Serials With Roasted Nuts

The Angst Guy and Thomas Mikkelsen have pointed out two new trends in Daria fan fiction.

The first of these trends is that the stories have been moving from "canon" portrayals to what can best be called "science-fiction/fantasy". More and more of the new Daria fiction works are either set in the future, or in clearly alternate universes, or use science-fiction to move the story along. It's almost hard to think of a story in the past three months that DIDN'T have one of these hooks.

Undoubtedly, the reason this is happening is because the series is no longer open-ended. It's over, five seasons and we're all done. Everything that we're going to find out about the characters has supposedly been found out. As a result, writers are trying to step outside the bounds of the Lawndale High School universe and use the characters in other ways.

So what do I think? Well, I like some of the stories and I don't like others. A science fiction story can be great, but even science fiction can be tiresome after a while. There are still many unanswered questions from the series -- what is Andrea's home life like, how serious was Daria's "Montana Cabin Fund"?, did Quinn really give it away on dates (movie-burger-backseat) or were the Fashion Club virginal untouchables? I would like to see more "on canon" stories; what I want to see most of all is well written stories.

The second trend is what I call the "serial". For purposes of discussion, a "serial" is a story which comes in segments and for which the end date is unknown. The Angst Guy has explicitly called "Drive" a serial; I believe this is the first work of Daria fan fiction given that designation.

Serials have actually been around for a long time. The Look-Alike Series, The New Teacher Series, all sorts of episodic continuations could be called "serials". I would call these serials "open-ended serials" - serials where no end date is actually planned; the stories could theoretically go on forever. In which case, the "chapters" or "parts" are simply separate works of fan fiction and should be treated as such. "Bed and Breakfast Man" and "Falling Into College" are future serials that have at least 20 parts each and it is unlikely that either author has a definite, fixed conclusion planned.

I suspect, however, that we are entering the age of the "closed-ended serial". A closed-ended serial has actually been plotted out, the author knows how it's going to end. The only question is, "when will the author bring it to an end?" Examples could be "Kidnapped" by Lawndale Stalker and "Shadow of a Cynic" by Ranger Thorne, "FBCB" by Wraith, and I'm sure others can be named.

So are we to treat each chapter as a separate work of fan fiction? The chapters are released, sporadically, and readers are asked for feedback. Mr. Mikkelsen wanted to know, I assume, why writers had this overwhelming need for positive feedback (ego strokes) before releasing new chapters. The implication being, the reason that the story isn't released entirely intact is that the writer needs the ego boost.

Science-fiction fandom, in the story "The Enchanted Duplicator", has its protagonist look for the "egg o'boo" (ego-boo, or 'ego boost') at the end of his long allegorical travels. Comments are really one of the only tangible rewards for writing in fan fiction, and I don't think that it's ENTIRELY a bad thing to release a story piecemeal that isn't actually an open-ended serial. However, I would hope that writers were made of stronger stuff.

The problem is a "cheapening of the coin of the realm" -- giving good comments unreservedly results in a flood of bad fan fiction. This leads us into the entire murky water of "constructive criticism" -- what it means, and if such a thing really exists at all. No one writes to GET bad comments; the question is that if the writer is really writing for feedback (instead of just ego-boosts), then bad comments shouldn't be a problem at all -- they can only help the story.

My thought exercise -- what if some of the serials on both PPMB and SFMB got real criticism? Would the writers be glad for any feedback? Would they stop writing? How close to the bone are you permitted to cut when delivering critism? A very important question, particularly on PPMB, the most heavily moderated of the Daria message boards.