You might recognize Aeryn’s name from the Articles section here. She contributed one of my first articles, a piece one what it’s like to be an Australian fan. We’ve become quite good friends during my return to hanfic and I figured it was about time I gave her an interview.
Aeryn’s fic can be read at her website Tabula Rasa and on her LiveJournal. She’s got quite a few lovely stories, including the Twin Souls Trilogy, The Basement Tapes and many more that are definitely worth checking out.
Why did you start writing hanfic? How long have you been writing?
I started to write hanfic mostly because of Middle Of Nowhere. I bought the album two days after Christmas 1997, with my Christmas money for that year – it was the first CD I’d ever bought. The first time I heard the song Weird, I clicked with it straight away (for want of a better term). I’d been writing for years before that, but that was the first time I realised that I had a creative talent that I wasn’t using to its fullest potential – and that if I didn’t use it, odds are I was going to lose it at some point. Not to mention that I figured that if Hanson could do what they were doing, and at such a young age, I could do it as well. I was able to thank Hanson for giving my start as a hanfic writer when I met them just before their Sydney concert during their first Australian tour, back in 2005.
As for how long I’ve been writing? Twelve and a half years, if I count the first hanfic story I ever wrote during my summer break from high school. I’d never heard of fan fiction at the time, though, as I’d never used the Internet, so I basically consider my official start to have come in May 2002, after I discovered FanFiction.net and realised that what I wrote actually had a name. So essentially, it’s been a little more than eight years.
I know you already wrote an article for me on this subject (many thanks for it), but do you have any other thoughts on what it’s like to be a hanfic author who isn’t from America?
It’s interesting (to say the least) being in the minority in fandom and in the fanfic community. I’m definitely used to it by now (as most of the movies, TV shows and musicians I like are the products of other countries anyway). I do feel like an outsider sometimes, though. I love being part of the hanfic community, don’t get me wrong, and I am very appreciative of Hanson and of the friends I’ve made because of fandom and hanfic, but I do often wish I knew other Australian writers.
What are your favorite hanfic stories and authors?
My all-time favourite hanfic is Catapult. I’m not entirely sure when I first started to read it, but it was the very first story I liked enough to want to keep track of it. I also love Avery, You Irritate Me, Revelations, Silence Is Golden, Devils And Gods and Babylon. Favourite authors are Molly, Nat, Bethany and Ashley. Ashley unfortunately is no longer a part of Hanson fandom and the hanfic community, but we’re best mates and still keep in close contact.
What is your writing process like?
It always starts with an idea. Once I’ve got my idea, I’ll start jotting down a rough sketch of it along with a list of possible titles and character names. I don’t start writing until I’ve picked my title and figured out roughly how many chapters I want to write and how long I want the story to be. If I need to, I also do a fair bit of research on any part of the story I’m unsure of. Sometimes I’ll work up an outline, but I only really do that when it’s time for NaNoWriMo. Usually I write linearly, i.e. from start to finish, but a lot of the time I’ll write a future chapter (or an excerpt of one) out of sequence, set it aside and come back to it when it’s time to slot it into the story. That really only happens when I get that chapter or excerpt in my head and can’t get it out any other way. I’ve already written the epilogue of my trilogy (the Twin Souls Trilogy), for example, even though I won’t be anywhere close to that point until sometime in 2012.
Where do your ideas and inspiration come from?
To be honest? Everywhere, but music is my biggest inspiration. Real life also plays a big part as well. The Basement Tapes, which I started for NaNoWriMo 2009, is set in the city closest to where I live, and because I know the area more or less intimately it’s pretty easy to write. My project for the 2010 Boomerang Big Bang, Sisyphus Rising, was inspired by a fanvid of Firefly and Serenity that’s set to the 30 Seconds To Mars songs This Is War and 100 Suns.
Probably the only exception to this has been my trilogy. The first book, Defying Gravity, was written based on wanting to write a story that was an alternate universe, but at the same time wanting to adhere to Hanson canon as closely as I could. The name of the trilogy itself (and its overall idea) was sparked by a work written by the Classical Greek philosopher Plato called Symposium, specifically by this section: “And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself … the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment: these are the people who pass their whole lives together…”
Which stories are you most proud of having written?
I consider November Rain to be one of them. It was my first collaboration and my first alternate universe. Most of the reason I’m so proud of it is that even though it took me over five years to completely finish it, I kept at it and never gave up on it.
I’m also very proud of Defying Gravity, The Basement Tapes and Sisyphus Rising – Defying Gravity because for the first time, I set it wholly in a country other than my own; The Basement Tapes because it’s the first of my NaNoWriMo projects that I’ve continued past the end of the challenge; Sisyphus Rising because it’s my first science-fiction story.
Favorite songs to listen to while you write or which inspire your writing?
I listen to a lot of rock and punk music – 30 Seconds To Mars, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Snow Patrol are favourites of mine. I’ve just recently seen 30 Seconds To Mars live for the first time, so I’m listening to them a lot at the moment. Mostly though, iTunes goes on shuffle when I write. At the moment the top ten songs in my iTunes Top 40 playlist, excluding all the Hanson songs (which is most of them), are:
1. Desert Dressed In Lights – Porcelain
2. Painting Flowers – All Time Low
3. Will I Ever Make It Home – Ingram Hill
4. Again – Porcelain
5. How Far We’ve Come – matchbox twenty
6. The Technicolor Phase – Owl City
7. Follow Me Down – 3OH!3
8. Don’t Let Me Down – Eskimo Joe
9. Real World – The All-American Rejects
10. Car Crash – Artist Vs Poet
So really, while I do listen to rock and punk for the most part, my iTunes library tends to be pretty random and eclectic. 🙂
Thank you, Aeryn, for being the August spotlight. Your stories are some of the most unique and interesting ones out there, and your unique perspective is very much welcome in the fandom. That last sentiment goes for any other fans from somewhere outside the U.S of A., too.