Ficathons

[prillalar]

There are HP ficathons all the time and for the most part, people just whip off the fic and post it. No muss, no fuss, at least very little that I see on my flist. But this Stargate ficathon caused much pain and sorrow to many on my flist, including me. Why do you suppose that is? Is HP an easier fandom to write something short in? Or is it lack of experience on the Stargate side with this sort of challenge? Is the quality of the stories the same but there's more perfectionism in this bit of SG fandom?

Does this mean we need to have lots more Stargate ficathons so they get easier for us to do? We'll have the Pairing Request ficathon and the Jack/Harry ficathon and the Sam/dead boyfriend ficathon and the Teal'c Gets Some ficathon. You're all with me, right?

I'm part way through my J/D ficathon reading -- so fun! I'm trying to read all the stories that dropped on my flist at least. It may be a day or two before I get to them all, though.

Comments

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Definitely lack of experience. A year ago, Jossverse ficathons were practically unheard of, six months ago, there was much angsting over 'OMG I've signed up for two at once! With, like, deadlines within three weeks of one another!' and two months ago most people were signed up for about six at the same time, two with deadlines on the same day, that sort of thing. You get used to them.

[destina.livejournal.com]

Well, hmm. That's an interesting question. I participated in the Yuletide challenge, but that was the only previous ficathon-type thing I did, and I did exactly the same thing in that challenge -- four or five false starts, and then a marathon writing session.

For me personally, it's not lack of experience that makes it tough, but a resistance to writing to spec for strangers. The more specific the request, the harder it is for me to find a way to answer it. And there's also an element of perfectionism -- wanting the recipient to like it, not wanting to put something half-assed out there.

As a whole, I get the sense that many people take these ficathons not too seriously -- that they think it's just fine to post something kind of incomplete and sketchy, very short and without much substance, because it's almost par for the course. I tend to think that the SG people who stress the most over their stories are the ones who would rather be dropped on their heads than be viewed as posting something incomplete and sketchy. They pass critical judgment on their own work long before it reaches any readers.

Not sure how it compares to HP, in that sense, but it's interesting.

[zortified.livejournal.com]

What about:

Daniel/Go'auld
Teal'c/symbiote
Jack/Thor
Daniel/George
George/anyone
android version/amnesia-stricken team member

The possibilities are endless!

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Stargate femslash, each participant has to do a different pairing! That'd be some interesting barrel-scraping...

"Anise/Freya: What the slash really means."

[wisdomeagle]

Rawr. I reserve the right to have all the Sam/f pairings to myself.

Uh, that didn't sound too greedy, did it?

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's okay, it still leaves me with Jack/Daniel and Teal'c/Sam.

[frahulettaes.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. I think we just whine more.
::::prods flist:::::
Yeah....that's it.

[prillalar]

True, very true. But I think I'd have to get used to them all over again for Stargate. I find it an extraordinarly difficult fandom to write.

[prillalar]

My understanding of ficathons is that they're meant to be short (though not sketchy and incomplete!). But I'm not quite sure what I'm basing that on.

And I tend to take the requests as guidelines, not strictures. But on the whole, I like challenges. I think some of my best work has been for challenges, actually.

I think that the slice of SG fandom I know is, well, slower paced than HP fandom. People take longer over things. And, as lasultrix says above, people just aren't used to this kind of challenge in SG. So, stress. *g*

[prillalar]

Martouf/McKay
Kinsey/Simmons
Daniel/Starbuck -- hmm...

[prillalar]

Hee! Maybe so. :)