burger with fries?

4. You gave voice to a wide breadth of characters over the course of the month--you did a wonderful job writing Dave and Marty's brotherhood, Marlene and Junior's sibling dynamic, and your Biff felt very accurate. What character do you find the most exciting to write?

Dave. I am the fandom’s #1 Dave McFly fan and will shout it from the rooftops. I LOVE writing him and his dynamic with Marty. (99% based entirely off of my own headcanons and version of him I molded myself, thank you very much) Nice to have a character who has so little screentime and established traits that you can do whatever you want with him. The chapters of McFly July that I incorporated him into were some of my favorite ones to write for sure.

5. What is your favorite BTTF AU?

I’ve been digging the Marty Mania stuff. I had taken a pretty long hiatus from my blog and the fandom after last summer, and when I returned, my timeline was inundated with Marty Mania. I had to do a lot of backtracking and diving into people’s blogs to figure out what on earth was going on and where it started. The concept of multiple Martys (Marties?) meeting is super fun and interesting.

6. What piece was the most challenging to write this month?

“Born a Nun” and “Doc’s Revolver” both gave me a little bit of a hard time because none of the ideas that initially popped into my head felt right. I had to kind of just sit with the prompts for a little until they worked themselves out. Oh, and “Lunar Geography” was challenging, too, but in a fun way since it ended up being genuinely educational. I did so much (probably unnecessary) research on the topography of the moon and the various named features.

7. You excel at writing quiet, emotional moments. For example, your piece for Day 23, Jacuzzi Girl #2 is beautifully still and sad and hopeful all at once. It even inspired artwork from Sam! Can you walk us through your thought process for that piece? What tone and feelings were you hoping to convey?

Still riding the high from that artwork, thank you, @sams-spot-for-things!!! So, when I saw the prompt, I knew I wanted it to take place within the world I’m writing for another fic that focuses on 1985A. A lot of people write that version of Marty as really tough and cool and edgy (big fan of that btw) but my version of him is a lot softer and sadder and broken in many ways. But my thing with that fic is that I like to incorporate little side characters who are bright spots in such a dark life and show Marty kindness. And in a timeline that’s been so twisted by Biff, sometimes that kindness looks like your stepfather’s Jacuzzi Girls offering you ice for your black eye because that’s all she CAN do. Ultimately, she’s probably feeling trapped too in that town, and they’re all just trying to survive. It’s a solemn tone, but there are still good people in 1985A.

8. More on quiet, emotional moments: my favorite of yours centered on Junior McFly, for Day 10, Getting Tranked. You give Junior the empathy that the movie diverts audiences away from. What makes you look harder at Junior? What about him resonates with you and drew you to write this piece?

Junior tugs on my heartstrings so much. I mean, obviously, he’s meant to be a real goofy character that we laugh at as we watch him stumble all around, but if you actually think about him, the poor guy has it rough. He’s in a similar predicament to how his father grew up parent-wise, but he doesn’t even have the benefit of the confidence Marty has. He just seems so nervous and soft-spoken and scared of everything. But at the same time, I can see him being painfully aware of the dysfunction in his family and having to navigate it alone at times. I also usually base my version of Junior (and future Marty and Jen as well) on earlier drafts of part II. There’s one draft where we learn Junior is in a remedial school, taking remedial and elementary level classes—and failing—and that Marty is upset to learn his son is “stupid.” I’m always glad they didn’t go with that in the final film, but it does make me wonder if Junior was being (poorly) written at that point with a learning disability in mind. I tend to write him with that characterization. It makes for a heartbreaking version of him in the timeline where Marty and Jen are both struggling and mentally checked out. And when I write the improved Marty/Jen timeline, it makes for some great exploration of the supportive, loving parents they turn out to be.

9. Did any other artists' approach this month affect your own work?

@bg-sparrow’s writing has been an inspiration of mine for years. Erica’s ability to craft an entire world in just a handful of sentences blows me away, and I definitely have been trying to hone that same ability in my own writing, both fandom-related and in general. I tend to sit and overthink every single word, to the point it’s backfired in the past and left me with terrible writer’s block or made me just want to abandon whatever project entirely. This year, I tried to remind myself that not every chapter needed to be a lengthy, overworked piece of writing to get the point across. So, yeah, shoutout to Erica; your work is gorgeous, and I can only hope to write at that level someday!

10. You a have a skill in writing analysis of BTTF! How do you find that kind of writing about the trilogy informs your fanfiction and vice versa?