Short fanfic muse...
... inspired by mininisoo writing about identification with characters, and some of my thoughts here are in my reply to her (excellent) post. However, I've been wanting to ramble about it for a while.
Basically, its about character, canon, research and 'who writes what'.
I've watched a lot of one particular show: mass consumption, instant obsession... and that meant watching it out of chronological order, a lot iof it n French and even some in German. And yes, I went and checked ep guides and other guides for more info... except it wasn't the same as seeing the entire arc in the right order and getting all the timelines fixed logically... or even getting the right vocabulary. Some of the fiction helped there, but it still meant tying in what the translation of some things could be in English (a curse on dubbers, while we're at it).
Like a lot of fans with a lot of fandoms, I watched a little, then my interest grew. And to some extent, exploded into 'yeah, I want to write about this'. Why did it grow? Because I heard others discussing it, realised it was showing locally, and the more I watched, the more one of the characters fascinated me and the more I ran around finding DVDs and downloading episodes from the net. I'm not going into the fact that I was immediately taken to task about 'playing in somebody else's sandbox' when I dared say I might try and write it as that, to me, is too ridiculous for words. Or even accusations that I didn't really like the show and just wanted 'in with the gang'. Nope - I've watched some series and enjoyed them, but the 'writing it' urge never happened even if some of my best mates were plunging headlong into it.
Now, although I try to get to grips with the ways characters have developed in later episodes, I am not (or at least until I have time to re-watch over 100 eps in chronological order and all in English instead of going back to favourites) going to be an expert in certain aspects of 'who did what and when'. To me, this isn't vital for *some* stories, as in any case those are mostly the ones I'm interested in both reading and writing. Sure, it still means checking and doing my homework to make sure I'm not waaaaaaaay out of line, but I still find it perfectly justifiable. Others don't, but that's a different story.
And no, I'm not criticising those people who are far, far more aware of canon, places, details: heck no. More power to them. Maybe I wouldn't spot an anachronism in their stories (although some would) but then that's not really what bothers me - if I enjoy the content, style, etc. I'm not going to complain. If I *did* have as much knowledge as some, however, and people got their details wrong, I'd probably feel slightly cheated but only slightly. I'd probably find it more flagrant in a series I've followed from A-Z and where there are very few episodes, but even then if the writer can convince me to ignore an event or bit of canon, I'd still read - for the characters.
And let's never forget that these are *fictional characters* dammit. There *is* no 'right or wrong' way to write them as they don't belong to us and, as I've said before, even the scriptwriters don't all do their homework and throw in a plot hole or ten or an inconsistency or a dozen.
And I'm not advocating sloppy writing either. Far from it. Research is great, accuracy is a fine, fine thing. Canon exists and some of it would be unwise to ignore *g*. But I'm still going to write about characters, getting them as 'right' as I can and as I see them or want to see them, while being fully aware that you can't please everybody all the time.
Basically, its about character, canon, research and 'who writes what'.
I've watched a lot of one particular show: mass consumption, instant obsession... and that meant watching it out of chronological order, a lot iof it n French and even some in German. And yes, I went and checked ep guides and other guides for more info... except it wasn't the same as seeing the entire arc in the right order and getting all the timelines fixed logically... or even getting the right vocabulary. Some of the fiction helped there, but it still meant tying in what the translation of some things could be in English (a curse on dubbers, while we're at it).
Like a lot of fans with a lot of fandoms, I watched a little, then my interest grew. And to some extent, exploded into 'yeah, I want to write about this'. Why did it grow? Because I heard others discussing it, realised it was showing locally, and the more I watched, the more one of the characters fascinated me and the more I ran around finding DVDs and downloading episodes from the net. I'm not going into the fact that I was immediately taken to task about 'playing in somebody else's sandbox' when I dared say I might try and write it as that, to me, is too ridiculous for words. Or even accusations that I didn't really like the show and just wanted 'in with the gang'. Nope - I've watched some series and enjoyed them, but the 'writing it' urge never happened even if some of my best mates were plunging headlong into it.
Now, although I try to get to grips with the ways characters have developed in later episodes, I am not (or at least until I have time to re-watch over 100 eps in chronological order and all in English instead of going back to favourites) going to be an expert in certain aspects of 'who did what and when'. To me, this isn't vital for *some* stories, as in any case those are mostly the ones I'm interested in both reading and writing. Sure, it still means checking and doing my homework to make sure I'm not waaaaaaaay out of line, but I still find it perfectly justifiable. Others don't, but that's a different story.
And no, I'm not criticising those people who are far, far more aware of canon, places, details: heck no. More power to them. Maybe I wouldn't spot an anachronism in their stories (although some would) but then that's not really what bothers me - if I enjoy the content, style, etc. I'm not going to complain. If I *did* have as much knowledge as some, however, and people got their details wrong, I'd probably feel slightly cheated but only slightly. I'd probably find it more flagrant in a series I've followed from A-Z and where there are very few episodes, but even then if the writer can convince me to ignore an event or bit of canon, I'd still read - for the characters.
And let's never forget that these are *fictional characters* dammit. There *is* no 'right or wrong' way to write them as they don't belong to us and, as I've said before, even the scriptwriters don't all do their homework and throw in a plot hole or ten or an inconsistency or a dozen.
And I'm not advocating sloppy writing either. Far from it. Research is great, accuracy is a fine, fine thing. Canon exists and some of it would be unwise to ignore *g*. But I'm still going to write about characters, getting them as 'right' as I can and as I see them or want to see them, while being fully aware that you can't please everybody all the time.