In fact, I'd like to link to it in my blog/LJ. Lizard, could you possibly change the references from "Dana" to "Nestra"?

Ha! Watch while I slot another Buffista name with a blog username. Go me! t /satisfied

(Look, I'm bad at that kind of thing. Now if I can just remember the equivalence for more than a day and a half...)

In fact, I'd like to link to it in my blog/LJ. Lizard, could you possibly change the references from "Dana" to "Nestra"?

Sure. (I had had that thought, too, but didn't want to presume.)

[link]

Oh, Rebecca, how completely lovely.

Looky! Dana wrote a lovely, and Rebecca made it sing!

There's now a Buffyverse 100 word challenge. The Sunday 100. Yesterday/today was the first challenge, and there's some nice stuff up there.

Okay, do they not understand that us multi-fandom geeks are going to get overbooked at some point?

do they not understand that us multi-fandom geeks are going to get overbooked at some point?

You mean, it may be that I can't do Raven's Friday MASH challenge and a Buffyverse Sunday 100? I fear this is the case. Not and write stuff that isn't challenge based.

Damn this real life, that imposes time limits on fandom!

Okay, do they not understand that us multi-fandom geeks are going to get overbooked at some point?

Wrod. And what about us MFGs who also write about characters that only exist as ink and paint? I may have to quit my job so I can write fic full-time. I'm going to see if I can try the Sunday 100. If I get a good idea, I'll run with it.

On another note, one of my anime fic lists is having their annual war between the Warm and Fuzzy Fic writers/fans and the Twisted and Fucked-up Fic writers/fans. I tend to fall on the TaFF side of the fence, and I honestly can't think of too many WaFF fics I like in any fandom (with due South being a major, major exception). Is it just me, or is it harder to write a happy-ending, sunshine-and-puppies fic than something angst-ridden? How would you go about writing something warm-n-fuzzy without it descending into out-of-character schmoopiness?

the Warm and Fuzzy Fic writers/fans and the Twisted and Fucked-up Fic writers/fans.

It's an interesting divide-- and one where I sit firmly on the fence. I read both, I write both, and I'm not sure why. With some writers, I can clearly see that their TaFuF is better than their WaFF, or the other way around, but mine seems to be about even whatever the 'mood' of the piece. Some fandoms do seem to dispose towards one or the other, but that sometimes seems like it's as much about the mood of the canon and the attitudes of the audience as the writing itself.

Is it just me, or is it harder to write a happy-ending, sunshine-and-puppies fic than something angst-ridden?

It's harder to write things that are completely unrealistic, or unsuited to the canon you're working with. WaFF can get out of character, but so can TaFuF. In Buffyverse, for example, if you regard the perfect happy ending as 'Buffy marries Spike', that's hard to write realistically, because it is rather unlikely within canon. (You could, once, have tried for a good comedy, but Something Blue did it better than most fanfic will ever manage.) If your world-view and canon are dark, dark-fic is easier because it's more within canon. A show with a happier background (and I'm guessing that dueSouth may have that, without having watched it), is easier to write happy fic in.

That's why it's easiest to write darkness-with-humour in MASH, becuase that's what the show has.

How would you go about writing something warm-n-fuzzy without it descending into out-of-character schmoopiness?

I tend to find that if I know the characters well enough-- if, in canon, I can point to examples of 'happy here', 'sad here', and know what they did, and why-- they'll stay in character through most plot contortions. Sometimes I have to think hard, and have someone check that they are, but it seems to work for the most part.

Wow, that was a lot of stuff I had to say.

Is it just me, or is it harder to write a happy-ending, sunshine-and-puppies fic than something angst-ridden? How would you go about writing something warm-n-fuzzy without it descending into out-of-character schmoopiness?

I find it incredibly hard to write light -- but then, if anything, I tend toward the angst, misery, heartbreak and despair end of the spectrum a little too much.

I think a part of the problem is that, as a writer, I find it hard to differentiate the emotions on the warm-n-fuzzy end in a way that makes for very memorable or interesting writing. I have an extensive vocabulary of shades of dark gray; when I go for happy, it all just comes out... happy. Obviously, there are as many nuances there as there are on the dark side of the spectrum, but it's frustrating to come out with stuff that looks like just "happily ever after" on the page. So, being profoundly lazy, I don't push myself to do more in that mode. I stick to my dark corners instead.

(Actually, looking at the above, "Happily Ever After" may have as much to do with it as my own laziness. Particular kinds of happy endings -- the romance plot represented by that phrase in particular -- are such a strongly entrenched cultural formula that it's much harder to see your way to something different. This is my own preferences speaking, of course, and not meant as a dismissal of romance, just of my own ability to do anything with it.)

Interesting question. Happy fic writers, what do y'all think?

And is anyone up for a challenge? Write something dark if you usually do light, and vice versa? Lord knows I need to get out of the usual habits; does anyone else feel the same way?