sholio | Come on ff.net people ...

Come on ff.net people ...

HOW hard is it to post pairing warnings/notices on your stories? This is really getting quite ridiculous. I've clicked on quite a number of promising-looking stories on ff.net lately and started reading, only to be blindsided by an unexpected pairing. And you know, this isn't just me speaking as a primarily gen-reader here; regardless of whether a person prefers reading het, gen or slash, usually they have certain preferred pairings and others that mildly squick ... it would be nice to be *warned*!

*steps off soapbox*

I finished another ficathon story today (the other "hard" one) and will have it up here in a day or two. Not sure yet if I'll post it on ff.net. This means that I have just one ficathon story to go, which is actually going to be a multi-chapter one, and I'll probably start posting chapters fairly soon.

Hard to believe I'm almost done!

After that, I have two unfinished stories to work on ("Ghost" and the "Fading Sun" au) plus a variety of others that I've started over the last few months, such as a "Running on Empty" sequel. And I really want to write a Jeannie-centric story ... maybe a sequel to "Postcards" ... oh, so many possibilities!

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I completely agree about the pairings thing on FF.net. I sometimes wonder if the authors think we can be 'fooled' into reading their story. If we don't know about the pairing maybe we'll be so hooked that we won't mind. *shakes head* I don't know.

More stories to look forward to? Yeah!! It *is* going to be a good 2007!

yea, I disliked being caught by a death fic. ::sigh::

I am looking forward to your new stories though! go! go! go!

I sometimes wonder if the authors think we can be 'fooled' into reading their story. If we don't know about the pairing maybe we'll be so hooked that we won't mind.

Maybe it's just paranoia on my part, but I kinda think that in some cases at least, they *are* doing that. Especially for the rarer pairings. Which just makes it doubly annoying...

GAH! Why would someone *do* that?

I've had deathfics catch me unawares, too. And I was very *grrrr* about it. I do like to be surprised, but that is NOT a pleasant surprise.

*grin* Thanks! Guess I better go get to writin', then...

Her point seemed to be that the pairing wasn't the focus of the story, so she considered it to be "gen." But since the story was largely plotless and a number of references and jokes were made regarding the pair's romantic relationship, I felt that calling it "gen" was out-and-out dishonest.

*sigh* I felt similarly about "Freedom's Just Another Word" winning the SG fan award in the gen category ... the author may have considered it gen, but to me it seemed kind of deceptive and left me feeling very negative towards the story, regardless of its very real merits.

I've also gotten the impression from certain stories that the author sees the pairing in canon so strongly that they don't consider it 'ship to include the pairing in the story ... even though SGA is about as close as you can come to a canonically pairing-free ensemble show.

I agree. I'm a slash reader and like many different pairings. But I still usually like to have just a bit of an idea where the story is going. For example, if John and Rodney give each other a hug, should I just enjoy it as a brotherly thing (which I can do perfectly well), or should I be eagerly anticipating more?

Looking forward to more of your stories. If all gen were as good as yours, I wouldn't NEED slash! Well, almost. (VBG)

I agree. I do read some pairings, but I like to know upfront what I'm getting. Finding out that characters are paired when the story is labeled gen makes me feel duped.

*grin, blush* Thanks!

Yeah, it's the expectations thing, mostly. I mean, I'm in the mood for a good deathfic now and again, but I don't want to go through a long angsty torture scene, expecting recovery at the end, and then have it end in death -- that's just not fun. And one of the recent ones that prompted me to write the above post -- I was expecting a teamfic and instead got graphic Sheppard/Ronon, which can be good in the right place and time ... but was quite a shock to just come out of the blue.

That is one of my biggest pet peeves in fan-fic as well I haven't noticed it so much at FF.Net (just lucky I guess...or not very adventurous) but I have seen it in other places.

I was expecting a teamfic and instead got graphic Sheppard/Ronon, which can be good in the right place and time ... but was quite a shock to just come out of the blue.

Especially on ff.net, which to my mind sort of defaults to gen. In fact, I didn't realize there was much slash at all on ff.net, and certainly didn't know there was anything graphic. Could the author have been trying to fly under the ff.net radar? Not that that's a good excuse--there are plenty of places online to post NC-17. If ff.net doesn't want it, then she should respect that.

In the case of that particular story, that may well be what she was doing, come to think of it. Because it *was* graphic -- definitely an NC-17.

*hee* at your icon! :D

It's ff.net mostly where I've seen it ... maybe because most of my fanfic reading elsewhere comes on the basis of recommendations, so I already sort of know what to expect.

I have yet to really figure out the technique for trolling LJ for fanfic on my own. I check the LJs of some authors whose work I like, and a couple of the communities -- but since I'm mostly looking for gen, most of the time, I tend to bog down in a sea of slash on most of the communities and end up just relying on other people to recommend stuff to me. I've been tempted to volunteer to rec stuff on stargateficrec, because they really *need* some SGA gen reccers. Of course, then I have to find the stories to rec in the first place, darn it ...

You're right, it really IS hard to find gen stuff on LJ. And I've been tempted to volunteer to stargateficrec as well, but have the same problem you alluded to - finding the stuff! We need to form a coalition or something.

Aha, it's not just me! I wonder if there's any rule on stargateficrec about not rec'ing ff.net stories, because that's where I'm finding most of the gen that I read -- but people never seem to rec ff.net on there.

We should both volunteer. Maybe the community just needs more of a gen reader presence. They do have some SG-1 gen rec'ers; there's just a real dearth of it on the SGA side.

That reminds me that I need to rec more stuff over at stargategenrec, too. Same problem though ... having trouble finding stories! (And time.)

I'm also not too sure how much interest there is in gen SGA fic on LJ. Most of the community seems to prefer slash and het, if the bulk of the output we see in the newsletter is any indication.

It's a little discouraging at times, to see so *little* gen available on LJ. However, I had a theory back when I was writing in anime fandoms that "if you write it, they will come" with regards to gen. Most anime fandoms are overwhelmingly focused on slash and on het pairings -- and yet I used to get really good responses to my gen stories, and so did the handful of other gen writers that I knew. It seemed as if no one was writing it, and yet everyone was hungry for it. They just didn't tend to *write* it because the community "norms" were slash or het. It was what aspiring writers saw all around them, so it was the mold in which they tended to think. People didn't break out of that very often. I wonder if something similar might be going on in SGA LJ fandom. I know that I've gotten quite a few comments on my stories along the lines of "I don't normally read gen, but I liked this" or "I haven't seen much gen, but this was good" ... stuff like that.

On the subject of stories you have going -- I think I read the beginning of a story called "Cyberia" on here a long time ago, that had Sheppard traveling back in time to Russia and meeting McKay there. I really loved that beginning ... any plans on finishing it? ::hopeful grin:: (Or has it been finished and I just missed it? Apologies if that's the case.)

Nope, I haven't finished it, and I'm flattered that you remember!

What happened to that story is that some of the major plot points were actually used in a Season 3 episode (I won't say which one, since I still want to finish the story). Since it had already sort of been done, I had to find a way to work around it and come up with a slightly different way of doing what I wanted to do. So the story is not abandoned, just on hold ... and actually, I'm glad you mentioned it, because I have a lot of it written and I *do* want to finish it!

Oh, I'm glad -- I'll look forward to it, then! I'm sure it'll still be highly enjoyable even if it is similar to a season 3 ep. :-)

Anyway, just had to poke my head out from lurkdom to ask about that. I love your stories; keep writing!

:-D I LOVE that icon from lamardeuse. It is the biggest reason I decided to get a paid account, so I could snap it up--along with a few others she did from Echoes.

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Come on ff.net people ...

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Cyberia?

Re: Cyberia?

Re: Cyberia?

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