The I'm-not-dead-but-I-have-no-time-to-write-fanfiction profile update! 2/11/08

About Me: I'm a 20-something female from New Jersey with a full-time, 40+ hour work week real world job, which results in having no time to write fanfiction for the time being, which puts Take Me, Baby, or Leave Me on indefinite (but NOT permanent!) hiatus. I WILL update... someday...

Why I Read Fanfiction: I am inexplicably drawn to non-canon couples when it comes to fanfiction; I have decided this is most likely because fanfiction is the one place where couples who have undeniable chemistry but absolutely zero chance of getting together can finally have that unresolved tension relieved. That probably explains why as a heterosexual female, I still read unconventional and/or slash fics and ship some unconventional and/or slash couples in the world of fanfiction. That being said, I also ship many canon couples, especially outside the world of fanfiction. In short, any couple with chemistry works for me in the fanfiction world, but I only ship plausible couples on the actual show/movie/book, etc. I stand firmly against coupling real-life people in fanfictional writing, as per the terms of using this website, and as per my own moral standards. Besides the fact that the website terms of agreement state that doing so is illegal, I’d be really weirded out if I were the actors, seeing strangers write stories about “my” abusive parents or “my” huuuge crush on another cast member. No offense to those of you who write those kinds of stories, but I’m never going to read them out of respect for the actors, though I am sure some are tasteful and well-written.

Me Writing Fanfiction: Generally speaking, I have time to read fanfiction, but not to write it; however, as of late, I've had time for neither. My first story stalled over 3 years ago, and it is highly unlikely (but not impossible, I guess) that I will finish it, but I don't have the heart to take it down off the site. I'm hoping that my second story, which is infinitely better crafted and probably the one you are reading this profile for, will be actually be completed, since seeing RENT on Broadway (and loving it!) for my birthday one time gave me the inspiration for Take Me, Baby, or Leave Me. I wanted to finish this story sometime in the summer of 2007 before the premiere of High School Musical 2, but I am a notoriously sucky updater. Now the events that occur in my story have to officially be considered AU post-HSM1. I am ashamed to admit that my longest break between publishing chapters used to be almost 4 months, but now I've gone over half a year without updating. Honestly, I'm surprised I still have readers. I can promise you, however, that each chapter I publish will be well written and edited, because if there's one thing I can't stand in fanfiction writing, it's a poorly written chapter with too many typos. I'd rather hold out a while and publish something worth reading than put up crap just for the sake of updating. A little hint: that approach also tends to garnish mainly positive reviews. Speaking of reviews, flaming the couple that an author chooses to write about is completely unnecessary, and I (along with most others, I'm sure) laugh at reviews that say that a couple is wrong. Criticize the storyline, the character development, the spelling and grammar, but don't criticize the 'ship openly in a review.

Fanfiction Couples I Read Most (and What They're From):

Kigo, KimxShego (Kim Possible)
Dasey, DerekxCasey (Life With Derek)
Nasey, NoelxCasey (Life With Derek)
Shaylor/Taypay, SharpayxTaylor (High School Musical)
Rypay, RyanxSharpay (High School Musical)
Chadpay, ChadxSharpay (High School Musical)
Paire, PeterxClaire (Heroes)
Skate, SawyerxKate (Lost)
New Jate, JulietxKate (Lost)
Jacket, JackxJuliet (Lost)
Jam, JimxPam (The Office)
KaPam, KarenxPam (The Office)
MiSa, MichaelxSara (Prison Break)
Tate, TonyxKate (NCIS)
Tiva, TonyxZiva (NCIS)
Gabby, GibbsxAbby (NCIS)
Fuffy, FaithxBuffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Spuffy, SpikexBuffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Pizonica, PizxVeronica (Veronica Mars)
MacxDick (Veronica Mars)
JackxElizabeth (Pirates of the Caribbean)
MeredithxAddison (Grey's Anatomy)
BoothxBrennan (Bones)
RonxHermione (Harry Potter)
DracoxHermione (Harry Potter)
RosexDart (The Legend of Dragoon)
RosexLavitz (The Legend of Dragoon)

...and more soon to come as I expand my fanfiction reading horizons...

Rather Insightful Author Commentary Regarding Take Me, Baby, or Leave Me:

So before I started Chapter 6, I watched HSM to make sure I was being a fairly accurate author. I haven’t watched it in months, so I figured I should double check myself (scroll up and read my age and you’ll understand why I haven’t watched it in months). From what I can tell, I think I’m pretty on-target with my character portrayals so far, except for a few interpretive tweaks, like making characters gay or revealing hidden sides to characters. And I think that Ryan has the ability to channel his inner Sharpay, resulting in some witty retorts on his part.

I also wanted to make sure that I had a believable time frame, which I also think I do. The entire movie takes place in a matter of 3 weeks... Troy and Gabriella meet on New Years, a week later they’re in school and Chad is commenting that the championship game is in 2 weeks. That brings us to approximately the end of the third week in January. I like to think that Twinkle Towne itself actually took place either at the end of February or beginning of March (let’s go with beginning of March), meaning that’s when the final cast party was (important to my story, remember). A few weeks later takes us to the end of March, when Gabriella realizes she wants to be more than friends with Troy. Let that simmer for a week or 2, that brings us to beginning of April, a feasible time for Spring Musicale auditions, with a performance in either end of May or beginning of June (technically still spring!) This time frame also allows Chad and Taylor to be together for enough time to make the relationship stale, assuming they have been together since the end of January and it is now early April. All makes sense?

And Another Thing:

In watching HSM more closely than before, I noticed a few “freedoms” that ffnet writers have taken and/or mistaken. I’m not talking obvious things, like gay characters or broken homes (those are obviously fabricated just to make for stories), but things like the following: In the movie, Sharpay was referred to as the “Ice Princess,” never as the “Ice Queen,” as is so often used in fanfiction. In a similar vein, Gabriella was never EVER once referred to as “Gabi” or “Gabby” or “Gabbie” or any of that by any of her peers in the movie (her mother in the beginning doesn't count, in my book), therefore she will never be referred to as such in my story.

And For Good Measure:

Who started writing about a Chad/Ryan HSM pairing over a year before HSM2 came out and everyone else in the world realized these two had chemistry:oD yeah, that's what I thought!

Anyone interested in chatting about/criticizing/defending/agreeing with any or all of the above commentary pertaining to my story or not, feel free to get at me or leave a review on the story or whatnot. Please don't let my opinions discourage you from reviewing or replying or anything... but I get the feeling that most of my story readers are pretty open-minded, so that shouldn't be a problem, right? Hehehe, thanks for reading!