Alex Washoe | Updates

Fandom vs. Canon

Alex Washoe — Thu, 14 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I want to talk about mythology verses dogma.

And no, I'm not talking about religion. I'm talking about fandom. (I know its hard to tell the difference sometimes.) The difference between a mythology and a dogma is that the mythology is alive. It's growing, changing, adapting, being re-interpreted, being taken up by new groups who find new meanings. A mythology is always in flux, and that's why it has so much power to shape lives and give meaning.

A dogma on the other hand, is dead. Still. Fixed in stone. Unchanging. To even think about changing it is heresy. It cannot grow. It cannot adapt. It cannot be updated.

Mythologies are very hard to contain. They're about being alive and finding meaning. Growing.

Dogmas are meant to contain. They're meant to enshrine one way of being. One way of thinking. One interpretation. Dogmas are about protecting the status quo.

Franchises like Star Wars, Start Trek, Doctor Who are, at their best, living mythologies. They grow and change and adapt and are taken up by new fans and new generations who give them new meanings and interpretations.

When we moan and cry about "cannon" (and I've done it too) we're trying to reduce those mythologies to dogma. We're trying to protect some status quo that probably never existed in the first place.

We're trying to pin the butterfly to the board. We're killing the thing we say we love.

]]>

A Brief reflection on how I write

Alex Washoe — Sun, 10 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes, writing a book is a linear thing. I start at the beginning with a solid outline (I always outline in a lot of detail) and proceed straight through to the end. Inevitably though, I discover things about the characters, the plot, and the theme that I didn't know in the beginning, and I have to go back and retcon things to make it fit. That's pretty straightforward. It's also rare.

Sometimes a book goes completely off the rails, and I stall about half-way through, flounder around, and finally have to go back to the beginning and put everything in order before I can go on. That is really frustrating.

Usually, though, writing a book is an inside-out, timey-wimey sort of ball of narrative threads all twisted up like Christmas lights that have been in storage for a few years. In addition to the main plot, there are all these other subplots, side-plot, and digressions that I have to connect to each other and resolve, but I don't want to go back and start over at the beginning because I've got momentum on my side, so I keep going and just write through the ending, wrapping everything up in the way that seems most satisfying. THEN, I have to go back and retcon the beginning so that the ending makes sense. Until I know how it ends, I can't know how it should begin.

Addendum to the above: I have tried writing endings first, and though it is sometimes helpful, I find that I don't know what a book is about until I write it, and so I can't really wrap everything up because I don't know what everything is. The only way out is through.

]]>

Welcome to my new website

Alex Washoe — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is the inaugural post for my new website. I have a book launch coming up in about three weeks and that book is up for pre-order now on Amazon. Watch this space for updates, background information, and whatever shiny nonsense catches my attention.

]]>