Dept. of four-plus (!) months of Doctor Who memeishness
Tuesday, 19 April 2011 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rTwo Days In a Row - Goodness!
It's Day 28 of the 30 Day Doctor Who meme for me, and the subject it asks me to talk about - a Doctor Who episode idea I created myself - is one I actually find difficult to approach. That's odd, perhaps, given my forays into writing fan fiction, but it's true. Still, I'll take a stab at it.
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Day 28 - An Episode Idea You Created Yourself
I would argue (in a spectacular burst of understatement) that fan fiction differs in many ways from the writing involved in its sources, and serves a different need for fans. In the case of DW, the original source is largely episodic television writing. The differences are, therefore, two-fold. Not only is the content different - fan fiction most often explores specifically what original books/movies/episodes don't - but the goals are different and the very format is different. Put those things together, and the gap between fanfic and source DW material becomes really wide.
I am currently trying to put together a story which will (I hope) eventually become part of a virtual DW season, and I'm working through those differences. I'm realizing that most episodes include some mystery that has to be solved, to a greater or lesser extent. And writing anything with a mystery requires a lot of discipline. For one thing, you need to know all the answers before you start writing, because you have a specific time limit, or space limit in which to work - you can't just wander through an unfolding plot until you discover the answers to the questions you might inadvertently ask (which is how I normally write, god help me.)
The plot I've developed is surprisingly mundane (perhaps I should say "traditional"), in that it focuses on the disappearance of a major character, and the questions of a) just who among a given number of additional characters are responsible for the disappearance and b) just why the bad guy or guys has done so, and c) just how. It's all very plot-oriented, without a lot of the focus on characterization that I normally am most comfortable with. It's a challenge that I'm enjoying, though.
That's really dancing all around the actual subject, I suppose. When it comes to a specific story idea? Anything I could think of has probably been considered, assayed or completed by other writers ... but after a little thought, I think I'd like to do a "bottle" episode, one that involves staying in the TARDIS and exploring Her near-infinite depths. I really want to see companions being drawn into the undiscovered country inside our favorite dimensionally transcendent blue box.
It's Day 28 of the 30 Day Doctor Who meme for me, and the subject it asks me to talk about - a Doctor Who episode idea I created myself - is one I actually find difficult to approach. That's odd, perhaps, given my forays into writing fan fiction, but it's true. Still, I'll take a stab at it.
*************************
Day 28 - An Episode Idea You Created Yourself
I would argue (in a spectacular burst of understatement) that fan fiction differs in many ways from the writing involved in its sources, and serves a different need for fans. In the case of DW, the original source is largely episodic television writing. The differences are, therefore, two-fold. Not only is the content different - fan fiction most often explores specifically what original books/movies/episodes don't - but the goals are different and the very format is different. Put those things together, and the gap between fanfic and source DW material becomes really wide.
I am currently trying to put together a story which will (I hope) eventually become part of a virtual DW season, and I'm working through those differences. I'm realizing that most episodes include some mystery that has to be solved, to a greater or lesser extent. And writing anything with a mystery requires a lot of discipline. For one thing, you need to know all the answers before you start writing, because you have a specific time limit, or space limit in which to work - you can't just wander through an unfolding plot until you discover the answers to the questions you might inadvertently ask (which is how I normally write, god help me.)
The plot I've developed is surprisingly mundane (perhaps I should say "traditional"), in that it focuses on the disappearance of a major character, and the questions of a) just who among a given number of additional characters are responsible for the disappearance and b) just why the bad guy or guys has done so, and c) just how. It's all very plot-oriented, without a lot of the focus on characterization that I normally am most comfortable with. It's a challenge that I'm enjoying, though.
That's really dancing all around the actual subject, I suppose. When it comes to a specific story idea? Anything I could think of has probably been considered, assayed or completed by other writers ... but after a little thought, I think I'd like to do a "bottle" episode, one that involves staying in the TARDIS and exploring Her near-infinite depths. I really want to see companions being drawn into the undiscovered country inside our favorite dimensionally transcendent blue box.
