Re: Skirting DNWs

(Anonymous) 2019-12-30 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
I...did? I prompted something of the effect of “[trope] for X/Y. I would love to see X carrying on with [trope] while Y uses their charms to flip it on its head since they have all the power” as my prompt. And the fic seemed to believe Y’s power was Y bending themselves over backwards (it isn’t, it’s Y getting their way without bending even if it means being scandalous) so that in the end X is the only one satisfied, with hints of what Y really wants in the narration with an ending that implies Y may change tactics. It also felt like X is their favorite when Y is mine, and that’s why they made Y obsessed with satisfying X.

My point is that even if you misunderstand a prompt or have a different headcanon, if someone requests “safe safe consensual, fun sex, over stimulation, sex before feelings, confessions during sex” and nothing dark, you shouldn’t write them noncon hatefucking with mindbreak even if they don’t DNW those things. It may not be DNW fic, but it will likely be skim-worthy. Authors don’t have to write anyone’s prompts but going away from the general direction/tone of what they’ve implied liking in their letter is “this feels like it skimmed my DNWs” 101.

Re: Skirting DNWs

(Anonymous) 2019-12-30 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
NC

I do think what you're describing is a dumb and shitty thing to do, to basically take a prompt and do the opposite, but I don't think that's what skirting a DNW means.

To me, it's more like if someone had a "focus on unrequested pairings" DNW, and the author sprinkled in something like 4-5 different one-liners about unrequested background pairings. It's not technically a focus, but for someone who's not about unrequested pairings, having them randomly in the background with that frequency skirts close enough to the DNW that the author should know it's something that their recip wouldn't like.