Slashers ... how did you start?

[teeta]

Hi everyone!

I'm a really curious person and it interest me how and why you became involved in reading and/or writing slash? Any interesting stories to be told? Favorite fandoms? Pairings?

As far as I am concerned, it started with this yaoi article I read in the local manga/anime magazine, getting immediately interested and wanting to know more. I even copied the article and then went looking for the mangas described there. And I accidentally discovered the whole world of yaoi fanfiction and original fiction.

I remember myself reading countless amount of Gundam Wing fanfiction despite the fact I have never watched the amine and didn't find manga that interesting. Yet the characters were so good and the fanfics I came across were so good that they sucked me in for a good couple of months.

Then I got familiar with the term 'slash' and stumbled across several slash fandoms, like HP (hm, this was funny, when I first found it, I was grossed out a bit, especially by the HPSS pairing ... and now I am a hard core HPSS fan, figures ...)

Now ... with writing ... that's a bit different. I am rather new to writing, but couldn't imagine myself writing het, it was slash for me, at least with the serious stories. After reading all those slash stories I seriously find myself unable to think in het terms ...

So ... that's my story. What about you? I will appreciate every story I get ^__^

[Iggy_lovechild]

When I was seventeen, I saw the movie "Velvet Goldmine" and thus, an obsession began. I started out obsessivly reading fanfiction, mostly focusing on CurtxArthur. God, I shipped for them so hard. To this day i still feel that surge of emotion at the end of the film: "Go after him, you dolt!" I wrote for the fandom on and off for about two years. Looking back most of it was abysmal, but most of these fics were written 7 or 8 years years ago. I think I might have tried to get back into the fandom briefly at 21, but I was so rusty...it didn't turn out well.

Anyway, even though I've written a lot of het as well as yaoi, I always get more attached to m/m pairings. I guess...I'm more sentimental that way.

...among other things. I guess it just feels more natural to me.

Because I'm in a listing kinda mood....

Favourite pairings, past and present:

CurtxArthur ("Velvet Goldmine")

CurtxJack Fairy ("Velvet Goldmine")

BankotsuxJakotsu ("InuYasha")

AlbelxFayt ("Star Ocean: Til the End of Time")

CloudxReno (FF7)

RufusxReno (FF7)

VincentxTseng (FF7)

[teeta]

Hi Iggy!

Thanks for your story and we do seem to share at least one favorite pairing!

CloudxReno!

But if we're talking in listing terms ...

HeeroxDuo from Gundam Wing

AyaxKen from Weiss Kreuz

DarkxDaisuke from DNAngel

KyoxYuki from Furuba

RoyxEd from FMA

SiriusxRemus from HP

(some other pairings from HP ... lots of them, in fact but NOT HarryxDraco)

and the golden pairing for me ...

Snarry ^__^

[dazzledfirestar]

Okay, so I don't write slash... but I do read it! And now, I have to say teeta, that I'm curious which other pairings in HP you were talking about...

[teeta]

Hihihi, ok, I'll tell you ...

First of all Fire and Ice (which means Ron and Draco)

then ... some Weasleycest pairings (guh, I have a thing for incest, I suppose)

HaryyxCedric, at least in a few fics ...

I have read one or two fics with decent SeverusxRemus but not really fancying that pairing, I totally see Snape with Harry ^__^

That's about it, I guess.

[ladydeathfaerie]

well, i'm new to writing slash, but i'll read it. hell, i'll read just about anything so long as its well written and.... well, you know. it has a plot and all that stuff.

right now, i'm working on my very first real slash piece. its going to be multi-chaptered, with some angst, humor and smut tossed into it. its Harry and Lucius, which seems an odd pairing, but i can see it working well.

i used to beta for a woman who was working on Snarry slash. her work was, in my opinion, brilliant. i haven't seen anything new from her in so long and i wonder if she's still writing.... she was so good.

my only hope is that i'll be able to do this well and with a certain amount of rightness. you know? i don't want to completely fuck it up and ruin a perfectly good story.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Before I knew there was a whole fanfic genre concerning homosexual pairings I was always very interested in slash. The first homosexual pairing I loved has got to be Haruka and Michiru from Sailor Moon. After that, I came into contact with the Vampire Chronicles, though other then those I was still primarily reading het lit.

As for slash fanfiction, I think I was 16 when I met a girl who was a very popular slash fanfic writer. She is the one who not only got me into slash, but introduced me to a lot of animes (before then I only knew of what I could find on Cartoon Network). From then on I was hooked. My first slash fanfic (and indeed, first EVER fanfic) was a Harry Potter fic I wrote her for her birthday.

However, I cannot for the LIFE OF ME remember what the first slash fanfic I read was, though I'll tell you the one I remember the most has got to be "All Cat's Look Grey," a Get Backers fic that used to be hosted here before the crash, and now appears to be nowhere. It was, by far, my favorite fic for a LONG time.

[toxictattoo]

Hi! Um...new on the board so and thought I'd toss my hat into the conversation.

I actually blundered into it. I remember it fondly. It was right after the first episode of Star Wars (The Phantom Menace) and I was ravenous to read more about Darth Maul. I went googling and found the Darth Maul Estrogen Brigade archive (which, I believe is now defunct [sads]).

Don't remember exactly how I felt about it at first except thinking...'wow, the internet IS for porn!' It wasn't exactly like any of the gay porn I usually [cough] read and fell in love with the writing styles of those talented writers.

From there, stretched out into Gundam Wing, which was my first foray into writing it myself.

Been around ever since, bouncing from one shiny fandom to the next. So much slash/yaoi material, so little time. [sighs dramatically]

[DodgeSuperBee]

Years ago I ran a Star Wars fanfic site and received some humorous slash that I posted. As I recall, that was my intro to the genre.

Almost a year ago, I searched for fanfic from my new favorite movie and was amazed to see the amount of slash. I naively assumed it was written by gay men, quickly discovered I was wrong, and before I knew it I'd joined two slash writers' groups and even wrote two slashy fics. Het is still my favorite type of romance story, maybe because I can understand the relationships involved the best, but I'm having fun writing my third slashfic.

[Iggy_lovechild]

Thanks for your story and we do seem to share at least one favorite pairing!

CloudxReno!

Ah, I love CloudxReno with big old mushy hearts and flowers. I'm also convinced that I should totally get a cookie for being among those who started thinking about them before AC came out (not that I have proof or anything . I'm a very visual person and it took AC to inspire me to really write for them).

Ah sorry, I'm a bit worried about how popular the pairing is getting. I can't find any good fics anymore. *sobs* Well, it's a good thing I write....

[teeta]

Ok, quite a few replies, thank you for them! And let me answer to them.

ladydeathfaerie: I know what you mean, not wanting to spoil your first slash story. Actually I'm trying to keep mine as credible as possible. Which is not that easy as one could think, especially when I'm being pressured into premature smut =_= And no, Harry/Lucius pairing is not that uncommon, I have come across a few of them myself.

Alien Pirate Pixagi: oh, I remember the first slash fic I have ever read very well ^__^ It was Weiss Kreuz fanfic, and it dealt with threesome and after-rape effects. I found it really disturbing, the rape thing ... I'm not really into violence in fiction, but that one simply caught my attention. Sadly, I can't remember the title ...

toxictattoo: hello! I'm new as well, so ... Oh, Phantom Menace! Ok, I admit, I have been there, too! Just the pairing was different ^__^ I came across a series of fics containing Qui GonXObi Wan pairing and then spent a few weeks, literally downloading everything I could find. Golden times ^__^

DodgeSuperBee: that's actually very funny if you think that most of slash fics are written by women ^__^ AND they are thought to be men! Anyway, het ... Ok, must admit, I started reading lemons from het but today I go YIKES! when seeing those two words together. Not saying that het is bad, I do enjoy romance stories but actually it's more interesting to watch how feelings blossom on the less friendly ground, so to speak.

Iggy Lovechild: I DO agree it's very hard to find some good CloudxReno fics, even here there are very few *whines* I don't understand how people can't see the potential of this particular pairing. A cookie for you! *hugs*

[madlodger]

Hey, Teeta! You do come up with good topics. *hugs*

I can tell you how I started in Harry Potter Fandom (being a reader only untill very recently)

Many years ago, when I was younger and a better person, I was on line searching for any info on Harry Potter books. I had no idea that there was HP fanfiction in existence. So, I did some searches and one of websites came out with Veela Fiction.

That was at the times when Veela Fics became popular; I suppose, that would time this event around, um... year 2001, after GOF was published and the First movie was just out. Was it really Six Years then!?! Or dear!

Anyway, I started reading Draco/Hermione Veela Fic and it was so hot and NC-17 and my mind went crazy, yeah. So, I read all Veela fics on that list and on a very bottom there was a small Draco/Harry section. I was, like, wow, this is crazy, those boys are not gay! Of course, Draco is not a Veela in Cannon either. So, I read them all and enjoyed them MORE than straight HP fics. Ever since then I was reading primarily HP Slash, even though Slash pairings are more OOC than straight ones.

That started my HP Slash obsession, which I stick with even now. I did brunch out into reading Original Slash past few years (but you know that already ) I've read some Gravitation and Ai no Kusabi fics but HP still rules.

P.S. That lovely website does not exist anymore, as well as many others I used to go to. At one point, I believe, I had more than 50 sites bookmarked.

[Mourningstar]

I actually began slashing before I'd ever even heard of a thing called fanfiction.

This backwards development began when I started reading fantasy books. As many of you will know, supporting female characters in fantasy books tend to be godawful creatures when it comes to their depth, yet the men fall in love with them because of their fiercely shining hair, bright and mysterious eyes and exciting status and all that jazz, and most importantly, because it's the done thing. I just couldn't figure out what was supposed to be so attractive in all that, and how a relationship based on such premises could work.

Then I started thinking about how minor these love objects began whenever a new quest came about. It was obvious that those men were extremely close to each other, with their deep oaths of eternal friendship and loyalty and brotherhood etc. To me, those men felt better suited for each other than to those women, who were always in need of rescuing or always overly aggresively trying to prove themselves. It definitely felt like a better base for a (romantic) relationship.

Fast forward a few years, when I stumbled across fanfiction. This happened with a fandom absolutely notorious for its abundance in Mary Sues, and pairing up good, solid blokes seemed better and better. I went down that road and never looked back.

Nowadays I'm a total slasher in many fandoms and numerous pairings. I'm not completely averse to het pairings, and I can even confess to actually liking a few, but they're pretty much exceptions to the rule.

[reine Seele]

I'm more of a het writer myself, but I do slash from time to time. It's sick though. I enjoy slashing Michael and Jason from the Friay the 13th and Halloween movies and I also enjoy a good dose of Starscream/Megatron. Actually, Strscream can be with anyone, but I just get a rush out of reading about him being dominated. It's his personality, lol.

Now, as for writing slash I usually use my own characters. I'm very leery of making an originally straight person gay, unless there's substantial subext that can lead to it. This is the only reason that I love the Skinner/Tom pairing from LXG. Alucard/Anderson from Hellsing is another favorite of mine, but that's pretty much it.

Like I said, I'm more into het, but I do browse. It's actually easier for me to read slash when it's in the form of rape, which is pretty sad now that I think about it.

[teeta]

OK, another bunch of responses!

madlodger: hm, fixation with Veela fics? I had obsession with bonding fics, at some point I remember myself looking specifically for bonding fics, guess which pairing? That's how I actually found 'Cambiare Podentes' which I will be eternally thankful for! And i still love HP fanfics very much, you could say they are the ultimate goodness ^__^ though as of late I have been too busy writing to be able to read much *receiving bashing* I hope I will make up for it now when I have my long awaited holiday~~ Yup, lots of reading ^__^

Mourningstar: isn't that funny that those who DID create those stories, had no idea of their slash-y potential? Hm, to tell the truth, I have a few favorite het pairings myself but just like in your case, they serve as the exception to the rule.

reine Seele: well, everyone has their own preferences as far as reading material is concerned. You mentioned one thing, certain characters do seem to be the dominant ones while other are perceived as - pardon for the expression - total bottoms. What I find really interesting in fics is the breaking of this stereotype. For example, in many Naruto fics, with Sasuke/Naruto pairing, Naruto is the bottom one. Why? And why for that matter make someone a total top/bottom?

Ok, ANYONE else willing to share their stories?

[Jadwin]

I'm still fairly new to it, and it was a rather slow process.

I started doing furry art when I was in high school, after my boyfriend introduced me to the whole thing. After about a year or so of drawing those guys, I kind of slowly worked my way up to drawing porn.

Then, about a year ago, I got kind of squirrelly, and while watching an old repeat of MythBusters, I decided to try and turn them into a couple of furry characters. Under the peer pressure of a dear friend of mine, I began to draw naughty pictures of said furries, and then just finally started writing slash stuff a few months ago.

I'm not that great, but it is kind of fun.

[ladydeathfaerie]

ladydeathfaerie: I know what you mean, not wanting to spoil your first slash story. Actually I'm trying to keep mine as credible as possible. Which is not that easy as one could think, especially when I'm being pressured into premature smut =_= And no, Harry/Lucius pairing is not that uncommon, I have come across a few of them myself.

gods, i'm so late with this. tells you how much i pay attention some days.

actually, there is a following for the pairing, i know. Madlodger is eagerly awaiting the next update of The Harlequin (the title of my fic) and will soon have it. i've finally gotten around to writing the smut for this and it took me quite some time. i've been hammering the chapter out for a little over the week and kept stopping and starting while working out the sex. i was so afraid that i was doing it wrong.

i'm fortunate that a woman i beta for is a slash writer, though not in my genre, and she agreed to look at what i'd had done so far for me yesterday. she decided to keep it, as a tool to help her write her sex scenes better. she was shocked that it was my first slash sex scene. her faith in my writing helped me finish the sex off and gave me the confidence to keep going as i had been. i really was worried that i wouldn't write the proper feelings or emotions. but i guess, as i didn't go for clinical, i did alright.

don't let anyone pressure you into doing something you don't want. i always let my characters guide me. so i might have ideas for a chapter, but they're the ones who get final say. stick to your guns and write it the way you want to. while we are posting our work for people to read, we're still writing mostly for ourselves. i mean, isn't that why we write? because the idea appeals to ourselves.

and all i meant about the Lucius/Harry pairing is that it isn't as popular as Harry/Draco or Severus/Harry.

good luck with that smut. i'm sure you can keep it credible.

[madlodger]

ladydeathfaerie - All this talking about smut was supposed to make waiting so much easier! LOL It's karma, I'll tell you. People have been waiting for me to update for a long time as well. I have confidence in your ability to write a good sex scene based on the fact that the chapters already posted were good.

teeta - Yep. Like Veela fics a lot, as well as bonding ones. Glad to hear about your holiday, enjoy all the reading

[teeta]

good luck with that smut. i'm sure you can keep it credible.

Thank you, ladydeathfaerie, I hope I will. Learning kinda slowly but step by step.

don't let anyone pressure you into doing something you don't want. i always let my characters guide me. so i might have ideas for a chapter, but they're the ones who get final say. stick to your guns and write it the way you want to.

That's actually no problem to me, I have been able to beat the whines with a stick, hihihi. Well, and talking seriously ... My characters have taken over my story a long time ago and I can only follow them. So ... no smut for another 10 chapters, I guess ...

Glad to hear about your holiday, enjoy all the reading

Thanks, madlodger but my summer holiday's ending and I haven't read nearly as much as I would like to, even "Deathly Hallows" are still waiting, gathering dust ... *shakes head and tsks*

[ladydeathfaerie]

Madlodger: the smut is actually completed. i'm merely adding a little on to the end, thoughts and feelings and the like, that i couldn't put in the main body of the smut. so, i could conceivably post tonight if i finished it. but i likely won't. i'm going to go to trying to post two chapters at a time, one each on different stories. i've got four going and so much more in my head......

i'm doing my best with it. i've been assured by a woman who writes slash and a woman who doesn't really read it anymore that the sex was great. hot and steamy. i only hope that everyone finds it to be so. and i do honestly appreciate your words. its nice to know that i'm doing as well as people tell me i am. hearing 'this is great' from a friend is good. but when you hear it from someone you don't know, that makes it all the better.

no chance for opinions to be biased.

teeta: the best advice i can give about slash sex is to try and write it as if you were writing het sex. you just need to remember to put a more masculine spin to it, if that makes sense. i've been told that i have the ability to 'channel' the character i'm writing, so..... i don't know. i'm trying not to make either of them too girly or too masculine.

and its good to go with what the characters want sometimes. i've found that they help me write a better story when i go along with what they've decided should happen. that isn't to say that they control the entire enchilada. they don't. i pick and chose some events, whether they like them or not. helps keep things interesting.

i'm sure that someone will want sex before ten more chapters are up and they'll let you know in no uncertain terms that they're reading to get busy. trust them. if they're wrong about it, you'll know.

[Entrisic]

I became involved with reading back in late 1999. Stumbled into it by accident when I first got access to internet. I wanted to look up anime (since very little was mainstream back then) and eventually stumbled over yaoi sites. It was something new to read so... I read it. (I'm not a complicated soul.)

As for writing.... the writing mutated from roleplaying. I used to play a lot in Yahoo Clubs and EGroups before they merged. Then moved on to IM and since I only played original characters... the next step to writing stories was fairly simple. Started with little 'character portraits' and then simply went on. Occasionally I dabbled in fanfiction but generally I stick to original stuff.

Lately as I've been more interested in writing I've stopped reading, but I used to have really strong urges to read certain couples. It was almost seasonal. I'd suddenly want to read about one ship and so I'd read only that for a month or two.

Seasonal 'ships: Snape/Harry (HP), Seifer/Squall(FF8), Riku/Sora(KH), Draco/Harry (HP), Aya/Ken (WK), Roy/Ed (FMA), 13X5 (GW).

[vinsmouse]

I started out reading slash fanfiction in the Magnificent 7 fandom. Mostly I started reading it because I had read all of the gen fics and nobody was updating. I was quite surprised to find that if it was well-written slash was actually very good. Shoot some of those writers are so good they almost make me want to be a gay man so I can see what it's like. Eventually I began writing slash myself, but surprisingly Mag7 isn't my main fandom. In fact I've only written one slash Mag7 story. The fandom I've written all of my slash in, with the exception of the one Mag7, is Dukes of Hazzard. It wasn't my idea though, I was only doing what the boys wanted.     I read an opening line challenge: I know it's a cliche but it really was a dark and stormy night when I first realized... Without a conscious thought the sentence completed itself with: my love for Bo had changed. From there the story took off and I had my first slash story. Of course there was plenty of room for improvement and probably still is, though I can see how much I've improved since. I haven't counted my stories, but I'm guessing I have around 30 in Dukes fandom. I don't know if anybody else has had trouble from family or friends when they found out about their slash writing, but my mother-in-law didn't like it a bit. It was actually funny in a way, she thought she would start trouble by telling my husband. He already knew, didn't understand but he knew. He told her that I had to write porn because the pornograph was broken. I always get a chuckle out of that, but I do wonder what kind of reactions others have gotten from their families and friends. Anyway my favorite pairings to read are:

(Mag7)

Chris/Vin

Buck/Vin

Ezra/Vin

Chris/Vin/Ezra/Buck

To read and write:

(Dukes of Hazzard)

Bo/Luke

Bo/Rosco

Bo/LB Davenport

[radius]

I'm pretty new to this genre but to put it quite simply: to get over my fear. For a long time I've read how disgusting and horrible SLASH writing was. It was naughty and a big no-no. I grew up with that environment and that self-guilt reflected in my writing. I have some great story ideas and do action pretty well. But when it came to bed scenes, I was like...

So I'm doing this to get away from my fears and insecurities. I came here to write hardcore stuff just for the sake of being comfortable writing adult-oriented scenes. And let me say, I'm a lot confident now. I'm no longer concerned with people looking over my shoulder and judging me, telling me that's a big no-no. It's not about the sex, but just being completly liberated. Even cooler, I no longer care if people review my stories anymore. If I'm happy with it and have posted to the best of my ability, I know my audience will come. And it'll be the audience I want. Right now I'm spinning in circles. I got one review for my story and that one person basically nailed and complimented everything I sought out to achieve. So yes, I think this newfound confidence stems from me no being afraid of the sack.

[bookworm51485]

It was really by chance. I was looking up something on the Naruto series and stumbled across a GaaNaru fanfiction and liked it and so began my foray into fanfiction. I've read both het and slash/yaoi stories and have found that I enjoy the slash/yaoi stories more, though I will still read het stories.

[Ginevra]

How did I get into slash and fan fiction....Wow...Let me think. I am a voracious reader...Have been since elementary school.

My mother read Marion Zimmer Bradley...And as soon as I could wade through the vocabulary, I did too. So in elementary school I was reading about same sex pairings among the "Free Amazons." Some of the male main characters also had male lovers. MZB encouraged fan fiction by editing and publishing anthologies of her fan's work as "Friends of Darkover."

A little later, I started digging my teeth into Robert Heinlein. If Number of the Beast doesn't qualify as fan fiction with its "World as Myth" storyline, I don't know what does. Might even count as a "Gary Stu" though I'm not sure which character to peg with the title. And of course Heinlien was never much bothered by social norms in the sexual arena, though his M/M stuff was much more subtle than what you find in online fan fics.

As an adult surfing the internet, I started running across fan fiction in the Star Trek arena first, I believe. Some of the best I found was Voyager related. Once I read some good Harry/Tom pieces, I saw the show in a whole new light. I was also looking for original stuff with a BDSM bent -- much of the best stuff was slash.

Now I'm starting to add M/M and F/F to my fics. Not as the main pairing, but as side pairings. I don't see sexual preference as a yes/no, hetero/straight thing...but, more as a spectrum. I'm working on a straight hetero fic right now. In my last fic I had two couples that formed a four-way relationship over the course of the story. So now I'm actually feeling kind of restricted with this M/F piece. Maybe that's why it's going so slow.

One thing I do dislike is when a cannon character is feminized too much. I'm really enjoying Gambit/Logan fics these days, but authors tend to make Gambit pretty much a chick with boy parts.