More questions and answers.

Genre: do you prefer certain genres of fic when you’re writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

I write mostly fantasy. (This works for fanfic, too. I have written a few ‘real world’ fics in one or two fandoms but even in cop buddy fandoms I’ve managed to drag in werewolves or dragons or switch everybody back into the middle ages.)

My original work is all, at the moment, in the fantasy genre. I have some plot bunnies that aren’t – for example a novel based around my mother’s wartime experiences – but whether they’ll ever get written is another matter. Oh, except that I also write poetry, and non fiction in the form of travelogues, but I don’t think I’ll widen the scope of this meme to include those.

Have you ever attempted an “adaptation” fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom or setting?

I suppose this would apply to an original fic that followed the plotline of source material that was well known in much the same way that West Side Story follows Romeo and Juliet or the current BBC Sherlock reboots Conan Doyle’s hero.

I might use a general style or ‘world’ such as accepting the usual ‘facts’ about Arthurian legend, but not the plot. Even when I wrote The Lord of Shalott I veered very sharply from Tennyson’s poem. However, I tweaked the story of Snow White for Silkskin and the Forest People and deliberately tried to keep to the traditional plot points and ending, at least partly to highlight the differences in my story. I did once write a semi-spoof cop buddy fanfic based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings – a group of us were deliberately writing in the style of a book and the others had to guess which.

These are novellas. For novels, I don’t lack for plots of my own (although I accept the theory that there are only nine or ten in the world altogether) – I only lack time – so I don’t go looking for other ideas. However, I know lots of writers do and I enjoy reading the results.

Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

The question is almost meaningless for original writing because there is no canon and no fanon. Although I suppose there is the issue of whether to stick to the main traditions when writing in, for example, Arthurian legend, or about dragons.

When I write fanfic I use canon where appropriate. Certainly for things like the essential character traits of the main characters, their looks, and their ‘relationship’ in terms of things like boss/employee or partners, etc. I enjoy exploring the characters and seeing how I think they might react in another story, or with different characters I bring in.

Of course, when writing an alternative universe it is only possible to take canon so far. I really enjoy putting canon characters in a totally different situation and seeing how they would behave. I’ve done this since I was a small child and played with the characters from my books and stories in my head. I remember a sort of strip cartoon but in book form, about a mouse called Mary Mouse. You have no idea where Mary Mouse got to or what she did in my mind!

And no, I don’t think writing fanfic has ever changed my perception of the source material. Nor has writing within the broad category of legends. Why should it? Canon is canon – open to interpretation and commentary but not open to being changed. I will have various interpretations from the start – all of them inspiring different kinds of story but none of them changing my basic view of the original.

The only caveat I have here is that when I wrote The Lord of Shalott I inevitably spent a great deal of time with Tennyson’s poem. I realised that I had always taken a general atmosphere from it, some kind of dreamy but sad romance with lush details. As I studied it more closely it began to irritate me in many ways. Not the story or the characters, just the construction of the poem and some of the language the poet used. So, litcrit of the source material but I still enjoyed the original story! I meanderd through various mediaeval versions too.
Ratings: how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you’re comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you’re writing is gen rated instead? How explicit are your original works? If some of them are explicit, are you ever shocked to find yourself writing something general, with no sex or violence?

I don’t set out to write violence or erotica. These arise within the story, depending on where the characters take me and how much they want me to disclose in the course of the plot. I am personally perfectly happy to read explicit descriptions provided they are well written, and am happy to write them myself if I think the story demands them.

I currently have four books self published. Three of them are in the adult only section on both Smashwords and Amazon. They are fairly ‘tame’ by a lot of standards but are still explicit enough to be restricted on the shelves. I think that’s correct – parents and teachers can judge what their children are ready to read when they are quite young. Once they are old enough to realise that they don’t have to tell the truth when asked their age online and have the means to make their own purchases, then I have no problem with them accessing restricted material. I would only add that being Brit I tend to think of 16 as the cut-off age for independence whereas American sites go for 18 which I see as odd. In UK (and in some states) people can marry at 16 – and yet they can’t read about explicit sex?? And if they can marry at 16 there must be some kind of exploration of the issues, at least in theory, in the playground or in lessons, well before that. (I would not like pre-pubertal readers to access ‘adult’ material because they might well misunderstand and be upset by it.)

My novel, on the other hand, is mainstream or general.

The same applies to my fanfiction. Some of it contains explicit sex and some has no sex or violence at all.

I do think that the blurbs or summaries for books and stories should let the reader know roughly what they’re about to read (or reject) but beyond that I think it’s a case of ‘reader beware’.

So yes, I write sex. I tend not to write kinks much, but that’s partly for fear of getting them wrong. And so far as the sex is concerned I tend to focus on the emotions rather than the mechanics but I won’t usually fade to black or leave anyone at the bedroom door.

As a rule, the overall story is my main interest and I don’t try to insert sex scenes artificially. On the other hand, in some work I find them the natural order of things. One beta/first reader wanted me to remove some sex from a book that is not yet finished to make it more YA in nature, which she assumed it was intended to be. It wasn’t and I didn’t and won’t.

Anyway, to recap, I have two adult novellas and an adult book of short stories out there. I’m proud of them. I also have a mainstream novel which whilst it doesn’t ignore sexual relationships has no explicit sex scenes. This wasn’t a conscious decision on my part, it was just the way the story developed. And since it has, I’m quite pleased that the book – and in the end the series – will be accessible easily to older teenagers.

I have also written books for children and although they aren’t yet published they’re in the pipeline; obviously sex and violence don’t feature. There’s a sense in which the very existence of children assumes their parents had sex, but this is not mentioned.

So I will move from totally general/suitable for young children to totally explicit/restricted to an adult audience and then back again without even thinking about it.

Warnings: What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what’s the strangest thing you’ve warned for?

Mostly, I just let my fanfiction readers know that they might encounter almost anything so if they’re easily triggered they should stay away. I do try to let people know what kind of work they’re approaching. I think it’s more important to say whether something is a drabble or an epic, and whether it’s finished, whether it’s part of a series, than any actual content.

Original fic is a bit different. Books don’t usually come with warnings, other than the ones with explicit sex being relegated to the ‘adult’ section and ones with a lot of cartoon kittens being shelved in the children’s area. But I do think it’s only fair to warn readers that this is e.g. fantasy, sci fi, crime, comedy, tragedy, etc. Beyond that, they can read the blurb, see if they know anything else you’ve written, skim the first few pages (or even the end) and take responsibility for reading.

And as with fanfic, they can always turn away if they’re not happy with the contents.

Summaries: Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

I think that for both fanfic and original fic summaries are a way of telling the reader roughly what to expect. As a reader, I really dislike starting to read something and finding it is a different genre or style of work from what I had been looking for. This doesn’t mean I don’t want to read it, just that perhaps I don’t want to read it on that particular day or at that particular moment. I would not read a hilarious spoof on the way to a funeral. I won’t read horror stories just before going to bed. I prefer not to read something that requires intense concentration when I’m likely to have to put the story down any minute (e.g. in the dentist’s waiting room). So I think authors should be fair to readers and I try to be. I know some people don’t like warnings or summaries at all and they are welcome to disregard them but I think they need to remember that probably 90% of readers prefer them.

I hate writing them. Distilling the essence of a story into a paragraph is hard even though Amazon tells us it’s the best way to market. I can summarise the outline of the plot but that won’t give you the atmosphere. I can suggest the atmosphere and leave the plot hazy. I mustn’t give away spoilers if I want the reader to suffer or be curious with the characters.

I agonise over summaries and usually end up asking my beta/editor to come up with something. The very worst are drabbles though I only write those for fun on my personal journal. How can you summarise a drabble in fewer words than the drabble itself?

What kind of genres do you like? What do you think about explicit works? What do you expect from a summary? I’d really like to hear your views.

And if anyone knows how to force WordPress to accept edits on line or paragraph breaks, please please please let me know.

Continuing my exploration of my writing courtesy of the blog writing meme I followed.

The next question was: Have you ever had a story change your opinion of a character?

Unlike some of my friends I took this to mean in my own writing since this was a writing meme, not a reading one.

I have been fascinated by the way characters behave in my stories. I suppose changes must come from somewhere in my subconscious but there’s often no advance warning. Minor characters turn into major ones, the main characters insist on interesting and unexpected reactions and relationships and on one memorable occasion I discovered part way through a story that someone I had felt a little sorry for was a cold blooded murderer. The other characters were startled, too. I think the difference is that I meet the minor characters alongside the main ones and see them through their eyes. So if they change their opinions, so do I. The minor characters might be formed already somewhere deep in my brain, but I know very little about them until my main characters tell me. I know the main characters too well, before I start writing, for my opinion of them to change. Simply knowing the ending of the story doesn’t necessarily let me know everything that will happen or what everyone will do. Throughout the story, and this is particularly true for a series, the main characters are as close to me as my family, whereas the people they meet are more like my neighbours, or even the people at the pub or in town. They might become friends but my opinion of them is exactly like that of people I meet in ‘real life’ – subject to change according to the way they behave. And that’s something I can’t consciously control.

So far as fanfic is concerned the characters all speak to me from the start, even the minor ones. They’re based on canon, of course, though most canon leaves plenty of room for exploration, explanation, and so on. So in a sense the characters are already formed and so are my opinions. There might be OC characters like victims of crime in a case fic but they wouldn’t need my opinion, just my sympathy. I might discover or realise details about canon characters, but nothing major. If I did, I suspect I’d have to start a different fic or do an extensive rewrite.

The following question was, I think, a familiar one for fanfic writers but is just as valid addressed to all authors.

When you write original characters, how do you make certain they’re not Mary Sues (or Marty Stus)?

For those unfamiliar with the term it applies to characters inserted into stories who are quite clearly the author indulging in some wishful thinking about being the best detective, greatest lover, most benevolent ruler, or whatever and taking over the story in an irritating way.

Terry Pratchett, in his semi-autobiographical A Slip Of The Keyboard, mentioned a friend of his who said: There is a little bit of autobiography in all books, isn’t there? Only friends will tell you that.

And of course he’s right. You have to have experienced emotions such as love, anger or shock in order to write about them convincingly (which is why children’s writing so often seems ‘flat’) and you have to have seen or heard scenes or music to describe those with any hope of being believed.

We are told to write what we know. This means, to me, that we have to draw on our knowledge of the world, acquired in person or through in-depth research, to develop locations, credible story lines and minor or background characters. When it comes to the main players we need to dig into our own emotions and experiences to find out what makes them ‘tick’. It’s possible to write criminals convincingly because we have all had ‘bad’ thoughts from time to time and a writer need to expand those and build on them in much the same way as an actor developing a role. The danger lies in putting too much of yourself in to any one character and investing too much in them in the story. The danger is perhaps greater with the heroes and heroines. It’s comparatively easy to distance yourself from a thief or a murderer, harder to back away from someone who is trying to do good. But to make them convincing they have to live in their own right, and that means that you have to bring them to life, talk to them, get to know them, and do that as if they were a real person with a life quite outside your own.

In some ways I’m pretty sure I don’t appear in my stories. That’s because my work in largely in the fantasy genre and I’m a fairly down to earth person with a family and two houses to run. I don’t even yearn to go off into the woods or on quests – I’m pretty sure I’d find it uncomfortable and irritating even though I used to like camping when I was younger and fitter. I’d want to be back for various appointments, to wash my hair, to sleep in my own bed… And my protagonists are mostly very much younger than me. They are not yet married with children or pets or a bank account. When I was their age I wanted the children, pets, etc. more than I ever wanted adventure, and I wanted academic success more than magic so I don’t think I put anything of my younger self into them, either.

So I don’t have to ‘make sure’ because appearing in my own stories is not something that appeals in the slightest. I have my own story to live and it isn’t one I have any wish to fictionalise.

But in the sense that writers write what they know, all original fiction could be said to be Mary Sues. Discuss!

For fanfic writing the answer is perhaps harder to reach. Yes, I write original characters. I wrote an entire novel based on a group of original characters interacting in the world created by Stargate SG1 – unpublishable because it is so intertwined with the existence of the Stargate itself, but available here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/108729/chapters/150465 for anyone who’s interested. And if I’m writing a case fic for a cop buddy fandom there have to be original characters to provide the criminals, victims and witnesses at the very least.

A Mary Sue would presumably mean a female character who did all the things I would like either to do or be thought to have done. I haven’t written many female OC characters other than, as I’ve just said, criminals and victims, and as I have no desire to be either I don’t think there’s much danger of of Mary Sues there. The exception is the SG1 novel. There are female OCs in that but they’re there to create a mixed team or to provide plot points; I sincerely hope I haven’t put anything of myself into them. None of them have anything in common with me and while I love reading about sci fi adventures I have no desire to participate. They aren’t the major characters, who are men, and not in the least like me or any of my family. Nor do I have hidden longings to be male. The only point of overlap is that the ‘hero’ (and the woman who is his girlfriend at the start of the story) come from the same part of UK as me – that’s just me using locations I know to be sure of getting them right.

So I don’t ‘make certain’ they aren’t Mary Sues – I don’t have to because I never insert major female characters into a fic who aren’t from canon. My OCs (male and female) have plenty of flaws – but not my flaws. I seriously wouldn’t want to be any of them, and none of them are better than the people around them. They might (Adam in the SG novel) be the ‘hero’ but only in the sense of being the main focus of the story, not in the sense of being any kind of super-hero.

I don’t want to meet or live with or interact with canon characters – or the actors for that matter. I want them to remain stories – on paper, on screen, on my computer or on a virtual screen in my mind. I meet and interview the muses, yes, in order to hear their stories, but they don’t involve me in their adventures. The nearest I get to a Mary Sue is as the narrator who controls, to some extent, the overall plot.

I find these questions interesting – they force me to articulate my sometimes rather incoherent thoughts about my writing and that, I think, has to be a good thing! I’d love to hear other people’s ideas on the subject in general or on particular questions.