Dear LORD, hon.

Mighty... Ducks?

(And everything's avoidable if you go no mail, but what's the fun in that?)

A couple reactions to the fandom article that bitterchick linked:

• the author cites an article that goes off into ranting that some groups start prizing, say, excellent prose over good ideas. That really is legitimate group consensus. There ain't no "right" way to write a story, just decisions of preference as to which aspects (plot structure, characterization, prose styling, adherence to canon) are most important. Groups may well cohere around one ideal, as it is what floats their boats. They are not wrong; writers who write other story models are not wrong. But, for instance, saying that "Analog should buy more fantasy stories 'cause they're really well-written" ignores the important fact that Analog readers come to that magazine wanting their fix of a certain kind of story.

• Established writers always get breaks that newbies don't. It's true, but explainable by simple psychology. When you read a story by somebody whose writing you don't know, you-the-reader is being asked to commit quite a lot of mental resources to a pig in a poke -- will the payoff in the story be rewarding or a big disappointment? The reader of a new writer is always unconsciously looking for reasons to stop -- bad prose, iffy characterization, ridiculous departure from canon -- because such elements aren't predictive that the rest of the story will be any better. Whereas, if a known-quantity writer starts off a story where, hmmm, Buffy and Clem are running a stationery store in a mall in Iowa in the first scene of a story, a reader who is familiar with the author will grant the story start a lot more latitude, as in "I wonder how she's going to pull this one off! Squeeee!" With the close association of writers and readers (not to mention overlap of the two identities) in fandom, yes, writers who are in an in-group are going to be granted more latitude in what they are "allowed" to get away with. Newbies have to work to earn the same kind of cred -- the easiest way, of course, is to have diamond-bright brilliant openings to boffo stories. Otherwise, they have to slog away like the rest of us....

Just tell me it's not slash and there will be no blood shed.

Not a slash to be seen.

One minor nitpick from someone who has seen Mighty Ducks 2 far too many times: it was the Junior Goodwill Games, not the Junior Olympics.

Established writers always get breaks that newbies don't. It's true, but explainable by simple psychology.

Dude.

And this is true in pretty much every art or discipline I can think of. (More so the arts than sciences, okay.) It's really not just fandom.

Of course it happens everywhere. In theatre, one is much more likely to want to work with people you've worked with before. I have not gotten one single paying ornon-paying gig that was not a direct result of me having already worked with someone and/or me starting the theatre. It can be very frustrating, but it doesn't mean that it is wrong or not true.

All that being said, and true for the most part, I popped up in a fandom where I had no name recognition, no contacts under that pseud, and very little previous personal contact. [ And I did it right when the fandom ballooned, and okay, went bananas.] And I succeeded just fine.

Which is to say, known quantities are often preferred, and for good reasons, but as with show business it's not impossible to break into fanfic as a complete unknown. Which I find pretty comforting.

I personally can't imagine wanting to supress new writers.

Okay, maybe the one who wrote that prison sex story where Clark went to prison for having MP3s, gay porn, and alien invasion scenarios on his laptop.

But other than that, hello? One of the large reasons we're in this is to read good fic. So why would anyone prize stomping on new writers above the possibility of getting good new fic? I mean, it's not *that* much fun.

Besides which, the stuff by the established writers isn't always the best out there, and very often isn't all that good, period. I like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and by and large, the story most likely to make me go, whoa, and grab a pen to write down his/her name in a booksearch, is a newbie or someone I've never read before. And the last story that made me shrug and skip to the next story because of poor execution was less a recognised name in mystery than a god who generally deserves that god status: Ruth Rendell.

And this is true in pretty much every art or discipline I can think of.

True in sports, too. Michael Jordan throws an elbow during a game, he's way less likely to get flagged than a rookie committing the same foul. Way of the world, alas.

the one who wrote that prison sex story where Clark went to prison for having MP3s, gay porn, and alien invasion scenarios on his laptop.

I'm evil. This sounds intriguing. But only if Lex is fighting valiantly to get him released. Hell, I've never seen the show, but I occasionally read the slash.