"The Man Behind the Alternative Season Five"
August Interview: Anthony
Questions Compiled by Vlada, Irina, & Rachel

Just Jack: Can you tell me some personal information about yourself such as name, age, and where do you live?

Name: Michael Anthony. Age: 21. Location: Toronto, Canada. What I Do: Student of drama and mathematics (not the drama of mathematics).

JJ: How many years have you been writing fanfic? What inspired you to start writing fan fiction?

I�ve been writing for about three years, though I�ve only been posting my working in the past year. All my previous attempts to write short stories failed, at least in my eyes. I figured if I wrote stories based on characters that were already established, then I could focus on developing plot. Enter the fanfic genre. Also, I liked writing out the ideas that I knew the writers of the show would never talk about or just didn�t have time for, as in These Things You Have. The Alternative Season Five was an impulse decision with Stephanie. It was scary at first since we didn�t really know each other that much. That changed quite quickly, needless to say, and not only do I have a great writing partner, but a great friend. As for the source of my inspiration, I hate to sound corny, but it comes from Steph and her writing. It�s great having a writing partner because we can feed off of each other�s work. That, and it cuts the workload in half.

JJ: What was the first fan fiction you wrote? Looking back, what are your thoughts on it now?

The first one I posted for general viewing was These Things You Have. I look back on it and think it�s a touch on the trite and cheesy side, but I still think it was a good piece. Before that I had worked on Changing of the Tides, a post season-three ensemble fic (which ironically had Mitch dying in a car crash), but I just couldn�t write Dawson to my liking, so I dropped it. Next came Symphony of Fire, which was a post season-three Jack fic that is sitting on my hard drive collecting dust. I�ve thought about going back to it and fixing it up, but looking back on it, it�s really too trite even for DC.

JJ: Which of your pieces is your favorite?

It�s hard to say. The Alternative Season Five is very rewarding since it�s a vision that Stephanie and I had that is coming alive over a long period of time. Favourite episode? Again it�s hard to say. I like �A Midautumn Night�s Scream,� �Not A Creature Was Stirring,� and �What You Leave Behind� all for different reasons. As for my individual works, I like the third part to These Things You Have because I feel it captures my writing style best. It flowed right onto the page.

JJ: Which fandom do you prefer to write? Which character(s)? Why?

Well I�ve only ever written DC. I�ve never been inspired to write fanfic for any other show I watch. As for characters, I�m partial to Jack, Jen, Pacey, and Tobey. But I�ve found that through writing the AS5, Dawson and Joey are becoming easier for me. Characters who have room to expand and grow, like Jen and Jack, are best because you can give them a new direction and still stay in the parameters set by the creators of the show. If you want to have any creative license with Dawson and Joey it takes a lot more effort to overcome their confining parameters.

JJ: Do you read other authors' fanfic(s)? If so, what are some of your favorite pieces?

I do, but not nearly as much as I used to or would like to. I love Stephanie�s lost scenes and Karen�s Nervous Energy. Of course they�re my friends�, but still they write good fic. Also, I am a big fan of Beth�s wealth of Jack/Jen fanfiction. Come As You Are is a great future friendship piece, however, Beloved remains my favourite, and not because I had the honour to beta it. It�s as dark and psychological as you can get with DC. Within a few lines, you�re already waist deep in pathos, and I love that in what I read. Forget the happy mushy stuff, I want the drama.

JJ: Where do you draw inspiration from for your fics? Songs? Nature? Etc.?

Songs play a huge part in what I write. As does my everyday life. I do my best writing when I�m feeling down. If there�s something that angers me, I�ll write about it. If I�d like my life to go in another direction, I�ll write a character going where I would like to. I guess that�s why I like to write and why I study drama. I like to escape into other worlds. The problem is sometimes I don�t want to leave them.

JJ: Whom does your muse look like?

Oddly, it�s a duck. A little yellow and orange duck. It sits on my head while I write.

JJ: So, how did Season 5 come along? How did you and Steph come up with the plotlines and original characters? Basically, what's your process?

As I said earlier, Season Five was the product of a rather impulsive decision made by two new friends. We started off with the basics: how do Dawson and Tobey get back to Boston? Do we want Pacey and Joey together? Who is at what college? And so on. Once those details were decided, we moved on to new characters. Liz and Kyle were the first additions, knowing we wanted both an �Andie� character and someone to butt heads with Joey as Drue did in Season Four. Lewis was the next, and originally he was supposed to come between Jack and Tobey, but we decided to actually give Jack and Tobey a chance first. The most recent additions of Sophie, Glenn, and Clare were created for These Things You Have.

Next comes the story. We try to sketch out the general direction we�d like to take in five episode blocks and then deal with each episode individually. One of us writes an outline that gives every scene its purpose (i.e. Act 2, Scene 1 - Liz/Dawson - suspicion about Joey and Kyle) and then we just hammer out the scenes. Almost every plot development is decided beforehand, while the details are left up to the writer of that scene. In all the episodes we�ve written to date, I don�t think we�ve ever wanted to take a storyline in opposite directions. There are always ideas that get turned down by the other, but there�s never been conflict about it. Steph and I don�t get attached to plot ideas until we�re both happy with them.

The second-to-last step is giving the episode a title. Recently we�ve been giving episodes their titles before we write but we usually go through a few before we get the one we like best. We try to have a play-on-words with common expressions or movie and song titles.

Finally, I code the episode for posting and then deliver it to the faithful readers.

JJ: What's it like co-writing with someone else? What's the biggest difficulty? Perk?

I love it. I really do. The only difficulty is that you can�t talk to the other right at the moment of your brainstorm. That�s when you bombard them with five emails in a thirty-minute period. Don�t laugh, it happens quite frequently. The perks are plentiful. Aside from tormenting the faithful readers with long dry-spells, there are twice the ideas, twice the opinions, twice the perspective, and half the workload.

JJ: What's your biggest fanfic pet peeve? Come on, everybody has one! Spill.

Where do I start? My biggest pet peeve is improper use of language for the tone of the fic. This just irks me. This includes using slang in serious pieces, or in any piece at all. Changing the proper noun for a person mid sentence also sucks. Like �Jen saw Jack and decided to give her friend a hug.� I�ve been known to do this myself. Finally, improbabilities make fanfic hard to swallow. Like Jack and Pacey having sex for absolutely no reason. Yes it�s fiction, but please indulge us in some �foreplay� if you will.

JJ: What the best part about fanfic? What's the worst?

The best part is being able to follow a character�s life through new worlds of thought. The worst is reading fic that captures characters horribly. There is no short supply of this.

JJ: How important is feedback?

Feedback is the food of writers. It means so much to me just to have someone write back and say �That was great, keep it up.� Imagine my delight when I get longer responses.

JJ: Why do you keep writing?

We�re not done the full season yet? But seriously, I love it because it�s so freeing. I love escaping into my thoughts and writing them out coherently and poetically. It�s a focus for my creative energies and it gives me a great sense of pleasure in creating something from that energy.

JJ: Okay, time to impart some words of wisdom. What advice would you give to future fanfic writers?

If you�re daunted by the thought of writing even a short story, just think: if you write a page a day, in a year you�ll have a full-length novel.

Also, you don�t have to write in chronological order. Sometimes writing the end first can help shape the beginning.

JJ: Now, time for some random fun. Courtesy of Rachel, if you had to dye your hair a color that does not grow on a human head, what would it be and why?

So the colours I�ve actually died my hair don�t count? I�d have to say blue. It�s my favourite colour plus I think I have the complexion to pull it off.

JJ: What's in your CD player right now?

My own compilation CD called �Melodies in Time and Style: Disc One� Right now Chicane�s �Salt Water� is playing.

JJ: Vlada desperately wants to know if Kyle and Liz in Season 5 are named after certain "Roswell" characters. So?

Nope. Liz was my idea and Kyle was Steph�s. However there are several Queer As Folk references including Liz�s last name �Harold� and her uncle�s first name �Randy.�

JJ: What did you do yesterday?

I worked and then I came home and ate and then I went to bed so that I could do it all over again.

JJ: Who's your favorite superhero?

The X-Men. There�s something quite �queer� about these �mutants� who no one understands and some people want to have removed from society because they�re a �bad influence.� It speaks to me.

JJ: What shows do you watch? Now, honestly, do you still watch "Dawson's Creek?"

Sadly, I do. I�ve finally allowed myself to watch it for what it is and not criticize it... much. Otherwise I�m a �Friends� and �Will & Grace� freak. �Queer As Folk�, �Sex and the City�, �Buffy� and �ER� are my other must-watches. Also, I have to admit that I like �Star Trek.� This must be the mathematician in me.

JJ: What movie are you dying to see?

All of them. I don�t have the money to go to the movies.

JJ. High school: the worst or best years of your life? Why?

Grades 12 and 13 (that�s Ontario for you) are among the best. Everything before that has been conveniently erased from memory. Without getting into it, there were some self-esteem and self-discovery issues.

JJ: Who is your favorite book author?

Timothy Findley, who just died recently. He�s a Canadian author, playwright and actor. The Wars, Not Wanted on the Voyage, and The Last of the Crazy People are some phenomenal stories. I�m also quite taken with Christopher Rice�s A Density of Souls. Steph sent me this novel for my birthday and I couldn�t put it down. Both these authors appeal to me, I think, because I find a lot of my own writing style in theirs.

JJ: And of course, what do you think of Just Jack? Got any advice, ideas, questions, etc.?

I think that maybe �Jack Land� should look to expand. Maybe �Jack Land Paris� or �Jack Land Antarctic"?

Posted August 11, 2002.