Yet another thing I find difficult to quite accept about fandom is the notion of knowingly writing OOC characterizations because it "fits with the story". I've seen this said by all levels of writers, quality-wise, so it doesn't seem to be related to how experienced one is.
I mean, I understand drawing upon different things within the range of behavior for any particular character for a story, but the idea of consciously inventing new traits just because it makes it easier-- that falls into dishonest writing practices, no matter if you're a plot-driven or a characterization-driven writer. That is, I see this explained away with "plot is my forte" or what have you, but I can't help but think that if you simply can't see a way to execute that plot in the HP universe, say, you should put it on the back burner & not write it, possibly waiting for new inspiration or new canon. Is that so... difficult?
Besides everything else, it just seems counterproductive to write fanfiction that is intended to focus on plot at the expense of characterization, because the characterization is what makes it derivative, makes it fanfiction rather than an original fic with your original plot. Much as plot is always important, in fanfiction as a genre, it can only be subordinate to the demands of full plausibility in characterization as far as I'm concerned.
This is one of those things that makes me feel rather stymied. It's not like I can force people to realize this and write accordingly, but. I'm not even saying anyone -has- to write in-character because clearly everyone has different notions of what IC -means- for any one character, it's just that I can't imagine a justification for purposefully abandoning that for plot.
Sometimes it seems like there should be a fanfiction/canon school for beginning fan-writers or something. One learns what not to do (until you're Really Good), what the different threads of meta opinion in a given fandom are, the different ways of seeing a particular character. I'm not being pompous, man, just... er... frustrated & puzzled. If people -know- they're writing OOC Draco, for instance, why do they do it?? It's one of the Great Questions of fandom, methinks.
~~
Well, last night I was finally dragged to a group circle discussion on 'enlightened' topics like uh... the urge to become conscious & such, and though more than half the time I was repressing the urge to laugh since they were all rediscovering the wheel as far as I'm concerned, it got me thinking (...about Draco). These were all over-30 job-having people sitting in a basement in the Village, talking about how they needed to listen to the murmurings of their Higher Self, of a consciousness that's beyond their everyday awareness. Mind you, they'd apparently all gotten this far in their lives without really figuring out they weren't totally pre-programmed robots all by themselves, but how much can you expect from people, I guess?
( Figured I should cut this for the faint of heart. Or something. )
I mean, I understand drawing upon different things within the range of behavior for any particular character for a story, but the idea of consciously inventing new traits just because it makes it easier-- that falls into dishonest writing practices, no matter if you're a plot-driven or a characterization-driven writer. That is, I see this explained away with "plot is my forte" or what have you, but I can't help but think that if you simply can't see a way to execute that plot in the HP universe, say, you should put it on the back burner & not write it, possibly waiting for new inspiration or new canon. Is that so... difficult?
Besides everything else, it just seems counterproductive to write fanfiction that is intended to focus on plot at the expense of characterization, because the characterization is what makes it derivative, makes it fanfiction rather than an original fic with your original plot. Much as plot is always important, in fanfiction as a genre, it can only be subordinate to the demands of full plausibility in characterization as far as I'm concerned.
This is one of those things that makes me feel rather stymied. It's not like I can force people to realize this and write accordingly, but. I'm not even saying anyone -has- to write in-character because clearly everyone has different notions of what IC -means- for any one character, it's just that I can't imagine a justification for purposefully abandoning that for plot.
Sometimes it seems like there should be a fanfiction/canon school for beginning fan-writers or something. One learns what not to do (until you're Really Good), what the different threads of meta opinion in a given fandom are, the different ways of seeing a particular character. I'm not being pompous, man, just... er... frustrated & puzzled. If people -know- they're writing OOC Draco, for instance, why do they do it?? It's one of the Great Questions of fandom, methinks.
~~
Well, last night I was finally dragged to a group circle discussion on 'enlightened' topics like uh... the urge to become conscious & such, and though more than half the time I was repressing the urge to laugh since they were all rediscovering the wheel as far as I'm concerned, it got me thinking (...about Draco). These were all over-30 job-having people sitting in a basement in the Village, talking about how they needed to listen to the murmurings of their Higher Self, of a consciousness that's beyond their everyday awareness. Mind you, they'd apparently all gotten this far in their lives without really figuring out they weren't totally pre-programmed robots all by themselves, but how much can you expect from people, I guess?
( Figured I should cut this for the faint of heart. Or something. )
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