The Coal Game

[coalcube]

We're scrolling
And watching coalies make errors
The most pathetical errors!
We're watching experienced coalies
Who stayed up all night tracking a source in its original Latin
Up, writin'
And writin' bad!

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Comments

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

As a fan of the old school song fic, I'd mostly go for it, with a caveat. If this is a canon where the characters know the song, then they know that they're quoting the song, right? They aren't just unironically directly quoting it without realizing what they're doing, right?

If the former, go for it! If the latter... that might toss me out of the moment.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt
It can be assumed the song exists in this universe, and that this character might know it. But he wouldn't be explicitly acknowledging he was quoting it. There are some lyrics that are really recognizable, and others that are pretty mundane (like along the lines of "where am I going?").

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Well your first post said that the canon mentioned the song, so I thought it was more prominent, I guess.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

It does but in a weird meta kind of way.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

NC

Like in a BSG "All Along the Watchtower" way?

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

More like a narrator who is not part of the actual story mentions it. It's not exactly that, but close enough.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Song fic was a very popular and very polarizing genre, back in the day. Any idea how old your recip is? If they are over 40, and have been in fandom for a long time, they probably have a strong opinion about it one way or another.

I would write to the mods to avoid accidental coal.

If they are younger than 40 or new to fandom, song fic would be fresh and fun.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Ok, this is helpful to think about because I am an old who did enjoy that kind of thing. Maybe I'll snoop around and see if I can discern this about my recip, because I have no idea.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

+1 million
/old-ass coalie

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

+1

But I would add that 40 might be a slightly high cut-off. I was around when songfics were very much a thing, and I'm under 40.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

I’m well under 40 and I remember the days of songfic, like 5-7 years ago

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, song-fic came back in the 2010's???

In what fandom?

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

Ummm lots of them? I remember being 14/15 and browsing ff.net for big fandoms like hp and the hunger games and twilight and there were tons of songfic. Though I guess it depends on how you’re defining songfic? I just mean fic with lyrics interspersed throughout or the fic followed the story or lyrics of the song

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, but were those stories newly posted, or 10 years old?

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Definitely newly posted and probably written by other 14/15 year olds lmao

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

SC
definitely had to be fairly newly posted for fandoms like the hunger games and twilight and all the ya type fandoms I was into as a teenager. HP fic might be different

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

SC
thinking about it, this was actually probably more like 10 years ago, in 2010/11/12/13 but the point still stands lol

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

A quick ao3 search shows that the songfic is very much alive and well

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

+1 am 30 and have strong memories of songfic.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

+1

I'm 40 and I swear I felt a RL shudder at the idea of songfic. I thought it was a mark of clichéd badfic back in the day, and people mostly stopped doing it.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

I'm 42 and I wrote so many songfics as a teenager in the 90s. If you were in Trek, Babylon 5, or X-files fandoms... sorry.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

40, and also guilty. Now I wonder what the fuck I, and fandom collectively, were thinking.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Why y’all hating on songfic

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT. I think 40s is a really high number. I'm mid 30s and I was there for all the songfic drama. I'd say 30 is your real cut off.

Re: Brainstorm Help Thread

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed, I'm early/mid 30s and vividly remember song fic. When I see song lyrics in a fic now, I kind of freeze up and then immediately back button.