Happy New Year everybody!
Dec. 31st, 2014 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scripsiEven though I never stopped writing fanfic I have a bit of a revival this autumn. I have found new fandoms and suddenly new inspiration and it is great fun! It has also made me re-examine why I write fanfic and what it gives me and here is the result. It turned out to be a bit more naked than I thought it would be, but if you are interested of what makes me tick, please read. I am also very interested in your answers to these questions, so I would be very happy to hear your stories!
Why did you start writing fanfic?
Why do you write fanfic?
How do you choose fandoms and why do you choose them?
Do you have themes or plot devices you return to?
Do you have any pet peeves?
Which story/stories are you the most proud over and why?
Why did you start writing fanfic?
By coincidence. I always found it fun to write in a rather abstract way, I wrote a diary, a dream diary and story concepts, but the impulse to actually start writing come from a promo photo from Peter Pan.
I have always loved the book and always liked Captain Hook more than Peter Pan, but that picture prompted a story in my mind and I just had to write it down. I had no idea that this would make writing a must for me. I write every day now, fanfic, blog posts and sometimes even articles for which I get paid, but it all came to me rather late in life, well after my 30th birthday.
Why do you write fanfic?
I didn’t realize it at first, but when I started writing I also started to remember things that I had very successfully suppressed since I was 18. Like so many girls and women I was subjected to what is now called date rape, but which I actively forced myself to not think about and managed to do that very well until writing made me remember. It was very hard but I also found that writing really helped me here. It also made me re-examine my sexuality and realize that I had not only made myself forget, but also suppressed what I really wanted. My first sexual fantasies on the onset of puberty were always BDSM oriented, even if I didn’t have any words for it then. A sexual assault on top of those fantasies was very damaging for me and it wasn’t until I started to write that I could reconcile myself that what happened to me and what I dreamt about were two different things.
So writing has been catharsis. It has helped me to deal with an awful thing and it has also helped me to accept who I am- a submissive woman who lives in a BDSM relationship. I am happier now than I ever thought I would be.
I love feedback but I don’t get it much. A combination of subject and fandom, I think, because the reviews I get are always very positive. I do know that I often write things that can trigger readers and I am sure I would get more readers if I wrote happy fluff, but I don’t much care for writing that. Most of my fandoms are fairly small as well, with fewer readers. I’m pretty isolated from the fanfic community as well, when I was more active and the Peter Pan fandom was bigger I had several friends that read and commented a lot, but they are mostly gone now and I don’t really know any people who read fanfic anymore. I have to say that though that even if I don’t get reviewed much, those I get a generally wonderful, long and thoughtful. One the whole I prefer long, nice reviews than a dozen “Love it!”
And of course, I don’t write to get feedback that is just an added bonus. I itch to write and I would write my stories even if I didn’t post them anywhere.
How do you choose fandoms and why do you choose them?
I don’t, can’t,, actively choose fandoms. I get a story idea and I write. For a long time I only wrote Peter Pan-fics and now I haven’t for years, apart for some re-writes. The plot-bunnies have been used up, I guess. I can say that the fandoms I write in usually have an ambivalent villain, or hero, capable of straddling the line between bad and good and with strong female characters. But that doesn’t seem to be enough all the time. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for example and it and Angel certainly contains characters like that, but I have only ever been able to write half a fic from that fandom. I can never really predict if I will write a stray fic, like for The Mummy or suddenly find a new fandom like I recently have for Doctor Who. And I really can’t say why I have only just started to write Doctor Who-fics as I have loved that show for years.
Do you have themes or plot devices you return to?
Oh yes. I would guess that rape and dubious consent are in a majority of my fics. When I re-read what I have written I can see that my early writing were much more violent and rape was much more frequent as it was a subject I needed to work through. Now I write more for pleasure, I write my fantasies and most fics are lighter in tone. I know many people who have been subjected to sexual assaults find it extremely triggering and uncomfortable to read and I try to be very careful with my warnings. But I also know that for other people, like me, it is something we are drawn to. It has a lot to do with control. As a reader or writer I can stop at any moment, I’m the one in charge. Loosing that control in real life is something else completely. I try to not treat my NC content lightly; it is something that makes a profound change for the victim and something they will have to live with.
That leaves me to another theme in my stories. Almost all my heroines pull their lives together. They may have to deal with some awful stuff, but they learn to live with it and get on with their lives. Which is what most people do. I went through some pretty horrific things and they will always have an impact on my life, but I have also managed to put things together and forge a good life for myself. I may have been a victim when I was 18, but I am not a victim any longer.
Do you have any pet peeves?
Absolutely. I really dislike fics were a character is stripped of its character to become something the author have dreamed up. I can buy a character change during the course of a story, if it is described as a logical progress, but just deciding that X is so and so without any grounding drives me bonkers. Also the villain rapes the heroine into loving him and becomes a transformed man because of a woman’s love. Hate that, even if I have written variations of that story myself. I also really hate swearwords. Not when it suits, but having a person who never swears in a book or movie starting to throw “fuck” around, it really annoys me. To think about it, it do annoys me when I read it in excess in books as well. One of the reasons I never got through 50 Shades of Grey was because Anastasia’s swearing drove me bonkers.
Which story/stories are you the most proud over and why?
Clara and Sophie because they are more their own stories than fan fiction. Dracula as a trope is so old and well-used after all and the only thing that I have really borrowed from The Historian is Dracula’s love for history and books. I also really like Mary’s Tale and All Within
On the whole I’m quite satisfied with what I have written, though I think my Peter Pan-fics is a bit repetitive. There are only so many times you can write “Hook captures Wendy”, after all.
Why did you start writing fanfic?
Why do you write fanfic?
How do you choose fandoms and why do you choose them?
Do you have themes or plot devices you return to?
Do you have any pet peeves?
Which story/stories are you the most proud over and why?
Why did you start writing fanfic?
By coincidence. I always found it fun to write in a rather abstract way, I wrote a diary, a dream diary and story concepts, but the impulse to actually start writing come from a promo photo from Peter Pan.
I have always loved the book and always liked Captain Hook more than Peter Pan, but that picture prompted a story in my mind and I just had to write it down. I had no idea that this would make writing a must for me. I write every day now, fanfic, blog posts and sometimes even articles for which I get paid, but it all came to me rather late in life, well after my 30th birthday.
Why do you write fanfic?
I didn’t realize it at first, but when I started writing I also started to remember things that I had very successfully suppressed since I was 18. Like so many girls and women I was subjected to what is now called date rape, but which I actively forced myself to not think about and managed to do that very well until writing made me remember. It was very hard but I also found that writing really helped me here. It also made me re-examine my sexuality and realize that I had not only made myself forget, but also suppressed what I really wanted. My first sexual fantasies on the onset of puberty were always BDSM oriented, even if I didn’t have any words for it then. A sexual assault on top of those fantasies was very damaging for me and it wasn’t until I started to write that I could reconcile myself that what happened to me and what I dreamt about were two different things.
So writing has been catharsis. It has helped me to deal with an awful thing and it has also helped me to accept who I am- a submissive woman who lives in a BDSM relationship. I am happier now than I ever thought I would be.
I love feedback but I don’t get it much. A combination of subject and fandom, I think, because the reviews I get are always very positive. I do know that I often write things that can trigger readers and I am sure I would get more readers if I wrote happy fluff, but I don’t much care for writing that. Most of my fandoms are fairly small as well, with fewer readers. I’m pretty isolated from the fanfic community as well, when I was more active and the Peter Pan fandom was bigger I had several friends that read and commented a lot, but they are mostly gone now and I don’t really know any people who read fanfic anymore. I have to say that though that even if I don’t get reviewed much, those I get a generally wonderful, long and thoughtful. One the whole I prefer long, nice reviews than a dozen “Love it!”
And of course, I don’t write to get feedback that is just an added bonus. I itch to write and I would write my stories even if I didn’t post them anywhere.
How do you choose fandoms and why do you choose them?
I don’t, can’t,, actively choose fandoms. I get a story idea and I write. For a long time I only wrote Peter Pan-fics and now I haven’t for years, apart for some re-writes. The plot-bunnies have been used up, I guess. I can say that the fandoms I write in usually have an ambivalent villain, or hero, capable of straddling the line between bad and good and with strong female characters. But that doesn’t seem to be enough all the time. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, for example and it and Angel certainly contains characters like that, but I have only ever been able to write half a fic from that fandom. I can never really predict if I will write a stray fic, like for The Mummy or suddenly find a new fandom like I recently have for Doctor Who. And I really can’t say why I have only just started to write Doctor Who-fics as I have loved that show for years.
Do you have themes or plot devices you return to?
Oh yes. I would guess that rape and dubious consent are in a majority of my fics. When I re-read what I have written I can see that my early writing were much more violent and rape was much more frequent as it was a subject I needed to work through. Now I write more for pleasure, I write my fantasies and most fics are lighter in tone. I know many people who have been subjected to sexual assaults find it extremely triggering and uncomfortable to read and I try to be very careful with my warnings. But I also know that for other people, like me, it is something we are drawn to. It has a lot to do with control. As a reader or writer I can stop at any moment, I’m the one in charge. Loosing that control in real life is something else completely. I try to not treat my NC content lightly; it is something that makes a profound change for the victim and something they will have to live with.
That leaves me to another theme in my stories. Almost all my heroines pull their lives together. They may have to deal with some awful stuff, but they learn to live with it and get on with their lives. Which is what most people do. I went through some pretty horrific things and they will always have an impact on my life, but I have also managed to put things together and forge a good life for myself. I may have been a victim when I was 18, but I am not a victim any longer.
Do you have any pet peeves?
Absolutely. I really dislike fics were a character is stripped of its character to become something the author have dreamed up. I can buy a character change during the course of a story, if it is described as a logical progress, but just deciding that X is so and so without any grounding drives me bonkers. Also the villain rapes the heroine into loving him and becomes a transformed man because of a woman’s love. Hate that, even if I have written variations of that story myself. I also really hate swearwords. Not when it suits, but having a person who never swears in a book or movie starting to throw “fuck” around, it really annoys me. To think about it, it do annoys me when I read it in excess in books as well. One of the reasons I never got through 50 Shades of Grey was because Anastasia’s swearing drove me bonkers.
Which story/stories are you the most proud over and why?
Clara and Sophie because they are more their own stories than fan fiction. Dracula as a trope is so old and well-used after all and the only thing that I have really borrowed from The Historian is Dracula’s love for history and books. I also really like Mary’s Tale and All Within
On the whole I’m quite satisfied with what I have written, though I think my Peter Pan-fics is a bit repetitive. There are only so many times you can write “Hook captures Wendy”, after all.
