30 Days Of Fan Fiction: Day 13

[vilakins]

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

I prefer to stay with canon unless I'm writing an AU, but anyway I assume that fanon is merely adding to canon so I can pick and choose what I want to use (like Vila being a vegetarian: yes, Avon loving ice cream: yes, Avon being allergic to half the substances in the universe: no). I do also like to create my own fanon like Vila's mother Jandy and Soolin's sister Ilka.

I'm not sure if writing has ever changed my opinion of a fandom, but I can certainly interpret what's on the screen or page in different ways. I've had a lot of fun in b7friday doing that.

Rest of the questions

14 – Ratings: how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?

15 – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

16 – Summaries: do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

17 – Titles: are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the fic? Also, if you do chaptered fic, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

18 – Where do you get the most inspiration or ideas for your fics?

19 – When you have plot ideas, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

20 – Do you ever get ideas from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

21 – Have you ever written a sequel to a fic you wrote, and if so, why? If not, how do you feel about sequels?

22 – Have you ever participated in a fest, ficathon, or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favourite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?

23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?

24 – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a beta horror story or dream story?

25 – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain "mood" to write your fic? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?

26 – What is the oddest (or most fun) thing you've had to research for a fic?

27 – Where is your favourite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

29 – What is your current project or projects?

30 – Do you have a favourite fic you've written? What makes it your favourite? And don't forget to give us a link!

Comments

[executrix]

I don't know if it counts as a MarySue when a character in a story shares your opinion, but Deva certainly spoke for me when he said "Fuckwit stunt like that--it's a miracle no one shot him before that."

Certainly in my PGPs and non-GPs, Avon has Words with Blake. But if it's perforated!Blake he has Words with Avon too.

[corvuscornix]

And in some versions he will be more justified, in some less. What I was trying to say, in slightly less cheesy terms, is merely that there are multiple ways of seeing this story, not that one is more true than the others.

Going back to where (I think?) this started, the reason why those "let's punish Avon some more!!!" PGP's depressed me was exactly because they seemed one-sided to me (which I very much doubt would be a problem in your stories). I think we may be arguing for the same thing, merely from opposite directions? :-)

I'm sorry if I misunderstand you. I fear it is something that I'm very good at. :-P

[executrix]

Fandom tends to show its undying love for a character by, f'rex, dragging ze upside-down through a fire swamp heavily infested by scorpions. But only after carefully establishing zir agonizing venom allergy. B7 has always been a very Avon-oriented fandom, so of course he gets to Suffer more than anybody else.

I used to point out to entropy_house that if Avon ever showed up, she was in big trouble and I wasn't, because I was the one who gave him the cashmere sweaters and good times, and *she* was the one who came up with all kinds of dreadful fates for him.

[corvuscornix]

If it's any consolation to you, I've no interest in putting Avon through any gratuitous suffering - though I might have different ideas of what would make him happy. ;-) But since I think that they are all tragic characters to some extent, getting any one of them into a better place than where they are seems likely to have to deal with a little misery along the way, on way or another.

It's funny though...I agree this fandom is Avon-oriented (unsurprisingly, since he and Vila are the only ones to stay throughout, and the show itself likes to focus more on Avon than on Vila) but at least in the small fraction of it that I've explored so far I've noticed no particular preference in who gets the more hero-worship. (I think I may have mostly read newer stuff, so perhaps trends have changed recently?) When it comes to excessive rationalisations to explain someone's actions, I've noticed at least as much when it concerns Blake, and perhaps for Vila too, if compensating for the fact that he gets less fic overall (and presents us with far less upsetting ethics).

Sorting out the mechanisms behind why a character acts in a certain way is, at least for me, one of the reasons behind writing fanfic. But while doing that, particularly for a character that one likes, there is always the risk of getting fuzzy about the difference between reasons and excuses - as much so for the readers as for the authors, I suspect.

[executrix]

There are a lot of Vila-centric Old Skool fics in print zines, although not too many of them are available online.

I agree absolutely with your last paragraph!