Question becoming a canon author

Sometimes a barrier is as simple as "Can you take critique?"

I got in more or less completely by accident. I wrote the original Eldritch stories to see if I could write for the audience. I had absolutely no intention of becoming a canon author. Dunno what, precisely made 'em lock on, but I'm glad they did. It's been fun.

It's hard to derail any thread on becoming a canon author because there is no one single way to do it. I did put together the Gen 0 project as a 'better than nothing' and 'improvement over creative submissions' method, but I've never 'formally' kicked it off because it involves (like everything else) time dedicated into setting it up, overseeing it, and so on. A lot of people misunderstand Gen 0 (and as such, its probably not the right name for the project) because they assume it means a 'separate timeline' like the Gen 2 project did. And that's not really the case. The goal was simply to set up a technique that lets us test some of the things about an author that we don't already get from their WhatIF stories.

See... if you write, at all, we can make a pretty good analysis of your style, structure, mechanics, and so forth. That's a part of every story you write and the more you do, the more we'll see of your technique. Similarly, we can get a pretty good grasp on your creative insight and facility with the genre... because, again, every story you write here will show us that. What you writing WhatIF doesn't show us are several other things that are super critical for being a member of a shared universe team:

1. The ability to read for context and detail - just because we work together and plan things out on a big picture level doesn't mean every detail is written down. In many cases, we have shared maybe... 3-4 pages of details about a character that beyond what actually shows up in the stories and that's all the other authors have available to include other authors' events/characters in their stories. We've had a number of people apply over the years who wrote stories in which major characters were significantly different from the way they were portrayed in canon stories... that's a warning sign, because we don't have time and we don't have all the details written down somewhere that they can learn this stuff 'after' becoming canon. Part of being canon is simply staying on top of concept with the only 'real' reference available... the canon collection (so it is also a warning sign when someone has read only a fraction of the collection and feels ready to join canon).

2. The ability to work with the other authors. To be willing to WORK at it... communicating to learn specific details that you need, getting feedback on things in other authors' plans or plotlines. And at the same time, being willing to expose your incomplete work to them and take (and apply) feedback, comments, suggestions... and even add scenes written by other authors into your work.

3. The ability to persist. We aren't looking for people who will write an origin story or two. We're looking for authors who what to tell a multi-year story about one or more characters, who want to integrate that story into others.


And so the G0 project. A story referenced by existing canon material, summarized and given a main structure and some character basics by canon team, mentored by a canon author, with your progress brought up to the team at variable intervals so we can comment, give you feedback, and see where you take it.

It's not ideal, but its something.

Personally... I recommend that in pursuing a goal to become a canon author that you do so under the assumption that none of your WhatIF characters will transition.. that if you DO become canon, we will ask you to take a little time to get up to speed with the deeper plotlines, see what others are working on, and THEN and ONLY THEN, think about what sort of story you would like to tell and how you might work that into the current canon pipeline, including a presentation of what sort of character you'd like to use to tell the story. The reason for this is that any character you plan out before becoming a canon author can and will have aspects about it that are both integral to how you want to tell their story but not viable for a canon character. As a result, when we inevitably tell you it won't work that way... you'll have to do things to force the character to work.

If you have a character or story that you want to tell, just tell it. Don't worry about it not being canon. Only worry about canon if you understand that its a long haul and that nothing you do is completely yours... and that just because you plan something out, doesn't mean it'll happen. Nor is getting made canon a promise that all (or any) of your WhatIF characters will cross that divide with you.

I don't know that I agree with that... yes, writing itself can be lonely and you have to be a bit of a stalker to get close enough to a couple characters, watch them, and tell their story to other people. But being an author is 'never' for yourself. Even stories written purely for entertainment are about understanding and experiencing perspectives other than your own without having personally lived what happened. You should ALWAYS have an audience in mind when telling a story. Most of the time, that's at the heart of any drive you might have to write a story... recognizing a viewpoint/perspective that you wish you could share/show to a specific audience, and realizing that you have the words to do it.

Sure, sometimes the audience that you want to learn something or enjoy something new is YOU. But most of the time, even YOU can be extended into "people like you" if not more.

And you also don't really want a big ego or an impervious one. Good writers... like all good artists... are actually fractured, broken, vulnerable personalities. People looking for understanding in the midst of pain or overwhelming emotion (good or bad) and trying to relate what they learn to people who aren't in the same place. Vulnerable, but resilient. You need to be able to take to heart what people tell you about your work... if something doesn't work, you need to be willing to let go of it. But not quit. Let go, write more, come back the next day with something better. Or something different, maybe to also get discarded, and reworked.

One of the great modern playwrights and actors, Sam Sheppard isn't writing anymore. Back in the 70's, he was writing for off-Broadway. He'd present something in a little coffee shop stage one evening, scrap it and go up to his room and write something new for the next night. Constantly working, honing his craft, and seeing how the words on his pages came alive in the voices of actors. And then about 20 years ago, he got his mental issues and alcoholism under control. He fell in love and has a stable income and kids and a ranch. He doesn't need to write anymore, he's said, he found his answers and worked out his troubles.

Ya, that one. Evidently he fell back off the wagon there before he passed (which I do recall hearing about when it happened but didn't remember in responding to the thread). But just look at his output. multiple plays a year in the 60's and 70's... and in the 90's? every 3-4 yrs. I'll see if I can dig up the article about his attitude towards his writing. It's from the late 90's or the first couple years of the new century, I remember talking about it in grad school... which was 00-03.