What I learned from writing fanfic

1. Starting from well-established source material with generations of existing history is SO much easier than starting from scratch.

I spawned over 800 single-spaced pages from such a source, and I was only two-thirds done with my story when I quit. It’s probably also the best thing I’ve ever written, and I should seriously consider stripping the identifiable source references and doing something with my contribution. I mean, sheesh, there’s three books worth of story sitting in my closet gathering dust (literally—when I pulled the topmost binder from the shelf, what looked like a sheet of dryer lint fell on my head).

2. Characters are defined, more than anything, by their relationships.

I can hear some of you gearing up to argue that it’s actions, not relationships, but hear me out before you start thumping Da Rulez of Writing at me.

Relationships provide a lot of opportunities for action to take place. We behave in different ways with coworkers than with the boss, with siblings than with parents, with friends than with casual acquaintances, to an extent that shocks people if they see us in a different context than that in which they know us. A bully on the playground may be desperately seeking the approval of an indifferent tough-guy father at home and cry herself to sleep every night when he fails to take notice.

Relationships also demonstrate a character’s behavior in her natural habitat, so to speak, as opposed to in the context of the story’s main external conflict, which may place the character in extenuating circumstances that force her to act, well, out of character. We expect characters to be brave in times of trouble, but if we have some doubt because we’ve seen that character habitually depend on another for rescue, it’s either a greater triumph if she overcomes or another level of conflict if she fails to rise to the occasion.

Relationships also provide a reference point for inconsistencies in a character’s behavior. A character who is ruthless and uncompromising and otherwise a big jerk gains a facet when he’s shown softening up slightly when it comes to his kids. He gains another facet when he’s shown being the same ruthless, uncompromising jerk to one of his kids and blatantly favoring the other two. At some point, the reason for that behavior will probably come to the fore, and there’s likely another facet or two to be found in that story.

The kid in question has daddy issues, obviously. She worships her older brother, can understand the favoritism because she thinks he’s perfect, and it wouldn’t be unlike her father to think less of her because she’s a “mere girl,” so she has no hard feelings toward her brother. Then her younger sister comes along, is far more “mere girl” than she is, but somehow instantly wins daddy’s approval, which causes feelings of resentment at odds with her sisterly adoration as well as another degree of rage toward her father for his unfair and inexplicable treatment of her.  So she seeks a father figure elsewhere—her father’s longstanding rival, which will not only meet her needs but hopefully also elicit some sort of response from her father.

The character can take the same action—Suzie sought mentoring from Bob—but it doesn’t mean anything without Suzie’s relationship with her dad and Bob’s relationship with her dad to give it context.

Suzie accepted the blame for her sister’s mistake could simply mean Suzie’s a doormat, but in the context of the sisters’ relationship and their very different relationships with their father, it’s more likely she’s protecting the sister she loves from joining her on their father’s bad side, she’s not losing anything because her father can’t think any less of her anyway, and she wants his attention—even negative attention—for a couple of minutes.

A huge chunk of Suzie’s character is inextricably tied to her relationship with her father. A lot of her actions will stem from trying to prove something to him, trying to earn his approval, trying to hurt him the way he’s hurt her, disobeying him when he’s fettered her with unreasonable restrictions, taking heat she doesn’t deserve to protect friends and family from his wrath, trying to figure out WHAT HIS DAMN PROBLEM IS…

Other chunks will be tied to her other important relationships: brother, sister, mother, best friend, mentors, her own rival.

She’ll go to other worlds and travel through time and fight incredible battles and save the universe, but without these relationships to motivate her and support her and teach her and give her something worth defending and shape her into the person she is, she’d be just like all the other kids hanging out at the mall while somebody else deals with the perilous fate of the universe.

This is why everything I write ends up with a cast of thousands and I’m constantly told to pare it down two main characters and no more than a couple of secondary characters of enough importance to warrant names, which I think is BS, which is reason #782 why I’ll never be published.

Da Rulez, dey can bite me.

(There’s a #3 to this “What I Learned” list, but I’m going to cover that separately because it’s about Bad Boys, and they don’t like anything detracting attention from them…)