I'm curious - with your explanation of being a fic snob - are there any general trends of things that will turn you on or off a fic - things you like or don't? How do you decide what to read, especially for new authors?
That's a tough question. When I first entered fandom, I read everything I could get my hands on, save Sam/Jack because I was extremely anti that pairing at the time. I couldn't even tell that some of it was bad fic. i just devoured it.
As I spoke to more and more different kinds of fans out of my little fandom bubble, I wised up to the fact I was just falling into fanon and fandom tropes. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it made my writing much much better. The negative aspect was that it shrunk my reading list ;)
I shy away from fics that have too much dumb!Jack in them or have Daniel on a pedestal. I don't like slash (or gen) that strips the guys of their masculinity. And I tend to not read too much het with sex scenes only because most of the time I feel the story can move forward better without them. (There are always exceptions to the rule.) I get angry if gen is actually slash or ship in disguise. I will not touch death fic and I'm not big on rapefic, though sone non-con I can handle in small doses if it's done with finese. That means, attempted non-con that doesn't go anywhere. Don't you dare feed me sap and schmoop. And always, character bashing is a good way to get black listed in my book.
How does a new writer score points with me? Write me characters that act and sound like what I see on TV. I will really love you if you write me those characters in a plot. And if your plot is good, you score bonus points. If you cannot write a long plotty fic (and frankly I don't have much time to read logn fics right now), I can take humor just as easily as long as it's not over the top. Crack!fic is a rare treat that I can only have once in a while.
Unfortunately, most writers I've encountered don't fall into this little niche that I love. I'm lucky that my flist is pretty darn good. But for new writers, it's tough. I know it's tough. I'm not one to click blindly on links much anymore and go on recommendations. I wish there was a better way for new writers to break in.
Or, people can always do what aurora_novarum did. One day, she contacted me about putting a Teal'c-centric fic in my tealc_fic comm. Since she was not on LJ and I didn't know who she was even though she'd written some fics before contacting me, I agreed to read it through for her. I emailed her back telling her it more than fit into the comm and I proudly told her it had some of the best characterization I had seen in a while. And well, the rest is history :)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-06-03 04:44 am (UTC)That's a tough question. When I first entered fandom, I read everything I could get my hands on, save Sam/Jack because I was extremely anti that pairing at the time. I couldn't even tell that some of it was bad fic. i just devoured it.
As I spoke to more and more different kinds of fans out of my little fandom bubble, I wised up to the fact I was just falling into fanon and fandom tropes. It was a hard lesson to learn, but it made my writing much much better. The negative aspect was that it shrunk my reading list ;)
I shy away from fics that have too much dumb!Jack in them or have Daniel on a pedestal. I don't like slash (or gen) that strips the guys of their masculinity. And I tend to not read too much het with sex scenes only because most of the time I feel the story can move forward better without them. (There are always exceptions to the rule.) I get angry if gen is actually slash or ship in disguise. I will not touch death fic and I'm not big on rapefic, though sone non-con I can handle in small doses if it's done with finese. That means, attempted non-con that doesn't go anywhere. Don't you dare feed me sap and schmoop. And always, character bashing is a good way to get black listed in my book.
How does a new writer score points with me? Write me characters that act and sound like what I see on TV. I will really love you if you write me those characters in a plot. And if your plot is good, you score bonus points. If you cannot write a long plotty fic (and frankly I don't have much time to read logn fics right now), I can take humor just as easily as long as it's not over the top. Crack!fic is a rare treat that I can only have once in a while.
Unfortunately, most writers I've encountered don't fall into this little niche that I love. I'm lucky that my flist is pretty darn good. But for new writers, it's tough. I know it's tough. I'm not one to click blindly on links much anymore and go on recommendations. I wish there was a better way for new writers to break in.
Or, people can always do what