Crossover Femslash: The Gateway Fic

[amaresu]

Written for the prompt: Crossover femslash: Not just a last resort

The very first femslash story I ever read was a crossover. It was Sam Carter/CJ Cregg and all of a sudden I got the appeal of femslash. Here were two awesome women that I adored and there they were, together, and it was awesome. From there I went on to read some Sam/Janet and various other pairings that I never would've looked at if I hadn't read that one Sam/CJ fic out of a desperate desire for a Stargate/West Wing crossover.

Crossover femslash can be very effective gateway fic.

Crossovers, in general, can be a great way to introduce people to pairings they normally wouldn't consider because they really want to read a Fandom X/Fandom Y fic. This presents great opportunities to introduce people to femslash. I'm not saying that you should write fic for that express purpose, but keep in mind that most crossover fans are used to reading fic with pairings they might not be super excited about. This allows you to introduce them to something that they might not otherwise look at, namely, femslash.

So, don't be afraid to throw in a femslash pairing when writing a crossover fic. It probably won't hurt you and it might just convince someone that femslash is awesome.

Comments

[cleo]

I'd love to see more crossovers in femslash, particularly because there are so many shows that don't afford femslash potential because there are very few female characters. It's a great mental exercise to work out a crossover to make it successful.

[ariestess]

Crossover femslash is awesome. My partner and I actually have a HUGE multi-series AU that has a LOT of crossover femslash pairings...because we can.

[havocthecat]

I get incredibly frustrated at the people who say they can't write femslash because there's only one female main character.

Pick a secondary character! Develop her! OR WRITE A CROSSOVER.

So, the thing is, femslash crossovers are a challenge. Because melding two words and finding two characters that work in a ship is a challenge. IT CAN BE FUN. Which is why I think it shouldn't be a last resort, but thought of more of as an enjoyable way to play with a world in fanfic.

[ar]

...I have no idea why this never consciously occurred to me before, wow. I suppose because it's rare I write crossovers.

But this is a brilliant idea, because I've had the problem several times before of wanting femslash of a character--Thirteen from House and Tonks from Harry Potter come to mind right now--but hating the idea of pairing her up with any of the other canon female characters. I don't currently have that issue in my fandoms, but now I do rather want to write the crossover femslash pairing I've had in mind for a bit now. /o/

And I want to try and make a meme of it--pick twelve female characters, randomize pairings, try and write any of the six options that appeal, or whatever. :D

[thegeneral.insanejournal.com]

And I want to try and make a meme of it--pick twelve female characters, randomize pairings, try and write any of the six options that appeal, or whatever.

I've done something like this before! It turned out to be a pretty great exercise and even produced some scenarios/pairings that I wrote a couple more times. You should go for it. :)

[nike-ravus.livejournal.com]

You want a meme for crossover femslash of awesome?

http://nike-ravus.livejournal.com/7989.html

It changed my life. :)

[ar]

Dude, brilliant idea. Done. :D

[thegeneral.insanejournal.com]

keep in mind that most crossover fans are used to reading fic with pairings they might not be super excited about

On the flip side, crossover can be a great way to introduce readers who are there for a particular character or femslash in general to new fandoms. I come from a fandom with an abundance of slashable women, so for me, crossover has less to do with the need for slash and more to do with shaking up the setting and situations that I'm writing. But it can lead fans of Character X or Fandom Y to a fandom (full of potential!) that they might not otherwise consider.

[nike-ravus.livejournal.com]

I just like to destroy OTPs. :D

No, actually, I have the complete opposite idea of what crossovers are for. And there are very few people who are 'crossover fans' I believe. In my experience, every once in a while there's someone who happens to be familiar with both fandoms and sees the crossover as an excellent idea (this doesn't go for those fandoms that are so close together that mixing and matching is really not changing the world at all, say, all the cop shows...ever.(well, not Los Hombres de Paco, but that's a different issue entirely) Most of the time you get people who are familiar with one fandom and willing to take that risk.

You have very little freedom to fail with crossovers, because there are so many horrible ones (check Ranma/Anything) that if it starts out poor the readers will go away.

But what is the absolute *best* thing about crossovers is when people really do engage with the conflicting worlds or worldviews. (See Lorelai Gilmore/Alex Cabot fic for a good example of this.) And of course, it can be a good catharsis when an OTP goes bad.

Then of course, sometimes you forget that it's a crossover and wonder why Stephanie March isn't credited on the Gilmore Girls. :(

(On a completely unrelated note, why did Uber die with Xena? Jared/Jensen does it excellently. Where is the femslash?)

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Aw, man. Crossover femslash was my niche for a while. Mostly because I wanted to write Sam Carter/Kara Thrace, as I thought it would be really hot? (this is not really different from my reasoning for writing het, honestly)

Sometimes it's because there aren't other women on the show, other times, it's because I want to see how, say, Cally from Blake's 7 would interact and take over the universe with Leela of Doctor Who. To be shallow, though, it's usually because my brain finds it hot--though sometimes, it's also intellectually hot. Two personalities that push different buttons pushing against each other to form a dynamic that makes me happy.