Google, OTCs, a meme, and various other thoughts

[alixtii]

I've found myself googling my own journal a lot lately. Now partially this is because I can do this; I'm the only Alixtii on the web, so I know that if I'm going to google "dawn roslin alixtii" I'm going to get some blast from the past. Now there are other ways of finding the specific post I would have in mind, comparing Dawn Summers to BSG's Laura Roslin, if I googled that--for example, there's the "monsters" tag, which I know I tagged that post with, and there are more recent posts which link back to that one (but which might themselves be difficult to find). Although that's not the best example, because apparently I mention Dawn and Laura in the same breath a lot (which is why I have a tag for specifically that kind of conversation, after all).

Similarly, if I want to find a fic, I'm much more likely nowadays to type in "alixtii" followed by a few words from the title, rather than go to the fiction index (which is linked in the sidebar of my journal) and find the link. Again, the fact that there's only one me ensures all the displayed hits will be relevant.

I've gotten so dependent on using Google to find things in my own journal I'm not sure how those of you who have the robots turn off actually manage to find anything.

. . .

One of the places I've mentioned Dawn and Laura in the same breath when I wasn't talking about the ethics of monstrosity at all was this (relatively recent) meme, where one tracks how many times one has written a number of female characters. I'm still not sure what to make of the fact that I've written Dawn (in just the completed fics) 37 times, Faith 25 times, Buffy 14 times, Kennedy 14 times, River 13 times, Drusilla 11 times, Harmony 8 times, Vi 8 times, Lilah 8 times, Fred 7 times, and Kitty 7 times. Other than the fact that I clearly do have one true characters: Dawn for Buffy/Angel, River for Firefly, and Kitty for X-Men.

And now I'm interested in doing a male version of the meme:

A
Andrew Wells [7 fics, plus WsIP]
Angel/us [5 fics, plus WsIP]

B
Bobby Drake [5 fics, plus WsIP]
Book, Shepherd Derrial [3 fics]

C
Caleb [1 fic]
Cassidy Casablancas [1 fic]
Charles Xavier [2 fics]

D
Dracula, Count [1 fic]

E
Ethan Rayne [5 fics, plus WsIP]

F

G
Gene Rainy [1 fic]

H
Hansel [1 fic]

I
Immortal, The [3 fics, plus WsIP]

J
Jack Harkness [1 fic]
James Moriarty [1 fic]
Jayne Cobb [3 fics]
Joss Whedon [5 fics]

K
Keith Mars [1 fic, plus "Not Quite Queen of the Damned"]
Kevin Burkhoff [1 fic]
Krevlorneswath Of The Deathwok Clan [1 fic]

L

M
Malcolm Reynolds [10 fics]
Mathias, Dr. [1 fic]

N

O
"Oz" Osbourne, Daniel [1 fic]

P
Perceval Glyde [1 fic]
Peter Wiggin [3 fics]

Q
Quentin Travers [1 fic, plus WsIP]

R
Richard Wilkins III [1 fic]
Roger Wyndam-Pryce [2 fics, plus WsIP]
Rupert Giles [27 fics, plus WsIP]

S
Septimus Hodge [1 fic]
Severus Snape [1 fic]
Sherlock Holmes [1 fic]
Snyder, Principal [1 fic]
Spike aka William the Bloody [5 fics, plus WsIP]
Simon Tam [4 fics]

T

U

V

W
Warren Mears [2 fics]
"Wash" Washborne, Hoburn [1 fic]
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce [9 fics]

X
Xander Harris [7 fics]

Y

Z

The highlights of the above being that I've written Giles 27 times, Mal 10 times, Wesley 9 times, Xander 7 times, Andrew 7 times, Ethan 5 times, Angel/us 5 times, and Joss 5 times (soon to be 6!). Obvious conclusion: I write male characters a lot less than I do female characters. Less obvious conclusions: I'm surprised at how many Mal stories I've written--more than River stories, even! It's kind of hard to argue from the data, then, that I don't have male One True Characters, even though I sort of feel I don't. I can explain away Giles as less the result of being a One True Character than just being shipped with one, but not all of my Giles stories are Giles/Dawn. And Joss is clearly my OTC for RPF. (I've written Summer all of once.)

Comments

[frogfarm]

I've gotten so dependent on using Google to find things in my own journal I'm not sure how those of you who have the robots turn off actually manage to find anything.

Since I keep a local backup copy of my LJ, "it's just a grep away."

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

The main thing the data shows is just how many characters you do write.

I've sometimes seen memes where people work out how many fics they have written that include various minority or the like groupings and it has occurred to me that there are a huge number of writers who couldn't attempt such a meme because they never write more than two characters. I am one myself except I do have a reasonable cast of OCs to broaden the palette.

There is a PhD waiting for someone who can explain the difference between people who write many, many different characters and pairings and those who stick to just one or two. I wonder what other socio-cultural features it coincides with?

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

Oh, and to answer your question, I find things by tag, by remembering roughly when I posted, and by always bothering to include a descriptive subject line so searching my archive is easy.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm counting a character as being written if they appear in a story. Jayne is in three fics, so is Book, but Jayne's appearances are throwaway lines in someone else's story while Book's are in fics which are about Book. (The Firefly crew all live on a spaceship together, so it's hard to get away with not writing any of them.)

Of course, you write your pet characters in a setting almost completely divorced from the majority of the canon cast, but I think that's actually quite rare.

PArt of it is community; I hang out in areas (femslash_minis in particular) where exploring the various interstices of the text, leaving no stone unturned, is in vogue, so I've gotten into the habit of writing minor characters a lot. I started out with a more narrow palette, although still more narrow as some (since I started in the fandom writing sprawling epics: Drusilla gets her soul while Buffy and Dawn hunt her while Sam and Riley explore Africa while Faith goes to L.A. while the Watcher's Council pulls together while a thousand things happen in flashbacks).

And of course even with a large dramatis personae, there are characters I keep on coming back to again and again.

It's also partially a question of output. I can say I've written 37 Dawn fics because I've written a whole lot more fics than that (I'm including ficlets and drabbles here, so it's not a hugely impressive number, but still). Someone who writes a fic maybe every six months just isn't going to be able to write as many characters unless a lot are packed all into one fic (again, a sprawling epic).

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

Of course, you write your pet characters in a setting almost completely divorced from the majority of the canon cast, but I think that's actually quite rare.

Is it? It may be rare to have manufactured a situation where the rest of the cast are almost incapable of appearing (although the nature of the Jossverse means nothing is precluded) but huge numbers of writers manufacture settings where they simply don't appear - the reams and reams of fic where the two shipped characters sit in a room together, frequently in some nebulous undefined time and space, and just have a relationship.

Your point about output is very valid, and I notice that on the rare occasion I write short things they are more likely to include a canon character outside my core-four. But I still say there is a fundamental difference of outlook between your omnivorous style and a noticeable group of writers who are essentially univores.

The other thing of course is that the univorous fic is all shipping fic.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Is it? It may be rare to have manufactured a situation where the rest of the cast are almost incapable of appearing (although the nature of the Jossverse means nothing is precluded) but huge numbers of writers manufacture settings where they simply don't appear - the reams and reams of fic where the two shipped characters sit in a room together, frequently in some nebulous undefined time and space, and just have a relationship.

This is an incredibly valid point.

The other thing of course is that the univorous fic is all shipping fic.

I'm lkess sure about this. I'm not quite convinced the ratios are all that different.