rainbowlounge | RainbowFic Questions & Suggestions August 5th

Entry tags:

RainbowFic Questions & Suggestions August 5th - 13th

(dates are approximate)

This is the place for any questions or suggestions you have for

rainbowlounge . This includes 'how does this work?', 'does this supply or style count for this?' and 'what are the limits on this?'

There are a good amount of things that have fuzzy limits or definitions and that's okay. You're allowed to use your judgement of how to use a list, supply, style, etc. But I also want to acknowledge that not everyone is comfortable with ambiguity and that some people need more concrete answers. So this is where to get those (and then it'll be added to the appropriate page). But there are no tag/prompt/writing police here (I don't have energy for that shit)

Anyone can answer (please, if you've been here longer, jump in and help). Please take time to check what the different

rainbowlists pages say because they might have the answer, but don't be afraid to ask something that seems obvious: it may be that I need to clarify a description or q&a. Checking the tags on

rainbowfic to see how something has been used is also a good way to get answers, or at least precedent.

I'll check these posts at least once a week and I'll be using these as a resource to find things that need to be added or improved in the q&as.

Edit relevant to discussion at hand:

- Mosaic current definition: A piece that is a crossover between canons; you may write a crossover with a media source, but this may not be your canon - it must either be AU or a very minor aspect of the main canon, since we're not a fanfic comm

- Collage current definition: Borrow another person's canon; be sure to ask first!

Neither have any q&as or comments related to them that I'm finding. Somebody could go through the tags to see what people have done, but that'd be a serious time commitment

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I'd also like to make a slight modification to collage - that using public domain or open-source settings, items, and characters also falls under collage.

This would have to be minor uses of characters - just because Dracula is public domain, doesn't mean you can write a story starring Mina, Van Helsing, and Jonathan Harker. But you could do something like Roger Rabbit or Wreck-it Ralph (I think - I haven't seen it) and have a bunch of characters show up.

The possible exception would be open-source characters, like Jenny Everywhere, which aren't owned by anyone and never were.

Some relevant links:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Website/TheFreeUniverse
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PublicDomainCharacter - especially Other public domain characters in media Web Original
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PublicDomainCanonWelding

What are people's thoughts? Would this be welcome or too confusing?

I always understood the point of collage to be collaboration between members of this comm and therefore encouraging people to interact and get into each other's canon at least to a limited enough extent to do it, something which can help a lot with the general life and activity of the comm - so using public domain characters seems to me to defeat the object, and it's not as if we don't have the crossover option here already if someone wants to use some element of an existing published canon.

ETA: Maybe we could have a game of some sort to encourage collage, if you're concerned about it not being done - people could ask each other questions about how such canon merges/crossovers might go? They could suggest characters that might be entertaining or fit in well, or give details about the setting that someone needs just to do a little drabble or ficlet.

(I have my own suggestion for something, but I'll come back later and put that in a separate comment.)

Edited 2023-08-06 08:00 (UTC)

I thought this too and I think that's a fun and valuable kind of goal to have.

So it is really a question of using characters that are not original? Is mosaic a world (or concept) borrowed from a media source with all original characters, or with original characters as the main/POV characters but allowing borrowed characters from the canon in minor roles?

Or, if we want to hardline ban Tony Stark but allow open source characters, there could be a new style or supply that specifies interaction with open source characters allowed, and mosaic cannot use borrowed characters at all.

<3 This one is about Collage, not Mosaic. Collage is the one that's collaboration with someone else in the comm - Mosaic is, I presume the crossover one???

Anyway, I was just coming back to add, but the comment had been replied to:

ETA (again, sorry!): In practical terms, if the comm gets quieter again, I don't see that you couldn't widen Collage to include using the origfic canon of somebody (probably a friend) outside the comm (with permission obv) as well, because that preserves the collaboration aspect - whereas by definition the creator of something in the public domain is going to be dead and not available for collaboring on anything!

Edited 2023-08-06 08:36 (UTC)

Yes I know this is about collage but the conversation overlaps with the one about mosaic above. Because a story about my original character with the Dracula cast on the background would be a crossover with Dracula and fall under mosaic - if mosaic allows characters from the media source, and not just the setting. It wouldn't need to be added to collage as an option. I mean, it could, but then the same fic would be both mosaic and collage for the same reason.

True! That was why I was confused, because I agree - it seems much more appropriate to Mosaic. (And... hasn't someone already written one with Darth Vader in it or something anyway?? XD)

Also I have not familiarised myself enough with any of the rainbowfic writers' canons to feel confident in writing in those settings. I made intros and storylists for my own settings hoping to make them more accessible, but also I have written relatively little in all of them, making the canons pretty open, but then there is also the awkwardness of asking.

I don't know if it's been done before, but we could maybe have a roll call post, or self promo post, for people who want to offer their worlds to be collaged. In replies, could add descriptions to entice people, and advice on how to write in that setting, and how much they would really need to read/absorb to do it with confidence. It lowers the bar significantly.

I don't know if it's been done before, but we could maybe have a roll call post, or self promo post, for people who want to offer their worlds to be collaged. In replies, could add descriptions to entice people, and advice on how to write in that setting, and how much they would really need to read/absorb to do it with confidence. It lowers the bar significantly.

Yes, that was sort of what I was thinking! Like I said, we could have an active 'game'challenge' post for it, but we could also have a set permission/links post like this - it would definitely make me feel more confident about trying it some time.

Yes! That would be great!

I see some people already link their setting pages in the new stories, so I could go "shopping", but it depends on the page how accessible it might be and then I would still have to contact the writer and worry about overstepping some missing or unwritten canon, and would feel a little shy and awkward about that.

Also this way, if someone has a HUGE written (or unwritten!) canon, I could feel confident to be able to write in the setting without studying for it like an exam. This is probably not as big a deal as I am making it sound, but being exact and having parameters and a cheatsheet is how I deal with the social anxiety about overstepping bounds. 😅

*nods a lot* Yes, I think what we are saying, at least, is that Collage is fine as it is, but what we need changed is to have some more set info/permission posts to enable more of us to feel happy about tackling it without having to approach people cold about it, or struggle to read every word someone ever posted first.

I think a comm game on the subject some time would be cool as well, especially to try and encourage us to do it - but a set post like you suggest to be linked to in the sticky would be the most important thing.

Would this comm be an appropriate place for "setting" posts? Dramatized to some degree, but I've got all this background stuff written for at least one setting and nowhere to really put it where it would be available for everyone.

I think so. I need to start doing the Writers Salon posts again, but settings would fall under Worldbuilding Wednesdays and Story Bible Sundays (I think it is)

I accidentally said "this comm" when I meant the rainbowfic comm. (See the post I just made - it's mostly worldbuilding but I tried to write it like an in-universe narrative. It also works as a Cut-away, I think.)

Yep, what you posted is great for RainbowFic.

In the early years there was a lot of roleplay in RainbowLounge. I don't know how much of that was characters and settings that were also being used in stories

All of it. Participation dropped off but I'm willing to try setting that up again. Let me put up a post about it.

Agreeing, especially with the ETA. I know that can be a bit tough for some writers (like me) who have a good idea of character but are still trying to work out setting and other background information. But it's a good exercise to encourage people to try to flesh out those details.

... actually it's because I don't like writing in other people's worlds because I'm bad about reading other people's fic (and have been having problems reading in general for the past few years), but iirc collage is required for some accomplishments.

But you make a good point

This seems a bit confusing to me? I'm not sure myself why we would have it, since public domain characters would already fall under mosaic.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like anybody is interested. And consensus seems to be that it'd be great to have a set up for people to share their settings so others can use them. I could set up that, especially since it would slot into my Writers Salon posts well.

That sounds good then!

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RainbowFic Questions & Suggestions August 5th - 13th

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