schmevil: (dilbert (pirate))
I have been fannish for as long as I can recall. My first fandom was Star Trek. When I was in grade school my friends and I would play Star Trek during recess. We did other stuff to, playing house, skipping, hopscotch and what have you, but Star Trek was one of the games that all of us, boy and girl could all get behind.

We all had one or two roles that we stuck with. My best friend (we’re bff even today) always played Dr. Crusher, and another close friend (who I still hang out with regularly) played Wesley. Let me tell you, they were the most ridiculous appearing and most dysfunctional play-family I have ever had the pleasure to encounter. Our other friends Big Michael and Little Michael played, respectively, Worf and Data. I always played Tasha Yar.

I still remember how upset I was when she was killed by that oil slick punkass.

I don’t remember how old I was when I wrote my first fanfic, but it was Spock/OFC and I wrote it in my head while watching ToS in my older brother J’s brand new apartment. It was the first time he was living alone and without a roommate, and he’d invited us over, I suppose to inspect his new space. Make sure it was up to our standards. The things I remember most vividly are his wicked leather beanbag chair and his (at the time) state of the art tv.

While my parents and J discussed rent, utilities and the economics of KD, my brother G and I watched Star Trek. It was the episode where Spock goes under cover as a Romulan and has a flirtation with that badass Romulan commander. As much as I understood that as a Vulcan, logic was essential to him, and he was uninterested in overt displays of emotion, that episode gave me ideas.

I decided that Spock needed a girl.

The Romulan commander was great, they were almost perfect for each other, but it could never work out, what with his being in Star Fleet and her being a Romulan officer. They might end up having to kill each other!

No, what Spock needed was a girl who had all the brilliance and passion of a Romulan, but none of the political issues. What he needed, I decided, was someone interesting. Someone compelling, beautiful and unique!

I can’t remember her name but she had purple eyes, was a deadly hand-to-hand combatant and was a Vulcan from the time before logic, who was trapped in Spock’s time after an unfortunate accident involving solar flairs and the Enterprise’s warp drives. At first, she and Spock wouldn’t get along – they were from two different world’s… er … time’s, after all, but they couldn’t deny their connection for long. Not with Spock’s Pon Farr fast approaching!

Then it faded to black because sex grossed me right the fuck out, back then. And thus was born my first Mary Sue.
schmevil: (I hate myself and I want to die)
I'm not the best recer, but - about recs. I find it near-impossible to find recers who are any use to me. [livejournal.com profile] seperis and [livejournal.com profile] 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 [livejournal.com profile] saeva's Passive Aggressive. [livejournal.com profile] lavenderoracle and [livejournal.com profile] naked_birthday did beta duties, with [livejournal.com profile] cedarlibrarian and [livejournal.com profile] seperis on the handholding crew.

July 2012

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