Nine questions with A_Diamond

This week: @alxdiamond talks inner worlds; juggling Big Bangs and how being part of a community can help you write fanfic.

ASS: What do you most enjoy about writing fanfiction?

A_Diamond: Having a guaranteed and (almost universally) supportive audience. It’s a lot easier to get feedback, both positive flailing and constructive criticism, when you’re breaking into a pre-made fandom that’s eager for stories about their favorite characters than if you’re posting original fiction. Even as a new, unknown author in an active fandom, someone’s probably going read your fic.

It’s gratifying as an author to have other people in the world enjoying the things you create. The general advice is “write for yourself,” and that’s true to a certain degree, but I don’t think anyone would put forth the time and effort of perfecting a story if they didn’t also feel the need to share it. There are plenty of stories, ideas, and characters that live in my head (some for over a decade now) who are just for me and don’t feel the need to be shared. But when you have to get a story out, you want it to be meaningful to other people, too.

Plus, it’s a lot easier to grow and improve when you have feedback on your work, especially from multiple perspectives.

What aspects of writing do you find difficult when you write fanfiction?

Internal stuff: monologues, thoughts, reactions, that sort of thing. I have trouble getting those to feel right in the narrative to begin with, and then there’s the added pressure of making sure it’s right for the character. People have different interpretations of their favorite characters, so everyone’ll always have an opinion on whether something is in character, slightly weird, or wildly OOC, but I’ve always found it harder to keep the inner stuff consistent than outer stuff, like dialogue and actions. You have reference points for those, but not as much for inside the characters’ heads.

Also, realistic sex scenes between two people with penises. I don’t have one and have no personal experience with them, and I don’t have any particular desire to change that, sooooooooo. But I’ve learned I’m not even remotely alone in the lesbian-writing-m/m-fiction scene, so that’s reassuring.

Have you ever received hateful comments on your fic and how do you deal with it?

If I ever received any kind of personal hate on a fic, it was fifteen years ago when I was in my first round of fandom/fanfic writing and I don’t remember it at all. I was immature and argumentative, so I probably would have been hateful right back. I’m sure if it happened, it didn’t end well.

Since I’ve gotten back into posting things, there hasn’t been anything too notable. There’s one guest commenter in particular who’s found a couple of my fics and used them to go off on homophobic rants, but that’s not really about me or my writing; I assume they do that to everyone. I just delete those, because I don’t want to have to see it and I don’t want any readers who might be looking through the comments to have to see it.

Conversely: what’s been some of your favorite feedback on your fanfic?

There are two categories of feedback I love.

The first is people telling me I made them cry, because I’m a bit of a bastard like that. I don’t only read or write angsty things, but I’ll admit it’s my favorite thing to do. So a lot of the time I’m trying to break hearts, and being told I’ve succeeded makes me very happy. I’ve been told by my wife that I have a particular smile that only appears when I’m either reading reviews on sad scenes/fics or being an asshole to my RL friends. She actually made me a meme of it after my response to a review recently.

The second is getting feedback from authors I admire. I write fanfiction, so it’s probably not a huge surprise that I’m prone to a bit of fangirling over my favorite authors. Having one of them leave a kudo or a comment is fantastic, because here’s a person who’s really great at this thing I’m doing, and they thought my work was good.

How do you handle writer’s block?

Badly.

I’m a painfully slow writer at all but the very best of times, and if I’m stuck I have a really hard time powering past it. I’m much better at moving on to something else, because I’m never short on ideas. As you can imagine, this leads to a lot of incomplete stories—mostly sitting on my Google drive, but a few published.

I’ve found that for me, it helps to have a deadline. Not just something I set for myself, but one that other people are relying on. Big/minibangs, fic exchanges, etc. have been helpful, because they give me that external pressure to get things done that I just don’t have the discipline to do alone.

On a smaller scale, if I’m stuck on a particular scene or sentence, I’ll take a break and play a mindless game or do some work around the house, something that lets me keep thinking about what I want to write without the pressure of the story being open right there in front of me.

Which Supernatural fanfic of yours are you most proud of and why?

Of the things that are completed and posted, probably Deluge. Not only is it my longest finished fic so far, it’s also my most successful on a personal level. It’s not necessarily the most interesting of my plots, though it’s up there, but it’s the first time I was really satisfied that I got all the points of my plot across. Everything I wanted to include got addressed, I was happy with the prose and dialogue without getting too wrapped up in it, and it felt like a complete telling of the story from beginning to end.

What/who has had the biggest influence on your writing?

One big influence has been reading other authors, both in the fanfiction and original fiction worlds. Seeing how other people tell their stories, trying out styles to see what works for me, taking note of what I like and what I don’t like. There are too many to name, and to be honest I’d feel a little awkward calling them out?

The other, possibly even bigger, has been getting more actively involved in the fandom community—and I’m still much more of a lurker than a participant, most days. But finding /r/fandomnatural a few years ago was amazing for me and my writing. It’s where I found all the people who’ve betad and cheerleaded me through my finished fics, where I first found out about big bangs and bingo challenges, and where I met the people who eventually talked me into trying out tumblr and twitter and meeting new fandom friends there.

I’ve been writing my whole life, but I was always very shy about sharing it with people. Having a community where people are not just open, but actually excited to read your work and offer feedback on it has made me much more comfortable and confident.

What are you currently working on?

Way too many things. I signed up for a lot of challenges because of my aforementioned need for deadlines, so right now I’m juggling the Dean/Cas Tropefest, the SPN Horror Minibang, and a weekly drabble prompt for another fandom. I may possibly have signed up for the first SPN Flash Bang? And I definitely just signed up for the Dean/Cas Pinefest, because I’m weak for pining. Lurking in the wings are the Wayward Daughters Femslash big bang (I’m doing a minibang), the AU big bang, a movie fusion for another fandom (Reel Merlin), and a couple of bingo cards.

I also have a bang-style challenge of my own brewing, which will open for sign-ups in January.

If you could give one piece of advice to a new and/or struggling writer, what would it be?

Don’t take any of it too seriously. Have fun, write the things you need to write, and don’t worry about getting everything perfect. Just get it out. It’s okay to look back at things you’ve written and find flaws, because that’s how you know what to work on. It’s also okay to look back and let your own fics make you laugh or cry. In fact, I recommend it!

Here be awesome…

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AO3: A_Diamond