Silversun

Carry on. Old thread here.

Catalinay

Re: YA/Twelfth Night crossover. It's almost like that one episode where Jake's mom comes for Parent's Day or whatever that event was. The easiest way to do it might be to have Jake dressing up as a boy to go to Rawley Boys, just like the show. But then have some reason for her to have to infiltrate the girls' school (to really follow the play, it would be to bond with a girl that Hamilton likes - that is, if you keep the J/H pairing). Nicky's right, it could get really complicated!

Crossbow

I can't stand:
Reviewers attacking each other in my reviews!

Catalinay

Now that sounds interesting!

Caleon

Great thread. This is my first post here, and I was intrigued by others' comments. This is going to make me sound like a snob, but it took me a long time to read any fanfics (and write any!) because I got so turned off by a number of things. Let me be long-winded here: *grin*

1) Bad spelling, grammar and story structure. UGH, I won't even read it if this stuff persists past a simple slip or two. Internet shorthand is the devil.

2) Summaries that read: "I don't know, just read it." If you can't think about your story long enough to come up with a good summary, I can't waste time reading it to find out what it's about.

3) My stupid (and narrow-minded, I'll warrant) pet peeve is A/U fics and stuff that would have been unlikely to occur in the original work (ex: unlikely couple pairings, etc).

I'm aware that there are some stellar fics that happen to be A/U, well-written in their own right, but if you want to pair two disparate universes and make unlikely things happen, I'd rather you do an original fiction. That's just me being snobby there. I just feel that the original writers or producers of these works spent a lot of blood, sweat & tears on them, and their body of work deserves to be respected the way it was intended. It's for that reason that, so far, I've only written fics that fill the "holes" the original works skipped over. I know. I'm obnoxious...and partly hypocritical, considering one of my works is unintentionally A/U. I started it before seeing one season of the TV show, whoops. So some minor things that shoulda happened...didn't. Erk. (Yes, it's now a personal thorn in my side. Color me obsessive.)

4) I gotta go with those of you who dislike songfics. They pull you completely out of the story! If a writer wants someone to have a certain song in mind when they write a scene, I'd rather s/he puts the name of the song in an A/N, or mention that it's playing on some stereo in the story, rather than keep jerking me out of the action with a line or two at a time. Bleah.

An interesting discussion, guys!

Crossbow

Well, and if you're going to go to the trouble of creating an alternate universe at all, why not create original characters, too?

I was reading an LotR AU fic that was quite good, except that none of the characters in it were remotely like they had been in the books, and the WORLD was nothing like it had been in the books, and basically all the author would have had to do would be to slap new names on the characters and she'd have had a perfectly good original fiction - but as a fan fic, it sucked.

Silversun

Reviewers attacking each other in a space reserved for reviews - that's just plain immature. You'd think they would have more respect for the author they are reviewing. Though, having said that, I am guilty of once having a bit of an argument with this bitchy little girl in my own guestbook, so...

Welcome Caleon! Good to see new faces on the board. I definitely agree with points 1 and 2, and I reserve my opinion for point 4, but point 3 is rather interesting. It brings back questions of what exactly AU means.

For example, one of the best fics I've ever read ( Phoenix Burning by Yahtzee) is an AU Buffy fic. It's AU in the way that it picks up after the season five finale and resurrects Buffy several hundred years in the future. But, as far as I could tell, it keeps closely to the 'flavour' of Buffy. It doesn't force the characters and situations into doing stuff they wouldn't do - in short, Joss Whedon may well have come up with the idea and the situation. So does that still make it AU?

Catalinay

I'd say that's still an AU, Nicky. (Thanks for the link to Phoenix Burning, btw - I'd misplaced it somehow!)

Personally, I love AUs, as long as they're well done! Although I have gotten annoyed with the ones that bear absolutely no relation to their actual canon besides the character names, in the past - a Roswell fic with no aliens at all comes to mind.

One of my favorite AUs is the Roswell fic Persephone's Footfalls by Elizabeth.

Night Nymph

Silversun: The Buffy and Angel fandoms are a tough case in my opinion, because for me there are degrees of AU in Buffy fanfic. While technically anything that goes off from canon at a certain point is AU, for me those are much less AU than the fanfic that have Buffy, Angel, Spike, as human characters, Willow as not a witch, no demons, etc, etc.

There are some BtVS fanfic archives that characterise both as AU, but there are others that reserve the AU characterisation for the "entirely human/no magic or demons" stories. The other "AU" characterise themselves generally by stating "follows from (insert episode title)" or "starts after (episode title)".

I'll read BtVS stories that veer off from canon, but keep the characters basically as they should be, but I draw the line at "all human" fanfic, because for me, Buffy's slayer status, Angel being a souled vampire, Willow being a witch, and Spike being a vampire are all essential to their characters. If I wanted to read a story (especially those set in High School) about Buffy the cheerleader and Angel the bad boy and Spike the exchange student, I'd read an original fiction. Yeah, that makes me a BtVS fanfic snob, but I won't even read an all-human AU from even a great author, so I'm fair to everyone in that regard.

But considering BtVS had alternate universes already in their storyline, I consider AU's that follow character canon much less AU than those that create an entire new identity and history for them.

I suppose the same type of tough case would occur in fandoms like LotR, Star Trek etc. where AU could either mean veering off from the storyline or actually making Spock, Data, or Legolas a regular human person. Same could be said for Smallville I guess - though making Clark not Superman would just seem to defeat the entire purpose. Maybe that's just me.

Caleon

Excellent points, Night Nymph. There are degrees of A/U. Something that, as you say, sticks to canon is still likely to be a good read. I have seen some of the Buffy ones, and there are some cool stories out there that are A/U. One Buffy author in particular comes to mind, and her stuff is written respectfully, with the same flavor Joss gave the original concept.

What really pisses me off is the stuff that has no resemblance whatever to the original work. I can see why some authors of the original stuff don't let FF get published. To me, it's all about respect.

Catalinay

Yeah, I don't think I could read the "all human" Buffy fic. That takes the AU a little too far for me.

Crossbow

All-human Buffy Fic seems to completely defeat the purpose of being... well, Buffy fic.

Ashleigh

I like songfic, however, bad songfic is just... bad.

People! Who! Don't! Use! A! Thesaurus! That's my gripe.

Crossbow

Today's gripe: Sex scenes like the one I just read where the woman "tastes like peaches." Or strawberries. File that one under "how to convince your reader you've never come anywhere close to having sex."

Catalinay

LMAO Crossbow! That's almost as good as the physically impossible sex scenes.

Ah, it almost makes me long for the days of doing the fic posting at Crashdown.