COCO CHANNEL Interview with Robin Lawrie
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | COCO CHANNEL Interview with Robin Lawrie |
| Interviewer: | Karmen Ghia |
| Interviewee: | Robin Lawrie |
| Date(s): | September 1999 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | slash, fandom, Star Trek |
| External Links: | An Interview with Robin Lawrie; reference link |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
COCO CHANNEL Interview with Robin Lawrie is archived at The Society for Slash Diversity and The Committee of Chekov Obsessives Comparing Historical and New Narratives in Ensign Literature.
See List of Star Trek Fan Interviews.
Excerpts
Karmen Ghia: Have you stayed mainly in TOS or do you do other genres?
Robin Lawrie: I wrote my first TOS in Sept 97, and have written eight TOS stories now. I read some great K/S before then, and it took the "Shatner" out of Kirk for me, so that I could feel comfortable writing it. But I write across all Trek series, all pairings, all genders. Currently happy writing J/7 and Voyager, though that could change now that DS9 is back on TV here.
KG: How did you decide to start writing what was in your head? What was your motivation?
RL: I found out about alt.startrek.creative.erotica from a tag line in a post to aus.sf.star-trek. I thought "Wow! Rude stories about trek people!" It sounded like a good idea, so I went looking, found the newsgroup, found the archive, gave feedback, wrote to authors, then after five days thought, "Y'know, I could write this." It happened pretty quickly. Then all these story ideas kept popping up in my head, and I had the time and inclination to write them down. I bounced a few ideas off my RL friends here, and they seemed to like them well enough. I got some good feedback from the next couple of stories, and that made me think I wasn't doing something entirely wrong. I got a kick out of using my fave trek people in erotic ways. Also having them do stuff that the Star Trek writers might not have them do. And once I started writing there wasn't any real reason to stop. It's fun, I enjoy it.
KG: How did your first story come about? Can you recall the decision to write it or did you just wake up one day, face down on the keyboard, and there was the first 3,000 words? (This happened to me, that's why I'm asking.)
RL: Posted my first story to ASC in Aug 96. Called "NCC90210" it is very bad, a Mary Sue, and has Wesley in it. At the time, I thought it was terrific...
I started to write a fairly straight story, with just a few naughty bits and Wesley being lost forever in space (yes!). Then I realized as I reread it, the only bits I really liked were the rude bits. I ended up with something low on plot but big on rude bits."
How it happened was, I sat at the computer, thought a little bit about what I wanted to happen, wrote it down, read it through, chopped half of it out, then posted it. Took about three days. Then made a pest of myself on ASC bugging everyone to tell me how great it was. What a total prat!
Now, if I get a big head about myself, I'll go back and read it for the cringe value.
KG: Do you have any thoughts on the future of K/S?
RL: K/S will always be around in one way or another. New writers are discovering slash, and fanfic in general, and the old writers are still writing. When I tell people what I do, I always give K/S as the example slashy couple as they are the trek characters *everyone* is familiar with. Not everyone knows Picard, but everyone knows Kirk and Spock. Then I ask them, "So, you don't watch trek, but you know about Kirk and Spock. Why do you think that is? That you remember *those two*. What do you remember about them? Why do you think they hung out so much? Liked each other? Best friends, huh?". It's always amusing to see the light bulb go on in their heads and hear the "Ohhhhh!" as it sinks in. I've heard people who've never come across the concept of fanfic or slash, grasp the idea of K/S so quickly that their they're telling me slashy parts of TOS eps they suddenly remember, or start outlining K/S "what ifs" to me. This is how new writers start. K/S is conducive to slash writing. People will start writing it before reading all the "classic" K/S slash. There will always be fresh K/S ideas.
KG: Me, I'm just a webizen so I know nothing of the printzine community, except for a brush or two with certain members. What is with those people? Are they really as uptight, narrow minded, hyper critical/sensitive and condescending as they seem or am I really just too fucked up to see their good points?
RL: Dunno much at all about the printfen. Don't do zines. I know people who have had run ins with them, but I steer clear of conflict. I've been asked to contribute to a couple of DS9 zines, but one way to get me to NOT do something is to give me a deadline.
KG: What is the motivation to write slash? One can't sell it; one can't even eat it.RL: It's play. It's fun. You get to make the characters do what *you* want, instead of having them stick to what other people want them to do. You can use them to keep the Trek experience happening even after a series ends. So what that TOS, TNG and DS9 have finished their runs! They never finish as long as slash writers keep writing. Two, or more, big boofy blokes, going hard and getting sweaty... hey, what's not to like? Sharing that with like minded people is another part of the attraction of slash. Writing is not work. Work is work.
KG: Do you have any thoughts on the future of Slash on the Web?
RL: As long as they make TV shows with blokes in them, there will be slash on the web. A slasher might move on to another fandom, or stop writing for a bit, but there'll always be slash somewhere.
Reactions and Reviews
For some fan reaction, see here.