AUs in the Pros community--discussion

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

Hi, all. You may have been reading the panel reports that I've been posting about CQ in my LJ and over on the CQ yahoo group as well. If not, go read 'em, and enjoy!

It occurred to me that I didn't have notes on a panel that I very much enjoyed---why do you think the Professionals has so many good AU stories---I think I was blasted on Sunday morning and had lost the will to write, hence no notes. Then I realized, there's no reason that discussion couldn't go on here, at ci5hq. gblvr got the ball rolling in the panel discussion, and I'll borrow the three things that I do remember from the panel to get things started.

1) If you look at the total number of stories archived at the Circuit and click the "only AU" stories option, you get about 7% of all the stories. So on the whole, there don't seem to be many AUs in the fandom.

2) Yet, if you ask somebody to rec in the Pros fandom, within the first few recs, they'll be saying, 'oh, but you need to read this AU.'

3) One comment that was offered by flamingoslim at the con was that, back in the day, Pros picked up AUs that were scorned by the Starsky/Hutch fandom early on. As one of the oldest fandoms, she suggested, authors who felt closed out of one fandom moved over to another and went wild.

So, why the contradiction? Compared to other fandoms, Pros has very few AUs, but some are notably (and worthily) famous. And which AUs would you automatically rec to others? And what elements make for a successful AU, using Pros characters?

Comments

Pros AUs - Novels

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

When it comes to the importance and influence of AUs in Pros, the zine novels are particularly illuminating. Out of roughly 120 zine novels that have been published in Pros, at least half are AUs. That's a very high percentage. When you look at the circuit novels that aren't on that list, you also find a high proportion of AUs; Meg Lewtan's (hysterical) historicals are a good example.

Why are so many Pros novel's AUs? Possibilities abound. And that (if you'll pardon the pun *g*), is actually the explanation to which I lean. Writing a novel within the constraints of canon can be done - and it has been done well in Pros, several times, to my great delight - but there is something particularly freeing about AUs that allows writers to create novel-length stories.

Longer stories also often (not always, and individual reader preference clearly comes into play) linger in readers' memories longer than short stories simply because the reader is immersed in the world for a longer time as they read. The length of a novel also means that there are potentially more points of engagement with various readers. And even those who don't necessarily like zine novel AUs will often admire the craft that goes into the world building. Add in the art that often accompanies zine novels, and that's another reason that zine novels get discussed and recommended and remembered. AUs offer incredible scope for artists, and certainly much of the fantasy AU artwork is quite memorable.

I think there is also something to be said about the thrill of the hunt for OOP zines and the allure of the (hopefully, temporarily) unattainable zine. The fact that so many Pros fen are willing to put in the time and energy and money to track down zines lends an air of desirability to the zines. So even fen who might not actually like the zine novel AU when or if they read it may think of the story as something special.

The strong opinions - both pro and con - about AUs in general work accentuate the sphere of influence that can be attributed to AUs in Pros fandom. AUs don't have to be universally loved to have influence.

For example, The Hunting series by Jane draws mixed reactions: it has ardent supporters and equally vocal opponents. Yet, The Hunting has had a demonstrable influence on other Pros writers and stories. An early Pros zine novels (published in 1986), The Hunting certainly proved that there was an audience for fantasy AUs in Pros. Many of those interested in writing AUs (fantasy or other flavors) found a home at Nut Hatch Collective press which was run by Jane. Nut Hatch was very AU-friendly, though it also routinely published non-AU stories. There were other, later, presses that were AU friendly, such as OTP with the Other Times and Places zine series (all AU), but Nut Hatch was a particularly prolific and early press.

I'd argue that the very existence of Nut Hatch press increased the amount of AUs in Pros because having a welcoming venue for a particular type of story (be it an AU or another genre) is often the tipping point in what story a fan fiction writer will work on. This was particularly important pre-Internet, when distribution of Pros stories was limited to zine and letterzine presses and the Circuit. Today there are many more distribution avenues, and zines are no longer a dominant distribution path.

Re: Pros AUs - Novels

[faramir-boromir.livejournal.com]

One point that got raised during the discussion at CQ was about the reaction of readers to stories back in the early days of fandom. If someone wanted to write an AU in the Starsky/Hutch fandom, and the response from readers was likely going to be holding their nose and walking away, they might be less likely to try it there. With Pros, the existence of a press that supported and published AUs, and fans who were willing, perhaps, to take more chances with Bodie and Doyle, certainly played a strong role in why so many AUs were turned out in the first 15 years of the fandom.

I'm wondering now about dates, that is, the publication dates for prominent AUs. Can we think of many that have appeared in the last 10 years? Is there a reason for that (the decline of zine publication as a distribution method)?