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[mare]

How do you come up with your original, non BSB characters? Are they inspired by anyone in your life positively? How much of your real life experiences go into your writing?

I nevr fully base my characters on any one person but a compilation of different people. Like most of you have said, I do put a lot of my traits and personality in most of my original characters but never one hundred percent. All my original characters generally come in the form of villians, but my females really are modeled off of friends mostly.

I tend to use a fair share of my real life in my stories. I consider it a good form of therapy. Of course I mix it with enough fiction that it doesn't read that way. I do tend to place my characters in surroundings which are familiar to me, geography wise and like Julie, I do enjoy making them teachers and musicians but hey the musican part is pretty easy lol

[Rose]

How do you come up with your original, non BSB characters? Are they inspired by anyone in your life positively? How much of your real life experiences go into your writing?

Usually I take bits of myself and those I know. I never put a whole lot of myself into my original characters, usually just aspects and them combine them with people I know in real life. If anything, I put the most of myself into Nick LOL. Gender doesn't matter, they get their traits either way. Obviously the therapist in RMTW was Julie lol. Grace, in Divine Intervention is actually based on my cousin...which amuses me cause he's a guy and she's a girl lol. But it just works.

My experiences don't usually go into my writing. My emotions will, if I'm upset you might be able to tell with what I write in a chapter. But my experiences don't. I write what I don't know, in terms of my own life. I write subjects I'm comfortable with (like Psych disorders, for example). And if I don't know it, I research the hell out of it and write it like I have dealt with it myself. 

[Rose]

I will say Aaron in RMTW was based heavily on one of my brothers with some real life Aaron douchiness mixed in. That was actually very therapeutic cause at the time my brother was causing a lot of trouble and putting my parents through hell with the choices he made. They tried to help him again and again... like Nick did in the story. The biggest difference though is that Aaron died, which hasn't happened to my brother yet.

I think that's the most of my own life issues I put into a story.

[Purpura Lipstick]

I use traits of people I know in real life including myself for original characters. 

[mare]

I thought this would be fun, is there any question you'd like to ask any of the authors who usually participate in this thread? I mean you could ask anyone I guess but if they don't usually respond there's a chance they won't see this or answer, but maybe if they see their name, it might spark them to answer what you have to ask. Of course try to keep it mostly fanfic or writing related.

[FrickingKaos]

RMTW reminded me of a lot of things....what I went through watching my grandmother go through Alzheimer's disease...and Aaron reminded me of my sister a lot. It's not a secret my sister is a heroin addict, so I identified with the story a lot. It really touched me.

[Rose]

I need time to think of a question lol.

And thanks Tracy

[Pengi]

My original characters aren't really based off anyone. I might think "hey it'd be funny if this person had blahblahblah trait" and then try to think of someone - that I know or a movie or a tv show character - who had similar traits, but I never really base the character off that person. For example, Charlie in Bodyguard was meant to be a kind of kick ass personality and I was like "who do I know thats kinda kick ass like that?" and all I could think of was Julilly on cruise with that freakin' Spanish chick and the "I'LL TAKE HER OUT IF YOU WANT ME TO!" lmao... So I laughed about that, then thought of a few other tough chicks in movies and TV shows (like Penny beating up the guy that stole Sheldon's World of Warcraft character's stuff! hahaha). Then I started going through this book of character traits I have and the psychology and started writing a backstory for the character that was completely original. I will put small bits of me into the characters but I tend to put those bits into ALL the characters, including the Boys. For example, if I was to say any character in Something Beautiful was me, it would be Nick because of the history with the story and my mom and the point of view I had going into the Leukemia experience. Which is why the story is from Nick's POV in the OF version of it.

[Sakabelle]

I have a question for Karah.

You said you only write one story at a time, and found it difficult to even work on your collab with Lisa cause you can't work on two at once. What do you do when you get a new idea while you're in the middle of working on something else? Do you just table it for later, or do you find you don't get new ideas until the main story you're working on is nearly complete.

Seriously please shed some light lol because the way that you are able to give one story your complete focus and stick with it until the end is something I envy so much.

[myconfession]

I have a question for Karah.

You said you only write one story at a time, and found it difficult to even work on your collab with Lisa cause you can't work on two at once. What do you do when you get a new idea while you're in the middle of working on something else? Do you just table it for later, or do you find you don't get new ideas until the main story you're working on is nearly complete.

Seriously please shed some light lol because the way that you are able to give one story your complete focus and stick with it until the end is something I envy so much.

I feel special! LOL!

Honestly, I don't have any problem with the collab story because I'm so into it, it's the other story that I've had problems with. Since we started the first Fearless story, Fearless, I've started two solo stories, the final Nick and Harley story, which was only like 15 chapters but took about 3 1/2 months actually finish.

The main reason I like to focus on just one story is because I like to get into the character(s)' heads that I'm writing about. Plus, I know I have a very short attention span. That's the main reason. That's why doing two at once is hard for me.

I typically try to just put everything else out of my mind while I'm focusing on that one story. If I get an idea, I'll type it out in my notepad on my iPhone where I keep a list of songs that give me ideas or ideas in general. Or I'll start a file, type out what I have in my head and I just sit on it.  I'm just tough on myself with it, is how I usually focus on one story.

Right now it's been easier to write on "She's Not You," my solo story, because Lisa's been busy so we haven't done much writing on our series lately. I'm sure I'll get in a funk on SNY once we do go back to writing lol

[mare]

Yay, someone finally asked a question!

Here's another question:

As a reader, do you tend to wait until a fanfic is done before you read it, read multiple chapters at once, or one chapter at a time?

[RokofAges75]

Yay, someone finally asked a question!

Here's another question:

As a reader, do you tend to wait until a fanfic is done before you read it, read multiple chapters at once, or one chapter at a time?

I typically follow stories as they're being written, so I read them one chapter at a time whenever the author updates.  If the story is already done when I start it, though, I read it the same way I read any book, which means I'll read until I lose interest, run out of time, or feel the urge to stop reading and do something else.  There is nothing better than getting so sucked into a story that I just keep clicking on the next chapter to read on.  I don't get that experience with fanfic very often anymore because most of the stories I read are in-progress.  Maybe I should just wait and read them when they're finished, but from the writer side of things, I know it's more fun to get feedback while the story's in progress, so I like to be one of those reviewers for my favorite authors.

[Carter-Orange]

I usually read stories as they are being posted, so one chapter at a time.  If someone recommends a completed story, then I do the same as Julie and read it like I would a book, clicking on next and leaving reviews every few chapters.

Sometimes I've waited for a story to be completed if the writer is one of those people who just abandons the story and vanishes, as I hate getting sucked in to stories only to be left hanging.

[mare]

I tend to read one chapter at a time for fanfics and books. I very rarely read something start to finish in one sitting. Maybe I'll do a few chapters at one time but my attention span usually doesn't allow me to just sit and read all day long. I wish I could do that. lol sitting and reading at the computer doesn't usually help either. I like to read stories as they are in progress as well. But like Steph said, if it's someone who is kind of slack ish when it comes to updating I would probably wait until its finished.

[Sakabelle]

I honestly make an effort to try and read things chapter by chapter, but sometimes I get so far behind I end up just waiting until it's finished. I do that with TV shows too, it's hard for me to watch week to week, and then I don't feel like I want to get caught up because I'll get caught up with no resolve since it's still in progress and...yeah. It probably comes from when I used to watch anime all the time, series would just come out in full and I'd marathon the entire thing. I also have a horrible memory for TV/books so unless I read it all at once I forget what's already happened haha.

Yeah, long story short I start out following updates... and eventually fall off and end up reading things when they're done.