Snowflake Challenge 2023: Challenge #11

[mrsluigivargas]

Challenge #11

In your own space, talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.

I hardly ever think of things in terms of tropes, so this was a bit tricky!

I write a lot of fluff, so I guess that's something I really enjoy. It's nice seeing calmer/sillier snapshots of a character's life. It makes them feel more alive, in turn. And even if the story is really simple, you can still learn a lot about a character and their relationships with other people based on what they do and how they react to things! Back when I watched more anime I liked the slice-of life and sports ones the best, because everything was pretty low stakes, and we got to spend time with the characters and learn about them and watch them grow as people and it was all very heartwarming. And of course there were usually found family vibes, too, which is another trope I like.

I find that when I'm reading fics and the emotional or physical stakes start getting higher I'm always metaphorically tapping at my wristwatch like, 'alright, this is cool, but when are we gonna get back to the characters just hanging out and chatting?' I've actually dropped shows because they show a disinclination to returning to the low-stakes character interaction-filled romps that they started as (SPOP, VLD, and TAZ: Amnesty, to name a few). Idk after a point conflict becomes boring, especially when it just keeps piling on and circling around itself for longer than it has to, or when it escalates too quickly without earning it (you can't just suddenly go up to saving the world/universe if there's no framework to make me care about saving, like, the characters' hometowns or anything, you know?). Why waste time with that when we could just skip to the end and watch everyone come together and pick up the pieces, instead? There are far more interesting and varied stories in that, to me. The conflict's just a means to get there.

It's a similar thing with hurt/comfort…I did a little bit of Whumptober last year, where whump is something that focuses on the hurt a lot more, and even then I was writing the hurt solely for the comfort. Hell, I downscaled the whump from my original ideas by a lot to make it easier for everyone to be okay by the end of the story, because it didn’t seem like there was a point to them all getting hurt, otherwise. There's gotta be comfort! Otherwise I'm just left sitting with the hurt and then I get frustrated because I can't do anything about it :/ (if I wanted to feel like that I'd just go read the news, lol). I like hurt/comfort especially when it’s a character that doesn’t get comforted a lot if ever that suddenly is, or when it's someone who doesn’t comfort a lot having to venture outside their comfort zone to do so, or when the person doing the comforting doesn't really like the person that got hurt or vice versa yet the comforting happens anyway. Those variants are always fascinating.

Sickfic is something I've been reading recently, as well; I feel like it's something that can marry fluff and hurt/comfort in an interesting way. Especially if what the character's sick with is, like, a cold or allergies or something only mildly concerning at best. I've been reading a lot of RokettoMusashi's sickfic; they've got a lot of well-written and heartwarming stuff that simultaneously provides really fun insights to the characters they write and their relationships to each other. When I wrote my sickfic, I used theirs as inspiration, haha.

Comments

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks for sharing! There is something comforting about low-stakes fluff. It can be so much fun

[snowynight]

I like character moments that allow them to develop relationship and give us insight about the characters. That's why I love writing and reading fluff.

Stoic character given unexpected but deserved comfort and awkward people giving comfort are great taste that go well together.

[svgurl]

I love sickfic too and you're right about how it combines fluff and h/c perfectly, especially when it is low stakes.

[silveradept]

Fluff is great, especially for a canon that wants to ratchet things up or a fandom that looks to create things that are higher stakes. Sometimes you want to look at something where there isn't any world-saving emergency or even a whole lot of conflict that needs resolving.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I write a lot of fluff, so I guess that's something I really enjoy.<<

One of my favorite bingo communities was Cottoncandy Bingo, which now runs as a fest on allbingo. The prompt lists are in the Bingo Card Generator if you want them.

>> 'alright, this is cool, but when are we gonna get back to the characters just hanging out and chatting?' <<

LOL, I write a lot of that. If you're into the Avengers, check out Love Is For Children.

>> Idk after a point conflict becomes boring, especially when it just keeps piling on and circling around itself for longer than it has to, or when it escalates too quickly without earning it <<

A lot of people nowadays don't understand plot dynamics. Me, I learned the hurt/comfort ratchet from Master Tolkien. If you apply comfort after each action peak -- and he's quite meticulous about this in the books, even though the screen versions aren't -- then you can crank the tension MUCH higher without breaking either characters or audience. I find this more satisfying. Like you, if the dial turns up to 11 and stays there, I get bored quickly.

>> Otherwise I'm just left sitting with the hurt and then I get frustrated because I can't do anything about it <<

The only time I tend to write hurt-no-comfort is when it's a setup as part of a series and I have to break things so they aren't too long or there is a time gap. So for instance, I've got one poem that is basically about most of a refugee's family drowning. O_O There isn't anything to be done about at it at the time. But later on, he winds up with new found-family who don't expect him or his screaming baby to be okay after what happened to them, and things slowly get better. And in cases like this, I typically warn "hurt no comfort, the comfort will come later."

>> if I wanted to feel like that I'd just go read the news, lol <<

That's one reason I quit watching the news years ago. I'm just not into emotional squick.

>> I like hurt/comfort especially when it’s a character that doesn’t get comforted a lot if ever that suddenly is, <<

I particularly enjoy this when the character has feels like "Why are you being nice to me?" / "Why do you care?"

>> or when it's someone who doesn’t comfort a lot having to venture outside their comfort zone to do so<<

I just got commissioned to write one of these, and the scramble to help is adorable. The first part is posted but it's not all up yet.

>>Sickfic is something I've been reading recently<<

I like it best when it shows how to take care of someone who feels like crap. A lot of folks don't get that growing up anymore, and can relate to characters floundering their way through it. Another interesting variation is the flip side where the loner is sick and doesn't know what to do with a competent person taking care of them, or where someone has concrete reasons for their bad associations that have to be worked through.

Re: Thoughts

[mrsluigivargas]

I've never done a bingo before! It looks cool! I'll defo check that out when I'm hankering for ideas~

Oh, and I think I remember reading Love is For Children…ages ago, wow. Maybe I should figure out where I left off…what I remember reading was nice!

Your hurt/comfort variations of my hurt/comfort variations are also very good~ (and the poem you linked is really good, too!)
And yeah the lack of knowledge of how to care for people is super true; I got to write some sickfic of my own in the latter half of last year and it really struck me how limited my knowledge of caretaking is. Granted, I rarely get sick, so it wasn’t like I had much inspiration to draw from, but most of what I came up with had to be pulled from other sickfics and quick internet searches. Otherwise my fic would have just been like. Alternating between sleeping and staring dazedly at a computer screen with a big glass of water, which wasn’t what I was going for, lmao. It would, admittedly, make for an interesting character study or something, though.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I've never done a bingo before! It looks cool! I'll defo check that out when I'm hankering for ideas~ <<

Yay! It's a fun community, low-pressure, high-inspiration. The Bingo Card Maker will generate single prompts or cards from 2x2 through 7x7, and there are many stored prompt lists.

>>Oh, and I think I remember reading Love is For Children…ages ago, wow. Maybe I should figure out where I left off…what I remember reading was nice!<<

It's still going, so there should be new stuff for you to enjoy.

>>Your hurt/comfort variations of my hurt/comfort variations are also very good~<<

Yay!

>> (and the poem you linked is really good, too!) <<

I'm glad you liked it.

>>Otherwise my fic would have just been like. Alternating between sleeping and staring dazedly at a computer screen with a big glass of water, which wasn’t what I was going for, lmao. It would, admittedly, make for an interesting character study or something, though.<<

It'd work for some characters who refuse to admit they're sick and want to keep working.