donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2013-05-15 02:13 pm
donutsweeper) wrote2013-05-15 02:13 pm
Entry tags:
Creating Canon
(This was originally going to be a MUCH longer post but I've been poking at it for close to five months and decided to trim it up and just throw it together before it languished away before I ever wrote it up.)
I have this weird phobia about creating canon in my fics even if I know it's unlikely whatever I come up with will ever be Jossed (aka later proven incorrect by canon).
What I mean by creating canon is things like names filling a gap of information that may or may not be given in canon, like names, for example. There are a lot of characters that canonically have not been given names of one sort or another. Whoverse's the Doctor, the Master and Jack Harkness (all nicknames/aliases); Grimm's Monroe and Teen Wolf's Sheriff and Stiles Stilinski (none of whom have first names). And then there are character's parents' names, how many moms are mentioned but never named?
Or dates. We know both Tony DiNozzo (NCIS) and Stiles' moms died. We don't know when or how. And probably 90% of characters out there have no specifically mentioned age.
Or events. Was Jack Harkness ever really pregnant? What actually happened in Budapest (Avengers)? Were any of the Magnificent Seven other than Nathan involved in the Civil War (Magnificent Seven, TV)?
Should the producer/writers' intent matter? If someone said in an interview that Gaius was Merlin's uncle, should we take that as fact (Merlin)? What about things that have been accepted as fanon? Does Mycroft continually kidnap John (Sherlock)? Does Thor really like poptarts?
Anyone else have issues with this? Does any of it matter to you as a reader? Have you ever decided on something in your head (like a character's name) which makes it hard to read a fic that has come up with something else?
I have this weird phobia about creating canon in my fics even if I know it's unlikely whatever I come up with will ever be Jossed (aka later proven incorrect by canon).
What I mean by creating canon is things like names filling a gap of information that may or may not be given in canon, like names, for example. There are a lot of characters that canonically have not been given names of one sort or another. Whoverse's the Doctor, the Master and Jack Harkness (all nicknames/aliases); Grimm's Monroe and Teen Wolf's Sheriff and Stiles Stilinski (none of whom have first names). And then there are character's parents' names, how many moms are mentioned but never named?
Or dates. We know both Tony DiNozzo (NCIS) and Stiles' moms died. We don't know when or how. And probably 90% of characters out there have no specifically mentioned age.
Or events. Was Jack Harkness ever really pregnant? What actually happened in Budapest (Avengers)? Were any of the Magnificent Seven other than Nathan involved in the Civil War (Magnificent Seven, TV)?
Should the producer/writers' intent matter? If someone said in an interview that Gaius was Merlin's uncle, should we take that as fact (Merlin)? What about things that have been accepted as fanon? Does Mycroft continually kidnap John (Sherlock)? Does Thor really like poptarts?
Anyone else have issues with this? Does any of it matter to you as a reader? Have you ever decided on something in your head (like a character's name) which makes it hard to read a fic that has come up with something else?
no subject
For me, I never worry much about things being Jossed, because, for me, the reason I write fanfic is to fill in those gaps. I like to write family stories, and that requires family and backstory for family. So I have to make the family or make the events of the family In the past. Tons of people wrote post-Great Game stories for Series One of Sherlock, and they were all Jossed. All the post-Reichenbach stuff will be Jossed. I think most people just put 'written before Series X' or 'AU' on and keep rolling. I wrote a section of fic about how Sherlock can't drive based on a conversation on the Great Game commentary, and then in Series Two he drove because Martin can't drive and Ben can. I then wrote a story about Sherlock learning to drive. No one commented on that paradox, and only one person commented on the original story being no longer canon with a sort of 'oh well' shrug of their shoulders. So I don't think it's a big deal for people.
After all, it's Jossed in every episode that John and Sherlock are a couple, but 99% of the fanfiction out there insists upon it.
And, as a reader, I'm not thrown off by reading other people's interpretations of things because I assume they put the same amount of effort and reasoning into creating their worlds as I do mine, and they've just come up with a different conclusion.
A lot of times I don't think even writers known where they're going with canon. It might be that Merlin was Gaius's nephew and then the actors got cast and it didn't work anymore. I think it would have been mentioned on screen if it were canon, but I wouldn't side-eye you if you wrote about it. I'll read any well-reasoned thing, and if don't agree with it, I sometimes get inspiration for my own interpretations.
There will always be some people upset with something, because that's the nature of fandom. Hopefully they won't be jerks about it, but you shouldn't let it stop you from writing something you want to write.
Oh, but giving the Doctor a name would make me side-eye you, just for the record. I don't want to know his name. No name can possible live up to what they'd built up to on the show.
no subject
That's a good point. I mean EVERY post Great Game fic had the bomb go off, no one *ever* thought that might not be the case.
And also it's a good point you can always label a fic (or add the tag later) written before 'X'.
And I so agree about the Doctor's name. :)