writing questions

[tielan]

YA novel - 1st or 3rd person? I know the current convention is for 1st, but I've written about 25K in 3rd until I suddenly realised it might be better in 1st. Thing is, I'm not used to writing 1st person.

Avengers - What's the fandom like? I know there's a huge Steve/Tony contingent, although the het fans are going for Clint/Natasha, and the genners are all OMG!TEAM, but...other characters? Tropes? Writing conventions? Things-that-fandom-really-won't-let-you-get-away-with?

Comments

things I've noticed from reading

[ailelie]

There is some Tony-Bruce either as a ship or close friendship.

Some people seem to think that Steve is Bambi. These *seem* to be dying out, but that may just be a factor of what I choose to read.

Coulson exists. Often without any explanation whatsoever.

Darcy Lewis is often still included. Sometimes without even Jane as excuse.

The three major Clint ships I've see are Clint/Natasha, Clint/Coulson, and (this may just be due to my enjoyment of Darcy fics...) Clint/Darcy.

Superhusbands Tony/Steve
SuperFamily MOST OFTEN Tony/Steve with Peter as son/protoge/ward. It can however refer to any unconventional family formed of the heroes

The Hulk will like and protect whoever Bruce ends up falling for, sometimes even before Bruce falls.

Any child born to a team member will be raised by the entire team, whether the parents like it or not.

Honestly, I've avoided most of the Clint/Natasha het. I prefer Natasha/Steve or Natasha/Bruce. And I prefer Darcy ships over both. (I can't read Clint ships. I've very little idea regarding his character and the fics I've tried haven't help. It's like Person/BlankSlate. So now I just avoid).

Of Betty, Jane, Pepper, Sif, and Peggy, Betty is the one least used or referenced. (In order, Pepper, Jane, Sif/Peggy tied, Betty).

If Clint and Natasha aren't together romantically, they are best friends.

Writers often decide what of Norse mythology is true and what is made up or exaggerated.

[beatrice_otter]

On perspective: Patricia C. Wrede, one of my favorite YA authors, has a blog where she talks about writing and recently posted on point of view issues.
http://pcwrede.com/blog/old-ways-of-looking-at-viewpoint/

On Avengers: you have to remember that Avengers was a fandom long before the recent spate of movies. Sure, the specific team of Avengers seen on screen is not the same team as in the comic books (Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym are both missing, for example), but all of the characters already existed in the Marvelverse. (Well. Except for Darcy? I think?) So you've got comics fans putting lots of comics stuff into their movieverse fics, and movie fics who at least know a little bit of the comicverse and know how to use wikipedia to mine the more interesting plot points, and then you have people who know nothing about the comics and couldn't care less. So, there is a wide variation in fanon (depending on how much comic!canon and fanon they use).

Loki is a woobie. In most fics he's in, the fact that he actually did kill people on his rampage through New York is kinda handwaved away.

As for slash, Clint/Coulson has been strong for a while even though the share like, no screen time. Since Avengers came out, Bruce/Tony has blossomed. Femslashers are all over the Pepper/Natasha. Thor/Jane is often a background ship for everything. Coulson didn't die, that was just Fury trying to motivate them. Darcy is Awesome, and paired with (in declining order of frequency): Clint, Loki, and Steve. She is also often the one who gets the team to bond outside of fights; she is often Coulson's secretary as an excuse for her to work at SHIELD. Darcy is also often the one who is given the task of acclimatizing Steve to the 21st Century (history, technology, etc.)

If you have a yen to write Steve, I recommend cap_chronism, a DW com for researching what his life would have been like growing up in the '30s.

[thothmes]

I happen to like and be comfortable writing in 1st, but I also know that when I read something that is written in 1st, and the author is not comfortable with it and it comes out being a bit forced, that I really don't like that. There is also the issue of limiting information, because you have to have a narrator with direct experience for all of it.

I'd say go with what you are comfortable with. You are a very good writer, so I doubt that you would really have trouble writing convincingly from a 1st person POV. I'm sure you could carry it off in style. Still, better to write something that flows and comes naturally to you, than to obey the current convention simply because it is convention, and end up with something that has a little less sparkle or flow.

Either way you decide, I'm sure you'll do a good job with it, and an editor is looking for something that flows and that kids can get lost in, so that's the most important part.