cc said:
Deathfics are perhaps different from other genres that people dislike because deathfics are emotionally devastating.
And Caroline responded:
To me, they're the same as all other fanfic - made up stories about fictional characters - and I evaluate a deathfic using the the same criteria I use to evaluate any other story.
Despite Caroline's logic, I do identify with CC's remark. But it's not because I don't understand that these are fictional characters. I generally (in my whopping one month of residence in FoLC-land) don't read deathfic because I can too easily imagine what it would be like to suffer that myself. I did read Terry's fic and I enjoyed it, but it did bring me "down" because I couldn't help but picture myself in a similar situation (causing my husband's death) and therefore feel just a faint brushing of the emotions associated with that. I know there are some people who can distance themselves from the emotion in a story, and I admire that. But I can't, and so I appreciate warnings on deathfic that allow me to choose whether to read it based on how I am feeling that day. Also, as someone else said, fanfic is a fun escape, and those emotions aren't fun for me. But that's just me. I think it would be a great loss to all of us if our authors stopped posting stories with so many diverse plotlines, including deathfic. This would be a boring place to visit if all the stories were the same. I hope no one here feels that they should only post their story if it is WAFFy.
increasingly, comments on fanfics have become "gushes" and "kudos" only.
Constructive criticsm is great and definitely more interesting for an author to read in a FDK thread. But if all anyone wants to say about my story is "cute, I liked it," I would rather them say that then nothing at all. That's mostly the type of responses I got on my story, and it made me feel good to know people enjoyed it enough to bother commenting even if it didn't provoke an insightful response.
As a writer, however, I fully believe that if I post in a public forum, thus tacitly asking for reviews of my work, I need to be prepared to suck it up and graciously deal with whatever criticism comes my way.
Agreed.
Of course, the original point of this particular thread was whether or not conversation just like this is appropriate in a FDK thread. The answer is no. However, I imagine that the person who starts the drift probably doesn't do it intentionally. And then another finds it interesting and responds. I suppose each of us should take responsibility for standing up, for lack of a better phrase, before it gets out of hand and starting a new thread for that conversation in this forum so the FDK can actually be an FDK. But if no one does that then it's kind of difficult to go back later and complain about it.
By the way, on the point of newbies asking questions, what does RL mean?
