Oh, fanfiction.net... *rolls eyes*
Nov. 4th, 2010 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apple_pathwaysFirst, I have to say that there will always be a place in my heart for ff.net, as it's one of the places where I first discovered fan fiction. There's a still a lot of awesome stuff there; it just can be really hard to find. (I tend to find an author I enjoy, then read all of their stuff and everything they've favorited. That tends to work.)
Anyway. I have an account there, and most of my (non-porn) stories end up there. The thing is, I'm used to posting my Amy/Rory Doctor Who fics, which are posted and then largely ignored. {We won't even go into how cranky I get when my stories that include The Doctor get more hits on AO3 than my (better-written, I think) Amy/Rory fics.}
Sherlock is an entirely different animal.
It hadn't occurred to me to put my first Sherlock fic for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
thegameison_sh up there, but when I was archiving my latest entry today I thought, why not? So I put both "Strange Bedfellows" and "Almost Anyone" (formerly called "Of Death and Dying") up yesterday.
"Almost Anyone" got two very lovely, very thoughtful reviews. I was pleasantly surprised, and responded right away to thank them. All good.
"Strange Bedfellows"? I don't know what is going on there. It's gotten about 10 "story alert" subscriptions, and the following reviews:
Review One:
"Oh pretty please add a couple more chapters!
Like John can't sleep because Sherlock kicked him or something...
But not slash.
Just a friend sorta thing..
Please!"
Review Two:
LOL!
Review Three:
I agree with the comment below! Rather than slash, just Sherlock being his incredibly irritating self. Typical things that kids get up to in hotels when bored. The floor is made of lava, randomly springs to mind! Haha. Because he really is just a big child who longs for anything to keep him from being bored.
This just made me laugh, we could all do with a good old funny fic. :)
I do hope you continue with this!
Review Four:
awesome story so far! i can't wait to read more!
First, the less problematic issue to address: what on God's green earth gave you the impression that I was going to write any more of this story? It's barely even a story, really: due to the nature of the challenge (a word limit of 750), the entries are necessarily light on plot. Here's what goes on in the story:
Sherlock and John miss their train. They have to get a hotel room, but OH NOES, there's only one bed available! John is feeling a little homophobic, but Sherlock goads him into sucking it up and getting a good night's sleep. THE END.
Where else am I supposed to go with this? And more importantly, was the original story so ABOMINABLY FLUFFY and terrible that "John can't sleep because Sherlock kicked him or something..." sounds like a fitting sequel?!? (Don't even get me started on the "the floor is made of lava" idea; I KNOW the person who suggested it must be very young, but I've never understood the desire to write grown men behaving as cute little children. That is, when it is OOC for them to do so.)
Not to mention the story is listed as "completed". (Really, I'm flattered that people signed up for a "story alert", but an improvement in their level of reading comprehension might help avoid future disappointment...)
Ok, I'm being a snotty brat, time to move on...
Now for the second issue: no slash? Really? I don't understand this weird phenomenon in fandom where people enjoy male characters cuddling, sharing a bed, tickle-fighting, braiding each other's hair, IDEK! but OMG, NO GAY SEX PLEASE! Where is this coming from? I find it incredibly troubling that the female view of men and masculinity is so...skewed!
I understand slash as fantasy and wish fulfillment. (Not entirely on a personal level, but I get what it does for other people.) This, I do not understand. And I'm having trouble putting into words just what it is that's bugging me.
Any thoughts? Ideas? SHOULD I GIVE THE PEOPLE THE SEQUEL THEY'RE CRYING OUT FOR? (I'm tempted to work in Jar Jar Binks somehow...)
I think I need to go lie down.
Anyway. I have an account there, and most of my (non-porn) stories end up there. The thing is, I'm used to posting my Amy/Rory Doctor Who fics, which are posted and then largely ignored. {We won't even go into how cranky I get when my stories that include The Doctor get more hits on AO3 than my (better-written, I think) Amy/Rory fics.}
Sherlock is an entirely different animal.
It hadn't occurred to me to put my first Sherlock fic for
thegameison_sh up there, but when I was archiving my latest entry today I thought, why not? So I put both "Strange Bedfellows" and "Almost Anyone" (formerly called "Of Death and Dying") up yesterday."Almost Anyone" got two very lovely, very thoughtful reviews. I was pleasantly surprised, and responded right away to thank them. All good.
"Strange Bedfellows"? I don't know what is going on there. It's gotten about 10 "story alert" subscriptions, and the following reviews:
Review One:
"Oh pretty please add a couple more chapters!
Like John can't sleep because Sherlock kicked him or something...
But not slash.
Just a friend sorta thing..
Please!"
Review Two:
LOL!
Review Three:
I agree with the comment below! Rather than slash, just Sherlock being his incredibly irritating self. Typical things that kids get up to in hotels when bored. The floor is made of lava, randomly springs to mind! Haha. Because he really is just a big child who longs for anything to keep him from being bored.
This just made me laugh, we could all do with a good old funny fic. :)
I do hope you continue with this!
Review Four:
awesome story so far! i can't wait to read more!
First, the less problematic issue to address: what on God's green earth gave you the impression that I was going to write any more of this story? It's barely even a story, really: due to the nature of the challenge (a word limit of 750), the entries are necessarily light on plot. Here's what goes on in the story:
Sherlock and John miss their train. They have to get a hotel room, but OH NOES, there's only one bed available! John is feeling a little homophobic, but Sherlock goads him into sucking it up and getting a good night's sleep. THE END.
Where else am I supposed to go with this? And more importantly, was the original story so ABOMINABLY FLUFFY and terrible that "John can't sleep because Sherlock kicked him or something..." sounds like a fitting sequel?!? (Don't even get me started on the "the floor is made of lava" idea; I KNOW the person who suggested it must be very young, but I've never understood the desire to write grown men behaving as cute little children. That is, when it is OOC for them to do so.)
Not to mention the story is listed as "completed". (Really, I'm flattered that people signed up for a "story alert", but an improvement in their level of reading comprehension might help avoid future disappointment...)
Ok, I'm being a snotty brat, time to move on...
Now for the second issue: no slash? Really? I don't understand this weird phenomenon in fandom where people enjoy male characters cuddling, sharing a bed, tickle-fighting, braiding each other's hair, IDEK! but OMG, NO GAY SEX PLEASE! Where is this coming from? I find it incredibly troubling that the female view of men and masculinity is so...skewed!
I understand slash as fantasy and wish fulfillment. (Not entirely on a personal level, but I get what it does for other people.) This, I do not understand. And I'm having trouble putting into words just what it is that's bugging me.
Any thoughts? Ideas? SHOULD I GIVE THE PEOPLE THE SEQUEL THEY'RE CRYING OUT FOR? (I'm tempted to work in Jar Jar Binks somehow...)
I think I need to go lie down.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: IS IT LOUSY REVIEW WEEK AROUND HERE?
Date: 2010-11-05 04:11 am (UTC)The female character-centered fics usually don't get nearly as much attention as the male character-centered ones, which is sad. I got way more comments on my Rory/Eleven friendship fic than I got on my Amy/River friendship fic, and I would say that, while neither of them are especially brilliant, they are of comparable quality. However, I did just participate in a female-centered ficathon for Torchwood, which was really awesome. And at least in Doctor Who there are awesome female main characters. In Sherlock, the women got hardly any screen time or characterization. (Which is probably another reason why I lost interest in that fandom)
To be fair, the review I got did kind of make sense in context of the story. And my other reviewers did say some similar things--but the difference was, those reviewers have been reviewing since the first few chapters and have already let me know they enjoyed it. I think it's different when someone you don't even know pops up and asks when the next chapter is going to be.
But, I'm glad you got some nice reviews to go with the bad ones. And thanks for letting me vent with you :)
Re: IS IT LOUSY REVIEW WEEK AROUND HERE?
Date: 2010-11-05 05:05 am (UTC)Ah, see--without knowing the canon, I wasn't sure. And you're not wrong to be annoyed, there's definitely an etiquette to offering criticism, and it's certainly jumping into the middle of a story with a grumble about the characters and a demand for more chapters!
You're definitely right about female-centered fics! I would attribute this phenomenon to the fact that most fandoms tend to be overwhelmingly female (and most of them heterosexual), and that's why the natural focus is on the men for romantic interest, but I fear there are darker forces at work. (You can tell it's getting late; my responses are getting progressively more dramatic!)
We'll have to talk more about female characters in fandom when it's not 1am and I'm hopped-up on cold medication! (I agree completely about the women in Sherlock.)
And thank YOU for venting with me! It made me feel much less shallow for complaining about people who only bothered to take the time to read something I'd written. ;)