This has been bugging me.

[bktheirregular]

A while back, someone sent feedback on "Scarab", asking if I was planning a sequel. Actually, it was more like "please say you're doing a sequel please please please please!"

I wrote back, saying that I certainly wasn't going to write more of that any time soon, especially because I didn't know how the season finales of Buffy and Stargate would turn out.

So I got an IM out of the blue from this person, saying: "the beauty of fanfiction is that you can make your own endings."

I replied that it mattered to me, as I was a slave of canon, and doing a crossover story already was asking for lots of suspension of disbelief even if you didn't veer away from the canon.

The response?

"Nonsense. As soon as you write a Crossover it [is] AUTOMATICALLY A/U."

I don't know. Isn't that one of the challenges of fanfiction? Write a story that could be a part of the larger story, sometimes?

I can understand A/U, but still ... to say that something is AUTOMATICALLY A/U?

Maybe I just don't get it.

Close entry.

Comments

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

I'm so with you, there. For me, part of the challenge of fanfic has always been writing something that could fit seemlessly into canon--that works *with* the show, and feels like it belongs there. if I'm writing something that I *know* is gonna be canon fodder, that's different. I'm doing that now (tho, granted, Firefly is semi- closed-canon right now, so that kinda helps). But still. I like seeing if I can slip a story in that both stands on its own two feet, AND blends in with its surroundings.

Canon fodder? Hee.

[bktheirregular]

I always thought of myself as a canon whore or slave to canon, figuring I was in the minority. I've got kind of a mental block about breaking canon in order to make a story work.

You ever find yourself picturing the scenes you write? That's one of my tricks, and maybe a reason why going AU is so difficult.

Good luck on the Firefly thing, by the way; is that the devil bunny? (the one that needs a ham, or the one that hates the world? (Got a friend who's a fan of those games, as well as the rest of the Cheapass Games line...))

Re: Canon fodder? Hee.

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

the devil bunny is the Niska revenge story, where the revenge takes the form of snatching Kaylee.

it's um, well, dark. Darkr than I usually go. And it's been giving me fits. But it pushed the Book story back, and is consuming me, right now...

Good luck with the devil bunny...

[bktheirregular]

Hope it goes well - you've done spectacularly well with all manner of fics up to now, and I've got faith that this one will be little different.

I think I've got problems of my own - Drusilla crawled into my frontal lobe, sunk her hooks in, and is insisting I tell her story. In the Firefly 'verse. And she's not telling me what the story is, either, which makes it even worse...

Re: Good luck with the devil bunny...

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

Dru can be compelling. Only BTVS story I ever wrote happened because Dru got inside my head and wouldn't frellind LEAVE until i wrote it...

Re: Good luck with the devil bunny...

[bktheirregular]

Dru can be compelling. Only BTVS story I ever wrote happened because Dru got inside my head and wouldn't frellind LEAVE until i wrote it...

I hope that once the story was done, she actually did leave? I'm worried that if and when I finish that one story, she'll decide she doesn't want to leave, and I might have to resort to drastic measures like drinking her out of my head...

Re: Good luck with the devil bunny...

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

I don't get a case of people, the way that some folks get people. Luckily, I remain in charge. And yeah, she went away. Tho "Lies Our Parents old us" kinda frelled "Glorous"...

Re: Good luck with the devil bunny...

[bktheirregular]

Tho "Lies Our Parents old us" kinda frelled "Glorous"...

*sigh* That's the risk we always run when trying to write between the lines. I re-read "Glorious", though, and it's still damn good, even if it got Jossed.

Hm. Probably should've left a review there. Sorry, brain's trashed tonight.

Hope it's a better day tomorrow for you...

Re: Good luck with the devil bunny...

[taraljc.livejournal.com]

thanks :) I have decided that whiskey is the Devil, and partaking was not wise...

[bktheirregular]

Sometimes you need it, I suppose. For me, the last time, it was gin, which was a bad idea because I have the alcohol tolerance of a chipmunk, and a razor-thin line between happy-drunk and depressed-drunk...

Focusing on other things does help, though, I found...

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

Meh... I did write a Buffy crossover a few years back which, despite the fact that it threw in a new character, was intended to more or less fit in with canon - that is, it didn't disrupt the overall plot arc of the season.

I think it depends on what your definition of A/U is - if you equate it with any changes from canon whatsoever, well, then ALL fanfic is A/U to a degree. I use "A/U" to refer to fanfic that pretty much deviates from the overall plot arc, not just the little things.

I think the problem here is that the person has a much more stringent definition than you and I do. Crossovers aren't "automatically" A/U - two characters from different series meeting briefly in a bar without revealing any startling revelations isn't gonna disrupt the timelines of their respective series, for example. (In fact, you could throw it back at them by pointing out that all fanfic, from that perspective, is somewhat A/U. You're just trying to minimize it on your end.)

Not to mention that this person seems determined to con you into starting up a sequel to a story that you didn't intend to make a series out of. To wit, I suspect they'd say anything to shove you in that direction - even making an absolute statement like that. I'm thinking this is more of a case of someone desperately trying to get you to write what they want than it is someone trying to defend an opinion.

I should know. I've done it myself. :)

[bktheirregular]

What makes it even more annoying is, I've got three plot bunnies for a sequel to Scarab, but I'm not writing anything because they haven't coalesced into anything resembling a plot, for one; two other plot bunnies got slaughtered by the latest run of Stargate episodes, for two; and three, there is absolutely *no* telling what's going to happen with Buffy at the end.

I suppose I left a lot of people wanting more, though. Even though I tried to keep the story self-contained while deliberately leaving one or two loose ends...

*sigh* Sequeitis is bad enough in Hollywood, where at least there are consequences to making a sequel for sequels' sake that turns into utter trash (i.e. box office disaster, loss of investment, etc.)...

[butterflykiki.livejournal.com]

I'm with Mandolin, they're trying to con you, *and* they're wrong. I hate that.

I get a lot of the same thing, since I wrote the Dawn & Clark stories, and I *meant* to write a story to follow write after - but real life intervened, and then my idea got joss'd on both shows. Being as much a canon slave as Tara and you, I didn't see the point in writing something that had already been shown on one show and proven wrong on another, so I put the ideas for a follow-up in storage.

AU's, to me, are *deliberate*. You decide to change an event, and change the arc and world, and see where it goes from there (i.e., "Eurydice Ascending" - I let Sha'uri live). "Scarab", while it gave all the characters a chance to learn something new about their now-shared universe, did not appreciably mess up their character arcs. It did not change Season 5. It *could've* happened, just off-screen. It is not, therefore, imo, really AU. Crossovers may be so by definition, and especialy in the Buffyverse, where the characters are constantly referring to other scifi movies and shows as fiction, it's something you just have to play with.

But a wish to keep it close to what we see onscreen is totally understandable, especially since you are the one who has to write it, if you choose to do so. Finding out later that something is out of character, or was handled better on the show, is always a pain in the butt.

As for Dru... she was only in my head kinda-sorta for one story, and she still echoes, sometimes. I think it's like an alien mind-set - you have to go so far from your own brain, that it's hard to re-adjust back after you're done telling her story. And ooo, do I want to see what you'd do with her in the Firefly-verse; I saw one creepy little story by Viridian that had her in the Andromeda-verse, but it was only one scene, and I'm not that fond of Andromeda. She would fit in so much better in the post-Alliance world... hee!

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

Being as much a canon slave as Tara and you, I didn't see the point in writing something that had already been shown on one show and proven wrong on another, so I put the ideas for a follow-up in storage.

Out of curiosity, what got Jossed? I assumed something like that had happened when there was no follow-up, and I didn't want to be a nag. Just curious. :)