Once upon a time there was a little girl, who was beautiful, smart and witty, and was born to a happy, wealthy family. She grew up to find the perfect job, with plenty of time for fandom and lived happily ever after.
Since that's not me, I stick to being a lurker on the internet. I've moved more often than I can count on my fingers and am currently hoping to stay put for at least several years. Beyond that, life has become so busy in the last year or two I feel like I'm never caught up.
I hear voices!
More accurately, I create stories in my head. Always have. It wasn't until I found fandom that I realized that other people post their stories on the internet. I know, I'm pretty naive at times.
After a couple of years of reading other people's stories, I finally started writing mine down. Then with some encouragement from Victoria P., I went from notebooks to the internet.
I've been a Wolverine fangirl since before I knew what a fangirl was. The cartoon, comic books (when I could get my hands on them), you name it. It was only natural that I went to see the X-Men movie. I was so excited to finally see Wolverine on the big screen that I didn't catch much of anything else. Later on, when re-watching the movie, I saw the chemistry that Wolverine and Rogue had. There is just something about mismatched relationships that tug at my heart and make me sigh.
My favorite moments from the movies would have to be their first scenes together. From the first moment they meet in X1 to when she welcomes him back in X2, you can just tell that there is a connection.
I don't know if I have a particular moment from a story, since most of my stories are fairly short. Although I am fond of 'In the Kitchen' for how well it worked out over all. My favorite moment would have to be where Logan is running his finger nail across the skin of Rogue's knee, left bare by a hole in her jeans.
I have dabbled a little in the Ultimate X-Men comics and would have loved to be able to write in the Farscape fandom. However, I'm a procrastinator, which doesn't lend itself well to keeping up with canon that changes on a weekly/monthly basis.
Inspiration is a tricky thing. For me it can come from almost anywhere: books, tv, radio and sometimes even from an off hand comment. I think the trailer picture worked for me, because at the time I was desperate for anything X2. I think it's like the saying goes, "Desperation is the mother of invention", or at least it worked for me.
Logan, muscle car, back seat, after...oh, sorry. ;)
Oddly, though, probably the Professor. I believe it would be a great chance for an interesting conversation covering all nature of things.
Ideally, if I could bend the rules a little, I would want to be a passenger on a long road trip with Logan and Rogue. Observing the dynamics between those two would be priceless.
Usually, I work a story over in my head for a while before writing it down. And I do mean 'write it down'; everything goes into spiral bound notebooks, then typed onto the computer when I've run out of scribbling room. If I make an outline, the story is dead in the water, I'm unsure what it is about outlines and me. :)
After fiddling with it endlessly when entering it onto the computer, I send it out to three or four beta readers. Depending on what they think needs to be done, it is either a short correction process or occasionally leads to a bit of an overhaul. When the beta readers have given their final approval, I usually post to my livejournal, then to lists.
Roadblocks can be a deal breaker, especially if I only have the beginning of the story done and no end in sight. If it is a small gap in the story that has me stumped, putting it aside or working on another story can help. Later, I might be able to bridge the pieces together. A lot of times the good pieces might get cannibalized later for another story if I can't take it any further.
Are you kidding! I will have this beta read before I turn it in.
I can't for the life of me catch mistakes in my own writing. Mostly it's great to have someone else's opinion of how a story reads. After having reworked a story several times, a fresh pair of eyes can help find grammatical errors, changes in tense, spots that are muddled/unclear, characterizations that are off and gaps in the story that need to be filled in.
Beta readers are usually wonderful for helping me work through a 'roadblock' too. Yes, my beta readers are very busy and deserve much thanks and praise.
Happy ending girl all the way. I couldn't sustain angst to save my life. I've tried writing several angst fics, but they feel incomplete and I'm never satisfied with them. So I leave the angst to the experts.
Wolverine. I always fall for the tarnished hero with the rugged looks.
Rogue tends to be much more of a flexible character to write. Part of that has to do with her being rather young and not as set in her ways like Logan. She also 'borrows' some qualities of those residing in her head, which can give her a better understanding of a situation or leave her completely clueless.
It's usually easier for me to write Rogue. This is due to her flexibility that I mentioned in question twelve. I find it easier to write Logan in response to what someone else is already doing. In the end I guess that Rogue is the one that verbally communicates the story to me, she seems to be my default voice; whereas I really have to coax a verbal response from Logan, since his inclination runs more toward action than words.
Thanks for the compliment. I find manips easier to do than writing; my creative skills tend to be more visual. Most of my fanart came about because of the lack of W/R pictures being released for X2. My little shipper heart was not going to be happy until that was fixed.
I have not made any art work to go with my stories. My inspiration seems to always fall into one of two categories; visual or narrative. The two usually don't cross; I'm very simplistic that way.
That's a tough one. I try to stick to the movies for canon and usually refer to it first. However, sometimes a story needs something that can be best supplied by the novelization. Also since this is all based on the comics, it can be interesting to incorporate some of that as well. Basically, I'm open to reading/writing stories that I can recognize from any of these 'verses.
One scene that really sticks out has to do with Bobby being repulsed by Wolverine's "abilities" during the mansion raid. There is also another part in which Rogue is very accepting of those abilities as now being part of her. Ultimately, I would like to write a story where Rogue leaves Bobby because of the incompatibility of those two ideas.
Most of the challenges I take up deal with limited word counts. I have done a ton of drabbles, because I like trying to see if I can convey my message in very few words. Usually though, the challenges sneak up on me and spark interest from an idea I wouldn't have normally thought of.
What's not to love about the Buckle? It's big, it's oval and it's shiny. It does have a prominent role in both movies. Who hasn't put some thought into the Buckle and what secrets lie behind it. ;)
Love scenes can be difficult to write, always worrying about if all the body parts are where they are supposed to be or if you have thrown in one to many hands. No love scene should sound like a demented game of Twister.
Action scenes can be just as troublesome, unless I have a clear mental picture of what is happening. As for introspection, I tend to ramble on endlessly and get lost, causing more rewriting to get it back on track.
They all present their own unique problems. Yet I have found over time that I prefer to write the love scenes, making them a little more obtuse -focusing less on the specifics and more on the emotions/feelings that go with it. That and love scenes usually bring about the happy endings I like so much.
The kitchen is fun? :)
Seriously, most big discussions in my life have taken place in the kitchen or at the kitchen table. It seems to me, since people naturally congregate and socialize in the kitchen, that it is only inevitable that "things" happen there. Although, someone accused me of those two stories being all about Logan's beer.
Rogue's skin tends to be less of an issue in a story if I'm concentrating more on resolving a particular aspect of her relationship with Logan. In those cases skin may not be an issue at all and I'll probably use a tried and true method of dealing with it. However, it can be fun to let Logan work around her skin like he did for 'In the Kitchen'.
I'm terrible with titles, half of the time I solstice my betas for one. As a general rule, if I have a title for a story before it's finished, more than likely it won't be completed. Yeah, I'm that bad with titles.
Writing is my least favorite thing to do. What ends up on the paper rarely sounds as good as it did in my mind, the stories don't always seem to translate well.
Reading - please see question 9 about beta readers. Those same items that I don't like to find in my stories can turn me off of someone else's story as well. The more flawed a story is, mine or anyone's, the harder it is to follow.
There is one story I would like to quietly fade away. I wrote it very early on and looking back at it makes me cringe. It just feels immature and has too many gaps. And that's all I'm saying about that. :)
My beta said that I should add something about a story I like, and since she is such a wonderful person I will.
"Driving Lessons" tends to stick out as a favorite. It can be difficult to convey fun moments in writing and I think this one holds up well. Or at least it still makes me smile all this time later.
I have notebooks full of writing that needs to be completed and/or beta'd. In fact I never quit writing; real life has kept me busy instead. Hopefully, I can sit down long enough to get some waiting stories finished.