Your Opinions Wanted - Subject: Alternate Universe Fics

[catscradle]

Okay, a friend of mine, being a dutiful reader and replying to a fic they thought was well written and entertaining, told a pair of authors that they did a great job with characterization in their fic. The pair of authors - very well known in the GW writing community, wrote back saying that while they appreciated the compliment, any characterization that seemed in character was entirely accidental - because all their fics were AU and by definition, they didn't have to be in character.

Now, I do appreciate the candidness there - but what the hell? Since when did AU imply OOC? AU merely stands, as was my understanding for the past 7 years, for Alternate Universe. This means that characters in the fanfic are found in situations/environments that fall outside of the canon. It doesn't mean, and never has, OOC or Out of Character. In fact, it's always been my opinion that AUs actually need to be in character more so that the readers can identify who the characters are. It should not be by name alone. An AU with OOC characters is an original piece of fiction. It's not fanfic. If nothing is there to reflect the characters or the plot of the show - there is nothing there that a fan would recognize. Authors need to have a little confidence and post that stuff to original fiction sites/list which are found all over the net.

What are the opinions of others on this matter?

While I'm ranting - comedy/humor writers. . . OOCing the characters does not a comedy make. The humor is more appreciated when you nail the characterization. Also, the more plausible the situation, the funnier it is. Few people can get away with out and out slapstick. Great when it's done well, really, really horrid when it's not. 3% of the writing population does slapstick well. Please, please, please, stop.

Today's Send a Hug: A friend of mine is having a horrible few days. Those of you that know her, please send a note of encouragement. *HUG*

Comments

[babaca.livejournal.com]

Actually almost all fanfiction is AU unless you are rewriting a specific scene in a given series. But I know what you mean. If the AU setting is medieval times, science fiction, or whatever, maintaining a sense of characterization is necessary to make the story work. If the characters are so OOC that you can't recognize them, then what you have is original fiction.

Unfortunately then you run into the bugaboo of "what is in character". No two people's perceptions of character are the same. I've read some OOC where I told the person the character seemed OOC and they didn't think so. (I'm talking about a really horribly written story where EVERYONE was horribly out of character, but as far as they were concerned everyone was in character).

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

I think we need to get away from the idea that if a fic isn't canon (which it can never be), it's AU. We know the story isn't from the original writers and thus isn't canon. That's a given. I think in the realm of fanfic we can safely say that if the fic keeps to the same setting and time frame, it's not AU. In the way I've seen this argument used, especially in GW by a few popular writers there, seems to be merely an excuse for writing out of character as much as their little hearts content. Now if they want to do that, fine. But they should call a spade and spade - bite the bullet and just say they wrote out of character - dont' try to cover it with an "All Fanfic is AU and OOC" argument. It doesn't wash.

All characters have a core to them. Maybe we have trouble tapping into to that core - I know I can't write a decent Wufei to save my life - I don't get into his head, so writing him is very hard for me - hence why none of my fics center around the guy (I'm agonizing over this Wufei fic Vasiliki asked me to write *g*). We also all interpret the characters a bit differenly from the next person (this is why it floors me that some writers base their characters and stories off of other people's fanfic without ever watching the series themselves - no matter how good the model author is, you're not going to have the same exact interpretation based off the same canon source material - the copies start deteriorating the quality - but that's a different rant ;)). However, given all that - the characters still all have a core to them. There are margins for interpretation - but that core remains. Not all Duo's need be the same - You can have a more sympathetic Duo or a more bastard Duo - but it needs to fall within the margins.

Keeping that in mind, there can be better interpretations than others. A Duo that's weepy and school girlish is a bad interpretation. A Duo that's stupid as all hell and baffoonish is a bad interpretation. A Duo that has a brain, cracks jokes, kicks ass, makes mistakes, sticks his foot in his mouth upon occasion - that's a good interpretation. And there's a lot of room for people to do things with him without repeating what's gone before.

So people can say "That's just my interpretaion" - it doesn't, however, make it a good one. And it doesn't make the fic okay because they qualified it with that statement. Which isn't to say that everyone should be a great writer or not write at all. I don't want to give that impression - I really don't find that much of I'm a great writer either - It just kinda riles me when people get pissy, mean or try to act superior about it.