One Wank After Another

[coalcube]

A blank assignment is a funny thing, isn't it? When you have it, you don't appreciate it, and when you miss it, it's gone.

Wednesday 10 December: Default deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 17 December: Assignment deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 24 December: Main collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 25 December: Madness collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 1 January: Author reveals, end of event (9pm UTC)

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Comments

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

Because for most people, DNWs are dealbreakers not just "well, it's nice if the writer wants to avoid that".

Sure, I can skip the DNWs and put it all in my likes and optional details instead. And like you said "If the author wants to write that, they probably will". And if they don't, and I back button out of the fic because that was one of my dealbreakers and I'm not going to read a fic that has OCs or unrequested ships or mentions of lemons, then that should be okay for the author, right? After all, they had the information in my optional details and chose to not write it, so not getting a comment is also okay?

Because let me tell you, I really doubt it works that way. (And if it does, and the author doesn't care about the comment and also clearly doesn't care about writing what the recip likes, then what's the point of a gift exchange here?)

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, yeah.

I think a lot of the people complaining about unreasonable DNWs are people who do not believe that having a barmaid named "Mrs. Jones" hand you your drink is actually anybody's dealbreaker.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

I personally don't care if she's called Mrs Jones or Lucy or Candy Boobtastic. I just don't want your OCs in my gift fic at all. So, yes, it's a dealbreaker. If you can't wrap your head around that, that's a you problem.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

DC

Okay, I believe you, and I'm also not trying to get you to out your AO3 name or anything, but what sort of canons and characters are you asking for?

Feel free to tell me it's a skill issue and a me problem but - genuinely, I do not understand what you're looking for here and why brief OC appearances - especially if they're devices to move the plot along - are a dealbreaker.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

I really just want my requested characters talking or kissing or fighting or fucking for however many words my writer can stretch it out. I don't want Mrs Jones the bartender or Toby from accounting or their roommate the Great Blob to distract them (and me).

I mean, most DNWs don't exist in a vacuum. And I totally get that sometimes people have DNWs that clash with the prompts or request details but a lot of the time, they don't and people have thought them through. So obviously, I'm not going to prompt for stories that need OCs to work.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

Yeah, I still don't grok it, but most of the time I can make that work! It helps that I personally am happy writing porn though. (No one wants to see my attempt at a fight scene.)

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

Tbh, some of my favorite fics are just my faves having a conversation (or a series of conversations, even). Porn is nice, but it's not a requirement or anything. I just want the requested characters interacting as much as possible.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, people who wanted an example of being railroady, I think this qualifies for me.

"DNW: Anything except my requested characters talking or kissing or fighting or fucking for however many words my writer can stretch it out, with no distractions"

That seems to me like it's the same category as DNW: anything but coffeeshop AU.

(is it unwriteable? no, but then I will also always happily do a coffeeshop AU. Is it attempting to force your writer into one very very specific type of fic? Yes.)

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

DC

Interesting! It doesn't qualify for me.

I suppose it would qualify, for some canons, if the people weren't allowed to mention OTHER people in the intense conversation they were having with each other.

And I have canons where it's difficult to even explain why two people are in the same room together without mentioning further parties. But coalie did say their requests are geared towards canons where this is not ridiculous.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

You realize that this is not a DNW but a like that's in my optional details?

You can still go ODAO and write, idk, fic where my requested characters are separated and never meet or interact for the entire fic. I'd think you're a massive asshole and would hate the gift, but I can't stop you.

(Though I'm also boggling that you apparently consider "A and B share a pizza and talk about A's bad cooking", "A patches up B's injuries", "A tries to kill B in an underground garage", "A and B are stuck in a closet" and "alpha!A fucks omega!B" all "one very very specific type of fic". Personally, those are a lot of very different options. But apparently YMMV. TIL.)

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, you're explaining that's what you mean when you DNW all original characters and why a barmaid silently handing someone a drink while they have an argument in a bar is a dealbreaker than means you can't read your gift and have to go sit in a corner and cry for a bit.

I mean maybe you don't DNW all original characters, this is coal, nobody can keep straight who said what and who's being hypothetical and who's making up examples and who thinks two comments are the same coalie but aren't. But at the very least the argument you were making is that this is a valid reason to DNW all original characters and this is the result you would hope to get from it.

And I can also think of a bunch of wildly different ways to write a coffeeshop AU fic too, they don't have to be the same genre or setting at all, you can write a fluffy coffeeshop AU and an intense suspense coffeeshop AU with spies and a coffeeshop AU in space! and a canon-divergence coffeeshop AU and a whumpy coffeeshop AU and a pornographic coffeshop AU. I have read and/or written all of those. And yet it's still pretty railroady to force your writer to guess which of those you want as opposed to, you know, just explaining in your likes what you like.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

means you can't read your gift and have to go sit in a corner and cry for a bit.

come back when you can argue in good faith

/nominally on your side

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

I DNW OCs because I don't want OCs in the fics I read. I find them distracting and annoying.

A coalie asked me what type of fic I like to read and I gave them examples. That doesn't mean that this is WHY I DNW OCs.

a barmaid silently handing someone a drink while they have an argument in a bar is a dealbreaker than means you can't read your gift and have to go sit in a corner and cry for a bit

Yeah, I'm sure you're arguing in good faith.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

I hate to do this as one of the coalies who's been complaining about railroading but I'm gonna split hairs here and slightly disagree. IMO DNW: OCs doesn't quite cut it even if they admitted to a pretty railroady motivation (although the other DNWs they have might make it more railroady than it sounds in isolation).

It would also depend massively on the canon.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

This is such a better discussion when we're talking about a specific example caused by someone's actual earnest preferences.

/intended tone: appreciative/relieved

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

DC

So you DNW OCs not because you cannot bear to have a barmaid hand your Blorbo a drink but because it's a way to nudge your writer towards following your (optional) prompts?

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

No, I wouldn't mind them having a drink in a bar. (It's not a prompt I specifically give, but my prompts are just guidelines! Any situation where A and B interact is great.) I just don't want to read about the barmaid because I find her an annoying distraction. I literally just said that in the comment you responded to.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

DC

Is there a meaningful distinction for you between:

BLORBO watched the line of BLORBOO's throat as he swallowed. He lifted his hand to signal for another drink without looking away. The barmaid brought it over quickly.

BLORBO watched the line of BLORBOO's throat as he swallowed, and lifted his hand to signal for another drink without looking away. Another glass appeared at BLORBOO's elbow.

?

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

If having a barmaid show up for one line in a fic is truly a dealbreaker for you, coalie... well, I shan't say it.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

I want them to keep going! Is onscreen vs not the dealbreaker? Is the implied existence of other members of the same species a dealbreaker? How explicit can the reference be? Are their preferences like that when consuming media that is not fic? Have they always preferred these things or did they get some truly awful OC-centric fic that caused them to declare, nevermore!?

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

The question is: why do you need to write fic where the barmaid appears for a recipient who clearly doesn't care about your barmaid and doesn't want her in the fic.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

DC

I don't write barmaids for recipients who clearly don't want them to show up in the fic.

I try to write stories about the requested characters/ships doing things that are interesting to me and that seem to match with my recipient's likes. A lot of the time, that calls for acknowledging or depicting the existence of other characters, because that is very common in fiction generally.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

Idk, a lot of the fic I read is just about the main ship or character dynamic with no other characters appearing - and if they are mentioned or turn up as background characters, it's almost always canon characters and not random OCs.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

DC

Depends on the genre and canon. If the plot involves the Blorbos getting separated from the rest of the cast and going on the run together, forced to trust each other to survive, then yeah, there will probably be OCs there if there's literally any kind of plot going on at all.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

This is some grade A bullshit.