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singerdiva01Answering this week's meta question posted over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
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.
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.
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no subject
Date: 2014-01-21 02:25 am (UTC)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?
no subject
Date: 2014-01-21 02:43 am (UTC)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?
no subject
Date: 2014-01-21 03:09 am (UTC)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
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. ;)
no subject
Date: 2014-01-21 04:18 am (UTC)I only have done first year with Jane yet but I'm working on Y2. Hope you like it. :)
no subject
Date: 2014-01-22 02:42 am (UTC)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 :-)
no subject
Date: 2014-01-22 05:08 am (UTC)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!