~~ bad writers untie! :D

[reenka]

sistermagpie said she's sad because someone said they're sick of h/d because no one writes in-character fic for it. and you know, i'm really wondering why -i'm- still here, in general (right now i'm er... not, that much, but then i'm just distracted). metaphorically speaking. is it the fic, that is so brilliant? is it the tantalizing genius of the analysis? is it even my friends in the fandom?

ha. to me it doesn't matter how harry & draco's get butchered as long as -i- see them in a certain way, as long as -i- exist; i would be a fandom of one. i would have jumped ship AGES ago if i was just saying "well how in-character does the fic get", because it doesn't. yes, we all know that in-character h/d fic doesn't really exist if you're picky about it. doesn't take very long to figure that out, man. there's some -great writing- in this pairing, some of the -best- writing, some of the most passionate writing. plus i adore them and the possibility of what they could be.

i think most people aren't -in- "the ship" as far as "the h/d fandom" very much unless they're newbies or really obsessively passionate (ie, they're the writers, not the readers, usually). either that, or people stay for certain particular wip's that keep their faith alive or something. but really, the majority of h/d fans seem to be... not very discriminating. a lot of the discriminating writers had their major productive periods more than a year ago, before ootp and maybe during and right after gof. right now-- it's mostly the newbies. it's not about being in-character and brilliantly rendered and really believable. i mean, if you want canon-believable, for most people that doesn't equal enemy-slash. well, usually.

i guess that while i find getting bored of monotony a reasonable explanation for not reading a certain pairing anymore, the whole "none of it is good" doesn't really seem to work. the majority of everything is pretty much crap anyway. i mean, how can you even justify having high expectations? in fact, the writing in -every- pairing, the fact that brilliant writing -exists- in the first place, already more than justifies and fulfills my expectations. sure, it would be -great- if fic existed that satisfied the canonists and the redemptionists and the smut-fiends and the believable-build-up people all at once-- but the more specific your desires, the more the answer becomes: write it yourself.

people write what they want to write, and partly what they want to read. if no stringently in-character h/d fic exists, this means the demand is low, since even amidst all the piles of crap, the talent is nevertheless high. i guess it's just vaguely surprising that one would seriously -expect- certain things from the fics. i mean, i get upset at bad characterization all the time, but i only get upset because i see so much potential, because i still -want- and need to basically see what amounts to my own vision. and if your own vision is what you need, and you don't share or agree with the majority, then you probably have always known that (well, i have).

might as well be yet another bad writer than a continuously disenfranchised and dissatisfied good reader, i would say.~:)
~~

also. cc's `a lot to be upset about' is the best thing since sliced bread. it is also draco/ginny. muwahahaha. with a side of comedic!draco/snape, which i -really- didn't think could be done. heeee. loveloveloveloveit. want to slash it, except not. i ship non-slashed h+d, eheheh :D

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Ah--I was going to clarify what slytherincess seemed to be saying in her original post but she's here herself.:-) That's what happens when you read friends/friends and randomly reference things without giving the whole context!

I admit to liking things in some fics I don't think are that great--I can fasten on to a throwaway line or situation and run with it. The weird thing is that as much as I love Canon!Draco and Harry I know I could never really say I was someone who judged a fic based on that. There are H/D fics that I really like, that I think give great H/D characterizations, but if pressed I'd have to say they're not really starting from Canon. Oh, they'll have something from canon that I can sink my teeth into and say yes, this says something about canon Draco or Harry, otherwise I just won't be interested. But I wouldn't not read a story just because it used the "Draco's done some thinking over the summer" device until I see how it's done. It is possible Draco could go through a shade of change on his own given how little we see him in canon, and it's not like Harry didn't show a pretty big marked difference in the month between GoF and OotP. I've even been known to enjoy fics that do things that go against things I think are wrong for H/D depending how they're done. I guess, yeah, as long as the characters in my head have potential I'm going to still be interested. And the weird thing is I don't write fanfic. I think I have this strange idea that if I am the one writing it it's not true, whereas if somebody else wrote it down it really happened in some alternate universe. Or something.

Btw, I think the moment Draco admits on some level that he wants to be a bottom to Harry is usually one of the high points of an H/D fic for me.:D

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

heheheh yeah. i know what you mean about if one writes the fic oneself it's not really "true" the same way you want from a fic about characters you're "into". in fact, i've thought about this before, how weird fanfiction is in general in that respect-- generally, writers don't like, lust after and obsess over characters as spectators. i mean, writers are supposed to feel like the characters are -part of them-, whereas really, harry & draco aren't a part of me, they're part of jk rowling, y'know? so i think maybe that's why my writing has improved a bit, since i've had to distance myself from my own head, and that gave me some perspective, which i needed.

but totally, if you write h/d, they become much more a part of you, so it's a different dynamic. i mean, if i get turned on -writing- a scene about harry & draco as well as -reading- it, that really messes with me weirdly, especially since most of the time i don't want them at all, i just want them with each other in a motherly, concerned "awww, i adore you both" sort of way. but then you write or read something intense and all the sweet love goes out the window and you can't help but identify with one or the other or both, just because one does that when one reads or writes. and this is a tangent, but er... yeah.

i am totally with you (surprise!) on not always really judging based on in-characterness (all you have to do is see my list of favorite fics and you'd see plenty of rather ooc stuff that i felt was interestingly written and characterized, so i loved it). i'm rather drawn into a really interesting fic to the point where i forget about my theoretical issues, usually, unless the bad writing quality or the poor basic plausibility forces me to remember. i mean, most of the most awful characterization errors, i've always thought, are basically bad characterization choices for -any- semi-believable human being. but yeah, canon characterization is clearly far from my main gig 'cause i mean, i started from fanon, so. ahahah. *coughs*

and yeah, i know what you mean about it being the high point. *gleeful* heeeeee! i feel a bit of slightly sadistic glee at my inner!draco, 'cause that means he'd begun to crack, dear boy.
CRACK, draco, CRACK!! *giggles*

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

*waves hi to sistermagpie * I just told Reena I'll be replying more in-depth tomorrow. Am a basket case, due to lack of sleep! MUST SLEEP. *facedesks*