One of my fave authors from ages ago used the phrase “a little helplessly” (like “he reached his arms out, a little helplessly”) in EVERY fic she wrote. She never pointed it out—there just came a point where I noticed it like an Easter egg. So I literally *just* wrote it into my in-progress fic this weekend as an homage only I would notice. ❤
To me it’s still the quintessential “two dudes doing each other” phrase.
I think different fic communities develop different phrases too! You can (usually) date a mid 00s lj fic (or someone who came of age in that style) by the way questions are posed and answered in the narration, e.g. “And Patrick? Is not okay with this.” and by the way sex scenes are peppered with “and, yeah.” I remember one Frerard fic that did this so much that it became grating, but overall I loved the lj style because it sounded so much like how real people talk.
Another classic phrase: wondering how far down the _ goes. I’ve seen it mostly with freckles, but also with scars, tattoos, and on one memorable occasion, body glitter at a club. Often paired with the realization during sexy times that “yeah, the __ went all they way down.” I’ve seen this SO much in fic and never anywhere else
so i just googled the phrase “toeing out of his shoes” to make sure it was an actual thing
and the results were:
it’s all fanfiction
which reminds me that i’ve only ever seen the phrase “carding fingers through his hair” and people describing things like “he’s tall, all lean muscle and long fingers,” like that formula of “they’re ____, all ___ and ____” or whatever in fic
idk i just find it interesting that there are certain phrases that just sort of evolve in fandom and become prevalent in fic bc everyone reads each other’s works and then writes their own and certain phrases stick
i wish i knew more about linguistics so i could actually talk about it in an intelligent manner, but yeah i thought that was kinda cool
I love this. Though I don’t think of myself as fantastic writer, by any means, I know the way I write was shaped more by fanfiction and than actual novels.
I think so much of it has to do with how fanfiction is written in a way that feels real. conversations carry in a way that doesn’t feel forced and is like actual interactions. Thoughts stop in the middle of sentences.
The coherency isn’t lost, it just marries itself to the reader in a different way. A way that shapes that reader/writer and I find that so beautiful.
FASCINATING
and it poses an intellectual question of whether the value we assign to fanfic conversational prose would translate at all to someone who reads predominantly contemporary literature. as writers who grew up on the internet find their way into publishing houses, what does this mean for the future of contemporary literature? how much bleed over will there be?
we’ve already seen this phenomenon begin with hot garbage like 50 shades, and the mainstream public took to its shitty overuse of conversational prose like it was a refreshing drink of water. what will this mean for more wide-reaching fiction?
It’s not love, Dean swears, it isn’t. It’s just preference, right now, that’s all. Dean just likes him the most. Likes to be near him. Likes the smell of his shampoo, likes it when his phone rings and it’s Castiel on the line, but that’s not love, Dean would know.
Not love, not yet. It’s not love, it’s just the way things are just better when he’s near, a part of things, a part of Dean’s everyday routine. His name there, filling up every line, every page in Dean’s book of days. Taking the remote out of Sam’s hands to change the channel or kneeling close at Dean’s side after a fight, it’s not love but it’s close, it hits home right in the center of Dean’s chest whenever he turns his head and finds Castiel smiling at him, just at him and nobody else – that’s not love, though. Dean would know.
If there was ever gonna be anybody for him, someone for Dean to take home and say finders keepers, he thinks it really might be Castiel – but it’s not love, just something like it. Something that looks like love, sometimes; something that sounds like love and tastes like love and feels just like it but it’s not love, Dean’s not stupid. He tells himself it’s not love because he’d know. It’s not love because Dean knows what love feels like, and this isn’t it: Love is oiled brakes and love is dinner made from scratch and love is watching someone’s back as they walk away without a single glance behind, and so this can’t be love, Dean knows it’s not because it doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t burn, it doesn’t leave him strung out and hung over the next morning.
This isn’t love.
Whatever it is, it isn’t much. Just golden light creeping across the kitchen floor in the late morning and pouring Castiel a second cup of coffee, it’s just warm hands resting on the crook of his elbow to help him stand up, it’s not like love at all. It’s not what he remembers. It’s not a love he knows.
But there are signs – the flowers on the kitchen table that Castiel left there for him. Castiel’s shoes left in the doorway of the library, laces untied. The way he nods off in the front seat of the car with his shoulder against Castiel’s sometimes, when it’s four in the morning and Cas says he’ll drive for a while. He likes that Castiel’s dark hair curls against the back of his neck, he likes to look at the bare slice of skin just under Castiel’s left ear. That’s not love, is it? Dean can’t tell, can’t be sure. It’s not the final sum, the grand total of everything they are and are not to each other, it’s just part of the equation. Dean tells himself that If this was love he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. If this was love, he’d be singing love songs at two thirty a.m. along with the radio, he’d be doing ninety down the highway just to match the pace of his heart.
But sometimes he’ll sit there watching Castiel, with his arm thrown back over the arm of the couch watching This Old House, and he allows to himself – it might be, one day, if something ever changes, if Dean ever gets the courage – it’s not love, he knows, he knows. Just something like it.
kototyph 