INTERACTIVE: 30 DAYS OF FAN FIC MEME || DAY 13

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

DAY ONE - How did you get into fan fic?
DAY TWO - What fandoms have you written in?
DAY THREE - Favorite characters?
DAY FOUR - "Muse" character?
DAY FIVE - Pushy characters?
DAY SIX - Male or female characters?
DAY SEVEN - Fic affecting your view of a character?
DAY EIGHT - OCs
DAY NINE - Favorite Pairings
DAY TEN - Pairings and your comfort zone
DAY ELEVEN - Favorite Genres
DAY TWELVE - Adaptations

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

We welcome your participation! There is no minimum or maximum requirements for your answers -- they can be as long or as short as you'd like. I will include my answer as a comment.

Comments

[slytherincesss.livejournal.com]

Oh, canon, by far. I'm a canon whore. The only way writing fan fic has changed my perception of canon is to reinforce the fact that I think the Slytherins were written mostly one-dimensionally. Like, they were all unattractive? There are attractive evil people in this world. Like, they all went to help Voldemort at the Battle of Hogwarts? If this is so, why did Phineas Nigellus state, "Let it be known that Slytherin House played its part, too," implying that the Slytherins ultimately fought against Voldemort in the end? From fandom, I would have liked to see more character development of the Slytherins, although I was pretty pleased with Draco's characterization, especially in HBP and DH.

It made me feel a bit hacked off to read subtext in canon and have it either not come to fruition, or have JKR say in an interview somewhere that, oh, that really wasn't subtext at all. In turn, it taught me the importance of following through on subtext in a fic in a satisfying way.

[deirdre-aithne.livejournal.com]

Erm... I'm a bit 50/50, I think? I try to be canon as much as possible, but sometimes, fanon slips in there without meaning to. Or head-canon, which can be so different from person to person, so it's hard to tell sometimes.

[exx-cecilegr.livejournal.com]

Canon is a priority while writing, but there are fanon tropes I fall for, definitely. I love coffee-obsessed!Draco and rentboy!Draco, for instance. I don't think I've written those examples yet, but I would love to.

I slash source material all the time in my head, nowadays. Fandom has definitely affected how I watch/read fiction. Even if I don't further explore a pairing myself, while I'm watching/reading something, I'll think, oh those two have a great dynamic in this scene. I bet they have loads of shippers. :P And when it comes to pairings I already ship, I'll go back and pay special attention to their scenes. One time, I re-watched all of Firefly just to count the Inara/River scenes! xD

[amt149.livejournal.com]

It's about 90% Canon and 10% Fanon for me. I love picking out all the "implied" ideas in Canon, and it's hard for me to write something that varies from the main threads of Canon.

I've read way too many Fanon Fanfics, however, and those tend to inspire me into challenging myself into writing something that I wouldn't normally do, hence the 10% Fanon.

[meglw0228.livejournal.com]

I prefer canon the most. But I won't deny that I use some of fanon's interpretation when I write Slytherin characters. For the most part though I use canon, especially in Star Wars fic. It's definitely not changed the way I see the original source for any of the fandoms; I still see them the same way I saw them when I started reading 5 and even 10 years ago.

[crazyparakiss.livejournal.com]

Canon. I am a fanon nut and enjoy fandom, but not all aspects of fanon possess me. Canon does; save for the Harry/Ginny thing (it should have been Luna XD), and the ALL SLYTERINS ARE EVIL BIGOTS thing. Really? Sirius and James Potter where giant douches, but they were Gryffindors so they were PERRRRFECT. Not. And um, Regulus Black anyone? He's kinda my favorite Slytherin.

[rebecca_selene]

I mostly prefer canon, at least as far as characterization goes. Events and situations are up in the air, though, and I mostly think in EWE-terms, and mostly to the effect of Harry/Ginny does not exist, because it just doesn't make sense to me for quite a few reasons.

I definitely agree about the awfulness of Slytherin-bashing and Gryffindor-worshipping. I was beyond pissed when McGonagall sent ALL the Slytherins to the dungeons in the movie. Everyone was cheering and I was like, WTeffingF are you KIDDING ME?

[tigersilver.livejournal.com]

Canon...till it folds back on itself and makes no sense at all, in any way. Fanon sometimes, tho extreme examples set my teeth on edge unless they are crack. Crack is awesome good fun!
Harry/Ginny as a pairing in HP has never made sense to me, no matter how I peer and poke at it. Tho' to each his own (there's lots of ships; have one!) I tend to go back to canon after indulging in fanon and re-read to set my tracks back to 'zero'. It helps me keep perspective.

[hpfangirl71.livejournal.com]

I do a bit of both but I guess since most of my fave pairings aren't canon then I would have to say I prefer fanon the best!! I just love shaking things up a bit!! :D