On writing and fanfic
Pasting this over from Tumblr. Saw a post from someone asking fic writers some questions for a project she's doing, and this was my answer:
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I’ve written in just two fandoms-LOTR and Primeval-but I’ve written quite a lot in both. In Primeval alone I’m probably at about 200k words, including a 120k-word novel centering on my OT3 (Abby/Becker/Connor.) I tend to prefer slash and mmf triads, but I’ve written plenty of femmeslash, het, gen and even RPF.
For me, fic is primarily about exploring relationships (primarily sexual, but sometimes other stuff) and situations that go beyond what a given canon will or can portray. It’s also very good practice for my legit writing, as it helps me work out plotting issues, correct bad habits, explore character and scene dynamics, and other technical writing stuff.
I find I’m most attracted to canons that have a lot of subtext going on, or a pairing or subplot that’s hinted at, but never fully explored. I know a lot of writers don’t really care about canon all that much and just gleefully go off and write whatever they will-AUs, etc.-but for me, finding a way to integrate my side stories and “after hours” scenes into a canon framework is a fun challenge, and makes the writing more satisfying. I also prefer to read stories like this; wildly AU or out-of-character fic doesn’t interest me. I’m there for the canon I love, not someone else’s virtually original fic. I much prefer to read professionally written original fiction, if I’m going there.
I rarely write fanfic OCs except as needed for certain plots or scenes. They’re red shirts or background characters, at best. Again, this is because I’m there for the canon. I write plenty of original fiction as well as fanfic, so if I have original characters I want to develop, I do that separately. And oh, do I! I wouldn’t say there’s a process I use to create them. They just come to me, sparked by ideas from other things, or sometimes even entirely spontaneously.
I definitely do fall in love with my characters, both the canon ones and the ones I write for my original stuff. Though I try to ensure my canon characters are as true to the originals as possible, there are, of course, things that are slightly different. More than that, however, it’s a deeper exploration of the lives and emotional states of those characters, and getting to know them more intimately like that does, definitely, create an emotional attachment for me.
It also happens that way for my original characters, and to an even stronger degree. I’d say that most writers of original fiction would agree that, in some ways, they’re kind of making their own best friends. In order to really understand a character’s motivation and write them authentically, you have to get intimate with them. They have to live inside your head quite a lot-as much as real loved ones would. And that naturally creates an emotional bond, even if the entire person only exists inside the mind.
I think people without a lot of imagination wouldn’t understand how this works. I’ve known people who can’t easily escape into fictional worlds at all, much less on an emotional level. They can’t relate to or care about anyone they don’t know in a physical, real-world context. I can’t imagine a life like that. Of course, I adore my meatspace friends and loved ones, but I also adore the ones I know only online, or the ones I know from fiction, or who exist only inside my head. Physical selves are important, of course, but the core of who a person is is intangible. Connecting on that intangible level, for those of us who can do it, is often just as rewarding as connecting in meatspace. Sometimes even more so.
***
I’ve written in just two fandoms-LOTR and Primeval-but I’ve written quite a lot in both. In Primeval alone I’m probably at about 200k words, including a 120k-word novel centering on my OT3 (Abby/Becker/Connor.) I tend to prefer slash and mmf triads, but I’ve written plenty of femmeslash, het, gen and even RPF.
For me, fic is primarily about exploring relationships (primarily sexual, but sometimes other stuff) and situations that go beyond what a given canon will or can portray. It’s also very good practice for my legit writing, as it helps me work out plotting issues, correct bad habits, explore character and scene dynamics, and other technical writing stuff.
I find I’m most attracted to canons that have a lot of subtext going on, or a pairing or subplot that’s hinted at, but never fully explored. I know a lot of writers don’t really care about canon all that much and just gleefully go off and write whatever they will-AUs, etc.-but for me, finding a way to integrate my side stories and “after hours” scenes into a canon framework is a fun challenge, and makes the writing more satisfying. I also prefer to read stories like this; wildly AU or out-of-character fic doesn’t interest me. I’m there for the canon I love, not someone else’s virtually original fic. I much prefer to read professionally written original fiction, if I’m going there.
I rarely write fanfic OCs except as needed for certain plots or scenes. They’re red shirts or background characters, at best. Again, this is because I’m there for the canon. I write plenty of original fiction as well as fanfic, so if I have original characters I want to develop, I do that separately. And oh, do I! I wouldn’t say there’s a process I use to create them. They just come to me, sparked by ideas from other things, or sometimes even entirely spontaneously.
I definitely do fall in love with my characters, both the canon ones and the ones I write for my original stuff. Though I try to ensure my canon characters are as true to the originals as possible, there are, of course, things that are slightly different. More than that, however, it’s a deeper exploration of the lives and emotional states of those characters, and getting to know them more intimately like that does, definitely, create an emotional attachment for me.
It also happens that way for my original characters, and to an even stronger degree. I’d say that most writers of original fiction would agree that, in some ways, they’re kind of making their own best friends. In order to really understand a character’s motivation and write them authentically, you have to get intimate with them. They have to live inside your head quite a lot-as much as real loved ones would. And that naturally creates an emotional bond, even if the entire person only exists inside the mind.
I think people without a lot of imagination wouldn’t understand how this works. I’ve known people who can’t easily escape into fictional worlds at all, much less on an emotional level. They can’t relate to or care about anyone they don’t know in a physical, real-world context. I can’t imagine a life like that. Of course, I adore my meatspace friends and loved ones, but I also adore the ones I know only online, or the ones I know from fiction, or who exist only inside my head. Physical selves are important, of course, but the core of who a person is is intangible. Connecting on that intangible level, for those of us who can do it, is often just as rewarding as connecting in meatspace. Sometimes even more so.