Ask the Author: dugindeep

[dugindeep]

First off, I want to thank britomart_is for asking me to do this. I'm very excited (I love talking about writing and characters and plotty things) and also thankful we could work things around our schedules.

Hi! I'm dugindeep, and as a little bit of background on me: I started writing fanfic in college during the heyday of the Backstreet Boys. It wasn't very good, and

Comments

[deirdre_c]

Hi, awesome author!! <333

So, question... When you get an idea for a fic, do you write it linearly (scene by scene) or jump around from end to middle and beginning and back?

[dugindeep]

Hi right back atcha! ♥

Thank you for the great question! I most definitely write linearly. The one time I tried jumping around, I lost motivation/interest because I had written all the 'fun' scenes but nothing connected them, and I gave up. So, it's in my head that it didn't work that time, and it might not work again (hah). Plus I'm not one to fully plan/map out a story, so a lot of things happen as I go. I like pulling those pieces along with me to include later on, too.

[mistyzeo]

excuse me, um, how is it that you're so great? how do you find time for that?

actually, adoring fake questions aside: how do you find time to write? what's your best/most productive/most reliable to get things done writing time?

[dugindeep]

I surround myself with other great people :-*

In the beginning, I wrote at work (meep) and on the train and at home, and pretty much was always trying to write something. These days, with work and life so busy, it's mostly at home (sometimes on my lunchbreak), in my big arm chair with the laptop desk. I have a new rule (that I don't always follow) that I don't write unless I'm excited about the story, and usually those times, it just flows and flows and flows. I also try to stick to one story at a time. I have like five WIPs that I would love to crank out, and I often think/daydream about, but I always make myself finish a story I've started before I start the next big one - little, random fics and memes are excluded from this rule ;-)

[mistyzeo]

What a great rule. Does that mean you sometimes go a few days without writing because you're not psyched about some scene or other, or do you try to power through?

[dugindeep]

Both, depending on how I feel. There were A LOT of days when I first started This Long Silence, that I was extremely excited for how it was going but also feeling like crap because I'd intended on a totally different story (of which I had 1300 words) for Big Bang. But I was feeling this other story, so I ran with it and didn;t look back at that other story (is it too early to say I want to do it for 2012 BB? :-)).

Along the way, I would be frustrated with it, but knew I wanted to power through because I was excited to finish it - even just for myself, because I really do like the story. Lately, I've been giving myself the pass for spn_meanttobe and just letting it come whenever I feel it, because it's much more lighthearted and I don't want to be angry at it and trying to force it, thus ruining the tone or characters.

[earthquakedream]

I have two questions for you!

One: Is there any story/verse you'd like to go back to and do it all over again, whether it's because you didn't like the way you turned out or because you loved working on it?

Two: Why are you so awesome, and how can one learn to be as awesome as you?

[dugindeep]

HI MEG!

1. I sometimes reread my college fic/verse and stare at it a little, because there are so many words for so little drama, but then I have to remind myself that was the point! LOL to just do something fun and a bit easy going, nice and easy. I sometimes have visions for doing an angsty sequel about them separating after college and how they survive (or don't), but I hate to tarnish the fun feel of the original story. I also have a total softspot for Why I'm Talking to You and like thinking of them all professional and domestic down the line, so those timestamps are always fun for me (especially since I usually work out work stresses through Jensen's job lol).

(oh and to ramble a lil more, I wish I could work out timestamps for the HS!reunion fic, or even Finding Out the Ways of This World, because I love how messed up and real those characters are, but I can never commit to anything)

2. I'm awesome because I'm old and have had time to practice ;-)

[earthquakedream]

1. I would LOVE an angsty sequel to the college fic. That'd be awesome. Or really, any story that involves a break up and trying to live without each other and either it works for both or doesn't work for both or maybe just one of them struggles to move on... (I love stories like that, I don't know if you can tell.)

I think my favorite thing is the way you keep all your characters' personalities intact through each timestamp. I would love to do timestamps to old fics but once I'm done with the story, I feel like I'm done with those characters. BASICALLY YOU'RE REALLY AWESOME.

Any timestamp to either of those verses would be my favorite thing because they are so wonderful. Especially HS!Reunion. I need to re-read Finding Out the Ways of This World, I really enjoyed it the first time around :D

You're not old, silly. My parents are old and their awesome is long gone. I don't think you've hit your peak yet!

[dugindeep]

I really love stories that don't go easy, too! (obvs, since that's mostly what I write) Every time I watch early SPN, I see the young guys bickering in the car and I start to daydream about what the college boys would angst about, but nothing ever fleshes out. Maybe I'll have to do a new college verse so I don't ruin those two ;-)

Aww thank you! Sometimes I worry about losing the characters' personalities or crossing them (I feel like train!Jensen is really close to ad-exec!Jensen, except he's always on a train and ten times more pissy hah!), but I'm glad you don't see it.

I love the idea of how either the HS!Reunion of Finding Out guys would try to make relationships work, IDK! But nothing ever really fleshes itself out. Maybe I will try now ;-)

[expectative]

What advices would you give for wannabe writers to get a good, solid story written? What are the mistakes you think writers should avoid at all cost?

[dugindeep]

I don't know that it's a mistake, but just my preference - I think sometimes pacing is off in stories. Either cutting off the ending too quickly, or rushing through some scenes that could be pivotal. Then again, I'm the one who can't write a story in less than 20k, so I might not be the best one to give that advice haha! Along those lines, I wish I knew how to be more concise with my storytelling, but a lot of times, I start to wander around the plot like it's a movie and stretch it out.

But one solid piece of advice I got in a media writing class in college, for establishing a character or plot pattern, is the rule of threes. Something has to happen three times to make the audience believe it's a fact. I try to do this a lot, escalating the 'fact' each time to build that foundation to solidify it as a pattern.

[kelleigh]

Besides writing things that you think are too long, what's your worst habit as a writer?

[dugindeep]

LOL Things that are too long ...

Along those lines, sometimes I use 10 words to say something that could be said in 5, especially in detailing HOW people say something or HOW they move. I think of the scenes very visually and not in terms of how I would describe it, which is likely my major downfall.