The Clouded Remain

Having a second blog which is now sitting in the corner gathering dust is starting to get a bit annoying now, so I’ve decided to broaden its use to include the stuff that’s jumping about in my head driving me around the bend because of my inability to use an outlet so I can at least maintain a semblance of sanity in my Uni blog (although some might argue that’s in doubt already). And if anyone I know reads this thinks that somethings bizarre you don’t know the half of it. And if you can make to the end of this post without your attention span deciding it needs a toilet break then you deserve some applause.

*ahem* I read/I have read/I’ve practically given up on reading fanfiction for the group Il Divo (deleted as appropriat). There. I said it. But I don’t find it weird in the sense that this is stories about real people (though when you think about it most people believe made-up people are real and real people are made up so with that logic anything’s fair game - the only thing that separates real person fic and general fanfic is the fact you won’t meet in the flesh anyone from the latter and they latter can’t sue you, although their creators can), it’s more weird because it defies the unwritten laws of fanfiction.

It’s seemingly the rule that a) fanfiction should involve pairing up everyone with everyone else regardless of gender, blood relation, age, animosity between them, animal, vegetable or mineral (last are not entirely exaggerated unfortunately), and often isn’t limited to 2 people (record is 4 or 5 I believe), b) self-insertions are near perfect, should be described in minute detail complete with unnatural aspects of appearance and likes/is liked by all - with the exception of the character/s that the author hates and c) must have dubious knowledge of grammar and general logical sense.

The ID fanfiction seems to be the ‘blip’.

While I’ve witnessed stories from many fandoms that make me want to reach for the Brain Bleach (TM) from anyone or indeed a mix of those things (every fandom has at least 3 good writers imo), the ones on the ID forum thankfully stay clear of a), avoid b)’s pit-falls (because despite the extraordinary amount of self-insertion from forum members none have made me want to jump off the nearest tall structure) and c), well okay due to a very and I mean very wide spectrum of countries and languages covered there is some rather interesting use of the English language (one favourite is the mix up made between ‘through’ and ‘to’ which gave an interesting mental image when I read “he fell through his knees”), but generally you can understand what they’re trying to say (one exception and needless to say I gave up due to going cross-eyed from working the whole thing out).

My main gripe is the fact that the only genre given a decent outing is romance and whilst I can enjoy it I much rather have a bit more variety, because one you read two or three no matter how good the writer may be you can pretty much guess how it will pan out. There have been a few action ones - one that was both action and romance which has now dropped off the board because of the need to conserve server space (with nearly 40,000 on the members list it’s a Herculean effort to keep on top of it) - a couple of fantasy (which I obviously read because I don’t say no to that genre), about 3 or 4 off-the-wall side-splitting humour ones and two that were action, romance, and incredibly bonkers (both by the same writer).

But that was about last year and the only one left is the one that got me reading it in the first place thanks to curiosity - and it happens to written by one of the best writers on the board. There’s a part 4 to come yet but I suspect her and her long suffering beta are having a well earned break. It’s the only one I’ve posted replies to as it’s one of the best things I’ve read and if she ever became a published author I’d very much want to buy her books.

The thing that I’ve noticed is that none of the stories can be called bad!fic - okay some have plots that over stretch my ability to overlook contrived plot points or, because of the romance thing, are too sugary for someone like me who’d prefer explosions alongside lovey-dovey every once in a while (I’d ask for giant robots too but that’s kinda asking too much). But whilst I’ve seen other bands or people have bad!fic written about them (with some of the most hilarious misuse of English I’ve ever seen) there’s none to speak on the forum. I’m guessing that’s because the mods enforce the PG-13 and under rating due to the family forum status, and the fact that The Pit (that’s Fanfiction.net for those unfamiliar with that bit of slang) banned real person fiction a couple of years back, so at least we’re spared the decidedly ropey understanding of the birds and the bees that pops with incredible frequency.

Just so you know it’s not like they haven’t noticed all this - one member did a “guide” on how to write ID fanfiction that was pretty spot on and everyone got the joke and I think some acknowledged they’d done what the guide said previously.

That’s really all I have to say on the subject, other than the fact I’m eternally grateful that it’s not scared the living poop out of me like fanfics from tv/anime/game fandoms do - the one exception being the BBC version of Robin Hood where I suspect the writers have been part of fan bases themselves and so gladly give out ammunition for shippers. If I was given a choice between the fics on the forum to those from LJ communities I’d choose the former because at least then I won’t have to pay for some sort of therapy or take up drinking to make me forget what I just read.

Any questions, leave them at the door.