First of all, a flaily welcome greeting :D There are not nearly enough K/U shippers, they are contending to be my favorite Trek ship, and I am game for flailing about them any time and am always very happy to see a newbie. (Especially one who is enthusiastic enough to try something new - Yay!)
Since you've never written fic before, I kind of want to throw this post at you - I wouldn't take everything she says as scripture, but there are lot of great pointers/warnings/tips that every fic writer should know and which I kind of wish I'd known when I got started writing fanfic.
And I'm going to agree with the point made in the above link that fics don't really have to be 100% meticulously accurate - Some people are less open-minded than others to the occasional small canon error, but there are some small inconsistencies between the reboot canon and TOS canon which in my opinion leaves room for minor inconsistencies in fanfic. I would say if there is one thing to really worry about, make sure you acquaint yourself with any major alien species if you use them (Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Orions) enough so that you have a general idea of their history and how they act (especially Vulcans - since you're interested in K/U this may not really apply, but the poor grasp on Vulcan culture I've seen in a lot of fic is one of the things that really does get on my nerves). If in doubt, place more importance on getting characters right than anything else.
Your bible is Memory Alpha. The writers of the new screenplay used it, I probably end up looking up a couple things on MA for every fic I write, it's a great resource. There's also Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki, which means it's semi-official information from the Star Trek novels/comics/things like that which pretty much aren't canon, but are fun and useful. Say you didn't know where to say Uhura's born, it's not mentioned in canon, but one source makes her from Kenya, which is perfectly viable since her first language was Swahili in TOS canon, etc.
Of course a great way to familiarize yourself with the canon is to watch TOS, and if you don't get much into it, watching a few episodes is still a good idea just to kind of get to know the way more everyday things would go aboard the Enterprise.
Also, st_universe is a great place to ask questions about characters or technology or anything that's kind of hard to research on memory-alpha. In general, it's a fun discussion community, but not very active right now.
I know it's probably overwhelming to approach the fandom when you're new to Trek, but if you read and watch enough you get better at it, and while I love TOS I don't think this fandom is as judgmental of strictly reboot fans as you might expect. Little references to the original series are great to read, I like it when I can tell that I'm reading a fic by somebody who likes both versions, but I'm not one to press the back button when I get to an inaccuracy. And if you're really worried about it you could try to find a beta reader who's more familiar with the universe.
I love long, informative posts!r_babbitMarch 13 2010, 06:10:33 UTC
I don't even have words to express how useful this post was to me!!! Oh my gosh, thanks a million for taking the time to type this up!--it was so eye opening. I especially like the idea of having a beta more knowledgable than myself, that's a great suggestion! Also, I'll make a point to learn more about TOS. It does look interesting and I've read good things about it...I'll check that out!
First of all, a flaily welcome greeting :D There are not nearly enough K/U shippers, they are contending to be my favorite Trek ship, and I am game for flailing about them any time and am always very happy to see a newbie. (Especially one who is enthusiastic enough to try something new - Yay!)
Since you've never written fic before, I kind of want to throw this post at you - I wouldn't take everything she says as scripture, but there are lot of great pointers/warnings/tips that every fic writer should know and which I kind of wish I'd known when I got started writing fanfic.
And I'm going to agree with the point made in the above link that fics don't really have to be 100% meticulously accurate - Some people are less open-minded than others to the occasional small canon error, but there are some small inconsistencies between the reboot canon and TOS canon which in my opinion leaves room for minor inconsistencies in fanfic. I would say if there is one thing to really worry about, make sure you acquaint yourself with any major alien species if you use them (Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, Orions) enough so that you have a general idea of their history and how they act (especially Vulcans - since you're interested in K/U this may not really apply, but the poor grasp on Vulcan culture I've seen in a lot of fic is one of the things that really does get on my nerves). If in doubt, place more importance on getting characters right than anything else.
Your bible is Memory Alpha. The writers of the new screenplay used it, I probably end up looking up a couple things on MA for every fic I write, it's a great resource. There's also Memory Beta, the non-canon Star Trek wiki, which means it's semi-official information from the Star Trek novels/comics/things like that which pretty much aren't canon, but are fun and useful. Say you didn't know where to say Uhura's born, it's not mentioned in canon, but one source makes her from Kenya, which is perfectly viable since her first language was Swahili in TOS canon, etc.
Of course a great way to familiarize yourself with the canon is to watch TOS, and if you don't get much into it, watching a few episodes is still a good idea just to kind of get to know the way more everyday things would go aboard the Enterprise.
Also, st_universe is a great place to ask questions about characters or technology or anything that's kind of hard to research on memory-alpha. In general, it's a fun discussion community, but not very active right now.
I know it's probably overwhelming to approach the fandom when you're new to Trek, but if you read and watch enough you get better at it, and while I love TOS I don't think this fandom is as judgmental of strictly reboot fans as you might expect. Little references to the original series are great to read, I like it when I can tell that I'm reading a fic by somebody who likes both versions, but I'm not one to press the back button when I get to an inaccuracy. And if you're really worried about it you could try to find a beta reader who's more familiar with the universe.
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Again, thank you so much for helping me! :)
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