Agreed 😀 there’s so many great stories out there though I mostly read the ones on Fanfiction.net and Devaintart. and Sarah’s stuff is awesome! I love her Hot Chocolate story I just need to find time. So many great books and fics etc so little time.

Thank you Jeff and Colleen, and Sarah for taking the time to give us this wonderful interview 🙂

You are welcome! You’ve got a good point with the “What to do during a long hiatus?” also. 🙂

For me to write fanfic for a show, the show has to be really special. There’s only a been a few shows over the years that I’ve felt that connection and investment in. I’ve definitely felt like Once could end up being that type of show. For me, ideas for a show fanfic are usually formed over a LONG hiatus or summer break sometime after the first season. I like to gather character information and story mythology for about that long before wading in.

As a show goes on, it’s funny because as much as I adore these shows there’s always that “road not taken” or “wish they had done this” or “wish they hadn’t done this” or you learn this history about a plot or character and you think, whoa they could have gone into a different direction with that. What I love about fanfic is you can go back in time with any character to any point in the entire storyline or mythology and use it as a leaping off point.

Often it’s just as much about what’s ISN’T in the show as what is. Thus you’ll see fics that are missing scenes from specific episodes, or future fics (in a way, “Once Upon a Time” is Snow White fanfic future fic. What if Snow and Charming had had a kid and she grew up and did XYZ?) Really good fanfics often give you information on the “Time Line” where you get to know at what point canon diverts though some go around and twist everything up so much you really can’t place a timeline on it.

There’s stories that are very settled on plots, very settled on being like an episode of the show with all the elements. Then there’s the character studies or character relationship stories. You must know about ‘shippers from fandoms in general but I feel like you really haven’t experienced ‘shipping you until read shipper fanfics.

Good fanfic is amazing. And bad fanfic is so terrible you swear it was written by a 12 year old who’d never read a book in their lives. Every cliche in the book is usually there. So it’s often treasure hunting to find the good stuff because it’s definitely pure gold when you discover a REALLY good author or a really amazing ongoing story or series.

I think I may finally be read to go read some Once fic. Should go nicely with my hot chocolate. Thanks for the interview KayleePete, Jeff and Colleen!