401. Describe, step by step, your thought process when starting a new story. You can use a specific story as an example if you'd like to or describe it more generally.
402. How do you feel about the warnings you can put on your stories on AC? Do you always add every warning that applies to your story? Do you ever worry that by posting warnings, you're giving away spoilers? Do you look at the warnings in other people's stories before you decide whether or not to read them, and if so, do they affect your decision? Is there anything, warning-wise, that you won't read?
403. Answer with your OWN stories! lol
- Craziest storyline?
- The dumbest plot?
- The most unique?
- Weirdest name for a character?
- Biggest inaccuracy?
- Stupidest Title?
- Something you wish you could take back?
- Story you cringe when you find out someone has read it?
- Story you'd wish everyone would read already!
- Most impulsive story?
404. Has anyone (online) tried to make you feel embarrassed/ashamed of writing fanfic? Why did you feel that way if it worked?
405. What are some of your favorite funny stories or scenes from people's stories?
406. What is one thing/event in the boys actual lives that you would love to see someone write a story
about?
407. If you were to find out something you never knew about the boys would it alter your writing and or reading when it came to that subject matter? For instance, let's say you were to find out that during the Never Gone era the real reason Kevin left was because he HATED Howie or something like that. Would that change how you would go about writing them in that time period or would it not make a difference?
408. Along those lines, have you ever found yourself confusing real facts with things you have read in other people's stories?
409. So we all know what we like and don't like when it comes to reading, and we've talked a lot about our likes and dislikes on the forum. My question is, are there any exceptions to that? Have you ever tried a story that isn't something you'd normally enjoy reading and discovered that you loved it? Or have you ever started a story that sounded right up your alley, only to find you didn't like it? Why? What is it that makes or breaks the deal in those cases?
410. For those of you who have read or written in other fandoms, do you find that the type of fanfics that are popular in the BSB fandom are also popular in other fandoms, or does it differ from fandom to fandom?
411. Which genre is your least favorite to read and why?
412. Just reading Saka's description of that 1D fic, in your mind how much drama is too much? Or do you enjoying reading things where it's packed with drama from start to finish?
413. Have you ever crossed that line in your own writing, either by taking it over the top or writing something you swore you would never write?
414. Do you know something is going to be a one shot before you start to write it? Do you ever intend for your one shot to be a novel but then realize it works better as a shorter story? Or maybe it's the other way around. Have you ever written something you thought was only going to be one chapter and then decide to make a full blown novel out of it?
415. What are some of your inspirations when writing a one shot as opposed to a long novel? Which of the two do you prefer to write?
416. Do you ever set chapter limits on yourself when writing? What about reading? Do you tend to enjoy reading shorter stories or novels?
417. Looking back on your novels, go check and see how many chapters each one is.
- What is your longest novel?
- What is your shortest novel?
- Going along with that, is your longest one the one with the most reviews? And your shortest the one with the least?
- What about read counts?
418. If you go to View Your Statistics under Account Info and then click on your number of stories (next to "Author of"), you can click View Chapters at the top and see the stats for each individual chapter you've posted.
- Which of your novels has the highest average read count per chapter? Is this also your most read novel? Most reviewed?
- How about the lowest average? Is this your least read novel? Least reviewed?
- Are there any stories where you notice a significant drop in read count from the beginning chapters to the end? Why do you think that is?
- Do any individual chapters stand out as having an unusually high or low read count compared to the rest of the chapters in that story? Why do you think that is?
- What is your most and least read one-shot?
- Were you surprised by any of these stats?
419. Do you ever question yourself and your abilities as a writer? What are some of the reasons why you think that happens?
420. What's the best plot you've come up with, one that's so good you can't even believe you came up with it yourself? We've all got them - time to get past the insecurities and brag a little about what we do best!
421. What was the biggest obstacle you've ever encountered while writing a fanfic and how did you overcome it?
422. How many of you have put a story on hiatus for a long time and then eventually finished it? How long was it on hiatus? How were you able to get going on it again?
423. When a new album comes out, do ye find yerself getting inspired by the new music and developing story ideas based on the new songs or wanting to incorporate them into yer current ones?
424. So the drama whore in me couldn't help but notice there are at least three stories on the Most Recent page right now which have Backstreet Boys in wheelchairs (or who probably will be in wheelchairs once they wake up from their comas... and in that case, make it four!), and I wondered if this is the start of a new trend or something. What do ye think? Are ye on board for a disability fic trend?
425. What are some other trends ye remember from yer years of reading, and which were yer favorites?
426. Do you feel like you ever started your own trend? Or written something unique to the fandom that had never been done prior to yours?
427. If you could only use one word to describe yourself as a fanfic writer, what would it be? What about one word to describe other fanfic writers?
428. What was your very first fanfic about? Was it BSB or some other fandom?
429. Has anyone else ever stopped writing or refrained from posting a story because someone else beat you to it and posted a story that seemed too similar? If you don't mind sharing, what was the idea, and what was the story that stopped you? I wonder how often this happens!
430. Have you ever worried that one of your stories was too similar to something that was posted before it, maybe even another story that helped inspire it?
431. I know a lot of us post as we write, but this question more applies to stories you're keeping to yourself. Have you ever gone back and restructured a story to change where the chapter breaks are? I guess another question to ask is, how do you decide where to end and how to begin a chapter?
432. In honor of the new album! Which song do you think has the most potential to become a fanfic?
433. What if any are your token skip songs for each of the albums?
434. In the genre you feel most comfortable writing in (Can be more than one) offer five tips to what you consider makes a great story work in that particular style.
435. Have you ever had a crush on someone in your real life because they resembled a Backstreet Boy?
436. What do you think are the most important elements of a good suspense story? And as a reader what do you enjoy most about them?
437. How do you feel about cliff hangers? Do you enjoy reading stories with them or writing them? Or do you generally like things resolved at the end of chapters?
438. Do you associate any other BSB songs with some twisted underlying meaning, either because of a fanfic or because you, yourself, are twisted and deeply disturbed?
439. What do you find the most complicated thing to describe when writing?
440. When you decide to use song lyrics, quotes or anything else as a header for a chapter, do you tend to pick that first and then write the chapter around it or after the chapter is written do you go in search of the best lyrics, quotes etc... that would best fit what you just wrote?
441. When you read something new, do you review right away or wait until you're ready to commit to reading the entire thing before you review? If you do review right away, do you then feel an obligation to see the story through even if you don't enjoy it? Do you ever go into the story and in a review explain why you stopped reading?
442. As a writer, Do you prefer anyone who read your stuff reviewed even if they just suddenly disappear and if they do just suddenly disappear, do you ever find yourself wondering if they just stopped reviewing but are still reading? Would you like it if someone came into your story and explained why they stopped reading or do think that might hinder your writing and make you doubt yourself?
443. Do any real life events ever hinder your writing, or is it more of a release when you are not having a good day? When you're down, do you write, read or just avoid fanfiction together?
444. Now that reviews are no longer an option, will you still continue to update your stories? Or do you plan on waiting until the review function is up and running again?
445. Have any of you written a female character who was hated by your readers? (Villainesses don't count, since they're supposed to be hated.) Do you think that hatred was justified, or were you surprised by it? Have you ever felt like your readers' reaction towards one of your characters spilled over to affect their feelings about the overall story? As a reader, have you ever felt that way about someone else's character, and did it affect your feelings toward the whole story?
446. How do you usually portray the guys you write about most? Have you ever intentionally taken them "out of character" over the course of a story, and if so, what caused them to change?
447. Have you ever been surprised by a reader's interpretation of something in your story? Maybe they read into something way more than you intended, or they just got a different vibe from the story than you were intending to give off? Did you modify your story after that feedback (if you were still in the process of writing) to better explain said situation, or try to explain in your response to the review, or neither and just let them interpret it as they interpreted it?
448. When you write, do you tend to write more plot driven stories or character driven stories? Which do you prefer as a reader?
449. Have you ever found yourself using the same phrases over and over again or the same descriptions? What are some of the things you are notorious for overusing?
450. Which boy if any do you find the hardest to channel? For that one, do you find yourself just not writing them as much as the others? How do you get over that block?
451. If you were writing a sequal, but you didn't see it going anywhere and you suddenly had a new idea for it. Would you delete it and go with the new idea or would you just leave it alone?
452. Do you think people would be able to tell who your favorite BSB is just based on your fanfic writing? Are people ever surprised when you tell them who your favorite BSB is? What about if there is one you aren't particularly fond of? Do you think your writing shows it or do you think you can mask your personal feelings about the guys well enough so people can't tell one way or another?
453. How do you feel about people translating your stories into other languages?
454. As a writer, when you leave feedback do you tend to leave it from the POV of how you usually write? For instance, if you are a suspense writer and leaving a review for a sci fi writer, do you tend to ask questions about something in the story that might seem unimportant for sci fi but you catch it from your suspense eye? When you read your reviews, do you ever notice that happening to you? Can you tell when someone outside of the genre you have written is reviewing just based on what they ask and say?
455. Stephen King was on The View today and they ran down a list asking him "where did you get the idea for..." So my question is this - what was your most unusual bit of inspiration, something that lead you to include it either as a major plot point or small addition to a story?
456. What would you think about a story that uses only text messages? Would you ever write one?
457. Of the guys (not their misc...), do you find you have a hard time torturing one of them but not some of the others? Are there things you refuse to do to one that you would have no problem doing to another?
458. What about reading? Do you enjoy reading one being hurt over the others? Is there someone you can't deal with being bodily harmed?
459. How long are you willing to wait to read an update before you give up on a story? If the author tends to take a long time between updates, do you find you have to go back and reread the previous chapters before reading the new one? If the author takes too much time to update, do you find yourself less excited to read when it is finally updated or hesitant to read something else by that author?
460. Does anyone else feel like they have lost their writing mojo? Not just for fan fiction in general?
461. For the people in a writing funk, what is something that would help get you out of it? Why do you think you ended up in a writing funk in the first place?
462. Have you ever held back on writing or posting something because you were worried about the reaction it would get?
463. How would you describe your writing style?
464. How do you tend to portray each of the boys?
465. If you do use a female lead or any other lead besides the boys, do they tend to follow a pattern? Do you tend to use the same characters?
466. What do you feel are the most overused things in fanfic?
467. What do you think are the biggest misconceptions in fanfic or maybe the specific genres you tend to write?
468. Use either the last story you worked on or the one you are currently working on to answer the following questions.
- Have you updated it regularly? If not, why?
- Is it something you normally write or is/was it out of your comfort zone?
- What made you decided to write it?
- How were the reviews? Did you get a lot of feedback?
- Do you plan on completing it?
- Are there plans for a sequel or was it a sequel?
- Overall were you/are you happy with the result?
469. What's your current status as far as fanfic goes? Are you reading anything? Writing anything? Thinking about writing anything? Just post an update!
470. What are some things you learned about yourself this year that you maybe didn't realize before? Obviously this doesn't have to be totally fanfic writing or reading related but maybe try to include at least one fanfic related thing if you can.
471. How much do you write for yourself, and how much do you write for other people? When you're planning a story or writing a chapter, do you think about what your readers' reactions will be or how it will be received? Do you care? Does it ever influence your writing?
472. Is there anyone who regularly posts on the forum that has a story with zero reviews? Which isn't as one shot?
473. Do you write better under pressure or when the pressure's off?
474. What's your weirdest writing habit?
475. Do you usually set your stories in a specific time/year (whether past or present) or try to be vague about when they take place?
476. Have you ever recycled one of your own storylines? As in, written a story with a plot that was essentially the same or similar to another one of your stories?
477. Has anyone ever thought about taking one of their older stories and doing a completely different take on it? I don't mean just rewriting on it to make it better if it's something you had written a long time ago. I mean completely changing it plot wise? Using the same moment in time but taking a different story away from it?
478. What story or characters would you most like to read a sequel or spin-off about? And if you were to write one of your own, which of your stories/characters would you do a spin-off/sequel about?
479. Have you ever looked back at one of your stories and regretted writing a major plot point? If you were to go back and rewrite, what would you do differently?
480. Have you ever "jumped the shark" with one of your stories? For anyone not familiar with the phrase, it comes from an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie literally jumps over a shark on water skis, a storyline so ridiculous that it marked the decline of the show. So have you ever had something so ridiculous happen in one of your stories that it ruined the rest of the story? Or have you ever changed your mind about writing something because you realized it would be jumping the shark?
481. Which do you enjoy more, the process of writing or the finished product/story that results from it?
482. If you were a celebrity, how do you think you'd be perceived? Would you be loved, hated etc...
483. What type of actor/actress would you say others would be?
484. What genre do you feel as a writer is the most challenging to write, and what genre is the easiest?
485. What has been your hardest story to write, what has been your easiest, and why?
486. What are your strengths as a writer? Weaknesses?
487. What would you say are the strengths of other writers?
488. If you could pick an era to put the guys in, which era would it be? Can't say 21st century because that's no fun! lol
489. If the boys were in your high school which one(s) if any would have been in your clique? And how would you have perceived the others?
490. What fics will you absolutely not read? Genre-wise or whatever.
491. What fanfic gets you all choked up, and what scene if you could choose one.
492. What fanfic makes you bust out laughing and what scene?
493. This one's going to take some searching, but what has been your most reviewed chapter, and why do you think that was?
494. What story of yours has the most reviews and which has the least?
495. What is it that makes a story truly interesting to you? For instance if you like one type of story will you read it no matter what? Suspense, angst, slash etc...
496. What is something you normally wouldn't read (a certain genre, storyline, lead character, etc.)? Have you ever actually read that kind of story? If so, what got you to read it? If not, what would it take to get you to read it?
497. If you commit to reading something and just stop, do you bother to explain to the author why? Or do you just kind of shrug it off?
498. Have any of you ever gotten reviews like [the above question]? If so, do you appreciate knowing the truth, even if the truth hurts?
499. Is it really that noticeable when someone stops reviewing?
500. Is there a way I can get my inspiration back, anyone have any suggestions? Cause I feel like I have tried everything. Have you ever gotten so stuck om a story you thought about a complete re do?