coaltide | Coal All The Way

Reading through the collection made me wonder...

1. Did you prompt “creatively” in your letter? Niche/wacky AUs and divergences, “what if” prompts that request something in canon become fantastical (eg what if X were actually a vampire the whole time, what if Y/Z met because of a mail order bride service), an explication for why B acts the way they that is unexpected (eg B was actually a street hustler in their youth), etc.

2. Did you receive “creative” fic? Was it the creative idea you asked for or did you being open to creative fic make your author go ODAO but creatively?

3. If you are someone that comes up with creative prompts easily/likes them, are you open to writing them to any recip or do you treat that as opt-in and won’t give those interesting ideas unless the recip has creative leaning prompts? If you did write creative fic this year, was the prompt/general like creative?

1. Yes, my letter is mostly weird prompts. I have a few AUs but it is mostly my weirder takes on canon and strange divergence points.

2. Yes!

3. I do try to save it for people that are into it. I usually write canon compliant stuff over pure AUs, but there is so much fun to have within canon. This year two of the fics I wrote were creative and the recips loved them. One of the letters was more creative than the other, but I had a feeling the uncreative recip would be into my take on the straightforward prompt they gave.

No on all accounts. I'm personally very much a 'please stick as close to canon as possible while also getting my ship together' person, so I'm afraid anyone looking to write something "creative" in the way you're thinking of will find me a disappointing recipient.

My recip did prompt for wacky AUs of the sort you describe, but I didn't give it to them because it's out of my ballpark (sorry, recip!), but they provided enough canon-based prompts (and not as an 'out'; the wacky AUs were the last following a long list of canon prompts) so I didn't go ODAO.

1. Yes! I never had a straightforward fandom request in my life!

2. Frequently, with my creative prompt. Once somebody went wildly ODAO with an unrequested crossover with a canon I never saw, but they thought I might like? I didn't mind.

3. Definitely an opt-in. Unfortunately for me, I always get recips with minimal prompts like "I just want her/him/them to be happy!" Almost. Every. Forking. Year. What I do is that I combine their wishes and mine by getting to the happy ending with a somewhat creative, but not completely off-the-wall plot. I always, always get excellent feedback on that and I often get the vibe that recips were pleasantly surprised to get that extra creative (but not too creative) kick.

My prompts are mostly structurally boring, though some are a little wacky content-wise. My gift might be considered weird by some but is very in line with canon.

I have definitely written a lot of wacky stuff and I'm more likely to write it for the kind of person who puts a line like "I'm open to anything!" in their letter.

1. Yes, though I also included some more mundane prompts.

2. Yes, I did! I got two different creative ideas I asked for. I was surprised bc I thought they were too weird to actually tempt anyone.

3. I treat them as opt-in--this year I wrote maybe 3 fics I'd count as "creative" (weird meet-ugly, an odd hobby, and a crack ship), and two were based on the recip's actual prompts with one based on a general like.

1. Yes, but I give a mix of canon compliant and more creative prompts for each canon. I also list things like sci-fi and fantasy AUs in my general likes.

2. No, I got completely canon compliant fic. It was awesome, though.

3. I consider them opt-in. I did write a more creative fic this year, but it was for a fantastical trope specifically mentioned in their letter.

1. I have both a general "anything goes if it's not a DNW" bit, and a more specific list of "creative" likes. And I will occasionally add specific prompts for same if I have them.

2. Yes, I was thrilled. It wasn't anything I'd specifically prompted for that fandom but it seemed to have been inspired by my general list.

3. Generally treat it as opt-in but very likely to make an effort for the people who do opt in if I get assigned to them. I might sometimes go for a "creative" idea in the absence of explicit mention of it, if it's something that doesn't affect the ability of the fic to be read straight. (eg I once did a thing where I constrained the number of words in each section of a fic in a canon-relevant way, that to the best of my knowledge no one has ever even noticed, let alone felt positive or negative towards.)

1. It varies by fandom for me, generally depending on the tone, but I definitely tend to at least have "feel free to get weird" and/or mentions of weird things I like about the canon in my letters.

2. I prompted for a weird canon, with plenty about how I was cool with things going crazy and reference to some of the weirder parts I liked, and got an extremely sweet and thoughtful story that was almost completely mundane. So it goes.

3. I generally tend to save my weirder ideas for prompts that are explicitly prompting it, or are at least openly asking their author to go crazy. If someone writes a vanilla prompt or doesn't have anything, I write canon-typical tones and plots.

1. Nope, not this year and not ever. I want my fic to engage with canon, otherwise what's the point? I do have some canons where I want divergence, but none this year, and I'm usually not after wacky or niche takes even then.

2. Nope. I got an amazing slice of canon, just like I wanted.

3. I'd write just about anything my recip wanted, but I definitely think they're opt-in. Canon-tone is the default.

I feel like you on #1. I don't give far-out prompts because I like really canon-steeped fic. I'm fine with divergence, like X makes a different choice here and things happen, but it needs to be in line with the source material. And I just can't stand setting AUs where it's in a different place or people have different lives, etc. I've written exactly 1 AU in over 140 fics for a big bang artwork, and even then thought the meeting of the people was different, so much was still canon deep down.

I mean, I think AUs are great (for those who love them!) but they don't really do it for me. There are a few things I can think of that might actually be fun set in space or something like that, but I'd still prefer canon-typical stuff. I'm am old fuddy-duddy I guess, but there's room for us fuddy-duddies, too! :D

I think some of the most canon steeped fics are steeped perfectly in canon BECAUSE of creative prompts (the Grand Budapest fic comes to my mind since I just read it off the rec in another thread) that give you a ‘creative’ twist that doesn’t negate canon at all, but it is definitely a milage varies thing since it depends on the canon, the twist, and if you really do hate anything that the creator wouldn’t imagine themselves. I’m having a hard time coming up with a canon you couldn’t pull off a completely canon compliant creative take. Maybe a procedural like CSI or Law & Order? But even then, I think you could?

I don't know that fandom or I'd check. Canon-compliant creative takes are great, it's just the AUs that are pretty far off that don't interest me much.My prompts are usually pretty in-line with canon, but divergent in shippy ways more than anything.

cyrt

an explication for why B acts the way they that is unexpected (eg B was actually a street hustler in their youth)

To me at least, the above (and probably the mail order bride backstory) would be really easy canon compliant creative ideas. To use my L&O example, one of the reasons Stabler is so off the wall when it comes to abuse of kids/has no sympathy to hookers (go with me here, I can’t remember him being any instances of being really caring hookers but scrap it if he is) is because there was a rough patch in highschool where he turned ticks and that is how he paid to get into the academy. You could write a pre-canon fic that deals with it up until (insert whatever season he showed up in) or have a non-liner narrative that reveals it. Neither would be any kind of divergence and they would help you understand the character, give you room to have a ship, and so on.

This wouldn’t be possible for Good Omens fandom where we know where they “came from”, but you could have a hustler interlude during their 6k years of existing without throwing off canon. Inception could give Eames/Arthur a mail order bride backstory or a hustler one, etc.

It all depends on how detailed the canon is for people’s lives/timelines and at what point you want to inject the creativity (and what kind), but creative and completely canon compliant aren’t mutually exclusive, to me/my fandoms at least.

DA

That really depends on how you define "creative". The way OP had been using it doesn't seem to be compatible with canon compliant narratives. (And I'm someone who doesn't like canon divergence either, so that narrows it further down.)

DC

Based on the OPs definition, you could always go for one of those "canon compliant EXCEPT..." universes. Like, everything happened in canon exactly the same, except everyone has wings, is a werewolf, or the law office they all work at is located on a ringed space station.

Re: Creativity Coal Poll

(Anonymous) - 2019-12-29 08:52 (UTC) - Expand

I think there's a point with RPF where you have to diverge at least somewhat or you don't have many options (and also you hit creepy-stalker level). Of course that's because the canon is reality. And most rpf fandoms seem to have a base definition of 'canon compliant' that's a lot more flexible than most fpf uses.

There's a writer in my fandom who is creepy-stalker level. They link pictures/tweets/instagram videos/whatever else IN their fic from the pairing's irl non-celeb friends, family, etc. I hate it so much

1. Sort of. Depends a bit on the canon, but I tend to have a blanket "here are my bulletproof tropes, feel free to use them for anything" as well as "if you're stumped for ideas and want to send the characters on a treasure hunt or introduce a zombie apocalypse, feel free" note in my letter.

2. No

3. Opt-in. One Yuletude a few years ago I wrote a "creative" trope for a non-fantasy canon and the recipient's only comment was simply "Well. This sure is some story you wrote!" So I'm never doing that again unprompted and without being absolutely sure that the recipient will be into it.

Oh, coalie, I'll bet that felt crummy. Sorry about that.

Daaaaaang, no chill. Did they have prompts?!

This is why people that give (near) blank sign ups need to say something imo! And people who give (near) blank sign ups but who are open to anything/want a novel take on canon need to speak up too. The former will get creative shit and the latter will get boring canon rehash and everyone is miserable.

Nobody should have any right to leave that type of comment if they didn’t give an indication of what they wanted. If you do *and then* the author still gives you ODAO in either direction, then you can leave that kind of mean petty comment.

what if Y/Z met because of a mail order bride service

Oh, hey, one of my prompts! Which is to say yeah, I totally do. I include a bunch of canon-compliant prompts with every request, but I also have a batch asking for AUs, what-ifs, or more off-the-wall stuff (suggestions for sex pollen causes in canons that definitely don't have any built in, "what if this were IN SPACE", etc).

This year, my author stuck pretty close to canon, with a missing scene that involved some character/backstory exploration - really well done, and also something I'd prompted for.

When I'm writing for someone else, I always try to stick to what they've actively opted into by mentioning it in their request. This year, I happened to end up writing for people who didn't prompt for those kinds of elements, so I didn't include them. And sometimes even when I do write for a request that includes unusual prompts, it's one of the others that caught my eye, so. Just depends on where the request overlaps with what I'm most interested in writing!

1) I try to have a combination of potentially canon-compliant and also off-the-wall. (Also a few off-the-wall AND canon-compliant.) I also include a "if you have a fic of your heart already, feel free to write that, I want to see it!" clause.

2) I almost never have people take me up on the off-the-wall stuff or on the "write what you like instead" clause. Which makes me a little sad -- I love the times when they do. Maybe I should stop providing the mainstream canon-compliant prompts, haha.

3) I try to write whatever the recip has prompted, or if they have no prompts, whatever it seems they are likely to enjoy. If they have out-there prompts, I'm pretty happy to get the chance for it, though.

I don't think this kind of "creative" would ever result in a fic I would want to read or one I would enjoy writing.

1. I left mostly "uncreative" prompts, but included one or two more unorthodox things for each fandom requested. Not totally out-there AUs like mail order bride service, but still uncommon.

2. Yes! I received 2 fics that both had a niche thing I had requested. Very cool; I was so pleasantly surprised. Neither of the authors went ODAO.

3. I do consider things like this to be opt-in; I don't generally like AUs and wouldn't write one unrequested, much less a really uncommon AU.