vilakins | Clichés in fanfic

andrastewhite has turned a friend's poll about fanfic clichés into a meme about her own stories, which I thought more fun than bolding up yet another 100 best books list.

Bold the clichés you have written, and italicise those you've considered writing.

I can only claim five, but one accounts for a lot of my fic.

Genderswap

Bodyswap: Yes, the whole Liberator crew, in Mistaken Identities.

Drunk!fic: I've written Vila drunk more than once, but I assume this is drunkenness leading to sex.

Huddling together for warmth!

Undercover in a gay bar!

Pretending to be married!

Secretly a virgin!

Amnesia: Yes, but in my defence, it was in a Mills and Boon parody, Stunned by Love, and it was Servalan.

Cross-dressing: I have considered writing a Some Like It Hot pastiche in which Avon, Vila, and Soolin join a Gauda Prime band on tour to escape the Federation, but executrix has already done one.

Forced to share a bed!: I was going to make them share a bunk in the girls' digs (see above). Maybe one day.

Aliens make them do it!

Wingfic: I have no idea what this is. Characters turning into angels or fairies, or something? Please enlighten me.

Mpreg

Mistakenly assumed to be gay!

Let's play truth or dare! Nope, but I've written a couple of poker stories: strip in Poker Night, and Starbuck and Tarrant betting themselves in Meeting of Minds, a crossover I seem never to have posted elsewhere.

Mary Sue fic: Yes, along with deliberate badfic in Suzy Mar. At least I hope that's all I've written.

Aphrodisiacs!

Curtainfic

Hurt/Comfort: Yes. In fact probably at least half of my fic falls into this category.

Apocalypse fic

Someone has a baby! Well, I've written a couple of b7friday fics like The Next Generation and The Ice Princess in which characters have children, but they're not babies. One cliché omitted, which I should add is:

Baby!fic (in which the characters themselves are reduced to babies) because I've come across more than you'd think likely.

Telepathic soulbonding: Nope, but I've read a lot involving Avon, of all people.

Werewolves mate for life! Eh?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wingfic! Do you remember the time in the Alphabet series when I had given Blake and most of the others wings?

I do, but I wouldn't call it a cliché on the basis of that! Wingfic must abound in other fandoms. I remain puzzled, also about the werewolf one.

In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom, where lycanthropy is canonical, a lot of fanon grew up around the topic. One common idea was that since real wolves supposedly mate for life (they don't, but that's another story), so would werewolves.

I'm proud to say that although I wrote a lot of fic about the Buffyverse werewolf (Oz, the blond boy in the icon) I never ever used the "werewolves mate for life" cliche.

Ahhh, thank you! :-) I'm still frozen in S1 of Buffy due to too much else to watch, so I don't read any fanfic.

For that matter, I can't think of a story I've read that has 'Truth or Dare' in B7 fic.

(We played it in RPG, but I don't recall the idea in any fiction.)

Yeah, I've only come across one fic for that, a very, very funny crossover one. [looks for it] Nope, I'm wrong; it was I Never (http://jmtorres.livejournal.com/709257.html). I suppose 'Truth or Dare' is just another way to make them do something they normally wouldn't.

I know I have a zine with a Scorpio Truth or Dare game, which I think involved Vila running around the deck with a large bow in lieu of nether garments. Possibly by Predatrix, although I wouldn't swear to it.

I wrote a Firefly drunk!fic with a strip poker game, which I suppose is much of a muchness.

Ah! Now that you mention it, the bow does stick in my mind. I can't recall the story itself, though.

I was actually thinking that I'd seen more strip poker stories than many of the others.

I think it's an anime staple: for no good reason, characters not normally endowed with wings get them. I've seen it in the Due South fandom.

Curtainfic?
As in "Who's behind the curtain"?

Hurt/Comfort: Yes. In fact probably at least half of my fic falls into this category.
B7 does seem to lend to this category, doesn't it?

Telepathic soulbonding: Nope, but I've read a lot involving Avon, of all people.
Let me guess who the pair partner is...

I *think* curtainfic refers to domesticity, like 'choosing the curtains'.

Ahhh. That's a new term for me then. Thanks.

As in "Who's behind the curtain"?
As in "What pattern would you like, dear?" It's all about settling down domestically. :-P

It does!

Not usually the actual telepath, no. :-)

I don't really think my deep fascination for domestic disaster in space counts...

No, they have to settle down together to count.

Actually I suppose I have written it if you count the ones where they bred. I tend to think of that cliché as slash though; not sure why.

I'll admit that the only thing that comes to mind when I hear 'curtainfic' is that one night shift when Zen developed a startling taste for floral chintz...

You should write a Some Like it Hot pastiche, because a lot of E'trix's stuff flies over my head (what with the cultural references). No disrespect to her or anything, I'm just ignorant:P. I'd love to read one by you!

I think I will! It will be fun and I want some outright fannish fun sometimes. :-D (I even want to do a poster for it.)

Hee! Damn it, now that you mention it, I'd be so tempted to try and 'shop that, if I could find the right sorts of bodies:P. Finding good source pics of guys in drag is difficult, damn it (they're either crazily OTT or have breast implants). I've been growling about this since I've been on a cracky Drag!Doctor kick lately...

You could use shots from the film! I'm planning on redrawing a screenprint poster. :-)

Nah, the body types wouldn't match! That's the biggest problem. There's no way Soolin is as curvy as Marilyn... you might want to try and draw something, yeah, that'd probably be the best way of going about it. And you'd do it better than me, anyway!

She's curvier than most women on TV now, but you're right. I have a lot more leeway with a drawing, anyway.

An interesting list of clichés, but so many that aren't your style.

I don't recall reading the poker stories at all. Thanks for the links, I enjoyed them.

Thanks! I don't think many have read the second one; I wasn't happy with how I got Starbuck into the universe (I had to put her in a different ship), but I really should add it to my site.

There are lots of those I haven't read, I think, so yay! *scuttles off*

Nice meme! I have no idea what some of those mean :D

I didn't know some either? Ask though! I might know, or others probably will.

All my fic is either on my site, or linked from it--except, it seems, the Starbuck one, and a purely Farscape one I once wrote.

Hmm...wingfic? Is that just what it sounds like? And curtainfic? Is that...where the characters hide behind curtains, or something? :D

I'm as puzzled as you about wingfic. Curtainfic is where two characters settle down together and go all domestic, choosing curtains and furnishings. :-P

Lol, I see :D Nice!

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