So Sue Me

Just checking about posts

Tue, 10 May 2022 05:40:03 GMT

Posted by: theresa_ramseyer

Good morning :).

I'm trying, again, to get back in the swing of writing. It's a long story. I want to check something first. I can talk/post about the non-canon characters I'm writing, right? She's Awesome was created for canon characters, as I recall, but I've asked if the rules could be changed slightly. It's been years since someone posted an actual fic to the big three, concentrating on women: Hooked on Heroines, She's Awesome, and So Sue Me. Especially in light of all we're going through now, I find that to be really sad, at best.

Thanks,
Theresa

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Female-focused remix is open for business

Thu, 18 Jun 2015 05:00:51 GMT

Posted by: beatrice_otter

femmeremix is open for signups on AO3. It's a multi-fandom remix (i.e. a ficathon where you're assigned another fic writer and re-write one of their stories as your own)

Are you into stories about women*? Have you written stories about women? Would you like to read and write more of them? Would you like to read and write stories based on other people's stories? Yes? Motherfucking yes? Well then, this is the remix for you!

We all know how much fun remix can be, but we also know that it can be frustrating sometimes, especially for those of us who generally don't write slash and/or write a lot of stories about women. We get matched, we're really excited about it, and then our remixee has only written slash. Or stories go up, we're really excited about it, and our remixer has skipped over the 99 awesome stories about women and remixed the 1 not-so-awesome story about men. This remix offers people a chance to focus on women.

*"Women" here is loosely defined to include canonical alien/trans/non-genderbinary characters who identify as female. It does not include Rule 63/"always-a-girl" characters. She-Hulk is in, Brucella Banner is not.

You need to have written at least three female-focused fics of 500 words or more to be able to sign up in a fandom. There's no list of qualifying fandoms, you can sign up with ANY FANDOM you have enough female-focused fics in (and the rules are pretty loose about what counts as a female-focused fic).

Sign-up Closes: Fri 19 Jun 2015 12:00AM EDT
Assignments Due: Mon 03 Aug 2015 12:00AM EDT
Works Revealed: Thu 06 Aug 2015 12:00AM EDT
Authors Revealed: Thu 13 Aug 2015 12:00AM EDT

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[FIC] Haven: Who Fights with Monsters, M, by Hagar

Mon, 10 Nov 2014 23:01:01 GMT

Posted by: hagar_972

Author's notes are at the bottom; they're basically "Here's why this may be interesting to you even if you don't know the canon", as this story is very much taking the show's infrastructure to talk about women, and women's relationships, and the way women's trauma is delegitimized.

Title: Who Fights with Monsters
Author: Hagar
Length: 19.7k words
Characters: Jordan McKee, Eleanor Carr, Dwight Hendrickson, Lizzie Hendrickson, Original Characters
Rating: M
Content Advisory: mentions of sexual violence, male-on-female; suicide, teen female; hate crime and social violence; physical violence and vigilantism, female-on-male; higher-res advisory available in notes of the linked fic, and you can always ask me for extra details.
Summary: In summer 2004, Jordan brought a Troubled girl home to Haven. In summer 2005, she buried her.

Link: Who Fights with Monsters

Notes. ( Or: everything you need to know about Haven in a paragraph in a half, where the show seriously fucked up with Jordan McKee and with women in paramilitary organizations, and how this fic goes about that. )

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FIC: The Fire Witch (Avatar: The Last Airbender, NC-17)

Wed, 18 Jun 2014 04:48:01 GMT

Posted by: dueltastic

Okay, I'm gonna have to explain this one. Because this is a genderswap, and I'm sensitive to the POV that that's sneaking the dudes into the ladies' party through the back door. The thing is, Avatar, the first series, has lots of cool old dudes who run around being awesome mentors and real badasses. But in their whole secret badass old-people club, no women. And there should be some women badasses, mentoring shit up. So I'm experimenting with gender-swapping some of the cool old dudes, to show those roles work written for women, and they're just as amazing and interesting - the badass older women who should have been in canon. (This one, um... turned out to be way pornier than I'd expected. So in that respect, it's a whole lot less of an intellectual exploration of the concept than I'd hoped, and I don't win so many bonus points for this one. But I love her, and I still swear she should be canon.)

The Fire Witch by dueltastic
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jeong Jeong/Piandao
Characters: Jeong Jeong, Piandao, Iroh
Additional Tags: Gender or Sex Swap, Female Jeong Jeong, Women in the Military, Women In Power, Romance, Sparring, Comrades in Arms, Older Woman/Younger Man, Rule 63
Series: Part 1 of Women of the White Lotus

Summary: The first time Piandao met Jeong Jeong, she was still an admiral and he was still a soldier. Now he's the sword-master of Shu Jing, and she's the crazy hermit who lives in the woods.

The first of a series gender-swapping members of the Order of the White Lotus, so we can get some glimpses of women as old masters.

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Promo: Queer Werewolf Ladies Commentfic Fest!

Sat, 14 Jun 2014 10:21:02 GMT

Posted by: sylvaine

gorgeousnerd is holding a Queer Werewolf Ladies Commentfic Fest at the moment! The fest, as the name implies, aims to increase the amount of queer, canonically female-identified werewolves in fandom, whether those werewolves are canonical or AU! All types of fanworks are encouraged, including but not limited to fic, art, crafts, vids, podfic, reclists, or anything else you can think of. All fandoms - both RPF and FPF - as well as original works are welcome. Come play with us! Leave a prompt, create something, read/look at/listen to/watch/etc. the fills, and spread the word!

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FIC: Love in a Cold Climate (Avatar: The Last Airbender, rated R)

Sun, 01 Jun 2014 20:26:03 GMT

Posted by: dueltastic

Title: Love in a Cold Climate
Pairing: Multiple het Kanna pairings.
Characters: Kanna, Pakku, Iroh, Jeong Jeong, Piandao, Bumi, Sokka, Katara, Bato, Hakoda, some OCs, some animals.
Length: ~16,000 words
Rating: light R
Credits: Beta kindly done by attackfish; the remaining mistakes are mine. A snippet of poetry about plums is loosely adapted from Wang Wei (701-761). The title is stolen from Nancy Mitford, but since she stole it from Orwell, I like think of it more as redistributing the wealth that was appropriated by the upper classes.
Author's Notes: I couldn't shake the feeling that Pakku had an awfully easy redemption. And that Kanna, who made an amazingly brave trip all the way to the other side of the world to avoid marrying him, got quickly turned into the rubber stamp of approval on his emotional growth, without a word about how incredible she and her story were. Man, women get erased awfully fast from stories after doing amazing, high-cost things, while the guys get their dream rewards handed to them in return for not being a total sexist asshat for two episodes. The show got that one kinda wrong. So here's a correction; this is more how that should have gone down.

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Signal boost! Guaging interest for a female-centric Remix

Sun, 16 Mar 2014 01:16:42 GMT

Posted by: beatrice_otter

So there are remix challenges happening, which is always exciting, because I love remix!

But remix often comes with issues of not having the ability to specify that you aren't a big fan of slash or mostly write women. While that can sometimes be part of the fun, it's also really frustrating when you've got a bunch of awesome stories about women and one not-as-awesome story about men and that one not-as-awesome story is the one that gets remixed because your author doesn't write women.

So are you into stories about women? Have you written stories about women? Would you like to read and write more of them? Would you like to read and write stories based on other people's stories? Yes? Motherfucking yes? Well then, I want to hear about it!

In short, tielan and theladyscribe are trying to gauge possible interest in a female-centric remix.

The interest-gauging post is here.

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FIC: Not Waving But Drowning (Foyle's War)

Sun, 03 Nov 2013 01:30:09 GMT

Posted by: dueltastic

Not Waving But Drowning (2811 words) by dueltastic
Fandom: Foyle's War
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), or Ambiguous or Implied Relationship(s), or Christopher Foyle/Hilda Pierce if you squint (which I recommend trying, it's fun)
Characters: Hilda Pierce, Christopher Foyle, Samantha Stewart
Additional Tags: Older Characters, Older Woman, Women Being Awesome, Women In Power, Women in the Military, World War II, Cold War, Implied/Referenced Torture, Canon-Typical Violence
Summary: Things we did in the past are never past.
Author's Note: There's a scene missing at the end of "The Cage". This is it. (Spoilers for "The French Drop", "The Eternity Ring", and "The Cage". Did I mention massive spoilers for "The Cage"?)

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FIC: The Lights Go On Again All Over the World (Foyle's War, Foyle/Pierce; R)

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 19:34:22 GMT

Posted by: dueltastic

Title: The Lights Go On Again All Over the World
Fandom: Foyle's War
Characters: Christopher Foyle/Hilda Pierce
Wordcount: 5200
Rating: hard R/NSFW
Summary: Victory in Europe, and other negotiated cessations of hostilities.
Author's Notes: Follows closely after "All Clear", many spoilers up to that point.

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Aiffe's essay on tumblr is wonderful!

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:40:08 GMT

Posted by: dharma_slut

I know it isn't about Mary Sue in so many words, but-- hating on female characters, as we all know, rarely stops with Mary but continues on to Ginny, Jo Ellen, and and every girlfriend of every RP celebrity in existance...

For all the women I have loved who were dragged through the mud
"To be clear, we’re not talking about female villains. Male villains get just as much hate. It’s fine if you hate Bellatrix Lestrange or Dolores Umbridge, you’re supposed to. (I personally stan for Bella, but I realize that wasn’t the authorial intent.) This is about people hating Hermione, Ginny and Luna, but loving Harry, Ron and Neville. This is about how ambiguous male antiheroes, like Snape, Zuko, or pretty much any male vampire protagonist can get away with walking that fine line between good and evil and not only remain sympathetic, but be even more beloved for how ~tortured~ he is, but when a female character is morally gray that bitch has to die."

She has a suggestion towards the end that I have never thought of, which is;

"Try writing female gen, femslash, or het from the man’s perspective. The last of these might seem counterintuitive, but most female-perspective romance uses the woman as a personsuit to sidle up to the man that gets all the characterization and love and cool stuff. Writing about it from the POV of the man forces you to actually look at the woman and love her."

Read it all, It's really good!

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Writing Original Characters

Tue, 14 May 2013 07:00:03 GMT

Posted by: legionseagle

I follow, on twitter, a blog called Fandom Wanderers (fandomwanderers) which updates periodically.

They've recently done a piece on How To Write Original Characters which I found depressing for the same reasons that I'd find an article on birth control depressing if it began, "The most important thing to remember is that all those myths about 'you can't get pregnant your first time' or 'if you do it standing up' AREN'T TRUE."

That is, it's not that the advice they give isn't right, it's depressing that it has to be given at all, and that it takes up so much space that could be otherwise devoted to more constructive advice.

And I can't blame the author one iota for approaching the topic this way; after all, since they sign off "Red Hamilton (once got asked to rewrite an entire fanfic because a reader hated the original character so much…)" it's fair to say that they've been through the mill on the OC front

The article is about 980 words long, and at least a third of them are devoted to advice to writers on avoiding charges of Mary-Sue-dom.

I'm particularly appalled by the Maoist self-criticism inherent in "Before you commit to the idea of using an original character in your fanfic, you should consider your motivations very carefully."

Actually, no. Fond as I am of the current Star Trek movie, I can't help thinking it would have been stronger if the creative team ( Read more... ).

That is, in my view, the demands of the story outweigh the demands of fanservice. And by "story" I don't just mean "plot", I mean characterisation and motivation and the fixit urges which cause you to start writing fic in the first place.

For example, if you think that Doctor Who is weakened by the insistence on Earth based plots, then you'll want to take them into space. Which entails OCs. If you think the case-fic side of Sherlock is too light, you'll want victims and suspects and red herrings. Again, OCs.

It's a decent article on writing and characterisation, within its limits. But it's infuriating that the reason it's got those limits is because the constraints posed by the anti-Sue voices out there.

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Fic: The Blood of the Hentzaus (Prisoner of Zenda novels)

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:59:59 GMT

Posted by: shewhostaples

So, if there's anyone in the world interested in OFC/OFC in rarefandom, they'll be on this community, no?

Title: The Blood of the Hentzaus
Author: shewhostaples
Fandom: Anthony Hope's Ruritania novels (The Prisoner of Zenda/Rupert of Hentzau), with cameo Sherlock Holmes crossover
Pairings: OFC/OFC, among others
Summary: 1891. It is sixteen years since Mr Rassendyll first set foot in Ruritania, and thirteen since the events described in Rupert of Hentzau. It is twelve years since Queen Flavia was crowned monarch of Ruritania in her own right. Elisabeth, beloved only daughter of Fritz and Helga von Tarlenheim, is growing up in a peaceful and prosperous country. In Ruritania, however, one can only be sure of two things: that the Hentzaus fear nothing, and that, if there is a plot, the Tarlenheims are in it up to the neck.
Rating: PG veering towards 12A later
Word count: 5750 - so far. This is a work in progress, updated every Wednesday.

At the AOOO

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Promotion: Female_fest is accepting prompt now!

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:32:03 GMT

Posted by: snowynight

Link: http://female-fest.dreamwidth.org/4395.html(Prompt post)

Description: A multifandom fic-fest celebrating the female-centric relationship in fandom

Sign-up date/deadline: Accepting prompts through midnight, Central US time, Mid June. Masterlist of prompts go up on the 25th of June to begin claiming.

Due date: No later than September 14

Posting date: 14 August- 14 September

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Rec - Stargate SG-1

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 06:56:09 GMT

Posted by: cesy

Amelia's Violin is a Stargate SG-1 story about an OFC. It's set during Season 6, and has a great portrayal of Jonas, provided you can forgive him for not being Daniel. I like it because Amelia has her own life and her own skills, and is both competent but also allowed weaknesses - she's not the perfect soldier, and she's not meant to be, but she is extremely good at what she does do.

Chapters 1-8 are posted on LJ and the rest is on FF.net. It's not on AO3 yet, but I'm working on converting it to an ebook if anyone particularly needs that.

Warning with a spoiler: (skip)
The ending is not entirely happy, but leaves it open for a happy sequel.

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Stargate & Marvel Movieverse fics

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:22:10 GMT

Posted by: staranise

It's ridiculous to feel shy about self-promoting one's stories in a community largely aimed at self-promotion, isn't it? I think it is. Alas.

Anyway, I have two stories to share:

Idunn's Apples (600 words) - Captain America/Thor - Sif has heard from one of Thor's comrades of a woman most brave and valiant in battle. Old age has nearly felled her, but the Asgardians have a cure for that--if Peggy's willing to take it.

A ficbunny free to a good home--if I don't write it, someone else ought to. I love Peggy Carter like burning and the inherent possibilities for kickassitude would be enormous. If nothing else, I love the fact that by now she's older and wiser than almost anyone else at SHIELD. Except maybe Sif.

Blast Radius (16,000 words) - Stargate: SG-1 - A Stargate officer back for his second tour. A retired Trust agent trying to move on with her life. A slightly-restless galaxy and a secret program that's been bursting at the seams for a decade now.

Sometimes the question isn't what will go wrong. It's what will go right.

First bit of a novel-length fic I'm trying to finish, polish, and post. It's all about original characters after the Stargate series is over, and where the world and the Stargate program go from there (ignoring Atlantis/Universe). It's foregrounded by a het romance between two OCs.

I was writing it around the time I started this community and fandom had a collective spasm over Mary Sues and OFCs, and this funny thing happened: my subconscious tried to see how many Sueish traits I could load on my main character and see if she could still stand. So this is the story where I get to take an angsty, awesomely talented, snarky, attractive woman, make her real, and build a story around her.

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Pan-Fandom Women-Centric Exchange

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:45:02 GMT

Posted by: hagar_972

A multifandom ficlet/art exchange focusing on female or Jewish characters,
and also some evil viziers.
Sign ups end Feb 8th.
Rules, FAQs, and sign ups here!

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PSA: Rare Women fic exchange discussing eligibility

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:35:59 GMT

Posted by: rhi

rarewomen is discussing eligibility for their fic exchange, i.e., women from large fandoms who still don't have many stories. Sign ups for the fic exchange will run from Jan 1 - Jan 7 (i.e., they do NOT overlap Yuletide or the winter holidays) for "a winter fic exchange for rare women in big fandoms and rare women in small fandoms. Each participant will write a fic of at least 1000 words and receive the same."

Mods, I don't see any applicable tags; please feel free to tag this as necessary.

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in defense of mary sue: she is not the enemy

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:11:06 GMT

Posted by: demimonde

Hello! I'm Liisu, and I have a lot of feelings! As a result of many of these, this morning I sat down and wrote an essay about why I feel 'Mary Sue' is a problematic term, largely used to bully and discourage young women in fandom. I'm trying to explore the way these stories and their authors are reacted to, what's wrong with that, and what would be better, basically. If nothing else, I am trying to start a conversation. You can find the essay: here on DW and here on LJ.

I posted this at a suggestion to hooked_on_heroines and it was suggested to me that I could also link it here, so I hope it's relevant or interesting to y'all.

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Female_fest is accepting prompt now!

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:53:16 GMT

Posted by: snowynight

Link: http://female-fest.dreamwidth.org/1419.html (Claiming post)

Description: A multifandom fic and art -fest celebrating the female-centric relationship in fandom.

Sign-up date/deadline:The claiming period starts from 25th of June to 9th of July

Due date: No later than September 14

Posting date: 14 August- 14 September

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Holmesian Community

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:13:10 GMT

Posted by: pendrecarc

"Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one of his problems...."

- "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

Signal boost, crossposted to hooked_on_heroines:

furtherinterest is a community for recs, fic posts, and discussion focusing on women and gender in all Sherlock Holmes-inspired fandoms. Stop by if it sounds like your sort of thing!

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ladiesbigbang 2011

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:22:53 GMT

Posted by: trascendenza

ladiesbigbang: a female-centric panfanwork big bang challenge.
Optional sign-ups open June 1-30th, final drafts due October 1st.
sign-ups: creators | cheerleaders | betas
info: minimums | rules & guidelines | pinch hitting

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Female_fest is accepting prompt now!

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:46:05 GMT

Posted by: snowynight

female_fest is a fest celebrating various shades of female-centric relationship. Femslash and yuri are not only welcome, but also strongly encouraged! It's currently accepting prompt here.

Important Dates:

Prompting: From Now til Mid-June
Claiming: June 25 - July 9
Posting: August14 - September 14

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Escape Routes for a Stormy Night (HP fandom: Amelia Bones/Poppy Pomfrey)

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 04:33:26 GMT

Posted by: woldy

Title: Escape Routes for a Stormy Night
Author: woldy
Pairing: Amelia Bones/Poppy Pomfrey
Rating: R
Word Count: ~5,300 words
Summary: The checklist for dealing with Death Eater attacks has been drilled into every Ministry employee: wand; family; escape routes.
Warnings: character death.
Author's Notes: The central character (Amelia Bones) and her partner are minor female characters from canon. Written for lash_larue as part of hp_beholder. Many thanks to my beta, kelly_chambliss, for whipping this into shape; all remaining errors are my own.

Read it at HP_Beholder (on IJ), on my DW, or at the A03.

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Marvel comics: By Name (Nina Price, Lilith)

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:35:00 GMT

Posted by: snowynight

Title: By Name
Author: snowynight
Fandom: Marvel comics
Characters: Nina Price, Lilith
Rating: G
Summary: Fighting in a fantasy realm is hardly on the priority list of Nina, Vampire by Night, but at least Lilith's here.
Warnings: none
Word Count: 123
Disclaimer: Characters and situations are the property of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. No profit is being made off this fan-written work.
Link : By Name

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Vorkosigan OFC fic

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 06:47:24 GMT

Posted by: staranise

I've written/am writing/will write Vorkosigan fic about Miles's non-canonical younger sister, Olivia. There's one fic up at the AO3:

Inside Safe Circling Walls (2002 words) by staranise
Fandom: Vorkosigan Saga - Bujold
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Gregor Vorbarra, Olivia (Naismith) Vorkosigan
Summary:

A teenage Gregor proposes an entirely Vorish solution to common childhood problems.

I'm also writing commentfic as an end-of-term treat to myself, and have reposted some Olivia ficlets here.

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