I just listened to that today. Good points well-stated.

eta: It was a little weird to have the "That's so weird, since I get their emails...Wait...I'm in some of those fandoms..." I'm not used to my real life being a couple degrees removed from national media (my home town has been on TDS a couple times now), but I'm REALLY not used to my Internet life being that close.

I'm wallowing in Avengers fic and loving it, but I keep getting peeved at people apologizing for their stories and all that. If there's something wrong with it, fix it, otherwise let it stand on its own.

But what would the 13 year-old ESL homeschooled writers that don't know anyone who can beta read or have access to a dictionary but have to get their Avengers-attend-Hogwarts-OMG!-how-cool-is-that?-IDEK-feels-LOLLOLLOL fic out into the world do then?

Sam_Storyteller and Domenika Marzione are my gold standards for Avengers fic written by someone who understands how adults interact.

I also think they think they are protecting themselves against criticism by doing that. Like if they say their plot's weak than you won't.

Like if they say their plot's weak than you won't.

Yeah, when they helpfully tell me they can't write plot I take them at their word and move on.

I don't DO plot. I do cute little (or sometimes angsty little) vignettes. They aren't supposed to have plot. once in a while I get a bunch of little vignettes which follow each other in sequence sufficiently coherently to mimic plot. Of course, in my summaries I do not advertise the lack of plot; I broadcast the vignette-having.

And then people leave me reviews asking about the rest of the story.

And then people leave me reviews asking about the rest of the story.

We're sorry. We like the plot that you didn't know you were crafting.

Of course, in my summaries I do not advertise the lack of plot; I broadcast the vignette-having.

I think accentuating the positive is really a much more attractive way to advertise your fic. Amuse me with your banter and I don't care that nothing happens. I recognize there is no plot, I just don't really care if I have fun reading it.

I think accentuating the positive is really a much more attractive way to advertise your fic. Amuse me with your banter and I don't care that nothing happens. I recognize there is no plot, I just don't really care if I have fun reading it.

And that is precisely what I write, most of the time. They don't leave the office, they just sit there snarking at each other. I suppose it is like going to a soup-and-salad bar expecting a full five-course meal but really, between the low word count and the "fluffy/angsty tag for ep. 15" summary, if readers go in expecting an imaginative resolution for the main story arc plus the lead characters' UST, that is just not my fault. Of course, I rarely get that response from writers whose work I respect - they generally get that I have done exactly what I set out to do, and are entertained or intrigued by it.

I'd be thrilled to see "fluffy fun, no plot!" instead of "I'm so sorry, I don't even, why do I think I can write, please don't hate this."