on judging the quality of fanfiction
Aug. 15th, 2006 01:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eliyesThere's a lot of really good fic out there that just isn't, to me, good enough. I mean, fantastic stories, good premises, pacing fine, plot works well, jokes are funny, smut is hot, etc. -- it can all be there, but still not be good enough if the voices are wrong. Recently, while reading fic for The Sentinel, I stumbled across fic for due South and was distracted quite effectively for quite some time.
Why?
Because due South fic is better.
Now, this is a preliminary hypothesis. There are thousands upon scads of TS fic I just have not found yet, and I am currently working my way diligently though 852 Prospect and reading whatever looks interesting, and googling recs pages and all to gain more info. But a lot of the fic just... gets the voices wrong.
Blair should not sound like me in my head when I read his dialogue, or any other woman, for that matter. He should sound like Blair.
Worse and unfortunately more common is Jim sounding wrong: if not like me, then at the best generically male. When he is speaking in a sexy voice, I should hear what he sounded like when he said "Your nametag says 'McCoy'."1 When I am reading fic and picturing Jim, I should be able to see his eyebrows -- they're distinctive and attractive and curiously absent from much fic. The funny faces he pulls don't seem to go with the popular characterization of Jim.
Now, I could do a paper on the various things of this fandom and its fanon, from Guide with a capital 'G' to characterization, and maybe someday I will. I could elaborate from the paper I did on slash fanfiction with a case study, perhaps. But that won't change the fact that a lot of the fic just sort of sound wrong. Don't mistake me: even stories that strike me as missing the mark can be terribly compelling. A primary example of a story I disagree with but can't seem to let go is Francesca's "Pretty Boy" (it's a duology so far, but the actual first story2, titled "Pretty Boy", is the one I'm referring to). Francesca is good with the voices. It's Jim's stereotypical queen behaviour that throws me, and Blair is not as Blair as he really could be in this piece, but the thing is...
...It's close. It's really, really close. While I couldn't accept this story as branching off from canon, I can see where she got the idea. I can watch the show and have something happen, Jim do or say something, and suddenly I'm thinking of "Pretty Boy" and how, yes, this canon thing could indicate that fanfic reality. Most fics that strike me as flawed in the characterization don't come so very, very close - don't stick to me like this.
If more did, well, then due South wouldn't be my choice for "has better fic". But with due South, maybe it's easier to write the guys in character because we see so much of them. I mean, for a guy undercover as someone else, Ray Kowalski pretty much wears his heart on his sleeve. (He's my favourite, by the way.) And Benton Fraser -- well, even apart from the heart-to-hearts with Dief and the interesting looks at his psyche every time his dead father drops by for a conversation -- he can be pretty transparent. These guys actually talk about their emotions (Ray especially - I wonder if he developed it as a habit when his marriage started to fail) ...it makes it much, much easier to nail their characterization, their motivations, their voices.
Also, they're easier to slash. No, really. In the second episode with RayK, he asks Fraser if Fraser finds him attractive, and, after some prevaricating, Fraser says "Very much so, yes". (Watch that scene here! :D ) And that's just one example.
So yeah. That's my ramble about that. *downs a couple of Tylenol*
It's kind of depressing, though, as someone hoping to write fanfiction for The Sentinel. I mean, there are things that are astonishingly popular in the fanon that I am just not cool with, which means that a large percentage of my potential readership - the fans that like these things and make them popular - are probably not going to like what I write. And while I guess it's cool that a fandom can become so comfortable that some things are taken as a given if you bring them up, I reject a lot of the fanon. (Does the elevator in Jim's building ever break down in the series?) Someone who is a big fan of Sentinel & Guide as a dynamic is not going to want to read stories where Guide with a capital 'G' just doesn't exist in the fanon way. (Sorry guys, I just don't see it.)
Of course, the other danger of reading fic is coming across really phenomenally good stories and knowing - knowing - that I will probably not be that good, and then looking in dismay at mediocre or even fairly bad stories and wondering if I'll end up in their ranks. So yeah. it's a crap shoot. *shrugs*
1 And I wonder about that, I mean, a guy - formerly ranked a Captain - named Jim and "Doctor McCoy". ;3
2 "Pretty Boy" is here, Francesca's TS fic is here. These stories were written with Em Brunson. I actually really recommend poking Francesca's stuff. There's a huge series I haven't dared yet, and a follow up series which I did read (I'm funny like that) and then just scads of generally really good first time fics. I like that she doesn't write the guys the same way all the time, but that very often she's definitely hitting on aspects of them because they seem right, eyebrows and all. ;3
Why?
Because due South fic is better.
Now, this is a preliminary hypothesis. There are thousands upon scads of TS fic I just have not found yet, and I am currently working my way diligently though 852 Prospect and reading whatever looks interesting, and googling recs pages and all to gain more info. But a lot of the fic just... gets the voices wrong.
Blair should not sound like me in my head when I read his dialogue, or any other woman, for that matter. He should sound like Blair.
Worse and unfortunately more common is Jim sounding wrong: if not like me, then at the best generically male. When he is speaking in a sexy voice, I should hear what he sounded like when he said "Your nametag says 'McCoy'."1 When I am reading fic and picturing Jim, I should be able to see his eyebrows -- they're distinctive and attractive and curiously absent from much fic. The funny faces he pulls don't seem to go with the popular characterization of Jim.
Now, I could do a paper on the various things of this fandom and its fanon, from Guide with a capital 'G' to characterization, and maybe someday I will. I could elaborate from the paper I did on slash fanfiction with a case study, perhaps. But that won't change the fact that a lot of the fic just sort of sound wrong. Don't mistake me: even stories that strike me as missing the mark can be terribly compelling. A primary example of a story I disagree with but can't seem to let go is Francesca's "Pretty Boy" (it's a duology so far, but the actual first story2, titled "Pretty Boy", is the one I'm referring to). Francesca is good with the voices. It's Jim's stereotypical queen behaviour that throws me, and Blair is not as Blair as he really could be in this piece, but the thing is...
...It's close. It's really, really close. While I couldn't accept this story as branching off from canon, I can see where she got the idea. I can watch the show and have something happen, Jim do or say something, and suddenly I'm thinking of "Pretty Boy" and how, yes, this canon thing could indicate that fanfic reality. Most fics that strike me as flawed in the characterization don't come so very, very close - don't stick to me like this.
If more did, well, then due South wouldn't be my choice for "has better fic". But with due South, maybe it's easier to write the guys in character because we see so much of them. I mean, for a guy undercover as someone else, Ray Kowalski pretty much wears his heart on his sleeve. (He's my favourite, by the way.) And Benton Fraser -- well, even apart from the heart-to-hearts with Dief and the interesting looks at his psyche every time his dead father drops by for a conversation -- he can be pretty transparent. These guys actually talk about their emotions (Ray especially - I wonder if he developed it as a habit when his marriage started to fail) ...it makes it much, much easier to nail their characterization, their motivations, their voices.
Also, they're easier to slash. No, really. In the second episode with RayK, he asks Fraser if Fraser finds him attractive, and, after some prevaricating, Fraser says "Very much so, yes". (Watch that scene here! :D ) And that's just one example.
So yeah. That's my ramble about that. *downs a couple of Tylenol*
It's kind of depressing, though, as someone hoping to write fanfiction for The Sentinel. I mean, there are things that are astonishingly popular in the fanon that I am just not cool with, which means that a large percentage of my potential readership - the fans that like these things and make them popular - are probably not going to like what I write. And while I guess it's cool that a fandom can become so comfortable that some things are taken as a given if you bring them up, I reject a lot of the fanon. (Does the elevator in Jim's building ever break down in the series?) Someone who is a big fan of Sentinel & Guide as a dynamic is not going to want to read stories where Guide with a capital 'G' just doesn't exist in the fanon way. (Sorry guys, I just don't see it.)
Of course, the other danger of reading fic is coming across really phenomenally good stories and knowing - knowing - that I will probably not be that good, and then looking in dismay at mediocre or even fairly bad stories and wondering if I'll end up in their ranks. So yeah. it's a crap shoot. *shrugs*
1 And I wonder about that, I mean, a guy - formerly ranked a Captain - named Jim and "Doctor McCoy". ;3
2 "Pretty Boy" is here, Francesca's TS fic is here. These stories were written with Em Brunson. I actually really recommend poking Francesca's stuff. There's a huge series I haven't dared yet, and a follow up series which I did read (I'm funny like that) and then just scads of generally really good first time fics. I like that she doesn't write the guys the same way all the time, but that very often she's definitely hitting on aspects of them because they seem right, eyebrows and all. ;3
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-15 11:40 am (UTC)And then, of course:
I mean, there are things that are astonishingly popular in the canon that I am just not cool with, which means that a large percentage of my potential readership - the fans that like these things and make them popular - are probably not going to like what I write. And while I guess it's cool that a fandom can become so comfortable that some things are taken as a given if you bring them up, I reject a lot of the fanon.
... Do I really have to sing the song?
o/~ ( Welcome to my world, won't you come on in ... ) o/~
Pull up a chair, my dear, and don't let the door hit your arse on your way in *snerks*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-16 01:51 am (UTC)But yeah, I know what you mean. *brings mochi to your world*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-08-16 02:11 am (UTC)*shares mochi with a few reploids and tries to lure Shiva out with it*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-24 04:56 pm (UTC)Hi. After you left the comment under 'Breach', I'm reading a bit of your journal to get to know you.
It's kind of depressing, though, as someone hoping to write fanfiction for The Sentinel. I mean, there are things that are astonishingly popular in the fanon that I am just not cool with, which means that a large percentage of my potential readership - the fans that like these things and make them popular - are probably not going to like what I write. And while I guess it's cool that a fandom can become so comfortable that some things are taken as a given if you bring them up, I reject a lot of the fanon. (Does the elevator in Jim's building ever break down in the series?) Someone who is a big fan of Sentinel & Guide as a dynamic is not going to want to read stories where Guide with a capital 'G' just doesn't exist in the fanon way. (Sorry guys, I just don't see it.)
I'd like to offer a bit of reassurance. As the saying goes, you can't please everyone. However, if half of Sentinel fandom rejects a particular author's stories, there's still the other half reading and enjoying.
Even though certain aspects are popular in fanon, that doesn't mean that most readers insist on seeing those aspects in every story. It's not necessary to have the elevator break down, or even to mention it at all. If you write 'guide', the 'Guide' fancier can avoid your stories, or 'translate' in her own mind as she reads.
(As an aside, I wonder if some of that comes from growth as a writer. I used to see/write Sentinel and Guide, but then my vision matured {in my estimation; YMMV} and I went back and changed all those instances to sentinel and guide.)
As a gen-only writer (although I enjoy reading slash), I know that a large segment of TS fandom will never read my stories because they categorically refuse to read anything other than slash. I'm mildly pissed off about that, occasionally, but there's not a damn thing I can do about it. So I write in my own niche and appreciate the readers who do enjoy my stories.
It doesn't make a writer a 'failure' -- or even 'bad' -- if her stories don't 'spark' with every reader. That's simply not possible. Not even literary 'big names' such as Hemingway or Stephen King appeal to everybody.
In other words, quit stressing about not being able to write to 'fanon' standards. There are plenty of readers who prefer stories closer to canon, or are flexible enough to read and enjoy both fanon and canon. Your analysis reveals a thoughtful consideration that I suspect would develop into enjoyable stories. So give it a try; I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-26 01:41 am (UTC)A sensible strategy. I often do the same. ;)
As a gen-only writer (although I enjoy reading slash), I know that a large segment of TS fandom will never read my stories because they categorically refuse to read anything other than slash. I'm mildly pissed off about that, occasionally, but there's not a damn thing I can do about it.
Sad but true. I generally think that's silly, but then it gets pointed out that I refuse to read BDSM stories, and we all have preferences, etc. (It's just that some people get so snippity about it!) Seems to happen across fandoms, too.
In other words, quit stressing about not being able to write to 'fanon' standards. There are plenty of readers who prefer stories closer to canon, or are flexible enough to read and enjoy both fanon and canon. Your analysis reveals a thoughtful consideration that I suspect would develop into enjoyable stories. So give it a try; I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Thank you for your encouragement. :) I've been working away at various fics. I seem to have an inclination towards long fics, but better success at ever finishing short ones. Anyway, eventually I hope to post some.