Fanfic Writers' Virtual Water Cooler

[selene0789]

Totally never want to read RPF and adult/minor pairing.
Not particularly fond of slash (m/m) but not totally averse to it.
Not particularly fond of certain pairings but again not totally averse to it (except one).

I stumbled onto a Sanctuary RPF and decided to give it a shot, mostly because I had no idea how it would be pulled off. I mentioned it on another thread, here.

As for pairings, I'm not really *averse* to any... but there are only a few that I actively search for, and as such, only a few that I get around to reading. But if the quality of writing is good, I'll generally read anything.

[Whytewytch]

You're being sarcastic...

Stories can have lengthy summaries and covers, and do have them.

Usually, but not this time. Just being blonde--it happens and sometimes it's hard to distinguish when I'm being sarcastic and when I'm suffering from a bout of the blondes (which is slowly morphing into senior-itus). Are you serious? I knew ff.net had started allowing pics, but I have yet to try it out.

[Whytewytch]

Uh, did you know that AO3 has all that?

**Hangs head in shame** Sorry, SF. I'm going, I really am. I'm just horrified by some of the idiotic mistakes in the work I took down from ff.net. And some of it's PWP that I'm not sure I want to re-post. Maybe I'll copy ITB over there, as it's not needing very much attention from me at all.

Miss Muse is starting to peer around corners once more, after a lengthy hiatus. She even let me work on ITB last night & some of my Robin Hood BBC Thieves' series last week.

(No wonder FH thought I was being sarcastic!)

[Whytewytch]

Yep. Here's an example, using the summary page of my own first fic over there. I could probably use a different dimension of artwork, but I have the same piece I use as my sigline here, only in higher quality and a larger size. Scroll down just below the summary and there it is.

Totally cool! I can put my friend Bay to work. She'll be thrilled. Or something. Look what nice work she does. (**points down at sig**)

[selene0789]

Labels are actually my biggest frustration with AO3. I love the different variety of labels one can put on a fic-- but does that mean they should use ALL of them? Even when applicable, a multitude of labels irks me. And the reason for the irking is a simple one.

When I go searching for a fic, I like being able to narrow down my choices. While the "torture" label is convenient when I'm in a certain mood, I can't narrow it down to "sam torture" or "Jack torture". I can search a fic with the labels "torture" "sam" "jack", and then get presented with an SG-A fic where it's Beckett getting the whumping (and SG-1 is simply a fixture in the background, posing and looking pretty).

I like FF.net because I can narrow the search field down to two main characters of focus, and then one or two genres. Now, they could do with some more specific genres, I agree, but the directness in me enjoys the narrower parameters.

[Amara D'Angeli]

**Hangs head in shame** Sorry, SF. I'm going, I really am. I'm just horrified by some of the idiotic mistakes in the work I took down from ff.net. And some of it's PWP that I'm not sure I want to re-post. Maybe I'll copy ITB over there, as it's not needing very much attention from me at all.

Miss Muse is starting to peer around corners once more, after a lengthy hiatus. She even let me work on ITB last night & some of my Robin Hood BBC Thieves' series last week.

(No wonder FH thought I was being sarcastic!)

Wait, you've got some SG-1 PWP that's not available to the masses? I'm sorry, but that just seems wrong somehow...

[Whytewytch]

Wait, you've got some SG-1 PWP that's not available to the masses? I'm sorry, but that just seems wrong somehow...

Yeah, I took it down from ff.net when the recent rumors started circulating again about them doing a sweep and cleaning out all the MA graphic stuff. All right, maybe the PWP will go back up, too.

[Amara D'Angeli]

Yeah, I took it down from ff.net when the recent rumors started circulating again about them doing a sweep and cleaning out all the MA graphic stuff. All right, maybe the PWP will go back up, too.

You could always put it up elsewhere if you're worried about FFN. My stuff on there is pretty graphic and none of it's been removed. (Yet. Knock wood.)

[Whytewytch]

You could always put it up elsewhere if you're worried about FFN. My stuff on there is pretty graphic and none of it's been removed. (Yet. Knock wood.)

I've had mine there for a while, but I was hearing from friends on LJ about authors being removed, mostly for PWP. I have fans there and my blog is linked to it. The plan is to point my FFN fans to the blog also once I'm doing that pretty regularly and then, when I finally put original works up, they will know and I'll have a base of customers already. It's a couple years out, but I figured, why take the chance?

[Amara D'Angeli]

I've had mine there for a while, but I was hearing from friends on LJ about authors being removed, mostly for PWP. I have fans there and my blog is linked to it. The plan is to point my FFN fans to the blog also once I'm doing that pretty regularly and then, when I finally put original works up, they will know and I'll have a base of customers already. It's a couple years out, but I figured, why take the chance?

Makes perfect sense to me. I've got all my stuff up over at LJ, but I'm not a huge fan of LJ - as a matter of fact, I don't think I've signed in in quite a while. I keep all my stuff backed up on my website which is nice. I just recently redid the website too, which was very cool. At least with my own site I don't have to worry about my stuff getting kicked off.

[Whytewytch]

Makes perfect sense to me. I've got all my stuff up over at LJ, but I'm not a huge fan of LJ - as a matter of fact, I don't think I've signed in in quite a while. I keep all my stuff backed up on my website which is nice. I just recently redid the website too, which was very cool. At least with my own site I don't have to worry about my stuff getting kicked off.

I've got LJ, DW and FFN. AO3 is next, but then I do want my own site for backing up and promotional purposes (as writing samples). Not exactly sure about the legality of it, but I'm not gonna worry about it right now, since the website/posting fan fic as writing samples is at least a year in the future.

LJ & DW do not have good review/story tracking IMHO and not enough general population exposure to drive readers to your stories. Also, I put my LJ on "Friends Only" after they had their little Facebook cross-posting fiasco. Don't need my clients reading my PWP, thank you very much!

[Amara D'Angeli]

I've got LJ, DW and FFN. AO3 is next, but then I do want my own site for backing up and promotional purposes (as writing samples). Not exactly sure about the legality of it, but I'm not gonna worry about it right now, since the website/posting fan fic as writing samples is at least a year in the future.

LJ & DW do not have good review/story tracking IMHO and not enough general population exposure to drive readers to your stories. Also, I put my LJ on "Friends Only" after they had their little Facebook cross-posting fiasco. Don't need my clients reading my PWP, thank you very much!

Precisely the reason I use a pseudonym. Who know how many people online I'd know in real life. ;-) Only a handful of people know both my real name and my pseudonym. Sometimes I feel bad getting to know people well in fandom and still going by my pseud, but aside from the fact the name is different, I'm still very much me online so I guess I've learned to justify it.

[Whytewytch]

Precisely the reason I use a pseudonym. Who know how many people online I'd know in real life. ;-) Only a handful of people know both my real name and my pseudonym. Sometimes I feel bad getting to know people well in fandom and still going by my pseud, but aside from the fact the name is different, I'm still very much me online so I guess I've learned to justify it.

Well, I do the same now. But since I talk about personal stuff with my LJ buds, too... I guess I just was a bit wary, is all. There are enough people I know who would be mortified by some of the stuff I write, especially all that stuff I took down from FFN. I am not so worried about me, but with kids in school and the way children can be to each other, it could get ugly if anyone put two and two together and came up with me. I'd just rather not chance it for them, at least not quite yet.

[Amara D'Angeli]

Well, I do the same now. But since I talk about personal stuff with my LJ buds, too... I guess I just was a bit wary, is all. There are enough people I know who would be mortified by some of the stuff I write, especially all that stuff I took down from FFN. I am not so worried about me, but with kids in school and the way children can be to each other, it could get ugly if anyone put two and two together and came up with me. I'd just rather not chance it for them, at least not quite yet.

Fic is my outlet. The writing I do professionally is light years away from the stuff I write in fic. I do business with people all over the state and I'm not sure I could sit across a conference table with people who knew what I did in my off time. The only fandom people who know who I really am are my betas. And it took me a really long time to fess up. Now I've met a couple of them in person and it's been great. They still fight the urge to call me Amara when we're together. I think it's hilarious and sweet.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Labels are actually my biggest frustration with AO3. I love the different variety of labels one can put on a fic-- but does that mean they should use ALL of them? Even when applicable, a multitude of labels irks me. And the reason for the irking is a simple one.

I think over at AO3 the reason for all the different tags or labels is because their search engine is supposed to be able to turn up fic under any number of them, so the more you have the more searches your story will turn up in. Or something like that. *shrugs* I don't know for sure. I have a fair number of tags and labels on my stories over there, but not as many as some, and my work is rather hard to categorize anyway. I mean, it isn't 'ship, it isn't PWP (there's a little bit of sex, but it's very mildly described, almost of the 'fade to black and use your imagination' type, and involves a romance between a barely-canon character and an OC -- and that romance isn't even the central theme of the story), it involves some emotional whumpage but doesn't really center on that, and it's set in an AU but it's kind of a weird AU that isn't too different from what the original Gateverse could have developed into from what we knew of it in SG-1 Season 2. I think I hung a lot of descriptors on it simply in the hope that it would show up in at least some searches, LOL.

I like FF.net because I can narrow the search field down to two main characters of focus, and then one or two genres. Now, they could do with some more specific genres, I agree, but the directness in me enjoys the narrower parameters.

One of the coolest things that happened to me on FF.net was when a reader of mine, early on, requested to the PTB over there that "F. Cromwell" be added to the list of searchable characters, and FF.net actually did so.