What I've Discovered in Writing Fanfiction

It's been a long time since I posted and I finally feel like I'm back on track here about my writing, which was what this blog was meant to be in the first place.

This latest project started simply.

I was dabbling in the world of Law and Order: SVU fanfiction. I'd explored different ideas - from Elliot and Olivia having a sexual relationship to a long-term partnership between Alex and Olivia. I'd brought in the fallout from Olivia's sexual assault, her PTSD, and even brought up the idea that as a kid, a teacher took advantage of her and she got pregnant as a result. Elliot's daughter, Lizzie, came out as a lesbian. I was happy with what I'd put together.

Over the last eleven years, SVU has taken on the role of educating the public about rape and sexual assault statistics for all populations. Just this season, the show has tackled biphobia and rape in the lesbian community, sexual assault against people with disabilities, the meat packing industry, alcoholism, and of course, the gut wrenching truth of life in the Congo. In previous seasons they have dared to give Olivia PTSD, they've focused on bi-polar issues, rape in the African American community, AIDS, and the life of the child soldiers in Africa. In a world full of white TV characters, they have bent (but not broken) the color line with characters like Monique Jefferies, Odafin Tutuola, George Huang, and of course the fierce Melinda Warner. They even had Detective Adam Lake, a Native American raised in the foster system. For a season, they had the chance to offer a different perspective and to tell stories through his eyes much the same way they use Finn to tell stories in the African American community. Instead, they wrote him out of the show and he's been forgotten, like that bad date we all hope never comes back again.

They had an opportunity to utilize the world at their command and instead, they walked away.

I didn't.

One recent morning I woke up and started writing a piece about Alex in witness protection. It took place post "Ghost" so I must have watched that ep before bed or something, or so I thought. But because I'm not one to ignore the muse for any reason, I just started writing. And I kept writing. And I kept at it.

What emerged was a series of stories that were more about Alex Cabot than the SVU world. It was witsec, from Alex's point of view, and for this relocation, they'd dropped her onto the Navajo reservation in Arizona, right at the New Mexico border. Initially, I wrote without a lot of research. I know the area, just enough, and the story wasn't about the reservation but about Alex. I didn't need desperate specifics.

The story introduced Ali Ramos, an artist whom Alex quickly falls for. The side note of her mixed race heritage (half-Mexican, half-Navajo) is only brought up to give background into the character. Alex doesn't discover her inner Indian in this story (which is always a trap when you put white characters into Indian country), but she does discover a part of herself she hadn't realized existed. She comes to realize she must be a part of a community and not isolated away as she was not only in witsec but in New York as well. She misses Olivia and the life they had together, but she also decides to live not just to survive.

Ali didn't go away as I thought she would when Alex returned to New York. Instead, she'd worked her way into my heart as a character and, I quickly learned, into the hearts of many of my readers as well. Only one negative comment about Ali sticks in my mind and no, Ali has not dropped dead. She is alive, but not so well.

As I started my work on another series within this fanon, I began typing something that made me ache in ways I haven't ached since writing the death of Marc Gadling in Crossing the Gate. As the scene of Ali's recovery played out before me, I realized I was looking at a storyline that had been in the making since I introduced Ali into the mix. Ali's rape at the hands of an agent of the US Government prompted me into research and what I found horrified me.

I was already very aware, as we all should be, of the lack of understanding and proper history given to the Indigenous people of this country. Students learn only briefly of the genocide plotted by the federal government against the Indian tribes and only some learn about the forced sterilization of women into the 1970's. The disease infected blankets and the forced relocation are almost romanticized while we talk of the glories of Andrew Jackson. Indian culture is homogenized into bear spirits and feathers and Kokopelli charms that are all worn without understanding the meaning behind them. Art galleries that specialize in Native art are owned by whites and the Indian jewelry sold in kitsch shops from Moab to Memphis is made in China. Living in a state with no less than five reservations, I understand (at least on the surface) about the poverty the reservations face. While people drive through the states toward the Grand Canyon or Zions or any of the Southwest Desert locales, they turn a blind eye to the poverty of the nations that surround the tourist destination. We feel sorry for the world we've helped to create, but we do little to actually change it. That would involve work and educating ourselves. I am the first to acknowledge my own guilt in that realm.

But then I began writing Ali. And I began doing my research on the area in which I'd placed her home. And then ... I began my research on the statistics of rape among Native American women. What I found still turns my stomach.

It isn't so much that Indigenous women are more likely than their white counterparts to be assaulted. Women of color in general are more likely to assaulted - regardless of race. But what horrifies me is the United States complicity in what happens on the reservations. Jurisdictional boundaries restrict the ability of Tribal Courts to prosecute and when evidence is turned over to the US attorney, it is often shuffled and ignored. There is no funding for training, for BIA agents, for crime solving in general, and women suffer. It is possible for this to change, but until today, the United States was one of the nations that had still not signed onto the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. Only today did the Obama Administration opt to "Take another look" at the document. Until then, it had been ignored.

This passion did not develop due to my own ties to my Native heritage. I am white, I come from a white background, and while like many Americans, I can trace some of my roots back to the Cherokee Nation I was not taught about those roots as a child. I learned on my own about the Trail of Tears, but I cannot trace my own lines. I do not even know the name of my Indian ancestor. And while this story has awakened in me a desire to learn those roots, roots that have always spoken to me even while they were shouted down by others, the story itself is about the chance to present something that not many people are truly aware of. At least, in my world.

But I wondered how to present this story within the bounds of my SVU fanfiction. I'd taken the story almost as far as it could go. But then the show presented me with a gift: the departure of ADA Alex Cabot. While I, like many fans, hated to see her leave it opened up a whole new realm for the character and as a result, for writers like myself. To me, fanfiction isn't just about how fast we can get our favorite characters into bed together. It's about exploring the nature of these characters. For all the screaming and wailing of hands, the road they placed Alex on was perfect. Not only for the character but for me as a writer.

Why? Because now I have leave for her to research and prosecute rape as a war tactic not only in Africa and the Hague but right here in the United States.

You might ask why I am not writing this story in a novel format? Well, while it has inspired a novel idea, right now I can reach more people through fanfiction and to make this story work in a novel format, it will need editing, reworking, and research that lies before me. Not to mention a complete change of characters and venues. If even 30 people read what I've written right now, it's 30 people more than would if it were sitting in my notebook. And with fanfiction, I have a natural audience - one that would be expanded if people would shake off their "Shipper" attitudes and read something that isn't their primary ship. It isn't about who is sleeping together and to reduce storylines to that trivial of a concept is an insult to the producers and writers, the audience, and the characters in the story. (And I say that to both the fans and the producers.) Olivia's bed partner is much less important than the greater stories we get the chance to tell in fanfiction. Especially in a fandom like SVU.

Stories are told on network TV not just because they are engaging but we know they are engaging because they poll well and sit well with research groups. But I cannot help but wonder if they have ever bothered to float the idea of telling this story to the American public. While Manhattan does not have any reservations to speak of, that has not stopped SVU from telling stories about Africa or even flying to Bosnia to face off with the child porn rings of Eastern Europe. I am not saying this to belittle those very important stories. I am saying it because if SVU wants to remain relevant, they need to be willing to tell EVERY story. Not just the ones at the top of the headlines. SVU has told stories about gay athletes; they can tell one story about one of the untold crises in this country.

As for me, I continue to write and to research. I continue to expect the best of myself not only in my original work but in my fanfiction as well. It's my place as a writer to tell these stories. And this one has become important to me.

Important links:
A Warped World for Native American Women Seeking Justice
Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and the Criminal Justice Response: What is Known
Sexual Abuse of Native American Women
The American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence
Ask Amnesty
The Maze of Injustice Report (Amnesty International)
The stores this world inspired.