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The joys and woes of hurt/comfort
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maspalio requested a Londo and G’Kar h/c fic, which is coming along rather nicely, and has been bringing me lots of writerly joy! However, now that I’m nearing the finish, the Great Inescapable Question inevitably poses itself: is the stuff I wrote any good? Which in turn leads to another question, one I see popping up time and again but that is seldom properly answered: what does make a good h/c fic, anyway?
Or, no, maybe I should rephrase that to: is there any such thing as a good hurt/comfort fic? Because – well, let’s be fair here: not everyone seems convinced of that. In fact, “h/c equals badfic” is right over on the big heap of cliché objections to genres, along with “gen is boring”, “slash is icky” and “het is Mary Sue”. Now, I can understand perfectly that not everyone is into everything; a type of fic loved to death by reader A can be reader B’s absolute squick, and simply not do anything for reader C at all. Personally, it took me a long time to give slash a chance, and even now (though there are exceptions *g*) I tend to leave the explicit well enough alone. And that’s fine, isn’t it? But why do we have the tendency to take our own dislikes and preferences and try to squeeze everyone else into them, expecting they'd make a good fit? Regarding h/c specifically – the most extensive piece of meta I read about that was a ten-page long essay (okay, so I skimmed, not read it) meticulously explaining why all h/c is supposedly bad quality, the main argument being that the meta author defined h/c as a type of fic that portrays excessive angst in an inherently OOC and canon-defying manner. Hence, all h/c is rubbish; point proven. Which is not really a fair argument in any way; I mean, come on!
So, assuming we leave aside the assumption that h/c is bad by definition – what does it take to write a good story in the genre? First of all, what is “good”, really? In any case, “good” is not simply “anything people like (except for those with bad taste)”. Apart from the fact that “bad taste” is a touchy concept in itself, plenty of people dislike things that are considered qualitatively “good”, or love things that can be considered “bad”. Take music for example –some rather awful songs have been made over the past few decades, but some of those I like anyway: because they bring back memories, or they have a nice rhythm, or they just plain make me feel happy, for no reason at all. With fics, it’s the same thing; so, “good” does not necessarily equal “popular”, and vice versa. Point in case: FanFiction.net proves without a doubt that plenty of people like awfully written mpreg (with which I’m not implying that all mpreg is afwully written, as really, I wouldn’t know – but there is certainly bad mpreg, and it is being liked). Similarly, plenty of people like awfully written h/c... So: easy, huh? Except that my ambition isn’t to write a popular story, but a decent one (though I won’t lie and claim I don’t want it both, if I could *g*). Thus, the question still remains.
One could argue that a good h/c fic story is one that fits into a larger narrative. One where h/c isn’t the objective of the story, but rather a means to an end. The same could be said about fluff, or pr0n, or any other specific sub-genre really. And the argument would make perfect sense, except that some of the best fics I’ve read do not fit that description at all. In fact, I have an endless admiration for fic writers who manage a story that is pure fluff, or pwop, or h/c, without making any excuse for the inherent cliché-ness of that premise, and proceeding to execute said premise in such a way that it leaves me utterly astounded at their skill. (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
penknife is such a writer, andrastewhite is another, and I’m sure there are plenty more around!)
So, if plot isn’t a prerequisite, then what is? Characterization is certainly a part of it, at least to me: I love my canon, and I do not want my favorite character to turn into a blubbering wimp at the first sign of trouble. Nor do I want characters who are known for their mutual snarking to swoon into each other’s arms without a very plausible excuse. Realism? That’s harder. Personally, I don’t need a fic to be entirely plausible in every way in order to enjoy it – though there are limits, of course, and I prefer at least some solid basis for my suspension of disbelief. Then there’s also the fact that I’m really not so much for the comfort-sex thing, particularly not when the hurt has been physical or (god forbid!) sexual in nature. There is at least some physical exercise involved in a good display of lovemaking, so a character that has just been stabbed, beaten, mind-raped and left out to freeze will most likely not be capable and/or interested.
But the main thing for a h/c fic, in my opinion, is dosage. You want your story to have a point, so, just like with a good joke, you don’t give away too much in advance. Oh, you can slip in some teasers, of course, as that’s really half of the fun – but you don’t put your readers through a pages-long angstfest, just to have them discover that, by the time you reach your oh-so-carefully-prepared emotional climax, they simply can’t be bothered anymore. (In fact, overdosing on the hurt was of my main gripes with Peter David’s B5 Centauri Trilogy: the first book, at least to me, read somewhat like a 200-page Londo h/c – only minus the “c”.) So: lay it on gently. It’s no use spilling all the beans before you’re halfway through. And, of course, a lot depends on the characters you’re working with: realistically, a Londo & Vir h/c could be much “comforty-er” (is that a word?) than a Londo & G’Kar one.
What do you think makes for good h/c; what do you expect from a story like that? If anyone has some good ones to recommend, that’s very welcome too! It would seem there are presently no Londo and G'Kar h/c fics in existence at all, which I find very strange indeed. Have I missed some, maybe?
About the one I'm writing: will you believe I’m not quite sure if I’ll find the courage to have it beta’ed? Not because it’s bad, because it really isn't; I'm even kind of proud of it, in a way. But... Well, for some reason, having this one picked apart by a beta would make me feel more – vulnerable? Is that the word I'm looking for? – than I feel about other types of stories. Mostly, I guess, because showing people some of your fantasies (no matter how small, and no matter how innocent) is a scary, scary thing. And h/c is, perhaps, more about fantasies than a regular fic. Does that make sense, or is it just me?
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As for h/c in general: yes, dosage is key. Also, the comfort must be in balance to the hurt: what I mean is not that there must be equal of both, but that if someone is, say, raped, to use of of the trickiest and most popular fanfic clichés, I just don't believe an ending where this person is just fine and dandy after receiving comfort from character x. (Certainly not sexual comfort, but that's another issue. Let's say we're talking about strictly emotional comfort here.) I could, however, believe raped character y to have some hope in the future again depending on how her/his interaction with x is written and of course depending on what types of characters they are in general. Or say someone loses a child, either in canon or in the story. That's not going to go away ever. I'd be more inclined to believe a h/c story where the parent is beginning to deal with this kind of loss due to the help of character x than a story which tries to sell me on the healing being completely accomplished. Etc.
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From you're "There is no sex, true" - should I read that to mean that most people expect sex in a h/c story? Because I'm mostly on the other side of the fence, I think, except in some rare cases where the writer is skilled enough to convince me otherwise.
Yes, I agree: dosage, balance, those are the things that sell it to me, as well. A good plot is a plus, but not essential - though that, too, mostly hinges on the skill of the writer; it's harder to get it right when you don't have a plot to rely on, as style and characterization should do all the work. Maybe that's why I'm so twitchy about writing, um - well, this thing it is I'm writing now. There's no real plot, and the premise was fixed by the request (which was, essentially, for h/c on Centauri Prime in s5, involving another attempt on Londo's life), so dialogue and backstory are really all I have to work with. In fact, I would never have had the courage to post something like that if it hadn't been a request - meaning the request was a good thing (or could be, depending on what comes out :) ). Do you have any stories that you wrote on request or as response to ficathon promts, that you'd otherwise never have written, but liked anyway when they were finished?
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I got the impression, but then again, it was by fannish osmosis rather than direct questioning and polls. Maybe I'm wrong about other people's expectations, of course. My own, like yours, tend to be that it's the exception rather than the rule when an author can convince me people want to have sex under these circumstances.
Do you have any stories that you wrote on request or as response to ficathon promts, that you'd otherwise never have written, but liked anyway when they were finished?
Abso-fraggin-lutely, as Delenn would say. The Remix Redux ficathon, for example, caused me to write Survival (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4220540/1/Survival); while I enjoyed watching the tv series Rome, I otherwise wouldn't have written fanfiction set in it, being too married to direct historical fiction set in that era.
Oh, and lastly, for something purely B5: Visiting Hour (http://selenak.livejournal.com/254488.html) was written for a B5 ficathon where my prompt had been “Anna/Morden, something that’s both fucked up and includes Morden’s family in some way, be it as a comment or a reason for his actions”. The later was a clear allusion to the tie-in novel The Shadow Within, featuring what I nicknamed Woobie!Morden. (He did it all to save his family.) An idea I loathe. And even if I didn't, Anna/Morden would not have been something I ordinarily would have thought of. And there was the not so small issue that any Anna/Morden taking place after she got modified by the Shadows and before her death would have been non-con, as she hardly was in a position to knowingly consent to sex in that state. Which would have fit the criteria "fucked up" but presumably not in the way the prompter had wished for, plus I didn't want to write it. (Not into rape fic, me.) So the challenge was to me to write something I could believe without compromising my own view of the character while also writing something to make the prompter happy. I'm pretty proud of the result.
Strangely, I still can't find anything remotely h/c in your stories for the pairing - except if you'd count that kissage snippet you just added to the list.
*g* My big B5 hurt/comfort story is Miracles for Londo and Vir. I think generally speaking I have elements of hurt and comfort in stories but usually mixed and mingled with other story needs.
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Hmm, looks like I should start digging through your Multiverse output sometime... *g* I have to admit I haven't read any of the stories you mentioned, apart from Miracles (which I liked very much; and yes, when it comes to hurt/comfort Vir is the natural choice to pair - platonically, I mean - with Londo). Your Anna/Morden fic I'm sure I at least skimmed once, but I'm not sure why I never went back to read it entirely; must have slipped my mind somehow. But I'll remedy that! I'll probably wait to read your DS9 stuff until I'm a bit more familiar with the show. Which shouldn't be a problem, as I just bought s2 and s3 on DVD - as well as s2 of New Who, by the way!
First impression of David Tennant, after watching Christmas Invasion: not undisputedly positive (I still feel like he's overdoing it a bit), but much better than I expected! I think I'm going to adjust to him just fine. :) Rose, on the other hand, is starting to irritate me more with every passing second, just as my heart is going out to Mum and Mickey more and more. So now she thinks she's in love with him? Gah. I hope canon doesn't go too far in shipping them, at least? *doubtful look* And, now that we're talking about h/c - I must say I found it very funny, not to say typical, given that Ten is (in appearance, at least) cuter-looking and more "woobifyable" than Nine, the first thing they do is have him faint and spend three-quarters of the episode either unconscious in bed, or delirious. :-) (I can see why they wanted to do it in order to explain regeneration shock, but - really!)
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Regeneration shock: yes, really. The Nine-to-Ten regeneration isn't even the most extreme case. Two-to-Three and Four-to-Five come to mind for lying in bed or elsewhere in delirium for about three quarters of their introduction stories, which due to the different format meant about an hour in screentime at least. The most extreme case so far was Five-to-Six because Six went crazy and tried to strangle his companion. But the fact we don't actually see much of Ten is one of the reasons why I don't like The Christmas Invasion nearly as much as the other Christmas specials.
Rose: has a reality shock coming in episode three which gives Mickey some great scenes (when they meet Sarah Jane, aka a companion of old). As for the shipping, well. She does leave at the end of s2, if that helps.