This is very general, but I love fanfic because I’m the kind of person who lists Gurren Lagann even higher than it might be in her list of beloved shows because her favorite character didn’t die after approximately five minutes of screen time. I am the black widow of fans. If you fascinate me immediately as a character, you are marked for death. My reaction to Death Note was hilarious. There are big traditional media creators who will frequently gravitate to those avenues that most appeal to my specific interests, and pursue the characters who live there. (Maybe not that many. Population: Joss, mostly. Though we do get visitors.) A lot of them won’t, and I don’t necessarily think those stories would be better if my doomed faves lived. That’s just not what those stories are, or what they’re about. I moan, but mostly because the unfortunate accuracy of my ability to pick out characters who will barely appear and then die is really pretty fucking funny, at least to me. But sometimes I’m not the only one who wanted to see more of a particular character. Sometimes there are people who wanted more of a certain character for pretty much the same reasons I did, even if I couldn’t have put those reasons into good words. And sometimes those people wrote fanfiction, and my horrible children get to be central fucking characters, and I scream to the heavens in victory! Which looks exactly like sitting on my bed reading fanfic on my phone, but the joy expressed by the action is pretty much identical even if the volume is not.
Long fics in my small fandoms. Long COMPLETE fics in my small fandoms. Romance or adventure or a combo of the two. Just give me the long fic please.
Partnerships that are ships. I will fall hard for fics where two characters are equal partners and more or less balance each other out. (This is largely why I am/ I was a big fan of Chrono Crusade: Rosette and Chrono very much balanced each other out. Rosette: more or less the hot headed one except when she isn't. Chrono: more or less calm and gently sarcastic/scolding except when he's the one who needs to be calmed down.)
Is there a snappy term for massive-multiplayer-crossovers? Because I take delight in the fact that I'm working on a story in which Daffy Duck, Team Rocket, Tai Lung, Roman Torchwick, Jack Sparrow, and Mike the mouse from Sing end up in holding cells together in various combos. I've always taken to heart the advice that a story benefits from having a location such as a bar in which there's a good reason for a diverse cast of characters to show up, and that seems to be working here.
Not sure about term, but can I just say whenever you talk about stuff you write or are involved in it sounds so fun and exciting! I love it :D
Should it be abbreviated to MMCs? No one'll know what I mean by that but maybe I can spread the term.
No one cares about an abbreviation for a term they don't use. Spread the original term, and then once people are saying it, if they want to shorten it they can.
When you’re being tossed about in a storm Big Emotion, the fic is so good and you’re so very here for it. Then you notice that the author has an absolutely ridiculous peak internet name, like FartyMarty42 or poopwitch. It doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with a kink. As far as you can tell, it’s just a silly name. And now you have the unparalleled joy of knowing that when this fic makes you cry, you will owe it all to poopwitch.
When you enter a fandom that’s quite large and prolific, and there’s so much good stuff. But there’s this one author who absolutely blows you away. You keep browsing and enjoying yourself, but you’re reluctant to close that one tab because apparently really good characterization has almost a superstitious quality. They have stuff in other fandoms you haven’t even checked out yet. Just knowing it exists makes you grateful, even if you’re not in the right headspace for it just now. Or when you enter a relatively small, quiet fandom. Oh no, you’ve discovered a vast wasteland of crossovers starring characters from other properties. It’s not like there’s nothing, or even like there’s nothing good, but you do begin to feel a little resigned as you scroll and scroll. Then something catches your attention. It’s unusual. It’s good. It’s really good. And it’s your jam? What is this unexpected blessing? The author has over a hundred stories in this fandom, you are SAVED. Bonus: the reason this miracle author’s name looks so familiar is because you’ve been looking at it in that one tab you still haven’t closed. These are the same author, and the smaller fandom? That’s one of their mains. It’s just always so good when you discover that someone whose stuff you really enjoy has been partying hard in this other fandom that’s suddenly relevant to your interests.
Fanfic-version Taylor Lifeisstrange is the bff confidante every girl, boy, enby, and other needs and deserves in their life and I love her
...I just now realized enby is in fact short for non binary, and not an in character misspelling of ebony dementia dark'ness Raven way. I just assumed people were using her name to refer to non binary folks??? For years??? I am a dumb
you know what warms my heart? every time Ao3 has a donation drive, a new crop of bitter assholes creep from their dens to make a big stink about how it's immoral and a waste of money and the site should be shut down and give away all their totally abundant assets to atone for their sins and every time, Ao3 rockets past their donation goal in just days currently they have almost triple what they were asking for :3
This particular batch of bitter assholes were particularly laughable, because they were whining about AO3 asking for donations DURING A PANDEMIC!!!, like that was something terrible for them to be doing, and. AO3's traffic has shot up so much since The Circumstances started that I can tell just from the influx of kudos I've been getting on all my old fic in my tiny, obscure corner of fandom. Incidentally, despite The Circumstances, influxes of kudos are a Fanfic Delight.
unrelated but: I’m reliving my ancient Phantom of the Opera phase (one of the first fandoms I ever read fic for!) and I love the postcanon fics with scenes where Erik sees Christine and immediately YEETS himself from the situation. nope, not dealing with that today, Exit Stage Out-The-Window
