So I's writing a fanfic on SB
You know, maybe I should be humble and worry that it means I'm a shitty writer, but I can't help thinking looking at the audience response says a lot about nerds and fiction
Fic is supposed to be an intimate-scale body horror/suspense story. It has basically two characters and not all that much happens in terms of action. If I had to give one of those terrible cheesy "it's X meets Y!" descriptions I'd say it's kind of like Rosemary's Baby but more Cronenbergesque*. This means story has to rely mostly on character and atmosphere to create the intended air of uneasiness and fearful anticipation.
What nerds talk about re this fic:
A lot about what the woman's pregnancy and birth is going to look like, a lot about how the fic fits into the pre-existing universe I'm working with, very little about how well I'm actually doing re: characterization, creating appropriate atmosphere etc..
Noteable highlights:
- noticing a slightly creepy undercurrent of assuming female character will be essentially passive victim with no real agency
- at one point coming out and asking for feedback on whether a writing technique I was using was working or not and getting one short hugboxy comment on it. This to be contrasted with relatively extensive discussion stimulated by guilty pleasure infodump chapter re: stuff like how my critter's bullshit genetics works.
- of critique I did recieve, it was mostly "consistency" stuff wrt the original material.
- really thinking about it, the one serious bit of critique I did get was when I called out # 1 and got re: you placed that character in a position where her ability to effect the story is limited (btw, a view I disagree with, and I actually intend for her to make a very important decision, though arguably not the right one).
I guess maybe what I'm trying to get at is it's giving me more appreciation of how a place like that can be terrible and actively poisonous wrt learning to write; feedback like that gives you exactly the wrong impression of what's important in writing.
* Is a
Species fanfic, motivated re: I liked the first movie more than I thought I would, thought the second movie was complete shit, thought that was kind of a pity as a male version of the creature from the first movie was an idea that had some potential.
