I recently had an opportunity to chat with Plummy, author of Pressed for Time and Neverending Math Equation, about her writing, her passions, and Shakespeare. I absolutely loved her candidness and sincerity, and was thrilled with the chance to pick her brain. Her current WIP, Love in Idleness, is a blatant departure from formula fic, and those who are already reading will be able to gain some understanding about the author's direction. Those who have yet to start reading will hopefully be intrigued enough to check it out.
Love in Idleness: Bella Swan meets the perfect boy during her junior year, but when she finds out he's a freshman, and an evil mastermind, all hell breaks lose.
P: This is a long answer, but I swear it’s pretty much the truth.
I’m very interested in the character of Bella and the way she’s portrayed in the Twilight series and in fanfiction. More often than not, I don’t love how she’s depicted (overly weak, overly strong, waffling), but I’ve also found her hard to write. So, when Chele and I were finishing up Pressed For Time, and I discovered that that Bella had a very deep understanding of and belief in the role of fairy tales in the lives of both young girls and women, it struck a chord with me. I got thinking about transformation and enchantment and how she made sense of her existence, which got me thinking about the previous story I’d written (Neverending Math Equation), which I also think of as a fairy tale, and realized that what I was really fascinated by was the idea of every day magic, and the little dreams that people hold on to, and why one might choose reality over fantasy, or vice versa.
At the same time, I’d been kidding around about wanting to write “Shakesfic,” and specifically a Twilight/Midsummer’s Night Dream mash-up. The original idea was going to be a very close interpretation of the play: Bella/Helena, Alice/Hermia, Edward/Demetrius, Jasper/Lysander, Rose/Titania, Emmet/Oberon, Carlisle/Theseus, and Esme/Hippolyta, but I had an issue with Puck. Who should play him? Jasper came to mind, which screwed things up. I thought maybe Alice would be a better choice, but that meant I’d have to replace Hermia with Tanya. After thinking about it, it seemed all I’d actually be doing was cutting & pasting scenes and dialog directly from the play. So, I dropped the idea.
But one day in late April, after I had myself convinced that I wasn’t going to write anymore fanfiction, or at least not for a while, I got it into my head to try and write using third person narrative, and once I started, I realized that the midsummer “motif” was already there. The first four chapters basically wrote themselves though I became more interested in the fairies (Mote, Cobweb, Peasebottom and Mustard Seed), than the main characters, and very interested in Titania, because it also sounds like “Tanya” from canon. And then everything went to hell.
DH78: What made you want to start writing ff?
P: I got all kinds of caught up in Clipped Wings & Inked Armor.* It wasn’t the first FF I’d read, but I simply adored it. So, when the “Tattward & Inkella” contest came around in June 2009, I decided to enter because I was pretty sure I could write a 5000-word story. Of course, as it turned out, I couldn’t. The story, which was ExB, got all turned around, and the more I tried to get the characters to behave, I couldn’t – and by the time I did figure out what the story was, I’d already missed the deadline. But, having gone through the process of understanding what I wanted to write, I committed myself to finishing it. And that’s how NEME came about.
DH78: LiI (Love in Idleness) is very different from a lot of fic out there at the moment. Some of your readers may find it difficult to even describe your story to someone who asks about it. Is it purely a love story? Is it sci-fi? Are either of those genres secondary to a larger point? If you had to convince someone to read your story, how would you describe the plot?
P: First off, I am horrid at titles. My kids are lucky they even have names. Second, as just about anyone will tell you, I couldn’t write a decent summary if my life depended on it. And thirdly, I can’t stand having to check the category boxes when I put up a story, and sometimes go back and change them, repeatedly, because I feel limited by having to say it’s one thing versus another.
But this is a really good question.
I think, first and foremost, that Love in Idleness is a love story. This is what I most like to read, and so this is what I most like to write. I also think that the genre that best describes LiI is “magical realism,” because it allows magic to exist in the real world.
I looked it up on Google, and liked this bit of description. Magic realism is
...what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe.
I’m also really trying to follow the themes in AMSND (A Midsummer Night's Dream), which all revolve around chaos: loves difficulty, magic, dreams, and contrast. I’m probably over-simplifying or over-complicating things. One of those.
And, it’s also got a little bit of hentai thrown in for good measure, because I find fantastical beings (um, like fairies, robots and vampires) very erotic.
Whenever I’ve had to convince someone to read any of my stories, it has come to a bad end, but I think if someone likes stories with layers, and to immerse themselves in a different world than their own, but also likes a good rollicking romance, then Love in Idleness is probably a decent choice.
DH78: Do you have a set writing plan? Outline? Do you write organically, or is everything perfectly planned?
P: I’ve written three stories, and I’ve approached each of them differently. I think I’m still trying to figure out the best method for me. I generally keep an outline that has to be updated constantly. I try to follow the story, rather than force it to what I think it should be, but I also do a LOT of reading and research about the images, symbols and words that strike me while I’m writing. I have lists of the characters and what they do and don’t do (who swears, who doesn’t, which words they use). I keep random timelines, map locations, get directions, draw up blueprints, whatever strikes me. And I have files and files and files of pictures on my computer, which I have to purge every once in a while for fear that they will be discovered. It’s incredibly inefficient and a lot of time I’m mostly distracting myself from actually writing (or working). But when it comes down to writing (which I often do long hand to stop myself from playing with formatting in the middle of a first or last draft) I really try to focus in on the scene, and what each character needs to get out of that particular moment. It’s a lot like acting and writing for the stage, which is what my training is.
DH78: Who’s your favorite character in your story? Why?
T: In this story, my favorite character is Bella and Mote, who are the same. I feel horrific admitting this and am scared that Edward will abandon me once he finds out, however I happen to know that these are his favorite characters too and am hoping he’ll cut me some slack.
The reason I like her is that she is quite a solitary figure and happily so. But I think she has to learn to share a bit of herself, because most anything in life is a collaborative process – whether it’s getting Mote published, or letting someone into her heart - and I think she has to learn how to do this without giving up what is magical about her.
DH78: How long have you been in the fandom?
P: March 2009 is the date I got my own FF profile. I think I started reading in February, though.
DH78: What was the first ff you ever read?
P: It was a TrueBlood fic and I think it was by Terri Botta and I think it was called Let Love In.This might not have been my first, but it was the first I remember.
DH78: Are you reading any ff right now? If so? Wanna rec something you’re loving so far?
P: I am adoring, slathering over and fixated on Falling Empire of the Heart, by HoochieMomma. It’s an Arthurian inspired fic (I was a huge Arthur geek when I was a teenager, and it has awakened all of that for me) that focuses on the destinies of Edren and Bellona, but features standout characterizations of all the main Twilight couples. The story itself is smooth as butter with awe-inspiring prose, and a wonderful story arc that requires a bit of thought. It’s a work in progress and currently has twenty-three of the most satisfying chapters I’ve ever read. I have a few FFs that I adore, but this is the only one that I consider jaw dropping.
DH78: Some people may be wondering if you are you an HEA girl? Those of us who have read Pressed for Time or your other stories understand that your view of an HEA is not typical or cookie-cutter, but an HEA nonetheless. There might be some who worry about how this is all going to go down. Any thoughts?
P: I don’t mind being labeled an HEA girl, but I’m definitely not a hearts and flowers writer. I like endings to feel like endings, not the beginning of the next story, neither do I want them to read as a wrap up of every single loose end in the story. And most of all, I like the ending to match the beginning. I think somewhere this is called “geometric progression,” which is when the chapters match forward and backwards, so, in a way, you can tell the endings of my stories by reading the beginning. In NEME, Edward flies in to NYC wanting to be a “regular guy” not a wunderkind, he wants to understand what love is, and eventually he does, or at least he’s starting to. He’s in a better place than he was. In PFT, Edward is self-loathing and considers himself an “asshole." In the end, Edward does not loathe himself and actually sees a future, and comes to grips with the fact that he is still probably an asshole, but that he can use that particular trait to help the woman he loves.
This is the kind of HEA that I write. However, I am desperate to write about a wedding. I don’t even really like them in real life. Which is probably why.
I know this makes no sense, but it’s been fun trying to describe why I do what I do and how I do it!
xot
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I had a ton of fun getting to know a little more about one of my favorite authors. Plummy, thanks for your time and your thoughtful words!
You can also follow Plummy on Twitter @plummy6
*Clipped Wings & Inked Armour by HunterHunting was pulled this past year. It is no longer available.
