Fanfiction: On Writing Styles and Professional Influence, With Apologes to the Teal Deer

[lassarina]

...In this case, by "professional" I mean "Three years of college wankery that I didn't have to try at to get A's." But it's so much shorter the other way about.

So mithrigil has this really fascinating post about how she writes fanfic like the coloratura soprano that she is. I read it, and read a response to it on IJ (link for that one is right here,

Comments

[venefica_aura]

Yeah, our professions do have a lot to do with it. I'm an engineering major. It's amazing I can even put a standard English sentence together. ~_^

~Cendri

P.S. You might want to LJ-cut this, it is rather long.

[lassarina]

Whoops. XD I didn't realize it was this long when I was writing it.

[venefica_aura]

It's ok.

And I get the history thing, though not as much the medieval aspect. Because well, royals never really pinged me as much as inventors. So hence the technological history bent (the Russian just kind of happened, Russian history is hilarious, basically "WE INVADE YOU." "SHIT OUR FRONTIER IS CIRCULAR.")

~Cendri

[lassarina]

*laughs* I love Russian history! The Romanovs fascinate me, particularly Mikhail and then the string from Alexander I to Nicholas II. I was originally planning to double-major in Russian and creative writing; I ended up in history. Go figure.

[mithrigil]

[mu shu voice]

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.

Really insightful observations, and really true ones, and they apply to your fic like what they are, and lord knows I am going to be fascinated with trying to piece together bits of intent from this essay into everthing of yours I read from here on out. This is creating context.

Thank you for writing your thoughts out like this.

[lassarina]

Thank you for the post that got it all started in my head! I really think it's fascinating to see how people bring different things to fandom and how it shapes the way we, collectively and individually, interpret the framework that is canon into something that is uniquely our own.

It actually made me realize that I do write this way, which is really interesting to know, especially given how many pieces I write in the present tense rather than the past. I am clearly going to have to spend more time thinking about how present tense interacts with my love of history.

Also, now I want to watch Mulan again. XD

[wodhaund]

EXCELLENT.

I could quote everything Mith just said (especially the context part), but instead, I'll say

WHAT SHE SAID and grin in your general direction.

[lassarina]

:D :D :D

I love having smart people on my friends list where we can have these kinds of discussions, and then apply what we learn from them to the way we read each other's fic.

[terra]

Hey, I'm a history major by way of english/creative writing too, and although most of my fandom work is in the form of analytical essays or fanart and icons, all the fanfic I've written is pretty preoccupied with questions of setting and place. It's also almost always a flashback or something else obviously related to history. It's strange, because the way you describe history in this entry, with the quirks of major figures, etc, is exactly how my school doesn't go about it.

[lassarina]

I had amazing professors who really focused on the interesting things that we would remember. One prof, on the matter of John Brown, who was Queen Victoria's Scottish stablemaster: "I do not know if he ever showed her exactly what a Scotsman wears under his kilt..." (the implied answer: nothing).

We had GREAT professors here.

[terra]

See, we're more focused on social/economic history, while I'm definitely into the anecdotes like that. (My focus is Revolutionary America, largely because the founding fathers were CRAZY.)

I love the history department here, though, heh. I mean, I just love history, so when someone talks about it, I have to comment.

EDIT: My one professor is FAMOUS, though, for talking trash about other historians, implying they are closeted homosexuals, etc.

[lassarina]

I went to NU, home of Professor Peter Carroll, one of the top 10 Holocaust experts in the US - and professor Arthur Butz, of the Chem-E department, who is a Holocaust revisionist and is FUCKING CRAZY.

Revolutionary America reads quite fascinating from the English side. (I focused on British history.)

[owlmoose]

Interesting, and I really like mithrigil's thoughts about canon as framework. I've been singing for a long time, and though it's hardly my profession, I think my relationship to canon is similar -- rarely if ever write AU, keeping everyone IC is very important to me -- and the metaphor as she describes it really rings true.

As for how my writing relates to my own professional life, hmm. I certainly do research my stories, both in terms of doing my background research on canon, and in terms of learning details about anatomy, physiology, psychology, etc., as necessary. And that certainly could relate to my librarian side. But I'll need to ponder that a bit more.

[lassarina]

The canon-as-framework thing is, to a large extent, what I look at as well when I'm trying to write fic. I have an interesting self-censor against OOC: I inevitably get writer's block when I'm trying to push characters somewhere they ought not be. The story just sits there blinking at me.

Research is fun, but I cannot go near Wikipedia. It's so useful and fascinating, and that's the problem - suddenly I've spent 3 hours learning things and not gotten ANY writing done.