The limitations of 'Canon' (Chapter 95 of Long Haul is out!)

Howdy there, everyone! It's Friday again, so you all know what that means! That's right, there's a new chapter of Long Haul up for you all to dive into, and I hope you all enjoy it. This week, Long Haul moves into a new area that I've waited years to get to; the Vanhoover region. Some of you may not know why that is important to me, but those who've read TheFurryRailFan's Fo:E - Empty Quiver know that it's the area in which his colorful cast of characters will end up roughly a decade after Night and his crew have gone through. And on the subject of working with another story's canon, I have a sort of rambling post down below. So if you're here for the chapter, great! Feel free to get to it. But if you're interested in my writing thoughts, as always, feel free to stick around.

Doing my best to avoid spoilers both in this post, as well as in the story, I of course have to be careful how I write. While I've had creative freedom of everything up to this point, I've been needing to consult with TheFurryRailFan as I work through the chapters. This process has slowed my writing more than just a little as I have to go back and reference things, ask questions, and generally be more careful with how I move forward, and it reminds me on a point of Canon Fo:E stories that I've made before and feel compelled to remind everyone of.

When writing an Fo:E story, or any story set in any universe for that matter, any stories past the foundations of the universe are as Canon as you want them to be. To give an example, if you were to write a story that you wanted to have set in Hoofington, would you have to avoid stepping on Project Horizon's canon? The answer is simply only if you want it to be canon. If you have a vision in mind for your story that changes some bit of established lore from Project Horizon, then there's nothing saying that you can't change it! But, that doesn't mean it doesn't come with some considerations. If you write that Black Jack died halfway through her adventure, you have to expect that people are going to question why Hoofington wasn't destroyed after a few months. Generally with a change that big, then 'I don't consider that half of her story canon' isn't going to be something that'll sate everyone.

An example of something that could change Canon, but still be easily acceptable, is that you could pull a 'New Vegas' on a character who Canonically died in PH. Not a main character, mind you, but a bystander or perhaps even a raider. Said character wakes up after being shot in the head and goes on with their life. That changes established canon, but is entirely viable in the established universe. If you want that character to carry a lust for revenge that changes their life purpose to killing Blackjack, well, that'll be hard to satisfy in a story, but again, is technically feasible without breaking any further Project Horizons canon.

When working within the bounds of something you consider Canon, the world is not nearly as inflexible as one might think. You simply need to find the gaps and grey areas in the stories to operate in and exploit. For example, in Merchants of Hope, I used my story to put a backstory as to why the Bucklin Bridge's collapsed roadway looks the way it does when Pip found it in Fo:E. Does it affect her story at all? No, but it allowed me to use a location from the main story, as well as to make it my own in a way. But do you have to accept Merchants of Hope's version of the Bucklin Bridge? Absolutely not if it's not something you don't agree with. In the case of Long Haul, I consider Empty Quiver to be canon, and because of that, I have to take extra care to work within the restrictions that brings. But those restrictions only exist because of my want to respect the material I consider canon for my own stories, and they may not line up with the canon others like from other stories. And you know what? That's one hundred percent perfectly fine!

Anyway, I'd meant this as a short thing, but as usual it sort of ballooned out into an entire essay. Funny how my writing always seems to go that way. Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed this quick look into how I view the flexibility of 'canon' with my stories, and I hope you enjoy my new chapter as well! Of course, I'll be back in two weeks with another new chapter of Long Haul for you all. So until then, do take care, and Happy Holidays! See you all right back here next time.