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

[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?