fic and other stuff I've created is saved on my hard drive, and I also still have the habit of saving fics and other fanworks that I liked. And yes, when the Tumblr NC-17 ban went into effect, I went and backed stuff up posthaste. But it's actually only the last couple years of it that I actively care about (the fandoms that I'm into now), and I expect I won't really care about those 10 years from now, any more than I ever go back into my old LJ entries.
So basically that's where I'm coming from -- obviously I think it's fine if people save my stuff, it's awfully flattering that people want to, and I still glom onto shinies for whatever I'm into (it continues to annoy me when vids aren't downloadable, because those vanish at the drop of a hat!) out of a general creeping fear that I'll want to watch/read it again and then IT'LL BE GONE OMG. But as a general philosophy, I'm starting to view the web and the conversations that take place there as basically ephemeral. In the short term, when I find something delightful, the idea of having it go away makes me sad. But I actually feel better and happier if I manage not to hang onto all of that, and can just be happy enjoying those things in the moment and then moving on. (I mean, offline life works that way. I think we as humans weren't really meant to save every conversation we've ever had, no matter how delightful in the moment.)
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Kidding, but I'm aware my anxieties about fanwork archiving come from my overall hoarding tendencies, compounded with growing up the child of a librarian, and only worsened by working professionally as a journalist/media producer where you have to archive and label everything your entire organization does because you almost certainly will be referring back to or using it in future stories.
I think we as humans weren't really meant to save every conversation we've ever had, no matter how delightful in the moment.
That's entirely fair. And I totally get the hesitation about posting scraps/ficlets/incompletes as standalone stories, I've actually been in the exact same boat since I got on AO3. It's only in the last month or so that I've started rethinking my assumptions about the nature and function of AO3.
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