Ask the Author: grace fully
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ask the Author: grace fully |
| Interviewer: | |
| Interviewee: | grace fully |
| Date(s): | May 4, 2010 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Supernatural |
| External Links: | interview and comments are here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
grace fully was interviewed for Supernatural Roundtable.
Some Excerpts
I started with a journal at age 11 and never stopped. I take writing pretty seriously, and if you know me even a little, you probably know that I have been thinking heavily about taking it to the next level (mfa, teaching, digging around for a freelance career). I think fan fiction is one of the greatest developments in recent literary history. A big statement, but for real. But that is a whole other topic; ask me about it.Started watching SPN in the middle of s1 (shadow, naw). Lurked in fandom, and didn’t begin writing until 2008. Didn’t become active in fandom until I posted my Big Bang in July 2009. I still tend to be a periph drifter, a bobber, but I’m around! I love to feedback and rec when I have time. Feedbacking a really good story is probably my favorite thing to do in fandom. Also ogling.
I started with writing gen, and now predominantly write j2. I’ve got one sam/dean and one dean/castiel to my name; I tend to not want to mess with canon, because I’m so attached to the relationships that are already established.
I am not terribly prolific. For me the writing process can be annoyingly difficult; I can get intense and obsessive about what I'm writing. I think about and write one story at a time, and it has to be dead on in every way, or I won’t even bother. Perfectionist to the letter, to the punctuation, to the syntax and line break. Usually an idea (plot bunny) has to come back to me anywhere between 5 and 10 times before I decide I'm invested enough to write it.
Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure 100% of what I’ve written is character-driven. Sometimes plot happens as a byproduct, but generally if I’m sitting down to tell a story it’s about a relationship, not an event. I am also partial to first-times because of the TENSION and happy endings because of the HAPPY.
I fixate on dialogue; I love it. It’s a challenge. I write predominantly in third-person present, because I like the urgency and the now tone it creates. I like unpacking people as they’re experiencing things initially, in that moment: misconceptions, first impressions, judgments, doubts, being lovestruck, physical sensations. That stuff is exciting in its raw forms.
re: style, UGH. so hard to talk about. especially because i feel like, style-wise, let us in was a total fluke. it's not anything i had ever done before, and it is nothing i can see myself conquering again.i think a huge contributor to my style is that present tense - it very much limits what i can write about, because i immediately lose the time a character needs to have processed events, formed opinions, gained foresight, drawn conclusions, etc. so i focus on thoughts, emotions, perception. what's his gut reaction, what does he feel, what does he look like, what is he doing right now? with let us in, i took that immediacy to an extreme i wasn't planning for. i started with writing some of jensen's errant thoughts, but i don't really like doing that in fiction; it seems out of place to me. so i was faced with the choice: either cut it all out, or use it as a story-telling device. i chose the latter, and it became a highly conscious thing.
so i ended up writing this insane stream of conscious where you literally see everything as jensen sees it, and you watch him process his own thoughts, and he doesn't know it but you're essentially observing as he is changing over time. even thinking about it now, i seriously have no idea how i sustained that narrative for as long as i did. i am very, very proud of it.
lol nan. omfg. i wish that was "just how i wrote." WRITING IS TORTURE. i am so jealous of people who can just rock out crazy style and narrative like breathing. i really have to work so hard to get there.
what i will say is that i LOVE to experiment with style -- and i'm grateful for that ambition, now that i'm doing mfa apps! aside from let us in, i've written a story in 2nd person (that he will), a repetitive hell loop (forever neath the streets), a story that is all one stream of a character's dialogue (my window to yours), and that Sparse stuff (we said we'd start a band). you know. that stuff indysaur rocks.
overall i guess i am experimenting so much in hopes that i can begin to establish my VOICE! writers and readers talk about VOICE, and i want it! i'm looking! and i'll keep trying new stuff until i find it :)