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carodeeOkay, so I ran across a request in ![[livejournal.com profile]](/makepkg/implementing-https-www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
sgastoryfinders for a story that was clearly Written by the Victors by Speranza. I couldn't resist clicking the link and lost my Sunday afternoon to reading it. Such a good story. *happy sigh*
ION, I signed up forts_secret_santa and the sign up form asks what kind of stories you're willing to write. I've got a fairly broad range of fic tastes but I realized that I had to exclude H/C as something I could offer.
I've read lots of H/C in The Sentinel because it's ubiquitous and from the occasional comment I gather that I've even accidentally written it. But I have a kind of blind spot where H/C is concerned. I don't recognize it. I've enjoyed a lot of stories that are labeled that way but I react to something other than the H/C. I like the angst and I like eventual happy endings and I really like intense emotional intimacy of the bravery and loyalty against the odds type, but I skip over the hurt with a wince and the comfort as a necessary bandaid and get on with the plot, please. That I'm meant to linger on that moment passes right over my head. And yet I often enjoy the characterization that comes out of well-written H/C. Go figure.
I just think it's funny that H/C is such a huge genre in TS and that I'm color blind about it.
OTOH, if you want dark, angst, humor, schmoop, slice of life, first times or PWPs, that I can do.
sgastoryfinders for a story that was clearly Written by the Victors by Speranza. I couldn't resist clicking the link and lost my Sunday afternoon to reading it. Such a good story. *happy sigh*ION, I signed up for
ts_secret_santa and the sign up form asks what kind of stories you're willing to write. I've got a fairly broad range of fic tastes but I realized that I had to exclude H/C as something I could offer.I've read lots of H/C in The Sentinel because it's ubiquitous and from the occasional comment I gather that I've even accidentally written it. But I have a kind of blind spot where H/C is concerned. I don't recognize it. I've enjoyed a lot of stories that are labeled that way but I react to something other than the H/C. I like the angst and I like eventual happy endings and I really like intense emotional intimacy of the bravery and loyalty against the odds type, but I skip over the hurt with a wince and the comfort as a necessary bandaid and get on with the plot, please. That I'm meant to linger on that moment passes right over my head. And yet I often enjoy the characterization that comes out of well-written H/C. Go figure.
I just think it's funny that H/C is such a huge genre in TS and that I'm color blind about it.
OTOH, if you want dark, angst, humor, schmoop, slice of life, first times or PWPs, that I can do.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 03:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-03 07:02 am (UTC)Stories labelled h/c are usually a long way from being among my favourites for rereading, and I rarely write anything that could be described, even remotely, that way. Angst, yes, (though I might call angst h/c) though I prefer to write something that is the 'hero' characters together against whatever-it-is that's threatening them/their community/society/whatever.
And I hate stories where one of the characters is deliberately tortured, where it's described lovingly blow by blow. Fine suffering those identical injuries if he was mauled by a bear, caught in a landslide, even in a crashed car or train - but not deliberate torture by another person. Just acceptable if done off-screen by a madman and subsequently described by a doctor, but I don't want to know the details.
I think a lot of my attitude towards the 'traditional' h/c-described stories is an iffy 'reset' button in my mind. Character a) is set up to be tortured, seriously injured, life-threateningly ill, and rescued/helped/comforted by character b). If I read three or four of those in a row, my reaction becomes "This guy should be dead, or at least permanently disabled and bedridden by now!" Even one story at a time, if character a) is seriously injured/ill, my reaction is "The only person who can actuallly help here is a doctor, and the concerned friend hovering is just getting in the way!!!!!"
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 01:40 am (UTC)"The only person who can actuallly help here is a doctor, and the concerned friend hovering is just getting in the way!!!!!"
LOL! Or the cradling the injured person in one's arms and refusing to let go for the doctors. Bonus if there's primitive snarling and reaching for one's gun. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 08:55 am (UTC)I only have one or two stories by Sharon saved, but there's a footnote to one of them - (For those Animaniac fans among you, I now quote Skippy Squirrel on this happy ending, "Spew!" I liked it better when more people died. Oh, well, next time.)
Not my kind of writer!
I really don't understand people who presumbly like the characters, like them well enough to write about them, but want to do them permanent damage/kill them. Yes, death stories work sometimes, depending on how they're handled, but a lot of the time I feel that they're just cheap angst.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-04 02:38 pm (UTC)It's not just a case of liking the characters. It can be identifying with one of them or disliking one because they remind you of someone. The thing with fans who like the darker stuff (I assume without knowing anyone's individual circumstances) is that they tend to have personal issues that resonate. I tend to like partner betrayal stories because they hit me in the gut and feel familiar so I get catharsis. It's like poking at a sore tooth, I can't help it. People who write and read death stories may have unresolved grief from losses in their own life.
If you don't have anything in your psyche that resonates with a particular genre, then it's going to seem strange and OOC and it probably is. Although I think writers tend to focus on characters who have the possibility, however tenuous it may be. But it's definitely Idfic and needs to be carefully handled if you're trying to write a story for more general audiences (or what's considered a "well-written" (or good characterization) story). One of things I love about fanfic though is the abundance of Idfic of all kinds. *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-10-05 09:21 pm (UTC)We were talking about it at Write Time, and a number of people said they could and would read most fics, but some where off limits for them.
For me, it's really a case of I NEED the warnings in order to skip a story that other wise will stay with me for a long time and will spoil any others that have similar plots - especially if that one story is very well written.Does that make sense?
Marion
no subject
Date: 2011-10-05 10:00 pm (UTC)I've noticed it myself that certain types of genres or characterizations can bleed across stories and affect how I experience them. A milder version of a dark trope might have the other stories lurking in the shadows.