BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 » Fan Fiction Addicts General Round Table Discusion

RavenMorganLeigh · April 7, 2015 9:15 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Schmiezi is basically right. She writes too much in my opinion. Some are brilliant (my favs still being "Vena Cava" and "Against the rest of the world"), some are good and others are just not really original or interesting. I think the problem is that she is very much focussed on the same topics - Mary as a villain and how Sherlock and John get together. Which is fine but more than 40 fics within little more than a year … you get my meaning …

"The Final Proof", though, is very different and one of the reasons I like it.

I'll be really honest, here-- I'm not going to criticise her for writing too much, when I'm horribly jealous that I haven't written a tenth of her wordcount! :-) I'd LOVE to have written even half that much, and to have done it that well. I think she deserves kudos, not censure.

ancientsgate · April 8, 2015 6:12 am

RavenMorganLeigh wrote:
I love her writing, I think she's brilliant: and I also think she's uncompromisingly brave. She doesn't pander to popular fandom views of the characters at the expense of her own writing and telling a great story. I *do* see her take a lot of "criticism" in her comment pages from those who don't like her authorial treatments of John and Mary; but to me, she's a breath of fesh air. I like her logic when it comes to characterizations; they make sense-- more sense than some of the writers I've seen who will bend over backwards to make Mary a sympathetic character in ways that ...just don't make any sense whatsoever, and those who give John a pass, and ignore just how much Sherlock was hurt by the whole mess of TRF through s3. In other words, I think she's one of the few writers willing to treat the characters pretty even-handedly.
Of course, this is only my own opinion. :-)

Madlori is an author of considerable talent. I first found her in the Brokeback Mountain fandom-- one of her AU stories was rewritten (names changed) and published, you can buy it on amazon, the book is called Zero to the Bone (maybe it's Zero at the Bone, I forget). If you like gay romance, you'll love Zero. Later on, it was on her tumblr account that I heard about Sherlock and followed her over here.

One thing I like about her characters is that they're real-- they act and speak like real people really do, she doesn't write fantasyland stories, and she's not addicted to happy endings and la-la land scenarios where everything's all wine and roses. Which I realize some people don't like-- some must have a happy ending, every time, or they can't deal with it. I guess I don't have a problem rememering that the fan fic I read and the characters in the stories are all pieces of fiction. Sometimes I giggle or cry, of course, but fortunately, I don't have a problem with keeping fiction in its place, in my heart and mind.

Like you, just my own opinions.

Schmiezi · April 8, 2015 6:33 am

I agree with Raven that SilentAuror is brilliant. Vena Cava is one of the best fics ever, IMO. But there are some of her later fics that do lack some inner logic when it comes to character developement.

Take "Right Handed Man", for example. Mary is shown to be very jealous of Sherlock. Yet when John gets seriously handicaped in an accident she caused, she practically forces him to move back to Baker Street until he gets better. To me, that seemed like a blunt attempt to get the story going.

As for the way she characterises John, Mary and Sherlock, they always seem to follow the same idea: Mary is mean (and very odten we don't get a rwason for that), Sherlock is always pinning and Jogn is always reluctant. That is nothing bad, actually it is what I prefer too. I just think that a brilliant writer like SilentAuror could have come up with a bigfer variety. Again I feel like she is not being as brilliant as she could be.

I found your comment on her bravery interesting because I never consisered that. In my mind, every fanfic writer is brave the moment they make their fic public. I don't think that there are ideas that require bigger bravery than others. Plus, SilentAuror surely knows that she receives loads of kudos no matter what. Do I never thought of her as especially brave.

Please do not misunderstand this post as some sort of bashing. I am just trying to put in words why her later fics didn't impress me as much as her first.

Last edited by Schmiezi (April 8, 2015 6:39 am)

Harriet · April 8, 2015 5:46 pm

Nevertheless, Silent Auror for sure belongs in the Johnlock Hall of Fame.
Who else does - suggestions?

Vhanja · April 8, 2015 5:58 pm

Harriet wrote:
Nevertheless, Silent Auror for sure belongs in the Johnlock Hall of Fame.
Who else does - suggestions?

wordstrings.

mrshouse · April 8, 2015 6:13 pm

For me: Schmiezi!

SusiGo · April 8, 2015 6:33 pm

I support both of the above and would add Ivyblossom and Prettyvk.

Harriet · April 8, 2015 6:36 pm

Shall we start a list?

SusiGo · April 8, 2015 6:37 pm

Brilliant.

Ivy · April 8, 2015 6:44 pm

earlgreytea68, verityburns, ivyblossom

Last edited by Ivy (April 8, 2015 7:11 pm)

mrshouse · April 8, 2015 6:44 pm

Xistential angst.

Harriet · April 8, 2015 6:45 pm

Fanfic Hall of Fame

Silent Auror
wordstrings
Schmiezi
ivyblossom
Prettyvk

to be continued ...

Harriet · April 8, 2015 6:46 pm

cross, sorry, anyone like to add them?

SusiGo · April 8, 2015 6:57 pm

I agree with all of them so far.

So we have:

Fanfic Hall of Fame

Silent Auror
wordstrings
Schmiezi
ivyblossom
Prettyvk
Xistentialangst
Earlgreytea68
Verityburns

And what about Todesfuge?

nakahara · April 8, 2015 7:20 pm

You forgot beautifulfiction? Unforgivable!

SusiGo · April 8, 2015 7:26 pm

Yes, she has some wonderful fics. I am not keen on werewolves and omegaverse but I would agree to include her.

nakahara · April 8, 2015 7:33 pm

That´s the skill of her writing - she makes even Omegaverse (which I usually hate with passion) readable and gripping.

tonnaree · April 8, 2015 7:40 pm

Someone forgot to actually put MadLori on the list.

Can someone go in the Hall of Fame if they're mainly known for just one particular story?

nakahara · April 8, 2015 7:43 pm

No problem, IMHO.

SusiGo · April 8, 2015 7:48 pm

Why not? If the story is good enough, I am fine with it.