ficathon bits:

[wisdomeagle]

Wrote most of my Giles' Birthday Fic tonight. I also got my assignment for femslash05. It's certainly write-able, gives me a chance to review some source material I've been meaning to review, and pleases me on several levels.

Still need to give a double-polish to my fluffy fic before Valentine's Day.

But a thought about requests... I love ficathons, am quite madly addicted to them, and challenges certainly make me write more... but sometimes there are things in people's requests that just boggle me. Like, one of my challenges requests "no plotless fic." So, uh, I'm kinda worried. Does it mean just, "No PWP," as in something other than porn? But what makes something PWP? 90% of my fic is essentially written for the purpose of having two+ characters end up in bed together -- or in a relationship -- or even just USTing after each other. Does non-plotless fic need to have a demon or a problem worse than whether Sam and Daniel can manage to make it into the house before they start ripping off each other's clothes?

I know full well that plot != action/adventure, and the thing is I think most of my so-called PWP does have a plot in that sense. There may not be anything going on other than sex, but the sex always has a point. There's always something I'm trying to say about the emotion behind the actual sex. Or behind the conversation, or the shared meal, or whatever.

But does "plotless fic" include little snippets of life like that? The piece as it now stands doesn't have an awful lot going on; it's lighter than I normally write and hopefully humorous. But is that okay? Does there need to be something more going on to meet the requester's stipulation?

Argh. I'm overthinking this. I love ficathons. But sometimes they drive me nuts, yanno? Challenges provide you with a great place to start, but sometimes your fic veers off in unexpected directions.

[real life sidebar: still ignoring senior theses and hoping they'll disappear if I don't pay attention to them.]

Comments

[netgirl-y2k.livejournal.com]

I always thought plotless fic was one that startd off with two characters in bed and never explains how/why they got there.

I'm glad someone's pleased with their femslash05 assignment, mine scares me.

[wisdomeagle]

Hmm, well, in that case, I think I'm safe.

Aw... I'm sorry. I got pretty lucky with mine; there are several options I could write.

[hammersickle.livejournal.com]

hey, miss ari.

i hope you don't mind, but in this entry, i posted the fanfic posty form that you always use, since it seemed like a good format to me. the girl is going to use it for jonnys_boy, her fanfic community. you are credited for it in this entry.

i am hoping this is okay. i really should've asked first, but i didn't think about it. (i'm sorry!) but i am letting you know now, so if you're mad i will tell her to take it down or something. (though, i don't imagine you would be mad?)

k, love you lots.

- jen.

[wisdomeagle]

Hey teh_jen!

Poked at entires and yay! Supercool. I don't mind you using my form at all; it's just a compilation of all the things I think are important and occasionally really wish other authors would include in their headers. I'm glad you thought it was supercool, though. :)

[jedi-penguin.livejournal.com]

It's funny, but the nicest and most writeable ficathon assignments always stump me; ones that have me screaming at the jerk who made the request somehow seem to turn into the stories that I'm happiest and proudest of.

One thing I can't stand, however, is people who make NC-17 sex a requirement for their story. I agree that sex or the absence thereof is an integral part to a story. Requiring it means that the story is already shaped in ways that give me very little wriggle room. Like you, I want my fic to feel free to veer off in odd directions if that is where it wants to go.

[wisdomeagle]

It's funny, but the nicest and most writeable ficathon assignments always stump me; ones that have me screaming at the jerk who made the request somehow seem to turn into the stories that I'm happiest and proudest of.

Oh, agreed. The request for virgin!Giles yielded one of the stories I'm proudest of, because I actually had to think about it to make it work. Assignments that are too vague and friendly are hard to write because there's no foothold, nowhere to start.

One thing I can't stand, however, is people who make NC-17 sex a requirement for their story

Eep. I don't think I've ever gotten a request like that... I'd be immediately paralyzed and unable to write anything at all.

[jedi-penguin.livejournal.com]

I don't do poetry. At all. So the request for a Buffy/Wes story that included poetry had me spending several days looking through poetry books for stuff that might fit those two. I HATED the requester... and yet loved the story. My remus remix story was deliberately obscure and I pulled my hair out until I figured out who the narrator was... and that led into a very fun Buffy crossover. I almost cried over the Old Skool assignment for Drusilla/vamp!Willow, and so on.


One thing I can't stand, however, is people who make NC-17 sex a requirement for their story

Eep. I don't think I've ever gotten a request like that... I'd be immediately paralyzed and unable to write anything at all.

Really? *blinks in surprise* My B/G angstathon assignment was for graphic sex and a hopeful ending. For an angstathon! Either they have sex they regret and things fall apart, or sex should be left out of the equation... that's how you get angst. But no, not my requester! The one that really pissed me off, however, was for the Yuletide assignment. Four possible requests in four fandoms and all of them demanded NC-17 sex. The only one I was familiar with was original BSG, but I just can't see Apollo as anything but straight. Starbuck yes, alright, I can see it, but not Apollo. That story SUCKED and I'm still trying to clean it up! I've had other demands for sex but they didn't throw me nearly as badly. Just, you know, pissed me off.

[wisdomeagle]

My B/G angstathon assignment was for graphic sex and a hopeful ending.

That would drive me *nuts*, especially since hopeful endsings totally aren't my forte...

I suppose I have gotten some NC-17 requests... my McKay ficathon assignment (the one I gave myself) strongly requested teh_smut, and it ended up being essentially a PWP since it was a pairing I didn't really see...

I think the 'Gatedom is a lot shyer about NC-17 than other fandoms... especially the hetful parts of it. In the first round of Flashfic we did at the now deleted sg1flashfic, there was only one NC-17 fic out of about 15, and it was the one I wrote.

My relationship with ficathons is love-hate. On the one hand, challenges and deadlines force me to write. On the other hand, sometimes I get stuff that just makes me go 'eh?' and I end up writing fic that doesn't really seem organic.