hi! i saw your post about difficulty writing characters and the struggle is REAL.
for as long as I've been writing, i've always had trouble writing new characters. or writing a character for the first time bc I always feel terrified to get their character wrong or have it not be canon accurate
but i think the best part about writing characters like Tony Stark is that there's so much DIFFERENT source material to pull from and reference.
MCU tony stark is not like the comics (esp the og comics) of Tony Stark.
so what if the tony stark in your au isn't exactly like MCU tony stark? isnt that the whole point of an au? of fanfiction?
write tony stark however YOU wanna write him. that's the best part of fanfiction: taking a character and saying 'well, what would they do if...' and 'how would they be if these were their circumstances instead?'
i've been reading irondad fanfics for a long time, back when there were only ~100 pages of them on ao3. and each time i open a new fic, im expecting this tony to be different from canon tony. I look forward to seeing each authors' spin on his character.
And so I say— don't get TOO caught up in characterization.
in some of my fics, i really focus on and explore the awkwardness of his character (see: his interactions with Peter ESPECIALLY in the beginning).
in some fics, i like to explore just how soft a man supposedly made of iron is for (t)his kid.
how i write tony is, ultimately, dependent on how I wanna read him/what im in the mood for. and once i write him a certain way in a wip, i commit to it.
over the years, i've just kept writing and experimenting and having fun.
idk if this is going to help at all, but i thought id throw in my two cents.
—Not_me_undercover on AO3 (not-me-underc0ver on Tumblr)
Thank you so much this is what I was looking for
I guess writing Tony it doesn’t matter what matter free-write what make you happy
Also what you say about sources is so true it fanfiction
I keep that in mind when I eventually have beta reader to oversee the writing process
It was very helpful your two cents your whole perspective
