A History of Roswell Fanfic

[carolina_moon]

Gosh, reading that was....something. I have always had an intense relationship with Roswell fanfic. The show started when I was twelve and a half!!!! and I've been obsessed with it ever since(I was glued to the tv set during the pilot). I've been reading since post season one (as soon as we go the internet ). It really makes me feel my age (nearly twenty one..sigh)to think that there is a fanfic history, in fact it actually blows my mind.

There have truly been some phenominal fics over the years (and not to brag but I'm sure I've read every benchmark, famous in the fanatic world piece of Dreamer fiction.) Roswell has been pretty much a lifelong love affair for me, and I really hate getting into the politics of 'ships' because at the end of the day it doesn't really matter.We all come here because there was just something about that show that can't be described with words (atleast by me... there are some fantastically talented wordsmiths on this board )

The talent thats around these parts can't be found anywhere else. I prefer fanfic to actual printed fiction from the bookstores, the way authors write here is cutting edge, and theres always someone willing to go out on a ledge and try something new. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank any author who ever sumbitted any work, regardless of ship or forum preference, you can really never truly know the extent to which you affect someones life by doing what you do. Can you imagine how much fanfic and the show has shaped my personality over the years 12/13 is a pretty pivotal in anyones life, and the contributions that have been made here over the years, I believe, have shaped me (in a big way) into the person I am today.

I have been around long enough to see some of the greatest rosfics ever written completed, and also sadly remain incomplete(as I'm sure many have). Freaky.(and come back Comet!!! and Ashton!!! very uncool.) Thanks for writting this history all out its something I really appreciate (especially as a History major at university . your reflections really speak my language ).

I hope this board has an as bright fututre, as it has had a past.

[OliveMcKay]

Wow this was really interesting to read for me because I'm new to ROswell fanfic.

[ken_r]

As a relatively new writer I am most interested where Roswell FanFic can go from here. Canon stories are not near mined out yet. There are still places where the writer can take the episode and rewrite it heading an entirely new direction. My first story I wrote was to take the place in the pilot were Kyle told Liz they didn’t have to go the crash festival. They could stay at his house. For me that was such a rich place where her whole life could change. I think there are still places that writers haven’t discovered where you can branch off from canon.

The graduation in the third season is the base of a fountain where writers can better end the story of Roswell than the producers were allowed. Almost every fan has an idea of what they wanted to happen after the teens left town. Putting some of these ideas into word keeps this part of fanfic alive.

The interplay of aliens and humans can start totally original stories in the AU with alians section. It is intriguing ideas of the episodes and yet this is one of the smallest of boards. Here you can take characters from Roswell who are well adapted at facing aliens and present what ever kind of aliens you choose. Even use the Roswell aliens to contend with non Roswell aliens. Maybe this is the hardest of all.

I do not want to disparage others but to me I want to keep the basic character in the creatures I want to write about. Liz Parker can be madona to whore but if she is smart and resourceful she is still Liz Parker to me. Like wise, Maria DeLuca must always have street smarts but she is no academic. She makes bad choices as do they all but she returns to reclaim her a good life. I have trouble with Max Evans. Who is he? What is he trying to do? Isn’t that part of the premise of a half alien trying to fit in and come from behind the tree? So many say that if you can keep a certain humor coming from the Kyle character you can’t go wrong.

I have only tried two UC stories. One was serious and the other not. In the serious one “Accommodation” I was trying to find reasons for the characters to go to each other. I think writers or maybe I should just say “Me” should be careful in UC not to alter the character using the name too much. Don't change Isabel into Tess when you want to take her to Kyle. When you make Isabel go to Kyle you need to make reasons why she would give up the sophisticated character she has and enjoy the mundane beer and burger life Kyle leads. When Liz Parker is a whore you should give good reason why she falls to that. I think UC is a rich field if you make these transitions believable.

The biggest group and the most open and easiest for beginning writers I think is the AU without aliens. If I was back teaching and I was teaching writing I would give the characters of Roswell to my students and say use the background of these characters and develop stories. Make any story you want but stay true to the character. Liz Parker fits into almost any place where you have a intellectual woman trying to succeed. Michael is a strong character for any place where you story is about climbing up by your own boot straps. If you change your characters show the transition and give reasons it should occur.

In a way it is freeing to have these prepared characters who you work to fit into what ever plot you want. Someone stated that fan fiction is better than anything you can pick up at the store and with new authors coming along is should remain so.

Please finish most of your stories. I am an old man and I may not have enough time to wait for very long.

Ken r

Free RoswellFanatics from Comcast tyranny!!!

[lgoral]

Fascinating lecture, especially from the point of view of a guy who was there from 2001 and actually witnessed many of the stories as they grew. It's a really weird feeling to read about all those stories and the impact they had on the fandom. Anyway, a few random thoughts:

Roswell was my first contact with fanfiction in general. Since then, I've read lots of other fics, but I'm happy to say Roswell fics nearly always surpassed them in quality. Whereas you can take nearly any random Roswell fanfic and be pretty sure that it's, at the very least, well written and entertaining, for most of other fandoms such stories are typically rare gems. I've never understood why that is. Perhaps it's only my biased perception, perhaps the demographics of target audiences of other shows/books/etc. are to blame, I don't know.

Anyway, another point is the role of NC-17 elements in Roswell fanfiction. Whereas for most other NC-17 are either PWP or the NC-17 elements are merely gratuitous, in Roswell fics they're often crucial parts of the plot. Sex scenes in Roswell fiction rarely feel forced or out of place. Furthermore, they're generally written tastefully, in way that doesn't jar with the character of the relationship between people involved.

What surprised me is the relative lack of post-Graduation stories. While I was quite disappointed with most of season 3, I felt that Graduation concluded the series pretty well while also leaving a big opening for its continuation in fanfiction. Actually, to me Graduation seemed to be an invitation from the show's writers to fanfiction writers to continue the series. On the other hand, perhaps Graduation left too big an opening and no sense of direction, no starting point for a new plot. After the final episode, nearly anything could happen and perhaps that left the authors fearing that anything written afterwards would no longer 'be Roswell'.

[ken_r]

I think there are several nexus points. That is places where many story lines can intersect or branch off. One is destiny. Liz walking off is a powerful thought. Departure is another and I agree that graduation is a third. There are many post graduation fics. “The Offer” by misha is a very good story about trying to run away form the forces that pursue them. I tried one called “Liz come Back” which was post graduation and Liz was the one who was captured and put in the white room. I wrote one story, The Second Crash” where Tess crashed the granolyth only about 20 miles down the road. So departure was very short. Many of the post graduation fics seem almost like original stories because except for the background they are original.

Today I am writing notes for an idea which reviews the original crash in 1947. I remember so clear when this happened. The elementary school was trying to teach us to read the newspaper, more than the comics when someone in the room discovered the Roswell story.

For the most part you are right about the sex scenes. They are not necessarily gratuitous. Usually they are part of the plot. I write about the love they have in later years and I enjoy that. Not only because of my age, but it is good for young people to believe that old people have love also. It is no different from the love of the young except it is slower and some of the cries are from pain instead of passion.

I do like UC when you give reasons for the difference in couples. Don’t just make Liz a brunette Maria and send her off with Michael. Have a reason why a scholar would see something she could love in a guy like Michael. it really isn’t that hard. Michael was smart just not scholarly. In my story “Liz come back” Michael was caring for Liz. they had no romance but they did have mutual respect for each other.

When I get bored with writing conventional couples I will probably invent reasons that there are unconventional couples to developed.

Ken r

[paper]

Thanks for the walk down memory lane! And the reminder of all the wonderful fics I have loved.

While I usually enjoy most of the different ships, I find that I am reading AU w/o aliens more & more.

I would also like to mention the growing line of (Alec) Supernatural crossovers & vampire tales.

We owe a large debt of gratitude to all of our generous authors.

I have been here from the beginning of the Roswell show & hope to keep reading many years more.

Thank you all. And keep 'em coming!

[precariousem]

Wow, this thread is awesome. I don't remember when I started reading fanfic, but it was probably in 2000 when I read Ash's Captivated by Darkness series. I stopped reading Rosfic for awhile, but started up again last summer, so it's cool for me to see the trends and stuff that Kath and everyone else mention.

* One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is another kind of "fix it" fic like Kath mentions on the first page. And that's the "Liz is an alien and Max's love from Antar." Sometimes this includes the other humans as aliens, but usually it's just Liz. And Tess is either an ally who only thinks she was the queen or an evil bitch who is trying to take Liz's place (usually the latter.)

* My new discussion point is the close relationship between fanfic and fanart. (I see them as close, at least, I'm not sure about anyone else.) My belief is that fanart inspires fanfiction, and vice versa.

Fanart and CC Fanfic
For CC, fanart and fanfic did not necessarily effect one another, because they were both based on canon Roswell. Fanart was a way to either a) show how great they were together, b) give a visual record of a memorable scene (See [http://fractured-simplicity.net/daydrea ... =110&pos=4]JenniLou's[/url] Pilot WP) either right after it happened or when things on the show absolutely sucked and we wanted a reminder of the innocence of Season 1, or c) "fix" the fact that the couples did not have enough promo pics of them together by creating manipulations (example, Season 2 Max/Liz, Alex/Isabel).

Fanart and AU Fanfic
I think that when writers and artists put the characters in completely different situations, fanart really helps the writers. A fanartist could blend pictures from a photoshoot with another pic from the show, and a writer might get a story idea. And if a writer sees a manipulation of, say, Max and Liz in togas or in Renaissance garb, I think it gives them a strong visual and possibly the nugget of a story. (And, like I said before, the writing often inspires the artwork, too.)

Fanart and UC Fanfic
I think that fanart was the first step to a lot of the UC ships. Obviously, it didn't start most of them, but it got the idea out there. Fanart allowed people to use pictures of these beautiful characters (seriously, they are all gorgeous actors) and put them together in a completely different way, showing that Character A plus Character B (or C or D) looked absolutely fabulous together.

I didn't start thinking GZ until I'd been to the UC art thread, but I ended up maintaining a GZ website, creating several manipulations, and eventually getting interested in various other ships, like Michael/Tess and Alex/Tess - and read fics that I probably would have passed on if I hadn't been drawn in by the art. Great UC wallpapers and manips have been made by people like Nicola and others whose websites do not exist (or I do not know of).

Fanart and Crossovers (plus a little more about Crossovers)
I think that this is the place where art, or at least the conceptualization of two pretty people getting together, inspires fanfic. Writers put various Roswell characters into other worlds to make them grow as people, to allow them a break from the Alien Abyss, to get Liz away from Destiny or Departure. And yes, it's almost always Liz.

I have a theory about this from the standpoint of a fanartist and viewer of Season 2. When you create a manipulation, it's best that you put Liz's head on a petite brunette. One show that was on at the same time as Roswell was Dark Angel. The shows had a few things in common, but the main thing fanfic writers and fanartists saw was that Shiri had a resemblance to Jessica Alba, and that Liz was very unhappy, unable to be with Max, and she wasn't very involved in the Season 2 scifi arc. So you get manipulations of Shiri's head on Jessica's body, Liz becomes this kick-ass chick, and a lot of writers look at this and make Liz and DA Max sisters. As a transgenic, Liz has this whole other family and has special powers, too.

But there's more. "Busted" aired the week after "Designate This," the first ep of DA's second season and the introduction of Alec. Alec (played by Jensen Ackles) is incredibly hot, and as Kath mentions, he's Max's opposite. So Liz is paired with Alec by many Crossover authors (especially Calinia, like Kath said), and Max is a psycho stalker, an all-around jerk, or just completely left out of the story. Alec takes care of Liz and loves her, and usually kicks Max's ass.

One of the newer Crossover ships is related to the Xtremer (Alec/Liz) phenomenon. Shiri and Jensen look hot together in all of the fanart created by Xtremers, so it's not hard to see her with Dean Winchester if the circumstances are right. (See These Dreams by DMartinez.)

Drifter (Liz/Dean) fics are usually set after graduation and I guess come from a similar place that the dark!Max, trouble in paradise Polar fics do.

Hmm, the Crossover section is long. But I'm part Drifter/Xtremer, and I'm hoping that my ideas and opinions have relevance.

[sablaine]

Kath, Very accurate depiction of Roswell fanfic history, even of polarism (the one I'm attracted to). I did read dreamer for a long time and eventually began to write dreamer to somehow apologize for Max's atrocious behavior and make it right again. And then... I discovered polarism. And, as you so accurately stated, I never turned back. For the most part, I've abandoned all the dreamer fics, just as you said.

I still read dreamer once in a while but not without getting stomach cramps and feeling like I"m gonna hurl. I don't enjoy seeing Max as a an "ass" and still have Liz love him, and I don't enjoy fics that bash Max and then turn around and have Liz still attracted to him. There are, however, plenty of fics where Max is still a good guy (like he was in S1) and there is a beautiful love story that plays out between him and Liz. You mentioned some great dreamer authors and fics that I still do love. RosDeidre, yourself , LivE, EmilyluvsRoswell - all wonderful authors that I can still stomach well. LOL

Your comments on NC17 were also accurate. For a while there was a HUGE pressure on authors to write NC17 scenes. People would even leave comments mentioning that they couldn't wait for that scene to come up and when were Max and Liz (or whomever) going to do it? That was really hard on a lot of us. I finally made the decision that, as an author, I am NOT going to be pressured into writing those kind of scenes. They are completely unnecessary to the plot. I think you CAN write a good love story, insinuate a sex scene (if it's really necessary) without describing anything, and focus more on the plot and characters themselves without your story bordering on porn.

Anyway, thank you for reposting this history. It is truly appreciated and was an enjoyable read.

And, by the way, you're absolutely right when you say that Roswell fanfic writers have MUCH better quality fanfic than other fandoms. There really is no comparison.

And, Gretchen [hauntedd] you did a fantastic summary of polarism. It truly is a unique ship with some very distinct characterizations, such a Max being abusive, that you do not see elsewhere (probably why I have so much trouble going back and reading dreamer). Both Michael and Liz were such fantastic characters and it is fascinating to pair them together. Even though polarism is not as strong of a ship as it used to be, it still amazes me that there are always new people attracted to it, amazing authors that write moving pieces.

[Meka]

I still read dreamer once in a while but not without getting stomach cramps and feeling like I"m gonna hurl. I don't enjoy seeing Max as a an "ass" and still have Liz love him, and I don't enjoy fics that bash Max and then turn around and have Liz still attracted to him. There are, however, plenty of fics where Max is still a good guy (like he was in S1) and there is a beautiful love story that plays out between him and Liz. You mentioned some great dreamer authors and fics that I still do love. RosDeidre, yourself , LivE, EmilyluvsRoswell - all wonderful authors that I can still stomach well. LOL

I agree...i stop reading fics when Max is such an "ass" that it crosses the line on him being in character...

I so enjoyed reading this History of Ros Fanfic....i was not reading roswell fanfiction at its conception so i cant agree or disagree with most of what u said Kate, but as a reader and lover of roswell fanfiction it was really good to see where the fandom came from and how it has progressed over the years....

THANKS Kate

[Meka]

I was reading over one of Emz's fics called "I'm Coming For You" and the thought crossed my mind to ask whether or not everyone liking 'cherry coke' is a cannon fact or if fanfiction created this fandom tidbit that almost everyone only drinks cherry coke when they go to the crashdown....

just something i was wondering if someone knows and is willing to answer