Times when the research was against you.

[TheRedChamber]

According to notes written by original creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, which is the most directly reliable source, Fred and Shaggy are both 17, Daphne is 16, and Velma is 15 years old.

Oh, come the fuck on! I shouldn't have looked this up, after all there are already tons of Scooby Doo parodies on Lit that have got through no problem. I just had to go and double-check. I guess if I do write this idea, I'm going to be going with a cast of wholey original characters Frank, Delphine, Vera and Nobby and their great dane, Hoobey-Hoo who go around solving enigmas in their Enigma Engine. I suppose they are clearly identified as 'meddling kids' so I've only myself to blame.

When has the research not given you the answer you wanted?

 

[Priscilla_June]

Honestly your alternate names sound way more fun!

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I wanted to include the Exxon Valdez in one of my stories but found out it was commissioned five months after my story took place.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I wanted to include the Exxon Valdez in one of my stories but found out it was commissioned five months after my story took place.

That's some unfortunate timing.

 

[Euphony]

Honestly your alternate names sound way more fun!

Great Value Mystery Machine gang gotta get up to way more wacky sexy time fun, right?

 

[HornyKatie1979]

Given Scooby-Doo started in the 1969 (according to Wikipedia), they'd all be in their 50s at least by now.

There's probably a story in them meeting up again, refreshing their memories of the old days, some of them married, some divorced, etc - details up to the author I guess!

 

[Stimtheone]

And this is why I try to divorce myself from any historical events. I think once or twice in the far past I had something come up against me, but I didn't have much do so with my current stories.

The only exception is if they decide to develop FTL or further research gravity or quantum physics to invalidate the stuff I'm writing now. Writing sci-fi is a bit difficult, even when you don't have to care too much about the physics.

 

[SimonDoom]

No way. Velma turned 18 two days ago. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

 

[LoquiSordidaAdMe]

How many Christmas specials are there? Velma may have been 15 when they solved their first mystery, but after three Christmas episodes, she'd have to be 18.

 

[bumpercars]

"The canon is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."

-Sexy Captain Barbossa, who moonlights as a Lit editor

 

[TheRedChamber]

No way. Velma turned 18 two days ago. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

Love how these discussions always immediately focus on Velma.

I'm just going to come out and say that, despite having a host of nerdy girl stories here, I'm team Daphne all the way.

How many Christmas specials are there? Velma may have been 15 when they solved their first mystery, but after three Christmas episodes, she'd have to be 18.

By that logic Bart Simpson is in his forties.

 

[ElectricBlue]

No way. Velma turned 18 two days ago. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.

#62 spotted. Add it to your list. She'll be well old by the time you're done .

 

[SimonDoom]

Love how these discussions always immediately focus on Velma.

I'm just going to come out and say that, despite having a host of nerdy girl stories here, I'm team Daphne all the way.

Daphne has much to recommend her, but Velma (18 and over) makes me go "Jinkies!"

 

[SimonDoom]

#62 spotted. Add it to your list. She'll be well old by the time you're done .

You do know that you are a terrible person, right?

 

[ElectricBlue]

You do know that you are a terrible person, right?

Just keeping everything on track .

 

[TheRedChamber]

Daphne has much to recommend her, but Velma (18 and over) makes me go "Jinkies!"

We've turned into this:

Ironically, even the last line still works...

 

[MrPixel]

I wanted to include the Exxon Valdez in one of my stories but found out it was commissioned five months after my story took place.

Really? Who’d catch it?

I have all sorts of time warps in my current series. Ostensibly the story takes place “today”, but certain scenes worked a whole bunch better with snippets of real places as they existed 5 to 35 years ago. You’d have to work really hard to catch them.

Writing fiction is fun!

 

[Zootonius]

I wanted to include the Exxon Valdez in one of my stories but found out it was commissioned five months after my story took place.

If Shakespeare can have Prince Hal about the same age as Henry Percy, aka 'Hotspur,' when in fact Hotspur was 23 years older, I think no one will notice your discrepancy.

 

[StillStunned]

If Shakespeare can have Prince Hal about the same age as Henry Percy, aka 'Hotspur,' when in fact Hotspur was 23 years older, I think no one will notice your discrepancy.

Fewer people had access to the internet in Shakespeare's time. Otherwise they'd have been all over him.

 

[MrPixel]

"To be, or not to be. That is the... oh, fuck. Network went down again."

 

[TheArsonist]

I'm working on a story set in June 1992, and I wanted one of the characters to be reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt… which came out in September that year.

It's not like many people would catch the slight anachronism, but it would bother me if the timeline couldn't be reconciled; I was planning to leave the year unstated, as something readers could work out from various clues if so inclined, and this might spoil that.

Fortunately I'd already established that the character had connections in the publishing industry, so I decided that it must be an Advance Copy. I think that's pretty plausible, as apparently there was a great deal of buzz about it in literary circles ahead of its release—and I will not research the timeline around that any further in case I discover any more contradictions.

Unfortunately that means I'll have to drop the joke where another character glimpses the author name on the cover and thinks Madonna has written another book after Sex, this time called Tart. (Sex only came out in October 1992.)

 

[FeralSmile]

Oh, come the fuck on! I shouldn't have looked this up, after all there are already tons of Scooby Doo parodies on Lit that have got through no problem. I just had to go and double-check. I guess if I do write this idea, I'm going to be going with a cast of wholey original characters Frank, Delphine, Vera and Nobby and their great dane, Hoobey-Hoo who go around solving enigmas in their Enigma Engine. I suppose they are clearly identified as 'meddling kids' so I've only myself to blame.

When has the research not given you the answer you wanted?

My friend, they're fictional characters, and they can be any age you want in your story. Their canonical age only refers to their appearances in the cartoons. Even if you wish to slavishly follow canon, which isn't necessary for most readers... just set your story a few years later. Their adventures don't canonically end, after all, so 3 or 4 or 5 years later one would expect they're still at the same stuff. Or 10 years, or 20, or whatever fits your preference.

How old is Sherlock Holmes? Batman? Ichabod Crane? The Monkey King?

As old as the writer wishes.

 

[TheArsonist]

they can be any age you want in your story.

Not on LE, they can't. There's a policy against using characters that are canonically underage, even if you age them up in your story. (And yes, there are all sorts of weird situations and edge-cases you can drag up if you want to quibble, and there are stories that have slipped through, but generally the policy is applied pretty strictly and is not up for debate.)

 

[FeralSmile]

Not on LE, they can't. There's a policy against using characters that are canonically underage, even if you age them up in your story. (And yes, there are all sorts of weird situations and edge-cases you can drag up if you want to quibble, and there are stories that have slipped through, but generally the policy is applied pretty strictly and is not up for debate.)

Fair point, my bad. I meant any age above 18, and more specifically that they're not restricted to being underage because of canon. If your story clearly states that they're 18+, they are, no? You're not setting your story in canon, at that point, but rather after it.

If I've misunderstood the policy entirely though, apologies.

 

[TheArsonist]

I meant any age above 18, and more specifically that they're not restricted to being underage because of canon. If your story clearly states that they're 18+, they are, no? You're not setting your story in canon, at that point, but rather after it.

If I've misunderstood the policy entirely though, apologies.

If they are <18 in the original material, you cannot have them (in sexual situations) in a story even if you state that they are >18.

It gets into a bit more of a gray area if the original material includes parts where the characters are both underage and overage, and some common sense must apply, but it's not the case in general that the existence of canon stories where the characters are older than 18 means LE will allow erotic stories set in that timeframe. The safest thing is to avoid situations where there is any doubt whatsoever.