Though, knowing me, it'll be endless AU fanfic, and then I'll end up crossing over my own stuff, and then retreating to AO3 and crossing over my own stuff with SG-1.
I ... may have crossed over my own worlds with any number of things. XD Though I haven't posted it anywhere ...
tbh, there are times when I see a particularly insightful fic set in a universe created by an author that I know writes fanfic, or has written it in the past, and I can't help wondering if they're sockpuppeting their own fandom. I doubt if it's true in most cases, but there's always that possibility ...
I think, really, when you're trying to engineer audience reaction, you have to be really really careful, because most of the shortcuts aren't actually good ones.
Ha, yeah; I think the harder (and more overtly) the writer loads down the narrative with This Is How You're Supposed To Be Feeling, the more I knee-jerk against it. So these characters' love is meant to be, huh? I think I'll root for one of them to fall into a pit of angry bees instead! So I'm supposed to feel sorry for the tortured angsty hero's torturous angst? I think there's still room in the bee-pit ...
Which is probably why a lot of my character relationships are the ones that just snuck up on me, rather than being at the forefront of the narrative where I could see them coming a mile away.
Though it would be interesting to look at the shortcuts (or shorthands) which are effective, which is something I really want to make a story of, especially in original shortfic.
*nods* I have been trying to keep an eye on the specific things that engage me with a character, especially in an "affection at first sight" kind of way, but it's hard to pin down. One thing I've noticed that often gets me is incongruity -- a character who is supposed to be [x], but is actually [y] instead. The "pet the dog" example is one version; you could also have things like the mook who quotes 18th-century poetry, or the one person in a room full of suits and ties who's wearing a leather jacket. (Or the one person in the room full of leather jackets who's wearing a suit and tie ...) I guess like anything else you can obviously overdo this -- waving the character's ~quirkiness~ like a flag, for example. But I've noticed a lot of times getting snared by something like this. The other thing that tends to get me is characters caring about other people, friendship or loyalty or even (in fact, maybe especially) kindness to strangers .... "pet the dog" again, except not contrasted against overall villainy. The example that always comes to mind is from a romance novel that I tried to read some years back. The heroine meets a playboy type with a flashy car, and while he's showing off his flashy car, he knocks over a fruit stand and spills all the fruit ... and then stops and helps the old lady pick it up again. And I thought, awwww! I like this guy! -- and then the next chapter it turned out he's the murder victim and the "hero" is actually some jerkass who is a dick to the heroine, and I metaphorically threw the book across the room and swore never to read anything else by that author. XD But the principle stands ...
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branchandroot
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Date: 2014-03-12 11:58 pm (UTC)I ... may have crossed over my own worlds with any number of things. XD Though I haven't posted it anywhere ...
tbh, there are times when I see a particularly insightful fic set in a universe created by an author that I know writes fanfic, or has written it in the past, and I can't help wondering if they're sockpuppeting their own fandom. I doubt if it's true in most cases, but there's always that possibility ...
I think, really, when you're trying to engineer audience reaction, you have to be really really careful, because most of the shortcuts aren't actually good ones.
Ha, yeah; I think the harder (and more overtly) the writer loads down the narrative with This Is How You're Supposed To Be Feeling, the more I knee-jerk against it. So these characters' love is meant to be, huh? I think I'll root for one of them to fall into a pit of angry bees instead! So I'm supposed to feel sorry for the tortured angsty hero's torturous angst? I think there's still room in the bee-pit ...
Which is probably why a lot of my character relationships are the ones that just snuck up on me, rather than being at the forefront of the narrative where I could see them coming a mile away.
Though it would be interesting to look at the shortcuts (or shorthands) which are effective, which is something I really want to make a story of, especially in original shortfic.
*nods* I have been trying to keep an eye on the specific things that engage me with a character, especially in an "affection at first sight" kind of way, but it's hard to pin down. One thing I've noticed that often gets me is incongruity -- a character who is supposed to be [x], but is actually [y] instead. The "pet the dog" example is one version; you could also have things like the mook who quotes 18th-century poetry, or the one person in a room full of suits and ties who's wearing a leather jacket. (Or the one person in the room full of leather jackets who's wearing a suit and tie ...) I guess like anything else you can obviously overdo this -- waving the character's ~quirkiness~ like a flag, for example. But I've noticed a lot of times getting snared by something like this. The other thing that tends to get me is characters caring about other people, friendship or loyalty or even (in fact, maybe especially) kindness to strangers .... "pet the dog" again, except not contrasted against overall villainy. The example that always comes to mind is from a romance novel that I tried to read some years back. The heroine meets a playboy type with a flashy car, and while he's showing off his flashy car, he knocks over a fruit stand and spills all the fruit ... and then stops and helps the old lady pick it up again. And I thought, awwww! I like this guy! -- and then the next chapter it turned out he's the murder victim and the "hero" is actually some jerkass who is a dick to the heroine, and I metaphorically threw the book across the room and swore never to read anything else by that author. XD But the principle stands ...