Writing live TV vs Book Canon
When I started writing HP, there was time to write it. I had a couple of years between books. It was plenty of time to write long stories using the canon I'd been given. I had time to read, and reread the books, and get a feel for where the characters were when the book ended, also to extrapolate where they might be going.
Now, I'm thinking about writing Supernatural, and there's a week between episodes. That is no time to plot anything. Add to that, I feel like I barely know these characters, and I've watched the entire series up to the present.
I don't have any idea where the characters are going. Will Sam turn evil? Will it break Dean? What is going to happen with the other children. What about the demon? What kind of life are they going to have? For how long? Sure, you can make some assumptions and can extrapolate the characterizations, but they could change in a second.
It's not like I haven't written TV canon, but it was closed or mostly closed by the time I even started. And with a book, you get a lot of background to work with. Unfortunately, with a current TV series you get the background dolled out in micro hints. I don't mind reading between the lines, and I don't mind making stuff up, but it's way too easy to be Jossed before I ever get the story out of it's outline stages.
Of course, there is a ton of AUs out there. And that might be the way to go. I'm no stranger to it by any means, but In HP, magical canon was so vast and undefined it was easy to find paths to tread. SPN is also undefined, but it's a lot more volatile than book canon. It will change.
So, what do you guys do? How do you deal with writing TV canon or any changing canon for that matter. Do you just write what you want and make it AU, if you're Jossed? Or do you wait for the hiatus, and write as fast as you can until you get more eps. I'm leaning toward waiting until season 2 is over for anything long.
Now, I'm thinking about writing Supernatural, and there's a week between episodes. That is no time to plot anything. Add to that, I feel like I barely know these characters, and I've watched the entire series up to the present.
I don't have any idea where the characters are going. Will Sam turn evil? Will it break Dean? What is going to happen with the other children. What about the demon? What kind of life are they going to have? For how long? Sure, you can make some assumptions and can extrapolate the characterizations, but they could change in a second.
It's not like I haven't written TV canon, but it was closed or mostly closed by the time I even started. And with a book, you get a lot of background to work with. Unfortunately, with a current TV series you get the background dolled out in micro hints. I don't mind reading between the lines, and I don't mind making stuff up, but it's way too easy to be Jossed before I ever get the story out of it's outline stages.
Of course, there is a ton of AUs out there. And that might be the way to go. I'm no stranger to it by any means, but In HP, magical canon was so vast and undefined it was easy to find paths to tread. SPN is also undefined, but it's a lot more volatile than book canon. It will change.
So, what do you guys do? How do you deal with writing TV canon or any changing canon for that matter. Do you just write what you want and make it AU, if you're Jossed? Or do you wait for the hiatus, and write as fast as you can until you get more eps. I'm leaning toward waiting until season 2 is over for anything long.