hope: Art of a woman writing from tour poster (merlin - morgana)
puddingsmith ([personal profile] hope) wrote2011-03-08 08:53 pm

On putting aside the denial of fannish glee

You may or may not be aware that I've been reading Merlin fic pretty much constantly for about a year, now. I have a troublesome relationship with the show itself - it's so very pretty and cheesily written, and there are some characters I absolutely ADORE, but. BUT. There's also some stuff so problematic that it pains me deeply to watch. I dread every episode. But I can't stop watching, because I've grown quite fond of the fanon, and it doesn't entirely make sense out of context.

SO. Sigh. I had been getting inklings of fic ideas, and one that I really liked in particular - a Morgana story that was all twisty and clever and *fixing* all the things that shit me the most about the show.

But anyway. As usual, my grand intentions have been thwarted (though, hopefully not permanently - I really *do* want to write that Morgana story, quite a lot), because I have slipped and fallen into [livejournal.com profile] kinkme_merlin. And despite my best fixing-the-misogyny intentions, have naturally ended up writing MOAR SLASH.

(Not that there's anything wrong with slash. I'd just planned to get to it after I'd set my Morgana mind at rest.)

But anyway, it took me posting one story anon, and getting a few lovely comments of feedback, to be utterly hooked again. FEEDBACK, YOU GUYS, ISN'T IT GREAT? GIMME GIMME GIMME. And of course, writing is really damn fun and addictive too, especially when it just flows out, and when you can talk stories out with other people, procuring great glee.

And so I wrote two stories last week, and then finally just sat down and brainstormed all the other plots that I'd had lurking around (which turned out to be surprisingly developed, holy crap), and then grabbed all the kink meme prompts that sparked my fancy, and, well... I think I'll write them. WHY THE HELL NOT?

So here I am, about to start an epic ROMANCE story, of all things. I don't even know.


So, there's that. And now that that's out in the open: talk to me, Merlin peeps? The past couple of big fandoms I've had, I've had partners in crime to squee with and tell stories to, but I've been lurking in Merlin fic so long that suddenly I'M HERE and everyone else is kind of... over there.

For the record, I tend to enjoy reading Arthur/Merlin if it's AU, but if it's in canon era my standards for that pairing are much higher, and I find Merlin/knights more interesting (all or any!), not to mention poly relationships. I think my idfic buttons are pushed by the reincarnation/MFEO tropes in AU stories; but if I actually want to explore characters through relationships, the context of the canon setting is much more interesting and significant/influential.

I'm not sure I'll ever write an AU, unless it's some cracky context (I have an IN SPAAAAACE KMM prompt bookmarked to play with), and right now none of my story ideas are Arthur/Merlin either. The closest I come to shippy is Merlin/Gwaine, really (because THEMMMM), but like I said, I'm a bit more interested than the polyamorous/-morphous fun at the moment (she said misleadingly, eyeing her romance plot). Anyway. There are some good plots for playing with that on the kink meme.

And, speaking of the kink meme; I'm fairly certain anyone familiar with my recent body of work (and propensity for puns) will be able to spot my work fairly easily, but I'll probably de-anon in the nearish future anyway, because I like to have everything I do archived in the same place. And also, I want to talk more to the people who like it and MAKE FRIENDS.

With that in mind, I'm also turning comments back on on Livejournal, as so much fannish communing happens t/here, and what with being fannish again I'll probably be making more public posts.

So, hi! *blinkblink*
vanessarama: (merlin: fanfic)

Re: Yayes Merlinfic!

[personal profile] vanessarama 2011-03-08 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
I love Gwaine/Merlin :) Actually I don't have an OTP in this fandom (in fact I dunno if I've ever had an OTP in any fandom) and I pretty much go for Merlin/anyone :D

I prefer canon most of the time, partly because for me some of the show's attraction is in the Camelot 'verse with its magic and dragons and ridiculous anachronisms, and partly because the canon itself just offers so many awesome ideas for AUs or missing scenes or fix-it fic or whatnot. I used to not read any modern AUs; now I do read some but I prefer them to still have some elements of canon (like magic or Once and Future King-ness). I love canon AUs though.

I will try and get something finished before you lose Merlinficlove!