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Nicked from Booky and Cheezey, respectively
Do you read or write fanfiction?
Both. And I archive it, too, though I did a crappier job of it for TC than I'm doing for the elves. Sorry, cats, wish I'd have known as much on web design then as I do now.
When did you first start reading/writing fanfiction?
Okay, it's been a good long time of it... my mum used to have this thing where she'd have us make up stories on our own, and I know we swiped characters from different things into them, so if that counts, then it would have been prior to elementary school time. The first documented case of it - 2nd grade, that I was writing it. Somehow, I managed to turn in fanfiction for various writing assignments all the way from then up to sophomore year of college. As for reading it, probably around 6th grade when I found a couple of peers that were game for trying to write what I was writing. It was different then, such as, first of all, there were no 'headers' no 'flamers', etc, etc, etc. On the flip side, during high school, I had a total reader count of about twenty -- which I thought was friggin' awesome at the time. Little did I know how the internet would change that.
What was your first fandom?
First fandom would have been ThunderCats, but I wandered through a number of other ones then back again, and now I'm out traveling Middle-earth. But there's a magnetic pull that your first love has on you, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I come back again.
Official fandom: ooo, the fellow elflovers are going to hate me for citing ThunderCats here
First fandom I wrote in: ditto again, I like my kitties
First slash fandom: ThunderCats, BUT, I was writing ThunderWolf/Shark... which, was like, almost ThunderCats/Tigersharks (wasn't that the name of it?) crossoverage but not quite. And I had some silly business with Smithers, but since that's the Simpsons encroaching on TC... I suppose the first staying within a single fandom slashiness would be Lord of the Rings, and it was Legolas/Haldir as per poking and prodding from Maggie. Until I hit on the Glorfindel/Erestor pairing, though, I was more a slash reader and less a slash writer.
First femslash fandom: omg, i think I'm a femslash virgin... I've read it, mostly back in the TC Weird stories days and for judging various things when it comes up, but nothing is coming to mind that I've written. Interesting.
First ship?
The first time I was informed that I was a 'shipper', since I had not run across the term prior to it, was after writing a Jesse/James fic for Pokemon and having someone (I think it was Jetkitten? hmm..) say 'I didn't know you were a Rocketshipper' A whowhat? Oh, okeeday... hee hee. So I suppose I can sort of count them.
Het: I'm very set on Cheetara/Panthro. I have actually skipped reading stories that I was told were good because it was one of them with someone else. Eh.
Yaoi: Okay... I mess up these terms all the time... I so want the time when the header meant just Title and Author of the story... bah. *crosses fingers that this means slash* I'm not much set on most slash pairings, however, the Erestor/Glorfindel pairing is something I'm quite set on. Plus, I've found that the other E/G lovers are a snuggly, cuddly group of people. At least the ones I hang around.
Yuri: *shrugs and goes to get some cappuccino*
What website do you use most?
for elves... Mine. My own. My pr--- yeah, mine. http://pounce.dreamelf.com ; mostly because I have this long ass time line that spans about 20,000 years, so trying to find a general archive for it just ain't happening.
for kitties... I pretty much gave ThunderWolf control of my writings and such. He does a good job archiving it; which is good, I think he has the only copies of some of those files anymore. http://www.thunderwolf.org
For purposes of reading, I mostly use the yahoo groups, though I go to Library of Moria and DreamElf to catch up on stuff
What do you think of Fanfiction.net?
Blah. I used to like it. A lot. It was the only game in town to begin with really, and things were okay. Then they started to suck, for reasons I won't get into because it will start up a long ass rant.
I think it's still nice for exposure purposes. And to flaunt my low activation number *snickers* I've been there over five years now, I was a little shocked to find that out. And I'm still active, that's the even more amazing thing.
What fandoms have you written in?
ThunderCats, Pokemon, and Tolkien-based stuff, in terms of what you'll find online. I've parodied Star Wars, Star Trek, the Matrix, the Simpsons, and various musicals in conjunction with those. Offline, I did Mario Bros. and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid, and Star Trek (original, next gen, DS9) as a teen, but all of that is either in handwritten form or living on old 5 1/2 in floppies.
Pairings?
I try to use whatever was actually in the canon first, most of the time. Such as, I'm not going to pair up Elrond and Thranduil unless someone asks me to do it outside of my own little AU (and even then, it took me quite some time and a couple drinks to write that one up).
Of canon
Any fandoms you would like to write in?
Maggie and I meant to write a couple of Pirates of the Carribbean fics; I don't think any of them will ever see the light of day, but I think it would have been fun. Seemed like a good idea, considering all the summers spent on boats.
This fall, I'm planning to delve into Harry Potter a wee bit. Nothing dramatic, but Monty and I have a humor thing with the Weasley twins that I think should work okay for a couple of laughs and also I'm going to write some of the Elfling Chronicle type stories, but with the wizards and witches. Going to call it Wiz Kids; haven't decided yet whether it will be illustrated like the ECs or not.
Do reviews affect how you write in any way?
Yes and no. If someone says something in a review like 'boy, I wonder what so-and-so was doing when that was going on', it could result in me explaining what so-and-so was doing, and where and when and so on. I use a lot of review material as springboards; on the other hand, I can use other things to jump off of, too. On the Haldir Lovers list one Saturday, someone said that Haldir was sitting on their couch blowing bubbles into his chocolate milk. Nothing meant to mean anything at all, but it eventually led to me writing "Hidden Heroes".
As for 'this sucks' or 'oh, i loved it', well, the first ones make me go 'meh' and the second makes me go 'yay', but either way, i'm just going to write what I want to write.
Now, poking, which is a form of active review, that influences me greatly. This happens when someone tracks me down on IM (NOT a difficult thing; I'm on yahoo most often - jubatus_rex ) and basically does this:
*POKE*
and then explains why they are poking; or sometimes, in reverse, explains then pokes. What ensues usually is me feeding them the story, writing it right there in the IM box, and having them say yes or no to things on the spot. Like impromptu betaing.
Do you use a beta?
See above. There are certain people I will go to with things, but for the most part I'm not too terrible with grammar and spelling, so I often write, beginning to end, and then just post. I figure, it's fanfic, meh. Also, I found at least a dozen grammar issues in the latest Harry Potter book. Shit happens. It's free fic. Deal.
If I, me personally, wants something to look extra good or nice, then, yes, I go to someone and make puppy eyes. That someone is usually dragonfly, because she rocks the house, but I've been known to use Laura and Mei sometimes, and others as needed.
What ratings do you read/write?
Anything and then some, from the elfling fics that are able to be read to little kiddles to the meanwhile in rivendell stuff and beyond. some days, my Glorfindel muse just can NOT keep his pants up.
What warnings have you used on your fiction/read?
During the winding down of my TC writing, I know I had some pretty gorey, angsty stuff. I can't recall everything offhand, but rape and violence come to mind.
For LotR, it seems they want you to warn for everything, even excessive flowers and sunshine. In my personal archive, I actually don't use a menu for warnings. I have four ratings, and that's pretty much all the warning people get: General Fiction; Adults Only; AO Het; AO Slash
At AFF.net, it seems they have the most extensive list of warnings there. The only thing I recall making sure I warned for it in anything was the attempted suicide, which isn't violent nor even 'on screen', that is in "One Word". Why? 'Cause for elves, suicide would be a big no-no, so I figured, I better raise a red flag up for it. But mostly I just have 'towel warnings', lol. (number of towels to sit on while reading various adult fics) I think there was one where I suggested corn cobs once I found out how absorbent they are, but I won't get into that whole discussion here...
Do you have any squicks?
Real person fiction and child porn, neither of which I personally think should be around. I'm still scarred from an RPF I stumbled across.
I used to say 'oh, I'm never going to write...' but everytime I say that, I end up writing one and then going 'hmm, that's not so bad'.... but those two above, no, not going to do it.
Oh, and no Glorfindel/Balrog, mkay? Please, no.
Do you Role-play online? If so, what?
When I first got into the online TC stuff, it was an RPG. I think I RPGed in five or six TC games online through the years, playing with various characters... mostly, I liked RPing Panthro, but I've done Cheetara and Snarfer and a few others here and there. I subbed for Mumm-ra for someone once, I think that was one of the most awesome ones to play, but it always seemed like the game always already had a mummers.
Have you ever stolen something from another person's work?
Not really. In TC, we used to write each other into these silly riffs and stuff, so I don't think that counts. In LotR, I don't do that so much, just with people I really know well.
I have asked for things if they were really, really, really awesome. An example of this is Thaladir, a character created by Mary and Mal for their Mirkwood stories. He was so well-developed, and I really enjoyed reading him, so I asked very nicely if I could use him once. We negotiated that I could, in return for a song. So it became the running thing between us; if I wanted to use Thaladir, I had to sing for him. That, and respect the character, but of course that was no problem. If I had wanted a character that didn't act like Thaladir, why not make my own? The reason for wanting to use Thaladir was because he was Thaladir, no? Now, all I have to follow is the respect rule, but I would have anyhow.
Favorite fandom to write/read?
At the moment, it's LotR stuff, but I'm only really interested in the 'older' races. Elves (and I include orcs in this), dwarves, ents, eagles, ainur. No men or hobbits. Sorry, furry-footers and mortals.
Favorite pairing?
Didn't we kinda cover this? Maybe not. Okay, Erestor and Glorfindel are obviously going to get the thumbs up for LotR, and Cheetara and Panthro for TC. There are a lot of other pairings I enjoy, too... Celeborn and Galadriel; Elrond and Celebrian; Thranduil and his whatever-you-want-to-call-his-wife (although, I'm okay with reading Thranduil/any OFC, actually)
Favorite writer/writers?
I'm not going to list for TC... pretty much, I read everything that was just general and a good portion of the adult stuff. Reading in a small fandom like that was fun, things didn't come out at an amazing speed, so there was time to sit and discuss things. However, I have to mention Fuzzy and his crazy ideas... that four slice toaster thing is going to stay with me forever.
For LotR...
I like writing with Laura and Mei, interesting things always happen with that.
I like reading Fishy's stories, they are always different but cozy, love them.
And if I've commented to you before, then you're on 'the list', lol. It sort of depends, too, on who is updating and when.
How long should a chapter be?
As long as it needs to be. An author just gets a feel for it after a while. Chapter three of One Word is 82 words long. Wouldn't even count as a drabble! But it has to be that long, it wouldn't work for Irmo to drone on and on about dreams. It has to be simple and to the point, very direct, give you time to think while the next chapter loads. The first chapter of the same story is 2782 words. Introduction chapters usually tend to be a little longer. The rest are between about 700 and 1500 words, but again, I think you need to make the chapter however long it has to be to cover the segment you're covering for that chapter.
Do you write/read drabbles?
Yup, both. And run the drabble board on DreamElf, too.
Any fandoms you avoid?
I suppose anything I'm not interested in? *shrugs*
Pairings you avoid?
I'm not keen on Cheetara ending up with anyone but Panthro (although, I've written it myself, come to think on that), and I also have a hard time reading or writing any of the canon elves who have an established spouse with anyone else. There are exceptions... I do like Mary and Mal playing with Thranduil (or he with them, as it would be); same with Celeborn having some time away from Gladders. I do 'fast forward' through Thranduil slash; it seems to turn up in a lot of good E/G fics. But, that's not to say I haven't written it... yeesh, see what I mean about that never say never stuff?
Warnings you avoid?
Rape and non-cons I'm not keen on, and real person and child porn are out. But otherwise, I'm game to try most anything once, I suppose.
Do the number of reviews tell how good a story is?
Nope.
What do you think of Mary Sues?
I think they're quite fun. I believe I still hold the record for the most 'points' for a Mary Sue character (though, it was a Gary Stu) for the TC fandom - my version of ThunderWolf, the should-be lord of the ThunderCats and son of Grune. MWahahahaha... good times, good times. And I wrote/write SO much self insert of myself and others.
Oh, yeah, and I'm a partial owner of Dream Elf, archive for elf fic with an emphasis on self insert, sues, and fluff. Yep, I think Mary Sues are swell. Bite me.
Have you ever flamed someone?
Not fanfictionally, not really... I've parodied the writing styles of others, but I'm not the kind to say "Hey! Your story sucks ass!" Now, sites that were crappy... I so owned the ThunderSource by the time that shit was over with. Oops, neither here nor there, back to the present...
Have you ever been flamed?
Now and again. They are quite amusing. Then I respond using my Dr. Zhie persona and baffle them. It amuses me more.
What always makes me curious is the number of people who think I'm male. I think Zhie is kind of a neutral name, it's not like my profile says something like 'Bob' to confuse them. I get a lot of flames that start 'Dear Sir'... the tip off to a firey would-be roasting of my fic, except, I care not. Mmm, BBQ.
That's it, aren't you glad?
Aw, that's all? Kidding! Damn, that was long!