yet there's still this appeal
Sep. 26th, 2007 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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yuletide noms close tonight! Everyone's getting excited. Sign-ups are soon. Can I contain myself?
I'm particularly excited about writing this year, but I still can't do much more than speculate 'til I have a list of available fandoms . . . and meanwhile, I can't seem to narrow my requests list from five to four.
I should go to bed soon, but first! Pros and cons for each? (More details on what I'd want out of each fandom are in my previous post.)
First of all, what I'm looking for in a Yuletide story: something sweet, since they're generally fairly short. My usual taste in fic is long and plotty, but that's not what Yuletide is for, so much. So whatever I get, I hope for it to be really spot-on, in characterization and setting . . . really fitting the fandom. Since these fandoms are so tiny, we tend to love them extra-hard, I think, and it often shows through in the writing. I love that.
I also do not try and skew my results (though it's certainly wound up happening, particularly my first year, when I recieved Good Omens fic). This challenge is often my one chance to get this fandom or that fandom; it's also a rare occasion for femslash. I like my requests to be fairly balanced, so I can't easily predict what I'm going to end up with.
1. From Eroica With Love - Dorian, Klaus (slash)
Pros: This is my current mad obsession. I have gone tearing through the available fic, and am almost completely out. The fandom is very quiet and tiny, most outside interest in it having occurred years before I found it. I want more fic. There are some very good writers in Yuletide, some of whom have written Eroica before, and might conceivably offer it.
Cons: I am hugely picky about characterization in this fandom (and quibble with the interpretations implied by at least half the fic I've read for it). It's awful. Also, this might skew my results, as it is significantly less obscure than just about anything else I've considered asking for (as in, "major" fandom writers have been known to write it, and there is fic for it).
2. RPF - Nautical - Mary Read, Anne Bonny (femslash or gen)
Pros: Dude, lesbian pirates! I mean, come on. These two are famous historical characters, and they are kind of awesome, but there is very limited information about them. Isn't that just begging for fic? Plus, I love women in drag.
Cons: Piracy isn't necessarily the most lovely of subjects, depending on how realistically you treat it. Also, the story of these women ends in capture, pregnancy, imprisonment, and death. Not terribly uplifting. And as I've said, information is limited, which doesn't give the writer much to work with.
3. Strangers in Paradise - Tambi, Casey (femslash)
Pros: SiP has ended, leaving me feeling very bereft . . . this does call for fic. And while we've seen so very much of Katchoo and Francine, these two left a great deal unexplored, particularly in their relationship with each other. They have history, they have interesting contrasting personalities, and they were adorable together in the last couple of issues.
Cons: There aren't any, really? I mean, I'd want to try and dissuade the writer from concentrating too much on their angsty pasts. All I want is more of the adorable. Then again, that in itself might not make this my favorite request, if only because I'm not usually one for unadulterated fluff. (Am I looking too hard for the negative?)
4. Desert Peach - Pfirsich Rommel, Udo Schmidt, Rosen Kavalier (slash or gen)
Pros: This has been my other mad obsession of the year, if not in quite a purely fangirly way. Also, I have bought just about every issue that is available in print, and I may cry. I want more. These characters are rich, fascinating, and well worth reading/writing about . . . there's so much more that can be said.
Cons: Can anyone really write these guys, aside from Donna Barr? Also, is this too obscure?
5. Excalibur - Rachel Summers, Kitty Pryde (femslash)
Pros: My pet femslash pairing! I love these two to death. I've talked my poor friends' ears off about them. I've drawn more fanart of the two of them than of any other pairing, possibly any other fandom. And while many people like them as a couple, I haven't found much fic. Plus, I've been having a serious craving for the "good old days" of Rachel's pre-reboot personality.
Cons: I honestly can't think of any. I am so glad this is qualifying as obscure (and I'm confident it should, so huzzah).
Yeah, so. This is difficult. Part of me thinks I should really just drop Eroica. I should probably skew towards femslash fandoms, since I get so little of them outside ofyuletide. Also, there's a fair chance that others will request it. (Several people did last year . . . of course, only one of those requests was written, and none of the others were touched for NYR. Hrm.) But I'm not sure I can deal with dropping it, being as fancrazy as I've been, lately.
Well, now it's totally time to sleep. But, you know. So much squee.
yuletide noms close tonight! Everyone's getting excited. Sign-ups are soon. Can I contain myself?I'm particularly excited about writing this year, but I still can't do much more than speculate 'til I have a list of available fandoms . . . and meanwhile, I can't seem to narrow my requests list from five to four.
I should go to bed soon, but first! Pros and cons for each? (More details on what I'd want out of each fandom are in my previous post.)
First of all, what I'm looking for in a Yuletide story: something sweet, since they're generally fairly short. My usual taste in fic is long and plotty, but that's not what Yuletide is for, so much. So whatever I get, I hope for it to be really spot-on, in characterization and setting . . . really fitting the fandom. Since these fandoms are so tiny, we tend to love them extra-hard, I think, and it often shows through in the writing. I love that.
I also do not try and skew my results (though it's certainly wound up happening, particularly my first year, when I recieved Good Omens fic). This challenge is often my one chance to get this fandom or that fandom; it's also a rare occasion for femslash. I like my requests to be fairly balanced, so I can't easily predict what I'm going to end up with.
1. From Eroica With Love - Dorian, Klaus (slash)
Pros: This is my current mad obsession. I have gone tearing through the available fic, and am almost completely out. The fandom is very quiet and tiny, most outside interest in it having occurred years before I found it. I want more fic. There are some very good writers in Yuletide, some of whom have written Eroica before, and might conceivably offer it.
Cons: I am hugely picky about characterization in this fandom (and quibble with the interpretations implied by at least half the fic I've read for it). It's awful. Also, this might skew my results, as it is significantly less obscure than just about anything else I've considered asking for (as in, "major" fandom writers have been known to write it, and there is fic for it).
2. RPF - Nautical - Mary Read, Anne Bonny (femslash or gen)
Pros: Dude, lesbian pirates! I mean, come on. These two are famous historical characters, and they are kind of awesome, but there is very limited information about them. Isn't that just begging for fic? Plus, I love women in drag.
Cons: Piracy isn't necessarily the most lovely of subjects, depending on how realistically you treat it. Also, the story of these women ends in capture, pregnancy, imprisonment, and death. Not terribly uplifting. And as I've said, information is limited, which doesn't give the writer much to work with.
3. Strangers in Paradise - Tambi, Casey (femslash)
Pros: SiP has ended, leaving me feeling very bereft . . . this does call for fic. And while we've seen so very much of Katchoo and Francine, these two left a great deal unexplored, particularly in their relationship with each other. They have history, they have interesting contrasting personalities, and they were adorable together in the last couple of issues.
Cons: There aren't any, really? I mean, I'd want to try and dissuade the writer from concentrating too much on their angsty pasts. All I want is more of the adorable. Then again, that in itself might not make this my favorite request, if only because I'm not usually one for unadulterated fluff. (Am I looking too hard for the negative?)
4. Desert Peach - Pfirsich Rommel, Udo Schmidt, Rosen Kavalier (slash or gen)
Pros: This has been my other mad obsession of the year, if not in quite a purely fangirly way. Also, I have bought just about every issue that is available in print, and I may cry. I want more. These characters are rich, fascinating, and well worth reading/writing about . . . there's so much more that can be said.
Cons: Can anyone really write these guys, aside from Donna Barr? Also, is this too obscure?
5. Excalibur - Rachel Summers, Kitty Pryde (femslash)
Pros: My pet femslash pairing! I love these two to death. I've talked my poor friends' ears off about them. I've drawn more fanart of the two of them than of any other pairing, possibly any other fandom. And while many people like them as a couple, I haven't found much fic. Plus, I've been having a serious craving for the "good old days" of Rachel's pre-reboot personality.
Cons: I honestly can't think of any. I am so glad this is qualifying as obscure (and I'm confident it should, so huzzah).
Yeah, so. This is difficult. Part of me thinks I should really just drop Eroica. I should probably skew towards femslash fandoms, since I get so little of them outside of
yuletide. Also, there's a fair chance that others will request it. (Several people did last year . . . of course, only one of those requests was written, and none of the others were touched for NYR. Hrm.) But I'm not sure I can deal with dropping it, being as fancrazy as I've been, lately.Well, now it's totally time to sleep. But, you know. So much squee.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-26 08:38 am (UTC)Desert Peach may be obscure, but it's not that obscure -- Donna Barr is part of the same meta-network of indie comic creators as the Foglios of Girl Genius fame, and the Peach is one of her more memorable creations. Moreover, DP is the kind of fandom that Yuletide seems to handle unusually well.
The Read/Bonny pairing strikes me as having an entire second set of pros and cons attached to it. On the "pro" side: I think that the considerable majority of writers playing in RPF-Nautical are likely to favor a more Jack Sparrow-like approach to piracy over a pure historical one -- I took a similar tack myself last year with a Robin Hood request. On the "con" side: I strongly suspect that there will be a fair number of requests and offers in RPF-Nautical, very likely including both requests and offers for Mary and Ann in particular. Out of your five, I'd peg this pairing as the single most likely to actually get written by and for someone else. [Aside: I've got a very old filk tape around here somewhere which includes a highly amusing performance of "The Ballad of Mary Read", written and sung by none other than Peter Beagle -- yup, that Peter Beagle. Very, very cool....]
I do not know the Eroica material at all, but I do know about having fandoms where I'm hugely picky (and in a minority) about characterizations in the dominant fic. Yuletide being what it is, I would tend to be awfully cautious about making a fic request for one of those fandoms in the circumstances -- on one hand, the quality of writing in most Yuletide work I've seen is pretty darned good; OTOH, the one thing you really can't control is the spin the writer puts on the characterizations.
Out of the five, then, it looks to me like a choice between dropping Eroica or dropping RPF-Nautical, although one could make a case for dropping Excalibur, too -- I am thinking that given the way the matching works, it might well be that including Excalibur is highly likely to get you matched with someone who knows only the Excalibur characters out of all those you've listed, biasing your chances awfully strongly in favor of getting the Excalibur story.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-26 03:58 pm (UTC)(That filk tape does sound cool. Awesome.)
Donna Barr here
Date: 2007-09-26 04:21 pm (UTC)Re: Donna Barr here
Date: 2007-09-26 04:41 pm (UTC)I don't know if you'll see this response, but it occurs to me that I don't know how you feel about fanfiction based on your work?
Also, I've read every scrap of Peach material at Moderntales, and I'm excited about your future projects . . . but I must admit, I'm particularly hoping to see the older issues of Peach come back into print in some form. There are many that I haven't been able to read, and the summaries on your site tantalize me. (It occurs to me that I should just email you and ask; I'd considered it in the past, but didn't want to be a bother. I'm sure you get the question a lot, but I've never seen an answer.)