Branch (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot) wrote2011-09-12 04:01 pm
branchandroot) wrote2011-09-12 04:01 pm
Plot v Character, next verse
I think I've put my finger on what makes the kind of AU I like to read and write versus the kind I don't. To whit, I don't like the kind that keep the same events while changing the circumstances (eg, the majority of high school AUs). That's just a retread, and while the trappings of the events change, neither the events themselves nor the characters that arise from them do.
I find that boring.
I much prefer the kind of AU that changes the canon events to see how that will make the characters different. While it's possible to write the changed-setting type of AU and still do good characterization, it is not a form that encourages any such thing; far too many fan-authors wind up writing very shallow characterization when they write those AUs. An AU that changes the events, whether or not the setting changes, demands that the author put more work into defining just what they identify as a character's core traits. Not everyone does the work, and when they don't it's a hot mess, but the form encourages it a lot more. There's less leeway, in this type of AU, to let familiar plot stand in for actual characterization.
It's a basic plot-driven versus character-driven divide, I think. I will always be on the character-driven side, and I find most plot-driven writing boring and shallow. (No doubt, plot-driven writers/readers find character-driven writing far too meandering.) And, above and beyond that, I've already seen the canon plot once; I really don't need to see it again. It's more interesting to do something the canon didn't do.
I find that boring.
I much prefer the kind of AU that changes the canon events to see how that will make the characters different. While it's possible to write the changed-setting type of AU and still do good characterization, it is not a form that encourages any such thing; far too many fan-authors wind up writing very shallow characterization when they write those AUs. An AU that changes the events, whether or not the setting changes, demands that the author put more work into defining just what they identify as a character's core traits. Not everyone does the work, and when they don't it's a hot mess, but the form encourages it a lot more. There's less leeway, in this type of AU, to let familiar plot stand in for actual characterization.
It's a basic plot-driven versus character-driven divide, I think. I will always be on the character-driven side, and I find most plot-driven writing boring and shallow. (No doubt, plot-driven writers/readers find character-driven writing far too meandering.) And, above and beyond that, I've already seen the canon plot once; I really don't need to see it again. It's more interesting to do something the canon didn't do.
no subject
I also really like fusion AUs, though, which frequently fall into the former category. (I think the Rurouni Kenshin side of Vathara's RK/Star Wars fusion falls into this category? Or Damkianna's AtLA/almost!Firefly fusion. Or one of the many, many BtVS fusions that I read before I started bookmarking.) If it's done right, it forces the author to look at what said author considers fundamental about the interactions, with other characters and with circumstances. Is Willow studying what ultimately becomes a dangerous source of power fundamental to what makes BtVS BtVS, or is it just the particular circumstances of Whedon's California? When the authors think about it, the results can be pretty impressive. The problem is that the plot can make an easy crutch if they don't want to.
*shrug* But then again, I don't actually consider myself character-driven. I tend to glom onto relationships (friendshippy, romantic, mentor-y, or even between person and something else, like Shuurei/Career), rather than individual characters. I might be coming from somewhere entirely different.
no subject
Now there's an interesting thought. Fic may have a whole other category, there, in relationship-driven writing. We have the potential for letting the plot and character be whatever canon made them and exploring that aspect in depth. Have I mentioned, lately, that fanfic, as a genre, rocks the world?
no subject
Yes, yes it does. :-)