Consonants and vowels all together, equally

A shippy meme via tumblr! Give me one of my ships and I will answer the following questions about my personal head canon:

who is the big spoon/little spoon
what is their favorite non-sexual activity
who uses all the hot water in the morning
what they order from take out
what is the most trivial thing they fight over
who does most of the cleaning
what has a season pass in their DVR
who controls the netflix queue
who calls up the super/landlord when the heat’s not working
who leaves their stuff around
who remembers to buy the milk
who remembers anniversaries

I may have done this before! But I have writing to do today, and need a little boost of reasons-to-express-my-opinions! I'm also doing it on tumblr if you'd rather ask there.

(PROMISE, I will post the round up of the color war results VERY SOON. It's been a WEEK.)

So the NYMag entertainment blog posted this video from a press junket asking the Twilight cast who would the cast be if it was an 80s movie (it's on my tumblr, and hilarious mostly because R Patz is never not trolling) and hey, I can't sleep so why not post?

I'm not doing this with HP because to be honest, I don't know enough 80s teen British actors. BUT!

If Star Trek TOS/AOS were an 80s teen movie, who would you cast?

I'm thinking Jasmine Guy for Uhura.

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30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!

I'm terrible about favorites--far too loaded a word. Here are links to four stories I've written and why I really love them and you might, too. The first three are pretty accessible even if you're not familiar with the fandom--and a passing familiarity with the universe of Harry Potter is all that's necessary for the last one.

A Dream That Could Not Last (LJ | DW | AO3)--An Idol AU set in London during the Phoney War and the Blitz (1939-40), and very accessible even if you never watched Idol. Het, slash and femslash, and lots of characters of color, plus tons of music. Includes dancing the lindy, snogging in air raid shelters, and horseback riding across a duke's estate. Oh, and fighter pilots. 97,000 words, NC-17, Ryan/Simon, Anwar/Kimberley, Carly/Amanda.

Why I like it: I wanted to write a period piece that had a diverse cast but dealt with that diversity while still being a primarily comic romance, and I think I achieved that. It was an ambitious story, and it did what I wanted it to do.

Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe (LJ | DW | AO3)--Star Trek Hollywood AU, where Kirk, with a crew that includes Sulu and Scotty, directs an indie film based on McCoy's script, with Spock and Uhura producing, starring Chekov, Gaila, and an old pro to be named later. Includes stripping to "Toxic", neurotic pregnant actresses, indie band t-shirts, snarky teenage daughters, and the entire Hollywood awards season. 71,000 words, NC-17, Kirk/McCoy, Spock/Uhura, with some other background ships.

Why I like it: It's pretty subtle, what's going on for these two guys and why they come together and why they do need each other. But it doesn't isolate them--they've got family and friends and coworkers and careers. On top of that is a big, silly, "let's make a movie and maybe we'll win an Oscar" old-fashioned Hollywood story.

Count Me In and Count Me Out (LJ | DW | AO3)--Cameron from Ferris Bueller and Duckie from Pretty in Pink. They had that perfect summer-before-college fling, and haven't seen each other in almost twenty years. 2600 words, R.

Why I like it: This story is about getting back something you've lost, through the eyes of a couple of guys facing their forties.

For Harry Potter, four linked stories. (And there are tons of one-off shippy stories that spin off from these central fics.)
Eight Ways From Sunday (LJ | DW | AO3) and With One Breath (LJ | DW | AO3)--6th year
Entr'Acte (LJ | DW | AO3)--The summer after the war
The Trick Is To Keep Breathing (LJ | DW | AO3)--Three years later
142,000 words total. GoF canon, ensemble, Seamus/Dean, Pansy/Parvati, Harry/Hermione, Draco/Ginny, Ron/Padma

Why I like it: More on this later, but I had a specific, tricky thing I was trying to do with the EWFS sequel, and I think I actually accomplished it, so I'm really, really proud of that story. And then there's EWFS, just about the first thing I wrote in fandom, ever, which set up the universe for all my other Harry Potter fic. If you like stories about friendship and romance and career and trying to figure out where you're headed when you're young, and also the effects of British imperialism on indigenous magical systems, then this is the fic for you.

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28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

I did collaborate on one story for Team Jones for the Ship Wars. It was definitely an enjoyable experience, and really fun, but in a way it didn't really feel like writing. I didn't have a story that had lived in my head for so long I had to write it down; instead, I was trying to create according to someone else's vision. I never felt like it was my story really. It was sort of like doing a really heavy beta for someone else's fic. Which doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable, but just that it wasn't like what writing is for me.

I don't really consider an artist working on something for my fic to be collaboration, because the fic is the fic and the art is the art, and at the end of the day we do what we want. The artist is inspired by whatever scene in the fic inspires them, and I'm lucky that they felt that way. But then they make the art and the art is theirs, whether it was inspired by my story or not. I wrote some the prose on the fake Variety covers that affectingly made for my STBB last year, but I still consider the art itself to be hers, because she made all the decisions about it, as she should.

Part of why I write fanfic is to write what I want, and part of the fun of it is to realize the vision I have in my head. I have a lot of fun beta'ing and helping people get their fic to where it needs to go, but that's not the same as writing. So I think I'm not a natural collaborator--I want all the control!

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26 – What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you've had to research for a fic?

This is I think the toughest question because I never know what other people are going to think is odd or funny. I keep track of dates a lot and timeanddate is totally bookmarked. I'll look up maps for how to get from one place to the next—I just looked up the automotive routes from Paris to the French Riviera, and also where the French ocean liners docked. I read a biography of Natalie Clifford Barney as research.

I've looked up old NYC subway lines, the timing of various cultural events including the entire Hollywood awards season in January-February, the time of sunset on a specific date in a specific place, the proper use of pyrex sex toys, when the Dodgers and the Giants left New York and when the Mets had their first season, makes and models of cars, a lot of fashion, the specifics of the evacuation at Dunkirk, what movies premiered in the summer of 1977 and famous defections of Soviet scientists.

But mostly I look up dates and timelines.

Forgot this yesterday, probably because it's really emotional. Backdating is my friend once again!

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24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

If something is longer, I like to use more than one beta, and hopefully one of them is someone I'll talk to as I'm going along about the plot and where I think I'm going. If it's short, a one shot, I can just have one person look it over for sense and errors.

I once had a very close fandom friend with whom I often discussed what I was writing, and she helped me think about things in bigger ways and was so encouraging, especially for the WWII AU and the early stages of the EWFS sequel. She made me feel like she really wanted to hear about my writing, and that I wasn't imposing. Ely was a fantastic person, and I lost a really good friend when she passed, but also to a much smaller extent a really key person for my writing.

Ali is super fantastic as well, and she's been so helpful for pretty much every long thing I've written in the past few years--the WWII AU, the 90s AU, the EWFS sequel, the Hollywood AU. I also get to read what she's writing, and I really enjoy that kind of reciprocal relationship. It makes me feel more comfortable to ask people to read over what I'm doing when I'm also helping them.

And seriously, there is no one better for beta'ing kink than Catja. No. One. And no one better for encouraging me to write it in the first place than one evil_erato. And I doubt that the recent Pansy/Parvati stuff I've been writing would be as good as I hope it is without slytherincess's help.

The WWII AU in general was probably the dream beta situation. I knew that the story wouldn't have many readers, and I got most of my pleasure in the process. I had about five people reading that story at various points in the process, and while Ali and Ely did most of the heavy lifting in terms of structure and characterization, I wouldn't have gotten through it without Juli's cheerleading nor had the courage to post the thing without Allyson batting clean-up as the SPAG beta and Dana being the unspoiled reader-stand-in. It was really super fantastic, working on that story and feeling like people were excited about it while it was in progress.

I guess the horror story would be the Hollywood AU. I'd come off an unfortunate situation where a beta disappeared on me, so I was nervous about asking people to read my stuff anyway. And then in the course of that story--which really, Ali beta'd from stem to stern with a big late-game assist from Catja--I had three betas drop out on me, two without any sort of notice or communication. It was honestly pretty horrible, probably one of the worst experiences I've had in fandom. I had to chase people down, which I'm not good at because I really hate being a burden or an intrusion (I have a lot of issues surrounding those words). I had people tell me over and over that they were just behind, only to seemingly never really get around to reading it. And these people I had trusted, so I wanted to believe what they were saying to me. It got to the place where I wasn't even excited when I finished a new chapter, because I only saw my writing as a burden for other people--another chapter finished meant that my overburdened betas were even more behind on giving me any feedback. After a January in which I had horrible writer's block, a February where I finally broke through only to have my notebook stolen in a mugging, a March where I could do no more than try to recreate the writing that was lost, and finally hitting a groove with the story in April, to spend all that spring trying to get people to read a story that they had agreed to beta was a little more than I could really handle. I'm so glad that people had such a great reaction to the story, because by the end I was convinced that the whole thing was just a horrible mess, or otherwise why would all these people refuse to read it for me? It was just, unfortunately, a truly lousy writing experience.

It's left me very distrustful of betas to be honest; I don't really believe people who say they'd like to beta for me because they so frequently punk out on me. I don't like asking people to read over my stories, I'm shy about even talking about what I'm writing, and I still see my writing as a burden for someone to have to look over.

It's unfortunate because I actually really like being someone's beta, and I'm not really doing much of that at the moment, either, for various reasons, though I'm hoping to get back into it soon. I miss that kind of relationship I had with Ely, that thing where you're very involved with someone else's writing and you're excited and positive and cheerleading for each other. But I also miss having the sense that when I finish writing something, that someone else will be excited to read it. I think the Hollywood AU experience really broke me of that.

And of course it's all incredibly ironic, since I'm the beta coordinator over at the Jim and Bones community. While I haven't needed a J&B beta since I started as a mod, I have in the guidelines stressed very much that everyone has to be honest and realistic about time commitments before agreeing to work on someone's story. It's really lousy to agree to do a thing and not do it.

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22 – Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you've thought about doing? And if not, why not?

Yes, I definitely have! Last year I did the Star Trek and RPF big bangs, and this year I did Star Trek again. The match only just happened for this year's STBB, so the only thing I have to say about the experience so far is how excited I am that my fic, which is femslash, matched to a mixer and an artist so quickly.

Last year's RPF big bang was a really splendid way to say goodbye to Ryan/Simon. After a long time spent in a fandom that wasn't really interested in my pairing--and a year where that disinterest turned to open disdain and things got very rough and discouraging--it was excellent to get the visibility, not to mention the art. And it was fun to close that door in the most self-indulgent, fuck-it-I'm-giving-them-kids way possible.

But man. Last year for the STBB I not only got a wonderfully imagined fake Variety cover plus a manip of Jim with baby David, but I also got an original song. A song, people. I don't think anything I ever do in fandom will beat that someone wrote a song inspired by my story.

It's gotten to the point where it feels sort of silly to write a long fic not in a big bang. Fandom has become incredibly challenge and fest-oriented; except in that first flush of new fandom excitement people don't really seem to write stuff just because they want to anymore. But my time writing Big Bangs has been really great, especially with all the mutual support that goes on when everyone is writing all at the same time.

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20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

Not really. It's more likely that I'll get an idea from something someone wrote in another fandom, because something about it will remind me of characters that I'm dealing with. I definitely get little ideas about characterization from other people, especially when I'm having a hard time wrapping my arms around a character. Other writers will have an insight that strikes me and I'll run with that.

In fact, when I'm in the middle of writing in a new fandom I'll stop reading that particular pairing for a little while. When I was writing EWFS, I read nothing but Remus/Sirius for months because I wanted my sense of the characters to stay true in the story and not get confused by what other writers were doing. Sometimes I'm even anxious about going back to canon, concerned that I've wandered off the reservation, but usually I find that I remembered more than I thought I had.

However, this has the effect of getting me super behind on reading and reviewing. I'm like, tragically behind in Jim/Bones fic. It's ridiculous.

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18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?

The aether? I don't honestly know. Generally what happens is that my mind generates a snippet of conversation and I have to write a fic to figure out why those characters are having that discussion. Or a scene comes to me--EWFS started as three dancing scenes and I had to figure out how to string them together. Sometimes it's a photograph, like a pic on jim_and_bones or something floating around tumblr. Sometimes it's a tiny moment from canon. Sometimes it's a chance remark. And at rare moments I'm looking for a scenario, and then I discuss it with friends and figure out where I'm headed.

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16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

Because I love summaries, I hate writing them. It's so hard to find a group of words that give the reader a good sense of what they're getting into, while also making it sound like something they'd even want to read. It takes me FOREVER and I always have to have my betas read them because I'm notorious for not really knowing what a story is about. I know what it's about in my head, and I know what I was trying to do, but you know, early days in fandom being around really rigid hard sci fi types have made me somewhat pre-disparaging about my stories. If it doesn't feature epic battle scenes against a great enemy, I figure it's just a big pile of plotless curtain fic. That isn't really true, but it's hard to feel like character growth and interpersonal relationships are a plot. So I need help to properly represent my story.

Ely used to be awesome at this, I have to say. She always knew how to summarize my fics.