Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2015-03-08 03:34 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2015-03-08 03:34 pm
[ SECRET POST #2986 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2986 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 088 secrets from Secret Submission Post #427.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2015-03-09 03:59 am (UTC)(link)What I'm saying is that unless your particular story demands it, you don't have to research a great deal beyond the canon and a general idea of the period. If you're using mostly the main characters and mostly the main settings from the canon, you can stick mostly to the details already laid down in that canon, with some extra research for little details that interest you or issues that are specific to your particular plot. If you're going beyond the main characters and branching out into unexplored areas of the setting, then you'll be knowing that in advance, and presumably if you want to go there you'll already have at least an idea of what you'll have to research to manage it.
A lot of the problem people seem to have with writing for historical canons is that they think they've got to research everything before they even begin. Even if their story is primarily Holmes and Watson having a closed discussion entirely within the confines of 221B Baker Street, they've got they idea that they need to know who was Prime Minister at the time and how gas lamps function and the names of every item of clothing the characters are wearing and what newspaper is likely to be on the side table and whether or not oranges are a thing they're likely to be eating. And while any and all of those things are interesting to know, you don't actually have to. Not unless they're pertinent to the discussion Holmes & Watson are having, and even then you can excuse several things as character ignorance instead of author (especially in Holmes' case).
Information overload leads to paralysis for a lot of people, and that's a shame because it isn't actually necessary. The canon will have already given you the general layout and feel of the characters and the world. Anything beyond that can be researched at the author's discretion depending on the demands of their story. More adventurous authors might go farther afield and explore aspects of the period in greater depth, but for a story that hews close to canon you don't need to. For fanfic in particular, research is a useful tool, but it's not necessarily a requirement.
Like I said, writing a historical AU or an original story set in a period from a standing start will be different. But if you are writing fanfic for a canon that's already set in that period, then yes, you can keep to the information provided in the canon to a large extent. If it interests you to go beyond that, or if you want to explore aspects glossed over in canon, then by all means feel free.
It's just ... people get afraid of it, and bogged down in the research, and paralysed by terror of getting things wrong, and they don't have to. ACD himself cribbed stuff and made stuff up on the spot and got things blatantly wrong even for his own period, the same as a modern writer will get things about their own time wrong because it's outside their area or they're just shoving the facts aside for the sake of the story, and that's fine. There's no need to be afraid of historical inaccuracy, so long as you're honest about the limits of your knowledge and you're not pretending to be an expert when you're not. You can just take canon for the basis and go with what you need for your story.
The thing about research, especially for fanfic purposes, is that people need to learn to tailor it to their requirements. You don't have to go from a standing start and learn everything there is to now about the period, from the fashion to the politics to the science to social norms. You can pick and choose, based on what you need for your story. For fanfic, canon provides a block of information to use as a basis. If you judge by your story's relationship to that canon, you can get an idea of anything else you might need to know. If you're sticking close to canon, you don't need much else beyond plot-relevant information and little living details you want to put in. If you're going further afield, then obviously you'll need more, but you'll know that in advance, and you can still tell from the deficiencies in canon which areas you need to be looking in.
It's not a wall of information, is my point. You don't need everything. You can just pick and choose what's pertinent, and let the rest ride on the canon both you and your readers are already familiar with.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2015-03-10 11:52 am (UTC)(link)If you're sticking close to canon, you don't need much else beyond plot-relevant information and little living details you want to put in. If you're going further afield, then obviously you'll need more, but you'll know that in advance, and you can still tell from the deficiencies in canon which areas you need to be looking in.
I tend to over-think things as it is while writing, and it gets worse when I worry about getting information wrong because "OMG what if I've missed something really obvious, can't have that, gotta research more but where do I find that kind of info, oh god I don't understand any of this", and so on and so forth until I just get overwhelmed and do nothing.
Which gets silly because as you said those things won't always come up in the fanfic, or be relevant in the first place. Like, I don't think super fighting and non-fighting robots are gonna sit down and discuss the inner workings of football/soccer.
So, thanks for helping get some perspective.