LOL. That's a whole lot of euphemisms.
Well, I didn't say it would be a
long story.
If the person who wrote them is bothered about the possibility that she may have sent nfic to the Archive she can contact you about it herself.
Yes, that was exactly my point, Ann.
The more I think about it, however, the more I think the story shouldn't have a gfic version after all. I felt like the story lost a lot of it's emotional impact when I removed the explicit references, and even at that, I'm still not sure it would pass the mbs/archive ratings standard, so it may need to be edited down even further.
That's a very good point that many authors – especially fledgling authors – sometimes miss, Anna. I've always thought that there as just some stories that you shouldn't try to convert because you rip the heart and soul out of them doing so. When you end up with a story that bears almost no relation to the one you started with and is a pale shadow of its former self, is it really worth it?
But I do remember happening on a fic an annesplace where the writer thanked her beta for telling her to take out a swear word because the characters wouldn't swear. Annesplace. I was surprised, to say the least.
Was this an old story, alcyone? There was a time when swear words were about as contentious as nfic and liable to start up intense discussions. I can recall a time when there was debate about whether 'bloody' was beyond PG13.
Swearwords are really difficult of course – there are so many variations around the world as to how they are viewed. I know of several words which are mild in the UK but an abomination in the US and vice versa. Only yesterday, John MacEnroe caused moral outrage at the BBC when being interviewed during Wimbledon coverage when he mentioned some players were 'greedy bs'. He was surprised at the furor and said that it was a mild word back home. To be honest, frankly, I thought it was a mild word here in the UK, too, and was somewhat amazed that I was apparently wrong!
Anyway, that might be what prompted the concern from your author.
My point is that having n-fics be predominantly about (hetero) sex, rather than whatever else is out there in say, Harry Potter (an equally family-oriented source and even I shudder), is a convention probably harkening back to the show, but having been run with by fans--which is kinda neat to chew over (and here I've wandered on a tangent, but it happens ). Social contracts and all that jazz.
Yes, sadly another bone of contention, back in the day. Slash fic was definitely frowned on. I know of at least one FoLC who left the fandom after being savaged for writing fic which even touched on the issue in a comedic way.  It never really erupted very often, that one, though because it seemed to be a topic that few FoLCs were that interested in writing about anyway. There wasn't much appetite for exploring slash relationships within the show's characters and so the genre never became common here as it is in other fandoms. I guess, too, that LNC itself didn't really lend itself to the genre. Clark/Jimmy or Clark/Perry relationships probably aren’t that interesting or obvious to most FoLCs. <G>
I'm wracking my brain, because I know a few, but I'm trying to remember which ones. Maybe someone else can remember.
Yes, there have been a couple over the years. Not many. Mostly FoLCs seem to naturally rein themselves in when it comes to violence – perhaps feeling it doesn't suit the tone of the show to be too graphic – and so mostly their stories get onto the Archive with a violence warning at the top of the file. And those that do have a violent warning are probably very mild compared to some of the novels you'd find on your supermarket shelves. For some reason I want to say that Laura Davies once put one of her stories into nfic because of its adult themes – but I could just be making that up as I go along. I wouldn't trust my memory on it.
At what point does that kind of a story become TOO adult?
I think on this issue it's mainly been led by the author themselves, Shayne. Some seem to feel that they may get flak for dealing with a particular theme and put it into the nfic folder to pre-empt any potential problem they may have. I think it harks back to how sensitive the issues used to be in the fandom and the number of times fanfic prompted flame wars. Authors got a little wary of even thinking of pushing the envelope, at times, I think. Not, as I say, that these stories have been in any huge numbers.
I think myself that, these days certainly, that most stories would be accepted without any problem. The only thing I personally can think of that would merit a non-sexual story being put into nfic instead of gfic would be extreme and graphic violence. Graphic torture of the characters perhaps?
I can only remember getting one complaint over the years about a story that was uploaded to the Archive being too violent and it was a complaint that I didn't agree with. The author, though, did generously add a warning to it, just to keep the peace. And I recall that I did request that Cindy Leuch put a warning on her story about September 11, because it was submitted in the days after the attack when emotions were still raw and running high and I thought there may be FoLCs who wouldn't want to read about it or appreciate finding themselves reading it unprepared. But I still wouldn't have thought of the story as nfic at all. That never occurred to me at all.
LabRat
