Batman's really scary to write, I've found. Maybe I should push sasha_anu's essay on writing Bruce up. :)
On the plus side, there are few characters who've been written with such huge variations in canon! Is he a psychopathic man who kidnaps small children and makes them eat rats? Or is he a caring rather who checks up on his foster-kids and supports them? That's ASBAR and Nightwing in current canon, both of them in relation to Dick, no less. I mean, if you're somewhere between those two extremes you match canon.
Now, I'd say writing a Batman that works for fanon is a trickier business, and I do think that no matter how you write Batman you just have to accept that it's going to turn off some number of your readers. Some people like him cuddly and affectionate once he falls in love, some like him pretty sane, some people like him as a completely round-the-bend mind-fucking control freak. I think part of the panic writing Batman is knowing that everyone has a pretty certain image of him and you're just not going to match everyone's image, so you have to be ready for that. Not great advice, particularly! But I *can* tell you that if you let someone convince you your Batman is way OOC without damn good proof, you're going to have a hard time writing him again--you have to be true to your Bruce (Oh God, now I'm hearing that set to the Beach Boys' "Be True to Your School").
On the plus side, there are few characters who've been written with such huge variations in canon! Is he a psychopathic man who kidnaps small children and makes them eat rats? Or is he a caring rather who checks up on his foster-kids and supports them? That's ASBAR and Nightwing in current canon, both of them in relation to Dick, no less. I mean, if you're somewhere between those two extremes you match canon.
Now, I'd say writing a Batman that works for fanon is a trickier business, and I do think that no matter how you write Batman you just have to accept that it's going to turn off some number of your readers. Some people like him cuddly and affectionate once he falls in love, some like him pretty sane, some people like him as a completely round-the-bend mind-fucking control freak. I think part of the panic writing Batman is knowing that everyone has a pretty certain image of him and you're just not going to match everyone's image, so you have to be ready for that. Not great advice, particularly! But I *can* tell you that if you let someone convince you your Batman is way OOC without damn good proof, you're going to have a hard time writing him again--you have to be true to your Bruce (Oh God, now I'm hearing that set to the Beach Boys' "Be True to Your School").
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