I like what Basingstoke (above) had to say about reaching a "turning point". I am the same way, I don't need to see the entirety of the canon, I just have to click with the characters to write. Until I click, until I "get it", I can't write.
A lot of it has to do with being part of a fandom's community, where I get thoughtful, intelligent interaction with people in the fandom and get the benefit of their observations in essay, discussion and fic, and support for my own writing via talking out problems I might be having. I had only seen 5 eps of Forever Knight when I wrote my first FK fic, and now that I look back at the story, it still stands up as if I'd seen every episode. Through discussions of the characters with people on ForKni-L and reading other people's fic, I was able to understand and internalize the characters and their dynamics from only a few eps. I had seen only half of second season of Due South and then the pilot when I found I could write DS. But I had to see the pilot, see that the other Mounties he'd been working with up there in the cold, snowy wastes did not like or understand Fraser, before I clicked with my fav nut-case.
Fannish support has always been very important to me in my writing, just as important as canon.
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8/8/04 11:15 (UTC)A lot of it has to do with being part of a fandom's community, where I get thoughtful, intelligent interaction with people in the fandom and get the benefit of their observations in essay, discussion and fic, and support for my own writing via talking out problems I might be having. I had only seen 5 eps of Forever Knight when I wrote my first FK fic, and now that I look back at the story, it still stands up as if I'd seen every episode. Through discussions of the characters with people on ForKni-L and reading other people's fic, I was able to understand and internalize the characters and their dynamics from only a few eps. I had seen only half of second season of Due South and then the pilot when I found I could write DS. But I had to see the pilot, see that the other Mounties he'd been working with up there in the cold, snowy wastes did not like or understand Fraser, before I clicked with my fav nut-case.
Fannish support has always been very important to me in my writing, just as important as canon.