by Shanami » Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:32 pm
While I do tend to agree, that it is a good rule in general to know a good bit about the series used in writing, I can see a lot of exceptions.
I think the easiest example would be where you want to take just one element from a series and incorporate it into a work of fanfiction. I think a good example of this would be the Cloud-Dreamer fic "Wandless Magic." The basic concept was to take one idea from Ranma, the gender switching curse, and abuse the heck of out it in the Harry Potter universe. Zero knowledge about Ranma, aside from the fact that there are water based curses, was used in the fic, but it was very amusing and quite well written.
I also can see the use of a story up to a certain point, as Ellen pointed out. With regard the Harry Potter, I much prefer to just think about the first 4 books and ignore the rest. Much of my favorite Harry Potter-verse fic, crossover or otherwise, stops following canon at some point in the series. In fact, unless writing a continuation piece, complete knowledge of a series seems to be irrelevant. For example, let's say that I wanted to write a Naruto-fic (which I will never do because, while I enjoy some of the fan works, I cannot tolerate the actual series and don't know it well enough to write) that diverged after the Wave arc. Knowledge of what happens after the timeskip doesn't need to apply at all to the story.
And, as usual, I believe that comedy-fics can break any and all rules, so long as they are funny.
Generally, I think better works will tend to come from authors that truly know their material, but I think I'm rambling rather hard here.
Senshi of Titania (Uranus III)