Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Friday, January 13, 2006
End of the week. I'll ramble on a bit today.
Apologies for such a short post yesterday. I had other things on the brain! ;-)
One thing I did accomplish yesterday was an update to the House fic Playing Doctor. And sigh, I've noticed a problem with the menus on the left-hand side of the fanfic pages. I need to figure that one out.
And while I'm on that topic, somone over at Live Journal yesterday floated the topic of a House teenage daughter fanfic. The replies began with people cautioning the writer that this device has been done way too many times, and hardly ever believeably. Then the next batch of comments were from people brainstormong on how to make it work. Almost everyone thinks that the girl should be as snarky as the dad. Why?
While I still can't wrap my head around Greg House having a teenage daughter, it would stand to reason that this girl didn't spend her formative years with dad. If she's had little or no contact with him (as many of these fics postulate) why would she be just like dad? Because it's cool. Because if your Mary Sue character is just like dad, then dad will like her, and by extension, like you.
This is such a load of crap.
Just for once I would like to see an intelligent take on this. I did see one in which House refused to believe it and did some DNA testing (good), but the daughter was still a female version of dear old dad. Reality check, girls: Are you just like either of your parents? If your parents are divorced, are you just like your non-custodial parent? I would guess not.
Let's take a look at the typical scenario: A girl ranging from 14 to 26 bops into PPTH and screams "hi, I'm your daughter!" House hasn't seen her in years. What do you feel if you haven't seen your dad since you were a tiny tot - if ever? Just a wee bit of resentment, perhaps? Curiousity? Or do you don a black lab coat, feign a limp and try to be just like dad? He didn't accept you all those years ago, why would he accept you today? This is the big problem I have with these stories. Very few fanfiction writers seem to be capable of acknowledging the fact that relationships aren't all beds of roses. Of course, almost every writer thinks that her story is the exception to the rule.
Once in a while someone wil break the rule and it will be beautiful. But the other 99 times the story will be pure crap. But I keep reading in hopes that someone will craft that 100th story. Could it be me? I'm not sure that I could pull it off. I might give it a try, but I suspect it would be consigned to the virtual dusty corner of my hard drive along with my other stories that don't quite work.
Well, I've rambled on more than I planned. Must go finish the Friday laundry and go forage for food. Have a good weekend.
Tags: Writing, Fanfic