I think that, no matter the fandom, you need to be pretty damn familiar with the characters and, at the least, familiar with the events that make the person who they are.
Using due South as an example: I did in-depth research into the show, as well as read every single fic that I could get my hands on before I even considered writing in the fandom. I have, thus far, only seen three episodes (BDtH, Eclipse, and CotW), but it's more from circumstance rather than my not wanting to watch the show.
If you have the available resources, however, I think that you should use it to the fullest extent because it helps you to get a handle on the character(s) and also to make everything that you write more believable.
See, actually, I would consider that option 3, you know? Three episodes is limited direct exposure, and then using fans and other research for the rest of it.
[nods] I was debating between options 2 and 3, but in the end I still chose 2 because I think there's no substitute for experiencing the canon firsthand.
No matter how much you read up on all the due South episodes, even though it's as thorough as, say, a transcript, you're still missing out on a lot of things like body language and such. Same if you're experiencing the characters through fiction; you don't really know how much is canon and how much is filtered through the perspective of the author.
I'm still not really comfortable writing longer pieces because I don't feel like I have a handle on the characters yet. Then again, this is just from my perspective; other people may feel perfectly fine with limited exposure.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
7/8/04 22:03 (UTC)I think that, no matter the fandom, you need to be pretty damn familiar with the characters and, at the least, familiar with the events that make the person who they are.
Using due South as an example: I did in-depth research into the show, as well as read every single fic that I could get my hands on before I even considered writing in the fandom. I have, thus far, only seen three episodes (BDtH, Eclipse, and CotW), but it's more from circumstance rather than my not wanting to watch the show.
If you have the available resources, however, I think that you should use it to the fullest extent because it helps you to get a handle on the character(s) and also to make everything that you write more believable.
(no subject)
7/8/04 22:34 (UTC)(no subject)
7/8/04 22:58 (UTC)No matter how much you read up on all the due South episodes, even though it's as thorough as, say, a transcript, you're still missing out on a lot of things like body language and such. Same if you're experiencing the characters through fiction; you don't really know how much is canon and how much is filtered through the perspective of the author.
I'm still not really comfortable writing longer pieces because I don't feel like I have a handle on the characters yet. Then again, this is just from my perspective; other people may feel perfectly fine with limited exposure.