Dear The Underland Chronicles Fanfiction Writers...
Letter 9
Author's Note: Didn't think I'd end up writing another one of these, but here we are. This is something that I've noticed that's really prevalent in the TUC fandom.
Dear The Underland Chronicles Fanfiction Writers,
Hello all, it's me, TUCfan, again, with another letter to the community. I've been reading a lot of older fics lately, and I've noticed that nearly all of them have one thing in common. It is especially clear to me after completing and publishing my latest story, Scars of the Outcasts: Hardly anyone, excusing WillDreamer and myself, seem to incorporate the fact that Gregor has major trauma from the events of the series. Don't get me wrong, plenty of people write about him having nightmares, but do you think that those are the only things that come with PTSD?
Another issue that many run into is that Gregor seems to immediately recover when he returns to the Underland. All his nightmares fade away, and he recovers as though it was only a common cold or some other temporary malady.
But the reality is, PTSD takes years upon years of therapy, counseling, and healing to recover from, if you are lucky enough to recover from it at all. Gregor, all on his lonesome on a farm in Virginia, as he is so often written to be, cannot heal that way. When he is thrown right back into the thick of things in the Underland, and facing off with even more war and death, he is written to be coping completely finely, but I seriously doubt that he could manage, despite how strong he is.
When creating a story that involves a character as complex and traumatized as Gregor, it requires a massive amount of research. Sitting on your computer and shoving the real Gregor out of the way in favor of your version, whose mental state is not riddled with memories of war and death, is a very unkind thing to do to both the character and Suzanne Collins, who did such an excellent job bringing to life what war is really like.
Many who write about further wars in the Underland also do not incorporate what being at war is really like. No one seems to remember that an army is made up of individuals who love what they defend so much that they are willing to lay down their lives for it. Suzanne Collins knew this. None of the rest of you (besides you, WillDreamer) seem to.
I don't write this to be mean. I do understand that many who write for this fandom, even myself included, are still children, or at least young enough to not understand war and trauma. What I do not understand is the rush to publish your story without truly making sure it is good. A continuation of a story that does not respect the original work is worthless. Just look at the sequel trilogy for Star Wars.
But on the other hand, when you study the original work, and truly grasp the meaning of the story it tells, you are able to create something that is so much more beautiful and meaningful to each character. To go with the Star Wars analogy again, this is what the Legends books do. It is very obvious that each writer has a great respect for the story that Star Wars tells, and does everything in their power to ensure that their story matches. I have taken many hours to do this. When I am in the middle of working on a fic, the books sit on my desk next to me and the wiki is open on another tab so that I may constantly fact-check myself.
As I said before, I do not write this to be mean. Instead, I write this as a call to improvement. It is not difficult to make a good story. All it takes is a bit more research than people are willing to put in.
Believe me, if you do that, it makes your story all the better.
Unless I suddenly find some other glaring issue with this fandom, this shall be my last letter.
Fly you high, all of you.
~TUCfan.