By whole, I don't mean a plot, bells and whistles--I mean a whole character. A whole person. We're not just sex drives on legs, even the sex compulsives among us. One doesn't need an action/adventure novel to convey that, though sometimes it makes things easier. But I've got whole anthologies of short stories on my shelves that manage to be about full people, even when the stories are about sex.

I think, for me, my own understanding of a character is something I bring to a piece of fanfic. Where in litfic, or an original piece, I want and need to understand that person in all of their forms, with fic, I know who I think that person is. I want a story that meshes and matches with that, and if it introduces me to a new facet, helps to form a new idea, that's great. And if not, if it tracks with my view and vision of the character, that's enough. If it doesn't, I stop reading.

I really do want different things from fic than from original work, and I think that informs a lot of my reading and my expectations, and it isn't simply about the sex or romance, but about what I want from the experience, from the process of taking in words and stories.