Re: Do people avoid OC stories?
Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 10:22 am
alexajaye wrote:The thing about this particular fandom I've discovered is that all the stories I've read are all the same.
Unfortunately, I must agree. It is a rare day and also a happy one when you find an author exploring a plot that differs from the girl meets boy, things are not easy because he is either a promiscuous person or has a girlfriend named Tanya who is the biggest "bitch without reason", misunderstandings happen, boy and girl suffer and then it all magically solves itself so that boy and girl can get married, have 2.5 kids, a big house (because money it's never a problem if the Cullens are being involved) and a perfect family who all dress in designer clothes.
alexajaye wrote:They all have the same characters.
Agreed, provided we're talking about the more succesful stories.
alexajaye wrote:They all have the same plot. Some of them all have the same settings.
Again, agreed. Might be because this is what people generally feel as the epitome of happiness in the modern world and also because most of them, understandably, write by drawing from what they know (i.e. the continental US). That's why I find it nice when I see people writing stories set in the UK (I can relate better to those), in WWII Europe, in Africa, or somewhere else in the world. It's a nice change, though I admit that reading so many fanfics set in the US have helped me understand how life is in this particular country a lot better in terms of how things work (highschool, college, the justice system, etc. as well as the more general idiosyncrasy of people from the US). I still think that there are many ways of spicing up a story in the US to make it a bit different. Authors just need to think about issues present in the modern world or introducing elements from genres different to the "boy meets girl" kind of romance.
It's also nice when characters, while still being in canon, are given a certain spin. For instance, Alice being creative in different ways instead of clothes or actually showing shopaholism for what it is: a clinical addiction or impulse control disorder, something I think people have glorified unconsciously- beginning with Stephanie Meyer, although at least she brought in the consideration of how it helped "the economy" and how most of the things they bought in terms of clothes and food were actually donated to people in disadvantaged situations-. It's something, at least, though I don't think it is the best way of helping them in the long term. But that's a topic for a different forum, I think.
Unfortunately, those stories are few and not easy to find.
alexajaye wrote: I've probably said it before in other threads on other forums, but almost all of the stories have the same "will they/won't they" crap that was never an issue in the series to begin with.
I agree it's very off-puting. The general problem that fanfic authors face is that certain plots or approaches were very succesful in the past, so everyone has assumed that they're the magic formula to success (BDSM being a perfect example of this).
alexajaye wrote:Whether SM meant to, she created a formula for anyone who wanted to take her characters and put them in a different "universe" but still have the same outcome.
Agreed, this is one of the few settings where I actually like All Human stories (if they're well written and don't have Alice having visions without a supernatural explanation for it ). It doesn't work for me in other settings, in which I feel that what a character is has such a big influence in the way it behaves that you cannot dissociate it from the original setting.
alexajaye wrote:My favorites are the ones where someone from our world stumbles into Twilight through no other means than the writer's way of saying, "yeah, that could work." What I really find amazing is that a lot of the stories I've read with this premise have gotten a big response -- probably good and bad.
Well, I would give a story with this premise a chance if it was well written and the OC character was essential to the plot without wanting to take over someone else's role in the story (you know what I mean?). The premise of a real life person stumbling into the story is something that works fantastically well in The Neverending Story (a story I think had an impact in many of us while being children) and that draws from the understandable feeling a reader has when loving a story and wanting to be a part of it, to be able to get to know the characters the reader loves and help them when things go wrong.
But it has to be really well-done, the OC must have a reason for being there other than taking Bella's place to fullfil the author's fantasy of getting Edward for herself or become the most powerful character in the world (essentially, Mary-sueing). It should be approached with honesty and humility. I could understand an author wondering "what would happen if a Twilight reader saw all the mistakes that were being made by the characters and wished he/she was there to help them" but, in that case, I would expect the OC not wanting to overstep its own role in the story. I also would expect the author to consider that every action has a reaction and what the OC character in this instance would regard as helping might backfire. I would expect the author to approach the inclusion of that OC not as a magical wand to sort everything out so canon characters don't have to work for it anymore but as introducing a new element to the story that could solve some things and make others worse, to see how the introduction of that element into the mix would affect the outcome of the story. That would be a really interesting story, I think.
alexajaye wrote:But if I don't at least attempt to create new characters, working off something someone else created will start to feel like I don't have the ability anymore, and for me that's a lot like sitting in the middle of a gigantic body of water with no wind in sight and no tides to carry me to a deserted island where sparkly vampires scare away the fish.
I don't have a problem with that. Furthermore, I would encourage people to take advantage of the world Meyer created and explore vampire OCs and how they survive in that world. There are so many things one can explore as an author! Imagine an OC that has just been turned and abandoned. It doesn't need to be Bella, it doesn't always have to be about Bella. You can explore a newborn struggles with a different personality. I don't know. I just don't think authors should think that having the OC being an important part of the Cullen family is the only option. There is also life- or non-life- beyond the Cullens! There are so many other things to explore!
But as I said, as a reader, I'm quite demanding about OCs and how they're introduced in a setting.