The Story of Whoa Nellie

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Allow me to introduce you to myselves.

The Story of Whoa Nellie

    Why write Science Fiction fanfiction? Why the pen-name Whoa Nellie? Why the couples we write? To understand the answers to these questions you have to go back to when we first started writing fanfiction.

    My co-author and I had just graduated from a major university. We were psychology majors, who both worked in a research laboratory. We had also spent the last few years in a good number of literature courses reading works by the likes of Chaucer, Dickens, Flaubert, Hemingway and of course a good deal of Billy Shakespeare. We wanted some summer reading that was a little lighter. My co-author picked up a large box of historical romance novels, a.k.a. 'Bodice-Rippers,' for a dime at a garage sale. After reading half of them, we decided we could do it better. Since the both of us, as well as most of our friends, were Star Trek fans, we also decided that the world had to have a Star Trek bodice-ripper. Understand that this was the dark time - before we had internet access. One afternoon on the way home from an antique sale, I sketched out a story idea to her and she added some ideas to it. When we arrived at my home, she turned on my computer, sat me down and said, "Now, write it!" Lesson number one: Never leave two women with that much education alone with good chocolate and a computer.

    Whoa Nellie is a writing team, a creative half [myself] and a co-author who acts as an editor. My co-author is like my own personal BASF company, she takes my ideas and makes them better! I can't tell you how many times I've reread a scene she has edited and crowed - "That's it! That's what I meant!" She makes sure I keep in character and that I follow the laws of common sense (not to mention the laws of physics)- meaning all humans have only two hands - especially in sex scenes - all positions are at least theoretically possible if at least one of them is double-jointed, and that Picard doesn't push Vash up against a wall in the throes of passion when they are plainly standing in the middle of a room. (Yes, I actually did that in the first draft of "Double Entendre.") She sees to it that I spell things correctly and that don't screw up my homonyms - especially your and you're. Damn homonyms, I really hate those pesky Devils! As we began writing our first work, 'Double Entendre,' when either of us went too far (usually me) the other one would call out "Whoa Nellie!" while hitting the delete key. This practice stuck. When we decide to post our stories to the internet 'Whoa Nellie' was a natural choice for us as a pen-name.

    We print out every e-mail we receive and keep them in a huge folder dubbed the 'warm fuzzies' collection. It is a sure-fire cure for writer's block.

    For the story of our TNG writing, see our Picard/Vash Romance Fanfiction website link.

    When the Voyager television series writing got too annoying to tolerate, my co-author came to me and said: "Wouldn't it be neat if . . . " (My own brain drizzle statement is usually "How about . . . ")   The first time she said "Wouldn't it be neat if . . . " spawned 'Blessings of the Sky Spirits.' Next came Curiosity but Blessings wouldn't go away. We got so much wonderful feedback about the story that it generated an entire universe. The original working title was 'The Adventures of Sassy and Contrary,' but it later changed to Twist of Fate.

    Why create an original character? (Not the most popular way to go in fanfic genres--not that we've ever written out of consideration for popularity) None of the women on Voyager, as written (not that there was ever any consistent characterization) really fit Chakotay and he was entirely too yummy to be left alone. B'Elanna might have been a good match but Paris and Torres make a more interesting match psychologically.   A relationship with Janeway was out of the question simply because it wouldn't work. With our backgrounds in psychology, we develop personality profiles of the characters in determining who they should or shouldn't be paired with. While that may not be how the real world works, this isn't the real world--as evidenced by the lack of a wet spot or inconvenient body functions. There's no way to write a J/C pairing without one of them being weak. A good friendship was interesting but without chemistry or compatibility, that's all there ever realistically could have been.

    As for Harry and Seven--well, it was a perfect match just begging for the Whoa Nellie touch.

    The Star Wars Stories with Han and Leia are what happens when Whoa Nellie gets a playmate and THREE women have too much chocolate (is there such a thing?) and entirely too much fun. The first Han/Leia story was The Rogue and the Princess and it just begged for a sequel, hence Practice Session happened.

    Whoa Nellie writes out of sheer enjoyment for the characters and the creative process. We will never write a couple that we don't believe in and we will always have more fun creating them than seeing them out on the world wide web (although feedback is a close second to the creative process).

Warmest Wishes,
Whoa Nellie (whoa_nellie40@hotmail.com)

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