1) If you were asked to select one of your fanfics to be put in a time capsule and preserved, which one would you choose and why? (If you don't write, pick a story you've read to preserve.)Broken... it's my baby.
It's not a perfect story; it has a ton of flaws, but at its heart, I think it tells a good story. It's something I'm proud of, and it shows a ton of growth in my writing. It was also written at a big transitional phase in my life, so it's definitely one I would want to save.
2) Name a story you read the summary of or heard a synopsis of and scoffed, thinking it sounded like a terrible idea, and then read, only to be pleasantly surprised by how good it was.There's a few of these, but one of them is "Between the Lines." It wasn't so much that I thought it was a terrible idea; I just didn't think I would like it. AU? Baseball? Uh, no. I didn't read that story for YEARS, until finally we read it for Mare's Fanfic of the Month group, and I finally gave it a serious try, and I ended up LOVING it!
Another one was "Survivor," just cause even though I love the show, I thought the idea of Bsb and NSync on it was kinda stupid. But again, that story turned out to be awesome!
3) If one of the Backstreet Boys emailed you and said that he had stumbled onto your site/fanfics, what would your reaction be? (Let's say you know for sure that it's the real him, not a poser.)I would be embarassed LOL. But I guess the rest of my reaction would depend on his. If he said he had read some of the stories and actually liked them, then I guess I would think it was pretty cool! If he was just like "What's wrong with you??" I would be devastated LOL.
4) As a follow-up to #3, if you had the chance (or were forced) to give one of your stories to the Boys to read, which one would it be and why?00Carter! I think they would actually like their roles in that story.
5) Name a story that you think would make an excellent book (as in a published novel) or movie, and tell us why you think so.Bianca's story "Happenstance" would make a wonderful romance novel; it's very Nicholas Sparks-ish. I've read a lot of suspense stories that would make great movies. Susan's "Scared of Reality" or Whitney's "Nowhere to Run" are good examples.
6) What story pulled you out of your writing comfort zone and why?The collaboration "Phantasm" did because it's very supernatural, at least in parts, and I found myself having to be really creative and think outside the box, but it was such a fun challenge! Also "Broken," oddly enough, because even though it started out as me going back to my little medical drama roots, it ended up being another challenge, trying to write in realistic detail about subject matter that I wasn't so comfortable writing about. And BMS because it's one of the first truly hardcore romances I've written.
7) Name a relatively unknown writer who you feel needs to be recognized, one of her/his fics and why.
It's weird, but the two names that came to mind are Jen (JJ) and Bianca, who have both been writing longer than me LOL. I wouldn't describe them as "unknown," necessarily, but whenever you hear people talking about their favorite stories and authors, their names don't get mentioned a lot, and I don't know why because they're both SO good!!
Jen has grown a ton as a drama/romance writer, and her story "Remember Me This Way" is among one of my absolute favorites. I just wish she'd update it!!
www.geocities.com/imaginefanfic/And Bianca is a very talented romance writer whose writing rivals Nicholas Sparks', in my opinion. "Happenstance" reads like a Sparks novel, and her "Tomorrow Isn't Easy" trilogy is totally addicting.
www.backstreet-market.net/
8) Has a music video inspired one of your stories? How?Yes. The video for Fuel's "Hemorrhage" inspired my short story "Just Hold Me." Sometimes I watch videos for inspiration for scenes in other stories and stuff too.
9) What skill do you feel you need to work on as a writer?I would like to improve in creating realistic, believable, non-cliched relationships for my romances and multi-dimensional villains with good motives for my suspenses. I would also like to be able to think up more creative storylines, write something really original that hasn't been done before.
10) What do you feel is your best skill as a writer?Dialogue. I think I'm good at making it realistic,, yet a little more eloquent LOL.
11) How long is the longest fanfic you've read?Swollen Issues III is 108 chapters now, and AC's got it at 283,225 words. It trumps everything else I've read LOL.
12) How did you find out about fanfiction?I was just searching for Bsb sites one day, back in 99 when Millennium had come out and I had become an obsessed fan, and I found JJ's first site and read her first story, "Blind Love." I thought it was so cool that someone had written a story about the Backstreet Boys, and I LOVED the story, so I went looking for more!
13) Which was the first fanfic you read?See above. "Blind Love."
14) What's your favorite genre and why?Drama/angst. I'm not sure exactly why; it just always has been my favorite. I like those desperate situations and sad things that make me cry. It's like an emotional release for me.
15) If you write or if you think you might write someday, what genre is it usually/would it be and why?Drama/angst with a hint of romance.
16) Which fan fic author is your most inspiration to be like in fan fic that is NOT julie? (we all already wanna be like her)LOL thanks Anita.
I would say a combination of different authors for different reasons. 1) Mare because she writes the Boys really well and is able to come up with simple, unique stories that don't need all of the epic drama and romance and suspense I try to put in mine to work. 2) Susan because she also writes really original stories and has a way of putting a lot of humor and character into her writing. 3) Bianca because the way she words things is very eloquent, and it makes her stories beautiful. 4) Heidi, the author of Cover Me With Dreams, because she is great at writing believable, loveable characters. Um, there's probaby more, but that's all I'm gonna do for now.
17) Who is the most fictional character that feels the most real that is NOT in the broken series?Don't worry, I wouldn't have listed someone in Broken anyway LOL. Just offhand, Tara in "Signal to Noise" or Ciara in "Cover Me With Dreams." I picked two female leads to answer this because I honestly think female leads are hard to write in this fandom - it's too easy to make them a Mary Sue or totally annoying in the effort to NOT be a Mary Sue, and these are two characters that came across as real and actually likeable to me.
18) what has been your biggest writing challenge so far and why?The Broken series has been one of the easiest stories I've ever written in some ways because inspiration is usually not hard to come by; I just always know what to write and am usually motivated to write it. At the same time, it's been the biggest challenge, Broken because of subject matter and character development, and BMS because of those things and genre and storyline. With Broken, I set out to take an overdone storyline and make it different and better and as realistic as possible, and I also wanted to write a female character (Claire) that would seem real and not Mary-Sueish, so those were the two main challenges there. With BMS, it was the same thing, but also to actually make a complete story out of just a few vague ideas I had, and to write a romance that wouldn't be boring.
19) when did you first start writing fanfic?Late 1999/early 2000. I don't remember for sure; I just know I got this idea and started kinda writing it out in a notebook one night.
20) Do you ever see yourself stop writing?Fanfic? I'm sure someday, but not anytime soon. Writing altogether? Hopefully not! It's too ingrained in me as a hobby now.
21) What do you feel like is the most overused plotline in fanfics?I think it used to be the Bsb dating the fellow popstar, who was usually the opening act and whatnot. Anymore, it seems like it's the Bsb meets the girl who has been hurt in the past and teaches her how to love again.
22) Who do you find the easiest boy to write about and why?Used to be Brian because he's my favorite. He's still my favorite, but I find Nick easier and more fun now because he's very complex, and you can do anything with him and paint him in all kinds of different lights.
23) How do you feel about constructive criticism?I value it as a way to get honest opinions about my writing and find out what I can do to make my stories better. At the same time, it needs to be worded in a way that is truly constructive and not just a way to say "I'm better than you; this is how you should be doing things." If it's given with arrogance, then it annoys me.
24) What is your least favorite genre and why?Slash because I can't take it seriously at all; it makes me laugh. It may work in some fandoms, but in the Bsb fandom, I just find it kind of ridiculous, to be honest.
25) if challenged, would you ever try writing a story in that genre?Maybe, but it would probably end up being a joke LOL. Like in Teeny, sure, there will be slash at some point. But I'm not sure I could do a slash seriously.
26) What in your opinion makes a good story?A combination of good writing, an interesting storyline, and characters you believe in and like reading about.
27) What's your biggest pet peeve when it comes to fanfic?Authors who start writing a story and then randomly quit writing it with no explanation or apology. I think once you get to a certain point in posting a story online and you have readers invested, you have a responsibility to see that story through. If you know yourself enough to know you're flaky when it comes to finishing stories, it would probably be better not to post anything until it's finished. Everyone has stories that they start and just can't continue, but it's the ones who have a pattern of doing it that kinda drive me nuts!
28) What do you feel is the biggest misconception in fanfic?That all fanfics are these shallow, poorly-written teeny fics. A lot of fanfics are better than books I've read and have a lot of depth, and a lot of fanfic authors are definitely talented enough to be published novelists. There is some amazing work out there on the fanfic sites.
29) What turns you off to reading a fic? Or rather what will instantly not make you read a fic no matter what? (that's still just one question just worded differently the second time! LOL)Bad mechanics - grammar, punctuation, paragraphing, spelling, and all that jazz. I'm a grammar police at heart who thinks the book "Eats Shoots & Leaves" is like the Bible, and I just can't read writing that grossly ignores the rules of the English language.
30) Do certain genres seem more intimidating than others?Definitely! Romance is actually intimidating to me, and any genre that takes a ton of creativity, like fantasy/sci-fi/supernatural stuff, is intimidating too.
31) Do you find it hard to write about a different boy when you've strictly wrote about one your entire career in fan fic?Good question... I guess I have done this; I started out writing almost solely about Brian and didn't move on to anyone else until my second year of writing, when I started writing more about AJ and Nick. I don't remember it being a hard transition for those two, though I think it would be hard for me to do a Howie or Kevin story. It would probably be hard even for me to do an AJ story cause I've been writing Nick for so long now LOL.
32)Do you sometimes take situations in your life, and put it in the story.Sometimes... rarely major things though because my life is pretty boring compared to the stuff I write about LOL. Usually that's a good thing though.
33)Do you use the boys in alternate universe stories a lot? If you do why?No. Just CB and 00Carter right now. I do want to start writing more AU though. AU allows more freedom; any storyline can work in AU without butchering reality. Also, I have the ambition to get a novel published someday, and I want it to be based on fanfic when I do, as a tribute to what I've spent the last 7 years of my life doing as a hobby, so writing an AU, a story that could translate into original fiction, would be a way to go about doing that.
34) Do you sometimes get the same idea again for a story you've already wrote before, and you've wrote so many you sometimes forget you have?Same idea for a story I've written before? Sort of... when I decided to write Broken, I'd already done a "cancer story," so I was kinda iffy on doing another, but I knew I could do it better than I had the first time, so I made that my challenge for it. I have written a lot of stories, but I never forget what I've actually written LOL. Each one of them, even the crappy ones and the short ones I wrote years and years ago, are a part of me.
35) What type of plost usually intrest you?Something that sounds interesting, with a lot of drama and suspense, maybe a hint of romance, which involves my favorite boys or the whole group and doesn't sound completely overdone. If you want specifics, I LIKE some of the overdone ones, like the car crash story, the cancer story, the kidnapping story, etc., but nowadays only if they're well-written enough to live up to the amazing ones I've read in the past.