Ask the Author
Hey, everyone! This is my first post on this comm, but fairygrrl45 was kind enough to ask me to do this month's Ask the Author despite how new I am to this fandom, so I thought, why not? It'd be cool to get to know some of you, and of course to have more people I can cry over BTR with. I'm not very good at this sort of thing though, so please bear with me!
Hi! Welcome to btrfuntime! You're a new member, and you've told me you're fairly new to fandom. You want to tell us a little about yourself?
Ahhh. I'm usually awesome at talking about myself, but never when prompted. SO I'LL JUST GO WITH MY USUAL. I'm Jess, and I love television more than I love most things, enough that I eventually want to write for it, or if not write, at least have SOME job that allows me to have an impact on a show somehow. Even if it's just being a personal assistant to an actor, I want to be able to know firsthand how everything works and is put together. My favorite things on earth are probably Big Time Rush and Supernatural, and those are actually my two primary fandoms, although most of my fandom-related stuff goes on on tumblr. Maybe doing this will help me get back into livejournal, though!
Have you found it hard to break into fandom as a new writer?
Well, I've only written two fics (or completed two, anyway), and while writing the first one I wasn't really thinking of it as trying to break into the fandom. I was having a lot of Cargan/Kames feels that day, and a silly little idea hit me, so I wrote it. I'm not sure I would have even posted it if my friend hadn't told me I should! Mostly due to the fact that I've known some people in the past to make a public mockery on their blogs of fics written for their own fandom, which is never cool since who knows if the writer is going to see it. And that made me super anxious about posting my own stuff, even though to my knowledge no one has ever done that to me. With all that said, I guess it brings me to the next question~
How does writing in THIS fandom differ from writing in any other fandom?
Writing for this fandom is a lot less worrying now that I've started. The fandom that made me nervous about posting anything I wrote in the first place was the Supernatural fandom, and I haven't seen anything going on in the BTR fandom that's even close to how rude certain people can be there. Of course, that might be because I am new here, and I just haven't come across the bad points yet, because I know all fandoms have ~bad eggs~ or whatever. But from what I've seen, you're all super sweet and supportive! The last fandom I wrote regularly for was probably the Panic! at the Disco fandom, a few years ago. That was different because I think the slash-shipping faction (or at least slash-reading) was a lot larger there, but I definitely like it here too! It's comfortable. I'm hoping as soon as I start writing more often it'll get easier to trust myself with posting stuff, haha.
I've read your fic "Under Cover Of The Street"(It was sweet, guys, PLEASE, go check it out. Crazy potential in this one!), and I've noticed that it can be hard to figure out whether you write in showverse or rps. Is that intentional? Does it not matter in this case?
Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it! I think that it may have been harder to figure out because that one is RPS, and also because it was written for an RP I was in, so I was factoring in my friend's Kendall Schmidt!voice and my own Carlos Pena!voice as well as who I thought the guys are in real life. If it were show!verse I think it would have been clearer, because I tend to make them just as explosive personality-wise as they are on the show when I'm writing CG/JD/LM/KS instead of Pena, Henderson, Maslow, and Schmidt. It's always a lot harder to guess at what celebrities are like in real life, and people usually end up being more influenced by fanon personalities than actual personalities, which is completely understandable, but means I'll probably end up writing more show!verse fic than anything else. Out of all two of my fics so far, one was show!verse and one was rp-based-on-real-life!verse, haha. I've got some show!verse fics planned, or at least using show!personalities, because one of them is AU but is certainly Carlos Garcia/Logan Mitchell and Kendall Knight/James Diamond, not CP/LH and KS/JM. ALTHOUGH I DO SHIP THEM IRL TOO.
A lot of authors have a certain style of writing, or a voice that feels comfortable for them, but it can change from fandom to fandom. Are you finding you're falling into a particular voice/style with BTR fandom? Or do you like to switch it up?
I think that since the last time I wrote regularly for a fandom was 4 years ago, when I was fourteen, my style has probably changed a lot since then. Hopefully, anyway, because I've read some of my old stuff, and while I don't think it's horrible, I still like where I am now more than I like where I was then. These days my fics tend to focus more on dialogue, which is good because something I'm going to have to be able to do while writing for tv is conveying what characters are thinking without necessarily having tons of things other than what they're saying/the expression on their face backing it up. I do lovelovelove reading detailed fics too, but I've got ADHD and as such an extremely short attention span, so sometimes I need some fic that manages to get some good old repartee going. I write things like I think them, which involves a lot more talking/quipping back and forth between characters and a little less detail outside of dialogue, which is actually something I feel like I need to work on on some days, and something I like about my writing on other days.
You told me you've not read much fanfiction in fandom. With such a fresh outlook on everything, what pairing (slash/het/femslash/polyamorous all allowed! lol) would you say draws your interest the most?
Honestly, I've been shipping Carlos/Logan on the show and RPS since the moment I got into BTR, and very soon after that came Kendall/James. And then once I realized Carlos (Garcia and Pena) was very possibly the LIGHT OF MY LIFE, he turned into my shipping bicycle, which basically just means I'm totally 100% cool with everyone in the world wanting to love on that fine bootay. Cargan is still my OTP on and off the show, but recently I've started shipping James/Carlos on the show A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT, and I love how Kendall Schmidt and Carlos Pena interact in real life, so I ship Kenlos too. Still, the pairings I'm most likely to seek out for reading purposes would be Carlos/Logan and James/Carlos, or Kendall/James. OR OT4. ALL OF THEM. THAT'S GOOD, TOO. I do like femslash too, although I haven't read any yet, so if anyone would like to recommend some, please throw it my way!
Are there any squicks that you have when writing/reading fiction? Anything you just refuse to take part in?
Hmmm. Not really? Wait, no, that's not entirely true. I was thinking just in terms of kinks. I'm in the SPN fandom, and it gets pretty freaky over there, which I am TOTALLY FINE WITH. That might be too much information, idk. But in terms of just general plot, I'm not a big fan of reading self-harm fic, and for me to read infidelity fic it has to be extremely well-done, because if I'm gonna lose respect for one of your main characters you're gonna need to have some backup at the ready to make me like them again. I also don't really like reading anything with domestic abuse in it. I have before, and there are certain fics that I liked which had that as a point of the plot, but I usually avoid it unless it's written by an author I trust. However, I won't read it at all if it's part of the main pairing that's abusing the other. There's no gaining respect back for that, and I like liking the characters I'm reading about. If it's clear that the character engaging in whatever abusive behavior it is isn't meant to be liked, then I can read it, but if an author is trying to get me to sympathize with an abusive jackass, it's just not going to happen tbh. OOH, ALSO: NOT A FAN OF KNOTTING!FIC. HAHAHA. I don't judge anyone for whatever kinks they do have, though. I enjoy some things I'm sure other people would think of as odd, and in my opinion it's all completely okay. :')
And just for shits and giggles: Give me your favorite BTR-themed picture, and tell me why it's your favorite?
Oh, man. SO MANY JUST CAME TO MIND. The background on my phone is this adorable Cargan chibi fanart, and it makes me smile any time I look at it. But I really like this one too omg omg omg:
THEY'RE ALL JUST CHILLING ON TOP OF EACH OTHER, OH MY GOD. AND THEN JORDIN'S THERE LIKE WASSUP GUYS, I'M HERE WITH A BIG TIME RUSH DOGPILE. FAVORITIREjhgerkfdltrhj. And another of my favorites is probably that one where they're all together in that fountain. AND CARLOS IS LIKE, CARESSING LOGAN'S FACE. YOU KNOW? OH, AND THIS ONE:
I'M SO UPSET RN, I MANAGED TO STAY CALM AND COLLECTED FOR MOST OF THIS POST BUT NOW ALDKSJLKGJF. And I cheated on that last one too since you asked for just one. Sorry, omffgjtkgf. Yes. ANYWAY. Hi, I'm Jess, and I hope to write more BTR fic in the near future! If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them.
Hi! Welcome to btrfuntime! You're a new member, and you've told me you're fairly new to fandom. You want to tell us a little about yourself?
Ahhh. I'm usually awesome at talking about myself, but never when prompted. SO I'LL JUST GO WITH MY USUAL. I'm Jess, and I love television more than I love most things, enough that I eventually want to write for it, or if not write, at least have SOME job that allows me to have an impact on a show somehow. Even if it's just being a personal assistant to an actor, I want to be able to know firsthand how everything works and is put together. My favorite things on earth are probably Big Time Rush and Supernatural, and those are actually my two primary fandoms, although most of my fandom-related stuff goes on on tumblr. Maybe doing this will help me get back into livejournal, though!
Have you found it hard to break into fandom as a new writer?
Well, I've only written two fics (or completed two, anyway), and while writing the first one I wasn't really thinking of it as trying to break into the fandom. I was having a lot of Cargan/Kames feels that day, and a silly little idea hit me, so I wrote it. I'm not sure I would have even posted it if my friend hadn't told me I should! Mostly due to the fact that I've known some people in the past to make a public mockery on their blogs of fics written for their own fandom, which is never cool since who knows if the writer is going to see it. And that made me super anxious about posting my own stuff, even though to my knowledge no one has ever done that to me. With all that said, I guess it brings me to the next question~
How does writing in THIS fandom differ from writing in any other fandom?
Writing for this fandom is a lot less worrying now that I've started. The fandom that made me nervous about posting anything I wrote in the first place was the Supernatural fandom, and I haven't seen anything going on in the BTR fandom that's even close to how rude certain people can be there. Of course, that might be because I am new here, and I just haven't come across the bad points yet, because I know all fandoms have ~bad eggs~ or whatever. But from what I've seen, you're all super sweet and supportive! The last fandom I wrote regularly for was probably the Panic! at the Disco fandom, a few years ago. That was different because I think the slash-shipping faction (or at least slash-reading) was a lot larger there, but I definitely like it here too! It's comfortable. I'm hoping as soon as I start writing more often it'll get easier to trust myself with posting stuff, haha.
I've read your fic "Under Cover Of The Street"(It was sweet, guys, PLEASE, go check it out. Crazy potential in this one!), and I've noticed that it can be hard to figure out whether you write in showverse or rps. Is that intentional? Does it not matter in this case?
Thank you so much, I'm glad you liked it! I think that it may have been harder to figure out because that one is RPS, and also because it was written for an RP I was in, so I was factoring in my friend's Kendall Schmidt!voice and my own Carlos Pena!voice as well as who I thought the guys are in real life. If it were show!verse I think it would have been clearer, because I tend to make them just as explosive personality-wise as they are on the show when I'm writing CG/JD/LM/KS instead of Pena, Henderson, Maslow, and Schmidt. It's always a lot harder to guess at what celebrities are like in real life, and people usually end up being more influenced by fanon personalities than actual personalities, which is completely understandable, but means I'll probably end up writing more show!verse fic than anything else. Out of all two of my fics so far, one was show!verse and one was rp-based-on-real-life!verse, haha. I've got some show!verse fics planned, or at least using show!personalities, because one of them is AU but is certainly Carlos Garcia/Logan Mitchell and Kendall Knight/James Diamond, not CP/LH and KS/JM. ALTHOUGH I DO SHIP THEM IRL TOO.
A lot of authors have a certain style of writing, or a voice that feels comfortable for them, but it can change from fandom to fandom. Are you finding you're falling into a particular voice/style with BTR fandom? Or do you like to switch it up?
I think that since the last time I wrote regularly for a fandom was 4 years ago, when I was fourteen, my style has probably changed a lot since then. Hopefully, anyway, because I've read some of my old stuff, and while I don't think it's horrible, I still like where I am now more than I like where I was then. These days my fics tend to focus more on dialogue, which is good because something I'm going to have to be able to do while writing for tv is conveying what characters are thinking without necessarily having tons of things other than what they're saying/the expression on their face backing it up. I do lovelovelove reading detailed fics too, but I've got ADHD and as such an extremely short attention span, so sometimes I need some fic that manages to get some good old repartee going. I write things like I think them, which involves a lot more talking/quipping back and forth between characters and a little less detail outside of dialogue, which is actually something I feel like I need to work on on some days, and something I like about my writing on other days.
You told me you've not read much fanfiction in fandom. With such a fresh outlook on everything, what pairing (slash/het/femslash/polyamorous all allowed! lol) would you say draws your interest the most?
Honestly, I've been shipping Carlos/Logan on the show and RPS since the moment I got into BTR, and very soon after that came Kendall/James. And then once I realized Carlos (Garcia and Pena) was very possibly the LIGHT OF MY LIFE, he turned into my shipping bicycle, which basically just means I'm totally 100% cool with everyone in the world wanting to love on that fine bootay. Cargan is still my OTP on and off the show, but recently I've started shipping James/Carlos on the show A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT, and I love how Kendall Schmidt and Carlos Pena interact in real life, so I ship Kenlos too. Still, the pairings I'm most likely to seek out for reading purposes would be Carlos/Logan and James/Carlos, or Kendall/James. OR OT4. ALL OF THEM. THAT'S GOOD, TOO. I do like femslash too, although I haven't read any yet, so if anyone would like to recommend some, please throw it my way!
Are there any squicks that you have when writing/reading fiction? Anything you just refuse to take part in?
Hmmm. Not really? Wait, no, that's not entirely true. I was thinking just in terms of kinks. I'm in the SPN fandom, and it gets pretty freaky over there, which I am TOTALLY FINE WITH. That might be too much information, idk. But in terms of just general plot, I'm not a big fan of reading self-harm fic, and for me to read infidelity fic it has to be extremely well-done, because if I'm gonna lose respect for one of your main characters you're gonna need to have some backup at the ready to make me like them again. I also don't really like reading anything with domestic abuse in it. I have before, and there are certain fics that I liked which had that as a point of the plot, but I usually avoid it unless it's written by an author I trust. However, I won't read it at all if it's part of the main pairing that's abusing the other. There's no gaining respect back for that, and I like liking the characters I'm reading about. If it's clear that the character engaging in whatever abusive behavior it is isn't meant to be liked, then I can read it, but if an author is trying to get me to sympathize with an abusive jackass, it's just not going to happen tbh. OOH, ALSO: NOT A FAN OF KNOTTING!FIC. HAHAHA. I don't judge anyone for whatever kinks they do have, though. I enjoy some things I'm sure other people would think of as odd, and in my opinion it's all completely okay. :')
And just for shits and giggles: Give me your favorite BTR-themed picture, and tell me why it's your favorite?
Oh, man. SO MANY JUST CAME TO MIND. The background on my phone is this adorable Cargan chibi fanart, and it makes me smile any time I look at it. But I really like this one too omg omg omg:
THEY'RE ALL JUST CHILLING ON TOP OF EACH OTHER, OH MY GOD. AND THEN JORDIN'S THERE LIKE WASSUP GUYS, I'M HERE WITH A BIG TIME RUSH DOGPILE. FAVORITIREjhgerkfdltrhj. And another of my favorites is probably that one where they're all together in that fountain. AND CARLOS IS LIKE, CARESSING LOGAN'S FACE. YOU KNOW? OH, AND THIS ONE:
I'M SO UPSET RN, I MANAGED TO STAY CALM AND COLLECTED FOR MOST OF THIS POST BUT NOW ALDKSJLKGJF. And I cheated on that last one too since you asked for just one. Sorry, omffgjtkgf. Yes. ANYWAY. Hi, I'm Jess, and I hope to write more BTR fic in the near future! If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them.