From likeadeuce
1) Right now, what do you feel are the 1, 2 or 3 best stories you've written since becoming/admitting you're a fanfic writer? What was it about that/those stories that really made you proud, or thrilled you about them?
Hmmmm. Tricky. Okay, here are the three that come to mind right now.
The Burying Kind: an Angel the Series/ Six Feet Under crossover, based on an idea of kangeiko's, which was: Angel picks Fisher & Sons to bury Cordelia. (Though to make it fit date-wise, it had to be Fisher & Diaz.) Writing a crossover is always a particular challenge: not only do you want to make two universes which each have their distinct style and atmosphere gell, but you also don't want to overdo the exposition, i.e. tell readers what a part of them know anyway. (Ala "Angel is a vampire with a soul. Listen to this brief summary of his history on two shows. Also, the Fisher brothers have lots of issues. Here's David's backstory, here is Nate's.") On the other hand, you can't count on all readers to know both fandoms; on the contrary, chances are, in this particular case, that the majority is familiar with the Jossverse but not with Six Feet Under, and you want them to enjoy the story, too.
Then there is the ensemble question. Both shows are ensemble shows. Which characters to use, which make sense, which ones don't? For example, this story is set in s5 of Angel, post-You're Welcome (well, duh), and in middle to late s4 of Six Feet Under. As it revolves around Cordelia's burial, I knew I'd want at least some of the Sunnydale gang to come as well, which made it in fact a triple crossover. But I really did not want to write a reunion between Buffy and Spike, because that would have been distracting from the main story, and all the issues which such a reunion would have to raise could not done justice to in a short scene or two anyway. So, given that Spike has several things to sort out at the end of You're Welcome and does not show up again at Angel's until the end of Why We Fight, I decided it was ic to declare he went by his lonesome for a few days (which would conveniently cover Cordelia's burial) and would not return until Buffy & Co. were gone again. (likeadeuce and I have decided by now that Spike met up with Billy and Brenda, aka the two main Six Feet Under characters I didn't use, and had some crazy nights.*g*) So far, so good. But of course there was the other vampire/Buffy combination. Angel and Buffy also had several things to sort out, which would distract from the main story, etc. The solution I came up here for was that I did Angel's pov early on, before the arrival of the Sunnydale gang, and wrote the burial itself from Xander's pov, and Xander would be focused on Cordelia, not on whatever Angel and Buffy had to say to each other, if they did.
After that was sorted out, I started writing, and it turned out to be the story with the most points of view I ever did in fanfic. But they did fit together, I felt - still feel - I did justice to the characters I chose, and managed to get the mixture of comedy and tragedy which is inherent in both shows across. As love declarations to fictional universes go, this one still makes me very happy.
Five Things Which Never Happened Between Kira and Dukat, a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine story. iamsab, bless her, dared me to write Kira/Dukat. Which, despite the chemistry on screen, has obvious obstacles in canon, even with pre-“Waltz” Dukat. However, I saw it as a challenge - would it be possible to explore that particular relationship, and not necessarily just in a sexual sense, without changing Kira into a Harlequin heroine or changing Dukat into a whitewashed Knight? Then I recalled the “Five Things Which Never Happened...” format which I have used before, in another fandom, and suddenly everything clicked. In a rather dark way. The result, I think, presents both Kira and Dukat in a three dimensional way, and does justice to their other relationships as well.
Lost in Translation, a Babylon 5 story. This one owes its existence to andrastewhite's ficlet War Stories, a "missing scene" from the B5 pilot The Gathering, in which G'Kar blackmails Londo with evidence of war crimes Londo's grandfather committed. Simultanously, I talked with iamsab about Londo speaking Narn. This had me thinking, and going to vacation - on St. Maurice, among other places, where there were stories about slaves fleeing to the top of a mountain - and the result was a story set in Londo's childhood, which is simultanously an attempt to say something about occupations and relationships between occupiers and their "subjects" in general which asked me to be written at once, though my laptop wasn't with me. So I wrote it down on borrowed paper. It felt that urgent. It still does, to me, and that's why I'm proud of it.
2) What Professional writer (that is, paid author) would you love to see write a fanfiction story? What ship or fandom? Tell me a little about it.
I'd love to see Sharon (Kay) Penman having a go at Alias, specifically the Spy Family and Uncle Arvin. She is great with twisted family relationships, torn loyalties, and given what she did with Davydd ap Gruffyd and his relationship with his brother Lwellelyn, in "The Reckoning" or John and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his daughter Joanna, in "Here Be Dragons", she'd be great with Arvin Sloane and Jack Bristow, or Jack and Sydney, or Arvin and Sydney, and of course Irina and all of them.
3) What show/cartoon/kid's book from your childhood would you be amused to see in fanfiction? Would you consider writing one for this early love?
Not exactly a kid's book, but in fact the first one I've read: Winnetou, by Karl May. (Aka the reason Germans will always sympathize with the Indians and never with the cowboys.) The slashers would go wild about Winnetou/Old Shatterhand, there'd be a tiny but distinctive Winnetou/Old Firehand competitive 'ship, everyone would bash Nscho-Tschi as a Mary Sue until as a backlash Nscho-Tschi/Old Shatterhand would emerge as a "we'll show you" het pairing, and of course there would be crazy Apache incest fic as well.
And no, I wouldn't.
4) Is there a fanfic of yours you'd like to see made into a Broadway show? Tell me about it!( "_____________: the Musical!")
Trio: The Musical, obviously.*g* I'd let have andrastewhite the royalties so she can come from Australia and visit me. Also, I bet the boys would be available and feel grateful to us, since Joss so cruelly excluded them from Once More, With Feeling.
5) Think about it--what could possibly be the WORST crossover out there? A story that Should Never Be Written? Hamtaro/V? Lost/Gilligan's Island? Come up with your most terrible pairing!
Trust me, someone, somewhere has written it: an Alien AU in which everyone is in High School, Ripley, the crew of the Nostromo, the marines from Aliens, the prisoners from A³, and the mercenaries from Alien Resurrection. And the Alien. And then a Firefly crossover, they meet Mal Reynolds, and Jayne looks at Ron Perlman's character and goes "hang on a minute..." while the Alien becames best friends with River.
Hmmmm. Tricky. Okay, here are the three that come to mind right now.
The Burying Kind: an Angel the Series/ Six Feet Under crossover, based on an idea of kangeiko's, which was: Angel picks Fisher & Sons to bury Cordelia. (Though to make it fit date-wise, it had to be Fisher & Diaz.) Writing a crossover is always a particular challenge: not only do you want to make two universes which each have their distinct style and atmosphere gell, but you also don't want to overdo the exposition, i.e. tell readers what a part of them know anyway. (Ala "Angel is a vampire with a soul. Listen to this brief summary of his history on two shows. Also, the Fisher brothers have lots of issues. Here's David's backstory, here is Nate's.") On the other hand, you can't count on all readers to know both fandoms; on the contrary, chances are, in this particular case, that the majority is familiar with the Jossverse but not with Six Feet Under, and you want them to enjoy the story, too.
Then there is the ensemble question. Both shows are ensemble shows. Which characters to use, which make sense, which ones don't? For example, this story is set in s5 of Angel, post-You're Welcome (well, duh), and in middle to late s4 of Six Feet Under. As it revolves around Cordelia's burial, I knew I'd want at least some of the Sunnydale gang to come as well, which made it in fact a triple crossover. But I really did not want to write a reunion between Buffy and Spike, because that would have been distracting from the main story, and all the issues which such a reunion would have to raise could not done justice to in a short scene or two anyway. So, given that Spike has several things to sort out at the end of You're Welcome and does not show up again at Angel's until the end of Why We Fight, I decided it was ic to declare he went by his lonesome for a few days (which would conveniently cover Cordelia's burial) and would not return until Buffy & Co. were gone again. (likeadeuce and I have decided by now that Spike met up with Billy and Brenda, aka the two main Six Feet Under characters I didn't use, and had some crazy nights.*g*) So far, so good. But of course there was the other vampire/Buffy combination. Angel and Buffy also had several things to sort out, which would distract from the main story, etc. The solution I came up here for was that I did Angel's pov early on, before the arrival of the Sunnydale gang, and wrote the burial itself from Xander's pov, and Xander would be focused on Cordelia, not on whatever Angel and Buffy had to say to each other, if they did.
After that was sorted out, I started writing, and it turned out to be the story with the most points of view I ever did in fanfic. But they did fit together, I felt - still feel - I did justice to the characters I chose, and managed to get the mixture of comedy and tragedy which is inherent in both shows across. As love declarations to fictional universes go, this one still makes me very happy.
Five Things Which Never Happened Between Kira and Dukat, a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine story. iamsab, bless her, dared me to write Kira/Dukat. Which, despite the chemistry on screen, has obvious obstacles in canon, even with pre-“Waltz” Dukat. However, I saw it as a challenge - would it be possible to explore that particular relationship, and not necessarily just in a sexual sense, without changing Kira into a Harlequin heroine or changing Dukat into a whitewashed Knight? Then I recalled the “Five Things Which Never Happened...” format which I have used before, in another fandom, and suddenly everything clicked. In a rather dark way. The result, I think, presents both Kira and Dukat in a three dimensional way, and does justice to their other relationships as well.
Lost in Translation, a Babylon 5 story. This one owes its existence to andrastewhite's ficlet War Stories, a "missing scene" from the B5 pilot The Gathering, in which G'Kar blackmails Londo with evidence of war crimes Londo's grandfather committed. Simultanously, I talked with iamsab about Londo speaking Narn. This had me thinking, and going to vacation - on St. Maurice, among other places, where there were stories about slaves fleeing to the top of a mountain - and the result was a story set in Londo's childhood, which is simultanously an attempt to say something about occupations and relationships between occupiers and their "subjects" in general which asked me to be written at once, though my laptop wasn't with me. So I wrote it down on borrowed paper. It felt that urgent. It still does, to me, and that's why I'm proud of it.
2) What Professional writer (that is, paid author) would you love to see write a fanfiction story? What ship or fandom? Tell me a little about it.
I'd love to see Sharon (Kay) Penman having a go at Alias, specifically the Spy Family and Uncle Arvin. She is great with twisted family relationships, torn loyalties, and given what she did with Davydd ap Gruffyd and his relationship with his brother Lwellelyn, in "The Reckoning" or John and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his daughter Joanna, in "Here Be Dragons", she'd be great with Arvin Sloane and Jack Bristow, or Jack and Sydney, or Arvin and Sydney, and of course Irina and all of them.
3) What show/cartoon/kid's book from your childhood would you be amused to see in fanfiction? Would you consider writing one for this early love?
Not exactly a kid's book, but in fact the first one I've read: Winnetou, by Karl May. (Aka the reason Germans will always sympathize with the Indians and never with the cowboys.) The slashers would go wild about Winnetou/Old Shatterhand, there'd be a tiny but distinctive Winnetou/Old Firehand competitive 'ship, everyone would bash Nscho-Tschi as a Mary Sue until as a backlash Nscho-Tschi/Old Shatterhand would emerge as a "we'll show you" het pairing, and of course there would be crazy Apache incest fic as well.
And no, I wouldn't.
4) Is there a fanfic of yours you'd like to see made into a Broadway show? Tell me about it!( "_____________: the Musical!")
Trio: The Musical, obviously.*g* I'd let have andrastewhite the royalties so she can come from Australia and visit me. Also, I bet the boys would be available and feel grateful to us, since Joss so cruelly excluded them from Once More, With Feeling.
5) Think about it--what could possibly be the WORST crossover out there? A story that Should Never Be Written? Hamtaro/V? Lost/Gilligan's Island? Come up with your most terrible pairing!
Trust me, someone, somewhere has written it: an Alien AU in which everyone is in High School, Ripley, the crew of the Nostromo, the marines from Aliens, the prisoners from A³, and the mercenaries from Alien Resurrection. And the Alien. And then a Firefly crossover, they meet Mal Reynolds, and Jayne looks at Ron Perlman's character and goes "hang on a minute..." while the Alien becames best friends with River.