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This interview was originally written for Chronicle X's Spotlight On... section, and Shari and Kris kindly gave it back to me when they were done with it. I've slightly updated it in parts to reflect the fact that it's been a while since I wrote this.

Q. Tell us something about yourself, Caz.

A. Short, skinny, big hips, little hands, big smile. I'm currently a penniless student, so that's what you might count as my day-job. Cat person rather than a dog person. Taurus, if you believe in that sort of thing. Stuff that floats my boat: hot chocolate with whipped cream on top and marshmallows, glittery nail varnish, second-hand book shops, Black Russian cocktails and my Levi 507s. Pretty good dancer, unless it's a dance where you actually have to learn the steps. Card-carrying hopeless romantic and unashamed idealist. Loyal British citizen.

Q. Have you always written fiction or did TXF inspire you to try
story-telling?

A. Wellllllll...until I discovered XF fanfic, I hadn't written anything except rather bad poetry in a fair few years. When I was younger, I was lucky enough to have some exceptional teachers who recognised that I loved to write, and encouraged me to write short stories. Then I grew up a bit more and got to that dreadful stage in my schooling where no-one had time to encourage me to write because they were so busy trying to drum the basics of things like trigonometry into my head for exams, and I didn't have time to write because I was so busy struggling with my trigonometry homework :P.

I've always loved reading fiction, though, and since I was a kid I've had this tendency to walk out of a cinema after a film or shut off the TV at the end of the night and continue the story in my head for my own amusement. I suppose fanfic was kind of an inevitable step, once I knew it was out there.


Q. When you aren't writing fanfic or watching TXF, what do you enjoy
doing?

A. You mean I'm meant to have time for a *life*?

I'm a very sociable person: put a cocktail in my hand and sit me at a table in my favourite local bar with some of my best friends and I'm happy. The aforementioned dancing skills are practised fairly often at local clubs. Cheesy '70s and '80s music will have me on the dancefloor in seconds. I love to travel, and I get a real kick out of being sat on a train or a plane watching the landscape fly by, on my way somewhere new or to visit old friends around the country.

Equally, I'm very happy sitting curled up in an armchair, cat on my lap, hot chocolate to hand, slobbing around in old jeans and a huge sweater, just ploughing through the papers, reading a good novel or watching a good film. Basically, I'm a big lazy-ass, so that suits me just fine as a way to pass the day <g>. I'm a great fan of old black-and-white films as well as modern ones. 'The Philadelphia Story' and 'Some Like It Hot' are *great* rainy-afternoon films. I love to sing, but generally only in the privacy of my own shower. I'm also a great believer in the power of long, hot baths.

Q. What about the show moved you to write X-Files fanfic?

A. That's a toughie. I suppose I liked the fact that in amongst all the monsters and bees and oiliens were these two very believable, appealing characters, who gave the Quest a human face: as a fic writer, that makes the job much easier, right?

Most of all, I got frustrated that the relationship between Mulder and Scully was often so static: earth-shattering events one week, but no apparent emotional repercussions the next week. While in some ways you can excuse that with "but that's necessary for a serial show", it still annoyed me enough to want to go away and explore the relationship between them a little more.

I think really it's just a fun world to write in, because you have openings for so many different angles and types of story, be it angst, MSR, UST, slash, casefile, post-col, whatever, and such complex characters to play with.


Q. If you could change one thing about the show, what would it be?

A. Consistent character arcs across a season. It ain't so very much to ask for, is it? I want Carter to get all the writers together in a room at the start of each season's writing and make them tell each other exactly what they each have planned for the Dynamic Duo in each and every ep. Then I want them to say things like "Gee, well, if you're gonna have them be angry at each other that week, I'd better write in some emotional fall-out from that in *this* ep for the next week" and "Oh, if you're going to have Mulder say that the future's here and all bets are off that week, I'd better show him havings some concerns about that whole 'fate of mankind' thing the next week instead of having them drop everything to go monster-hunting" to each other. Let the damn characters grow a little.

Oh, and I'd like a myth-arc ep that I can understand the *first time* I watch it.

Oops, is that more than one thing? <innocent look>


Q. How would you classify your work?

A. How about...character-driven? That's the one common characteristic of all my fic, I think, be it angst, MSR, UST, post-col...it's really because I can't devise or sustain proper plots to save my life. By and large, I stick to character-driven vignettes, usually examining the Mulder/Scully relationship in one way or another, because they fascinate me. Even 'Quick Bright Things', which strictly speaking was a Pendrell-fic, had Mulder-Scully UST tucked away in it. I think my stories also tend to be written in a style that reflects the fact that feelings and motivations, rather than action, are at
the heart of them, if that makes sense.

Q. What is your take on the Mulder/Scully dynamic?

A. Ack. "Mulder/Scully dynamic" is a phrase I use all the time, but I'm none too sure exactly what I mean by it. Here goes...

I see them as two lonely people who've both been through an awful lot, but who have the ability to work as a great team, despite the differences in their basic world-views. I tend to think that the differences between them, between Scully's rationality and insistence on empirical proof, and Mulder's readiness to consider extreme possibilities, and their refusal to compromise on those standpoints, are what make them such a good partnership.

Then there's the undeniable fact that by now, each of them would give up just about anything, including their life, for the other when the chips are down. Scully will let herself be jailed for contempt of Congress for Mulder. Mulder will go to the ends of the earth, literally, to get Scully back. Yes, at *times* they're bad for each other, but show me one real relationship where that isn't true.

And yes, I do think it's a romantic relationship (quel surprise...). There's physical attraction there, but it's a very...*pure* romance, because it's based on love of the mind and the soul. Sometimes it's a very quiet love, sometimes it manifests itself in grand heroic gestures. There's a definite element of eros, but also a strong sense of philos, a kind of "brotherly" love, or "partnerly" love, if you will.

I think, in the end, it's a very *noble* relationship. They're flawed, complex, heroic and ultimately likeable adults, and there's a real connection there, on a very deep level.

Q. Tell us some of the circumstances behind the writing of your first piece of fanfic.

A. Uh....I read a load of fics. I thought, "Hey, I want to try this." I did nothing about it for five months or so, convinced I could never come up with anything decent. Eventually I sat down and dashed off a pretty awful 9K piece. I threw it in the delete file.

Then I was reading fic one night while in a *really* bad mood, listening to Gorecki's Third, with rain pouring down outside, and an idea appeared out of nowhere, so I just...started writing. It was really about some perverse desire to make Scully as depressed as me, I think. I agonised over the damn thing for weeks, found myself a couple of betas, agonised a bit more despite their support, and then took the plunge and posted (warning: first post jitters have been medically proven to take five years off your life). The first feedback came in, and once I'd stopped hyperventilating I knew I wanted to give it another try :).

Q. What was the first XF fanfic you read?

A. The first one *ever* was one of the rather bad ones that you can dig up in Gossamer when you don't really know what you're doing or what you're looking for. I stumbled on Gossamer completely by accident, before I ever knew there was such a thing as fanfic, let alone XF fanfic, and was intrigued enough to open up a story. It wasn't a *good* story, but it was one where Mulder and Scully <gasp!> actually *talked* about their feelings for once!

Then one day, still ferreting around in Gossamer, I came across Stephanie Kaiser's 'Merry Christmas, Scully', which is the first one I can *remember*. <even bigger gasp!> Mulder and Scully had *sex*! After I picked myself up off the floor, I somehow found my way from there to the Haven archive. I was hooked, well and truly.

Q. Where do you get your ideas?

A. I don't know, but if you find out, will you show me the place? I can't *make* myself have an idea. Every so often a phrase or a scene will just pop up in my brain and stay there, jumping up and down, screaming to be let out, and a fic grows from there. I don't know where those things come from, I just welcome them when they arrive.

Certain things can put me in the *mood* for having ideas, though; certain types of weather, listening to particular pieces of music, watching a classic movie, reading a really good poem or novel, overhearing people talking on a bus, or maybe just bouncing vague concepts around in e-mail or AIM with a fic friend. 'Mrs Leonard's Roses', for example, came from my seeing a gorgeous rose my next-door neighbour had given us on the mantel-piece at home, and picturing Scully's face if she found one like that in her desk drawer, while 'Night-Treasures' sprang out of my intense frustration with that famous British weather <g>. Earlier that summer we had a week or so of really *huge* thunderstorms. I couldn't sleep for three days because of it. Eventually I thought "Dammit, if it isn't going to thunder here, at least Moose and Squirrel can enjoy a good storm!".

Occasionally I'll watch an ep and something in it will set me thinking: with 'The Fortieth Day', for instance, it was watching that classic scene on the street between Mulder and CSM, where Mulder saves his own soul, but only after wavering for a second, turning the decision over in his mind. From there, it was only a small leap to asking myself "So what if CSM had gone to *Scully* to try and get her to persuade Mulder to take the deal?".

Q. Do you start with a single idea and build from there or do you have the whole story mapped out when you start?

A. <snorts with laughter> Map the whole story out, me? Yeah, riiiight.

It helps that most of my stories are so short that there's nothing *to* map out. Most of the time I start with a single idea, scene or phrase that resonates with me and gets stuck in my head. I walk around for a day or two telling myself that little bit of the story in my head, rewording it until it feels *right* (which accounts for my frequent vacant look). I'll even lie in bed at night and tell it over and over in my head until it sounds right if I'm having trouble sleeping.

I'll write a scene around that, then work out what I'm going to do around it. Often, I have my opening scene, one from near the beginning, a middle scene and the end written. I get stuck when I have to figure out what to tie them together with.

I think of those scenes or ideas as "pegs" for the story, since I read Ursula K LeGuin's wonderful 'Always Coming Home', in which there are short improvised plays based purely around five or six set "peg lines". Anything can happen to link those peg lines together. It's maybe a slightly odd way of going at it, but it works for me :). This way, I'm not going forward into a total blank, which would make me far too nervous, but nothing's set in stone until I declare the piece finished.


Q. What one line or short passage from any fanfic do you consider the most memorable or your favorite?

A. I have so many, but the one that springs straight to mind is this paragraph from Jesemie's Evil Twin's stunning post-Biogenesis AU fic, 'Lines':

"Mulder wants to cough. He really wants to kick out one of the windows but he's willing to wait for a moment that would be considered more appropriate. Say, just after he's wrenched the cigarette from Meryl's hand. Just after he has reached into Scully's skull and scraped out the last trace of cancer with his fingernails."

The last line of that paragraph puts a lump in my throat and a twist in my guts every time I read it. It's visceral and shocking and infinitely angsty, perfect in the context of the story, sums up Mulder post-cancer arc for me so neatly, and I really, really, *really* wish I'd written it.

Q. Describe for us the actual physical area you work in.

A. A mess.

Okay, well, when I'm at home, I work in my large, south-facing, well-heated room upstairs. I rarely write drafts of fics out on paper: I seem to work better at the PC. My ageing Packard Bell desktop sits on top of a cheap computer desk, tucked away in the only available bit of space. I have a window in front of me with a lovely view of a brick wall, the eaves of the house next door and a little patch of sky.

My dictionary, thesaurus, dictionary of quotations and assorted junk sit under the computer desk on the hard drive in a big, tottering tower. The bookcase is just behind me, which puts me within arm's reach of all my books and my stereo, thanks to my nifty typing chair, which has wheels so I can scoot around the room on it without getting up. There's usually a load of small change, a couple of pens, some mints or something equally sugary, bits of jewellery, hair clips and an empty mug or two lying around in front of the monitor, and the wardrobe to my right is *covered* in post-it notes to myself not to forget things. I also have two beanbag frogs and a small wooden statue of a yogi on top of the monitor, which are kind of writing mascots for me, along with the squad of small plastic firemen and the little cuddly moose that live on the windowsill (sadly, no squirrel as yet).

Despite the junk, it's a very comforting room to write in. It's filled with things that remind me of various people and places in my life, full of pictures and objects that can inspire me, and all in very calming shades of blue and cream, with my treasured wooden furniture. I'm a very homey person, and I write best in a homey
little space like this :).

Q. Do you listen to a particular type of music when you write?

A. Depends what I'm writing, what mood I'm in and what was in the CD player when I walked into the room to start writing. A lot of the time I just have the radio on in the background, turned down low, as white noise, because I find it hard to write in total silence. I also tend to write late at night - inspiration has this annoying habit of kicking in just as I'm about to go to bed - so out of deference for the other people in the vicinity whatever I listen to has to suit being turned down pretty low.

For pure angst, I have Portishead, maybe some Radiohead, Gorecki's Third, Ani DiFranco, sometimes Sarah McLachlan (shipper cliche, I know). Lately, though, I've been writing to the sound of things that soothe me: Rachmaninov's Vespers, David Gray, Eva Cassidy, Massive Attack. 'The Furious Winter' was written almost entirely to the sounds of the Decca 'Billie Holiday's Greatest Hits', despite being an angst-fest. There's nothing more atmospheric than Lady Day singing 'Good Morning, Heartache' when there's just one light on in the whole house and the rain is falling softly outside.

Q. How do you deal with writer's block?

A. Get up and walk away from the story, for as long as it takes. I don't know of any other way. I'm a slow writer at the best of times, but I do go through frequent "dry spells". I can't force it, so all I can do is find other things to do. I catch up on e-mail, read a book, watch some non-XF TV, spend time with friends, whatever relaxes me, until I feel like writing again. That can take weeks.

Often reading a really, really good fic will somehow unblock me. 'Quick Bright Things' was stuck in my head for ages, waiting for me to be able to get it out of there and written down. Then I read 'Lines' and immediately afterwards the story just started pouring out of me. I sat there rattling away at the keys, wishing I could bottle the way certain exceptional fics can open up that place inside me where the stories get stuck and let them out.


Q. How important is feedback to you?

A. Hugely. Let me say that one more time for extra emphasis: *hugely*.

I don't understand those writers who say it doesn't matter to them: if they aren't lying, then damn, I respect them. I write for myself, because it gives me pleasure, but I post it for others to read and, hopefully, enjoy. If I don't get feedback, I have no idea if people are doing that. If it wasn't for feedback, there'd be nothing much to motivate me to stop telling myself those stories in my head and start writing them down. So yes, I am a Feedback Whore, and I freely admit it.

Apart from that, feedback can also be enormously helpful to me as a writer, because often people will pick out their favourite bits, telling me what worked well in the story, or tell me what didn't work for them, showing me what to avoid another time. It's a tremendously valuable facet of what goes on here in the fic community. It can also help you win friends and influence people ;). Okay, maybe not quite, but I've met some really special friends and some *wonderful* beta readers, either through them sending me feedback or through my feedbacking them.

Also, it just makes me feel happy when I open up my mailbox first thing in the morning and find some in there.

<note to self: insert subliminal plea to readers to send feedback here> ;)

Q. Who are some of your favorite fanfic authors? And which are some of your favorite pieces of X-Files fanfic?

A. What a can of worms to open! This is gonna be *long*, okay (and I just *know* I'll leave someone out...). You may wish to skip down to the next question.

Several of the big hitters: Lydia Bower is kind of an automatic selection, for 'Dance Without Sleeping', one of my hands-down fave cancer-arc stories, and 'Primal Sympathy'. MD1016 just takes my breath away: stories like 'Jasper's Last Thought' somehow work their way right under my skin . DashaK writes not only hot smut, but beautiful, tender fics, presenting a vision of the Mulder/Scully relationship I really adore, as in 'Keeping The Stars Apart' and 'Increments'. I love the work of the two PDs <g>, even if I do sometimes get them mixed up. For the record, I do know the difference right now: guy PD writes stunners like 'Anaesthetic And Old Lace', and gal PD writes top-notch fics like 'China Lake'.

Jesemie's Evil Twin is one of my Fic Goddesses. I'd give my eye-teeth to write like she does. Reading 'Curtains', the 'Lines/Crosses/Circles' trilogy or 'Night Giving Off Flames' will show you why. She has a wonderfully distinct authorial voice I'd recognise anywhere. Punk Maneuverability is another Fic Goddess of mine, who writes some of the most brilliant vignettes out there: 'The Jukebox At Fall Arrow Inn' is my all-time favourite vignette. If we could bottle Barbara D's talent, we'd make a mint: 'Ars Domesticatus' has changed the way I feel about 'The Beginning' for ever, and she has an enviable grasp on the complex play of emotions between Mulder and Scully.

I should probably declare my bias towards the following authors, but don't be deceived by that: these are all still exceptional fics. Alicia K is a great smutster, but that's not all there is to her writing: I love 'Dana Katherine's Secret' and 'Looking For America'. Another author who began as a writer I was in awe of and ended up a friend is EPurSeMouve, who rocked my world with 'Soap & Eggs' and 'Sliding Downwards'. Luperkal writes wonderfully mature angsty stuff with a razor-sharp edge, like the gut-wrenching 'Mixing Memory'. Lucy Garner's 'Chapter And Verse' is one of the best post-'One Son' fics I think I've seen yet. Shawne writes some of the loveliest feel-good fic I know: try 'Running After Rainbows'.

Nearly done <g>...Alanna's 'A Reading From Dr Seuss' renewed my faith in MSR at a time when it was ebbing, with its entirely fresh and tender feel, and her 'Forecast of Rain' is a wonderful, wonderful example of the craft of writing a missing-scene/post-ep story. Revely writes like an absolute dream and 'The Dreaming Sea' is UST at its best. M Sebasky's 'A Dream of Thaw' tore my heart out in the best way possible by giving me the post-'Requiem' future I didn't know I could believe in. Jennifer Stoy's remarkable 'Drive, He Said' changed the way I thought about post-col fics as a genre, as did Lisby's 'Vestigy'. Journey to X not only writes a brilliant Skinner and my favourite ever WIP ('Purple') but produced two haunting, beautiful, surprising stories that I adore, 'Spiritus Mundi' and 'Rosemary For Remembrance'. Kristin Mackenzie seems to be less well known than she ought to be, IMO: MSRs like 'No More Giants' leave me seething with jealousy at such perfection. I envy Wayward for her versatility, because she can come up with tremendously funny fics *and* with inspired angst like 'The Light Of One Sun'. Ariadne, writer of the best, most haunting and sexiest post-'Monday' story out there, 'Dejeuner Sur La Deja Vu', produces some fabulous stuff.

Yeeeeeeeeeeee! <breathing into a paper bag> Who did I forget?

Q. Which is your favorite of your own work?

A. Oh my. Some of 'em are better than others, sure, but I still feel weird picking one out...

I suppose if you're going to make me choose, it would be a toss-up between 'The Furious Winter' and 'The Road North'. The latter is a fairly recent story that was my best shot at giving both Mulder and myself some post-'Closure' closure. I love it because I think it's the *truest* thing I've ever written about that character.

'The Furious Winter', in theme and feel, is a very, very different kind of story. It was a *lot* tougher to write than 'Night- Treasures', but in the end it was even more rewarding. I got all angsted-out myself writing the bathroom scene and felt a little ill afterwards...I had no idea whether the twist would work and whether people would be at all surprised by the direction the story took them in...I nearly had kittens over the, uh, *labelling* issue (which will make sense to those who've read the story <g>), and again over the final scene...and yet in the end all my fretting produced a story that people responded to amazingly well, and which I personally am extremely proud of.

Q. Now what about your favorite character, or the character you relate to most strongly?

A. I'm neither a Mulderist nor a Scullyist. To use a fab term I heard from DashaK, I'm a Bothist. I'm fond of 'em both, and occasionally I want to give both of them a good thump. That's a good thing in terms of the characterisation, I suppose, because that's generally how I am with real people. I love Mulder's idealism, his wit, his fierce loyalty, his romanticism, his determination. I love Scully's integrity, her honesty, her independence, her compassion and strength. There's plenty to relate to and empathise with in both of 'em.

In terms of writing them: I began writing from a Scully POV, but lately I'm more comfortable behind Mulder's eyes. He's just so angsty and it's fun to mess with the poor boy's head. Scully's tougher to get for me to get a handle on, most of the time.

I'm also kind of a secondary character 'ho. I have a big soft spot for Pendrell, and enjoyed my one time playing in his head. Skinner fascinates me, although I can't get enough of a handle on him yet to try writing him, and I reserve the biggest soft spot of all for the Gunmen. I was just starting to find Spender Jr really interesting when he got killed off, and I'm crossing my fingers for a resurrection someday (the fact that we never saw a body has to be good, right? Right?).

Q. What's the biggest problem you encounter when writing? How do you go about solving it?

A. Apart from coming up with the ideas in the first place? Filling in the blanks. This is the drawback to the "pegs" method. I tend to write a story around one or two pivotal scenes that occur to me first, which is fine, but then I have to go back and write all the scenes around them to make it into a proper story. For instance, with 'The River Of Silence' I wrote the scenes up to the funeral first, in one long burst. Then I got stuck. Totally, utterly, irritatingly stuck. Couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do next to make it into a complete story. It was about a month before I wrote all the rest.

I also have a terrible habit of starting something, getting half-way through, and then getting distracted and going off to work on something else. Then there's the fact that I do almost everything best under pressure, so I write my best stuff when I'm really meant to be doing something else important, and when I have plenty of time and leisure to write I can't come up with anything.

I don't tend to solve these problems, sadly. I just live with 'em. Frankly, it's a wonder I ever get *anything* done.

Q. What is/are the most significant thing(s) you've gained from participating in the world of X-Files fanfic?

A. Friendships, first and foremost. I remember all too clearly how I was convinced when I began posting to atxc that I'd never enjoy the same kind of banter and warmth that the "old hands" seemed to have established. And yet here I am, several months later, with a group of friends who are as dear to me as any of my RL pals. Now I've retreated to the cosy environment of the mailing lists rather than atxc, but the friendships continue to grow. As a member of Sab's Yes, Virginia private chat/beta list, I have a circle of friends I 'talk' to almost daily, who are pillars of strength, deliverers of good beta and generally just fantastic fun to be around. Even if I never meet these people, they put up with my whining, join me in lusting after fictional TV characters, bolster my confidence in rough times, bring a smile to my face every time I check my mailbox, and generally make darned fantastic people to have in my life. To me, that's only a little short of a miracle :).

Fanfic has also given me the tremendous blessing of an environment where I can rediscover, and hopefully nurture, something I'd thought lost: my love of writing. From my first story post, folk have encouraged me, advised me and generally helped me to look at a pen and a blank sheet of paper (or, rather, a keyboard and a blank Word doc) with eagerness rather than fear. I've learnt that, intimidating as it may be, it's well worth taking the risk of letting other people cast their eyes over something you've created, because the rewards can be wonderful.

Above all, I've had *fun*, believe it or not.

Q. Do your family and friends know about your fanfics? What are their reactions?

A. That would be a NO. I pursue a strict policy of don't ask, don't tell. I'm sure my family must suspect I'm up to *something* weird what with all the hours I spend tapping away at my PC when I'm home. The LeatherTrousers!Duchovny desktop wallpaper and the odd parcels that arrive from people they've never heard me mention in far-off lands might give 'em a clue, too.

They don't ask, though, so I don't tell. I think my family and friends would either just look at me blankly and go "So...you write *what*?" or edge away slowly to call the men in white coats if I told them my guilty little secret. In some ways, I like it this way: it keeps fic as something just for me, something I can do without anyone wanting to look over my shoulder or comment on it.

Q. What encouragement or advice would you give new XF fanfic writers?

A. Well, I'm not sure how qualified I am to dispense advice, but here goes...

Read. Read as much as you can. Not just fic, but published novels too. Get a feel for how to structure a story, how to introduce characters, when dialogue sounds real and when it sounds phoney, how much description of settings helps build atmosphere, yadda yadda yadda.

Read enough fic to know what counts as a fanfic cliche, which scenarios have been done to death, which remain unexplored, which you might bring something fresh to. Find a good archive and work your way through at least a couple of the acknowledged "classics" to see what makes a great fic.

Watch your XF tapes (if you don't have any, buy some, or make friends with a 'Phile who'll dub theirs for you). Watch them a *lot* ("research" is the *best* excuse for an all-day XF marathon, you know). Get a feel for these characters, for what moves them, what drives them, what matters to them, how they speak, how they would act in such-and-such a situation, what canon events might form emotional touchstones for them.

Don't assume you'll just be able to sit down and rattle off a brilliant fic out of pure natural talent. I *wish* it worked like that. It ain't quite that simple. Now you have a feel for your characters, and, hopefully, a reasonable original idea, write your first draft. Check spellings. Don't overuse that thesaurus, but try and find a new way of saying things: after the sixtieth time, hearing that Scully's eyes are as blue as the ocean gets dull, so spice thing up, shake them around a little and see what happens. Keep an eye on your POV and your tenses to make sure they're consistent. Read helpful stuff provided for the advice and edification of newbies by experienced writers like Kipler (Elements of Phyle) and DashaK (Guide To Writing Smut) at their sites.

Now you need a beta reader! Preferably more than one, IMO. I have about five, and sometimes I still don't think that's enough. Others prefer to write with just one. Whatever floats your boat, but I think that the more people you get to look at your work, the more likely they are to catch errors or be able to come up with good suggestions. I got my first betas through shameless advertising on atxc, although if you have a fic-writing friend, it may be worth asking them. Rewrite according to their suggestions. Give them the rewrite. Then rewrite it again. Keep going till you *know* it's the best it can be.

Now stop and check: are you still enjoying this? If you're not having some kind of fun writing this stuff, there's gotta be something wrong somewhere. Sometimes we ficcers get our collective head stuck too far up our collective posterior about the seriousness of this stuff: it's a hobby! No one's paying you to do it, no one's *making* you do it, so relax a little and *enjoy* it. :)

Finally, don't write to please an audience. Write from your heart. Write the story *you* want to tell. It'll show.

Logo courtesy of LJStuart