randomly, about recs/link to my remix fic

[schmevil]

I'm not the best recer, but - about recs. I find it near-impossible to find recers who are any use to me. seperis and musesfool are two that work for me. Having read their journals for two years, I know what they like and what sorts of things to expect from their recs. Also, they have good taste. This is not true of most recers.

The drive to rec is a basic one - you find something amazing and you want others to love it as much as you do. The easier way to spread the love is to rec. Most recs are anything but discriminating, though, pointing to everything that brings them joy and while this isn't a bad thing - joy is never bad, man - it isn't useful. Because if you combine it with common recer trait the second - inability to express what makes a fic great - you have a squeeful babble that says nothing.

Finding a recer that works for you is like dating, and therefore tedious and painful. You have to read a few fics before you can decide if the recer in question is worth revisiting, or just cutting loose. Often, too often these dates leave you with a big WTF. To continue to dreadful analogy, rec comms are like school dances, where everyone's hiding in their own dark corner, eying the other corners. You tentatively step out to dance and get nothing but trampled toes. Very rarely you'll look up into another dancer's eyes and see a spark. Rec comms make me want to curl up in my dark corner and cry.

So, what I look for in a rec: mood, writing style, writing skill, quality of characterization, canon-ness, fanon-ness (if so, what part of fanon?), emotional and psychological realism, themes, interesting or unique elements, correctly formatted links that respect the author's warnings. Not that I pay attention to warnings.

What makes a good rec for you?

***

Title: Round Numbers (Axiomatic Blend)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Sumamry: "She edited her letters while composing them in her head, learning to give just enough to inspire verisimilitude. She learned to tell stories, in writing at least, and by the time summer came around, she'd told the same ones, over and over until they came automatically to her lips."
Characters: Hermione, Harry
Rating: PG 13
Notes: This is a remix of saeva's Passive Aggressive. lavenderoracle and naked_birthday did beta duties, with cedarlibrarian and seperis on the handholding crew.

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

I meant to tell you how much I enjoyed your remix - I read it while prepping it for uploading, and then got distracted when there was a glitch in the system. But I enjoyed it a lot. I really liked the look at Hermione in her parents' home, and what Harry's intrusion meant to her, and I wanted to shake both her and Harry and hug them at the same time. Thanks for participating.

And I'm glad you find my recs useful. I'm always afraid all I'm doing is squeeing when I rec, which isn't particularly helpful to anyone else, so I try, and it's gratifying to know people do find them useful. So thanks for that too. *g*

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I agree about rec comms. Bleah.

As far as recs and reccers go, I think that the important thing is to find people whose taste matches your own, and listen to them. To use your example, musesfool's recs are likely to be good quality stories, because she's a literate and demanding reader, but they're also likely to be about themes and characters I don't care about, and to pay more attention to character than plot, which I don't like. So it's not that I think she's a poor reccer - just that her taste and mine don't coincide.

What I want to know from a rec, and what I try to write in my recs, is: what kind of experience can I expect from reading this story? Why did the reccer like it? What didn't the reccer like, and why?