Do we need tea leaves for this?

I've been reading metafandom posts this evening and in one of them, musesfool makes a comment about hitting the fannish sweet spot, capturing the zeitgeist. You know what she's talking about. Those writers that manage to write the pairing/plot/kink/whathaveyou that suddenly becomes the rage in fandom X.

My question is, how do we predict the fannish zeitgeist? Are the writers who do so just extremely lucky and prescient, or is something else at work?

For example, is the zeitgeist ususally episode based? (OMG Rodney has to earn back John's trust! Bring on the lemon chicken and the moves to China!) Or is it BNF-based? (notlorraine wrote some Ruby/Bella that galvanized SPN to a flurry of femslash (oh, god please, this would be nice)) Or something else? Maybe interviews with the cast or writers? (Even in a non-RPF fandom)

If you are one of these kickass persons who manages to give us what we want BEFORE WE EVEN KNOW WE WANT IT *g* please to be explaining the whys and the wherefores.

Stuff you need to know right now!

There is a supersweet fest going on right now where you get to request stuff and somebody awesome does it for you! I'm on page four! Go! Fulfill me!

In addition, I have the following rec to make.

Sympathy for the Devil by lyrstzha; SPN/Babylon 5 XOVER; Dean-centric gen
I don't care if you think Babylon 5 is an apocryphal book of the Bible or a street in ancient Mesopotamia. Even if you have no knowledge of that show, IF YOU POSSESS EVEN A MICRON OF JOY FOR THE CHARACTER OF DEAN WINCHESTER you must read this piece. Sure, knowing B5 canon makes this piece more poignant and more gut-punchy and more mind-blowingly awesome. But read for the Dean. Oh, Dean. *clutches*

SPN/His Dark Materials XOVER; gen; PG

I know, I know! This is unparalled single day postage for Lorraine.

But

I have answered the call and written to order a Supernatural/Pullman crossover.

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