gallantrejoinder - Tumblr blog

[gallantrejoinder]

One of the hard parts about being a writer with a vivid imagination is that there are So Many Ideas, and they fall into so many categories, such as

Fics I want to write

Fics I want to read

There is just One Scene and I could write it but it would be waaaay more cool if I had all the build up to the scene but unfortunately. I can only figure out the Scene

I keep changing my mind. Where am I going with this

This has been done a million times before. But. Hear me out

I will 100% Never Write This. This is just my Emotional Support Idea no one can ever know about bc it makes sense only to me

Would be better as a comic...

This will be my magnum opus if I can just get my 50 pages of ideas into a coherent narrative

All I have are vibes

And, of course

WIP I started and haven't updated in 2 years and oh god its beEN TWO YEARS???

[gallantrejoinder]

“Are you asking … if you … as Ace … in a dream I had, twenty years ago … were a good kisser?”

Welp, I’ve found my favourite Red Dwarf fic writer. 🔥🔥😭

Peachy, by gallantrejoinder

[gallantrejoinder]

Fic writers!! Go to your works page on AO3, open up the filters, and tell me

(mine is Explicit at the top, followed by Teen+, Mature, and then Gen. Haven't ever posted with the No Rating selected option)

[gallantrejoinder]

Nothin’ more humbling the rereading the first fanfic you wrote

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PORN WRITERS OF AO3

the #author wants to hear about dead batteries tag has always kinda bugged me, in part because i suspect porn writers who don't want comments about readers getting off to their porn are a small minority of porn writers, which would mean that the norm should be it's cool to comment "do you know how much i masturbate to this", and authors who don't want those comments can have their own tag instead.

but i am speculating wildly, so please reblog and give me some data!

[gallantrejoinder]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[gallantrejoinder]

[gallantrejoinder]

Writing patterns tag game!

Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!

tagged by @redgoldblue - thanks!

“Are you okay?” (Hose Him Down and Give Him an Excuse)

Rimmer’s first instinct, on the morning that Lister fell directly out of his bunk and onto his arse, was not to laugh. (Deluded)

Once upon a time, there lived a young boy named Svlad Cjelli. (Your Heart, Found at Last)

Diarmuid was always a sickly child. (Water and Wine)

Any producer, executive, or agent in the industry will tell you that the thing about Diarmuid Ainsley is this: he’s got it all. (Set Aside the Highlight Reel)

An angel (who’d barely qualified as such) and a demon (who’d slept in and missed the Holy War, Falling by default), stood atop the wall that surrounded the garden of Eden, watching the first two human beings make their way into the desert. (With Respect Sir, What's in it for the Humans?)

The transformation from plastic doll to fully-realized human being doesn't happen all at once. (The Care and Keeping of You!)

Smegging psirens. (Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille)

From: Pip hey r u still crushing on that poet? (RE: RE: RE: Your Secret Mysterious Poet Identity)

“Hey,” Lister says suddenly, “Rimmer.” (Fall Through the Floor With Me)

I straight up cannot tell what the hell the pattern is here. Someone smarter than me figure it out. It's either dialogue or a long fucking sentence?

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Why fic no climb out of my head and lie down in paper? Why must I write fic? ☹

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This is why I read the reddit comments

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looking for fics about your favorite character on ao3 be like:

dont care

dont care

dont care

what the actual fuck

dont care

ooh that sounds- what the fuck

unfinished

don't care

the best fic ive ever read in my life. this absolutely ruined me and ill never be the same ever again

dont care

[gallantrejoinder]

“Is it okay if I draw fanart of your fanfic?👉🏼👈🏼”

My brother in Christ we shall have a spring wedding

[gallantrejoinder]

#sometimes you have to meet the characters where theyre at and accept that theyd have a very different definition of consent to you via @cemeterything

When I’m reading smut and the author breaks the flow of the story so that the characters can tell us that they have enthusiastic consent it feels exactly like when Dora the Explorer looks directly into the camera and says ‘Seat belts so we can be safe!’ anytime she gets into a motorized vehicle.

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Reminder that people can see your bookmark names and tags etc unless you bookmark it as private

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just found fanfic written on clay tablets in cuneiform and then the pictures were uploaded to ao3 the good omens fandom is insane

[gallantrejoinder]

feeling this one rn