General Discussion and Recs

[yb]

hm... now that is frustrating...

What about finished stories?  It seems to be a trend in the fandom now - stories that have been under construction for many many months and unfinished.

Yeah, there are a few writers who have decided to lock their journal for friends only.  Apart from the privacy issue, I think it might also be due to the subject of the stories which are challenging to some readers, so it's better to lock them for those who are willing to read those stories with open minds.

About finished stories, I'll recommend Minchout's 'The Only Thing That's Real', but she's also locked her journal.

I would also recommend Wannabebrit's 'The Ties That Bind' which souxi has already recommended in above.  It's a story about S&M and had received some backlash at the beginning but I think it has died down. 

[mvansand76]

  It's a story about S&M and had received some backlash at the beginning but I think it has died down. 

Mmmm.... Brokeback slash receiving some backlash... now there's a tongue breaker.   

I would recommend my own story, but I am a modest type of girl... LOL!

Lately I have been focusing on writing, so I am not reading much, but I absolutely adore the following stories:

Camden Yards (even if it takes forever to update... I'm hooked and dying for a new chapter
In Plain Sight (in fact, I am gonna make a thread for that one)
Best Friends Forever (miss them...)
You and me & a dog named flea
Dead Petals

[mariez]

I'm happy to recommend your story, Mel! 

Right Where You Are  http://rightwhere-u-r.livejournal.com/1313.html 
24 chapters so far and I believe we are heading into the home stretch (I'm guessing a couple more chapters?) - so those of you who are worried about starting WIP's that may not end - no worries here! 

Also:

Quicksilver by fernly (jtsbar at livejournal).  From the author's notes:  Quicksilver is about Jack’s life away from Ennis after their summer on Brokeback – there’re a lot of months and years we never see that I got to wondering about.     A time period and pov not often written about. Exquisite writing. 


Marie

[Scott6373]

I have read three total.  The first one in the month following the film's release, the other two somewhat later.  I don't find AU fanfics very appealing, and have only read and finished two.   One, I finished out of a sense of time invested, and one I completed because I liked it.

Ennis - Probably not the greatest, but definately filled a cavity left in my heart, left by the film experience.

Somebody New - Time Invested, didn't really care for it, but after 1 million pages of lousy dialect I thought I should finish it.

A Love Born From Steel - I liked it.  Genuine charectarization, honest writing, again despite the AU aspect of it, but if I had never heard of BBM in any form I would have enjoyed this.

Strangely enough.  The only "full length" story I wrote was, in the end, an AU.  Go figure...we all sell out for an audience...LOL...eventually.   

[moremojo]

Ennis - Probably not the greatest, but definately filled a cavity left in my heart, left by the film experience.

This has been my favorite so far (admittedly I haven't read extensively in fanfic, and had never even sampled this kind of writing until BBM the movie threw me for such a loop).

I've read some other quite beautiful stories as well, remembering some writings by our Jeff Wrangler, Kea, and outrider with fondness, as well as a couple of others whose links I retrieved via the old IMDb board but whose titles/authors I cannot at the moment recall. I even made a few faltering attempts at fanfic myself, but couldn't sustain the initiative to continue or develop them (I don't think I'm particularly gifted at writing fiction, and am significantly ignorant of the rural life that a good BBM story would require).

[one_of_one]

Hi peeps.

Something that really interests me is the way Jack and Ennis are portrayed in various fanfics.  I tend to read AU!AUs now because the characters therein are so far removed from the originals that there hardly seems to be a connection and thus can be read as more or less original stories. 

I have a problem with fics that are touted as canon because  I don't believe anyone can write true canon and I severely doubt that even EA Proulx could do so now, ten years after the event.  I don't think there is a single fanfic out there where I can truly believe that the original Jack and Ennis would act the way the authors portray them, whether it's canon, AU, or AU!AU.

My view has changed over the past eighteen months, time was when I *could* see connections and likelihoods.  Now I don't.  And all the time I read comments such as "you really keep them in character" or whatnot...well, I no longer get it.

I wonder if anyone feels the same...or disagrees...or even has just been wondering about this aspect of fanfiction?

[louisev]

I read and liked "Ennis: A Sequel", but it got some bad press about burning the shirts.  I thought that the attempt to portray Ennis falling into a new relationship in a new job late in life was a realistic way for his life to move on and I enjoyed it.

I've read and enjoyed everything you wrote down there, Scott - what's that say?

Oh, and I read and enjoyed "Big Boots of Pain" up until the Scotland plot.  The ice fishing scene and Ennis's illness were heartbreaking and excellently done.

[moremojo]

I wonder if anyone feels the same...or disagrees...or even has just been wondering about this aspect of fanfiction?

I think the Ennis of Ennis behaves in a way thoroughly consistent with the Ennis we saw in the movie. That alone was enough to engender my admiration, but the author also showed Ennis learning from his time with Jack, and incorporating those lessons in his ongoing life and new relationships. And again, he showed the character behaving thus in a way that seemed to be a natural outgrowth of the character that Annie, Ang, and company presented.

I've said before that if a movie sequel were to ever be done for BBM (heresy, I know, and I would prefer it not to happen), I think Ennis would be a fine story to adapt for such purposes.

[louisev]

My view has changed over the past eighteen months, time was when I *could* see connections and likelihoods.  Now I don't.  And all the time I read comments such as "you really keep them in character" or whatnot...well, I no longer get it.

I wonder if anyone feels the same...or disagrees...or even has just been wondering about this aspect of fanfiction?

oh, I definitely agree with you there.  Every author has their own vision, and one thing that always annoyed me more than a little was the vastly different reconstructions of the dialect.  There was a little "guide to Brokeback Dialect" that someone posted a while back on DC forum, and I felt very proud of myself for having followed a good many of those in my own fan fic.  However, since my story was heavily dialogue (unlike Annie Proulx's) I made some enhancements to it and that seemed to keep me thinking about the place and time.  Also, I had plenty of exposure to the rural dialect of the area I lived in (rural eastern Arizona) and I borrowed some of that.  But back to characterization - one thing that was borrowed directly from Heath Ledger was the taciturn mumbling and grunting of Ennis that did not exist in the original story, so ... which canon is which?  There is more than one source from which to draw, and a lot of people have used as signature images or quotations items put in by the screenplay that were not in the original.  So even if one identifies "canon" as a single source, there is still the issue you point out Helen.  Most definitely.

[one_of_one]

Vic is a very underrated writer

Hope you don't mind me quoting you, but I've read it a couple of times recently and am wondering just what is meant by this.   

For me, it means an author or a story that is off the radar.  For instance, the story "Ennis" that was just quoted - I haven't even heard of it.  And if it's good but unknown then that's what I would call underrated. 

Vic has always had a good readership and a good number of responses to her story.  Underrated isn't a word I would use to describe her and her stories.

I guess I am just confused, and apologies for picking you out to ask you about this!