Actually I remember her saying on her blog that since she writes for House she legally can't read fanfiction, because then she could be accused of stealing from it if she wrote something similar to a fanfiction. Which is pathetic in my mind, to sue someone you stole from for stealing from you, but there you are.

To clarify: Doris Egan doesn't read House fanfic. She only reads (or has read - I think she's too busy now) fic for shows she's not writing. ETA: Or, what Taiga said. :)

wilson
Since so much of the fanfic is H/W, sometimes I think that House has a closer relationship with Wilson than he really does in canon. I mean, not close in the sexual sense, just close in a friendship sense. Apart from the pranks they play on each other, they don't seem to do stuff outside of work that much anymore. So I'm always a little surprised when Wilson appears on House's doorstep, obviously non-plussed by the presence of the hooker...because in my mind, he's been to House's place dozens of times when House has returned from taking young ladies to the Philharmonic. ;) And sometimes I'm surprised at how little Wilson seems to know House--I mean, we're in Season 5 and he still thinks that House is jonesing for a fix with the methadone treatment. Then I realize that Wilson (in fanfic) has come to all sorts of realizations about House -- and has grown a lot -- which he hasn't done in canon. Can't wait for the new ep.

I agree with you that the canon relationship for House and Wilson is different than a lot of fanfic, even friendship fic. However, House and Wilson were established in ep 5-5 to be doing quite a lot together outside of work. (Wilson mentions two or three things in the same week.) I believe we as fans are supposed to assume that's still the case. Ever since Season One, Wilson has been surprised by some things about House that I wouldn't expect any best friend to be surprised by. I think it's a constraint the show writers have -- they only have one "peer" to relate to House, so if they want a peer/friend reaction to something of House's, they have to make Wilson have it. It makes Wilson looks like a boob sometimes, not knowing something we presume he should.

And it flows the other way around as well. It was really fun to read all the fanfic explaining why House did not know that Wilson could cook. And in a lot of fic House actually shows he cares about Wilson in constructive yet fun ways, far more that he has ever done in canon. I do believe they spend a lot of time together outside of work, Wilson in Lucky13 lists their weekend activities: bowling, poker and the scene ends with both planing to have lunch together. I just wish we could see them outside of work more often, but then I even miss the balcony scenes.

I didn't explain myself well up above. I didn't mean DE reads House fanfic, nor was I relating what I said about my fic to the idea that the writers read fanfic (I hope to high heaven none of them ever read what I've written). But to read any kind of fanfic, might influence one's writing. My head's swimming too much to try to explain. Fanfic tends to be more over the top than not and definitely more soap-operaish across the board, not just House fandom and to read any of it might influence an idea. I know what I mean, probably not explaining it well. I think right now, the reason we aren't seeing so much H & W moments outside of work is simply due to the cast being so large, and trying to incorporate as much as possible into each episode. There just isn't time. We also don't see every minute of every day and often I have trouble distinguishing when one day morphs into the next (especially if they pull all nighters and don't change clothing)...we don't see that Chase & Cameron have a relationship, but they do. I like to think H & W are still maintaining their friendship off camera, granted it's not canon.

gentler
Yeah, House shows more caring for Wilson in fanfic than he is in canon. More awareness of how Wilson is acting, and more closeness too. For example, after reading so much fanfic, I found it OOC that House didn't notice that Wilson was (still) preoccupied with Amber and not able to move on. In fanfic, that's something House would notice instantly. You could make the argument that the writers just didn't want to show House noticing this on the show, but it still seems out of place to me. I guess I'm more surprised when it's Wilson who doesn't show the same care because he's written as a caring character. I thought the bourbon-as-tox-screen scene was particularly cold of him, until I realized that he was seriously frightened by what House did. There are gentler ways of finding out the truth. What I found really "true" was the way Wilson's eyes almost went black in that bourbon-as-tox-screen scene -- someone in fanfic has written that exact scene, in which Wilson is so angry the whites of his eyes almost disappear. spoilerI guess we'll see how much House cares about Wilson in the next few eps, what with the LLB storyline and all. I would be seriously disappointed if the LLB storyline didn't give House some moments of caring. end of spoiler :D Mod Note: Please remember to white out spoilers. Poeia

The flip side of that is that House is much more childish in fanfic than he is on the show. His apartment is filthy, he eats food that's so far past its expiration date that it probably qualifies as a life form, etc. On the show we've seen that he doesn't bother to scrub the lime deposits off his bathroom sink and, when Wilson is around, he doesn't do the dishes. While there is plenty of mess (e.g. inside the hall closet and books and magazines open on most surfaces), there is nothing left on the floor where he might trip on it. And there's no evidence that this doctor who is board certified in infectious diseases lives in a sty. Lime scale isn't a good medium for growing mold, old pizza boxes are.

Depending on who is writing, both Wilson and House can come across as much more warm and fuzzy than they really are. They are not warm and fuzzy guys.

I misunderstood you, travlncarrie, sorry. (By the way, I think the writers of the show would be proud to see your AU for the characters.) It's an interesting question, as to whether reading fanfic in general changes how a writer of original fiction writes. Hm.

House shows more caring for Wilson in fanfic than he is in canon. It's not just House and Wilson that happens to. In some Huddy fics, House is usually much more gentle and open with her than he ever is on the show. In some Hameron fics, he's always hanging out in the ER just to talk to her because he misses her so much, or he just wants to chat about his day or go have a drink with her. There are House/Wilson/Cuddy friendship fics where they all end up living together for one reason or another, and while those are fun for me to read, I can't see that ever happening, it's OOC. In my experience, people tend to write House as more attentive and caring in fics where he is front and center, mostly when it's a shippy fic, and when he's not front and center (the story is about a ship he isn't directly involved in like Cham or Wuddy) they tend to write him as a completely oblivious @ss. Obviously, this isn't true for every fic. Fanficiton has never interfered with the show for me.