Epics Meta Question #1: Headcanon

[singerdiva01]

Answering this week's meta question posted over at bsg_epics:

How does your headcanon for your favourite characters vary from story to story? If you multiship your character in some way, how does your headcanon change between ships?

As I’ve noted before, BSG is my very first fandom and the first show for which I ever even considered writing fanfiction. I was drawn to the show because of the Laura Roslin character and while I primarily tend to ship A/R, my writing up to this point always centers on Laura in some way.

There are a couple of things that stay the same about Laura throughout my fics. Basic biographical things, like the fact that she lost her mother to cancer before losing her father and sisters to a drunk driver as an adult and that she was having an affair with the married President Adar while serving as Secretary of Education. In my headcanon, Laura was a history teacher and, while I’ve seen many fics that portray her as a kindergarten teacher, in my mind she taught older children. I also have her as moving from the classroom to administration sometime before Adar’s mayoral race, and as Superintendent of Caprica City School District after he won that election. I simply can’t find another way to reconcile her jump from “school teacher” to Secretary of Education without those career steps. This piece of headcanon also supports the solid political and leadership skills she displays throughout the show canon.

No matter when in the timeline I am writing her, Laura is a woman whose personality and leadership style have been shaped by incredible loss. She is consistently cautious about developing close, personal relationships and prides herself on her independence. She is practical to a fault, able to compartmentalize her personal feelings to make decisions for the benefit of humanity as a whole. I also maintain, in the end, that while her faith was true it was imbued with that same practicality.

When I ship A/R, I have quite a flexible headcanon, mostly centering around when they started frakking. There are just too many good opportunities to pass up if I always go with Mary Mcdonnell and the show’s canon! However, my headcanon maintains that they began as adversaries and their relationship grew through their mutual respect of one another as leaders. I also believe they were conflicted about the personal and political ramifications of developing a romantic relationship until quite late in the show canon. No matter what, in my headcanon, Laura and Bill are in the end destined for each other as both leaders and lovers.

As for challenges, I don’t have a consistent headcanon because they’re just such a different animal. I’ve written Laura/Lee, Laura/Elosha, Laura/Kara, and am working on Laura/Zarek right now. Those pairing don’t fit with my headcanon; I’m just stretching my writing muscles and playing in a different sandbox. However, I approach each of these pairings by grounding them in my sense of Laura and how she would interact with other characters and what reactions, unconscious or otherwise, she elicits from those characters.

Comments

[lanalucy]

"I’m just stretching my writing muscles and playing in a different sandbox. However, I approach each of these pairings by grounding them in my sense of Laura and how she would interact with other characters and what reactions, unconscious or otherwise, she elicits from those characters."

This is yes.

BSG is the first fandom for which I've written, too. I wrote two three sentence fics for Dawson's Creek and Criminal Minds, but I don't really count those as writing, so I still maintain that I only write BSG. lol

[astreamofstars.livejournal.com]

No matter when in the timeline I am writing her, Laura is a woman whose personality and leadership style have been shaped by incredible loss.

Absolutely. I've said before that so much of Laura's life can pretty much be summed up by the word 'loss', and it affects her so profoundly, in so many ways. I really like your description of Laura :)

This is my first real fandom too. It grabs you and just won't let you go :)

[singerdiva01-sk.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! Not only is this my first fandom, I've only ever seen one other show -- The West Wing -- to the end of the series and I think I adore Laura and BSG so much because it portrays a complicated, middle-aged woman sorting through her personal issues as she comes into her own power as a woman leader. (Would it surprise you I told my mom at 8 I wanted to be the first woman president? hehehe.)

And yes, I really thought this whole writing fic on conference calls while I was supposed to be working and OMFG learning LJ for this fandom would be a passing thing, like nail art and baking. Nope. Been hooked since September, which is a pretty hearty record for my obsessions. ;)

[astreamofstars.livejournal.com]

My obsessions are often pretty shortlived too, but this one has been going on about four years now. Laura took up residence in my head and is refusing to move out!

[singerdiva01-sk.livejournal.com]

Ah! Good to know I'm not alone. Of course, the characters we're drawn to usually embody a combination of qualities we love and hate in ourselves. I'm exploring myself as a young woman starting to age leader in expanding Laura here, I think. But I'm getting the sense that what will keep me here is not the characters but you wonderful people who keep encouraging even my most farfetched fics and my strangest ramblings.

"You came into my thoughts; you filled them. It felt good." <---- BSG fandom for me.

[astreamofstars.livejournal.com]

The BSG fandom is pretty damn awesome. Incredibly accepting and interested in other people's thoughts and opinions, even if they don't ship the same ships or like the same characters as you do. I think we're really lucky because I think that's quite rare!

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

I like your summation of all this (I'm really enjoying reading about people's headcanons for different ships/characters especially how shippers of the canon ships take that into account), especially your approach to other ships you write.

[singerdiva01-sk.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!

I really appreciated your post as well. My favorite thing about this meta is reading how other folks approach extreme A/U -- like other times, other worlds -- because I have such a hard time doing that so far. Forgive me as I've not been around for long but I know you often write Bill/Saul as young and on shore leave, etc. Did you do this right as you began writing them or is it something that developed over time? Do you think it's easier to write A/U like this when the whole pairing in general is A/U rather than in the show canon?

Sorry for all the questions! No pressure to respond, just sitting over here trying to lap up all the learnings. ;)

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't think I process Bill/Saul any differently than I would a canon pairing because their backstory just came naturally to me and it all made sense, with the flashbacks and everything. So I don't really think canon vs non-canon pairings are any easier - it just depends on my level of enthusiasm for the pairing. BSG is the only fandom I've been able to write such wild AUs as, say, werewolves in (though I guess Jane Potter counts as a wild AU, since it's not even Harry!) and again, that all has to do with love for the characters. My first BSG fic was a young!B/S fic (Smoke and Mirrors) and that came about because I wanted to give them a backstory. It just came so naturally to me I can't explain it and to this day I haven't had a story flow out quite like that one did. And now, when I have to pick a setting, for like kink or something, it's about 50/50 if I'll pick canon or pre-canon (or crazy AU!). Just whatever sparks something.

I'll take any excuse to ramble. :)

[singerdiva01-sk.livejournal.com]

Ummm, well, the first thing I will say is that I got through Ch. 2 of Smoke and Mirrors before deciding to reserve that pleasure for getting me through the stair climber at the gym. The long and short of this whole conversation is, even more than I knew before and trust me I already knew it, you are one HELL of a writer. I can't believe that's your first BSG fic. I'd be intimidated if I wasn't so excited that you've deigned to read and respond to my stuff with some of your wisdom and experience! :)

I've said in a couple places that this is my first fandom and my first time writing fic. I assume from the Jane Potter comment (NEED to read but can't find in your archive??) that you've been writing fanfic for a while. Giving you a chance to ramble, how long have you been doing this and what keeps you going so so strong? And, knowing this question might be out of form for LJ and you can tell me if it is, is writing your day job as well?

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you! That one really has a place in my heart because I had SO. MUCH. FUN. writing it. It's one of the things I'm still most proud of.

And honestly, I'm surprised this is your first fandom - your writing is beautiful.

I started writing in '09. I dabbled in Doctor Who and Harry Potter before I watched BSG later that year. BSG just clicked for me. These characters captured my attention in a way that the previous fandoms hadn't and I think I got a lot better and have obviously stuck around. I ship B/S like I've never shipped anything before and I still find there's so much to explore with them. They just hit on character elements I really like, I guess.

Jane is actually new, and I'm posting on FF.net because I wasn't sure what to do with it on LJ since I couldn't find a HP place for it here. So I was in HP and then I came back because I got inspired. :)

And writing isn't my day job. I always did well at writing for school but like I said, didn't start doing it for fun until college.

I'm curious what BSG is like for a first fandom. What sparked your desire to start writing here?

[singerdiva01-sk.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks for your kind words about my writing. I'm now an online feminist organizer by profession but my first foray into the internet was feminist blogging. Funny, in relation to your comment, I was told I wasn't good at it because I could tell other stories very well but had a hard time writing my first person experiences and that is what that space demands. So, as it turns out, fandom is the place for me!

The Jane series is now on my gym read list. Damn, you're gonna keep me fit and motivated all though January! (bow)

As strange as it sounds, swine flu brought me to BSG. I don't like to watch television, in general, but my head hurt too much to read or write or stalk the internets. I work remotely and a sci-fi nerd colleague suggested, kinda sarcastically after I threatened to throw my whole team out a metaphorical window, that I'd like Laura Roslin in BSG. I found it on Netflix and was enamored. In Laura I found my spirit animal.

I only vaguely knew that fandom, not just BSG fandom but fandom as an thing at all, existed. But FF.net was one of the first things I found after I finished the series in a scary short amount of time and googled because I needed more. I read and loved some fic there but, since I was still on sick leave but recovering, I thought I'd just post a few of my own. Just a few little flights of imagination and walk away. But then more googling found Survival Instinct and the adama_roslin comm. I'd never been on LJ in my life and I created an account just to lurk. Never going to have my own journal. Then I did one little MOL challenge over there and all was lost.

This community is something I never knew I needed in my life but now treasure and look forward to interacting with every day. Y'all are all so kind and encouraging and welcoming to a newbie who can't even figure out how to post correctly half the time. I just signed up for a paid account tonight, after this whole meta thing, because I can see that this is not a passing fad but, I think, a group of new friends and experiences. Now I need to get one of my HBIC feminist developer friends to do a header. I HATE this journal layout!

Ha. There ya go. And you thought you had the up on rambling. ;)

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you've joined us. :)

I only have done first year with Jane yet but I'm working on Y2. Hope you like it. :)

[fragrantwoods.livejournal.com]

I really like your headcanon :-) and I'm so glad you've decided to dive into LJ and BSG. I totally get the flu thing--that's how I ended up mingling "Caprica" with BSG and got that canon embedded with BSG very tightly. More recently, I wove "Blood and Chrome" into the mix.

Fandom and LJ have been awesomely giving--I am the least artistic person ever, but I learned to cobble together some icons and headings, and if I can do it, so can you :-)

[singerdiva01-sk.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And I'll take that encouragement to heart. I've also deployed a developer friend to help me on the LJ stuff. YAY sisterhood! ;)

And I suppose I really do need to watch Caprica and Blood and Chrome. It would add a lot of nuance to my fic and probably help me round out the way I write Bill. I pledge to try. But I say this as the person who watched all of BSG post mini the first time round by fast forwarding to parts that had Laura. I had to ease into sci-fi over several watches but I got with it eventually!