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			but what is fandom if not overwrought and pretentious? - Idiot Control Now — LiveJournal bees on pie, burning rubber tires




			02:32 pm January 5th, 2009

mellowcandle


	but what is fandom if not overwrought and pretentious?
	Okay, to get myself in some sort of zone, I've been poking around the theme lists of different communities like 52flavors and 30kisses, and putting aside that I've always found some of the themes listed to be overwrought and pretentious, I've got another issue re: doing several fics for this one pairing. Since no one knows the characters, I'll be general here. Say you have a male character who has a phobia about touching/being touched by women. He's not gay, but it's psychological and related to a traumatic childhood event. Now say over the course of the series, he isn't quite as paralyzed by this issue (he's able to save a female character's life by grabbing her, and he's able to carry another injured female somewhere for help), but it's still there and he's still not comfortable with the whole physical contact thing. But you want to pair him up with a female character because you think it'd be great, and you want to write fic, maybe more than one. Here's the question, making a long story longer. How many times do you address his little problem in fic before you can just assume he does get over it at some point? Not all at once, but little by little. If you want to write something where they've been together a while, you might not address it at all, but then you'd have people saying you're ignoring an important part of his canon characterization. (And we all know what a heinous sin that is.) Probably no one will read what I write, because I'm still in the beginning stages of writing for this series and won't have anything good enough to post in the first place, but when I do get to that stage, I want to be sure I'm not totally ignoring canon, but at the same time, I don't want to have to address the "no touching" thing every. single. time. Current Mood: confused Current Music: mitchell on mst3k

9 pathetic excuses or justify your existence


	Comments




			Thread started by Dove

From: dropsofviolet	Date: January 5th, 2009 08:54 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I'd say, write it as long as you feel like you need to write it, and then drop it. I would consider writing a theme community as writing in a set, especially given that they're all the same pairing. And if the same universe, all the better. After a while, you get the ability to handwave it, I'd think.

That's something I like about theme communities: the ability to rehash something until you're done with it. I wrote

heartbrkhotel for Meiling because it always bugged me that she didn't get a happy ending, but by the time I got to the end of the series, I was writing happy moving-on fic. That's what works for me.

Anyway, just my tl;dr.

(Reply) (Thread)

	From: mellowcandle	Date: January 6th, 2009 04:25 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I think you're right. Write it until I feel like I'm repeating myself. It's a good starting point, in any event, and until I actually finish my first attempt at the pairing, I don't need to be thinking too far ahead anyway.

Aw, poor Meiling. I do love her, and I like to think that she got a good ending. She realized that you can't plan your whole life when you're a little kid, and it actually freed her to take advantage of new possibilities. That's how I like to look at it, anyway.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)




			Thread started by Umi

	From: umilingual	Date: January 5th, 2009 09:35 pm (UTC)		(Link)

To just address one tiny point of your question (havng no experience with theme comms like that): if it's a fic set exclusively later on in a long-running arc of yours, and he's gotten over it, it might be possible to throw a reference in there without rehashing the whole issue. Maybe a random comment from one of the characters about how he used to be or is over it now. (I hope I'm making sense, because my brain is more focused on this hurting-all-over thing right now...)

(Reply) (Thread)

	From: mellowcandle	Date: January 6th, 2009 04:29 pm (UTC)		(Link)

References are a good idea. I guess it's kind of like writing Touya/Tomoyo. At first I felt the need to always address Yukito and Sakura, but after a while, it just seemed implied that yes, this is several years in the future, and they've moved on.

Hurting-all-over, ugh. *hugs* Feel better, dear.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)




			Thread started by Babykoalaprincess (aka BKP)

	From: sapphire_star87	Date: January 6th, 2009 02:40 am (UTC)		(Link)

You sound as if you're talking about Akibahara@DEEP or something. :P

(Reply) (Thread)

	From: mellowcandle	Date: January 6th, 2009 04:31 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Heh, no. Is that something I would like?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

	From: sapphire_star87	Date: January 6th, 2009 07:55 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I honestly don't know. I don't know your tastes in J-dramas or whatever. But yeah, that description certainly sounds like one of the characters though. :P

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)




			Thread started by cal_reflector

	From: cal_reflector	Date: January 6th, 2009 04:25 am (UTC)		(Link)

Alright. I'll watch, because I'm hungry to read your work, which Tales Of is this?

Four times: Introduction, tests phobia after passage of time, casual bystander remarks on his seeming progress, final test and realization that the phobia is gone. Hot fluffy body contact ensues, erasing the last stretch of physical and emotional distance between the two:

"I've been wanting to do this for a long time."

*The two break to gasp for breath*

"Any longer and I would have forced myself on you."

(Reply) (Thread)

	From: mellowcandle	Date: January 6th, 2009 04:36 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Teh Abyss.

There's a childhood friends pairing in there for you. I'd be curious to see if you'd go canon or non-canon. I actually like all the canon pairings, but, you know me, I always have to go off-script and mix them up.

Since I've finished the game and know how it all turns out, if I ever do get something written and finished and good enough to post, there will be like spoilers and stuff in it.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)


	9 pathetic excuses or justify your existence