Buddy Fic

[itsallovernow]

So, leadensky has been talking about female friendship fic, and the possibility of someone hosting a ficathon celebrating this sort of fic which doesn't seem to be written all that much, certainly not in the genre world. And I kind of said that if, no one else was taking up the mantle, I'd be willing to run and host such an endeavor, and the I is quickly becoming a we because really this is all Hossgal's idea and I'm mostly just prodding and encouraging and offering up the admin duties and the salon space.

However, first, a rough poll.

Questions for the Thelma and Louise Do Outer Space Ficathon.

Who would be willing to participate?

We're looking at a July 1st deadline, with signups starting sometime this week and closing May 1st. That would give people two months to write and would hopefully not interefer in too many other ficathons.

Which fandoms should be included?

There was some discussion of this being solely genre, but there's such a wealth of great female characters in other shows - particularly Gilmore Girls and Grey's Anatomy - that it would be a shame to take away those options. But we're open for suggestion, particularly if we have enough interest.

How do you feel about crossovers and wild card options?

I, and leadensky both, are in favor. Does it seem like this would make the ficathon too unwieldy?

Other suggestions or requests?

Comments

[leadensky.livejournal.com]

NONONONONO. *Not* "all her idea" - lots of people have been talking about this, it seems.

However, yes, I like the idea a great deal.

*goes to pimp*

- hg

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee- many people have been talking about it, but you took the ball and ran with it:)

[simplystars.livejournal.com]

Since I'm not writing Multiverse this year, and the deadline is much more me-friendly *g*.... off the top of my head I'll say I could do it.

*If*... it all depends on who I'm asked to write. I would feel comfortable with any of the FS or FF or BSG or Buffy or ST women, or Rose from DW, or Leia from SW. Maybe Scully? Dunno.

I haven't watched GG in ages, and I'm not caught up on GA yet - but if you made the fandoms broad, and requests included a range or scope of fandoms to be nice to the writer, then I wouldn't fret too much. Does that make sense? In that vein, I'd think allowing crossovers/wild cards (at the writer's discretion, maybe?) would be accomodating as well.

How long will the fics need to be?

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

You know me - I'm far too lazy for this not to be a little bit of a free for all. And I'd say 500 or 1000 words minimum.

[rebism.livejournal.com]

if the getyourtoaster BSG femmeslash mini-ficathons prove that i haven't forgotten how to write, a female friendship ficathon will be, right behind bsg femmeslash, just the thing to make me go "ooh?". so yeah, depending on how much my writing's degenerated, if i have the ability i definitely have the inclination.

fandoms? female-heavy ones i know of would obviously include farscape, xena, bsg. that's about where my contribution ends :)

crossovers = yey. wild card i don't really understand, unless it's like "write me kara and someone"? in which case yey. otherwise i'm not sure :)

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee - I'm sure that you haven't forgotten how to write!

Wild cards are just that. A sort of wild hair of, "Oh, and I'd love to see this!!" that kind of comes out of nowhere.

[pene.livejournal.com]

I would be keen to participate though I wouldn't be as thrilled if it was all genre. I've wanted to work out how to write women in friendship.

The femslash ficathon postings showed that Battlestar Galactica, Buffy and Angel, Firefly, SG Atlantis and Veronica Mars had the most fics written. Strong showings from Alias, Bring it On, CSI. I don't know all these fandoms by any means but in terms of women in friendship? Buffy, Veronica Mars, Bring it On have strong bases but all the others have enough in the way of women to support writing friendship fic.

Other choices are Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, Desperate Housewives, Harry Potter, The L Word, Law and Order SVU, The O.C., Farscape.

[pene.livejournal.com]

oh and crossovers v. yay (I think crossovers encourage people to read outside their comfort zone as crossovers a frequently less reliant on knowing the fandom) and wild cards v. v. yay because you get to write the coolest things.

[lomer.livejournal.com]

I've never done a ficathon and I haven't written anything in a LONG time. Last time I wrote anything was a drabble too... so take all that in mind when I say I'm interesting in writing. I don't promise quality, just an effort. :)

Discussions with HG has me thinking about BSG and Kara Thrace, so I think I'd want to write a Starbuck fic if only because rewatching old eps has me thinking about her motivations.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

We'd welcome any and all participation;)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

1. Yes.
2. Yes--erm, I'd probably be willing to tackle SG-1, SGA, Alias, FF, or Farscape. Possssibly Dr. Who.
3. Crossovers: I suck at them, but I'm tempted by the idea of strong capable women crossing over, because sometimes, man, there just aren't enough of them around.
Wildcards: I'm not entirely clear on this concept, but it sounds like my cuppa tea.

And please at least July 1 (which is my birthday, btw) so it's post dissertation for me.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Excellent on all fronts!

[50mm.livejournal.com]

Not particularly helpful and since I can't write, I wouldn't participate, but I'd love to read these. FWIW...

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee - all ficathons need readers!

[voleuse.livejournal.com]

I am so, so in.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Yeah!!!

[fourteenlines.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I too am guilty of rarely exploring the female friendship in fiction. Funny because my friendships with other females are some of the deepest and most important relationships in my life; I suspect a lot of other peoples' lives as well.

So I honestly don't know what I would do, at this point, but if you do this I'm in.

I say go for broke - non-genre, wildcards, crossovers. The Femslash ficathon format always seems to work well, in that you have to make three "standard" requests and then you get three "wildcard" requests - maybe the crossovers are included under the wild card umbrella? Might be easier to hand out assignments that way.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the femslash format is ideal. Excellent suggestions for the technicalities as well!

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

tentatively, I will say yes; again, it would depend on the circumstances and all that. hee! Seeing that I've had a ficathon idea on the backburner for at least 4 months and have had no time to write it...

crossovers are bitchin' though.... I'm just saying.

Me, I could do Farscape, Star Trek (preferably TNG and DS9, early Voyager, as I stopped watching it after season 3), The X-Files, Earth 2 (ooh, the crossover possibilities are just jumping at me now), I hesitate to do BSG and SG1 only because I've never written in those fandoms, but I could be persuaded, Gilmore Girls, The West Wing, Homicide: Life on the Street, Bones.... hell, if I keep listing shows, I would never end this comment!

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee - we're gonna have to put a cutoff somewhere. It's the where that scares me:)

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

These people here http://gehayi.livejournal.com/183407.html are also talking about turning their HP ficathon (femgen, it is called) into a multi-fandom one.

I have not the writing mojo, but I would read the fics from a ficathon such as you suggest.

cool!

[leadensky.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent! Thank you for the pointer!

Thea - I jumped over this am and left a note, telling them what we were putting together, and asking if they wanted to play/possibly combine the efforts. It doesn't look like they're after *exactly* the same thing - more like the genfem 'thon that Jenny O did earlier this year - but the time lines are close.

I want to hang onto the buddy-fic part of this, but I don't want to conflict with this other 'thon, either. So. Have to see.

Oh, and I forgot to add SW to my list.

- hg

Some thoughts

[leadensky.livejournal.com]

Wow - woke up to a lot of good comments. kewl (and *whewwww*)

I'm a genre girl, so of course (I think of course) my pref is going to be for the space show fandoms. (I haven't watched GG in two or three years, and no GA, etc.) So while there maybe a lot of gal-gal stories in those fandoms, that sort of story isn't showing up (that much) in genre. (Too many explosions, I think.) Which is why I'd prefer a genre focus. However, I'm just one person, so I'll take "genre inclusion" with no worries.

What *I* would put in, if *I* were picking: Aliens, TXF, FS, FF, ST:TOS, ST:TNG, X-Men (Comicverse and movieverse), Batclan, Lucifer, Sandman, Buffy/Angel, TWW, (which I know is not genre), Bujold books, and there's likely another five or six that I just can't remember off the top of my head.

What I could see putting in genre wise: The rest of the Star Treks, HP, SG1, SGA, Charmed, Lost, A Distant Soil, Appleseed (or other manga/anime) Dark Angel, Alien Nation...I want to put in Witchblade but that would about require an OC, which I got no trouble with but other people do.

Non-genre - GA and GG appear to be the hot fandoms, but I could see any number of things working their way in here.

I agree, an author base willing and able to write the stories is most key. But if we were to set it up for the widest appeal, we'd just do HP and be done with it. (And they already have a genfem ficathon - which is not the same as buddy pairings, but close.)

*thinks* Do other people mind comics being included? Maybe just as wildcards.

I think a 500 word minimum would be fine - some of us *cough*Shaye*cough* would likely end up writing 6 zillion word epics anyway, but 500 seems to be the fandom standard for "minor" ficathons. (We can be "major" next year - assuming people are still talking to us.)

We need to pimp this at femslash communities - any volunteers?

- hg

Re: Some thoughts

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Because HP is so widely written, I'd rather stick it in there as a wildcard fandom:)

And since it was your idea, you are pretty much picking:) Although I'd also add Alias to the list by virtue of their being some nice female bonding in that.

[apathocles.livejournal.com]

Dude, you know I'm in. *g*

And you also know that I'd love to read/write comics stories, particularly general DC/Marvel stuff, as well as a few Vertigo fandoms in particular (Transmetropolitan, Y: The Last Man, and Sandman would all be awesome for this challenge). However, I know that my chances on these fandoms are fairly unlikely, and so I'm more than willing to write/request stuff like Farscape.

Also, crossovers are totally fine. ;)

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I think we'll probably follow Shaye's suggestion: do the primary fandoms and then have the crossovers and wild cards in a seperate section for the more obscure fandoms.

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

Blake's 7 is a perfect fandom for femfriend or femslash, because it has a lot of women for genre TV, and, because it was the '70s, they were on that odd dividing line between wonderfully specced out and rounded in theory and poorly utilized in practice, so there's a lot of room for adding to the characterization. Doctor Who's also pretty good, if you know old-skool and are willing to muck about with time (and if not, why are you in DW fandom?).

Sadly, I don't do ficathons anymore, sorry.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Still good suggestions. Thanks!

[pdxscaper.livejournal.com]

I think, since I persuaded myself to sign up for remixredux...I would probably attempt this one because it would definitely be a challenge.

I'd be limited in what I could write: Farscape [of course], FF & GG, probably--I've never written anything for either before, but I've watched GG since the beginning, and have seen all of FF.

[troyswann.livejournal.com]

First, I totally support this idea. I love the idea of promoting explorations of women's relationships. LOVE. IT.

Second: your poll.

Participation: A comm, yeah. A ficathon? er... probably not. I would probably not sign up for a ficathon (because I suck at them and the deadline angst--no matter how many months I have to write--dries up my brains), but I would pimp it like mad. And if there was ever a ficathon idea that would make me change my no ficathon policy, it would be this one. Still, I guess having said that, I don't really have the right to comment. But I will.

Fandoms: I would think open to any and all would be a good idea. There are precious few women out there to work with in a lot of genre cases (Farscape being a notable exception), so why not open it up to the field?

Crossovers: Okay, so I'll admit to being a crossover ho, so I will automatically default to crossover. I would love to see Scully and Megan from Numb3rs cross paths. I'm not sure what a "wild card option" is but yeah.

Anyway, this is a terrific idea. I hope it goes like hotcakes.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I hope so, too! I hope we haven't bitten off way more than we can chew!!

But I think it'll be a lot of fun!

[pellucid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I think this sounds like a fantastic idea!!! I would definitely pimp, encourage, feedback, and read enthusiastically.

As for participating, I usually never sign up for ficathons because the whole writing on demand thing is almost guaranteed to cause great stress and angst. But for this one I'd be very, very tempted. We'll call participation a definite maybe.

In terms of fandoms, as many as possible without making y'all insane? For my own part I'm really only comfortable writing in SG1, SGA, Farscape, and X-Files, and I suppose I might give something like SVU a whirl. But the more the merrier, overall.

And yay for crossovers. ;)

well...

[thehallway.livejournal.com]

...i have had a scully/aeryn fic banging around my head for awhile now and this would probably help me write it. so, hee!

surfed in from friendsfriends

[resmin.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a great idea. I'm more partial to the genre angle (Farscape/Firefly/BSG), but opening it up to more people is probably a better way to go.

Re: surfed in from friendsfriends

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Knowing our f-lists, it's likely to be genre heavy with the possibility of more:)

[florastuart.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Yes, absolutely, I would be very interested in writing for such a ficathon. And that deadline sounds good, too. *off to vote in the poll*

[paian]

Just saw this pimped over at katie_m's. Great idea. If you do it I'm in (SG-1 and/or SG-1/SGA cross-over, comm or ficathon).