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Gen vs Het
Question for you folks, as my flist is wise and all-knowing *g*
I started a new fic last week. I'm not ready to spill details yet (unless you happen to be in the com. where I mentioned it yesterday), but I'm wondering how I should label this one.
Scenario: Future-fic. In this story, a major character (who is single in canon) is married (to a woman). The wife is another canon character but not a series regular. My story is not a "ship" story: the marriage is not the focus of the tale, but it is necessary background, not something I can discard from the story. No sex scenes, minimal romantic dialogue - the main character just happens to be married.
Personally, I think of the story as Gen. Ultimately, it doesn't matter to me because I'll write the fic I want to write.
But when I post this story, how should I label it? I mean, does this non-central relationship make the story "het" rather than "gen"? If I include the pairing in the story info, would that imply it's a 'ship fic?
Story labelling, IMO, is informational. It should give a true picture of the story to follow, so readers can make a decision whether or not to click on the link. So I want to get this right - not in terms of how I think of the story, but in terms of matching the information to what the reader should expect.
Am I making sense?
[ETA: It's like, when I wrote Predator I posted it as Gen with Jim/Carolyn in the pairing, and that was okay because it was an "ancient history" pairing in terms of the fic. She was dead in the present. That's not how it is with this new story. M and F are still married, and happy. It's just that the story ain't about that.]
Basically, if you see "Gen" or "het" as a label, what does that mean to you? If you see a pairing listed, what expectation does that create?
I started a new fic last week. I'm not ready to spill details yet (unless you happen to be in the com. where I mentioned it yesterday), but I'm wondering how I should label this one.
Scenario: Future-fic. In this story, a major character (who is single in canon) is married (to a woman). The wife is another canon character but not a series regular. My story is not a "ship" story: the marriage is not the focus of the tale, but it is necessary background, not something I can discard from the story. No sex scenes, minimal romantic dialogue - the main character just happens to be married.
Personally, I think of the story as Gen. Ultimately, it doesn't matter to me because I'll write the fic I want to write.
But when I post this story, how should I label it? I mean, does this non-central relationship make the story "het" rather than "gen"? If I include the pairing in the story info, would that imply it's a 'ship fic?
Story labelling, IMO, is informational. It should give a true picture of the story to follow, so readers can make a decision whether or not to click on the link. So I want to get this right - not in terms of how I think of the story, but in terms of matching the information to what the reader should expect.
Am I making sense?
[ETA: It's like, when I wrote Predator I posted it as Gen with Jim/Carolyn in the pairing, and that was okay because it was an "ancient history" pairing in terms of the fic. She was dead in the present. That's not how it is with this new story. M and F are still married, and happy. It's just that the story ain't about that.]
Basically, if you see "Gen" or "het" as a label, what does that mean to you? If you see a pairing listed, what expectation does that create?
no subject
A-ha! There's your problem. In the USA, sex is way, way more likely to get an adult rating than violence is. So that's the default assumption.
It's why I refuse to use the MPAA system. I just go for "All ages", "Mature" and "Adult" (and I never use the first of those anyway).