Be Gentle With Us Interview: Felicity M. Parkinson

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Interviews by Fans
Title: Be Gentle With Us Interview: Felicity M. Parkinson
Interviewer:
Interviewee: Felicity M. Parkinson
Date(s): 1993
Medium: print
Fandom(s): The Professionals
External Links:
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Be Gentle With Us Interview: Felicity M. Parkinson are answers to a questionnaire.

The answers were printed in Be Gentle With Us #8 and #10. It's possible that there were more replies printed in #9, #11, and #12 as well.

The Known Participants

The Twenty-One Questions

Which of your stories do you like best?

Conversely, any you cringe about now with hindsight?

Are you inspired by external factors, such as music?

How much research do you do?

How many drafts do you write before submitting the story?

What makes you write slash?

How do you react to editor's criticism or reviews of your work?

Do you keep a piece of writing to yourself until it is finished, or would you seek the advice of others at a fairly early stage?

Do you worry about plagiarism?

How do you feel about another writer rewriting the end of your story, or writing a sequel (with or without permission?)

Do you prefer to write about the characters in the CI5 setting or is any universe/time fair game?

Do you keep rigidly to the characterisation used in the aired episodes?

Do you ever deliberately change the characterization, or does it happen unconsciously?

Do you work on more than one story at a time?

Do you write sex scenes to titillate the reader?

How do you go about writing sex scenes? (Resort to strong drink and let your imagination run riot?)

Would you like to be a professional writer?

Were you a writer before you discovered fandom?

If you were a writer before discovering fandom, has the experience of reading fan literature changed your own writing?

Have other writers in fandom or stories that you have read influenced your own work?

Have you been influenced by writers or writing from outside of fandom?

Some Excerpts

Are you inspired by external factors, such as music?

Music provided the inspiration (and title) for one short piece and the title (and mood) of another story. Apart from that, I'm far more influenced in my stories by the changing seasons, the look of the countryside and the weather. They create the moods for my stories and influence the way I write certain scenes.

How many drafts do you write before submitting the story?

I don't write in terms of drafts. I write a segment, I leave it for a while (often weeks), then revise it as I type it up. Sometimes I re-revise bits because of changes later in the story. Once the story is complete, I go through it one final time to make minor adjustments, mainly in terms of

language and style rather than plot.

What makes you write slash?

I've always seen the characters as having that sort of relationship and can't write about them any other way.

Do you worry about plagiarism?

I've occasionally used a word or phrase I particularly liked from published work, but I don't use ideas from other stories, either fan or published (sequels are a different matter). I'd rather think up my own plots.

How do you feel about another writer rewriting the end of your story, or writing a sequel (with or without permission?)

I would strongly object to a writer rewriting the end of one of my stories. Sequels are slightly different. I once wrote a short sequel to a story without first getting the author's permission. It never occurred to me to do so because the sequel was my immediate reaction to the story. That said, I didn't use the author's own characters, nor did I change in any way what had happened in their story. I also wrote THE WALLED GARDEN as a sequel to 'East Lynne', so I kept the characters and situations as they appeared in the television version, and their backgrounds and natures as given in the book. I've had one of my stories sequelled twice (by the same author, and without permission) and while the second sequel was very well done, both introduced characters and concepts that I totally disagree with.

Do you keep rigidly to the characterisation used in the aired episodes?

Well, it's never made obvious in the episodes that the characters are involved in a sexual relationship with each other, so in that sense I've already changed the characterization. Apart form that, I stick to the characterization given - as I see it and am able to write it.

Would you like to be a professional writer?

No. While I'd like to get something published just to see whether I could do it, I don't have the drive or commitment at the moment to do anything about it.

If you were a writer before discovering fandom, has the experience of reading fan literature changed your own writing?

Reading fan literature and talking to other fan writers has shown me how to develop stories better, and how to achieve different effects with different writing styles.

Have other writers in fandom or stories that you have read influenced your own work?

I've been influenced most by the writing of Chris Power who has a very powerful yet straightforward writing style. I disagree with her characterizations, but admire the way her stories have a strong plot as well as relationship. I've always been influenced by Sebastian, who made me take another look at the way I'd interpreted the characters.

Have you been influenced by writers or writing from outside of fandom?

Mary Renault is the writer whose style I would love to be able to emulate. Compared with her, most writing styles seem overblown.

References

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