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...