If you'd asked me this question any time up to just over six months ago, my answer would have been an emphatic no: never written in any other fandom, never had any desire to.
Then everything changed.
Now, like Julie, I write in the
Doctor Who fandom - the new Who, with the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. And Julie said just about everything I would have about the differences between DW and L&C and what appeals to me about the fandom.
So what to add? Well, there are some differences in my style between here and there. For some reason, I began writing a
lot of present-tense stories. Most of my short stories and character studies in DW are in present tense - which I know drives some people bonkers.
Why? I have no idea. I began writing one character study and the opening passage just came out in present tense. I even began a couple of stories in past tense, only to go back and switch to present because for some reason it flowed better for me in that tense. I have even written a 13-chapter story in present tense!
Most of my long DW stories are in traditional past tense, however.
What can be difficult about writing in DW is that there is - at least among the writer friends I chat with - an expectation that some awareness at least is shown to the fact that this is a programme with a 40+-year history, and that the Doctor didn't just appear out of nowhere in his ninth incarnation. I did watch the series as a kid, so am not completely clueless, though I don't remember a lot about it. Because I want to be taken seriously as a writer in the fandom, though, I do research and try to include 'classic-series' references wherever I can.
While Superman is also a very long-running franchise, there isn't that expectation within L&C, mainly because L&C doesn't happen in the same universe as the comics and/or the movies. The comics aren't Clark's past; not in the same way as the classic series is the Doctor's past.
I'd agree with those who've said that L&C is somewhat more restrictive in many ways; while I do mostly write romance or romantic subtext for the Doctor and Rose, I include other themes and other characters as well, and there are other 'ships' available to be written. As Julie mentioned, deathfics are more common - death is a constant theme of the Doctor's life, as was made clear in the very first episode of the revived series:
"He has one constant companion. Death."
There's also the fact that any romantic relationship in DW is doomed: he will outlive any partner, for one thing, and for another he is not the settling-down type. Companions come and go. So, in most of my stories, even where the romance is overt, there's that underlying understanding that this is for now, not for ever:
"I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone you-"
"What, Doctor?"
"You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone. That's the curse of the Time Lords."
- Doctor and Rose, School Reunion
So, if nothing else, there's so much angst potential there.
There probably are other differences, and other things which - currently - appeal to me more, but that's enough for now. Probably one of the biggest draws for me at the moment is that I've been writing L&C for about eight years and I'm just stale. I feel I've said just about all I have to say about the characters, and read just about every scenario that can be written. I've been around this fandom a long time. DW is still fresh and new for me as a writer, and that's just so nice.
Wendy
