the #ok files

[cimorene]

1. Additional Tags: no context to the show this is simply based on vibes


2. Notes: This canon is out of control and completely random, read at your own risk.


3. Notes: CWs for some PTSS-ish emotions and mention of homophobic slurs (and a spoiler alert for the Hobbit)


4. A/N: There's tiny sentiments of my own at the end


5. Additional Tags: I May make Eddie a Vampire in Later Chapters idk tho it wouldn't be a huge part in the story if I did it would just be mentioned

Comments

[stranger]

This all comes down to either canon could do anything, or writer could do anything. Hmm, so it's basically original fiction and you have been warned.

I think that's why I read more fanfic (the kind without these tags) than original fiction lately. Thinking about the invisible contract between writers and readers now...

[cimorene]

Is 'canon can do anything' vs 'writer can do anything' a theoretical paradigm or something that's floating around out there already, or just something you came up with right now?

Actually I'm not sure if I quite get it: are they being set up as opposites, or like two poles of a continuum?

[stranger]

These are complementary, but not necessarily opposites. The "show can do anything" is my phrasing of how a show can jump the shark by taking off in random plot directions that never resolve. (Like X-Files did. In contrast, the SW final trilogy was overblown and had some irritating choices, but it was still telling a Star Wars sort of story.)

"Writer can do anything" is from some discussions of story structure I've read, about establishing what's possible in a future/SF/fantasy setting, and then telling the story within it, sometimes in a surprising way but possible within the given setting. (This is the "contract with the readers" thing.) A fanfic includes at least the setting or characters or *something* from a given source show/play/book/whatever, as well as the writer's own take on it all. There's a lot of latitude for AUs and whatnot, but at some point a story can go out on too many limbs and fall off.

That is, some canons are effectively "out of control and completely random, read at your own risk." Some writers will do the equivalent regardless of canon, and it can be fun as "simply based on vibes", and sometimes it's just a mess.

[cimorene]

Ahh, okay, I follow all of that now. It's like "Be warned that the show may do anything, including suddenly become a lot worse or act extremely out of characters" and "Be warned that the writer might decide to do anything too, and after that they might do anything else, and after that they might do anything else, and when you look up from the fic you might not recognize the world or the theme or the plot or any of the characters or even the vibe".

[james]

So many things I appreciate seeing so I know not to read that story!

[cimorene]

I always see stuff that I react to like "Okay, they're politely warning me that it's going to suck," but then a lot of times I'm curious and I end up clicking anyway.

I guess I don't ALWAYS regret it though...

[stranger]

That's about it, yes. But, your icon here is adorable!

[cimorene]

Thank you! Sometimes you just get a really weird idea and have to draw it, and one time mine was What if the guy from the ikea instruction manuals was in this 19th century Harlequinade print instead of this male dancer?