A herd of teal deer

tips for (period) Austen fanfic

not quite meta, just a reaction to stuff I’ve noticed more than usual recently.

disclaimer: it doesn’t mean your fic is terrible badwrong if you don’t do these things or that nobody likes it or that your fic is even not good or that I am a perfect Georgian-period Austen fanwriter who has followed this to the letter from seventeen onwards, it’s just stuff that makes me (and most of my friends, but don’t worry, I’m not a BNF), more likely to read. Also, I tried to list things that are helpful for fic based on any of the novels, but the examples are from P&P since that’s like 95% of the fandom.

In some ways, fanfiction’s mode is nearer to academia and literary criticism than to typical fiction. The original work is a fanfic’s topic; familiarity with it is usually assumed. People sometimes use what is meant to be a response to the original text as a vehicle for discussions of other, unrelated things; this is often frowned upon. Fanfiction dialogues directly with the text, discarding authorial intent as often as not, and engaging with the discussion that has already grown up around it. Jenkins make the association explicit, describing fandom as “an institution of theory and criticism, a semistructured space where competing interpretations and evaluations of common texts are proposed, debated, and negotiated … Fans often display a close attention to the particularity of television narratives that puts academic critics to shame” (86). This sort of attention is par for the course among many fanwriters, who as the active interpreters bear the consequences if their narrative fails to make their argument.

#SCREAMING #CRYING #BLESS #BLESS UR COW #BLESS UR ANCESTORS

my ancestors thank you :)

korrlok:

theyoungdoyley:

This scene is from the fifth chapter of lantur’s excellent Korra/Tarrlok fic, Strings. <3

(Ahahahahaah… this was a gesture/expression exercise that I uh went overboard on.)

Wow!

-V

I meta’d for a grade

I actually wrote this a few years ago (minus a few revisions). The Diana Gabaldon brouhaha was raging at the time, so I sat down and tapped out a few pages of furious meta, then decided it would be much more satisfying as Serious Academia That Is Serious (And Therefore Worthwhile). This is somewhat less work than actual meta, because then I don’t have to translate out of Pedantic into Merely Pretentious. I got an A, and my class loved it, so hurrah.

I used to say that fandom was ruining my GPA, but in the last three years or so, people being wrong on the Internet actually improvedmy grades. Anyway, this comes from a place of anger and was targeted at my (American) classmates, so it’s fairly US-centric, a bit incoherent and more than a bit hyperbolic, but I like to think that I harnessed my powers of getting-pissed-off for good instead of evil.

In some ways, fanfiction’s mode is nearer to academia and literary criticism than to typical fiction. The original work is a fanfic’s topic; familiarity with it is usually assumed. People sometimes use what is meant to be a response to the original text as a vehicle for discussions of other, unrelated things; this is often frowned upon. Fanfiction dialogues directly with the text, discarding authorial intent as often as not, and engaging with the discussion that has already grown up around it. Jenkins make the association explicit, describing fandom as “an institution of theory and criticism, a semistructured space where competing interpretations and evaluations of common texts are proposed, debated, and negotiated … Fans often display a close attention to the particularity of television narratives that puts academic critics to shame” (86). This sort of attention is par for the course among many fanwriters, who as the active interpreters bear the consequences if their narrative fails to make their argument.

I miss college.

In some ways, fanfiction’s mode is nearer to academia and literary criticism than to typical fiction. The original work is a fanfic’s topic; familiarity with it is usually assumed. People sometimes use what is meant to be a response to the original text as a vehicle for discussions of other, unrelated things; this is often frowned upon. Fanfiction dialogues directly with the text, discarding authorial intent as often as not, and engaging with the discussion that has already grown up around it. Jenkins make the association explicit, describing fandom as “an institution of theory and criticism, a semistructured space where competing interpretations and evaluations of common texts are proposed, debated, and negotiated … Fans often display a close attention to the particularity of television narratives that puts academic critics to shame” (86). This sort of attention is par for the course among many fanwriters, who as the active interpreters bear the consequences if their narrative fails to make their argument.

I miss college.

I am delighted to hear that you liked the Narnian books. There is a map at the end of some of them in some editions. But why not do one yourself! And why not write stories for yourself to fill up the gaps in Narnian history?

“

—	C. S. Lewis, letter to a fan named Denise

“revenge of the jedi” - fic

To carry on with the gradual crossposting, I wrote this fic for an au_bigbang awhile back (yes, I finished a thing! it happens sometimes!). It’s an AU, of course: a re-imagining of ROTJ based on some of the earlier plans for the movie. I borrowed some things from ROTJ/the PT/whatever, but it’s only compliant with ANH and ESB - so a sort of alternate-canon AU not-quite-fix-fic sequel to ESB.

title: Revenge of the Jedi (Prologue)

characters: Luke, Leia, Vader/Anakin, others (re: pairings, Revenge is a choose not to warn experience, though I will say that there’s no incest)

rating: PG/T or so

stuff that happens: After the escape from Cloud City, Vader keeps plotting against the Emperor and trying to get Luke to help him, Leia gets drawn into the plight of the surviving Alderaanians, Han hangs on Jabba’s wall, and Luke leaves the squadron to be a full-time Jedi.