It probably says a lot about my age in fandom...

[jedibuttercup]

... that when I'm surfing AO3 and see something like "(Y/N) Stark is the youngest daughter of Eddard and Catelyn Stark" in a fic summary, I immediately think "Yes/No" instead of "Your Name". It trips me up every time, and even after I remember, I have a hard time seeing the appeal. I did read some of those Choose Your Own Adventure books that were popular when I was a kid in the 80s; but even then, I had to sit down with a notebook and plot out which pages jumped where so I could figure out which was the most satisfying ending -- and most of them actually weren't. I read -- and write-- fic to explore the characters and/or world(s) I loved in canon, not to insert myself into it, especially not a reader-fic version of my self that will (because genericized) be by default OOC.

I know, I know. Different people want different things out of fic; a lot of people do prefer it as escapist wish-fulfillment. Or ... maybe it's just that online fandom wasn't a thing until after I was through my own Mary Sue phase, and the shape of that trope's changed a lot in the years since? For me, it was a bunch of short stories scribbled in erasable ballpoint pen in a spiral-bound notebook, telling stories about how I and my BFFs and my defected-from-the-enemy made-up boyfriend survived an apocalypse in my hometown, or got caught in a time-loop and had to save the world, or became sexy spies, or were born into a fantasy universe where different bloodlines had special magic powers, etc. I'm pretty sure those stories still exist, somewhere in a dusty box; I'm equally glad they'll never again see the light of day. Maybe I would have been one of those people writing up those kinds of fic-ified imagines to share with others, if wifi and smartphones and Tumblr were a thing when I was thirteen instead of dial-up slow-as-fuck AOL. :)

Anyway. You may have noticed I've made a resolution to blog more this year; I'm hoping more engagement will help keep me from sliding back into last year's blue fugue.

Along similar lines: I'll be signing up for this year's getyourwordsout - signups run through Jan 15, and their commitment levels start at 75,000 words. I'm not sure yet which level I'll sign up for, but their accountability posts should help keep me going. :)

Comments

[edenfalling]

I've never quite understood the appeal of Character/Reader style insert fics. I mean, even if I do a search-and-replace on the (Y/N) thing to stick my own name in there, the insert character is clearly NOT going to be me. It won't even be an idealized version of me. So I'd be left either with someone so bland as to make me wonder what anyone sees in them, or that same sense of dissonance I always get when reading stories about somebody who shares my legal first name.

Maybe they personalize better if you're the kind of person who enjoys that kind of story? Since the writers are tailoring their inserts to be recognizable to that type of reader?

[jedibuttercup]

Yeah; especially the ones that are obviously written in second person. I skimmed one or two; it felt oddly as if the author had disassociated and was talking to themself, not that I was actually in the character's skin.

I would not be surprised if a lot of these readerfic come out of communities that are mostly writing to each other. But their id is not my id. :)

[elrhiarhodan]

I mean, even if I do a search-and-replace on the (Y/N) thing to stick my own name in there

I have no interest in the Reader Insert genre, but they are rather popular in my two most recent fandoms, so unless I wanted to heavily filter my AO3 experience, I would have to put up with at least one or two of them on every page. So I looked at a few, for curiosity's sake and very easily decided that it would be worth filtering these fics out.

One of the things I noticed (which brings me to my comment) is that so many of these fics had "warnings" - "DO NOT DOWNLOAD!!!!! DO NOT COPY INTO A WORD DOC!!!!! MUST READ ON INTERNET PLATFORM ONLY!!!!"

The writers of these stories absolutely do not want you the reader to actually put your name (Y/N) into the story. I don't know why, given that you are supposed to put your name (Y/N) into the story.

I will leave this conundrum for wiser minds to solve.

[edenfalling]

Oh, weird. That doesn't make any sense at all.

I've been filtering those fics out on AO3 for a couple years now -- I just type in -"/reader" in the additional filtering box every time I go to a new fandom page. It makes my life so much less frustrating.

[jedibuttercup]

Of course, then there's the fandoms that use /You instead. I was using the various filter checkboxes to drill down to a particular trope and fic length and then went into screen out pairings I didn't want, and there it was, in the top ten list. Who would even canonicize a tag like that, anyway? *sigh*

Also: just found the browser extension they probably mean you to use instead of icky manual search-and-replace that gasp, might result in you pirating some of their work. Change it once, and all Y/N ever will suddenly show up in your name on any webpage you view that includes it. (Which, LOL, would probably make any article you viewed that legitimately used Y/N for yes/no a rather interesting read ....)

[jedibuttercup]

Isn't there some kind of browser extension that'll do the same thing? That must be what they're talking about. Not that I'd ever think to do that first, Word is more my speed and how would they stop me anyway? But it sounds like someone is all up in arms about getting 'pirated' or something. *eyeroll*

[I wouldn't know how to find said extension, but I've seen at least one person talk about changing a certain president's name to always show up as, um, a rather unflattering epithet on any webpage they view, so.....]

[NM: found it, in case you're curious.]

[elrhiarhodan]

There is absolutely an extension for this - AO3 Saviour, but it's Chrome and Firefox, not for an IOS (or I guess Android) device. I actually have a bunch of authors and tags (including reader insert) that I don't want to see and I use the RSS code method to filter them out, then I have that saved to my Pinboard and load it on my phone and tablet as a bookmark.

[jedibuttercup]

Cool. I've never used any extensions, except for a couple of job related ones, so I'm a little at sea on what people use them for.