I recently started reccing for an online community and have been wandering about the net to see what Shakespeare slash I could scare up that was worth reviewing. Most of the ones I'm interested in I already knew about, but I came across one that should have been good; it was from one of the histories, right in my ballpark, and by an author I knew had the academic background to make it work.

Alas.

The bloody thing was peppered with footnotes.

Footnotes. In slash fiction.

Dear author: the point of writing fiction is to take the reader out of the world and give them a unique experience. The point is not to educate them, nor even to show them how bloody clever you think you are. If this is your purpose, don't write slash - write an essay.

Pick a horse and ride it; don't try to saddle two at once.

I tried. God knows I tried. It should have been good, but at the end of every other sentence there was a damned pothook leading to half a page of notes. Here's a little hint: If the explanation takes up a greater amount of text than the story you're doing it wrong.

And the point of writing slash fiction is not, and never has been, to show off. The point is to entertain. Some people manage both, admittedly, but entertainment should be the priority.

This woman should get over herself, and in a big hurry.

x-posted from my LJ