It's always important to have your warnings in place.

Many people are concerned about what warnings might give away about their stories. Or perhaps the warnings just aren't enough fun.

I so want to see this as the warning system on an archive.

Fic non-progress... Out Of Bounds.

At the moment I am empty-handed on the next scene of Out Of Bounds.

Do we resume on the ice, do I run with the section with Doctor Beckett, or let Rodney's search for outside help jump in there? Yet again the characters have train-wrecked my outline. But as auburnnothenna points out, what do you expect from a story called "Out Of Bounds"?

Hmm. Where it wants to go is 4am, Monday morning, and John's next session on the ice.

Here's a great article in Locus Magazine: Cory Doctorow: In Praise of Fanfic.

This massive fanfic database project... remember when you opened your first fanfic story? You had no idea where to go, where "the good stuff" was (or even that there was a distinction). So you just picked one at random, which is a little like saying, "Hmm. I'd like to read some lit-era-ture" and then grabbing a book at Barnes & Noble and ending up with some celebrity's ghost-written sob story. And it's so bad it nearly sucks out your eyeballs.

We need easy to find rec-lists, so people can hit the good stuff first. Because we who are deep in the fandom know where the good stuff is (though there's always the problem of opening the door to new writers). We surround ourselves with our favorite writers and forget what it's like to walk in blind.


ETA: Great quote from Cory Doctorow -- "Each person who retold Pygmalion did something both original — no two tellings are just alike — and derivative, for there are no new ideas under the sun. Ideas are easy. Execution is hard."