I didn't realize that your latest ones were not AU. lol
I forgive you. LOL I actually thought a bit more about your AU question when it comes to "assigning roles" to the guys. One of the complaints about AU that I've read over the years is that it can't be fanfic if the boys are out of character.
I think that the goal of writing AU is not to just write whatever you want, but to take that character, personality traits and all, and change their surroundings. I've read an equal amount of canon stories where the boys are out of character as I have AU stories. I don't think it's just their occupation that makes it true to life.
One thing I hate is the late 90's stereotypes that everyone read in Teen Beat that have held up all these years even though we've seen that the boys have so many more sides than we ever got to see before. I've always tried to see the other side of the coin, to bring out the parts of their personalities that we don't see on the surface. For example, I have often made Brian a villain in my AU stories, which years ago would have seemed out of character but these days we've seen that he has a dark, angry side and can be a bit of a self-righteous dick. Deviating from him being the class clown, silly, goofy, cartwheeling buffoon doesn't necessarily mean it's out of character.
So I can find something in most of them to fit a variety of character types.
/ENDRANT lol
What is the longest story you've ever written and have you ever considered writing in another fandom?
I regretfully admit that my longest story is... 63 chapters long. The secret of my success when it comes to keeping my stories short is a singular focus, telling only one story without getting sidetracked with other needless dramatic subplots. That is where I went wrong with that behemoth. There are way too many subplots, the story arc went somewhat like this:
Beginning - Introduction of characters - Apparent conflict - Full crisis - Resolution - Full crisis - Resolution - Full crisis - Resolution - End A few too many crises!
I've never considered writing in another fandom. Not sure why, probably because there isn't another fandom that I'm really interested or involved in. I think if I hadn't have started doing this when I was a teenager I probably wouldn't get into it at this age. I just don't get as passionate about things these days, plus the internet is such a time suck!
![Stick out tongue :P](http://absolutechaos.net/fictalk/Smileys/default/tongue0010.gif)