Fanfic Survey

[kerravonsen]

Gacked (what does gacked mean?) from izhilzha and fikgirl.

Fanficton
Do you read or write fanfiction?	Yes, both.
When did you first start reading/writing fanfiction?	If you count poetry, I wrote B7 poems when in 12th grade, even before I knew of the existance of fandom
What was your first fandom?	Blake's 7
First ship?	(I hate this assumption that it's all about SHIPPING!) Avon/Cally
What website do you use most?	my own: http://www.katspace.org
What do you think of Fanfiction.net?	99.9% crap
What fandoms have you written in?	Blake's 7,Doctor Who, Highlander, Buffy, Sentinel, Stargate, Tomorrow People, VR.5; Matrix, HHGG, Farscape, Scarecrow & Mrs King, Lexx, Red Dwarf, Samurai Jack, Star Wars, Star Trek; Babylon 5, Bladerunner, Sapphire & Steel, Forever Knight, LotR, Millenium, Ocean Girl, Pretender, SAAB, UFO, Battlestar Galactica; Little Fuzzy, Six Million Dollar Man, Champions (a lot of these are crossovers and poems)
Pairings?	Avon/Cally, Daniel/Sha're; and in defiance of this assumption, I also declare that the AMPERSANDS I write are Jim & Blair, Daniel & Jack... but mostly just everybody being who they are in canon...
Any fandoms you would like to write in?	Sapphire & Steel (I've only done poetry before, not stories), Sandman, Matrix (the TV show not the movie), Stingray (the Cannell show not the Anderson one), House, Alien Nation, Wanderer, Darkover
Do reviews affect how you write in any way?	Since I don't publish WIPs, they don't affect the course of a story, but they do encourage me, and concrit is always good to learn from
Do you use a beta?	for everything except ficlets (with short deadlines such as b7friday) and drabbles
What ratings do you read/write?	G/PG/PG13 up to MA for violence
What warnings have you used on your fiction/read?	spoilers for X, AU
Do you have any squicks?	slash, major non-canonical character death, and leave sex in the bedroom
Do you Role-play online? If so, what?	Once upon a time, I played a cyberpunk character in alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo newsgroup (ah, those were the days)
Have you ever stolen something from another person's work?	Do you think anybody would honestly admit that? But, no, I haven't stolen, though I have been inspired, both positively and negatively.
Favorite fandom to write/read?	I have to pick ONE?
Favorite pairing?	What's with all this pairing stuff?
Favorite writer/writers?	Too many to name. Look at my reviews page.
How long should a chapter be?	How long is a piece of string?
Do you write/read drabbles?	Yes, mainly b7friday ones
Any fandoms you avoid?	the ones for shows I don't like? Actually I like more shows than I'm involved in the fandoms of.
Pairings you avoid?	non-canonical ones, especially when a canonical one already exists (some crossovers excepted)
Warnings you avoid?	What's the difference between this and the squicks question?
Do the number of reviews tell how good a story is?	It depends entirely whether the reviewers are mindless sycophants or intelligent people. Mindless sycophants tend to hang out at fanfiction.net; intelligent people give more than two-word reviews.
What do you think of Mary Sues?	http://www.katspace.org/fiction/essays/marisu.html
Have you ever flamed someone?	Not intentionally
Have you ever been flamed?	Yep. Though never about my stories.
That's it, aren't you glad?	No, why aren't there ampersand-related questions?
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Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

Little Fuzzy fanfic!? *is delighted* I want that! Maybe I should write some! I think I shall definitely dig out the books when I get home tonight...aw, Little Fuzzy and Goldilocks....

How long is a piece of string?

Best answer that will ever be to that question. :-D

Pairings you avoid? non-canonical ones, especially when a canonical one already exists (some crossovers excepted)

Agreed--although I've found myself with one exception: Jack O'Neill/Janet Fraiser. Somehow it just works in my head.

squicks: major non-canonical character death

Heh. I can see which of my finishathon ideas you *won't* be voting for. *snicker*

[kerravonsen]

Little Fuzzy fanfic!? *is delighted* I want that!

'twas a crossover I wrote once upon a time under a pseud. Alas, I no longer even have the books anymore. I should probably try to track them down.

Agreed--although I've found myself with one exception: Jack O'Neill/Janet Fraiser. Somehow it just works in my head.

(shrug) Sometimes a writer can be persuasive enough to make me believe, for the course of the story. Though I think Sam/Teal'c is simply beyond belief. I can see the possibility of Sam/Daniel and Daniel/Janet, maybe in some AU universe, but not that...

And astrogirl2 and lady_smith and redstarrobot have persuaded me that Doc-9/Cally is a Good Thing. (grin)

I can see which of my finishathon ideas you *won't* be voting for.

Me doesn't want to see Blair die, sorry. Except of old age.

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

'twas a crossover I wrote once upon a time under a pseud.

That mean you no longer have a copy? *flutter eyelashes* Because I'd love to read it....

(shrug) Sometimes a writer can be persuasive enough to make me believe, for the course of the story. Though I think Sam/Teal'c is simply beyond belief. I can see the possibility of Sam/Daniel and Daniel/Janet, maybe in some AU universe, but not that...

Yeah, I don't know who came up with Sam/Teal'c. And while I can possibly see Sam/Daniel (if the writer were persuasive enough), I just cannot see Daniel/Janet. Hmmmm...

Me doesn't want to see Blair die, sorry. Except of old age.

Technically, neither do I. And my beta loves the story idea, but keeps pestering me not to "whack the anthropologist". It's just one of those stories that begs to be written, regardless--but you needn't read it. :-)

[kerravonsen]

That mean you no longer have a copy? *flutter eyelashes* Because I'd love to read it....
It would be a case of typing it up from the zine it's in, presuming I still have a copy of the zine, so it's not very likely to happen. Not to mention it's probably so old I wouldn't want it to see the light of day anyway...

but you needn't read it

We shall see which one of yours wins the vote, first... 8-)

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

I think "gacked" is a mutation of "glarked".

[bktheirregular]

I think "gacked" is kinda like "snurched", only somewhat more visceral and a little less illegal. *g*

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You and me both on the assumptions it's all about pairing. I got a nice comment the other day on my fanfic100 Vila stories; the person liked that I was exploring his character rather than just pairing him with someone. I gather that's unusual. [sigh]

[kerravonsen]

Youngsters nowadays... now, when I were a lass, we knew what fanfic was about! ... uphill in the snow... both ways!

(shakes cane at whipper-snappers)

*eyes perk up*

[tptigger.livejournal.com]

Uh oh. I think I'm going to have to go hunt down your SAAB fic. Is it on your website?

Re: *eyes perk up*

[kerravonsen]

Sorry, I'm gonna dissappoint you on two points. More than two. Yes, it is on my website, but it's not a story; what's more, its a poem which is a companion piece to a story which someone else wrote, and won't make sense outside that context, and furthermore, that most excellent story is in a zine (Enarrare, which has a sub-page on my site) but unfortunately also, the last I heard, the editor of said zine was out of the country, and wouldn't be able to get her hands on the zines even if you could contact her. Which is sad, cuz it's a really great series of stories.

Re: *eyes perk up*

[kerravonsen]

Oh, and I just checked, it isn't actually on my site either. Just in the zine. It's *listed* on my site, which is why I was momentarily confused.

[labingi.livejournal.com]

Please write Sapphire and Steel fic! The world needs more of it, and I think it would be right up your alley:-)

[kerravonsen]

I don't think it is; one needs to be inspired by a dream in order to get the creepy atmosphere. I'm far too logical. Fortunately for you, that Doctor Who dream I had recently is just the kind of thing which would fit Sapphire & Steel. A crossover may ensue, in due course, after I've finished 3 or 4 other stories which come before it...

[labingi.livejournal.com]

Cool. I will look forward to your crossover then:-)

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

O_O You're thinking of writing Alien Nation fic?? PLEASE DO! Astro and I would probably both love you forever for it!

[kerravonsen]

Not really. I had an Alien Nation/Highlander crossover idea many years ago. Which never got further than an idea. Therefore I put AN on the list, because it did get into my "list of fic ideas"... but very low down on it.

I don't think I *could* write AN at this point, because I've forgotten most of the canon.

Of the list of "would like to write" fandoms, Sapphire & Steel is the most likely to happen (see above), followed by House and Sandman.

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. And Sandman fic, I honestly think the world needs more of it. I've never met a bad peice of Sandman fic.

[kerravonsen]

And Sandman fic, I honestly think the world needs more of it. I've never met a bad peice of Sandman fic.

The two follow on from each other, IMHO. Fandoms for which there is little fic, tend to have better quality fic... especially if the canon is one which sets the bar very high. I'm really basing this assertion on my observation that Highlander fandom got more instances of crappy fic as the fandom got bigger. But maybe it was just the time and the place and the people...

[lizamanynames.livejournal.com]

Possibly, possibly, though my own experiences in Matrix fandom bear you out... in reverse. The smaller the fandom gets, the better the fic that's still around is. :)

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

No, I think you're right. Mass appeal means lowest common denominator, while niche appeal means you get the type of person who seeks out things that are 'special'. This latter type of person is more likely to put effort into good writing, IMNSHO.

[kerravonsen]

True, but I've just remembered an exception: I have read bad Sapphire & Steel fic, and that's a very small fandom. Well, it wasn't actually crap, it just failed to be good, and that's probably more due to the nature of the show itself, it's very hard to write well for, I think.

[julesjones]

I hate this assumption that it's all about SHIPPING!

This might surprise those who know what I and my alter ego mostly write, but yes, I hate that assumption as well. For one thing, a rather high percentage of my X-rated stuff is not "they really, really luuurve each other, you know", but is actually using sex to talk about other things. Mostly politics. :-)

My B7 zine collection has more shelf space devoted to genzines than to all types of adult zines combined, including the ones with mixed gen and adult content. And most of that gen is *gen*, not G and PG-rated shipping stories. It's stories about the characters and their world, not about pairing off the characters.

I am now feeling the urge to go and re-read Enarrare.

[kerravonsen]

but is actually using sex to talk about other things. Mostly politics.

Is that because you were introduced to slash through B7, which I gather is the exception in slash fanfic, in that it is usually about power rather than romance?

It's stories about the characters and their world, not about pairing off the characters.
Which is so much broader a canvas!

I wonder... I remarked recently that while TPTB think that only boys should be interested in SF, because "everyone knows" that only boys are interested in science, I like SF for the characters, and absolutely loathe soap operas, which are ostensibly all about "the characters". Thing is, soap operas are about small, shallow things, because they have such a limited canvas upon which to paint. I get bored and frustrated with meanness and pettiness and sordid affairs, which is all that soap operas seem to be about. I want to see nobleness and self-sacrifice and heroism, I want to see trust and betrayal on a grand scale, and you don't get that in Wandin Valley.

That probably explains why I like WWII movies/books also.

I am now feeling the urge to go and re-read Enarrare.
8-)
Ah yes, those were the days.

[kerravonsen]

Oh, further to that remark -- I wonder if the recent trend in 'shipping is because the majority of girls really do want soap operas, and so they turn all their fanfic into a soap opera?