Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Beta-love and Unpopular(?) Opinions
Because the bandwagon is a happenin' place.
First and most importantly, a big huge THANK YOU to all of my beta readers, past and present -- you are all terrific. And even though I don't write fic that often any more, several of you are always there for support, if not commentary, when I do find the time or energy to write -- and some of you are even willing to comment on my essays and other writing. So, as always, many thanks:
To Rebecca, who is always around for discussion and support, and whose commentary is always useful;
To Erica, who is wonderful and generous with her time, and consistently offers her mad beta-reading skillz even though I am a pathetic worm who hasn't betaed her stories in ages;
To Alec, who is willing to read almost anything I write, and is kind enough to feign interest.
And thanks to anyone else who's ever commented on or encouraged me in my writing. It is always appreciated.
Now for a meme.
Twelve Unpopular(?) Fannish Opinions
(Feel free to skip this, dear readers who are not of the fannish persuasion.)
1. Had he had the benefit of a nurturing, stable and secure upbringing, Tom Riddle could have turned into a more or less normal and productive member of society. I think his sociopathy is more a result of nurture than nature. Of course, either way, he's still crazy.
2. Snape genuinely respects and trusts Dumbledore, and has done so since he was a student. At this point, he'd do just about anything for the Headmaster.
3. She may be quiet in the books, but Narcissa Black Malfoy wears the pants (oh, pardon me, the trousers) in that family.
4. Hufflepuffs don't get as much credit as they deserve. And if their house traits are loyalty and hard work, shouldn't their Quidditch team be more impressive simply by virtue of the amount of practice and work the team puts into it?
5. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all showing their scary sides now -- but I still like all of them, even though Harry is rash and angry, Hermione is overconfident and dangerous, and Ron is jealous and insecure.
6. Original characters are frequently more interesting than the canon characters in fanfic. Well, in good fanfic, anyway.
7. Slash is not on a higher plane than het in terms of complexity, emotional depth, or exploring the full range of characters' actions, feelings, motives or what have you.
8. The whole slash-and-porn, porn-and-slash trend is boring. Yeah, you heard me: BOR-ING. Is that all you people think about?
9. Voldemort is, at this point, about as asexual as they come. It's even possible that he's a virgin, simply because he wouldn't deign to involve himself in what he perceives as low and very human needs and interactions. He considers himself above such things -- he's much too focused on power and trying to get away from his humanity in all respects.
10. With the exception of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and some of the Weasleys, giving/using characters' nicknames is just ridiculous. Hermione would hex the first person to call her "'Mione" and Snape would poison anyone who affectionately labelled him "Sevvie".
11. Any intepretation of the text is valid, even if it contradicts what JKR might consciously intend -- but, this is only true as long as you have ample textual evidence for it. Good, clear evidence, too; not vague stuff that requires omitting/ignoring large aspects of the text or leaping to conclusions.
12. "Mary Sue" (or "Gary Stu") is not a useful term for criticism. The size of fandom and the increasing disparity between definitions have made it into a catchall term used to comment on a character that, for some reason or other, is objectionable to the reviewer. So don't say, "Your OC is a Mary Sue" and call it concrit. Really, it's just dumbcrit. Rather, offer a bit more and explain that the OC is one-dimensional, or seems to be a self-insertion, or lacks in convincing flaws... or whatever.
| 11:54 PM |
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