i try not to be a snob, but it just happens with fanfic and with poetry

[lirazel]

I have become SO PICKY about fanfic, y'all. I will literally read three or four sentences and decide, "This is not well written. I am closing this tab." It makes it VERY HARD to find good stuff, being so picky.

*sigh*

Because I have a lot of free time at work and I am always looking for ways to waste time, but I've just recently finished rereading ALL of my favorite BtVS fics and now I'm trying to find new stuff, but almost all of it is not very good? And like, I want people to keep writing because my stuff was definitely not very good when I started writing, so I'm glad they have a platform and everything, I just don't want to read it? So I have started being pretty bored at work and just reading Indian Country Today Media Network because did you know that I have a passion for Native Studies? Because I do, even though it's not something I talk about loads. But sometimes I just want to read something nice and fanfic-y, and I am having SUCH A HARD TIME finding new good stuff. So this is just to say that I am ALWAYS open to recs for fandoms that I follow. Just in case you were holding any back.

So I thought I'd do a rec-post thing? Three BtVS fics I am reading now and loving? People who might actually be interested in these are probably already reading them, but just in case?

And a note: I usually don't read WIPs because I've been burned by unfinished fics too many times (note: this is not me being entitled and demanding that people finish. Life happens or interest wanes, and it's okay--I've abandoned fics too many times to count. But I rarely want to knowingly subject myself to a cliffhanger of an ending if I don't have to, you know?). But all of these are WIPs in their own ways, and the first and last I'm reading in chunks because I like to sustain the mood of a fic? So I wait till about five chapters are posted and then I read all of them together? Sometimes more than five chapters. But that is what I do. You can wait till they're finished or read them now or not even read them at all. It is up to you.

+ Embers by coalitiongirl. I need to say upfront that I read this on Elysian Fields and so I have not been good about reviewing? I am most profoundly sorry because this fic is currently ONE OF THE BEST THINGS IN MY LIFE. Post-S8 (but don't let that stop you!) with seriously one of my very favorite Buffy-and-Spike relationships I've read in fic. They're both so them and they're both madly in love but they think the other doesn't love them back and so they keep sending all these mixed signals and everyone else knows they're madly in love and it is both angsty and fluffy all at the same time (how do you manage to write that? I wish I knew!). And also there is plot and cameos from Faith and Illyria and Angel and Dawn and Xander. And I love it.

+ The Green Card 'Verse by brutti_ma_buoni. Another one of the BEST THINGS IN MY LIFE. Basically, for plotty reasons the Scoobies decide that Buffy needs to marry Spike to keep him around? In other hands this would be a lighthearted comedy romp, but brutti_ma_buoni decides to go realistic with it. I...might maybe have mentioned once or twice possibly that I have a hell of a kink for couples who get married first and then fall in love? Um, yeah. So this obviously hits said kink. It also has fun and inventive twists on canon, and one of the most fun things about it is noticing which things have changed and why. Also, each fic is its own fic, not a chapter, so there's lots of different POVs and also it keeps me from being terrified as I usually am by WIPs, since it technically isn't one.

+ Dust by knifeedgefic. Everyone in Sunnydale is asleep except for Buffy and Spike, who can't wake any of them up. Watch them fight! Watch them snark! Watch them be weirdly and uncomfortably domestic! Watch Spike pretty much have an identity crisis when he figures out that he actually likes Buffy! Gah, these two are so weird and wonderful, and this fic is so very, very well written. Read it! Read all of these! Your life will be better, I swear!

Comments

[next_to_normal]

Heh, yeah, I've gotten the same way about fanfic. I think it's partly that I've read so much that unless it's something really outstanding and original, it all kinda sounds the same. Also, I have zero tolerance for bad grammar.

I have found that dabbling in other fandoms, I am a lot less picky, just because it doesn't feel like I've already read it all before.

[penny-lane-42.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that about sums up my relationship with fic at this point.

[silverusagi]

I think it's partly that I've read so much that it all kinda sounds the same.

Yeah, this is how I am. For a long time, I kept watching things, but didn't find much to read. Then I ended up getting sucked into SPN. However...

in other fandoms, I am a lot less picky, just because it doesn't feel like I've already read it all before.

...now I am almost here with SPN. At first, I was much less picky, because it was all shiny and new, but now it's like, "Oh, it's another one of THOSE fics." I don't see much on the comms I want to read at the moment, though I still have a backlist of authors to go through. Actually, I still have a backlist of Buffy authors to go through, people who left fandom before I ever got there.