SGA canon & Things Already Seen

[bratfarrar]

I asked this question more generally over at writers_lair, but I'll repeat it here, with specifics (and choppy sentence structure because I really ought to be going to bed at this point): in turning Things Already Seen into a novel, how much of later show canon should I use? Obviously, events won't play out the same, but my question's not about plot, or even

Comments

[patk]

Hm,I don't quite get the question. The way I see it is: you're writing an AU that takes place in the general background of the canon universe: Pegasus is basically the same, the Ancients, the Wraith exist, Atlantis still exists etc.. So, depending on how your story develops,what you want to write, where you want to end up, details of events and things happening (or not) are bound to change

[bratfarrar]

Yeah, the main issue I have with Sheppard's family history as given on the show is that prior to "Outcast" airing, I had completely developed one on my own--and it's pretty much entirely incompatible with the one given there. But as Sholio points out below, as long as I make clear what the divergence is and why, the reader probably won't be bothered by it. Especially given the overwhelming number of SGA super-AUs. This is the fandom where someone wrote a story about the main characters as cookies, after all.

I really just needed to be talked out of my tailspin, so thank you for helping with that.

[sholio]

From reading this, it kinda looks like you're basically just going AU at the end of season one -- so why not?

As a reader, I generally want to know what the points of divergence actually are, because otherwise it throws me out of the story in the same way as if the writer screwed up some canon detail (so if, say, I was reading what I thought was a canon-compliant season-three-era fic and then there's a thrown-in reference to Atlantis getting its annual supply flight which is the only contact they have with Earth, I'd go "whaaaaaat"). But really, it looks like what you're doing is mostly taking off in a different direction after season one, so why not just declare it a post-season-one AU and then write whatever you want? You can still bring in stuff that was introduced after season one (like Todd or the Ancients), but readers will know that anything could happen in a different way, and won't be surprised by it

[bratfarrar]

Thank you! This is pretty much exactly what I needed to hear. I'd nearly talked myself into it, but needed outside validation.

(I'm very good at talking myself out of doing things, but not so good at managing the opposite.)