We're pleased to present our feature author, Punk Maneuverability. She's known to multiple fandoms and moves effortlessly between them. X-Files fans were lucky enough to be able to start reading her award winning stories in 1997 – and she's still going strong. You can find all of Punk's stories on her webpage: The Underground.

When did you start writing XF fanfic? How did you start?

I started writing XF fanfic back in the dark ages of 1997. It was
February. Me and my 2400 baud modem were away at college when I got
the flu. With nothing else to do in my dorm room, I spontaneously
(sort of) discovered fandom. I got on the newsgroups -- atx and atxc
-- and soon after that I posted my first fic. It was fluffy and
schmoopy and badly out of character, but everyone was very supportive
and I kept writing and I got better at it. I'd always considered
myself a writer, but for the first time I felt like I was getting
somewhere with it because I actually had people reading my stuff.
People who didn't even know me!

What else do you write? What other fandoms are you involved in?

I drifted away from XF while the show was in its 7th or 8th season,
drifted through Sports Night (where I discovered a love of m/m slash)
and West Wing; I found a more permanent home with Smallville, where I
stayed for a few years before picking up Due South and Stargate
Atlantis. I write fic for all of those, and while I consider
Smallville and Stargate Atlantis to be my main fandoms now, I know
I'll never leave XF behind. It was my first fandom. I still have a
lot of ideas for XF fics. Hell, I just posted a big (for me!) plotty
Mulder/Scully bodyswap, "Flea Market Economy."

Do you have a writing process? Do you outline and plan out the entire
story before you begins to write, or does you make it up along the
way?

I used to just make it up as I went along, which was fine when mostly
what I wrote were vignettes or short fics that took place in one
scene. When I started writing in other fandoms, I started getting
more plot-oriented and actually had my characters moving from place
to place, sometimes over the course of days! This, of course, made
things more complicated and I found myself planning ahead and
shuffling around scenes to better fit my idea of what the fic should
be. So, these days, when I write, I tend towards longer pieces with
actual plots and stuff, and I've found having a rough outline really
helps. My latest thing is to write scenes down on index cards, one
scene per card, that way I can easily move them around and add blank
cards in where I know I need an extra scene, but don't know what it is yet.

How has the end of the series and the potential for a movie franchise
affected your writing?

With a few exceptions, I've always written my XF fics as happening
sort of outside the canon timeline. So I have to say the show itself
never really interfered in my writing. *g* I totally don't agree with
the way the Samantha arc was ended, and that actually did throw a
wrench into the big Samantha story I was planning, but I figure Chris
Carter changed his mind so many times that I'm allowed to pick and
choose which parts of canon to take seriously at any given moment. My
main concern is getting the characters right. Mulder and Scully did
change over the years, and I try to be true to that more than any
specific moment in canon. I'll mentally set a story in a general
time, like "sort of in season four" or "post cancer" or "right around
'Chinga,'" more to set the tone of the Mulder/Scully relationship
than anything.

Has the end of the series affected your level of participation in the fandom?

My participation was already trailing off around that time, but not
necessarily because the show was ending. I'm fine with writing for a
show that's off the air. It's freeing in a way because you know
nothing new is going to happen and screw up the story you're working on. *g*

Do you have any upcoming stories or projects to look out for?

Not at the moment! They just pop up and blindside me, so I'm really
the last to know. I still have a lot of unfinished stories sitting
around, and I get them out and stare at them and either change a word
or two and then close them again, or suddenly find myself adding
entire paragraphs and plotting out new scenes for them. I'd been
staring lovingly at the beginning of that bodyswap for years, and one
day I just snapped and decided to finish it. I never throw anything
away and XF's going to be with me for a long time.

Punk