Sickfic by Non-fetishists...

[Natto]

So, recently I've been reading a lot of sickfic by people outside of the forum/SF community. I'm doing this because I've found a treasuretrove of it in my newest fandom (Naruto), but not a lot on here...which means once my finals are over I'm going to have to create some myself. *evil laughter* Anyway, one major difference between fics writter by fetishists and fics written by your average bear is this: regular fics tend to completely forget about whatever illness they included, and are using it as a vehicle to get to some romantic subplot. Fetish fics are using the romantic subplot to get to the fetishy stuff. For example, I was reading a fic where Shikamaru gets chicken pox and a cold...and it's mentioned like three times, he's better halfway through the story, and the whole thing seems to revolve around him hooking up with Neji. This is fine for a mainstream audience, but to me it was kind of frustrating. Not going to complain to the author, as she has no obligation to appease my weirdness, but this is a general sort of thing I run into when I read non-fetish fic.

Does anyone else have similar issues? Or have you noticed other differences between the two types of fic? Anything else you'd like to add?

[SapphireSong]

Great topic! I happen to have very specific opinions about this subject... LOL XD First of all, I definitely have searched for non-fet sickfics before, for the fandoms I love (in fact, I believe that's what I mostly used to read before I found this forum :3 ). I agree with you completely about the whole forgetting-the-character-was-sick thing: that annoys the crap outta me... haha X) One other thing I've noticed, though, is the grossness factor; it seems that in a WHOLE lot of sickfics I find on, say, fanfiction.net, the authors will combine colds with stomach ailments T_T I know that doesn't bother everybody, but that totally squicks me out when a character I like is sick and then the author describes them throwing up...... yeaaah. :S And lastly, this is just my personal picky-ness of course, but I really prefer sickfics which spell out the sneezes... unless the material is actually extremely well-written, I don't get as much enjoyment from fics that either don't spell them at all or just use the 'ah-choo!' type deal.

Other than that, though, it's certainly possible to find good stuff by non-fetishists... I just think it's somewhat rare. That's why I mostly stick to this forum for my fanfic fix... and we really have a TON of talented people on this site, I might add!

[Natto]

There is certainly a lot of talent on this website, no denying that. The only thing is that, for me, I tend to get very fixated on one fandom, and once I've ransacked the forum for everything from that fandom, I'm out of options. For people who aren't as obsessive, and who can be satisfied by a variety of things at any given moment, the content of the forum may well be enough. It does, after all, tend to be quite well written.

I've noticed that too, about the stomach ailments. It doesn't bother me--I'm not emetophobic, and I'm interested in illness in general, not just sneezing--but I am bothered when it doesn't make sense. If a character is meant to have the flu, then yes, vomiting makes sense, but not if they've just got a cold. Unless someone has some underlying disorder, or they're coughing so hard they puke, their stomach isn't likely to be a source of trouble during a cold. I like things to be realistic...either that, or exxaggerated versions of symptoms I do like...which tend, of course, to be centered in the nose.

The spelling thing used to bother me a lot--it would make me super-uncomfortable, I think because I hadn't yet accepted that I found sneezing hot, and I didn't like how good it made me feel. Now, I love seeing it spelled out, and not seeing it is always a bit disappointing. I also like it when there's detail about the illness, which sickfic that's focused on something else tends to forgo. Which, aside from being of interest to me, makes it more realistic. Why bother writing about a character experiencing something if you're not going to describe how it feels to them?

[Jorm]

I've found that in general, at least for the fandoms I'm into, non-fetishist written fics are very hit or miss. There are some really excellent ones out there, but there are also some really pointless (from my fetishy perspective) ones. The issue I've run into most hasn't been the disappearance of illness part way through the fic though, I've more found the types of sickness described such as what smileyfacegirl mentioned to be a problem for me. I'm somewhat emetaphobic and particularly if I'm not prepared for it ahead of time it can thoroughly squick me out and ruin an otherwise good story for me. I also get frustrated with badly spelled sneezes, though lack of spelling doesn't really bother me that much. I mean, I certainly appreciate well spelled out sneezes, but I'm almost equally as happy with well described sneezes. Badly spelled ones though are very much a frustration for me in non-fetishist written sick fics. "Achoo" is an instant turn off for me and usually results in my having a very hard time enjoying a story.

Other than that I usually just wish authors would include more description of symptoms in sick fics (aside from stomach ailments, obviously.) instead of, as you said, just using illness as a plot device to get two characters together. But I feel like I can't really complain given that this is such an unusual kink and I really can't expect people outside of the community to cater to my particular tastes. Not to mention the fact that there are so many incredibly authors in the community who do cater to my tastes. I kind of consider myself lucky to have any material that indulges my kink at all, though I do totally get what you're saying about being into a fandom that isn't popular in the community and having to try to find sick fics for it elsewhere.

I would recommend hunting around on livejournal, there are quite a few kink communities on there that include a lot of hurt/comfort kink fans and as a result feature a decent amount of higher quality sick fics than the average bear, and a lot of them are specific to a particular fandom. It's very possible that there is a Naruto kink community on LJ or even a specifically h/c kink community for Naruto.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Ouroboros

[EmeraldThread]

I've read a lot of fics - especially on ff.net - that start off with some sort of cold or whatever that they put in the summary, leading me to think the cold, etc. is an essential part of the plot. Then, I read the story to find that it's all better within the first chapter and there's no mention of it at all in the rest of the story. When I look back on some of them, it actually is completely pointless to the plot line as a whole. What's worse is when they put that someone is sick in the summary and then I start reading, only to get to the point where I'm skipping ahead to find this stuff. And then it's not even included in the story. I've only come across that a couple times, and I'm not sure if it's just because the author abandoned the story or what. But it disappoints me.

I don't mind other ailments in stories, but being emetaphobic I'm not big on overly descriptive stomach things. I've gotten to the point where I can read them and stuff, but I don't like when it's detailed repeatedly or anything, that just puts me off the entire story. I'm not a fan of the simple 'Achoo!' sneezes either. I always find myself mentally scribbling that part out and replacing it with a more intricate spelling fitting of the character I'm reading about. I'm pretty amenable, though. If something doesn't suit me, I'll just read the parts I like.

I totally agree about description, though. Like it doesn't even have to be fetishy description, I just want something so I can get a feel for what's going on and enjoy the fic overall a little more. If it's supposedly that important to the story, why shouldn't it be included in more detail?

[Jorm]

I've read a lot of fics - especially on ff.net -

You might try checking out 'Archive of Our Own' as an alternative to ff.net. For some reason, maybe because they're less well known, they tend to have higher quality fics. Doesn't necessarily mean they're significantly more fetish friendly, but they tend to be better written which leads to fewer instances of misleading summaries and plot points that disappear after the first page. There's admittedly less variety to choose from because it's a smaller site, and you may not find any fetish related material for fandoms you're looking for, but it's worth a look in.

http://archiveofourown.org/

[EmeraldThread]

I've read a lot of fics - especially on ff.net -

You might try checking out 'Archive of Our Own' as an alternative to ff.net. For some reason, maybe because they're less well known, they tend to have higher quality fics. Doesn't necessarily mean they're significantly more fetish friendly, but they tend to be better written which leads to fewer instances of misleading summaries and plot points that disappear after the first page. There's admittedly less variety to choose from because it's a smaller site, and you may not find any fetish related material for fandoms you're looking for, but it's worth a look in.

http://archiveofourown.org/

Thank you so much for that link! I've been checking out a few fics, and a lot of the ones I've read so far are really good, or at least better quality than what I usually find out there. I actually like the setup of the site better than ff.net, too. XD

[AmeliePoulain]

I'm pretty confused about non-fetish sick fics in general. I've come across a whole lot of them that don't forget about the illness and actually focus on it quite a bit, especially in the H/C context. So is that not a fetish? Is H/C just its own separate fetish? I don't get it. (Not that I'm complaining!! I just wish I understood the motivation more clearly...)

[Natto]

I'm pretty confused about non-fetish sick fics in general. I've come across a whole lot of them that don't forget about the illness and actually focus on it quite a bit, especially in the H/C context. So is that not a fetish? Is H/C just its own separate fetish? I don't get it. (Not that I'm complaining!! I just wish I understood the motivation more clearly...)

Yeah, I think H/C is a seperate fetish, or at least a seperate interest. H/C can include any kind of "bad stuff happening to people and others making them feel better." For us, H/C can be included under the umbrella of what we like, but some of us don't even care about that, and are just interested in sneezing, or just interested in the symptoms of colds or allergies, or how they affect the person who has them, or whatever. For us, H/C is part of the sneezing package, for them, sneezing can be part of the H/C package. It's about which is more important, I guess. And of course you can have someone with a sneeze fetish who is also heavily into H/C.

Personally, I'm really interested in illness in general. Not necessarily from an H/C perspective...from a psychological perspective, from a medical perspective, from everything. This includes illnesses that I don't find even remotely sexually attractive and therefore cannot classify them as a fetish. A lot of this has to do with it being a real turn-on, rather than just an interest, too.

[Natto]

I've read a lot of fics - especially on ff.net -

You might try checking out 'Archive of Our Own' as an alternative to ff.net. For some reason, maybe because they're less well known, they tend to have higher quality fics. Doesn't necessarily mean they're significantly more fetish friendly, but they tend to be better written which leads to fewer instances of misleading summaries and plot points that disappear after the first page. There's admittedly less variety to choose from because it's a smaller site, and you may not find any fetish related material for fandoms you're looking for, but it's worth a look in. http://archiveofourown.org/

Thanks for the all the suggestions! I did manage to find one fic of interest on Livejournal and one on Archive of Our Own. I used to use LJ a lot, but then Tumblr sucked my brain out and I haven't been on. I was mainly using fanfiction.net and Google...actually, one of the fics I found on Archive of Our Own was one I'd previously found on Google, but it was fun to re-read it. The one on LJ was totally new!

[Sitruuna]

...okay, I'm too lazy to read all that has been said, sorry...

Anyway, I often kind of prefer fics written by non-fetishists. They usually circle around something else and the main focuse is not on the sickeness, which I find a good thing. Ouroboros mentioned the v-thing... Well, I usually scan everything for it first. xD I mean... There's no surprises coming if the first thing you do is ctrl+f - > vomit, throw up, icky and so on... LoL, if there's something you don't want to see, you notice it before reading.

Anyway, that wasn't the point. xD

Pretty often the fics written by people here or somewhere else around the sf-community might... Well, be too much about the illness. You know, the person writes what they want to read (usually, LoL) and then we get a fic with too much of this and too little of that... Bad explanation is bad. Anyway, sometimes there might be more plot in the ones written by non-fetishists. And now I'm repeating myself while trying to remember what else I actually wanted to say...

Hmmn...

Maybe it's the fandom, though? I've mostly read HP and Torchwood... And... Something? LoL

Most of the Harry Potter stuff I've read have been good, very good (and mmn, I've mostly read S/R fics here xD).

Anyway, I can't remember what I wanted to say so bleh...

[JenJen]

I can't stand sickfic written by normal folk. No one is ever sick for long enough or sick badly enough for my liking. And it always seems to get forgotten about in lieu of some other plot point.

[Natto]

...okay, I'm too lazy to read all that has been said, sorry...

Anyway, I often kind of prefer fics written by non-fetishists. They usually circle around something else and the main focuse is not on the sickeness, which I find a good thing. Ouroboros mentioned the v-thing... Well, I usually scan everything for it first. xD I mean... There's no surprises coming if the first thing you do is ctrl+f - > vomit, throw up, icky and so on... LoL, if there's something you don't want to see, you notice it before reading.

Anyway, that wasn't the point. xD

Pretty often the fics written by people here or somewhere else around the sf-community might... Well, be too much about the illness. You know, the person writes what they want to read (usually, LoL) and then we get a fic with too much of this and too little of that... Bad explanation is bad. Anyway, sometimes there might be more plot in the ones written by non-fetishists. And now I'm repeating myself while trying to remember what else I actually wanted to say...

Hmmn...

Maybe it's the fandom, though? I've mostly read HP and Torchwood... And... Something? LoL

Most of the Harry Potter stuff I've read have been good, very good (and mmn, I've mostly read S/R fics here xD).

Anyway, I can't remember what I wanted to say so bleh...

It depends. I do like plot, a lot, but most of the sickfic that I find written by non-fetishists doesn't have much of a plot. It's typically just an excuse to get people to hook up, and that's the plot. If there were something I actually found interesting going on, then I wouldn't care how much or how little sickness there was, but if it's just there as a catalyst for romance, I'm not interested at all. And that's usually been the case in most of the fandoms I've been in.