Profiling the Pen: LaDemonessa
This interview is structured a little differently due to the back-and-forth nature of our email conversation. I found it very interesting talking to Jen (@cjjingram on Tumblr and LaDemonessa on AO3) and hope you enjoy it too!
fiacresgirl: Hey Jen! Thanks for agreeing to this interview.
Jen: No problem! I started off in journalism so I’ve been on the other end before. Consider this payback. ;p
fiacresgirl: I’ve been doing a weekly Profiling the Pen since last August with various Olicity writers. So here are the questions:
What is your writing process like?
Seriously, although there is plenty of tea and Diet Coke involved, my writing process starts with a simple idea, usually a question or plot hole that catches my eye. Like I said before, I started off as a freelance journalist and worked for a few papers, so I start off asking the basic questions who, what, when, where, why, and how.
An example of that would be:
What if Oliver had been killed in season 3?
Okay, so where and when did he die?
On the dam during the fight with Ra’s.
How did he die? The sniper fire? Ra’s? The fall?
Sniper fire. His League armor failed to protect him and he was killed instantly.
Ra’s and Lance. Ra’s sabotaged his armor in case he decided to betray him and Lance fired the kill shot.
After I have a rough idea of the plot, I then do a character study where I take the place of each of the characters and decide their motivations and backstory based on their canon characters. I try to work as closely to canon as I can, which seems odd since I mostly write AU’s, but my process has always been to take canon to the furthest point I can go with it and then turn left. I ask a question like, ’What if this one thing changed?’ then follow the timeline to its natural progression.
Where that comes from is my own personal philosophy. I believe that we all come to these crossroads in life where one almost insignificant action can change everything. In Sunshine Suits Her, I started with the premise of ‘What if Tommy had met Felicity first; how would the story change?’ Then I expanded that to, ‘What if Tommy and Felicity had met as kids/teenagers, how would Tommy’s life have changed, and how would that have affected his relationship with Oliver?’ In Still Waters and Quiet Men I asked, ‘What if Felicity had secretly worked for Batman before meeting Oliver?’ I expanded that to, ‘What if Felicity was Lucius Fox’s adopted daughter and she and Bruce were lovers before she moved to Starling?’
After I ask my questions and come up with the best answers to them, I then work on research and plotting. I form a complete idea of the story from beginning to end and outline it then begin an outtakes file for all my research. My current file is now over 1000 pages of research and cut scenes.
(By the way, I can show you my current file I stick everything into in order to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. It’s an indecipherable mess that only works with my brain and is the equivalent of a desk with papers stacked all over the place in piles, but it has all kinds of cut scenes and information I stash away for a later date.)
As an aside, I never trash anything. If I cut something then I stash it in an outtakes file just in case something comes up and I can ‘recycle’ them. I actually cut well over 400 pages of Still Waters then wound up recycling most of it throughout the story.
I also research the shit out of everything I write, sometimes to a ridiculous amount. For Still Waters I went so far as to look up what the weather was like on that particular day along with the moon phase, and for Sunshine (in a chapter no one has seen yet) I looked up what football games would be playing that day as well as the scores so if anyone ever decided to go back and check, they’d see that’s really what the guys were watching and know the exact date and time the conversation took place.
So far no one has mentioned doing that to me, but I live in hopes that someday someone will. ;p
When I finally do start writing, I write the chapter or scene then, if I stop, I go back the next day and reread all of it before writing again. I correct as many mistakes as I can and read the dialog out loud to myself so I can 'hear’ the voices and make sure the language and rhythm flow at a natural pace that makes sense to the reader.
How much/how fast can you write when you’re really in the zone?
It varies. I’ve been known to write between 20-50 pages a night.
Do you have any rituals or stimuli (music, libations) you need to do or queue up before you start writing?
I get a big ass thing of tea or Diet Coke, put my hair in a clip, then turn on my music. I don’t really 'hear’ the music once I get started. Instead I keep pace with the rhythm. I also have eclectic musical tastes; rap, rock, indie, opera, New Age, dance–anything and everything. I’d offer up my playlist but that’s a whole lot of typing, let me tell you. At last count I had 3282 songs on iTunes altogether and I add to that all the time. The playlist I listen to when I write currently has around 500 or so songs and my readers will often suggest songs I should add to that.
As an aside, the Arrow fandom has definitely educated me on current musical trends.
What are your five favorite fanfic tropes?
I’m not a tropes fan. I was brought up in the Trek fandom and trekkie writers are big into originality. Tropes are looked down on since they’re repetitive themes that have been done to death. Instead I prefer to read what other people write then try to write the things they aren’t writing instead.
What is the greatest challenge you have in writing, the hurdle you are constantly jumping to get the words on the page?
Commas. Fucking hate commas. I can never figure out where those things go.
Are the things you want to write different from the things you want to read?
No, I write what I want to read because no one else is writing it. Afterwards, I get to read and enjoy it myself.
Do you have a favorite story you’ve written? Why is it your favorite?
In this fandom I’m proud of Still Waters and Sunshine, both of which are ongoing and NOT abandoned despite taking a bit of a break, and in my old Garak/Bashir DS9 fandom, I’m proud of The Garak/Bashir Mysteries which are a series of novels I co-wrote with Charlene Vickers. The novels are on AO3 as well if anyone wants to check them out.
Who are your fanfiction inspirations?
I have a lot. If you’re talking writers then there are so many I couldn’t list all of them.
In the Star Trek fandom, my heroes were and are Greywolf the Wanderer, a Kirk/Spock writer who is legendary. He taught me about how important it is to interact with your readers. Auntie Ruth Gifford, another great writer from the Picard/Q genre who taught me how to push myself and produce professional level work and to never think about it as ‘just fanfiction’. There was Carolyn Fulton, an Odo/Kira writer who is now a very successful pro-author who directed me to the ASCEM community in the first place. Charlene Vickers, Olivia Monteith, and Sophie Masse aka BGM, the Bashir/Garak Machine, who together with myself pretty much revolutionized Garak/Bashir. Judith, aka Odogoddess, another O/K writer who I still get emails from every day and is a wonderful friend. All of my friends and fellow writers from Fuh-Q and ASCEM who I talk to daily and have done so for more than 20 years now.
In Arrow I have a few favorite authors as well. @eilowyn1, @ellabee15, @realityisoverrated, @RocketRem, @infie, @teawithlemon, @MacyAudenStar, @somethingelseornothingatall, @hari-redtoes , @ohemgeeitscoley, @whoseeswhatsyetunseen, @juleswritesallwrongs, pls210, R3nee41A, @smkkbert, @supersillyanddorky06, @thatmasquedgirl, @thealternativesource, @wagamiller, @writewithurheart, all of my friends from OldBatsandYoungBitches (you know who you are), and so many others I can’t begin to list so if you don’t see your name it’s only because I didn’t feel like typing any more. (grin)
These are writers who think outside of the box and strive for originality. I love that and find that kind of thinking very inspiring.
If you’re talking characters then my two favorites are Garak and Felicity. They couldn’t be more different on the surface, but so alike in the way they think. Garak is a former spy and a bit of an alien Sherlock Holmes, and Felicity has the mind of a sleuth, so both characters turn me on writing-wise. They’re both complex and yet very honest in the way they approach puzzles they’re trying to solve, even when they’re lying. They both love in a way that is both open and closed off, and they are both capable of a pure love that is marked by personal tragedy. They’re a study in contradictions, both so strong and so vulnerable, and for a writer like me that’s very inspiring.
I’m not actually an Olicity shipper even though I’ve written quite a bit of Olicity. I don’t like labeling myself as a ‘shipper’ or limiting myself to one OTP because, for me, it isn’t necessarily about Olicity as much as it’s about Felicity. Growing up, there weren’t a lot of female heroes and role models so smart, sexy, bold characters like Felicity really bring out the writer in me.
What do you think is ignored or overlooked in this fandom that, in your opinion, should be addressed and stat?
Hmm? I think that the whole writing Felicity as a weak victim who needs Oliver to be mean to her and treat her like shit until she falls for him is crap, if that’s what you mean. I despise stories where Felicity is a rape victim or victim of domestic abuse who Oliver saves, or when writers give her cancer or have her tortured to death so Oliver can cry. First off, Felicity is a very smart, very strong woman so the idea of her being a victim or staying with a man who would push her around is ridiculous. Secondly, destroying woman and making a strong character weak just to get your rocks off is fine. If that’s what you like then write it, just don’t expect me to read it or pat you on the back for it.
The thing that bugs me there is these writers all claim to love Felicity but they don’t. Felicity to them is this empty husk they can fill with their own peccadillos and who they really love is this idealized version of Oliver who they want to rush in and save them from having to stand up for themselves. They want the fantasy of some good looking man to come in and make it so they never have to think or do for themselves and, if that’s how they get down, that’s fine. You want that life then you do that—it’s going to bite you in the ass, but you go for it. However, that’s not who Felicity is in canon. Felicity in canon would never put herself in that position and, while this is fanfiction, you have to at least make the attempt to base your writing on some kind of truth.
I much prefer reading and writing about the character I see on-screen. I want to see the woman who saves Oliver, not the other way around. I want to see the woman Oliver sees, the woman the supposed hero is in awe of. Everyone else might have his action figure on the shelf or his poster on the wall, but Oliver has a Felicity Smoak action figure tucked away. She’s the person he aspires to be. That is so powerful and I find it very disappointing and disheartening when I see young women who claim to be strong feminists and who supposedly love this character, reduce her to nothing more than some man’s punching bag whose only value lies between her thighs or as a two-dimensional literary vehicle for a hurt/comfort. You might as well switch out her name for theirs because what they’re writing is a Mary Sue, not a story about Felicity Smoak, bad ass vigilante and genius hacker who has faced down every last big bad Team Arrow has ever come up against on her own and done so without so much as flinching.
Now that’s the woman I write about, not some sullen teenage drama queen who gets off on being treated like an object instead of a person. After all, the point of writing fanfiction should be about teaching people to be their own heroes, not glamorizing what it’s like to be a victim.
fiacresgirl: It’s interesting to hear you say you enjoy your own work. So many people say that they hate their writing and that it’s so hard to write.
