|
laughter in the dark |
|
current | archives | profile | joined | notes | book | design |
|
Rings Thing #5 Today's Rings Thing: - Who are your favourite authors, and what do you like about their work? Now I've re-read these questions, I realise I don't like the first one very much, it's a bit vague. Oops. I should have paid more attention when I came up with them. Never mind, I'm just going to go with my LotR fic likes and dislikes and my favourite authors. Sorry to anybody reading who isn't interested in fic (shame on you ;) I got into fic relatively late, that is after the movie came out. I wasn't a stranger to fic though, I'd been reading in the Buffy and X Files fandoms for two years at that point. I like to think I read most of the better fic both those fandoms had to offer, especially the Buffy fandom (I admit I was a little bit obsessed there for a while.) Therefore, I'm quite picky when it comes to fic from any fandom. Pairings aside, I look for good grammar and spelling, not too many Americanisms, proper attention to detail/continuity, a strong, relatively original plot (unless it's a PWP, more on that later), and a good balance between dialogue and exposition. Those are my general rules for all fic, whatever the fandom - in the LotR fandom I avoid Mary Sues like the provrbial plague (though I believe that somewhere there must be at least one which is well-written and worth the read. I don't have the patience to trawl through all the crap to find it, though, so it'll have to stay hidden.) My favourite pairing is Legolas/Aragorn, and I prefer stories in which they are the main pairing, though I don't mind Frodo/Sam and I will read Merry/Pippin. I also prefer my slash to have more than a bare-bones (no pun intended) plot, though I do read PWPs. I suppose if it's a really good PWP I hardly notice the lack of plot. I like my fics to be long and epic so I have something to really get into, though I do read character vignettes (I think I'm proving the 'always an exception to the rule' thing here. There are no exceptions to my general rules though. I know that.) Of course I have to 'get' the author's writing style if I'm going to persevere with the fic, if it doesn't gel in my head I won't read on, no matter how good the summary makes it sound. That's a very personal thing though, I'm sure others wouldn't get the styles of authors I like, and I wouldn't get the styles of authors they like. I prefer action to straight romance (though of course I do read both) and I don't mind high ratings (in fact I like the more graphic fics.) I seem to have used a lot of brackets in this entry, interesting. It's really not, I know. Now for my favourite authors... to link or not to link? I'll link. I hadn't had much success finding anything without a "thiz is my first fic but it is quite god and plz don't say u don lik it or i won't rite nemore LOL!!!" or a" 2 girlz get droped into ME an who is that gorg elf that saves them??? u no what im talkin about LOL plz read + review!!!!!!!1" at ff.net (if you've never been, I promise you I'm not exaggerating. Most of it really is in a similar vein to this - Christ only knows who reads it) until someone suggested Thundera Tiger's work to me. I almost feel bad about mentioning her name in the same paragraph as the ff.net girlz, because her writing is, IMHO, absolutely stunning. I think I'd even go as far as to say that she's the best fanfiction author I've ever come across in any fandom, though there are others who come close. I'm not sure I can describe what it is about her work I love so much (I wrote these questions! Bloody hell. Sorry.) I think it's just that when I'm reading fic by almost any other author, the most pedantic, nitpicky, perfectionist part of my mind (which is a rather large part of it, I admit) is muttering nastily in the background (eg."Hmm, that was heavy-handed. Whoa, metaphor, ladies and gentlemen, we have a metaphor!! Did y'all notice that? OOC Alert! OOC Alert!") The Pendant Voice (tm) in my head is completely silent when I'm reading her work, so I can lose myself in it completely. That's the greatest compliment I could pay to any author. I'm sure most people will have heard of her, but if not, you're really missing out. In fact, what are you still doing here? Get over there and read, now! You don't have to do that, really. I was just trying to get across how much I like her writing. I could write forever about this, but I don't have much time so I'll have to be brief. Ithilien, Dwimordene and Jocelyn write long, plot driven and often non-slashy action (well, mostly action) which is not too far removed from Thundera Tiger's style, though of course they have their own individual writing styles. They're all excellent, anyway. Well worth the read. Tricia is one of my favourite slash writers. She's very prolific and writes top quality LotR and RPS (I won't go into that now, but if you do visit be aware that it's on her site. It's well signposted anyway, it's not as if you could get to it by accident) I love all of her work, but 'Bound' is probably my favourite. Speaking of slash, I recently found this amazing writer - Doom's Eyebrow. Not my usual pairings, but I hardly even noticed that. Wow. Her writing is lyrical, ethereal... I'm not qualified to describe it. There's not enough there though :sadness: Victoria Bitter's slash and gen is also very good, I especially like 'Phantom Pain' for its bittersweet tone and twist that I really didn't see coming, and 'Left Out' which is a great Mary Sue parody. Whew. It's 4am. Need sleep. I'll add more if I get the chance tomorrow. <3 |