Meet Rei! Known as ‘beatperfume,’ she is a fanfiction author and fandom member from Massachusetts, U.S.A.
What is your favorite thing you have written?
This is a super hard question! I love a lot of my fics for different reasons. But I think I have to say ‘The Leftover You.’ It’s my least popular Shadowhunters fic, but I honestly think it’s the best fic I’ve ever written. It was really difficult to write at times, but I think I captured a very specific feeling about a very specific time in one’s life, and I’m really proud of how it turned out.
What was the one thing that inspired you to write fic?
Is it weird to say I don’t remember? I discovered fanfiction back in the late ’90s when I was desperately searching for Sailor Moon content. I think what it really was, was that I just wanted to experience my faves falling in love over and over again. It’s such an emotional rush and satisfaction. I’d always been writing stories anyway, so it seemed natural to write out my own versions.
When you sit down to write a new story, do you plan it all out in advance, with an ending in mind? Or do you go with the flow and let the story lead you?
A little bit of both. I usually go into a story with a broad idea of the plot, but a lot of the details I let come to me. I would actually say that I usually go into a story knowing where I want the emotions to go and then I find plot and story elements to move them along, and those can be subject to change. Sometimes a particular piece of dialogue I hadn’t exactly planned on can spark a whole mess of new scenes, whole new plot divergences, because it’s brought up something I didn’t realize needs to be dealt with. And sometimes those are the best scenes. I like to leave myself a lot of room to be flexible, but I always keep the end goal in mind.
As a writer, do you have a special trick for balancing the integrity of details of the original characters with your own plot?
Characters always come first for me. It should be the characters driving the plot and not the other way around, and that’s what I always try to keep in mind. When you think of it like that, sometimes you realize there are plots that you’d love to see but that don’t work with these particular characters. Or you have to figure out what happened to the characters that would make the plot work. For instance, before I even started writing ‘Good Our Whole Lives,’ I knew I had to figure out what would drive Alec to such lengths. If I couldn’t, then the whole story would be worthless because it wouldn’t make sense. So before I wrote a single word, I knew Alec’s entire backstory. That’s the only way the story would work.
When you let characterization drive the plot rather than the other way around, it actually becomes easier to pull yourself out of ruts and blocks. Because the question becomes not, ‘What happens next?’ but, ‘How would they react to that?’ And suddenly your options are a lot more clear. If you have to make someone act out of character to make your plot move, then you need to rethink your plot.
But of course, I also love playing with the characters and seeing where and how I can push them. That’s what I love about canon divergent AUs, figuring out what parts of the characters are intrinsic and what is based on circumstance and experience. And when you change their experiences, how does that impact who they are and how they react? That’s the fun part for me.
If you could write any couple you have never written about, who would it be?
I would love to write a story about Megan and Graham from But I’m a Cheerleader. It’s one of my favorite movies, and every time I watch it, I get the urge to write a post-movie fic. Because the movie ends on a happy note with them together, but so much of their lives are still up in the air, with Megan kicked out of her house and Graham risking the same by not pretending to be straight. How does Megan go back to high school and navigate it now that she knows who she is and is out? Maybe I’ll still write it one day. I’ve got ideas.
What is your favorite fic to read more than once?
The fic I’ve probably read the most ever is in ‘SGA: Retrograde’ by LtLJ. It’s the perfect gen/adventure story that really scratches a plot itch I always wanted from Stargate: Atlantis. The characterization is perfect!
In Shadowhunters, when I want to go through it – by which, I mean I feel like I need to cry and then feel better, have a real catharsis – I reread ‘Reconstruction’ by bumblebeesknees. It really digs so deeply into Alec and Magnus and their emotions and their fears but also their deep love and drive to be better. Ultimately it’s about how relationships are hard, sometimes thankless work, but it’s worth it for the people you love and for yourself. That’s why it hits me so hard.
If someone learned something from reading any one of your stories, what would you hope they learned?
I hope people learn from my stories that a relationship doesn’t have to start perfectly to be the right one for the people in it. I hope they learn that it’s okay to make mistakes because mistakes are human and inevitable, but that when we make them, it’s also up to us to make it right. I hope they learn that the people we love will hurt us sometimes, and we’ll hurt the people we love, sometimes without meaning to and sometimes with intention. We’ll feel regrets and we’ll try to make them right. Sometimes it will be unforgivable and that’s your decision to make. Ultimately, I hope people learn that our human flaws do not make anybody worthless, and to have empathy in the face of them.
What is it about Malec that inspires you the most?
The thing that inspires me the most about them is that even when they don’t get it right the first time, they always try to be better; that they’re always looking out for each other in really big ways, and in small ways too; and then they look out for the other people they care about, often together. That they don’t let any one thing define them, or stop them.
Like what you see? You can read all of Rei’s works on Archive of Our Own, or follow her on Twitter.
