Meme: Fannish influences on my fic

[noracharles]

schmevil was saying how remixing and plagiarizing are not at all the same thing, and that "in a fannish context, there can only good flows from being remixed. It's possible to compare unfavourably with the new, transformative work, but it's still going to drive new readers your way."

We got to talking about what a shame it is that people feel this social pressure to keep their fannish influences secret, and how there ought to be a meme. I feel strongly that cross-pollination between writers will produce fic of a higher quality. We're all inspired by what we read, sometimes we lift something but use it in a new context, sometimes we like something enough to expand on it, sometimes we realize we actually have an opinion about something when we come across something we disagree with. And when we get a fanwork out of that inspiration, we're probably grateful to the other fans who inspired us. This meme is your chance to let others know they've been an inspiration to you!

I hope that we can create an atmosphere of shared fun and pleasure in creating, and realize that remixing fanworks is an homage just as remixing canon is.

Meme: Fannish influences on my fic
Pick a fic you've written, and explain how other fanworks inspired you.

I recently wrote a fic for remixredux called Heartbreak Hotel.

It is a Supernatural slash fic featuring animal transformation, incest and dubcon. My primary inspiration for it was obviously the fic it is a remix of, Leopard porn by naotalba, and the first part of my fic has the exact same plot as naotalba's.

But there were also other inspirations. I'm really terrible with names and titles, and it's been a while since I read them, but in Stargate: Atlantis fandom there have been several excellent Mckay/Sheppard genderfuck fics which made the point that if you change a male into a female, you're not changing a man into a woman. You're changing a cis man into a trans man, or a trans woman into a cis woman. One of them is Sheppard's Choice by cupidsbow, another is Always should be someone you really love by thingswithwings. I'm sorry I can't remember all the specific titles, but if you're interested in some really thoughtful, sensitive and entertaining genderfuck fic, I know you can find more in this comm: sga_genderfuck. These fics inspired me to having Dean identify as a leopard, not as a human, when he was transformed. I have a kink for romance or friendship between sapients of different species, and it amused me that I did not get the same out of the sex scene as Sam, the character with a kink for fur, did.

Then there was the Stargate: Atlantis Mckay/Sheppard fic where Rodney has a kink for verbally humiliating his partner, and John is a submissive masochist, and they find a way of making love that more or less satisfies them both, Sufficient by telesilla. I thought it was a very romantic and sweet fic, and it inspired me to write the scene where Dean decides to try furry sex, and likes it for different reasons than Sam does, and they're both happy.

I was inspired to characterize Dean the way I did by the way I've seen him characterized in the Supernatural fandom. I've read a lot of different fics by a lot of different writers, and probably taken something from each of them. I chose to write him in an exaggerated way, with martyr complex, reluctance to speak directly of his feelings, trying to take charge and take care of Sam, but also very needy and subby, and with Sam's reactions coloring his own strongly, probably mostly based on the humorously exaggerated Dean in fleshflutter's fic, and the extremely sexy needy sub Dean in poisontaster's fic, especially the Sex Pollen verse (D/s, dubcon, incest).

The newspaper clippings were real (though slightly edited), except for the first one, which was a parody of a typical human interest article in a local newspaper. In canon the guys often research supernatural cases using newspapers, though it's not always clear how they hear about a case. In fic I've noticed that they sometimes research cases that no one seems to have heard about, let alone written about in the newspaper, and I wonder how that could be. I'm not thinking of any particular fic, and it's not a widespread trend; it's just a little plot hole I sometimes come across, and it amused me to mention it. In hindsight, I don't think opening with a parody of a poorly written article served the fic well, but at least it made me laugh ^_~

And I think that's it! Those were the fannish inspirations for my fic.