Why bother writing in a fandom if you want the characters to be significantly different?
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| Title: | Why bother writing in a fandom if you want the characters to be significantly different? |
| Creator: | Eshva |
| Date(s): | July 6, 2003 |
| Medium: | Livejournal |
| Fandom: | multifandom, slash |
| Topic: | canon, fanon and original fiction |
| External Links: | why bother writing in a fandom if you want the characters to be significantly different?, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Why bother writing in a fandom if you want the characters to be significantly different? is a 2003 post by Eshva.
The topic is writing canon, fanon, and original fiction.
From the Post
I've been thinking about the importance (or not) of canon. A little while ago I was having a discussion with someone about whether it was important to keep your characters close to canon, or if it was okay to make big changes to them - this in the context of a story she was betaing where she felt the characters had moved a long way from canon, and the writer had dismissed her concerns as an unreasonable fixation.
Anyway, my initial feeling was the same as hers - why bother writing in a fandom if you want the characters to be significantly different? We felt that a story doesn't work as fanfic unless the guys are recognisable from canon.
But since then I've been thinking that maybe that's simplistic and doesn't really reflect how it works. For instance, I've played with a lot of Qui-Gon scenarios in my head - he's been transplanted to the B7 universe, ancient Rome, 20thC earth, Sharon Shinn's Samaria and god knows where else. And in all of these scenarios he has been *Qui-Gon* to me, but I don't know that he'd be recognisable to others as Qui-Gon. Perhaps what's important isn't so much the canon, but a kind of 'essence' of the character - the key traits that we associate with that character, that make him Qui-Gon for me.
The useful thing about this idea is that this 'essence' wouldn't necessarily have to be based on any kind of objective judgement of canon. It might come from one specific bit of canon that seems to carry special weight (I'm thinking the 'Obi looking upset in the Council chamber' bit from TPM for example). And it could include the individual's background preferences/beliefs/prejudices, and could also be shaped by other sources - stories, list discussion, actors' other roles etc. Fanon in fact.
I've noticed that the fanon influence is strong in my take on the Smallville characters - probably because I've read more fic than I've seen episodes. My 'essence of Lex' is probably more a product of particular stories and my wanting to see parallels with [Avon than of canon.
So, if you used a particular 'essence' in your AU story, and it was one fairly widely accepted by fans, then it would pass muster as characterisation, even if it wasn't terribly defensible in canon. For example, one popular Obi-Wan is "PoorBeautifulSufferingVictim!Obi" - canonicity debatable IMO, but near universally accepted.
BTW, I'm not saying there's only one 'essence' - any of the popular Something!Obis would do. (There's probably a proper theory name rather than 'essence', but I dunno what it is.) I think what I'm getting at is that to be acceptable as fanfic, the writer doesn't have to write Canon!Obi (whatever that is exactly), but something that falls within the realm of multiple, negotiated Fanon!Obis, Fanon!Lexs, Fanon!Quis etc.
There might be an alternative - I think you can do a non-fanon characteristation, by tying it closely to canon. It's what I tried to do in "When did the Light Die" and also what I'm trying in theHornblower story. I suppose my theory is that if you strongly remind the reader of things they actually *saw*, then they'll have less wiggle room to reject your characterisation. But, of course, this usually won't work for an AU.
So I guess my conclusion is a variant on Mac's. The further you move from the canon setting, the closer you have to stick to FANON characterisation.
Or you could just say "bugger it" and write whatever makes you happy (like my defunct ManicGenius!Lex futurefic :) ) But if you go for this option, then it starts getting out toward the periphery of what's acknowledged as fanfic.
Excerpts from the Comments
[manna]:I absolutely agree, especially with the part about AUs. When moving a character to a completely different culture, it would be odd if they *weren't* characterised differently. And I also think there are recognisable core traits that make the character still recognisable.
With my own long B7 AU, I eventually cut the tie and renamed the couple of canon characters I was using. Now they're there own characters in their own world, and I no longer think 'what would Avon's reaction be' when I'm writing Warrick. It felt very odd at first, but I think it was the right thing to do for me -- the characters were losing that core essence, and I felt I would be cheating the readers if I pretended I was still writing fanfic.