Fic Tropes Meme

[malenkayacherepakha]

Continuing in my attempt to do more with Dreamwidth, I'm crossposting this from Tumblr, with the additional benefit that it seems easier to actually have a conversation in the comments here rather than on a Tumblr post. Thanks gracerene for the tag, and if any you haven't already been tagged on this on Tumblr, feel free to do it too!

Rules: Copy/paste and bold your fic preferences because why not, gotta choose one (near impossible, but go with your first gut instinct), and tag someone because, again, why not.

• slow burn or love at first sight
  
• fake dating or secret dating
• enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers
• oh no there’s only one bed or long-distance with correspondence
• hurt/comfort or amnesia
• fantasy au or modern au (I’m not really an AU fan in general but I guess if I had to pick)
• mutual pining or domestic bliss (I do love a bit of domestic bliss for established relationships but it doesn’t tend to be enough to sustain a longer fic which is what I prefer to read)
  
• smut or fluff
• canon compliant (missing scenes) or fix-it fic (this one was tricky, I have no idea if I’ve ever read a fix-it fic, but generally speaking I don’t like reading fics that change canon apart from the HP epilogue)
• alternate universe or future fic (not really a massive fan of AUs)
• one-shot or multi-chapter (this was tricky as I’m not really sure what it’s asking. Right now I’m mostly reading shorter fics for time reasons, so one shot, but if you’re asking whether I’d prefer a 40k fic to be a one shot or split up into chapters, I’d probably go for chapters, although it’s not a dealbreaker)
• kid fic or roadtrip fic (I don’t mind a kid fic, although I don’t love things that are too kid focused, but roadtrip fic just sounds so American to me that I can’t immediately see it working well in the HP universe, although I’m sure there are authors who could do it brilliantly)
• reincarnation or character death (I love a bit of angst, so don’t mind MCD at all)
• arranged marriage or accidental marriage (I don’t really like either of these, but I guess accidental marriage, as long as the consent issue is dealt with reasonably well.
• high school romance or middle-aged romance (I am all about the middle-aged romance, and I love fics that focus on the characters from their 30s onwards. I think it lends itself particularly well to Harry and Draco, and one day I will write one of these)
• time travel or isolated together
• neighbours or roommates (I guess I would go for roommates between these two, but if we’re talking Drarry I have to really be sold on how they end up as roommates)
  
• sci-fi au or magic au (this is a little bit redundant in the HP fandom but I just can’t lose the magic from that universe)
  
• bodyswap or genderbend
• angst or crack (give me all the angst)
• apocalyptic or mundane (I don’t mind mundane in a short ficlet or drabble, but I need the apocalyptic stuff in a longer fic)

Comments

[pauraque]

I don't think I actually know what an accidental marriage fic is! How do you get married accidentally?

For one-shot vs. multi-chapter, I would guess they meant a fic that is posted all at once vs. a fic posted in parts over a period of time.

[malenkayacherepakha]

In my head it was kind of like a bonding fic - they accidentally touch something or do some ritual and bam, married. Not sure I've ever read one though.

Yes that's probably it. In that case, I have no preference as to how it's posted (I can definitely see the benefits to the author of posting over time), but I'm guilty of waiting until the whole fic is posted before reading - I just lose track of the details if I read along.

[sdk]

I was tagged for this as well and will be doing it soon, but some of these I just wanted to rearrange because I either want to pick both options or neither! lol Always interesting to see what people prefer! I definitely wish the accidental marriage was accidental bonding, because I, too, don't understand how anyone could accidentally be married? But I LOVE accidental bonding. With the one-shot versus multi-chapter, I was thinking it was about length like there's no way 100K+ fic could be considered a one-shot and would have to be posted over multiple chapters but then again, technically anything could be posted all at once or split up into multiple chapters. I have a 6K+ fic I split up into three different chapters for theme reasons and a 34K fic that is posted all together so.... yeah, now I have no idea what they mean! LOL!

[malenkayacherepakha]

I was exactly the same, there are some where the answer is definitely neither! But then some I just couldn't pick between, and it so depends on how the author deals with the trope.

I guess if this is meant to not be fandom specific maybe accidental marriage is a more popular thing in other fandoms? but yes I definitely prefer accidental bonding!

The more you think about it the more confusing that one gets haha, my first thought was length, but then maybe it is would I prefer it to be posted all at once or over multiple chapters and then I get very confused haha.

I'm looking forward to seeing yours!