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Thank you ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kennhijja for posting a link to the new genfic community ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
omniocular. I'm usually a little wary of communities that make you jump through hoops to join, but IMO anything that encourages good quality genfic is a Good Thing. If they haven't closed applications by the time I'm on a computer I feel comfortable applying from, I'll probably ask to join.
Meanwhile, it's prompted me to post on two questions I've been mulling over for some time:
1) I'm curious about how people define genfic. Is it fic in which ships either do not feature or are extremely backgrounded, or do fics that focus on a particular relationship but not its sexual/romantic aspects count? E.g., for those of you who read my fic A Mother's Place - is it a ship fic because the Lucius/Narcissa relationship is central, or is it genfic because it's an interpretation of a canonical 'missing scene', and focussed on family dynamics?
I have the same confusion about shipping, incidentally. As I'm most interested in characters' psychology, quite a lot of my fics revolve around the interaction between two characters, and when I read fic I tend to look at which characters are facing off. So I'd like to see such genfic listed by pairing, else I wouldn't find it, but others might be disappointed by the lack of sex or romance.
And is a fic shippy if one character is sexually interested (even subconsciously?) and the other not? If we're talking non-con porn, the answer would surely be yes. But what if it's a lot more subtle? And does it matter anyway?
2) Is there a better way of classifying fics than het/slash/gen? It always seems to me that labelling a fic 'gen' writes off a huge variety of writing as 'oh, there's no sex in it'. And, as I said above, I find many of my own fics difficult to classify under that system, and using different categories would, I feel, give more information.
I've been mulling over various possible categories for months, and I've listed those I can remember as I write this now. If any of you have any other ideas, please comment.
(I originally started thinking about these as a way of breaking down the 'gen' category, but of course most of them will equally apply to shipfic.)
Canonicity: Missing scene (referred to or strongly implied by canon)/(Deliberate) AU/Speculative/Compatible (i.e. doesn't contradict canon but isn't necessarily implied by it)
Focus: (shamelessly ripped off from Orson Scott Card): Character/Culture/Events
Era: Historical/1950s/1970s/Canontime/Future
Setting: Hogwarts/Institutions (i.e. fics that explore workings of Azkaban, Ministry, St Mungos, Gringotts etc)/UK-English wizarding world/Other wizarding cultures
Mood: Humor/Horror/Drama/Romance etc
There's nothing particularly new here, I know - various sites use these or similar as categories. But I do find it curious (and a little irritating) that fandom predominantly classifies fics by the sexuality (or lack thereof) of their characters, when there are so many other interesting things to explore. I'd love to see a genfic archive or community develop a richer set of descriptors.
kennhijja for posting a link to the new genfic community omniocular. I'm usually a little wary of communities that make you jump through hoops to join, but IMO anything that encourages good quality genfic is a Good Thing. If they haven't closed applications by the time I'm on a computer I feel comfortable applying from, I'll probably ask to join.Meanwhile, it's prompted me to post on two questions I've been mulling over for some time:
1) I'm curious about how people define genfic. Is it fic in which ships either do not feature or are extremely backgrounded, or do fics that focus on a particular relationship but not its sexual/romantic aspects count? E.g., for those of you who read my fic A Mother's Place - is it a ship fic because the Lucius/Narcissa relationship is central, or is it genfic because it's an interpretation of a canonical 'missing scene', and focussed on family dynamics?
I have the same confusion about shipping, incidentally. As I'm most interested in characters' psychology, quite a lot of my fics revolve around the interaction between two characters, and when I read fic I tend to look at which characters are facing off. So I'd like to see such genfic listed by pairing, else I wouldn't find it, but others might be disappointed by the lack of sex or romance.
And is a fic shippy if one character is sexually interested (even subconsciously?) and the other not? If we're talking non-con porn, the answer would surely be yes. But what if it's a lot more subtle? And does it matter anyway?
2) Is there a better way of classifying fics than het/slash/gen? It always seems to me that labelling a fic 'gen' writes off a huge variety of writing as 'oh, there's no sex in it'. And, as I said above, I find many of my own fics difficult to classify under that system, and using different categories would, I feel, give more information.
I've been mulling over various possible categories for months, and I've listed those I can remember as I write this now. If any of you have any other ideas, please comment.
(I originally started thinking about these as a way of breaking down the 'gen' category, but of course most of them will equally apply to shipfic.)
Canonicity: Missing scene (referred to or strongly implied by canon)/(Deliberate) AU/Speculative/Compatible (i.e. doesn't contradict canon but isn't necessarily implied by it)
Focus: (shamelessly ripped off from Orson Scott Card): Character/Culture/Events
Era: Historical/1950s/1970s/Canontime/Future
Setting: Hogwarts/Institutions (i.e. fics that explore workings of Azkaban, Ministry, St Mungos, Gringotts etc)/UK-English wizarding world/Other wizarding cultures
Mood: Humor/Horror/Drama/Romance etc
There's nothing particularly new here, I know - various sites use these or similar as categories. But I do find it curious (and a little irritating) that fandom predominantly classifies fics by the sexuality (or lack thereof) of their characters, when there are so many other interesting things to explore. I'd love to see a genfic archive or community develop a richer set of descriptors.
