SUE's Interview with WhatsmynomDePlume about her fic 'The Best I Ever Had'

 The Best I Ever Had

Sex between friends complicates everything. Bella knows this. But she has no idea how much more Edward is going to complicate things.

Twilight - Rated: M - English - Romance/Humor - Chapters: 10 - Words: 46,197 - Reviews: 3740 - Updated: 4-29-11 - Published: 2-17-11 - Edward & Bella

NOW before you discount this story as yet another buddy tale where the buds sleep with each other, shenanigans happens and everything ends up as Happily Ever After let me tell you a thing or three: 

1) the author of this fic is damn funny. She weaves us a lovely story with tons of witty banter and if you know me I LOVE banter 

2) instead of both of them pretending to not want the other one ONE of them (trying not to spoil how am I doin T?) has been waiting for the other for a LONG time 

3) did I mention witty silly banter? 

This is one of those "it's rainy and I need something fluffy and funny with minimal heartbreak to make me feel good" kinda stories. 

I LOVE the Edward in this. Yes, I know I say that in all of his incarnations, but this one is just a sweetie. I wanna buy him a beer and hang out watching TV. 

OH and Emmett OH MY. If you like Emmett this guy is the loud mouth big bro goof you can really bear hug. The things that come outta his mouth remind me of my big bro. 

You see, it all starts out at a bar where the gang (makes me think of Scooby Do but with alcohol instead of drug references) is hanging out. Bella tells them about her latest date. Before Edward comes over she makes reference to the date being the best she ever had.

O.o 

Edward, of course, wants to know what's going on and MUCH to Bellas dismay Emmett brings up what she said. Unknown to the group Edward is the guy Bella describes as "the best she's ever had" and the conversation that follows is full of funny innuendos.

And that is just the start! So, if you are in need of a feel good fic, a fast read that is complete and damn funny, read this.

You know the drill folks. leave some lovin for the author AND make sure you come back to let me know what you think!

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What was it that gave you the ‘spark’ for your story?   Was it a picture? A moment or event? Can you remember the initial inspiration?

I was watching the Friends episode where Chandler and Monica are sneaking around and she calls him the best she ever had and I started thinking about that. If you think about it, all Edwards and Bellas in fic have the best sex ever so I started thinking about how it’d be fun to kind of explore that to see how it would change the dynamics; I wrote the whole first chapter, where everyone is giving Bella crap about “the best she ever had” immediately and in one go.

Do you have a particular process when it comes to your writing, perhaps a certain mood, environment or music? Do you have any ‘triggers’ to get you in the writing mood?

I have to write in silence. If I listen to music or any other noise, I get really distracted. Also, lately I’ve found that whenever I sit down to write, it doesn’t really come out great. But the minute I’m supposed to be doing something else, entire scenes form in my mind in seconds hahah. Stupid brain.

Give us an elevator pitch. Say you’re in an elevator with a prospective reader for 2 minutes – what would you tell them about the story?

I’d say it’s a story about two friends who wind up having sex and try to figure out how to find the perfect balance where they don’t lose their friendship but also still get each other. And I'd say that it's really feel-good fic. No angst here, which some people may not like.

Do you picture particular actors for your characters, or are they someone else entirely? If so, who?

Not for this one, no. I mean, Rob is gorgeous and all, so sometimes it’s him but I don’t know. My characters are kind of faceless in my mind when I write them because I didn’t want to focus too much on their looks. I'd prefer that however is reading picture them the way they want to. Also, Friends who are used to talking and seeing each other every day for years on end aren’t going to really be noticing particular details about such a familiar face, so long descriptions about looks didn't fit in with the story to me.

Is the story all planned out or do you do it as a fly by the seat of your pants thing?

Half and half. This story was originally supposed to be three chapters. Then by the time I posted, it looked closer to seven. Then once I started writing, I started adding scenes and fleshing out parts, so it wound up being more. Also, at the last minute, I asked my beta if I should include some sort of mention of “the night”. She thought it was a good idea, so I literally wrote the first EPOV about ten minutes before I posted the first chapter and slapped it on there. I’m really glad I wound up doing that.

Do you have a Beta and would you like to give him/her a shoutout here?

Yesssssssss! My beta is also one of my best friends, both in fandom and I’m lucky enough to say in real life. It’s americnxidiot and she puts up with so much from me for this story; she makes it so much fun to write. She'll link silly videos to her comments and yell at me for not writing fast enough and I adore her for it. She's the very best.

Have you got any other projects going on? Any planned for the future?

I'm still in the process of finishing my other WIP, Once More, With Feeling, which I'll complete after TBIEH is done. I also have some other stuff that's been written but not yet posted and an FGB commitment to wrap up. I'll be on summer vacation soon so hopefully i'll get to write a lot.

What was it that brought you to Twilight fanfic?  What is it that has kept you here (besides your own writing)

I was part of other fandoms/ficdoms; I had no idea what Twilight was when my roommate and I randomly decided to see the movie with "the pretty boy on the poster". The movie was kind of incomplete, as in I didn't really get why they fell in love as it seemed to happen really suddenly. So without reading the books, I started reading fic. I read a fantastic EPOV of BD, and was like... I should probably read the books so I did and fic just sucked me in. I love that there's all-human fic; it's barely related to Twilight most of the time (like with most of the stuff I write) but at the same time, it provides wonderful variety in the fandom. 

Do you have a background in writing? 

Nothing but school and college.

How about your creative self-confidence?  By nature writers tend to be a notoriously insecure lot so how are you finding the online writing experience?

People are really nice. Far too nice to my stuff but it honestly is what keeps me writing. I am a mess when I write, I second guess everything and erase more than I keep. I'm sort of a weird perfectionist when I write. Not a perfectionist by other people's standards but to my own--I know how I want something to play out or sound in my head and I will tweak, tweak, tweak until it does. 

Do you tell your friends and family that you’re an online author with a devoted following, or is this something that you tend to keep for yourself?

I told my family I write online but not fic. They were excited and then my mom asked to read Legendary and... I dunno. I don't know if I want my mom, close as we are, to know I write about sex. I don't think I want my mom to know I know about sex hahaha. My friends know vaguely and I have one friend obsessed with trying to figure out my online identity. Fingers crossed he won't haha. 

Is there a particular character in your story that you identify with the most? 

Probably this Bella. Or maybe this Edward. I don't know. I'm temperamentally like this Bella but I think that I also would be the one who would go after something if it were important enough to me, like Edward.

Oh no, wait, I'm most like this Bella, definitely. I like cheese. A lot.

Which RL author(s) inspires you?

As far as TBIEH is concerned, I was more influenced by TV and movies. But I do remember reading Bossypants, Tina Fey's book, and really admiring the self deprecating but not whiny humor she brought into it. Not so much for TBIEH but I love beautiful prose. Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things remains one of my favorite books ever, because it's almost poetry, it's so wonderfully worded. It reads like a song, like there are beats. Delirium by Lauren Oliver is a YA book that far surpassed my expectations; it was stunning and again, beautiful writing and imagery.     

Did any FF authors inspire you? What was it that had you reading FF and thinking “I could do this”?

Yes! Well not "I could do this" but "I would like to try and probably fail at doing this!" It was Dryler. Bright Like the Sun was and is one of my favorite fics and she has a fantastic knack for dialogue. I love love love good dialogue (that doesn't have to be banter) because it keeps characters interesting and moves the story forward without clunky exposition. Blah blah blah... back to the question, other ff authors I find amazing are DerdiuOFaolain. In my head, AWTFA is better than Twilight; it's so cleanly and creatively told. That characterization of Edward is fantastic. Same with The Blessing and the Curse--talk about beautiful imagery. And I always, always admire Spanglemaker's discipline and prolificness; she churns out at least a chapter a week by my estimation and the best part? It's good. 

What advice would you give to an aspiring fanfic writer?

Write what you like. Write the way you like. This is for fun (as in no professional obligations) so have fun.

Give us a Random Fact about yourself?
I hate feet. And I'm scared of the dark. And I think those are the facts I gave the last time I did this interview hahah.

If you could have 15 minutes with anyone alive or dead real or fictional who would it be and what would you say to them?

I wanna say something deep like either of my grandfathers, whom I miss, but this is a really tough question. Can I answer it this way? If there was one thing I wish I had done, I wish I had seen Michael Jackson in concert when he was alive. Everything else aside, he was an amazing performer.

What is your FanFic Pet peeve?

Probably when the sex or smut scenes of the fic are completely OOC for the characters and are just gratuitous. Like if Bella is shy and quiet, she's probably not going to be super wild in bed, y'know? 

What is your Fandom Pet peeve?

Ummm, I'd just say we're all here for fun right? At least I am, so i get irritated when this becomes arduous.

   

Anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for interviewing me, Sue! And thanks to everyone who is so sweet and reads, reviews, rec any of my stuff!

SUE's Interview with WhatsmynomDePlume about her fic 'The Best I Ever Had'