my approach to shipping is something like "this character's my favorite, how can i make every other character love them?" which leads me to a lot of rarepairs and crackships....i think it's also a way to address issues i have w/ canon without coming off as whiny or negative about things.
had a college professor who described stories as verbal contraptions we use to say things we struggle to say outright so i guess my fic writing is me wanting more gays, more angst, and more of my faves. ^^