30 Days of Fanfiction - Day 13
13. Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?
Like most things that I do, I tend to go my own way with regards to canon or fanon. I'm there because of canon, but often want to 'fix' some of it. That means that I go off the map sometimes. The longer/more involved the original source material, the more I tend to develop my own, preferred timeline. For example, both Criminal Minds and Supernatural have been on the air for a decade, which means that there are LOTS of canon details to sift through, but it also means that canon in both cases has frequently gone off the rails to the point where I have edited some parts OUT because they made me rageful. In the end, I think my answer to this question is headcanon rather than canon or fanon.
As for whether writing fanfic changes how you feel about the source material: well, yes, it does, every time. How could it not? You find yourself obsessing over a book/comic/tv show/movie, which usually doesn't bear up to intense scrutiny - you see all of the flaws when you are trying to pull deeper meaning from throwaway lines or microexpressions or a minor, filler scene. Sometimes it can make you feel stupid for loving something with so many problems in it until you realize that EVERY creative endeavor is flawed. It's better to care enough to engage with it than to sit back and bitch about perfection. Perfect is the enemy of good, right? It shouldn't matter if what you fan is silly, or if the canon elements go wonky at some point - the love and accomplishment you feel when you create something new for fandom should be the only thing that gets you going. Well, that's my opinion anyway...
Like most things that I do, I tend to go my own way with regards to canon or fanon. I'm there because of canon, but often want to 'fix' some of it. That means that I go off the map sometimes. The longer/more involved the original source material, the more I tend to develop my own, preferred timeline. For example, both Criminal Minds and Supernatural have been on the air for a decade, which means that there are LOTS of canon details to sift through, but it also means that canon in both cases has frequently gone off the rails to the point where I have edited some parts OUT because they made me rageful. In the end, I think my answer to this question is headcanon rather than canon or fanon.
As for whether writing fanfic changes how you feel about the source material: well, yes, it does, every time. How could it not? You find yourself obsessing over a book/comic/tv show/movie, which usually doesn't bear up to intense scrutiny - you see all of the flaws when you are trying to pull deeper meaning from throwaway lines or microexpressions or a minor, filler scene. Sometimes it can make you feel stupid for loving something with so many problems in it until you realize that EVERY creative endeavor is flawed. It's better to care enough to engage with it than to sit back and bitch about perfection. Perfect is the enemy of good, right? It shouldn't matter if what you fan is silly, or if the canon elements go wonky at some point - the love and accomplishment you feel when you create something new for fandom should be the only thing that gets you going. Well, that's my opinion anyway...