Yuletide writing and wrangling

[dbskyler]

For the first time this year, I wrote for a 5-minute fandom for Yuletide. In fact, it's really more of a 1-minute fandom; the whole thing is contained in this Tumblr post. The name of the fandom is "Incompetent Time-Travelling Saxophone Haters," and the conceit is that since Adolphe Sax (inventor of the saxophone) had multiple mishaps growing up, there must have been time-travelling saxophone haters out to kill him before he invented the saxophone, who must also have been incompetent because they didn't succeed.

thisbluespirit told me about the fandom when I was looking for something else to offer, and at first I was sure that I couldn't write for something like that, but after giving it some thought, I decided to offer it. I knew it would mean writing original characters, which I don't usually do, but I kind of like when Yuletide gets me to do new things, and as it turned out, my recipient's prompt really inspired me and it was one of my easiest Yuletide writing experiences ever. I also really like how it turned out: From the Desk of [Insert Mad Scientist Name Here].

Ironically, the fandom was originally wrangled with a parent tag under "Celebrities and Real People," and I was really afraid for awhile that I was going to have a repeat of last year, when I wrote Five(ish) Doctors Reboot fic that got wrangled as Doctor Who RPF, so no one could find it as its own fandom. I had visions of Incompetent Time-Travelling Saxophone Haters being renamed to "19th Century Belgian Musicians" or something equally obscure, which would also have been very ironic as Adolphe Sax isn't even a character in my fic. So I emailed the mods for the first time ever, and they were super nice and super helpful, and as a result, the fandom also got "Other Media" as a parent tag, and in the Yuletide collection the fandom actually appeared as it was nominated, which was a huge relief. Because, to be honest, I'm still not over what happened with my Five(ish) Doctors fic last year.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, yes, Blog Posts should be Blog Posts, or Tumblr Posts, whatever. :-)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I know! I just don't get AO3's insistence on shoving my fics into RPF. Why??? And it doesn't help that I still have a personal squick about RPF, so I am not happy that according to AO3, I have technically written two fics now that fall into that category, when I don't believe I have done any such thing. And yes, I know, we've had the Five(ish) Doctors RPF conversation, but still, suppose AO3 suddenly decided that everything you wrote with a romance in it was a sub-category of porn, and labeled it as porn? Because that's how it feels. Porn is a perfectly valid genre to write -- as is RPF -- but I don't write it. It feels like my fic is mis-labeled, and mis-categorized, and people looking for porn (RPF) will be horribly disappointed at my fic, and people looking for stuff like my fic will never think to look for it under porn (RPF). And isn't that the whole point of tags, to make the type of fic you're looking for easier to find?

[thisbluespirit]

Only one, don't panic! If they moved the other to Other Media when you pointed out what it actually was, you said, you're fine there.

I'll not go into Five(Ish) Doctors again (although personally, if it were my call, I'd have made it a sub-fandom & therefore findable as a distinct thing, because, as you say, it'd have made it easier to find; but it would still ultimately be sub-tagged in Celebrities & Real People because of what it is) - just blame Peter Davison! It's not your fault if the man writes cracky RPF about himself and his friends and then sucks you into his evil world. ;-p

(I'm amused at your example, because it would BREAK THE ENTIRE ARCHIVE for days and there would be chaos until it was safely undone. So that won't happen, don't worry. ;-p)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Incompetent Time-Travelling Saxophone Haters is still officially under "Celebrities and Real People"; they added "Other Media" as a parent tag after I sent my concern to the mods, but they didn't take away the RPF parent tag. I'm mostly okay with it because it's findable as a separate fandom, and findable under "Other Media," except it really annoys me that AO3 keeps insisting that I write RPF for Yuletide. If I do Yuletide next year, I will have to only offer in safely wrangled fandoms, because if it's unwrangled, I am now convinced that AO3 will find a way to call it RPF by Christmas.

And yes, I know my porn example wouldn't actually happen, but all your arguments don't change the fact that the porn analogy is exactly how it feels to me. Sure, Five(ish) Doctors can be seen as a sub-category of Doctor Who RPF, just as kissing in a fic can be seen as a sub-category of porn. It's just, you know, not what people are looking for when they're looking for porn. And if I write people kissing, then I'm entitled to be annoyed if I'm tagged as a porn writer. (I would be a very bad porn writer. And I must be a very bad RPF writer. I think anyone looking for actual Doctor Who RPF would be very disappointed by my Five(ish) Doctors fic. And certainly anyone looking for fic about 19th century Belgian musicians would not find what they want out of my latest "RPF" fic.)

It feels like there's an AO3 wrangler somewhere that just wants to shove everything possible into RPF. And, for some reason, this RPF-loving wrangler keeps getting assigned to wrangle my Yuletide fandoms. It must be a conspiracy! I would write fic about it, but AO3 would then tag the fic as RPF, and I refuse to go for three.

[thisbluespirit]

Okay, don't tell anyone, but Incompetent etc. etc. is no longer under Celebrities & Real People. (It isn't wrangled, it's a Tumblr Post, and there's Precedence as the Ten Stupidest Things About Richard III one is only in Other Media, even though the fic definitely contains historical, real people, so I removed the tag. It may be that the person who did it added the one and simply forgot to remove the other box - it's very easily done and we;re all only human!)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

OMG, yay!!! Although, um, I should warn you that it definitely wasn't a mistake. The fandom started out as "Other Media," then was deliberately switched to "Celebrities and Real People." When I emailed the mods, the official word I heard back from them was "We have looked into this and Incompetent Time-Travelling Saxophone Haters is now back in Other Media. It will stay both there and in Celebrities and Real People."

Should I flock this post? (That's not an entirely facetious question . . . )

[thisbluespirit]

It's all right - I was being facetious about not telling anyone. I read the discussion on the tag & where it belonged first, checked whether or not it was wrangled, removed the category and left a comment to say why, so someone can object and add the category back if they feel it necessary (but it's hard to imagine they would on one like this). And then I wrangled the unwrangled tags in it so that I at least did something useful even if someone does have to go and alter it again. :-)

(Adolphe Sax is now canonical, heh.)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Well, yay, that does make me feel better, so thank you!

Now I don't suppose you know how to adjust the "fandoms" that show up on your AO3 dashboard? Because every time I go to my dashboard and see "Doctor Who RPF" there, I get a little stab to the heart. (And yes, I know I'm silly to be so bothered by it, but there it is. And this is despite the fact that technically I wrote RPF way back in "Fallacy Somewhere," which has Gilbert & Sullivan in it. Except, you know, Gilbert & Sullivan aren't going to randomly come across my fic. Although I really would quite like Peter Davison to randomly come across my Five(ish) Doctors fic, because I think he would enjoy it. But I would enjoy it more if it wasn't labeled as RPF.)

[thisbluespirit]

I've no idea! You may be able to do it via settings or skins or you may need one of those thingies that people design to do stuff like that. (I forget what you call them this morning. It's early.)

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

It tooks like it will just display the fandoms I've written most often no matter what, so the solution is to write one more fic in three more fandoms -- that will take up all the slots and keep "Doctor Who RPF" showing up unless I choose to "expand fandoms."

So, now I just need to write more Press Gang, Red Dwarf, and Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased).

(And, thanks for indulging me in this thread. I got in a mood where I was all worked up about it, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not something I should let bother me so much, and I usually don't. But sometimes in a certain frame of mind it does really get to me. Perhaps I need to go read a whole bunch of cracky historical RPF to get over my bias against the label.)

[thisbluespirit]

Well, hey, if we get more fic out of you, I shall just go tell the Yule mods to make sure they label you RPF at all costs in future! ;-p

(No, not really. It's not as if they would listen to me anyway!)

(And ♥ We all get like that sometimes.) I'll have to see if I can find you some fun RPF to read!

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

*waves from Friends-of-Friends*

OMG, that Mad Scientist story was hilarious. And the Five(ish) Doctors one was funny, but also a bit sad. Too bad the tagging was wonky for it - I agree, lots of people would have enjoyed it.

Edited to add: I now have "Put Down the Duckie" stuck in my head!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Hello! *waves back*

So glad you enjoyed the fics, and thanks for letting me know!

I now have "Put Down the Duckie" stuck in my head!

Then my work here is done. :)

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

Happy Rubber Duckie Day (https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/rubber-duckie-day/)!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Whoo hoo! Let's party!