Shared Wisdom Discussion on AU/AR
The task given to me by Shared Wisdom is to discuss writing and researching AU/AR fics (in my universe they are called "Alternate Streams") in alternate environments, such as prison, the Old West, etc., and also how to do it (or try!) without completely losing character.
My name is Gaedhal and I’ve been writing “Queer as Folk” stories since early 2002, focusing on the relationship of Brian A. Kinney and Justin Taylor, the main canon pairing on the show. My most well known story is probably the first, “Queer Theories” (now into its third sequel, “Queer Identities”), but “Medium Security” (the prison fic), and “The Angel Stream” are also among my most popular fics.
Outing Myself
Before I say anything else, I have to out myself as a teacher. That means I'm obsessive about detail, about accuracy, about continuity. In other words, like Mr. Kinney, I'm supremely anal. But I believe that in a writer that's a good thing. I like my fics to be well-written, interesting, and compelling, but I also want them to be more than that -- I want them to be correct. I want them to get it right. I even want them to be as "true" as I can make a work of fiction. See? Anal much?
Contradictions
I've been writing in the "Queer as Folk" fandom since early 2002 and I've covered a lot of territory. I've written RPS (Gale/Randy), I've written Alternate Stream fics that took place from 1840's Pittsburgh, to 1950's Bohemian Paris, to a medium security prison in the 1970's, as well as probably the longest of all the long "QAF" epics, "Queer Theories." But one thing I've never written is a gap-filler. That's not where my imagination lies. To me, that's CowLip's "Stream" and I don't like to muscle in on their domain. But one thing that often drives me crazy about their "Stream" is the lack of continuity, the fudging of facts and logic, and the hair-tearing lack of a coherent timeline for a complex story that spans more than five years. Maybe because CowLip and their Gang seem to care so little about such things makes me obsess about them even more.
But I know I'm not the only one. I always smile when some newbie posts, with such serious intent, begging for directions to a timeline that makes sense. Or wonders why both Justin and Michael have two different birthdays, or why Ted seems to have three. And then there is the world's longest human pregnancy -- the joke has always been that Jenny Rebecca's name should have been Dumbo! Face it, sometimes there's no getting around these problems.
So what I do is to make do -- I have my own calendars for every Stream, my own detailed biography sheets for all of the major characters (and some of the minor ones, too), as well as my original characters, my own list of dates, places, events, you name it. I wrote episode commentary for the "QAF" site "What Love Means," so I had a reason to watch the show with a pad of paper in my hand, taking copious notes. But besides giving me fodder for my comments, those notes also come in handy for keeping track of things. So when I'm writing a chapter of "Queer Identities" or "The Angel Stream" -- both of which take place in worlds parallel to canon -- and I find a major contradiction in the canon text, I try to go with what makes the most sense to me. Otherwise, as a writer, I'd just go completely nuts! I mean, if I haven't already...
Doing Research
Many of my "Alternate Stream" fics take place in past eras and distant locations. "Wayfarers" takes place in the 1840's and 1850's and ranges in action from frontier Pittsburgh, to New Orleans and New York, to the Caribbean, and across the Wild West to post-Gold Rush San Francisco. "Beatitudes" takes place among the poets and artists of the Beat Generation during the 1950's and 1960's, with a few "musical" side trips to Hamburg and Gay Paree. "Medium Security" is about life in a medium security prison in the 1970's and reflects the political, racial, and sexual attitudes of that turbulent period. Other fics, such as "Queer Theories" and the "West Hollywood Stream," deal with the film and television industry, which is one of my areas of research in my academic life. And my original story, "The Ranch" (not part of any Stream or fandom, but inspired to some extent by "Brokeback Mountain"), exists in a timeless West that is pure imagination, but filled with all of the images from all of the Western films and TV shows I've always loved, from "Roy Rogers" and "Fury" to "Red River" and "Cat Ballou" -- except with guys having sex -- a lot of sex!
All of these stories require knowledge about the times and situations in which they take place -- and they all require research. I like fics that mirror reality. I like to know that what I'm reading is rooted in fact. That means I work hard to get things right. I want my history to be correct. I want people who live in 1859 to act like they are from 1859 and not from 2008. That means fine tuning the way people talk, the way they behave, and also the way they make love, since these are fics about men who love other men. When I read a book or story that takes place before the 20th century and hear a character refer to "homosexuals," I know the writer didn't do even basic homework, since that term wasn't coined until the late 1860's and was only known in Germany among doctors and social scientists until at least the 1890's. That's easy to get right. What's harder to get right is a "feel" for the way different time periods have different textures, different emotional resonance. The 1970's "felt" different from the 1990's -- I know because I lived through both of them! But getting it right for times I didn't live through is harder. I also have never been to prison, or made an Academy Award winning film, or taken a riverboat down the Mississippi, but many other people have and written about it. There's also a certain amount of role-playing and putting myself into the situation. A combination of research and imagination is a powerful thing. It's what drives my writing and, I hope, what gives my fics their individuality.
Keeping In Character
When you're dealing with fan fiction you are working with already created characters. This is actually nothing new. Homer and Shakespeare and Milton all used characters that already existed in history, mythology, or literature when they wrote their works. King Lear was not a new character and neither was Achilles. Sherlock Holmes has appeared in hundreds of books since Arthur Conan Doyle first began writing about him in the 1880's. They don't call these stories fanfic, they call them "pastiches" -- but glorified fanfics is exactly what they are. People like reading about characters they love and fanfiction is a way to feed that love.
The problem with using already created characters is the problem of OOC. But what seems out of character for one reader might seem spot-on to another. That's the tricky thing. It's about how the writer perceives the character -- and whether or not the reader agrees with that perception. I personally can't perceive of a Brian Kinney with a pregnant belly, but obviously many others can. Maybe it's a matter of taste or maybe it's the self-projection of the reader into the character -- the dread Mary Sue effect? -- but whatever it is there will always be readers who don't agree with how you make a character speak or behave. My job as the writer is to make the character, whether Brian or Justin or Michael or someone who comes in for a single scene, behave in a way I think is real and valid. To make them psychologically consistent. But also to make them interesting and memorable.
To me Brian Kinney is a character who is unique on American television -- gay, strong-willed, uncompromising, and non-stereotypical, but also highly flawed psychologically, emotionally damaged, and ultimately vulnerable. Brian is like my guitar -- he only has six strings, but you can play an infinite number of songs with those six strings. I never get tired of writing Brian. The day I do is the day I stop writing fics -- and I'm not ready for that yet! In my stories, as in "Queer as Folk" itself, Brian always takes the lead, and the other characters take their cues from him. So it's ironic that in "Queer Theories" and its sequels, "Queer Realities" and "Queer Identities," the story is so often narrated by Justin rather than Brian. Perhaps because Justin is a character most readers can relate to much more than Brian. Brian can be difficult, even maddening at times. Justin humanizes Brian -- he brings the Big Bad Wolf down to earth, but without losing himself in the process. That makes Justin an excellent narrator. He's an artist, so he not only looks, he sees. And he tells us what he sees in a straightforward way. That makes Justin Brian's perfect foil -- and perfect match. And that's what I try to write.
And now... what do YOU say?
(Oh, and if you're offended by a couple of naked guys in bed... you are in the WRONG LJ! LOL!)