Meet Meg! Known as ‘magicandarchery,’ she is a 33-year-old fanfiction author and fandom member from Colorado, U.S.A.
What is the appeal of fanfiction to you?
One, the freedom of it. If I want to explore a moment that was missing from the books or show, I can do that. If I want to write Jace and Simon as a couple, I can do that. If I want to take the characters completely out of the canon universe and put them into alternate realities or settings, I can do that. I write almost exclusively AU because I am far more interested in the characters and their complexities than I am in the canon universe and the mythology behind it. This way, too, I work on my skills at plotting, world-building, and character development because even well-loved characters have to grow when faced with new challenges and new worlds to explore.
Two, the interaction with readers is amazing. Whether it’s a comment, a live-read thread on Twitter, or a chat through Tumblr, it’s a truly unique and wonderful feeling to experience my story all over again through [the reader’s] eyes in real time. I have also received a few comments that I have gone back to read on days when I’m struggling to get words onto the page, or when I’m absolutely hating every single word that my keyboard is spitting out. That feedback and interaction is very motivating and has been known to pull me out of writing blocks and ruts in the past.
What is your favorite fanfiction trope?
I read a lot of slow burns, enemies to friends to lovers; and I will never, ever pass up a well-written battle couple or coffee shop AU. But I tend to write more stupid pining idiots or established relationship [fics].
How did you get involved in the Shadowhunters fandom?
I needed something to fill the Harry Potter-shaped void in my life.
I read the first book because the TMI movie was coming out and my friend got me interested in it. I have a very strict rule that I won’t see a movie or show adapted from a book without reading the book first, so I read City of Bones and then eventually went back to finish the series (and on to read the TID series as well). At the time, I was bummed the movie franchise flopped but was super stoked later to hear that it was being revamped as a TV series — which I think sometimes might suit the book series better in the long run.
I will confess, I actually missed the first six episodes of Season 1, got caught up before ‘Major Arcana’ aired, then dove in completely after Malec’s amazing first kiss. Look where we are now…
What character or aspect of the Shadowhunters world makes you want to write?
Alec and Magnus. They were the inspiration for my first foray back into writing after a period of about five years where I didn’t write one single word of anything.
On a personal level, I saw a lot of myself in Alec during Season 1, though not in the way that most do. I related to him as the oldest child [in a family] struggling to live up to the high expectations that were placed on him. Alec telling Robert that it was drilled into him that he was never good enough made me break down in tears because those exact same words had been on the tip of my own tongue during conversations with my mother more times than I care to admit. As for Magnus, I saw myself in the way that he has been bullied and hurt and broken his entire life, and still remains kind. And yet, under his flashy exterior, is a raw vulnerability that I can feel deep in my own soul. It’s almost as if Magnus is a kindred spirit of sorts.
From a writing perspective, I love that both characters are strong, complex, flawed, and broken (to an extent). It makes exploring those layers very interesting. I know that a lot of authors like to explore breaking them down individually to build them back up as a strong, cohesive unit, but I like to approach them and their relationship by exploring how they take their already broken pieces and fit them together to fix what is broken in each other, if that makes sense.
What emotion do you most like to write and why?
I tend to write a lot of fluff and happiness because I think there is a deeply rooted desire in me to bring as much light and love to the world as I can to help negate some of the despair and hopelessness I see around me.
Does that mean it’s my favorite to write? Not necessarily, because I don’t believe that we should be limited in the types of emotions we write or that we feel. We all experience an array of feelings that are both good and bad, as will the characters, and using your characters to work through those emotions, or to see the situation through someone else’s emotions/perspective, can be very cathartic and eye-opening.
When you sit down to write a new story, do you plan it all out in advance, with an ending in mind? Or do you go with the flow and let the story lead you?
I didn’t start planning my stories out in advance. Needless to say (*winky face*), the projects I worked on at that time fizzled out because I had no idea how to get from point A to point B. If I had a beginning and an end, I didn’t have a middle. Or I had a middle, but not a beginning or an end.
I think it was a couple of years ago that I started writing out the overall story arc for my fics ‘A Tiny Spark’ and ‘And You Have Always Been Mine, Too.’ Once that is done, I will figure out the breakdown of the scenes and events in the chapters as I sit down to write each new chapter. But both stories have a clear beginning, a clear conflict, a clear resolution, and a clear end. It’s been a development in my writing process that has led me to success. ‘A Tiny Spark’ was the first multi-chapter project I ever finished. So, even if you don’t outline every chapter out beforehand, it is important to have the map of the story planned out.
As a writer, do you have a special trick for balancing the integrity and details of the original characters with your own plot?
I don’t know that I have a special trick per se, but I do think I tend to gravitate toward the voice I most relate to at that moment. For example, Alec is very easy for me to write because I share many of his characteristics, the same insecurities and vulnerabilities, and the same desire to keep my inner circle close and hold those outside that circle at arm’s length. So sometimes the balance comes naturally.
But with that said, in order to maintain the integrity of the original characters, you have to be able to see beyond what is surface deep. You have to have a deep knowledge of what motivates them, what angers them, who they will be vulnerable with, etc. So as long as you, as a writer, have that knowledge and understanding, balancing details and plot isn’t as daunting of a task as it may initially seem.
What ships do you ship, and why do you love them so much?
Malec owns my entire existence. I can’t live without them. I could wax poetic and write a 50k-word essay on every single minuscule reason that I love them because I’m in love with their love.
I will try to keep this short, but in all seriousness, what I love about Malec and their relationship is that it’s easy for them to love each other. And I feel like they validate my own personal belief that when you know someone is THE ONE, you just know. There’s no right or wrong time to realize it, and there’s really no logic behind it. It may take two months or it may take two years to realize, but that realization is just there one day. I am giddy that we’ve seen subtle hints of that acknowledgment with Magnus and Alec, as well as more explicit statements like, ‘I don’t think I can live without you.’
I also love that we see them have challenges that they have to overcome, and not just normal, everyday relationship struggles, but political struggles as well. It makes the dynamic of their relationship real. No relationship is without its faults and the fact that we see the effort and communication needed for them to make this work when the deck is completely stacked against them is something truly breathtaking.
Another thing that inspires me about Malec is that they have a million reasons to hate each other, but they find ways to bridge their differences and their biases and prejudices, and from this grows a truly beautiful, deep, unbreakable love and trust in and for the other. They make one another better; Magnus brings out this confidence and self-assuredness in Alec that has always been there, and Alec slowly tears down all the walls Magnus has put up over the centuries one brick at a time, without judgment. They personify unconditional romantic love, and that is something incredibly beautiful.
What has been the best part of your fandom experience so far?
The people. I know that sounds cliche, but it is absolutely true. This fandom has some of the most passionate, dedicated, and talented people that I’ve ever known, and I have met some of my very best friends whom I will be friends with long after we’ve left fandom life behind. THOS 2 was also pretty amazing. I can’t believe I survived.
What’s your favorite scene you’ve ever written?
It’s a tie between two scenes in ‘A Tiny Spark.’
The first is the flashback of Magnus and Alec meeting in Part Two because it is one of the very few scenes I’ve written that didn’t change from how I originally conceptualized it and how it ended up on the page.
The second is Magnus telling Sarah’s story in Part One. That was drawn from my family’s personal experience and was the hardest scene for me to write emotionally because even though it wasn’t my child, the loss of a baby is the most devastating loss I’ve ever experienced. For as smoothly as the words flowed out of me in that scene, I couldn’t see my screen through my tears for 90% of it. But it was also something I needed to include in order to work through my grief over our loss and was incredibly cathartic.
If you could write any couple you have never written about, who would it be?
I would probably say Sizzy. I touch on them to an extent in all my fics, but I’ve never purposely written their arc. But to me, they, like Malec, just have this natural pull towards each other that very few people truly understand, so I would love to explore that. I have a plan to explore it, but we shall see if that fic ever comes to fruition.
What is your favorite fic to read more than once?
‘Set Me in Motion’ by lemonoclefox. I literally have it labeled as ‘good for my health’ in my AO3 bookmarks. It’s got so much realistic conflict without being angsty, and again, is one of those great fics that really captures the natural draw and chemistry Malec have and how easy their relationship is, even as they’re navigating these different life decisions. I highly, highly recommend!
If someone learned something from reading any one of your stories, what would you hope they learned?
That one is tough because I hope there are many lessons to be learned. But ultimately, I want them to learn that it is okay to not give people who don’t deserve them second chances. It is your choice to forgive and it has to be what is right for you, but as Magnus says in ‘A Tiny Spark,’ ‘Sometimes the lesson to be learned is that not everything is forgivable.’ And I also want them to know that family isn’t just blood, it’s the people who enter your life and prove to you they will be with you and love you, not just at your best but also at your worst.
List your social medias and websites so fans can find you.
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandarchery/pseuds/magicandarchery
Twitter: https://twitter.com/magicandarchery
Tumblr: http://magicandarchery.tumblr.com/
