rionaleonhart | Balthier And Fran May Also Be A Factor.

Last year, I held a Multi-Fandom Family Fic Fest in November, proving that I have no sense of timing because, y'know, everyone was busy with NaNoWriMo. It did still garner some great responses, but I'm wondering whether perhaps a follow-up ficmeme would be more successful if I hosted it this month, perhaps in the next couple of days, rather than when most of fandom is struggling to write a novel. It could be a warm-up exercise for NaNoers!

However, I'm also wondering whether this year I should go for a more general non-romantic relationship meme theme. The definition of 'family' in the rules was already fairly flexible, and a non-romantic relationship ficmeme would mean people wouldn't have to worry about whether a particular dynamic might be family-ish enough to qualify. I worried at first that it might be too broad a subject, but it wouldn't just be a genfic-in-general meme; there would still be a focus on (non-romantic, non-sexual) relationships.

I don't know. What do you think? (Whether I go for the specific family or the more general romanceless meme idea, I intend to be less longwinded in explaining the rules and actually keep an organised list of fics written this time.)

[Poll #1786524]

I won't say that I'm considering broadening the theme entirely because Dr Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus can't really be considered family by any stretch of the imagination, but, well...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Be warned, there might be a million Dexter-themed stories about Dexter and Deborah, because I am currently in a phase of "Dexter loves his sister a lot, and Deb loves her brother a lot, and everyone in the world needs to hear about it in great detail, and also there needs to be a scene where protective Deb has to rescue Dexter with a gun, and probably some horribly awkward hugging."

How dare you use ficmemes for the purpose for which they exist? Honestly.

Ooh, have I friended you yet? *goes to check*

Although I could go the whole 'incest' route (cause I'm like that) I also think that Deb and Dexter are a great example. I was on the edge of my seat last season, literally shouting at my screen "Move the damn plastic, Deb!", it was so intense.

I have, to date, not written any Dexter fic, so you know.

I'm also not a fan of incest fic in the vast majority of cases, so I would not go there. But yeah, last season involved a lot of me squeaking dramatically at the television.

A romanceless meme! A plethora of romanceless fic! I am 100% behind this you have no idea.

(Also I have started watching Phineas and Ferb and now I think entirely too much about Doctor Doofenshmirtz and I am blaming you. CURSE YOU RIONALEONHEART THE... LJ USER)

Hooray! (And also hooray in response to your Phineas and Ferb watching! I am so pleased.)

Aand I just realised I spelled your username incorrectly. Sincere apologies! I thought I could get it in one go. Alas, I overestimated myself yet again.

That's entirely fine! As my username combines the easily-misspellable surname of a character from a particular videogame (Leonhart) with a name that is almost but not quite the first name of another character from the same game (the character's name is Rinoa), I rather bring misspellings upon myself.

Look I'm a big damn shipper, so it's not like this is my personal quest or whatever, but I do love writing about friendships, too. I said either because while I like the expansiveness of "non-romantic relationship" I don't like that it defines itself by an absence of something else.

I dunno, "Friends & Family" is a pretty common phrase in the US anyway, so I guess I could go back to the poll and recommend that! Because that feels like it covers it, though I suppose you'd have to have an asterisk to include work relationships that aren't friendships? But so few of them are that we ever want to write fic about anyway so I talked myself out of that...

See my thought process, in progress! Ain't you lucky!

I don't really like that 'non-romantic relationship' defines itself by an absence either (I'm a bit worried that it'll make people think I'm trying to make out that 'shipfic is somehow lesser, which it absolutely isn't; it's just nice to write about other types of relationship sometimes), but I'm having trouble thinking of any positively-phrased way of expressing what the meme is for. 'Friends and Family' is a good suggestion but excludes enemies, and that's a pretty significant category. This is difficult! ('Multi-Fandom Friend, Family and Foe Fic Fest'? But I wouldn't want people who want to request 'shipfic to click the link and be disappointed.)

EDIT: Oh, and then there are mentor-student relationships, aren't there? I can't even think of a word beginning with 'F' for those. FRIENDS, FAMILY, FOES AND FREDUCATION.

EDIT AGAIN: I am really sorry for all the edits but I had a stray closing bracket with no opening bracket and I can't cope with that sort of thing. Sorry! I'll stop editing now.

Edited 2011-10-14 17:01 (UTC)

I don't think many people will take it as a slur in shipfic. Shipfic is really pervasive, and it makes sense to want to get more of the stuff that doesn't tend to be written. Unless you actually start going "My ficathon will have proper fic with plots, and not that shippy trash!" or "Why are people so obsessed with sex? Down with paying attention to sex!", you should be cool.

(Also, now you are trapped and can never edit that comment again! Mwahahahaha!)

Platonic love and hate meme?

I confuse the hell out of, well, almost everyone with how I ship Holmes/Watson (or Holmes/about half of the canon characters) because I think Holmes is asexual and aromantic but he's still in a relationship with Watson that is way more than friendship (which can include sex, if Holmes is bored enough; it's just he doesn't really get the whole sexual attraction thing). That probably doesn't really count as 'non-romantic relationship' though here, does it?

I cheated on the ficlet by using a sentence from my failed Hagrid/McGonagall one-sentence, but it was an ambiguous sort of sentence that could go either way so I don't think it matters.

Anyway! I like the idea of a non-romantic fic-meme. Perhaps a platonic ship meme sort of name might have worked? Platonic isn't quite the right word, but it does describe a non-sexual relationship.

I think they both sound like wonderful ideas because they both have the scope to include different kinds of relationships that people have with each other (I mean, just because people aren't related by blood, it doesn't mean that they don't feel like they're a family, and, as noted previously, there are more than one type of relationship) - so, all in all, I'm game.

And the little thing I wrote that was about 225 characters (but I read as 225 words and thus failed and had to do a shoddy editting job)? Yeah, it was from a game series called Persona Four, and I just felt that it sort of illustrated my point slightly. It's not wonderful, I'm sorry, I can't write well under pressure :

Nah, it's pretty awesome!

(Although when I read I started hearing Igor's voice going "SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS SOCIAL LINKS" in my head. xD)

(Ohai!)

D'aw, thanks :3

(if it helps, I also thought the same thing)

(also, ohai :D longtimenospeak - fail on my part, family drama llama kicking off so I'm trying to get a job and move to Manchester (the long and short of it))

(Drama llama sucks. :( We should meet up in two weeks or so - it'll be half term for the kids (and thus me) so I'll have actual time! We'll have a proper chat. Hope things calm down a bit.)

Oh hey, there's a P4 fic on LJ you should really read - it updates about twice a week, six chapters up so far. You should read! :D (I think it's also a Persona 3 crossover.) (The author also has a really fab FF7 fic.)

http://sinnatious.livejournal.com/ :D Check it out!

(:D! This sounds like a plan! The parentals will be away next weekend, so I'll come online when I can then and we can ~~plot and scheme~~ arrange something. Also, sorry Riona for essentially using this comment space as a sounding board for our social life)

Ooh, this sounds interesting :D This is deffo on my 'To Read' list. Along with, like, twenty books (including the rest of the Harry Potter series, Good Omens, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

Balthier And Fran May Also Be A Factor.

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