Moonbeam's Fanfiction Predilections -- LiveJournal

I have a confession to make. The more I think about the Avengers movie? The less I actually like it. I know! It kinda shocks me too. Or it would have if... ( NO ACTUAL SPOILERS EVEN UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE I'M SNEAKY CLE-VER, HAHA! )

Avengers aside, that's not what I'm breaking the last six months of hermitdom to confess! No, no, it's far worse than that. Really, I'm practically ashamed of myself about this, but here goes:

I have become addicted to the MTV remake of Teen Wolf.

Whew! glad I got that off my chest. What? You don't know what I'm talking about? Don't worry, that's probably a good thing. It's, er, really godawful! Shitty acting, crappy plots, trying to take itself seriously when it's just plain ridiculous... it's a horrible show. How I ever got sucked into it I just don't know.

Okay, I'm lying! I know exactly how. It's the fandom's fault! They're actually really great, mostly because they don't really bother with the canon anymore than I do. It's all fanon, and ( the fanon is way way better! )

Geeze, two LJ cuts in one post? This is what happens when I don't post for six months. I get long-winded. Sorry, too many thoughts in my head! They have to come oooouuuut! ::flails wildly:: Save meeeeeeee!

TEAL DEER recap for those who didn't care (which I expect is everybody, ha! :P): The Avengers movie didn't wow me, but Teen Wolf fandom is embarrassingly addictive. Now I'm gonna go rec some kinky, hilarious Derek/Stiles slash on my Pinboard!

I don't usually rec fics here on my journal, because that's what Pinboard (and, ostensibly, Delicious - for now, until they screw up again) is for, but omg, you guys have to read this!

The Chuck Writes Story: An Unauthorized Fandom Biography by Lettered (PG-13)

It is on the surface a Supernatural story and if you have or have had even the smallest passing interest in Supernatural fandom, you need to read this fic. I stopped watching SPN in Season 4, which is right about when this story is set, so it worked out perfectly for me. But I think anyone with even the smallest knowledge of Supernatural or just the teensiest understanding of the fandom will be blown away by the sheer awesomeness of this incredible metafic.

( Because that's what it is about: The Meta. (Cut for summary/spoilers.) )

But the levels of meta go deeper than just the obvious. It is also an examination of how fandom as a whole works and responds, how people react, why it is so important to us, and what it all really means, if it means anything at all in the Grand Scheme of Life. It's like holding up a mirror and microscope and magnifying glass on ourselves and our concept of fandom and what is reality all at the same time! It's drama and humour and angst and crack and wank and of course so much meta that your brain actually hurts trying to keep it all straight. It's real and it's not, but it feels like it is, like it could be, and the author actually made sockpuppets for the "supporting" evidence, and some the "characters" could be real fen you know, maybe on your Flist, maybe even you, because we've seen this all before but it's all new, and how can we tell where fandom ends and reality starts or is it all the same?

::cue mind-breaking::

I think you'd probably have to have some understanding of Supernatural to really grasp the depth of this fic, but even without it is a fascinating portrayal of the existence of Fandom in general and the world we all live in here on LJ anyway. Well worth the read for anyone!

WTF, LJ? Stop eating my cut text! Argh!

If you made the switch to Pinboard or are planning to, look me up! Heck, look everybody up! And don't forget to add your name(s) to the Great Delicious Migration spreadsheet so others can find you too!

Also, VERY IMPORTANT, remember to ticky-box the setting so you can see who is subscribed to you -- and they can subscribe back!

I'm busy renaming all my tags so I can have some form of organization again (oh, my bundles! ::wails::), which I'm doing by hand. There apparently is a Python Script that is supposed to make it easier and faster, but honestly I couldn't even understand the installation instructions for the script, so probably shouldn't try my luck running it. Anyway, hand editing all my bookmarks one by one is proving useful. Not only can I add new tags to my older bookmarks from before I established a homogeneous system, I'm finding and re-locating a few dozen dead links so my story recs can keep being read. But I've got 24 pages of bookmarks and only a page and bit done... I'll be at this for awhile.

In the meantime, Delicious finally gave me back the ability to view all my tags. Now if only they'd return my beloved bundles, network, and subscriptions my world would be complete. :)

Little help here please, guys!

I'm trying to remember what the main Rules of Fandom are to add them to my Fanfiction Terminology list.

I mean, there's the classic Rule 34 of course: "If it exists, there is porn of it."

Or Rule 63, which defines the entire trope of genderswap, basically states that any character can and will exist as a member of the opposite sex. Technically, Urban Dictionary defines it as "For any given male character, there is a female version of that character." But it works for female characters being redone as male, too, though that is admittedly rarer.

Those rules came out of the pre-established Rules Of The Internet that emerged from the 4chan boards, as most early things on the 'net did. But much of the others have become flexible over time, and fandom has devised our own takes on the idea. So while things like Rule 34 (and its corollary #35) or Rule 63 are well known, others are more obscure.

Like, I am certain there was another rule about crossovers. Specifically about how all fandoms would eventually be crossed-over with Highlander. Which has, imho, so far proved ridiculously true. And yet, not even all my creative Googling can't find it. I think it was either Rule 33 or Rule 68 (as in 'Revelations 6.8') but I'm turning up bupkis. Sound familiar to anyone else? Anyone? Bueller?

What about any other Rules of Fandom you know that I don't? There's gotta be something!

It's 2:00am and I just finished reading a very good Supernatural/Criminal Minds crossover. It a WIP, but there's already enough meat to the story written to sink nicely into. I enjoyed it completely, and am eagerly looking forward to the rest when it gets posted.

Like a good little reader, I fully intended to write a review. Gotta keep encouraging those authors to churn out my daily allotment of entertainment, yanno? I'm all for the provision of feedback! But thankfully I managed to stop myself from posting this one:

Hey, this is not too bad at all! So far, so good - everybody's behaving in character, no one's secrets are being spilled, nobody's a long lost relative or had suddenly-remembered past supernatural encounters which make them instant believers. Add in a case with actual elements fit for both teams, an even combination of mystery suspense and fun banter, and some pretty darn top notch writing and I think we have a winner! Sweet mercy, but this might be one of the best SPN/CM crossovers I've ever encountered!

Which means the only thing left to say is: Thank you!

Upon rereading, it's possible that little review might be revealing juuuuuuuust a little subtle bitterness. A somewhat hidden disgruntlement, perhaps. Evidence of a stealthy build-up of resentment due to too much exposure to such aforementioned bad and cliche type stories to which I have developed an aversion. Just a little. Maybe.

Erm...

You know, I've noticed this odd quirk of mine before. Most other people, the more they read, the longer they spend in fandom, the broader their tolerances get. New ficcers might suddenly discover slash isn't half so squicky as their heteronormative selves initially thought, or long-time ficcers branch out into other pairings or relax their standards on grammar. Not me though. I seem to be the only person I know who has gotten more selective as the years went on. These days I'm down right picky.

What's up with that, I gotta wonder? Even as I constantly add more and more fandoms in my relentless search for fic (Dresden Files, Leverage, and BBC's Sherlock in the last month alone, for example!), my definition of "good fic" has reduced to the point where I only actually read about 1 in 100 stories I click on. Including from many of the highest-rated ones that everybody else seems to think are the bomb.

But why am I so picky? It's not hubris; it's not like I think I can write better than them, 'cause I totally know I can't. Heck, that's one of the reasons I haven't written much at all for the last few years -- I usually feel my skill level is inadequate to tackle the ideas that hop my way in a manner worthy of their nature. Yet something makes me judge each story by tighter and tighter criteria, and while it might mean that each story I do read and rec is the best of the best, I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on something.

Or maybe it's just really late and I should go to bed before my brain drips out my ears.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea too. ::nods off::

So, evidently my entire flist is slowly being taking over by Criminal Minds fans. I've never even seen a single moment of the show, but I have read a few crossovers fics with it.

Is it really all that? Am I missing greatness without ever knowing about it? Because I hate to say it, but with a possible exception of Castle, my TV viewing schedule has been sadly lacking in greatness for a while. This may be a show worth investing in.

[Poll #1473966]


Also, guess what? I'm actually writing a new fic! ::waits for it::

Dude, I know! Three years of abso-lutely NOTHING and suddenly there's new fic on the horizon? Wacky! It's like some weird parallel universe -- time travel, back in time to the days when Moonbeam was actually an active fanfiction author.

Or, you know, an inactive author as the case often was.

But hey, three years later I've finally managed to create again! YAY!

Of course, it won't do any of you much good. I doubt any of you would be interested in reading 10,000 words of kinky '80s cartoon robot porn, huh? Yeah, didn't think so. ::coughs:: Yes, the first thing I write in ages is Transformers-G1 smut. But it's for a good cause! I got inspired by a request on the TF Anonymous Kink Meme and the next thing I knew...

Anyway, it'll be done hopefully in the next day or two, and then I'll post it here just for completeness sake. Don't worry, none of you are expected to read it! :P

See ya on the flipside,
Moon.

After finally seeing the new X-Files movie (stupid, boring plot but good Mulder/Scully character and relationship development, so I'll grudgingly call it a win) I've been sucked back into the XF fandom like I haven't been since the early years. Oh, don't get me wrong, I've never really left the fandom... I've always gone back and reread my favourite stories, as well as a few exceptional and highly recommended new ones, not too mention all the crossovers that pop up in my other fandoms. But it's been well over a decade since I've immersed my self so deeply into the X-Files groove.

You know what? It's surprising how little things have actually changed! Some of the authors I read back in the 90s are even still around. Oh, many of them seem to have done the same as me and moved on to other fandoms for a few years in between, but there are so many familiar names writing right now that it almost feels like I never left. (And a few of them -- Vickie Mosely, for one -- seem never to have left at all!)

I'm just feeling the biggest nostalgia for this old classic show right now. It was the fandom that got me started, the first show I ever read or wrote fanfic for. Heck, it was the very reason I got out on the internet in the first place! My family got our first internet connection in the mid-1990s, but except for a few chatroom sessions (including one especially nasty argument over which country was better, Canada vs USA) which were mostly driven by my sister at that, I wasn't really interested in the computer until I discovered there were other X-Philes out there, and OMG, they were writing stories about my favourite show!

Within weeks, I'd become entrenched in my first fandom, and even started sending feedback to authors of the stories I'd especially liked. Luckily for me, one of the authors I met in those early months would become one of the best and most influential (Hi, redwolfoz!) friends of my life. Someone who would not only get me started in the realm of fandom, but who would stick by me ever since -- something not even anyone in real life (family notwithstanding) has ever managed.

Now, I'm feeling such a sense of nostalgia I'm back to feeling like the giddy, foolish little girl I was when I first discovered the world of fanfiction at my fingertips. I've been rewatching my old favourite episodes, and seeing a few from the later Doggett-years for the first time. And I've been steadily working my way backwards (by date) through the Gossamer archives for fic. There's so much I've missed! So much that's brand new to me (even if it's years old now) that I feel like I could do this for weeks and not tire of it.

God, could I have really forgotten how much I loved this show? Those characters? How I would never miss sitting in front of a TV every Friday night (at 9pm!) no matter what other events were planned? God, I even remember the big hullabaloo there was over the show's damn timeslot. Friday nights used to be one of the worst nights for television there was, being a big "date night" when most people went out instead of staying home. But the X-Files blew the competition out of the water, attracting record audiences and starting the trend of TGIF ratings-winners. Man, it really was a landmark show, wasn't it?

But now I get to relive that excitement and investment all over again. Rediscover what it is that made me fall in love with Mulder and Scully and Skinner and all their adventures. Recapture the passion and joy that sucked me in so inescapably that I'm still going strong even over a decade later.

And I gotta say, I'm having a lot of FUN doing it! :D




P.S. Special thank you to Red Wolf, for taking me by the proverbial hand and welcoming me into the world of fandom way back in 1996. I owe so much to you because of your kindness and generosity with a young, impressionable teenager all those years ago. Especially since I, like the foolish newbie I was, forced you to put with my very own regrettable Mary-Sue. (Sorry about that, btw!) Thinking back, your patience and forbearance in dealing with my first tentative forays are what gave me the courage to continue, starting me down the path I've been happily loving for 12 years and counting. I can't thank you enough for what you first did, and have continued to do for me ever since. Thank you! ::slobbers you with kisses::

P.P.S. Handkerchief? :)

After almost three years to the day, I've finally updated my website. Gave it a facelift, a simple redesign, updated some links, and got around to adding the few fics I'd written and only previously posted to LJ.

Also updated the list of Fanfiction Terminology, which was pretty much the impetus to redo the site. It's actually pretty comprehensive now, I'd say, but if anyone spots a missing word, I'd appreciate a heads up.

Thanks.

Damnit! I was hoping my new computer would arrive before this aired so I could record it live, but stupid shipping... Grr! One more week and I coulda had this bitch! Arg!

Anyway... KNIGHT RIDER: 2008 MOVIE! Almost forgot about it, but luckily my radio station reminded me on the way home from work today. Thus, having just watched on the the Canadian channel, Global -- otherwise known as the Channel Of Many Commercials But At Least It Wasn't NBC With Their Stupid Logo Constantly Blocking the Screen -- I give to you my summation report. Yes, it is time for the good, the bad, and (unfortunately) the ugly.


In Summation:

Not bad. I'm not gonna squee over it and fall back into KR fandom with paroxysms of joy... but I may check it out every now and then. So, you know, that's as good as could be expected I think.

ETA: Also, Ford's new commercial with the spandex people who contort themselves into car shapes? Creepy, but oddly compelling!

May I just say how much I love Matt? Cause I do. I love him lots and lots, even more each episode. ( Spoiler! ) Yes, Matt, yes you are. And you make it look so damned gooooood... Mmm-mmm! Mohinder is a lucky, lucky man to have you. And uh, Molly too. ;P

Hence: GIP! XD

Also, Kensei is ( Spoiler! ) but dude, he's still ( Spoiler! ) And apparently, still ( Spoiler! ) AWESOME!