Know your source material

Respect your source material

Knowing Your Source Material

The vast majority of your audience is reading fan-fiction because they enjoy the source material and want to read more about the characters (or, less commonly, the world). They are familiar with canon and characterizations. If you are writing in a specific fandom, you are expected to be as well. That doesn’t mean that you can’t tell the story that you want to, but you may need to label it as AU (more on this later!). Keep in mind that the character may be portrayed differently in different media. Using Batman as an example, you may decide to write the character based on his portrayal in:

Golden Age Comics

1940s movie serials

Silver Age Comics

Live-Action TV (the Adam West version)

Filmation animated series

Superfriends

Post-Crisis¹

Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher movies

Batman: The Animated Series (and other cartoons set within the DC Animated Universe, including Batman Beyond)

The Batman Strikes

Christopher Nolan movies

DC New 52

Beware the Batman

Various Elseworlds incarnations (e.g. Blood Rain, Thrillkiller)

Video games, such as Batman: Arkham Asylum

Probably others!

Even if you decide to focus exclusively on Batman as he appears in the comics and disregard his television and film incarnations, virtually every comic book writer has had their own interpretation of the character. Whichever version you select, try to be true to the essence of the character in that incarnation.

Note:

If your story is set in an open canon, it is understood and accepted that something may be revealed at a later date which puts your story out of continuity. This is often referred to as “Jossing²”. For example, if you write a story based on the first season of a television show, a character’s background may not be fully fleshed out. Thus, you might picture the character as the only child of two doting parents. In the third season, canon may reveal that the character was raised in a single-parent household, never knew their other parent, and has two younger siblings. You are by no means expected or required to rewrite your story so that it conforms to subsequent canon revelations. However, if you are writing your story after season three, and you are changing details that have already been established, it is a good idea to explain this in an author note.

Respecting Your Source Material

When you write derivative fiction, although your audience likely spans a cross-section of ages, professions, and education levels, by-and-large, they are united in what they want from this genre of writing. They are looking for more stories about their favorite characters. Some may prefer romance and others action and adventure. Some are looking for comedy, drama, or missing scenes. But it’s unusual for someone to seek out Batman fan-fiction if they have no interest in Batman.

With this in mind, keeping characters in character and keeping the ‘rules of the universe’ intact are important. Twilight vampires sparkle and walk around in broad daylight. Dracula vampires do not. The rules of sorcery in David Eddings’ Belgariad are not identical to the rules of witchcraft and wizardry in Harry Potter.

"But... what if I want Charlie Brown to kick that football?"

Go for it.

"What? But you just said..."

There is nothing wrong with wish-fulfillment in derivative fiction. Without it, most derivative fiction would not exist. But don’t lose sight of who Charlie Brown is when you’re writing the scene. A Charlie Brown who—with no explanation—wakes up one morning and kicks the football, beats up the bully who’s been terrorizing Sally, gets elected class president, scores four homeruns, and takes the Little Red-haired Girl out for an ice cream soda afterwards, is not Charlie Brown. That doesn’t mean that kicking the football is necessarily out-of-character. Writing him as a confident, successful, athletic leader with no explanation of how he got to that point would be.

Let us say that, for once, Charlie Brown manages to connect with the football before Lucy yanks it away. Perhaps Lucy is a trifle too slow this time. Perhaps one of the other kids has decided to be nice and give him some coaching. Now think about the situation realistically. He kicked the football—once. That probably won’t make him an overnight success or a school hero. It makes him someone who kicked a football once. It would be fair to say that for Charlie Brown, nothing else is likely to change—at least, not immediately. He still doesn’t have the courage to talk to the girl of his dreams, he can’t confront the bully, he has never been nominated—much less elected—class president. But he kicked the football. And he goes home happy. And your story might just end there.

Or if you want to take matters further, you might decide that because he kicked the football, he goes home in a good mood. His homework is to write an essay titled “The Best Day of My Life.” He writes about kicking the football and gets an A. This adds to his confidence. He starts to think that maybe he can stand up to Sally’s bully...

In other words:

Character growth and development are definitely possible, but it’s usually best to let major changes occur over a prolonged period of time. And don’t be afraid to show what Charlie Brown is thinking and feeling about his newfound successes. How does he treat the other kids now? Is he so happy to be one of the cool kids that he becomes a bully? Does he try to use his new “power” or “influence” to befriend other kids who are on the outside looking in?

Now you’re in new territory: canon examples of a successful Charlie Brown are relatively rare. But, however you choose to write it, as long as your audience can see how Charlie Brown got from Point A (wishy-washy loser) to point B (his final portrayal in your story), you’re on solid ground, whatever direction you choose to steer the story.

Another good idea:

Make changes slowly if you wish to write fan-fiction to “correct” certain aspects of canon. For example, you may choose to redeem a villain—or punish one who escaped justice. You might think that the wrong people married each other at the end of the movie, and that if Character A had only realized how perfect Character B was for them, they would never have proposed to Character C. There is plenty of scope for exploration in fan-fiction, but let your character development happen gradually. It’s much more believable.

Canon gives you a framework. The rest is up to you.

¹Crisis On Infinite Earths (also referred to as CoIE or “Crisis”) was a seminal event in DC Comics history, which, in essence, reset continuity, in some cases modifying the characters’ origins, back-stories, etc. Characterization and personality were also overhauled in many cases.
²Named after Joss Whedon, creator of such television series as Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly.

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