#forocheltexts

I remember seeing people talk about how, for e.g., with the rise of AO3 the definition of 'short fic' VS 'long fic' has changed, as has what kind of fic is seen as more 'legitimate'. it seems that short fics, anything under 1000 words (as a very vague earmark), so: drabbles, vignettes, scene-specific oneshots is seen as lesser, somehow. Maybe less worthy of attention, less likely to fulfil or scratch an itch than longfic.

and it's also interesting to look at the changes in what was/has been/is acceptable, stylistically speaking.

like, there's one REALLY OBVIOUS trend, in terms of characterisation and how that shaped the writing, which is the movement from the old school writers like arsenicjade, where the feelings are all ... there, and people talk about their feelings and just. FEELINGS. to writing characters as emotionally obtuse and constipated assholes. Broadly speaking. I think we've moved beyond that, a little bit, anyway, to more of a synthesis.

to generalise REALLY BROADLY again, I also feel like there's ... less acceptance of experimentation with style these days. we've got all the tropes, the AUs, the lengthy and occasionally twisty plots -- which is great! I love coffee shop AUs like burning -- but not the free and probably pretentious experimentation with format and structure and language. concepts too, I think.

For example: Remember 1 sentence memes? Structure AND language. Or that brief (re?)surgence of 2POV fics of Extreme Angst and Melodrama, capitalisation half-lovingly-mocking and half-okay-some-of-that-stuff-got-you-right-in-the-feels.

Conceptually, too - fics that took one extended metaphor or ran with it, or fics that wound back upon themselves with metaphor upon image upon metaphor, or fics that took a theory or reading of canon and went all post-structural on you. For example, this ffvii fic.

Which is not of course to say that these things DON'T happen these days in fandom, or that normal plainspeak fic didn't happen back in the day! Stylistic weirdness just doesn't seem to happen as much nowadays, doesn’t seem to get many hits on AO3, and sometimes I miss it! Wild experimentation! Random italics! Very well-thought out text alignment! Trying to cobble together some kind of narrative out of prompt words like 'pearl, calendar, orang utan' or something!