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Abbreviated Reading Meme.
What you are reading now?
Unraveled by Courtney Milan - almost done or rather 79% of the way through on the Kindle. It's interesting - the writer has surprised me.( Read more... )
2. Fandom in early part of 21st Century and Now I am very glad that I was heavily involved in fandom between 2002-2010 or early part of the 21st Century.( Read more... )
3. Fanfic vs. Romantic Fiction?
Oddly, there's a lot of former fanfic writers writing romantic fiction and vice versa. Or a lot of romance novelists who started out as fanfic writers. I've begun to pick up on it here and there. Mainly because I've read a lot of both, and the styles are familiar. It's not really all that surprising - since I think a lot of them used fanfic as a means to pick up fans and practice their style, determine what worked or didn't work. Also, the publishers of the romance genre - are more likely to publish fan-fic writers who have huge fan bases - because ready-made readership that the publisher can mine.
And..they both traverse the same tropes. Not surprising. There is a limited number of romantic story tropes after all.
The best fanfic, romantic or otherwise - in my opinion - closely followed cannon and stuck to the world that the series created, didn't go too far AU (not that I mind AU, but often writers didn't spend the time necessary to create a believable alternate world, the ones who kept to canon, ironically spent more time and energy exploring the world the series created than those who veered drastically from it spent on creating their own. Depending on the series - there was a lot stuff you could add or explore yet still remain within canon. BTVS for example was not that well-developed a world - there were a lot of gaps, a lot of room for interpretation - which made it fun to write fanfic for, while in direct contrast - I'd think Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would pose quite a few challenges because there aren't quite as many gaps or avenues.).
Everybody's Human fanfic seldom worked for me - mainly because it just felt like the writer was using the likenesses of the characters from the tv show in some existing contemporary romantic story trope - which I'd seen before. (ie. What if Buffy and Spike and Angel were all human and contestants on some reality dating show? Or what if Spike was a race car driver, Giles his Dad, and Buffy his ex-girlfriend? Or a rock singer? Basically the writer just took the characters, made them human, gave them whole new back stories and placed them in other settings to see what they'd do. Which means they aren't really the characters any longer - and the writer is sort of cheating, because they don't have to do the hard work of describing what the character looks like or other things - because hello, their readership knows the characters from the show. They've just cast the characters in these roles. It's why when you iron off the serial numbers and publish these stories - they feel a bit hollow or weak, because - the writer hasn't really developed them past what they represented on the tv series. If that makes sense? I'm having difficulties articulating it for some reason.) But AU fic that reinterprets the world or characters in another way within that world or cannon fic that stuck to the world, and just reinterpreted the world or story or in some cases flushed it out more or fic that filled in gaps in the story...was often more interesting.
Oddly these writers worked harder than the Everybody's Human writers - because a) they had to get the characters right, b) make the world convincing, not to mention stick to the rules of the world they were flushing out or reinterpreting and c) explore new aspects of the canon or story, reinterpret it, yet remain within the realm of possibility.
I've admittedly read a lot of both.
The trick in genre writing, I think, is to not get too hung up on plot. Make it about the characters - make it character driven. Otherwise...you're going to risk becoming too paint-by-numbers or boiler-plate. Because let's face it there are no original plots. Many genre novels fail by focusing too much on a convoluted plot, but a somewhat one dimensional or two dimensional hero who is described as looking a bit like Harrison Ford or Angelina Jolie. At the same time, you can't just ignore the plot. You have to work at it too. Or you fall into the opposite trap - where you basically just have characters studying their navels, and the reader has drifted off to sleep or the reader can't follow the plot or has thrown the book against the wall due to all the plot holes you can drive a truck through.
The trick in fanfic writing is ...to not get too hung up on canon or perfectly matching it. You won't. It's not possible. For one thing, everyone interprets it differently - including the original creators of it. At the same time, you shouldn't ignore it entirely - because then it's not really fanfic is it? You might as well just put in your own characters and own names on it. If you can easily switch out Kiki for Buffy...then you haven't written a fanfic on Buffy, you've written a story in which you've decided to cast Buffy as an actress in it - but she's not playing "Buffy".
I can see it now...
Writer: Hello Buffy, I have a great role for you...
Buffy: Oh, cool, what do I get to play?
Writer: You are the girl-friend of a race car driver, who you broke up with after he had a horrible accident.
Buffy: Why can't I play the race car driver?
Writer: Spike is playing that role.
Buffy: So not fair, Spike gets all the good parts. Last time he got to be the camera man and I was the contestant. Although I did like playing that FBI agent...even if I had to adapt Veronica Mars accent.
I do like the what-if scenario, obviously, but I'm always a wee bit disappointed in the execution of the Everybody's Human stories. Something falls flat or is unsatisfying. Which, I've admittedly found to be true of 98% of the Contemporary Romances that I've read. It's why I prefer the Historicals. This was also true of Fanfic - the contemporary "Everybody's Human fic" usually dissatisfied me with few exceptions, while the canon fic or fic that stuck more closely to the world that Whedon had created or at least his genre, was more satisfying. I mean there were fics that clearly went AU, such as "the Barbverse", and "Herself NYC's take on the series", but they still stuck closely enough to it - that I felt it was their interpretation of the characters and akin, at times, to reading a meta. Also their takes felt innovative. Another example? Unbridled Brunnette, Dead Soul - who created a story around Sunday and Spike, and oh, Angeria who did one post Chosen fic - all went AU at some point, it's impossible not to - really, but they stuck close enough to the script or canon that you felt as if you were seeing another angle on both the series and characters. Beer Good Foamy who doesn't write romantic fic, as far as I know, is another example of exploring the world, veering slightly from canon, yet remaining within it enough to be convincing. So too was selenak, who wrote more character centric pieces. Same with masq's "The Destroyer" fic following and exploring in depth the character of Connor. Their fic wasn't boilerplate and at times was more captivating than what you might see on the series or in novels/comics commercially published with the copyright holder's permission. Which is an odd thing to say. Because in essence, the fic that couldn't be published and that you can't just iron off the serial numbers was and is far more innovative and distinctive than the fic in which you could do just that or was permissible by copyright.
"The Everybody's All Human fic", with a few exceptions, is fairly interchangable like most Contemporary and New Adult Romances...while fics that take place in a definite world or have a mythology seem to less interchangable and stand out more in my memory. This is also oddly true of many novelizations or versions that make it past the rights holder. For some reason - the blander and less innovative the story, the more likely it will be commercially published. The riskier, and more innovative, the less likely. Ironic, isn't it? And possibly why it's hard for me to take the "push to publish" movement seriously.
What you are reading now?
Unraveled by Courtney Milan - almost done or rather 79% of the way through on the Kindle. It's interesting - the writer has surprised me.( Read more... )
2. Fandom in early part of 21st Century and Now I am very glad that I was heavily involved in fandom between 2002-2010 or early part of the 21st Century.( Read more... )
3. Fanfic vs. Romantic Fiction?
Oddly, there's a lot of former fanfic writers writing romantic fiction and vice versa. Or a lot of romance novelists who started out as fanfic writers. I've begun to pick up on it here and there. Mainly because I've read a lot of both, and the styles are familiar. It's not really all that surprising - since I think a lot of them used fanfic as a means to pick up fans and practice their style, determine what worked or didn't work. Also, the publishers of the romance genre - are more likely to publish fan-fic writers who have huge fan bases - because ready-made readership that the publisher can mine.
And..they both traverse the same tropes. Not surprising. There is a limited number of romantic story tropes after all.
The best fanfic, romantic or otherwise - in my opinion - closely followed cannon and stuck to the world that the series created, didn't go too far AU (not that I mind AU, but often writers didn't spend the time necessary to create a believable alternate world, the ones who kept to canon, ironically spent more time and energy exploring the world the series created than those who veered drastically from it spent on creating their own. Depending on the series - there was a lot stuff you could add or explore yet still remain within canon. BTVS for example was not that well-developed a world - there were a lot of gaps, a lot of room for interpretation - which made it fun to write fanfic for, while in direct contrast - I'd think Tolkien's Lord of the Rings would pose quite a few challenges because there aren't quite as many gaps or avenues.).
Everybody's Human fanfic seldom worked for me - mainly because it just felt like the writer was using the likenesses of the characters from the tv show in some existing contemporary romantic story trope - which I'd seen before. (ie. What if Buffy and Spike and Angel were all human and contestants on some reality dating show? Or what if Spike was a race car driver, Giles his Dad, and Buffy his ex-girlfriend? Or a rock singer? Basically the writer just took the characters, made them human, gave them whole new back stories and placed them in other settings to see what they'd do. Which means they aren't really the characters any longer - and the writer is sort of cheating, because they don't have to do the hard work of describing what the character looks like or other things - because hello, their readership knows the characters from the show. They've just cast the characters in these roles. It's why when you iron off the serial numbers and publish these stories - they feel a bit hollow or weak, because - the writer hasn't really developed them past what they represented on the tv series. If that makes sense? I'm having difficulties articulating it for some reason.) But AU fic that reinterprets the world or characters in another way within that world or cannon fic that stuck to the world, and just reinterpreted the world or story or in some cases flushed it out more or fic that filled in gaps in the story...was often more interesting.
Oddly these writers worked harder than the Everybody's Human writers - because a) they had to get the characters right, b) make the world convincing, not to mention stick to the rules of the world they were flushing out or reinterpreting and c) explore new aspects of the canon or story, reinterpret it, yet remain within the realm of possibility.
I've admittedly read a lot of both.
The trick in genre writing, I think, is to not get too hung up on plot. Make it about the characters - make it character driven. Otherwise...you're going to risk becoming too paint-by-numbers or boiler-plate. Because let's face it there are no original plots. Many genre novels fail by focusing too much on a convoluted plot, but a somewhat one dimensional or two dimensional hero who is described as looking a bit like Harrison Ford or Angelina Jolie. At the same time, you can't just ignore the plot. You have to work at it too. Or you fall into the opposite trap - where you basically just have characters studying their navels, and the reader has drifted off to sleep or the reader can't follow the plot or has thrown the book against the wall due to all the plot holes you can drive a truck through.
The trick in fanfic writing is ...to not get too hung up on canon or perfectly matching it. You won't. It's not possible. For one thing, everyone interprets it differently - including the original creators of it. At the same time, you shouldn't ignore it entirely - because then it's not really fanfic is it? You might as well just put in your own characters and own names on it. If you can easily switch out Kiki for Buffy...then you haven't written a fanfic on Buffy, you've written a story in which you've decided to cast Buffy as an actress in it - but she's not playing "Buffy".
I can see it now...
Writer: Hello Buffy, I have a great role for you...
Buffy: Oh, cool, what do I get to play?
Writer: You are the girl-friend of a race car driver, who you broke up with after he had a horrible accident.
Buffy: Why can't I play the race car driver?
Writer: Spike is playing that role.
Buffy: So not fair, Spike gets all the good parts. Last time he got to be the camera man and I was the contestant. Although I did like playing that FBI agent...even if I had to adapt Veronica Mars accent.
I do like the what-if scenario, obviously, but I'm always a wee bit disappointed in the execution of the Everybody's Human stories. Something falls flat or is unsatisfying. Which, I've admittedly found to be true of 98% of the Contemporary Romances that I've read. It's why I prefer the Historicals. This was also true of Fanfic - the contemporary "Everybody's Human fic" usually dissatisfied me with few exceptions, while the canon fic or fic that stuck more closely to the world that Whedon had created or at least his genre, was more satisfying. I mean there were fics that clearly went AU, such as "the Barbverse", and "Herself NYC's take on the series", but they still stuck closely enough to it - that I felt it was their interpretation of the characters and akin, at times, to reading a meta. Also their takes felt innovative. Another example? Unbridled Brunnette, Dead Soul - who created a story around Sunday and Spike, and oh, Angeria who did one post Chosen fic - all went AU at some point, it's impossible not to - really, but they stuck close enough to the script or canon that you felt as if you were seeing another angle on both the series and characters. Beer Good Foamy who doesn't write romantic fic, as far as I know, is another example of exploring the world, veering slightly from canon, yet remaining within it enough to be convincing. So too was selenak, who wrote more character centric pieces. Same with masq's "The Destroyer" fic following and exploring in depth the character of Connor. Their fic wasn't boilerplate and at times was more captivating than what you might see on the series or in novels/comics commercially published with the copyright holder's permission. Which is an odd thing to say. Because in essence, the fic that couldn't be published and that you can't just iron off the serial numbers was and is far more innovative and distinctive than the fic in which you could do just that or was permissible by copyright.
"The Everybody's All Human fic", with a few exceptions, is fairly interchangable like most Contemporary and New Adult Romances...while fics that take place in a definite world or have a mythology seem to less interchangable and stand out more in my memory. This is also oddly true of many novelizations or versions that make it past the rights holder. For some reason - the blander and less innovative the story, the more likely it will be commercially published. The riskier, and more innovative, the less likely. Ironic, isn't it? And possibly why it's hard for me to take the "push to publish" movement seriously.