Fanfic likes/dislikes list!

[lauren3210]

I was inspired by nia_kantorka's recent post on her likes/dislikes in reading fanfic, and thought I'd give it a try myself! Then I looked up at my open tabs, and saw that I have 4 Drarry fics, 3 Merthur fics, 2 Stucky fics, 2 McShep fics and a Destiel, all waiting for me to read, and I realised I may have a slight problem, but anyway, here's my list! And I kept it general, rather than pairing specific, because otherwise I'd be here all bloody month just writing them down!


General Fandom Likes:

• Tropes. I'm a sucker for them. Give me all the pretend boyfriend AUs, the forced bed-sharing, teacher/student, magical bonding, meet-cutes; basically if there's a cutesie cliche going on, you can guarantee I'll be all over it.


• Banter. Pretty much all of my ships are argumentative little fuckers, full of sarcasm and snark, and they show their love for each other through calling each other names and doing things specifically to piss the other off.


• Plot. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally also in it for the sex too, but what really gets me going is a good long, well thought out plot. I'm fine with the occasional PWP just to get in a quick fix, but when I'm trawling through AO3 tags, I'm looking at the word count and the description of the story. Plot gets me hot, what can I say.


• Possessiveness. I love it, and I'm not even sorry. Give me all the boys scowling because someone else dared to lay their hand on the arm of the person they love, all the growling and marking and whispering mine while they're shagging against a wall because they're too desperate to wait until they get to a bed, all the stepping in front of each other and grabbing wrists and pulling them closer; I just love it, and I don't even care.


• Hand-holding and forehead-touching. There's just something so intimate about it, about the fingers lacing together and making it hard to see where one person ends and the other begins, sharing breath as the space between their bodies reduces down to nothing. This is guaranteed to have me whimpering and crying into my hands about how in love they are (and also possibly swearing about how unfair and rude these characters are for putting me through this tbh).

General Fandom Dislikes:

• Bad grammar. Nothing throws me out of a fic quicker than seeing 'then' instead of 'than', or 'could of' instead of 'could have', and general spelling mistakes (it's is short for 'it is'; its means 'belonging to an object' this is not that hard to understand). I can forgive a few errors, because that happens all the time, even in professionally published works, but if I'm tripping over half a dozen in the first paragraph, then I'm not likely to finish the fic, sorry.


• Bad fanfic words. 'Cum'; 'channel'; 'member'; 'orbs'. Just, please don't. Ever. Remove those words from general vocabulary please, before I puke all over my keyboard. 'Moist' *shudders*


• Gender-bending. I am completely fine if someone wants to gender-bend both characters, making them both female, because we need more stories about females out there as far as I'm concerned. I'm probably not going to read it, because I have my own femslash pairings that I would rather read about for that. However, I do not like it when one character is made into a girl and the other stays a boy, because I think that kind of takes away the point of slash fanfic. You can't open up your laptop without tripping over half a dozen het pairings on your way across the room, so I don't understand why someone would try and make a slash pairing into yet another het one. I mean, if you're doing it in order to get around the mpreg issue, then... okay, I guess I can understand it. But if you're doing it to make yourself more comfortable with shipping two guys together, then you're an asshole, tbh.


• A/B/O. I don't understand it? It's such a big thing in so many fandoms, and I don't get it. Is it because it makes lube unnecessary? Is it the dominance/submission aspect? One partner being physically stronger than the other (as I've seen in some fics)? The scenting? I just, I don't understand it (although I know others love it), and if I see it tagged I'll probably scroll on by, unless it's part of a fest I'm involved in, or someone has recced it and said it's a must-read.


• Major Character Death. (Still not over that surprise! Dead merlin, haha! fic I read a while ago tbh.) I can't read it, I just can't. It could be the most beautifully written story in the history of the universe, and I still can't do it. I read one once, and the damn thing still makes me literally sob whenever I think about it, even 3 years later. So nope, not for me.


• Unhappy endings. For me personally, I read fic because the tv show/book/movie didn't give me the happy ending I wanted for those two characters, and fic is my way of 'correcting that mistake' (not in a literal sense, just in an emotional, feels sense). I'm not interested in reading yet more about how the two characters I ship end up not together. I get that some writers have a story to tell, and I would never take away from that creative decision, it's just not something I want to read about.


• Homophobia and racism. I deal with that enough in real life, thanks. My brother is gay, I am bisexual and biracial, and we've both heard enough homophobic and racist comments to last us a lifetime thanks very much. I consider fanfic my 'happy place', where everything is made of rainbows and glitter, and I don't need these truly nasty aspects of our society ruining that for me. I will make an exception if the fic is set during a time when these things were legal and expected (WWII for example, in Stucky fics), but the fact that homophobia and racism still exist today is a travesty and one that I use fanfic to escape from for a little while.

General Fandom Things I Am Truly Not Bothered By:

• Sex. I don't need a fic to contain sex for me to enjoy the story. I know this is a must for some people, and I respect that, but for me it doesn't really matter. If it is there though, I need there to be a reason for it (unless it's a PWP); I'll actually just be turned off if sex is just shoved in there without any kind of thought to it.


• Sexuality. I truly don't care what sexuality is given to the characters. Gay, Bisexual, Pan, Demi, Ace, I'll take them all. This is also the only time I'll read a gender-bend fic too - if the reason for it is to explore the dynamic of a genderqueer/intersex/trans* character and their relationship with others. Fanfic has long been a safe space for people to write about characters like this, and it's important that we keep it that way, imo.


• Sexual acts. Rimming, fingering, intercrural, intergluteal, full anal, blowjobs, handjobs, I'll take them all, and I'll thank you for it. There really isn't a kink that I'm averse to reading about tbh. Although I am very picky about any BDSM fics - I find that a lot of them don't bother with SSC and proper aftercare, and as someone who dabbles in that lifestyle, I find that very hard to swallow.


• Tops/bottoms. I have my preferences, for each ship I have, but not to the point where I'll skip a fic because of it, or even that I'll pay much attention to it once the fic is over (unlike some people who like to leave comments about how they were hoping for the other person to top or whatever. Like, good for you? But I don't... give a fuck?). My smile might get a bit of an extra quirk if a fic happens to coincide with my own personal preference, but other than that, I don't think much about it.

Wow, that was longer than I thought it was going to be, things just kept coming to me!

Comments

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

They're so interesting to read!

YES A FAN, TELL ME WHY YOU LIKE IT?? It's not that it's not my thing, just that I don't really get the appeal, or understand why it's so popular? Maybe my thoughts would change if I understood what it is that others like so much about it, idk

[amorette.livejournal.com]

LOL personally I like it for the inherent power play, the dubious consetniness (I cant HELP myself I just NEED sex now), the claiming and possessiveness, the wantonness of the omega.... Mostly the power play :D Its like a world where theres a D/s structure built right into the fiber.

[gracerene]

LOL, I'm with amorette I think. I adore D/s and power dynamics, and I love it even more when the power dynamics are sort of built into the relationships (cross gen, teacher/student, boss/employee etc). I also do love dub-con, I love knotting, I love possessiveness and marking and biting and claiming.

I also like that there is some creativity to be had with a/b/o universes, a way to play with social structures that hits on the inequalities in our own world, but without necessarily hitting too close to home.

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

All those make a lot of sense actually, so I think I can see why people would like it. I'm not so into dub-con myself, although I LOVE mating fics - like Sterek for example, I love when a fic explores mating with them, but I much prefer it when there's some sort of explanation of how Stiles chooses it right back, if you know what I mean?

Thanks, I think I understand the trope a bit more now!

[amorette.livejournal.com]

ALL OF THESE THINGS!! Esp claiming! Gahhh