werkin on that ster trak

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

For Star Trek, I’m pretty sure it was when I stumbled across someone’s bookmark or rec of Master of a Nothing Place by strzyga and fell in deep.  That story feels very much like a fusion of TOS and AOS for me (I always picture that Spock as Nimoy-esque even though it’s an AOS fic), and the quiet and intense moments between Kirk and Spock in the narrative were so haunting that I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters.  And that’s still the sort of ST fic I like best: one that takes elements of both of the versions of canon and creates a resonant magic with the character dynamics and world-building.  So as I started watching the TOS eps in order (I’d seen a number of them randomly thorugh the years), I ventured in quietly to ST stuff on tumblr, a bit hesitant because I had just come out of a different fandom that had felt really toxic to me.  And then there was so much friendliness and enthusiasm in Star Trek fandom that I felt immediately drawn in.  

30. What inspires you to write?

Certainly imagining characters in particular situations, hearing certain songs, viewing particular images, all kind of spur me on to work on specific ideas.  But to write in general – I just adore the absorption that can be achieved by getting fully into the writing headspace, the way the act of writing itself lets me dive down into a place of intense feeling and thinking. 

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Letting short breaks turn into uncomfortable hiatuses from longer stories.  I do think we all need breaks here and there to recharge and get a fresh perspective.  And I’ve gradually come to accept that whether I like it or not, I’m just going to have gaps and pauses when I am not writing – and to understand that not-writing is occasionally actually part of my writing process. 

But when I step away from something too long, I start to feel uneasy, like I’m no longer the expert on that narrative, and that I have to re-familiarize myself with it (re-read, re-think) and almost study what I’ve done with it in the past so I can understand what I was about before I walked away from it.  And that’s very debilitating, I think, because I’ve essentially intimidated myself and let myself relinquish my authority on a piece of writing that I own.  I think when I take breaks or return to a piece, I need to forge ahead more, and trust that I know what the hell I’m doing even if it doesn’t always feel that way – or at least, that the writing will show me what the hell I’m doing.  And that’s not about re-reading or micro-editing what I’ve already done, because for me that’s essentially a kind of stalling and busywork, but writing forward to discover the answers.

more fanfiction questions here.

6:if people floated instead of walking, how far off the ground would you be?

You know, not terribly far, because I feel like being super high up would make it hard to reach for things I need.  Like my laptop.  And chapstick.  And beverages.  But floating along does sound nice!

26:would you rather be the sky or the earth?

The earth – there’s so much variety and texture, from rivers to sand to gardens and that seems like it would be a lovely layered thing, to embody all of that.  But I feel like my takeaway from these two questions is that maybe I’m an overly grounded person?  Ha!