Author Spotlight: Dont-stop-believin-in-klaine
Welcome to the Author Spotlight! We have with us @dont-stop-believin-in-klaine today and we’ll be featuring their work throughout the week! All posts will be tagged: Author Spotlight and the author’s name, and just a reminder that if you’re interested in signing up, you’re welcome to drop me a line! Also, you can check out past spotlight authors on the navigation bar on the right of the main page.
Author Spotlight: Dont-stop-believin-in-klaine
Hey, my name is Kaja, I’m 23 and I’m a law student and I’m definitely addicted to too many tv shows. I started writing fanfiction in the beginning of 2014, but I posted my first fic a year later, in January 2015. I’ve been a big fan of fanfiction basically since the moment I joined the Glee fandom and one day I just got this idea in my head, so I decided to try and write it myself. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, I can’t imagine my life without writing, I had no idea I would enjoy it this much. But thanks to that, I still feel connected to Glee and Klaine which is very important to me – I’m not ready to let them go and honestly? I don’t think I ever will be, so you guys are stuck with me.
Fic Prompt: teachers!Klaine – Kurt and Blaine are professors/teachers in high school or college (Maybe they don’t particularly like each other at first, they’re rivals, but then stuff happens… Oh, you know where I’m going with this ;D)
Spotlight Fic: Burn With You
Summary: FBI Special Agent Kurt Hummel has one goal - catch one of the most wanted and cruel criminals, Sebastian Smythe. After a string of failures, he’s forced to ask for help from Smythe’s former partner, currently locked up in prison. They hate each other with passion but will they be able to work through the issues between them and unite to overcome their common enemy?
This fic is my baby. It’s my first fic, it’s a WIP – I’ve been working on it for such a long time and I feel a deep connection with it. I chose it because even though it’s not finished yet, I’m very proud of it and of how my writing has improved since the moment I started it – you can definitely see a difference when you read the first chapter and, let’s say, the eighth one. It’s my biggest masterpiece, at least for now.
It is a bit inspired by White Collar, but it wasn’t the show that gave me the idea. The idea came by itself and when I already had it, I decided to use a few elements from this tv show, but not much. If you’re looking for a White Collar inspired fic, Burn With You doesn’t exactly fit the description.
I remember when I got the idea though. I was lying on the couch, trying to study for my finals and then I this idea popped into my head and I was screwed. I wasn’t able to focus on anything until I had a prologue basically written in my head.
I love the versions of Kurt and Blaine I created for this fic. They’re different from the boys we know from Glee, from canon, but yet they’re still Klaine if you know what I mean? I also love the dynamics between them. And badboy!Blaine is my kryptonite, so I really love writing him like this.
Find more of works on Tumblr and AO3.
Q and A with Dont-stop-believin-in-klaine
How did you get into the Glee fandom?
A bit by an accident. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it, but there’s a game called SongPop on Facebook. Basically, you challenge people or they challenge you, the song starts playing and you have to guess the title or the artist (there are 5 songs in one challenge). And there are different categories, like Today’s Hits, Movie’s Songs, Rock etc. And there was a category called Glee. Someone challenged me and I was like, what the hell is Glee? Is it a band? A genre? But I thought, okay whatever. But then I played and I realized that I know those songs, but they’re not sung by the original artists, they were covers. And I got intrigued, googled it and found out that Glee was actually a tv show and I decided to start watching it one day. That day came when I had just finished my finals in the winter semester in 2013 and I started watching. And that’s the story of how I sold my soul to Glee.
What drew you into writing in general?
I never thought I would be writing fics when I first started reading them, but then there was this idea in my head and it didn’t want go away, so I decided I had to write it because otherwise I would go insane. I thought about posting it as a prompt, but by that time I was already so obsessed with the idea and I figured no one would write it exactly as I imagined, so I had to do it myself. And that’s how I started writing and how Burn With You was born.
Were you part of a fandom before Glee? Did you write fanfic for it?
No and no. Sure, I watched other tv shows, but I was never in the fandom and I didn’t even know something like fanfiction existed. And now I’m doomed, fandoms took over my life and I basically breathe fanfiction. Who knew my life would end up being like that? No regrets though!
Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?
I really love it and I’m very passionate about it, but it’s just a hobby, I don’t plan on pursing it as a career.
If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?
I have this rule that I don’t start another chapter unless the previous one is finished. Sometimes, if I’m stuck, I start writing the next scene and then I fill in the gaps, but it’s always within one chapter, it has to be done before I can start another one.
I usually don’t outline the fics, I should, but in reality, I just make it up as I go which is a curse sometimes, but hey, it somehow works out.
As to the perfect writing conditions, I can write anywhere. Seriously, anywhere. I usually write at home, that’s when I write on my laptop, but when I have breaks between my classes, I go to the coffee shop near my university and I write in my special fanfiction notebook. I also write in it if I’m bored during my lectures. Sometimes I listen to music, sometimes I don’t, depends on my mood.
How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
I usually read it two or three times, then I send it to my beta and when she sends it back, I read it one more time and then I post.
If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?
Burn With You, and let me tell you, that’s exactly what I’m going to do when I finish it. I’m going to look at the first few chapters and probably rewrite them a bit (I won’t change the plot, just the sentences, vocabulary) because I know my writing has improved a lot since I started. I glanced at the prologue a while ago and I cringed at some of the sentences, I would definitely write them differently now, so some editing it definitely going to happen.
Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?
I actually don’t like writing canon. I love AUs, those are my jam, so I take A LOT of liberties. I use some elements from canon if I like them, but I usually love to change most of things.
Talk about a review that made your day.
Every review and comment makes my day, but right now I remember one that really made me smile. It was after I updated Burn With You after 8 months of hiatus. This person wrote a lot of nice things about the chapter, but what really was amazing about this review was how they said that they’re proud of me for overcoming my writer’s block and that’s it’s not easy and that it must have taken a lot of strength and effort to do this. Now, whenever I feel like writing isn’t going so well, I read this review a couple of times and it makes it better. To the person that left this review – THANK YOU ♥
