Thirty Days - Day Nine

Day 9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

In the Thundercats fandom, my favorite pairing has always been Alluro/Chilla. It's not exactly a romantic and fluffy relationship, being between two of the Lunatacs, but I like the dynamic, and it's fun. Second would be Bengali/Pumyra. They just seem like a natural fit to me and a good balance to each other's personalities. Third, I'd have to say is a pairing that involves an OC: Panthro/Snoelle. I think Panthro doesn't get enough love in the fandom in general, and I enjoy exploring that other side to him. I pair him with an OC because I don't really see any chemistry with him and any of the other canon characters.

For Voltron, I write a lot of Lotor/Allura. I like that pairing and the dynamic of it. I have a thing for bad guy/good girl pairings, but not with the usual cliche of happily ever after where the bad guy reforms and becomes a romantic hero. No, I enjoy exploring how those two would actually work after the initial get-together and manage to stay together despite their massively differing outlooks on life. (And the drama it causes as it happens.) Another favorite pairing of mine involves an OC and Yurak, but I can't really talk about it because it hasn't appeared in the storyline yet as far as what's been posted. For the third slot, I think it would be Lotor/Cossack. It's cracky, but it's a guilty pleasure. You can thank my These Boots are Made for Knockin' fic for that.

For Darkwing Duck, two out of the three are easy. Bushroot/Liquidator and Bushroot/Rhoda. In case it's not evident, yes, I'm a multi-shipper. I can't think of a third pairing that I like writing anywhere near as much as I do Bushroot/Liquidator or Bushroot/Rhoda. While I've enjoyed writing other pairings, none stand out like those two.

Thirty Days - Day Eight

Day 8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they’re not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Yes. I have OCs in almost all of the longer storylines in the fandoms I've written in. I also can't stand Mary Sues, so I try very hard to avoid that kind of cliched and annoying writing.

The best way I've found to avoid the Mary Sue trap is to make sure your character really belongs in the story you're trying to tell, and doesn't make the other characters in it act out of character. OOC writing is my number one peeve in fanfiction, and it's the reason I dislike Mary Sues as much as I do. I don't mind OCs with Sue-like traits as long as the story itself doesn't warp itself into something that seems to exist just to glorify the Sue, or insult the canon characters by making them take second place or act unlike themselves.

I strive very hard to keep the characters I write in character, and to keep the general feel of the universe intact. Even if it's more mature, it should still feel like the same canon at heart, and the characters should sound like themselves, even if they're in situations they might not have been in canon. I also think it's important for an OC's personality to add something new to the story and for their role to bring something to it other than the author just wanting to be part of the universe in some way.

This is not to say I've never written a Mary Sue. Oh, I have. Before I was aware of the concept, I knew I did not like certain types of stories or characters, even though that didn't really stop me from doing it myself. Naively and arrogantly, I thought my characters were just cooler than those annoying ones I didn't like. When I learned what a Mary Sue was, I was embarrassed.

The first incarnations of my Thundercats fanfiction (the versions of Revival and Path Into the Darkness that I posted back in 1999) had some pretty awful examples of Mary Sue/Gary Stu in them. In subsequent rewrites, I've refined and toned it down a lot, and now I'm happy with Selene, Psiarik, and Snoelle as they are. They still have some core traits that make them borderline, but I no longer over-emphasize their importance and I've balanced their personalities and given them some flaws that weren't as evident in the narration back then.

By the time I started writing Voltron and Darkwing Duck, I'd been aware of the pitfalls of Mary Sue writing for years, so it's been easier to avoid that trap.

Thirty Days - Day Seven

Day 7 – Have you ever had a story change your opinion of a character?

I can't say I've had that happen with a story. I have had it happen with roleplaying, though, which is an ongoing form of storytelling. For a long time, when I was in the Thundercats fandom, I disliked the character of Snarfer. He was too over-the-top cutesy to the point of being annoying, and since I was also a fan of the villains on that show, it really annoyed me whenever Snarf or Snarfer would defeat the bad guy.

Then, when I was modding a Thundercats play-by-email RPG, we had trouble finding someone to fill Snarfer's role. We needed him for some stories that were ongoing, so I took him over. To my surprise, the more I played him, the more he grew on me. I became fond of the little fuzzball. I still wouldn't say he's one of my favorite characters, but I do like him now.

As far as reading stories goes, there have been times that I looked at a character in a new light after reading a good fanfiction about them. The best example of this I can think of is in Purrsia's Vehicle Voltron fanfiction. While I prefer Lion Voltron to Vehicle Voltron, the Drule culture in VV does intrigue me. When I read how she wove it into her universe, I began to really like some of the Drule characters. Twila, Nerok, and Throk, especially.

Thirty Days - Day Six

Day 6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

Short answer: I don't have a preference. I've been writing long enough that it's not difficult for me to slip into the mind of a character of either gender to write them.

Longer answer: In the past, I tended towards roleplaying male characters, despite being female myself. In my stories, genders have always been pretty well balanced. Sometimes it feels more challenging to keep a female character from veering toward Mary Sue cliches, though, and I think in the past, when I was less confident about myself, I drifted toward the male characters so no one would think I was projecting myself or playing out a fantasy. This was especially the case back when I was active in Thundercats fandom about ten years ago, and ran into too-many-for-my-comfort-zone people who assumed that fiction/roleplay = real life, and my willingness to RP or write explicit sex meant that I was writing my sex life or fantasies on the internet.

As time passed, I got over that, and now I'm just as comfortable writing from either point of view. (It also helps that I don't give creepy people the opportunity to talk to me and squick me out anymore. I only chat in real time with people I've gotten to know in online communities I frequent.)

At first glance, it seems that males dominate the top slots of favorite characters of mine, but it's not really a gender thing. I like a lot of female characters as well. Cheetara, Merla, Haggar, Romelle, and Larmina are all canon female characters I enjoy writing. In the DWD fandom, I roleplayed Sarah Bellum and Loopy McQuack for some time and had a blast, and I also enjoy writing Rhoda Dendron as well. Sometimes I worry that people may think I project through Rhoda or Sarah, being that they're both scientists and I worked as one for many years, but then I tell my paranoia to shut up and say I just find them easier to identify with, much like I do Bushroot, because of that common background.

When it comes to OCs I've put a lot of time and energy into, I've got a good balance of both male and female, so I don't think there's a bias there, either.

Thirty Days - Day Five

Day 5 – If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a story, whether your “muse” or not, what did you do about it?

Oh, yes. That just happened recently, when I was writing my NaNoWriMo 2011 Voltron story. Most of the action on this story took place on Arus, so the Doomites didn't get as much screen time as usual. The voice of Cossack in my mind was quite put off by this. He only quieted down when he got a scene later in the story. It worked for the plot of the story arc as a whole, so it's all good, but boy, was he annoying and insistent before that.

There have been times in all the fandoms I've written in when it seemed like certain characters really wanted a role in a given story. However, as a rule I try not to cave into writing it unless it makes sense to do so.

Thirty Days - Day Four

Day 4 – Do you have a “muse” character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the story isn’t about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

Not really. This is one thing common among fanfiction writers that I've never experienced, at least not in the way I think most people mean. There are characters that inspire me more than others, but none who really tell me what to write.

That said, certain characters have a very strong voice in my mind (no, it's really not as crazy as it sounds!) and won't be shy about "voicing" their opinions to me as I'm writing. When I write Voltron, Cossack sounds off like a mini MST-er in my head about stuff. With DWD, Bushroot is there, but he's quieter. Mostly I find myself thinking things like, "Sorry, Bushy, I know you're not going to like this!" or "Oh, he's going to love this!" when I write things I know the character would feel strongly about.

Also, while I wouldn't call any character my muse, certain characters do inspire me a lot more than others. Those would be my favorites: Bushroot, Cossack, Yurak, the Lunatacs, etc. It may seem odd that for someone who has a number of OCs in her fanfiction that I haven't mentioned them. Occasionally an OC will speak up or try to grab some spotlight, but not as often as the aforementioned characters. Of these, Eddie Flood is the worst offender, and my royal Lunatacs from my Thundercats storyline, and Cassri and Tadran from my Voltron stories have also done it a time or two.

As for why those characters influence me, it's because I like them so much. I give them a lot of mental energy, so they give it back... whether I like it or not.

Thirty Days - Day Three

Day 3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

For Thundercats, it's the Lunatacs. They're my favorite characters on the show, and I enjoy writing all of them, and the interplay between them. If I had to pick an absolute favorite, it would be Alluro, but Chilla and Luna would make close seconds.

For Voltron, Cossack and Yurak are my favorite characters to write. Zarkon and Haggar are up there, too, because their wit lends them to a lot of fun dialogue. I have the most fun with Cossack, though, and Yurak interacting with Cossack. They never interacted in the show (Yurak was killed off before Cossack was introduced), but in my head canon, they have, and I love making them play off of each other.

When it comes to the Darkwing Duck fandom, Bushroot is my favorite character to write. That's no surprise if you've read my stories, or noticed who my default choice for roleplaying in that fandom is. I find it easy to slip into his head, so to speak, and feel like I understand him pretty well, flaws and all.

Of the crossover fandoms I mentioned, the only one I think is worthy of an answer here is Forever Knight, since the other fics that I did crossovers for are old, short, and in the case of the Ghostbusters and Jem ones, never got very far. Strangers in the Knight and its sequel The Cure (which really needs a rewrite like Strangers in the Knight got a few years back!) had a much richer storyline than the others. My favorite FK character to write of the three that were in the crossover was LaCroix. He's got the whole distinguished sarcasm thing going on that Zarkon does, and I loved writing the sniping between LaCroix and Mumm-Ra.