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Characterization
Plot
Inspiration
Personal Connection
Original Fiction
Dialogue
Fanart
Canon
Canon-Compliant
Canon-Divergent
Alternate Universe
Tropes




Alexa (she/her) Click to filter

Bee (she/her) Click to filter

Sara (she/her) Click to filter



Contents

11-2022_alexa

11-2022_Alexa-1
Lore: Can you please introduce yourself and give me an overview of your previous experience with writing fanfiction, including what fandoms you write for?
00:00:00:05
11-2022_Alexa-2
Alexa: Yeah. So I'm Alexa. I go by greywolfheir on most platforms. I began writing fanfiction in 2011, according to my Archive of Our Own account, and that first fanfiction was Harry Potter. And then, since then, I've written for a lot of fandoms [laughs]. I think more than the limit on the search, I guess, and the most I've made fanfic for is Good Omens.
00:00:09:05
Archive of Our Own
Harry Potter
Good Omens
11-2022_Alexa-3
Alexa: And then I made a Big Bang event with She-Ra where I got with other writers. And right now I'm working on Stranger Things fanfiction. So.
00:00:46:13
Fan Exchanges
Big Bang
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Stranger Things
11-2022_Alexa-4
Lore: And that is wonderful. Just for as a definition can you explain this She-Ra Big Bang project that you worked on a little bit more?
00:00:55:29
Fan Exchanges
Big Bang
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
11-2022_Alexa-5
Alexa: Yeah. So a Big Bang is where artists and authors come together. So authors write a fanfic. It's usually over 5,000 words, I think, but a lot of them can get up to like 20,000 words, or pretty big. And then art--artists draw art based on the fanfics that the authors come up with. And then there's Reverse Bangs where it's the art that inspires the writing. But yeah.
00:01:04:15
Fan Exchanges
Big Bang
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Fanart
11-2022_Alexa-6
Lore: That's great. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. My next question is: what inspires you to start writing a fanfiction?
00:01:35:21
11-2022_Alexa-7
Alexa: So usually what happens is I watch something or read something, and I get so obsessed with the--usually a character, but it could be anything. I get so obsessed with it, I can't stop thinking about it. And the way I do that is essentially word vomit [laughs]. So I just write out what I'm thinking of or write my own story. So yeah.
00:01:46:18
Inspiration
Characterization
11-2022_Alexa-8
Lore: And that is really great. So then where do you position most of the fanfiction you write in relation to canon?
00:02:10:17
11-2022_Alexa-9
Alexa: So I--my favorite thing to do is alternate universes where I just take the characters and set, put them in non-canon-related settings. But lately it's easier to put them in canon or like after canon, but I usually go for directly after canon. So like a direct sequel is usually what I try for.
00:02:20:24
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Canon-compliant
Continuation
11-2022_Alexa-10
Lore: So do you just do the direct sequel to like whatever season is currently out, or do you usually wait until the property is kind of wrapped up and over?
00:02:46:02
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Canon-compliant
Continuation
11-2022_Alexa-11
Alexa: Usually I think it's whatever season is coming out, but if it--it depends on usually wherever I start it or like wherever I finish, like, I can't--I end up not wanting to wait, so I write my own sequel.
00:02:56:20
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Canon-compliant
Continuation
11-2022_Alexa-12
Lore: That makes a lot of sense. I definitely do that, too. So my next question for you then is: why fanfiction? Why do you write these stories through fanfiction and not another platform or medium, like fanart, fan videos, or other types of fiction-writing?
00:03:13:23
11-2022_Alexa-13
Alexa: So I don't do art or videos because I am not the greatest visual artist. But I--I've been writing since elementary school, and--and that that was like original fiction that I wrote myself that--and then I got introduced in the--I got introduced to fanfiction in high school. And ever since then, I've just been writing fanfiction, and it--
00:03:30:18
Personal connection
Original fiction
Reality
11-2022_Alexa-14
Alexa: And I was also afraid of the publishing industry. So just being able to post it online immediately, it was, like, the biggest draw, I think.
00:03:57:28
Personal connection
Original fiction
Reality
11-2022_Alexa-15
Lore: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So my next question is then: when you are writing a fanfiction, what elements of your story or narrative do you consider the most? So examples of these elements could be the tense you choose, the descriptions you write, the narrators' perspective, the plot structure, the characterization, or so forth. Like what--which ones are you most actively keeping in your mind when you're writing fanfiction?
00:04:07:17
11-2022_Alexa-16
Alexa: So, okay, so I think I like characterization a lot, and I think if I can't get the characterization down, I won't write the fic, but plot is what I focus on the most. So yeah, I pretty much write everything around the plot, but if--but, like, to get started, it's characterization. Because if I don't--if I can't figure out how to write their voice, then I don't think, I don't even attempt the fic.
00:04:35:25
Characterization
Voice
11-2022_Alexa-17
Lore: That makes a lot of sense. Can you talk through a little bit how you do your plotting for your fics?
00:05:08:23
11-2022_Alexa-18
Alexa: Yeah. So, [laughs] okay, so I usually have an idea for like a scene that's in my head that I want to have written, and then I write, like, this, an out--I usually write an outline of how to get to that scene and how to get past the and how to resolve that scene. And then, yeah, I don't know, it's just kind of, that's my favorite part and it's kind of where like writing is like solving the puzzle of how to get to that scene.
00:05:16:28
Plot
Outlining
11-2022_Alexa-19
Lore: No, that makes a lot of sense. So then I'm curious of: how much of the story that you end up with do you have planned out in advance? So does your outline kind of cover everything or do you leave room for interpretation or, like, adjustments or changes?
00:05:51:19
Plot
Outlining
11-2022_Alexa-20
Alexa: Um, I leave a lot of room, but it's--it's pretty much all written out in advance or not, or the skeleton's written out in advance. So yeah, I'd say pretty much everything except for maybe the middle parts. I, like, add stuff here and there, but everything's pretty much planned out.
00:06:08:25
Plot
Outlining
11-2022_Alexa-21
Lore: Yeah, that makes sense. Would you be open to telling me a little bit more about how, like, what scenes you usually structure your fics around? Like, what scenes are the ones that stick in your mind that are, like, okay, I'm going to write a whole fanfic around that. How do you come up with those scenes? Are those scenes a response to the fandom or, like, the show or the movie?
00:06:30:03
11-2022_Alexa-22
Lore: Are those like based on fanart? Is there something that inspires those very specific scenes that you're like, I'm going to build a fanfic around this?
00:06:51:00
11-2022_Alexa-23
Alexa: Oh yeah. Well, usually it's the character dynamics. I like romance in general, which is also the big draw of fanfiction. So I usually write the scene where the characters, like, get together and, like, and that's the reason that I'm writing in the first place, is because that's my favorite part of like romance is, like, the characters finally getting together.
00:06:59:08
Inspiration
Characterization
Ships
11-2022_Alexa-24
Alexa: But yeah, and then sometimes fanart can inspire it. I actually, like, most of the time it's inspired by fanart if it's not directly at the show. So yeah.
00:07:26:06
Inspiration
Fanart
11-2022_Alexa-25
Lore: That makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much--and that actually leads really well into the next question, which is: what role do pre-established tropes have in your fanfictions?
00:07:38:10
Inspiration
11-2022_Alexa-26
Alexa: So [laughs] fanart and, like, pre-established tropes have--there, a lot of inspiration for what I like to write, but I usually end up going in the other directions or going on little tangents and getting focused on that one instead. So like they're the great inspiration, but I would say that they're not the biggest thing in my final product, I guess.
00:07:50:15
Inspiration
Fanart
Tropes
11-2022_Alexa-27
Alexa: They, like, when it comes time to, like, tag them on Archive of Our Own, I actually forget which ones are even in there. Like, I don't think about them at all when I'm writing.
00:08:19:19
Inspiration
Tropes
Archive of Our Own
11-2022_Alexa-28
Lore: That makes a lot of sense. Are there then specific ones that you find that you've actually written for a lot or are there--or do you find, like, your work kind of resists some of the other tropes that we see very common on Archive of Our Own?
00:08:33:16
Inspiration
Tropes
Archive of Our Own
11-2022_Alexa-29
Alexa: I mean not--there there aren't any I can think of that I do consistently. Yeah. The big ones like there's only one bed or like the fake relationship. Like, I don't usually end up writing those a lot. So--I don't know.
00:08:51:15
Inspiration
Tropes
Archive of Our Own
Only one bed
Fake relationship
11-2022_Alexa-30
Lore: Yeah--no, that makes a lot of sense. That helps a lot. [Recording stops, restarts.]
00:09:12:04
11-2022_Alexa-31
Lore: Alright, the next question is: while in the process of writing, when do you recall or think about the canon text?
00:09:15:28
Canon
11-2022_Alexa-32
Alexa: Um, okay. So it depends on--the story. So obviously that the characters are important, so like their voices and lines that they've said are what I focus on the most, but, like, birthdays and little things here and there are what I think about the most, I guess, you know.
00:09:23:11
Canon
Characterization
Voice
Dialogue
11-2022_Alexa-33
Lore: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So the next question is, then: have you ever written a multi-chapter fic?
00:09:46:09
Structure
Chapters
11-2022_Alexa-34
Alexa: Yes [digital echo].
00:09:54:12
Structure
Chapters
11-2022_Alexa-35
Lore: Okay. So then: how do you determine when one chapter or part ends and the next one should begin?
00:09:55:04
Structure
Chapters
11-2022_Alexa-36
Alexa: Um, that's, um, I--I don't have, like, a formal, like, way of figuring that out. So, um, basically it's just when the scene ends and it doesn't make sense for the next scene to be in the same chapter [laughs]. So, a lot of times I'll just--or like, it'll be a good ending to me, which I don't have a definition for that, but it'll be a good ending. And then I'm, like, okay, let's go onto the next chapter.
00:10:02:16
Structure
Chapters
11-2022_Alexa-37
Lore: That makes a lot of sense. Do you ever write chapters that have multiple scenes in them?
00:10:39:16
Structure
Chapters
11-2022_Alexa-38
Alexa: Yeah. Well, yeah. I think--there's not like a goal, like most people--I assume--have, like, goals for their chapters, but I just, like, I'll write a bunch of scenes and then--I think, like, occasionally it'll be like day one is chapter one and then day two is chapter two. But, if I struggle with endings, I guess, so if it feels like an ending, it's a new chapter.
00:10:45:29
Structure
Chapters
11-2022_Alexa-39
Lore: That makes a lot of sense. I definitely relate to that. Um, so then the next one is: how are the narratives you've told through your fanfiction stories relate to the story of your life?
00:11:12:14
11-2022_Alexa-40
Alexa: Um. Not at all. Um, I don't know. I--I guess fandom would be kind of an escape for me. I I like it re--being realistic, but I've never been great at writing what I know, which is kind of why I like fandom in general, because my life is boring and then canon is really interesting and I get to play around with different things that happen.
00:11:22:19
Personal Connection
Reality
Canon
11-2022_Alexa-41
Alexa: So I'd say the only thing is that writing romance so often makes me feel like I should be a romance expert and I'm not, so. Yeah.
00:11:49:13
Personal Connection
Reality
Ships
11-2022_Alexa-42
Lore: I definitely--I definitely get that. Yeah, I've definitely been there. [They laugh.] So then the last question that I have for you today is: what typically moves the plot forward in your fanfiction, like--yeah, I can, I can, I can explain the question in more detail if you'd like. But if not, then--
00:11:59:26
11-2022_Alexa-43
Alexa: --no, yeah. I mean, I get it. Okay. So most of the time when I'm writing a plot, it's just to--either it's just to get the characters together or it's a way for me to show people what is in my head. So again, like, it's nothing formal, but [laughs] to get the plot forward, it's kind of getting the characters to go where I want them to and for it to make sense.
00:12:20:00
Plot
Characterization
11-2022_Alexa-44
Alexa: So wherever I start them off, they have to end on that scene that I was imagining. And it's--it's what makes sense for the character. but also--how to make it interesting. Yeah, [laughs]. That's so vague [laughs]. I'm trying to think of what, like, actions they do, but usually it's--it's dialogue. I'm--I--I love dialogue, so it's however the conversation goes to get to where I wanted to go.
00:12:50:08
Plot
Characterization
Dialogue

11-2022_sara

11-2022_Sara-1

11-2022_Sara-2
Lore: Thank you so much for being here. Can you please introduce yourself and give me an overview of your previous experience with writing fanfiction, including which fandoms you write for.
00:00:00:00
11-2022_Sara-3
Sara: Yeah. So my name is Sara, and I use she/her pronouns, and I have a varied history in kind of reading and writing fanfiction. I've only really actively participated in two different fandoms until this point, kind of delved into a little bit of fanfiction here and there for other things, of course. But the two that I've written for specifically are currently the Stranger Things fandom and going all the way back to my early stages in 2012, which was One Direction, oddly enough.
00:00:09:08
Stranger Things
One Direction
11-2022_Sara-4
Sara: So I've kind of been in both the fandom side of a show versus the fandom side of something that's real and tangible in our reality. And I think it gives, it can give me a very interesting perspective on how I interact with fandom and fanfiction, especially in how I write it and what I like to write or like to read, so.
00:00:42:23
Stranger Things
One Direction
11-2022_Sara-5
Lore: Yeah, that makes, that makes a lot of sense. I can't wait to hear more about that.
00:01:01:16
11-2022_Sara-6
Sara: Yeah.
00:01:05:28
11-2022_Sara-7
Lore: So what inspires you to start writing a fanfiction?
00:01:06:12
11-2022_Sara-8
Sara: Honestly, like looking back at the things that I've written and what I'm currently writing, the thing that actually gets me going more often than not is music and themes from the show. So pretty much everything that I've written up to this point has been tied back to a song or an album or an artist in some way, shape or form, which, it makes sense.
00:01:12:07
Inspiration
Music
11-2022_Sara-9
Sara: Because my first fandom was for, that I wrote for, was One Direction, never wrote to actual One Direction songs. I wrote songs that kind of gave me the feeling or the emotion of, I connect this idea or this song to a character, and the idea kind of spawns from that, and I can kind of flush it out from there.
00:01:31:28
Inspiration
Music
One Direction
11-2022_Sara-10
Sara: A lot of times it was, I think one--one fic that I wrote, it was kind of, there was more of a one shot series. It was a one shot series based on a concept album from an artist where I would take the idea that was brought up within the song and then write a fanfiction, just one shot, like 3[000] to 5000 words, just based on the ideas of that song.
00:01:50:05
Inspiration
Music
One shot
11-2022_Sara-11
Sara: Usually something short and sweet and fluffy. But I, the thing that always got me started and interested was: I am emotionally pulled by this song or this music choice, and I need to write it out somehow. Even now, like I have a, like, I have two current works in the process, one of them is based for Stranger Things. One of them is based on just the idea of singing in general or kind of performing, one character performing for another.
00:02:12:12
Inspiration
Music
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-12
Sara: But then the other one that I'm working on is, it all has to do with songs that characters never got to hear and how we kind of celebrate those and collect those and remember people through--through music and that aspect. What is something that people like listening to and how do we keep their memory alive, kind of moving forward from there?
00:02:40:15
Inspiration
Music
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-13
Sara: So I think music is the thing that really kind of gets me going and connecting it to the characters in particular. And I don't know, it's, it's, it's the thing that inspires me more than anything else. Like, right now, all I have in my brain is to eventually write some sort of fanfic one shot to 'Santa Baby.' And I need it in my life.
00:03:01:15
Inspiration
Music
One shot
11-2022_Sara-14
Lore: Absolutely yes. I strongly support that. [Laughs.] So my next question for you is, where do you position most of your fanfiction in relation to canon?
00:03:22:06
11-2022_Sara-15
Sara: Oh, that is a really good question. So, these, because I exist primarily in two different fandoms, or at least I did, I'm not so active in One Direction fandom anymore, just because it's now ten years later, I am now in a much different brain space back then or than back then, but because they're two completely different ideas where one fandom existed based on real actual people and the other exists on fictional characters--
00:03:36:10
Canon
Stranger Things
One Direction
11-2022_Sara-16
Lore: --yeah--
00:04:04:27
11-2022_Sara-17
Sara: --they interact with them with canon very differently. When it came to One Direction fandom and the things that I wrote or the things that I read, it was almost always centered around alternate universes and alternate realities where the characters or the--the--the boys in the band that we wrote about, we use their kind of general character as a persona, as a character, kind of bending them a little bit in the original characters in an aspect, making the stereotypical coffee shop AU [alternate universe], doing, um, one's a teacher and one's the, one's the loving parent of a doting child or they're fellow teachers working in the same school. And so we fell in love with each other.
00:04:04:29
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-18
Sara: It was always: remove them from the current reality that they're in or move them out of the idea that they came together in a, in a boy band but still keep them in each other's lives and just create an alternate universe around them. The only canon part in that aspect is taking the parts of their personality that we saw--
00:04:45:12
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-19
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:05:04:03
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-20
Sara: --or that we saw within kind of the realm of media--
00:05:04:22
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-21
Lore: --yeah--
00:05:07:20
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-22
Sara: --and throwing that into the fanfiction itself to make them recognizable characters from, of the boys we knew and loved.
00:05:08:07
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-23
Sara: But I kind of did that more so as a practice to, like, not have such strong parasocial relationships with them.
00:05:16:16
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-24
Lore: Yeah.
00:05:25:24
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-25
Sara: Like I even knew that as like 17- or 18-year-old, as a 17- or 18-year-old who is only a year or two removed from the youngest member of the band--
00:05:26:05
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-26
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:05:33:15
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-27
Sara: --that these are still humans, like these are human beings with real lives and real wants and needs and desires that I don't know.
00:05:33:28
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-28
Sara: And I was so afraid to just project too much onto it, that try to, trying to insert too much into that reality--
00:05:40:17
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-29
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:05:47:25
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-30
Sara: that wasn't real and try to make them into a characterization of themselves that wasn't true. I wanted to give them that sense of, like, being a human versus being anything else. And if I were to either write or read fanfiction that was set in a universe where they are One Direction, they really are still a boy band,
00:05:48:11
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-31
Sara: but now I'm writing them as a character and kind of everything evolves from there. It felt kind of wrong to do so in that way. It felt like an invasion of their privacy that I, I wasn't particularly comfortable with. There, I think there's only one instance where I made that, I made an effort or [inaudible] effort where kind of broke that rule, and it was for one specific work of fanfiction.
00:06:06:28
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-32
Sara: I didn't write it. I read it.
00:06:30:16
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-33
Lore: Yeah.
00:06:32:04
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-34
Sara: It was worth reading it for, but I did it at one time and it was the only exception I ever had, kind of as a general other than random things that would pop up. But I more actively chose to say, you know what, we're going to remove myself from the canon of their reality--
00:06:32:14
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-35
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:06:45:17
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-36
Sara: --give me all the alternate universes, and let me kind of live out the idea of them as other people, as characters, rather than human--human beings.
00:06:46:07
Canon
One Direction
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-37
Lore: Yeah.
00:06:54:21
11-2022_Sara-38
Sara: Flipping to Stranger Things. Because Stranger Things is wrapped up entirely in a fictional universe--
00:06:55:04
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-39
Lore: --Uh-huh [affirmative]--
00:07:02:00
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-40
Sara: --I almost I almost exclusively stick within: how do I expand the canon?
00:07:02:20
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-41
Lore: Mm-hmm [affirmative].
00:07:09:09
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-42
Sara: And I think that's where a lot of, like with Stranger Things in particular, it kind of got this big fanfic boost over the summer.
00:07:10:09
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-43
Lore: Yeah.
00:07:16:08
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-44
Sara: Whether it was fanfiction or artistry, but the fandom just grew exponentially over the summer because there was so much potential from--
00:07:17:03
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-45
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:07:25:21
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-46
Sara: --what the writers of the show either did or didn't do, that we're just like, no, we need to keep certain characters alive, we need to expand on these storylines. We see so much opportunity for growth that just isn't happening on screen.
00:07:26:02
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-47
Sara: And we have this internal desire to expand on it. That's why I'm writing my fic of, like, what is life like after the--after the kind of season four, and especially with the speculation of season five possibly being several years into the future?
00:07:39:10
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-48
Lore: Yeah.
00:07:53:05
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-49
Sara: It's taking the time to expand on the canon and live within the realm of that and say, no, I see--I see what you've written here.
00:07:53:19
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-50
Sara: I want more. I want more. I don't necessarily want to throw these characters into an alternate universe because where kind of is the basis for who they've become up to this point? What's the basis for why certain characters are the way they are without being in the reality of the show itself?
00:08:02:18
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-51
Lore: Mm-hmm [affirmative].
00:08:21:05
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-compliant
11-2022_Sara-52
Sara: I still enjoy alternate universes, especially if they're done really well. Right now
00:08:21:27
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Steve Harrington
11-2022_Sara-53
Sara: I'm really enjoying most of the takes on either Spider-Man Steve or Punk Steve Harrington--
00:08:26:06
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Steve Harrington
11-2022_Sara-54
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:08:33:12
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Steve Harrington
11-2022_Sara-55
Sara: --because they've found, like, especially the really good ones, have found ways to say no, this this this could still very well be valid within the canon of the show because of all the science and magic and kind of everything that's been wrapped up within the show itself.
00:08:33:22
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Steve Harrington
11-2022_Sara-56
Sara: So and I kind of like the feelings of, like, the internal storylines behind the characters. And I guess that's the other reason, oddly enough, the other reason why I stick with almost canon expansion material with Stranger Things is because of the fact that it is kind of set in this alternate reality alone--
00:08:49:15
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-57
Lore: --Yeah--
00:09:08:19
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-58
Sara: --that to try and put them into alternate universes, it makes me think more directly of less of the character and more of the people behind the characters.
00:09:09:03
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-59
Sara: So that, weirdly enough, feels more like an invasion of the privacy of the actors behind each character to try to put them in an alternate universe--
00:09:20:15
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-60
Lore: --Yeah--
00:09:27:05
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-61
Sara: --because then I see them in those contexts instead, and I don't want to create that kind of parasocial relationship with them. They already have so much pressure on them as actors, and they grew, they kind of have, all of them have kind of grown up within the show and what the show has done for them,
00:09:27:17
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
11-2022_Sara-62
Sara: and it's created amazing careers for them, but I don't want to put pressure on them from like a fandom basis to say, you need to be these people, you need to be this, you need to do this, you need to be the fan service of whatever it is. And, like, the people I feel the most for, probably the person right now, is Joseph Quinn, because he just kind of went through the gamut of it, and especially since the pairing of Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington has grown so exponentially within the fandom base--
00:09:43:11
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
Steve Harrington
Eddie Munson
Steddie
11-2022_Sara-63
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:10:10:12
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
Steve Harrington
Eddie Munson
Steddie
11-2022_Sara-64
Sara: --that he has had so much focus put on him all at once,
00:10:11:01
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
Steve Harrington
Eddie Munson
Steddie
11-2022_Sara-65
Sara: and he's, people are expecting a lot from him when he's just an actor who's been working in the business and just ended up landing a really good role and doing it really well and everybody fell in love with him. And I'm doing my best to just see, continue to see the human behind him, and my way of doing that while still enjoying the fan base, still enjoying fanfiction
00:10:16:02
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
Steve Harrington
Eddie Munson
Steddie
11-2022_Sara-66
Sara: and the show is to just look at the character and expand on the character and love the character that he created and keep that character alive in his own way.
00:10:36:12
Canon
Stranger Things
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Parasocial relationships
Eddie Munson
11-2022_Sara-67
Sara: So yeah, I guess my my interaction with the canon of whatever fan base I'm in, it really depends on the context. If it's based on real life people, give me all the alternate universes in the world.
00:10:46:27
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Sara-68
Sara: But if it's based on, like, this fictional show, I just really like to expand on the canon. But, of course there are always--always exceptions. Like, I think, like, the one fanfiction I had for One Direction that I really loved. I didn't write it, but I loved it. I read it, made me cry, and then kind of very specific instances of alternate universes that still tie back to the canon, it within Stranger Things.
00:10:59:12
Canon
Canon-compliant
One Direction
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-69
Lore: Yeah. No, that makes a lot of [digital distortion] well, thank you for sharing. My next question for you then is: why fanfiction? Why do you write these stories through fanfiction and not another platform or medium like fanart, fan videos or other types of fiction-writing?
00:11:22:20
11-2022_Sara-70
Sara: Yeah. So I, the reason I kind of lean into fanfiction writing is a lot--it has a lot to do with the access to resources that I have. I am currently, I grew up and I'm currently located in a very small rural town in the central Midwest or in the kind of upper Midwest. Currently, I'm covered or surrounded by a lot of snow [laughs], but I grew up without access to internet in my home.
00:11:38:24
Personal connection
11-2022_Sara-71
Sara: So the thing I had, I didn't, I had a computer, but my computer was literally a Windows '95 up until I think I was about 15. And so I kind of look at myself through this lens of I am a millennial because of what I grew up with, but I also relate to Gen Z because I have, I [laughs] I rely on my phone a little bit too much for one person, and it's a little bit terrifying.
00:12:07:07
Personal connection
11-2022_Sara-72
Sara: But I stick to writing fanfiction because that was the thing that I had access to even before I really had access to a computer. I remember when I was little, I would just write stories in notebooks all over my house. I'd bring an old notebook with me all the time through school and just write down all these thoughts and ideas of storylines that I wanted to read or that I wanted to write
00:12:30:07
Personal connection
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-73
Sara: Cause I was an avid reader, I, and I wrote down all the things and, like, this, these are the things I want in my stories that I want to see in stories. And if I'm not finding them, I'm going to write them myself.
00:12:51:14
Personal connection
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-74
Lore: Mm-hmm [affirmative].
00:13:02:11
Personal connection
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-75
Sara: So when I finally did get access to the Internet in the lovely summer of 2011, I kind of fell into it headfirst and discovered this wonderful thing of fanfiction.
00:13:03:14
Personal connection
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-76
Sara: And it became kind of my first love in that aspect where I--it was the time where fanart was there, but I wasn't particularly pulled to it because I wasn't necessarily the artist. I was the artist through music. I grew up playing music all the time--
00:13:15:19
Personal connection
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-77
Lore: --Uh-huh [affirmative]--
00:13:30:16
Personal connection
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-78
Sara: --and loving music, and I grew up as the reader. And so I wasn't someone who is the artist that could draw well.
00:13:31:04
Personal connection
Inspiration
11-2022_Sara-79
Sara: And because I think all, even today, all of my figures are chicken scratch. So I'm not the best at kind of drawing things or doing anything along that. But that doesn't mean that I couldn't. It's just not something that I am drawn to doing myself. I love fanart, and I found a more recent love for it and how people expand on it these days, especially within Stranger Things and the upcoming,
00:13:37:20
Personal connection
Stranger Things
Fanart
11-2022_Sara-80
Sara: like, digital artists who are doing fantastic work, who kind of bring these ideas to life in other ways--
00:14:00:26
Fanart
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-81
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:14:07:26
Fanart
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-82
Sara: --that I [inaudible] can't like necessarily see right away--
00:14:08:25
Fanart
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-83
Lore: --Yeah--
00:14:11:26
Fanart
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-84
Sara: --if they're, I guess, this kind of an expansion on the last question, if there's a place where I self-indulge into alternate universes within, like, Stranger Things, it's going to be through fanart because it gives me a picture that I can look at rather than kind of like, diving into like a whole world of, like, writing it out and writing 10,000 plus words on something that is more so just an idea.
00:14:12:06
Fanart
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-85
Sara: I love fanart because it, fanart can do that in a very specific way that I--I know myself to be not the capable writer who can do it justice that way. I find comfort more in expanding on that canon and expanding on what exists within the realm of the show and just saying, you know what, we're going to just run with it that way.
00:14:38:17
Fanart
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-86
Lore: Yeah.
00:14:59:11
Fanart
Stranger Things
11-2022_Sara-87
Sara: And and kind of the same goes for fan edits and videos. I am not the most technologically savvy. That's where my kind of--grew up in the middle of nowhere with no resources aspect comes in. I, well, while I can probably force myself to edit a video, if someone were to, like, literally hold me hostage, it probably wouldn't be great.
00:15:00:07
Fan videos
11-2022_Sara-88
Sara: It would be there, but it would be the equivalent of probably what a seventh grader would make in middle school. It'd be fine. It'd be perfect for like a presentation. But is it something that I want to put out into the world and put out into a fan space knowing that it's possibly going to be this kind of heavy subject of critique?
00:15:23:24
Fan videos
11-2022_Sara-89
Sara: That scares me. Oddly enough, fanfiction itself doesn't scare me as much because I know myself to be a more capable writer, and even though I'm still kind of figuring out my space within fanfiction and writing and sharing words to the world, I am so much more comfortable sharing my thought process through words than I am trying to kind of create a visual representation of that artist or that art itself.
00:15:41:27
Fan videos
11-2022_Sara-90
Sara: So yeah, I fell in love with words, even from a young age, and it's always been there. And then just access to resources was the thing that said, you know what, we're going to stick with fanfiction, we're going to love fanfiction. And I think it's the easiest one to say, like, if I'm in public and I'm reading, people will ask me, "Oh, what are you doing?"
00:16:10:16
11-2022_Sara-91
Sara: "Oh, I'm just reading." And I might be reading fanfiction that would make your eyes roll back in your head. But I'm reading, I'm reading. It's fine.
00:16:26:29
11-2022_Sara-92
Lore: [Laughs] Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much for sharing. I feel very much the same way. [Laughs] So then, we're getting, we're past the 15-minute mark, so I'm going to go ahead--
00:16:35:05
11-2022_Sara-93
Sara: --Okay--
00:16:45:02
11-2022_Sara-94
Lore: --with that last question, which is: when you are writing a fanfiction, what elements of your story or narrative do you consider the most? So examples of such elements could be the tense that you're writing in, or the descriptions of the characters, or the narrative--the nar--
00:16:45:09
11-2022_Sara-95
Lore: Oh my goodness, the narrative--sorry, I'm having a moment—-narrators' perspective, whose POV it is, the plot structure, the characterization, like what--what narrative elements are kind of in your head while you're writing.
00:17:01:25
11-2022_Sara-96
Sara: Oh, the reader in me, I think, always goes back to: who is the narrator and what tense am I writing in?
00:17:18:02
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-97
Lore: Right.
00:17:26:01
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-98
Sara: The thing that will always take me out, like ruin my suspension of disbelief when I'm reading fanfiction or writing fanfiction, is a--is a either constantly shifting point of view or constantly shifting tense. Like, because for me, it, I'm perfectly fine with it, with like reading it and you have to start somewhere and you need practice to do so.
00:17:26:12
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-99
Sara: But I think the mark of really great writers across the board are people who can say or who can really stay consistent with--the, either their tense or who they're writing in, their perspective that they're doing. I'm perfectly fine with flipping back and forth between points of view within fanfiction if it's noted--
00:17:48:26
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-100
Lore: --Uh-huh [affirmative]--
00:18:08:12
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-101
Sara: --like saying this is, like, separated out and make it so like we know that this is the different narrator and there's a different voice that we're clearly writing in and we can tell this is a different person--
00:18:08:27
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-102
Lore: --Right--
00:18:19:04
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-103
Sara: --and I'm fine with kind of shifts in that.
00:18:20:04
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-104
Sara: But if, if it's kind of flip flopping back and forth, that's the thing that removes me from a fanfiction first.
00:18:21:28
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-105
Lore: Mm-hmm [affirmative].
00:18:29:02
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-106
Sara: And so when I'm writing, it's the thing that I am most wary about because I don't want that experience to--lend someone away from my work and my writing. Now, of course, I'm--I guess, I don't want it to seem like that, like an elitist thing to say.
00:18:29:20
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-107
Sara: And that's always my fear of, like, I'm such a stickler for grammar. I just want for this voice to be consistent, and I want the point of view to be consistent, and past tense, everything. But I think it, that it's something that takes work and it's something that takes practice. And I want people to celebrate just any kind of writing that they can do
00:18:45:29
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
Character
Voice
Point of view
11-2022_Sara-108
Sara: at the end of the day. For me and myself, I just, I lend to think of that because I'm so afraid of being judged in that similar way--
00:19:04:18
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-109
Lore: --Yeah--
00:19:11:29
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-110
Sara: --because I don't want this to be an unsafe space for other people. If anything, if nothing else, I think my penchant to say, you know what, I am so focused on, like, the tense of the story and the narrator point of view, everything else will fall into place.
00:19:12:09
Fundamental components
Narrator
Tense
11-2022_Sara-111
Sara: But I'm so focused on it because I want younger writers or newer writers who aren't as sure-footed in their writing style to be able to look at these more experienced writers and say, I want to write like them. I want to eventually get there. I want people to write in such a consistent voice that--
00:19:29:04
11-2022_Sara-112
Lore: --Yeah--
00:19:47:11
11-2022_Sara-113
Sara: --you know what, we're just going to celebrate and we're going to go with that.
00:19:47:16
11-2022_Sara-114
Sara: I want to be kind of that role model in that weird kind of fan--fandom way, where people look up to different writers and say, this is, this is an amazing style. Your work is so consistent and so beautifully well-done that you kind of lose yourself in the story and you're not falling. You're finding yourself on uneven footing with semantics of English and grammar and all that fun stuff.
00:19:50:16
11-2022_Sara-115
Sara: I'm all about characterization and I'm all about kind of everything else, but I focus on those two because--if the grammar falls, it can kind of fall apart a little bit easier. But that's more so my take. That's just my brain and kind of how I've, that's my perfectionism, I guess in my own way, coming through where I'm so focused on getting all the details right, I'm like, you know what?
00:20:17:01
Characterization
11-2022_Sara-116
Sara: Everything else will come into play. It also means I'm a slower writer [laughs]. I'm--I'm good with plot. I can write an outline like no other and I love it. But it's not the thing that I mainly work on. The main thing, the thing that trips me up is making sure that I have some semblance of consistency.
00:20:42:12
Plot
Outlining
11-2022_Sara-117
Lore: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
00:20:58:05

11-2022_bee

11-2022_Bee-1
Lore: Can you please introduce yourself and give me an overview of your previous experience with writing fanfiction, including which fandoms you write for?
00:00:00:00
11-2022_Bee-2
Bee: Okay, so I'm Bee, and I'm in my mid-30s. I started writing fanfiction when I was 16. I have written for a lot of fandoms, so I'm going to keep it briefer than the list [they laugh], the full list, because some are just like one or two things people made requests, but--
00:00:07:20
11-2022_Bee-3
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative], yeah--
00:00:24:26
11-2022_Bee-4
Bee: --Some of the big ones are X-Men the movies, X-Men: Evolution, Marvel Comics...
00:00:25:07
X-Men
Marvel
11-2022_Bee-5
Bee: I wrote a lot of NCIS and Star Trek, the 2019 reboot-y version. I've written some, more recently, for Bridgerton. I've written a lot for The Hunger Games. None of it's ever seen the light of day [laughs]. I've written quite a bit for Pride and Prejudice and The Vampire Diaries. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but those definitely are some of the ones I've written the most for.
00:00:33:27
NCIS
Star Trek
Bridgerton
The Hunger Games
Pride and Prejudice
The Vampire Diaries
11-2022_Bee-6
Bee: Yeah. And--and when I started, when I was 16, I--I started by reading fanfiction. I didn't even know it existed.
00:01:04:15
Personal connection
11-2022_Bee-7
Lore: Mm-hmm [affirmative].
00:01:11:19
Personal connection
11-2022_Bee-8
Bee: I think, before then, the internet was younger back then [they laugh]. I remember discovering fanfic.net [Fanfiction.net], and I was obsessed with Rogue and Gambit from the X-Men cartoon of my childhood, but also the comics, and I just wanted to consume everything about them.
00:01:12:13
Personal connection
X-Men
Rouge
Gambit
11-2022_Bee-9
Bee: And they were--I thought it was so interesting this, like, couple who couldn't touch, you know. She couldn't, that was her mutant power, she can't touch--
00:01:33:17
Personal connection
X-Men
Rouge
Gambit
11-2022_Bee-10
Lore: --Yeah--
00:01:41:20
Personal connection
X-Men
Rouge
Gambit
11-2022_Bee-11
Bee: --And so, how do you have this romantic, you know, connection where you can't touch each other? And it just felt like the ultimate, you know--unexpressed, you know, intimacy. And I just, I loved it all.
00:01:41:25
Personal connection
X-Men
Rouge
Gambit
11-2022_Bee-12
Bee: But part of what drew me there is at the time, you know, I was--I had undiagnosed depression, and so a lot of it was I really wanted to not be in my body, not be in my life, not be where I was living. And so it was a real way for me to escape all of that, to get out of the situation that, I had an alcoholic parent and their alcoholism was progressing and just to be away without leaving.
00:01:57:11
Personal connection
11-2022_Bee-13
Bee: And eventually after I read--I don't even know--hundreds of stories, thousands, who knows?
00:02:26:27
Personal connection
11-2022_Bee-14
Lore: [Laughs.]
00:02:31:18
Personal connection
11-2022_Bee-15
Bee: It was all I did in my free time when I wasn't, you know, cutting--I would cut class sometimes to read, like, fanfic. I mean, I was really obsessed. I was like, I think I could do this. I think I could do this, too. And I had ideas of things I wanted to see, you know, ways I wanted to see the characters progress and--and Gambit wasn't in the X-Men movies.
00:02:31:27
Personal connection
What if
Gambit
X-Men
Rouge
11-2022_Bee-16
Bee: So that's kind of, like, how would he come? And I had seen some introductions and and what would their relationship be like? And I think I absorbed a lot of, I don't think what I put out into the world was bringing anything new, but I [laughs], because I had absorbed a lot of stuff, but I really, yeah, I really enjoyed it.
00:02:56:02
Personal connection
What if
Gambit
X-Men
Rouge
11-2022_Bee-17
Bee: I just remembered another fandom I wrote a lot for was Harry Potter.
00:03:15:18
Personal connection
Harry Potter
11-2022_Bee-18
Lore: Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:03:19:15
Personal connection
Harry Potter
11-2022_Bee-19
Bee: So that's one I forgot. I didn't have my list in front of my face. But yeah, Harry Potter is another one. But yeah, it was really--it was really about, like, I think I can do this. And it brought me even, I felt, closer to the characters and further away from my real life, which was so deeply unhappy, unfortunately.
00:03:20:27
Personal connection
Harry Potter
11-2022_Bee-20
Lore: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Thank you for sharing that. My next question is then: what inspires you to start writing a fanfiction?
00:03:41:29
11-2022_Bee-21
Bee: Well, today I'm inspired a lot of the time by the actual characters. So today my life's a lot happier, thankfully [laughs], and I don't have as much time to write. Not, I mean, not even close, but a lot of times it's like, I think these characters are really cool. So I'll use Bridgerton as an example because I've been writing a lot of Bridgerton lately.
00:03:51:10
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
11-2022_Bee-22
Bee: I thought, Kate and Anthony are two of the characters--they were in the more recent season--and it's an enemies-to-lovers, which I think is a great trope. I think it would be terrible in my real life. It sounds awful to, like, constantly be fighting and just dislike someone and then, all of a sudden, you're like, wait, I want to fuck you.
00:04:13:10
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
11-2022_Bee-23
Bee: And it's just not, I don't think that sounds fun, but it's really fun to write [laughs]. And so--so when I had ideas, you know, it would be like, what if? So a lot of times their their book and the show is written in Regency era. So what if they were in modern times and X, Y, Z? And so one of the ones I wrote more recently was like, what if they had--
00:04:34:10
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
What if
11-2022_Bee-24
Bee: So in the book, they get married and then he has some kind of crisis because he doesn't want to love her and then they work it out. And so I was like, what if you took that into modern area, era? So maybe they're not married--because you don't have to marry someone in the modern era to sleep with them--but they have some kind of relationship, and he has that same crisis.
00:05:00:10
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
What if
11-2022_Bee-25
Bee: But, like, what if he didn't come back and they didn't work it out? And so I wrote it as a second chance romance, and I really enjoyed the idea because it was, like, in the book, they mature together--
00:05:21:21
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
What if
Second chance romance
11-2022_Bee-26
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:05:33:08
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
What if
11-2022_Bee-27
Bee: --but in the, in the evolution of thinking about these interesting characters and how they would evolve away from each other and could they come back together more evolved and be, you know, ready to have more honest conversations, and I--I thought it was really fun.
00:05:33:29
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
What if
11-2022_Bee-28
Bee: Another one, I love pets--and they have a dog--and I was really missing having a dog. And so I was just like, what if they were in the modern era and they needed to find a dog-sitter? Like, just, what [digital distortion] if these people who--in--in that one, they had, like, they were in a relationship, but it's, like, just because they don't change [digital distortion] their worldviews, so a lot of times those are the things.
00:05:53:02
Inspiration
Characterization
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
What if
11-2022_Bee-29
Bee: Sometimes, I used to do a lot of, like, prompts and stuff. So, like, when I was writing for the Star Trek--like, 2019 movie series one--they would do, you know, holiday exchanges that--for my favorite couples, and--and there was this where_no_woman's community on LiveJournal, where_no_woman, something like that. Anyway, it was, like, they would do prompts, you know, and--and I would write drabbles and all these things.
00:06:15:16
Inspiration
Prompts
Fan Exchanges
Livejournal
Drabbles
11-2022_Bee-30
Bee: And so I love prompts. In fact, that's some of what I write now, even for Bridgerton, is they'll do, like, Bridgerton Week or Kate and Anthony Week or Kate Week, and I'll write to the prompts or drop some clips of--of unfinished longer fics for the prompts because I--I enjoy that. I think it's really--a fun exercise to say, "oh, you have to include this thing" or "you have to think about it from this perspective."
00:06:44:05
Inspiration
Prompts
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
11-2022_Bee-31
Bee: It's how I ended up writing a Star Trek characters in a Harry Potter AU [alternate universe]. Like, somebody gave a prompt that was, like, I want you to write [laughs]--I remember being, like, oh my god, how though? And, so, it was really fun, and I actually really liked the story I ended up with. And yeah, it's, you know, another time I wrote the Star Trek characters in, like, a World War II AU because that was, like, another prompt.
00:07:08:17
Inspiration
Prompts
Star Trek
Harry Potter
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-32
Bee: So that's a lot of what inspired me as well. And sometimes it's also other things I read. So I have an unfinished story for Bridgerton that's kind of like taking those characters and putting them into a different romance novel I read. So it's like in that romance novel, the personalities of the two leads are very different. So like, what if I took these two and put them in that same situation and like how would they get to the end?
00:07:32:10
Inspiration
Prompts
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
What if
11-2022_Bee-33
Bee: So that's some of what really inspires me. And--and sometimes because--it's also, I realized, a little bit of a crutch for me because writing original fiction, it can be intimidating to try and think of my own characters and so--so sometimes I write a fanfiction, and then I'm like, okay, this is actually different enough from the source material that I think I can make this into something that is original.
00:07:58:03
Inspiration
Original fiction
11-2022_Bee-34
Bee: And I have done that several times and shared it. Not--not anything too deep, but just, like, showed my mom or showed friends because I don't show people my fanfiction that I know in real life [laughs], usually.
00:08:21:15
Inspiration
Original fiction
Reality
11-2022_Bee-35
Lore: Yeah. Yeah. Um, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I definitely share several of your, like, sources of inspiration, so I feel that a lot. So my next question is: where do you position most of your fanfiction in relation to canon?
00:08:34:24
11-2022_Bee-36
Bee: Ooh, that's a great question. [Digital distortion] Okay. So it has, it varies so much based on the source material [they laugh]. So, I mean, I am the kind of person who will--I'll write a, like, between the scenes, like I wrote a Law & Order fic once--
00:08:51:02
Canon
Law & Order
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
11-2022_Bee-37
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative], yeah--
00:09:09:23
Canon
Law & Order
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
11-2022_Bee-38
Bee: --that was like after the end of this episode. Like, I feel like there's more to say.
00:09:10:04
Canon
Law & Order
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
11-2022_Bee-39
Bee: And, so, I was just, like, these Law & Order characters, you know, having conversations about what happened in the episode, and--and it's probably the only Law & Order fic I ever wrote because it's so not my style to like--although, I--I guess I wrote a lot of [digital distortion] NCIS fiction, and a lot of--and almost, all the NCIS fiction was, like, between-the-scenes stuff--
00:09:14:14
Canon
Law & Order
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
NCIS
11-2022_Bee-40
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative], yeah--
00:09:35:04
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
NCIS
11-2022_Bee-41
Bee: It was because procedurals are very, like, plot-oriented and not usually character-growth-oriented. There are some exceptions, like Elementary, or the one with Nathan Fillion, Castle.
00:09:35:07
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
Elementary
Castle
Characterization
11-2022_Bee-42
Lore: Yeah.
00:09:47:18
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
Castle
Characterization
11-2022_Bee-43
Bee: Castle is also like that. That's, like, very character-oriented, but a [digital distortion] lot of them are like, oh, we have a case of the week and we're going to go solve it, and then maybe we have a personal conversation and you find out I'm getting a divorce randomly.
00:09:47:27
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
NCIS
Characterization
11-2022_Bee-44
Bee: You're like, oh, wait, how did we get here? Because that's actually what workplaces are like. You're not talking about your personal life all the time. And so--and so a lot of those were, like, between-the-scenes how do these characters interact? So I--I thought Abby Sciuto and Tim McGee were [a] great couple, and they were [digital distortion] a couple very briefly at the beginning, but then that died away.
00:09:57:20
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
NCIS
Characterization
Abby Sciuto
Timothy “Tim” McGee
11-2022_Bee-45
Bee: And I was like, what if it came back [laughs] and, like, had them... [digital distortion] I had written something that was, like, for one of the seasons much later on--I don't know, season seven, let's say--where it was like every episode, it was an interaction between them that you didn't see on the show--
00:10:21:14
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
NCIS
Characterization
Abby Sciuto
Timothy “Tim” McGee
11-2022_Bee-46
Lore: --Ooh--
00:10:37:07
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
NCIS
Characterization
Abby Sciuto
Timothy “Tim” McGee
11-2022_Bee-47
Bee: --and how, and what that would look like. Yeah, I think I made it, like, through, like, 14 episodes before I lost steam. And so things like that definitely are canon-oriented. There are--also have been a few times where I wrote something where it was like, I wonder what the character's inner thoughts were when this was happening. So for Bridgerton, there was one--there was a scene that was very reminiscent of...
00:10:37:19
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
NCIS
Characterization
Abby Sciuto
Timothy “Tim” McGee
Bridgerton
11-2022_Bee-48
Bee: It reminded me of a line from Pride and Prejudice, and so I just did some, like, internal monologue of the character of Kate during that scene. No added--nothing's changed, nothing--
00:11:00:21
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
Characterization
Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Pride and Prejudice
11-2022_Bee-49
Lore: --Yeah--
00:11:11:24
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
11-2022_Bee-50
Bee: --you know. So really canon-compliant, canon whatever.
00:11:11:29
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
11-2022_Bee-51
Lore: Yeah.
00:11:15:15
Canon
Canon-compliant
Missing scene
11-2022_Bee-52
Bee: Other times, as I mentioned, like doing a Harry Potter alternate universe with Star Trek characters is, like--
00:11:16:03
Canon
Canon-divergent
Harry Potter
Star Trek
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-53
Lore: --Uh-huh [affirmative]--
00:11:21:20
Canon
Canon-divergent
Harry Potter
Star Trek
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-54
Bee: --you know, we're in a different universe, for sure.
00:11:22:05
Canon
Canon-divergent
Harry Potter
Star Trek
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-55
Lore: Yeah--yeah.
00:11:25:28
Canon
Canon-divergent
Harry Potter
Star Trek
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-56
Bee: And there are times when I take things into an alternate place, but I try to still hit some beats.
00:11:26:18
Canon
Canon-divergent
Harry Potter
Star Trek
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-57
Lore: Mm-hmm [affirmative].
00:11:31:22
Canon
Canon-divergent
Harry Potter
Star Trek
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-58
Bee: So, like, with the example I gave about the second chance romance--
00:11:32:12
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Tropes
Second chance romance
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
11-2022_Bee-59
Lore: --Yeah--
00:11:37:03
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Tropes
Second chance romance
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
11-2022_Bee-60
Bee: --I still tried to hit some of the beats that happened in the book where it was like--
00:11:37:09
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Tropes
Second chance romance
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
11-2022_Bee-61
Lore: --Uh-huh [affirmative], yeah--
00:11:40:05
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Tropes
Second chance romance
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
11-2022_Bee-62
Bee: --you know, certain realizations that the characters needed to have or--or the--or yeah. Just and--and--and it varies widely, too. Like, I wrote a Hunger Games book where it was like I made one of the characters, a recovering alcoholic--
00:11:40:14
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Tropes
Second chance romance
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
The Hunger Games
11-2022_Bee-63
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:12:01:12
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-64
Bee: --not the one you would expect and [laughs]--Gale, just, not Haymitch--
00:12:02:02
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-65
Lore: --Yeah, interesting [laughs]--
00:12:07:21
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-66
Bee: --who would make a lot more sense because I was, like, the trauma that they experience--if they experienced it in our world today--
00:12:07:28
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-67
Lore: --Yeah--
00:12:15:13
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-68
Bee: --you'd have a lot more ways to be destructive, I think--
00:12:15:28
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-69
Lore: --Yeah--
00:12:18:26
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-70
Bee: --than they did in The Hunger Games universe.
00:12:19:03
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-71
Lore: Mm-hmm [affirmative].
00:12:21:16
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-72
Bee: And so--and I had written a lot [digital distortion] about it--it didn't hit any of the story beats--
00:12:22:04
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-73
Lore: --Yeah--
00:12:30:01
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-74
Bee: --because basically the entire story already had--would have--some version of it already happened--
00:12:30:08
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-75
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:12:34:24
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-76
Bee: --and this is afterward.
00:12:35:15
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-77
Lore: Yeah.
00:12:36:24
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-78
Bee: So whatever happened that was traumatic for them, I sort of hand-wave-y "they went to war," maybe? [Laughs] Like, you know, but it's, like, done, and so there's no--there's no story beats to hit, so it's all new stuff.
00:12:37:11
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-79
Lore: Yeah.
00:12:53:07
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Gale Hawthorne
Haymitch Abernathy
11-2022_Bee-80
Bee: And sometimes I like to write a lot about Madge from The Hunger Games, and she's not--she's hardly in it, so there's no story beats to hit, you know.
00:12:54:00
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Madge Undersee
11-2022_Bee-81
Lore: Yeah.
00:13:00:18
Canon
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
The Hunger Games
Madge Undersee
11-2022_Bee-82
Bee: Sometimes, I--I wrote a--a Star Trek: The Next Generation fic once that was--there was a character in one scene--
00:13:01:00
Canon
Canon-divergent
Star Trek
11-2022_Bee-83
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:13:06:23
Canon
Canon-divergent
Star Trek
11-2022_Bee-84
Bee: --in one episode. And I--a few episodes later, there is a episode in The Next Generation where the ship blows up over and over again [laughs]--
00:13:07:10
Canon
Canon-divergent
Star Trek
11-2022_Bee-85
Lore: --Yeah--
00:13:15:27
Canon
Canon-divergent
Star Trek
11-2022_Bee-86
Bee: --because they are stuck in a time loop. It's a great episode, one of my favorites, and I was like, what if this random character--who, you know, like, who we don't know anything about--like, what is her experience when that is happening?
00:13:16:01
Canon
Canon-divergent
Star Trek
11-2022_Bee-87
Lore: Yeah.
00:13:28:13
Canon
Canon-divergent
Star Trek
11-2022_Bee-88
Bee: Like she has to die over and over again. And like, what if she had some echoes of these memories? Like, how traumatic would that be? Like, they go through a lot of traumatic stuff [laughs]--
00:13:28:19
Canon
Canon-divergent
Star Trek
11-2022_Bee-89
Lore: --Yeah--
00:13:36:11
Canon
11-2022_Bee-90
Bee: --so it just varies widely. I try to, when I do write fiction, you know, I try to make it clear, like, okay, this is an alternate universe, this is canon-compliant, this is canon-related, like--
00:13:36:24
Canon
11-2022_Bee-91
Lore: --Yeah--
00:13:47:08
Canon
11-2022_Bee-92
Bee: --kind of make it clear so that people who are reading if--if they are reading, I mean, who even knows--will kind of have a sense of like, okay, this is what I'm getting into because some people really love, like, a stick-to-the-story and just to go deeper, like, you know. But that--usually at least one thing has to change, otherwise you're just writing the same book again.
00:13:47:23
Canon
11-2022_Bee-93
Lore: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I agree. 100%. Sounds good. Leading into our next question: when you are writing a fanfiction, what elements of your story or narrative do you consider the most? So, like, examples of the elements could be, like, the tense you choose, or the descriptions you're writing, the narrator--narrator's perspective that you pick to write from, the plot structure, the characterization, or so forth.
00:14:08:03
11-2022_Bee-94
Bee: Wow, I don't know that I put that much thought into it. I think if--the honest answer is [inaudible] that usually it starts with the idea of dialogue.
00:14:36:27
Dialogue
Characterization
Voice
11-2022_Bee-95
Lore: Oh! Yeah.
00:14:43:17
Dialogue
Characterization
Voice
11-2022_Bee-96
Bee: I really like character voice and character voices. And so a lot of times, it'll be like, oh, these characters are having a conversation in my mind--that makes me sound crazy [laughs].
00:14:44:01
Dialogue
Characterization
Voice
11-2022_Bee-97
Lore: Not at all.
00:14:53:12
Dialogue
Characterization
Voice
11-2022_Bee-98
Bee: I just mean that they are--I just think about a situation or, you know, and--or I'll see something and it'll--oh, I have a great example. So, I don't know if you've seen that graph of Leonardo DiCaprio and his girlfriends and their ages. There's like a chart on the internet, highly recommend you look it up if you haven't seen it--
00:14:54:11
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-99
Lore: --I have--
00:15:14:26
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-100
Bee: --and [laughs] just the world needs to know about it. And I was like, if Anthony Bridgerton existed today and, like, was a movie star, wouldn't that totally be him though? I mean, and--and so I was talking with a friend who's in the fandom--
00:15:15:25
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-101
Lore: --Yeah--
00:15:32:10
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-102
Bee: --and I was like, "I'm kind of obsessed with the idea of, like, him as, like, George Clooney and Kate as Amal" and, like, but they--but--unlike George and Amal, who seem to have, like, a pretty steady, normal relationship--it would be hitting the beats of the story in the sense that, like, she doesn't like him, he likes--you know, he maybe is interested in her. He makes a terrible first impression--
00:15:32:16
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-103
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative] , yeah--
00:15:57:22
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-104
Bee: --like the beats of the--I went with the TV story more--and kind of, like, making them, like, having them live these lives where they're [digital distortion] in these different careers.
00:15:58:06
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-105
Lore: Uh-huh [affirmative].
00:16:12:02
Plot
Bridgerton
Anthony Bridgerton
Kate Sharma/Sheffield
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
11-2022_Bee-106
Bee: So in that case, it was a bit more about the plot. It wasn't so much about the dialogue, but a lot of, like--when I was writing a lot of Star Trek fanfiction, a lot of it was I loved, like, James Kirk's voice. I thought it was so fun the way Chris Pine played him--
00:16:12:24
Plot
Dialogue
Star Trek
James “Jim” Kirk
11-2022_Bee-107
Lore: --Mm-hmm [affirmative]--
00:16:28:04
Star Trek
James “Jim” Kirk
11-2022_Bee-108
Bee: --and Dr. McCoy. Shoot, I'm blanking on the actor's name. But--he was great, Bones--
00:16:28:18
Star Trek
James “Jim” Kirk
11-2022_Bee-109
Lore: --Yeah--
00:16:35:07
Star Trek
Leonard “Bones” McCoy
11-2022_Bee-110
Bee: --Leonard McCoy. Anyway, he also, like, was just so grumpy all the time [laughs], and I loved their back and forth. And I remember I was bored on a plane, and I just spent--I wrote in a notebook for like four or five--six, ten, I don't know how many--pages of just dialogue where I was like, they're just having a conversation about nothing where, you know, he wants to do something, you know, Dr. McCoy is like, this is terrible, and--and maybe Spock is there just, like, watching them. And it was just so fun. It's a fun dynamic, but I--a lot of times when I'm writing, sometimes description comes easily, especially if I already have, like, a pretty full plot in mind.
00:16:35:16
Dialogue
Characterization
Voice
Star Trek
James “Jim” Kirk
Leonard “Bones” McCoy
Spock
11-2022_Bee-111
Bee: Sometimes I don't have any plot in mind. I just have, like, a prompt that's like, "World War II," and then I'm like, okay, let's see what happens. But a lot of times, as I'm writing, I might write some description, but I'll sometimes skip description and just go with dialogue and then go back and write the description afterwards about what they're doing, how they're moving--if it's pertinent. I mean, sometimes you don't need that. If the stuff's moving fast [Bee snaps twice], then you just keep it moving. But yeah, it was very--it's a lot of times, it's that--it's that conversation.
00:17:14:15
Prompt
Canon-divergent
Alternate universe
Dialogue
11-2022_Bee-112
Bee: I've been mulling went over for a fandom that I don't even think exists from, like, a romance novel that just made me cry and cry and cry. And it's called Day of the Duchess. I think my response was over-the-top, but I--for some reason--love these characters. And I was like, what if they didn't get married and then, but the--the rest of the things all stayed the same. Like, how would he win her back over? And I've been, like, a lot of what I think about when I think about these characters is--is their dialogue and the way and--and internal monologues and how they just could not understand each other.
00:17:44:23
Day of the Dutchess
Characterization
What if
Canon-divergent
Dialogue
11-2022_Bee-113
Bee: I can't get them even close to the finish line, so I haven't written anything down. But it's--it's been fun. I mean, that's what's fun for me is just imagining the conversations.
00:18:22:11
Inspiration
Dialogue