CI5 Miscellany

Welcome voyager, this is a multi-fandom-indulgent Pros-centric WIP community designed to be one of those rare Pros spaces created with Gen and Het fanworks in mind, whilst being a genuinely welcoming home to Pros Slash (not that Pros Slash is short of genuinely welcoming homes...).

So what does that mean in practice?

Firstly, it means there are no 'right' ways to be a Pros fan. If you see the lads as bessie mates first, last and always, then that is absolutely fine. If you see Doyle as an elf and Bodie as a large green frog, then this is the place to be. If you want to create physically implausible PWP between an elf and a large green frog, we admire your flexibility imagination.

Secondly, this community aims to be Pros-centric but multi-fandom-indulgent. What does that mean? It means that if you create in more than one fandom you may feel free to draw on those experiences and link to non-Pros works to illustrate your arguments, advice, comments and opinions. Please don't feel obliged to spend hours trawling the bowels of Pros fandom to find an example of what you're talking about when there's a perfectly good and easily accessible example in another fandom. If a tribble says it best, then use a tribble.

Thirdly, this isn't simply a 'writers forum', there are plenty of those. Although, if you just want to put out a shout for a beta, please feel free to do that. Ditto if you want to advertise your wares as a beta, complete with list of what you do and don't review, we're happy to maintain a tag-list of betas. But if you want to bring half-finished artwork, fanfic, videos, glove puppets, or whatever your fertile creative spirit can conjure to the attention of the community for advice, help, constructive criticism, tea and sympathy, or simply to vent your artistic frustrations among Prosy-minded folk, please feel free.

Here be dragons...

If you just want advice, or a plot bunny, or a bit of tea and sympathy, it's absolutely fine to drop by for those things. Can't find the right software for your video? Written yourself into a plot hole and can't get out? Just lost your only copy of your belovèd magnum opus and want to wail against the fates? Dropped a vital stitch in your knitted capri and want to know how to pick it up again? Need a bit of help with canon-compliant idiom? Just glued your Bodie-doll to your skirts and need to know the best solvent to save both? Bring it all and welcome.

But please be aware that some challenges, like the Pros Big Bang, stipulate that your fanwork should not have been seen elsewhere, so posting here could nullify your entry.

If you ask for constructive criticism, the mods will expect any community critique to be wholly constructive – i.e. designed to help you learn and grow as an artist whatever medium you have used to express yourself, not crush your creative blossom. But if you ask for constructive criticism and receive constructive criticism and then object to anything that is not unalloyed praise of your artistry, modish eyebrows will be raised.

How else might modish eyebrows be raised?

Some fanworks are Gen (or Het), get over it. If the artist does not welcome slash goggles then neither do we.

Some fanworks are Slash, get over it. If the artist sees it, or wants to explore it, then so do we – even if it's Doyle/Cowley.

If you don't care for m-preg, BDSM or any other genre, that's fine, we're happy for you to say so. We're not happy for you to accuse the artist or their work of being deviant. We're not at home to Mary Whitehouse.

Tread carefully with Real Person Fiction (RPF) and fanworks, or sexualised or abusive themes involving children (by which we mean anyone below the appropriate age of consent). For example, modish eyebrows are unlikely to be raised by fanworks centred on the misogynistic murders of Jack the Ripper, but will definitely be raised by events where grieving relatives are still alive to be hurt by stumbling across your fanwork. In similar vein, some subjects of RPF have embraced it, some definitely haven't. Mods will expect that the views, or likely views, of the real person concerned have been respected. Modish eyebrows are unlikely to be raised by a character shaped or affected by traumatic childhood memories, but hopefully it should go without saying that anything which crosses the line into the illegal will not be tolerated and is likely to be reported to any relevant authorities.

Except for the last transgression, mods will always work with you to find out what went wrong and put it right. Mods expect that dissenting opinions will be respected and debated but not chastised. But don't expect to able to throw your fannish weight around, it bears repeating that there are no 'right' ways to be a Pros fan.

If in doubt, ask! Mods are always happy to help.