Comment on Fandom nonfiction: seeking feedback

  1. Aiffe Tue 19 Mar 2013 09:36PM UTC

    Tahno

    This isn't an official response, but I'd say it'd depend on how it was intended to be read. For example, if I post a fic which becomes very popular, then post a version of it interspersed with commentary as a second work, I'd consider that second work to be meta. It isn't meant to be read as fiction, it's intended for readers who have already read the fiction and are looking for deeper insight.

    When you talk about it being separate, what do you mean? It's considered normal to add author's notes to fic, which can sometimes be several paragraphs describing the process or why certain choices were made. (I have a drabble with a historical/linguistic note on it that might be as long as the fic itself.) In those cases, I think those nonfiction asides should go in the notes section, and it should still be categorized as fiction. If the fiction is meant to be read as an uninterrupted block, but you have commentary on it that is extremely lengthy and detailed, it might be worth breaking up into two works, or perhaps making some kind of appendix at the end of a very long fic? In the former case, the tagging seems straightforward; an appendix I'd treat as an author's note and still classify it as fiction.

    As a general rule I wouldn't post meta exclusive to my own fics unless I were a BNF or something. This might seem unfair, but it seems like the archive is meant to preserve works of meta that would be of interest to a lot of fans. I don't think a meta on something only five people have read is against the ToS, but it might bore/annoy people, and appear egocentric. (I've written meta on my own fics, but I posted them to places like Tumblr and LJ, where my friends could see them. I don't think I'm popular enough for them to be of general interest.)

    But basically, if the work is intended to be read primarily as a story but has nonfiction tidbits, I'd consider it fiction, if the fiction is only present to be analyzed and discussed in the nonfiction main attraction, I'd consider it to be nonfiction.

    And I can't decide for other people, but I am not posting any meta at all here until there is a functional filter system in place.

    Comment Actions