Tbh, I tend to define shippy fic as "fic in which a romantic and/or sexual relationship (or more) plays a part". Obviously the definition of "part" can vary, but there aren't that much fic in that grey area. (I come down on the side of "anything with a sex scene in it isn't gen", btw.)
That said, yeah, there's a certain amount of "I like ships/gen so if I like it it must be gen/ships" going on.
A lot of the time my characters come up from the setting, if not on their own. Like, where are the cracks in the setting? Where can I put someone to apply maximum pressure and what would that person be like? Often I come up with their backstory, which then informs who they are now and their actions and the plot. For example, it could be "X's father came in with the refugiees from war Y, which was never a problem until X applied for job Z" (setting crack) or "X wants to get job Z because they promised their mother to uphold the family tradition" (backstory). The combination of the two already gives me broad characterisation lines, which I then fill in. Does that make sense?
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That said, yeah, there's a certain amount of "I like ships/gen so if I like it it must be gen/ships" going on.
A lot of the time my characters come up from the setting, if not on their own. Like, where are the cracks in the setting? Where can I put someone to apply maximum pressure and what would that person be like? Often I come up with their backstory, which then informs who they are now and their actions and the plot. For example, it could be "X's father came in with the refugiees from war Y, which was never a problem until X applied for job Z" (setting crack) or "X wants to get job Z because they promised their mother to uphold the family tradition" (backstory). The combination of the two already gives me broad characterisation lines, which I then fill in. Does that make sense?