I have to agree with jpublic. In fact...man, I feel like a heel for saying this...the one criticism, that I've never really voiced, because in the end I really do like and respect you, Liz, at least I hope you know that, but as a fanfiction writer, your greatest weakness is that you make a great newspaper reporter. There are times you show us action...and then there are times when you bring the story to a halt and bring us the Dread Chapter(s) Exposition. Your Africander story, with the Watcher-cum-Slayer and her first-person-view, is a lot like this one: Nominally new character in introduced, is somehow involved in the world of the Scoobies, gets roped into it more directly by circumstances completely out of his/her control, and the whole time there's gobs of behind-the-scenes information that he/she doesn't know, but somebody else does. We the audience don't know it, either, but instead of learning it along with the POV character as they learn or discover it for themselves, eventually the POV character is sat down somewhere by a more established character and is told all this extra information. In huge, (multi)-chapter-long, blocks of exposition. Sometimes, that information would make for one hell of an interesting fic, as jpublic said.
I remember something you said once while you were writing/posting one of your earlier BtVS-fanfics. The one with the slayer-team from the future, in response to an unfortunate challenge on the XZ. That that fic wasn't really about shipping, or saving the future, or other stuff, but that what it was really about was information; how it's stored, recorded, shared, transmitted, received, and interpretted. That's what puts me in mind of your former days as a newspaper reporter. I get the feeling that as a fanfiction writer, and maybe as an eventual original fiction writer, you're more interested in playing with information than in telling a story. Like you're putting a journalist's sense of detachement into the telling of the story rather than letting the story (and the characters and audience) unfold on its own.
Oh, man. That wasn't succinct at all. And I sound a lot more critical than I intend. Liz, I don't want you to think I hate this story, or you as a writer. I think you're a fantastic writer, and not just fanfiction, but your meta commentary, your current events posts, your music reviews, and more. I'm not trying to be overly critical, or mean, or harsh. Jpublic's post just...well, touched on something I've thought of before but was reluctant to articulate.
no subject
I remember something you said once while you were writing/posting one of your earlier BtVS-fanfics. The one with the slayer-team from the future, in response to an unfortunate challenge on the XZ. That that fic wasn't really about shipping, or saving the future, or other stuff, but that what it was really about was information; how it's stored, recorded, shared, transmitted, received, and interpretted. That's what puts me in mind of your former days as a newspaper reporter. I get the feeling that as a fanfiction writer, and maybe as an eventual original fiction writer, you're more interested in playing with information than in telling a story. Like you're putting a journalist's sense of detachement into the telling of the story rather than letting the story (and the characters and audience) unfold on its own.
Oh, man. That wasn't succinct at all. And I sound a lot more critical than I intend. Liz, I don't want you to think I hate this story, or you as a writer. I think you're a fantastic writer, and not just fanfiction, but your meta commentary, your current events posts, your music reviews, and more. I'm not trying to be overly critical, or mean, or harsh. Jpublic's post just...well, touched on something I've thought of before but was reluctant to articulate.
Make of it what you will. I'll shut up now.