So, what's your thoughts on Alternate Universe fics?
AU isn't my favorite category of fanfic, but I have learned to appreciate them, both as a reader and a writer. The story that converted me as a reader was "Between the Lines." I had tried to read that story a couple of times before I actually got into it, but once I did, it gave me an appreciation for AUs that I didn't have before. It's such a well-written story, and I saw how, even though the guys weren't a boyband, they could still have the same personality traits and the same brotherly bond that we love.
From a writing standpoint, "Code Blue" was the first major AU I wrote, and I'll be honest; when my original co-author first suggested the idea of doing a story about the Boys as doctors, ER-style, I was totally against it. She used my love of medical drama to convince me to give it a shot, and I ended up loving it, so that opened me up to writing more AUs.
What is it that draws or pushes you away from the genre?
What I don't like about AUs is that the Backstreet Boys aren't the Backstreet Boys. If I'm gonna read some fanfic, I want to read about the guys as themselves. I used to not get what the point of an AU was - if you don't want to write about the Backstreet Boys, why not just make up original characters to fill your story?
That said, once I'd read some good AUs and written some myself, I understood the appeal. AU gives you a lot more freedom to write about the guys as people, without having to write about the music business, touring, fame, their families, and all the other "baggage" that comes along with them. With an AU, you can recreate the details of their lives from scratch and put them in any situation you want to. It's like playing Barbies - Barbie always looks the same, but you can put her in any outfit and make her be anything you want her to be. She does it all! With AU, the Backstreet Boys can be doctors, secret agents, survivors of the zombie apocalypse, baseball players, soldiers in a war, knights in medieval times, whatever you want! AU is almost limitless.
The only limit I put on AUs is that the guys still need to seem like the guys, in terms of personality. If they're completely unrecognizable as the non-BSB versions of themselves, I lose interest. Then it's no longer a fanfic to me.
Do you think AU's have a bad rep?
I don't think they get a bad rap, per se; it's just a category of fanfic that's not for everyone. Some people love AUs, some people hate them, and some are like me, where it's certainly not my favorite kind of story, but I'll read them if they're well-written and do the Boys justice. I can totally understand why some people won't touch them, because they want to read fanfic about the BACKSTREET BOYS. That said, I agree with Lore that there are probably some talented authors who get overlooked because they only write AU. But the same could be said for romance, slash, sci-fi/fantasy... any of the more divisive genres.
As a writer, do you enjoy writing AUs or do you stay away from them?
I've learned to enjoy them, mainly through collaborating. Code Blue, 00Carter, and Undead - I've had so much fun helping to create and write in those universes. I don't do as much AU on my own, though I do have at least a couple. I will always prefer straightforwar d BSB fanfics, but AU is a great alternative for ideas that just wouldn't work with the Backstreet Boys as a music group.
If you do write AU's, is your writing process different then when you write regular Fanfic?
It takes more time to set up the universe in an AU. You have to decide what details you're keeping the same, what you're changing, and how you're going to fill in the gaps. If the guys are all in it, you have to decide what kind of relationship they have at the beginning of the story, or how that relationship is going to develop over the course of the story. When I write AU, I tend to take more time on things like back story and physical description with the guys than I would in a non-AU, where I assume the readers already know the basics. I want to make sure the guys are recognizable as themselves, but I also write more like I would an original fiction, where the characters are being introduced to the readers for the first time. I see AU as kind of a stepping stone between fanfic and original fic.
