a splendid duck-billed platypus - Last night the mist came down

10:55 am: Last night the mist came down
Really, with darkness: it was like a bad fantasy novel. The sun set and the haar rose, and from a sunny shiny day it was a misty blurry night.

Things I wish writers warned for:

- "The writer intends to trash the female lead in order to justify the two male leads getting together with each other even though both had shown interest in her in canon."

- "Out-of-character misogynist or homophobic abusive comments."

- "For plot reasons, the writer intends to make both central characters refrain from talking to each other about something very important: out of writerly incapacity, no good reason will be given for why they don't just say something."

- One of the worst things I ever read was when RayK from Due South decided to "punish" his ex-wife (I think it was Stella - I read it just once, years ago) for making mildly homophobic remarks about his relationship with Fraser, by slipping very explicit and very identifiable shots of her naked into a presentation she was giving to a conference of her professional peers: the story closes on RayK and RayV in satisfied giggles at what they'd done, which (in direct discussion with the writer) I found she considered was a happy ending, because Stella had been so mean to RayK about his finding love with Fraser. Writer apparently did not follow why this was "excessive", though she said other people had said that to her as well. There were no warnings for it, but though I can't now remember the pseud she was using, I didn't read anything she'd written in DS fanfic again. There was no warning. The writer really didn't see that there was anything wrong with that.

- The writer is an idiot.

Nobody warns for Regency romances:

BABY SARAH: Whaa... oh I get it. Stockholm Syndrome! What an interesting book, examining Stockholm Syndrome and rape from the inside out. I am enthralled.
RAVEN-HAIRED MARQUIS: It is possible that, given your brave tolerance of all the rape, your virtuous defence of peasants and bunnies, and your occasional indignant foot stamps and fiery lock tossing, you may in fact not be a ho. Whoops. Sorry 'bout that. I love you. Let us be wed!
BABY SARAH: Now's your chance! This is his moment of weakness. Bop him over the head with a chamber pot and make a break for it across the tennis lawn!
FLAME-HAIRED SPIRITED INGENUE: Yay! Marriage and babies.
BABY SARAH: And then he got away with rape and she never recovered from Stockholm Syndrome the end? Oh my God, the chill unbelievable horror of it all.

Then Baby Sarah stayed up all night, stock still and terrified that a marquis would come and brainwash her. That book stayed with me a long time. I entirely refused to read romance because of it.

Current Mood: amused

Tags: meta, weather

Purr at me

Comments

From:	whatho
Date:	dayordJune 2009 06:50 am (UTC)

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"For plot reasons, the writer intends to make both central characters refrain from talking to each other about something very important: out of writerly incapacity, no good reason will be given for why they don't just say something."

That's Lost, that is. I do wish Lost had come with a warning. It's been a long five years. Certainly it should've been flagged up as a WiP. Bad writing should definitely be warned about. Sadly I don't think the writers in question are excellent at noticing it.

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From:	yonmei
Date:	dayordJune 2009 07:37 am (UTC)

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This is the problem, isn't it?

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From:	solo
Date:	dayordJune 2009 12:44 pm (UTC)

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- "For plot reasons, the writer intends to make both central characters refrain from talking to each other about something very important: out of writerly incapacity, no good reason will be given for why they don't just say something."

THIS.

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From:	yonmei
Date:	dayordJune 2009 04:45 pm (UTC)

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Oh, if only. :-(

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From:	mercurychaos
Date:	dayordJune 2009 03:59 pm (UTC)

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"The writer intends to trash the female lead..."

Oh god I see things similar to this all the time in Torchwood fandom - mostly people who write bad Jack/Ianto fanfic also bash the hell out of Gwen in the process. Which is really weird, because while Jack is somewhat interested in Gwen, he's not very interested or for very long... and Ianto isn't interested in her at all. So it's like "srsly guys, WHY?!"

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From:	yonmei
Date:	dayordJune 2009 04:48 pm (UTC)

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Because they can? You get a lot of this, any fandom: "Trash the woman!"

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From:	randomsome1
Date:	dayordJune 2009 06:58 pm (UTC)

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>.>
*waves Gwen/Jack/Ianto ot3 flag*

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From:	yonmei
Date:	dayordJune 2009 01:18 am (UTC)

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Heretic! *waves Jack/The Doctor flag*

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From:	randomsome1
Date:	dayordJune 2009 06:57 pm (UTC)

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And not just in fandom . . . Y'know, if romance novelists plopped this type of warnings on their books as well I'd be more likely to safely wade into the section. Not that I would--too much Regency Romance-types have scarred me for life.

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From:	yonmei
Date:	dayordJune 2009 01:46 am (UTC)

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The thing about fanfic pre-Internet is that you used to have to buy it sight-unseen, except at cons. There was some point to warnings then, and would have been even more point to the warnings I listed.

(Another one I hate; "Romance problems solved by Klingons attacking" - which actually happened in a K/S story I read once, Kirk and Spock having Problems With Their Relationship, but then there's a Klingon attack and this leads to Spock spending three days alone in a space capsule doing something I didn't care about that was Very Brave, and then all is well in K/Sland.)

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From:	ruthi
Date:	dayordJune 2009 09:16 pm (UTC)

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I went and looked for a post made back in January by my friend apiphile on

Really, the fic warnings I want - which are probably not realistic to ask for - are stuff like:

Massively OOC.
Author's style is irritating.
Author could not write if their life depended on it.
Unsatisfactory ending.
NO PLOT.
Ridiculously long for no reason.
Author has no concept of actual dialogue.
Author has no concept of human anatomy.
Full-on badfic.
Babytalk."

And omnivorously said: Yeah, those are the warnings I'd really find useful. As well as:

Same trope that's in 90% of the fic in this fandom.
The usual dumb shallow characterization of interesting secondary characters who deserve better.
Reinforces gender stereotypes (mainly for the way it impacts how female characters are written - they stop having personalities bc they're Girls - but apparently ficcers tend to be female, go figure).

...And then in the comments people asked for warnings about lack of historical research, and too many exclamation marks, and adverbs, even.

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yonmei

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