How to Write a Good Fanfic

7.1.1 - Fixfic - Aye or Nay

The other day I came across the profile of another fanfic writer. What they pretty much said can be surmised as those who write fixfic aren't true fans of the series. This got me thinking about how when I first started in fandom the idea of writing fixfic was majorly derided. Much of this came from the fact most if not all of the fixfic we saw resulted from writers fixing things which did not need to be fixed.

Take for example Borimer's death in the Lord of the Rings. Prior to the movies releasing nobody cared about fixing this issue. Those who read the books saw the meaning behind Borimer's death. After the first movie released we saw an advent of fans who instead saw a handsome face worth saving; certain fans swooned over the actor but found the death of Borimer unfair.

Mind you, exploring what would happen if Borimer hadn't died isn't a bad story idea. In fact, exploring the idea isn't in itself a fixfic but simply an AU. The story became a fixfic because of the writer's tone which indicated Tolkien was wrong for killing of Borimer. Something similar happened when J.K. Rowling killed off Sirius Black. Stories simply exploring the what if of him not dying go over far better in fandom than stories which insist Rowling was wrong.

In fact, the reason fixfic became so derided came down to the fact writers attempted fixing things which didn't need to be fixed. This led to things such as Harry Potter being even more abused by the Dursley family because the amount of abuse was in their mind unrealistic, yet this screamed the writers and readers who liked such stories knew more about physical and sexual abuse over emotional and mental so they couldn't recognize what Rowling wrote was realistic; worse, what they ended up writing was unrealistic because they knew nothing about abuse.

Then came Twilight.

Twilight changed fandom in the fact for the first time a legit reason for creating fixfic appeared. What though, is the difference between Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter and Twilight?

The answer comes down to whether or not someone can write a well thought out essay regarding the works flaws which can not easily be refuted or not. This isn't to say people haven't tried, yet in most cases they majorly fail. In the case of Harry Potter the writer almost always has a bias. For example, articles calling Harry a Gary Stu almost always involve using the symptoms and not going into how he actually is a Gary Stu, but the fix also seems to be him becoming an actual Gary Stu.

Yup.

When someone tries fixing something which doesn't need to be fixing because they think it needs to be fixed what ends up happening is the writer simply ends up making the mistakes they were trying to avoid. In trying to make the abuse in Harry Potter realistic they end up making it unrealistic. In trying to make Harry not a Gary Stu they end up making him into one.

However, when someone wrote a story for Twilight where the characters actually reacted to Bella's bratty behavior by being turned off of wanting anything to do with her the exact opposite was true.

In other words, the first question one needs to ask when writing a fixfic is this.

Is what I'm wanting to fix something that needs to be fixed?

More specifically, ask if you're classifying it as wrong for personal tastes or because it is wrong.

Over on MAL there is a locked topic where someone discussed rewriting Bleach because they didn't like the pacing and felt the story had to many characters. What they suggested was a story where the pacing was rushed – indicating they had attention span issues – but where a lot of important characters ended up cut and only their personal favorites were left.

In fact, the only thing which needs to be fixed about Bleach is the last two chapters where there are contradictions such as Chad – who swore he would only use his fists for protecting is suddenly using his fists in the boxing ring for personal gain. Of course, my brother surmises this is because Orihime was dying we last saw and let her reality control ability get out of control, but that is neither here or there.

Fix fic is something one needs to be careful regarding. Period. Not to mention this type of AU results not from just a "what if" but the idea something was wrong in the original.