Musing: fic - The reading thereof

I was just thinking -- I really don't read much fic any more. If I have a craving, I go and hunt stuff down, and if someone recs something really interesting, I might read it, but posts that come up on my flist from getbackers or over_look or even fated_children, I just don't read. And, I confess, I haven't read anything written by irishais in ages. >>;;

I think part of that's my tendency not to read anything unfinished. I very, very rarely start buying a trilogy or series until it's finished. The only time I've done otherwise is when I bought the first three books of Sarah Zettel's Arthurian romance series. And I haven't read those yet. Oh, and Garth Nix: I have up to Grim Thursday already despite the series not being finished.

Another part of it is, I guess, that a lot of the stuff I come across just doesn't interest me that much or tends to disappoint me even if it does. Still, I don't like it, 'cause here's me getting a reasonable amount of comments -- usually, one or two per fic post! -- and I don't give anything back to my various fandoms in that way. Most of the fics I come across and like are ones I've hunted down after the fact and I feel shy leaving comments.

I think I'm going to go round and leave comments to any fics I've got bookmarked in my del.icio.us, for a start, and then I think I'll try and set myself some kind of goal of commenting on at least one fic a day. 8D

So! If you have anything you'd really like me to read that you think I skipped, drop me a link (or a couple of links -- not too many >>). Please, though, not anything still in progress. In fact -- it'd be better if it wasn't a chaptered fic. Chaptered fics intimidate me. Long one-shots are a-okay, but nothing with more than, say, two parts.

Preferred reading fandoms: Final Fantasy III, IV, VIII, X, X-2, XII (RW). Kingdom Hearts (I/CoM/II). Robin Hood BBC. The Dark Is Rising. The Fionavar Tapestry. Good Omens. Doctor Who (but not Torchwood, yet). Phoenix Wright. Firefly. Heroes (season one). GetBackers. Gundam Wing (which I never watched, but acquired a huge knowledge of by osmosis).

Fanwork-a-thon: FFVIII - Rinoa

Following the relative success of various fanwork-a-thons (mostly the Irvine one), and with a little bit of urging, I'm going to run one for Rinoa. 8D And the rules go like this:

1) You submit prompts, to this post, by around the 11th of February. It'll give you a bit of time to think. You can submit as many prompts as you like, and they can be short, e.g. "Squall/Rinoa; cold" or long, detailed and plotty. It doesn't have to be a fic prompt, either. If you have a good idea for an icon, but not the skills to make it, describe it; someone might be able to make it. The same goes for artwork and the like.
1b) It is fairly obvious that any prompt that would involve warping Rinoa's character beyond all recognition is out.
2) On the 12th of February at the latest, I'll post a list of all the prompts. You comment and say which ones you're doing, so people get an idea of who's doing what, although two or more people can write for the same prompt. They'll be posted in categories, but it's flexible -- if you see a fic prompt you want to do art for, that's fine!
3) By April 1st, you should have commented to the post with a link to whatever you've written, made or drawn. I'll collect those links and post them up in a list for people to browse through.

Okay, have at it! Anything (that contains Rinoa) goes.

Edit: Alright, submission period is up! The list of prompts is up here.