Poll! What kind of fic do you read?

[kate]

This is in no way scientific, but I was curious what y'all read, love, and reread. I'm curious to see if people like to read the same things I do, or if there's as wide a variety as it seems. Assume the writing quality on all is equal; given superior writing, what genres would you like to read?

Like I said, not science, so the 'genres' are based on tags from various communities.

Poll #1623 What kind of fic do you like?

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 28

View Respondents

What kinds of fic do you read? (I'm thinking fanfic here, but go broad if you want to.)

View Answers

long fic
26 (92.9%)

schort fic
25 (89.3%)

angst
22 (78.6%)

fluff
22 (78.6%)

apocafic
22 (78.6%)

darkfic
20 (71.4%)

genderbender
21 (75.0%)

h/c
23 (82.1%)

schmoop
16 (57.1%)

crackfic
24 (85.7%)

character studies
18 (64.3%)

drama
25 (89.3%)

action
24 (85.7%)

romance
24 (85.7%)

humor
25 (89.3%)

kidfic
15 (53.6%)

pwp
24 (85.7%)

curtainfic
17 (60.7%)

other I will tell you about below
6 (21.4%)

So tell me, what else do you read?

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So if you had to name your top three types of stories, what would they be?

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long fic
17 (63.0%)

short fic
2 (7.4%)

angst
9 (33.3%)

fluff
1 (3.7%)

apocafic
2 (7.4%)

darkfic
5 (18.5%)

genderbender
5 (18.5%)

h/c
4 (14.8%)

schmoop
0 (0.0%)

crackfic
4 (14.8%)

character studies
3 (11.1%)

drama
8 (29.6%)

romance
11 (40.7%)

action
6 (22.2%)

humor
6 (22.2%)

kidfic
0 (0.0%)

pwp
4 (14.8%)

curtainfic
0 (0.0%)

other I will tell you about below
1 (3.7%)

So tell me, what is it that is your favorite type of fic?

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So what kind of fic do you go back to again and again, reread multiple times?

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I don't reread
2 (8.0%)

long fic
18 (72.0%)

short fic
8 (32.0%)

angst
10 (40.0%)

fluff
5 (20.0%)

apocafic
6 (24.0%)

darkfic
7 (28.0%)

genderbender
5 (20.0%)

h/c
9 (36.0%)

schmoop
4 (16.0%)

character studies
4 (16.0%)

crackfic
7 (28.0%)

action
9 (36.0%)

drama
12 (48.0%)

romance
12 (48.0%)

humor
11 (44.0%)

kidfic
7 (28.0%)

pwp
9 (36.0%)

curtainfic
5 (20.0%)

other I will tell you about below
5 (20.0%)

So tell me, what kind of fic do you reread over and over again?

View Answers

Comments

[mrshamill]

I would take the poll except I read all of that! Seriously, I'll pretty much read anything, even in a fandom I don't normally read if someone tells me I absolutely HAVE to read this (and I at least know who the characters are). Mind you, I won't re-read a story that's traumatic (there's a beautifully written story in SW/TPM fandom that to this day traumatizes me, just thinking about it), but something that's fun, that's well-written, that hits the right note with me... yeah, I'll keep it and keep re-reading it.

My file of stories I keep on my hard drive would probably tell my shrink a few things about me she doesn't know and no, you may NOT tell her that.

[kate]

See, I think you should take the poll! I answered all of them for #1, and a good number for #3. But I find it hard to believe that there are absolutely no trends in that fic folder of yours. And, even if there aren't, that there aren't a particular few stories that you pull out time and again. (Maybe that goes under hits the right note with me - that's what I'm curious about.)

Of course, I'm talking right out of my hat there, because clearly I haven't seen your fic folder. I'm just curious, I guess. I like to know what pushes people's buttons.

[mrshamill]

Hits the right note... ...at the right time. There's that to think of too. Because sometimes I want the fluffy gentleness of Iowa; sometimes I want the amazing characterizations in String Theory or Complimentary Colors; sometimes the silliness of the genetically altered 'wraith-killing' tigers, or John as a black cat or a hugging competition; and even, occasionally, there's time for a dark story too (all I have to do there is read something by Chaps, I suppose, though Ruth can put 'em through the wringer too).

It's not just story, it's mood too. I think maybe you should think on that as well, missy! ;-)

[kate]

No, it's true - I just wrote that in response to someone else's comment. But I find, for me, I generally only want to reread fic when I'm in a few particular moods, therefore why it's so easy to pick out my tried and trues. I think I'm going to do a couple of rec sets by mood, actually.

These days, most moods make me want to write, not read. I'm still getting used to that.

[were_duck]

Ooo, I would love to see your rec sets.

[kate]

They are sadly going to be 99% SGA, but... actually, I only have one story on my entire delicious that isn't SGA.

But I'll put them up, I think. I don't know that I'll have more than three, but the idea of doing mood-based rec sets makes me happy.

[were_duck]

I don't think that's sad at all. I think about 90% of my recs would also be SGA, so I for one will be delighted to see what you rec, if you get around to it.

[kate]

Well, most of my circle comes from SGA, so maybe it wouldn't be quite as pathetic as it feels. I'll definitely do this, but probably not until this weekend, and I want to take the time to reread and pick out the good stuff.

[mrshamill]

These days, most moods make me want to write, not read.

That's good! Keep that up, we like it!! :-D

Now I've just got to get back into that groove...

[kate]

Yeah, it's an elusive thing, the muse. *eyes it*

I can kick you, if you want. Gently, I mean.

[mrshamill]

I'd take the kick, except MuseBoy likes it too much. sigh

He'll come back. He always does. Usually hung-over.

[kate]

Hahahaha I like your MuseBoy! Mine is emo with lots of makeup and a complex about how much the world hates him. At least lately. I go through a fair number of muses.

[jack_of_none]

OK, what the heck is curtainfic?

[kate]

Domestic fic. Picking out curtains.

(I know - when I first heard that term, I thought they meant deathfic - like, 'Curtains for you!')

[jack_of_none]

Ah, thanks. I couldn't parse that at all.

Well, since I read a lot of fics from fantasy fandoms -- and fandoms where the canon isn't particularly well fleshed out, like video games -- I also tend to like fanfics with a lot of world-building and meta in them. I'm not sure it really constitutes a genre as such, though.

I also have a spectacular, embarrassing weakness for h/c >_> Don't judge me!

[kate]

Ah, yes, I get that. I love worldbuilding anywhere (and meta too!), but it's so pleasing in fandoms where the canon is a little short in that area.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with h/c! Your kink is o-kay. <3

[msilverstar]

Established relationship domestic stories including such mundane events as choosing curtains together. It can be done well, but I think it only really works after a long angsty series.

[facetofcathy]

That was hard to choose for me, I don't read by genre so much as something more like tone, or dare I say it, soul. I said a story that is at heart about joy and life and humanity brings me back over and over again.

One really famous example of a story I've read a half-dozen times is Chicago's Most Wanted, Cesperanza's dueSouth amnesia fic. It's funny, I don't really love most of her SGA fic, I like most of them fine, OK Computer was very enjoyable as well for similar reasons, but I want a story to say life is beautiful in some strong way.

I think all kinds of fic can say that, kink, death fic, threesomes, meant for each other romance, crack--anything.

[kate]

Huh. Yeah, I find I want something that I can get from a variety of fics too, but nothing so... grand. I just like a really satisfying ending, and usually the ones I go back to time and again have a degree of romance that makes me happy. But, before they get there, they need to have enough substance that I have a real journey, you know?

And Cesperanza's SGA are some of my favorite, isn't that funny? Beautiful Lifetime Event makes me ridiculously happy, and I enjoy Ordinary Life when I just want to lay around reading something fun. I don't know dueSouth at all, but I might check out that fic just to see what the fuss is about.

[auburn]

But A Beautiful Lifetime Event is by astolat, not Ces. Not knocking Ces.

I should dig out my Medium List of SGA fic I Reread Regularly, even though I haven't updated it since about season two.

[kate]

Dammit, you're right! I don't know why, and this is kind of hilarious, but I get Ces and Astolat's stories mixed up, but I get Ces and Seperis's posts mixed up (they have the same icon, it's fooled me more than once).

And Ordinary Life is Ces and Astolat! Fail, me. Definitely time to do a recs post so I can link links and make up for my fail.

[auburn]

I get astolat and mzbstone mixed up in my head, probably because they were posting fantastic SGA stories at the same time when I first started reading in the fandom. I also recently about went crazy trying to find a story I swore was by purna that turned out to be by mzbstone.

[kate]

God, isn't that hysterical? Ces was still writing in SGA by the time I got there (and I was recced astolat, though I think she hadn't written anything in a while), but I don't recognize mzbstone, so either she wasn't posting any more or I missed it all. Rec me something?

Also - which purna story is it? I have one from her on my delicious, I think.

[auburn]

mzbstone was writing as brighidestone back then. She's left the fandom behind long since. She wrote two of my forever favs, though, back in season one:

Devours the Face and Seven Circles Turning

The story I thought was by purna, that was not, was That Will Break You, to which I no longer have a link. But a fantastic story that predated and pwns Last Man Standing seasons before it aired. And left me with a huge thing for John with a Wraith tattoo.

All three are perfect examples of my preference to reread darker, more dramatic fics. Thinking of them reminds me that I really miss when SGA had that frisson of horror, when the Wraith were scary and unbeatable.

[kate]

OH MY GOD.

Those were amazing. Just, holy crap. And now I need to watch Project Runway so I can sleep tonight.

I love dark fics. Particularly for first time reads, I prefer darkfic, and not necessarily happy endings, exactly. I like hope, but not... fake happy, if that makes sense. Someone once said of fiercelydreamed's fics that there's no automatic reset button - there are consequences and shifts and dealing, but there's still hope. I like that. (I'm okay with bleak too, actually - particularly on a first read, where I'm not going in with any expactations at all.)

Rereads, though... unless I'm in a particularly angsty mood (and I love Kashmir for angst, wowza), I usually want the fairytale ending... provided they earned it along the way.

[kate]

Oh, and I was so concentrated on my fail that I missed this the first time around:

Medium List of SGA fic I Reread Regularly

YES PLEASE. *begs*

[auburn]

You want it here or in an email? Huh. I'm not sure I'd want this out where anyone could read it. Like someone said, what's saved to my hard drive would definitely be pretty revealing to a shrink. Also some of the stories get reread just for one little section I love.

Also, thanks for an hour or so's worth of excuse to procrastinate on working on the story. ::pulls hair::

[kate]

I'll take it any way you'll give it to me! And no judging here, your kink is okay! I have fics that would normally make me run screaming for the hills but have one little section that I reread religiously. Iff'n you feel like emailing I'm kisahawklin at gmail.

And yay? Or something... I've been ignoring my story too. Time to get my words in for the day.

[anatsuno]

um. I would love it too! Not because I'm curious enough to want to psycho-analyze you through it but because I always wans SGA recs and links by people I trust/like! :) *buts in*

[msilverstar]

Yes to all of them.

Genre is not what makes me read or not read. That said, I am dubious about kidfic, and genderbending tends to rely on sexual stereotypes in a way I dislike.

I try everything in Lotrips, recommended fics in a bunch of other fandoms (SGA, Bandom, Torchwood, Merlin), and occasionally browse further out.

Sadly, I find in other fandoms I prefer AUs or even worse, non-canon stories. If a story is too perfectly fit into canon, I'm not enough of a fan of the show to appreciate in and feel left out.

[kate]

Ah, see, I'd label that under poor writing. A story should hang together on its own (with the exception of episode caps or 'fixes'). I firmly believe that if something is written well enough, anyone from anywhere could read it and not be missing anything major. And personally, I hate the nods to canon - I don't know why they're necessary (and here I mean things like Sheppard saying 'I love football, ferris wheels and anything that goes over 200mph' not noting that Rodney has a citrus allergy).

I read widely too (thought not nearly as widely as you do!), but when it comes to things I choose out of that lot to reread, I have a particular itch (usually) and it involves having a meaty story with enough conflict that the happy ending is satisfying. Sometimes I'm looking for something else, but that seems to be the thing that I'll read and reread. Maybe I'll do a rec set of my rereads by mood.

[were_duck]

This was fun! Usually I'm looking for a story that contains a few of these elements, of course, and even in my favorite tropes/genres there are plenty of stories that make me hit the backbutton with inhuman speed (I'm looking at you, genderswap fic!). I tend to find myself going back to warmer, more comforting stories than to the bleak angsty ones if I am doing a re-read, but for a first read I'll usually try anything if it's well-written and it's a fandom I'm familiar with.

[kate]

Yeah, that's me too. And I think most of my flist. I tend to think that I'm missing a large swath of the fandom experience, though.

[scheherezhad]

The most reread stories in my SGA folder are Junk Cheap, A Hundred Happy Things, and Aegis. All three of them hit me in my happy AU place and my happy John place, although two of them are not terribly happy stories.

Less specifically, I tend to reread rarepair fic the most. I get hooked hard on rare pairings in a lot of my fandoms (or heck, just rare fandoms!), so I have dozens of stories nearly memorized from constant rereads because they're all that's out there.

[kate]

Oh, yeah, Junk Cheap, man, that hits so many of my buttons! And I love A Hundred Happy Things and Aegis, but I wouldn't say either one is on my super-duper well-loved and dog-eared reading list. I've reread Aegis once, and I have yet to reread A Hundred Happy Things - but that's partly because I'd convinced myself I'd read it when I hadn't. So the first time I went to reread it, I was actually reading it for the first time! I'll reread it again soon, I've been in that kind of mood for a while, and I'm thinking about rereading my entire delicious list over Christmas. Or maybe trying to catch up on the ridiculous amount of fic I haven't read in SGA in a few months.

I've been fortunate in my fic writing and reading fandoms that I've fallen in love with popular OTPs. I like rarepairs, but they're not my bread and butter, so I don't feel the lack of those stories as keenly as you and gblvr probably do. It reminds me that I'm thinking on a Radek/Ronon story that's maybe fifteenth on my 'to write' list.

[scheherezhad]

One that I really, really love but haven't reread is Shaenie's Indelible. It's amazing, but so long that I've never been able to make myself sit down and start into it again. I know several people, myself included, who found it so believable that we sometimes get things from it confused with canon. (And oh, how I wish Cheema was canon. Best OFC ever.)

[kate]

Yeah, I adore Indelible, OMG. It's about time for a reread too - maybe over Christmas, since I won't have time anywhere in November. I absolutely loved the OFC too - couldn't have been better. I just love Shaenie.

[landshark]

In general I like AUs the best. I only let myself read 1 pairing at a time because I really should be studying...

My favorite sub-genres are: College, 9to5 Jobs, Cops/Firefighters etc... and Famous People Who Fall in Love and Come Out.

Yeah I'm a little weird.

[kate]

I enjoy me a good AU too - but I think my particular kink there is competence. I love AUs written about worlds that people understand, so there's a realness to them. And I like the characters to be competent, which is sometimes tough to do within canon settings. *cough*SGA*cough*

I don't think it's weird at all to like AUs in particular. I love them, and I know a ton of people who love them too.

[torachan]

I checked almost everything on the first one, though some of those I read only rarely. I actually have read everything on there, but I did not check stuff I would normally not choose to read (such as H/C), but do end up reading when I read an entire fest or whatever.

I chose genderbender as one of my top faves, but only because I would put transfic under there. I am really not a fan of most traditional genderswap fic.

And so far I'm the only one who doesn't reread!

[kate]

Hahahaha, I put that up there specifically for you!

[kate]

Oh, and yeah, I felt bad for not breaking things out more - I was considering making transfic separate from genderbender, or trying to find a more inclusive way to put it, but I was uninspired. :(

[torachan]

I do tend to consider them all under the same main umbrella, it's just that while I like transfic and sometimes "always a girl/guy" type stuff, traditional genderswap tends to annoy me more often than not. And yet I continue to read it, hoping I'll find something that doesn't annoy me! (I also do this with so many genderbender manga, which usually end up annoying me, too.)

[kate]

You are more diligent than I. There are a few people that write always a girl/guy fic that I like, but more because of their style (wintercreek comes to mind) than anything. Sometimes I regret being so picky, but then I think about how limited my reading time is (nearly non-existent these days) and wait for recs.

Someday I'm going to tackle mpreg, just to see if it's ever been done in a way that doesn't make me cringe.

[torachan]

I've read one or two mpregs that were okay, but usually even the ones that don't follow the usual mpreg tropes still are not right for me because they gloss over the how, which I just...can't. I have a major block in that if you're going to tell me a cisgender, non-intersex man gets pregnant, I have to know how this can happen! But the point of mpreg for people who like mpreg is not the how, but what happens during pregnancy, and often the baby afterwards.

I have ideas for mpreg I would like to write myself eventually, which will probably be the sort of thing non-mpreg fans will like and mpreg fans will hate, which will make it hard to market!

[kate]

Oh, we've talked about mpreg before - I want your fic! That's exactly my problem with mpreg too, I can't give up the anatomy problem, so handwaving it will never work for me.

I think you've got a fairly loyal following that'd go with you on a non-trope mpreg. I certainly will!

[torachan]

Oh, have we? I can't always keep track of who I've talked about what with. ^_^;; (Especially when it's a subject I like to rant about!)

And yeah, I definitely have people on my flist who would read. It's just when I think about the eventual community posting, etc. I think I probably would not even mention mpreg in the headers. I know it's a standard to warn for it, but I think it would just end up putting people off who might otherwise like it, because they'd assume it would be something it's not.

[toft]

I couldn't really deal with these categories - I'll basically read anything that's recced to me or which is by an author I like, as long as it's under 40,000 words and a pairing I either like or am intrigued by. I'll rarely read gen, at least in the fandoms I've been in. I like angst in my romance, but I wouldn't say I read *angst*, you know? And I like fluff in my angst, and romance in my humour, and cracky humour action drama romances - I just like good fic!

[kate]

Yeah, most of the good fic out there falls into several categories - and I certainly never write just angst or just drama (I'd think that'd wear out both the reader and the writer). I'm a natural organizer though, so I tend to label things as mostly one thing or another just to keep them straight in my brain.

I like good fic too - which is why the caveat about good writing... auburn and I had just been discussing the things we reread vs. the things we read, and were wondering if we were typical readers. I'll read anything once (given a basic level of writing and grammar), but the things I reread are quite specific and speak to (I think - this is part of my guesswork with this poll) my particular hot buttons and the mood I'm in when I want to reread.

[silverraven]

I couldn't answer the last one. I don't reread except for when I do. I think I have like over 300 fics bookmarked but the vast majority I haven't reread. Those rare times where I do read again, it depends on my mood - sometimes I want to read something super angsty or dark or good p0rn. Hmmm, actually now that I'm thinking about it, I think almost all of the stuff I have reread are AUs...

okay, so NEVERMIND. I reread AUs.

[kate]

Hahaha, well we all have our hot buttons. I think I'm going to do a recs list, mmm. <3

[queenbarwench]

I'm a sucker for longfics but they eat my time so badly! It was hard to choose a top three. I could quite happily have picked a top seven. Or nine...

Fics I reread tend to follow the traditional romance format - angst, hot sex and a happy ending. They make me feel better about the world when I've had a bad day.

[kate]

Yeah, I like longfics too. I don't think I'll even have time to read bigbang this year, as I need every spare minute for nano. :(

That's my formula for had-a-bad-day fics too - Strangers on a Six Train and Fashion Victim I reread on a pretty regular basis.