Orientation — that is, whether a story is “General” fiction or fiction geared toward romance — only applies to the 39 works of fiction currently within the archive. The nonfiction and anthology titles are excluded. You will currently find 20 “Gen,” 14 “Het (Plot),” and 5 “Het (PWP)” works below. I don’t actually have experience writing Slash as a story’s point, although one of my Het (Plot) works, “The Slow Burn,” does contain a minor subplot about a romantic relationship between Shazza and Fry. That’s as close as I’ve ever come so far, but it was a bit tenuous to give that its own tab right now. Maybe if things change…
Well, would you look at that? Slightly over half of the fiction in the archive right now is “Gen,” meaning “General Fiction,” where the point is not romance, even a little. Now, that could change. One or two of the stories contain allusions to the existence of romantic relationships, and there are three stories currently in this section of the archive that are works in progress and might eventually migrate over to the Het (Plot) section. But right now, Gen is in the lead for this horse race. Who’d’a thunk it?
I have differentiated “Het (Plot)” from “Het (PWP)” because these are the stories where, while a romantic or sexual relationship may be a major aspect of the plot, it’s not the only aspect. In some cases, the romantic element may only take the form of “UST” (unconsummated sexual tension), while a few of the stories do contain explicit sex, so be sure to check the warnings before you go diving in. In fact, only four of the works on this page have strong or explicit sexual content at all, and it took several chapters to get there each time.
“PWP,” depending on whom you ask, stands for “Plot? What Plot?” or “Porn Without Plot.” In other words, stories where the whole point is the sex. That said, I have a bad habit of sneaking plot and characterization into my PWPs.
It’s funny how I developed such a reputation for “porn” when this was the extent of the PWPs I actually wrote…
