Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24831427-20140418111849

Even with the first volume behind us, what we know about the world of RWBY is, admitedly, frustratingly little.

So I've wondered, how exactly do you go about writing any sort of long-term fanfic?

I mean, to make any sort of long narrative, you really need to know how the world functions, what the culture and mythology (if any) is like and you need to know all the characters like the back of your hand. That being said, we know next to nothing about any of this.

I've had plenty of discussions about things such as how exactly aura works, how it ties in with semblences, how dust works, knowing all along that almost everything that can be said is merely based in speculation. Educated speculation it may be, but still speculation nonetheless. The second volume is still months away and while I'm itching to analyse it for all its worth, chances may be that when it does finally arrive, it'll ask more questions than it answers.

With a constantly shifting and unpredictable narrative that only even has it's foundations of physics and culture in the early stages of growth, we're only scratching the surface and it seems, at this point, almost impossible to get an educated grasp of what the RWBY world is.

Eventually you get to the point where you literally can't move the story forward without making some kind of speculation, which may or may not even be true.

Is anyone bothered by just how much a long-term project can deviate from source material by making assumptions that later turn out to be false? Do you stop writing? Do you continue onwards despite the fact that your world now functions differently from the original? Or do you decide to just say "bugger it" and just write an alternate universe fic that you can take in your own direction?

While I'm yet to start writing, I'm leaning toward the "alternate universe" method, if only to prevent confusion with the original as it continues its run.

So the question is: What is your opinion on this, and if you're a fanfic writer, how do you go about mixing canon and fanon, or do you just adhere to straight canon? 