Meet Malin! Known as ‘RedOrchid,’ she is a 34-year-old fanfiction author and fandom member from Sweden.
How long have you been writing?
Since I learned how to, pretty much. Lots of journal entries and letters when I was very young, then a lot of meta and literary analysis from about age 16, until I discovered fanfiction around 2004. After that, it’s been fanfic all the way.
How did you get involved in the Shadowhunters fandom?
I don’t actually remember, which likely means that I probably got lured in by either a) a parade of pretty GIFs appearing on my dash, or b) one of the writers I’m following on AO3 starting to write fic, or c) one of my friends in another fandom getting dragged in and taking me in with them. I know it wasn’t through the books or the show, because I still haven’t read the books, and I didn’t actually see the show until I was halfway through writing my first Shadowhunters fic. That’s actually how it usually goes for me. I get pulled into a fandom through the fic and don’t move on to the source material until later.
What is the appeal of fanfiction to you?
So many things! If I were to narrow it down to my top three things, I would say:
1) Transformation, i.e., the twisting, and changing, and expanding of canon. I absolutely love missing scenes, remixes, and what-ifs in particular. Also, crossovers and fusions.
2) Community and co-creation. I love that fanfiction (and fan creations in general) is, in many ways, a collaborative creative process. For example, someone writes a thing that wasn’t explicit in canon a certain way – like a name for a pet, or a character’s favorite food – and then that detail ripples through fandom until it’s part of the fandom consciousness. Or when writers bounce off each other and you get ‘fandom trends,’ where, e.g. someone writes a coffee shop AU, which inspires another writer to do one of their own (this time with added fake!relationship), and then a third joins in, until you have 10,000,000 coffee shop AUs that are all slightly different flavors of awesome. I absolutely love the ‘inspired by’ feature at AO3 as well, like when someone writes a story, and then someone else is inspired to write another POV of the same story, or a prologue to it, or anything else that’s essentially fanfic on someone else’s fanfic (i.e., you have Canon A that is transformed into Fanon A, and then Fanon A itself becomes canon for Fanon B (the same way that we have, e.g. Italian tale > Romeo and Juliet > West Side Story in non-fandom literature). I think that process is incredibly cool.
3) The fact that fanfiction is – by and large – a creative discipline, where women are in the vast majority both as creators and audience; where women are able to create, explore, critique, change, build, destroy, fuck up, learn, evolve, and everything in between, without having to simultaneously take what men will think or do about them into account. Which is not to say there isn’t still fear of violence, or even actual violence, because fandom can be vicious, and wank/blacklisting/other methods of bullying and social control are very real things, but it’s still nice to not have to deal with unwanted dick-picks whenever you post a new chapter of your fic.
What character or aspect of the Shadowhunters world makes you want to write?
The world-alongside-our-world setup, first of all. I’m a sucker for supernatural settings parallel to the world that we see. I love thinking about how the worlds interact, what things carry over, power hierarchies, and politics, and so on.
Then I have a few different characters that really inspire me – usually because I relate to them very closely on some things (like Magnus being bisexual, or the way he keeps his past experiences and relationships alive with him to a great extent; or Alec being closeted and hung up on the wrong person, or wanting to do the right thing but ending up making terrible choices), but who also have sides to them that are very different from myself and my own experiences. I love digging into a character and trying to figure out what their story is, or what it would be if Thing A was different.
What emotion do you most like to write and why?
Self-discovery. I’m not sure that’s an emotion per se, but that’s definitely my favorite thing to write. There’s something deeply comforting to me about the idea that you keep getting to know yourself, and keep learning and changing your whole life.
What is your favorite fanfiction trope?
Oh, wow. That’s a really hard question! Let’s see if I can narrow it down to a top five [laughs].
1) Established relationship. I love when characters get to really get to know each other and grow as people together. I’ll take a solid, trusting partnership over the butterflies of getting together any day.
2) Friends to lovers, for the same reasons, really. I just really love a strong, emotional foundation to my ships.
3) Soul-bonds (when done right. And by ‘right,’ I, of course, mean that it fast-tracks the above-mentioned deep, emotional connection).
4) Fake!relationship, ideally in combination with friends to lovers. Because it’s such a fun, over-the-top trope. And sometimes, you really need that kick in the butt to get over yourself and just admit that you really want to get your best friend naked, and also marry them and have their babies.
5) Time-travel/multiverse, because I love what-ifs.
What ships do you ship, and why do you love them so much?
Malec (if I had to pick just one ship for Shadowhunters, that one would win, hands down), because I love how well they communicate, and how they work on their relationship, and how their connection is complex (there’s so many different things that draw them together) and real in a way that is rare to see on TV (especially for a same-sex couple). They have that instant connection that deepens and grows, and they’re both very complex and rich characters. Also, amazing actors that really make all of it come to life. I’m a massive fan of Harry Shum Jr., in particular. I think he’s absolutely excellent.
Other than Malec, I really like any ship where Maia is involved, because she’s also a fabulous, complex character, has a LOT of backstory to dig into, and I’m pretty sure she’d have chemistry with a brick. I think Simon/Maia is adorable, and I love the fact that they share nerdy interests. I also really like Jace/Maia, because while they have that hate!sex posturing going on. I think that if they got to open up and trust each other, they could be really good at helping each other heal from their respective pasts while also having lots of fun together. I also really love Lucelyn (established relationship! whoop!), and I would kind of really love to see where Raphael/Izzy could go as a ship if the drug storyline went and died in a pit of fire. And, of course, Clizzy (all the friends to lovers, yes, please and thank you).
What has been the best part of your fandom experience so far?
In general (across all fandoms), I think the best part is always the amazing people you meet and the way you collaborate and explore content together.
What’s your favorite scene you’ve ever written?
Wow. That’s an incredibly difficult question. I’m nearing the 1,000,000 words of fic written just on my AO3 [laughs]. I think my favorite will forever be a Valentine’s Day crack!ficlet I wrote back when I was in bandom fandom. But if I’m going to pick something more recent in Shadowhunters fandom, the scene that first popped into my head was the scene in one of the extras to ‘Quid Pro Quo,’ where Lydia finds out she’s pregnant with Alec and Magnus’ baby (Bittersweet). It’s a very personal piece; I really love that one.
Share with us an out of context line from one of your fics.
“Then I’m right here. Either way, I have your back. And I’m great at conjuring water.”
(From ‘The Spaces in Between’)
Like what you see? You can read RedOrchid’s fanfiction on Archive of Our Own, or follow her on Tumblr, Vimeo, and YouTube.
