This interview was first posted in March 2009.
It’s hard to believe Amal has only been writing X-Files fanfiction for 8 months. Her eloquence, spot-on characterization, and flair for humour draw you in easily, all the while her new take on familiar scenarios help you remember why you fell in love with these characters in the first place. You can find all her fic on her journal: http://amalnahurriyeh.livejournal.com/tag/fic
When did you start writing XF fanfic? How did you start?
I started writing over the summer of 2008. I had a few ideas and wanted to try my hand at them. I had started a piece that I thought was going to be really interesting–had a structure, was jotting down scenes in my spare time–and then I went to see IWTB for the second time, and spent some time thinking about the Unremarkable House, which resulted in sitting down and writing White Board in about a day. I still haven’t finished the piece I was working on when I got started. In fact, I haven’t really written any of the first few things I’ve planned; nearly everything I’ve written has been because of a challenge, or because someone suggested something, or begged for a sequel.
What else do you write?
I’m an academic by trade, so long, hopefully not-so-boring research articles. I used to write fiction and poetry when I was younger, but, really, my work writing is my life now, which makes it very hard to do creative stuff. Writing fanfic has really made it much easier to write creatively, so I’m happy to Philedom for letting me let my hair down a little!
What other fandoms are you involved in?
I’m dabbling in Battlestar Galactica, which is my favorite thing on TV right now. I have other shows I like, but nothing else that inspires me to write at the moment.
Do you have a writing process?
I usually get ideas by thinking about things in the series I’d like to fiddle with. I really think of myself as a transformative writer; I’m interested in fixing problems with the show (not just plot holes, but moments where I think the show’s political purposes get muddied, or where the characters lapse from their real awesomeness into some sort of trite cliche), so I tend to fixate on them and poke until something makes sense. And, like most writers, I have an interest in figuring out why people do things; I write to come up with answers to that question.
I’m a very structured writer if I’m working on anything longer than a single scene; I like to have the entire thing sketched out in my head before I begin. Because I don’t have a lot of time to write, I’ll often work out important scenes in my head before sitting down at the computer.
Which of your stories is your favorite and why?
Objectively, The Keeping of Secrets is probably the best thing I’ve written so far; I like how I’m transforming canon, I like the version of Scully that appears through her friendship with Ellen, I like Ellen, I like the Invisible Mulder Effect. But, despite this, I have a real soft spot for Narrative Thrust, which is totally irredeemable porn on the one hand, but actually fairly complicated: the contrast between the Mulder/Krycek and Mulder/Scully hook-ups, how young and callow and stupid Mulder is in the flashbacks, how clear and vivid the way he loves Scully in the present-tense scenes is. It’s way more complicated than a bunch of sex in bathrooms, but it’s also just a bunch of sex in bathrooms, and I love that it can be both at the same time. I DON’T KNOW, THEY’RE ALL MY CHILDREN.
There has been much discussion in the XF fandom regarding LiveJournal vs. Ephemeral/ Gossamer. Many newer authors, such as yourself, post their work exclusively on LJ. In your opinion, what is it about LJ that has made it such a popular venue for posting fic? Do you think you’ll ever post your work elsewhere, be it Ephemeral/Gossamer or not?
I’ve been an LJ user for years, so I’m very familiar with the technology; when I got into fandom, I was really excited to learn that I could join the community by using a format I already understood. LJ makes feedback really easy (and it’s part of an accepted community practice already); it makes publishing your work really easy, and formatting is a snap; you don’t have to worry about hosting or any of that drama. At the same time, it puts you immediately in touch with a community. I literally spend most of my days that I’m working at home on LJ; I comment back and forth with friends, I laugh at whatever’s on the_caps_files, I read fic from communities and squee about Battlestar Galactica and whatever. Because it’s a social space as much as a place to post, it really draws me in, as a participant, and I feel more connected to the fannish community because of it. (For example, I’d read everything Dasha K had ever written, but I never said anything to her, because it was too weird to email someone out of the blue and say, hi, you write good. But we met on LJ, and not only have I told her how much I like her work, we’ve also become actually friendly. Something similar happened with Shannon Kizzia. See? LJ makes people talk to each other! MAGIC.)
I love Gossamer a lot; honestly, I’ve spent days of my life on there. But I hate the idea of reformatting my work in plain text, and I also keep forgetting when to upload things. Ephemeral confuses me every time I try to read the posting guidelines, so I don’t think I’d ever both to submit over there. At some point, I’ll probably sit down and submit everything I’ve got to Gossamer, because I like the idea of a central archive. But I wish there were some way to submit formatted text, or to submit more simply, to make communication between those of us on LJ and the older archetecture we already have. I’d hate to lose Gossamer as an archive for future generations of Philes!
Do you have any upcoming stories or projects to look out for?
Well, someday soon that s8 fic I’ve been working on since July has got to get finished. I’m really obsessed with season 8, as anyone looking at my fic could notice; I think it’s because I got back into The X-Files while my wife was pregnant, so I’ve projected a lot of my feelings about the experience of becoming a parent onto Mulder and Scully. Also, I’m of the “season 8 is made of fail” camp, and, like I said above, I like fixing things. Anyway, that’s in the pipeline. I’ve got a casefile mapped out, though it’ll take a lot of research. There’s also something I’m jokingly calling “the kink epic,” which will be a long, smut-filled character study. And, somewhere in the back of my head, there’s a colonization novel, full of mysterious informants with cigarettes, helicopter raids on farms in Wyoming, and the ghost of Alex Krycek. But, who knows? Probably people will dare me to write some short funny things between now and then, and I’ll get all, “Ooh! Shiny!”
Anything else you’d like to tell the readers?
Keep reading! If you write, keep writing! I’m so amazed that Philedom is still so vibrant all these years after it got started. This is an amazing community, and I’m so glad to be a part of it. Let’s keep it going long enough to get some more movies out of those guys, y/n?