March 2008
Prevailing Fate by Nijntje and ARokObsession
http://absolutechaos.net/viewstory.php?sid=5249Njintje's answers
1) Tell us one thing about your story that no one else knows?
Hmm.. that's a difficult first question to answer without giving too much away..
Maybe that it started out as a massive forum collaboration. Like I'd write one sentence/paragraph and someone else was supposed to continue and so on and on. But since we were the only two actually writing it, it soon became our story.
And if you knew that, then you really don't know this (except if you're my awesome co-writer lol):
The letters, which are mentioned near the end of the story.. we have written them. They might end up in some sort of companion piece..
2) How long did it take you to write this entire story?
I'm actually not that sure.. I'd say 2 years and about 4 months?? Maybe A-rok Obsession (A-rok from now on for short lol) has kept record of that.
3) Give us a summary different from the one you have posted on AC, with a few more spoilers to make people tune in.
When Nick tells his bandmates, his brothers, about the fight he has been avoiding, they push him to do everything it takes to survive. While he does, they each face their own demons and battles on their own. Every single action seems to make things worse between them and they feel their friendship is slipping through their hands. At one point they not only wonder if Nick is going to make it through. Brian, A.J., Kevin, Nick and Howie are not sure their bond is really that unbreakable..
(I know, that doesn't contain that much spoilers...)
4) If you could cast this story as a movie who would play the main roles and why?
Like A-rok states below me.. I'd love it if the guys could play themselves, but since that will never happen lol..
I'd like Milo Ventimiglia to be AJ (Peter Petrelli from Heroes)
Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Brian (He was Zack in Saved by the bell and later in NYPD I think)
Matthew Fox as Kevin (Jack from Lost)
Chris Evans as Nick (Chris played the Harvard Hottie in The Nanny Diaries)
Wenthworth Miller as Howie (Michael from Prison Break)
Why? Well, besides their obvious acting talent, I enjoy watching them (a.k.a. in my opinion they are pretty handsome lol). They are a bit older than our guys, but hey, can't help that lol
5) Have you ever thought of giving up on the story and if you did what made you continue to work on it?
Hell yeah.. especially when at one point people (not my co-writer btw) kept on pushing me to update soon etc etc when I was sick for quite some time and had a lot of stuff going on. I was ready to give it up and leave all of the writing up to A-rok. I'm glad I didn't though! Writing PF was so much fun!
6) What was your writing process? (Outline, make it up as you go along, the characters wrote it, I am Tonja and plagerized lol)
Actually, it was mostly > I-think-I'm-gonna-torture-my-co-writer-by-ending-my-part/chapter-in-such-a-way-that-it-will-be-a-big-challenge-to-continue-it.
In other words, we didn't have any outline whatsoever. We never really discussed where the story should be going or how it should end. We did discuss some of the major decisions though, but mostly I(or she) would write a chapter/a few paragraphs, e-mailed them to the other, waited for feedback from the other and so on. At times it was really challenging, but that was exactly what I liked about writing with A-rok.
7) Who was your favorite character in this story and why?
Hmm that's hard.. Kevin and Brian I think.. Although I also really liked writing Howie. It wasn't easy to get 'inside his head', but when I finally managed to, I thought it was a very soothing place to be
8 ) You had to know this was coming, who was your least favorite?
AJ. Well, not really my least favorite.. But for me, he was the hardest character to write.. I am sooo different from him (or the him we know), so it took me ages to kinda think like him. In my opinion A-rok nailed his character though.
Other than him, I really didn't like Leighanne in this story.. Most times she appears, she annoys the hell out of me.
9) Are all the boys in this one? If not why did you choose to exclude them?
Yes, they are. Some have more page-time than others though.. but we really tried to have all of them show you their thoughts and feelings throughout the story.
10) If we like this story...then we'd love what story? (Could be by you or someone else) and obviously tell us why lol
Gosh.. I really don't know. I mean, there are a lot of great stories on AC. But while writing PF I deliberately didn't read any other medical stories in an effort to make PF a less cliché kinda story. And after, I haven't read any as well actually.
'Faceless' is a great story though.. it's not really medical, but still a great read!
And second "Searching for Mercy" by Honey.. Not very medical as well, but it is about friendships that have gone sour or completely bad and how they try to fix things.
Arok's answers:
1) hmmm, i guess a lot of the scenes we ended up with were totally different than what we had mapped out. lol. and we did bat around the idea of a completely different ending that at one point, i think we were gonna go with, then decided not to. also, for those not on DLS, this story started out as a forum challenge, you know, anyone who wanted to post a new chap could do so and nijntje and i ended up taking over and, voila...story!
2) wow, we started in 2005 and finished in 2007.
3) Everyone has their personal demons to deal with and Kevin, Howie, Brian and AJ were no exception. But when the secret Nick's been keeping is revealed to the rest of the group, resolve and walls come crumbling down. During the time their youngest brother needs them the most, all four men find themselves wrapped within their own struggles, fighting to come out on top. Can they put their past behind them to save Nick or will fate take it's course and leave them all with nothing more than a memory of what once was.
...okay, i SUCK at summaries. i apologize now...
4) hahaha, ummm, could we cast all the boys as themselves? that would freakin rock. if not, hmmm, i'm actually not too sure. leo woulda made a kick ass nicky back in the day. but damn, i'm not sure right now.
5) we went through points where it was really hard to keep going with this story, simply because life was getting in the way. lol, i mean, we both had school and jobs and it was hard to plan around that to talk about chapter ideas and what not. i know that for me, it was also hard to just get in the time to write. i did a lot of writing at work and what not but yeah, there were a few points where it got really hard but we prevailed! lol.
6) the writing process was kinda all over the place but mainly, we'd throw ideas around and then go off of those on our own. we did a lot of e-mailing back and forth to see how the chapters were going. usually we'd make a rough outline, then either she or i would write the chapter, pass it back and forth, then give it a seal of approval or change it.
7) i have to admit that i really enjoyed writing kevin's POV during this story, just cuz there was so much to work with but aj was my fave character. i wanted to really show him going through his up's and down's and everything and it was a bit of a challenge but i loved it.
howie was difficult to weave in...just cuz i feel like i "know" him the least but i think we got a good amount of him.
9) yep, they're all in this. gotta love the brotherly love.
10) hmm, i actually can't think of any stories aside from some old school ones. like 'where can we go from here' and a lot of bobbi's stories, like 'alive'. they're stories about the boys fighting to stay together and overcome...it's always nice to see.
