Comment Meta

[amaresu]

Femslash Mini Meta fest was an utter fail this year. And I'm still not in a place where I could do it, so I purpose Comment Meta. And let's have it cover all things female and fannish. However you define those.

How it works

1. Post a meta topic in a top level comment. Use the subject line for the meta subject and expand as you want in the body of the comment. Or don't.

2. Repeat Step 1 for as many meta ideas as you have.

3. Comment on other meta topics.


It's kinda like a kink meme, only with meta. Feel free to browse the mini meta tag for ideas.

This is meant to be about as low pressure as it comes. Feel free to write on your own journal/Tumblr/blog and link back here. Respond with as little or as much as you want. This post will remain open indefinitely, so please track it if that makes things easier for you.

Comments

Re: Grammar, Critique, Betas

[tellitslant]

Ugh, yes, all of this. I've been in fandom for more than fifteen years, and I think this is the most annoying change I've seen. I WANT to know what I've done wrong - but I feel like that kind of crit is no longer publicly welcomed by almost anyone else. It holds me up on stuff like writing recs - do I mntion that this is rec'd reservedly because the commas got on my nerves but it was still good enough to pass on? Or is that Rude? *tears out hair*

I think the fact that fandom is expanding so fast, and on so many different platforms, means that we have a lot more people who don't care about writing as a craft and just want to get their fabulous idea out there. I just don't understand that,t hough. Don't these hypothetical impatient writers want to actually connect? Argh!

Commas are definitely the big one for me. Others that I tend to backbutton from of late are epithets (the blonde, the brunette, the officer, the agent, the taller woman, the shorter woman - dear god how many women are there!), said-bookisms (she spat, she hissed, she muttered, she growled, she whispered, she huffed), and rapid POV change. I can excuse some of those, but the POV change really got me.

I am lucky to have a good friend who makes my fics much, much better, but I miss the days when reviews included "Hey, here's a typo, and btw I love what you think about character X's motivation because..."!

Re: Grammar, Critique, Betas

[havocthecat]

I'm a bitter old fandom queen, and these epithet-using kids can get off my damn fannish lawn. I have also been in fandom for more than fifteen years, somewhere between fifteen and twenty, honestly, and people have been using epithets for almost that long. I think they first started getting on my nerves in BtVS? "The red-haired hacker." "The blonde Slayer." ARGH. I won't even read fics with more than one epithet in them. Writers get one chance, and then I'm gone.

As to said-bookisms, well, I admit to being guilty of throwing those in every now and again myself, so I don't hate them so much. Well, unless they're used every other sentence, in which case I back-button hard. Also if someone uses a said-bookism for something that's an expression, not a way of saying things. "That's because I'm smarter than you," smirked Elizabeth. She didn't smirk that! She said it!

Um. You may have noticed that I'm cranky. At least I own it?

I think that a lot of people see writing as a way to win friends and influence people, not to mention become a BNF. Which I get! But the problem with having a fabulous idea that you desperately need to get out there is that good writing takes time, and work, and practice. If you're not willing to put your best foot forward, that's on you, but I think that you'll be forever lost in a morass of mediocrity if you don't want to perfect your craft.

I owe fandom and fans so much for helping me to hone my writing, but it makes me a little sad to post a fic and not get into a huge comment thread about character motivation, or ramifications, or just generally all the fun things that come with writing.

By the way, I have no idea how I haven't added you before now, but I plan to tonight. I think we've been in tangential fandom circles for quite a while.