Let’s Gather ‘Round the Campfire (#4)

[srsly-yes.livejournal.com]

7/10 ETA: Help! I've fallen behind on replying and can't get up!

Sorry campers, RL intruded, and I was out most of the day. As a rule, I'm incoherent after 5pm, so I'm not going to attempt responding this evening. Your great comments deserve more than gibberish. Bear with me, I'll be back tomorrow. You guys are the best! *hugs* The mod is in.

Hi Campers!

Have you brought your flashlights? We've had wonderful discussions over the last few weeks, but do you have the fortitude to discuss today's topic, ghost stories? You know what I'm talking about... dun dunn dunnn... the deathfic. Is it a guilty pleasure or does it squick you out? Do you have to be in the mood (bookmark them for later)? Why?

Food for thought:
Is a good cry enough for you, or after you finish the story, do you mentally write a different ending, like House coming to Wilson's rescue with a last minute diagnosis and cure.

What about the causes? Illness or Accident? Anyone want to discuss the irony of the oncologist getting cancer?

Going a bit afield: Does your interest or disinterest about characters dying extend to watching movies, (randomly chosen titles: Dead Poets Society, In the Gloaming) and reading novels, or is that a different experience for you?

For writers: can you write and read them? Do you prefer one or the other?

Alright, I've used up my quota of questions marks so let's hear from you. And as always, please talk amongst yourselves, and don’t be shy about asking questions and chatting with your neighbors.

Comments

[yarroway.livejournal.com]

I'm curious. For those who write deathfics--do you know when you begin a story that it will be a deathfic, or do you figure it out part way through? How do you decide?

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

I know going in. To me ... it's just another story. X is going to happen, what is the path I'm going to take to get there? Should the death happen now? In the future? Did it happen in the past? How and why? On-screen or off? Etc.

As for reading deathfics -- I find it very difficult to read fics in which it's House who dies, but I would rec pwcorgigirl's Afterlife (http://pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com/54420.html) as one of the great ones. Also seconding (or thirding) hwshipper's rec of All Good Things. It is, as srsly_yes said, a classic.

[srsly-yes.livejournal.com]

The long ones are planned. The shorter the story, the more likely I'll be surprised with the ending. There was a drabble that had a mind of its own, and switched to a deathfic a third of the way through.