askye: See I think every fic writer secretly (or, you know not so secretly) craves that reaction. :-)

I've had, to my knowledge, five people read my fic. But I crave/am terrified that more will read it. :-)

See that's why I like writing the most. When characters you are writing just wander off on their own, seemingly without any intervention on your part.
deborah grabien: See it's the adding of original characters that I just can't. And yet ... in my latest, no sooner have I started than, bang! there's an original character. *sigh*

PMM: I'm 4,500 words into something, with an absolutely crystal clear knowledge of how I want it to end. Unfortunately I fear it will take about another 100,000 words to get there. Which is vaguely off putting. :-)

Hee. I also tend to be terse (blessing and a curse), and am aware that a lot of writers would use two words where I use one, so my longest piece was only (counting both parts) 35,000 words. But, oddly, while I tend to be spare with my word usage, I'm also not capable of writing a sex-based story without writing about six-to-ten pages of build up to where I could feel that rationally, yes, these two people in this place and at this time, would be willing to bed each other.

a good plot with wooden characters? Not so interesting to me.

Ahh, that's different. Good characteriztion comes before plot or relationship--that's not sacrificable. A story with an interesting plot with bad/wooden characterization would fall into a badfic category, for me. Once there are competent prose and believable characterizations, then I'd pick plotty gen over a relationship story.

But what if you're writing and the character takes a turn and wants to do something else? I mean, I know they aren't alive and writers control them and all that but sometimes what I wanted to write doesn't fit where the character is going, even if I did know the general vicinity where I wanted to end up.

I run with it. Go with what they want, not what I want. Randy drunken beasts.

UTTAD, I love attention. I knew about archives and fanfiction.net and I wanted people to read my stuff.

I'm contrary enough that I'm disappointed I still haven't received any negative feedback for anything I've written. Not that I really want anyone to hate my stuff, but it's an experience I haven't had as a fanfic writer and I want that too. Also a long feedback email. Those two things.

But even if no one else but the Buffistas or the Bitches, or my cat read my stuff I'd still write it.

Vonnie K: I think that's part of what I was trying to say before. The characters are already there. Fully rounded, waiting to be put into good stories. So, for me, Buffy fanfic, stands or falls on the story, not the characters.

askye: Can you link me to your stories?

Woah! Your cat can read? Cool.

The best thing is when it feels like something is writing through me. Like it's inevitable and I'm not so much writing as taking dictation. Doesn't happen often.

Here you go---Thinking Shadows

I don't have really clear summaries for what the stories are I'll have to get with SA (who maintains the site) and fix that.

Dream Forever is self explanatory

On the Edge is slashy

Judas is a short look at Wes, it follows canon

On the Edge is a retelling of Billy from inside Wes's head.

The only things that aren't there are for MEverse are the 2 100 word drabbles (if you're interested I can link you to those).

UTTAD, if I can't write original characters? I can kiss my career goodbye. But even with fic, I like original character/established character interactions best. Part of that is writerly ego, and possibly baseless ("Hey, I can come up with characters as cool as their characters, let's make 'em talk to each other!") and part of that is simply allowing the original characters in your head to veer off and play, which I believe Plei just said far more succinctly.

I have writer news: One of my writer's group guys, whose last novel I edited the holy living crap out of, has just landed an offer of representation from LitWest, Nancy Ellis-Bell. I am intensely pleased about this.

Well, she doesn't so much read them, as I force her to listen while I read them out loud. I also read the Bad Fic out to her, which is probably why she's been more nuerotic lately.