I come bearing meme

[twowrens]

I'm just now digging my way out from under the holiday mess. Which is especially ridiculous because I don't actually celebrate any winter holidays. I just sit around trying to look interested while other open gifts and make meals I can't eat. (Like most people, I suspect, "the holidays" leave me wanting a vacation.)


(Modified a bit, because I like the "!" notation.)

• Genderswap: In general, no. However, I really enjoy The World's Greatest Swordswoman by maldoror_gw and I would love to see this written as a 100k epic. More girl!Zoro would be awesome.


• Bodyswap: In general, no. (I'm sensing a theme.)


• Drunk!fic: I don't mind fic with drinking but I get annoyed when it's used over and over again as a way to move plot or, heaven forbid, talk about their feelings.


• Huddling for warmth: I hate being cold. Like, really hate being cold. I generally backbutton these stories. Sexytimes and cold just don't mix for me, no way, no how.


• Undercover in a gay bar: It will always play second fiddle in my heart to undercover-as-a-hooker fic. The only fandom I've ever had for which this trope fits, however, was Gundam Wing--which meant that it often failed because 90% of the fandom (myself included) had never actually been inside a bar.


• Pretending to be married: Meh.


• Secretly a virgin: Meh.


• Amnesia: I have pretty big gaps in my memory, events and people I just can't remember, and it's enough to make amnesia fic really unsettling because I think I can maybe kinda-sorta imagine what it might feel like to wake up and have everything gone. Amnesia fic is a major squick for me.


• Cross-dressing: I'm a big fan, but more so in the visual arts than in fic. I know what it feels like to get all dolled-up in clothes that aren't really for you and still enjoy it. (Not to brag, but my husband looks amazing in heels. Just putting that out there.)


• Forced to share a bed: This is actually one of my biggest pet peeves! We're all big boys and girls here. It's sleeping. How wrong can it really go? So no, I don't like to read it in fic. I think it just perpetuates the idea that being in a bed with another person is somehow a free pass to make a pass. (And makes it really annoying to share rooms with people at cons.)


• AMTDI: Yes! Plotless porn! I especially enjoy it with ~remorse later on.


• Wing!fic: Huh. I'm starting to think I'm reading fic on a different Internet than the person who wrote this list. I've never encountered wing!fic in the wild. Also, the wing-span required boggles the mind.


• Mpreg: I am no more nor less disturbed by this than any other kind of fic involving groups of cells which may-or-may-not become a child at some later point. Which is to say, I'm not a big fan.


• Mistakenly assumed to be gay: There can be humor in this when writers use it to play with societal expectations and stereotypes. But generally not.


• Truth or Dare: Best when combined with drunk!fic.


• Mary Sue fic: I'm actually kind of okay with Mary Sues. I know, I know, it's bad--but its really not that bad? It's second-person of the choose-your-own-adventure kind that I really can't stand.


• Aphrodisiacs: It seems cheap to me unless there are aliens involved.


• Curtain fic:Raymond Carver is my favorite short-form writer. Which is to say, I really like seemingly simple stories with great emotional significance.


• Hurt/Comfort: Bleh. Some hurts can't be healed (Wow, emo much, me?), especially not in your 1k fic. When done right, H/C is an almost invisible trope.


• Apocalypse!fic: I love it, but it needs to be big, big, big. Snippets of the apocalypse, or after, just leave me wanting more. Also, winterlive's Future Legend is neato.


• Baby! or Kid!fic: Meh. I kinda fangirl maldoror_gw's Kindred which was, coincidentally, the first fic I read in the Naruto fandom.


• Telepathic soulbonding:I really like this idea in theory. In execution... I would love recs to fics which do it well.


• Werewolves mate for life: Honest answer time? I've never read anything with werewolves in it. Dogs are just really not my thing--which is humorous, really, because leashes, well, that's a very different story...

What I'm learning from this list is that I really dislike a lot of fannish tropes. But I still read them. I think many of us can say the same.

Comments

[torachan]

I think I've only encountered wingfic in RPS fandoms, though I'm sure it pops up elsewhere at times.

[twowrens]

I shall have to find this...