Creative Boot Camp, day 7
Sep. 9th, 2010 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elabySpent an hour revising fic tonight. Wrote like probably 50 words in total XD But they were good words!
Writing fanfic is so weird, because you (and by that I mean I) spend the whole time alluding to this vast well of shared, already-known information. When I write fanfic, my intent is to make subtle, or not-so-subtle, references to elements of the original. Sometimes it's a very obvious reference, like "A week after Holmes came back from the dead, Watson was reading the newspaper..." But I take joy in putting tiny little hints in my fic that people will recognize if they've paid particular attention to a part that I also happened to pay particular attention to. On the one hand, that narrows your audience, but on the other, it strengthens the bonds between the people who do know the source material, or certain parts of it, well enough to get the reference. All I have to do is say "We're not jealous of you" and a segment of the Holmes fandom throws up their arms in squee. When you're writing original fiction, you have to give people the source material before you can reference it.* And it's awesome when you do that, but I don't write fanfic long enough for it, and that's not even what I write fic for. It's to see how subtly I can allude to things in canon. But even though I'm reading LotR right now and it's fresh in my mind, I can't expect my readers to remember every tiny detail, and so I get caught up in figuring out how much to tell. I know that, personally, only a handful of scenes stand out when I haven't read this series in a couple of years, and all the rest blend together in a big blurry lump categorized by general geographic location.
*Unless you're Roger Zelazny, and then you send readers scurrying for Google with seeming non-sequiturs like "The sedge wasn't withered, but he was right about the no birds." I wasn't a member of the "had already read Keats" contingent.
Writing fanfic is so weird, because you (and by that I mean I) spend the whole time alluding to this vast well of shared, already-known information. When I write fanfic, my intent is to make subtle, or not-so-subtle, references to elements of the original. Sometimes it's a very obvious reference, like "A week after Holmes came back from the dead, Watson was reading the newspaper..." But I take joy in putting tiny little hints in my fic that people will recognize if they've paid particular attention to a part that I also happened to pay particular attention to. On the one hand, that narrows your audience, but on the other, it strengthens the bonds between the people who do know the source material, or certain parts of it, well enough to get the reference. All I have to do is say "We're not jealous of you" and a segment of the Holmes fandom throws up their arms in squee. When you're writing original fiction, you have to give people the source material before you can reference it.* And it's awesome when you do that, but I don't write fanfic long enough for it, and that's not even what I write fic for. It's to see how subtly I can allude to things in canon. But even though I'm reading LotR right now and it's fresh in my mind, I can't expect my readers to remember every tiny detail, and so I get caught up in figuring out how much to tell. I know that, personally, only a handful of scenes stand out when I haven't read this series in a couple of years, and all the rest blend together in a big blurry lump categorized by general geographic location.
*Unless you're Roger Zelazny, and then you send readers scurrying for Google with seeming non-sequiturs like "The sedge wasn't withered, but he was right about the no birds." I wasn't a member of the "had already read Keats" contingent.
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Date: 2010-09-10 02:06 am (UTC)Yes! When I write fanfic, I definitely know that if my audience knows the source material very well, my fic is going to have more meaning to them than it would to those who don't. I think it's part of the fun of fandom, and of writing fanfic.
When I write fanfic, my intent is to make subtle, or not-so-subtle, references to elements of the original.
This is why I love your fanfic so well. Because you pay attention to those details that only other fans would know.
On the one hand, that narrows your audience, but on the other, it strengthens the bonds between the people who do know the source material, or certain parts of it, well enough to get the reference.
Exactly! And as you say, it's hard to tread that fine line between confusing some of your readers and delighting the rest. However, I'd much prefer the latter over the former, because, by it's very nature, fanfic is written for the fans.
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Date: 2010-09-10 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-12 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-12 01:40 pm (UTC)Yeah, me too! And it's such a different gear from when you're writing original fiction.
This is why I love your fanfic so well.
D'awww :3 *glomp*
However, I'd much prefer the latter over the former, because, by it's very nature, fanfic is written for the fans.
You're SO right. It's like rewards for people who take the time to learn the canon and notice the small things.