YA Outside the Lines

 I remember many years ago, when becoming an author was still a dream for me, I used to read lots of fan fiction.  Back then, my favorite TV show was The X-Files so I looked for fan fiction set in that world. I didn't know it then, but reading a lot of fan fiction provided my first introduction to Conflict as an essential story element.  Let me explain. For fan fiction readers, we usually LOVE stories about our favorite characters that aren't typically shown in their actual universe. For example, Mulder+Scully love stories because the show was very careful NOT to make them a couple until the very end of the series.  I read MANY of these 'ship' stories and one thing I learned is that new writers tend to post stories that are all sunshine and rainbows where everything is perfectly perfect.  Guess what?  These stories were BORING!  Mulder and Scully were polar opposites -- he believed every light in the sky was an alien visitation while she looked up to that same sky and s