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Our interviewee today, daraoakwise, won the Flash Challenge on our Discord server for her story Lightning, which is a missing scene starring Scotty from Star Trek Beyond! So, without further ado, let's get down to the grilling interview!
SLWalker: You're a lifelong -- pretty much -- fan of Trek, right? So, what is the first Star Trek related memory you actually have, and are you willing to share it with us?
daraoakwise: As a wee thing in the ‘80s, we would watch Star Trek on syndicated reruns. Earliest Star Trek memories—not being allowed to watch until I finished my asparagus, which was terribly traumatic. And watching Wrath of Khan, at a drive-in theater. Being a little bit scared, falling asleep before the end. It couldn’t possibly have been first run release, but must have been the tail end of its run. I would have been two, maybe three, making it one of my earliest memories.
SLWalker: Did you have any favorite episodes back when you were a kid? And if so, have they stayed the same or have they changed as you got older?
daraoakwise: Whatever channel we watched in tended to have the same episodes of TOS on regular rotation. A lot of Mudd’s Women, A Piece of the Action, Arena, Devil in the Dark, and Catspaw. I don’t recall having a particular favorite. (Although when I was ‘playing’ Star Trek, I had to find a red shirt because I was going to be Scotty.) Don’t really have a favorite now. Generally enjoy them all, and still do a fairly regular TOS rewatch.
We watched Next Generation from the beginning, and I probably watched nearly every episode on its original air date. Same with Deep Space Nine and Voyager, but there wasn’t an opportunity to return to episodes in quite the same way, so don’t really have any favorite standout episodes there.
SLWalker: Do you remember what your first encounter with fandom was? What was it? Was it for Trek, or something else? And if it wasn't Trek, then what was your first experience with Trek fandom in specific?
daraoakwise: My very first fandom encounter of any kind was a Star Trek convention, as a preteen. Mom took me. I loved Star Trek, but also recall being an embarrassed by the idea that people might know I loved Star Trek, so the thing was a bit of a bust.
The first time I ever got on the internet was at my cousins’ house. They had AOL. One of my older cousins pulled up a search engine. And I typed ‘Star Trek.’ And immediately discovered fanfiction.
Star Trek (and particularly the fan fiction angle) has always been there, but I was definitely more a lurker and occasional commenter. My first regular encounters fandom were outside of Star Trek—message boards, yahoo groups, Livejournal and private hosted archives for whatever show had grabbed me at the time.
SLWalker: When did you start writing fanfic yourself? And what inspired you to do it? (And do you feel like telling us what it was about?)
daraoakwise: Oh, man. I was 18, off to college, with my first regular internet connection. I did a lot of reading, because there were free stories about characters I loved. I slowly gathered my courage that maybe I could contribute something too. First fanfiction I ever wrote was something for Law & Order, entirely lost to time. Some episode was bothering me, some character interaction and sorrow, and I felt the need to gapfill.
SLWalker: How a lot of us end up in the fanfic game. So, when did you decide to write Trekfic? And why? What inspired you to do it, and then keep doing it? Give me all the details.
daraoakwise: I have been reading Star Trek fanfiction forever, and writing in generally for over two decades. But my first Star Trek story wasn’t actually until April-May 2020. Pandemic, quarantine, parks closed, schools closed, three kids under six at home. I needed something, and that something was writing.
I decided to take on the Kelvinverse/AOS. It occurred to me that the AOS provided an interesting opportunity to correct the sins of TOS, and there was none bigger in my book than the episode The Changeling, where Uhura gets mindwiped and Scotty killed. And then, instead of an episode that actually talks about that, it turns into Kirk Talking A Robot To Death. Again. It makes me crazy. So I took 11,000 words to retell it to my liking. And that accidentally launched me into the fandom for real.
I had some lingering ideas from that story about maybe some other AOS retellings, which became a much, much bigger story, my longest piece ever, Higher Power. 157,000 words written straight through the depths of the pandemic, and it kept me sane and motivated, and Star Trek hasn’t left me since.
SLWalker: What were some of the hardest parts about writing those stories? Technically, emotionally, both? And what were some of the most enjoyable parts?
daraoakwise: I’ve always been more of a character writer. Shorter, introspective pieces, largely inside someone’s head. These stories required some plotting, as well as some straight up action sequences. And oh, god. Plot and action, the heavy burden, fought out one word at a time.
A difficulty, but also a joy, was working with the AOS characters. There are places where they are really the same as their TOS counterparts, and then places where they are really different. Finding the overlaps and the contrasts, and trying to figure out why, was a lot of fun.
These stories walk into some hard territory too, grabbing at some of the themes that TOS advanced but ultimately had to tip-toe around because of the medium and the time (sexual assault, death, mental illness, injury, mind control) and asking: ok, what if these things happened and the people were allowed to act like people who were affected and not characters who never mentioned it again? Approaching those themes, trying to make them hit hard, but also not stepping over the line, letting hope and healing be the goal, was sometimes a tricky line to walk. More than one chapter got a complete rewrite before posting because I didn’t like the tone.
SLWalker: So, Higher Power was an epic by any standard of the definition. How early in the writing did you know what climax you were writing towards? Did you intend for it to be a genuine epic, or was it meant to be episodic and just became an epic?
daraoakwise: One of the first scenes I wrote was meant to be a one-off, the AOS junior officers meeting after the first Enterprise was destroyed and the second about to deploy, a scene which appears now a bit before the mid-point of the story. And there just wasn’t enough emotional investment before it to justify the scene. So I decided that I would need to write some chapters of adventures and struggles to get there.
About three or four chapters in, I knew I was going to keep writing beyond where I had planned, and I started plotting toward a big, movie-style ending, with a general idea about what that might be, but the details left to later-me. Went back and made some tweaks to earlier chapters to start slowly telegraphing toward it. But it was a couple months into writing before I decided I was heading toward a larger story. And it wasn’t until I introduced the enemy mid-story that I really set the rest of the plot.
SLWalker: Authors and readers sometimes have very different interpretations of a given text, especially since readers are coming to it cold and authors are coming to it with the knowledge of everything behind it. If you were sitting down talking to a reader (which, I mean, you kind of are!), what would you most want to tell them about your stories? Backstory or process or 'HEY DID YOU NOTICE THIS--!' And what part would you be most excited to have them talk to you about? Character, setting, plot?
daraoakwise: As someone writing in Kelvinverse/AOS, I had to decide what to do with what are clearly changes to characterizations and timelines. And the first thing I did was jettison the suggestion that the AOS is a branch of the Prime universe that split off when the Kelvin destroyed. There were too many changes that can’t be attributed to the destruction of one ship.
In my mind, the Prime Universe isn’t ours, what with 20th century eugenics wars and probes launched in the 1990s, etc. The AOS is, or might be. The Prime Universe also had horrible future Earth wars (and the Klingon War shown in Discovery,) as well as a shift to the culture. The Prime Universe is missing everything that the late 20th and 21st century had, things lost in the fog of war and death.
The AOS doesn’t appear to have had those events, and their culture—beer brands, motorcycle brands, touchscreens, ringtones, even progressive attitudes—seems to be closer to ours. So the setting, first. Prime/TOS is not our universe. Kelvin/AOS is. And I could talk about all that forever, and what those changes mean.
But more interesting is that within that universe, our characters are different. Kirk’s life is obviously heaved off its course, but everyone else goes slightly different directions too. The question of ‘why’ is completely fascinating, and every character could have stories devoted to that. But, because he’s my favorite, my stories look at Scotty. While there is certainly an underlying core to the character, the Doohan and Pegg characterizations are wildly different. And so—why? A lot of my writing is, somewhere at its heart, devoted to that question, and that’s what I love to talk about the most.
SLWalker: Well, you obviously have excellent taste in faves. So, a series of questions: Favorite captain?
daraoakwise: Pike!
SLWalker: Favorite starship (or era of starship)?
daraoakwise: Enterprise 1701, no bloody A, B, C, or D. Partial to how she is in TOS, although I’ll take in SNW and the movies.
SLWalker: Psst. Perfect answer, if I do say so myself. How about favorite non-TOS series?
daraoakwise: Strange New Worlds.
SLWalker: Favorite ship, as in the romantic kind of ship?
daraoakwise: This one might surprise you. If I’m watching shows, it’s actually Riker/Troi. (And then if I’m reading fic I have a number of crackships of my heart, generally involving various iterations of Scotty getting to be happy.)
SLWalker: Actually, I like them too! So-- favorite tropes to write? And favorite tropes to read?
daraoakwise: Oh, I am such a sucker for hurt/comfort. I also love gapfillers, missing scenes, and twisty little thought pieces that get into a character’s head. And won’t say no to gorgeously written romance, as long as it is a little bit melancholy and a little bit funny too.
SLWalker: All right. Last question: If you were talking directly to your future readers (aside me), what would you hype up to them with regards to any upcoming plans or projects in the Trek fanfic world? What do you want them excited for?
daraoakwise: I’d like to do a Higher Power prequel, grabbing characters like Pike, Rob April, and Phil Boyce with a young and troublesome version of Lt. Scott. I’ve got plans for some Spin the Multiverse Dial AUs. I need to write more in the Original Series itself. And a new season of Strange New Worlds may compel me in fic directions there!
SLWalker: Excellent. That's a wrap, thanks for the interview!
daraoakwise: A fun chat, thanks!
So, go check out daraoakwise's works and drop her some comments; you won't regret that reading adventure, take it from me!
And in the meantime, if you'd like to be the next author interviewed, check out our Discord -- you can find it under the community links up on the header bar! -- or keep an eye out on one of our other social media platforms for the next contest! I intend to come up with different ways to win the spotlight, so everyone will get the chance eventually.