Demure

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Comments

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

This unfortunately reminds me of how some people request fandoms where they explicitly only want the fanon characterization...

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I have decided to refuse to believe these people exist. >>>>:(

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

Certainly, it's better not to think of them when contemplating a blank sign-up. How would it help?

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

DC

This is kind of my problem with this though - I come across so many people outside of and within exchanges, including (perhaps even specifically) Yuletide, who seem to actively dislike a lot of aspects of the canon and also seem to think that it's totally normal (normal as in very common) to not want those aspects in their fic.

Like you sign up for, IDK, Hannibal, and think you'll be fine writing for another Hannibal lover, and then get someone who DNWs gore, cannibalism, and homoerotic subtext. And I know all those people are out there and with an empty sign-up, I worry too much that there's one of those people on the other end who is actually expecting Will/Hannibal curtain fic about baking vegan cookies or whatever.

Yes, yes, my own fault for worrying about it. But I'd still prefer at least some DNWs in that case.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I guess. With brutal pragmatism, I'll be glad when you write them earnest canon-typical gore and they learn not to do that again.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

What a bizarre way to interact with the world.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

DC

Operating on a default assumption that somebody who requests fic for a canon without specifying otherwise should enjoy fic that contains the same content as 95% of that canon instead of tying yourself up in anxiety knots over the assumption they secretly won't, and believing that they are in fact the one who needs to learn to do things differently if that's the case rather than you having done something wrong by not anticipating that they didn't want what they asked for?

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm referring to the idea that they "didn't know what they're asking" so they'll "learn".

I also think that most people would fit the fic to what's common to the fandom, if the fandom already exists, rather than write egregious gore. If the fandom doesn't exist, by all means, write something close to the canon; but it's not my first day in fandom, so I wouldn't assume someone wanted gore specifically.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like we've found the person who only wants fanon.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

No one is going around teaching people lessons on purpose. A writer creating a work that has canon-typical content in good faith is giving a reasonable gift. If someone didn't want that, they will hopefully go "Oh. I see. I guess that was on me" and add that to their tools for participation.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

And that’s why you don’t teach lessons

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

No one is going around teaching people lessons on purpose.

Truly, what the fuck is up with your reading comprehension.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

Right except I am talking to someone who is explicitly framing this in terms of teaching someone a lesson, genius.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I think what you mean is that you saw a few key words that made you angry and you subsequently stopped reading.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

you

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

DC

I think your default assumption is faulty.l to begin with. I do believe blank assignments are more or less a carte blanche to write whatever, so I'm not concerned about the outcome of your approach here, but there are plenty of fandoms where the majority of the writers and readers don't like the canon. You can argue "well, then it's on them so say so" (fair), but "if you request it, that means you generally like the canon" and acting like it's just a few outliers who feel otherwise is just not true.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's a fundamentally bad idea to write fic for a blank exchange signup in a Yuletide-sized fandom based on the sourceless assumption that they are contact with any existing fandom, aware of and agree with prevailing opinion about what they should dislike about the canon, and that following the consensus fanon held by a bunch of other people would be a better gift for them than something that's actually similar to canon. Absent other cues, the canon is your prompt.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

Absent other cues, the canon is your prompt.

No. Depending on the canon, there might well be as many people who dislike the canon and want it fixed than there are people who love the canon and want more of the same. You can't make assumptions which group your recipient falls under and what they may or may not like unless they tell you.

For a blank sign-up, I stay away from the big common triggers (underage/incest/gore/real life politics and diseases/body fluid kinks/noncon) written in explicit and detailed ways, and otherwise write the fic I want to write.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

You also can't make an assumption that they don't love that stuff.
You have only one thing to go off, stop trying to make this more complicated than it is. The request is for canon (and characters), take the requestor at their word that that's what they want, instead of turning yourself into a "but what if they want a coffee shop AU" pretzel

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

+1

For Yuletide in particular the default assumption should be that they had no idea there was any fandom for this canon until they saw it in the noms list and would have no idea where to find it if it existed. Even if there's a few other fics on AO3 one can usually assume they were mostly written for other exchange prompts, or by a small friend group your recip isn't part of, or by an older fandom community that doesn't really exist anymore, not as part of an ongoing fandom with relevant norms.

If the recip writes a letter talking about the fanon they can counteract this a bit, but we're talking a blank signup situation. The canon is the prompt.

The situation might be a bit different if you prompted a large fandom. But this is yuletide. Even if you prompt a small fandom connected to a large one you're all supposed to assume nobody knows anything about the large one.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

Absent other cues, the canon is your prompt.

This is true but what precisely about the canon you choose to write matters, and I think "well Hannibal has lots of gore so it's totally fine to write a fill that's full of gore. if they don't like it, they've learned about DNWs" is such faulty reasoning that I really can't see it being in good faith. Most people are not watching Hannibal exclusively or even mostly for the gore, and the show itself isn't even exclusively or mostly gore. "I'm going to write a fic that fits the tone of the show even if that's not the tone of the flower crown fanon", fine! Follow your bliss. But there's a limit to what most people expect to see in fanfic and yeah, with a blank signup I would expect a good faith writer to not commit hardcore to a common trigger, that is also a less popular theme/trope in fic, that the show itself features but does not devote a majority of its runtime to. Like, come on. This is "don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining" territory.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't want to punish them. But I would like people to have reasonable expectations of what they're signing up for. Some people may not realize they can get canon-typical content, true. That is a problem, but I think the best outcome is for that misapprehension to be corrected than for people to tiptoe around the possibility of that misapprehension. No one is being harmed.

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't want to punish them. But

Like I said: bizarre way to interact with the world!

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm genuinely not sure what you think is wrong with my comment. Could you elaborate please?

I'm talking about a situation where someone

-signs up with a blank sign-up (or there are situations where minimal details would also be relevant)

-is asking for a canon that has a significant amount of a type of content that is also considered disturbing, difficult, etc

-thinks, erroneously, "no one's going to write me that disturbing content though".

Are we on the same page about that?

Re: Why isn't Yuletide growing?

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. I think your comment where you explain that you're not trying to punish them but it's better if they learn quickly that they need to DNW gore if they don't want it to be bizarre because most fic, period, isn't as gory or violent as canon, and there's no real reason to assume someone wants that just because they haven't explicitly DNW'd it. If you want to write it, that's certainly your prerogative, but you aren't framing it in terms of what you want to write or your attachment to the canon. You're framing it in terms of teaching someone a lesson. That is bizarre.