On Writing Fanfic Part 1 - Know Your Canon

[tsukinofaerii]

I've only been in comics fandom for a little over a year-incidentally, that coincided with my discovery of Steve/Tony. (No, seriously, I have the exact moment that I discovered the joy of Steve/Tony bookmarked. I'm weird that way.) And you know, I got really, really lucky that I came in during a relative lull, and managed to not fall down a million

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[illuminatius]

Okay, before getting serious, I just need to say a few things.

OMGLOL RED SCRUB'N'BUBBLES. THERE MUST BE A SUPPLY!AU STORY OUT THERE SOMEWHERE.

*ahem*

This was very good to read. For someone who hasn't had much experience in writing for this fandom, like me, this really helps in pinpointing what to focus on to make the writing somewhat easier and better. Hell, this is universal in a way, so for me, it's REALLY helpful.

About the Wiki part - the way I see it, Wiki should be used if you want a synopsis rather than fine details about the events and the characters so that you can include the events, as it's not always easy to find the reading material. Thankfully, Marvel has their Digital Comics service which is incredibly useful (and worth every penny), but they don't have every issue out there. And if you were to write for other fandoms (I know this concerns Steve/Tony, but I'm just putting it out there), you might not always find the comics of a certain storyline in which you can really get to know the major and minor characters. Am I making any sense?

This is great. I'm looking forward to reading the next part.

[tsukinofaerii]

:D Secret: Every single fic idea I throw out in these, I would love to see actually be written.

Wiki works really well as a synopsis, but it's fallible and not always up to date. No one grudge wanks like comics fans, and Wiki is easy to manipulate. It's a good resource, but it really can't help with with things like tone or details work. Watch the changing facial hair! When does Tony have a beard, and when does he have a mustache? No one knows~! (Which will never, ever stop frustrating me. More stability in design, please!) In general, my opinion is that Wiki works best for details on a general time period, where as something set in a specific time frame really needs more than Wiki can provide.

Of course, some fanfic have done an excellent job of throwing out canon altogether. An Ever-Fixed Mark by elspethdixon and seanchai does that with their team-up. The canon was chaotic, so they made their own. So there's obviously room to play.

[illuminatius]

If I was any good writing crack!fic, I'd give it a try.

Yeah, the fact that Wiki can so easily be edited is enough to make you think twice about using it, but it does have its uses...as long as someone keeps it updated. I guess the Marvel Wiki is the same.

Tony's facial hair confuses me. Hell, I didn't even know that he had a mustache until I saw that animated Iron Man movie! True story. I thought he always went with the sexy goatee. And then I read the first issues of the Avengers, and hel-lo mustache.

[tsukinofaerii]

I thought it was an always!goatee too, until I bought myself the Vol 1 Essential Iron Man. I personally prefer the goatee, but canon has wobbled so much. There is even a fic somewhere that has Extremis messing with Tony's facial hair due to a programming error, because his facial hair changes so often in that time period that it's ridiculous.

[elspethdixon]

I remember that fic ^_^.

Tony's supposed to have a goatee all the time now, I think, but artists forget, especially artists on other titles, much the same way they tend to forget that Danny Rand doesn't actually wear the bare-chest-revealing pixie-boots-having version of the Iron Fist costume anymore (as soon as you go to a title other than the Immortal Iron Fist one, there the bare chest almost inevitably is).

Plus, Larroca's total inability to draw Tony consistently is, like, the one consistent thing about his art.

[elspethdixon]

The canon was chaotic, so they made their own.

Our "own" line-up was basically "classic Avengers with bonus Sam Wilson," though [edit: so it didn't include any of the less-written-about Avengers supporting characters that valtyr referred to] (basically the same line up RR&R verse has once you get to the second fic, though that verse also has bonus Spiderman). Most of what we write tends to be classic Avengers, except for the two New Avengers fics we did early on, back when New Avengers canon consisted mostly of the pre-CW fun stuff (sadly, long stretches of NA canon are during Dark Reign and Secret Invasion other storylines that are not my happy place).

I'm hoping new, "Heroic Age" canon will provide stuff that contains Luke Cage and other New Avengers characters without containing Dark Reign or Skrull cooties.

[tsukinofaerii]

And a shiny line-up it was. I tend to drift more towards recent canon or early canon, because everything in the middle is so extremely confusing. (Not that recent canon isn't confusing, but it's confusing as I watch it happen, which helps.)

The Heroic Age gives many of us hope. Luke is leading NA, which has more than the token Girl, and Tony and Steve are not scowly at each other! Huzzah!