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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*
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*
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For some God-unknown reason there's a group of fen out there who think that just because you're writing fanfic A) It's AU and B) you're therefore allowed to write whatever the fuck you want, regardless of whether it's in character.
Now the AU thing I can sort of get, in the sense that obviously it's not the same story as the original TV show/movie/book/whatever, and as long as we're not being so anal retentive as to demand that all fanfic be labeled AU, then we're fine.
But the OOC thing just floors me. How do you not get that you need to keep these guys in character? It's the characters that are selling the fic.
Yes, if you have a serious AU the characters are going to be a bit different from what they were (eg "What if Jim and Blair had lived in the 18th century? What if the Gundam pilots lived in Sunnydale? etc) but the core of the characters has to remain the same.
I seriously think this is one of those ideas that's been feeding off of itself. Somebody came up with the concept that fanfic means OOC and insisted on it strongly enough that little sheep followed along - same thing as the "slash doesn't always mean same sex" morons. They encourage each other so they're not going to hear us.
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But again, I really think people have to cut with the "All fanfic is AU" stuff. Yeah, we know that it's not canon and by default it's AU. The problem there is that people use this as an excuse to write OOC/AU without acknowledging it - even getting snotty about it. It reminds me of a fic where an author used a complete canon background and wrote the characters about as OOC as you could get - the argument was that since all fics are AU, then she couldn't possibly write OOC. Huh? There are still logical rules to follow.