Writing issues
Oct. 4th, 2004 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI'll be in Frankfurt for the Book Fair from tomorrow till Sunday. Which means I'll probably get to post, but briefly. I'll also hope to get some clue for the Rygel fic which is proving very stubborn indeed. Kira Nerys, otoh, proved talkative and gave me a drabble, here:
"Messages"
Meanwhile, using her fiendish powers of persuasion,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hobsonphile got me to sign on for a Buffy & Dawn essay for the new ampersand community ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
otf_manifesto. I also threw in Quark & Rom into the bargain. Go other, oh fellow fan, and sign on for a friendship or family relationship essay! Non-romantic relationships rock, too.
Caused by recent (and old!) fannish reading, I'm also in the process of compiling ten commandments on how to write ambiguous and/or villainous characters. So far, I've accumulated six. Forgive me for venting some pet peeves here. As always, imo:
1. Thou shalt not whitewash. Doesn't mean you don't get to explore your ambiguous and/or villainous character's nicer sides. I know this is more fun and am guilty as charged. (How many stories concentrating on Londo and Refa plotting in season 2 instead of Londo and G'Kar reconciling in season 4 and 5 did you see me write? But I hope I never implied Londo isn't completely responsible for his Narn/Centauri war related actions.) Just as long as your character of choice doesn't sound completely incapable of whatever dastardly deeds canon made him/her responsible for. Speaking of which…
2. Thou shalt not ignore canon thou art uncomfortable with. Some cases in point: Faith actually had some stuff to repent for; the professor she killed in Graduation Day I without knowing or caring why being a case in point. What she did to Xander in Consequences was attempted rape in addition to attempted strangling. Spike, no matter what he believed he was doing, did attempt to rape Buffy in Seeing Red. Methos wasn't a Bronze Age Sundance the Kid as a Horseman; what he did to Cassandra (who is just the victim that survived, as opposed to the many who didn't) remains inexcusable. No matter how sweet he was with Alexa. Avon did intend to kill Vila to survive. He wasn't pretending not to find him; if had known where Vila was hiding in Orbit, he would have gone there once he discovered the cause of the imminent crash. And so on, and so forth.
3. Thou shalt stay away from sexual abuse in thy character's childhood as an excuse. Sexual abuse of children is very difficult to write without trivializing the issue anyway. Granted, some fanfic authors actually manage to pull it off. But all too often I've seen this idea used as a kind of perfect apologia for everything the character in question did in canon. Harry/Hermione/Ginny/Ron finds out Draco gets abused at home and at once feels horribly for ever saying a harsh word to him. Mulder discovers poor Krychek was abused on a regular basis; now doesn't that explain all? Lilah had this evil stepfather who… you get the picture. The thing is, even if this is well-written, it still tends to come across as a cheap sympathy-inducing ploy. Because, really? Say that Krychek was abused as a child. I don't see how this justifies him killing Mulder's father and Scully's sister. Say Kronos was abused as a child. Does this somehow give him a pass for trying to wipe out humanity via a virus in the present or thousand years of slaughter in the past?
Now take an example of canon actually providing the childhood abuse story for a villain. Which Farscape does for Scorpius. Granted, not sexual abuse, but physical and emotional torture throughout his childhood and early teenage years. This contributes to explaining the emotional make-up of Scorpius, but nowhere does the show imply it somehow justifies him having tortured Stark, or having put John through hell in season 2. In a fanfic story, the revelation of Scorpius' childhood would have resulted in instant bonding between him and the person who finds out about this. On the show, the neural clone of John isn't unaffected by what he sees (hence the "enough" at one point, and the repetition of Rylani's name at another) but understandably asks: "And what about my revenge?"
(Which is probably what Mulder would ask if told of Abused!Krychek's miserable childhood, but that's my theory.)
Similarly, getting introduced to Movieverse!Magneto via his childhood experience in Auschwitz creates instant sympathy and makes his later behaviour understandable. It still doesn't excuse it. What he wanted to do to Rogue was murder, pure and simple. What he planned to do near the end of X2 was genocide on a global scale. It doesn't get any less so by pointing towards his childhood, and it annoys me to no end if fanfic takes that way out, because canon certainly doesn't.
4. Thou shalt not vilify thy character's opponents. You know what I mean. The Cassandra bashing in Highlander fandom was must my earliest experience of this, but by no means the only one. It's in an ambiguous and/or villainous character's nature that there are assuredly people out there who do not only carry a grudge, but have a perfect right to carry said grudge. I love Londo, but I certainly can understand why Na'Toth in season 5 tells him she still intends to kill him once she gets better. Darla is probably my favourite Jossverse character, but Holtz was completely justified in coming after her and Angelus. (What he did to Connor is another matter; Holtz, of course, is himself ambiguous character whom one understands but does not excuse.) Nor was it surprising the entire A.I. crew distrusted and disliked her.
Now all too often, you encounter the Cassandra pattern in fanfic: that person disliking, resenting or even hating the ambiguous character is suddenly described as a raging psychopath herself/himself, or a narrow-minded judgmental bitch/jerk whose objections can't possibly be taken serious in any way. (Buffy and Xander both get shoved in that corner quite often.) I bet that if Firefly had continued, we'd gotten fanfics featuring mean, judgmental Zoe and lovable, Misunderstood! Saffron…
5. Thou shalt stay way from the waterworks. Again with the Highlander examples. In the first flush of Methos fascination, I read quite a lot about him, and you couldn't count the number of times he burst into tears and had a nervous breakdown about his past and/or fall-out with MacLeod during the Horsemen eps. Later on, when I discovered Blake's 7, Weepy!Avon made lots of surprise appearances as well. Most noteworthy were those set in PGPs which usually ended with the guy he shot apologizing. As this isn't exactly how these gentlemen behave on the show (I think Methos cried twice, once about Alexa and once about killing Silas immediately after doing so, and that was that in three years; Avon didn't even cry about Anna), I'm back to the "cheap ploy for sympathy" again, along with "out of character" accusations.
Mind you, some ambiguous characters do cry more than once and have nervous breakdowns in canon. (Spike and Londo come to mind.) Still, if they do it in fanfic, I want some similarly plausible causes, and lead-ups. "X doesn't love me/judges me" mostly doesn't do the trick.
6. Thou shalt not use sex to solve thy character's issues. Dukat sure wasn't alone when believing that if he could somehow get Kira to love him, or at least have sex with him, this would equate forgiveness and absolution for his past. It's a time-honoured topos in fanfic. The definite sign Avon gets forgiven by Vila for Orbit or by Blake for Gauda Prime? They end up in bed together. Duncan has trust issues with Methos about those Horseman days? Some great post-Quickening sex, and they're resolved. (Meanwhile, in canon, sex between Buffy and Spike in season 6 makes things worse between them, not better, and all the great sex in the world between Wesley and Lilah doesn't create enough trust for either of them not to use the other.) Which is why I'm all agog over story's like Kakodaimon's who start the morning after and acknowledge that all the original difficulties and burdens of the past are still there.
"Messages"
Meanwhile, using her fiendish powers of persuasion,
hobsonphile got me to sign on for a Buffy & Dawn essay for the new ampersand community otf_manifesto. I also threw in Quark & Rom into the bargain. Go other, oh fellow fan, and sign on for a friendship or family relationship essay! Non-romantic relationships rock, too. Caused by recent (and old!) fannish reading, I'm also in the process of compiling ten commandments on how to write ambiguous and/or villainous characters. So far, I've accumulated six. Forgive me for venting some pet peeves here. As always, imo:
1. Thou shalt not whitewash. Doesn't mean you don't get to explore your ambiguous and/or villainous character's nicer sides. I know this is more fun and am guilty as charged. (How many stories concentrating on Londo and Refa plotting in season 2 instead of Londo and G'Kar reconciling in season 4 and 5 did you see me write? But I hope I never implied Londo isn't completely responsible for his Narn/Centauri war related actions.) Just as long as your character of choice doesn't sound completely incapable of whatever dastardly deeds canon made him/her responsible for. Speaking of which…
2. Thou shalt not ignore canon thou art uncomfortable with. Some cases in point: Faith actually had some stuff to repent for; the professor she killed in Graduation Day I without knowing or caring why being a case in point. What she did to Xander in Consequences was attempted rape in addition to attempted strangling. Spike, no matter what he believed he was doing, did attempt to rape Buffy in Seeing Red. Methos wasn't a Bronze Age Sundance the Kid as a Horseman; what he did to Cassandra (who is just the victim that survived, as opposed to the many who didn't) remains inexcusable. No matter how sweet he was with Alexa. Avon did intend to kill Vila to survive. He wasn't pretending not to find him; if had known where Vila was hiding in Orbit, he would have gone there once he discovered the cause of the imminent crash. And so on, and so forth.
3. Thou shalt stay away from sexual abuse in thy character's childhood as an excuse. Sexual abuse of children is very difficult to write without trivializing the issue anyway. Granted, some fanfic authors actually manage to pull it off. But all too often I've seen this idea used as a kind of perfect apologia for everything the character in question did in canon. Harry/Hermione/Ginny/Ron finds out Draco gets abused at home and at once feels horribly for ever saying a harsh word to him. Mulder discovers poor Krychek was abused on a regular basis; now doesn't that explain all? Lilah had this evil stepfather who… you get the picture. The thing is, even if this is well-written, it still tends to come across as a cheap sympathy-inducing ploy. Because, really? Say that Krychek was abused as a child. I don't see how this justifies him killing Mulder's father and Scully's sister. Say Kronos was abused as a child. Does this somehow give him a pass for trying to wipe out humanity via a virus in the present or thousand years of slaughter in the past?
Now take an example of canon actually providing the childhood abuse story for a villain. Which Farscape does for Scorpius. Granted, not sexual abuse, but physical and emotional torture throughout his childhood and early teenage years. This contributes to explaining the emotional make-up of Scorpius, but nowhere does the show imply it somehow justifies him having tortured Stark, or having put John through hell in season 2. In a fanfic story, the revelation of Scorpius' childhood would have resulted in instant bonding between him and the person who finds out about this. On the show, the neural clone of John isn't unaffected by what he sees (hence the "enough" at one point, and the repetition of Rylani's name at another) but understandably asks: "And what about my revenge?"
(Which is probably what Mulder would ask if told of Abused!Krychek's miserable childhood, but that's my theory.)
Similarly, getting introduced to Movieverse!Magneto via his childhood experience in Auschwitz creates instant sympathy and makes his later behaviour understandable. It still doesn't excuse it. What he wanted to do to Rogue was murder, pure and simple. What he planned to do near the end of X2 was genocide on a global scale. It doesn't get any less so by pointing towards his childhood, and it annoys me to no end if fanfic takes that way out, because canon certainly doesn't.
4. Thou shalt not vilify thy character's opponents. You know what I mean. The Cassandra bashing in Highlander fandom was must my earliest experience of this, but by no means the only one. It's in an ambiguous and/or villainous character's nature that there are assuredly people out there who do not only carry a grudge, but have a perfect right to carry said grudge. I love Londo, but I certainly can understand why Na'Toth in season 5 tells him she still intends to kill him once she gets better. Darla is probably my favourite Jossverse character, but Holtz was completely justified in coming after her and Angelus. (What he did to Connor is another matter; Holtz, of course, is himself ambiguous character whom one understands but does not excuse.) Nor was it surprising the entire A.I. crew distrusted and disliked her.
Now all too often, you encounter the Cassandra pattern in fanfic: that person disliking, resenting or even hating the ambiguous character is suddenly described as a raging psychopath herself/himself, or a narrow-minded judgmental bitch/jerk whose objections can't possibly be taken serious in any way. (Buffy and Xander both get shoved in that corner quite often.) I bet that if Firefly had continued, we'd gotten fanfics featuring mean, judgmental Zoe and lovable, Misunderstood! Saffron…
5. Thou shalt stay way from the waterworks. Again with the Highlander examples. In the first flush of Methos fascination, I read quite a lot about him, and you couldn't count the number of times he burst into tears and had a nervous breakdown about his past and/or fall-out with MacLeod during the Horsemen eps. Later on, when I discovered Blake's 7, Weepy!Avon made lots of surprise appearances as well. Most noteworthy were those set in PGPs which usually ended with the guy he shot apologizing. As this isn't exactly how these gentlemen behave on the show (I think Methos cried twice, once about Alexa and once about killing Silas immediately after doing so, and that was that in three years; Avon didn't even cry about Anna), I'm back to the "cheap ploy for sympathy" again, along with "out of character" accusations.
Mind you, some ambiguous characters do cry more than once and have nervous breakdowns in canon. (Spike and Londo come to mind.) Still, if they do it in fanfic, I want some similarly plausible causes, and lead-ups. "X doesn't love me/judges me" mostly doesn't do the trick.
6. Thou shalt not use sex to solve thy character's issues. Dukat sure wasn't alone when believing that if he could somehow get Kira to love him, or at least have sex with him, this would equate forgiveness and absolution for his past. It's a time-honoured topos in fanfic. The definite sign Avon gets forgiven by Vila for Orbit or by Blake for Gauda Prime? They end up in bed together. Duncan has trust issues with Methos about those Horseman days? Some great post-Quickening sex, and they're resolved. (Meanwhile, in canon, sex between Buffy and Spike in season 6 makes things worse between them, not better, and all the great sex in the world between Wesley and Lilah doesn't create enough trust for either of them not to use the other.) Which is why I'm all agog over story's like Kakodaimon's who start the morning after and acknowledge that all the original difficulties and burdens of the past are still there.
