Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Wax Jism

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Wax Jism
Interviewer:
Interviewee:	Wax Jism
Date(s):	July 11, 2001
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	'N Sync, slash
External Links:	interview is here, Archived version
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Citizens Against Bad Slash Interview with Wax Jism 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

I'm extremely picky, to the point of being a horrible, pretentious snob about what I read. Typos and bad grammar will put me off, at least if there isn't brilliant prose to be glimpsed between the misses. I really hope I'm not lying or deluding myself when I say I demand the same thing from my own stories, though. but I want good writing, dammit. A good idea or a good *story* isn't enough if the writing is flat. Of course, my taste in good writing might not be the same as everybody else's.

What impresses me: quotable lines will get me. good use of descriptive language. Snappy dialogue. Good, multi-dimensional characterisation. Somewhat believable plot (I am pretty willing to suspend disbelief if the writing is beautiful, though).

What turns me off: bad language (really bad language makes me absolutely rabid; I'm not a native speaker, I had to learn this language through hard work. There are no excuses for a native speaker to have poorer English skills than the dumb foreigner, okay). cardboard-cutout characters, use of cliches without irony or awareness. Some words, like 'orbs' (can't explain that, but it gets me frothing), 'cum'. Oh, epithets: 'the older man'. Fear of the word 'said'. The usual stuff, really. But mostly it's a question of whether the author has 'It' or not. and defining 'It' is beyond me. I just know, man.

If I'm blocked, I just do something else. fiddle with my site, go cruising teeniebopper sites for hot pics of the Infant, stare at my posters. Watch a video, read slash. Keep myself occupied and not thinking constantly of my inability to write. Then it comes back. Usually before I have a nervous breakdown. I have no idea what causes it. I have up days and down days. I'm not good at writing on command, so I've basically had to go with the flow.

I mainly read stories written by my friends, because I have (on purpose, I might add) befriended most of the cool writers in the fandom. Call me a starfucker. Sometimes I will dare tread new paths, and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised. If I find someone I hadn't read or heard of before, I immediately pimp her/him out to my friends. And write feedback. I'm not very good at writing feedback, I confess. I tend to hit people up on AIM and tell them they rock on a regular basis, though. also, if something catches my attention, I will put a link in my livejournal.

I write RPS, so the characterisation issue is a little more ... fluid than in character slash. I suppose the most common problem seems to be fleshing out the characters from the narrow, one-dimensional media image to something more closely resembling a human being. How to do that and still stay in a recognisable character.

Talk to people. We're a friendly bunch. Get a livejournal, I guess. most of the action seems to be there, at this point. I don't know. I got my place in the fandom by being noticed by a popular writer. That works, but it takes a bit of being in the right place at the right time.