This is why I typically like to write het just as much as anything else, read a lot of het fic, but fucking hate most canon het relationships.
when it comes to het, i'm neutral to notp on most of it, and only really like a few specific examples of it, where it is done really well or happens to fit in one of the tropes i love
My personal favourite case of Writers Cannot Do Math combined with an obviously still-living-with-parents writer, from the old Fanficrants comm:
since we're talking about good het I am contractually obligated to mention church/tex from red vs. blue, my Canon Heterosexual OTP. it's such a good, unhealthy relationship <3
yep. :D:D:D though, weirdly enough, i don't really read fic for it. i just watch canon and fanvids and look at fanart for it.
Still having problems wanting to take a fic in two totally different directions! On one hand, I wanna do some heavy whump and I'm not gonna do that to a very young character, but on the other I love the "child soldier rebellion" trope. Thinking of splitting the difference and making them sixteen but not sure if the fetishistic nature of whump is outside mine and the readers' comfort zone there. Just say they're in their late teens and not specify?
Are. Are they under the impression that they need to put in a giant block so people won't accidentally see the tags?
I wish I knew. (Ignoring, of course, that if someone wasn't on mobile then... they'd still probably see the tags because desktops aren't that tiny, and either way you have to scroll past them to see the summary, and--)
...yikes. ok. look. if someone is browsing ao3 for a fandom when they’re not caught up with the canon? that’s on them. they have to know they may get spoiled that way. that’s their choice. BUT, if you’re still concerned about spoiling people via the tags, you could just... not actually tag it with any tags that might spoil folks... and then put whatever warnings/etc that are applicable but would have been spoilery.... in your beginning author’s note.......... (eta) putting a huge block of “SPOILERY TAGS” is.... the worst option here
I would have guessed the spoilers were probably for the fic itself? Like, if that's the case it'd make more sense both why they wanted it tagged (so people who want to find/avoid a spoilery thing can find/avoid the fic) and why they're so worried about hiding the spoilers from people browsing.
that... makes somewhat more sense? the giant block of useless tags is still obnoxious though, and i would advise, if they wanted to warn for elements without spoiling them for most readers, to put the warnings in an author’s note at the end of the fic/chapter - with a note at the beginning of the fic directing readers to the end note for potentially spoilery warnings, and let the reader decide whether they needed to be unspoiled or needed to read the warnings. and if that’s not acceptable for whatever reason, they could decide that having clearly visible warnings is more important than not spoiling people. or maybe they decide that not spoiling people is more important, and slap on a Choose Not To Warn tag. but they’ve really chosen the worst of both worlds with this SPOILERY TAGS SPOILERRYYY TAAAGS shit
Two things, one general and one very specific. General: Everyone, in every fandom, please, I am begging you, please stop strip-mining that one Dylan Thomas poem for titles/epigraphs/quotes to use in every fic that has anything at all to do with death (especially since many of you don't even seem to understand what the poem actually means). Please. It is getting ridiculous. I saw one fic where a character quoted said poem even though the canon setting was decades before Thomas was born. There are plenty of other poems about death you can quote instead. Specific: That fic that says Britain and Romania are "neighboring kingdoms" is at the top of the page again. *writhes in agony*
The rest of the entirety of Europe has tripped and fallen in a pit. It was a tragic accident. The globe has folded and now Britain is next to Romania. We try not to talk of it.
