Author Talk: zm4u

1. Let us begin with a brief overview of yourself: where does your username come from and how did you "stumble" into the world of fan fiction?

Well, I stumbled into fan fiction when I was in middle school. Me and my friends were hard core Harry Potter fans even though I TRIED to resist the frenzy when it came out. We decided we were going to create our own characters and write them into one of the books and my friend turned me over to a Harry Potter fan site, not , however that discovery came by accident, and from that day on I have always been writing.

My username, it was something simple and me. ZM are my initials and 4u is pretty much self explanatory. When I created the name I don't think I was actually planning on writing anything, I just wanted to review other people's work, but well, you can see THAT didn't hold out for long ...


2. Which do you prefer writing for: Final Fantasy or Twilight and why?

Hm, honestly? Today it is Twilight, and that is just because I am so wrapped up into my story (A Cure for a Tragedy) I guess. I love writing Final Fantasy: Yuna is my absolute favorite character (until Versus comes out I'm sure) but I feel more ... limited when I write. I can't connect as well with their world as I can Twilight, because it is very other worldly in the sense that is absolutely NOTHING like ours, so it is a little harder for me to write. So, yeah, Twilight. A better connection, which makes for a better story.


3. What's the magic formula for a good AU Twilight story? A Cure for a Tragedy seems to have hit it.

Since it is AU, there really is no set formula becuase every story has themes that other worlds would be better for, whereas others not so much, but I suppose there a few common themes to keep in mind when you go out and make a AU world.

1 - First is geography; it shapes your people and their history, and sets the tone. You wont have vampires living in a tropical setting for example unless they are the ruling class which sets us up for number two.

2 - Society and standards: Is there a king, lower class, racisim, vampires over humans, humans over vampires, or do the two know the other exist. Without knowing this you can mess yourself up come chapter three or four in your story. People conform to society, so will your characters, or maybe they don't and that results in your conflict for the story plot.

3 - Always have something that can connect your readers to that world. I chose modernity. My story is a total different world, but not one that my readers cannot relate to, they can, in at least a little way, otherwise it would shut them out and make reading it a little harder. These three are all subtle things that are in the background for the story and luckily can be flexible since your chapters do not directly deal with them ALL the time.


4. What inspired you to take our much loved Twilight characters and place them in an unknown environment?

Well, I can't go into it as much as I like because the story has not ended, but what inspired me was the plot of the story. I wanted certain things to happen, and for vampires to be known, yet not seen. Our world was not appropriate, if people know such things exist then everything about life is different, I think. I didn't mean for it to turn out like it did, but once I started writing I realized I needed a world, and it just expanded from Jasper's city to this entire world where cities center around a protector like him because vampires exist, you just don't really see them. Also, there is a theme of light and dark that somehow developed and inspired the world without me really realizing it. Wish I could say more, but then I would have to get into how it is going to end ...


5. Any hints to what our "tragedy" might involve? Any? None ...

No more than the hints I have already thrown into my story thus far: the summary if you read it carefully, tells you everything you need to know, even though I throw curve balls, and then there are the other hints throughout the story, Volturi Guard, mysterious vampire girl with blackened skin, a horrid infection spreading amongst the vampires, you know - the usual simple ones.


6. Damn, Okay then, any plans for a sequel?

Yes! No doubts about that, AND you will see all of the characters from the original Cure and maybe a few more. I have been hinting big time at who the main focus will be in the sequel, but I am not going to really get into it yet, because it could spoil the ending for you. I do plan for it to be "epic" in the sense we will be seeing all of the world I have created. Okay, I will say this, we will see a lot more of Bella, but her character, and a few others, will be different than the book and MUCH different than the movie, so I think a lot more people will enjoy this. That's all I can say ... for now.


7. Guess we're just going to have to wait for your "epic" sequel. Do you suffer from the dreaded 'writer's block' and how do you get around it?

Do I suffer? YES! Victim right NOW! But so far, each time I have had writer's block, fans of my story have helped me through it. I usually get discouraged when I have it and I don't write anything down cause it comes out all wrong and is all horrible, but then I read things my fans write. Their reviews have always helped me out of it, by inspiring me and sometimes they even give me ideas that I work into my stories, I get so excited the words just flow!

I generally believe everyone who takes the time out to read, should take the time out to review if only for that reason. I have had a reviewer who only writes, "when are you going to update" and "you take too long", actually getting really ugly about it sometimes and that person starts cursing me, and it made me so frustrated. That person did it to all my stories too, and because I was frustrated, I almost killed my main character and was like "forget" it, losing the will to write, but then I read other people's review and got myself out of that, by remembering that there were other, genuine people out there. Reviews help me from my writers blocks! Ironic really.


8. How do you get through writing sad scenes? Does it leave you upset afterwards, or accomplished (if the latter, you're plain evil!)?

Ha ha, then I am part evil, yay! Sad scenes, they do make me sad and I have a few big ones coming up in one of my stories (I won't say which one or ones) and I always feel sad while writing it, because I put them through hard times, even if they're not real. So yeah, I feel sad for them, but at the same time, I feel accomplished when I finish a sad scene, because that's what I set out to do.


9. Would you ever write a Twilight one shot? What if I begged?

I have never written a one shot, but not because I have not wanted to, just because so far my ideas have been on bigger scales. Maybe I'll work on that . . . hmmmm . . .


10. Let's get to the good stuff. Best fandom experience and why?

This one so far! I have never been interviewed and I feel all special, and it is because of my stories, so that is exciting. I am really enjoying answering these questions.


11. What kind of reviews do you like and what was your best review?

Well, I am someone who is random, and likes virtually everything. Check out my iPod it has 500 songs and music from everywhere in the world! So I can't say there is a certain type I like more than they other, its just not me to be that way I guess.

I love all reviews, except the flames. I don't mind people telling me that they don't like the story, because of these elements blah blah ... everyone has their own personal preferences and I respect that, but there are those reviewers who will cuss you, or just be a jerk about you, like you shouldn't walk the planet, those are flames and I don't like them. Luckily I haven't had too many of those, most people I have encountered are very nice and respectful.


12. What are you reading at the moment and why? Would you recommend the stories?

I am reading several stories right now, and I would recommend them without a doubt. I am only going to talk about two here, ( I am currently working on recommendations on my profile page for ). The first is your wonderful story, so linkkinparkk's Open Book and the other is Daylighter's Subjective Changes. They are both wonderful stories; the former being Edwella and the latter Jalice, but they both have the other characters involved. I love them both and yes, I would recommend them.


13. Do you have any other stories lined up in the wings, other then the sequel to A Cure ... ?

Nothing new so far, I am pretty focused on these two stories because they are the works I would like to represent me as my first attempt at having a real story other than one that was just simply entertaining to me, if that makes sense. A Cure has several sub plots that are merging into one big conflict for our characters, and then there are minor characters with major roles, such as Edward - we hear about him all the time yet we have only seen him once and he NEVER talks, and I think if I started working on something new, it could potentially cause problems with my writing for these stories, but if I get inspired I probably wont hold back.


14. Finally, just because I can; Team Edward, Team Jacob or Team Switzerland?

This is easy - Team Edward. Bella belongs with him no doubt, BUT I could take Jacob off her hands or if SHE decides she wants Jacob, I can deal with Edward as well. Ha ha.
                                                          
Interview with zm4u by linkkinparkk