Out of Sync

[pensnest]

I imagine we're all planning to buy Lance's book, yes? And take our copies with us when we go to see 'Hairspray', right? *plots trip to NYC*

Okay, let's not speculate on the contents.

What I do wonder, though, is this: will Lance's autobiography affect what we write? And if so, how?

Comments

[withdiamonds]

Hmm, good question. I guess a lot depends on what's in there. His coming out affected what I wrote, or how I felt about what I tried to write. I think I wrote Green Scales because I wanted to counter the sense of isolation that I imagined him feeling. I might still write that story someday, but right now I don't want to deal with the melancholy. I'll be interested to see if the book makes that worse or better.

[pensnest]

Are there any stories you really want to get done *before* the book comes out, in that what's in it will likely affect your 'take' on the story, and you don't want it to?

[withdiamonds]

No, I don't think I have any stories in my head right now, which is kind of scary. The only one that's there is an NSA era story, which, hmm, you're rght, except in the opposite way. Maybe I should wait.

My two cents

[milosflaca]

well, the point is that we are expecting lance to spill the beans on dirty stuff, and I frankly don't believe Lance would speak ill about their band mates like ever.

There must be little dirty secrets on nsync. On top of my head I'm thinking about the real reason of Nsycs's break up...
The book will affect the canon, no doubt about it. The thing is how many people will read the book.
I've spoken to fans here in Mexico and they are quite skeptic about its contents. As I said most celebrity biographies include dirty secrets and I don't know if the book as a whole will be disappointing for some people or illustrative for some others.

I will read the book, I mean, that's for sure. If it has Nsync on the label I will read it.
Myself? I do expect to read about some dirty little secrets, but I won't be dissapointed at all if the book has none as long as it gives you an insiders perspective on the whole Nsync project.

Re: My two cents

[pensnest]

But will the book make a difference to how you write fanfiction

Re: My two cents Part 1

[milosflaca]

o.k, let me tackle one thing at the time.

But will the book make a difference to how you write fanfiction?

Well, when Lance came out my perception of him changed a little, because really, we as popslashers don't care if the guy we are writing about is gay or not. We just write them gay. Lance's coming out was great in the way that well, some of those fics where they portraited Lance as gay, came to be true.

To me it doesn't matter much. As I told turps33 once, I ended being disappointed by some people around here who got really mad that you as a fic writer wrote Lance as straight. I don't see the difference. If I could write Lance being gay while we were in the dark about his sexual preferences, now that we DO know his sexual preference, I can still write him straight

Re: My two cents

[milosflaca]

I ran out of lj space :PWill people like what they read? Will this affect the canon whether they want it or not? Well, I can't say it. I've been here long enough to know that some truths about BSB or Nsync are not really very welcomed among the fans

[sid]

I think any time new cannon comes out it affects what we write, but maybe not as much as it could.

You'd think, for example, that after the People article, that you wouldn't see any new fics where Lance was openly gay with the rest of the band during the early years, but I've seen some.

Fanfiction is all about using what you like and ignoring what interferes with your story :)

My guess is that if there's anything new, especially if it's unexpected and shocking (which I actually doubt), it'll get stories based on it, but if it contradicts something we love, it'll just get written around :) It seems to be a fairly common technique, actually, to take cannon and write the backstory that completely turns it on its head.

[pensnest]

We'll also be perfectly free to assume 'oh, he's covering up *this* bit' and so forth, if we want to. I hope we'll find that having new information actually spurs people into producing more stories, and I think you're probably right that they'll use what they like and ignore, or spin, what they don't.

[topaz119]

In new things that I write, yes, I think it will, mostly because I like to work around "canon" in my head when I'm writing. I have this half-written Basez, that I started writing long before the People cover, that suddenly needs to be time-shifted into future fic for me to even think about finishing it, because I need for the guys to know and accept Lance being gay and I know in my head that it didn't happen until a particular point in time. Before I knew for sure, I could insert my story into the unknown space but now it won't work in my head.

But in existing stories (I'm thinking Something So Right here, specifically) the world-building's already been done so I can slide back into that 'verse without having to make revisionist changes. In that world, JC and Lance were on-and-off together through most of ANSN and NSA and PopOd and Celebrity and that's that.

And Jesse's still the prettiest. ;)

[pensnest]

There are times when I think we can have too much canon - it leaves us more space to play if we haven't been told, in reasonably believable style, what *was*. Then again, I can acquire fresh Kirkpatrick canon and *still* believe in Trickyfish, so...

Yes, I can see that where you've already built the world, that's that, and it doesn't need to be affected by fresh canon info. I hope that means you have more bits and pieces of that world yet to come!

[topaz119]

Too much canon--oh yes. When I first started playing around with CWrpf--specifically, the SPN end of it--there were a couple of live interviews, maybe a 15 or 20 magazine shoots, etc, and not even a year of fanon to dig into. It was very freeing, except my brain kept insisting it needed more constraints. ;)

[pensnest]

There must be a perfect balance in there somewhere - the right amount of canon and the right amount of fanon to make the perfect atmosphere for producing fic! I remember being most unnerved by the lack of bodyguard canon when I was writing my remix. In theory, there ought to be lots of canon about the bodyguards, but in fact it was surprisingly hard to find. I suppose that's because they're good bodyguards.

I remember feeling very uncertain of my ground when I wrote a Lance/Reichen story, and not *just* because that was writing about a real relationship - but I hadn't any Lance/Reichen *fanon* to work from, so I felt rather insecure!

[phaballa]

I think, hmmm, yes, it will probably effect what we write in the way that any new addition to canon effects the fanfic that comes from that fandom. When book 7 of Harry Potter is released, I expect people will start taking its contents into account almost immediately when they write fic. The same goes with new episodes of a television show, and so on.

Of course, with Lance's book we have the option of believing it or not. Depending on the contents, of course, which I know I, for one, will be taking with a grain of salt. I seriously doubt Lance is going to be revealing anything crazy that will effect our canon as we know it and prevent us from making everyone gay, as we like to do. I mean, his coming out effected some stuff--definitely, for example, some people were upset/disappointed that Lance never told the guys about his big gayness. I like to think that all those times he fucked JC in front of them sort of cleared up any confusion they might've had about the subject :P

[pensnest]

There's always the option of looking for the little cracks in reality, and pouring through those, and there'll probably be material for new stories from Lance's book, depending on what he talks about, how he says it, and what he doesn't say. Perhaps the 'what he doesn't say' will be the most interesting.

And indeed, we do ignore canon whenever it suits us. I've sometimes followed a strict timeline using canalbaby's chronology, and at other times a fic is just 'in Europe' or something. Our 'muses' aren't really the same people as 'our boys', I think.

I can't help wondering why there hasn't been more fic poking into the whys and wherefores of Lance leaving Justin until the very last when it came to saying, hey, I'm gay (and, um, you might wanna have some answers ready for the interviews, because there's this magazine...).

[phaballa]

I can't help wondering why there hasn't been more fic poking into the whys and wherefores of Lance leaving Justin until the very last when it came to saying, hey, I'm gay (and, um, you might wanna have some answers ready for the interviews, because there's this magazine...).

Heee. See um, I think it's pretty funny actually, but I'm not sure that Lance DID leave Justin until the end. That was the party line at first, but if you watch interview with Justin from last summer, his story slowly changes. First, Lance didn't tell her at all, he hasn't talked to Lance, etc. Then it was, "Oh, Lance never said anything, but of course I KNEW." And then (I think it was on Leno?) Justin said that Lance had actually *called* him before hand to ask if it was okay with Justin that he do this, and Justin told him it was his life and he needed to do what he needed to do to be happy.

SO. I sort of think they held back the real story for the sake of waiting to see how public opinion would fall. Who knows what the real story is?

[pensnest]

Hmm... that sorta sounds like Justin figuring out how best to present himself. Or am I being mean? A progression from "Me? I didn't know anything, I was a thousand miles away at the time, m'lud," to "Me? Sure, I knew, I mean, nobody ever said, but I'm not STUPID, ya know?" to "Me? I'm a supportive friend with his consciousness in the right place." In the People article, Lance is quoted as saying "I haven't had the conversation with Justin yet. I know he knows but I've never really sat him down and said it. I will be calling him." (I hope he called before the thing was published - or Justin might have had reason to be a trifle peeved!)

That's one of the places where canon has nice little cracks into which we should be able to insert stories.