Wishful thinking

[gwyn]

I few days ago I was poking around the Web, looking for some story titles, and I came across this BtVS story page that was sort of unusual and amused me in a nasty kind of way. They were using feedback quotes like a book blurb, something I've seen a few people do and which always comes across as pretentious, self-adoring, and embarassing. Because you know that if anyone sent bad fb (although I realize pretty much no one does send critical or negative fb these days in Net fandom), it would not have made it on the site, and I always feel cringey about people who feel the need to do that kind of thing. They take themselves way too seriously. But instead of just zipping past, I actually read a few of the "blurbs" this time, and I noticed a peculiar pattern. A number of people were commenting on how they rarely read fanfic, because all fanfic seems to be designed to do is create things that aren't happening on the screen, or make stories that aren't part of the canon, and fulfill the wishes of the fans because they're not seeing that happen on screen.

I was like, HELLO!? Did you come late to the meeting and missed the handout? Did no one ever tell you that's what fanfic is?? How did you ever get into fandom and try reading fanfic if you thought it was supposed to only be about the canon and what the canon gives you? I couldn't even understand one person's complaint, that fanfic departs from canon, because I thought "how could you possibly write only the canon?" I mean, all you'd be doing is writing what you saw on screen, and what's the point of that? Buried in these bizarre complaints were of course praise for the authors, who managed to write a story that was "just like the show." I assume that meant they didn't depart from the storyline much, and just filled in the missing hours and days, rather than conveying the quality of the show. Yeesh capeesh.

So why am I rambling about this pointlessly? I'm not entirely sure, other than that I have two new stories up at my page, one of which is more a vignette about what I didn't see happening after Get It Done, and what I wished would happen. I suppose that's the great failing of my fanfic, I'm writing that awful non-canonical, wish-fulfillment fic. Darn me, anyway. ;-) So I proudly take up the Wish Fulfillment banner and ride forward.

One of the stories is very weird, a paper by a Watcher about The Valorous Vampire, (yes, it's supposed to be humorous, but I honestly don't know if it works or not; apologies if it doesn't) and the other is just pointless and short, a vignette called Soft What Light.

Many, many thanks to sweet_ali for the beta reading on the vignette, and to merryish for the academic expertise to make the "paper" story so much more delightfully pedantic and journally. You guys rock.

Comments

[evemac.livejournal.com]

Oh, sigh.

The Valorous Vampire was not only hilarious, but also an excellent character study. (I loved how "Lydia" kept getting distracted by Spike's sexuality. "I'll discuss that in my next paper.")

"Soft What Light"...wow. You give me so much hope for this ship. So tender, and sweet. It was nothing like the other post-GiD vignettes, which gave it an uniqueness that I admire. And like your other pieces, the language came alive and brilliant.

Thank you!

(And I just have to say, I've really been intrigued by your post-episode commentaries on Alias, Angel, and Buffy. You've brought up many things that I've missed, and made me a firm believer in Jack/Irina's triple cross. Sorry I haven't commented before.)

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner with lavish thank yous! I'm not used to the getting of the feeback, and I was poking around, going, oh, better get my review of last night's ep up... and found this nice surprise.

I'm glad that the paper came over okay. It's so hard to tell when you're writing if you're communicating what you want to.

Thanks so much for the comments, it really made me feel a lot better this morning.

[sweet-ali.livejournal.com]

You already know how lovely i thought Soft White Light was,how it captured the fragile identity Spike has this season, but i must also sing you praise for the unusual and very enjoyable The Valorous Vampire that made me giggle the whole way through. I loved how the sexiness that is Spike kept distracting her. Wonderful work.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yay! Laughter! Thank you for saying so... I was a little stressed about that one (well, a lot stressed, but then I'm a nervous nellie all the time, as you know by now).

[scarlettgirl.livejournal.com]

"Valorous Vampire" was one of the funniest things I've read in a long time! The contrast of the scholarly tone and the scoobies various quotes was priceless. And a big *hee* to the "Sanguisugent Symposium"! Please, can we read some more of these papers? I'm particulary looking forward to Lydia's "next" paper. Growrrr - I'm picturing scholarly, naked Spikeness. Great job.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Hey, thank you!! I'm so glad it's not horrible -- big fat "whew!" from me. ;-) I have to credit my friend Alex for the symposium and the wonderful name Sanguisugent Biologically Non-Viable Desoulled Being -- she listened to me talk about the whole idea, and wrote me an abstract, with the symposium idea in it. I suggested the word sanguisugent rather than something else she'd had, and I was off and running.

And I actually have thought about at least writing her first paper -- her thesis that she talked about in Checkpoint. And maybe the "notes" she was making about Spike for her next paper. Assuming, of course, that she could keep on track. ;-)