By Karahkwa Ross
I recently came across a website (RatB) that had a
challenge called “Understanding Slash.”
The prompt is: write a
description of what your personal relationship with slashfic is.
It goes on to place no limits on what’s be addressed.
The question is one I see way to often for slash writers and I find
myself compelled to try to answer it.
Why do I write slash?
Why would a girl raised in the Southwest (USA) with more of less
traditional values and who attends a private Christian college write slash?
I don’t know, but I guess that what I’m trying to find out.
I first found slash as a freshman in college.
I had a hard time finding friends so I spent a great deal of time on the
Internet. I looked astrology, chess
strategies, anything so I wouldn’t have to go back to my dorm room where my
flaky roommate and I would pointed ignore each other until one of us went to
bed.
For me fanfic was a god-spend. I didn’t have a TV and if I did there were hardly any
channels. But with fanfic, I could
keep up with the series. Sure, I
read a lot of older stuff but I felt like I wasn’t losing the shows I liked to
watch.
Chakotay/Paris was the first fics I ever read.
In fact, it was Mona Ramsey because she was the first link of the CPSG
links page. It was… incredible.
I saw characters in ways I never had before.
My entire view of Voyager changed.
Over the last three years, I’ve gone on to other fandoms
and pairings, but I still come back to C/P when I want to read something.
It’s not the pairing I write, and I know it’s not really the most
popular, but I enjoy it and that’s what matters.
My first fic was in the Pretender. It was a gen fic based on a challenge and I got not a single
message in feedback. I was crushed.
You don’t write fanfic for worldly reasons; that is it’s not about
money or recognition (I don’t use my real name).
You write because you love the show and you want to be a part of it.
Money and fame never come into it because they aren’t options.
But feedback is like ambrosia. Some
one else recognizes your work and thinks enough of it to email you with
comments. I moved on to slash because it’s what I read and because I
knew people got feedback. I was
sending it, I was seeing it on the email lists I was on.
For all the work I put into a fic, I get very little back.
An e-mail here or there of feedback is enough to keep me going, especially when I
know the people I spend my days would never understand why I write slash.
I hate having to warn people away from my site, when, in my mind, all I’m writing
about is two people being in love and all I want is for someone to say “Man,
you really made me think that one” because that’s what fanfic is to me.
So why to I write slash, specifically and almost
exclusively? Several reasons come
to mind. There are very few strong
women in movies and television. And
when there are TPTB turn them into cream-puffs when a romantic interest comes
along. Even though I know I can
keep them strong in my fics, I always see them at their weakness, and I feel no
connection with them. I have work
harder to write slash. Characters
and plots are more developed because it’s more difficult to make something
plausible when we all know that it would never happen on air.
Thirdly, I enjoy it. I get
to imagine two sexy men being caring and affectionate (something that hasn’t
been directed at me, so far, in my life) and I can control it.
I think control is an issue. You
can’t control real people, but you can characters and that can go to your
head.
I’m not the kind of person you expect to see writing slash. I’m straight (as far as I know) young woman with a background disapproves of homosexuals, and yet I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. ‘Cause even though I occasionally have to deal with the “Why”s and all that, every now and then I get an e-mail: “C/K isn’t a pairing I would normally read, but it was great. Is there any more?”
I don't know if I answered any great question here, or if I really should have to, but I know it feels good putting my thoughts and emotions down. And maybe that's why I write slash.