For me, the best piece of advice I could give would be to tell incipient fic-writers to take either the character they're most fascinated by or the character they think they understand *least* in a given show's universe (believe me, it's fascinating in itself how often the two seem to to be one and the same), then try to write from their point of view: To see through their eyes, understand their motivations, explore/explain both what they've done, and why they might have done it. Since story comes out of character, understanding character immediately gets you halfway home-free--just sit back, and watch the story-ideas begin to flow. A second piece of advice: The two most useful words in a writer's repertoire, fic- or not, are "what" and "if?"

When you're reading, are there any aspects that can make or break a fic for you? What impresses you and what turns you off?

Biggest turn-offs: Bad spelling. Bad (or no) punctuation. A lack of proper capitalization. Bad grammar. Bad characterization. Bad plotting. Not bothering to find out how to spell the fucking characters' fucking NAMES correctly, considering you supposedly find them amazing/arousing enough to want to write about them in the first place. Inattention to canon. Ignorance of canon. Not giving a damn about canon--or established character patterns--in the first place, and expecting us all to find that somehow funny or *cute*. Any and all of the above can make me disconnect faster than most other slashers' sexual iconography seems to imprint on Nicholas Lea.

What impresses me is far more slippery. It can be a certain turn of phrase, a certain insight, a certain poetry of description. An attention to detail. A basic respect both for the original source material you're riffing off of--since I'm a published writer myself, and I've worked in television, this probably means a bit more to me than it may to other people--and your audience's intelligence. Or it can just be a really hot, convincing shot of hot, convincing sex; I'm not (always) proud.

But basically, I still want to see at least some part of what attracted me to the source material reflected along *with* an author's personal interpretation of that situation, that character, that event, no matter how crotch-grabbing said interpretation may be--and certainly not just a Nifty.com-level stroke-fantasy translated into text, with character names inserted here and there for thematic emphasis. If you're going to change something so much that it's no longer recognizable, then guess what? You've already made the jump from fic to fic*tion*. Now change the damn names, go out and try and sell it somewhere, and stop trying to palm it off on me as having anything real to do with what might have inspired it, in the first place.

What do you struggle with when you sit down to write, and how do you overcome it?

The basic struggle is always with making a living, especially since I do that *by* writing. Sometimes I've been working on a short story, riding a deadline, editing stuff or marking papers or preparing handouts for class all day; I've already spent five or six hours straight at the computer, and I just want to get the hell out of the apartment for a while. At its best, fic is a pleasant distraction, but it's always *a* distraction.

And these days, I'm also struggling a lot with the fact that I've been putting a real push on to establish myself as a viable, successful, *known* horror writer in that ugly place known as RL--to finally take advantage of the peer publicity which came my way when one of my stories won an International Horror Guild award back at World Horror Con 2000. So I've sort of reverted to what used to be my "normal" pattern of dealing with slashy cultural input impulses, which was to fuck around with them so much that I'd eventually be able to convert them into original short stories--the kind I now know I can sell, for actual money. What a concept!

So there you have it: I've got a market to pursue, and it pays, which fic simply doesn't. And granted, my mother always did used to point that out to me back when I was running white-hot with OZ, but I didn't care, 'cause I was obsessed...which, I guess, brings us to the even more integral fact that my main source of said obsession no longer seems *to* obsess me. Not enough to get me away from that deadline schedule, anyway.

However. In terms of moving something forward when it just doesn't want to, I can't recommend a combination of basic self-discipline cut with judicious periods of absence highly enough--*make* yourself spend time on the piece, intermittently, even if it's just to move things around or go over what you've already done; perfect what's there, then move away and ignore it. Think of anything else. *Do* anything else. Inevitably, when you're in the throes of some particularly mindless physical activity and separated from your notebook, thoughts will start to creep in here and there...bits of dialogue, moments of action, description or atmosphere, choice plot twists. Brain handily jump-started, you can then return to the piece, if only to jot these things down and then start the moving-stuff-around part all over again.

Do you ever get "blocked?" How do you deal with it? Any idea what causes it?

Sometimes it comes from being too close to something, from not being able to see the forest of the trees, or vice versa. You *know* something's wrong, but you just can't figure out *what*, and it's driving you crazy. At that point, you have to withdraw and leave it alone for a while--sometimes a LONG while. One thing I learned, writing MY WIFE..., was that fic really shouldn't be written to a deadline. It's not *brain* surgery, for Christ's sake; pleading emails aside, nobody's actually going to die if you don't get that next segment in "on time". So kick back, start re-watching your tapes, and wait for some kind of sensory flash to jog/jolt you back into the right headspace.

What are some common mistakes that you see new writers make in your fandom?

Okay. I'm going to step on a lot of toes here, but what the hell...

Though OZ is a show jam-packed full of hot, morally complicated, potentially slashable characters--this *is* a story set in a maximum-security men's prison, after all, not to mention one where casual full-frontal nudity is almost the norm--these days, most slashers get attracted to the fandom on the strength of one pairing and one pairing only: Tobias Beecher (Lee Tergesen)/Christopher Keller (Chris Meloni). Which I understand, all right? I've written B/K myself; they're interesting guys, a little more physically charismatic than many of the other characters, and--more importantly--they remain one of the first and only gay couples on TV, pay or otherwise, to be allowed to kiss, fondle and hug each other onscreen. But.

The foremost mistake I see new writers making, again and again and again, is that of not watching *all* of the show before they start to write--you know, even those annoying bits which keep popping up between the scenes involving your favorite characters. Bottom-line: OZ is an ensemble show, not just the "Chris-n-Tobeee-4-eva" hour, and every character has their integral part to play, even if you don't happen to find them sexy enough to be worth spending much time with. You need to know all the prime movers and shakers' character backgrounds, the atmosphere, the rules and regs, the politics, the various cliques and their rivalries in order to write truly convincing OZ fic--all those myriad pressures which make human contact and release between prisoners such a necessity, in the first damn place. That's why the show's called OZ, as opposed to BEECHER/KELLER.

I've heard people who identify themselves as Oz "fans" say they won't read any OZ fiction which doesn't involve, or revolve around, Beecher and Keller. I've heard them call every other character disposable. I once heard a woman say she had "no use for Vern, except for maybe as a toilet seat"--and granted, I'm sure most people would say I'm prejudiced (ha!) in Herr Schillinger's favor, considering so much of my fic in written from his POV. But by arbitrarily deciding to just not deal with Vern, you're disposing of the man whose actions and presence brought Beecher and Keller together in the first place; no Vern, no Beecher/Vern feud--no Beecher/Vern feud, no reason for Keller to even approach Beecher (especially since he wasn't initially assigned to Em City in the first place, and only got in there because Vern used his C.O. connections to *get* him in there)--no Vern, no Operation Toby--no Operation Toby, no Keller actually falling for Beecher even while setting him up to get his arms and legs broken (if you believe he really fell for him then, and that's a big if).

Which brings us to the next mistake: Cutting characters slack just because you like them, or identify with them, or think they're oh-so-pretty when they play tongue hockey together. Like everybody else in OZ, Beecher and Keller didn't get there by accident (so's to speak)--yes, Beecher ran over a kid when intoxicated, but I think you understand what I mean. They're screwed-up individuals in many intricate, fascinating ways, both of their psyches just rife with self-defeating characteristics which render their "love" particularly fragile, particularly precious, especially within context (and in many ways, particularly suspect). Beecher, a cross-addicted former rape victim, may be the prison equivalent of "gay 'till graduation"; Keller, functionally bisexual hustler supreme, has serious self-esteem issues. They're separated by class (rich vs. not), by education (Hahvahd vs. the streets), by background (first-time offender/corporate lawyer vs. recidivist career criminal). And to bypass all this, the way so many new writers apparently want to...King of Guilt Beecher totally forgets all about his dead wife, his kids, his personal traumas and bonds forever to Keller because they're soulmates who would have come together somehow, under any circumstnaces; con artist/sex junkie Keller throws all his patterning out the window and they live monogamously, happily ever after together, even though Beecher's getting out in twelve years at the most and Keller's doing an 88-year sentence...

I don't know what world these people are writing about, let alone what characters. As far as I can see, they're content to write PWPs based on screen-grabs.

Call me a cranky old bitch if you want, but here's the real deal: If you don't love the show--the *whole* show--then don't write about any given part of it, because you won't be fooling anybody but yourself.

How do you select what to read and what to feedback? Do you mainly read stories written by your friends or do you branch out a bit?

I'll read anything that looks interesting, especially if it's written by my friends, but I'm frankly crappy with feedback. It takes me a really, really long time to get around to it, and when I do, it tends more to the effusive than to the constructive. (Of course, though everybody says they *want* constructive criticism, the reactions you get for giving someone unsolicited advice are usually a bit more severe than I often feel like dealing with, anyway.) So if you ask for my opinion, sure, I'll give it to you--I've even beta'd for a select few people. But the sad fact is that I've read a lot of stuff by a lot of people, and feedbacked amazingly few of them...I sort of prefer personal correspondence to feedback, anyway.

Though I love feedback when it comes *my* way, naturally--who doesn't? And over the years, I guess I've learned to live with my hypocrisy.

What common mistakes do you see in your fandom in terms of characterisation?

Well, see above. But let's put it this way: OZ is a difficult show full of difficult people making things difficult for each other, so the biggest mistake is to simplify characters beyond all recognition--make Keller a strong, silent type, Beecher a whiny little femme, Vern a Hee Haw-style racist hick who can't think his way out of paper bag (ever think there's maybe reasons why he's managed to stay head of the Aryan Brotherhood for so long?), Sister Peter Marie a jealous killjoy (because she has the bad taste to be somewhat worried about Beecher being involved with Keller, especially after Keller almost seduced her into forsaking her vows just to "get to" Beecher through her), Tim McManus a complete moron, etc.

A subtler mistake is to assume that just because almost everyone on the show *could* potentially be slashed, that they should--and that sex is therefore at the heart of every given interaction/transaction in an environment full of people whose motivating interests run the gamut from survival to power to friendship to drugs to money to God. Again, too simple by half--simple-mindedly so. If you want things easy, you might want to think about choosing another fandom.

What advice would you give someone who is just entering the fandom?

Watch the show. Like the show. Accept the show for what it is. Then write about whatever takes your fancy, within the context of *the show*.

Understand that we're playing in somebody else's sandbox, so the absolute least we can do is be polite and respectful towards the people who actually created this thing we're all obsessing over, and do this mainly by not deforming their work beyond all recognition for the sake of our own petty sexual fantasies. Conventional wisdom seems to be that all fandoms are somewhat dysfunctional by definition, and I'm apt to agree; when people care so desperately--and define their own self-image, to some semi-sick degree--about something which just plain isn't, never was and never can be "theirs" in any realistic way...well, I guess it's like a one-sided, unrequited love affair. Weirdly, though--at least in OZ fandom--all that angst-ridden romantic energy often seems to end up being directed into nothing more creative than waging endless flame-wars against other fans/writers over their inability to accept your personal version of this collectively-shared dream-world at total face-value. And that way lies madness; avoid it at all costs, if you want to survive the experience psychologically intact.

Oh, and either learn how to spell, punctuate, capitalize, phrase things grammatically, etc.--or hook up with a beta reader. *Seriously*.

How would you summarize the state of writing in your fandom? Are you generally impressed with the fic you see, or does it make you want to bang your head against the wall?

As I guess you can tell, I'm not too happy with the way things are going right now at all. When I first entered OZ fandom, it was small but vibrant, full of disparate yet uniformly smart, passionate, enquiring people whose sole linking feature was their love for the show (yeah, say it again, you boring bitch)--the *whole* show. People wrote slash, gen, even het-fic; they wrote scripts, poetry, essay-long character analyses, designed whole websites comparing Beecher's descent into OZ to the soul's mystical journey through the Kabbalistic Tree Of Life. They fought intermittently, and the fandom certainly had its schisms, but things continued; I remember being occasionally pissed off or insulted by my fellow OZ-ites, but I never remember being *bored*, and I really don't remember there being any particular party line--as long as you liked the show you could think any damn thing you wanted about it, good, bad or indifferent. Much was allowable, and absolutely nothing was sacred.

Eventually, increased publicity lead to an influx of newbies, and B/K became the inssue/interest of the day. The het- and gen-fic dried up. No one got any feedback unless they were writing about B/K, and it became an open invitation to flames to question someone's interpretation of the show's events and implications. People flounced off in huffs. The fandom split further, then further, then further. Now it's splintered all to hell, there's almost nothing going on except for an endless flood of B/K-centric A/Us (because you can't possibly leave either of them in *jail*!) and fixits (because Tom Fontana, who only writes the damn show, is a big meanie who makes nasty changes to canon and won't do exactly what *we* want him to!), and even people who do come in all charged-up and ready to talk/write/interact these days are rightly startled by the total lack of reaction, let alone debate, in some quarters. So they end up somewhere else, drowning under the endless B/K treacle-dump. And that's that, Jack.

I'd love to see OZ resuscitate itself sometime in the future, but I doubt I'll be around for that. I won't ever say there aren't *any* good writers out there anymore; there are, and I wish them well. But speaking for myself--the only way I *can* speak--I'm too tired to participate anymore, too old to reshape myself to suit this regime, and too young to feel I have to. Maybe if there's one more brilliant season which resolves all the current hovering plotlines, I might get re-energized...but the ball's pretty much in Tom's court on that one: It's his barbecue, man. I just get to crash, watch things cooking, and steal whatever leftovers I can grab to make my own meal at home, later on.

Any other pet peeves/advice/general thoughts?

Not really. I do believe I've shot my figurative wad. :)

Gemma's recs:

Since OZ fandom is so amazingly broken up, at this point, it's probably best to search for these stories individually, under their authors' names--especially since many of said authors have effectively removed themselves *from* OZ fandom, with much bitterness and rancor left behind. But each of these stories and/or poems is well worth the seeking, nevertheless. So, without further ado:

Brighid's INCENSE, POMEGRANATES, BLOOSPORT, BROKEN, BURNT OFFERINGS, MYSTERIES, POETICS

Mairead Triste's CHOIRBOY, VIGILIUS

Pilar's SURFACE series, SEX SINS SIX, PARALLEL

Miss November Thursday's FOUR SQUARE

Alexa's COVENANT series, SOLACE series, FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES

Annie's BLEED TO LOVE HER

Blix's SKIN AND BONES

Brendon's THE PHYSICS OF INSOMNIA

Colleen's INSTANT HEAVEN, DEORAI, INTERVENTION series, JANE SAYS series, LUCKY series

Debchan's SWEETNESS

Destina's DEAD SOULS

El's BLEEDING EDGE (with Kristin, Jen, Sugaree), MOTHERFUCKING PROPHETIC SHIT: AUGURY (with Shug)

Gina Collum's EXEGESIS OF CHRISTOPHER

Iconjax's EDUCATING KELLER series

Jen's THE VERN SLASH GAME, TOBIE'S OX DOWNFALL, HAPPY NEW YEAR, THANKSGIVING, I'LL GIVE YOU TEN MINUTES series, SPEECHLESS/ALL TALK, WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE, JUNGLE BOOGIE, BLOODLUST series, SHARP AS A KNIFE series

Kate Bolin's TOOTH

Kristin/Lisa's ABSOLUTION series

Stephen J. Barringer's LIBERATION, COURTSHIP RITES series

Sugaree's PRISON NOCTURNE, FLATLINE, 24/7, TICKERS, AMERICAN COOL 101, HELL IN A BUCKET, THOU SHALT NOT, PLOTS AND POPS

Te's BOOGIEMAN, PARTY

Brian's KELLER VARIATIONS

Grey's LOVE OF GOD

LAP's COPERNICUS, PRIVATE PROPERTY, RETURNING

Fanny Adams' DAMAGED GOODS series, SUSPENDED ANIMATION, and an early B/K A/U piece she wrote which doesn't seem to be archived anywhere...a bunch of temporal variations on Beecher and Keller meeting before, during and after Oz. If you can find it, please send me the title and URL, because I'd love to read it again sometime. (Fanny also goes by the names Dargelos and Dargie, if that helps; check out her satiric doppleganger Araminta Carrington's hilarious THANKS FOR THE MEMORY for a truly hilarious look at OZ's inherent dramatics.)

And finally--for all that she insults y'all right there on her spanking-new OZ page, LOCKDOWN, I'd recommend Hth's B/K pieces to anyone: TONGUE TO HEART, HABIT-FORMING, INFERNO, HOURS & DAYS. She's a poet, an essayist and a martyrdom looking to happen.