Ask the author: zubeneschamali

[zubeneschamali]

Hi, I'm zubeneschamali! Or Z, or Zuben. I want to thank ash48 for inviting me here…it's a bit intimidating to be on the stage where so many awesome writers have been before, but I'll try my best!

I'm one of those people who's been in fandom for so long that I remember using up my monthly allotment of modem-delivered Internet hours in under two weeks doing nothing but

Comments

[deirdre_c]

First in with: HOW SO VERY, VERY AWESOME????

Also, I think you write some of the best pure action scenes in fandom. Anything in particular that helps you with those?

[zubeneschamali]

It's my special mirrored coating that reflects your awesomeness back at you. ;)

Thank you! I could blame all the TV I watched when I was a kid, LOL. I guess I try to think of the action scenes like a little mini-story, with a beginning, rising action, climax, and resolution. I try to keep in mind what the point of the scene is: the good guy getting in trouble, a change in the relationship between two characters, moving the story from one setting to another, etc. I think I'm better at describing action than emotion, which is good for action scenes but not so good for porn sometimes.

[cherie_morte]

HOW THE HELL DO YOU PACE YOURSELF LIKE YOU PACE YOURSELF PLEASE TELL ME BECAUSE I NEED TO KNOW.

This is something I often think whilst reading your fics, because they are always so action-packed and yet everything is so evenly distributed so you never get bored or feel overloaded, but it especially dickslapped me in the face when I was beta TWS and I realized at one point that all the books/chapters were pretty much the exact same length and so evenly dolled out and just HOW HOW DO YOU DO THAT because if I tried to do that it would have been a mess. SO JUST HOW?

ALSO WHY IS PALLADIUM NOT ON THIS LIST WHEN PALLADIUM IS THE GREATEST THING TO EVER?

Also also you should write Wincest, I don't think I'd ever realized I hadn't read Wincest by you (LOL, except the Winchester Identity/Supremacy because WE ALL KNOW WHAT EVERYONE'S FAVORITE CHARACTER, SAM, WAS UP TO WAY BACK, AM I RIGHT?)

[zubeneschamali]

So TWI/TWS is an exception, because I don't usually outline that much ahead of time. When I started writing TWI, I had some scenes way off in the future that I knew I wanted, like them getting together on the train. So it was a question of, how do I get from where they are now (gunman-hostage) to where they'll be then (sexytiems)? That gave me an idea of about how long the whole thing was going to be, and so I could block out the rest of it. For novel-length fics like those, the only way I can get through them is to break them down into little chunks of roughly equal size and work on one at a time (not necessarily in order). I might also be a little OCD about keeping chapters and books the same size for larger fics. It helps a lot with NaNo, too. "Today I write a third of Chapter 2, and then it will be done. Tomorrow I write half of Chapter 3. That's all, no big." It does mean that some things get squeezed out if I go over in one chapter, but it's the only way I can tackle something that big. (That's what Jensen said

[live_laugh_love]

I really enjoy two of your AU (Scav Hunt and Stand On Your Own Head). They are both really well plotted out, but the themes aren't run of the mill. Did you or do you have personal experience in these situations? I guess this is a round about way of me saying how much I enjoyed them. :)

[zubeneschamali]

Heh, funny you should ask that. Those are two of a handful of my fics that are, in fact, based on personal experience. Scav Hunt has a lot in common with my junior year of college (carrying a broadsword down the streets of Chicago was one of my most memorable college experiences), and I briefly had Jared's job in Boston, although thank goodness I never had to actually stand up at a public meeting, just watch my boss do it. I'm glad you liked them, since they're both very near and dear to me. :)

[essene]

I've got no questions. Just unabashed love for your fic (and the author behind them). You're so crazy talented.

*goes back to stalkinglurking*

[zubeneschamali]

*blush* Thank you so much! I know you've been reading my stuff for a long time, and I really appreciate it. :)

[harrigan]

Your J2AUs are so much better than a lot of the m/m professional novels I've come across. I almost hate to ask this, because I *like* having exciting and emotionally resonant fic available for free that has characters conveniently named Jensen and Jared so I can visualize them easily.

Nevertheless... I do wonder. Have you ever thought about [a] writing fic professionally, and [b] specifically, taking some of your J2AU and re-working them for publication?

[zubeneschamali]

Wow, thank you! I have certainly thought about it, yes. On the one hand, my day job already includes copious rejections of my written work, so subjecting myself to that for "fun" seems like a bad idea. I also feel like these stories are the way they are, and I'm not going to pull them apart and put them back together with other characters in the lead, if that makes sense. The only fic I could see doing that to would be Palladium, since I feel like it's missing some material towards the end that could make it a complete story. Besides, so much of my fic is a riff on existing canon (fairy tales, Indiana Jones, Jason Bourne, GoT, X-Men, etc.) that it would be hard to get it published anyway.

On the other hand, ever since first grade I've wanted to be a writer when I grow up. I have an original fic idea that I mean to do one of these years for NaNo, but there's always some more interesting J2 idea to work on instead. :) Maybe someday!