So my question for y'all is this: Are you an OTPer? If you OTP, do you have only one, or do you have an OTP for each fandom? How do you think being an OTPer affects your fannish experience?
I've been talking about this (for the zillionth time *g* with friends over the last few days.
These days the term 'OTP' means different things to different people. Several meanings I've come across are:
I will only read/write about the pair together. There are no circumstances under which I'd read about them with someone else.
I will only read/write about my pair together. The only exceptions are if the story is before they meet, or they are with another person when the story begins, and the story ends with them being together.
I will only read/write about my pair together. However I will sometimes read/write a threesome story about my pairing together with another character.
A pairing about whom I am passionate and I don't really see either of them with anyone else. However, I can read/write about one of them with someone else, if one of my favourite authors has written the story, or there aren't new stories about them together.
They are the pairing within the fandom that I prefer. However, I'm happy to read/write about one or both of them with other partners.
And I've found that people also differ depending on whether they are talking about a OTP for reading or a OTP for writing. More people have a OTP for the first or second meaning when it comes to writing. Whereas for reading it's more likely that the forth or fifth meaning is more common.
On top of that people have a OTC (one true character) so will read about anything that involves that person.
The term has also, in some fandoms, taken on a nasty meaning, as I understand it has become 'this is the only pairing in the fandom that is viable and all other pairings are wrong'. Which is very sad.
It's far more complex than it used to be.
However, personally I am very simple (when it comes to what I mean by OTP. I use the term to apply in the same way for reading and writing.
I am a hard and fast OTPer in the now old-fashioned sense of the term: i.e. it means that the pairing are together and that one doesn't read/write about half of the pairing with another character. The only exceptions are if the story is before they meet, or they are with another person when the story begins, and the story ends with them being together. They are the pairing and are not put with other characters. (This does not mean that, in my eyes, they are the only viable pairing in the fandom and that anyone who doesn't like this pairing is wrong, simply that they are my slash (or in the odd case het) pairing within the fandom.)
I have an OTP for each fandom in which I write. In fact for NCIS I have a slash (Gibbs/Ducky) and a het (Abby/McGee) OTP.
Part One (Sorry I rambled too much)
So my question for y'all is this: Are you an OTPer? If you OTP, do you have only one, or do you have an OTP for each fandom? How do you think being an OTPer affects your fannish experience?
I've been talking about this (for the zillionth time *g* with friends over the last few days.
These days the term 'OTP' means different things to different people. Several meanings I've come across are:
And I've found that people also differ depending on whether they are talking about a OTP for reading or a OTP for writing. More people have a OTP for the first or second meaning when it comes to writing. Whereas for reading it's more likely that the forth or fifth meaning is more common.
On top of that people have a OTC (one true character) so will read about anything that involves that person.
The term has also, in some fandoms, taken on a nasty meaning, as I understand it has become 'this is the only pairing in the fandom that is viable and all other pairings are wrong'. Which is very sad.
It's far more complex than it used to be.
However, personally I am very simple (when it comes to what I mean by OTP. I use the term to apply in the same way for reading and writing.
I am a hard and fast OTPer in the now old-fashioned sense of the term: i.e. it means that the pairing are together and that one doesn't read/write about half of the pairing with another character. The only exceptions are if the story is before they meet, or they are with another person when the story begins, and the story ends with them being together. They are the pairing and are not put with other characters. (This does not mean that, in my eyes, they are the only viable pairing in the fandom and that anyone who doesn't like this pairing is wrong, simply that they are my slash (or in the odd case het) pairing within the fandom.)
I have an OTP for each fandom in which I write. In fact for NCIS I have a slash (Gibbs/Ducky) and a het (Abby/McGee) OTP.