Walter Mitty Reimagined...

Maybe it's being born in the *very* American Midwest, where plain speaking and independent thinking is a way of life. Or maybe it comes from being the last born of the family, a position where what one says is smiled at with indulgence and dismissed. Maybe it was being turned down for a job simply because "ladies" would be offended at the language used by the current workers.

Yeah.

So I have this thing about rights. I tend to get angry with people who try to curtail those rights, or intimidate others so they can't enjoy those rights. The right to associate with whomever they want. The right to voice their opinion, however unpopular. The right to be themselves.

Sometimes that anger works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes people take on that anger for themselves and say, "Enough is enough!" And they state their opinions and they go where they want. They accept their right to be themselves.

Sometimes it doesn't work so well. Sometimes I find that anger oozes into the very thing that was the cause of the dispute. And something that I enjoyed becomes a constant reminder of the anger and frustrations.

And that makes me even angrier.

It's a vicious cycle that only I can stop.

I enjoy writing fictional stories. I enjoy writing them about a silly little TV show that had characters I liked. I enjoy taking those characters and "continuing" the show. I enjoy taking those characters and expanding my writing skills. Developing skills at dialogue, at developing a plot line, deepening a characterization. Even learning how to research - how to check facts, see if what I want to do could be done. And dreaming of the day when I could feel confident enough to take those skills and write something completely and uniquely my own.

It's fanfic. It's not going to change the world or earn a Pulitzer. But it brings enjoyment - to me, to those who read it. It gives me a challenge, and at the same time, a confirmation that there is indeed something I can do well. It's a hobby and more. No, it's not the do-all and end-all of my life.

But it's important to me.

And that's why I want others to be able to say what they think, and "gather" (as one does on the 'net anyway) with whomever they want. I want them to have those rights. It's important. But it's just as important to leave the anger and the frustration aside and get back to enjoying what it was that started the whole mess in the first place.

In the world of macrobiotics, a recurring theme is balance. Yin and yang. So I need to leave the anger and the frustration and say, "Okay. We've got a place where people can join in, and if they want to, welcome. If they aren't ready, feel intimidated, feel disloyal - well, when they are ready, no longer feel intimidated, realize that there can be more than one place to talk - welcome."

And in the meantime, I'm going to take a breath, and enjoy hearty discussions, and exchanging ideas, even if there are only a few who join me. I'm going to go back to my silly little TV show and have some smiles. But mostly, I'm going to sit at my pc and do the thing that was all I really wanted to do in the first place.

I'm going to write.

What do writers of fanfic like to do most? That should be obvious - take the characters they know and love from a television show, movie, or book and put them in new situations, or expand on canon experiences. What do readers of fanfic like most? To read about the characters they know and love in these new situations.

So why, in God's name, do so many writers completely ignore who the characters are?

I'm speaking, specifically, about A-Team fanfic, but this can be asked of any - Harry Potter, Buffy, Star Trek. The fandom doesn't matter. The genre - het, gen, or slash - doesn't matter. The story doesn't matter.

The characters do.

The CHARACTERS do.

We love our characters. We love the nuances, the experiences, the unanswered questions. We love how they react to circumstances. We love the interaction between them.

So why do so many authors completely ignore them when they write? And I do mean, ignore them. In TAT, the guys are Special Forces soldiers who have been through war, POW camps, being chased by the military for years - they face bullets, bombs and fists as if in a game of basketball. They thrive on living on the edge. So what do so many writers do to them?

They make them cry.

Now, crying isn't all bad. Given extreme enough circumstances, any man will break down. But a familiar scenario is that one of them gets the crap beaten out of them, and one of the others sits down and cries in anguish.

Who the hell is that guy?

This happens in all genres - het, gen, slash. ALL genres. The author wants to tell a story, and they use the characters in their fandom to tell it. Great. Fantastic. But suddenly the characters are doing things and saying things that they never, ever said on the show, in the movie, or on the pages of the book. Doing and saying things they would never dream of in canon.

These are not the characters we know and love and want to read about in new situations.

These are strangers.

These are OCs.

Of course, one has to make an allowance for slash. And I know - there are definitions of slash ad nauseum. For my purposes, we're talking about our characters having a sexual relationship with another character of the same sex. In slash, by this definition, the guys are acting out of character. We accept that, because of the genre. We accept that. But that doesn't mean that our Special Forces guys suddenly become stereotypical fairies. It means that *our* guys, the characters we know and love are having a homosexual relationship that needs to be explored - as *our* guys. (And for heaven's sake, admit that it *is* a homosexual relationship, and leave the homophobic "we're not gay, just having a same-sex relationship" at the door.)

What do writers of fanfic like to do most? Take the characters they know and love and put them in new situations. What do readers of fanfic like most? To read about the characters they know and love in these new situations.

If you can't stick with the characters, the canon characters, then write an original story. Don't call it fanfic. Don't use our guys' names. Because these *aren't* our guys. Okay? Just write the story with your own characters - because that's exactly what you're already doing.