What He Should Have Been, by littlenotebook.

The prompt they're responding to was: When Ianto was a little girl all he wanted was to be able to wear his father's suits. Now he does, but his family doesn't want anything to do with him. And damn, does it ever do it justice. Why? Because I really believe that yeah, this could be my Ianto, without a question.

Okay, I beta-ed this (or am in the process of betaing it). But I didn't know definehome before then, and I really think you should go read this. Especially if you're tired of lovey-dovey fics that feel the need to outline every detail of Jack/Ianto's relationship. Especially if you want a long, meaty story with plot. Especially if you want to read a fic with a decidedly darker tone.

Now We're All Going Under is this fic. It's dark, plotty, sexy, emotional (in the good way), and thirty-six thousand words long. Go read and enjoy! (And comment!) It's going up in six parts, and will be all up... when I finished editing it. ;)

jbs_teeth was bugging me for more recs, and I thought, no way can I have enough to do another list already! So I checked, and I had 26. Woah. So, here they are. They don't all have summaries yet because my hands started killing me halfway through, but copy-pasting this for later always effs up the formatting, so I'll just fill it in later. Done!

ETA: Fixed and added three that LJ dropped off the top, and fixed up one that had meshed an author and summary with a different title. *Growls at LJ*. And now sorted into categories, because I had more longer fics than I thought I did.

( oneshots )
( longer fics )
( fucked up fics ) 

More recs: some old ones I've dug up, some new and a couple of really beautiful vids. There are a lot of smut recs in here, this time.

( oneshots )
( multichapter )
( vids )

More recs from Demotu, because she's procrastinating finishing chapter 12. Sorry guys. It's been a tricky one. While you wait, here are some Torchwood fanfics you should read.

( oneshots )
( series or multichapter )
( fanvids )

What makes a good oneshot? Poignancy. There needs to be an emotional hook, because a oneshot isn't about plot. There are some exceptions to that rule: humour can make a good hook as well. These recs are all oneshots, and stand strongly alone. They aren't about sex - all though some of them have sex in them - unlike my list of smut recs, they're about character.

All of these are well written and have excellent characterisation, or I wouldn't rec them, so I'll try and talk about what else I like about them each.

( click for oneshots )
Go and enjoy! And comment if you enjoyed it, even if the fic is old. As always, I defaulted to female pronouns when necessary: let me know if I was wrong.

So I keep reccing people long lists of things to read, and I decided it would be easier to link them to a post on my journal. I've already done a list of smut recs, and I'll do a list of really fab not-smutty one-shots later, but here are long fics, either series or multichapter fics, that I think are worth a significant chunk of your time. I've certainly missed some, but I'll add to this list as time goes by, I'm sure. Not all of these are complete, but all of them that are WIP are far enough along to be very enjoyable for an extended period of time.

What do I look for in a fic? Fabulous writing. I read pretty much exclusively Jack/Ianto, or gen with canon pairings, but beyond that, I don't care what it's about. If it reads as "fanfiction" and not a real story, I probably won't like it.

( Click for recs )
Remember - if you read it and like it, comment and let them know! Even if they posted it six months ago, your comment will still make them happy.

Note: I've defaulted to female pronouns where I'm uncertain - please let me know if I'm wrong.

So, both thaddeusfavour and spiderine have got me thinking about smut, recently. As in, what makes good smut. Because lets face it, most of the sex scenes in fic out there - and in an "adult" fandom like Torchwood, that's a lot of sex scenes - are mediocre at best, and boring at the worst.

What makes good smut? I don't have a particular taste, for me, it all comes down to good writing in general. So what makes good writing, with regards to sex? I think spiderine has a point when she says that if your sex scene is boring, "this is because you're ignoring character and plot." I (so far) have never written anything really x-rated, and all my sex scenes in AMoT have come directly from the plot and the characters, but what about when you're writing a one-off, or a chaptered fic that's more romance than action/adventure? I'm not sure I could articulate it better than spiderine did, but I wanted to look at a few fics I think are "more than sex", and are a compelling story - even if that story is primarily about sex.

Interested in some x-rated recs? Here are my favourites, and why I think they succeed at being more than just sex.

( Read more... )
What about you? What Torchwood fics are decidedly smutty but at the same, so much more? Link me and I will read it (though I probably already have). I'm sure I've forgotten some of my favourites, so I'll probably add to this list as I find them.