Can you believe that TWD finale? I'm still not quite over it. Haha! And now we have to wait six excruciatingly long months but what you don’t have to wait for is another fantastic interview with a Richonne fanfiction writer. I’ve known @codename-me since I joined tumblr and she’s just as lovely and awesome now as she was then. She was one of the first people to welcome me into the fandom and her enthusiasm for this ship brings me and so many others a ton of joy. So without further adieu, I give you a chat with codename-me about how she translates her Richonne headcanons into stories, her writing process and why she decided to start writing fanfiction.
Richonnefics (RF): Hi Code! It’s a pleasure to interview you. As a Richonne shipper, how do you translate your headcanon thoughts into stories?
codename-me (Code): I daydream about Rick and Michonne almost every damn day. Hahaha! If there wasn’t an apocalypse would they have met and it’s always the same answer. Yes! Can you keep these two beautiful people, that are meant to be, separated from each other - kismet. I’m a romantic at heart and I love a happy ending. That’s one headcanon thought. The other way is taking something from an episode and fixing it to my liking. I NEVER liked how those police in Grady were introduced so I just wrote it the way I felt was better for me and if it works, it works.
RF: I’m quite the romantic myself so I completely understand. I’m in love with love. *sighs* What do you think makes a good story?
Code: Um, I don’t have any special rules or bullet points to what makes a good story. I love them all.
RF: What is your least favorite part of the writing process?
Code: Actually sitting down and writing something, anything and hoping my tenses are right. My tenses are so shitty some days. It gets in the way and I find myself staring at a paragraph and then I end up deleting the darn thing. I also have a severe case of writer’s block right now. I have post it notes all over my side of the dresser with new story ideas.
RF: What is your most favorite part of the writing process?
Code: Completing a chapter and sending it to @siancore (Hey girl, how you doing☺) for her beta review/edits/comments. It’s the BEST FEELING EVER! I’d pour myself a celebratory drink and enjoy that wonderful feeling and pray she loves it too.
RF: Completing a chapter is such a great accomplishment and the feeling is so overwhelmingly good. When and why did you begin writing fanfiction?
Code: This is a long story so brace yourself… It was after the infamous moment on the couch where both Yvette and Norman shipped Richonne but before that couch moment I didn’t know where to go or who to talk to because I felt/sensed something was going on between Rick and Michonne in S3 when they met. It was clear to me in the episode “Clear” and the fact that he was just eyeing the hell out of her in a very good way in “Welcome to the Tombs” made my shipper’s heart explode. When Norman brought it up and Yvette was acting the same way I was acting, it just solidify Richonne for me.
I was expecting Rick and Michonne to be a couple at the very start of S4 and I was soooo disappointed when that wasn’t so, I expressed this and got ZERO support over at the AMC TWD forum so I google searched “Rick and Michonne” and the first thing that came up was ‘Richonne fanfiction" and I was amazed, (I may have also screamed in excitement too). The first story I read was “The Way Forward” by Siancore and I loved it. I couldn’t leave a comment but I wanted to leave a comment and I didn’t want to come off as, I don’t know, a crazy fangirl.
Why no comment? Well, you see, Siancore had posted her tumblr on her ff page and I was asking myself 'WTF is a tumblr’ and I had to check it out. I went even more fangirl, screaming and hyperventilating. Oh my god, look at all these Rick and Michonne posts. It took me a good month or so to acquaint myself with the site and when I did, I then sent an official comment to her story because like I said, I didn’t want to sound crazy and I didn’t know what to say and yet I had so much to say to her. *Sigh, I can make myself so complex at times and I’m not*
Fast forward to season five and Rick and Michonne has still not happened. There were some moments I am sure they could have squeezed in, especially that Grady hospital storyline and I kept screaming WTF is this b.s story nonsense! Give me Richonne damnit!! I was really upset how it went down so I sat down at my laptop and wrote the first three chapters to “Road to Grady” in a few hours.
And there you have it Nik… the when and why :)
RF: That was a long story but I love it. I feel like most Richonners had the same type of visceral response to these two over the years. Where did your love of books/storytelling/reading/writing come from?
Code: When I was a child; (okay so my age is going to come out here) answering machines, game consoles and cable t.v. were mainstreaming big time and although we had those things, my parents weren’t big on us watching T.V. or playing Nintendo. They were quick to respond with “read a book if you’re so bored.” I had older sisters who were always reading those buxom woman and hard abs looking man on the cover books and I was oh-kay… I was eight when I read Outlander and I had no clue what 'love button’ was until I was wayyyy older. Hahaha! There was a writer, I can’t remember, who had a line about a string of pearls across her abdomen and I thought why would anyone ruin expensive jewelry like that.
I read a ton of the Sunfire books too. This book series was big in the 80′s and the Sweet Dreams series too. They were these young adult historical books, written by different authors, where the heroine is smart and feels out of place and she had to deal with her family ideals of her and she was always torn between two love interests. They were set in a very important part of history. They’re out of print now *sad face* but I did some research and some of the books can be purchased on Amazon. I was very big on Victoria Holt’s gothic romances and I did read V.C. Andrews.
Also big in the 80′s were Judy Blume. There wasn’t censorship on the islands so I was well aware of what she wrote in her books. I read Sweet Dreams and The Babysitter’s Club too. I quickly got bored with those when I saw my very first horror movie. I was twelve and the movie was Friday the 13th. From there I was horror obsessed. First book I picked up was Pet Cemetery by Stephen King. Finished that book in three days. I like the cover for Dark Tower so I read it and I was hooked on King. I would love to meet him. I was always telling stories too, to anyone who would listen anyway. Just made up things as I went along. It would start with a sense of macabre but ended happy. I LOVE happy endings.
RF: Your reading interests varied over time. I think that makes for an interesting writer. And now for the fun, semi-related question. Which character from TWD would you want to find you and take you back to become a part of Team Family?
Code: GLENN!!!
RF: Glenn is the best! I love him so!
Code: Nik, this was so much fun. I am honored that you wanted to interview me. I’m humbled and I feel loved. Thank you! ♥
RF: The thanks is really all ours. We appreciate you and your contributions to this fandom very much. Looking forward to reading more from you, so try to kick that writer’s block soon! For more of @codename-me‘s fanfiction navigate on over to ff.net or you can just click here! :)
