Mon221B

What's up with people reading the latest installment of a nice, long fic and commenting along the lines of "oh, please don't have Sherlock top! John should be all big and growly, not Sherlock!" and "you should tag for switching if it's going to happen."

Like...who's out there so set on John topping that Sherlock topping would ruin it for them? And requesting tagging for it like it needs a trigger warning? I confess I just don't understand that. I mean, for me, part of the glory of fanfic is exploring all the possibilities. All of them. Like, I'm not necessarily going to rush over to read Molly/Mycroft zombiefic, but why in the world would I discourage someone from writing it?

You do you, fic writer. Write all the things. Fandom will be better for it.

Here's why I would never be able to post a WIP fic.

I have an idea that I'm pleased with, and I'm going along writing, chuffed and frankly kind of amazed that the words are actually transferring to the doc for a change, four or five thousand words into some emotional hurt/comfort, when suddenly --

What if it's an a/b/o AU? Because then it could be emotional hurt/comfort complicated by the inherent consent issues of a/b/o and maybe a vehicle to explore gender roles. I could look at what an omega!John would look like, how he would be different from canon!John. What would his upbringing have been like? What if medical school and the military would never have been options for him? What would he have done with his intelligence and talents if they couldn't have been developed in that way? What if he was 'trained up' to believe his purpose was to raise children, make a home and support his spouse? Would he have to quash an inexplicable anger because he's never able to be what he's meant to be? Would that somehow explode, one day? And how in the world would Sherlock fit into that au? Would he be an alpha? A beta? What if they were both omegas? Could they ever work in that world?

And I'm going with that, kind of disappointed about some of the things that will have to change in my original fic but excited about the new ideas, when suddenly --

What if it's a more dystopian a/b/o AU? What if it's a sort of Handmaid's Tale crossover? Then I could examine the power dynamics of that world and --

Oh. Power dynamics. Maybe it's not a/b/o after all, but an AU where everybody is a dom or a sub, but subs are a tiny minority and the alphas of the world all want one but only the most rich and powerful can ever get one, so maybe the government decides it needs to take custody of unpaired subs 'for their own protection.' And then, of course, there's a seedy underworld black market where subs are bought and sold...

And then I'm more or less equally in love with all of these ideas and unsure of which way to go -- and will anyone want to read any of this? And does it matter if no one else but me ever reads it? And, well, yeah, it does matter, because omg I want someone to fall in love with these ideas along with me, but people who are far better writers than I am have done all of this before and far better than I can ever hope to do it. And wow, maybe all of this is way too complicated and I need to just pare things down a helluva lot and aim for something simpler that I can realistically make happen --

And that's why I can never, ever post a WIP.

Me writing out ideas for a new fic



Me actually starting to write said fanfic