Snowflake Challenge Day 10

[brightly_lit]

Day 10


In your own space, create a list of at least three fannish things you'd love to receive, something you've wanted but were afraid to ask for - a fannish wish-list of sorts.


I was struggling with depression, or really more some heavy emotional weight, the last week and some, so I got behind on everything, and plainly, WAY behind on the Snowflake Challenge, but I still think it's a really cool thing, so I'll try to complete it now.

1. Well, I suppose the best gift I ever received was the literary analysis of my fic "Angels at the Door" that kalliel did for me. I know it's not most people's thing, but man, if you ever felt like doing such a thing about one of my fics, I would be over the moon.

2. Likewise, any art you might feel inspired to make for any of my fics. I have yet to have art for any of my fics (though that will change with the RBB--still, the fic is a collaboration, so it still won't feel exactly like it's for one of my fics), so that would be tremendously exciting for me.

3. Some really arty SPN icons would be awesome!

Comments

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I hear you about meta. Frankly, I don't read a lot of meta simply because for me it's a way of trying to understand where they're going with the show and the characters, and most people see both SOOO differently from me that it wouldn't be beneficial. Not to mention that most of the time, alas, I don't actually think the show's writers DO have much of a game plan or understand the characters that well, so it seems an exercise in futility, although I sure have a ball trading comments with the awesome thinky people who comment on my metas.

I too prefer to write a fic generally to get at that stuff, but a) readers seem to have an aversion to accepting/taking in fic on that level, and b) in the case of John, I've got like five different fics, all exploring different aspects of what I'm getting at with his character, and a meta would be a nice way to tie them all together. I thought of your aversion to meta when I posted my most recent Tricycle Man fic, though, hoping maybe that'll get your motor going more than our world-building discussions.

Ah, so you've done remixes! I never have, but it sure sounds fun. I WILL COUNT YOU IN for the Bunker mini-mix!!

[kalliel]

It's hard! Because I love discussing this kind of stuff, obviously. But with meta sometimes it feels like you're making a specific argument in order to convince someone of something, which you will then be expected to defend. And it's kind of like, after a certain point in the narrative of a season, if someone disagrees with me they're not going to change my mind unless I'm actively looking for my mind to be changed. And conversely, I also don't really give a shit about whether people adopt my reading of x, y, or z, so I have no real stake in the "convince people!" arena. My feeling is more of an, hey, if you want it, take it, and if you don't agree with it, then you don't and so what? And if it's something I have a lot more personal stake in, like Amelia's worth or like, Dean or whatever, I rarely enter those conversations because I've already learned that it is futile, stressful, and not fun. And that's not what I'm here for! :P Which I think is another reason I prefer to spin my meta thoughts into fic, and read my meta in the form of fic, because then it's explicitly a reading, an interpretation, and people can calm down about it. XP

Which I mean, it doesn't preclude people from disagreeing about the portrayals of X or Y in a fic! I've certainly stopped reading Fic X for the exact same reasons I chose not to read Meta Y, etc. Of course, at the same time, you are absolutely right in that quite often readers seem to have an aversion to reading fic in that way, or thinking about what they're reading with respect to its meta elements. JUST CAN'T WIN. XD

As for the writers, I actually do think they have a huge amount of self-awareness, and an awareness of what it is they're producing, even if the game plan is sometimes "winging it" (which hey, I can respect!) and the story they know they need to tell outstrips their ability to tell it. But you don't actually have to be that great a writer, in terms of technical skill, to have that awareness of your product--nor a very deliberate one, to be able to press at things, open things up, leave accents and nuances here and there, as part of this highly mutagenic, semi-feral body of work you're spinning out. Which tbh I find fascinating in itself, forget anything about the actual show that comes of it. XDD There's something very free, and risky, and untutored about the whole TV thing that I just love (and that fan fic, as a genre, totally gets to bask in and take even further).

tl;dr I AM FASCINATED BY FREESTYLIN'. I feel like writing fic is some bizarre conflagration of 'don't give a damn I do what I want!!!!' and 'brb giving too many damns!!' and I can't help but read the development of Show's canon in a similar manner.

As for tricycleman, I have not yet read the info that happened in that comment thread, or the two (er, three now!) pieces so far, but I will! I finished RBB, so my only outstanding writing commitments now are for fandomaid. \O/

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

I agree with your whoooole first paragraph--fanwank is just not something I have any interest in engaging in. Fortunately, (most of) the people who respond to my metas seem to respond in the spirit in which it was written--of sharing perspectives in hopes that something one of us has noted might be enlightening for others, so that if we put together all the puzzle pieces, we're all happier fans for it.

As for the writers, I actually do think they have a huge amount of self-awareness, and an awareness of what it is they're producing, even if the game plan is sometimes "winging it" (which hey, I can respect!) and the story they know they need to tell outstrips their ability to tell it.

Well, after this week's episode, I have a lot more faith, but YESSS, I so agree with this. It seems clear a great deal of discussion has gone into the direction they're taking the show and that they really feel like they're expressing something and getting somewhere with it ... I just so often feel like their analysis/planning skills are better than their storytelling and "show don't tell" skills ....

There's something very free, and risky, and untutored about the whole TV thing that I just love (and that fan fic, as a genre, totally gets to bask in and take even further).

I feel another one of those long comment threads coming on (which reminds me--you mentioned in the Tricycle Man thread that the TM project explained something about our earlier threads to you, but I can't think which discussion you might be referring to and I'd love to be reminded ...), but YES, I love this about t.v., too, although it leads to a lot of contradictory plot points, both in SPN and in Buffy and other successful, freestylin' shows I've seen, which can be frustrating, too. But at least THEY GET TO GO WHEREVER THEY WANT, explore all kinds of different themes and ideas and such, and God bless SPN for never dipping a toe but diving whole-hog right into the mire!!

[kalliel]

<33333333 God, this week' episode was so beautiful, I can't even. XP

As for Tricycle Man, oh! At some point we were just talking about how cool I thought fan fiction as a thing was, and how it'd be cool to write something that had fic for it, or something with a similar sort of interconnectivity, and you said that you had thoughts about this, too, but you would share them at a later point in time, when it felt right. And then tricycleman came along, and I thought, oh hey! There are those thoughts! The time is ripe! :DD <3