Hi Steph. Nice to meet you! 

I finally logged back into my account on the main site just to see what my reviews were like back in the day (i.e. 2010... I feel like I'm so much younger than everyone else. I'm 30 currently, for reference) And I just want to give great thanks and immense apologies to all my favorite writers for putting up with my 15 year old brain's idea of a review... there's so much all caps and pestering authors for updates. It's like the writing equivalent of pestering an actor on if their working or what their next gig is... ugh. (I'm glad that AC taught me the importance of engagement. I remember that there was challenges back in the day to review every story you read in a month or something, I think; but, like, you guys could have said something. Lol.) I'm cringing and and laughing and yet, oddly, nostalgic at being able to view the reviews at all... I'm still in shock that so much time has passed.

I've watched the first episode of The Carters so far, I'll have to watch the other one tonight if I can.  It is heartbreaking how those poor kids were treated by their parents.  I knew they had it tough, but seeing all the old videos of them as kids, they just looked like they were neglected.  They saw Nick as the cash machine and then put the brothers against each other and were stealing off them both.  That's just awful

Julie congrats on your site turning 25, you definitely should feel proud of that

Talking of fanfics being turned into movies, I could easily see both Julie and Mare's being turned into movies and I'd happily pay to see them in the cinema too.  You've both got amazing stories.

It really is heartbreaking!  I used to feel like I exaggerated my portrayal of Jane, in particular, in older stories like Broken, where I made her an antagonist.  But after seeing the awful way she talked about Nick and Lauren on Facebook, how she posted photos of Aaron's bathroom after he died, and now this documentary, I know I didn't exaggerate one bit.  If anything, she's worse than I wrote her.  I know not everyone is fortunate enough to grow up in a stable family with good parents, but seeing this makes me appreciate mine even more.  It's nice to see Nick and Angel trying so hard to break the cycle and do better for their own kids.

Thanks for the compliments! ☺️  Back at ya - Save a Prayer would make an amazing movie!  I wish Nick would make another boyband movie; he could recruit NKOTB to be in that one and bring Bot Fly Jordan to life! LOL

Thanks for the offer! I did quite a bit of research on brain injuries while writing this story and it was kind of fun. It's more the making it not overly cliche bit I felt I struggled with. Maybe if I ever decide to write a medical type of drama, I'll definitely be coming to you with questions and asking for advice.

I was hoping that I would get some of my old readers to check out that BSB crossover story but none of them did. I think it depends on what crosses over. Like you said, it seems real person like to cross over with real person and characters with characters. Even though the one I crossed over was an AU for both. One of my goals which is what eventually happened in the BSB fandom, is getting my readers to follow me from one story to the next regardless of who it features. There are so many different fandoms and categories on AO3 that you can have an entirely different set of readers from one story to the next which has happened to me from my very first fic to the duology I'm writing now. The next story I am planning on working on is from the same universe as the first fic I wrote. I say universe because it's basically new character development for the Roys. They aren't bad people lol but the shipping element that drew my readers to this current story will be missing in the new one.

I have been lucky to find steady readers for every story I've posted so far as well as commenters, which I know from going on reddit and seeing some things they post there, is a rarity unless it's a super huge fandom, which both Succession and BSB aren't. So, it's probably a lot to hope they'll follow me to this next one. We shall see. At least I do feel like I have a new story in me. For a little while, I was thinking this was going to be the last one.

Anytime!

Crossovers are tricky because, for me anyway, I usually have to be a fan of both or at least knowledgeable about both fandoms to want to read a crossover fic.  Not every reader is that way, though; there are some people who are fine with reading fandom-blind.  But they do seem to perform well in the BSB fandom, so they definitely have their audience.

I think the size and structure of AO3 makes it harder to develop a loyal following of readers than it was here.  The BSB fandom is small enough that I recognize the usernames of the regulars who are active and update a lot, but it would be easy to get lost in a bigger fandom.  While readers and writers can and do interact in the comments, that's really the only social element of AO3, whereas we also had the discussion board to build a sense of community and get to know each other better here.  Once I reached that point of having friends within the BSB fanfic community, I naturally became more interested in following their work over the years, and vice versa.  But at least readers can still subscribe to authors whose work they like on AO3 and be notified when they post new stories, which will hopefully prompt them to check out more of your work in the future.

Thanks, Steph! 

Hi Lindsey and welcome back.  I'm Steph and been a member on here for years and still pop in often.

I've watched the first episode of The Carters so far, I'll have to watch the other one tonight if I can.  It is heartbreaking how those poor kids were treated by their parents.  I knew they had it tough, but seeing all the old videos of them as kids, they just looked like they were neglected.  They saw Nick as the cash machine and then put the brothers against each other and were stealing off them both.  That's just awful

Julie congrats on your site turning 25, you definitely should feel proud of that

Talking of fanfics being turned into movies, I could easily see both Julie and Mare's being turned into movies and I'd happily pay to see them in the cinema too.  You've both got amazing stories.

That's cool that you write original fiction!  Fanfic is probably great practice for that, but original fiction comes with its own challenges as far as creating purely original characters and developing the relationships between them from scratch.  I haven't branched out into original fiction, but I have written AU, which is a nice in-between.

I feel you on the guilt thing, Mare.  I've mostly gotten over that after years of torturing the Boys in my stories, but sometimes I still write stuff that makes me question why I spend my free time this way and worry about how they would react if they ever read it.  I'm sure that is freeing to move from writing about real people to fictional characters.

Thanks for the offer! I did quite a bit of research on brain injuries while writing this story and it was kind of fun. It's more the making it not overly cliche bit I felt I struggled with. Maybe if I ever decide to write a medical type of drama, I'll definitely be coming to you with questions and asking for advice.

I was hoping that I would get some of my old readers to check out that BSB crossover story but none of them did. I think it depends on what crosses over. Like you said, it seems real person like to cross over with real person and characters with characters. Even though the one I crossed over was an AU for both. One of my goals which is what eventually happened in the BSB fandom, is getting my readers to follow me from one story to the next regardless of who it features. There are so many different fandoms and categories on AO3 that you can have an entirely different set of readers from one story to the next which has happened to me from my very first fic to the duology I'm writing now. The next story I am planning on working on is from the same universe as the first fic I wrote. I say universe because it's basically new character development for the Roys. They aren't bad people lol but the shipping element that drew my readers to this current story will be missing in the new one.

I have been lucky to find steady readers for every story I've posted so far as well as commenters, which I know from going on reddit and seeing some things they post there, is a rarity unless it's a super huge fandom, which both Succession and BSB aren't. So, it's probably a lot to hope they'll follow me to this next one. We shall see. At least I do feel like I have a new story in me. For a little while, I was thinking this was going to be the last one.

I can tell you moving from real person to characters has been a lot of fun. For me, there was always this tiny feeling of guilt when I was writing, especially the kinds of things I was writing where when I went overboard with things, it used to bother me. That's one of the reasons I always refused to kill off any of the boys in any of my stories. But writing for totally made-up characters, there's none of that guilt and an entire world you can explore, and it has expanded my ability to write original characters while also including romantic elements. Things I have shied away from in the past. I highly recommend! And I'm happy to hear I was some of the first stuff you read. That always makes me smile. 

I read just about anything as long as the summary seems engaging enough… but introspective character stuff seems to be what I seek out the most. I feel like that’s why Mare’s works ended up being some of the first fanfics I read. I’ve dabbled in writing fanfiction in the past; but I haven’t really posted anything because it just felt flat when I compared it to my original fiction stuff that I’m working on prepping to try and get published.

But I planning to try writing fanfic again soon because I’m interested in tv/comic book writing as well… I feel like fanfic could be good applied practice for working with already existing characters and narratives.