Yuletide reveal

[dbskyler]

Yuletide is over, and I've posted my fic to my journal. The fandom was Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, which was a fandom I did have to think about before deciding to offer, as RPF is one of my squicks. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really was completely fine with writing Five(ish) Doctors fic, because the characters are so obviously not meant to be the real people. (I'm pretty sure that John Barrowman is not a closet heterosexual.) Ironically, AO3 disagrees with me, and my fic is officially tagged as Doctor Who RPF, and although I did send a ticket to support about it, the wrangler refuses to change it. I guess, coming from the RPF side, Five(ish) Doctors feels like a cracky RPF sub-genre? I wouldn't know since I'm not familiar with the RPF culture at all. Anyway, hopefully the people who actually like Five(ish) Doctors will still manage to find it, and either way it's a Yuletide fandom, so the readership is bound to be small.

Once I got assigned Five(ish) Doctors, I had a blast writing it. (Well, except for the times when I got stuck, but that goes for all my fic.) My recipient gave me a great prompt, and told me to have fun, and I really did. And it's something I would never have written if not for Yuletide, which for me is a large part of the exchange. Even if it was once again Whoniverse-related, like almost all of the rest of my fic.

This time around, my fic actually was recced by someone on my flist while it was still anonymous, which was an interesting experience. Basically, I discovered that it didn't make any difference. I guess I've always felt that when I get a rec from someone on my flist, it's not because I'm the author, but because they really like the fic, and the only thing being on my flist contributes is that they're more likely to have seen the fic. So my reaction to the rec was feeling happy, but not at all "I can be sure they're not pretending to like it just to be nice because they don't know I'm the author." In other words, I don't think anyone on my flist is ever just being nice? ; ) But I mean that in the best possible way.

Comments

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Your definition of RPF is much narrower than the AO3's

Hmm, yes. And it sounds like it's narrower than that of many people who write RPF. I don't read RPF, and I've been assuming that I don't care for it, but perhaps there actually is some RPF out there that I would enjoy. Certainly vampire Richard III sounds interesting. ; )

The official word back from AO3 support was: "At this time, [the wranglers are] still viewing it as RPF - officially sanctioned and written RPF, but RPF nonetheless. As such, they're choosing to not create a separate subtag at this time. Your input has been recorded, though, and if the issue comes up again in the future, it will be weighed in accordingly!"

I'm not quite sure what constitutes "the issue coming up again in the future" -- more people complaining?

[thisbluespirit]

I don't read RPF, and I've been assuming that I don't care for it, but perhaps there actually is some RPF out there that I would enjoy. Certainly vampire Richard III sounds interesting.

I used to be the same, but then I noticed historical RPF being a thing for yuletide, which I thought should really just be original fic, but since then I've come round to the idea that if "history" or specific subsets can be a fandom and treated in the same way as other things, as can other sorts of RPF. And then I've wound up wrangling some stuff. I have to say, I don't usually see things I want to read in top level RPF or British Actor RPF, but Historical RPF is a whole other thing. And some RPF is fanfic for things like panel shows and Time Team and Top Gear, and it's just fanfic again, except the fandom is technically RPF. And some of those can be huge fun too. I suppose it's like anything - a lot of people from the outside think the whole of fandom and fanfic is just loads of Shades of Grey stuff. And while there is, of course, a whole heap of slash and pr0n, we know there's plenty more going on.

And, LOL, I don't know if I'll ever write that fic, but I did start it, because, you see, there is a book series called "Tudor Vampires" and I was very disappointed to hear that it was about people who fought vampires in Tudor times and not the Tudors themselves being vampires, which would have been far more entertaining (well, possibly), and then somehow wound up with Richard being one instead & merging with taking Henry VII fulfilling the Matter of Britain literally. Mind, in my WIP notes I also have stuff about people breeding giant snails in France, so I don't know what I was on at the time!

And there was a fic in the NYR collection just now that was a fusion of 19th C Historical RPF and Have I Got News For RPF (a long-running satirical UK topical panel show), which was awesome. So, yes, it's the stuff like that that makes RPF worthwhile for me!

I'm not quite sure what constitutes "the issue coming up again in the future" -- more people complaining?

I'd think so - they do take every complaint seriously, and whatever you got back from support, behind the scenes, the wrangler will have had to explain why it is the way it is, and not the other way before support goes back to you. It's not always satisfactory, of course, but they do take things seriously & you weren't the only one who contacted support about that one.