1. How about a brief introduction?
Hi, I'm Paranoidangel. That do you?

2. What got you into fanfiction?
Actually, I remember writing some for Lorna Hill's Sadlers Wells series, although all I actually remember is my sister criticising me for calling a chapter 'My first day'. She's hated every single thing I wrote. I think the feeling' mutual, except for her writing my CV.

It was Bugs fandom that I first started writing in, which was tiny and friendly and pretty much everyone was discovering this fanfiction idea at the same time. Then I went onto TPM which couldn't be said to be small at all.

3. What kind of fanfiction do you write?
Mostly short, angsty stuff. Or fluff. Or fluffy angst. I tend to write stuff focusing on two characters at a time.

4. Do you write for the same pairings/characters?
Kind of, yeah. It's usually a character, or the relationship between two characters that gets me writing in the first place. I branch out, but I still have my favourites.

5. What is your most popular fic and why do you think people like it so?
I think it's either Dream a Little Dream or Doctor Who: The Soap Opera. The latter had about 15 chapters and I posted it as a wip, so it makes it harder to tell. But all sorts of people have heard of those two, which is really unexpected.

Going by stats my most popular Doctor Who fic on Teaspoon by a long way is the Ten/Sarah one. I only wrote that pairing because it was a ficathon, I got assigned and I knew she'd like it.

6. Forget other people; what is the fanfic you've written that you're most proud of?
Actually, it's probably the one I submitted to the Big Finish competition, which isn't on the internet and isn't going to be because I stole the plot off myself and might still use it in the future.

Apart from that it's probably either Dream a Little Dream or Restoration. The former because at about 17,000 words it was the longest thing I'd ever written by a long way and because occasionally I go back to it and re-read bits and still like it. The latter because I was quite proud of the number of characters I got into it and I like the style I wrote it in, which is unusual for me.

7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What aspects do you struggle with?
Sometimes I can dash off a first draft, other times it comes in bits. My first drafts are more like notes than anything else, to give me an idea of the plot and what the characters might say. It gets harder after that through successive edits as I try to improve it and struggle with vast tracts of dialogue that require some description.

8. Write a few sentences of your favorite pairing or character.
This seems like a good point to paste in the comment fic I wrote for last night:

"Oh, Harry, I'm so glad you're here," Sarah said, as she let him in and flopped back on the sofa, pulling her blanket over her.

He came in, shut the door and knelt down next to her with a concerned look on his face. Placing one hand against her forehead, he asked, "What do you need?"

"Sympathy," she said, in the most pathetic voice she could muster. Realistically she knew it was a virus and no one could do anything except wait for it to go away. But she felt ill and wanted someone to make it better.

"There, there." He patted her shoulder.

She punched him lightly on the arm. "You're a crap doctor."

He chuckled and kissed her on the forehead. "It's just a bad cold, you'll live."

She retaliated by blowing her nose as loudly as possible.

He sighed, got up and went into the kitchen. When he returned he had a glass of water, which he passed to her. Then he sat in the armchair. "Anything good on TV?"

For that she smiled at him and drank the water.

9. Are there any fanfiction trends/cliches you hate?
Anything sickly sweet. The whole getting married and having kids that you, of course, name after yourselves and your co-workers just makes me want to throw up. Stargate fandom, I'm looking at you.

10. Are you guilty of any of the trends you hate?
I think it's fairly safe to say that I don't really do happy endings.

11. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you still write for it?
Bugs. I did write something when I re-watched it on DVD a couple of years ago, but the fandom's pretty much dead now and I'm not interested in the same things I was when I wrote for it. It's a pity, really, that I stopped writing for it before the last episode as it ended on a cliffhanger.

12. Name your OTPs and explain what it is about them you love to write.
Hang on, I talked about shipping in a post of its own.

13. What would you call your writing style?
Simple. As in not fancy.

14. Do you read other people's writing? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
I love funny fic and angsty fic; long, plotty things and short, sharp shocks.

15. Name one thing you'd love to write but have been too afraid or too shy to do.
I wish I could write funny things. I have done vaguely humurous stuff, but I just find comedy too hard.

16. Do you feel uncomfortable taking criticism? Or worse, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?
I've definitely got better at it because I can get a beta back from without needing to go and cry in a corner. I remember when I first started any beta job I got back I could never really read at first because it just made me feel my writing was so terrible. These days I read them straight off and agree with most of it without worrying too much about it.

17. When you write, is there anything that helps?
A bit of peace and quiet goes a long way.

18. What inspires you?
Boredom. In other words, times when I have nothing else to do, like when I'm trying to get to sleep or having a shower.

19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fanfiction experiences and you as a writer?
Fun - I wouldn't be doing it otherwise. Hard work too sometimes. As a writer I've definitely improved - the reason I haven't talked about anything I've written previous to when I got into Doctor Who is that it's really not all that good.

Comments are closed.