Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Pilar

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Pilar
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Pilar
Date(s):	July 12, 2001
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Dawson's Creek, slash
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Pilar was posted in 2001.

It is part of a series of interviews posted to Citizens Against Bad Slash in which fans were each asked the same ten questions.

Some Excerpts

For me, the easiest stories come right out of canon or manipulations on canon. When I'm least motivated to actually write, but *really* want to, I tend to start with post-episodic type stories that take the episode to the next level, explain or fix something that TPTB left out (since they just LOVE to leave us hanging, especially when it comes to subtext-y things and whatnot,) or simply take on one character's POV of the ep. When I have trouble coming up with ideas, I look harder. There's always *something* that can be found from watching the show that can spur on little ideas that you can expand on exponentially. When I'm having problems writing at all, I try to run little, cheesy exercises that sometimes have helped a great deal. I've been known to take personality tests for characters at emodes.com and quizbox.com. Sometimes, a story can come from something as simple as a photo or piece of good fan art. I look as many places as I possibly can.

So many things can turn me off completely just starting with the story headers. The code 'AU' is a bit of a turn off, depending on the fandom and the writer (of course,) sometimes, the pairing -- although, if I already know the writer's work or the story has been recced to me from a good source that I trust, I'll read any pairing or character POV. And when someone threatens to stop writing if (s)he doesn't get the requisite feedback, that fic usually gets the delete key. Whoring is one thing, but a lady should *never* beg. And no matter WHAT 'PWP' stands for, nowhere in there does it say that characterization and canon mean NOTHING. If I can't recognize the characters, I am so outta there. I think characterization is my biggest pet peeve, really. I've watched DC from the pilot and feel like I *know* Pacey, if he is not the Pacey that I KNOW and there are no explanations for the tremendous changes in him, then he's basically Pacey Sue or something the author wants him to be that he just isn't. Good characterization that takes the character to the next level and shows me how he gets there... that turns me on.

I think the most common mistake is beating the shit out of one character simply to get another two together. I am no Dawson fan by any stretch and I've definitely used him a time or two to get him out of the way, but I hope that I've kept him in character while I did it. I've read far too many fics where he's all but a homicidal maniac simply because the author likes Pacey better.

The uber-exaggerations are also a common problem. Flamer!Jack, FagHag!Jen, Psycho!!!!Andie, Bitch!Joey, etc... it gets tedious as all hell. There's also Wounded!Pacey who turns to Jack because Joey has broken his heart into teeny, little pieces... Ugh.

There's also this weird tendency in DC fandom to give the characters the same future jobs... it's really odd to me. Jen is the gallery owner/manager or some crap, Joey is almost always either in advertising or a lawyer and Pacey either works in a hospital or as a social worker... I guess it's fanon, but it's irksome to me.

I used to read absolutely EVERYTHING that came out, there was hardly enough hours in the day to read the things that I would print out and take on the train home from work. These days, I'm a world pickier there's just too much badness out there. So yeah, I read my friends first and foremost and the stuff that's rec'd to me highly by someone I trust. I wish there was more and better fic coming out... every once in a great while though, I get surprised and read something great. I love that. And it makes me send long, gushy feedbacks.

I used to be extremely proud of DC fandom, now I kinda wish it would fade back a little -- like, maybe less is more these days. There's just so much schmoopy, mediocre fic coming out and everything is been there done that. There's no way that ALL ideas have been exhausted, so why are so many damn stories the freakin' same? Of course, that doesn't mean I'm looking for some AU-type ideas to start coming... strangely DC isn't as inundated by the AU of doom yet. Yet. ... I'm nostalgic for the days when there was tons of excellent DC fic coming out, I really am. And I'm hoping that *maybe* the show will get better next season and there will be a few more b-team characters to exploit and slash to our hearts content and then *maybe* we'll get back to those times... When a show gets as mediocre as DC has in the last couple of seasons (even though it hasn't been across the board, thankfully,) it's entirely understandable that the fandom would suffer a bit. But I'd love to think it could be fun again and I'd LOVE to get back my PaceyMuse.