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Ribbons (bronze_ribbons) wrote in lupin_snape,
@ 2007-11-28 11:17:00

Current mood:	embarrassed
Entry tags:	november 2007: meta month

Meta month: "Ten signs you are reading a fic by [your name here]"
As a hasty, almost-last-minute post for Meta Month (and a warm-up for Snupin Santa guessing games, if you dare), I thought it might be fun to revive the "Ten Signs" meme that went around many moons ago: what are the tropes, turns of phrase, themes, and other tip-offs that make a fic or illustration "typical" of your work? Serious (a la fanon manifestoes) and/or self-sporking versions encouraged!

(FWIW, this was prompted both by innerslytherin's recent posts and my current cringing consciousness of the things I do over and over again without realising it...)

For instance, here was my list back in January 2006. Here's version 2.0:

Ten Signs You Might Be Reading a Fic by bronze_ribbons/Mechaieh:

1. Harry may have vanquished Voldemort, but all is not well at the Ministry or among the Weasleys. Please.

2. Snape spends at least half of the fic believing Lupin is dead.

3. Snape frequently spends the other half of the fic trying to wrap his brain around Lupin's interest in him.

4. A no-nonsense female staff member of Hogwarts gets to tell Snape and/Lupin they're idiots. Sometimes because she's fed up with a lack of progress on #3, and sometimes because she's just tired of holding her peace regarding unsightly facial hair.

5. If no female staff members happen to be present, Tonks gets the job.

6. If a gift fic, there are often not-terribly-subtle in-jokes alluding to the recipient's interests or oeuvre, because I can't resist having fun with that.

7. Snape is not Muggle-illiterate -- at least, no more so than any other socially clueless guy in his late 30s.

8. There's a lot of staring, murmuring, muttering, raising of eyebrows, rolling of eyes, twisting of lips, and turning away from the other person to gaze meaningfully and pointlessly at something else instead of, saints forbid, saying what one thinks.

9. There is zero mention of chocolate or cardigans or visible scars. At least, not in relation to Lupin.

10. Lupin and Snape are both voracious readers of both magical and Muggle literature, which allows me both to imagine new books they might be reading and indulge in my love of quoting existing ones. They're not geniuses, though -- neither of them are as smart off the hoof as James or Sirius were, and they had to work to reach their current levels of competence and awareness. (Otherwise I'd have no plots...)

Your turn!

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(Anonymous)
2007-11-28 09:43 pm UTC (link)

Ha-ha! The Cunning Reader's Cheat Sheet! *bookmarks* This will be a useful Snupin Santa resource..... (Perhaps as a subset of number 8, there is often the ambience of an older, epic war movie: larger-than-life characters, sweeping events... and yes, gazing meaningfully into the distance....) I'll give it a go:

ten signs you might be reading a busaikko-fic
10. All the original characters are African or Asian. (And no one ever notices this....)

9. No one can resist a bad pun. They are rife.

8. If at all humanly possible, no one says 'I love you' (And again, no one ever notices this *g* --> the reason no one notices this is that it is obvious! (I hope!)).

7. Lupin kicks magical ass.

6. Snape has taken up some weird alternative employment: knitting shop owner, haiku poet, computer programmer, snake....

5. Snape is the one with the love of chocolate and sweets. Lupin prefers savoury to sweet.

4. Extremely bad things happen, but not on screen (i.e., there are no long graphic descriptions of the torture, rape, deaths, etc.). The story is not about angsting over the bad things, but about recovering from them. I am so squeamish about discussing the bad things that often people have to ask me in the comments: 'Er: so, Remus is blind?'

3. Even my worst endings have somehow been described as hopeful.

2. Voldemort gets killed in some weird-ass way. There may be pool tables or butterflies involved.

1. Fics that are intended as humour somehow end up with tragic endings and angst. Fics that are intended as angsty usually have the happiest endings. Fics that were meant as crack, it stands to reason, are regular heart-breakers. (This is not hard and fast, but if you've been laughing all along and suddenly find yourself weeping as everything all goes to hell, chances are!)

Whee!

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	(Anonymous) 2007-11-28 10:22 pm UTC (link)
	10. Brazilian! Remus is Brazilian and it's awesome ♥ 8. That's a rule to live by! 5. That always made a lot of sense to me. 1. Yet another reason I love your writing. ~Etrangere (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mnemosyne_1 2007-11-29 12:50 am UTC (link)
	Number 5 makes complete sense. Remus only carries chocolate in his pockets to tempt Severus near him. Chocolate soothes the sarcastic beast... (Reply to this) (Parent)

bronze_ribbons
2007-11-29 03:27 pm UTC (link)

This will be a useful Snupin Santa resource.....

With nearly 100 submissions in the queue? And some of us deliberately writing against type/genre? *sceptical*

Although, it's a thought. If someone really wanted to be thorough about it, they might could take

chazpure's fest-tracking spreadsheet and add links to (1) the participant lists in each fest, (2) links from those lists to the participants' "10 signs", etc.

(I can't even get my Hanukkah packets out on time, so no, I'm not being serious.)

Also? Each item on my list happens to be true of another Snupin writer. (My subconscious is more devious than I am yet again!) The tics that are actually unique to me -- well, we can discuss that in January. ;-)

I just took a look at last year's stats and the three most identified authors that round (at least among folks who answered the polls) were Ellid, me, and Lee (which is funny, because I still remember Lee telling you "You suck at Anonymous!" during SnuSa 2005 and nodding vigorously).

*hugs*
*rereads comment about larger-than-lifeness and wriggles with happiness*

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