General fanfic ponderings.
I don't remember how I got started on this, but at some point in recent days I was reflecting on my general body of fanfic and realized my biggest motivation for writing fanfic stems from the need to fix something: either to fill in what I perceive as an oversight OR the gross abuse of a character I love, either by TBTP or the fandom.
By this I mean my novel-length fanfics. Short stories and vignettes are a different kettle of fish (don't you love expressions whose origins you don't actually know?).
My history of novel-length fic is as such: (there aren't actually that many)
Binding Ties - My very first completed and published fanfic (I have to specify, because before the Internet, my friend Jenny and I wrote a Young Jedi Knights story by hand in a notebook which we never finished. We didn't even know there was such a thing as 'fanfic'; I still have that notebook, btw. It's pretty hilarious.)... Anyway, my first published fanfic was a Star Wars Expanded Universe story (specifically in the New Jedi Order arc) written after Jacen Solo was captured in Star by Star but before his story was continued in Traitor. In between those two books, a novel about his sister Jaina Solo was released (what was the name of that book? Wow, I can't believe I can't remember) that sparked a huge ship rivalry on the Jedi Council forums.
This is the period in time when I got sucked into fanfic. I already knew about it, but I just never cared until then. What made me care? Indignation on two fronts. (1) The discovery that 99.99% of new fics on the EU board were Jaina-centric. Nobody was writing about Jacen, who had been stuck in suspenseful mortal peril/captivity for the past few months (from a fan perspective). (2) The more general but equally appalling discovery of how many people wrote fanfic that sucked. I could do better, of course. So I started writing a Jacen Solo fanfic out of sheer obstinance.
I'm laughing right now because Binding Ties was a pretty awful fanfic. It was only marginally 'better' than some of the fics that had horrified me by virtue of the fact that I had a grasp of punctuation. The pacing was haphazard, the characters were thin, the romance was saccharine, and there were ten chapters of fluff after the climax. I could go on. I've also never had quite that much thrill writing a story. Piece of crap or not, that was the fic that lit the fire. We all have one. I don't read it anymore *shudder* but I treasure it in my heart always.
Still, my point stands. I didn't write it because I got a plot bunny. I wrote it because I had to show the world how to do things right.
Heart of a Mother - This may be the biggest exception to the "fix-it" pattern. I was getting close to finishing Binding Ties and I was high on the thrill of writing and getting feedback and getting fans. I wanted to write another story, so I petitioned the muses until one evening in the shower (surprise, surprise) I got the idea to do a Beru backstory. I guess in a small way it fits the pattern. Beru, like the handmaidens, was a SW character vastly underappreciated by the general fandom. This is the woman who raised Luke Skywalker, for crying out loud. Doesn't she get a little cred? ;-) Still, my motivation was more "I just want to write!" than the other.
Star Wars - Dance With the Stars - A title that makes me cringe nowadays because of the reality show association, but at the time it was original and I liked it. This is the first of my Sabé/Obi-Wan trilogy (which still isn't finished, but getting there). The primary motivation for writing it was that I was fangirling a series of EU AU (wow, wrap your head around that one) fics written by padawanlunetta and melyanna that were so full of sugary ship I'm surprised we all didn't lose our teeth (part of me will always love them, Mel, don't you worry) ;-). This series had a tragic but compelling Prequel-era backstory that I decided, one random day, would be really cool to read as its own story. I wrote the prologue, sent it to the two of them, and asked permission to write it.
Once again, the main motivation for writing it wasn't "I must fix this!!" but in one certain aspect we still see my snobby 'I will show them' attitude peeping through. The established backstory required me to write Sabé/Obi-Wan, a very popular fanon ship but one of which I'd always been wary because of the age difference. I don't actually mind May/December (in this case it's more like May/September anyway), but in most of the fics that were being written, their romance ocurred during The Phantom Menace when Sabé is only thirteen years old. Obviously, this is a problem (apparently some readers didn't know this fact about her, but if you care enough to know her name, you'd think... nevermind, I digress). People would also disregard utterly the fact that Obi-Wan is a true believer and true dedicate of the Jedi Order, which favors celibacy. In fic after fic, this fact seems utterly thrown to the winds as Obi-Wan makes a 180-degree about-face in characterization. So my challenge was this: Write a Sabé/Obi-Wan romance that doesn't promote pedophilia and keeps a beloved character in character. My solution was clear: No romance during TPM; it needs to happen after she grows up. Which is where the motivation/need for the sequel arose.
Forget Me Not - See above. And may I just say, for the record, that I'm so glad I took on said challenge. These two have been one of my greatest joys to write. And by presenting such a tall order, they have made my writing BETTER. Particularly my romance writing. Just sayin' :-)
Shifting Circles - qwi_xux and I wrote this fic together (and started to become the friends we are today because of it) as a result of one little question she randomly made in a chat one day: "Why can't anybody write a decent Sandry/Briar fic?"
Love Comes Softly - About the time I was almost finished writing Dance and a good four chapters into Forget, Fellowship of the Ring came out in the theaters and my little circle of Star Wars fandom cohorts got caught up in LotR fever, almost universally. A lot of them started writing LotR fanfic, but I didn't get hit by any inspiration to write Tolkien (SO daunting) until my love for Éomer, King of the Riddermark hit its height and I found that almost none of the fics written about him and his canon wife, Lothíriel, were acceptable. There were a few, I will admit, but even the ones that were good seemed compelled to unanimously interpret Lothíriel as a defiant, high-spirited rebel. Not that there's anything wrong with that; it just kind of bothered me that nobody realized you can write a female character who is gentle-natured. Just because she isn't Eowyn 2.0 doesn't mean she isn't strong, or that she's some kind of failure as a woman. I simply had to address this problem. My Lothíriel in LCS is quiet, unsure, and marries voluntarily for political reasons. Problem addressed. ;-)
(I would also like to state, for the record, that I enjoyed writing this fic because it required exactly zero action scenes. haha)
Amelia's Violin - At some point, Stargate vaulted my participation in fandom to previously unforseen heights. (I will never stop being amused at the fact that, in the early phase of my obsession, melyanna complained of my negligence of our former fandoms, saying 'Pretty soon you're going to start writing fanfic for it...') *giggles* Oh, good times, good times. Anyway, flash-forward to Season Six and how awesome and perfect and darling and huggable and scrumptious and ... [insert a few more adjectives here]... Jonas Quinn was. I was over the moon for him. And he got cast aside like so much used garbage, never to be heard from again. I needed more Jonas. Fanfic was the only way. And he needed a girl who was worthy of him. And I needed to know why he had a violin sitting on top the filing cabinet in his office (he does! You can see it in Forsaken). And that's the real reason Amelia was a voilinist. The fact that I play the violin made the vicarious romance more enjoyable for me, and the technical scenes easy to write. Hehehe.
Eye of the Beholder - The sequel to Amelia's Violin and thereby an extension of all the reasons I wrote the first fic.
I have only two more chapter fanfics left on my desk, and both are wrap-ups of my Star Wars and Stargate fic trilogies, respectively. And now I remember what it was that prompted this line of reflection: I've been trying to figure out where my passion for writing fic has gone. True, the novelty wears off to some extent, but it's not just that. I have no burning need to get those fics finished. The motivation for writing their predecessors has long been satisfied.
None of the fandoms I've acquired since Stargate have really incited things in me. The circumstances have not recurred. For example, I'm every bit in love with Chuck Bartowski as I was Jonas Quinn, but being that Chuck is the star of the whole freakin' show, he's already gotten enough care and love lavished on him in canon to keep me happy even if the show was over. And I've found some really good fanfic for the ships that have captured my attention. Obviously, the body of good Sheppard/Weir fic out there is staggering. Furthermore, any need to put my own mark of expression on my favorite ships has been siphoned off greatly by vidding, an outlet which I didn't have in the early days.
Just some food for thought. That took a lot longer to type than I thought. Friday!fail at work again. Oh well. I'm still getting more done than I did last week.
By this I mean my novel-length fanfics. Short stories and vignettes are a different kettle of fish (don't you love expressions whose origins you don't actually know?).
My history of novel-length fic is as such: (there aren't actually that many)
Binding Ties - My very first completed and published fanfic (I have to specify, because before the Internet, my friend Jenny and I wrote a Young Jedi Knights story by hand in a notebook which we never finished. We didn't even know there was such a thing as 'fanfic'; I still have that notebook, btw. It's pretty hilarious.)... Anyway, my first published fanfic was a Star Wars Expanded Universe story (specifically in the New Jedi Order arc) written after Jacen Solo was captured in Star by Star but before his story was continued in Traitor. In between those two books, a novel about his sister Jaina Solo was released (what was the name of that book? Wow, I can't believe I can't remember) that sparked a huge ship rivalry on the Jedi Council forums.
This is the period in time when I got sucked into fanfic. I already knew about it, but I just never cared until then. What made me care? Indignation on two fronts. (1) The discovery that 99.99% of new fics on the EU board were Jaina-centric. Nobody was writing about Jacen, who had been stuck in suspenseful mortal peril/captivity for the past few months (from a fan perspective). (2) The more general but equally appalling discovery of how many people wrote fanfic that sucked. I could do better, of course. So I started writing a Jacen Solo fanfic out of sheer obstinance.
I'm laughing right now because Binding Ties was a pretty awful fanfic. It was only marginally 'better' than some of the fics that had horrified me by virtue of the fact that I had a grasp of punctuation. The pacing was haphazard, the characters were thin, the romance was saccharine, and there were ten chapters of fluff after the climax. I could go on. I've also never had quite that much thrill writing a story. Piece of crap or not, that was the fic that lit the fire. We all have one. I don't read it anymore *shudder* but I treasure it in my heart always.
Still, my point stands. I didn't write it because I got a plot bunny. I wrote it because I had to show the world how to do things right.
Heart of a Mother - This may be the biggest exception to the "fix-it" pattern. I was getting close to finishing Binding Ties and I was high on the thrill of writing and getting feedback and getting fans. I wanted to write another story, so I petitioned the muses until one evening in the shower (surprise, surprise) I got the idea to do a Beru backstory. I guess in a small way it fits the pattern. Beru, like the handmaidens, was a SW character vastly underappreciated by the general fandom. This is the woman who raised Luke Skywalker, for crying out loud. Doesn't she get a little cred? ;-) Still, my motivation was more "I just want to write!" than the other.
Star Wars - Dance With the Stars - A title that makes me cringe nowadays because of the reality show association, but at the time it was original and I liked it. This is the first of my Sabé/Obi-Wan trilogy (which still isn't finished, but getting there). The primary motivation for writing it was that I was fangirling a series of EU AU (wow, wrap your head around that one) fics written by padawanlunetta and melyanna that were so full of sugary ship I'm surprised we all didn't lose our teeth (part of me will always love them, Mel, don't you worry) ;-). This series had a tragic but compelling Prequel-era backstory that I decided, one random day, would be really cool to read as its own story. I wrote the prologue, sent it to the two of them, and asked permission to write it.
Once again, the main motivation for writing it wasn't "I must fix this!!" but in one certain aspect we still see my snobby 'I will show them' attitude peeping through. The established backstory required me to write Sabé/Obi-Wan, a very popular fanon ship but one of which I'd always been wary because of the age difference. I don't actually mind May/December (in this case it's more like May/September anyway), but in most of the fics that were being written, their romance ocurred during The Phantom Menace when Sabé is only thirteen years old. Obviously, this is a problem (apparently some readers didn't know this fact about her, but if you care enough to know her name, you'd think... nevermind, I digress). People would also disregard utterly the fact that Obi-Wan is a true believer and true dedicate of the Jedi Order, which favors celibacy. In fic after fic, this fact seems utterly thrown to the winds as Obi-Wan makes a 180-degree about-face in characterization. So my challenge was this: Write a Sabé/Obi-Wan romance that doesn't promote pedophilia and keeps a beloved character in character. My solution was clear: No romance during TPM; it needs to happen after she grows up. Which is where the motivation/need for the sequel arose.
Forget Me Not - See above. And may I just say, for the record, that I'm so glad I took on said challenge. These two have been one of my greatest joys to write. And by presenting such a tall order, they have made my writing BETTER. Particularly my romance writing. Just sayin' :-)
Shifting Circles - qwi_xux and I wrote this fic together (and started to become the friends we are today because of it) as a result of one little question she randomly made in a chat one day: "Why can't anybody write a decent Sandry/Briar fic?"
Love Comes Softly - About the time I was almost finished writing Dance and a good four chapters into Forget, Fellowship of the Ring came out in the theaters and my little circle of Star Wars fandom cohorts got caught up in LotR fever, almost universally. A lot of them started writing LotR fanfic, but I didn't get hit by any inspiration to write Tolkien (SO daunting) until my love for Éomer, King of the Riddermark hit its height and I found that almost none of the fics written about him and his canon wife, Lothíriel, were acceptable. There were a few, I will admit, but even the ones that were good seemed compelled to unanimously interpret Lothíriel as a defiant, high-spirited rebel. Not that there's anything wrong with that; it just kind of bothered me that nobody realized you can write a female character who is gentle-natured. Just because she isn't Eowyn 2.0 doesn't mean she isn't strong, or that she's some kind of failure as a woman. I simply had to address this problem. My Lothíriel in LCS is quiet, unsure, and marries voluntarily for political reasons. Problem addressed. ;-)
(I would also like to state, for the record, that I enjoyed writing this fic because it required exactly zero action scenes. haha)
Amelia's Violin - At some point, Stargate vaulted my participation in fandom to previously unforseen heights. (I will never stop being amused at the fact that, in the early phase of my obsession, melyanna complained of my negligence of our former fandoms, saying 'Pretty soon you're going to start writing fanfic for it...') *giggles* Oh, good times, good times. Anyway, flash-forward to Season Six and how awesome and perfect and darling and huggable and scrumptious and ... [insert a few more adjectives here]... Jonas Quinn was. I was over the moon for him. And he got cast aside like so much used garbage, never to be heard from again. I needed more Jonas. Fanfic was the only way. And he needed a girl who was worthy of him. And I needed to know why he had a violin sitting on top the filing cabinet in his office (he does! You can see it in Forsaken). And that's the real reason Amelia was a voilinist. The fact that I play the violin made the vicarious romance more enjoyable for me, and the technical scenes easy to write. Hehehe.
Eye of the Beholder - The sequel to Amelia's Violin and thereby an extension of all the reasons I wrote the first fic.
I have only two more chapter fanfics left on my desk, and both are wrap-ups of my Star Wars and Stargate fic trilogies, respectively. And now I remember what it was that prompted this line of reflection: I've been trying to figure out where my passion for writing fic has gone. True, the novelty wears off to some extent, but it's not just that. I have no burning need to get those fics finished. The motivation for writing their predecessors has long been satisfied.
None of the fandoms I've acquired since Stargate have really incited things in me. The circumstances have not recurred. For example, I'm every bit in love with Chuck Bartowski as I was Jonas Quinn, but being that Chuck is the star of the whole freakin' show, he's already gotten enough care and love lavished on him in canon to keep me happy even if the show was over. And I've found some really good fanfic for the ships that have captured my attention. Obviously, the body of good Sheppard/Weir fic out there is staggering. Furthermore, any need to put my own mark of expression on my favorite ships has been siphoned off greatly by vidding, an outlet which I didn't have in the early days.
Just some food for thought. That took a lot longer to type than I thought. Friday!fail at work again. Oh well. I'm still getting more done than I did last week.