All About Spike Interview with wiseacresss

Interviews by Fans
Title:	All About Spike Interview with wiseacresss
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	wiseacresss
Date(s):	between 2002-2006
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Angel and Buffy
External Links:	full interview is here, Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

wiseacresss was interviewed for All About Spike.

Series

For other interviews in this series, see All About Spike Interview Series.

Some Excerpts

My ex and I broke up, and I knew I had to do something positive to deal with the situation, so I started drinking and reading Internet porn. And somehow I stumbled over BtVS stuff, and I'd seen the show a couple of times, found it funny and smart and entertaining, and figured it was something I could probably do.

[Fanfic's] a lot easier than writing original fic, at least for me. The playground's all set up--I just get to bounce on the trampoline. Instead of having to, you know, fundraise for the new pommel horse and poll the PTA on whether or not to have co-ed dodgeball, and stop the girls from pelting Carrie with tampons in the shower.

I also like the fandom--the feedback, which is wonderful. Most people are very appreciative of the stories, and I like writing things that I know are going to produce a response in people. I like going to bed knowing that when I wake up, there'll be 16 emails in my mailbox from people asking why Spike and Xander still have all their clothes on, in chapter 43. I'm slow as molasses and people are patient with that. It's very nice.

I also like the sexual frankness of fanfic, and the (for the most part) sexual tolerance of most fans. I write about stuff that would make a lot of people's heads spin around--boy/boy sex, mainly. A lot of readers aren't okay with that, as a basic premise. In fanfic, there's a fundamental understanding that that's fine, that's cool, that's part of the deal. Boys kiss boys. And should do so more often, and before chapter 43 if possible. Please, thanks.

I don't read much fanfic, and haven't for a while. I'm mostly on LJ, I almost never stray out into the Internet anymore, because I just don't have time. My schedule is sort of ridiculously restrictive, when I sit down and look at it. There are some authors I'll make an effort to read, though--mainly friends, at this point. I'm not reading very widely, I think, because I get my intellectual and "good writing" jolts from other places (mainly original fiction and non-fiction--books, etc.) and I don't need the angst/sex jolt as much as I used to. Thank god. Favorite authors and stories...that gets into iffy territory, I think. I have days where I crave really gummy, dark S/X or S/G or whatever, with lots of shameless h/c and angst and non-con, where you can just wring the story out and watch it drip sad, sexy pain into a bucket. And then I have low days. No, no. I have days where I'm tickled by funny, light, snarky stories that take the whole BtVS premise irreverently. And I also have days where it's all a big epic and everyone's cast in this sort of heroic glow, and I love those too. Basically, I love watching someone do something well. Like watching dance, or capoeira, or trapezery, or something. But unlike those things, it's like watching someone perform at something that I actually do, and know something about. There's a shared rush. I used to feed people with long, workshoppy letters about those stories. I think I scared some people. Now I hardly feed at all, which is probably far worse. LJ and RL have conspired to make me mute.