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

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)]

+1 from this DC disappointed at the unnecessarily snippy digs

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)]

DC

It's too bad CYRT had to be a dick about it, because I don't blame you for not addressing their points, but you didn't really address their points.

You said people DNW things because they're dealbreakers in fic, and went on to list OCs (among other things) as an example. You say you find them "distracting and annoying". That still doesn't really gel as a "dealbreaker" to me, and using the word like that does more to support the idea that a lot of people are using DNWs extremely casually, as a way of making the fic follow their likes, than to discredit it.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

c cyrt rt yeah, I was being more snarky than I probably should have been, but that is exactly why I added that extra bit: if you're using "dealbreaker" to mean "I was annoyed by a distracting writing choice" instead of "I couldn't finish reading the fic and had to go have a good cry" you aren't using "dealbreaker" the way a lot of people use dealbreaker.

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)]

DC

...And then what? 👀

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

CYRT

Yes? Very much.

In scene 2, I imagine them sitting at the bar and the glass sliding towards them on the counter. Presumably someone prepared it and pushed it offscreen, but I don't "see" them; the camera is fixed on Blorbo and Blorboo.

In scene 1, another character wanders into the scene. What does she look like? I'm imagining her as a redhead. Does the writer intend her to be a redhead ? Does she know Blorbo and Blorboo? Has she witnessed their interaction and now thinks they're friends/enemies/lovers? is she flirting with them or do they annoy her? Is she going to have some kind of significance later?

Basically, my mind is now focusing on the character instead of being immersed in Blorbo's and Blorboo's scene and I hate it.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

well thank you for confirming. This is quite surprising to me

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

Okay this has to be a bit. Coalie who was stressed out from a work week, have we wanked enough for you yet?

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

If you care that litle about the characters you’re reading about that you will latch onto and obsess about literally any other character mentioned in the scene, maybe you should consider requesting characters you actually find compelling?

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

I think in that case you should probably DNW "any mention of OCs existing," because as a writer, I would not realize that "DNW OCs" meant literally no mention that someone brought their drinks if they go to a bar and no mention that other people exist in the world if they step outside.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

There is zero chance I would read "No OCs" as "There cannot be anyone in the fic that is not a named person in canon" but also if I wrote this and you complained, I would insist that actually that barmaid is in canon, she's the barmaid from Season 3, Episode 16, that you can see in the background of frames 116 to 127, here is a screenshot.

Re: Unpopular Opinion Time

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly the idea of something appearing like that is more distracting to me than a human being involved.