reading is fundamental

[firstaudrina]

First of all, hey! I never post & am generally terrible. Second of all, MEME. This is my favorite prompt-gathering meme but I am fuckin TURRIBLE at writing fic lately though I am very desperate to read some! The problem with this is that finding fic that is to my taste is damn near impossible for some reason lately. I really miss the fic trends of my heyday because the fic trends of 2016 don't really work for me. Which leads me to the point of this post!

I thought it would be cute to twist the rules of this meme a little to receive recs instead of prompts. AKA please curate AO3 for me so I can stop scrolling through endless pages of NONSENSE.

01. I'm going to comment to this post with a list of characters or pairings I feel like reading.

02. Reply to said comment with recs. Feel free to write something if you get inspired!

03. If you want to receive recs as well, then post your own list of characters or pairings you're
interested in as a separate comment to this post--so that people can rec things to you!

Comments

QUESTIONS? CONCERNS? JUST WANT TO SAY HEY?

[margottenenbaum.livejournal.com]

hey.

RE: QUESTIONS? CONCERNS? JUST WANT TO SAY HEY?

[stainofmylove.livejournal.com]

Miss you <3

I know what you mean about current fic trends. Like, I feel fannish enough about a ton of things but can't find a damn thing good to read. When I'm really into something I can mostly deal with like stupid song choice of a fanvid or lyrics on a gif set or whatever, but when it comes to fic ................ liiiiiiiike I do not need coffee shop AUs or surprise pregnancy stories, please stop? Lol.

RE: QUESTIONS? CONCERNS? JUST WANT TO SAY HEY?

[margottenenbaum.livejournal.com]

Miss you too!! <3

RIGHT. Omg all it is is coffee shop AUs and other nonsense there, especially when the fandom in question is of the supernatural kind. To which I say....what is the point of that.

I want to read...

[margottenenbaum.livejournal.com]

carmilla. carmilla/laura.
the get down. anyone/anything. love these kids.
shadowhunters. magnus/alec, clary/izzy, simon/raphael, simon/jace, izzy/meliorn. my kingdom for good fic of that last one.

primarily looking for canon-compliant fic, not AUs (unless they're like super crazy well done or canon divergence aus)

but if we have fandoms in common that aren't listed here / you know i would like something, feel free to throw it my way! :)

RE: I want to read...

[stainofmylove.livejournal.com]

Dude am I reallyyyy gonna have to watch Shadowhunters for you?

RE: I want to read...

[margottenenbaum.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahahaha

....you might have to.

RE: I want to read...

[prefectlives.livejournal.com]

Idk if you're still into Skins but I really loved "all my loves are hidden in pieces (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2227062)." It's a really good ensemble fic that focuses on the first generation (aka my children).

Btw since I am a major Fandom Lone Wolf, what do you mean by the current fic trends? What were the fic trends of your heyday? I ask because I am very fandom-avoidant in a lot of ways and just kind of...do my own thing when it comes to reading and writing fic.

RE: I want to read...

[margottenenbaum.livejournal.com]

Awww I'm not into Skins anymore, but I did read that fic when I was! I love lesoleilluna's writing. Great fic.

I've noticed that now any time I look for fic to read, it's just pages and pages of really banal AUs? Like, I love an AU when done right, but I prefer an intriguing change of era or genre, something that really feels different while still maintaining a core in common with the source material. But all the AUs I see now are just like...no one has magic because they're all in college! Everybody works in a coffee shop! And that just feels very...bloodless and bland to me? I mean, that kind of thing can be fun, but I don't really get why it's so prominent or what it's adding to anything. What's the point of stripping away everything interesting abut a show/book/movie and creating something so generic instead? That, or it's that A/B/O nonsense that I frankly can't stand.

I've been in fandom for a longass time and I've also been in a huge variety of vastly different fandoms, and I know these things have ebbs and flows (plus you always need to weed out the crap), but everything just seems so...not good now??? Lol. Am I too old? I feel like you used to be able to find more thoughtful, well-written, canon-compliant explorations of a text. I've always been spoiled because I came up in Harry Potter fandom, which had EVERYTHING you could ever ask for and then some, and it felt like there was a real effort to sort of rise to the level of the text even while having fun with it. I don't want to sound like I'm harshing anyone's buzz because at the end of the day this is all about fun but I just find less depth lately. SO MANY BORING AUS. I CAN'T TAKE IT.

Re: I want to read...

[prefectlives.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, the AUs - you're totally right. It's so...boring and it gets to the point where the characters could be anyone, really, because the heart and essence of the original material that they came from is completely gone.

LOL I think the Harry Potter fandom spoiled us all! But I also relate to the "am I too old?" question. I lurked in fandom for a long time before becoming ~involved~ but now, even after only a year being semi-active in a niche corner of a larger fandom, I just feel like...it's just not that important? Maybe it's also the health/grad school stuff I've got going on in my so called "real life" but fandom still isn't the escape it once was and the reams and reams of terrible fic doesn't exactly help.

Whoops now I sound super depressed and bitter. I didn't mean it that way at all, lol.

RE: Re: I want to read...

[margottenenbaum.livejournal.com]

Haha it's okay I'm the Bitterest Betty of the lot. :P

Sometimes I think I have just been complaining about different aspects of fandom for as long as I've been in it haha. But idk maybe we are too old! I agree, the more time passes the more other things just become so much more important. I definitely don't get the same satisfaction I used to get out of participating in fandom yet I can't quite disengage entirely, either.