Trials and tribulations of writing the au
This is a response to the question posted by
bathsweaver about AU fics,
Oh, I've got questions about setting up/casting AUs, what's kosher or not (given the assumption that everything is acceptable, but some things are more acceptable than others).
Names, for example. If you're setting up an AU in--ah, bah--the Irish Potato Famine (examples are hard!), does it really make sense to have characters with Italian and Polish surnames? And familial relationships--is splitting up/fusing characters' families (Vecchio and Smithbauer are brothers! Frobisher is RayK's dad! Turnbull and Thatcher are siblings!) simply not done?
Or a better question, is there a way to make it work, without asking too much indulgence from your readers?
Notes: I have cited a fair few Alternate Universe fics in this essay. I am aware that the list is incomplete- there are fics I have not touched on, mainly due to time and space (I need a tardis). However, I might not have come across them, and would be very grateful if you could chip in with aus you have enjoyed. It is due to a peculiar cross between research and masochism at this point that I want to read them, for reasons that will become clear below. This essay should also possibly be called a meandering…chip in, correct, interact- I am in a position as far from knowledge as the original questioner. Enormous thanks go to
eledhwenlin for her amazing powers of finding a fic based on a few vague phrases, and enormouser thanks go to
lamentables for an amazingly fast, amazingly insightful beta on this thing. Errors are mine, the good things are hers *g*.
The Au: Trials, Tribulations, and…other things that begin with ‘T’
Now I have been writing/thinking about writing a due South alternate universe fic for about six months or so now. It’s…it’s almost a rite of passage, like the post COTW story- in both types of fic there are towering examples that are staples of the fanfiction canon, that define and explore the characters and their relationships. There are Aus involving hockey, pizza delivery, scientists, geologists, professors, car mechanics, mermaids, members of the Russian corps de Ballet (well, perhaps not, but you get my drift). It’s a wonderful genre…
It’s also terrifying.
See, the very concept of the alternate universe is, in itself, a vast and nebulous one. The principle of an infinite number of alternate universes, in which there are changes made to perceived reality, states that these changes can be any size. This means that a fic in which Fraser had a smaller nose would be a valid candidate for the AU genre. It would be absurd, and a pointless exercise to advertise said fic as an AU fic, but it is an illustration of the breadth of classification here. Here, though, is a brief examination of types of AU, some of which I have examples of, some of which I would be grateful for examples of. The terms I use are ones I have pulled out of my hat.
Pivotal Event AU- This AU explores changes to the plot arc canonically set out. These changes are to momentous events, like the end of Victoria’s Secret, Juliet is Bleeding, Mountie on the Bounty, Ladies Man, Call of the Wild, to name but a few. Events we see unfolding on screen are skewed, changed, meaning that the lives of the characters are radically changed. Fraser and Ray part ways after Mountie on the Bounty. Well, Fraser would go to Canada, Ray would stay in Chicago, miserable, and…well, hth’s amazing ‘ghosti’ gives you a possible sequence of events. In science fiction writing, these pivotal eventpoints are called Jonbar Points, but I prefer my wording *g*. The Pivotal Event AU is one that takes canon for a walk and ends up in some interesting places.
There is a subsection here of aus where an event or situation before the Pilot episode means that while the 2-7 exists, one of the main characters has a different role although the environment has not changed. The framework of due South still exists, but there is an absence there, with a corresponding shift in events. ( bdtmfh- a beautiful fic, which is….horribly plausible, considering the replacement Canadian in question *g*) This should possibly be called the ‘it’s a wonderful life’ au.
And then we get to …well the rest of them in fact. The vast wilderness out there, uncharted, full of possibility. To the uninitiated, it’s a strange way of writing. In the beginning of writing my AU (more on that later), I read out a section to a writer’s group I attend for some feedback, and one of the comments I got was ‘why not write original fiction, if you’re not using the canon?’(the original versus fanfiction debate feels far too much like revisiting old territory, but I wish I had a notebook full of links that I could give to people who said that, to make ‘em say three hail cesperanzas, like this link, an incredible essay from
cupidsbow here) I possibly mumbled something indistinct, looked down at my woefully holey plot outline and wondered why I was bothering. But the joy of the AU, at least in due South, is that these people could be anyone, and still be them. Errm…yes, well.
What I mean is that you can change the world these characters live in (
troyswann Real Boys , Elizabeth, the slaves au ), you can change their careers (
kelliem's Somewhere else to be) and still have them as recognisably Ray and Fraser. There are perceptions of character, fandom in-jokes, and other characters the actors have played that can be used. In other words, there is a whole canonical background and emotional and motivational landscape for the writer to play in. The shared language of fanfiction and other fannish interactions means that calling the evil figure in the AU ‘Tori’ will make sense to the collective readership, just as the names ‘Franklin’ and ‘Warfield’ will set off alarm bells in the reader’s mind. There is a game here between reader and writer of how much can be changed while remaining recognisable- how much of the characters can be chipped away at? How many of the bricks can be taken away before the roof collapses?
Could Fraser be made into a liar? Could Ray Kowalski become a living statue? Could Ray Vecchio become a soldier? Welsh into a medieval knight? The wonder of it all is that the answer is ‘yes’. The ‘if’ that follows, though, that’s the reason Aus aren’t peddled out with the same joyous frequency as alleysex fics.
This brings me in a rather tenuous way to the issues bathsweaver has asked about, audience indulgence being the most important one. With this fandom comes a willingness to suspend disbelief, the integrity of the canon coming not from its rigorous attention to probability but from the goodness inherent in the main characters and their personal codes, ethics and interactions.
But with an AU where the world is different, there is another layer. There is an interweaving of canon and the fabric of this other world. The hockeyfic taught us all we needed to know about hockey, the assumption being that the situation into which the characters are being placed will be researched, and make sense from that perspective too. It also gave us poor saps trailing afterwards the impossible task of even coming close to this fic’s amazingness. So we have
a) characterisation
2) research of the world into which they are placed- plausibility, shall we say
iii) the character’s places in this world
This is, I think, the crux of what bathseaver’s question addresses. Theoretically, every single character in due South could be given a role in this alternate universe, right down to that annoying ambassador’s daughter in Chicago Holiday. Where to stop? Who changes, who stays the same? This is, of course, up to the writer, and is a mix of character and plausibility. Roles and names are things that are decided initially, provide much of the impetus for the story, and are ornery tricksy things. And now, I come to my process of writing, and explaining about my own alternate universe.
This is called the Musician Au in my head, and will, I expect, be called that even after I have a title. Its basic premise is that Fraser is a cellist, Ray Kowalski a violinist, Ray Vecchio a pianist, and Bob Fraser a composer and conductor (deceased). Those were the essential characters, the characters I started out with, my foundation stones. From the point of view of plot impetus, Sam Franklin needed to be Ray Kowalski’s mentor, and Gerard needed to be a composer and friend of Bob Fraser. The rest was secondary.
Now, reasoning. I needed to know why they were playing music not solving crime, even if I didn’t show it, for my own sake really. Exposition isn’t really necessary- in this alternate universe there might not really have been a pivotal point at which everything changed for each of the characters. In many cases, long explanations are tedious. I just found it helpful, as I was working with some people having changed their roles, some having…upshifted, and I didn’t want a situation where all of them just…decided to become musicians, without any plausible reason for it, like a career-based version of the ‘character x woke up gay’ stories that proliferate all fandoms.
So Ray Vecchio’s change in career happened for the simplest of reasons:
My dad won something. He actually managed to win something gambling. Still a deadbeat, but a deadbeat with money. The day after he wins it, he sits each of us down and asks us what we want. I said I wanted to be a basketball star, and he said yeah, sure, I can make you one of those, but…I didn’t want it to be just him waving a wand, throwing some money at someone and bada-bing, I could do it. I was ten and I still thought he could do that, cause he was my pa, y’know? So I changed my mind, told him I wanted to play piano. He ruffled my hair- yeah, sure, laugh, I had some then, Kowalski- and bought me a piano, got me set up with a teacher, and…even when the money was gone from that, the piano stayed. I did odd jobs, got a paper round and paid for the lessons myself when pa drank the housekeeping money away, and I worked at it, practiced hard, as hard as I could. And…I made it, I guess. Didn’t hit the big time, but who does? A handful. It’s what I’m good at, though, what I chose.
The placing of secondary characters was also something to consider.
I was going to have Frannie as an opera singer. Because clearly, as her brother is a pianist, it must run in the family, right? (well, no, but still) But I thought it would be more interesting to shift things around within the canonical framework, and have Frannie as the detective, partnered with Renfield Turnbull, who first came to Chicago on the trail of some illegally imported cheese and stayed for the pizza, and because he managed to lose his passport. I realised that not everyone has to be changed, and sometimes it’s better to change a few things, not everything. Besides, it keeps the readers on their toes.
Suspension of disbelief, as I believe I was getting round to. What I find is that you can put the characters anywhere, as long as you have a reason to, and can sustain it. Finding them roles isn’t the tricky part, in many ways. It’s the changing aspects of them to fit those roles- their pasts, opinions, habits, names…
The characters and plot are subordinate to the framework and context in this case, and things that are not essential to the character should be assessed with regards to context- do they fit in? Does the world fit around the characters and do the characters fit into the world? Would Fraser be an outlaw in a cowboy AU? Kneejerk reactions say no, he would be the sheriff. Thinking about it some more, I could see him becoming an outlaw, but only if his crimes are ones he didn’t commit, were committed as an act of conscience, or he lied to protect someone he loved. You want Fraser as an outlaw, fine. Make sure it makes sense. So you have the character framework there. Now what do you do? Hopefully, you research. The legal system, bounty hunters, what a fetlock actually is, how far a horse could ride in a day, whether sand would be an issue having open air sex out in the desert…
World and characterisation intermesh well by this point, hopefully.
Names are a part of this world; I couldn’t agree more with bathsweaver on this point. When working in an au historical/ geographical framework, anachronisms jar for me. Renaming…well, that’s another question for those with knowledge of this. I only know that unless you explain it away by having the Kowalskis emigrate from Poland, it is not a name you would find in Ireland, just as I know that writing a musician au and calling the violin strings f,a,e and g shows sloppy research. These details don’t change who the characters are, but they change how real the world seems, and how jarring the transition seems. Sadly, there have been no fanfics set in Ireland during the potato famine. I feel that this needs to be rectified *throws down gauntlet* but once my behemoth of a fic is finished, I will be laying off anything that requires any sort of explanation beyond FraserandRayarepartnerssometimestheyhavesextheend.
I did, however, find an alternate universe fic set partly in Renaissance Italy, Ecce Homo, that dealt with the name issue and got away with it very well indeed. How do the names Raimundo Vecchio, Benedetto Frasier, René Voltabufalo and Stanislaus sound to you? Raimundo is, of course, an Italian merchant, Benedetto is French, René (hee hee, Turnbull) is Italian and Stanislaus is Polish. It’s a short read, and I really like the way canonical references are woven into it, and also the way that having it set in a port means that the nationalities being together is plausible. There’s one good example for you, and I would love to hear more, and also hear your views on the names. I think the worldsetting takes preference over canon, what do you think?
Splitting up and fusing characters’ families…another thing I hadn’t considered. It hasn’t been done before really, I suppose because changing around parents changes the person- it is an inescapable genetic change, and one that seems to interfere with who the character is, which is something that, for all that their roles change, an au doesn’t do. The difference in the character’s respective upbringings is going to shape them, forming their characters (either as an acceptance or a reaction against) and opinions. On the other hand, of course, Turnbull being Fraser’s slightly simple younger brother would certainly add a certain…comedy. Canonically, it has been done with Maggie Mackenzie, but she grew up away from Fraser. I don’t know if it’s ‘simply not done’ or if it takes thinking about, and a fair bit of planning.
It boils down to ‘how much can you change, and keep it feeling like a due South fic?’, which is a fascinating dilemma, and one which I am not sure if I have worked out yet, or ever will. It’s a bit like Theseus’ boat, where on a voyage, every plank, beam and sail was changed, one by one as they wore out, except as
lamentables pointed out, the ship also gets painted differently, and maybe the sails are set a different way. Was the ship that arrived at the docks the same ship? How much can you change of a character before they cease to be that character? What can you discard, what must you keep? Are there any boundaries to it, really, and where should limits be imposed on the seemingly limitless?