Fanfic Genres
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Listing Series
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Pondering the appeal of the Spike/Xander Ship by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01 May 2016
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I was having a discussion with someone about why some ships were heavily written and read in the Buffyverse, and others such as Sparmony were practically non-existent. And it raised a question I’ve had for some time about why Spander became so popular.
Series
- Part 1 of Fanfic Genres
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Vid and Fic Categories by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Fandom - Fandom, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
04 Mar 2021
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It’s probably a professional tendency but I like to categorize, contextualize and devise labels for things. And lately as I’ve been working on video recs I find that I’m curious about how evaluating vids and fic overlap, and what it is that makes something stand out for me.
Series
- Part 2 of Fanfic Genres
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What's in an AU? by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural RPF, Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPF
06 May 2016
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My issue with the term "AU" is that it's used to mean what I consider to be vastly different things. I find the term always has relevance in indicating that the story is somehow non-canon-compliant. However, the ways in which this lack of compliance occurs may relate to settings, life histories, character development, or timeline changes. And in some cases the term is used mostly to distinguish cloaked original fic from canon-inspired stories. Moreover, the fandom in which the term is used may affect the definition in ways that are not the same across the board.
Series
- Part 3 of Fanfic Genres
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I think everyone agrees that RPF/RPS is a form of fanfic, though why this agreement exists seems less clear. I would guess that it's because (1) It's usually written by fans, who are often writing other kinds of fanfic (2) It's non-commercial (in many respects) and (3) It follows various fanfic conventions that we see in FPF whether that's format, archiving, tropes, and so on. So it kind of looks and quacks and waddles similarly even if many circles consider it an uglier form of duckling.
But is it really?
Series
- Part 4 of Fanfic Genres
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While responding to a question of "Should more RPF 'cross the line' and be turned into publishable original fiction?" this was also the week that SPN decided to turn in a mind-bender of an episode with an RP AU.
To me there's automatically a difference between a story that purports to be about a living or deceased person and attempts to use as much evidence as possible to recreate them as they are/were, and stories that merely use the archetype of a person as a framework on which to develop a character. Because if it's the latter, I suspect just about every piece of "original" fiction out there contains characters that are based on people the author knows, or knows of. Writers are like magpies, constantly gathering bits and pieces from their lives to use in their writing, and other people are certainly part of that collection.
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- Part 5 of Fanfic Genres
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A discussion of RPF AU stories and whether they can work as original fiction.
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- Part 6 of Fanfic Genres
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Slash vs Het wars, aka: Won't someone please think of the multishippers by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Fandom - Fandom, Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mad Men, Queer as Folk (US)
06 May 2016
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I definitely feel sympathy for this prompt's POV. As a reader of gen, het, and slash, I really don't understand why there should be conflict there. Perhaps because of my reading preferences, many of the writers I read repeatedly also write in more than one of these veins, so I have to wonder who it is who is having such problems with it?
My central thoughts about this topic were:
1) Can slash and het actually be called genres?
2) What tends to feed or block one or the other?Series
- Part 7 of Fanfic Genres
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For a while now, I've been curious what people see as the common stories in SPN. Now that I've been reading around in SPN fic for a while I think I can identify a few categories, but I'm interested in other ideas. I'm not focusing on what typical fanfic plots tend to get used (first times, spell goes awry, bodyswapping, amnesia, etc.), but rather, how canon and characters tend to get repeatedly reshaped.
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- Part 8 of Fanfic Genres
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I started reading Avengers fics based on recs I was picking up from my flist. Although I was really interested in gen, especially fics featuring Natasha, most of the early ones recommended were Loki/Tony. At first glance the FrostIron ship didn't seem very likely to me. However, after trying out Bruce/Loki, Clint/Loki, Darcy/Loki, Thor/Loki, Jane/Loki, Steve/Loki, Sif/Loki and Natasha/Loki, I have to say it's the one that makes the most sense to me.
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- Part 9 of Fanfic Genres
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Of Sexiness by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series, Supernatural
15 May 2016
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A post at the TWC symposium blog caught my attention as it focused on a strand of fanfic I don't see enough of. I'm not sure I'm convinced that threesome fic, particularly the M/F/M variety, is growing in quantity. Of course, that may be because I've been reading in SPN fandom for the past few years and simple het is scarce on the ground. But as our Classic Recs session just ended again at buffyversetop5, it was easy enough to look at the numbers in a verse that was built on het.
Series
- Part 10 of Fanfic Genres
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,259
- Chapters:
- 1/1
- Kudos:
- 9
- Hits:
- 334
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The Who Does Matter by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Fandom - Fandom, Real Person Fiction, Marvel Cinematic Universe
26 Jan 2018
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I don't believe I've ever written my own "Why Slash?" post, however two things prompted this one. The first was an interesting post which took on the topic and offered an explanation I hadn't yet seen. And the second was that the topic's Fanlore entry points out "while no equivalent existential soul-searching exists for "why het"." It was that second part that seemed to me the key issue. I don't think that slash is that different from het in the bigger picture. Rather there is a larger question of why we write who we write that is at the heart of it at all.
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- Part 11 of Fanfic Genres
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Thoughts about reboot culture and the most fanficcy trope.
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- Part 12 of Fanfic Genres
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Well before the Meta Manifesto fest got started, I wanted to review Merlin fic trends with an (inevitable) focus on Merlin/Arthur stories. One caveat to all that follows is that it describes fanworks available through AO3. There are likely to be significant differences, particularly in terms of the het to gen to slash ratio, in other online locations.
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- Part 13 of Fanfic Genres
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Meta Manifesto made me wonder what other frequent pairing I read that I had yet to write about. And although this is a pretty recent one, I wanted to tackle Jane Foster/Loki. Caveat that all the numbers that follow reflect activity at AO3.
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- Part 14 of Fanfic Genres
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Meta Manifesto: Enemies to Lovers Stories by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Merlin (TV), Killing Eve (TV 2018), Marvel Cinematic Universe
08 May 2021
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Spoilers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Merlin, Killing Eve and Avengers.
Although the EtL story type is highly popular, I think there are ways in which it works more deeply or successfully. What counts as "success" though is the crux of the story, as well as whether the characters are truly enemies.
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- Part 15 of Fanfic Genres
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Is the use of babies in an epilogue to a romance story common, and has that changed over the last decade?
Originally posted November 17, 2018 / April 30, 2022
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- Part 16 of Fanfic Genres
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Why I Like Fusions by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Fandom - Fandom, Sense8 (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Blade Runner (Movies), Star Wars Original Trilogy, Elementary (TV), Sleepy Hollow (TV), White Collar (TV 2009), Star Trek
15 May 2022
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As part of the Meta Manifesto Challenge, a look at some of the typical elements of fusions and why they can make for rewarding and insightful faworks.
Series
- Part 17 of Fanfic Genres
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The Mirror View: Soulmates vs Arranged Marriages by yourlibrarian
Fandoms: Fandom - Fandom
08 May 2023
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A look at the distinctions between these two tropes. Written for the Meta Manifesto 2023 Fest.
Series
- Part 18 of Fanfic Genres