Del Floria's Interview with Mayamaia (2013)
| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Del Floria's Interview with Mayamaia |
| Interviewer: | Del Floria (Live Journal) |
| Interviewee: | Mayamaia |
| Date(s): | March 10, 2013 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | Man from U.N.C.L.E. |
| External Links: | full interview is here, Archived version |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Del Floria's Interview with Mayamaia is an interview with a Man from U.N.C.L.E. fan.
It is part of a series at Del Floria's. See Del Floria's Interview Series.
Also see Del Floria's Interview with Mayamaia (2015).
Excerpts
Why MFU? What is it about the show that fuelled your creativity?I've been a nerd forever, and any fandom I'm enthusiastic about will fuel my creativity briefly. I have made art, written games and even music for books and shows that caught my attention. But they were all very brief forays, even for Doctor Who which has had me heart and soul for six+ years. What made MFU unique were my fellow fans. You have such a high percentage of experienced writers by now, you are so friendly and helpful to one another, it was easy to get involved and stay involved. And I was intrigued by the idea of the Writers' Survival School right off the bat. I would like to see more posting there, actually. You have to understand that I had barely completed one story that spanned more than a single scene before I got to know you. You've had me for just over a year now, and I have completed 19 stories for you, with another 10 or so waiting in the wings. And that's not even mentioning OMFU.
Also the boys are pretty and Waverly Knows All.
Are you swayed by other’s reactions to your work or have you set a course and stayed upon it?Yes. I freeze at criticism if a story isn't finished yet, and have learned to be very careful about asking for advice before it's done, as much as I love my usual beta (who is an old friend and only a casual MFU fan, and very, very honest). I have a story involving cross-dressing and another with a trans character and a third involving Howl by Ginsburg (the first MFU story I ever started) that I'm desperately afraid to get wrong, so I'm sorry to say that they languish in the vaults.
I have gotten nothing but good reactions regarding completed work. For that, I credit the community. You are all such lovely people.
How would you respond to a critic who says, “Oh, you write fan fiction? You’re not a real writer.”So did Homer, the stories are called The Iliad and The Odyssey. And James Joyce wrote fanfiction of that! Fan Fiction takes existing characters and often existing settings and makes something new from them, as has been done for millennia in the creation of legends about historical figures and events, and for a shorter time perhaps in the adaptation of existing stories for new contexts.
Or do you believe that money legitimizes it? Or perhaps you need it to survive the test of hundreds of years before you believe it matters? It mattered to someone shortly after it was written or it would not have survived.