#RECCING

[fansplaining]

Do you have any advice, guides, or opinions on how write a good rec list?

WELL! This is Elizabeth, and as the longtime co-curator of "The Rec Center" newsletter (with @hellotailor) I do have *a lot* of thoughts about rec lists. 😊 I'm delighted you asked, because as I'm sure both Flourish & I have mentioned on the podcast, rec-list-making is way less prominent now than it has been in previous fandom eras, and I think that's a shame. Reccing can be a great critical tool, and rec lists make a fanwork space richer—not least because they can move readers beyond the mostly quantitative metrics of the AO3.

I'll put the rest of this under the cut:

So obviously there are different kinds of rec lists, including by category/trope, favorites about a character or a ship or fandom, etc. To me, a true ~authored~ rec list is one in which the writer(s) deliberately put together a batch of fics to make some kind of argument about the works/the ship/the fandom/the source material.

Most of the lists we run in the newsletter are not like this, because we're pulling 5-7 works from our guest submissions bank—and since we don't (realistically, can't!) read the stories that are sent in, I have no idea if those 5-7 compliment each other in any real way. (When I put together one of these lists, I aim for balance: not all M/M, not all white characters, not all Western source material, etc.) (Yes, unsurprisingly, those are overrepresented in our submissions bank.)

But an authored rec list treats the rec list itself like a fanwork: you can tap into connective tissue that runs throughout the fics you choose, and you can put stories side-by-side that illuminate something when read together. You can approach this from two different directions: working from a broader pool of fics you like and pulling out a coherent batch, or starting with a theme, an argument, that connective tissue, and seeing what fits.

When I first got into my current fandom, I kept a google doc with fic titles, links, brief descriptors, and general thematic vibes etc., for future reccing use. (Obviously you can do this with AO3 bookmarks, but I use those differently, so this was a separate endeavor.) These were set up to transfer to "The Rec Center" easily, e.g.:

“Celestial Navigation” by kaydeefalls. 9K words, rated Teen. Canon-era: C & E go to NYC to try to recruit several mutants. Delicate balance sort of story with a soft revelation. No tropes.

When I actually go to rec something, I reread it—mostly because I want to get the content warnings right, but also because reading it to rec is more like reading for work: you wind up looking at the text with a different eye, always lowkey thinking about how you'll make your argument about it in writing. I haven't actually recced the fic above in the newsletter, but here's another X-Men fic I did rec at one point:

“Come Together” verse by blarfkey. 60K words across 4 stories, rated Teen.  Backstory: When Peter gets arrested for breaking Erik out of the Pentagon, Erik returns the favor and breaks Peter out in turn—and takes him to live with Charles. Beautifully awkward father-son bonding coupled with bitter, stubborn exes pining: *chef’s kiss*. The verse spans five years, with really believable character growth, which is really saying something, based on the emotionally-stunted starting point for all parties involved. Rec: Peter is the POV character here, so a+++, and the close third-person narration plays with the spaces between what he feels and what he says while capturing his voice beautifully. This means 50% dragging people and 50% feeling like an idiot, which is a total joy. A lot of X-Men stuff, canonically or...fanonically...sorry...is about found family, and I mean, this one is about finding your literal blood relations, but it’s also about building a true family, and I think the author gives that enough space to really sell it.  Content warnings: Canon-typical violence, torture, ableism, the unenlightened thoughts about women’s bodies that preoccupy heterosexual teenage boys 

That rec is from a whole list I did with @morgan-leigh a few (five???wtf lol) years ago, which I think is a good example of an authored rec list: Morgan and I had overlapping tastes and similar interpretations of the characters, so all the fics here feel like they're talking to each other in some way, and making an argument about who these characters are (in Morgan's beautiful words, many of these stories "capture the exquisite and venal dickishness of both our heroes" lol).

Obviously rec lists don't have to be super formal—we created this reccing format a long time ago to keep things standardized—and I certainly don't think recs need to sound like literary criticism (not that the examples above sound like literary criticism lol...you know what I mean). Some of my favorite rec lists are pure vibes and (performatively? in a good way) emotional, and that's great. If you're a fic author, you know what a delight those comments are to receive. And like someone's AO3 bookmarks, the all-vibes rec list is an opportunity to see if you, too, feel like the selected fics smack you in the face or whatever violent expression of appreciation people are using. They often don't give you a ton of information, but if you and the reccer have similar taste, you know you can trust their picks.

But! I would make the case for reccing as a chance to talk about fic in a way that you really wouldn't in a comment to the author or in a performatively emotional tag: critically, not in the "this is bad" definition of "criticism," but, like, in the lit-crit way. Why does this work—and how does it work? As with all literary criticism, "work" is totally contextual; a good rec list sets up that context, and gives you just enough information to want to click through and see for yourself.

All that being said, you don't need to overthink it—and I say this partly because I'd really love to see more rec lists floating around! The AO3 often primes people to sort in a top-down way, and though there are tons of great fics with lots of kudos, as the meme goes,

Rec lists let you include things that aren't super popular, that hit niche characterization or plot notes, that really worked for you specifically for whatever reason. They're pure human curation—not just recs, but an arrangement of those recs that creates a whole new work in the process. And that's something I really love about fandom! We don't want algorithmic 'if this, then that' for-you pages; we're interested in doing the actual work of reading, thinking about, and sharing what we like with others, and that's wonderful.

[lurkdragonstuff]

It is 2023, and there is time for South Scrimshaw: Part One.

I played through tonight, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who loves speculative evolution, visual novels, aliens, nature documentaries, and/or whales. It's a visual novel about the calfhood and adolescence of an alien whale.

It's on the very low-interaction side of the visual novel scale. Most interaction is clicking to advance the story, but there are, essentially, footnotes that you can click on to learn more about the wider world and universe this little whale lives in.

The hints at what humanity is like at this is just enough to whet the appetite for more, written to an in-universe audience that doesn't bother to explain things everyone should know. Reminds me pleasantly of The Crucible of Time, in that sense. But even more tantalizing for me is the beautifully detailed speculative biology, centred of course on my favourite animal group, the cetaceans. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.

It made me cry really hard at The Usual Trigger and I had to take a breather in the middle because of that, but it was well worth it. I've listed some content warnings under the cut. Give it a try! It's free on Steam and won't take more than an hour or two!

Animal death, infant death, parental death are the death ones. The Brillo whales that star in this visual novel also have adaptations that may make folks with trypophobia very uncomfortable.

[sparkylurkdragon]

Dinosaur Sanctuary gets the Sparky Seal Of Approval.

Delightful, mostly-lighthearted, sometimes incredibly tragic little slice of life manga about a zoo. A zoo with dinosaurs and other prehistoric critters.

Also it takes potshots at 'Look At The Spectacle don't worry about being educated' type facilities, which I enjoyed.

There's a triceratops sitting in loaf form. There's an escaped velociraptor who steals a fish. There are Science Facts, both within the comic and in short articles written by the series' paleontologist consultant. There is - a graphic panel of a berserk, frightened animal getting shot in the head before she attacks the zoo's visitors, shortly after a graphic panel of her keeper's mauled body?

Like I say, mostly lighthearted, but doesn't shy away from some harsh realities of what it would be like to have such animals still living with us. But, like, also lots and lots of softer realities.

I'm enjoying it and look forward to future volumes!

[consistentsquash]

2023 lookback!

My HP fic reading in 2023 was oldschool Snarry fics because I didn't really read outside my comfort zone. Experienced a family loss in May. My HP reading after that was pretty much just comfort fics.

My favorite HP fandom thing in 2023 is the hprecfest. Super fun! Scarlet, love you forever for this idea <3 This is incredible and I love getting to read the recs others made.

I read tons of fic in other fandoms. Les Mis, The Witcher, ASoIaF are the big ones. Got to know some new folks from those fandoms and that's been great. Super confident some of them are going to be seriously amazing writers once they get experience. The talent is already there!! :D So hyped! Read a lot of books outside my comfort zone because of the new fandoms. Also met some fandom folks in real life and it was amazing fun. I got to go to NYC to meet them which was wow.

Crossed 1000 recs! :D

Biggest lesson for me was that I have a people pleasing problem. I mean I knew that before. But reccing also highlights that problem. Sometimes I felt pressured to rec fics directly by the author/indirectly by their friends. Obviously if I am good at setting boundaries that won't be a thing. Idk maybe it was in my head but anyway I feel like I am learning to set boundaries. My 2023 goal was to rec fics I am 100% in love with + don't feel pressured to rec. I feel like I succeeded on some level. My reccing velocity definitely went down but I don't feel stressed out? Like before I felt stressed a lot because I was feeling pressured about commenting/reccing and kind of felt used sometimes? Anyway maybe it was probably just in my head but it's like that sometimes!

Another lesson for me was to trust my taste/don't apologize for it. I feel sometimes I went with what other folks recommended esp if they were writers because I trusted their taste more? Obviously this is a me problem. I was working on that a lot in 2023. My taste is definitely not perfect or anything but taste is super subjective/personal. I am getting better about not apologizing for my taste because otherwise I was always saying stuff like "this fic is not for everybody/this fic is weird" which was more about me feeling insecure about my taste than about the fic itself.

Also I feel my rec style has improved. I was having real problems with reccing more complicated fics. Getting more experience is definitely helping.

Excited for 2024 fandom!

[thisbluespirit]

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, reccing community tardis_library, over on Dreamwidth, set out to collectively rec at least one fanwork per year for all 60 years from 1963-2023 - and we made it!

If you'd love to celebrate the show and the creativity of its fandom, here's a perfect way to do so with a giant list of wonderful recs for fic, art and vids.

[things-ford-pines-missed]

Seeing the Lord of the Rings movies in theaters. I feel like he would have really enjoyed the experience

Thing Ford Missed #39: The Lord Of The Rings (in theaters)

this reminds me of a fic I read and consider one of the best gf fics ever. by the skin of your teeth, by apathetic_reverend. so. just saying

[howgaytobequeer]

A post I stuck in the queue about the Unintended Consequences of Killing Every Bug reminded me: I recently read Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire and wanted to give it a recommendation. Brookshire discusses human relationships to vertebrate animals considered "pests" in multiple areas of the world, from feral cats and pigeons to invasive pythons to elephants, and her coverage is thought-provoking and even-handed, with a variety of voices invited to speak on each human-animal conflict. (She leaves out inverts, sadly, but explains why in the introduction.)

It was a good read and I think folks who follow this blog would at least find interesting things to chew on within its pages.

[timotey]

(Source)

A chance meeting between Julien Cohen and the 10-year-old prodigy Yeonah Kim at an airport. Magic happens.

[animentality]

kicking a hornets nest.

[sparkylurkdragon]

Agreed.

I can at least point to a sincere VN to try (for those of us who enjoy VNs) that was developed outside of Japan - Raptor Boyfriend, from a Canadian developer. Embrace the fact that your potential dates are a dinosaur, a fairy, or a sasquatch and enjoy an earnest story about living as a teenager the Canadian 1990's.

...I actually need to get back to it, honestly. I really enjoyed the raptor's route.

i want art to feel EARNEST. this disgusting, near pornographic level of tongue in cheek meta humor is making me sick to my stomach. i don’t know how many more movies i can take about clever subversions and the movie winking at you to say “we know it’s a little silly, but…” where is the whimsy? why can’t we believe in the pretend you’ve created? why don’t you have enough faith in it? in my ability to believe?

[sarahmackattack]

One last talent show to save the rec center

Ok everybody here's the deal.

My science education nonprofit, Skype a Scientist (you might know her, creator of the squid facts hotline and matcher of classrooms + scientists) has secured absolutely no grants to support general operations for 2025. But! We're selling advent calendars to fund our program! They absolutely rule. They can save our nonprofit asses. If we sell 5000, which I realize, is so many, we can fund our program for 2025. Then I can offer a bunch of programming for free. Running a nonprofit is a weird job.

Every day, counting down to frankly whatever you want (it's usually Christmas, but man, maybe you want to count down to Halloween, that's fine by me) scratch off the sparkly sparkly iridescence and reveal a fact about frogs! We have 24 top-notch frog facts here.

You should get one for every kid in your life, then get one for all the adults who still let themselves access joy in critters.

Get 'em here: https://squidfacts.bigcartel.com/

[bugbuoyx]

i made tumblr pride flags! feel free to ask for more edits

[lurkdragonstuff]

It is 2023, and there is time for Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle.

Camp Damascus tells the story of a young woman, Rose, who grew up in what appears to be any given ultra-conservative American Evangelical church. Oh, there are some quirks, like not being considered an adult until about 20-21 because of two years of intensive Bible study mixed in with the usual K-12 curriculum, and the way the church is open about using capitalism to its advantage, but it's a story that's been lived a million times in modern America.

But cracks are beginning to show. Rose, blessed or cursed with a curious, autistic mind, is faced with the happy facade of her upbringing falling apart around her as she uncovers the grisly, terrifying mystery of the church and the gay conversion camp it runs just outside of town. And it's all very personal for her, as over the course of the novel she realises she's gay.

It's told in a first-person, present tense style, which isn't always my first choice, but Tingle makes it work really well here for a lot of visceral scares. It's clear he put a lot of his signature love into this pulse-pounder. I'll admit, I found his first horror novel, Straight, more of a campy romp than genuinely scary, though it had its moments. It probably doesn't help that I've never been much of one for zombie fiction.

Camp Damascus seems to have had more thorough editing and genuinely made me have to put it down a few times in the best way. In particular, the opening chapters are filled with seething, terrifying dread for anyone who knows much about abusive churches. The rest of the novel's slow unravelling of the mystery of the camp and Rose's own past is paced wonderfully and builds to a gory, visceral, and ultimately uplifting conclusion.

Highly recommended.

[sparkylurkdragon]

Just beat Dave the Diver!

It's like this game was made for me... ocean game, collecting aspects, restaurant management that spirals into farm mangement, quirky and loveable characters (including a delightfully punchable villain)... ah, it's everything I love!

The subject matter may be a turn off (you're running a sushi restaurant and there's animated blood as you hunt), but if that's something you can get by, highly recommended!

[consistentsquash]

Reccing stuff

So! I reached around 800 recs.

I kind of sort of have a recipe now on how I am building lists! Generally I go for a combo of five types of fic now

Reccing old fics where the authors are not active in fandom. This is actually more fun than I expected. Because you have maximum flexibility about what you want to rec/how you want to rec it. I go really experimental on these recs.

Reccing fics from new authors. Because you really make a difference to their confidence. Which means you get more fics to read! Everybody wins.

Reccing fics from favorite authors. Because you want them to write more about your fav characters/pairings/just write more anything!!

Reccing fics which are dirty/bad/hot/wrong. Because fandom needs more of this!

Reccing in the range of 30-100 kudos. There is a lot of great stuff outside the Sort By Kudos filter on AO3.

Also some principles. Because maximum cringe Saturday here.

Rec for yourself. It's just like writing for yourself and anything fandom related in general honestly. I am generally reccing for the type of reader like me. Because I wanted rec lists. Also sort by kudos/other stats wasn't working for me. So my recs are about my taste/what I like.

Ask! This is a big one. A lot of times I like fics which are too complicated to rec. But generally asking the author works out great to get references/key themes. Took me forever to start asking.

Say no. You don't have to read everything. You don't have to rec everything. Stuff like that. It's a huge fandom! I suck at saying no. But a lot of times folks can get upset/sad for valid reason if they feel their work should be recced. Anyway the answer is more rec lists by more people.

Nope out. I mean. This sounds really weird. But sometimes people can get upset about the quality of your rec about their fic and things like that. Because I want to feel good about reccing I generally nope out when somebody feels I didn't do a good job reccing their fic. A lot of fandom experience is about curation.

Trust your taste! If you are reccing it's definitely easier to trust your own taste instead of staying on top of the latest fic/pairing/trope which went big. Of course my taste isn't the best or anything like that. But it's super useful to have some focus

Also bonus stuff.

You get to learn things about your favorite authors when you start reading fics for reccing. Like their favorite kinks. Like their common typos. Like their repeating themes. It's pretty cool honestly. It's like learning something about a person through their works. I should totally call out PI on that glove kink. Maybe not. Maybe yes. Definitely yes.

You get better at reading/analysis in general. I rec some really weird/brilliant fics sometimes which can be pretty out there. But that stuff has been good for my critical thinking skills.

You get lots of impact! I mean I sound like I am selling a job. But recs make a huge difference sometimes to motivate/encourage folks. Also it can sometimes connect people. Which is a bonus because we get to build fandom community garden.