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hells_half_acreSo, I've been reading Teen Wolf fic for about the last month now, this is what I have learned:
1. People really don't like Stiles' buzzcut in the first two seasons.
99.9% of the fics I read have a line in them explaining that Stiles had decided to grow out his hair a few months before the fic takes place, and now someone's hand is comfortably buried in it while they do various romantic activities. To me, this shows a lack of imagination on the part of the writers. I once read a very wonderful piece of writing by Joey Comeau that involved a girl with a buzzcut and the narrator VERY MUCH enjoying that buzzcut - and the description was so good that it was almost a tactile experience in and of itself. Seriously... buzzcuts can be sexy too, people.
2. Don't shorten already short names!!
Derek and Laura are both very short names. You do not have to shorten them to "Der" and "Laur"... and don't even get me started on "D". First off, they sound ridiculous. If any of you actually know a Derek or a Laura that goes by "Der" and "Laur" then I apologize, but I highly doubt these characters would respond to those names in the show. I think it's actually harder to say "Laur" than "Laura"... and also, I think Derek would probably end up being shortened/pet-named similar to Eric and end up being a Rick or a Ricky. (And if the character REALLY doesn't look like he would respond well to being called Rick, then odds are he wouldn't respond well to being called "Der" either.)
I get that these authors are trying to show familiarity and affection through names... but take it from someone who HAS a short name - the people who are closest to me and the most affectionate and loving DON'T SHORTEN MY NAME. I even told one of them once that he could, and he acted like I had just force fed him lemon. In not so many words, he basically told me that any shortened version of my name was less beautiful than my name and he only wanted to call me by a beautiful name - because, you know, AFFECTION. (And I'd like to point out that this was just a FRIEND, we weren't even romantically involved.)
3. Supernatural fandom has spoiled me for emotional follow-through
I don't know how to explain this one - but for some reason I've never been as emotionally satisfied after reading fic in another fandom (and I'm thinking of primarily Teen Wolf and Merlin here) as I have after I finish reading an SPN fic. Hmm... exception for Sherlock fic, that tends to be pretty emotionally satisfying too. I always think that's backwards to how it should be though, because Teen Wolf (I'm told) and Merlin both have very little emotional follow-through in the show, so I always assumed that the fic-writers must want to make-up for that... but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's almost like the apple doesn't fall far form the tree - if you think of the show as a parent and the fandom as its offspring.
It's kind of funny, because in Supernatural, you'll have pretty great emotional follow-through on the show, and then when they drop the ball and leave some emotion-based point hanging (like the amulet, or the voice-message), the SPN fandom will have 200 fics to resolve it within a week.
Now, that being said, I know Teen Wolf fiction actually does have more emotional follow-through than the show... but it's still not COMPLETE. So, maybe it's just a matter of the bar being set too low... or my personal bar being set too high. Or, it might actually be a case of people liking the fact that they don't have to worry about emotional follow-through that much and that all people are really interested in is Der sinking his hands into Stiles' suddenly long hair.
1. People really don't like Stiles' buzzcut in the first two seasons.
99.9% of the fics I read have a line in them explaining that Stiles had decided to grow out his hair a few months before the fic takes place, and now someone's hand is comfortably buried in it while they do various romantic activities. To me, this shows a lack of imagination on the part of the writers. I once read a very wonderful piece of writing by Joey Comeau that involved a girl with a buzzcut and the narrator VERY MUCH enjoying that buzzcut - and the description was so good that it was almost a tactile experience in and of itself. Seriously... buzzcuts can be sexy too, people.
2. Don't shorten already short names!!
Derek and Laura are both very short names. You do not have to shorten them to "Der" and "Laur"... and don't even get me started on "D". First off, they sound ridiculous. If any of you actually know a Derek or a Laura that goes by "Der" and "Laur" then I apologize, but I highly doubt these characters would respond to those names in the show. I think it's actually harder to say "Laur" than "Laura"... and also, I think Derek would probably end up being shortened/pet-named similar to Eric and end up being a Rick or a Ricky. (And if the character REALLY doesn't look like he would respond well to being called Rick, then odds are he wouldn't respond well to being called "Der" either.)
I get that these authors are trying to show familiarity and affection through names... but take it from someone who HAS a short name - the people who are closest to me and the most affectionate and loving DON'T SHORTEN MY NAME. I even told one of them once that he could, and he acted like I had just force fed him lemon. In not so many words, he basically told me that any shortened version of my name was less beautiful than my name and he only wanted to call me by a beautiful name - because, you know, AFFECTION. (And I'd like to point out that this was just a FRIEND, we weren't even romantically involved.)
3. Supernatural fandom has spoiled me for emotional follow-through
I don't know how to explain this one - but for some reason I've never been as emotionally satisfied after reading fic in another fandom (and I'm thinking of primarily Teen Wolf and Merlin here) as I have after I finish reading an SPN fic. Hmm... exception for Sherlock fic, that tends to be pretty emotionally satisfying too. I always think that's backwards to how it should be though, because Teen Wolf (I'm told) and Merlin both have very little emotional follow-through in the show, so I always assumed that the fic-writers must want to make-up for that... but that doesn't seem to be the case. It's almost like the apple doesn't fall far form the tree - if you think of the show as a parent and the fandom as its offspring.
It's kind of funny, because in Supernatural, you'll have pretty great emotional follow-through on the show, and then when they drop the ball and leave some emotion-based point hanging (like the amulet, or the voice-message), the SPN fandom will have 200 fics to resolve it within a week.
Now, that being said, I know Teen Wolf fiction actually does have more emotional follow-through than the show... but it's still not COMPLETE. So, maybe it's just a matter of the bar being set too low... or my personal bar being set too high. Or, it might actually be a case of people liking the fact that they don't have to worry about emotional follow-through that much and that all people are really interested in is Der sinking his hands into Stiles' suddenly long hair.
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Date: 2013-06-25 07:55 pm (UTC)Every action, every major event that happens to you, has an emotional consequence. If your dog dies, you are sad. If you've been in an abusive relationship, you have trouble trusting people again. If you're friend nearly dies in some horrible car accident, perhaps you cling tighter to them - you worry about them driving places, etc.
Now, imagine you are watching someone else's life. Their dog dies... maybe they look sad right when it happens, but then they're perfectly fine the next day. Well, okay, you think, maybe they're just good at hiding the pain? Then they get out of an abusive relationship, but seem oddly not effected by it at all. One of their friends nearly dies, and they don't even check up on them... they might TELL you they care about and love their friend, but you don't see it... you don't see any evidence that anything that's happened to them has had any effect on their emotions, or their relationships, or their future decisions. It's almost as though as soon as the events happen, they just forget about them... you start to wonder if they're human, or if they're some sort of sociopath...or perhaps, PERHAPS, they are a character that is written with absolutely no emotional follow-through. :P
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Date: 2013-06-26 08:03 am (UTC)