by Susan Ryan
Fan fiction in general, and Beatles fan fiction in particular, has been around in various guises for many years. It has come a long way from the days when small groups of people wrote it longhand in spiral notebooks, never having the opportunity to share the work with others of like mind. Today, there are literally hundreds of websites devoted to Beatles fan fiction, but for people who are interested in writing it, it has become a challenge to create quality stories, and for the readers, it can sometimes be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Beatles fan fiction can span many genres, from science fiction, fantasy and alternate history to romance and comedy. Themes can range from time travel to what might have been had John lived past 1980. The trick, of course, is creating a unique and well-crafted story regardless of genre. Just because this is fan fiction is no excuse for sloppy, careless writing that is rife with anachronism, inaccuracy and grammatical errors! If you are going to attempt to write a fanfic, your very first job as an author is to know how to construct a story, and to use a basic style book (such as Strunk and White’s Elements of Style) to be sure that you are putting together something that is coherent and readable. You must know the rules of grammar in order to be able to break them when necessary. Using sentence fragments for effect, for example, is far different from writing fragments because you don’t know any better.
Another important thing to remember in Beatles fan fiction is to write the Beatles and other real people, such as Brian Epstein, as accurately as possible. They are established personas, and it is very easy to look up information about them if you are unsure about certain facts or personality traits. There is no excuse for writing Beatles who are so completely out of character that they are unrecognizable to the average fan. A good example of this is the “Martin Luther Lennon” story – a story that treats John like a one-dimensional, sainted martyr of peace and love, but not at all like the complex and interesting man he really was.
Likewise, if you can’t write a Liverpool dialect, don’t attempt it. But don’t make your Beatles sound like Midwestern Americans, either. A few choice words and phrases, such as having them call a female character “luv,” or other similar British expressions, are enough to give your Beatles the flavor and nuance of England in their dialogue without bogging down in unreadable and incomprehensible dialect.
Another frequent stumbling block in Beatles fan fiction is that of anachronism. Since a great many stories are set in the early-to-mid-1960s, a good fanfic writer must take special care to create an air of reality and authenticity, and lack of attention to such details is an instant killer of believability. For instance, a character wouldn't use the Pill before 1960, pull out a cell phone in 1964, wear a micro-miniskirt before 1968, use a VCR before 1978, refer to AIDS in 1980, or listen to a CD before 1985, yet these types of errors crop up time and time again in fan fiction stories. It is not uncommon to read about characters putting tapes in their VCRs for the Ed Sullivan Show, putting on pantyhose in a story set in 1961 or wearing clothes that are completely wrong for the time period in which the story is set. If you are not absolutely certain that something existed at a particular time or place, look it up! With the wealth of information available in books and on the Internet, there is no excuse for these kinds of glaring mistakes.
Regional errors are another big problem. You don’t have to have lived in or even visited a place, nor do you have to become an expert in its history, in order to write about it well. However, if you have never set foot in the city in which you want to set your story, it’s a good idea to get your hands on a guidebook or local history book or look at a website so that you get the little details right. For example, you can't ski to work in Denver, go to a fast-food drive-through in Midtown Manhattan or go to an American-style shopping mall in 1960s England. Accuracy can mean the difference between a successful story and an unsuccessful one, and attention to the little things can pay off with big dividends.
The final caveat for fan fiction writers is that someone else take a look at your work before you submit it or post it to a website. An editor and/or a beta-reader is a must! They can be the same person, but be sure it’s someone you trust who has a good grasp of copyediting. Typos and grammatical errors get past even the best of writers; when you have written the work yourself, you are too close to it to catch all the possible mistakes. Having another pair of eyes give your story the once-over can frequently yield a much better looking work. Likewise, a good editor (if you have the opportunity to work with one) can help an author tighten up a story that rambles or loosen up one that is too constricted. A good editor will never change a writer’s “voice,” but he or she will work with an author to produce a final version that is clear, concise, engaging and free of problems.
In short, writing quality fan fiction is no different from any other good writing. Research is key, and working with an editor can help immensely. These suggestions are not hard and fast, of course, but are designed to give the beginning fanfic writer a place to start. The most important thing about writing fan fiction, however, is to remember to have fun!
Copyright 2001, Susan B. Ryan
Submit your work to Rooftop Sessions! Return to Rooftop Sessions Current Issue Return to Rooftop Sessions Archive
