Hey, I am a huge fan of all of your work. I have a seemingly dumb question on your writing process for the characters. Do you ever, while trying to build a plot and all its twists and development around Virgo and Orlando, think "Is this in character?" Or "does it make sense for the character"?
Because clearly they are real people and not fictional figures so perhaps because we know less of them we don't need to be coherent with who they are like we may be with some classic fictional heroes. But similarly, I often see the same themes in their dynamics and personas and in a way they work as a couple because of the personas we project onto them, no? So I know it's a stupid question but:
Do you feel the pressure (by yourself mainly) to honor them or the ideas you have of them? And how much is your ideas of them constant? Would you ever write for example a more "shallow" Viggo or a conniving Orlando? (All the fanfiction I read I usually see a more deep/intellectual archetype of Viggo and a more innocent/open representation for Orlando- and I love it).
I am writing a fanfiction with them for the first time and I am going quite dark and I just realized that I want to do justice to them. I really do. Because as much as they are real people put into (as much as we know) fake scenarios I still want to see the reason why I chose to write them in my story, if it makes sense?
Why would you think this is a stupid question? Because I'd like to argue that it's absolutely the crux of the matter! Which is, in part, why I needed some time to process the question and mull over an (not the) answer in my head.
Meet my favourite teacher!
Let me preface this by introducing you to my German teacher from back in the day. When she wanted us to analyse a text, she never once pushed us in a certain direction. She never propagated that there's only one (=right) way to read and understand a text. She always said that we could come up with anything and interpret a text in any way we liked - for as long as we could ground our argument in the text itself.
And maybe this doesn't sound special to some people, but I think the fundamental shift away from What was the author's intention? or What is the author trying to tell us? (meaning that there is only one, very definite way to read/understand a text) is groundbreaking to anyone who reads literature, because suddenly you start to focus on your own perception of the text: What is this text telling me? What do I think is happening here? Yes, maybe the author was trying to portray a certain message. But maybe the author only wanted me to feel certain things? Maybe the only intention was to move something in me? And maybe the author tried to send a certain message, but it got transcribed into something else by time, translation or my lived experience? Communication isn't quite so literal. What someone is saying isn't necessarily what I'm hearing. Literature, as well, goes both ways. It's an interaction between author and reader. And understanding that the reader counts, that the reader is an important part of that transaction makes all the difference. At least that was the case for me when I was thirteen. I never forgot the lesson that my teacher was trying to convey.
In a way, I have never moved away from my teacher's rule: If I'm able to make a certain interpretation plausible while grounding my views in the text, then my interpretation is valid and worthwhile. There can be several interpretations of a text that exist simoultaneously. And the more overlap they have with the text (the more grounded they are in the text itself), the more convincing they will be.
(Mind you: I'm not talking about applying just any meaning to a text. The part where text and reader are in communication/interaction is fundamentally important.)
When does fanfiction feel like the real thing?
Okay, what follows here is my own personal view on fanfiction and on the rather diffuse question of whether a certain story works on not. We'll look at this through the Viggorli-lens, but in the end, in my mind it applies to all fanfiction.
To stay within my teacher's analogy, let's assume:
Let's call the two circles The Text (TM). These two circles contain what we perceive as canon facts - everything we know about Viggo and Orlando: date of birth, spouses, children, movies they've made, interview they've given, pictures we've seen of them and to a certain extent characteristics or opinions/views they've voiced - fill this up with whatever canon facts you like and know. The more overlap exists between the two circles and your fanfic (the more you are working within those two circles), the more a story will feel like the real thing. It will read like canon. The characters will feel like the people you know. The larger the overlap, the more immersion a reader will feel, or: the easier it is for the reader to feel immersion. If the overlap decreases or if an author picks facts or ideas from outside those two circles (like an AU-setting), the risk of the characters becoming OOC increases. That also suggests that writing fanfiction is a continuous game of finding a balance between known canon facts and your own ideas while still staying believable in what and how you write.
That said: I've always been a firm believer that you can make anything work in fiction, but it is also true that not all stories are equally easy to write/make work. The overlap, in my opinion, is tied to the author's skill as a writer. If there's a lot of overlap, the author doesn't have to work quite so hard to make the story believable/plausible to the reader - canon will do some of the heavy lifting for the author. But to make up for smaller overlap, an author will have to use more literary/technical skill to reach the same level of reader immersion.
Of course, with real, actual people there's no definite text - the circles are kind of murky. Yes, we have interviews, videos, pictures, books - all that meta that is at our fingertips. But it's still "only" a persona and what we perceive from all this information might or might not be rooted in reality. What we're hearing might not at all be what the person is actually saying. Or maybe you and me perceive different things when we look at the same interview with Orlando. It's entirely possible that we take away different things from looking at the same source.
After so many years in this fandom (and after reading a gazillion stories) I'm not even sure anymore how much of Viggorli as a whole is rooted in The Text (TM) and how much is us as fans perpetuating certain character types and tropes through fiction until we collectively believe them to be true - meaning that we can instantly recognise them as Viggo or Orlando in a fic. The Text (TM) turns into Fanon. And which parts of fanon one subscribes to is up to every single fan.
Everyone who has ever written a Viggorli story was a reader first, which means that not only The Text (TM) influences our writing. We, as fanfic authors, are equally influenced by other stories our fandom has produced over time - and the more time passes the bigger this influence becomes through sheer numbers. Which begs the question: Which portion of a Viggorli story written now is still influenced by The Text (TM) and which is simply taking other fanfictions and interacting with those interpretations through our own writing?
And subsequently: Does it matter? (It probably doesn't from a reader's perspective as long as it's an engaging story that still has at least some overlap with either The Text (TM) or Fanon. I'm probably making a highly academic argument that is of no consequence to most people.)
I briefly touched on this (very obliquely) in the part of the Viggorli Fanfiction Guide where I talk about the general vibe and the features/characteristics you will find again and again in fanfic.
Let's look at an example, shall we?
Let's look a the deep/intellectual Viggo archetype, as you so aptly put it. The characteristic is definitely rooted in The Text (TM), because we all know Viggo is someone with an interest in the arts in general - instead of "only" being focused on acting. He's been politically outspoken and left-leaning, he writes, he paints, he makes music which caused every journalist under the sun to call him a Renaissance Man until I at least was absolutely sick of the term.
The deep/intellectual archetype often prevails even in alternate universes. Even there, Viggo is often either an artist or the artistic type. But then fanfic authors start to take this concept further. They ask: What kind of person would an artist be? He might brood a lot. Or he might be introspective or introverted or live a solitary life. Maybe he's the melancholic type. Or maybe he even suffers from depression. And if they feel like it, they start to use these characteristics without making Viggo an artist - this is the point where the characteristic turns into an archetype or trope.
Interestingly, Viggo is never the asshole-type of artist who exploits his peers, cheats on his wife and drinks himself into an early grave (think Picasso or Hemingway). Because apparently, this doesn't really gel with The Text (TM) as we see it. He's never given us any indication of being an asshole, has never caused anything scandal-related. The artist-part of his persona seems more internalised (something he does for himself/that affects himself) than externalised (something that affects other people). You could certainly write him being at asshole-artist, but this wouldn't be grounded in The Text (TM) and therefore wouldn't follow my German teacher's rule - it would feel OOC.
Then again: If you write a story in which young!Viggo is an absolute ass and through some catalyst (person, plot point) he redeems himself and becomes the person we know/recognise - this I can definitely see work in fanfic, IMO, since you could ground this in The Text (TM) while still adding your own interpretation. Actually, this is my favourite kind of story - making something plausible that doesn't appear plausible at first glance. It's all a matter of having the right arguments (= being a good writer).
Let me add an example here: chaosmanor's Separation of Desire. This is a rent!boy story that can be read within canon - it is not, strictly speaking, an AU. Orlando is working in a brothel while Viggo, (at least at the moment) a failing actor who struggles to make ends meet (=pay child support), starts as a driver for the aforementioned brothel. Things happen. Orlando and Viggo are both actors in this and even if it doesn't follow canon to a tee (especially for Orlando), it ends with G. I. Jane - so it kind of "meets up" with canon. Making a premise like this work while staying true to the characters and (mostly) The Text (TM) is absolute mastery. Once you've read the whole story, you'll say: "I could see this happening!"
And this is what sets a good story apart. It's what you want as an author. You and the reader both know that things didn't happen the way your wrote it - even if you're writing a canon story. But you want the reader to reach the point of saying "I could see this happening". It's the point I always want to reach when I read fanfic. That's the immersion I'm seeking.
Back to Viggo's deep/intellectual archetype. Who knows whether any of these characteristics - brooding, deep, melancholic, introspective - are true for Viggo, the actual person? But we can all agree that we have seen these characteristics in fanfic. We might be wrong in our interpretation or we might be right - fanon and fact might overlap or they might not. The important thing is, in my opinion, that these recognisable patterns are the invisible currency of fandom. We come up with them through facts and interpretation - through canon and fanon. We perpetuate them in stories and meta. We change the patterns around as we see fit ... Fanon is a living, breathing thing that is shaped by everyone in a given fandom, and maybe - in the end - we shape it more than The Text (TM) does.
Fandom changes and evolves
I think we've gone away a little from the weak/strong dynamic in which Viggo is this big, masculine hero and Orlando breaks out in tears every second chapter or so and needs to be rescued from problems normal people resolve before lunch comes around. There was a time, though, when a lot of stories worked with that dynamic. That's not to say that every story had that dynamic, but it certainly was a lot more prevalent back in the day than it is today. (My example, Separation of Desire, doesn't have that dynamic and this story is twenty years old.) The point being that while The Text (TM) theoretically stays the same, fandom as a whole moves and shifts and evolves. That's a fascinating process! I believe that at some point The Text (TM) and Fanon are two separate beings that can co-exist independently from each other. They can, but don't necessarily have to interact to form a fandom.
Oh, you were asking a question!
To come back to your initial question of whether I think about Viggo and Orlando (=as real people) and try to do them justice: I had to think about this a lot and tried to pick apart my writing process. But I suppose, the truthful answer has to be: No. At least not in the sense you mean.
As I said, I think as fellow fans and readers we all have this (maybe subconscious) collection of characteristics for these two in our heads, our own perceptions of who these people are. How much of these interpretations are still rooted in The Text (TM) and how much is fandom interpretation/fanon will differ from person to person. (I admit, I don't keep up with their lives, so I know less of The Text (TM) than you might think.)
It probably doesn't come as a surprise when I say that the character dynamics and the psychology of my characters are what interests me the most while writing. That's always where I spend the most time when I work on a story. I want the characters to make sense within the world I created for them. So yes, they still have traces of The Text (TM) and they carry a lot of fanon characteristics, but they also carry traces of my own personality. Library!AU Viggo, for instance, borrows my pessimistic tendencies. The constant doubt that tends to emotionally cripple him is solely rooted in this alternate universe, though - it has no mirror in The Text (TM). It's not something I see in the "real" Viggo Mortensen. If the real person were to end up in a similar situation I'm pretty sure he'd find a more constructive way to deal with his issues and emotional scars. Library!AU Orlando, on the other hand, has a high level of empathy and optimism paired with a seemingly inborn trust in the universe that things will work out. This might come across as naivety to an onlooker, but it's actually inner strength if you look deeper. I definitely see this in the "real" Orlando and I think that's a highly fascinating character trait to have.
When I have an idea for a story, I don't necessarily start from The Text (TM). The premise for the Library!AU wasn't: What if Viggo Mortensen had epilepsy? That would have been a different story. The initial idea for the Library!AU simply was this:
Orlando works in a library. How would he and Viggo fall in love?
The epilepsy came later, because I wanted to incorporate one of my favourite Viggo-tropes, a true classic: reclusive!Viggo. This trope, especially in combination with the ranch in Idaho (which did exist - even though I don't know whether he still owns it today), was very popular. The Text (TM) doesn't actually suggest that Viggo is a recluse, though. I see this trope as a hand-me-down from Aragorn that has bled into RPS. However, we also know that Viggo is the outdoorsy type and definitely capable of taking care of himself (and others) in all kinds of situations. If that is paired with the deep/intellectual archetype interpretation of him being an introvert of prefering solitude to human interaction, this can easily morph into the recluse trope.
I wanted a reclusive lifestyle for him, but I wanted a reason for that lifestyle that we hadn't seen yet in fanfic. I wanted to try something different. And from then on I simply rolled with it and asked myself: If I give Viggo epilepsy, how would that change the character? How would he react in certain situations? Why? What is the root of his trauma and what does he need to overcome or at least challenge this trauma? What core characteristics does Orlando need to help Viggo on this road? What is Orlando's story in this, his own journey?
And of course this whole process is not as conscious and straight-forward as it might sound here. Most of the time, it's simply the characters going through situations in my mind while I'm busy doing other stuff. They work each other out, so to speak, until I reach the stage of Yes, this is it.
With this universe especially, Viggo and Orlando are wholly mine. I don't see them as RPS-characters, or even as their real-life personas. I don't even see them as fictional characters. Somewhere along they way they evolved into living, breathing people that feel like I could call up anytime. I check in with them regularly and I know what's going on in their lives right now. In a way, they have transcended fiction (for me). Yes, I tend to hyperfixate on the story I currently write and live in my characters' heads. But never to the extend I experienced with the Library!AU. I've never had that happen to me. These two are living, breathing beings in my mind much more than the two actors are. They are closer to me than their real personas could ever be. (Well, that might change if Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom move in with me, but I don't see this happening anytime soon.)
Therefore, I don't "check back" with the real people while writing. Instead, I concentrate on being consistent in my universe and in my characterisation. I constantly check my characters' motives while plotting and working my way through scenes. The question I ask myself isn't:
If Viggo Mortensens sits down today, googles himself and comes across my story (o god, the horrors), would he nod and say: "Yes, that's me. I see myself doing this. She nailed my personality."
If for some reason Viggo Mortensen stumbled upon this story, would he be able to say: "Yeah, that's a great story. I can see the merit of this."
I want him to feel the same immersion you hopefully feel while reading. That's my humble attempt to do the real people in my stories justice. I want to give them the best possible story. And maybe that's not exactly justice, but at least it's respect. I do think, though, that everyone has to find their own way to reconcile themselves with the idea of writing about existing people.
And yes, it's a bit weird that I'm writing fanfic but that I want the story to be able to stand on its own. I never said I was normal, though!
Also, I think it's a bit different for a canon story. I have one in the works right now (sort of) and I definitely approach this with another mindset. The circles have to overlap more in my mind. Here, I actually ask myself: From what I've seen and known about these very real people ... how would they act/react in a given situation. But I think the relationship between canon and AU is another post entirely. Personally, I can never decide which I like more :)
Thank you so much for your question and I apologise for the lenghty answer that goes on twenty different tangents along the way. I've been in fandom since the 1990s. I have a lot of thoughts, but I actually never take the time to put them to paper and work my way through them from beginning to end. So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to do that in this case! I can't promise this answer will be in any way satisfying to you - and maybe (most likely) someone else would answer in a totally different fashion and have a different writing process. But you asked me. I hope I gave you food for thought and you could take something of interest away from this respone. Good luck with your writing!!!
