Old and new.

Day 9

In your own space, post a rec for at least three fanworks that you have created. It can be your favorite fanworks that you've created, or fanworks you feel no one ever saw, or fanworks you say would define you as a creator. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

1. His Motherhood, which was built around character examination, trope reconstruction, and the idea that the only way to achieve maternity leave reform in the United States is if men could get pregnant.

2. Woven From Your Brown Hair, which is if anything even more niche a fic than His Motherhood but comes as close as I've ever gotten to writing something I thought might be beautiful.

3. Left of West, which I uploaded for this specifically - rereading it feels kind of like wandering through elementary school after graduating college, and I think back on it with that same sort of wistfulness. I wrote it because I hadn't read anything like it and wanted something like it to exist so I'd be able to read it, and in retrospect, it spoke of exactly what was to come in terms of my writing. I'm still very happy that I wrote it.

Beating, beating.

Day 10

In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (Or a few!) Tell us what makes it work for you, and why it appeals to you so much. Talk about what you like to see in fanworks featuring that theme most. Feel free to include recs and examples! Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I love bad rats - in fact, a good bad rat's a solid way to get me interested in watching something new. (Hi there, Spike!) Bad rats are those characters who've got a bad signal-to-noise ratio when it comes to their feelings, with lots of signal and plenty of noise, who don't instinctively intuit social cues and interactions, that tend to stand apart and often wish they knew how to stand within - and can stand within, if the people around them understand that bad rats are people, too.

The simple fact of recognizing myself in the canon, even if it's just a faint ghost of a reflection, is the entirety of the appeal. When the bad rats are allowed to exist as themselves in all their flaws and glory in the canon, without apology or shame over their existence, it's lovely. When that's extended to fic, it's even better.