A question about songfics.

A question about songfics. by Italian for Grandma on 2010-04-13 20:33:00 UTC

Re: A question about songfics. by Wide Eyed Idealist on 2010-04-14 23:19:00 UTC Reply

I doubt you'd need a second opinion after Neshomeh's, but I ran into a good songfic the other day, so I'm with her. (The quality was helped greatly by the fact that it was a ration of 3 lines of lyric to 5 paragraphs of fic, making it a lot less disjointed and more comparable to the practice of normal authors starting sections out with quotes, kind of like Cornelia Funke's "Inkheart" does.

Starting sections with quotes is one of my favorite things by (name here) on 2010-04-15 01:44:00 UTC Reply

Also, I like starting sections with the following

Date
Time
Location

Then again, I'm also one of those weird people who likes to know what is going on in large-scale battles instead of entering in the middle and only talking about what the main character sees.

Re: Starting sections with quotes is one of my favorite things by Wide Eyed Idealist on 2010-04-15 02:21:00 UTC Reply

I think the use of that heading depends very much on how much it jumps around, but the style that demands it also fits those kinds of battles... signature style of yours? (*feels mildly Sherlockian*).

No, one of my preferred things to read by (name here) on 2010-04-15 03:46:00 UTC Reply

It mostly irks me with the battletech novels, which have an alarming tendency to jump into the middle of battles, without always giving a clear idea of which regiments are participating or why the battle is important for several pages. Frankly, the heading is just a neat thing to have even when the story is strictly linear.

Re: No, one of my preferred things to read by Wide Eyed Idealist on 2010-04-15 20:53:00 UTC Reply

I guess that makes sense. The format can be dispensed with when you're not doing something with some kind of global reach, though, I think; I mean, if every setting is "Some room in this house/school/castle" it's not necessary. But it battletech (cool term; widely used, or yours?), yeah, I see what you mean.

Battletech is actually a tabletop wargame by (name here) on 2010-04-15 21:58:00 UTC Reply

With giant mechs. It's the same setting as mechwarrior. It spent a while in legal limbo because apparently the makers of the anime that would get jammed together with other series to make robotech gave the makers of the games rights to use some of the models, and then the importers of robotech sued them.

Re: Battletech is actually a tabletop wargame by Wide Eyed Idealist on 2010-04-16 02:26:00 UTC Reply

Ahh, I see. I've always wanted to try those tabletop games, but I've never had the chance. Someday, right?
It's got a large set of novels, though of varying quality (nm) by (name here) on 2010-04-15 21:58:00 UTC Reply

Good question. by Neshomeh on 2010-04-13 20:46:00 UTC Reply

Theoretically there could be such a thing as a good songfic, but I think the consensus is that most of them are bad and that making a good one is probably so difficult as to be nearly impossible.

I think the issue comes from trying to include an auditory effect in a purely visual medium. If you listened to the song in question while reading the story it might work well, but simply injecting the lyrics into the narrative makes only for disjointed writing, especially when the lyrics don't quite fit the action. If a writer managed to pull it off smoothly, though, and had an interesting story to tell rather than an angstfest, it could work.

So, to answer the question, no, simply writing a songfic is not a charge. As with any other type of fic, the charge list for a songfic would have to demonstrate why it's a bad songfic.

~Neshomeh

All right, then I have more questions... by Italian for Grandma on 2010-04-13 21:16:00 UTC Reply

The idea I have is setting up a department that deals with bad songfics specifically, with a couple of certifiable CloudCuckooLanders as the department's pioneer Agents.

Question 1. Would this department qualify as a sub-department of the Department of Floaters, since the two agents would be dealing with fics from multiple different universes?

Question 2. If I were to write this, I fear I will be a hypocrite. I myself have written a songfic on FFN, seen here in the Redwall section:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5227553/1/Next_Door

The songfic in question was primarily made as a gift for another writer, with whom I am writing an AU Mariel/Dandin fic. I knew it was plotless, and that, walking in, nobody would really know what it was about unless they read the fic my partner and I were working on, so I tried to direct them to read the other fic first. That fic can be found here:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4744772/1/Return

Both works involve Nona, who is a blatant self-insert of mine, though not a ridiculously overpowered one who makes everyone worship her. My partner had liked her, because she was a much different personality than Mariel, and yet she had a crush on Mariel's boyfriend-ish figure. He asked for my help in writing a piece about a love triangle between the three; I agreed, and have since been fervently trying to fight off accusations of her being a Sue.

The songfic, heh, I admit it, is not my best work. It involves two otherwise perfectly sane characters acting like a couple of lovesick teenagers, and the writing is a bit disjointed. I tried to lampshade it a bit with some smart-alecky comments from some older, wiser females, but the fact remains that it is indeed rather corny. However, it's not as bad as most songfics out there...though I do say so myself.

Would I be a horrible hypocrite to PPC bad songfics when I have this on my record?

No and no. by Neshomeh on 2010-04-13 21:57:00 UTC Reply
1. All the major departments deal with a specific type of badfic: Department of Mary-Sues, Department of Bad Slash, Department of Implausible Crossovers, etc. So, Department of Bad Songfic (or maybe something other than "Bad," so it wouldn't share an acronym with Bad Slash) would fit right in.
  
  2. Most (if not all) of us have written a Mary-Sue or some other type of badfic in our past. Admitting it and moving on isn't hypocritical. {= ) Heck, some people have even PPC'd their own works.
  
  ~Neshomeh

Okay, thanks for clearing that up. (nm) by Italian for Grandma on 2010-04-13 23:15:00 UTC Reply