I never finished this. Ooops! It's the 30-day fan fic meme. Picking up at Day 20...

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

Graphics -- icons, wallpapers, banners and even a mug have all been inspirational to me. I can't think of a time that I was inspired by someone else's story -- that would seem odd to me.

This is the mug that inspired my story Pulse Point. It was a gift from happier_bunny.



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19 – When you have bunnies ideas, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

I have two writing methods.

One is I just sit down and write it. The other is that I "pre-write" in my head, a process without any real timeline, where I just tell myself the story in various ways until one day I write it.

I can write a story I'm happy with in half an hour, or it can take me months.

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

Mostly, from my own imagination thinking about what would happen next. Now and then I am inspired by a sort of reverse-challenge... where my conscious mind decides something is impossible or hard or not worthwhile or whatever, and my muses disagree, and I end up writing the thing I didn't think I could write, or didn't want to, or thought would come out cracky or wrong.

Although I like to write for challenges and the gift exchange, I'm not one of those writers who "needs" that to write or to get inspired. I have more stories in my head than  come close to having time to write. It makes me sad.

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I'm tackling a few questions because my answers were short and I got behind due to Xiefest. :)

12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" story of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

I didn't quite follow this question. Is this like, "A famous movie or book but written over with the characters from QAF"? If so, then no.

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

Canon, except for humor, satire and crack, at which point I will often mock incorporate elements of fanon.

I would say that the process of writing fiction deepens my understanding of canon, but the main way my view on something in canon is changed is through discussions with other fans, not fiction, mine or someone else's.

14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?

The amount and type of erotic content in a story is irrelevant to me beyond that it should be appropriate for the story and the characters. I find an overly-conscious attitude about ratings and sex ruins much fan fiction. It's just another way to tell a story and/or element of characterization. RELAX, PEOPLE!

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a story?

I usually use warnings for humorous purposes only. I don't really like them for anything other than death and non-con, which I won't read and don't write (although I did once write minor character death).

I think warnings about same-sex erotica are homophobic and they infuriate me.

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

I have a love-hate relationship with summaries. I have gone from using them to not using them to being against them to realizing that they're part of how we decide to read something... I don't know. Right now, I guess I would try to do a brief summary that would give people an idea of what the story is about, and try to keep it interesting and perhaps a little tantalizing. Ask me again tomorrow and I might have a totally different answer, LOL.

17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the story? Also, if you do chaptered story, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

I suck at titles. I generally come up with one word that more or less covers it. I do not title my chapters.

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11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

In QAF, I typically write post-series canon-based fic. That's my default, it's what my imagination does all the time (kind of like not_yet_defined's "What are Brian and Justin doing now?" -- and I even often see current events through the lens of how they might affect Brian and Justin, like Steve Jobs' death, for instance. /geeky fan girl confession)

I also like writing erotica in the QAF fandom, which is, after all, based on a very sexed up canon, LOL.

Now and then an AU bunny gets hold of my brain, usually in the form of a challenge. Even more rarely am I tempted to write "gapfiller" fic.

I also seem to have an insatiable desire to write holiday-themed fic, LOL.

And then there's humor and satire, which I also love writing a lot.

After I post the next chapter of "Only Time" (which is FINISHED, folks, it just needs a final edit. I'm so sorry for making you all wait so long!) and wrapping up "Feeling Good," which the lovely jule1122 has agreed to collaborate with me on to keep the ice skating stuff as real as possible, I am going to tackle an entirely new genre: A murder mystery. It's an AU. That's all I'll say for now. :)

In Xena, my favorite genre is what we call "Classic Xena" fan fiction. It's set in the main timeline of canon, and my favorite time period is after Gabrielle becomes an Amazon but before the Rift. I could write in that era forever.

I can't even answer this for any other fandom as I write so infrequently in them... one fic each so far, LOL. One was a character study sent in current canon, one is a post-series, and one a gapfiller. Go figure.

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10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?

This meme is more obssessed with "pairings" than I am. I think in terms of characters, or characters in particular settings or situations, not "pairings."

I also only write canon couples, so maybe they mean "made up/slashed pairings" and therefore I just don't understand the entire premise of the question.

I can only answer in terms that DO make sense to me, which is, there have been times I felt I couldn't get a handle on writing a certain character, or a certain character in a particular situation, and then I did, and found out that it worked really well.

For example, I wrote "Plans" from Melanie and Justin's first person POVs, and I was SURE I couldn't write Brian for the sequel and rest of the series. I was totally freaked out about it. Then I found one line -- "There is absolutely no question that Justin is a scheming little shit." -- and that was the opening line of "Decisions" and that was it. From then on, I had no more worry about writing Brian.

But I was SURE I couldn't write Brian getting fucked from Brian's POV, only from Justin's. And then I had this idea or glimpse of him looking over his shoulder at Justin, and bam, just like that, I was in his head and it was no problem.

So yes, that's happened to me. :)

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9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

For QAF, it's Brian and Justin. I don't really think of the other characters as "pairings" per se, but just as other characters. I like to write Melanie and Ted best after Brian and Justin, but obviously not as a pairing, LOL.

For Xena, it's Xena and Gabrielle. I can sometimes have an interest in Xena and Lao Ma.

For Glee, Santana and Brittany. I like Kurt and Blaine, but I don't feel any pull to write them, although of course, now that I've said that, I'm sure some mutant Klaine bunny is going to start eating my brain.

My real Glee addiction is the idea of Kurt and Santana as friends. Bizarre, I know.

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8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Ah yes, one of my FAVORITE topics/least favorite things to find in fic, LOL.

I am not a fan of original characters in fan fiction. The reason is simple: I am a fan of the original source material, ie, canon.

When I read fan fiction, it's because I want to revisit the places and people I loved in canon.

If I want to read about original characters, I read non-fan-fiction.

I don't CARE about OCs. I don't WANT them in my fan fic. I resent every original character I've ever had to write for a story of my own, I do my best to make sure they have no storyline or purpose in the story that isn't related to one of my main canon characters, and I break my brain first trying to figure out if I can make a canon character serve the purpose. Because I write post-series fic, I've from time to time had to add new characters, but I try to do it in the way the show sometimes did, by just bringing them in, using them, then sending them on their way. (Exceptions in QAF would be Ben and Hunter. MAYBE Carl, although he didn't really have MUCH of his own storyline. I can't think of anyone else, because even Stockwell and Ethan were, in the end, just plot devices.)

I don't have any trouble keeping Mary Sues out of my fic. I have no desire to be in the lives of the QAF characters. Brian and Justin already have best friends, and they don't need me to invent new ones for them.

When I read fic that has Mary Sues in it, it makes me immediately stop reading. It's always so obvious, and it pulls me right out of the story!

I remember once, a long time ago, in a fic written in the earlier days of our fandom by someone who is no longer in fandom at all, I read this long multi-chaptered fic in which the author created new characters all over the place -- the idealized female best friend, a screwed up family member for Brian, a nice older lady who gave the boys good advice... and I wanted to scream.

BRIAN HAS A FEMALE BEST FRIEND. Her name is Lindsay. He also has a MALE BEST FRIEND, whose name is Michael.

JUSTIN HAS A FEMALE BEST FRIEND. Her name is Daphne.

They both already have screwed up family members a-plenty -- Claire, Joan, Craig.

And they have a nice older lady who gives them advice. Her name is Debbie.

I presume the reason authors do these things is that they don't like the canon characters. That's totally fine, I'm just saying, I LOVE the canon characters. I believe that's what makes me a fan of the show. So I just don't understand creating new ones, nor wanting to read about them mixed into your fan fiction. It's not like there's some shortage of original fiction out there that I don't know about, right?

So that's my take on OCs and Mary Sues. DO NOT WANT. And if I HAVE TO write them, I just want to make sure they don't have their own story. They're there to make a point about my main characters, period.

Which brings up the one time I broke this rule, or almost broke it: A fic called "The Good Chinese Daughter." It was a bunny that ate at me for a while, that grew, as is so often the case, out of a cracky conversation about things we hate in fic or don't believe can be done well.

I was on a rant about how people take very minor characters who were no more than plot devices and turn them into major characters. My contention is that they are in reality OCs.

And the character of Lin Liu came to mind. And I couldn't get her out of my mind, even though we know nothing about her, really.

So I wrote her story for a character of color challenge, and I really liked it. She wasn't an idealized best friend for Justin; she was just someone he barely knew, who he ran into in New York. And while she did have a purpose in Justin's story, she had her own story and he was a part of HER story, more so then vice versa, because this was future fic set at a time when Justin was very settled, secure and solid with Brian, not having any crises, etc.

However, having done it, I still feel the same way. It's not REALLY fan fiction. Only by showing a LOT Of Brian and Justin in the fic could I even make it feel like fan fiction. It was really a story about Lin Liu, and while I love it and am happy with it, deep in my heart I do know it was original fic with Justin and Brian making a drop-in visit.

And that is, finally, the end. :)

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I don't mean to cheat, but the next three questions have kind of "yes or no" answers, so to keep this from being totally boring, I'm doing them all in one post.

5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a story, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?

Never have.

6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

I don't care. It's about who the character is, not their gender.

7 – Have you ever had a story change your opinion of a character?

Not one I wrote, and not one I read. Discussions with other fans have done so, however.

Wow, that was fast! Fortunately number 8, which I'll do tomorrow, is gonna prompt an essay. ;)

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4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the story isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

Definitely not. I have BUNNIES that take over my mind, and perplexing challenges of writing that I can't shake off -- could you write Brian as a figure skater without it being crack? How to write Brian asking Justin to fuck him and have it be IC... how to write a fic about a character so minor she's essentially an original character and still have it feel organic to the story?... but I don't relate at all to a character being a "muse" and I don't have any experience of a character "pushing their way" into a story. Not really sure what that would mean, either.

I do sometimes joke that a character "made me" do something, but it's not along these lines at all.

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3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

In Queer as Folk, I started out writing Justin and Melanie, alternating first person POVs. I found their voices came to me very easily, and I absolutely believed I could not possibly write from inside Brian's head.

Then one day I did it, and it was easy, and now I think Brian's voice comes to me more easily than anyone else's.

I tend to enjoy writing the ensemble, and get my greatest pleasure from experiencing a sense of "hearing" ensemble dialog when I write it. It makes me feel like the show is back on!

In other fandoms: Xena and Gabrielle (XWP), Santana (Glee), and Matt Santos and Josh (West Wing). (Not in a slashy way; I write canon-consistent always.)

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2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.

My primary fandom for writing is Queer as Folk-US. Prior to discovering this fandom, I didn't read or write or respect fan fiction. I thought it was adolescent and silly. I had this idea based on the vast experience of having NEVER read one word of it, ever.

The first fan fic I ever read was Plumsuede's "Framed." While I've come to feel that story presents a Brian and Justin that don't really resonate for me, what first powerfully struck me when I read it was how GOOD it was as a work of fiction. I'd swallowed all kinds of writerly snobbishness about people who write fan fic, and reading that story showed me that the people from whom I'd absorbed that view had no freaking idea what they were talking about.

Because I'm a professional writer (non-fiction), trying my hand at writing fic seemed  very natural. I have written a TON of fic... I haven't actually counted how many, but they're on my fic index page and it's a LOT. Bazillions. And if I had more time, there'd be a bazillion more. I really haven't even come close to getting tired of writing QAF fic, even though the audience for it has become small. And my main issue is that although I love Brian and Justin and love writing about them, I have a lot of bunnies that involve the other characters, and there's even less interest in reading those.

As to other fandoms, after I fell into writing QAF fan fiction, I tried my hand at writing some Xena: Warrior Princess fic. That was my first fandom, although as I said, it didn't involve fan fic in any way. I really like writing XWP fic, but because I've never connected up with their fic archives, and XWP fandom is not active on the journals, I didn't write very much of it. Still, every  now and then I can't resist.

Other than that, I've written one story set in the post-series West Wing world, for a character of color challenge. That was fun, as I loved the dialog on West Wing and I enjoyed trying to write it. I think it turned out well, and if I had enough time, I think I'd probably keep writing  post-series Santos presidency fic.

Finally, I wrote a story set in the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer world, Christmas Town, and have an almost-completed sequel, Silver and Gold, that I hope to post this holiday season. I have no clue where that came from.

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Gakked from _alicesprings.

Day 1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

I started writing Queer as Folk fan fiction to please another fan. It was "Plans," and I was too new to QAF fandom, and fandom in general, to understand that using Melanie as a main character was actually outrageous. I had no idea, I just liked her and thought her perspective would be very interesting, so I wrote it in alternating Justin and Melanie points of view. A couple of  people have, over the years, suggested that I was being very brave, but however much I might want to raise the banner high of reclaiming the voice of one of television's few out lesbian characters, I had no idea what I was doing.

What pulled me in about QAF was the combination of seeing same-sex couples who were fully realized as sexual beings, romantic beings and complete human beings. I had never seen that before on television. And as a lesbian, I loved seeing this all-queer world, even though of course it was in many ways very unrealistic and was perhaps even back in 2000 somewhat dated. And yet... it spoke to me very deeply.

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