Get your own Free HomepageIn fan fiction, there are two main schools of thought.
The first is the “stay with what you’ve been given” school, which dictates that you never stray outside the confines of your chosen source. In your stories you must not give the characters hitherto undiscovered facets, and once the adventure in the fanfic is over, things must return to the status quo. In some ways this is safe ground, you’re not going to get a lot of hate mail complaining about what you’ve done to characters, etc. In other ways this is limiting. Done well, this type of fiction can work, and is very common on the Interweb. Star Trek: The Next Generation followed thes rules. Things weren’t too different in the last episode to the first.
The second school is the “expand on what you’ve been given” school. This dictates that what you see, read and hear in your source is only your starting block. In your stories, every single thing that happens to your characters alters them. Weapons, species and sets beyond a show’s budget can be introduced. Maybe whole new scenarios can be explored. Although this is obviously less common in “professional” sources, one example of this would be Babylon 5. In this show, off handed remarks can lead to full scale confrontations, and once the story is over, everything has changed.
Which is the best school? Well, they each have their pros and cons. School 1 doesn’t require as much imagination, and is therefore easier for an unexperienced writer to master, but it can be rather restricting. With Step 2 you can rely let your imagination rip, but there is soe chance of delivering something that is more a piece of original fiction than a fanfic; if you wanted to use all your own ideas, why write under the guise of fan fiction? Myself, I prefer method 2. In fact, I don’t think I could write to a set of prelaid rules if I tried - in my humble opinion that is someone else writing my story; I am an author, not a channeler. I “Perception and Memories” I drew the logical conclusion to the My So-Called Life story; in Twin Peaks Virtual Season 3, Episode 1 I was working with an extremely flexible source so I decided to take it in a new direction; in Archangel Thunderbird “The Cutter” I was playing in a playground that was not yet completed and in my in progress Eerie, Indiana story I’m redesigning the show, with a whole set of brand new characters.
Other School 2 fanfics take other paths. Most of the virtual seasons out there choose to follow this rule rather than have a season of stand alone stories. In Jacob Milnestein’s inventive Extreme Ghostbusters arc, he “breaks all the toys” rather than write a straightforward fiction.
This is all well and good, but there are some people who take the rule to the Nth degree.
In “Troops”, we see the Star Wars universe from the point of view of the dispensible devoid of personality Stormtroopers in the manner of popular fly-on-the-wall documentary Cops. True, this is slightly outside this site’s territory (until I get a speed-of-light internet connection, that is) but it is still fan fiction. The scripts for the shows could have been uploaded to the InterWeb and stiill proven popular.
Another example of this, and taking it’s cue from Marvel’s 2099 series of comics is DC Futures. The basic concept is simple; instead of writing fan fiction about current DC Comics characters, why not transpose the whole DC Universe into the future. The incredible thing is the response to the idea. The picture DCF portrays is grim - their slogan is “The future of the DC Universe ain’t looking so pretty” - and mind numbingly detailed. Since the stories are set in the year 2112, the creators have gone to painstaking lengths to fill in the plot from now until then, creating something akin to the background of a science fiction role playing game. As if this wasn’t enough, DCF acts as a comic company. Although the actual stories are in text only, they are released to a tight schedules, along with one shots, miniseries, and presumeably in the future, limited editions. And, as the creators point out, this is only the beginning. Now that the like of Superman, Batman, John Constantine and the Justice League have been woven into the fabric of DCF, it’s time for original characters to be introduced. I don’t know how many will take up the burdon of becoming a regular writer for a new monthly comic book - would you rather download an issue of Hellblazer or an issue of Ghost Mutt? - but this certainly a brave move for fan fiction, and one I’m very interested in following.
One of the appeals of fan fiction is to become a star in your own backyard. Even those writers who have had the honor of receiving a [1/5] on these pages have their fans. Maybe at the heart of every fan fiction writer the believe that they just might be the next Stephen King. As long as you writers keep up the originality and keep pushing the boundaries of fan fiction, maybe a handful of you will. There’s no guarantee. But these quality writers, the stars of our shared fandom, can be easily found. Look for a [5/5] Gold Award. Maybe stardom will follow.
© Dan Ness, 1998. So you want to redistribute this, huh? Well tough! This is my work, and it stays here. Link to the title page.
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