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OTPs and LBDs
Definitions for the acronymically impaired:
OTP: the One True Pairing which you ship above all others. Some have argued that an OTP chooses the shipper, rather than the reverse and that it's all but impossible for an OTPer to ship anything else.
LBD: a Little Black Dress is a character (usually the writer's favourite) who the writer can pair with anyone. As long as the LBD is in the story, an LBDer is happy to read it.
Ok, so I have this feeling - not backed up by anything even vaguely resembling research, mind you - that OTPers and LBDers are two sides of the same dysfunction, i.e. over-identification and eventually isolation from other characters/groups in the source text. (I'm using the term dysfunction for two reasons, 1) it's nifty and 2) the behaviour/tendency I'm talking about could be considered contrary to the norm.)
A few days ago I wrote a post on OTPs and H/D in particular, which talked about how being an OTPer can limit one as a writer. The same is true for being a LBDer. Most OTPers and LBDers over-identify with their character(s) and since they're writing them exclusively, the two factors combine to allow the writer to subtly (and usually) unknowingly write his/herself onto the character(s). This is when you see ballerina!Draco (as mentioned in the linked post), or skaterboy!Lex.
This is not to say that there is anything wrong with having an OTP or a LBD. I'm merely trying to suggest that focusing on one character, or group of characters limits one's writing.
It's difficult to escape one's fellow writers in a social context and even more difficult to avoid their stories. We're in this part of the fandom because we like to read and write fanfiction, so it's just slightly more than absurd to claim fandom and - by logical extension - fanon have no influence on us. Fanfiction is not a singular activity, it is communal. Like everyone else with strong preferences, OTPers and LBDers tend to group together - think of ships and cliques. Over time one develops the illusion that this group is all of fandom.
I think it's easy to see that is going to be limited, if only in the scope of one's imagination. Unless one is particularly rebellious, one will be regulated by the group, perhaps without even realizing it. It is in this sense that having an OTP or an LDB can be dangerous for a writer. Again, it isn't necessarily limiting, but it is more likely to be so, than an OTP/LBD-free state.
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musesfool has an excellent post on the whys of OTPing, but I can't find it as my computer is being wonky. (Where is it Vic? Where?) If someone could link me that would be fantastic. It was her post that got me thinking about the similarities between an OTP and a LBD.
Like Vic, I would argue that a LBD chooses the writer, rather than the other way around. There is a near-visceral connection to the character and eventually over-identification. One feels that one knows the character intimately and consequently, can see enough layers to the personality to make him/her sexually and emotionally flexible: a Little Black Dress. Here's how it works - the LBDer can find a way to pair the LBD with any character, not matter how canonically implausible. They can do this because they see something in the character that someone else (read non-LBDer) cannot. Hagrid/Lupin is impossible, you say? Well someone for whom Hagrid is a LBD would argue otherwise. She knows they work and she'll tell you how if you let her.
Vic has OTP tendencies and it should be obvious to anyone who's chatted with me that I have LBD tendencies. Cheifly I over-identify with Severus Snape and Lex Luthor and it's a constant trial to resist that. I resist it because if I didn't? My writing would be all about MHC!Snape and MHC!Lex and therefore Of Teh Suck. Every time I take a break from writing one of these two and try out someone else - Lily, Ron, Lillian, Lana - it's amazingly refreshing, as if canon has been reborn for me. It's clear that I've been putting too much of myself into Snape or Lex and have been putting too much of that construct into my reading of canon. Judging by conversations I've had with other LBDers and the attitudes of rabid Snapeslashers and Lexfans, I think I can safely say the same is true for others.
Thoughts?
OTP: the One True Pairing which you ship above all others. Some have argued that an OTP chooses the shipper, rather than the reverse and that it's all but impossible for an OTPer to ship anything else.
LBD: a Little Black Dress is a character (usually the writer's favourite) who the writer can pair with anyone. As long as the LBD is in the story, an LBDer is happy to read it.
Ok, so I have this feeling - not backed up by anything even vaguely resembling research, mind you - that OTPers and LBDers are two sides of the same dysfunction, i.e. over-identification and eventually isolation from other characters/groups in the source text. (I'm using the term dysfunction for two reasons, 1) it's nifty and 2) the behaviour/tendency I'm talking about could be considered contrary to the norm.)
A few days ago I wrote a post on OTPs and H/D in particular, which talked about how being an OTPer can limit one as a writer. The same is true for being a LBDer. Most OTPers and LBDers over-identify with their character(s) and since they're writing them exclusively, the two factors combine to allow the writer to subtly (and usually) unknowingly write his/herself onto the character(s). This is when you see ballerina!Draco (as mentioned in the linked post), or skaterboy!Lex.
This is not to say that there is anything wrong with having an OTP or a LBD. I'm merely trying to suggest that focusing on one character, or group of characters limits one's writing.
It's difficult to escape one's fellow writers in a social context and even more difficult to avoid their stories. We're in this part of the fandom because we like to read and write fanfiction, so it's just slightly more than absurd to claim fandom and - by logical extension - fanon have no influence on us. Fanfiction is not a singular activity, it is communal. Like everyone else with strong preferences, OTPers and LBDers tend to group together - think of ships and cliques. Over time one develops the illusion that this group is all of fandom.
I think it's easy to see that is going to be limited, if only in the scope of one's imagination. Unless one is particularly rebellious, one will be regulated by the group, perhaps without even realizing it. It is in this sense that having an OTP or an LDB can be dangerous for a writer. Again, it isn't necessarily limiting, but it is more likely to be so, than an OTP/LBD-free state.
musesfool has an excellent post on the whys of OTPing, but I can't find it as my computer is being wonky. (Where is it Vic? Where?) If someone could link me that would be fantastic. It was her post that got me thinking about the similarities between an OTP and a LBD.Like Vic, I would argue that a LBD chooses the writer, rather than the other way around. There is a near-visceral connection to the character and eventually over-identification. One feels that one knows the character intimately and consequently, can see enough layers to the personality to make him/her sexually and emotionally flexible: a Little Black Dress. Here's how it works - the LBDer can find a way to pair the LBD with any character, not matter how canonically implausible. They can do this because they see something in the character that someone else (read non-LBDer) cannot. Hagrid/Lupin is impossible, you say? Well someone for whom Hagrid is a LBD would argue otherwise. She knows they work and she'll tell you how if you let her.
Vic has OTP tendencies and it should be obvious to anyone who's chatted with me that I have LBD tendencies. Cheifly I over-identify with Severus Snape and Lex Luthor and it's a constant trial to resist that. I resist it because if I didn't? My writing would be all about MHC!Snape and MHC!Lex and therefore Of Teh Suck. Every time I take a break from writing one of these two and try out someone else - Lily, Ron, Lillian, Lana - it's amazingly refreshing, as if canon has been reborn for me. It's clear that I've been putting too much of myself into Snape or Lex and have been putting too much of that construct into my reading of canon. Judging by conversations I've had with other LBDers and the attitudes of rabid Snapeslashers and Lexfans, I think I can safely say the same is true for others.
Thoughts?
Re: That is just about the best icon ever, btw.
It can be a wrench to switch perspectives when you've invested a lot of emotional energy into one character, yes. (For the record, I OTP Sirius/Remus and LBD Snape). My friend Morgan D and I have a website where we exchange letters in persona, and recently began a lighthearted thread between James and Sirius as teenagers planning a (relatively harmless but embarassing) prank on Snape. And while I had no trouble writing Sirius rubbing his hands gleefully and plotting, I found myself almost self-righteously appalled at his behavior *and my ability to characterize it*. Because I had written *so* many letters from Snape's POV--self-justifying, frustrated, furious, grieving--that I was quite angry at Sirius's actions, even though I'd written those actions myself and although I otherwise love Sirius dearly. Essentially, it felt alien *being* Sirius when I had spent so much time and energy *being* Snape and burrowing into his psyche.
And I must also plead guilty to reading stories or, yes, canon, with Snape and saying "But he doesn't *talk* like that!". Then, of course, I mentally slap myself because he doesn't speak in canon with the same voice I give him--his speech patterns are my own personal idiosyncracy (sp?) for the character.