i wish i was the kind of writer who could channel my escapism into fanfic writing, like cath from fangirl. instead my escapism is pretty much always fanfic reading. (or videogames etc; always consuming fiction instead of creating it) in general i wish i was better at finishing fics
I find this hilarious given the amount of stuff I had to break up into multiple posts for Weirdmageddon Tango.
When people compare you to Mills and Boon, or Stephenie Meyer, or whomever, it's great fun to remind them that these people sell a fuckton of books.
Shovel-talk fics. Occasionally you get something cute out of the concept, but mostly they're just kind of cringey and infantilizing. It's worse in fightier fandoms, where the speech-giving character is more likely to be actually able to kill the poor speech-receiver! You can admonish someone to treat your friend well in ways less likely to scare them off entirely thus hurting your friend anyway, jeez.
What bugs me about one of my old fics is that it embodies half the tropes I've come to HATE for SolAra. Why. Why was 17-year-old!Acey such a bad writer. I mean, it's still decently written from a technical standpoint at least, but gahhhhh.
Augh, yeah. And - it's hard to do it in a way that actually carries the spirit of how Willow meant it, too? Which is "look, I'm not expecting there to be trouble between you and my friend, but if there is, I will side with and protect my friend at all costs". And she could get away with it because Riley....well. Riley doesn't seriously consider the possibility that a woman could be stronger than him, he took it as Willow trying to be hyperbolic. (She was not. She was being utterly serious, but probably also knew that it'd be read as hyperbole.)
I don't even associate the trope with Buffy, I associate it with the stereotypical overprotective-dad-puts-fear-of-god-into-daughter's-boyfriend thing. Which is probably part of why I read it as so sketchy and infantilizing...
Personal variant on it, that I came up with years ago and have been waiting for an opportunity to use in my writing ever since: "So, is this the part where you tell me that if I hurt your daughter, you'll kill me?" "What? No, of course not. She's a perfectly capable, intelligent young woman, and we did our best to raise her to understand how to maintain a healthy relationship. If it's anything less than unforgivable, I'm sure you'll be able to talk things out one way or another... and if you do hurt her that badly, then she'll kill you. I'll just be helping with body disposal. Family bonding time is very important, after all."
Not a fanfic incident, but is it worse when that's what the author is obviously trying to do and what they actually produce is a nightmare fuel machine? See Sterk of Vegan Artbook, who is being played as the broody but goodhearted metalhead and never gets called out for randomly murdering people. (I have written similar characters but I was aware of their ironic nature.)
Or Sword of Truth again. Or, for that matter, an actual fanfic case in the works of Ultamite Nineball. God, I love that guy.
Scarlet and bible black is soooooo good. I love pT's writing I'm reading a lot of Yuri!! On Ice fic these days and I had forgotten how much I hate both the virginal uke who has never thought about sex and doesn't know what the Manly Seme is doing trope AND the self lubricating asshole trope.
Ahhh yes, those good ol' self-lubricating assholes. I dipped my toe into the waters of spideypool the other day and immediate got hit in the face with this (not literally, which would have been a... horrifying experience). I'm spoiled by xeno and how it's so much easier to work with than humans, but come onnnnn, just have one of you grab lube! It isn't that hard! This was in a bedroom, so no excuse, but even elsewhere, are you trying to tell me deadpool wouldn't be carrying lube on his person?
Also come on, if it's a situation where lube would not be readily available - like, say, a hotel room in China when neither of the characters had thought that dancing the one legged foxtrot with the other party would be even a possibility on the table - there's still a ton of other fun, sexy, intimate and even sappy things they can do!! It doesn't even require a lot of imagination. Why does it always have to come down to the self lubricating asshole. Is it just to make me wonder if the people writing it have enough sexual experience to write about the thing????
And this is especially bothersome in that exact type of YOI fic, because "people overwhelmed w Emotions going "oh god oh god oh god this is actually happening is this real life or is it just fantasy" while having sex (or even just kissing really I'm an idiot) because they spent so much time dancing around each other thinking their attraction is one-sided" is the kind of trite bullshit I'd read even if I weren't in the fandom and had no idea who the characters are. Having those particular pet peeves in a fic for a ship I actually care about is just awful and cruel and should be made illegal by the UN
