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Teaspoon and slash: a pondering

  • Mar. 9th, 2008 at 11:59 PM
pontisbright: pontisbright (Default)

(Sorry for the borked formatting, LJ is chucking a mental)
I'm reccing at calufrax this week, and since calapine pointed out the tragically small number of slash recs so far, I'll be serving up an all-slash, all old-skool (or old/new crossover) selection of fics.

Finding stories has been interesting - possibly in a way which is just a reflection of my own reading habits - but it made me ponder.  My automatic reaction was to go looking for slash I'd already loved on LJ, in the hope that I'd find it at Teaspoon, with varying degrees of success.  Some people seem to upload everything they write as a matter of course, both to multiple comms and to Teaspoon: some stories only crop up on LJ (often in small comms, where there’s likely an small audience of familiar faces): some (especially older) fics are on knackered old geocities sites where the author has likely forgotten they’re even still there (and it’s only thanks to the likes of ghost2 and the who_otp Masterlist of Doooom that we ever find them again).

Conclusion: it seems as if a lot of writers of slash and femslash don’t use Teaspoon – or if they do, they’re selective about what they post there, especially with stories involving explicit sexual content. 

So, I’ve got two questions. One: is that accurate?  (I'm more than happy to be proved entirely wrong!)  And two: if I’m not just being crap, what’s the likely reasoning behind writers being selective at Teaspoon?  Is it the notion of small LJ comms being a cosy coterie – and if so, is that a lovely thing or a problem?  Readers, do you mentally categorize Teaspoon and LJ differently in terms of expectations?  Writers, are there some stories you’ve written that you feel are ‘more Teaspoony’ than others?    Can you unpick what your notion of ‘Teaspooniness’ is?

(Please note: this is in no way a dig at Teaspoon, which I love with a burny flamy love.  Nor a dig at LJ comms or individuals.  I know that some stories seem to have the best ‘fit’ in certain locations; some were written as commentfic or ficathon entries or in-jokes, and outside of that context they can read as oddities, weird deviations from the author’s usual style, or just plain incomprehensible.  And that’s before we get to the fics that we regret for one reason or another, and will happily let vanish in the LJ scroll (as much as anything ever can) instead of placing them somewhere more accessible like the ‘official’ fic archive.  It’s entirely up to you where you post your fic: I’m just curious about the reasoning, that’s all.)  

LJ – for any old thing, which you can pass off as just fluff if need be, but which can also result in nice quick feedback and the making of fannish friends
Teaspoon – for ‘proper’ fic which you’ve spent a bit of time over and reckon is worth showing to people outside LJ (despite the fact that you value the opinion of those on LJ more): feels a bit more detached from the audience
ff.net etc – not worth even looking at

Apologies for the tl;dr.  Am interested to know if other people's heads are quite so keen on compartmentalisation as mine, anyway...

 

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Comments

ext_17485: (Default)
[identity profile] calapine.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 02:54 am (UTC)
I have done slashy recruiting, cause the proportions are just silly at the mo, 6 slash to 30 het and over fifty gen, IIRC.
[identity profile] livii.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 03:15 am (UTC)
Excellent; though I am thrilled to see gen leading, hurrah! That is v. v. cool.

For my next time I seem to have a LOT of het lined up, but I also have a femslash and aces' mixed het/slash one, and a gen. I intend to always make a point of at least one femslash, even if the last one got no notice, he.
[identity profile] pontisbright.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 03:18 am (UTC)
Psst: you couldn't tip me off as to what femslash you're reccing? Seems unliekly to cross over but if we're both posting in the same week, thought I should check... (And I totally thought of you, crusader that you are, when ensuring that my week o' slash was not all just boys.)
[identity profile] livii.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 03:29 am (UTC)
Hee! I'm ever-so glad that you'll be posting a femslash; makes me very happy, it does. I can't wait to see what you're doing! (I don't think we're the same week though, I have been lax in what I mean by 'next week' wherein I mean 'next next week' but I am already thinking ahead, heh).

I'm going to do "Nighthawks" by Rivrea, a Rose/Romana piece that I particularly love for a few very awesome lines. Plus I hope that maybe since it has two companions people are interested in... ;)
[identity profile] pontisbright.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 03:40 am (UTC)
No worries in any case, then, as that's not one of the two (two!) I've got lined up. :) And yep, I'm going for the 'crossover which might be persuasive' angle (as well as them being fab, obviously).
[identity profile] livii.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 03:45 am (UTC)
TWO! Oh em gee, I think I love you, dahling.
[identity profile] livii.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 04:09 am (UTC)
I actually realized this one hadn't been recced yet, so am planning on it as well - Lizbee's "Streams", Martha/Romana. If you've got it planned I will pick something else, but thought I'd check. :)
[identity profile] pontisbright.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 09:35 pm (UTC)
Actually I am planning to do that one! I thought it was just so so awesome. Hope that doesn't bugger up your plans. :)
[identity profile] livii.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 09:53 pm (UTC)
Well, drat. It deserves to be recced though, so that will be good! I will just chime in on your post or something. :)

I'm just finding that a lot of the more unique stories I want to rec are not archived on the Teaspoon, alas. No others of my femslash or slash recs I have done up already are there. Suppose I'll have to go for more gen (not such a terrible thing, though...)
[identity profile] pontisbright.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 10:01 pm (UTC)
I'm still hunting about for one more story, so it might get bumped down the list if I find something else: it certainly deserves a rec, anyway.

I'm just finding that a lot of the more unique stories I want to rec are not archived on the Teaspoon, alas

Hence my post! I went through the dw_femslash ficathon things and quite a lot never seemed to have been posted anywhere else: same with the likes of FUF at dw_slash. It's frustrating not being able to rec the things you'd really like to bring to a wider audience.

Still, I'm delighted that Gen is winning the rec stats so far! No objection to het per se, but it might easily have turned into a Ten/Rose fest of yawnsome proportions just from sheer weight of numbers.
ext_17485: (Default)
[identity profile] calapine.livejournal.com wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 03:31 am (UTC)
It matters not if it is not seemed to be noticed, it is there and noticeable, yes. And if it is not noticeable, it will never be noticed ansd that would be v sad indeed.