Let's talk writing!
Two questions for y'all:
1) Do you prefer writing dialogue, "action"/the narrative, or characters' inner thoughts and emotions? As is probably obvious, I like dialogue, although the other two usually do need to be included to flesh out a story. I'm definitely worst at inner thoughts, though. I think that has to do with my opinion on how people interact and how we as viewers know the characters to begin with. We, like the other characters they interact with, can only base our opinion on characters on what they say, their actions, expressions and body language. We don't know what people are thinking. That's true in real life too, and I think that's often the ultimate source of conflict and drama between people. Plus, I find in dialogue scenes, it gets too confusing to break up the conversation with much more than body language, facial expressions or hints of emotions, which is all the other character might pick up on, anyway. People don't think entire monologues to themselves before replying, and it gets awkward in fic when they do.
2) Recently, I read someone say somewhere (don't remember) that it's impossible for a character to act OOC in canon. That because it's in the source material, it's by default IC. I think that's total bull. In fact, I think it's more likely for the character to behave OOC on a show than in (well-written) fic. Often they're being written by multiple people who probably don't have as much emotional investment in the history and personality of the characters as fans who do it for free/fun, and the writers are also constrained a lot more by story requirements and network demands than fanfic writers are. I think if something happens in canon, you can't just ignore it**. You have to modify and incorporate it somehow, but to say it is in character just because it happens in canon??? Give me a break. Real people behave uncharacteristically all the time. Why can't fictional people? In fact, I think a good chunk of fic is written because a character does something that doesn't sit right with the fic writer's perception of that character and so they have to fix it. Do you agree with me or the original comment?
**Feel free to ignore things like homophobic, homicidal trains, or past canon lovers if you want to slash a supposedly straight character or something. That's fine when it comes to fanfic "norms." But relatively minor things should still be considered part of the character's background, even if you choose to explain it away. Example: Reid confessed to Chris that he cheated on the fellowship. That can't be denied. You can, however, simply say that he said that to make a dying man feel better about himself and he was totally lying because why would Reid Oliver ever need or choose to cheat?
1) Do you prefer writing dialogue, "action"/the narrative, or characters' inner thoughts and emotions? As is probably obvious, I like dialogue, although the other two usually do need to be included to flesh out a story. I'm definitely worst at inner thoughts, though. I think that has to do with my opinion on how people interact and how we as viewers know the characters to begin with. We, like the other characters they interact with, can only base our opinion on characters on what they say, their actions, expressions and body language. We don't know what people are thinking. That's true in real life too, and I think that's often the ultimate source of conflict and drama between people. Plus, I find in dialogue scenes, it gets too confusing to break up the conversation with much more than body language, facial expressions or hints of emotions, which is all the other character might pick up on, anyway. People don't think entire monologues to themselves before replying, and it gets awkward in fic when they do.
2) Recently, I read someone say somewhere (don't remember) that it's impossible for a character to act OOC in canon. That because it's in the source material, it's by default IC. I think that's total bull. In fact, I think it's more likely for the character to behave OOC on a show than in (well-written) fic. Often they're being written by multiple people who probably don't have as much emotional investment in the history and personality of the characters as fans who do it for free/fun, and the writers are also constrained a lot more by story requirements and network demands than fanfic writers are. I think if something happens in canon, you can't just ignore it**. You have to modify and incorporate it somehow, but to say it is in character just because it happens in canon??? Give me a break. Real people behave uncharacteristically all the time. Why can't fictional people? In fact, I think a good chunk of fic is written because a character does something that doesn't sit right with the fic writer's perception of that character and so they have to fix it. Do you agree with me or the original comment?
**Feel free to ignore things like homophobic, homicidal trains, or past canon lovers if you want to slash a supposedly straight character or something. That's fine when it comes to fanfic "norms." But relatively minor things should still be considered part of the character's background, even if you choose to explain it away. Example: Reid confessed to Chris that he cheated on the fellowship. That can't be denied. You can, however, simply say that he said that to make a dying man feel better about himself and he was totally lying because why would Reid Oliver ever need or choose to cheat?