thedarlingone (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thedarlingone) wrote2020-02-22 06:50 pm
thedarlingone) wrote2020-02-22 06:50 pm
Entry tags:
that one trope choice meme
Memed from mara and others. Cut for probable rambling and longth.
Slow burn or love at first sight: As a writer, I don't have the patience for slow burn. As a reader, I used to adore it, but I come from Stargate fandom where slow burn is at least 100k+, and nobody in my current fandom does anything over about 10k unless it's a bigbang. I'd kind of like to try writing slow burn, but then I try it and they accidentally kiss in chapter two because apparently me andthe_dour_one are just Like That now.
Fake dating or secret dating: I'm not sure I've ever read or written secret dating. Fake dating is always fun, because it's so goofy and obvious, although the one time we tried to write a fake dating story it got tangled up in Ralltiiri politics and trying too hard to stay out of each other's pants and then I got way too invested in Wes discussing sociology with Ralltiiri sex workers and it never really... got finished. That sure was a thing that happened. :D
Enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers: I think my only "enemies" ship is Giles/Ethan, and that's really more "lovers to enemies" than the other way round, much as Ethan might wish. Mostly I tend to write best friends who happen to fall into bed together, because I'm aromantic and most of my characters get that projected onto them. The friendship tends to be a constant, though.
Oh no there's only one bed or long distance with correspondence: Only one bed, for sure. I am always here for transparent excuses for cuddlefic. (Although when I share a bed it does not end in cute cuddlefic, it ends in me accidentally thwacking my elderly great-aunt across the ribs because I flail wildly in my sleep. Bessie Ruth had her issues, but she was justified in refusing to share a bed with me again.) I tend to like the idea of writing correspondence fic, but it has never gone anywhere in my twelve years of fanfic writing, which probably indicates it's likely to continue not going anywhere.
Fantasy au or modern au: I seem to have an unexpected thing for modern AU in my current fandom. Partly because Wes fits in well with modern slang and so forth, I think. I had Hobbie wearing a pair of Minions lounge pants Wes bought him, in one of my modern AU fics. Fantasy AU is more... I'm a hardcore Tolkien fan, of the sort who doesn't participate in the fandom because the bookverse is pretty damn near as close as I get these days to having a religion anymore. I take high fantasy too seriously, and too structurally seriously, to be much good at fantasy AUs in the "Tough Guide to Fantasyland" mold; I'd feel like I was mocking myself, or get too tangled up in worldbuilding. Now, I did do a Tam Lin retelling that one time, but it was also a coffeeshop AU and wound up being a means to exorcise my many issues with Tam Lin retellings. XD
Smut or fluff: Yes? These are not mutually exclusive? Although a fusion genre of them would have to be called either "smuff" or "flut", so maybe not. ^_^ I do love me some fluffy smut though.
Mutual pining or domestic bliss: Ooh. I actually prefer domestic bliss, but mutual pining is just so much easier to write, or to find for reading purposes either. I think because it has an endpoint, where domestic bliss just kinda sits there being blissful.
Alternate universe or future fic: I'm from Stargate. We made the AU a thing to be feared. XD Occasionally I wander off into futurefic if canon left things really wide open, but AUs are way more common for me. There's so much more opportunity in so many more directions.
One shot or multi-chapter: You know, I used to write 500-word oneshots.the_dour_one wrote 2k oneshots. Now we write 20k+ novellas with a sprinkling of 50k+ novels, and I have finally persuaded her that the chapter break is a useful editing tool.
Kid fic or road trip fic: Roadtrip fic. I have too many neuroses around childrearing to touch kidfic with a ten-foot pole on the writing side, although I will generally read a good "Wedge adopts Rey" story, which is something our Amanda writes on a semi-regular basis. Rey is usually near canon-age when adopted though, which helps. (It's kind of a shame, because you know Wes would be amazing with kids, but there you are.)
Reincarnation or character death: I'll kill characters if I have something to say. If canon killed them and I don't want them dead, they're not dead. Our Katie has a reincarnationverse which is modern AU, everybody lives and remembers their past lives; it's pretty adorable, but if I was to do something on the same premise, it would get a lot darker, because my life andthe_dour_one's have both been hella dark. So we haven't gone in that direction.
Arranged marriage or accidental marriage: Haven't really done anything with either, writing or reading. Our IrenkaFeralKitty has an accidental marriage 'verse I was betaing, but she hasn't done much with it in a while, and really, the marriage is a secondary aspect of that 'verse. I could see myself writing an arranged marriage 'verse someday, maybe, but it would probably fall apart in Ralltiiri worldbuilding like the fake married 'verse did. (Leia's Hobbie is of a caste of Ralltiiri society that's not allowed to marry, in this complicated multiverse we have, so there's "why is marriage happening?" stuff to sort out in any marriage trope story.)
Time travel or isolated together: Why not both? XD I don't feel like I'm clever enough to write time travel, and it's not one of my major interests, but stable time loops are definitely a good way to isolate people together. I tend to prefer isolation with cuddling for warmth, though.
Neighbors or roommates: Roommates. You don't really interact with neighbors unless you choose to, or unless they're dickweasels who disrespect boundaries. Roommates have to interact by virtue of living in a shared space.
Sci-fi au or magic au: Given that all my fandoms are sci-fi already, this isn't really a question that comes up a lot. "Fairytale retelling urban fantasy AU" might be a thing, what with the Tam Lin coffeeshop AU and the Snow Queen story that otherwise took place in a canon universe...
Bodyswap or genderbend: Genderbend all the way. I'm genderfluid myself, so it's unusual lately to find a story of mine where gender is played absolutely straight (heh). When I do fiddle with bodyswap, it's usually as much to play with gender as anything else, although I have to avoid doing too much with dysphoria because it triggers my own dysphoria.
Angst or crack: Both. I especially like the "crack treated seriously" genre, where you take a goofy premise like selfcest or time loops and make something amazing out of them. (I got a lovely comment on my Wes/Wes selfcest fic once basically saying it was a great example of crack treated seriously. I hadn't thought of it as particularly cracky at the time, but I'm happy to take the compliment.)
Apocalyptic or mundane: Mundane, mostly. I'm not really into the apocalypse itself, although I do love me some postapocalyptic survival, just not while the apocalypse is still busy happening. "The apocalypse was twenty years ago and here's where we are now", that's what I like. Or "the apocalypse was six months ago". Just as long as you're not running into zombies and shit. I don't deal with zombies. Don't know why not, I just really don't.
mara and others. Cut for probable rambling and longth.Slow burn or love at first sight: As a writer, I don't have the patience for slow burn. As a reader, I used to adore it, but I come from Stargate fandom where slow burn is at least 100k+, and nobody in my current fandom does anything over about 10k unless it's a bigbang. I'd kind of like to try writing slow burn, but then I try it and they accidentally kiss in chapter two because apparently me and
the_dour_one are just Like That now.Fake dating or secret dating: I'm not sure I've ever read or written secret dating. Fake dating is always fun, because it's so goofy and obvious, although the one time we tried to write a fake dating story it got tangled up in Ralltiiri politics and trying too hard to stay out of each other's pants and then I got way too invested in Wes discussing sociology with Ralltiiri sex workers and it never really... got finished. That sure was a thing that happened. :D
Enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers: I think my only "enemies" ship is Giles/Ethan, and that's really more "lovers to enemies" than the other way round, much as Ethan might wish. Mostly I tend to write best friends who happen to fall into bed together, because I'm aromantic and most of my characters get that projected onto them. The friendship tends to be a constant, though.
Oh no there's only one bed or long distance with correspondence: Only one bed, for sure. I am always here for transparent excuses for cuddlefic. (Although when I share a bed it does not end in cute cuddlefic, it ends in me accidentally thwacking my elderly great-aunt across the ribs because I flail wildly in my sleep. Bessie Ruth had her issues, but she was justified in refusing to share a bed with me again.) I tend to like the idea of writing correspondence fic, but it has never gone anywhere in my twelve years of fanfic writing, which probably indicates it's likely to continue not going anywhere.
Fantasy au or modern au: I seem to have an unexpected thing for modern AU in my current fandom. Partly because Wes fits in well with modern slang and so forth, I think. I had Hobbie wearing a pair of Minions lounge pants Wes bought him, in one of my modern AU fics. Fantasy AU is more... I'm a hardcore Tolkien fan, of the sort who doesn't participate in the fandom because the bookverse is pretty damn near as close as I get these days to having a religion anymore. I take high fantasy too seriously, and too structurally seriously, to be much good at fantasy AUs in the "Tough Guide to Fantasyland" mold; I'd feel like I was mocking myself, or get too tangled up in worldbuilding. Now, I did do a Tam Lin retelling that one time, but it was also a coffeeshop AU and wound up being a means to exorcise my many issues with Tam Lin retellings. XD
Smut or fluff: Yes? These are not mutually exclusive? Although a fusion genre of them would have to be called either "smuff" or "flut", so maybe not. ^_^ I do love me some fluffy smut though.
Mutual pining or domestic bliss: Ooh. I actually prefer domestic bliss, but mutual pining is just so much easier to write, or to find for reading purposes either. I think because it has an endpoint, where domestic bliss just kinda sits there being blissful.
Alternate universe or future fic: I'm from Stargate. We made the AU a thing to be feared. XD Occasionally I wander off into futurefic if canon left things really wide open, but AUs are way more common for me. There's so much more opportunity in so many more directions.
One shot or multi-chapter: You know, I used to write 500-word oneshots.
the_dour_one wrote 2k oneshots. Now we write 20k+ novellas with a sprinkling of 50k+ novels, and I have finally persuaded her that the chapter break is a useful editing tool.Kid fic or road trip fic: Roadtrip fic. I have too many neuroses around childrearing to touch kidfic with a ten-foot pole on the writing side, although I will generally read a good "Wedge adopts Rey" story, which is something our Amanda writes on a semi-regular basis. Rey is usually near canon-age when adopted though, which helps. (It's kind of a shame, because you know Wes would be amazing with kids, but there you are.)
Reincarnation or character death: I'll kill characters if I have something to say. If canon killed them and I don't want them dead, they're not dead. Our Katie has a reincarnationverse which is modern AU, everybody lives and remembers their past lives; it's pretty adorable, but if I was to do something on the same premise, it would get a lot darker, because my life and
the_dour_one's have both been hella dark. So we haven't gone in that direction.Arranged marriage or accidental marriage: Haven't really done anything with either, writing or reading. Our IrenkaFeralKitty has an accidental marriage 'verse I was betaing, but she hasn't done much with it in a while, and really, the marriage is a secondary aspect of that 'verse. I could see myself writing an arranged marriage 'verse someday, maybe, but it would probably fall apart in Ralltiiri worldbuilding like the fake married 'verse did. (Leia's Hobbie is of a caste of Ralltiiri society that's not allowed to marry, in this complicated multiverse we have, so there's "why is marriage happening?" stuff to sort out in any marriage trope story.)
Time travel or isolated together: Why not both? XD I don't feel like I'm clever enough to write time travel, and it's not one of my major interests, but stable time loops are definitely a good way to isolate people together. I tend to prefer isolation with cuddling for warmth, though.
Neighbors or roommates: Roommates. You don't really interact with neighbors unless you choose to, or unless they're dickweasels who disrespect boundaries. Roommates have to interact by virtue of living in a shared space.
Sci-fi au or magic au: Given that all my fandoms are sci-fi already, this isn't really a question that comes up a lot. "Fairytale retelling urban fantasy AU" might be a thing, what with the Tam Lin coffeeshop AU and the Snow Queen story that otherwise took place in a canon universe...
Bodyswap or genderbend: Genderbend all the way. I'm genderfluid myself, so it's unusual lately to find a story of mine where gender is played absolutely straight (heh). When I do fiddle with bodyswap, it's usually as much to play with gender as anything else, although I have to avoid doing too much with dysphoria because it triggers my own dysphoria.
Angst or crack: Both. I especially like the "crack treated seriously" genre, where you take a goofy premise like selfcest or time loops and make something amazing out of them. (I got a lovely comment on my Wes/Wes selfcest fic once basically saying it was a great example of crack treated seriously. I hadn't thought of it as particularly cracky at the time, but I'm happy to take the compliment.)
Apocalyptic or mundane: Mundane, mostly. I'm not really into the apocalypse itself, although I do love me some postapocalyptic survival, just not while the apocalypse is still busy happening. "The apocalypse was twenty years ago and here's where we are now", that's what I like. Or "the apocalypse was six months ago". Just as long as you're not running into zombies and shit. I don't deal with zombies. Don't know why not, I just really don't.
no subject
Bits fall off them and you can't even get entertaining dialogue out of them. I just write zombie apocalypses where the zombies are all off-screen. :-D
You know what, we match on our choices on this way more than I have done with most other people on my flist. Which all considered, is quite funny but may explain a lot about our tendency to like but not like the same things.