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xparrotI am just not cut out to be a slash writer. I can't write smut! I want to write smut. But the chars, they want to talk. For 8 pages! The hell, Lex? You want Clark. He wants you. What is the problem here? Just get down on your knees, boy. Geeze. It's not that difficult.
For some reason I can only write smut very late at night. Four in the morning when I'm supposed to be asleep, then I'll have all manner of sexy bodies in my head, writhing together under the sheets/against the wall/over the desk/in the mud/what-have-you. The rest of the time, might as well be a lost cause. Talking, though. I can write endless discussion anytime. I ought to stick to gen. But I like slash, too, darn it! If only it weren't haaaard...(and not in the good way.)
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I am quite possibly the worst slash fan ever, in that half the time I don't even read the smut; I skim the sex to get to the juicy bits, which for me is the...talking. And angst. And cuteness. And basically all the relationshipping that happens in between. This is probably why I can be both a slash and a gen fan without much mental dissonance. Though it doesn't explain why I have pairings like Clark/Lex which I simply cannot see as gen (even when I don't always read and can't hardly write the slashy bits.)
For some reason I can only write smut very late at night. Four in the morning when I'm supposed to be asleep, then I'll have all manner of sexy bodies in my head, writhing together under the sheets/against the wall/over the desk/in the mud/what-have-you. The rest of the time, might as well be a lost cause. Talking, though. I can write endless discussion anytime. I ought to stick to gen. But I like slash, too, darn it! If only it weren't haaaard...(and not in the good way.)
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I am quite possibly the worst slash fan ever, in that half the time I don't even read the smut; I skim the sex to get to the juicy bits, which for me is the...talking. And angst. And cuteness. And basically all the relationshipping that happens in between. This is probably why I can be both a slash and a gen fan without much mental dissonance. Though it doesn't explain why I have pairings like Clark/Lex which I simply cannot see as gen (even when I don't always read and can't hardly write the slashy bits.)
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Date: 2007-06-12 04:28 am (UTC)While I'm at it, though, lest I sound like an utter killjoy, I thought that I ought to mention that I *know* there's always going to be enjoyable stuff in fanfic (and in published fiction, for that matter) that isn't 100% germaine to the plot. Fanfic is, by its very nature, self-indulgent, whether it's indulging in h/c or porn, in characters talking endlessly about their relationships or having weird cracky adventures.
But, at the same time, there's absolutely no reason to put something in a fanfic if it isn't either a) enjoyable for you to write or b) plot-critical. I mean, just because smut is a slash genre convention doesn't mean that it *has* to be in there; I've read lots of fun, well-plotted and fulfilling slash stories that were G or PG rated, with nothing more than kissing. My earlier rant ... ish ... thing had a lot more to do with the fact that so many writers appear to include the obligatory sex scene for, as far as I can tell, no reason than because the story is slash, so smut *has* to be in there, regardless of whether it's well-written or necessary -- either that, or they view the entire rest of the story and all the character-interacty stuff as basically extraneous, with the sex scene being the story's raison d'etre. Either way, it does more to turn me off the story as a whole than if the sex hadn't been there at all.
And while I fully support the right of any author, fan or otherwise, to write whatever the heck they want ... I also reserve my own right to bitch unendingly about genre conventions that bug me -- regardless of whether it's a published or a fan genre. *g*