Snowflake Challenge #3
Challenge #3
In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea.
When I was a Star Trek:TNG fan I didn't have any interest in writing AUs. It was the Trek universe that I enjoyed, and the characters as they were that I wanted to know more about, and since my favourite character was Data, it was hard to put him into a different world. However, as I know that the character was one the people with Aspergers/autism identified with (and there are definitely shades of my son there, occasionally), it could be interesting to read a story in which 'Data' was the nickname of an autistic person.... but I don't wanna write it.
I think this would hold true with any other fictional canon. The world is as much a part of the attraction as the characters, and they belong together.
Popslash, though. Popslash canon is Real Life (with provisos), and is amazingly freeing. It would never have occurred to me that RPF would have such scope, but there is so much freedom to do *anything* with the canon. There is magnificent amount of crack, which makes me very happy. There are also many options for AUs, and I have written quite a few of them. (Don't think I've done any bitchy baristas, though.)
By the numbers, the first five years of my popslash writing were very much canon-based. There were AUs, quite a lot of them, the most pleasing (to me) being the one where Clena works in a dragon stable; the one where they all work in a London advertising agency; the 'fuck or die in space' story, the post-apocalyptic one with vampires, and the one where JC rescues a kitten on his way to a blind date.
When I was new to this shiny, awesome fandom, I mostly wanted to read canon-based stories, whether they were digging into tiny details of actual fact or very loosely based on the "well, they're popstars" idea. As the area around canon became rather, er, full, it became easier to look outside it.
Also, the fandom began to die away, and canon receded further into the past, which meant it became less interesting to explore (and possibly harder to find) gaps in canon, and more plausible to write these characters whom by now I knew so well into different worlds. AUs certainly occupied a far larger proportion of my output. I wrote three AUs for my final SeSa exchange challenge... plus one story that was canon-based but actually *in* a different universe... you hadda be there, really.
I do like an AU to reflect reality, if possible. In my advertising agency story, I had fun fitting them to their roles within the company, and they also broke away from the dishonest CEO of the agency and became more successful on their own. In the dragon stable story, Lance was rejected by the powers in charge, but kept by his boys. My Full Monty story was born because the Backstreet Boys fit *so* well into the canon of, actually, the Broadway musical based on the film: one has a kid, one has weight/body image problems, one has a sick relative. Kevin was (I think) actually a dance instructor. Plus there were a few references to dances Backstreet did-which was rewarded most amazingly by my getting a *trailer* for it. A trailer!. Even *reality* got in on the act, as it turned out there is a Hot Metal Bridge in Pittsburgh! That was fun. In Dragon Country, Lance's job reflects on his side gig back in the early Nsync days; Britney and JC have a history (Mickey Mouse Club reference!), and Adam sings a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody (which Lance does not recognise).
In a variation on that kind of reference, I invented a different backstory for the characters in Wanna Tell Me About It?, in which Lance got famous not for being a popstar in Nsync but for being on a TV show called Synchronicity. Adam's background in musical theatre gets a mention, too. It's sorta a reflection of reality, and I enjoy it that way. Not every AU has to 'reflect' canon, but it's cool when it does.
I think it's important that there is a strong justification for the characters being where they are put, in any AU. Making the characters, say, garbage truck operators, simply because that means they work as a team is, well, pushing it, in my opinion, and you'd have to do a bloody good job to make it work. By contrast, Justin and Lance would be *excellent* account execs for an advertising firm, they could both charm their clients into anything, just as JC and Chris would be the crazy creative types and Joey would be a relaxed and cheerful media exec, always being on friendly terms with the people who wanted more copy in their station/magazine/newspaper/whatever. I couldn't have put them into, say, a laboratory setting, about which I know nothing-but I've read a couple of good ones that have enough 'why this is justified' to make me believe it. (Also, I like my AUs to be properly thought out. Know whereof you speak, but if you don't, a modest amount of research will usually suffice.)
I wanted to put a conclusion to this essay of a post, but I can't think of one.
This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/721834.html. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can-you don't need an account.
In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea.
When I was a Star Trek:TNG fan I didn't have any interest in writing AUs. It was the Trek universe that I enjoyed, and the characters as they were that I wanted to know more about, and since my favourite character was Data, it was hard to put him into a different world. However, as I know that the character was one the people with Aspergers/autism identified with (and there are definitely shades of my son there, occasionally), it could be interesting to read a story in which 'Data' was the nickname of an autistic person.... but I don't wanna write it.
I think this would hold true with any other fictional canon. The world is as much a part of the attraction as the characters, and they belong together.
Popslash, though. Popslash canon is Real Life (with provisos), and is amazingly freeing. It would never have occurred to me that RPF would have such scope, but there is so much freedom to do *anything* with the canon. There is magnificent amount of crack, which makes me very happy. There are also many options for AUs, and I have written quite a few of them. (Don't think I've done any bitchy baristas, though.)
By the numbers, the first five years of my popslash writing were very much canon-based. There were AUs, quite a lot of them, the most pleasing (to me) being the one where Clena works in a dragon stable; the one where they all work in a London advertising agency; the 'fuck or die in space' story, the post-apocalyptic one with vampires, and the one where JC rescues a kitten on his way to a blind date.
When I was new to this shiny, awesome fandom, I mostly wanted to read canon-based stories, whether they were digging into tiny details of actual fact or very loosely based on the "well, they're popstars" idea. As the area around canon became rather, er, full, it became easier to look outside it.
Also, the fandom began to die away, and canon receded further into the past, which meant it became less interesting to explore (and possibly harder to find) gaps in canon, and more plausible to write these characters whom by now I knew so well into different worlds. AUs certainly occupied a far larger proportion of my output. I wrote three AUs for my final SeSa exchange challenge... plus one story that was canon-based but actually *in* a different universe... you hadda be there, really.
I do like an AU to reflect reality, if possible. In my advertising agency story, I had fun fitting them to their roles within the company, and they also broke away from the dishonest CEO of the agency and became more successful on their own. In the dragon stable story, Lance was rejected by the powers in charge, but kept by his boys. My Full Monty story was born because the Backstreet Boys fit *so* well into the canon of, actually, the Broadway musical based on the film: one has a kid, one has weight/body image problems, one has a sick relative. Kevin was (I think) actually a dance instructor. Plus there were a few references to dances Backstreet did-which was rewarded most amazingly by my getting a *trailer* for it. A trailer!. Even *reality* got in on the act, as it turned out there is a Hot Metal Bridge in Pittsburgh! That was fun. In Dragon Country, Lance's job reflects on his side gig back in the early Nsync days; Britney and JC have a history (Mickey Mouse Club reference!), and Adam sings a bit of Bohemian Rhapsody (which Lance does not recognise).
In a variation on that kind of reference, I invented a different backstory for the characters in Wanna Tell Me About It?, in which Lance got famous not for being a popstar in Nsync but for being on a TV show called Synchronicity. Adam's background in musical theatre gets a mention, too. It's sorta a reflection of reality, and I enjoy it that way. Not every AU has to 'reflect' canon, but it's cool when it does.
I think it's important that there is a strong justification for the characters being where they are put, in any AU. Making the characters, say, garbage truck operators, simply because that means they work as a team is, well, pushing it, in my opinion, and you'd have to do a bloody good job to make it work. By contrast, Justin and Lance would be *excellent* account execs for an advertising firm, they could both charm their clients into anything, just as JC and Chris would be the crazy creative types and Joey would be a relaxed and cheerful media exec, always being on friendly terms with the people who wanted more copy in their station/magazine/newspaper/whatever. I couldn't have put them into, say, a laboratory setting, about which I know nothing-but I've read a couple of good ones that have enough 'why this is justified' to make me believe it. (Also, I like my AUs to be properly thought out. Know whereof you speak, but if you don't, a modest amount of research will usually suffice.)
I wanted to put a conclusion to this essay of a post, but I can't think of one.
This entry was also posted at https://pensnest.dreamwidth.org/721834.html. Please comment at Dreamwidth if you can-you don't need an account.