UNGPRIDE met up with fanfiction writer Riseofthefallenone, familiar to many fans of Supernatural for Destiel fics like Out of the Deep and Angel’s Wild. We asked her Five Questions when she returned home to Canada:

Greetings from Finland! How was your stay here?

It was quite relaxed, despite several outings to Dixi at the Tikkurila station and a few trips to Helsinki throughout the two weeks. This is the second time I’ve been to Finland and I love the smaller townships (like Vantaa and Mäntsälä, where I’ve been previously). They’re such a big difference from the city I live in and it’s just so calming to be there.

You identify as pansexual and demiromantic. When and how did you figure it out?

It was some time in high school when I determined that I was attracted to women too. At the time I thought I was bisexual. It was about 5 or so years ago when I became more familiar with the spectrum. When I learned about pansexuals, that sounded more like me because I had started saying as long as it wasn’t a crocodile in your pants, I’d be happy. And then I learned that sexual and romantic attraction were very different and I was very happy with that, because while I can be sexually attracted to/aroused by basically anyone, I have a more difficult time with building romantic attachment to someone. Thus far, the only people I’ve ever be romantically attracted to are people that I had become very good friends with first. Demi-romantic fit the bill for me and I’m happy to have figured myself out.

What are the best things with fanfiction?

That’s a broad question. I like that fanfiction allows one to explore genres that aren’t in mainstream media/literature. The pickings at the library or in published works can be very thin sometimes, especially when you’re looking for both good writing and a good story. I’ve found that fanfiction can give both, as well as exploring genres you might not be able to find elsewhere. It’s always a gamble when you write fanfiction about the reader responses you’ll get (because God knows if you’re going to get those people who find your writing “problematic” because you choose to explore subjects many shy away from) but there’s always going to be the people who support your work, even if they’re a silent minority, and that’s pretty awesome.

You are currently working on turning Out of the Deep into an original work and publishing it. How important do you feel that queer representation in books and films is to you?

I think it’s very important. Maybe not for me in particular, because don’t really read or watch a whole lot of stuff anymore (too busy writing my own, to be honest), but I think it’s necessary for everyone. Young and old. I want more of it in media, in books, and in films, so that young kids who are struggling with their identity when they find they’re not quite like the other kids will have something to learn from. They’ll have a heads up on where they can start looking to learn more about themselves. And I want it for the older people who had to hide it when they were younger. Who didn’t want to stir the pot and cause trouble with family and friends because maybe when they were our age it wasn’t considered right to be like that. Representation makes people feel like they belong, and everyone needs that.

Do you have any advice for others that would like to start writing?

Oh God, this is the difficult question. I always have trouble giving advice because what works for me doesn’t always work for the vast majority of people. Really, all I can say is, keep going. I’ve been writing since I was in primary school and I still have issues with how I view the quality of it. For the first several years of my writing, I had little to no readership (a few friends here or there that would read it). Now there are thousands, and I only got that from hard work and perseverance, because I never gave up. I kept writing. I still think I’m not so great, and I’ll probably feel like that for the rest of my life, but I’ll never stop writing and neither should you. The only way you’re going to grow is by continuing to write. I’m a million times better than I was when I started writing fanfiction five years ago, and I’ll be a million times better five years from now. And while you write, continue to read. Never stop reading. You’ll learn more from reading other stories than you’ll ever know.

Thank you so much for your time, and the best of luck with your future writing!