How to scare yourself empty in five minutes: look at that list of unfulfilled fic requests in obscure fandoms. Don't get me wrong: the scariness for me is in thinking about actually writing some of these suckers.

I observe how many literary fandoms are present and think how I wouldn't want to try writing a Renault pastiche or a Sayers one, and at that point the penny drops. When you write in a purely prose fandom my assumption is you're writing pastiche. I would hope to God it was everyone else's assumption too, because if the style is wrong for the characters what's left but a bunch of unconvincing names? It's not even a live action or anime thing where there's a visual image that presumably appears when you write 'Spock' or 'Sanzou.' Renault's Nikeratos exists only as Nikeratos' voice; get that wrong and there's no Nikeratos by me. But I'm not sure that's true for everyone, or else we wouldn't have generic plainspeak coming from the mouths of so many characters in fanfic.

The issue has always been obscured for me by having to go from Japanese to English when I write. The quasi-translation thing actually covers as many sins as it reveals. It's not real translation, as I know perfectly well. All I have to do is translate what my charas are saying back to Japanese to realize how very wrong I have them. What I write is 'something that sounds plausible in English coming from someone who speaks Japanese the way Sanzou does.' That gives you more room than you'd think. You can actually make him screw in something that sounds like plausible English coming from etc etc. Whereas if I'm faced with Mr. Knightley speaking English as Mr. Knightley does, and am required to make him have sex with Fitzwilliam Darcy-- no. Mr. Knightley's English doesn't do that. Neither does Mr. Knightley, of course. You can't do slash with certain characters, and it's a travesty to do yaoi (yaoi= 'I'm putting them in bed together because *I* want to, not because I have any reason to think they do.') Travesty only works if it's Monty Python, and then natch it's all about the surrealism of a situation where Darcy is giving Knightley head, and not at all about Austen's characters.


Note 1: People want Daryun/ Arslan. Ack. Someone wants Rika. Ack again. Modesty Blaise-- well, as an exercise in voice, yes. Ditto The Mask of Apollo, probably the only one of her characters I'd like to write. And uhh rushthatspeaks wants slash with Dian de Momerie/Harriet Vane/Wimsey? What's the definition of slash here, because where I come from it's two series guys, certainly, and possibly two series women, but that's pushing it.

Note 2: 'Scout discovers she's a lesbian' sounds like a bad ff.net summary. But. But. Given that Truman Capote is an actual character in TKaM, you only need to transpose Scout into a Capote short story. It won't be me that does it but, y'know, it's doable.

Note 3: 12 Kingdoms, Youko/ Rakushun. No. Go away. No no and no. Not unless there's a story around it and I don't do plots. But Rakushun.... No. (puts hands over ears) No. No. And No I said no I won't no