nebroadwe | Meme: Please welcome our next guest ... (Reply)

Sniggled from several different writers on my flist, the Fanwriter Interview Meme (which I swore I was going to complete before the New Year, phew!):

And what got you into fanfiction to begin with?

I can't remember a time when I wasn't telling stories, either original stories or ones based off other people's. Among my juvenilia I have both adventure yarns written in several different fantasy worlds and fanfiction based on the characters in my first grade reading book. Go figure.

Formally, I made my fanfiction debut about two-and-a-half years ago, after I saw the Fullmetal Alchemist movie. I was actually preparing an academic analysis of it, having been involved in some fascinating discussions of the series over on Usenet, but at the same time I was working out some deleted scenes in my head, as I'm wont to do. The writing impulse somehow got crossed with the deleted scene creation impulse, and I started writing my first 'fic, "Ivory Gate," though I actually completed and posted two others prior to that. So while I'm really a member of the 'zine generation, I came to this whole fanwriting-in-public thing pretty darn late.

I see. So what kind of fanfiction do you like to write?

Anything I can end with a zinger (plot or language). I prefer to work inside canon rather than create AUs; I like taking the canon basics and then building up the granularity of the background culture or the characterizations. I love mixing tone and making it work: writing sad stories that are a little funny, or humorous stories with an undercurrent of melancholy.

Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the aspects of writing you struggle most with?

Depends on the phase of the moon whether I find writing easy or hard. I go through dry spells where no real writing happens at all, even when I sit down first thing in the morning and produce verbiage (most of it usually gets dumped); then I go through periods (like the one I just had) where I'm churning out stories like there's no tomorrow. No wonder people invented the Muses.

I struggle with plot mechanics and descriptions (though with practice I'm getting better at both). I breeze right through dialogue and, while I put a lot of thought into characterization, I don't generally find it difficult to get right.

Write a few sentences or so of your favorite pairing or character.

Aha! An excuse to add another Chibi Drabble to the series:
Overnight, the adults claim, the mercury fell with an audible thud, but Ed tells Al it was just a dead tree blowing over in the windbreak. Danny Cutter says it's cold enough to freeze the fecking nuts off a brass monkey, which seems equally implausible, but when Ed asks his mother about it, he learns instead that you can't blame other people for what you choose to say.

He further discovers that soap tastes terrible, but doesn't permanently wash impolite language out of your mouth. Also, when Danny licks the school flagpole, that poetic justice exists -- and it's fecking sweet.

Are there any fanfiction clichés or trends you're sick of or just can't stand?

Somebody's going to take away my Internet for saying this, but -- porn, especially PWP. My reaction to that (apart a moral/aesthetic "Eww!") is, with all the plot and character possibilities in the world to choose from, why perseverate on sex? I've been skipping sex scenes in books ever since I was old enough to understand what the characters were doing; a nod's as good as a wink to this blind bat. Why aren't the characters out saving the world? That's far more interesting reading ...

And don't get me started on mpreg ... dear Muses, WHY?

Are you guilty of any fanfiction clichés you hate? Or any other ones?

None of the above, at least. I have committed sappy romance (I wrote one pairing's first kiss twice -- oh, dear) and even songfic (sort of). I've also got a tendency toward purple prose -- sometimes my English major gets off the leash and redecorates the house with a thesaurus.

What was the first fandom you wrote for, and do you still like/participate in it?

I was going to say Fullmetal Alchemist and "yes," but then I remembered that it's actually Star Wars (purely for private amusement) and "no" -- the canon's way too complex, and I haven't kept up with it because the novels don't move me the way the films did. (I don't think my first grade reader has a fandom ...)

Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them that you love to write.

Augh. I stick with the canon 'ships in all my fandoms, because what I like to do best, as I mentioned before, is work in the interstices of an established story. I want my stuff to read like it belongs to the original (one reason I've never tried, say, LOTR fanfic, because I'd never be able to pastiche Tolkien's style); I'm also very fond of picking up an idea here and a trope there and a line from some other place and making them into something that could just possibly be canon, but isn't because I don't own FMA/Princess Tutu/Avatar. The challenge of writing rare pairings or non-canonical pairings in general just doesn't interest me all that much -- my reaction tends to be, "But that's not how the story goes!" This is probably a holdover from my academic training -- as an English major, you're taught to read the book you have, not the book you wish you had. :-) And I'm into fanfiction because I want more of the story I've just read/watched, not something different. For that, for me, there's original fiction.

What would you call your writing style?

"Fred," but it prefers "Louise." I don't know. I strive for clean, lively prose with a touch of understated ornamentation and realistic depictions of character and setting. Whether I achieve that in any particular work is still touch and go.

Do you read other people’s fanfic? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?

I do read other people's stuff, but it has to grab me in the same way that original fiction does. If I find myself muttering the Eight Deadly Words, I immediately reach for the back button. I'm willing to cut people some slack in terms of their technical proficiency as long as I'm engaged with the characters and the plot, but I do look for a minimum level of competence. I like both long and short stories -- funny, tragic or fluffy tales -- gen or romance, but especially stories about friendships or family relationships -- anything that can be high-concepted as "Bare is back without brother behind it" will have me reading it in a heartbeat.

Thus me. And now I have to get back to plotting out Knot of Fire, my possible first attempt at a fanfiction novel. I suppose now that it's acquired a title, I have to write it ...