Members DrewH Posted January 16, 2009 Members Share Posted January 16, 2009 I've always wondered if you have to be a true fan of a soap to write for that particular soap. I have been a DAYS fan since 1996 and I have had numerous DAYS fan fictions in the past that got a lot of good feedback. Viewers liked my version of Salem and that pleased me. It's always been pretty easy for me to write for the characters of DAYS because they're so familiar to me. I've tried to venture out into the other soaps in writing, like Y&R or B&B, in the past, but it never worked out. I had a successful Y&R fan fiction going on with another poster, but that was due to a team effort. She was a bigger fan than me and we worked together to put stories together, with creativity and history used. All of my B&B fan fictions died. But I think that was more of a result of me also writing my DAYS fan fiction at the same time. I feel familiar with the B&B characters and I do feel that they're easy to write for, I just never put much thought into the show at that time. So after writing for the last four years, I started to wonder if I could handle writing a soap that I wasn't very familiar with. Head writers are given that very task all the time. You'll read an interview where the writer admits that they never watched an episode in their lives, yet they're penning the show! When I read that, I wonder if I would be able to do that. So I came up with an idea. For the next five weeks, I am going to watch the five soap operas that I don't normally watch, which include All My Children, As the World Turns, The Bold and the Beautiful, General Hospital and Guiding Light. And after a week's worth of watching the episodes, I am going to pen out some stories involving the characters where they currently are. For example, the first week I'll begin with AMC. After next Friday's episode (January 23), I am going to put some stories together after watching the show for a week and I'm going to share them with everyone. I'd like to hear what AMC fans think of my long term stories for the show. Do they like them? Do they hate them? Do they stay true to what AMC is? Feedback can be positive and negative. I want honest opinions. I'm going to do this for each soap each week. For soaps like B&B and GH, this may be easy because I know some of the history of the show. For shows like GL, AMC and ATWT, it'll be a little more difficult. But I'm fine with that and I'm up for the challenge. Wish me luck! First up, All My Children. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DavidEvanSmith Posted January 16, 2009 Members Share Posted January 16, 2009 I strongly believe it will be easier than you think, and you'll be a more fair, balanced head writer for soaps with which you aren't as familiar. Being a fan adds a bias to the equation, even if you don't realize it, and you will gradually steer the show toward your favorite characters, try to recapture your favorite era of the show, and your biases about the show may not be the same as other fans. You lose objectivity when you love it so deeply and personally. The reality is, when taking over the show, you do have to honor who the "stars" are now (and I'm curious to see what you'll do with the Ryan/Greenlee/Aidan/Annie/Zach/Kendall sector of the canvas) because of executives above and all that. How many people on here have gone on and on about ridding the GH canvas of the mob and killing Sonny Corinthos, when in fact they'd most likely be forbidden to do so because it's a sad reality that she show is so centered on it that a major shift like that would disrupt the viewership and the ratings. I'm very curious to see what you'd do with this experiment of yours. I'll be waiting! And what about One Life to Live?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DrewH Posted January 16, 2009 Author Members Share Posted January 16, 2009 That is something I'm going to take into account. You're going to see that I am going to be very realistic in writing. It's very easy for a writer to start a fan fiction based on GH, and in the very first episode, kill off Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan. But come on! In the real world, that would never happen. You can't just kill off your two stars. I'm well aware of that and I try hard not to jump the gun like that when starting a fan fiction. However, I do believe that, while writing, you can balance out the story for other characters that may have used to be the show's stars, or characters that didn't get much attention from previous writers, but you see potential and you want to write for them. So you can bet on it that while Jason and Sonny will continue to have a heavy impact on the show when I get to GH's week, I'm going to be writing for other characters as well, other stories, other settings, than just the mob. And as much as I hate what AMC has done to itself with Ryan/Annie/Greenlee/Aiden/Kendall/Zach, I know that I have to keep it going because it'll be totally unrealistic to just place them on the back burner. I think you can still keep them on the frontburner, but give other characters the same attention as well. As for OLTL, I watch the show everyday, and it's amazing right now. Nothing I do will be better than what's going on. The same thing goes for Y&R. Those two shows, I have no problems with. They have me hooked everyday. This is more for the shows that I just can't get into because the stories don't interest me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DavidEvanSmith Posted January 16, 2009 Members Share Posted January 16, 2009 Well I definitely respect what you're planning to do. I did "Parallel" fiction for years (taking one point in the on-air story and going in my own direction with the whole canvas) and while I did fall into the trap of killing Sonny off (It was 2001, and I was just OVER him! So sue me! LOL!), I did love taking AMC and OLTL in my own direction, and at the time I wasn't as invested in them as I was GH. But it made me love the characters and history more. You may find yourself a bigger fan of the show after really getting into the characters' heads for a little while. Please do, when posting your ideas, give a brief synopsis of how much/little history you have with the show, and if you have any questions I have a pretty extensive knowledge of AMC/GH history if you want to find out the possible ramifications of a choice in your story. And have you ever tried to pen your own original soap? It brings a whole new host of challenges because you are weaving the history as you go, you don't have to stick to any historic material, and EVERYTHING you write shapes how your characters are perceived by the audience, so there's more meaning to every decision a character makes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DrewH Posted January 16, 2009 Author Members Share Posted January 16, 2009 Thanks! I'll definitely keep you in mind if I need help. As for your parallel fictions you did for the ABC soaps, I remember reading those on MSN! I loved them. I wish you still did because at the time, I was just getting into OLTL. It was during Higley's time as head writer, so your stuff was so much better than what was on air. I wasn't too big of a fan of GH or AMC, so I never really read those. But I'm a fan of all three ABC soaps now, and I would love to see what you would do to those shows. But I know you have your own original soap now, so that probably takes all your time. But what I would give to see your spin on the ABC soaps. I have thought about developing my own original soap and I was very close to finishing it, but it never happened. It's definitely more challenging to create your own bible than to go off of what someone else has written. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Port Oak Valley Posted January 16, 2009 Members Share Posted January 16, 2009 This is an interesting idea Drew. I kind of did the same thing with my blog. I am a fan of the ABC soaps and Bell soaps, but I was less familiar with B&B so I when I decided to do a fan fic I chose it, because at the time there were already several blogs for the ABC soaps and not many for B&B. It was also more challenging to create stories for a show that I didnt know that well. I havent had as much time to write for the blog as I hoped, but when I get the chance I try to write as many as possible, I already have the outline for it just not the dialouge. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for each show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aMLCproduction Posted January 18, 2009 Members Share Posted January 18, 2009 This is a good idea Drew. Creating your own series is a lot of Fun like David said and you have more freedom. I love it. But I do want to do a fan fic at some point. I want to see what kind of spin I can put on an estasblished show. Good luck and kant wait to see how it turns out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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