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brightknightie) wrote2020-12-28 02:49 pm
brightknightie) wrote2020-12-28 02:49 pm
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"id-fic" versus "crack-fic"?
How do you define "id-fic" for yourself, and how do you see it differing from "crack-fic"?
I hadn't encountered the term "id-fic" at all before seeing posts for the Iddy-iddy-bang-bang fest. And I didn't think much about it, until recently I was going back in my mind through some fanfic sketches I've started this year but not taken further, even though I liked them, because they can't possibly have an audience beyond myself. (For example, I wrote an AU Nick completing an RCIA program at Father Rouchefort's parish and attending Easter Vigil mass.) This epitomizes "straight from the author's id," but the practice seems to correlate almost exclusively with established absurd and/or disturbing tropes far over the edges of their canons, not with excesses of real-world normality, however self-indulgent.
If "id-fic" and "crack-fic" share an expectation of absurdity, is the difference that "id-fic" is usually more disturbing and "crack-fic" more amusing? Or is one expected to be less well written than the other? Or is there a third sub-genre that completes the picture?
Just curious!
I hadn't encountered the term "id-fic" at all before seeing posts for the Iddy-iddy-bang-bang fest. And I didn't think much about it, until recently I was going back in my mind through some fanfic sketches I've started this year but not taken further, even though I liked them, because they can't possibly have an audience beyond myself. (For example, I wrote an AU Nick completing an RCIA program at Father Rouchefort's parish and attending Easter Vigil mass.) This epitomizes "straight from the author's id," but the practice seems to correlate almost exclusively with established absurd and/or disturbing tropes far over the edges of their canons, not with excesses of real-world normality, however self-indulgent.
If "id-fic" and "crack-fic" share an expectation of absurdity, is the difference that "id-fic" is usually more disturbing and "crack-fic" more amusing? Or is one expected to be less well written than the other? Or is there a third sub-genre that completes the picture?
Just curious!
no subject
Crack fic (also defined here) tends to start from a ridiculous premise, like Duncan MacLeod turns into a penguin, or the characters are stuck in a Harlequin Romance novel, etc. It's not that the fic intends to be funny but it is often is, just by the sheer amount of ridiculous things that get written into the story.
As Sholio mentioned, these are not genres - they are types of labels applied to a fic, sometimes by the author themselves, to categorize what type of story they are and why they got written. Hope this helps!