Happiness day 21: commenting on fics; femslash links

[sophinisba]

I like commenting on fic that I read. It makes me happy to know that I'm encouraging authors that I like and making them feel good. This is a nice, easy way of participating in fandom even at times when I'm not feeling creative or finishing any stories myself. Reading a fic I like and not commenting makes me feel bad – it's true I often neglect to do it if I have to e-mail, but LJ/IJ/Dth makes it so easy, it seems silly not to. Sometimes I skip it if I can tell that the author doesn't reply to comments because I figure they don't care much, but sometimes I go ahead and comment anyway.

I like commenting at anonymous fests where I don't know who I'm talking to and there's more of a feeling that we're just talking about the stories and not praising our friends or whatever. (I also have a little of this feeling when I'm reading in fandoms like Merlin where nobody knows me, but in anon fests I also have more of a feeling like the authors are probably really anxious and hoping to be recognized whereas a lot of my favorite Merlin authors are kind of distant and, you know, are going to get two or three pages of comments whether I contribute or not.) I know not knowing who you're talking to makes some people uncomfortable but I think it's fun. Also I know some people don't like to comment a lot in anon fests where they participate because they're afraid it will give them away – whichever one they didn't comment on must be theirs. I tend not to worry about this. I figure that if someone does want to go through and keep track of all the fics where I have and haven't commented then they pretty much deserve to know which one I wrote, but no one ever seems to guess me anyway, at least not anywhere that I can see. I also figure the fun of everybody getting comments is more important than increasing the chance of preserving anonymity that little bit.

Most of my comments say something like, "This is great!" or "I enjoyed your story!" If I'm feeling energetic I will sometimes mention a detail or two that I especially liked. I admire people like dreamflower02 and rodneyscat who consistently leave thoughtful comments but I still think my short ones are better than nothing, just a way of saying, "Hey, I read this!" that almost all authors will appreciate. (And I don't care much about the feelings of few authors who say they'd rather not get those kinds of comments.)

Anyway, the real reason for this post is that I signed up at idof_feedback to comment on 20 femslash fanworks by July 25th, and one of the requirements is to link to all the fanworks somewhere, so I'm doing it beneath the cut and will add to it as I go along. I'm at 12 so far so I expect to go over 20, especially with all the new stuff that's now available at remixredux09 and femslash09. I'm enjoying this – it sort of reminds me of 50books_poc where it's worth it to go out of my way to read something that I wouldn't necessarily pick up otherwise, and I sometimes find that I love it and sometimes not so much. I'm starting to get a better idea of my own taste in femslash and to look differently at how a lot of other fanfics neglect female characters.

I liked all of these fics (or I wouldn't have read them!) but I especially want to recommend What We've Become by thedeadparrot and What We've Become (The Mt. Saint Helens Remix), both Donna/Martha fics. When I was talking the other day about how much I like Gwen/Morgana I was sort of comparing it in my mind to shows like Doctor Who where you usually only get to have one female character at a time and I always thought femslash would be hard because the companions relate to each other through the Doctor, and some fans tend to pit the companions against each other and all that. Anyway, I really liked the Donna/Martha relationship being about Donna and Martha in both of these, and the Doctor and Jack being present but secondary to the women's story. Also they're just so well written. I wasn't crazy about the jumping around in time on the remix but I think it's still my favorite of the remixredux09 stories I've read so far.

Merlin fic
Dream It So by emei, Hunith/Morgana

Forbidden Fruit Tastes Sweeter by fortassetu, Gwen/Morgana (with Gwen/Arthur and Arthur/Merlin)

Ladies of War by veleda_k, Gwen/Morgana

untitled commentfic by gnimaerd, Morgana/Sophia

untitled commentfic by srin, Gwen/Morgana (modern AU)

Hormones, Alcohol and Other Non-Magical Complications (The Twelve-Step Program Remix) by [anonymous], Gwen/Morgan (with Arthur/Merlin)

If The World Ends by glinda_penguin, Gwen/Morgana

royal and important by bossymarmalade, Gwen/Morgana

Ladies Dead and Lovely Knights by hyel, Nimueh/Igraine (with Uther/Igraine)

Doctor Who Fic
What We've Become by thedeadparrot, Donna/Martha

What We've Become (The Mt. Saint Helens Remix) by [anonymous], Donna/Martha

As the stars wither by shadowbyrd, Donna/Rose

At the End of All Your Lines by slartibartfast, Donna/Rose

This Side of Paradise by theonlytwin, Martha/Thirteen (House crossover!)

Faculty fic
More Than Nostalgia by hyel, Stokely/Marybeth with Stokely/Delilah

Harry Potter fic
Just Like Flying by isiscolo, Ginny/Luna

Grounded (This Is Not My Beautiful Life Mix) by [anonymous], Ginny/Luna (with Ginny/Harry)

Star Trek fic
Earth-style Romantic Gestures by jain, Uhura/Gaila

Icons
Gwen/Morgana icon post by hyel
Icon post including Gwen/Morgana by dh_chan