To me, "plotty" means the point of the story is the unfolding events, not character interactions or character development

Hmmm. I tend to believe that the characters *drive* the plot, but then I'm also thinking novels, not fanfic.

Hmmm. I tend to believe that the characters *drive* the plot, but then I'm also thinking novels, not fanfic.

I can't really separate the two, in terms of how I think of them as a reader. (Obvious distinctions re: writing)

I started out writing fanfic in an X-Men APA, where all the fanfic was of course plot-driven, since that was the model we used derived from the comics. It wasn't until much later when I was out into the wider world of fanfic that I ran across non-plot-centered fanfic. So I'm more than a little biased by my personal history.

I want an adventure, not the journal of a person's inner turmoil.

I tend to want both. Those stories are very, very hard to find, but when I find them I hang on to them very, very hard.

I'm not sure I've ever really written a "plotty" story, then, by the definitions above. Hm.

I've never written a densely-plotted story.

But I do have charts and notes for the non-densely plotted longer ones! t /cheerful

Hey, woman, you feel like chatting?

Sure. Give me a mo. I'm in a translucent shift and it's somewhat cold, so I'm thinkin' clothing.

Something like Analise's Weight of the World, in which the interior life of the characters is driven by, and drives, the external happening? That's the way it should be for me.

Consuela speaks for me. I get bored with PWPs or character vignettes with strong undertone of navel-gazing very quickly.

In fanfic reading, it ultimately falls under preference. When I read fanfic, I usually read it because I love the universe in which the story is set. I *want* to see exploration into the characters' inner lives, but I want to see it in the context of this show I love, which, in case of Buffyverse, would feature demons and vampires and magic, and in X-Files, conspiracies and mutants, and in Stargate, wormhole travels and evil snakeheads. So a 'plotty' story to me, in its narrowest definition and purely speaking of fanfic, has elements that resemble/plausible as the episodes of the show in question. I'm not so much interested in stories in which the characters go on roadtrips/lie in bed talking/meet each other in a mall, and somehow come to vital realization/deeper understanding of themselves. But that's just my preference--I like plotty fic better, which doesn't mean that it has some implicit superiority to non plotty fic. God knows there are boring plotty novels a-plenty out there with uninspiring prose.

Interesting, Vonnie. I usually read fanfic because I'm interested in the characters, but want to explore some area that the original source material can't or won't go into--sometimes that means 'shippier and/or sexier, sometimes more introspective than a visual medium can easily be, sometimes taking characters far into the future or exploring their pasts.

See, I'm actually quite fond of past or future-fic, but I'd *still* want it to be feasible/compatible with the premise of the show. For example, a fang-gang story set in the past or a historical slayer fic would have very little problem inserting itself into the Buffy-canon--I love stories like these. For X-files and Stargate, I love dystopian future fic/post-colonization/AU stories, because these types of storyline can be a very real outgrowth from the premise laid out in the show.

Fic preferences are weird things, aren't they. When it comes down to it, you like what you like, and that's that.