I'm so Fricken Vanilla
Jan. 2nd, 2007 08:08 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
http://users.livejournal.com/_debbiechan_/ posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
bleachnessToday's noodle is that I'm still having a Bleach fanfic writer identity crisis.
I spent much of the holidays reading very beautifully raunchy fanfic--mostly yaoi--and writing pieces without so much as a single kiss. Subsequently I am now insecure about my abnormal preference for romance between a monogamous, loving pair of heterosexuals. I read some IchiIshi fic, though, and it's so damn good that I want to try my hand at the form to see if I can spin on the boylove thing in my own way. I really dislike the fact that (in the Bleach fandom at least) my only yaoi has been between villanous, depraved characters who like to mind-fuck and knock each other around. Sweetness is my thang, so maybe I can do sweet yaoi?
Which brings me to another topic. Earlier I'd written something in this journal about how the whole seme-uke thing is a marvelous artifice that has little to do with gay reality (at least most Western gay reality) but how I love it anyway. It's got this elegant predictability like Greek poetry or something. Even if the characters are extremely OOC, putting them within the limitations of a form makes the OOC fic easier to read? I'm starting to think about how far writers can write characters outside canon... A/U plots are not looked at twice, but "oh no, that's so OCC" is a common complaint. The topic's been on my brain especially since the Bleach filler castrated Ishida. I mean, one could argue (and I did at the beginning) that Ishida without powers would be a slightly different person. But in my view he would be more guarded rather than less as he is in the filler. But wouldn't any "different without powers" period still allow for consistency in the story? The Bleach anime filler is really not that bad when you look at it twice--it has a storyline (albeit a dull one) and some very funny moments as well as a few very tender true ones
How much does it matter when canon itself is so wobbly? Many manga have characters grow from one way of being to another and thus the characters are not static throughout. Why should the fanfic standard be AS IN CHARACTER AS POSSIBLE . I myself like to read about the characters I love in their original settings (I love fic filler, just love it), but I want to be able WRITE about anything I want without being immediately dismissed as a fangurl with my hands in my pants.
I survived a lot of yaoi/het wars in another fandom and I've found Bleach to be amazingly tolerant (albeit a little touchy). Maybe the times are a-changing. I know I am. Last year I wouldn't dare write an A/U (I wrote yaoi but not A/Us). What's next?
Fanfic opera? *winks at Q* It will be![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
quaedam 's fault if I go there. I know that all of you are expecting necrophilia since I have now written three stories with a corpse in them, but uh uh....there are some things Deb will never do. XD
I spent much of the holidays reading very beautifully raunchy fanfic--mostly yaoi--and writing pieces without so much as a single kiss. Subsequently I am now insecure about my abnormal preference for romance between a monogamous, loving pair of heterosexuals. I read some IchiIshi fic, though, and it's so damn good that I want to try my hand at the form to see if I can spin on the boylove thing in my own way. I really dislike the fact that (in the Bleach fandom at least) my only yaoi has been between villanous, depraved characters who like to mind-fuck and knock each other around. Sweetness is my thang, so maybe I can do sweet yaoi?
Which brings me to another topic. Earlier I'd written something in this journal about how the whole seme-uke thing is a marvelous artifice that has little to do with gay reality (at least most Western gay reality) but how I love it anyway. It's got this elegant predictability like Greek poetry or something. Even if the characters are extremely OOC, putting them within the limitations of a form makes the OOC fic easier to read? I'm starting to think about how far writers can write characters outside canon... A/U plots are not looked at twice, but "oh no, that's so OCC" is a common complaint. The topic's been on my brain especially since the Bleach filler castrated Ishida. I mean, one could argue (and I did at the beginning) that Ishida without powers would be a slightly different person. But in my view he would be more guarded rather than less as he is in the filler. But wouldn't any "different without powers" period still allow for consistency in the story? The Bleach anime filler is really not that bad when you look at it twice--it has a storyline (albeit a dull one) and some very funny moments as well as a few very tender true ones
How much does it matter when canon itself is so wobbly? Many manga have characters grow from one way of being to another and thus the characters are not static throughout. Why should the fanfic standard be AS IN CHARACTER AS POSSIBLE . I myself like to read about the characters I love in their original settings (I love fic filler, just love it), but I want to be able WRITE about anything I want without being immediately dismissed as a fangurl with my hands in my pants.
I survived a lot of yaoi/het wars in another fandom and I've found Bleach to be amazingly tolerant (albeit a little touchy). Maybe the times are a-changing. I know I am. Last year I wouldn't dare write an A/U (I wrote yaoi but not A/Us). What's next?
Fanfic opera? *winks at Q* It will be
quaedam 's fault if I go there. I know that all of you are expecting necrophilia since I have now written three stories with a corpse in them, but uh uh....there are some things Deb will never do. XD
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 04:11 am (UTC)That said--I still would be all over seeing how you would do an in-earnest relationship between Ishida and Ichigo. ^^
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 06:09 am (UTC)That must be it! They bring sweetness to a level so high, it's kink!
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 10:39 am (UTC)Formalised yaoi is a style in itself, and it's _not_ the same thing as slash. It is, as you say, somewhat like grand opera. There are conventions. There is a cheerful throwing-out-the-window of certain character aspects. True Wuv (or True Lust) and Hawt Sex are the important things. It's frothy cream cakes and dessert.
What I want to be able to do is to apply this style/tropes/lightness to het and yuri as well as to yaoi.
I suppose one of the things about character is that the character has to be recognisable. Visual art has the advantage here; if one sees Renji drawn in cricketing gear, one already knows it's Renji, and one doesn't have to go through a full explanation in words. If you see Byakuya fitting a Ring of Obedience on a chained Renji . . . er, cancel that, it's due to Anne Bishop washover. :)
Perhaps the most important thing is that it's written well.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-03 03:22 pm (UTC)What I want to be able to do is to apply this style/tropes/lightness to het and yuri as well as to yaoi.
Me too. But I think that a lot of sex pieces are cross-genre. Yaoi can have elements of slash as you defined it, and a lot of het pieces will be mini-stories of super-realism. I really haven't read that much yuri. It's harder to find.
Yeah, good writing is all that matters. If something is poorly written, it won't sell a reader its interpretation of a character anyway.