Fanwork titles meme
Jun. 26th, 2020 01:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ng_moonmothThis was originated by china_shop, who asked interested readers to look at the 20 most recent fanwork titles on their AO3 accont and answer some questions about them.
I'm not on AO3, but I see no reason this need be limited by platform or by type of creative work. My creative outlet is filk -- very approximately defined as the folk music of science fiction and fantasy fandom, and characterized by an intentional minimization of the boundary between "performer" and "listener". That's close enough for me.
So I went through my catalog, and pulled out the most recent songs I wrote new lyrics for that I'm currently likely to perform. I came up with 22, and the oldest two are ones that I like and perform frequently. I didn't want to toss them, so I decided that was "close enough for filk". Here are the questions and the results:
I'm not on AO3, but I see no reason this need be limited by platform or by type of creative work. My creative outlet is filk -- very approximately defined as the folk music of science fiction and fantasy fandom, and characterized by an intentional minimization of the boundary between "performer" and "listener". That's close enough for me.
So I went through my catalog, and pulled out the most recent songs I wrote new lyrics for that I'm currently likely to perform. I came up with 22, and the oldest two are ones that I like and perform frequently. I didn't want to toss them, so I decided that was "close enough for filk". Here are the questions and the results:
- How many are you happy with?
Fourteen. Those are marked with "1" in the first column of numbers. - How many are... not great?
Five. Those are marked with "2" in the first column of numbers. The remaining three are just "meh" -- not particularly good, but not "I wish it was better", either. So not worth changing. - How many did you scramble for at the last minute?
Seven. Those are marked with "3" in the second column of numbers. "Hey Murphy, Do You Sing?" was an at-convention songwriting contest entry, and it was already the last minute when I got enough of the song done to title it. "Big Tech Diary" and "In Virginia's Mountains" didn't change the words that formed the source song title. Using title word replacement on "Creative Writing Lesson" would have produced a "huh?" title. And title word replacement on the other three would have been spoilery. I don't care to go there. - How many did you know before you started writing/creating, or near the beginning?
Thirteen. "The Earworm" was another attempt at a songwriting contest entry, but one I was pretty sure I was going to fail at. Creating parody lyrics over the span of a weekend is almost certainly doomed when the source lyric credits include Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Stephen Sondheim -- never mind getting ready to sing the result to Leonard Bernstein's music passably well. But the idea was enchanting enough to me that I stuck with it, and the contest theme fit well enough as a title once it started taking shape."Librarian, Anonymous" was another doomed songwriting contest entry -- this one, because tragic songs don't do well in the voting. But I got it done in time, and decided it was good enough to keep. Once again, the title came into shape at the same time the song did. - How many are quotes from songs or poems?
None are direct quotes, but eight are of parodies or transformative works where replacing the words of the title drawn from the source lyrics with the corresponding words in my lyrics produced a suitable title, and one more ("Pointless?"), where the source title suits the song well but does not appear in the source lyrics, had a natural and pleasing equivalent description of my theme. - How many are other quotes?
None. Trying to hang a quote on something that people are going to refer to by what the song is about, or something in the content, doesn't work for me. - Which best reflects the plot of the story/content of the fanwork?
"Servicers of the Machine". - Which best reflects the theme of the story/fanwork?
"Ragnarok". - Which best reflects the character voice of the story/POV of the fanwork?
"Night on the Town". - Which is your favourite?
"Pointless?" The question mark is part of the title; it doesn't denote any uncertainty about my choice.
| 2 | 3 | Beneath Sasquan Skies | |
| 3 | Big Tech Diary | ||
| 2 | 3 | Bob's Sitrep | |
| 2 | 3 | Creative Writing Lesson | |
| The Earworm | |||
| 4 | Fantasy Home | ||
| 1 | 4 | The Golem Song | 5 The Dreidel Song |
| 1 | 3 | Hey Murphy, Do You Sing? | |
| 2 | 3 | In Virginia's Mountains | |
| 1 | 4 | Kitchen [Classified] | |
| 1 | Librarian, Anonymous | ||
| 1 | 4 | Night on the Town | |
| 1 | 4 | Plush Cthulhu | 5 Rubber Duckie |
| 1 | 4 | Pointless? | 5 Boundless? |
| 1 | 4 | Ragnarok | 5 Camelot |
| 1 | 4 | Servicers of the Machine | 5 Acolytes of the Machine |
| 1 | 4 | Ship and Stone | 5 Ship of Stone |
| 2 | 3 | Sunday Morning – Filkers Take Warning | |
| 1 | 4 | Sunken Land of R'lyeh | 5 Mary Ellen Carter |
| 1 | 4 | Teddy Bears' Ballgame | 5 Teddy Bears' Picnic |
| 1 | 4 | A True SF Fan | 5 A Heavy Dragoon |
| 1 | 4 | The Whedonist Retreat |
