Where Art Thou, Gen Fic?: A Discussion (Or an Attempt at One)

[missgoalie75]

So, ladies and gents, the question is this: why is there very little gen fic in the Glee fandom

Comments

[missgoalie75]

Oh my god, how fun would it be if we could have a gen fic week and take all those typical romantic tropes AND MAKE THEM GEN???? What an excellent idea ;_;

I mean it's obviously a problem in all fandoms, but at least in large fandoms like Supernatural and Harry Potter, there are dozens of gen fic fests and things like that. Why doesn't Glee have them?

[missgoalie75]

Ah yeah, I was going to address age as a possible explanation because for me at least, I cared a lot about my ships when I was younger than I do now. Like with Harry Potter, while I still love Lily/James, I would die for MWPP gen fic and with Gilmore Girls, still ship Literati, but now I want all the fics with Jess actually attempting friendships with people.

But that's a good point, that a lot of those fandoms have been around for almost ten years or even longer, which makes a difference.

[tailsy]

I agree entirely and I don't think I really have anything new to add other than stuff from my personal experience? I actually wrote mostly pairing fic until I got into Glee fandom (well, except for one that was MEANT to be pairing fic but it was actually a proto-friendship fic between two characters I wasn't pairing together in the end), and I never really noticed how relatively ignored gen is until I started posting my own

[missgoalie75]

Yeah I haven't seen any of that, probably because it's tagged with Klaine or something.

Which now that I think about it is weird in and of itself because it's just another way to make it more about whoever you have paired up with X character instead of the friendship between them and Z character (with Y as the rando romantic interest in this really dumb thing sigh).

Oh god can we talk about how popular this is in the gen fics that are out there??? You're so right.

[firstbreaths]

Hmm, chiming in after a few months away from fandom here (but I imagine little has changed in terms of this issue, tbqh). I speak from experience with the lack of reviews - a bunch of Klaine fic that I'm not even all that proud of has a lot more reviews than some of my best genfic work - and it's definitely discouraging

[missgoalie75]

Sometimes I get sad that tumblr is the new way to share fic because with the rise in popularity of tumblr, the less feedback I got on my fics because it's so much easier to like and reblog something than to actually write a cohesive response to something you read and liked. Which is sad just from a social standpoint I mean I've made so many nice friends with people who reviewed my fics! In fact I think I met all of you from reviewing each other's fics! Sad face :C

We do have a hive mind I've missed you MY OTHER HALF IS HERE. btw I need to ramble at you at some point of a MWPP gen fic I want that I'll probably never get or write because effort

[firstbreaths]

Definitely! And the amount of people who will reblog/like without leaving a comment on the source post, leaving me sitting here staring cross eyed at the screen and trying to figure out why they liked it.

dude i need to supplement the lack of glee fandom in my life with other things so please do!

[missgoalie75]

I'll take it to tumblr maybe you'll kick my ass into writing it!

[prosen8966]

Glee is the very first 'fandom' in which I have been a part: that is to say, reading and responding to fics, discussions begun by others. But some of my favorite stories have been general fic (altho I started a Klaine fan and became a firm Kurt/happiness shipper to date). Miggy's Special trilogy (Glee/Marvel comics crossover) is wondrous; as is Morkhan's Solar Winds epic tale. The writing for the general fics that I enjoy is so much better than your average fanfic story; and I am really impressed with the attention to detail and focus on the ensemble characters that is lacking in the actual television series... What it comes down to is when I read a general fic story, I actually care about most of the characters that I generally don't give a hoot about on TV. The author makes all the Glee members stand out and so the more peripheral characters on TV become interesting in fictional form. I certainly hope it continues!!

[missgoalie75]

The writing for the general fics that I enjoy is so much better than your average fanfic story; and I am really impressed with the attention to detail and focus on the ensemble characters that is lacking in the actual television series...

This is exactly why it makes me sad when amazing gen fics don't get as much attention as they deserve. When the author manages to take what we get in canon (as awful as Glee can be) and create something thoughtful and in character? That's why I'm drawn to fandom and what I hope to encounter.

[firstbreaths]

Fun story: I actually cringe about the fact that I complained about the difficulties of not going OOC in HP fic. When I had seven fucking logical and consistent books to go off rather than a show where the characters' motivations change depending on what's on Top 40 radio this week.

[missgoalie75]

hahahaha well to be fair you were young~~

but same - I don't want to think about my Rurouni Kenshin fics I just. can't do it.

[xsaturated]

Honestly, for a lot of people I think it is a recognition thing. Genfic doesn't get the same audience that ~romance does and shipping is a big deal in glee fandom in particular. (It is in all fandoms, really, but glee fandom seems to be driven by it.) Writing anything for glee is usually about covering the giant plotholes the writers leave behind; which does go both ways with gen and shippy fic, but I've always been a bit surprised at how little emphasis there is on friendships in glee fandom in particular. I suppose the show itself promotes it - I mean, I think it says something that we're four seasons in and we only just met one of the original pilot character's mother and that is the first time we've actually addressed the fact that he has a family. Glee doesn't put any emphasis on relationships that aren't romantic (unless you're the Hummels). The most time placed on a non-romantic relationship would probably be Will's teaching relationship with his students.

I guess the source informs the fandom??

[missgoalie75]

It's a weird situation because usually, if you don't get something out of the source material, you go out and create or find whatever is you want more of, which in a lot of cases it's romantic-centric things. But for Glee, I thought there would be a million friendship fics because that wasn't the focus at all in the show and I thought everyone else would think the same way. Instead, there's even less than the typical fandom. So maybe for most people, it isn't about filling in the blanks of what the source doesn't give you, maybe the source does inform the fandom, as you said. So I guess I've been doing it wrong the entire time hahaha

[xsaturated]

Well if you look at Supernatural fandom for example, the show is based around friendships and family. Family galore. Friendships galore. Romantic attachments are fleeting or die horribly - so in order to get the romantic angle fandom twists the family or friendship bonds into something romantic. There's a pattern there that they keep to. There's a higher quantity of friendship or family fic because that's what the show is focused on, but because it's fandom and romance wins out over all, the romantic fic in that fandom springs from family/friendship. They, for the most part, don't use those outside romantic parties because the show treats them as "unimportant

[missgoalie75]

Sighs. So very true. And another thing about SPN having more gen is the general issue of incest being one of the few viable options is something that not a lot of people are going to dig in the first place (like myself, for example).

Yeah Shelby mentioned earlier that the genfic is really ship-focused fic, which is terribly annoying.