What do I need to know to write Lone Gunmen fic?
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | What do I need to know to write Lone Gunmen fic? |
| Creator: | Erynn |
| Date(s): | April 18, 2001 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | What do I need to know to write Lone Gunmen fic? (at Working Stiffs) Gunmen Canon Guide for Fanfic Writers, part one Gunmen Canon Guide for Fanfic Writers, part two (at alt.tv.x-files.creative) |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
What do I need to know to write Lone Gunmen fic? is an essay by Erynn.
This essay is mostly a fandom primer regarding characters on the show. It, however, has sections in the middle about fan canon and slash.
It was originally posted on a Lone Gunmen mailing list, then to alt.tv.x-files.creative posting on April 18, 2001. It was reposted to the X-Files website Working Stiffs in 2001.
Introduction
ERYNN'S QUICKIE GUIDE TO LONE GUNMEN CANON FOR FANFIC WRITERS, Original alt.tv.x-files.creative posting, April 18, 2001.
This started out as a post on one of the LGM fan lists by a new fan who was a fic author in another fandom. She was interested in starting to write the Gunmen, but wanted to know what was Fanon and what was official show Canon. This guide is a response to that question, with the hope that it may help newer Gunmen fanfic authors get their feet wet with these guys. We love them, and when you write them well, we really appreciate it! Attention to detail is one of the keys to writing the Gunmen in character and writing them well. This guide would have been impossible if not for the fabulously nitpicky assistance of the following wonderful, brilliant, marvelous, extraordinary GunFen: Joelle, Lori, Martha, Thespis, Mel, Sally, Dilby, Anndie, Dark Emerald and Lynne. Love you guys, you're the best!
Some Topics Discussed
- Lone Gunmen fiction fanon
- a primer of facts about the show and characters
Excerpts
- Ringo Langly is often called Ree in GunFic. This was started by Gizzie, Goddess of Gunmen, in her Messenger series.
- Frohike as a Vietnam vet seems to have been started by Dierdre, and by Joyce McKibben, which was then picked up by Martha and Gizzie in their interlinked universe, the Time/Tercet/Messenger series. This theme has been continued by a large number of other Gunfic authors and would explain a lot about his attitude. He's often seen as a friend of AD Skinner's, being a fellow Nam vet.
- Ringo Langly as an alcoholic or former junkie was also started in the Martha and Gizzie universe. This is also often used by other GunFic authors. Considering his background from the LGM series, this is actually fairly unlikely.
- In Sally's massive Gunmen saga, Byers is closet chocoholic. This has been hinted at in other authors' GunFics as well.
- Sally also raised the possibility that Frohike was married before and has kids, and this, once again, is used by other GunFic authors. Tom Braidwood, in an interview, suggested it would be interesting to learn that Frohike has a kid.
- In several stories by different authors, the Gunmen know Max Fenig. Max was the UFO chasing member of NICAP from XF Fallen Angel, and may have been an early attempt to introduce a Gunmen-like character.
- Fan canon includes three basic explanations for why Byers wore a wedding ring for so many years (between 1993 and 1998 or early 1999). Some suggest that he married Susanne after XF Unusual Suspects, but this theory was blown later, when we see in XF Three of a Kind that Byers hadn't seen Susanne again until he met her in 1999 in Las Vegas. Others suggest that Byers had a wife but (a) she's dead or (b) he's divorced. A third, less common explanation is that he wears it as part of his paranoid 'cover' so people won't know everything about him. Bruce Harwood's explanation is that Byers had married after Susanne disappeared, but his wife left him because he spent too much time hanging out with his friends.
- Byers the redhead is Fan canon, but not reflective of real life. The lighting in the XF series usually was just the right color to bring out a bunch of red highlights. In person, Bruce has a chestnut (red/brown) beard with some gray, but his hair is medium brown. In natural light, he doesn't look at all like a redhead.
Slash fanon:
Slash 'canon' is all over the map. Everybody seems to universally agree that Byers is the total slashboy of the bunch, and he's usually paired up with Langly. In most L/B slash, Byers was the one who has the least experience with guys, and often tends to be the recipient of Langly's affections. Byers also tends not to be the one who initiates the relationship or the encounter, although that varies from author to author. I think it's just that Byers tends to be seen as the most emotionally sensitive of the three. Pet names like "Hairboy" for Langly, or "Suitboy" or "Princess" for Byers show up now and again in L/B slash (apparently from Dawn Pares and Te's slash GunFic). Frohike tends to be the least slashed of the three, primarily, I suppose, because everyone knows how much he lusts after Scully, and his involvement with such fine literature as 'Celebrity Skin'. Slash has long speculated that Frohike was the little furry bear of the bunch, since borne out in LGM Eine Kleine Frohike -- definitely a little fuzzball.