spnanonhaven | Big Bang/Exchange Fic Discussion #1

At the risk of sounding like linda1234590210, if I had gotten this fic from those prompts, I would have been seriously put out.

aphoticdivinity is classy in her comments. I doubt I could have been equally.

So true. It's actually fairly well-written; I like the use of imagery. But for a D/C exchange when the recipient asked for shmoop and love? This feels really inappropriate.

I followed the fallout of the Linda-Numerica wank, and I've read the fic that spawned it, but I have to admit that I didn't see the original prompts.

In that wank, the fic's author was excused because the fic was good and Linda-Numerica's douchyness became the rallying point, but did that giftfic actually answer Linda's prompts, or did it feature creative reinterpretation like this one?

I'm genuinely curious, here. There's some anger on the recipient's behalf in this thread, I want to know whether Linda-Numerica would've received sympathy in that previous SA round if she hadn't acted entitled.

I would have been sympathetic to linda if she hadn't been so rude about the fic she received, but then I think I'm one of the few who didn't like the fic either and certainly didn't find it "one of the best of that SA round" as others said. The writing was good, but I'm just not a fan of that kind of story; it reminded me a lot of that eggblue fic where John put young!Dean up on billboards to advertise his availability for gangbangs. The same sort of hopeless, dark story and abstract style.

I never saw linda's original prompts either; if I remember right, she complained that she had asked for no Anna, and Anna was a character in the fic, and no death, but I can't remember if Dean or Cas died in her received story.

AHAHA, that eggblue fic was hilarious! Did any of the tracking nonnies save that wank? Probably not; it was too long ago. Shame, that was a classic.

ayrt

From a quality point of view, I'd agree that that fic was one of the "best in that SA round", but not one of the most enjoyable for me. I like happy endings, and that fic was bleak and angsty, which isn't everyone's cup of tea and I personally wouldn't have written something like that unless it was specified as a want or if I could tell from my recipient's lj that they'd enjoy it. It was a risky fic to write, especially when the majority of people do want fic that makes them happy -- not everyone, it's true, but if you have no guidelines, it's far safer to aim for a happy fic than a sad/angsty one.

In fact, I didn't know it was a giftfic when I first read it, I was surprised when I caught up with the linda wank and realized that that's what it was.

she complained that she had asked for no Anna, and Anna was a character in the fic

A valid complaint, along with the fact that she asked for no het and got it (even if only off-screen, but it was there) but once again her points got drowned out by her behaviour, and the general thumbs-up that fic had received.

na
You made me curious too, so I looked it up and here's a link for anyone interested:

http://community.livejournal.com/deancastiel/741820.html?thread=5827772#t5827772

The giftfic followed the prompt in a pretty straightforward manner ("AU where Dean is the angel and Cas is a human hunter"), but Linda did also specify no Anna, who the author wrote in anyway, so... IDK. I think I would have been a little sympathetic, but Linda's douchetastic responses just made her look like the bad guy.

ayrt

Thanks for the link!

Linda did also specify no Anna, who the author wrote in anyway, so... IDK.

I'd frown at that specific want, TBH, but it's still a gift meant for them, and the author should've respected that. Anna's not a central character, it's not hard not to write her, unlike, say, Sam.

Linda's behaviour was still unacceptable though, yes.

iirc Linda complained about a lot more than the existence of Anna in the whole wank that followed. Things that she definitely didn't mention in her DNWs.

Also Anna was in the story in a minor role and there were like 2 lines of het, both of which acknowledging that Castiel and Dean weren't really interested in her. Personally if I was the recipient I would've just overlooked them and sucked it up, but even if I couldn't do that, there was still nothing to merit the response Linda gave.

Oh, no, I agree: linda's response was totally uncalled for. I just meant that had she been more gracious and polite, or even given a brief, noncommittal Thank you for writing, I would have sympathised with her disappointment. Because as well-written as that fic is, it was too bleak and painful for me to like.

Ayrt

Yeah, definitely. I love angst and I loved that fic and if someone had written it for me I would've been thrilled, but as a writer, if somebody doesn't ask for angst I default to fluff or at least a HEA ending. It was a risk that the author took and while it panned out as a fic, maybe it didn't necessarily work as a gift fic. However, exactly, if Linda had been like "Thank you for writing for me" and then in a flocked post say "I didn't really want angst :(" I would've felt bad because in the end it was a fic that was supposed to be for her. But once you call someone's writing shit in a public post and then blame them when you're banned by the mods from participating in the future... everyone who might've sympathized, not so much anymore.

She actually did give a "thank you for writing" comment, but by the time the author reveal happened so the author could respond, she had already publicly bitched about the fic, so it just looked extra insincere.

DA

That's the thing! Linda may have had an actual point beneath all the bluster and bile. The fic wasn't bad on its own, but it was "bad" to her as a gift -- it was a harsh, unhappy fic, and used two specific "do not wants". The DNWs may be rubbish and I totally judge her for them, they were still used anyway, when it would've been easy to exclude them at no cost to the central story.

I don't recall this being pointed out during the wank. Instead there was a lot of "this fic was one of the best, linda should feel grateful; she doesn't want Anna and het, her opinion is invalid; she may not have wanted Anna, but look, Anna's only there for a couple of scenes; she may not have wanted het, but look, it's all off-screen". I was there, I responded like this as well because no way would I have defended linda's behaviour, but the author got off quite kindly, too.

Things that she definitely didn't mention in her DNWs.

But Anna WAS listed as DNW.

From her sign up sheet:
"Things you DO NOT WANT to see in your story: No het between Dean or Cas and any female character. Especially no Anna."

The author wrote Anna anyway, whut.

No, I mean things other than Anna. I get her complaining about that, since it actually was in her DNWs, but she also complained about other things that she didn't have listed and so had no right to complain about.

ayrt

Ah okay, thanks.

I'm not defending her, no way am I defending her, but I think the presence of Anna and het in the fic made her snap and she just went berserk with the hate-on for the story.

Okay, so, I only followed this on fandom_wank. I never read the actual story, but I didn't get the sense that the author wrote Anna. I thought she only mentioned Anna, which, you know, canon event and all...

The fic's a complete AU (Castiel is the hunter, Dean the angel) so Anna didn't have to be there at all, TBH.

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