I've always wanted to do this meme.

[emmagrant01]

1. Fan fiction writers can write whatever they want. No, really. You don't need to ask permission from anyone to write your story. And no one else has the right to tell you what you should and shouldn't write about.

2. On being "OOC": I don't care if your Harry is so dark and twisted that he is unrecognizeable from the books, or if your Snape is flamboyantly gay, or if your Draco is a whiny princess. If someone else calls it OOC, so what? You wrote it for a reason. It made you happy, or at least it kept you from going crazy to get it out of your head. Someone else probably read it and liked it too. People who didn't like it know where the back button is.

3. On calling someone else's fic "OOC": Just say "I don't like your characterization because it doesn't match mine" and leave it at that. What is and isn't IC is highly subjective. No one in fandom can legitimately claim to know exactly what [insert character here] would do in a given situation, and at best we can agree to disagree. [I edited this one for clarity.]

4. Slash writers are writing for themselves and for each other, and not for anyone else. If you need a man's approval of your fic, then you have some self-esteem issues.

5. It's called "fiction" for a reason. We write about wizards and vampires and Jedi -- and you know, none of that shit really exists. (AFAIK, anyway.) So the amount of reality you inject into your fic is really up to you. I like my sex scenes with a dose of reality, but I don't begrudge anyone else their fantasy sex. See #1.

Comments

[eliminate.livejournal.com]

What do you mean, wizards don't exist??! :O

And well said. :D I like my Alan Rickman Snape to be a sexy bastard.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Hee! I think I need to add in a disclaimer up there.

[furiosity.livejournal.com]

I don't think those are unpopular... they just seem like common sense to me.

Oh wait, this is fandom. Never mind. *runs*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

LOL! So true. ;-)

[lagreyeyes.livejournal.com]

Agreed, on all counts.

Though I DO believe magic exists. *g*

[rolling-scone.livejournal.com]

Yuki icon! ♥ May I ask who made it?

[fourth_rose]

Slash writers are writing for themselves and for each other, and not for anyone else. If you need a man's approval of your fic, then you have some self-esteem issues.

*hands you the internet*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thank you! *cuddles it*

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

I think these all sound like valid opinions! :)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think so too. But I've wondered about that lately. :-P

[carpe-slytherin.livejournal.com]

They might be unpopular, but they're one of the most intelligent things I've heard lately. Butbutbut wizards, vampires, Jedi and shit don't exist? *sobs and runs away screaming*

[carpe-slytherin.livejournal.com]

ETA: As my husband just so nicely put it, "If you read fan fiction at all, you KNOW that shit exists."

Bwahaha! He slays me.

[novembersnow.livejournal.com]

4. Slash writers are writing for themselves and for each other, and not for anyone else. If you need a man's approval of your fic, then you have some self-esteem issues.

Yes, yes, and more yes. (To all your observations, really, but especially this one.)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I totally stole that one from you. ;-)

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I think some of them would be wildly unpopular. ITA, though -- just because I want one thing out of my fic doesn't mean I begrudge other people what they want.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Right, and that's the point. The playground is big enough for everyone, and no one is in charge. I get annoyed by people trying to enforce their own standards of what we should and shouldn't write about, and not phrasing it in terms of their own preferences or opinions. "I prefer" is totally different from "You should or else you suck".

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

4. Slash writers are writing for themselves and for each other, and not for anyone else. If you need a man's approval of your fic, then you have some self-esteem issues.

Gah! Perhaps I'm being corrupted by my feminist jurisprudence reading assignments, but the idea that it would be any other way just really pisses me off. It's not as if men ask for women's approval on their shitty porn.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. It should go without saying, shouldn't it? :-P

[jgracio.livejournal.com]

Word to pretty much everything, though 3 is debatable.

I mean, I can write a Xander that bitches at Buffy and is carrying a torch for Angel or Spike, and it's ok, but one can hardly say it's IC.

Or a Harry Potter that sacrifices babies to the dark gods to gain power, power he will use to overthrow his father, Lord Voldemort and rule the Galaxy with an iron fist besides the Emperor (until the Emperor has an accident, of course), but well, someone saying it's OOC is probably right.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

It depends on how you get from Where Canon Is At This Moment to Point B. A clever writer can manouver the universe so any concept is readable, interesting and a good story, and a rational characterization too.

Now, once you've deemed something an AU, the OOC argument isn't really viable anyway - I mean, if someone wrote a fic where Harry Potter sacrificed a baby to the dark gods to gain power while in the cave in HBP, that would be AU from the series in the first place...

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Amen.

I love you.

That is all.

*some Brian/Justin for you!*

Is this flocked, Emma? I wasn't paying attention. If not, please don't. This needs to be seen for a while, I think.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Nope, not flocked. I shall wear my opinions proudly this day! ;-)

[wivern.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yep.

That whole OOC thing... I must be lucky, the fandoms I have been active in , that hasn't been too much of a problem. I mean, people would complain about weepy, helpless Obi but it was more a 'that's not how I see him and I can't imagine a Jedi being like that' but then they mostly shrugged and added 'but if it floats your boat... what the hell'.

*g* probably a sign that I need to get more involved in the fandom (both the Stargates) that I do read in now. I'm soooo out of touch.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

but it was more a 'that's not how I see him and I can't imagine a Jedi being like that' but then they mostly shrugged and added 'but if it floats your boat... what the hell'.

Yes, and that's great. I just have a problem with the people who categorically slam fic that has characterizations they don't like, and use canon as their reason. Especially when slashers do it, because it strikes me as a bit hypocritical.

[earth-magic.livejournal.com]

*smirks*

Excellent observations and so true.

One person's reality is another person fantasy.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, absolutely -- and that's the beauty of fandom!

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

These need to be on a billboard.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Hee! That would raise an eyebrow or two during rush hour.

[veryshortlist.livejournal.com]

But what if you're a man who writes slash?

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

If you approve of yourself, that should be good enough. ;-)

That one is in reference to something going on in fandom right now, actually. I guess what I'm trying to say is that slashers are writing for each other, and aren't necessarily writing gay porn. So what if your fic doesn't meet the standards of someone you didn't write it for? Something like that. :-)

[mayflo.livejournal.com]

That goes for fanart too *g*

*waves corssdressing!Draco flag*

If there's a rule in fandom, this should be it; we're here to pursue what we like the way we like it.

This ought to be *the* obvious prelude to fandom, but fen forget this often enough that there's wank here, wank there and, argh, it's neverending.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It really should be about having fun, yeah. :-)

[doro-chan.livejournal.com]

I think the OOC point is debatable. I'am not against OOC-ness, as long as there is a warning. If people insist their character is totally IC and then Harry is a werewolf/elf/veela/unicorn mixture who can't think about anything but sex with the murderer of his parents (without an explanation), then OOC-ness is annoying.

But I especially think a lot of people should think about point five, because many mpreg stories are critized because they are not "real" enough. I mean, you don't have to like it, but it's kind of a bad argument when you're writing in a fandom in which people can pop up anywhere they want or change into animals at will.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

My point is just that what is considered OOC or IC is in the majority of cases subjective. For example, I have been told that my characters were OOC when I thought they were reasonable extrapolations from canon, and that I had done a pretty decent job of explaining how they got to that point. It's one thing if you say I could have written it better, but another if you say my interpretation of a character is wrong and that yours is correct. That is what I have an issue with, because at that point, we clearly just have a difference of opinion.

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

I really, really like your opinions, especially #3. :) But all of them, really.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

#3 seems to be the unpopular one. ;-)

[rotschopf.livejournal.com]

All I can really do here is quote Oscar Wilde:

"No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything."
and
"It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors."
and
"When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself."

Aka: WORD :)

♥

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Wilde quotes! :-D

[silver-osiris.livejournal.com]

4. Slash writers are writing for themselves and for each other, and not for anyone else. If you need a man's approval of your fic, then you have some self-esteem issues.

OMGZ?!?! You mean women can write about BUTTSECKS? Cuz you know grrlz NEVA take it in the back door. *snorts and rolls eyes*

You=Awesome.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

LOL! You know, that always bugs me, because seriously? I've had anal sex. I've also given tons of blow jobs in my life, so even though I don't have a penis attached to me, I think I can say a thing or two about what penises do under such circumstances.

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

Slashcast meta aside... I usually find OOC discussions uncomfortable. They're rather personal for the most part. Sure, there are times when we all see things that are a bit 'hiz hed is pastede on yaye!' but if it's entertaining, does it really matter?

Sometimes it feels like fandom is unaware of the idea of preferences. Some writers don't seem to grok the idea that not everyone likes what they like and probably aren't going to. I know what pairings and situations I like and that's that. I've sampled. Sometimes I like things that surprise me. Sometimes I dislike things I thought I would like. Sometimes I'm just plain not in the mood to read another take on the characters. It's not any more personal than changing the channel on the television. I don't hate CBS because I'm watching NBC. *shrugs* I just stay out of it and deny reading anything anymore ;)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm getting the picture that the OOC thing is the unpopular opinion in the bunch. But then, I take that one a bit personally. ;-)

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

Most of these are pretty popular with me. :)

I think the only thing I don't 100% agree on is the one about calling someone else's fic OOC. I mean, I think a person should be *polite* about it, and I don't generally think there is any point to calling it that to the author's face, but I think that there is a place for that discussion in general fandom meta.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

That's clearly the unpopular one in the bunch. I'm just tired of people throwing it around as an insult, basically. And yeah, part of that is personal, because I've been told a few times that my LMH Draco is horribly OOC. And the thing is, I disagree with that quite a lot. I think he is a very reasonable extrapolation from OOTP. Clearly, other people agree with me on that point, but I don't think it's about being right or wrong, and that's my issue. What is or is not OOC is subjective in the vast majority of cases. You can say that you don't like the way an author has interpreted a character, or that you don't think they've done a good job of justifying their characterization, but calling it OOC is at best lazy criticism. It's like "Slash is OOC because Harry isn't gay in the books." That's not the point, you know?

IMO. But then this post is all about me. ;-)

[clyan-bunnies.livejournal.com]

Hey, I agree with all of that wholeheartedly. ^_^

[acromantular.livejournal.com]

I agree with many of the above posters: these things should basically be taken for granted, with slight personal variation for every writer.

If they're really unpopular opinions then I'm happy to find myself hanging around in an unusually good fandom neighborhood..

[best-of-five.livejournal.com]

interesting! and i can't imagine these are all that unpopular.

i disagree somewhat with 2&3 'cos while as a writer you're absolutely allowed to write whatever you want, i think readers are allowed to call you on OOCness if that's how it comes across to them. i think fandom considers that label bad but that's not necessarily a function of just the critic.

i think it's the same way people describe certain things as fanon!draco. there's a degree of OOCness implied there. but people wholeheartedly embrace it, so it doesn't have the same negative connotation. long point short, i think it's an OK label, doesn't have to get a writer on the defensive :)

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

As long as it's framed as an opinion, that's fine with me. But I'm just tired of people using the OOC label against entire pairings or genres of fic, as if they get to decide what counts as IC for everyone else. That seems remarkably arrogant to me.