As an artist in any fandom, I'd be reluctant to pick a crossover or fusion, so it might not even be that it's not a good summary--just that the BTVS is an unknown quantity, and they might just be more comfortable in a pure ST space.

I'm thinking of accessibility when I finish up my second Reverse Bang prompt. It's not filled with common characters nor is it a configuration that's ever been on the show. I know that cuts my chances down right there.

What ita said, Sail. You cut your potential artists, I think, when you do a crossover, simply because anyone who chooses you has to know both.

We know you're a great writer! Even though I wish you were writing SPN instead.

::plays tiny violin::

Hee. ::listens very carefully to tiny violin, sways to the music, grabs Amy and dips her low::

just that the BTVS is an unknown quantity, and they might just be more comfortable in a pure ST space.

As much as I enjoy SPN as a show, it's just never captured me for fic. I've always wondered why we choose the ones we do. If someone had told me 10 years ago I'd be writing Star Trek fic I would have laughed loud and long at them and told them if I wrote anything, it would be Jossverse stuff. The fact I've waited this long to even cross the streams with Buffy is kind of craxy. And I've crossed ST and Firefly, also; yet never wrote pure Firefly, as much as I love it. And I can't really explain why.

So, yeah, my FPC whine is very much tempered with knowing I did it to myself.

Reverse bangs are a lot of fun, and I can see artists running into the same problem. Some of the really specific, out there art pieces in the Trek reverse bang didn't get picked up until the last minute for the same reason: crossover characters that you really have to know to figure out how to work them all in together. It's a pretty big risk on the part of the artist and that takes balls. Of course, sometimes people collude. If I could have gotten my claim in quicker, I would have gotten one of my friend Jo's pieces of artwork and I knew exactly what she had based one of the pictures on and we'd talked about the story that could be developed from it. Still, she got amazing stories for her art, so I couldn't feel bad and the art I ended up with was exactly what I needed to help me develop a sequel to my first ST/Firefly fusion.

I think about a Jo & Victor piece I did, for instance. I know views and comments would only loosely translate into prompt grabbing, but barely anyone looked, and fewer commented. I thought the idea of Jo and Victor working together was fascinating! But clearly people prefer to see Dean and Cas cuddling in bed.

Now, I ain't complaining--I love that something fierce. But I tend to love everything I draw, and I get a little defensive of the canon stuff that gets no attention, when I know the quality hasn't dropped off. I really can't find anyone that wants to look at Sam/Ruby more than me? More than me?

Basically, audiences are weird, and since I will draw Sam/Gabriel but not read it, I guess I'm weird too.

{{{Sail}}}

It's not filled with common characters nor is it a configuration that's ever been on the show. I know that cuts my chances down right there.

For me, it's that lack of commonality and the "huh, never seen that before" that would draw me to a picture. I like prompts that stretch my imagination rather than ones that merely slot into ideas I already had.

I was curious and late this afternoon took a peek to see if there were any prompts left open. There were five: three crossovers with other TV/movies and two genderswaps. I'm guessing genderswap is another area where artists don't always feel comfortable with the changes to what they know.

nevermind me

bitch bitch bitch, whine whine whine.

If anyone has ever lived in Beacon Hill or visited one of the homes there, could you help me out with general layouts of the townhouses/brownstones there, if they were intended to one-family homes, how apartment/multiple-family conversion changed the layout, courtyards (communal? shared by all adjacent buildings and tenants?), basements, trash pick-up, where the washer/dryer are located, etc. All I know is what I've seen from the street. The brick, wrought iron, and the awesomely creepy little semi-sunken alleys to the back of the buildings.

(I'm looking at blueprints online, but so far they're of modern brownstones with 2-car garages at the back).

I'm guessing genderswap is another area where artists don't always feel comfortable with the changes to what they know.

There's so much room for interpretation with genderswap that I think the subjective quality of it varies more widely than with standard gender drawings. After all, the art might be technically supergood, but it's just not how you swapped genders. Some people feminise (petite-madame is pretty good at it), some people reimagine (cafe de labeill), and some people recast (there was a sweeping fem!Dean=Katee Sackhoff for a while, for instance).

Oh, yeah, that is so true. For me, I tend to prefer feminized versions of the characters I know or I recast them; the folks who totally reimagine them lose me. I need a known physical point of reference to work with, even if it's only in my own head and not on paper.

That is so funny about Katee Sackhoff, though, because she's the preferred recast for a fem!Jim Kirk. Hee. Lady gets around.