A mild rant

[leethet]

So I was dipping a toe back into reading the vast quantity of MFU stories I’ve missed while being absorbed in the other fandom for the last two years, and I read a story.

Disclaimer: What follows is opinion, not attempted edict, despite the tone it may take at some points.

There’re these things we do in fandom (at least, in the two I’m involved in, and I think also in others). For lack of a better term I’ll call them artificially accelerated intimacy scenes. Or cheats. Exemplae gratias:

1. Locked room

2. Truth serum

3. Hypothermia or other illness involving naked contact

4. Muscle cramps and resultant massages

5. Bed sharing

These leap to mind. I’ve no doubt there are more. Now, we writers use them (and I guarantee I do too, so I’m not pointing fingers) because we like them (I admit to a fondness for both locked room scenes and truth serum bits) and because, let’s face it, they’re easy. They’re cheats. They force intimacy.

Now, used sparingly, they’re fine. In fact, in MFU there’s nothing outre about locked rooms or truth serums. But when a fic uses these contrivances one after the other, they start to really stand out. Worse, a reader (well, this reader) realizes that, overused, they result in an intimate relationship based on … well, contrivance, rather than a more natural development of the relationship through solid storytelling. The story becomes rather a house of cards.

Which leads me to the realization I came to, and point No. 5:

I don’t want to read a story where the guys have to share a bed naked, wake up with hard ons (“Oops!”), have a passing thought along the lines of “they had been moving toward this moment for a long time” (and, dude, I’m sure I’ve used that line, so again, I’m not picking on others) and then boom! Détente, denouement, de end.

I want to read a story in which they’re in separate beds, preferably separate rooms, and one or the other, after long hard thought about what he’s feeling and what it means, gets off his ass, gets out of the bed, goes into the other room and says, “Illya, we need to talk.” In other words, a conscious, deliberate act that results (we hope) in that ultimate intimacy.

I realized that I need characters to take responsibility for their actions. I loathe people who don’t, and I really want to love Napoleon and Illya. I don’t want them making love accidentally, as it were, or as the result of cheats. I want them to fucking mean it.

Again (and again): This isn’t me on some high horse saying other writers suck. I have no doubt I’ve used these cheats (though I hope not a bunch of them in one story … I’m a little afraid to go back and look), and I know my fics aren’t perfect. What this really is is me spouting an essay about something I realized I want to read in others’ fics, and that I want to try harder to write in my own.

I’m interested in other views here. Debate, demur, deplore, declaim, delovely, delightful.

Comments

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Amen! There can be good stories that use these cheats but so often I find myself rolling my eyes. Napoleon and Illya have been partners for five, seven, sometimes ten years and all of a sudden because of some odd circumstance they end up getting it off with each other?! And it takes that for them to know they're in love or, worse, that they're gay? No, give me a deliberate realization that they want to be together anytime.

[dinahmt.livejournal.com]

Yikes! Why is your writing so big, Lee? Or is it just me?

Hee

[leethet.livejournal.com]

It's big because I composed it in Word (which is formatted how I like it) and then pasted it. I forgot how huge it looks in LJ. It doesn't look that huge in a Word doc, honest!

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Better now, Di? ;)

[dinahmt.livejournal.com]

Better now, Di? ;)

Oh yes, you're no longer shouting *g*

[leethet.livejournal.com]

I would hate to shout at people. :)

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Yup, I strongly suspect that I've done the dreaded "gee, they'd never realized before!" kind of thing (no wonder it seemed so familiar as I ranted about it), but I don't care for either rushed or accidental intimacy (so I'll try to never do it again!). I don't mind one of those "cheats" in a story, because then it is just a moment and the story must still rely on getting the guys together one step at a time. Too many of those moments reads, to me, like a list of what to avoid when trying to realistically (ha! realistically!) bring the guys together. If your advances in intimacy hinge on such artificial scenes, the story has a false feel to it, to me at least.
It's probably happened to other writers, too, that they read something, go "Gee, I don't care for that," then realized "Hell, I did that 6 months ago in XYZ Story!" Our preferences change a bit over time, I guess.:)

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Heh. I used almost every one of those tropes in my latest... but they still don't have sex until 39019 words into a 4400 word story. :D

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Er. Left out a zero as you can probably tell. ;-D

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Lots of people use them, including me! We like them, each of us to a different extent. But I realized they are sometimes used not simply as a plot development but as a leap of some sort, and my personal preferences is to go easy on that kind of shortcut. Not that I probably haven't done it! I just was thinking that if I have in the past, I'd rather not overdo it in the future. :) They aren't quite cliches yet, but they're a bit wobbly, at least in my eyes. Then again, as with nearly every "cliche" or near cliche, it can depend on the writer as to whether the reader goes "cliche!" or never even notices. :)

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Oh, I quite agree. I was using them very deliberately, and trying to 'break' the trope by not having it lead to the expected outcome. :-)

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Hm...that could work if they don't become intimate at the end. Do they? And as I'm sure you know, a long story can use lots of shortcuts, a short story none at all, depending on how it's written.

It's a very subjective call, as I hope I indicated, and I certainly am one of those who loves the tried and true when a good writer uses it and gives it her own twist. One person's "Oh, not this again!" is another person's "I love it when this happens!" Which is cool. I was more sort of exploring what made me go "ack" and why, and it led to the realization that I want to avoid sort of accidental intimacies in my stories in future, assuming I ever finish any in future (sigh). :)

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Hm...that could work if they don't become intimate at the end. Do they?

At the end of what? The trope or the story? The trope(s), no, the story, yes. :)

It's a very subjective call, as I hope I indicated,

Absolutely. And I do know what you mean. Someone once pointed out to me the prevalence of the phrase 'went over the edge' used to describe an orgasm in fanfic, and ever since then every time I see it, I wince, even though I know I have used it quite a few times in my own work.

[dinahmt.livejournal.com]

You did use the locked room and the hypothermia, but to me it was not cliché because although there was some sexual tension, they didn't act on it in that scene. Also, because it was part of a much longer, involved story with many other situations, it was a very satisfying read and I had no feeling of "I've been here before too often."

I know I'm also guilty of the cliché situation and of many other old chestnuts. I think most of us are. I agree with you, Lee, that one's taste changes as one reads more and more. The trouble is, it's not always easy to avoid drugs, locked rooms and the like with a show like MFU when they happened in most episodes. I think it all depends on how it's handled.

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

The trouble is, it's not always easy to avoid drugs, locked rooms and the like with a show like MFU when they happened in most episodes. I think it all depends on how it's handled.

Ain't that the truth? :-D

And I'm glad the story worked for you on that level, that was my intent. :)

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Well, I do agree with you that we all see, and use, these plot devices over and over. However, I refuse to call them "cheats" -- what they are are cliches.

The genius thing to me is to take one of these common devices, or cliches, and turn it on its ear so it seems completely fresh. Those are the fics I love the best.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

And that's the trick, giving cliches, whether phrases (ick) or scenarios (the examples above), a fresh twist that makes the reader either not notice, or not mind, that they're cliches. :) And, as ever, what works for one reader doesn't for another, and it's all good. :)

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Curious, I am reading an old story, from an old zine, that uses all these tricks and more and I was thinking about the same questions you asked. My take is that is unavoidable when you deal with guys who are supposed, either completly straight, either possibly bisexual but strongly repressed for cultural and professionally submitted to strict rules of behaviour. They cannot easily hange their way of thinking and feeling by a simple psychological inner evolution, while in some circumstances of sexual deprivation or forced intimacy or both (preferably) they may be driven to unsignificant horseplays, then to buddy fucking, then to something more serious when the "Great Crisis" appears. The little tricks you call cheating are very useful to set the initial predicament and trigger the first flash, but not enough to give a credible basis to a durable and exclusive commitment. I can imagine NS and IK experiencing a sexual activity because of some odd circumstances but I couldn't believe it would be enough to make them aware of their mutual love and suddenly swearing everlasting fidelity to each other. It could end that way but after a long and complex evolution. On the other side, they could feel love at the start of the story, at least one of them and refuse sex as a threat to their partnership and friendship. That is an utterly blocked situation: the writer needs not only a trigger for the sex but also for the love awareness. I don't know what to do if nothing very special happens: they must be confronted to their inner needs and feelings but how?

[franciskerst.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the mispellings and words lacking; I was certain I typed them; I feel sleepy and my hand is so weak that I probaly didn't push the keys enough.

"supposed to be", "Cultural reasons", "change"; I think you had already corrected, but that's annoying. And I don't know how to modify a post to another LJ.

Indeed yes

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Francis, this is another and perfectly reasonable interpretation: That the guys might need that shove over the edge to overcome cultural and personal hesitancy about taking their relationship to that level. Absolutely. It can totally work like that -- if there's one big cheat that pushes them over, after the writer has set up all the groundwork with solid development.

IMO, again, and as ever, your mileage may vary.

Cheats or cliches

[tgabrielle.livejournal.com]

1. Locked room
2. Truth serum
3. Hypothermia or other illness involving naked contact
4. Muscle cramps and resultant massages
5. Bed sharing

Your rant is fun and provocative because we are all probably thinking back and wondering if we are guilty as charged. What you describe can be cheats, are most certainly clichés, and also canon. (Three C’s?) If you read a story employing them and roll your eyes, my guess is said story doesn’t get beyond the C’s. It’s not as if any of the above shouldn’t be explored. To add yet another “C” these boys are not clueless. Napoleon and Illya don’t have to be tricked into discovering each other (and I think that is what you really mean.) Me, I rather like the locked room and the truth serum, and if they're cold or crampy (more C's) or staring at a single bed, it all depends upon how the writer handles the situation, that is also a potential cheat. The setups you describe will always be there.

Re: Cheats or cliches

[leethet.livejournal.com]

They really will always be there, it's true. They're not so very farfetched in this fandom. But to use them as shortcuts to intimacy without actually taking any time to develop the just-as-reasonable nonshortcuts (you know, talks, time together, all that stuff...) just seems too easy and can lead the reader (this one, at least) into a feeling that their intimacy would never have happened had they not been, you know, chained together naked in a basement for three days. And I'd like to think there's more to their love than that. :) Their coming together shouldn't be the result of cheats. If it's the result of solid storytelling and time and common ground and all that other stuff, then I don't mind if the story uses maybe one cheat as a kind of firecracker. If the story's all cheats ... where's the actual relationship?

And again, this is just me spouting about the way I like things to be developed; mostly it was, as I indicated, that the story I read made me think about what I like and what I don't like, and why, and even where I've gone wrong in the past. :)

Re: Cheats or cliches

[tgabrielle.livejournal.com]

I think you are absolutely right. When I first started reading slash MFU fanfic I was amazed at the contrivances used to get the boys together. It just seemed so obvious to me they were close to begin with that it was hard to understand why all the drama involved in getting them to recognize the spark between them. This may be why, though I like first-time stories, they are not my favorites. I think the slash part is fairly obvious. I've always wondered more what happens after they have sex.

[cousinnat.livejournal.com]

>have a passing thought along the lines of “they had been moving toward this moment for a long time”

Uh-oh. Time for a re-write on that planned Incognito story.

Nat

[leethet.livejournal.com]

The thing is, I don't have a problem with the line, or even with the idea that they have (heck, don't we feel that in one way or another, they have been moving toward it?) -- it's when things like that (accident or sudden realization) are used in place of actual development of character, of talks and thoughts and (sings) "Getting to knooooow you ... getting to know all a bouuuuuuut you ..."