Kara Wild

Kara Wild has been an active member of Daria fandom since February 1999. She is best known for being the current administrator of the Paperpusher Message Board, the author of the fanfic series, the Driven Wild Universe, and the keeper/blogger of DVDaria. Wild has also contributed other works of fanfiction, some artwork, numerous essays, and interviews with the creators of the show. Until recently, she also kept a Daria fansite, the Contrarian's Corner, but time constraints led her to announce in early 2007 that she would only be updating once more before closing the site to contributions.

Biographical Information

Wild attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with a B.A. in English and History. She has since moved to Los Angeles to pursue a professional writing career.

Early Fandom History

Wild was aware of a Daria fandom as early as spring of 1998 when, as a student abroad at the University of Kent at Canterbury, she searched fan sites eagerly for descriptions of new episodes. She came across Planet Daria, one of the original sites, but quickly disregarded it because it did not have in-depth episode descriptions. Once back in the United States, Wild was finally able to watch all of the Season Two episodes. She was so impressed by the character development in "Gifted" (the first Season Two episode she watched), and the other Season Two episodes that she crossed over from casual fan to major fan. She looked forward to the next season of the show and began haunting Daria fan sites for new information, which led her to discover Daria fanfiction. At first skeptical that fan efforts could come close to the show, Wild finally let curiosity get the better of her. She started reading Peter Guerin's fanfiction, before getting hooked on John Berry's work, then C.E. Forman's. Forman's painstakingly canon-like scripts, in particular, inspired Wild to develop script ideas of her own.

Soon after Season Three began, Wild discovered the Lawndale Commons message board and quickly became an active member. Meanwhile, her dissatisfaction with the first half of Season Three, including "Through a Lens Darkly" (which, she felt, should have shown Quinn's reaction to Daria in contacts), fueled numerous "what if" scenarios that she was itching to write down. Finally she did, and "Rose-Colored Lenses," the first Driven Wild Universe installment, was posted on Outpost Daria in April 1999. It was accompanied by the ficlet "A Desperately Needed Ending (to Depth Takes a Holiday)."

Both stories marked the first time Wild had written scripted dialogue. Expecting to have her work picked apart, she was thrilled when her feedback (via e-mail) was positive. Wild received encouraging reviews from John Berry and C.E. Forman, then two of the biggest names in Daria fandom. This spurred her to continue writing more scripted fics. She considered making her next endeavor a lighter story, such as a two-parter called "English Impatient," in which Mr. O'Neill's classes took a trip to England, or an untitled story in which Helen and Quinn both get sick with the flu. However, a scene in "Through a Lens Darkly" made Wild come up with a story about Helen and her sister, Amy, trying and failing to bond. Concerned that someone else would beat her to the punch, Wild chose that story, and "The Tie That Chokes" followed RCL in May 1999. The events of TTTC inspired Wild to write "That Thing You Say," which caused a profound reaction from Daria fans. TTYS was one of the few Daria fanfics to have Daria struggling with showing love for a member of her family in a realistic manner. In addition to general positive feedback, Wild's fanfics were added to the Lawndale Commons fanfiction page, run by the notoriously selective Michelle Klein-Haas. Wild was also made a Featured Author at Martin J. Pollard's Outpost Daria, joining John Berry, C.E. Forman, Katherine Goodman, Michelle Klein-Haas, Martin, and the Paperpusher.

Wild continued to explore dynamics that the show and fanfiction had not considered. Tired of the relentless Daria/Trent 'shipperism amongst some members of fandom, her follow up to TTYS was "'Shipped Out," a Daria/Trent anti-'shipper that she rushed to get out before "Lane Miserables" aired in the United States. Screen shots of the episode, which had accidentally first aired in England, showed Daria and Trent sitting together in Daria's room, leading Wild to conclude that their relationship was going to heat up. She wanted to get her perspective on the relationship in beforehand. When "Lane Miserables" wound up going in the same direction (right down to the future fantasy), many people half-jokingly claimed that Wild was clairvoyant.

Between June and November 1999, Wild turned out a new fanfic every 2 to 3 weeks. Each one, written in the same quasi-script format, took the story a little bit further and a little bit more off canon. The real break from canon came when Wild decided to make Quinn vice-president of the Fashion Club and continue to wear glasses on a regular basis (DWU #6 "Cheered Down"). Wild wrote her first eight fanfics in a notebook, then typed them on the computer. She felt that the dialogue came to her faster that way, but as a result, got tendinitis in her wrist and had to settle for writing on the computer. By the time she wrote her ninth full fanfic, September 1999, her series finally had a name: the Driven Wild Universe. The name came from C.E. Forman, who had written the fanfic Driven Wild for his continuum and jokingly called Wild "Kara 'Driven' Wild." About that time, Wild decided that her continuum would be 22 fanfics long for a "full" season of Daria. Yet as she prepared to write her senior theses at U.C. Berkeley, Wild's writing slowed down, with DWU #12 "Surreal World" and #13 "Erin the Head" coming out in December and January, respectively.

During the time Wild wrote, her feedback increased steadily, until many fans put her in the same group as other popular authors like Forman, Berry, Klein-Haas, and Austin Covello. In 1999-2000, most of these writers were winding down, with Forman producing his last fic, "Fireworks" in late 1999, Klein-Haas ending her series with "Best Served Cold," and John Berry producing just two more fanfics. Meanwhile, other popular and notable writers were fast emerging, such as Diane Long, Canadibrit, Jon Kilner, John Takis, Milo Minderbender, Renfield, and more. Many of these authors preferred to write in prose rather than script, launching many "prose vs. script" debates.

While fanfic authors could write year-round, the premium times were during the drought between Seasons and the mini-drought during each season. By fall, Martin J. Pollard had established a fanfiction message board at Outpost Daria and authors and their fans interacted on an unprecedented level. Rather than wait until the Outpost Daria update, authors could announce when their stories were finished and use the thread to solicit feedback.

Bibliography of Major Works

• The Driven Wild Universe

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