anonymous · 11mo
sometimes I also fear my characters are too OOC but on the other hand is anyone writing them in the right way? in a way we are writing them as we see them or as we /want/ to see them because as you said real people are complex and RPS is a simplified version of that, intentionally or not. it's indeed frustrating to see some characterizations and dynamics I'm not personally into repeating in fics but at least as frustrating is seeing people publicly making fun of other shippers and their interests instead of focusing on things they like. that aspect among other things doesn't inspire to take part in the fandom as a whole.
i mean i think there's always a broad swath of any fandom that isn't even trying to capture any kind of canonical personalities in fic, they're basically just face-casting onto archetypes they like. and yeah like idk, it's very frustrating to see people have bad taste lmao, so i GET being annoyed, i get it so hard. i just save complaining about it for conversations with my friends in private because often expressing ANY negative opinion about fic kinda blows up into people either yelling at you about it or wanting to hunt down whoever writes them in the Bad Way and confront them about it and it's just like oh my god y'all is it that serious. i think probably not!
also i've said before that like, i just don't think that ANYONE gets super deep into reading fanfic without having a bit of a taste for the lurid and cheesy and reductive, because fanfic loves to roll around in trashy tropes! that's kinda what it DOES! everyone in fandom has some trash that they've loved uncritically, it just depends on what trash speaks to you. so i'm not about to act like other people can't also love their trash even if i don't like it, or like i am the only one who has Good Taste bc i definitely do not lol! i still think it's SUPER interesting actually to talk about why you dislike certain things, or why other people love them so much! i very firmly believe it helps you learn a lot about yourself, it makes you a better writer and reader, and it's a fun bonding experience to talk to people who share your taste about it!! i really enjoy trying to deconstruct bad fic with my friends, and a lot of my fic ideas have come out of realizing why i don't like a certain thing in fic, then trying to write it in a way that i will like just to see if it can be done! i just personally think it's kinda impossible to do that in a fun way on public social media lol, putting things online is an easy way to suck all the fun out of the convo ✨ which is why i always respond in that like annoying diplomatic way any time people complain about fic in my retrospring 😂 it's not that i think it's a bad convo to have, or they're bad thoughts to have, i just think for me, a person who does not find it fun to fight on the internet, a public forum is the wrong place for them.
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