lately, I took a second look, I could write a book about love

[sab]

Hope posted, a week or so ago, her take on ficathon etiquette. Some valid points were made, both agreeing and disagreeing, and while I tend to agree that it's good fangirl behaviour to toss a tacit thanks to the person who wrote your ficathon assignment -- and even better behaviour to find some good things to say about it -- I can get behind the idea of, "oh, it's like an improv, you just get the elements to work with, the person who gave you the improv elements doesn't owe you anything." Still, in the interest of back-slapping, and the supportive environment of fandom, I feel like some feedback isn't out of line.

With Pun's recent feedback challenge shining some light on that brighter side of fannish community, I'm feeling all-around pleased as punch by the way folks are willing to support one another here in our crazy business. We're in it for the love, people.

So, see Sab play petty.

First off, I've done a bunch of ficathons this year, and am enlisted for a bunch more, and I've always gotten great responses from the people I've written for, and have tried to offer friendly/supportive/squeeing feedback for everyone who's written a challenge of mine.

I wrote two stories for the Remix/Redux, and got really rocking feedback on 'em both from the fannish populace at large. My two assignees were molly36 and allcanadiangirl, and I haven't heard back from either of them. Through the grapevine I hear Molly's crazy busy, so I'm not worried or upset or anything, and -- being often slow on the draw for feedback myself -- I'm certainly not expecting immediate gratification.

But then, you see. (And man, this is catty of me.) I wandered over to allcanadiangirl's LJ today, just to peek. And I saw this post.

[edited to provide proper URL]

So, eh. I'm annoyed. It just strikes me as so passive-aggressive and lame and bitchy, or maybe I'm overreacting. But anyway, it's not an example of what I love about fandom and the fannish community. It's just tacky, I think. And it's her own LJ, she can say what she pleases, but I feel like a rattled-off e-mail to me saying "thanks!" would not have been out of line.

I think it's simply because I've been trained to see this community of ours as such an overwhelmingly friendly place, and because part of the fannish experience is to share the love with fellow fans, to give 'em props for their contributions and to enjoy the fact that we're all in this together. I am *so* not in it with that girl.

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Sure, lots of people don't like the idea, or are made uncomfortable by it. Some of 'em participated last year and opted out this year after having been through it and not quite enjoying it.

To me, it's a way of seeing what someone else can tease out of a story - what have I left unsaid or undeveloped that could be highlighted by someone else? Much like fanfic, the best remixes, for me, are about the interstices and empty spaces. When I approached the story I remixed, it was all about wanting to know what Sirius was thinking the whole time, because we never saw his POV at all. And so that's the story I wrote. And I'd have never written that story without the remix.

And there are stories of mine I was hoping someone would tackle, where I have no idea, say, what Remus is thinking, because I was so immersed in Sirius's POV, I really don't know (which is odd for me, because usually even when I'm not writing from a character's POV, I usually know why they're behaving the way they are, but in that insteacne...he's totally closed off to me) or what Draco was actually doing while Hermione was self-destructing, etc.

Anyhow, not trying to convince you, just trying to explain why I enjoy the process, even if it does make me a little crazy. *G*

And I'm sure you'd be gracious regardless.