Is there anything that is 'off limits' to you as a writer? Something you would NEVER do in one of your stories?
The only thing I can think of that I would shy away from is killing/hurting one of the real Backstreet kids. I will kill off the wives if necessary, but I've never killed one of the real kids, only fictional ones. That's not to say that I would NEVER cross that line... I might, if it was an integral part of the plot (Sarah's story "Fracture" that she never finished is a good example of this), but I would feel weird about it.
I also don't like to write about their real life drama until after it's over. Stuff like AJ going to rehab, Nick's cardiomyopathy, Leslie's death, Howie's dad's or sister's death, even Brian's heart surgery... while all of those issues could have (and, in some cases, HAVE) made for a good, dramatic story, I wouldn't have touched them with a ten-foot pole while they were happening. I feel that things like that are too fresh, too raw, too REAL to write about until enough time has gone by. It's like there's a grace period with any real life drama or tragedy, and once some time has passed and all seems well again, then I feel like it's okay to include it in a story. I rarely base whole stories around real drama like that, anyway - I'd rather mess up their lives with fictional drama LOL.