I saw this thread title and thought -- fanfic continuity? There ain't no such thing
Authors take the characters and stories in a thousand new directions, and very few of the stories can fit together as a seamless universe. Writers pick and choose which elements of the concept to play with, which emotions to highlight, etc. So I guess the question is, what's the array from which they pick and choose?
For me, it's mostly the series. I've read some comics and seen a few other versions of Superman, but I wasn't a fan before L&C. My husband's really gotten into
Smallville but it tends to irritate me -- their versions of Clark and especially Lois just seem *wrong* to me. But then, there were definitely parts of L&C that seemed wrong to me, too.
So, I pick the stuff I find useful and fix the stuff that annoys me, and go off in any direction that seems interesting. L&C is my "home base" but I don't stay there. I very rarely write stories that are completely in continuity with the show. For me, fanfic is the opportunity to take a flawed show with a great premise and improve on it. Of course, my definition of "improved" won't exactly match anyone else's, but what the heck.
That said, it doesn't especially bother me if writers draw on other sources, as long as they're harmonized with L&C to some extent. Come to think of it, I drew on the comics in Hearts Divided, making Lois an army brat. Some comics-based stories bore me -- but some L&C-based stories bore me, too.
The only caveat I would have, I think, is that I think an author ought not to *assume* that the reader has a background in comics. A lot of L&C fanfic starts with the assumption that everyone knows the backstory. Someone mentions Lex in a fourth season or later story, Lois and Clark wince, and it's not explained further; it's assumed that the reader already knows all that. Which is fair, I think -- this is, after all, Lois & Clark fandom.
Other sources need a little more explaining. So if you want to use Maggie Sawyer, that's fine by me -- but please introduce her to me just as you would an original character.
PJ
