Fanfic assumptions
Oct. 11th, 2015 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiI probably spend far too much time thinking of what motivates characters and why they react the way they do. This is something I do when I write as well and it’s important to me that my characters react in a logical or plausible way. I once got a review which said that the reader could tell I spent time with my character’s motivations and that made me very happy.
But even if i try to “keep it real” and stay true to character, I have my assumptions and they colour the way I see a character and how I writer her/him. And sometimes it’s easy to forget that other people have their own idea of what makes a character thick. I have been reminded of it recently both by flames and by positive feedback that nevertheless have come from another mindset. In a way they are not wrong, because their views are as valid as mine. What I think is a mistake is to consider one’s own view as the only right way and that it is ok to tell other people off for not sharing them.
For example, my lovely little flamer wasn’t in agreement with me on how I portrayed Captain Hook. In her (new assumption here; from what she wrote I assume she is a she and very young too. And has never read Barrie’s book.) view Captain Hook is a pirate, which means he is a gentleman, to which follow he would never treat a captive lady with anything less than perfect courteousness. I’m not sure where one can reach the conclusion that a pirate was a gentleman, but I think that certain kind of romances as well as romantic movies can be the source for that.
Me, I start out with the belief that just about everyone in Neverland is insane. Captain Hook is mad and so is Peter Pan. I also know a good deal about history. There are several clues in the book that places Hook in the late 17th century (perhaps) and I know what the general view of women was back then. I also know a lot about pirates and there really wasn’t anything romantic about them. I can’t free myself from this when I write Peter Pan-fics and if I would try to write a fluffy and romantic Captain Hook I would probably end up with a parody.
Looking at the original source, I think both our interpretations are wrong. Captain Hook is certainly a gentleman and he is obsessed with good form. He is also perfectly prepared to kill children and he do kill off his own crew with little provocation. So my Captain Hook is darker and crazier than the original, but he is certainly not a romantic ideal either.
When I started to read fanfic my assumption was that fanfiction were usually good and well-written. The two first I read was excellent, the first a Harry Potter fic about a OFC a few years older than Harry. The other one a crossover where Harry Potter’s Snape meets Mark Vorkosigan from The Vorkosigan Saga. Both were really really good and without even reflecting over the fact that fanfic are written by people from all age groups and all kinds of writing skills. Well, I guess you can tell that this assumption very quickly was purged.
An assumption that I don’t share, but is very common in fanfic is that relationships usually are True Love and that are always twosomes and usually very heteronormative. And that includes slash. Regardless of gender constellation the most common relationship model is two people who fall in love, their love is true and therefore eternal. Eventually they get married and often they have children. Such things as divorce or polyamory is very rare. To me this gets somewhat absurd in fandoms like Doctor Who. The Doctor is, in canon, a person who has been married several times and who has fallen in love several times. He is a being with an enormous life-span as well as character changes as he goes through his regenerations and for me it says that he just isn’t a candidate for True Love and happily ever after. So my assumption when I write Doctor Who fic is that Time Lords, who are not gender bound, must be pretty gender blind when it comes to love. And that they have the capacity to love more than one person, probably, given the way they life both in the present, past and the future, at the same time. If I were to write a romantic Ten/Rose fic (All right, something bittersweet, slightly romantic, but no fluff-please fic), I would write it with the undertext I have mentioned above. So even with the same prompts I would write something vastly different from an ardent Ten/Rose shipper who sees the two of them as True Love Forever.
I also assume, when I write Doctor Who, or more especially when I write the Master, that if there is one OTP in the Who-fandom, then it is the Doctor/the Master. But for me that doesn’t that either of them isn’t capable of feelings for other people, just that the two of them are bound together in a way that no other on the show is, regardless of how that connection looks like. Why yes, I was very happy in The Magician’s Apprentice when Missy told Clara exactly this, more or less.
And the few Charlie and the Chocolate fic I have written was done so with the assumption that Willy Wonka is a totally amoral person with a very dim sense of boundaries.
But even if i try to “keep it real” and stay true to character, I have my assumptions and they colour the way I see a character and how I writer her/him. And sometimes it’s easy to forget that other people have their own idea of what makes a character thick. I have been reminded of it recently both by flames and by positive feedback that nevertheless have come from another mindset. In a way they are not wrong, because their views are as valid as mine. What I think is a mistake is to consider one’s own view as the only right way and that it is ok to tell other people off for not sharing them.
For example, my lovely little flamer wasn’t in agreement with me on how I portrayed Captain Hook. In her (new assumption here; from what she wrote I assume she is a she and very young too. And has never read Barrie’s book.) view Captain Hook is a pirate, which means he is a gentleman, to which follow he would never treat a captive lady with anything less than perfect courteousness. I’m not sure where one can reach the conclusion that a pirate was a gentleman, but I think that certain kind of romances as well as romantic movies can be the source for that.
Me, I start out with the belief that just about everyone in Neverland is insane. Captain Hook is mad and so is Peter Pan. I also know a good deal about history. There are several clues in the book that places Hook in the late 17th century (perhaps) and I know what the general view of women was back then. I also know a lot about pirates and there really wasn’t anything romantic about them. I can’t free myself from this when I write Peter Pan-fics and if I would try to write a fluffy and romantic Captain Hook I would probably end up with a parody.
Looking at the original source, I think both our interpretations are wrong. Captain Hook is certainly a gentleman and he is obsessed with good form. He is also perfectly prepared to kill children and he do kill off his own crew with little provocation. So my Captain Hook is darker and crazier than the original, but he is certainly not a romantic ideal either.
When I started to read fanfic my assumption was that fanfiction were usually good and well-written. The two first I read was excellent, the first a Harry Potter fic about a OFC a few years older than Harry. The other one a crossover where Harry Potter’s Snape meets Mark Vorkosigan from The Vorkosigan Saga. Both were really really good and without even reflecting over the fact that fanfic are written by people from all age groups and all kinds of writing skills. Well, I guess you can tell that this assumption very quickly was purged.
An assumption that I don’t share, but is very common in fanfic is that relationships usually are True Love and that are always twosomes and usually very heteronormative. And that includes slash. Regardless of gender constellation the most common relationship model is two people who fall in love, their love is true and therefore eternal. Eventually they get married and often they have children. Such things as divorce or polyamory is very rare. To me this gets somewhat absurd in fandoms like Doctor Who. The Doctor is, in canon, a person who has been married several times and who has fallen in love several times. He is a being with an enormous life-span as well as character changes as he goes through his regenerations and for me it says that he just isn’t a candidate for True Love and happily ever after. So my assumption when I write Doctor Who fic is that Time Lords, who are not gender bound, must be pretty gender blind when it comes to love. And that they have the capacity to love more than one person, probably, given the way they life both in the present, past and the future, at the same time. If I were to write a romantic Ten/Rose fic (All right, something bittersweet, slightly romantic, but no fluff-please fic), I would write it with the undertext I have mentioned above. So even with the same prompts I would write something vastly different from an ardent Ten/Rose shipper who sees the two of them as True Love Forever.
I also assume, when I write Doctor Who, or more especially when I write the Master, that if there is one OTP in the Who-fandom, then it is the Doctor/the Master. But for me that doesn’t that either of them isn’t capable of feelings for other people, just that the two of them are bound together in a way that no other on the show is, regardless of how that connection looks like. Why yes, I was very happy in The Magician’s Apprentice when Missy told Clara exactly this, more or less.
And the few Charlie and the Chocolate fic I have written was done so with the assumption that Willy Wonka is a totally amoral person with a very dim sense of boundaries.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-10-11 08:12 pm (UTC)Gabrielle
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-10-12 04:49 am (UTC)Alas, not all fanfic is good fanfic. But the same can be said of books, too...
*HUGS*
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 04:01 pm (UTC)Alas, not all fanfic is good fanfic. But the same can be said of books, too...
True. Books has Publishers and editors as buffers, but that doesn't make it certain. I'm looking at you, 50 Shades of Grey... :D *hugs*
no subject
Date: 2015-10-12 03:06 pm (UTC)It's good to have variety in fic so keep writing:)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-13 04:45 pm (UTC)That's a good point. :) I'm not overly concerned with happy endings and most of my fics have at best rather ambigious endings. :)But if one want a happy ending it is probably easy to fall back on the socially accepted norm. :) And it is of course not bad, but propbably one of those things people mostly don't Think about as it is an accepted norm. :)
It's good to have variety in fic so keep writing:)
I absolutely agree!