![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Just a question relating to my own fic. *tilts head, muses* After the meta post about shipping v. gen, and some conversations in the comments there about definitions of gen, particularly traditional style gen as in longer, action/adventure and/or casefic ... Basically, you know, plotfic. Anyway. I was looking over my own long fics, and ... well, the conclusion I came to was that either my genfic was very shippy, or my 'shipfic was very gen. *shrugs sheepishly*
I mean, looking at the four longer, plotty fics I've ever attempted: Weregild (SPN/Myth); Arrangements (SPN/GO/Myth); Gotham Noir (DC AU); and The Wind At Midnight (DC AU). Leaving aside for the moment that only one of them was ever completed, most of them fulfill the traditional gen-style fic requirements, in that all of them are long, plotty, involving a lot of worldbuilding (necessitated since all of them are either crossovers or AUs), with large ensemble casts in most cases, and, with the possible exception of Weregild, all with overarching action/adventure style plots (Ish. Sort of. Wind was a massive steampunk action/adventure romance, Noir had a pulp crime murder/betrayal/sex plot, Arrangements had an Apocalypse in there somewhere, at least). But all of them, at the same time, are very, very shippy. The two DC AUs are based around the Clark/Bruce pairing, Arrangements has a six-character core cast divided into three shippy pairs, and Weregild is (sort of) based around a central crossover pairing (Gabriel/Loki) and it's ramifications for the lives around it (mostly family).
But at the same time ... While the romance of those pairings gets a lot of focus, the actual physical elements of them usually don't (Arrangements had the most, I think, possibly Noir, but Noir was complicated by the sex being part of a crime/power game/avoidance tactic ... it's noir, part of the attraction with pairings in Noir is wondering which of the participants is hiding dark secrets and how much those dark secrets are shaping what they're currently doing). Some of that is timing problems (Wind was intensely romantic, in the older sense of the word, but the cast also had three days in which to save the Nightlord, start a revolution, stop a war, defeat an enemy fleet with devastating new weapons, and launch humanity to the stars - not a lot of time for romantic interludes, is what I'm saying), but still. Particularly in the DC two, the focus is primarily on the plot, through the lense of the pairing.
Add in that all four have very large ensembles, with lots and lots of various interlinkages and relationships between them (families, enemies, comrades, suspects, past lovers, reluctant antagonists, etc). Arrangements is kind of a menage-a-six, with outside links to Bobby via the boys, to half the angels in Heaven via Cas & Gabe, most of Hell via Crowley & Gabe, half the crossover supernatural elements possible via the GO boys or Gabe ... Lots. Wind had four main factions (Luthor's, Bruce's, Arthur's, Clark's/Lois') with multiple interactions between them. Weregild had Loki's family and quite a few characters from various mythologies. Noir had a lot of the GCPD, a lot of Gotham's seedier elements, cameos by the JSA, and Clark's partnership with Lois to balance against his fraught connection to Bruce. Um. Complicated, I mean. On all four. The larger that casts, the more and more varied the interactions.
So ... either lots of shipping in my gen, or lots of gen in my shipping, I think. *grins sheepishly* And those are the long fic. Sometimes I wonder how much of what I'm calling gen kinda of isn't, and how much of what I think is 'shipfic comes across as gen.
Um. What do you all think? Is my division of my fic into gen and/or shipping more suspect than I thought? Or am I just sort of writing stories which are, unless specifically noted, liable to involve as much of everything (plot, romance, character study, cast interaction) as takes my fancy? *grins faintly*
But at the same time ... While the romance of those pairings gets a lot of focus, the actual physical elements of them usually don't (Arrangements had the most, I think, possibly Noir, but Noir was complicated by the sex being part of a crime/power game/avoidance tactic ... it's noir, part of the attraction with pairings in Noir is wondering which of the participants is hiding dark secrets and how much those dark secrets are shaping what they're currently doing). Some of that is timing problems (Wind was intensely romantic, in the older sense of the word, but the cast also had three days in which to save the Nightlord, start a revolution, stop a war, defeat an enemy fleet with devastating new weapons, and launch humanity to the stars - not a lot of time for romantic interludes, is what I'm saying), but still. Particularly in the DC two, the focus is primarily on the plot, through the lense of the pairing.
Add in that all four have very large ensembles, with lots and lots of various interlinkages and relationships between them (families, enemies, comrades, suspects, past lovers, reluctant antagonists, etc). Arrangements is kind of a menage-a-six, with outside links to Bobby via the boys, to half the angels in Heaven via Cas & Gabe, most of Hell via Crowley & Gabe, half the crossover supernatural elements possible via the GO boys or Gabe ... Lots. Wind had four main factions (Luthor's, Bruce's, Arthur's, Clark's/Lois') with multiple interactions between them. Weregild had Loki's family and quite a few characters from various mythologies. Noir had a lot of the GCPD, a lot of Gotham's seedier elements, cameos by the JSA, and Clark's partnership with Lois to balance against his fraught connection to Bruce. Um. Complicated, I mean. On all four. The larger that casts, the more and more varied the interactions.
So ... either lots of shipping in my gen, or lots of gen in my shipping, I think. *grins sheepishly* And those are the long fic. Sometimes I wonder how much of what I'm calling gen kinda of isn't, and how much of what I think is 'shipfic comes across as gen.
Um. What do you all think? Is my division of my fic into gen and/or shipping more suspect than I thought? Or am I just sort of writing stories which are, unless specifically noted, liable to involve as much of everything (plot, romance, character study, cast interaction) as takes my fancy? *grins faintly*