On Writing

 

Note: I originally wrote this post in 2013 on a now defunct site.  I've updated it with information learned over the past few years, edited it, and am reposting it now, because it still applies and is interesting for me to revisit.

 

Much to my chagrin to admit, I write Fanfiction.  (Okay, I know I've admitted that before.  All these years later, I sometimes still get embarrassed by saying that I do.)  I remember back in college, I took a class in creative writing and we were banned from writing fanfiction. I couldn't understand why at first. But, now I'm a little older and quite a bit wiser and I understand. It has nothing to do with copyright laws.  Though, for aspiring creative folks, those are something to consider when writing - especially when publishing.

 

My current group of Fanfiction writing consists of the BBCs Doctor Who and Sherlock. (Though, I do on occasion post one-offs in other fandoms.)  I post my works to various sites and people read and seem to enjoy my work.  Some are even moved to comment on my efforts.  (I love feedback!)  The comment that I receive on my fics over and over is about how well I write, how realistic, how easy it is to enter into the lives and minds of the characters I present. And I often get asked, "How do you write so well?" (For a recent and in depth answer, see my post, "Just Keep Writing".)

 

The simple answer is, "I research." Which is an answer most people tend to not like. Sometimes they respond, "But writing is supposed to be fun." As if research can't be fun. I enjoy both. I like to research and I like to write. Research is necessary for good writing, especially if you're writing about a topic you know nothing about. For instance, I know nothing about cocaine addiction, and yet, it is clear in the Conan Doyle canon that Sherlock does cocaine often and in BBCs Sherlock, he has a history of doing some kind of drug(s).  (This is now confirmed in S3 and "The Abominable Bride".)  How can I present the details and realities of cocaine addiction without knowing anything about it? I research. I read a lot.  I even interviewed a few people who I knew struggled with other forms of addiction and found similar touchstones to draw parallels so I could write about it. It sounds ''real'' to the readers, because it is real.

 

You see, what I've learned over the years about writing is that you can make it as fantastical as you want, as long as you keep it real.  Keeping it real, doesn't mean you can't be imaginative. One of my favourite novels is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. While not everyone can relate to being put on a spaceship, most people can relate to having the bare-minimum with them when they embark on a journey. (Don't forget your towel!) While most people might have difficulty imagining what it might be like to be told their home planet is demolished, practically everyone can relate to the notion of "bad poetry" being used as a form of punishment. Though, what constitutes "bad poetry" might wildly vary from person to person.  Douglas Adams kept it real by providing these very honest touchstones in the mist of writing his wild adventure.

 

Another aspect to 'keeping it real' is that if a universal box is established,  you need to respect that box and if you break out of that box, your readers need to understand how and why that happens.  This is honestly one of my biggest pet-peeves.  It's disappointing how often I see it happening in professional writing - like television series.  Break the box, if you must, but your audience still needs touchstones.  You shouldn't break a box just because you can.  When you do that, it comes off as if you are a kid breaking a toy then crying when it's broken.  That kind of writing is no fun for your audience.

 

I read an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education by Adam Brooke Davis titled "No More Zombies!" The article was met with various negative reactions.  I was disappointed by those reactions.  Probably because, as a writer of 'fanfiction', I agreed with most of what Davis presented.  I had encountered the same issues in my own writing (and as a reader of fanfiction, the writing of others).  I was struck by how Davis had to go to such extremes to teach his students to write well. He banned alternate-world writing (as the title suggests: No Zombies!). The article led me to suspect he was distressed by alt-worlds, but since I had the experience in my own class of having fanfiction (That's not what we called it.) banned, I wasn't surprised. I actually thought this was a typical practice, so was more surprised that "Alt-worlding" had been allowed to such an extent that it had to be banned in this class.  (And more surprised by the negative reactions to his article.)

 

I think the writers of the negative reactions miss the point of Davis' article.  They argue that "all fiction (and some to the extreme that all writing) is alt-world writing."  Yes, that's what's happened!  They're exactly right! And that's why Davis' approach is vital. It's no different than my having to explain there's more to theatre than just acting (See Jack of All Trades).  There's more to writing than just making it as sensational as possible.  Frankly, this idea of 'one-uping' each others writing by making each work more sensational than the last is getting boring.  Who cares if zombies can now grow wings and fly, so no one is safe?  How do the characters feel about that?  What goes through their minds and souls beyond "Gosh there's no escape and I'm scared"? Sensational writing for attention's sake does not make for good story-telling.

 

Rather than making you read the whole article (and since it's only available by subscription now), I'm going to highlight one part:

If it makes you want to buy something, it's advertising. If it makes you want to kill people, take their land, vote them in or out of office, it's propaganda. If it just jerks you around by your reproductive instincts, it's probably pornography. And if it's warning you of the dangers of not brushing your teeth, it's a public-service announcement.

 

Oddly, (or maybe not) this method of thinking is always in the back of my mind when I write. It's just how I write.  It's not to say than any of those styles of writing are bad in and of themselves, but it's not honest story-telling either.  Thinking about these things helps me to stay focused on what's important about the story: the characters.  The message will happen, but the characters are the focus.

 

With regards to how I write Sherlock, people might get the idea that speedballing is dangerous and could be deadly, but I don't tell people. I show them. There are several chapters where Sherlock is recovering from an overdose. I don't say "It's bad to speedball", but I go into quite a lot of detail of what speedballing did to Sherlock - physically and psychologically - and what it did to his family and friends.  The reader is free to draw their own conclusions about the good or bad of doing drugs.

 

Basically, the styles of writing mentioned above have their place. But they're all gimmicks in the end. They might be clever or even funny, but they won't withstand the test of time.  Advertising, propaganda, porn and PSAs are fine, even good. But how many people remember specific details of PSAs rather than their slogans?  IE: "The More You Know"? (Oddly the advertising part of the PSA is more remembered than the PSA themselves.) If I say "Calgon, take me away!" How many of you reading this will know what that is referring to? (Without looking it up.) But, if I say, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," how many of you can name either the author or the title (or both)?

 

That is the difference between gimmicky writing and writing that transcends meaning. It's not that Alt-worlds can't contain good writing. They can!  Of course they can.  But not everyone can write something like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and be successful at it. (Also how much sense does that make if you don't know the original story upon which it was based?)  That is why I'm always hesitant to share my fanfiction with those who actually know me. Or, now to have some connection between my 'play writing' and my playwriting. (Yes, I'm very punny.)

 

Fanfiction for me is cheating.  There is a short-hand I can use when I write fanfiction. I can by-pass things like physical descriptions of characters, because my audience will have in their heads what these characters look like already. But, using short-hand doesn't mean the writing is bad (or that I don't put 100% into it - I do). It just means that I don't really care about how my readers see the characters physically. If something is important, I mention it, otherwise, it's unnecessary. But it's still cheating.

 

Someone who doesn't know The Hour, would probably be utterly confused by the story I've written for that show.  Though, amazingly, people who read my other fictions and have read that story, decided to watch that series, so I guess I write well enough to capture people's interest in the characters.  For me, this is the greatest compliment ever!

 

I tend to write from a character-driven point of view.  I find it makes my fictions very different from others. For example: there's a lot of pornographic fanfiction out there.  A LOT.  Do my fics have sex in them? A few do, yes.  So why aren't those fics (or even chapters of fics) pornography?  Because the focus is entirely different.  If you read my stories the sex happens, but it comes about naturally.  It comes from the characters.  Most other stories, it is the authors imposing their will that "I must 'get off' on these two characters 'getting off'".  Therefore, their writing becomes porn. 

 

So, how do I know if I've hit my mark with my writing?  How do I know that I've "done well"?  I know I've done well with writing something, when I go back and read my own works several times over. This is a big deal for me.

 

As an actor, I hate watching myself. As a singer, I hate listening to recordings of myself. As an author, I usually only read my works again for editing purposes and typically I hate what I've written and have to start over. (Blogging is a bane for me - I constantly go back and make minor (or major) edits and improve what I've presented.)  If I go back to a story and just enjoy my writing, I know I've done well.

 

Some could argue (and have told me as much) that in many ways, my stories aren't really Fanfiction.  If you take out the character names or references to specific fandom universes, I could be talking about anyone and the only thing that makes it fanfiction is because I, as an author, have taken the story and applied the rules of that specific universe to it. But, if I were to apply the rules of an original universe of my own making, the story would still work.  Or if I were to apply the rules of this universe, by and large, there would be little that needs to change. (Obviously, time and space travel and associated adventures would have to be edited in my Doctor Who stories, but the heart of my stories would remain strong and true.)

 

That is a huge compliment to me. Because it means that others recognise that my style of writing is 'character driven'.  Even if they can't state that specifically, they know it to be true. I like to get into the meaty and hard parts of life in my writing.  I like to hash out the emotions and difficulties presented in different shows.  I don't shy away from how 'facts' might affect one character and how the ripple effects reach out across all other characters in that fandom.

 

Honestly for me, this is what's hard about playwriting.  I don't get to make those decisions or connections.  That is between the Actor and the Director.  I know I can control it a bit with the words the characters exchange, the setting, etc., but ultimately, I have to be willing to trust that those involved with the production will 'do right' by the words I present.  So I have to adapt my writing so that all those emotions, thoughts, and feelings that I enjoy exploring so deeply in my fic writing gets translated into the 'limited world' of dialogue.  It is a fantastic challenge!  It shows me why not all writers can be successful at all styles of writing.