Octaves of the Heart Interview with Minim Calibre

Interviews by Fans
Title:	Octaves of the Heart Interview with Minim Calibre
Interviewer:	Octaves of the Heart
Interviewee:	Minim Calibre
Date(s):	early 2000s
Medium:	online
Fandom(s):	Buffyverse
External Links:	online here, Archived version
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Octaves of the Heart Interview with Te is posted at the Buffy website Octaves.

For others in this series, see Octaves of the Heart Interview Series.

Excerpts

It's funny. I've always seen the slashy subtext, I've always thought up stories outside of canon for the characters, but I never thought I'd actually write them down and share them with others.

I started writing because I felt guilty about reading, and I started reading because I felt guilty about not reading. True story. It's not a very interesting story, so I won't get into it, but it is, as they say, true. (By starting writing, I mean seriously starting writing, as the masses of Batman/Robin slash I wrote when I was 14 are neither fit for human consumption, nor understandable outside of the circle of three people I was writing them for, and were, when push comes to shove, just an excuse to write such lines as "Holy thrusting loins, Batman!")

Once I actually started writing, I was workshopping with people like Fay, s.a., and Herself, and there was this mad spirit of creativity in the air, and perhaps fairy dust or glitter or something. It's all kind of a blur, you see. I wrote a couple of short things, Because and Restraint, neither of which are especially good, but at least I had a teeny-tiny body of work so I could say "look! I write, too!" to the guilt monsters.

I write best when I'm either loopy from exhaustion, on a deadline, or if I've been dared. Slash, het, gen, Joyce/Snyder/Holland Manners, you name it, I'll probably write it. I write often in the middle of the night, and then re-read it in the morning with no actual memory of putting those words to paper. My longest work was the result of me overthinking while I was in the shower and making the mistake of sharing the AU I'd mentally made of my own story with s.a., who informed me that if I'd thought it out that thoroughly, I really ought to just write the thing. In some ways, the end product, Absolution, is still my baby. I mean, I love all my stories in that "aww, I made you!" way, but Absolution and I have a special relationship, because its creation was so very different from anything else I'd done.