I find it funny how I always used to read dom!bts x sub!reader fanfics all the time, but now I can barely get through the first paragraph without cringing. Only the ones with a good plotline can make me stay.
BDSM dynamics don’t have to be everything to make fics about. And this is coming from a D/s blog 😄 What we see again and again, and now with the GoT fiasco anyways: Enjoyment of proper story-telling never gets old no matter the sexual preferences of your characters. From a hero’s journey — where the heroine gets a satisfying conclusion cough cough — to more intricate tales. Sure, narrations never left, but we went through a surge of 100% written porn as fandoms. Which wasn’t the end of the world, and there was great fun in it, just an element was missing. That might be the reason many proclaimed those authors weren’t ‘real writers’. Which, come on, was and will never be a true statement since writing is writing. The critics merely thought only what is written for male pleasure is the real deal 😉
That aside. There IS a shift nowadays. More fanfic authors, whether dom sub or switch, want to show their worlds at large which we should encourage. Because world-building is hard as fuck and young writers who want to venture past the horizon need some applause. Even BTS construct ginormous plots. Character arcs are the way to go, no matter how smutty the erotic scenes may get. Any beloved franchise tells us that. The sheer emotional and relational impacts on the story are times stronger and make reading sex scenes stick with you instead of fast gratification that leaves an emptiness. Especially fluff writers who do that tirelessly… I respect them a lot, they deserve so much more recognition.
