Broken Road + fic asks 1-15
the (broken) road to recovery
synopsis: After going over the edge, Eric Cartman is sent to Peak View, a behavioral clinic in Colorado Springs. However, when Eric meets his psychiatrist, it may take him longer than expected to leave.
1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?
The idea of this ficactually came to me while I was walking home one day last semester and I thinkthe night I thought of it, I took my laptop out and jotted ideas almostspontaneously. I wanted to take up the idea because I wanted a more seriousattempt at writing Eric Cartman. This kind of sounds funny because I always tryto write a more mature Cartman in oneshots, especially with Kyman, but not to…theextent of this fic?
I feel like peoplejust don’t care enough about Cartman in the SP fanbase to attempt to write arealistic portrayal of his character. Most people who do incorporate Cartman(and yes, incorporate in the sense that they just add him in the backround ornot as important roles) do it to have an antagonist character, or someone withopposing views than the main character or ship, and they just don’t take hispotential characterization seriously. They act like he is such a jokecharacter, and that his tendencies and mentalities aren’t valid and don’t deserve asmuch attention as other characters.
And I’m not reallytrying to sound like a bitch, but a few characters who have had less than anhour’s worth of screentime make up the majority of SP fanfiction with hardlyany distinguishable attributes, when a character who was been there sincecreation, in almost every single damn episode, is pushed to the side? What kindof shit is that?
You can dislikeCartman all you want, but treating like his character means nothing or didnothing to the show is just infuriating to me.
So yeah, that wasmostly influenced me. Didn’t mean to turn this into a rant, but I guess I did?I don’t know.
2. What scene did you first put down?
I write in order,almost all of the time, so the first scene of course was the bathroom/hygienescene. The idea of writing different scenes at different times is just so weird, like I respect how people can do it but how?
3. What’s your favorite line of narration?
The recent chapter Iuploaded had a lot of good stuff, but chapter three had some of my favoritebits in there. I especially like, Hedidn’t care about the opinions from anyone else but himself, and possibly thestrange man who managed to tangle himself in the boy’s life, uncalled for.Sharp eyes, an impenetrable wit, all traits that Eric thought only he couldcarry.
4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue?
This is narrative/dialogue. “Ilove you, sweetie.”
Eric said nothing as the door closed, he only threw the plate into thedishwasher and made his way upstairs.
5. What part was hardest to write?
Compared to otherstories, this entire plot is harder to write just because it is a multi-chapand I’m not entirely used to writing those. (the closest I have been wasanother multi-chap south park centering Kyle I tried writing years ago, and mylord of the flies oneshot compilation which isn’t really a multi-chap but justa bunch of oneshots). I guess the theme and tone of the story is the hardestpart to been relatively consistent. Obviously things change all the time but Iwanted to make this story as slow and in-depth as possible. I wanted there tobe many facets to it. I guess that’s the hardest part.
6. What makes this fic special or differentfrom all your other fics?
Like I said, this ficis a Cartman-centric story.
Unless it’s Kyman, I don’t really write Cartman inthe spotlight, or if I do it’s because I want him as the main POV for Kyman. Iwanted this to be a refreshing change to the characters I star when writing.Also the way I am planning future chapters, this story is going to the longestcontinuous story I will have ever written, even longer than some of myoneshots.
7. Where did the title come from?
‘Road to Recovery’ isa term that basically stuck with me while I was jotting down ideas in thebeginning. Originally that was what the story was going to be called, and thatwas it. However I wanted a bit of a twist, so of course I inserted the ‘broken’in there.
I honestly don’t spend too much time withnames, if I feel something matches a oneshot or story well, I’ll use it.However with future oneshots I am writing right now I am going to try to changethat. I want my titles to hold a little more weight.
8. Did any real people or events inspire anypart of it?
Honestly no. I’venever known anyone in real life that went to a rehab center or neededto go. However I tried to research some in the Colorado area (name of Peak Viewis actually from a place in Colorado).
9. Were there any alternate versions of thisfic?
Nope. I don’t reallydo alternate versions for my stories.
10. Why did you choose this pairing for thisparticular story?
So. The story istagged with, ‘Kyle Broflovski/Eric Cartman’ (or the other way around I don’tremember), but honestly I put the tag in there because I wanted the two primarycharacters to be Eric and Kyle. I wanted there to be a process that Eric wentthrough to see himself, to learn to accept himself and his life, and that acharacter like Kyle could help him. I honestly didn’t see this as a wholereligious metaphor or something, where Kyle is his ‘savior’ or something likethat. I did not want the story to come out like that. While I did want Kyle’spresence to resonate something in Eric, I wanted it to be for Eric to come to himselfmore emotionally, to actually make a difference in his life.
Honestly I don’t wantto say anything without spoiling future plot points, but let’s see a reciprocalrelationship won’t be the highlight I want to achieve with this fic even if it’sa possibility.
11. What do you like best about this fic?
I honestly feel somuch passion for this story. This might sound hilarious to some of you becauseI update slowly, but I always think about what I want to do next and how Ishould do it. It’s been a while since I had this much love for something I’vebeen writing.
12. What do you like least about this fic?
The amount of time ittakes for me to update honestly. School is such a bitch.
Okay but with anon-bullshitty answer. The least thing I like about this fic is how many linebreaks I use. I am going to try with future chapters to not make everything sodisjointed. That’s something I could definitely work on.
13. What music do you listen to, if any, to getin the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, whatdo you think readers should listen to accompany us while reading?
I don’t really listento music. It seldom helps me write and I often become distracted.
I might make aplaylist eventually. I don’t know, I don’t really associate music with this ficfor some reason.
14. Is there anything you wanted readers tolearn from reading this fic?
Basically that whilethings may be hard while having a mental illness there will always be peopleout there willing to listen to you, to offer help for you regardless of thecircumstance. It could be hard, you may not feel like you have the patience,but things will get better if you allow them to.
15. What did you learn from writing this fic?
I am learning moreabout to write a character with a mental illness, I never had done it beforeand it’s really been helping me to look into research and such going into it.This story has really helped me with researching topics I hadn’t before andlearning more about these kinds of institutions and such.
Also I am justlearning the best way to write a multi-chap since it is so out of my element.