mpoetess and a subject line from obsessedmuch. I love cataloguing myself....Jossverse pairings I write & have written
Stories:
Spike/Buffy
Willow/Tara
Buffy/Riley
Xander/Anya
Spike/Xander
Willow/Oz
Willow/OFC
(As a side note, I thought seriously for a long time about writing Dawn/Giles into noir, but I think I've safely moved away from that idea now, so I guess I can spill those beans.)
Snippets, Drabbles, & Challenges:
Spike/Riley
Spike/Giles
Spike/Angel
Spike/Lorne
Spike/Willow
Riley/Giles
Xander/Lindsey
Xander/Riley
Tara/Anya
Spike/Wes
Spike/Anya/Xander
Mere Fantasy:
Spike/Riley/Xander
Spike/Wes/Xander
Spike/Lindsey
Spike/Gunn
Spike/Fraser (dS)
So, right, what does this say about me as a writer? Very into canon. Most BtVS slash doesn't make it from my head to the page. Will, however, pair Spike with anyone, the shiny little whore. Little to no interest in femme slash. Also not much interest in Faith, Ethan, Cordelia, Fred, Dawn, Dru, Darla, et al, as romantic characters. Can go both ways with Willow: Oz and Tara, equally fine. Bifictional in other areas too. Am no B/A shipper, though I take their history for granted when writing.
But my writing tastes--even my fantasy tastes--don't perfectly reflect my reading tastes. As a reader I have favorite pairings, but I often have a flavor-of-the-month thing going on at any given time, so my focus can vary a lot. Like, I still love Spike/Buffy, but I don't go looking for it so much anymore, don't pounce on every new story, don't read it as widely. With Spike/Xander, I'll pounce on anything. Spike/Wes is my flavor of the month, so ditto. I am inclined to pay attention to Wes/Gunn, Spike/Angel, Angel/Lindsey, and Angel/Wes. And S/X/Anya is a menage a trois that still hasn't been done full justice--I mean, it seems so ready-made, and yet there aren't that many good stories.
Despite the insanity, I would love to read a Spike/Lorne story that was well-written, plotted, funny, plausible, canonical in feel, and would make everyone in fandom sit up and go *whoa*. Notice I don't want to *write* it. I'm saying, I want to reeeeeeeeead it.
I have all sorts of weird, idiosyncratic opinions on pairings based on whatever I've read to date, and now I will offend you all with them. Like, Xander/Angel is rarely of interest to me; I just find it hard to believe that Angel would ever latch onto Xander that way, except as Angelus, to torment him for a while before killing him--and even then, we've seen his absolute disgust when Dru was all bewitched and bothered over the boy. Plus it's a pairing with a huge, uncomfortable power imbalance and while you might *think* I would like that, I find Angel's brand of power overbearing. Again, this is why I'm a late convert to Spike/Angel and why I'm inclined toward stories where Angel is protective and perhaps uncharacteristically kind to Spike, even though I am willing to believe that in canon reality, Angel mostly dislikes him.
Buffy/Xander seems to be a favored pairing of fanboys, and there can be a certain whiff of Gary Sue to some B/X stories. Not all. I've read a few good ones.
Buffy/Spike/Angel isn't really a thing of mine. And I think I'm realizing now, just this moment, that I'm not into love triangles. I find the emotions predictable and not all that interesting, and I think a strong love-triangle vibe--admittedly based in canon--often underlies B/S/A. Jealously, Spike and Angel scrapping, Buffy the uneasy object of their affections, readers placing bets and trying to decide who is the more manly man. Yawn. I like threeway relationships that are all shmoop and usually all slash. (Except for S/X/A, which is all sex.) I especially like threeway ships where one character is all damaged and needy and the other two are all big-brotherly and chivalrous. Except, with the hot man-sex, not so brotherly.
I can see Giles/Buffy if I tilt my head a certain way; I find Giles slash more likely. He's so obviously bisexual; coded that way in canon. I have a sneaky fondness for Giles/Oz, can see Giles/Spike even though Giles might loathe him, and don't see Giles/Xander at all, though I know others do.
Things like my sad Spike/Lorne yen should keep me more or less humble, but even so I sometimes scoff a little scoff at pairings on the far end of unconventional spectrum; when a Connor/Dawn shipper list was announced a long while back, I cried, "What? the? fuck?!" (Sorry.) But then there's always at least one writer who will offer up a great story with a pairing you never see coming, like that Spike/Fred WIP I totally can't remember the title of (very sorry!), written well before Spike was even a gleam in the eye of the AtS writing staff. I'll read pretty much anything at least once, and one great story is usually all it takes to slap me upside the head and give me respect for a ship. (E.g., Spike/Andrew.)
I've just realized...I was agreeing earlier with
thamiris that "...I don't even need outright critical comments to go into fits of insane insecurity; the proximity of others' general likes and dislikes is enough." And here I am posting in just that vein, guaranteed to twist at least some of you fellow neurotics into anxious fits. Maybe. Anyway...I don't know why I'm here today. Talking about meaningless stuff like this distracts me from my existential post-lunch crisis. When I go home tonight I'll have to ride my laptop for a few more hours to make up for my shirked work. Because I'm a wonderful employee.