This post is bringing back memories of some of the BtVS kerfuffles, because I do remember the "discussions" around claiming (I don't think I ever participated, but I do remember following some of the arguments rather avidly). And I remember the whole thing with Ameeya, although I didn't understand what the problem was. I've certainly had story ideas that I'd post under a name not connected to me or enigmaticblue because it would be a HUGE departure from what I normally write and too many people know that EB is me.
That said, having been involved in probably...a dozen fandoms now? I wonder if some of the intolerance around claiming has to do with where fandom was at the time. I mean, nearly every fandom I've been involved with has fanon of some sort, some of it incomprehensible to anybody when it's not their jam. (I'm thinking about A/B/O fics that have spread through a bunch of fandoms, but started on the SPN kinkmeme.) I feel like there's more room in fandom to do your own thing, or embrace a piece of fanon or kink and folks will just shrug and hit the back button if it's not their thing.
Ten years ago, fandom was a very different place, and I wonder if there wasn't some level of entitlement where a relatively popular author was embracing a particular piece of fanon that wasn't their cup of tea. That meant less Spuffy fic for those folks to read. I mean, I've felt that way before where I've found a really good writer where I loved a fic, but when I went to read their other fics, it's clear that they mostly write a pairing that doesn't do it for me, and that one Science Bros fic was a one-off, and they generally write Steve/Tony. I mean, I keep my opinion to myself because I'm a writer and I don't like it when people tell me I shouldn't write what I'm writing, but yeah. I get the emotion behind it. And I've seen that in older fandoms that seem to split their time between gen and slash fic and how grumpy gen fans can get with slashers because they want happy family feels and not romance.
Anyway, I don't know if any of that makes sense, or even if it matters, just to say that if you wrote claiming fic now, I doubt there'd be the backlash there was 10 years ago.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-05-16 04:36 am (UTC)That said, having been involved in probably...a dozen fandoms now? I wonder if some of the intolerance around claiming has to do with where fandom was at the time. I mean, nearly every fandom I've been involved with has fanon of some sort, some of it incomprehensible to anybody when it's not their jam. (I'm thinking about A/B/O fics that have spread through a bunch of fandoms, but started on the SPN kinkmeme.) I feel like there's more room in fandom to do your own thing, or embrace a piece of fanon or kink and folks will just shrug and hit the back button if it's not their thing.
Ten years ago, fandom was a very different place, and I wonder if there wasn't some level of entitlement where a relatively popular author was embracing a particular piece of fanon that wasn't their cup of tea. That meant less Spuffy fic for those folks to read. I mean, I've felt that way before where I've found a really good writer where I loved a fic, but when I went to read their other fics, it's clear that they mostly write a pairing that doesn't do it for me, and that one Science Bros fic was a one-off, and they generally write Steve/Tony. I mean, I keep my opinion to myself because I'm a writer and I don't like it when people tell me I shouldn't write what I'm writing, but yeah. I get the emotion behind it. And I've seen that in older fandoms that seem to split their time between gen and slash fic and how grumpy gen fans can get with slashers because they want happy family feels and not romance.
Anyway, I don't know if any of that makes sense, or even if it matters, just to say that if you wrote claiming fic now, I doubt there'd be the backlash there was 10 years ago.