You might recognize that name — I’ve featured both their tumblr blog and their story here. I can’t tell you a lot about these girls; they’ve chosen to keep their identities (mostly) secret. What I can tell you is that they’re three girls from all around the world who absolutely love Zaylor.
Their main presence is on tumblr, here, where they post pics, videos and more pertaining to their favorite pairing. But they also have a LiveJournal, here, where they have reposted some popular and lesser known old Zaylor stories. In the last few weeks, they’ve begun posting their first original collaboration, The Bodyguard.
Because this interview is a little different than any other one I’ve done, it’s been kind of an experiment. Each girl, “Zaylorgirls” 1 through 3, answered the questions individually.
Why did you start writing hanfic? How long have you been writing?
Zaylorgirl1: My writing began two years ago. I read the story “And with each Mile” and it became my favourite story. My teammate and me loved the story so much that we agreed it is worth to get an ending, as the original author didn’t finish the story after the 35th chapter. So far we’ve written four final chapters for this story on our own. We’re planning to write the last chapter soon.
We’ve read some older hanfic stories which described Zac as timid and shy, our Team Zaylor loves a dominant Zac, we find it more matching and realistic that way. It’s a pity that ‘top Zac’ stories are rare to find, so we’re trying to do this job for justice. If anyone knows more stories like that, please let us know. We would be happy to find more of them.
If you know the orginal plot of “And with each Mile” you’ll notice a change in the chapters which we have posted on our LJ blog. We loved the idea to create a switched version of Taylor’s and Zac’s character and a few character details.
Zaylorgirl2: I’ve started writing hanfic in 2011, my first writing was actually a translation of one of my favourite stories. I also wanted to give it a try and wrote a story on my own in my mother language first.
The reason of writing can be answered with many reasons probably. It’s a good way to distract yourself from your daily routines, it gives you the possibility to create something unique, to live out your fantasies for the most part. Writing in English brought me a Zaylor story which didn’t have an ending and I decided to write some final chapters with my teammate, at which we’re still working on.
Zaylorgirl3: I started writing because I got carried away reading! I am also Iwontbeafool on LJ, I created the account to read stories. Then there’s this story concept that I couldn’t shake off, it was so tempting! So I finally decided to try writing about it. Since English is not my first language, I also wanted to learn. I was so conscious when I first started, but the supports I received especially from Paola (malfunkshon on LJ) and Sam (drunkinlov3) are enough for me to continue. I started writing in July last year.
What’s it like being part of a mostly American fandom when you aren’t?
Zaylorgirl1: We know that our writing is not perfect and we’re limited on our vocabulary, but we find there is no harm in trying and we love what we do. It’s fun and we’re thankful that people appreciate and love our stories. At our beginnings we weren’t very confident about our writing, but since we have our new Team Zaylor member who helps us revising we became more confident about it.
The English speaking fan base is the biggest and if we would write only in our mother languages, not many people would read our stories. It’s worth the effort and we’re very thankful for the feedback which we’ve received, which motivated us to continue our work.
Zaylorgirl2: For us non native speakers it’s definitely a challenge, it’s always hard to guess how good or faultless your own writing really is. Sometimes you find yourself more thinking about the grammar mistakes than as the plot itself. At the end of a new chapter we always know that we put our sweat, passion and heart blood in our work, so we appreciate it all the more.
We are all non native speakers and writing in a team helps a lot to revise our work and it’s also a unique life experience for us. Thanks to Hanson and our team work that we could improve our writing skills and writing in a team helps us to be more confident about it.
Zaylorgirl3: In our country, foreign bands also influence many local artists and so are the fans. It’s not that difficult for me tbh. But with regards to writing a fan fiction in English, for me it’s scary! It’s totally different for me. I mean, there are some phrases that I have to Google first before I include them to my story coz I’m not sure if they exist or not! There are a lot of times when I edit my chapter then I’d suddenly say, what the fuck!? I don’t know how to explain this but that’s just an example of how cray cray I am while writing. We don’t use English much in our country. Actually, I’m only able to use the language online. So yeah, lots of things confuse me. I feel stupid sometimes for writing a line or a word which is not connected to the sentence or to the thought I really wanted to emphasize. I have to edit a chapter many many times before I release it coz I feel so conscious. But don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy what I do and the experiences are worth the craziness… Yeah, I’m saying a lot, sorry for the ramblings…
What are your favorite hanfic stories and authors?
Zaylorgirl1: I don’t have a favourite author, my favourite stories are ‘And with each Mile’ because of the interesting plot and the long time experience we spent to create our own version of this story.
‘The Consequences that are Rendered’ touched me because of the hard hitting subject and became also one of my favourite stories.
‘INK’ was the first Zaylor story I’ve read and which converted me to Zaylor. I think I will always feel a connection to this story which displays Zac how we love him the most. It inspired our own writing very much and we will always be thankful to the author for this story. I’d say it laid the foundation stone of our own stories, so thanks to Kate, the author of ‘INK’. My teammate is planning to write a continuation of this story someday.
‘Anger Lust & Love’ story from my other teammate is also a great story. We’re big fans of her writing style and I hope my own writing will improve with time and become as good as hers.
My favourite One Shot is ‘Sugar Baby’. I’m sorry that I can’t give credit to the author for this story because we don’t know where we found it anymore, you can find it in our LJ blog.
Zaylorgirl2: My favorite hanfic of all times is “Ink” written by Kate (heart_is_wild) She managed it very well to describe Zac as a funny character and I love it because of its originality. Besides to that I love Kate’s writing style and the unexpected turns in her story.
People who follow our blog probably already noticed that we Team Zaylor girls prefer a very manly and overprotective Zac, especially if he’s not the bottom in the story and even more if he doesn’t end up becoming too emotional. “Ink” is a perfect example of that.
Another favorite story of mine is “And with each Mile, written by Honor (beyondthethorns) sadly it doesn’t have an ending. So we decided to continue the story and write a few final chapters to give the story hopefully the ending which it deserves.
I also would like to mention Nikki who wrote “Secrets, Sorrows & True Love” which was always one of my favorite het hanfics.
Zaylorgirl3: Stories that I like the most are ‘The Innocents’ by Paola, who doesn’t read it? I find her Zac food porn as high lights of the story. On another note, I think the story is very unique. It’s also the type of story that you won’t be able to stop reading until you get to know the ending. Then ‘The Breeders’, that is one heck of a weird yet lovely story by ilivetoplaylive, (these are writers on LJ). Then of course ‘Truth is a Whisper’, that story converted me to be a Zaylor fan. I will never forget it.
Lately, I also continued reading Frances’ ‘A Secret Shared’ and its sequels, Onlybonesremain’s ‘Mirror Mirror’, ‘Perfect Fit’ and ‘If I Fall’. I also find Shewasred’s ‘Audience of One’ very entertaining and interesting to read, her Zac is intriguing and cute. Sarah Irene’s ‘And I Waited’ is one of my ultimate favorites so far (don’t ask me why coz I could go on forever about it), and her other stories ‘The Listener’, ‘California Kisses’, ‘Flawed Design’, and ‘On The Road’. I love the angst in ‘The Album Series’ by Morgan, I also read Daisynala87’s Lindsey stories. drunkinlov3’s ‘Pages of Your Diary’ and ‘This is Where You Belong’ are also really, really good. Then breathe_abreath’s Before We Began series. And last but not the least, Zac Says Tay Still Wets the Bed by Nick. It’s not a Zaylor story but it’s one of the old Hanfics that’s definitely worth reading. Gah! Lots of stories! I hope I can mention all of them here.
What is your writing process like?
Zaylorgirl1: I mostly take opportunities when my mother is not at home, so that I have some quiet time to write. My teammates and me are from different countries, fortunately our similar preferences helps us that our writing process works very, very well. We share ideas and pre-plan the coming events in our next chapters together which is helpful for our writing.
In “And with each Mile”, first it’s only two of us who wrote the final chapters, our new third member of which we’re really grateful helped us to revise them.
“The bodyguard” story is our first story in which the three of us are involved in writing the chapters together, and it’s all the more exciting and interesting to write a story in a team of three.
Zaylorgirl2: We talk about our ideas and alternate with writing between each other. We have a few collected details about every character in our story, had made votings to choose names for our characters. Each of us had chosen an additional character and we write the story from several point of views, because it’s easier for us that way and we think that it gives the story more personality.
Writing in a team is a very interesting process, it gives variety and afford surprises. We’re trying to create something unique and different with our story, for example we create pictures with photoshop for every chapter and insert them in our chapters to give our readers better imagination about our story and backgrounds.
Besides to that, we also pick a soundtrack. For almost chapter we choose a song which lyrics inspired us and will express a short part of a chapter. Furthermore, we created a trailer teaser videos which can be seen in our Team Zaylor YouTube channel.
Zaylorgirl3: We discuss the plot first, then the events and other details that will help on building each of the character’s role. Then we write individually. TeamZaylorgirl1 will write this specific part then the other team members will wait for her to finish it. All of us will edit each draft written. Each member can add and delete some lines while editing.
Our writing process might sound complicated and longer compared with other writers’ but we enjoy it. We mostly get surprise on each draft we read from our team mates! So it’s also like reading a new story while we write. As well, respect and appreciating each other is very important in the team. We support each other’s personal goals, too. So even if our writing process is kinda difficult, lengthy and different, we will stick around doing it for a long, long time…
Where do your ideas and inspiration come from?
Zaylorgirl1: I get inspiration from other Zaylor stories, Zaylor pictures and moments. Specifically for our story, I love the videos which my teammates have created. The many Zaylor bodyguard pictures we collected, and moments of Zac guarding Taylor and how he looks like a bodyguard around him in so many pictures.
Another amazing inspiration for us is the movie “From the beginning to End” which is about two brothers in Love. The movie dealt very sensitively on the subject.
Zaylorgirl2: I’d say inspiration comes from real life. Particularly from Hanson moments, concert experiences or videos we watched and movies. Besides to “The Bodyguard” movie with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, “Leon the Professional” is also an inspiration for our plot and we plan to involve some quotes from those movies.
Meanwhile, we have posted hundreds of Zaylor pictures on our Tumblr blog in which Zac is always so bodyguardish around Taylor. So those pics kinda initiated us to write a Zaylor bodyguard story.
Zaylorgirl3: Some of our ideas come from real life situations of Zaylor we observed. Some of them are also from specific ‘Zaylory’ videos we watched. In other words, the boys themselves give us ideas! We fangirl about them so hard that we formulate lots of random ideas almost every damn day. *winks*
The genre you write is rather controversial. What draws you to it?
Zaylorgirl1: Gay incest will always be a controversial subject for some people. We find it awesome that Hanfic writers are so cool and open minded about this subject.
We always love to fangirl about Zaylor pictures and moments together and it’s great that we share the same taste about them. We want to write more stories in the future in which Zac protects Taylor, that’s our preference in this genre.
Zaylorgirl2: We always loved and appreciated the familiarity and close bond which Zac and Taylor have. That’s why we try to collect as many Zaylor moments in history as we can in an effort to gain more Zaylor fans in the course of time.
A controversial genre is always an interesting writing subject and a challenge for every author. In our stories we love to display Zac as the dominant brother because we think it’s more plausible and hotter that way.
Besides to that none of us would deny that Zaylor would be a very sexy couple. 😉
Zaylorgirl3: Our team was created because we love Zac and Tay’s chemistry, and there’s no denying on our part of how much we love it. The concept of the story ‘The Bodyguard’ started out on Tumblr. We loved Zaylor pictures where Zac acts as if he’s guarding Taylor. Especially when Zac takes pictures of his precious brother during his ‘The Walk’ speeches. So we started searching like crazies for more ‘The Bodyguard’ pictures to post. Then we thought, why not writing a story about it? And the rest is history.
We love the idea of making Zac a badass. We’ve read Hanfics written years ago where Tay gets more of the attention and he’s usually the naughty one. So we decided to make it the other way around. To give Zac some balls in the story and not just the common timid and shy Zac, which we enjoy a lot writing about.
We thought it’s about time to introduce this era of Hanfics with a badass Zac.
Favorite songs to listen to while you write or which inspire your writing?
Zaylorgirl1: Very random songs, mostly Hanson, it depends on my mood what kind of music I listen to. Perfect inspiring Zaylor songs for me are the songs which we have playing in our Tumblr site currently. ‘Brothers on a hotel bed’ by Death Cab for Cutie and ‘A perfect circle’ by Gravity.
Zaylorgirl2: When I write, I rarely listen to music because it distracts me from writing. Sometimes I listen to instrumental soundtracks while I’m writing.
Inspiration for writing give me songs from Hanson, Nirvana and Bret Domrose.
Zaylorgirl3: I mostly listen to Hanson songs while writing. I don’t know, it’s more fun for me that way. But since in ‘The Bodyguard’ we also feature songs in each chapter, I created a playlist for it. They’re mostly rock, emo, and grunge kind of songs, like songs by Korn, Nirvana, MCR, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, and the like. I’ve included Eminem’s Soldier and Britney Spears’ Lucky on the playlist, though. If you’re reading the story, you’ll understand why.
Thank you, girls of Team Zaylor, for being the May spotlight! It was very interesting to read your different answers.