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[RokofAges75]

I'm impressed with your ability to come up with all these questions, Dee!  You are on your way to becoming the next Oprah of Fanfiction! LOL


How do you come up with character names for your stories? (Other than the obvious, "Well, Nick is "Nick.")
I hate coming up with character names because I usually spend way longer than necessary thinking about them.  To avoid this problem, I name most of my minor characters (typically nurses, doctors, police officers, etc.) after readers who have given me feedback on that story or people who have helped inspire the idea, like authors of other stuff I read for inspiration.  I put more thought into naming important characters.  I try to pick a name that says something about the character.  For example, with Claire in Broken, I wanted a "plain Jane" kind of name - simple and classic without being overly feminine or Mary Sue-ish because Claire was meant to be a down-to-earth, no-frills kind of gal.  The name Claire means "bright and clear," so I thought it worked for her being a bright spot in Nick's life.  I actually didn't like the name Claire at all back then; I thought it was an old lady name.  After using it so much, it's grown on me since then.  


What are the essential characteristic s of a hero you can root for? Are there certain aspects of the Boys you play up if they're in the hero role?
Heroes need to be both likeable and relatable.  They have to have some vulnerability, not be completely superhuman.  I typically write Nick or Brian in the hero role, so I'll answer this for them.  With Nick, I play up his loyalty and love for the other boys, as well as his temper and tendency to get emotional and wear his heart on his sleeve.  With Brian, I play up his faith by having him turn to God and the power of prayer in tough situations (or, in the case of Song for the Undead, have him turn away from God and lose his faith).  I use his strength and athleticism as well.  He's small, but mighty.


What do you do to get inside your characters' heads?
I think, "What would I do in this situation?" and then consider if my character(s) would react the same way or differently and why.  I try to picture scenes like a movie and imagine the Boys acting them out to see if they seem realistic.  If I can't picture them acting a certain way or saying a certain line, I usually change it.


If you could be a character from one of your stories, who would it be and why?
Obviously my 00Carter alter ego Red Jewel because she gets to take care of sexy secret agents who look like the Backstreet Boys.  Dream job!

Otherwise, I would be Cary in Curtain Call because she has a lot of characteristic s I admire - a nurturing personality, a job as a nurse practitioner, a cute vintage sense of style, and musical talent.  I just wouldn't want to go through the heartbreak I put her through.


What's the trickiest thing about writing characters of the opposite gender?
Not making them seem too feminine LOL.


Does one of your characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
I will always have a soft spot for Broken Nick.  He lived in my head for five years of fanfic bliss, and I loved writing him and all his drama.  He was endearing at a time when real life Nick was rather disappointing, going through his ghetto fab phase and dating Paris Hilton.


Now describe that character in three words.
Emo, romantic, resilient


Which of your characters do you relate to the most?
Gretchen in Song for the Undead is probably the character I've put the most of myself into, so she's most relatable to me.


Do you often put aspects of yourself into your characters?
As writers, I think we all put little bits of ourselves into our characters, whether we realize it or not.  I have intentionally put aspects of myself into characters, like being a teacher, living in Illinois, or liking the same things I like.


And just for fun:

Go back to that character you said holds a special place in your heart and think about the other characters in their story. They can only use each character once, so which character from their story would they pick to:

a. be trapped in the wilderness with? (can be frigid or tropical wilderness) Why?  Kevin because he's outdoorsy and probably has the most survival skills

b. spend the night in a haunted house with? Why?  Claire because they would just end up laughing and making fun of the whole experience

c. have for a boss? Why?  AJ because he would be a fun boss

d. pull off a heist with? Why?  Howie because he's smart, and no one would ever suspect him

e. be on the Amazing Race with? Why?  Brian because they would have fun together. Frick and Frack for life!

And because these are fun anyway, just answer for yourself with the Boys. You can only use each one once. Cheesy

Which Boy would you pick to:

a. be trapped in the wilderness with? (can be frigid or tropical wilderness) Why?  Brian so we could snuggle together for warmth (or so he could be shirtless on the beach in a tropical wilderness situation).

b. spend the night in a haunted house with? Why?  Nick because I think he would be fun to go ghost-hunting with.  He would get into it and have good reactions to seeing or hearing anything remotely scary.

c. have for a boss? Why?  Howie because he's business-savvy and would be a nice, fair boss

d. pull off a heist with? Why?  Kevin because I think he would be good at coming up with a plan and carrying it out stealthily

e. be on the Amazing Race with? Why?  AJ because he and I would just have fun with it and enjoy the experience without getting too competitive

[RokofAges75]

This is how my mother feels about the Backstreet Boys to a T.

LOL Same with my family!

So there's the good news, I suppose. Editing PBox did not derail PNecklace from being written, even after about two months off. I also have two friends that would be willing to beta read an OF version of PBox, so now I need to decide if I want to focus on that or keep writing PNecklace. I think at the moment I'm going to go with writing PNecklace since I have some pretty solid plans on the next ten chapters or so.

I'm glad your editing project did not derail PNecklace!  Hopefully you can get back into the writing groove.

[RokofAges75]

My brain was determined to not move on until I found the correct word instead of the general vibe. Sometimes writing is exhausting. I found it, so carry on, y'all.

I hate that feeling!  What word did you go with?

[RokofAges75]

How does it feel officially starting a new thing? I feel like a first line is always daunting. I always get stuck on what would be the perfect opening. I slept late too and it's totally sunny out. Maybe the full moon a couple days ago was just exhausting for all of us.

It feels good to get that first line out of the way!  I agree; it is daunting.  I've been imagining the opening scene of this story for a long time, but I hadn't figured out how to actually start it, so now I feel better about things.

It's been a gloomy day here - freezing rain with snow on the way later tonight.  It's a gross, slushy mess outside.  Perfect day to stay in and write (or sleep and catch up on TV LOL).

I like fanfic related dreams, they happen to me a lot while writing and then I hope I can remember the scenes in the morning! What don't you like about fanfic related dreams? Is it that yours are less "interesting plot elements" and more "I forgot table 34's ranch!!"? Because I hate those "I forgot table 34's ranch" moments. They will still wake me up in the dead of night and I haven't worked at a restaurant in five years at this point.

I guess it's because my stories are mostly all sad and/or horrifying, so I don't want to have nightmares about them that feel real.  Luckily I rarely remember my dreams anymore, so this has never really been a problem for me.

I have never worked in a restaurant, but I have back-to-school nightmares every August that are probably similar to the "I forgot table 34's ranch" dream.  I'm guessing you probably do too - every teacher I know does.  Mine are usually some version of "It's the first day of school, and I forgot to prepare, and also no one has a sharpened pencil" or "The class is out of control, and I can't get them back."

If all the Boys worked at a school... Hmm... Is this a high school, an elementary school, or a middle school? I think that would change my answers. Please note, I'm actively avoiding "music education" for their roles, because obviously they could do that. But offhand I could see Kevin as the principal, Nick strikes me as wacky science teacher material complete with DNA tie and lab coat for fun (today we get to blow stuff up, muahaha), Brian would be a math teacher (I went Econ originally, but couldn't think of what other History classes he would teach), AJ some sort of creative arts teacher (I can't decide between visual arts or theatrical arts), and Howie would make a great English, History, or Foreign Language teacher (pick your poison).

I guess junior high or high school because I was thinking in terms of them teaching different subjects, too, as opposed to grade levels.  I totally agree with Nick as the fun science teacher.  I was thinking Kevin or Howie would make a good principal too, but I could also see Howie being a math teacher because of his financial smarts.  I would make Brian the P.E. teacher/coach because he's always said he would probably be a P.E. (or music) teacher if he wasn't a Backstreet Boy.  I had the hardest time with AJ, but I agree that he would probably be some kind of arts teacher - I was thinking theater.

[nicksgal]

I'm impressed with your ability to come up with all these questions, Dee!  You are on your way to becoming the next Oprah of Fanfiction! LOL

I would accept that role proudly, I learned from the best! (Mare, of course.) Topics tend to pop in my head and then I come up with questions or google question ideas based on it (so I can't take all the credit for all of these questions).

As usual, I'm not quoting the ones where I have nothing to say except "yup" because then my answers would be very short and boring, haha.

How do you come up with character names for your stories? (Other than the obvious, "Well, Nick is "Nick.")
I hate coming up with character names because I usually spend way longer than necessary thinking about them.

For example, with Claire in Broken, I wanted a "plain Jane" kind of name - simple and classic without being overly feminine or Mary Sue-ish because Claire was meant to be a down-to-earth, no-frills kind of gal.

Same. I am forever blighted by the curse of "meaningful names" for major characters. I like all those reasons for "Claire". It's a good fit for the character (and now I remember why I misquoted you re:romance, my fanfic memory is a bit hazy after all these years away and I think I was conflating my memories of the Nick/Claire romantic aspects with the rest of your body of work at the time).

What are the essential characteristic s of a hero you can root for? Are there certain aspects of the Boys you play up if they're in the hero role?
Heroes need to be both likeable and relatable.  They have to have some vulnerability, not be completely superhuman.  I typically write Nick or Brian in the hero role, so I'll answer this for them.  With Nick, I play up his loyalty and love for the other boys, as well as his temper and tendency to get emotional and wear his heart on his sleeve.  With Brian, I play up his faith by having him turn to God and the power of prayer in tough situations (or, in the case of Song for the Undead, have him turn away from God and lose his faith).  I use his strength and athleticism as well.  He's small, but mighty.

I love all of this and might just quote it as my answer, haha. You're right, Brian is small, but mighty. That's a perfect way to describe how I write him as well.

If you could be a character from one of your stories, who would it be and why?
Obviously my 00Carter alter ego Red Jewel because she gets to take care of sexy secret agents who look like the Backstreet Boys.  Dream job!

Otherwise, I would be Cary in Curtain Call because she has a lot of characteristic s I admire - a nurturing personality, a job as a nurse practitioner, a cute vintage sense of style, and musical talent.  I just wouldn't want to go through the heartbreak I put her through.

Obviously Carter Girls, haha. Do you often find you project your stronger characteristic s onto your characters or do you tend to give them characteristic s you wish you had?

Does one of your characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?
I will always have a soft spot for Broken Nick.  He lived in my head for five years of fanfic bliss, and I loved writing him and all his drama.  He was endearing at a time when real life Nick was rather disappointing, going through his ghetto fab phase and dating Paris Hilton.


Now describe that character in three words.
Emo, romantic, resilient

It is like they take up residence in our brains next to a nice, cozy synapse, isn't it? Broken Nick is way more endearing than ghetto fab Nick. Hands down. Even when he's emo.

And just for fun:

Go back to that character you said holds a special place in your heart and think about the other characters in their story. They can only use each character once, so which character from their story would they pick to:

I loved all of these, but there were a couple of times I thought, am I Nick? Because some of those are my answers for the same reasons.

And because these are fun anyway, just answer for yourself with the Boys. You can only use each one once. Cheesy

Which Boy would you pick to:

a. be trapped in the wilderness with? (can be frigid or tropical wilderness) Why?  Brian so we could snuggle together for warmth (or so he could be shirtless on the beach in a tropical wilderness situation).

I know they're cheesy, but fun. If you had a good time thinking and laughing about it, then I accomplished my goal!

I loved all the answers, but especially that the wilderness one was Brian so he can be shirtless on the beach or huddled for warmth, haha.

[nicksgal]

LOL Same with my family!


I'm glad your editing project did not derail PNecklace!  Hopefully you can get back into the writing groove.

I think that's all of our families if we can admit that we were ever teenyboppers.

I think it's going to be okay! I've been busy pondering my answers to my own questions instead of writing, but I did that to myself.

I hate that feeling!  What word did you go with?

"Benevolence," but I still kind of hate it because it changed my planned sentence structure from "______ were (adjective 1) and (adjective 2) (noun)s." Because while it fits, it doesn't fit that sentence structure. Maybe I'll like it better when I come back to it.

[nicksgal]

It feels good to get that first line out of the way!  I agree; it is daunting.  I've been imagining the opening scene of this story for a long time, but I hadn't figured out how to actually start it, so now I feel better about things.

It's been a gloomy day here - freezing rain with snow on the way later tonight.  It's a gross, slushy mess outside.  Perfect day to stay in and write (or sleep and catch up on TV LOL).

I hate when you have an opening scene, but nothing you type feels like the right way to start it out. I'm glad you found it, because that is a relief!

Gloomy days are the perfect day to write or do nothing. I'm much less likely to clean my house on a gloomy day, for instance.

I guess it's because my stories are mostly all sad and/or horrifying, so I don't want to have nightmares about them that feel real.  Luckily I rarely remember my dreams anymore, so this has never really been a problem for me.

I have never worked in a restaurant, but I have back-to-school nightmares every August that are probably similar to the "I forgot table 34's ranch" dream.  I'm guessing you probably do too - every teacher I know does.  Mine are usually some version of "It's the first day of school, and I forgot to prepare, and also no one has a sharpened pencil" or "The class is out of control, and I can't get them back."

That's true too! The nightmare portions are particularly horrible because then the image just gets stuck in your head. Or at least mine. Sometimes I remember my dreams, but it's never been whole dreams, it's always just been tiny bits.

Oh yes, I hate those "I am unprepared and no one has materials" dreams. One that reoccurs with some regularity is "All the kids ate cake for breakfast and they will crash before rest time (but not sleep during rest time). Meanwhile, it's snowing, so we can't go outside! Oh look, now they're chucking blocks at each other! Someone help!" It's exhausting.

I guess junior high or high school because I was thinking in terms of them teaching different subjects, too, as opposed to grade levels.  I totally agree with Nick as the fun science teacher.  I was thinking Kevin or Howie would make a good principal too, but I could also see Howie being a math teacher because of his financial smarts.  I would make Brian the P.E. teacher/coach because he's always said he would probably be a P.E. (or music) teacher if he wasn't a Backstreet Boy.  I had the hardest time with AJ, but I agree that he would probably be some kind of arts teacher - I was thinking theater.

I thought Howie for math too, but I'd already given it to Brian. I think with his nurturing talents and varied interests/skills, Howie would make a great teacher in whatever subject he wanted.

I totally forgot PE teacher when I was typing and I don't know why. Brian would be great at that. If he was in the coach roll, he could also be a teacher in a different subject. At my high school, not all of the sports coaches were PE teachers. Our football coach was a history teacher and then an assistant principle while I was there. The cheer/dance coach was always the assistant principal while I was there too, but I'm sure she did something else before becoming an assistant principal.

[nicksgal]

How do you come up with character names for your stories? (Other than the obvious, "Well, Nick is "Nick.")

As I mentioned, I spend so much of my early story planning in the time suck of "meaningful character names" especially because I like to flesh my characters out first. Take for instance the excessive amount of time I spent coming up with the perfect name for my character "Uriel" (original fiction) who has light-based powers and originally came back from a car accident coma, haha.

For fanfic, since I know I fall into this trap, I try to be less picky and more general. So I usually have two requirements, followed by a third if it doesn't take too long: 1. Do I like the name? 2. Will I get sick of seeing it however many times it appears on the page? Option 3. Can I stumble on a name I like that also fits into the character or something that happens to them? That's how you get things like "Renee."

I'm sure you're now wondering, if like me, you had a bit of a weeb phase in addition to your BSB love. Yes, I started writing PBox in the height of my weeby Japanophile phase and "Minako" was picked because of my love for the Sailor Moon character, but the meaning also fit nicely: "Holy child" for the seeker and hopeful wielder of a "Holy Box."

On the topic of the Boys, well, Nick just seems like such a "Nick" right?

What are the essential characteristic s of a hero you can root for? Are there certain aspects of the Boys you play up if they're in the hero role?

I said I would quote Julie's answer because I liked it so much, so I will.

Heroes need to be both likeable and relatable.  They have to have some vulnerability, not be completely superhuman.  I typically write Nick or Brian in the hero role, so I'll answer this for them.  With Nick, I play up his loyalty and love for the other boys, as well as his temper and tendency to get emotional and wear his heart on his sleeve.  With Brian, I play up his faith by having him turn to God and the power of prayer in tough situations (or, in the case of Song for the Undead, have him turn away from God and lose his faith).  I use his strength and athleticism as well.  He's small, but mighty.

I think I would add that even though you want your hero to seem heroic, in addition to that relatability and vulnerability, they really need some great flaws that they can learn to overcome, manage, or that can really knock them down.

To me, any Nick is always defined by his loyalty and his "get back up"ness. I also tend to make my Nicks pretty hot-headed and reactive instead of proactive. I think a young Nick is almost too trusting and an older Nick is bit "world weary." Put them all together and... well, there's a reason he's the hero of so many BSB fanfics.

What do you do to get inside your characters' heads?

Like Julie, I also think about how they would react to a situation. If it starts feeling too much like me and not them, I start rewriting.

If you could be a character from one of your stories, who would it be and why?

None of them? While they all have parts of me, I don't think I'd want to be in any of their situations. I need to stop being a sadist. The love interest in Beta Sigma Beta may have been a good choice, but I never got it to the point of knowing how it would end.

What's the trickiest thing about writing characters of the opposite gender?

Just like Julie said, making sure whatever they do or say doesn't seem too girly! I've usually thought specifically to ex-boyfriends and my husband if I'm not sure about something in particular. Though I wish I had a "boy consultant" back in my teeny fanfic days when I was so prone to those "Isn't Gypsydoodle great?" conversation moments.

Does one of your characters hold a special place in your heart? If so, why?

Y'all know the answer, I could just skip this one. PBox Nick, even though you're annoyingly loud and persistent, you're my buddy forever. Who knew you were an epic waiting to happen when I had a dream about demons with boxes and spent hours in the library researching the Four Gods for fun? I've just always loved how he grows from the small thing he is at the beginning of PBox to this big thing capable of great change for all things at the end of the whole story without compromising what becomes really important to him along the way, even when compromising those things is the easiest for surviving. I also love that he's constantly looking for ways to do something about anything.

Now describe that character in three words.

PBox Nick is a "plucky, gentle knight." Take all the layered connotations you'd like from those three words, they're all meant to be there.

Which of your characters do you relate to the most?

Probably the protagonist of my OF deriving from Ancient Egyptian mythology. She has the most me in her of all my characters and that's probably the reason I have worked and reworked that story for the past almost 20 years.

Do you often put aspects of yourself into your characters?

I agree with Julie, I think all writers do this, it just has to seem right for the characters. PBox Nick, for instance, gets a lot of my "loyalty over sense" added to him.



See? These are fun.

Go back to that character you said holds a special place in your heart and think about the other characters in their story. They can only use each character once, so which character from their story would they pick to:


a. be trapped in the wilderness with? (can be frigid or tropical wilderness) Why?

Kevin would know the most about which things we can eat and which things could kill us. If I eat something poisonous, he could heal me. But you do know that we could just fly away from wherever? Unless you mean physically trapped by chains... If we're physically trapped by chains, can I change my answer?

b. spend the night in a haunted house with? Why?

A what? Oh, like the demon shells stuck in the castle? Brian could purify them and then they wouldn't be there anymore and it would just be a regular house. And then we'd have fun together.

c. have for a boss? Why?

A what? Oh, like a lord... Howie seems like he could find something for me to do when we finish finding everyone else and are done with the box. I think Howie likes me enough that whatever it is would be fun.

d. pull off a heist with? Why?

A what? I wouldn't steal anything, but I guess AJ can turn into lots of different things that could make it easier to be sneaky.

e. be on the Amazing Race with? Why?

The what? It's a game where you go different places? Minako and I already play lots of games while we all travel. Are we doing this "Amazing Race" thing? She never told me that we were playing this...

I realized after writing these that poor PBox Nick would understand the wilderness question as is and nothing else since he is from what is essentially a warring states feudal era. Poor Nick.



Some of these next ones, I had an answer right away and some of them, I had to weigh my options.

Which Boy would you pick to:

a. be trapped in the wilderness with? (can be frigid or tropical wilderness) Why?

Kevin with all his backwoods, farming Kentuckyness would know how to survive. I believe Kevin can keep me alive.

b. spend the night in a haunted house with? Why?

I had a hard time deciding with this one, so this is kind of my "you're the one left" answer. Ghosts freak me out, so I think Brian would make it light-hearted and fun even when it was scary.

c. have for a boss? Why?

Howie would make a great boss. He cares about other people and I think while he's being a Backstreet Boy, he would trust his employees to get the job done within parameters, but according to their own ideas.

d. pull off a heist with? Why?

AJ would be so down to get into any role he needed to play for the heist to be successful and even multiple character roles. He's not my go-to guy for diffusing a bomb, for instance, but he is my go-to guy if I needed distracting characters.

e. be on the Amazing Race with? Why?

Nick would take it seriously and I want to win. Plus I think he would come up with the most creative, and effective, solutions to challenges. And if it was in the name of winning, I don't think it would be hard to convince him to part with some funding, haha.

[nicksgal]

This is only slightly related to writing, but I know you all would appreciate it. So one of my friends has been updating his tinder profile and put "what's the best fruit?" in his bio because of a fruit discourse we've been having for months. The girl answer durians and he decided he needed a new question, because who thinks durians are a better fruit than something like bananas? (Back on topic.) He queried all of us for new questions and one of my other friends wrote the following:

You're offered $10million today. Catch is you now have a killer snail out to get you -- if it touches you, you die. It always knows your location, cannot die, and its sole mission in life is to find you and kill you. Do you take the money?

Most of my friends picked the money, but I (as a writer who understands the psychological stress of things wanting to find and murder you) said I would not take the money.

Yesterday, he asked us: Are snails smart? He decided that if snails are dumb, he would take the money. But he recognized that a smart snail could possibly "drag out the murder for years, so you're never quite sure if it's nearby or not." I asked "So you want to know if it's a 28 Days snail or a 28 Days Later snail, basically? I'll bite. I love researching interesting things on the internet." (As you all know.) So I looked up articles on scientific research about the intelligence of snails. (There's mixed results, if you were wondering.) And then he asked me, "You always said you wouldn't take the money. What do you think the snail would be like? If you were the snail, what would you do?" And, oh boy, were my friends not prepared for the answer! Weird research rabbit hole writing me is not the one they are used to!

Before I tell you all what I said, would you take the money or not? And why?

[RokofAges75]

I would not take the money.  I don't need the added stress of having to watch out for Terminator snails.  I love that you went down a rabbit hole researching the intelligence of snails though LOL.

[RokofAges75]

now I remember why I misquoted you re:romance, my fanfic memory is a bit hazy after all these years away and I think I was conflating my memories of the Nick/Claire romantic aspects with the rest of your body of work at the time).

That makes sense.  Nick/Claire was probably all I talked about here in terms of my own fanfic for the first couple years this forum was around because Broken/BMS was basically all I wrote between 2003 and 2008.  Het romance was a lot more popular then, so there were a lot of us on here writing Nick romances at that time.  I've never thought of myself as a romance writer, per se, because that's never been my main genre, but I've written a lot of "medical drama with a hint of romance."

Do you often find you project your stronger characteristic s onto your characters or do you tend to give them characteristic s you wish you had?

Probably a bit of both, but for the characters who are meant to be love interests, I definitely give them more characteristic s I wish I had to make them more appealing to whichever boy I want to be interested in them.  They're prettier, wittier, etc.  (But hopefully not to the extent of being Mary Sues.)

I know they're cheesy, but fun. If you had a good time thinking and laughing about it, then I accomplished my goal!

Haha, I think the word "cheesy" showed up in place of the emoji you used when I copy/pasted your questions.  I did not type that!

[RokofAges75]

[For fanfic, since I know I fall into this trap, I try to be less picky and more general. So I usually have two requirements, followed by a third if it doesn't take too long: 1. Do I like the name? 2. Will I get sick of seeing it however many times it appears on the page? Option 3. Can I stumble on a name I like that also fits into the character or something that happens to them? That's how you get things like "Renee."

I like the name Renee!  Those seem like good questions to ask yourself when considering a name.  Although sometimes (as in the case of Claire), I use names that I don't personally like, but like for the character.  But like I said, you use a name enough and it grows on you.

Can anyone remember alternate names they considered for original characters?  I know I had a list of other options for Claire, and the other one I was strongly considering was "Keelie."  Which seems so weird to me now because Keelie seems like a totally different girl than Claire.  Keelie is like a cute, ditzy cheerleader kind of name, and Claire couldn't be further from that description.  I don't remember if I realized that and liked the juxtaposition or just liked the name Keelie, but ugh.  I'm glad I went with Claire LOL.

I think I would add that even though you want your hero to seem heroic, in addition to that relatability and vulnerability, they really need some great flaws that they can learn to overcome, manage, or that can really knock them down.

To me, any Nick is always defined by his loyalty and his "get back up"ness. I also tend to make my Nick's pretty hot-headed and reactive instead of proactive. I think a young Nick is almost too trusting and an older Nick is bit "world weary." Put them all together and... well, there's a reason he's the hero of so many BSB fanfics.

I agree.  Nick is lovably flawed.  He makes for a versatile character because he's shown us so many sides of himself over the years, which makes him easy to write.  He has a more interesting back story than the others because of his dysfunctional family and personal demons, so the drama comes easily.

[nicksgal]

I would not take the money.  I don't need the added stress of having to watch out for Terminator snails.  I love that you went down a rabbit hole researching the intelligence of snails though LOL.

Exactly! You get it. I think all of them are silly for taking the money because it would be so stressful.

[nicksgal]

That makes sense.  Nick/Claire was probably all I talked about here in terms of my own fanfic for the first couple years this forum was around because Broken/BMS was basically all I wrote between 2003 and 2008.  Het romance was a lot more popular then, so there were a lot of us on here writing Nick romances at that time.  I've never thought of myself as a romance writer, per se, because that's never been my main genre, but I've written a lot of "medical drama with a hint of romance."

I think every story in that time was "x with a hint of romance," maybe we just all thought Nick needed another good person in his life besides the Boys. I stumbled on a post called "Dee wants to write a fluffy romance, halp" and I thought about that and went "I was surprised I wanted to write a fluffy romance?" Did I really think fluffy romances were out of my wheelhouse? Because PBox has the fluffiest little romance ever in it. Whatever that other story is obviously never got very far! Maybe because in general I'm not a huge fan of stories where the main plot is only a romance. Take Les Mis, my very favorite book. Sure Marius and Cosette have kind of a fluffy little romance going on, but there's also that whole June Rebellion thing and Valjean's conflicted terminator snail that is Javert. Also, on the "all I wrote" thing: if y'all were not excited about PBox coming back, then you must be "thrilled" that it's still all I have to talk about a decade later, haha.

Probably a bit of both, but for the characters who are meant to be love interests, I definitely give them more characteristic s I wish I had to make them more appealing to whichever boy I want to be interested in them.  They're prettier, wittier, etc.  (But hopefully not to the extent of being Mary Sues.)

I think there's a difference between prettier/wittier/etcetera and prettiest/wittiest/etcetera. That's the Mary Sue line. I always like to think of Hitch with love interests/characteristics like that. I can't remember the movie star character's name off hand (Allegra? I know it was weird) but all the things she said she liked most about Albert were the things Hitch said to absolutely change. But then if you go too quirky, you might end up in "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" territory, which is also bad in its own way for a story.

Haha, I think the word "cheesy" showed up in place of the emoji you used when I copy/pasted your questions.  I did not type that!

HAHA, well now it's even funnier.

[nicksgal]

I like the name Renee!  Those seem like good questions to ask yourself when considering a name.  Although sometimes (as in the case of Claire), I use names that I don't personally like, but like for the character.  But like I said, you use a name enough and it grows on you.

Can anyone remember alternate names they considered for original characters?  I know I had a list of other options for Claire, and the other one I was strongly considering was "Keelie."  Which seems so weird to me now because Keelie seems like a totally different girl than Claire.  Keelie is like a cute, ditzy cheerleader kind of name, and Claire couldn't be further from that description.  I don't remember if I realized that and liked the juxtaposition or just liked the name Keelie, but ugh.  I'm glad I went with Claire LOL.

If it doesn't grow on you, you're doomed! I like the name Keelie too! And I have used it for a cute, ditzy cheerleader type. I do sometimes like to give characters subversive names, but it really depends on the character.

I'm pretty sure I almost named Minako "Aya" instead, again for another character I really liked. I looked it up now and saw some of the meanings in various languages. I'm assuming I actively decided not to name my fluffy love interest "amazing and wonderful" to avoid Mary Sueism.

I agree.  Nick is lovably flawed.  He makes for a versatile character because he's shown us so many sides of himself over the years, which makes him easy to write.  He has a more interesting back story than the others because of his dysfunctional family and personal demons, so the drama comes easily.

Poor Nick, drama constantly follows him, but I always root for him (whether that's fanfic or real life)!