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Comments

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

That's an absolute horror of a DNW for a writer to work with. It's too broad and subjective. I would default instantly.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

+1 I saw this in the wild and read it aloud to my friend like, how would anyone even manage this?! We were baffled.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

+2

I feel like the easiest way around it would be, like, write a Jeeves fic but aim vaguely in the direction of IDK, Douglas Adams or someone.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Just write your own style? I don't see what's so hard about it. Not trying to imitate the original author's / creator's style doesn't seem like a massive effort; to the contrary!

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

But I don't have "a style"? I write in wildly different styles depending on the canon, and even when I used to write original fic, I had very different styles depending on the subject matter. Do you only have one style of prose you write?

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

My style has changed over the years and it's different now than it was 20 years ago, and I guess when I started out I hadn't found my voice yet and was trying out a variety of styles. But at this point, yes, my writing style is the same across fandoms unless I deliberately aim for something experimental for some reason.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

That seems kind of unfortunate, honestly. Even when you write for book canons?

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

Yes. And I find fanfic that tries to imitate the writing style of the original style inherently cringy. I'm not reading (or writing) fanfic to get more of the same as the canon in terms of narration.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

SA

And I love it when I read a fic and, without regard of the fandom, I can tell that it's been written by author X because their style is distinctive rather than just some person trying to copy the style of the source material.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Nayrt

This is where this doesn't really work as a DNW without further clarifications. If you DNW the original style, will dialogue that sounds too much like the canon character violate that (because usually the dialogue isn't naturalistic in the original canon)? Or is it only the narration that counts for the DNW?

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

What style? I don't really have one. I often subconsciously end up copying the style of whatever I've read recently. Maybe it's because I'm ESL, maybe it's just how I write in general, I don't know.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Recreating the author's style well is widely considered* to be a big part of what makes fic for book fandoms good. Which I think is what's tripping people up.

*Source: every time I have ever seen "this reads just like canon!" In a comment or rec over the last 22 years

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

+1

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

But not everyone feels that way.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

But to everyone who does, this DNW sounds like "DNW: good fic".

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

That's true for a number of DNWs. It doesn't make them less legitimate DNWs.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Or it sounds like "You aren't allowed to play to your strengths but I won't tell you what to do instead."

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

Source: every time I have ever seen "this reads just like canon!" In a comment or rec over the last 22 years

I've always assumed those comments were the result of a fic occupying the overlapping space in a Venn diagram whose circles are "This fic is good," and "This fic's style is similar to canon." After all, if a fic is good but isn't stylistically similar to the book, it would feel a bit weird to comment, "This reads nothing like canon!" But that doesn't mean that good but stylistically different-from-canon fics don't exist.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

that is a fair criticism of my dataset

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

To me this is like being told to recite a Shakespeare soliloquy but like as myself. It would trip me up way too much. But it's totally unenforceable which just makes me lol.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

But a fanfic isn't a recital.

If it's a Shakespearen canon, you could just not write your fanfic in verse or write it in modern language or both. Voilà: pastiche DNW successfully avoided.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

That’s great if it’s Shakespeare. If it’s a modern prose canon, I may have absolutely no idea what to avoid.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

A fanfic is at least trying to write in the voice of the canon unless you're just not a good enough writer to pull it off, or at least that's how many people approach it and I have no shame in being opinionated about that. So a "no pastiche" DNW is similar to "don't write in first person for a first person canon" except far less reasonable because it corners your writer into some vague technique they aren't used to and don't even know how to interpret by the requester's standards.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

I think that first sentence is utter bollocks. Fanfic is usually born out of the desire to get something else out of the fandom that canon didn't give you, and not more of the same, so trying to write in the voice of the canon is often counterproductive. Good fanfic brings out the character voices while changing the narrative voice and style. A "good enough writer" isn't limited by imitating the original creator's voice and can make the fic be in character without that.

So a "no pastiche" DNW is similar to "don't write in first person for a first person canon"

I actually agree with that, except that's a bog standard and completely reasonable DNW.

Re: DNW Workshop

[(Anonymous)]

+100

it's a bad dnw