On Sun, 23 Aug 1998, The Critic wrote:
Hi all.
Hi all.
I've decided to post small 'tricks of the writing trade' every once in a
while to help unexperienced writers polish their craft.
I've decided to break my self-imposed 'lurk until ready to post a story'
to help unexperienced writers take posts like these with a grain of salt.
Canonical Characterizations 101: Descriptions
Many unexperienced writers feel the need to explain facets of a
character we already know (canonical characters, not new characters whom
we naturally know nothing about). This practice clutters the prose, it
can make the reader annoyed when the material contradicts his own
perceptions of the character, and it's often taken by experienced
readers, such as myself, as a set-up for an OOC description.
Many unexperienced writers feel the need to explain facets of a character
we already know. This practice is an unspoken rule, most assuredly
especially in fanfiction, and is designed so that the reader KNOWS about
any quirks in the writer's perception of a character up front.
Especially, for crossovers and fusions, it helps to make sure that both
series are understood at a base level, if not intimately. It is often
taken by experienced readers, such as myself, as an insight into possibly
differently-seen aspects of a character. Experienced writers realize that
no perception of a character will completely mesh with their own, much
less with the 'canon' material, and that by definition, any fanfiction is
already 'OOC' because the writer is not the author of the original work.
In a nutshell--don't do it. You know how a character looks, acts and
what is capable of, and so does the reader. It's acceptable only when
done through the eyes of a new character who doesn't know anything about
the canonical characters, and only then when it isn't gratuitous.
In a nutshell--listen to this person. You know how a character looks,
acts and is capable of in your opinion, but others may not. The reader
certainly won't unless you tell him. This doesn't mean that you have to
spend the beginning -- or a section -- of any fanfiction you write to
explicity describing the characters. Especially, if you're writing a
crossover, or a story about a fairly new/obscure series, it helps to give
some cursory description of the characters. Just because -you- know them
does -not-, as Mr. Critic thinks, mean that your readers will. It just
means that if you want to, you should and if you're setting out to change
the canonicity of a world, then you might want to think about it. It's as
acceptable as anything else you might find in fanfiction, from Mihoshi
falling in love with Kiyone to Ranma getting tired of it all and killing
Akane. Mr. "Critic" here only seeks to try and mold fanfiction into a
certain form, without realizing that the true beauty of fanfiction lies in
the freedom to do whatever one wants. Whether people will agree--or
disagree--with you is also a freedom.
P.S.: Mr. Critic, you might want to consider which series your 'rules'
apply to, or that you want them to reply to. Ranma 1/2 isn't the only
series out there, not by far.
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