all-fandoms required reading

[cimorene]

i was having a discussion with kessie and another with wax_jism simultaneously, and i remembered this, which i thought was one of the best meta essays i've read this summer. i went back to hunt it down in the writer's journal, and discovered she didn't have it tagged, so i am going to save the link here for my own and others' reference:

stop knocking down phoebe, by liviapenn: You know what paragraph I'm kind of tired of? The "knocking down Phoebe" paragraph. IE, the totally unnecessary paragraph in the story where the POV character thinks about all the other characters that the author doesn't want to pair him with, and one by one lists all the reasons why they're completely unsuitable.

i really think what livia is saying can be extended past the knocking-down phoebe paragraph into all generalised instances of knocking down phoebe, whether as a potential romantic partner or in general: the only prejudices which should appear in your story are those of the narrator, and if your prejudices are coming out, you should take a step back and look at them carefully (if not cut them out entirely to be safe). very little is as unsightly as the bones of fandom meta poking through the top layer of fiction (that is, in a story which isn't deliberately tongue-in-cheek and meta-filled). as a reader, i'm working to suspend disbelief here and lose myself in your world, but as a writer, please do your part and don't go knocking any holes in the fourth wall.