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[mare]

Holy crap, Julie! lmao

We have asked a lot of questions!

I don't think I can answer that question either, Julilly lol

[RokofAges75]

LMAO I know!!  I noticed we had some duplicates, too, which is to be expected.  I think the fanfic pet peeve question came up three or four times!  But that's okay, since this has been going on so long - people come and go, so not everyone was around for the same questions every time.

[mare]

Yup, I occasionally will ask questions I have asked before for that very reason! I guess we should say if anyone does want to answer some of those older ones to copy it into this thread.

[RokofAges75]

Yeah, this thread, or even the archive thread would be fine, so it doesn't come out of nowhere in this one.  But wherever!

[Sakabelle]

I can't believe you compiled that list of questions, Julie! When I was scrolling through it I kept expecting it to end... and it kept going lol.

[Sakabelle]

Has there ever been a scene you've written that has brought you to tears while writing it? What about laughter?
I don't think I've ever brought myself to tears when writing, but I have laughed a lot. I remember giggling to myself when writing Nick's Dirty Kicks (even though I tried to make it serious... but it was just so ridiculous lol) and there were a few scenes in Running Up That Hill I definitely thought were very funny while I was writing them.


If you had to pick only one scene that you've written that feels best represents you as a writer, what would it be?
I'm going to say chapter 23 of Forever Like This. (http://absolutechaos.net/viewstory.php?sid=11000&chapter=24) It includes all the usual characters I write about in both fandoms, plus a metric ton of drama building up to the point where Nick finally kisses the girl he's been paired with the whole story. Obviously I write a lot of Nick romance so I feel like this represents that, I also think it's got really strong dialogue and flows nicely, which are things I've been complimented on in the past.

[Carter-Orange]

Has there ever been a scene you've written that has brought you to tears while writing it? What about laughter?
I'm not sure whether it brought tears, but in one of my Take That stories I kill Jason off in quite a sad way.  It's set in World War 2 and he's sent to the gas chamber in the end.

I've laughed during writing my Revenge of the Slaughered and 1000 Ways To Die stories, also in the Howie one-shot called The Man With Two Brains, I laughed so much writing that one.

If you had to pick only one scene that you've written that feels best represents you as a writer, what would it be?
Not sure 

[RokofAges75]

I can't believe you compiled that list of questions, Julie! When I was scrolling through it I kept expecting it to end... and it kept going lol.

Once I started and then realized how many threads there were and how many pages each one was, I was like, "Oh shit, this is gonna take forever!"  But then I'd already started, so I figured I might as well finish.  It was kinda fun to read through those threads, anyway.

[mare]

okay well I suddenly feel added pressure not to repeat questions but at the same time I don't want to have to scroll through 300 + questions to make sure I'm not repeating. I did however skim and I didn't see this exact question though lol so here it goes:

Do you prefer writing/reading a female centered fic or male centered and why?

[RokofAges75]

I don't think we covered that one.  And it's fine to repeat or rephrase some of those; I know I probably answered some of the same or very similar questions two or three times over the course of all the threads without realizing it or caring LOL.

As far as female-centered vs. male-centered... if it's a romance or any story with a female lead, I actually prefer to find a balance between the two and show both sides of the story.  That said, I feel that any BSB fanfic should be ABOUT the Backstreet Boy(s), no matter who is telling the story.  With Curtain Call, for example, I always thought that story was Cary's to tell (even though I ended up writing half of it from Nick's point of view) but it was all about Nick.  It was his drama that drove the story; he was in the center of it, and everything that happened in it revolved around him.  That's how I like my fanfics to be.  So I guess that would make my answer male-centered.

[emilo]

This is a tough question for me to answer based on what little fanfic writing I've done so far.  The story Mare is reading in the challenge is obviously very female-centered, as the female lead is narrator. Of course, that's also my "self-indulgent" fic  That being said, I generally like to strike a balance between the two.  I like a strong female lead if it's going to be a romance story or even have a romance subplot-- someone to compliment the male lead, but to also be her own person-- well developed as a character. I find the thought of writing a story that is purely BSB "bromance" pretty intimidating, and I think the biggest reason is that the "characters" are basically already who they are.  You can play with them by putting them in any number of situations and predict how you think, say, Howie Dorough, the Backstreet Boy, is going to react in said situation, but the thought of doing that for an entire, well-developed story is a little daunting for me.  I'm not sure I can characterize them as well as a lot of you do.  I like being able to write a major character who is an original character because I can make her anyone I want her to be (and I say "her" here because basically, it's a Mars vs. Venus thing-- men confuse me. lol, and I feel like I can just do a better job of characterizing a female than I can a male). But, when all is said and done, the BSB should still be central to the story, and not just play a small, supporting role.  Does that make sense?

[RokofAges75]

That makes sense, Emily, and I feel the same way about the bromance thing.  I love reading bromance and enjoy writing it in small doses, like individual scenes, but I've never written a purely BSB bromance, either.  I have written stories about the group, in which there are no major original characters, but those tend to be more plot-driven than the character-driven type of bromance Mare is known for writing.  I have the guys bond over bus crashes and zombie uprisings and killer alien monkey invasions and stuff like that LOL.

I don't do pure bromance any more than I do pure romance; I think I'm just not that type of writer.  Stories that are just about the relationship between characters, whether it's a friendship or a romantic relationship, always sound so boring in my head, but in the right people's hands, they can be really fun to read.  I just don't know that I could do that kind of a story justice.

[mare]

Maybe if I define what I think female centered means to me anyway, it might help to see where I'm coming from. You know a few years ago I used to hate all female leads etc... I have grown softer with the idea of girls taking an important part of the storytelling mainly because of these challenges and reading stories that have been able to pull this off. I get how sometimes reading all just the boys can grow kind of tedious and sometimes you do need that balance of a strong female character to help get through all the testosterone.

Since you are the two that answered this it works out perfectly because I read Curtain Call as last year's challenge story and I'm reading Forever for this years and I think one is female centered and one is male centered! lol

So I guess Mare's definition really is simply whether in the end it's about the boys or about the girl.

Curtain Call has Cary and Nick telling the story pretty equally but like you said, Julie , you can tell it's Cary's story but there was no doubt it was a Backstreet Boy story because Nick and his illness were the underlying plot point. They were ever present and the main stars. I told you when I was reading it, that I was happy you did the alternating points of view because as I had mentioned when reading I wasn't really all that into Cary (I'm sure the only person on the planet lol) and if it was told purely through her eyes, I most likely would have lost interest.

Forever in my mind is Emily's story and how she deals with circumstances surrounding her involvement in a girlband and the various boyband members she tends to form relationships with along the way.  The boys happen to be in it and play a major part but it's clear the main plot points deal with her more so than any of the boys. This story to me is a female centered fic. But here I really do like the female lead, Emily. She has a strong personality and can easily carry a story on her back. But if she was a weak character there would be no way the story would have held my interest.

The underlying thing both of these stories have in common is that they are incredibly well written so no matter which you prefer they were both worth reading. I don't think I could ever successfully pull off what either of you do. I have never been really good at giving a female lead enough depth to last through an entire story or to be able to call a story her own when it comes to BSB fanfic. My inner BSB always manages to take control of the situation so my comfort zone doesn't really allow for me to write female centered or female lead type fics.  LOL

My reading preference is male centered/male telling the story fics lol but that needs a 'well Duh' after it. 

[RokofAges75]

Thanks for sharing your take on it, Mare!

My follow-up question for everyone who answers the first one would be, would you answer differently for original fiction?  Whether you write original fiction or just enjoy reading books, do you prefer female- or male-centered stories?

I honestly have not written enough original fiction to know if I have a preference, but just from writing fanfic, I do think it's easier to get into a girl's head than one of the guys.  Not that I don't try, because most of my stories are male-centered, but like with Curtain Call, Cary's POV was SO much easier to write than Nick's because I could relate to her, whereas it was a lot harder to relate to Nick.

Outside of fanfic, most of the books I read are female-centered, too, although the horror/thriller ones tend to be more male-centered.  Again, I don't know that I really have a preference; as long as I can relate to the main character, I'm good.  With the exception of children's literature, though, it seems like female authors usually write about female protagonists, while male authors tend to have male protagonists.  Do you think that's just because it's easier to write from your own gender's perspective?

[FrickingKaos]

I usually prefer male centered stories even in original fic. I like reading the same stuff in original fic as I do in fanfic, but I tend to read more fanfic these days. The last book I read was The Hobbit after the movie came out....I plan on reading The Great Gatsby soon as I never got the chance to while I was in school.