(no subject)

[rivkat]

Okay, so scribblinlenore and I have been discussing some sort of Cliche-fic-a-thon, on the order of Heleninhell's Conventions-a-Go-Go in Sentinel a while back. I have "Switch" to contribute, since as originator I get to retroactively add stories, and I'm working on an amnesia story, while she's got Hooker!Clark in progress. Who would participate, and (independently) what cliches should count? All must end in twu wuv, or at least twu sex. Here's what I've got so far:

- Forced to have sex [by aliens, bad guys, good guys, whatever]
- Hooker!fic
- Amnesia
- Body switching
- Locked in small space
- One cares for the other during slow recuperation from serious injury
- Possibly, sex change (not AU, but waking up with different equipment)

"Pretending to be gay" is the subject of someone else's challenge, so I'm not including it (and my own opinion is that it doesn't rise -- erm, fall -- to the level of a cliche classic like hookerfic, nor does wingfic). What are the other classic, every fandom has 'em cliches? Who wants to play?

Separately, I know davidhearne disagrees with me on this (and makes some very strong points), but I fell in love with "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." The logo alone is so elegant as to make me fall in love; Kyan is gorgeous, a lot like Dylan McDermott; and most of all, I've never been able to watch a reality show because my bulletproof squick is public humiliation. The episode of QESG I saw, though, featured the five guys really trying to help the subject, Adam, make his house nice and his wife happy. They teased, but they truly wanted to do things that would work for him, and he reacted well. It was funny as all get out, but not because anyone was mean. And one of the guys got to say "everyone loves a pearl necklace." There was a great moment when they were cleaning the house, getting rid of scattered kids' toys, and joked about being the mean gays who take away children's toys. I see the objections, and I'm not sure I have a good response to the idea that this show entrenches stereotypes. I'm not sure, though, that the stereotypes are going anywhere *without* the show, and also I suppose my experience with Jew-on-Jew humor has made me more tolerant of people playing with the stereotypes that exist about themselves. Maybe I'm letting funny overwhelm morality; it's definitely worth thinking about. But meanwhile, I suspect I will be watching Kyan.

Keep those cards & letters coming!

Comments

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Would this be a multifandom challenge or just SV? Either way, I'm probably in. *g*

My fave cliches include:

- too drunk to be straight (two beer queer!)
- Truth or Dare, with or without substance abuse

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking SV, any pairing, het or slash. Excellent additions!

[snails-pace.livejournal.com]

hear, hear. I love intoxicated fics of any kind. ie, RedK, Nicodemus, drugs n alcohol... all good, all hot.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Cool!

And thanks. *g*

[meret.livejournal.com]

The only other cliche that came to mind for SV is MPREG

I loved QEFTSG too. It seemed to me that the stereotypes were deliberately being poked fun at by the gay men themselves. I haven't heard of any negative reaction to it in the press either. I would be interested in what gay guys thought of it. Were they offended?

Definition, please

[ter369.livejournal.com]

What is wingfic?

Thanks.

Re: Definition, please

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not, fic in which a character wakes up with wings. Or maybe also includes fic in which the character has them all along; the boundaries of the subgenre are not entirely clear to me.

[snails-pace.livejournal.com]

umm, here're a few...the lookalike sex substitute, the getting caught masturbating (and calling out an incriminating name, or having incriminating 'inspirational' material on hand), the sleepover, the one bed hotel room, the kidnapped and one or both tied up, sleeptalking or being hypnotized, temporary telepathy (one one persons part only is better, IMO).

Some of these might not be cliches in SV, but have been in other fandoms, and besides, they are usually fun and good for some fun and smut. can't wait to read.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Wow, an embarrassment of riches. Thanks! The one bed hotel room gives me fond memories of the X-Files.

Re:

[snails-pace.livejournal.com]

The one bed hotel room gives me fond memories of the X-Files.

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<i>The one bed hotel room gives me fond memories of the X-Files.<i\>

*sigh*
me too. Ahh, the good old days.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Don't forget the hypothermia/cuddle or die fic!

[eliade.livejournal.com]

I love cliches! I hope someone steals meta-textually poaches this idea for BtVS. ;)

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

Bodyswap? Is a cliche now?

I am so there.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Maybe this will actually get me off my butt to work on the "Clark turns into a girl" story...

[j-bluestocking.livejournal.com]

I love a cliche! (To the tune of "I Love A Parade!")

Two guys quarantined together, away from the outside world. (My proud contribution to SV clichefic.)

I also have a particular fondness for Truth or Dare, but have never done a SV version. (Te's is a favorite, however.)

[davidhearne.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely the lone crank on "Queer Eye." And I wonder why I'm getting so worked up about a show that's just light entertainment anyway. Besides, some of these jokes *are* funny.

I guess I'm here to represent the slobs.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

*The* original and classic slash cliche is:

shuttlecraft crash, take shelter in a cave, oh no! Pon Farr

Oddly enough, although I've seen a number of PonFarr!Clark Clex stories (and have enabled most of them), I've not yet seen it with any other SV pairing.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Ah, the did a cliche-fic-a-thon in WW a couple years ago - or maybe it was a cliche a month? something like that - and it was fabulous.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the one-member-of-pair-is-suddenly-stricken-blind storyline, either.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

The producers of every show are required to deposit several of their small children in escrow until they do the "Arena" episode.

[scribblinlenore.livejournal.com]

Wow. People had a lot of good suggestions for cliches. Hee! Should we issue an actual challenge? People could pick their cliche from the Long List o' Cliches. Or we could have a random cliche generator (with some help from someone who knows how to make such a thing *g*). We could have a deadline, and all the cliche stories could be posted on the authors' respective LJs on the same day.

What do you think?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I think we should issue a challenge -- I don't know how long they're supposed to last, maybe a month? Because my whims are mighty, I have made a list of lucky thirteen cliches I want to see; feel free to add or subtract. I was thinking we could take volunteers, either for specific cliches or to be randomly assigned, and then coerce other people into participating to fill out the roster. We should get someone else to do amnesia as well because my story is not very funny and probably not what we want out of the cliche.

- Trapped in an elevator or other small space
- Amnesia
- Drunken first-time sex (as Te puts it, "too drunk to be straight" or "two beer queer")
- Waking up hungover in compromising circumstances with no memory of the night before (may be combined with previous)
- Hooker fic
- Two people. One hotel room. One bed. [I want this just for the reminder of the good old XF days]
- Forced to have sex [by aliens, bad guys, good guys, etc.]
- Body switching
- Sex change – waking up with different equipment
- Truth or Dare
- Lookalike sex substitute -- I've seen a bunch of these w/Lex using the lookalike, but I'd love to see one with Clark being the bad, bad boy
- Two people, isolated from the rest of the world, forever as far as they know – the classic "shuttlecraft crash." May or may not be combined with the Kryptonian version of pon farr.
- Sudden disability requires one person to care intimately for the other.

I can try to get webspace to host the results once I get back from Nimbus/Vulkon. Actually, I will be imposing on mustangsally78 to put the stuff up, and maybe we can get someone to contribute graphic design.

What do you think? Good to go? Do you want to cut down on the categories or substitute? I don't think we'd want much more than this.

[scribblinlenore.livejournal.com]

I love it! In fact, I'd like to write each and every one of these. But, you know... I won't. *g*

About amnesia... I leave that up to you. Personally, I think it's cool to see different approaches, and there's nothing wrong with a more serious story. They don't all have to be silly. But it's your call.

Okay! So let's throw it out there. See who wants to play. Yay, cliche fun!

And so, the Cliche-a-thon continues...

[digitalwave]

Rivkat & Lenore,

I just got my contribution to the Cliche-a-thon, the ever-popular Trapped in an elevator or other small space finished and posted.

The name of the fic is 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' and can be found over in my LJ. I couldn't resist playing! :)

Re: And so, the Cliche-a-thon continues...

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Great! That's one of the classics, so I'm really glad you wrote it.

I'm going to announce the challenge formally in my next entry, and when I in my terrible disorganization get around to creating a page for the challenge, I'll put this on!

Re: And so, the Cliche-a-thon continues...

[digitalwave]

Thanks,

This is a lot of fun, I can't wait to see what everyone does.

Re: And so, the Cliche-a-thon continues...

[digitalwave]

And, hey, it got me to write my first all-out sex scene! *g*

Mary Sue meets Hooker!Clark

[jowolfie.livejournal.com]

I've posted my contribution to the (wonderful, wonderful idea!) Cliché-a-thon. It's my cliche-rif off scribblinenore's own cliché-of-choice, her 'Hooker!Clark' WIP. Yup, it's good old Mary Sue. It's called and it's on my LJ. What would you do if you could hire Hooker!Clark? Don't worry slash fans, it's all about the Clex!

rivkat, a very big I'm sorry for not mentioning you as a source of the Cliche-a-thon on my LJ when the story was posted. My humble excuse is I'm new on LJ and only realised when I read digitalwave's comment that you too were the inspiration behind the CaT. Double double shame as I am a big fan of your fic!

My special favourites are :
: Red!Clark so believably sociopathic, Lex suffering but loving, and especially the wonderful portrayal of Martha and Jonathon and their interaction with Lex.
: ultimate Cliche!fic. So funny, and I love the way you did the boys discovering 'each others' bodies-alone. Just brilliant.
: All wonderful. But especially loved four and five. Four really ripped my heart out, and five- oooh, the twist. The twisted Lex. Didn't want to love him, but you made me!

Re: Mary Sue meets Hooker!Clark

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks and thanks! I'm about to announce the 'thon formally, and when I get a page together, I will happily link your story. There just isn't enough Hooker!Clark in the world, and not enough Hooker!Lex either. Though we occasionally get mentions of how he'd sell himself in his wilder days just for the hell of it, for some reason we rarely get to *see* that.

And I'm glad you liked the fifth thing that never happened. It's kind of a shaggy dog story, since the whole thing was a setup for the last line, but I thought it came out okay for all that.