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Author Interviews - Molly

Email: juniper_36@yahoo.com

Question: Anything you wanna share about yourself? (submitted by Sorciere)

Answer: Hmm, starting with a tough one. Sure! Um... I'm twenty years old and in my last (thank God) year of college. I speak French with questionable fluency, and plan to go into international political law after I take some time off and gather up the nerve to go to law school. That could change, of course; I'm experiencing some wishy-washy, "I don't wanna be a grown-up" feelings lately, and I keep coming up with crazy new ideas for my life.

Question: How long have you been writing and what made you decide to start writing fan fic? (submitted by Sarah)

Answer: I've been captivated by the entire notion of writing since middle school, at least. I think that started with wanting to please teachers (before I got burned out on school, I was a big teacher's pet), so I would try to take different approaches to writing assignments, especially once we had to learn to write five-paragraph essays and I saw how *intensely* boring that could be. I always saw two ways to spice it up: pick an off-the-wall topic, and then make the actual sentences interesting to read. I love vocabulary and grammar and all the *things* you can do with language; words can be manipulated to sound beautiful together, and to just *tear* emotion from people, and I love the process of trying to harness that. So I started experimenting with doing creative things with academic writing. Then I tried poetry until I realized I was awful at it. Just before I started high school, I dabbled in writing, um-- yeah, this is lame and embarrassing-- gen stories about Lois & Clark. (This is the first time I've admitted that in public.) Those were awful, awful stories, and Lois was a total Mary Sue. But hey, I was fourteen or so.

Thing was, I didn't know anything about fanfic at that point. And I lost my interest, because there was only so much I could scribble in a notebook and entertain myself with. Especially once that show started sucking. So I concentrated on writing whacked out essays for school, then left for college. When I came home for the summer, a friend who was still in high school mentioned this crazy notion of people posting stories on the internet about BtVS, which we watched obsessively. So I checked it out, and UCSL. Sucked. Me. In. I discovered this wacky thing I'd amused myself with a few years ago was not just me being a freak, but was all over the place. I read Te's "Post-Grad" and man, was I hooked. It was this thing where I *had* to try it, to see if I had any talent at all for fiction. I started with slash (I tend to jump right into the deep end when trying something new) and wrote some Xander/Giles, and feedback is a lovely, lovely, addictive thing. *g* I got to do something I loved -- play with words and sentences and emotions --and it seemed to please people, and once I started chatting and forming friendships with people whose writing I *adored*, I was in it for the long haul.

That was two and a half years ago. BtVS was my only fandom for about a year, then I got hooked on The Sentinel and SG-1 (slash for both), and dabbled in other things until falling in love with X-Men, which I continue to love after a year and a half even amidst other obsessions like Smallville.

Question: When starting a new story, do you outline the plot first? Or does it develop as you write? (submitted by various)

Answer: To be honest, I'm not much of a plot writer at all (and people have argued with me on this one, so it's IMO). I tend to write short relationship stories in which nothing much happens except crazy amounts of angst and bitterness. However, as I'm big on attempting symbolism and layering meaning into minimalist sentences, a certain amount of planning is necessary sometimes. So it varies. A lot of times, I get ideas in the form of sentences I want to use because I think they're pretty or whatever, so I open a document and type out all my scattered thoughts as a roadmap for when I actually have time to write it, and then I try to incorporate it all. But mostly, yeah, it develops as I write. "Counting Backwards" was one that I did plot out, because the physical structure of the story was integral to the original idea (with Rogue working through issues in her life in the reverse order that they occurred) and I needed certain things to happen in certain parts. There are a couple of other stories that I've written outlines for plots, but they may never see the light of day because, um. I'm not good at developing plot threads and keeping complicated stories on track. If I ever discover that particular talent, my mental hospital AU might actually get done someday.

Question: What did you see in Wolverine and Rogue that drew your interest in them being a couple? Are there any other couples in the X-Men fandom that interest you? (submitted by jengrrrl)

Answer: Ooh, I like this one. I really love when there's chemistry between characters who are so *very* different. Wolverine and Rogue, Jim and Blair, Lex and Clark... it provides a challenge in writing a convincing bond between them, whether it's a strong friendship or love or just pure lust. I saw the movie and absolutely adored the way that they were shown: as almost opposites, with no real basis for caring about each other except for things they go through together. I mean, for all the pain and trauma and angst I like to put characters through, I'm a romantic at heart, and I like to think that reality can make people important to each despite themselves, and by accidents of fate. So that's what drew me there.

As for other couples... yeah. *g* Magneto/Xavier, for much the same reason-- the fundamental differences that appeared between them, and yet those shades of knowing each other so well and with reminiscent fondness. (Thinking of this, it's no surprise I'm falling into Smallville slash. Pretty much exactly the same relationship structure, only presented at a different point in its progression.) Also, Scott/Rogue was a pet love of mine last fall, for that challenge of having to *work* to make them believable together, since they don't seem to automatically belong with each other.

Question: Which character(s) do you find easiest to write, hardest to write, and why? (submitted by Victoria P.)

Answer: I could take the easy way out of this and claim Rogue as the easiest, because there are a lot of similarities that give me fodder, but she often presents a challenge to me nonetheless. Oddly, though I don't write him often, I think Scott has been most consistently easy. I've tried to give him an actual personality when I have written him, and it usually comes out pretty fluidly, without getting hung up. I think it's partially because I *don't* try to get deep, deep, deep into his mind like I do with Rogue and Logan, and there's also a bit more flexibility due to his having been less prominently developed in the movie. Most difficult would be Logan, because I'm neurotic and it's *really* hard to do his character justice without castrating him or making him an overbearing asshole of a caveman. Hugh Jackman gave that character an incredible balance in terms of psychological variance, and it's hard to capture that same thing in pure text form.

Question: What sparks a new story? How much of your inspiration comes from random, everyday events that have nothing to do with the fandom, per se? (submitted by Donna)

Answer: All *sorts* of things spark them. Marathon chat sessions, often: just talking to friends about the characters and bouncing ideas around, and sometimes something will latch on and insist on being written. Then sometimes I read a story that includes something almost by chance, just layered in, and I want to expand on that idea. But yeah, some inspiration is just *completely* random. I read something and it just brings the characters to mind, or I hear a particular lyric and woops, there my mind goes off to fandom again. It's unpredictable. And since I *don't* actually plot out stories very much, I'll just start with that thing that got me going and see where it takes me within that universe. For example, "Traveling On Empty" started because I reread "Pilgrim At Tinker Creek" again, and the section I quoted on morality got me thinking about Logan. I don't know exactly why. Just a spark that appeared. "Sevening" happened when I read an article on the importance of particular numbers in various religions, so I went crazy with seven. And even when I start stories based on concepts inspired by the *movie*, I often incorporate stuff from my own life, twisted to fit that universe. I just refuse to say which things. *g*

Question: You wrote "Mexico" in second person POV, which I don't see very often. What about this point of view appealed to you? (submitted by Anne)

Answer: The potential for an incredible immediacy, without a doubt. It was a big risk, because it is extremely difficult to write second person well and manage to create that immediacy; I don't actually think "Mexico" pulled it off like I wanted. I've only done it with a couple of stories, and they're always ones in which the emotions involved are intense-- I just find that there can be something powerful in that POV which, if done right, can really pull a reader into the story. It's appealed to me since I read a few second person stories that left me *sobbing* in front of my computer, because the identification was so complete. "Mexico" is also pretty recent, and lately I'm very focused on exploring what I'm capable of. So I keep playing with different techniques. The experiment with that story was, essentially, to write Rogue as convincingly quasi-suicidal, emotionally unbalanced, young woman, by presenting her emotions as-- well, as potentially familiar to most readers. I think second person often depends on the ability of the audience to relate at all; there has to be some thread of commonality and realistic possibility even in fiction, some way for the audience to actually appreciate that "you" tone. Otherwise it fails.

Question: How do you feel about POV purity and head-hopping? What impact do you think POV has on the work and the reader's interaction with it? (submitted by Anne)

Answer: I think it varies. How I feel about it *and* the impact it has. I certainly do head-hop sometimes ("Paradigm Shift" and others), but I try to make very distinct sections whenever I change POV. It's always difficult for me to stay focused in a story when there isn't a clear delineation for the change, when you're in one character's head in one paragraph and then suddenly you find yourself with another person's thoughts-- it can be done, certainly, and with great effect and skill, but I don't see it happen very often without being thrown a little. POV is tricky, I think, because (IMO) we read to get absorbed in a story, and switching should be done only as necessary.

I try and look at what I'm hoping to accomplish with any story. Like, with "Paradigm Shift," the entire purpose was to present the scenario of Logan and Jean boffing like bunnies *in the context* of how the four directly affected characters would feel about it and react to it. I mean, admittedly, I was being pissy over reading too many L/J stories in which everything was just fine and dandy, and my L/R sensibilities got nasty in the form of that story. But the decision to show the situation from several very different viewpoints was totally conscious, and I had to work the story to fit that decision.

Question: When you write a story, how do you choose a title--does the title come first and inspire the story, or vice versa? (submitted by various)

Answer: Hmm, that depends. 90% of the time, I just write the story, and then stare at the finished product for a few minutes, playing with words in my head until an appropriate title comes along. I'm *awful* at titling. But there have been a few stories that I wrote *for* a title that I really wanted: a BtVS story called "Apocatastasis"; a TS story called "Tepid Apocalypse;" and in XM, "Counting Backwards." Those are the ones that immediately come to mind. Otherwise, my titles are total shots in the dark, hoping I manage to fit the right title to whatever I've already written.

Question: Where did you get the title, "Venn: in the overlap" and how does it relate to the plot of the story? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: Confession: Molly used to be a big math geek. Venn diagrams, dude. I loved 'em. As for the story, it was one of those that started as a random scene I typed up to get it out of my head. It was supposed to a foofy snippet where Logan asks Rogue to leave with him, and she says yeah, sure... but somehow when it came time to write that line of dialogue she said no. From there it just became a short exploration of the ways that they're different, and yet how they affected each other, touched each other, *changed* each other so that this important part of life for each of them is... well, overlapping enough to provide common ground and mutual need.

Question: Most of your stories (i.e "Counting Backwards", "Clamor", etc) include a great deal of angst for Rogue and/or Logan, either emotional, psychological or physical. What's your attraction to angst? (submitted by Victoria P.)

Answer: It's magically delicious.

No. Really. I'm serious. *g* It's... I can't get away from it. There's an allure to the emotional complexity of it; there are so many things to be done with emotionally traumatic situations that I, personally, can't do with happier stories. And I mean, in all honesty, it's just where my talent is, and where my tendencies take me. I'm not witty enough to write humor, and I've got a history of untreated clinical depression, which I think helps me portray someone seriously struggling with darker emotions in a (hopefully) realistic way. Angst is just what I enjoy exploring most, from a literary angle.

Question: "Defensive Lines" was the first story of yours that I read. What was the most challenging thing about writing it and what inspired it? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: Okay, inspiration. Elizabeth, no doubt. I wrote DL way, way back in the very early days of this fandom, before the concept had been hashed, re-hashed, and then tossed into the blender for a quick go (not to say I didn't write plenty of 'Logan comes back, yadda yadda' stories *after* it had been hashed, 'cause I did). Anyway, I saw the movie, talked to a friend in chat, she pointed me to Elizabeth's "Safety in Numbers" and I was a goner. Totally hooked on W/R. And I said to myself, "Self, you are going to play with this notion." So I did.

And the most challenging thing... it was probably several things at once. While I remember the days of very little established fanon fondly, that lack of fanon also meant I had to be very careful about presenting the characters in a believable way, if that makes sense. Extra work to justify the portrayal I chose. And then there was... um. The sloppy way I wrote it. I just started with the idea of Logan coming back all cold and unresponsive, and wrote as it came to me. Suddenly I had this story that was the longest I'd ever finished at that point, and I had no idea if it held together, or made sense, or was interesting. So there was a lot of worrying and nail-biting involved.

Question: Do you find love scenes more or less difficult to write than other types of scenes? Are there things you specifically try to include or avoid? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: Ooh, they're hard. I stay away from them lately, at least in terms of explicit writing. Or, rather... I was staying away from them, and recently I've tried to write a nice, smutty, emotional scene, and-- no go. It's really hard for me to feel like I'm writing something fresh and interesting, what with all the other love scenes out there. I get stuck, I guess.

When I am working on a scene, I try to avoid cliches. And the use of certain words, like "cum," "manhood," "pulsating member"... stuff along those lines. *g*

Question: I know you've written slash in other fandoms. As a writer, what would you say is the difference (if any) between writing het and slash when it comes to relationships? (submitted by Traci)

Answer: Logistically, there's an extra Tab B, no Slot A, and man, Slot C is, yes, pretty different. But that's just pesky biology getting in the way. *g*

To be serious (who, me? Naah) I tend to approach the two with a different view of emotional/personality dynamics. While I don't believe there are any definitively set patterns for het relationships as opposed to gay/lesbian relationships, I do think they tend to play out differently. Especially in the context of writing about established characters who are, by and large, originally presented with some measure of accordance with mainstream gender role expectations. I mean, Rogue is presented as having obvious and intentional conventionally feminine qualities, while Logan is *not*. Nor is Scott. So given the same scenario for an L/R story and an L/S story... they're going to be different stories. The characters are going to say different things, have different reactions, want and expect different things, so even if I start with the exact same variables, things will progress differently.

I also approach slash differently. I'm writing it for different reasons, for a different interest. So that often plays out into different thematic patterns, different types of stories.

Question: Could you explain a bit about the ending of "Accidentally Like a Martyr." What did Rogue come to understand about Logan that I missed? :) (submitted by Stacy)

Answer: Heh. I knew this would come up someday. *g* "Accidentally" was, um. An experiment, I guess, which started when I was halfway done with the story. I'm just plodding along, writing and writing, and then Logan and Rogue are macking on each other out in the woods and I think, hmm. Can I make it believable that Rogue would be *pissed* after that? So then comes all this stuff about the touch, and her realizing that he *had* wanted her all those years, but had never acted on it. And she's pissed on two counts: at how he hid it when she wanted him, and at knowing now, when she's come to depend on believing that nothing ever happened because he just didn't want her.

So what it comes down to is a take on Logan's personality; I tried to present him as incapable of risking attachment. The movie shows this guy who drives around pretty barren, isolated areas and never mentions any friends, any prior relationships--combine that with expressed interest in Jean without any really deep conversations taking place, and his uneasiness about a growing, erm, fondness for Rogue... it made sense to me that he might have a defense mechanism against getting inextricably attached to people. So the end of the story is Rogue's comprehension of all this, and her acceptance of it... kind of an "it's *not* all about me, me, me" epiphany type deal. She grasps that Logan does love her but could never pursue it *because* of how that would bind him, limit his ability to break loose and escape if he felt the need. And when he offers to try... I guess it was sort of a story of growth for both of them. He's at the point where he can contemplate making some sort of meaningful commitment, while she's finally managed to let go of old hopes and admit that they just aren't meant to be, that she's always wanted more than Logan is capable of giving.

Wow, that was a ramble. Hopefully it helped some. *g*

Question: Is it difficult writing dialogue that stays true to the characters? (submitted by Elaine)

Answer: *Yes*. Strangely, dialogue is usually the easiest part of writing for me, in terms of just getting the initial words out, but it requires the most editing work. It's very quick and easy for me to lay out the bare bones of what needs to be said to keep the story going where I want it to go, but... man, it's *hard* to go back and make it sound like something the characters would actually say, in words they're actually likely to use. It's tough; the expository prose of the story can be manipulated to add credibility to whatever scenario, but actual dialogue really needs to be recognizable as akin to the original source.

Question: How does the characterization in your stories compare with what we see in the movie? (submitted by Amy)

Answer: I would hope it's pretty similar. *g* I'm someone who, as an author, constantly questions myself on whether or not what I've written rings true as a reasonable extrapolation from the source material. Granted, there is a certain amount of leeway in fanfic; it doesn't *have* to fit in perfectly with established canon, since nobody's gonna take one of our stories and slap it up as the next movie, in which case it would need to jive. But for me (especially since I don't really do many Aus), I'm very strongly attached to the original source in all of my fandoms. I write these characters because I adore them, as they were presented to me in the first place. And yes, sometimes I stretch them and twist them a little bit, but I try really hard to back up anything I do with concrete explanation within the story. So I *try* to stay true to the characters, and at the very least to not corrupt what I see as crucial to their personalities and characterizations.

Question: What are the facets of Logan and Marie's personalities that you find interesting or intriguing, particularly as they apply to your fiction? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: Ohhhh. So many, many wonderful things. I could go on all day about this. Mainly, anything that reminds me that by conceivable logic, they shouldn't be together. And then all the things that make it so obvious to me why they're perfect for each other. *g* I love contradictions like that. Like... the blunt emotional trauma of a teenage girl who can't touch, along with a guy whose physicality is so noticeable. That he doesn't know where he comes from, while she has no idea where to go, and they seem to understand that about each other. I guess, mostly, it's the aspect of both of them that took their unique circumstances and made people who are remarkably resilient and yet vulnerable, and I like exploring how those sides play out for both of them.

Question: I noticed you included some song lyrics in your story, "Sevening" What part does music play in your story writing? (i.e. inspire your writing? incorporated into your writing? listened to while writing?)(submitted by Elaine)

Answer: It really depends. With "Sevening" in particular, the lyrics weren't really part of the writing process. I just wrote it, paying attention to the role of seven in the story, and then realized that, unintentionally, what I'd written fit well with some lines from several of my favorite songs, and that the lines were actually good bridges between sections, like mini-summaries. I do keep a file where I stick lyrics or lines of poetry I hear that remind me of certain characters or certain relationship dynamics, and those are often on my mind as I write, so they influence my writing and then I stick them into the final piece. I don't write songfic, though; I want my stories to be able to stand independently of whatever lyrics I include, so those words are never actually *part* of the story. And as for listening... yeah. *g* I almost always listen to music while I'm writing, but that's mostly because I get restless if things are too quiet.

Question: Which of your stories is your personal favorite and why? (submitted by various)

Answer: I'm going to say it's "Clamor" for a couple of reasons. It has *always* shocked me that people like that story and continue to mention it to me; when I wrote it, I wasn't setting out to actually write a story. I was completely doped up after a bad dentist visit, and my brain kept getting stuck in this rolling loop of thoughts about Rogue and what is must have been like in her head after the Statue events. So, I mean... dude, I was practically high when I wrote it. Even after posting, I figured it was this thing that would make sense only to me, and be enjoyable only to me, because it felt like the one piece I hadn't written with thoughts of an audience at all.

Then people liked it, and yeah, feedback reinforced my feelings about it. I'm still not sure what about it is appealing to people-- I look at it and see my drugged ramblings about aspects of the movie that interested me. So I guess the point is, it's my favorite because *I* like it as something I wrote really for myself, and because it's been really nice to get good responses that shock me each and every time.

Question: Which of your stories was the most difficult to write, the most fun to write, and why? (submitted by various)

Answer: Most difficult was "Counting Backwards," hands down (though it just narrowly beats "Life Less Static" which nearly killed me with the Logan POV). The concept of it hit me around November of last year, when I was studying abroad and when to the very last show of the movie in any Paris theatre (which was also my tenth or eleventh viewing, I think. Yipes). I got totally caught up in writing it at the *worst* possible time, with a major exam coming up that passed or failed me for the entire semester's work, but I couldn't help but use every free moment to scribble in notebooks, drafting outlines and writing sections as they came to me. On subways, in restaurants, in train stations and on trains while I was backpacking-- you name the place, I was there writing obsessively. Then I was paying out the ear to type small sections in at email cafes so that I could get some opinions on how it was going. And then it was done. Anticlimactic, I know, but ah well. That story was a nagging baby to me for just over a month, which isn't all that long, but it felt like it.

And most fun was probably "Clamor." 'Cause of being drugged and all. I really amused myself as I wrote that. Kinda trippy, really. Fond, fond memories. *g*

Question: Do you ever get blocked? If so, how do you get out of it? (submitted by Victoria P.)

Answer: I get blocked all the time. I'm actually currently really badly (wonder how many -ly words I can get in here *g*) blocked for W/R right now, and have been for awhile. And I have yet to figure out how to get out of it. I sit and whine about it to people, that's for sure. And I kick ideas around with friends, keeping an eye open for something that will get the motor running. But most often, I wind up jumping to another fandom. I always plan to come back, but... well, when I jump ship, I tend to plunge pretty deep into the next new thing. I'm trying not to let that happen with XM, since I know it's not just writer's block that's keeping me from even wanting to try. Plus, there's the prospect of the next movie, which-- oh! Yeah, another way I try to get unblocked is to just repeatedly view the source material and wait for new thoughts to appear. That happens every once in a grand while.

Question: What is your favorite Logan/Rogue moment from the movie? From one of your stories? (submitted by Diane)

Answer: Favorite moment from the movie is that first glace Logan gives Rogue across the bar. Kind of suspicious disregard; it was a great kick-off to how their rapport with each other had to develop slowly, really against his instincts. I love that. And from one of my stories... Oh, that's hard. I'm not sure. There are two areas that I really like: the first conversation in "Distinction," which was my first story-- I like how the light banter worked out to create a moment of friendship and trust without any major tension. And the other is my take on the aforementioned bar glance from the movie, in "Sevening," where I have him passing judgment until he sees her eyes and recognizes something familiar about necessity and determination in them. I guess I just like the quieter moments I've written, where I've finished and felt like I managed to paint an accurate picture of how they were in the movie: quiet and steady and very slow in their mutual appreciation.

Question: Are you working on any stories (Wolverine/Rogue in particular) that we should be looking forward to? (submitted by Tara)

Answer: Well, I'm not really actively writing in XM right now, for a lot of reasons. But in my WIP folder, I have, hmm... an AU in which Rogue makes different choices on the road and winds up a whore (thank you *ever* so much for that one, Die *g*); another AU with mutants all stuffed into mental institutions, 'cause they tend to go nuts without Xavier's influence; and... I don't really remember what else. There are a few short Rogue pieces I was working on, just character analysis. So those are all saved, and hopefully I'll wander back to them sooner rather than later.

Question: Do you have any advice for new Logan/Rogue fan fiction writers? (submitted by various)

Answer: Nothing that hasn't been advised before. *g* Read, read, read some more, run spell-check, use a beta and at least be open to his/her suggestions even if you don't use all of them... I guess most of all, don't get caught up in the trends of an established fandom. Write what really strikes you as accurate to the characters, not just what's prevalent fannish convention. Along those lines, please, please, please don't write Jean as the uber-bitch unless you honestly believe she is. *g*

And wow, I really have gone on for a bit. I should learn to be less mouthy, more concise. Something like that. This has been fabulous fun, and really hard! I'm not used to talking about my own stories in such detail. But, there we are. Molly in a nutshell.