An Interview with Jae Gecko

Jae Gecko: Since late December 2000.

TS: How did you get started?

JG: A couple of die-hard West Wing fans tied me down and forced me to watch their tape of "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen," and I was hopelessly hooked sometime within the first half hour. It was more than just loving the show, though -- I also found myself intrigued by how Josh and Sam knew each other, and what might be behind things like Josh's reaction to Sam saying he would marry Lisa, Sam's spoken and unspoken reactions to Josh as he was being wheeled in on the gurney in the hospital, and certain looks between them on the night of the Illinois primary.

Now, keep in mind that I'd never written a thing to speak of before, fannishly or non. It certainly had never occurred to me that I could ever write a story that someone might want to read. By the end of the two-hour episode, though, I had it in my head that Josh and Sam had been lovers back when they'd first known each other, that it had ended badly but they'd stayed in touch, that they'd rekindled the relationship during the Bartlet campaign after Sam had left New York (and Lisa), and that it had ended again sometime around Election Day. Bam, just like that, I was hit between the eyes with skeletal plots for what eventually became "Turning Myself Into You," "The Real Thing," and "For Everything You Have Missed," after viewing a single episode. I knew enough about the existence of fanfiction to believe that somewhere, someone *must* have already written these stories, so I looked for them on the Internet, but they didn't seem to exist yet.

A week or two later and I'd watched as many episodes as I could get my hands on, read a whole bunch of fanfiction, and devoured any and all online information about the characters. All of it fed into the stories in my head that wouldn't leave me alone. "Turning", especially, fleshed itself out to the point that I knew I had to exorcise it somehow, even if I never showed it to anyone else. So I took all of the information I'd gathered, filled in bits and pieces of Sam's history in ways that I thought made sense, and wrote a timeline of how things would have been and at which times. Then I chained myself to my computer until I'd written the first story, flaws and all. And by that time I was having too much fun to stop.

TS: How has your writing changed since you first started?

JG: Back when I first started, I didn't know anything at all about technique. The first four stories contained every fatal mistake new writers ever make. At the time I didn't care -- it was all about getting the stories out of my head any which way. Eventually, though, I started talking to other fanwriters who had been writing for a lot longer than I had, and I realized how much I had to learn if I wanted to do even a halfway decent job telling these stories.

It was an incredibly humbling experience. I mean, I'm a lot older than most of the people I've met through fandom, and they were all writing circles around me. But writing was fast becoming something I absolutely *had* to do, and if I was going to do it, I wanted to be able to do it well. So I swallowed my pride and listened to my friends when they told me I had promise but kinda sucked, read books on effective ways of telling stories, and started having long writerly debates with other writers over on livejournal. My "beta team" -- that is, the crazy women who edit my 80-page stories for free -- have also helped more than I can express. I've still got a lot to learn, but I know I'm going to have one heck of a lot of fun learning it.

TS: You've been writing WW fan fiction for just over 2 years now and you've already rewritten two of your stories. Why?

JG: As I started working harder at my writing, I started to feel more and more that my first few attempts hadn't done the stories in my head justice. The original "Turning," especially, was painful to reread. I didn't really have the option of taking it down altogether, since it was the cornerstone of the series, so the only other possible out was to rewrite it. I was happy enough with the way the rewrite turned out that I went on to rewrite "The Real Thing" this past fall.

TS: Do you have plans to rewrite any other stories?

JG: Oh, yeah. The thing I'm most dissatisfied with about the Turningverse is how uneven it is, especially since I didn't write the stories in chronological order. People start reading the series with something mediocre, move on to something I'm more or less happy with, and then continue on to something truly cringeworthy.

None of the other stories need the complete overhauls I did on the original versions of "Turning" and "The Real Thing," but I do want to eventually get around to reworking some of the problems with the other early stuff. I've got an index card on the bulletin board next to my desk with a list of stories that still need significant rewriting, as well as a separate list of the ones that just need minor tweaking. When the show is over and I've finally written the post-administration story that will end the series, I ideally want to do a final rewrite on the whole thing, bringing each individual story up to whatever level I'm writing at then. I don't know if anyone else will even care about the Turningverse by then, but it's something I want to do.

TS: Do you have anything to say in response to those fans who might say that you should write something new instead of rewriting the existing stories?

JG: Does it have to be either/or? I mean, it's not as if I'm *not* producing new stuff. As long as I'm writing fannishly rather than professionally, I still have control over the quality of the work that gets "published" on my website, and I want to be able to take advantage of that.

TS: What do you feel is your most underrated story? By that I mean, which story would you like people reading this interview to go back and read or reread?

JG: I really can't claim to have any underrated stories. Back when I wrote the first version of "Turning," I was so naive about the size of fandom that I had no idea more than one or two people would ever read it. I continue to be amazed by the response to my stories, and I never want to take it for granted.

That said, there was one time I was a bit disappointed by the response to a piece, and that was when I wrote the Josh defining moment vignette "Trouble." I personally feel that's the most painful thing I've ever written, but I think a lot of people didn't get what I was trying to do with it. I don't know to what extent that was my own fault, though. And to call it 'underrated' is really overstating it. Really, I have no complaints.

TS: What are you working on right now?

JG: I suppose that would depend on how you'd define 'working.' I've just started regular work on "Resonance," a story from Josh's point of view that starts two weeks after "The Decay of Lying" and runs through the end of season three. My friends Luna and Lydia and I are presently co-writing a trilogy of stories; the first of those, "Another Light Missing," is in the editing phase and should be ready to be posted pretty soon. There are three other unfinished Turningverse stories that I occasionally pick at as well, though nothing I've made a commitment to. And I'm also writing an original novel. I keep busy.

TS: How and where do you write?

JG: I have a laptop computer, so ideally I can write anywhere. Lately, though, I've taken to writing in the bathtub. It was something I first started doing back while I was writing "A Change in the Weather," and it just stuck. I put my laptop on a chair on the other side of the tub and trap myself in hot water until I've gotten something written.

TS: What writers do you think you've been influenced by?

JG: Well, Aaron Sorkin, of course, but I think that's part of the nature of the beast. (I've even found Sorkinesque dialogue seeping into my original stuff!) My betas, especially Anna-Maria Jennings and Luna, have also been huge influences. Pat Conroy writes a lovely funny, angsty first-person narrative, so he's been a bit of a role model for me. These days, though, I'm pretty much influenced by any fiction I read. I've found that I can't just read a novel just for fun anymore -- I'm always after some new bit of technique that I can file away for later.

TS: What advice would you offer to beginning writers?

JG: Don't be afraid to suck. Really. I'm convinced that you can't learn to write well unless you're first willing to write badly. The main reason I've been able to improve as quickly as I have is that I never let my inner editor convince me while I'm working that what I'm writing should never see the light of day. On the other hand, if you want to get better, finding people who are willing to tell you what's crappy about your writing and listening to them are crucial first steps. So many fans take any criticism as an attack on them personally, when they could learn so much from it if they only gave it a chance.

TS: You've said that TWW is your one true fandom. As a viewer, why The West Wing?

JG: I don't watch a lot of television, and never really have. I've loved a small handful of other shows before the West Wing, though, and I'm sure I will fall equally hard for others in the future. When I say that the West Wing is my one true fandom, I mean that I don't think I'll ever write fanfiction about any other show, at least not apart from a vignette or two.

TS: Why not?

JG: If I were going to involve myself with another show intensively enough to write fanfiction for it, it would have to be as smart a show as the West Wing, the characters would have to interest me just as much, and the setting would have to be as fascinating to me as politics is. I don't think there is such a beastie. I'd sure like to see it if there is, though!

TS: If you could change one thing about the show, what would it be?

JG: I've been dissatisfied with a whole bunch of things in seasons three and four, but overall, I'd have to say that I'd want Sorkin and the other writers to pay more attention to continuity. Did the shooting happen in May or August? How can Hoynes claim that he delivered the South in the first election if they failed to win his home state? They should hire the Bartlet4America people to keep track of these things -- it would do the show a world of good.

TS: Describe an episode you'd like to see onscreen that you aren't likely to write yourself.

JG: Okay, this is a really hard question! I guess I'd love to see what Sorkin would do with a story told completely in flashback, preferably about Bartlet and Leo's friendship and their early political careers.

TS: Given that Sam is one of the major characters you write about, how did the announcement that Rob Lowe was leaving the show affect your writing?

JG: You mean apart from the several-month writing silence that immediately followed it? Heh. When the announcement was made, "Hymns to the Earth and the Air" was in beta, and that's a story that has Sam talking to Andy Keller about the possibility of quitting his job and managing halfhearted jokes about why the President won't give him that raise. Completely aside from the keening -- and there was plenty of that -- I kind of freaked myself out with my prescience.

I'll be honest, though: it affected me a lot. Future Turningverse plots had to be revamped, some of which I'd already outlined and written pieces of. I lost momentum on the story I was going to write next, and decided to go back and rewrite the pre-administration story "The Real Thing" rather than attempt anything in the current timeline. I'm just now getting back to the stuff I'd intended to write last fall. But I'll make it work. As sad as I am about it, and as sorry as I'll be not to see Sam on the screen week after week, I've come to realize that in many ways it'll actually work out better for me. Sam will "belong to" the fans in a way he couldn't while he was still on the show. There are many more stories to be told about Sam, and I'm sure I won't be the only one keeping him alive through fanfiction.

TS: How do you feel about Sam's last episode?

JG: I was extremely disappointed. Completely leaving aside the fact that I think it was a lousy way to treat a character, it didn't make any sort of sense from a writerly standpoint. There are two possibilities at this point: one, Sam loses the election, or two, he somehow bounces back to win. Either one of them would have been fascinating to watch onscreen, but showing the most dramatic moment offscreen is insanely bad storytelling no matter how you slice it.

TS: How will that last episode affect the Turningverse?

JG: That depends on whether he wins or loses, I guess, and as of right now we still don't know which it will be. My greatest fear about this is that Sam will be sent to Mandyville, doomed never to be mentioned again, and we'll never find out the outcome of the election at all. Ask me next month and I'll have a better answer.

TS: As long as Sam isn't mentioned, you can do anything you want with the election, in whatever manner you want to do it. If an explanation is given onscreen for Sam's absence, you're going to be limited in what you can do with the character while staying within canon. As someone writing about Sam, what makes the unknown outcome more frightening than having the outcome specified?

JG: If I know what the canonical interpretation of events is, I can make whatever it is work for me somehow, but if I don't know, I have to decide between not writing anything new until we do find out, and taking the chance that it will come back and bite me in the butt later. Not that this has ever happened to me before, of course. Oh, no. (How does that cliché go again? Once bitten, twice shy... and three times you're a complete idiot. Or something like that.)

TS: Virtually everything you write is in one universe, do you have any plans to branch out from there within the WW fandom?

JG: Yes and no. My automatic impulse is always to write more Turningverse stories; I think it stems from my inherent desire for internal consistency. I have written stories outside that universe, though, and the trilogy Luna and Lydia and I are writing isn't Turningverse. So who knows what the future will bring?

TS: Is there anything that could happen on the show that would prompt you to write more stories outside the Turningverse?

JG: I don't think so. The things that would get me to write stuff outside the Turningverse would all have to do with my friends, such as ... oh, I don't know, Luna withholding my next beta until I wrote her a CJ/Toby vignette. (Not that she should get any ideas from this purely hypothetical example, mind!)

TS: What do you look for as a reader of fan fiction?

JG: Characters I recognize from the show. Situations those characters could conceivably get themselves into, and dialogue that actually sounds like them. A strong grounding in the political setting, even in a pairing-based story. A story that tells me something I wanted to know about the protagonist, even if I didn't realize I wanted to know it.

As for genre, I read a lot more broadly than it probably looks based on what I choose to write. I'll read well written stories about any pairing with a basis in canon, and I just adore gen stories, especially political ones. But my very favorite stories are the ones that transcend genre boundaries, the ones you can't easily pigeonhole as het or slash or gen. They just seem so delightfully subversive.

TS: What are some of your favorite stories?

JG: Within the West Wing fandom, I'd have to go with Luna and ellen m.'s "You and Me of the 10,000 Wars," penelopody and august's "Retina Burn," and Sabine's "The Largest Colonial Building in the World." Outside of the fandom, there's Anna-Maria Jennings' lovely West Wing/Sports Night crossover, "Echoes," and k's Sports Night story "Even Sugar Peas Run Out of Snap."

TS: Do you think there's anything missing in the fandom? Types of stories or certain characters that you'd like to see more of?

JG: More Charlie. More Leo. More pre-administration stuff that explains stuff we've seen mentioned on the show. I'd really appreciate more about the President and Leo, especially during the period when Leo was drinking. And I'd love to read something about how and why each of the characters got into politics to begin with.

TS: You've offered up some challenges, the mood vignette challenge and the defining moments challenge. What prompted you to set those challenges?

JG: Honestly? Writer's block. The mood vignette challenge came just after I'd finished "Transparent Reflections," and tackling another enormous story after writing something that grueling felt impossible. It was so successful that I went hunting around for another idea the next time the block hit, and a bunch of us together came up with the defining moments challenge. That one was even more successful, so I've got a lot to live up to now.

TS: What did you like best about your challenges?

JG: It sounds corny, but I loved the unity of it all. The challenge brought together people from so many different fandoms, both well known and relative unknown fanwriters, het and slash and gen writers. And everything everybody wrote was so *good*! It was so gratifying to see.

TS: Will we be seeing another challenge coming from you soon?

JG: God, I hope so. A bunch of us have been thinking about it for months, but so far we haven't come up with anything that's as interesting as the first two. Eventually, yes, there will be another 500-word vignette challenge.
 

TS: Are there any characters or situations that you haven't written about yet but would like to?

JG: When I issued my second challenge, I'd originally intended on writing a 500-word defining moment vignette for each major character, but I somehow lost steam after only getting to Josh, Sam, and Leo. I don't know, all the larger story ideas I have that are likely to sustain my interest over the time it would take to write them are about Sam, Josh, or Josh and Sam. I would eventually like to write vignettes about some of the other characters, though, if only because I think it would help me understand them better.

TS: Are there any characters or situations that you don't think you'll ever write?

JG: Oh, I'll never write a Josh/Sam story that has them getting involved for the first time during the Bartlet administration. Those flashback scenes in "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" just *screamed* "they're exes" at me, to the extent that I have a hard time imagining how it could have been otherwise. I'll buy non-romantic interpretations of their relationship, but pairing them off for the first time during the course of the show seems too farfetched to me. I suppose that probably sounds kind of crazy, but it's true.

TS: Thanks for your time, Jae.

JG: Thanks!