Tefnut's journal

www.locusmag.com/Features/2007/05/cory-doctorow-in-praise-of-fanfic.html
Where a science fiction writer explains his views on fanfic.

I found this passage very interesting:

Writers sometimes speak of their characters running away from them, taking on a life of their own. They say that these characters — drawn from real people in our lives and mixed up with our own imagination — are autonomous pieces of themselves. It's a short leap from there to mystical nonsense about protecting our notional, fictional children from grubby fans who'd set them to screwing each other or bowing and scraping before some thinly veiled version of the fanfic writer herself.

There's something to the idea of the autonomous character. Big chunks of our wetware are devoted to simulating other people, trying to figure out if we are likely to fight or fondle them. It's unsurprising that when you ask your brain to model some other person, it rises to the task. But that's exactly what happens to a reader when you hand your book over to him: he simulates your characters in his head, trying to interpret that character's actions through his own lens.

I've experienced the phenomenon he mentions, about characters taking a life of their own; both with original characters, and (to a lesser extent) with fanfic ones. We bring them to life. They grow on the paper, in turn surprising us, disappointing us, feeling us with pride. I understand how bad some authors can feel about their children being stolen. Yet, once the story is out, the characters are like grown up. They don't need the author anymore. So what if a fanfic writer wants to have a chat with them for a while? :-)

This fanfic I'm writing at the moment, it's a bitch. I had to start it all over a few weeks ago. I basically scratched everything but the original characters I had created -- but I couldn't cancel it completely, because of these two. They were worthy of attention. They wanted to survive my blunders. So I waited until *they* told me what the real story, the one I was meant to write, was.

They did, or rather, I tore my guys open, read their motivations and extracted the theme out of their bodies. It worked fine. I did my research work, layed out the plot and all of that. It actually turned out much better than I expected, and my original characters got themselves a revamp in the process. So even they are much different than what I imagined them to be.

I thought I would finish it soon... until this morning. I had to Ctrl-Z one whole week's worth of hard work (harder than usual, even, as I was so tired) because my ending was turning slashy, smarmy and angsty all at once, when it wasn't supposed to be either of these. Moreover, it sucked big time.

So here I am, fighting with words and a story that doesn't want to leave me alone, when I have so many other fics that I want to write. It's not even *that* good, so why should I bother? I'm sweating and swearing and bitching about it, insulting my characters, myself, and whatever stupid part of my brain that came up with this silly idea. And I'm loving every minute of it!