though I think I like AU fics for the sole reason that the struggles in an AU are usually...small, intimate.
Those can work really well-- I'm glad Kyusil linked to "Consolation Prize," because I was trying to remember that story as the sole example I've seen of a modern AU that worked completely. Though I did like a lot of what you did in... that story where Lyn was raising Sue as a single mom? There were some really vivid parts in it, like the birthday party scene. Kinda felt Rath got the Innes treatment there, though.
I think a pitfall of many modern AUs is that they don't have that kind of tight focus seen in "Consolation Prize," or they start out with focus but then lose it. And then you either have something that's trying to follow the canonical plot and failing because the pieces don't fit, or something ditches the plot but ends up losing the sense of whatever struggle there was-- personal, interpersonal, or otherwise. And since there's not the canonical anchor points to fall back on, the story kind of goes off a cliff, Wile E Coyote style..
Canonical anchor points, after all, being a big part of what makes fanfiction, well, fanfic.
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Date: 2011-09-30 02:53 am (UTC)Those can work really well-- I'm glad Kyusil linked to "Consolation Prize," because I was trying to remember that story as the sole example I've seen of a modern AU that worked completely. Though I did like a lot of what you did in... that story where Lyn was raising Sue as a single mom? There were some really vivid parts in it, like the birthday party scene. Kinda felt Rath got the Innes treatment there, though.
I think a pitfall of many modern AUs is that they don't have that kind of tight focus seen in "Consolation Prize," or they start out with focus but then lose it. And then you either have something that's trying to follow the canonical plot and failing because the pieces don't fit, or something ditches the plot but ends up losing the sense of whatever struggle there was-- personal, interpersonal, or otherwise. And since there's not the canonical anchor points to fall back on, the story kind of goes off a cliff, Wile E Coyote style..
Canonical anchor points, after all, being a big part of what makes fanfiction, well, fanfic.