Plotbunny dilemma.
Aug. 15th, 2007 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanuensis1Arrgh, this is tricky. I'm working on my potential plot suggestions for my merry_smutmas requests, and the problem is that my desired-to-read post-DH plotbunnies are also those I'd like to write. What do you think? If I request a plotbunny that I also want to write myself, will that kill my desire to write it in the end? And if a fic like that is written by someone else will it seem copycattish if I go on and write another one?
no subject
Date: 2007-08-15 07:20 pm (UTC)If your bunny is (to use my own reading/writing desires here as an example), "the sorting hat is evil," or "Snape isn't human - he's a homunculus," then I think you can get away with requesting it and possibly writing it - the idea is rich enough to support multiple interpretations and variations (although I agree with one of the commenters that some may feel your work outdoes what they created for you - always a problem I feel when writing for a recipient who I believe is very talented. But I wouldn't be mad about it, just sad).
On the other hand, if your bunny is something more specific, like "Snape and Lupin travel to the US to look for "the rainbow connection" which is actually a spell or method for destroying horcruxes," then a) I think getting it would kill your desire to write it (it might not be quite right, but it'd be close enough that I know I'd feel like I didn't have enough more to say), and b) it'd be kind of rude to write it yourself anyway after the fact, because it might be seen as saying (even if you didn't mean it to), that you thought what you received wasn't good enough.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-15 08:54 pm (UTC)There's a whole other aspect of the problem! You're wise to point it out. ^_^ Yeah, I think that the best point to take from these very sensible responses is to ask oneself how specific it is. Nobody's going to be upset by multiple "Post-epilogue Harry/Draco" fics but six of "the rainbow connection horcrux-destroyer," yeah, that might give them pause. ^_^