Team interview: kisahawklin
Name: kisahawklin
Team: War!
Let's talk about: kisahawklin!
1. How long have you been writing fan fiction? My very first, thankfully not-on-the-internets Mary Sue fanfiction works were written back in 2000. I started posting late 2004, and posting regularly in 2008.
2. Have you participated or are you participating in any other fandoms? Sort of. I started in the Alexander the Great fandom; a atrange mix of actual history, Mary Renault, and Oliver Stone's movie. I wrote a fair amount of short stuff for that. I've written a few pieces in several other fandoms, but I've been entrenched in SGA since I got into this fandom in 2006.
3. What fanwork are you most proud of? Or, what is your favourite of your fanworks? I think I'm most proud of The Corps because I wrote it in a week for mcshep_match last year, but my favorite is Variations on a Theme of John Sheppard (and all its sequels) because I'm proud of all the breakthroughs I had about writing while I was completing it. (Links go to Dreamwidth, because the stories are all in one post there (they may be a little on the longish side...).)
4. As far as creative processes go, what type of writer/artist are you? Do you create an outline/find photo references/make maps, etc., or do you jump in and go with the flow? I have changed over time. When I started writing, I very much went with the flow. To the tune of thousands and thousands of words that didn't actually make up a story. I haven't switched over to outlines completely, but I do tend to think about the structure of a story before I start writing (even if all I've got for inspiration is a mental image of John in thigh-high leather boots). For longer fics (which most of my stories tend toward these days), I tend to have a very general outline, and let the scenes flesh themselves out as I'm writing them.
5. Where can interested readers/viewers find more of your work? I have index posts at the top of my fic journals, kisahawklin and
kisahawklin.
6. Do you write original fiction? Do you create original art? Care to share? I have an original universe I've been mucking about in since 2003, and intend to write for NaNoWriMo again this year (I wrote it my first three years running - never completed). There are ways to find it, but I'm not ready to publicly share anything just yet. I'm not an artist in any way shape or form and couldn't create art if Michelangelo came back from the dead and inhabited my body. I'm totally jealous of anyone who can draw/paint/sculpt/create macaroni art.
7. How are you so awesome? It's all in the swagger.
Let's talk about: SGA!
8. What do you enjoy most about SGA and/or SGA fandom? I like the high quality of fic and art. I'm not wide-read in the multiverse-fandom, and I've never been attached to other shows I watch or even fangirl a bit, but most of what I glance at elsewhere seems to pale in comparison to what I've read in SGA. Hell, some of the books I've read aren't as good as certain SGA fics.
9a. Why do you ship McKay/Sheppard? What draws you to the pairing, what do you like and dislike? Whoa, that's a lot of questions for one number - I'm going to break them up a bit. I ship John and Rodney because they have the strongest emotional connection on the show. It's obvious from very early season one, and only gets stronger over time. I honestly think they're both a little messed up, each in their own weird way that just happens to make them perfect for each other. Their idiosyncracies seem to work together. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to date either of those men, and feel sorry for the women on the show who do/have.
9b. Favourite scenes or episodes? Quotes? Screencaps? I love the Shrine and Miller's Crossing, of course, and Inferno, Tao of Rodney, and Last Man. I love it when it's obvious the writers are writing John/Rodney and they think they're writing something else.
9c. What other SGA pairings do you ship? I think my favorite rarepair is Radek/Ronon. There are only a few bits of the show to support it, but I really like the concept of the two of them together. I've written a little Lorne/Zelenka and I understand the appeal of that, too. Clearly I just love Radek. I love Team!fic and Teyla/Ronon in early seasons as well. I love the concept of Teyla/Elizabeth but haven't seen much fic for it.
10. Why did you choose to join Team War? Because I think one of the best things about stories is conflict. I don't know what I would have done if I had to write for Team Peace (which I keep wanting to misspell as Team Peach). Also, I adore lavvyan to itty bitty pieces and was thrilled when she became team captain.
11. C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match fic? I do want to squee a ridiculous amount, but to keep it spoiler-free, all I'm going to say is: the actual fight part of it is going to be killer.
12. What are your 'tells'? How can a fic of yours be spotted in the wild? I have no idea! I wish someone would tell me!
Let's talk about: other stuff people asked!
taste_is_sweet asked: I love your fix-its stories! Do you have a favourite story that fixed something in any given episode? What has been the hardest canon plot point for you to make better? Doing the tagathon for season five was exceptionally hard for me, as I was disappointed with most of the episodes, and I didn't want to write anything that would be jossed the next week. Some of it I couldn't help writing fix-its for (Teyla naming the baby after John in the season opener, for example), but wanting to keep the entire tagathon within canon for season five, I avoided any true John/Rodney hookups or Keller-dumping because I knew she'd be back the next week. My episode caps were often things I thought they missed entirely (Rodney's living will in The Shrine, for example - I may even rewrite that one, because I pretty firmly believe in it and I didn't do it justice in the short time I threw it together) or little bits of something that caught my attention (the cell in Inquisition). The thing I'm have a rough time fixing (and I'm sure I will get around to, if I want to write anything post-season five) is Rodney and Jennifer being together. I'm not a hater; I just think that the relationship is not a good one for either of them. It makes me sad that after four years of growth, with a team that loves him for who he is, warts and all, Rodney is back to making a fool of himself and trying to please someone by changing himself around. I have a problem with handwaving it away, so I can't do the one-sentence sum-up of the breakup in passing thing, and while I can see an infinite variety of ways that they break up, I've never been particularly interested in one or another to put it down in words. Someday.
telesilla asked: What types of scenes (for example, dialog or sex scenes or whatever) do you find easiest to write? That's a tougher question than I thought. I like to think I have a good ear for dialog, so I should probably say that, but I usually write out the dialog and have to go back and add in attribution and description and blocking because all I did was write out the actual spoken words. (Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't write screenplays.) On the other hand, I don't have a hard time writing non-dialog, exactly, though in edits I usually have to go back and take out a certain amount of fluff. Sex is a mood thing; I can write the hell out of it when I'm in the mood, but can't touch it if I'm not. The only thing I have trouble writing, really, is that scene that's keeping me from getting to the next place in a story. If I am having a hell of a time with a scene, it's usually because I'm doing something wrong that I can't figure out. I've learned to put placeholders in (that took some doing, because I used to be a strictly linear writer) and come back to things that block me, because after I get moving, I can usually figure out what was wrong and fix it.
If you've actually made it this far, congratulations! And happy writing/reading/vidding/arting/whatever it is that you do. Go Team War!
Team: War!
Let's talk about: kisahawklin!
1. How long have you been writing fan fiction? My very first, thankfully not-on-the-internets Mary Sue fanfiction works were written back in 2000. I started posting late 2004, and posting regularly in 2008.
2. Have you participated or are you participating in any other fandoms? Sort of. I started in the Alexander the Great fandom; a atrange mix of actual history, Mary Renault, and Oliver Stone's movie. I wrote a fair amount of short stuff for that. I've written a few pieces in several other fandoms, but I've been entrenched in SGA since I got into this fandom in 2006.
3. What fanwork are you most proud of? Or, what is your favourite of your fanworks? I think I'm most proud of The Corps because I wrote it in a week for mcshep_match last year, but my favorite is Variations on a Theme of John Sheppard (and all its sequels) because I'm proud of all the breakthroughs I had about writing while I was completing it. (Links go to Dreamwidth, because the stories are all in one post there (they may be a little on the longish side...).)
4. As far as creative processes go, what type of writer/artist are you? Do you create an outline/find photo references/make maps, etc., or do you jump in and go with the flow? I have changed over time. When I started writing, I very much went with the flow. To the tune of thousands and thousands of words that didn't actually make up a story. I haven't switched over to outlines completely, but I do tend to think about the structure of a story before I start writing (even if all I've got for inspiration is a mental image of John in thigh-high leather boots). For longer fics (which most of my stories tend toward these days), I tend to have a very general outline, and let the scenes flesh themselves out as I'm writing them.
5. Where can interested readers/viewers find more of your work? I have index posts at the top of my fic journals, kisahawklin and
kisahawklin.
6. Do you write original fiction? Do you create original art? Care to share? I have an original universe I've been mucking about in since 2003, and intend to write for NaNoWriMo again this year (I wrote it my first three years running - never completed). There are ways to find it, but I'm not ready to publicly share anything just yet. I'm not an artist in any way shape or form and couldn't create art if Michelangelo came back from the dead and inhabited my body. I'm totally jealous of anyone who can draw/paint/sculpt/create macaroni art.
7. How are you so awesome? It's all in the swagger.
Let's talk about: SGA!
8. What do you enjoy most about SGA and/or SGA fandom? I like the high quality of fic and art. I'm not wide-read in the multiverse-fandom, and I've never been attached to other shows I watch or even fangirl a bit, but most of what I glance at elsewhere seems to pale in comparison to what I've read in SGA. Hell, some of the books I've read aren't as good as certain SGA fics.
9a. Why do you ship McKay/Sheppard? What draws you to the pairing, what do you like and dislike? Whoa, that's a lot of questions for one number - I'm going to break them up a bit. I ship John and Rodney because they have the strongest emotional connection on the show. It's obvious from very early season one, and only gets stronger over time. I honestly think they're both a little messed up, each in their own weird way that just happens to make them perfect for each other. Their idiosyncracies seem to work together. On the other hand, I wouldn't want to date either of those men, and feel sorry for the women on the show who do/have.
9b. Favourite scenes or episodes? Quotes? Screencaps? I love the Shrine and Miller's Crossing, of course, and Inferno, Tao of Rodney, and Last Man. I love it when it's obvious the writers are writing John/Rodney and they think they're writing something else.
9c. What other SGA pairings do you ship? I think my favorite rarepair is Radek/Ronon. There are only a few bits of the show to support it, but I really like the concept of the two of them together. I've written a little Lorne/Zelenka and I understand the appeal of that, too. Clearly I just love Radek. I love Team!fic and Teyla/Ronon in early seasons as well. I love the concept of Teyla/Elizabeth but haven't seen much fic for it.
10. Why did you choose to join Team War? Because I think one of the best things about stories is conflict. I don't know what I would have done if I had to write for Team Peace (which I keep wanting to misspell as Team Peach). Also, I adore lavvyan to itty bitty pieces and was thrilled when she became team captain.
11. C'mon, you know you wanna! Just a bit of squee about your Match fic? I do want to squee a ridiculous amount, but to keep it spoiler-free, all I'm going to say is: the actual fight part of it is going to be killer.
12. What are your 'tells'? How can a fic of yours be spotted in the wild? I have no idea! I wish someone would tell me!
Let's talk about: other stuff people asked!
taste_is_sweet asked: I love your fix-its stories! Do you have a favourite story that fixed something in any given episode? What has been the hardest canon plot point for you to make better? Doing the tagathon for season five was exceptionally hard for me, as I was disappointed with most of the episodes, and I didn't want to write anything that would be jossed the next week. Some of it I couldn't help writing fix-its for (Teyla naming the baby after John in the season opener, for example), but wanting to keep the entire tagathon within canon for season five, I avoided any true John/Rodney hookups or Keller-dumping because I knew she'd be back the next week. My episode caps were often things I thought they missed entirely (Rodney's living will in The Shrine, for example - I may even rewrite that one, because I pretty firmly believe in it and I didn't do it justice in the short time I threw it together) or little bits of something that caught my attention (the cell in Inquisition). The thing I'm have a rough time fixing (and I'm sure I will get around to, if I want to write anything post-season five) is Rodney and Jennifer being together. I'm not a hater; I just think that the relationship is not a good one for either of them. It makes me sad that after four years of growth, with a team that loves him for who he is, warts and all, Rodney is back to making a fool of himself and trying to please someone by changing himself around. I have a problem with handwaving it away, so I can't do the one-sentence sum-up of the breakup in passing thing, and while I can see an infinite variety of ways that they break up, I've never been particularly interested in one or another to put it down in words. Someday.
telesilla asked: What types of scenes (for example, dialog or sex scenes or whatever) do you find easiest to write? That's a tougher question than I thought. I like to think I have a good ear for dialog, so I should probably say that, but I usually write out the dialog and have to go back and add in attribution and description and blocking because all I did was write out the actual spoken words. (Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't write screenplays.) On the other hand, I don't have a hard time writing non-dialog, exactly, though in edits I usually have to go back and take out a certain amount of fluff. Sex is a mood thing; I can write the hell out of it when I'm in the mood, but can't touch it if I'm not. The only thing I have trouble writing, really, is that scene that's keeping me from getting to the next place in a story. If I am having a hell of a time with a scene, it's usually because I'm doing something wrong that I can't figure out. I've learned to put placeholders in (that took some doing, because I used to be a strictly linear writer) and come back to things that block me, because after I get moving, I can usually figure out what was wrong and fix it.
If you've actually made it this far, congratulations! And happy writing/reading/vidding/arting/whatever it is that you do. Go Team War!