Log #4 - Ailenzo

Happy weekend everyone!

Please see our 4th entry into the roundtable - Ailenzo (aka The People Person)

1. How did you get started in fan-fiction?

     I watched Star Wars The Phantom Menace when I was around 12, and I felt an uncontrollable urge to delve deeper into how the characters felt. I wrote my first piece of fanfiction without realizing what it was, or that there was a well-known outlet for that kind of agitation. Eventually, around age 15, I got heavily into Livejournal and J-Rock, where I was introduced to people who had been writing steady streams of fanfiction for years, and my backhand interest blossomed into a full blown hobby.

2. What are your fandom(s) and why do you like/love/hate them?

     I love the Rooster Teeth fandom, as their Grand Theft Auto 5 personas give me an excellent outlet to write criminal / gritty fic. Unfortunately, their fanbase can get toxic and catty at times, so I usually post and disappear fairly quickly. Mass Effect Andromeda is another big one, as I adore the game and the world that's built for you to play around in. Science fiction and tech are basically my porn. I'm currently working on a piece for the Borderlands fandom, which lets me fulfill all my tech, weapon, corporation, and broken people kinks all at once! I've written a bit for Supernatural, but that fandom is a monster, and I imagine I'll continue to go relatively unnoticed there, as it's filled with truly incredible writers and creators.

If this question concerns the fanbases, I regret to say that I don't hang around in them, so it's difficult to give my opinion. When I first began writing, I did so with a core group with overlapping interests, and that preference has remained with me as I've grown. Personally, I'm currently heavily involved in many video game fandoms, as it relates to my career, but I take extra steps to ensure my personal life and online alias/pen name remain detached from one another. I definitely enjoy the familial feelings of smaller communities though!

3. What is the most easiest/hardest part about writing?

     The easiest part for me is envisioning the scenes and creating banter between characters. I love dialogue, and have written entire 30K pieces just to cultivate an environment for one well placed dialogue exchange. This leads to the difficult part of filler between climactic scenes, and it's why I usually post one-shots rather than chaptered works. I enjoy a slow burn, but I struggle with recreating the mundane passage of time. I tend to second guess myself a lot, which leads to needless rewrites and frustration.

4. Who are your inspirations?

     PEOPLE. Seriously, people are so wonderful and versatile and surprising, whether they're making mistakes, carrying burdens, or projecting their hurt in inventive ways, there's just so much about each and every person I meet that is incredibly inspiring. They can be absolute assholes, naive victims, or anything in between. Personable relationships are what drive me to write -- the idea that something hasn't been said, that there's more to that persons story then what we were given, and fleshing out exactly what that might be has always given me a weird sort of happiness. My dad and I used to watch people at the mall as they did their shopping, and we'd create backstories and hopes and sarcastic little tidbits, and I think that stayed with me. Thanks dad.

5. Ever fantasized about your work being made in a movie? If so, who are the actors that would be in the film?

     I haven't. I've tentatively begun working on something original, and the idea of it being converted into a different media is fun, but not particularly exciting. Whenever something is filtered through the mindset of another creator, it's fundamentally changed, regardless if it's for better or worse. If that were to happen, it would be interesting to see, and I would support it, but it would ultimately be another creator's vision, and I would politely distance myself from it. That is, of course, a personal opinion.

6. Your favourite line you have written?

     Oof, what a tough question. It's difficult for me to be fully satisfied with something, but here are two I thought of automatically:

"Michael is damaged, and Ray gets a thrill out of slotting those pieces back together, breathing his name into the cracks like a makeshift seal of desperation and possession, slowly drawing Michael away from the brink with breadcrumb teases of belonging while tactically destroying him for anyone else. Utterly ruining him for the world outside of Ray’s scope." - Scorched Earth Policy (RT/AH Fake AH Crew)

          

"But when it was over, and the blood on the ground grew from warm to frozen, crystallizing to mirror the fragility of his resolve, his jaw would tighten. The scowl would vanish. The cold felt colder and the atmosphere compressed around him, warning him of his shattered psyche, but he ordered them on, determined. Overwhelmed. Frantic." - as above, so below (Mass Effect Andromeda)

     

7. Any advice for aspiring writers?

     Don't aim to please. Write what YOU want to read, so you can enjoy your own creation without worrying about whether you'd fit in enough ___ to please group A, or shoveled in enough of ____ to please group B. You don't need to challenge yourself, or write outside your norms because you feel like you've become complacent, and instead, just focus on creating what you love. Write for yourself, and I promise you: someone out there has been waiting to read exactly what you've been meaning to write. That has been said before, so here's another piece of advice that's helped me immeasurably: FIND A BETA. My wonderful editor knows me inside and out, she knows what I'm nervous about, and we're well versed with one another that we can speak candidly about the things I need to rewrite. With her by my side, prodding, chastising, and praising me, an enormous amount of stress has been lifted. 

8. Where can we find you on social media? Where can we find your work?     My only social media for my writing can be found on AO3 under "aiIenzo," and on tumblr under the same name, though I'm not very active on there. My old accounts are still lurking around, including livejournal, fanfiction.net, and ficwad, but those are but relics of the past at this point. I do take commissions, and can be contacted through email (aiienzowriting@gmail.com), or whichever previously listed format is best for you. I'm also looking to commission an artist for accompanying pieces, so if that's something you'd be into, please hit me up!

9. Tell us about yourself?

     I'm 29, and have been posting fanfiction for about 14 years. I've taken big gaps of time off to have children and generally attempt to live my best life, but I keep coming back to writing like it's some kind of pacifying drug. I'm attempting my first original work, and am utterly baffled as to why. I work in the gaming industry, prefer whisky, and have not tripped in my high heels in over two years. I love people. So much. 

  
10. If you could nominate someone else to take this survey, who would it be?

     I would nominate cloudburst on AO3, because their writing has a beautiful airy quality to it that draws you in and keeps you floating, and I'd love to learn more about them.

11. Your favorite authors? 
     Published authors include Iris Murdoch, M Night Shyamalan (he made me fall in love with dialogue), Noel Coward, and Harold G Moore. Fanfiction authors include MajorEnglishEsquire, Saras_Girl, and wheatfromchaff. 

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Links below:

A03 - https://archiveofourown.org/users/aiIenzo/works

Tumblr - https://aiienzo.tumblr.com/