[unfic] a few thoughts/things
1. glossings is updated with all recent fics. Oz and girlslash and hauntings, oh my. and bad CSS on the second index page. *sigh*
2. I'm thinking/wondering about personal canon again, particularly about interpretations stretching across different fics. I've posted before about how each fic I write refers primarily to canon, rather than to any of my other fics. While other people do "'verses", and still others write just that one fic that answers questions/interpretations about a particular character or ship, then move on to another, I, basically, don't.
My beef with fanon isn't really that it's a communally-accepted interpretation - that can be a lot of fun, and I've written in shared universes, too - so much as that it has the potential to become a shortcut. And shortcuts tend to cheat the reader (ie, *me*, since it's AAM) of character development and insight. For example, it's canon that Giles was never fully up to Eyghon, but fanon that in the past Giles was fully and entirely the mad mage Ripper; it's canon that Oz is a werewolf, but fanon that werewolves have packs and a pack-mentality. Fics that present Ripper as a separate personality, or that just assume that Oz thinks in terms of 'pack', don't really do it for me. (And one that has Ripper joining Oz's pack is, like, my nightmare.)
But what do terms like "shortcut" and "cheating" really mean? The terms are presuming some kind of aesthetic judgment that's never quite stated by either side of the fanon debate.
Okay, so, yes. My question, whatever it is, isn't about fanon but about these aesthetic judgments. Clearly I have a set of aesthetic principles about what constitutes good writing and originality, and I use these to measure what I read. That's fine, we all do that, and it's useful and enlightening for me to keep trying to figure out what my principles are.
I'm working on a long fic right now and feel terribly tempted to re-use a point I made in another fic. And I can't figure out if that's "okay" (let alone what "okay" means - not in violation of these vague principles, I suppose). I've no problem with re-using a backstory biographical detail - for example (I'm making this up on the fly), I could have two different fics where Xander's Uncle Rory's ex-wife is a blackjack dealer named Jessica Lynn; I wouldn't feel uncomfortable about that. Much. On the other end of the scale, suppose I work out a full interpretation of what the wise men/fallen watchers *did* to make the First Slayer. I might write two fics that explore that interpretation and dramatize some of its possible ramifications.
But what about a point that's somewhere in between these two extremes? A detail that concerns the metaphysics of the canon universe, but isn't the *topic* of the fic in question? I can't decide if it's "okay" (ObDisclaimer there) to use such a detail twice.
I'm being unnecessarily vague. Here's the detail that's troubling me. In MB, I gave Oz this line of dialogue in conversation with Angel: "Why does everyone think the soul made you good? Everyone's got them. I've got two. Doesn't mean we use 'em." Later, he elaborated: "It's not like my head's a duplex and they're each other's wacky nextdoor neighbor. Most of the time it's a human mind. But the wolf's spilled over now. Soaked in. Some places deeper'n others. Emotions, right? Hunger. Sex. The usual spots, it's not who I used to be. Not any more."
And that's a *cool* point, to me, anyway. I'd like to re-use it in the current long fic and, maybe, explore it a little further.
For whatever reason, that feels like cheating. Partly, I think, this is because the long fic's protagonists are Angel and Oz again, plus Buffy, so there's more overlap than just the detail. If this were a fic about Nina and Giles, where Nina had two souls, I don't think I'd feel so strange and guilty.
*bleh*
Does anyone else hold to such a strange and vague set of principles, either in writing or reading or both? Am I just unnecessarily worrying? Bringing the wank to my own weird little brain out of boredom? Help?
2. I'm thinking/wondering about personal canon again, particularly about interpretations stretching across different fics. I've posted before about how each fic I write refers primarily to canon, rather than to any of my other fics. While other people do "'verses", and still others write just that one fic that answers questions/interpretations about a particular character or ship, then move on to another, I, basically, don't.
My beef with fanon isn't really that it's a communally-accepted interpretation - that can be a lot of fun, and I've written in shared universes, too - so much as that it has the potential to become a shortcut. And shortcuts tend to cheat the reader (ie, *me*, since it's AAM) of character development and insight. For example, it's canon that Giles was never fully up to Eyghon, but fanon that in the past Giles was fully and entirely the mad mage Ripper; it's canon that Oz is a werewolf, but fanon that werewolves have packs and a pack-mentality. Fics that present Ripper as a separate personality, or that just assume that Oz thinks in terms of 'pack', don't really do it for me. (And one that has Ripper joining Oz's pack is, like, my nightmare.)
But what do terms like "shortcut" and "cheating" really mean? The terms are presuming some kind of aesthetic judgment that's never quite stated by either side of the fanon debate.
Okay, so, yes. My question, whatever it is, isn't about fanon but about these aesthetic judgments. Clearly I have a set of aesthetic principles about what constitutes good writing and originality, and I use these to measure what I read. That's fine, we all do that, and it's useful and enlightening for me to keep trying to figure out what my principles are.
I'm working on a long fic right now and feel terribly tempted to re-use a point I made in another fic. And I can't figure out if that's "okay" (let alone what "okay" means - not in violation of these vague principles, I suppose). I've no problem with re-using a backstory biographical detail - for example (I'm making this up on the fly), I could have two different fics where Xander's Uncle Rory's ex-wife is a blackjack dealer named Jessica Lynn; I wouldn't feel uncomfortable about that. Much. On the other end of the scale, suppose I work out a full interpretation of what the wise men/fallen watchers *did* to make the First Slayer. I might write two fics that explore that interpretation and dramatize some of its possible ramifications.
But what about a point that's somewhere in between these two extremes? A detail that concerns the metaphysics of the canon universe, but isn't the *topic* of the fic in question? I can't decide if it's "okay" (ObDisclaimer there) to use such a detail twice.
I'm being unnecessarily vague. Here's the detail that's troubling me. In MB, I gave Oz this line of dialogue in conversation with Angel: "Why does everyone think the soul made you good? Everyone's got them. I've got two. Doesn't mean we use 'em." Later, he elaborated: "It's not like my head's a duplex and they're each other's wacky nextdoor neighbor. Most of the time it's a human mind. But the wolf's spilled over now. Soaked in. Some places deeper'n others. Emotions, right? Hunger. Sex. The usual spots, it's not who I used to be. Not any more."
And that's a *cool* point, to me, anyway. I'd like to re-use it in the current long fic and, maybe, explore it a little further.
For whatever reason, that feels like cheating. Partly, I think, this is because the long fic's protagonists are Angel and Oz again, plus Buffy, so there's more overlap than just the detail. If this were a fic about Nina and Giles, where Nina had two souls, I don't think I'd feel so strange and guilty.
*bleh*
Does anyone else hold to such a strange and vague set of principles, either in writing or reading or both? Am I just unnecessarily worrying? Bringing the wank to my own weird little brain out of boredom? Help?