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One thing that sometimes bugs me about reading fanfic is author intent.
I was reading a fic just now that just... didn't really work for me. The reason being was that it started out as an A & B friendship piece, in which my assumption was that A was going to end up helping B with a problem, but instead the story seemed to decide - about halfway toward the end - that it wanted to go in a different direction, in which A & B began discussing character C and then resolved to rescue character C. And that's how the story ends. The reason the story didn't work for me was in part because it went in a direction I wasn't anticipating, but also in part because I got the feeling that the author was either a major A&C friendhsipper or an A/C shipper. And I was right, they were the latter. Which explained why the story went from being about A & B to being about A & C, because whether the author preferred A/C friendship or shipping, it was obvious that they were more focused on A & C in a story that initially had me believing it was about A & B.
Still with me? In other words, author intent kind of, sort of ended up getting in the way of the plot, and that was before I even knew this author's preferences. Yes, A & C were friends at one point but the passion with which character A wanted to go save character C, with B's issue not being resolved, just didn't compute, and the only way it did compute was that the author must be an A/C shipper. Had I been an A/C shipper or friendshipper, however, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. But I'm not, so I found the situation to be a bit jarring.
Which tends to be an issue I often come across when reading gen fic by people who are mostly shippers. Because even when they say a story is gen or slash with your goggles on, even if I go into the story not knowing the author's shipping preferences, there's all these bits and pieces of subtext that make those preferences painfully obvious, sometimes to the point that it feels like this is how the author wants us to read the story. They want us to read slashy or hetty or whatever subtext into the story and acknowledge that it doesn't matter your genre preference, this is the direction the story will eventually go or would have gone had it continued. It's not slash or het, but neither does it feel like gen (which is why I do understand why finding the right labeling for a story is hard... although I'm not always sympathetic with it considering all the baits and switches I've come across. Plus I've always been an either/or kind of person: either make it slash/het or don't; in part - yes - because I'm tired of hitting romance in what was supposed to be gen, but also in part because a story just feels... more tidy when a writer takes a more solid stance when it comes to their preferences. But, again, that's me. Again, either/or kind of person, here, and I do know some people like subtexty stuff that isn't resolved).
ETA: I should also point out that of course author intent finding it's way into a story isn't a shipper thing. You also see it quite a bit in redemption fic (you know, the bad guy is actually good and the good guys are actually creeps who picked on the bad guy), reactionary fic addressing certain episodes and situations, fic by people who don't ship but who love a character or characters to the point of always putting them on a pedestal. And sometimes it's only a little jarring, and sometimes it makes you want to strangle the author :/
I was reading a fic just now that just... didn't really work for me. The reason being was that it started out as an A & B friendship piece, in which my assumption was that A was going to end up helping B with a problem, but instead the story seemed to decide - about halfway toward the end - that it wanted to go in a different direction, in which A & B began discussing character C and then resolved to rescue character C. And that's how the story ends. The reason the story didn't work for me was in part because it went in a direction I wasn't anticipating, but also in part because I got the feeling that the author was either a major A&C friendhsipper or an A/C shipper. And I was right, they were the latter. Which explained why the story went from being about A & B to being about A & C, because whether the author preferred A/C friendship or shipping, it was obvious that they were more focused on A & C in a story that initially had me believing it was about A & B.
Still with me? In other words, author intent kind of, sort of ended up getting in the way of the plot, and that was before I even knew this author's preferences. Yes, A & C were friends at one point but the passion with which character A wanted to go save character C, with B's issue not being resolved, just didn't compute, and the only way it did compute was that the author must be an A/C shipper. Had I been an A/C shipper or friendshipper, however, I probably wouldn't have thought twice about it. But I'm not, so I found the situation to be a bit jarring.
Which tends to be an issue I often come across when reading gen fic by people who are mostly shippers. Because even when they say a story is gen or slash with your goggles on, even if I go into the story not knowing the author's shipping preferences, there's all these bits and pieces of subtext that make those preferences painfully obvious, sometimes to the point that it feels like this is how the author wants us to read the story. They want us to read slashy or hetty or whatever subtext into the story and acknowledge that it doesn't matter your genre preference, this is the direction the story will eventually go or would have gone had it continued. It's not slash or het, but neither does it feel like gen (which is why I do understand why finding the right labeling for a story is hard... although I'm not always sympathetic with it considering all the baits and switches I've come across. Plus I've always been an either/or kind of person: either make it slash/het or don't; in part - yes - because I'm tired of hitting romance in what was supposed to be gen, but also in part because a story just feels... more tidy when a writer takes a more solid stance when it comes to their preferences. But, again, that's me. Again, either/or kind of person, here, and I do know some people like subtexty stuff that isn't resolved).
ETA: I should also point out that of course author intent finding it's way into a story isn't a shipper thing. You also see it quite a bit in redemption fic (you know, the bad guy is actually good and the good guys are actually creeps who picked on the bad guy), reactionary fic addressing certain episodes and situations, fic by people who don't ship but who love a character or characters to the point of always putting them on a pedestal. And sometimes it's only a little jarring, and sometimes it makes you want to strangle the author :/
