What about stuff like shared worlds? Borderlands? (I have no idea what their process is like). Or collaborative writing teams? Though two people is a more manageable group than infinity.
I do think its easier when the canon is a given and what you're arguing is the interpretation than when you're creating from scratch. Though I think I could write a shared world that was collaborative from the get go -- heck, pro TV writers do it all the time, they rarely if ever get to go it alone -- but I'd have a hard time starting out with it as all mine and then accepting other people's takes as equally valid.
And yes, I think you're right. There are plenty of people who write fanfic who wouldn't write original fic. And while there are many different reasons for that, one of them for some folks may well be that they work better in a quilting bee than an isolated sewing room.
And there are also some folks who write fanfic with a deal less interaction -- mine is a very LJ based fanfic world, but they aren't all, and I started out writing with one friend and found the community later -- and some folks who start out here and then branch out into uncharted territory.
And it's not so communal as all *that* -- we each get final say about what our takes on the characters do, unless it's an RPG in written format. And then squabble like squabbling things about why our takes are right and other people's takes are wrong. *grin*
It's more like -- imagine the way that every time travel story plays off every other time travel story, either by taking bits or avoiding bits or breaking for new ground. And then imagine that all the writers knew each other personally and were writing at the Con That Never Ends.
They all do go off to their own rooms to pound laptop alone, but stuff that's said in the panels and in the bar finds its way into what they're writing because they're thinking about it. And then when the stories are published, that becomes new material for the panels and the bar.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 07:25 pm (UTC)I do think its easier when the canon is a given and what you're arguing is the interpretation than when you're creating from scratch. Though I think I could write a shared world that was collaborative from the get go -- heck, pro TV writers do it all the time, they rarely if ever get to go it alone -- but I'd have a hard time starting out with it as all mine and then accepting other people's takes as equally valid.
And yes, I think you're right. There are plenty of people who write fanfic who wouldn't write original fic. And while there are many different reasons for that, one of them for some folks may well be that they work better in a quilting bee than an isolated sewing room.
And there are also some folks who write fanfic with a deal less interaction -- mine is a very LJ based fanfic world, but they aren't all, and I started out writing with one friend and found the community later -- and some folks who start out here and then branch out into uncharted territory.
And it's not so communal as all *that* -- we each get final say about what our takes on the characters do, unless it's an RPG in written format. And then squabble like squabbling things about why our takes are right and other people's takes are wrong. *grin*
It's more like -- imagine the way that every time travel story plays off every other time travel story, either by taking bits or avoiding bits or breaking for new ground. And then imagine that all the writers knew each other personally and were writing at the Con That Never Ends.
They all do go off to their own rooms to pound laptop alone, but stuff that's said in the panels and in the bar finds its way into what they're writing because they're thinking about it. And then when the stories are published, that becomes new material for the panels and the bar.