Debriefing - A procedure conducted at the end of an experiment in which the researcher provides the participant with as much information about the study as possible and makes sure that no participant leaves feeling confused, upset, or embarrassed.

How It All Began

Sarah: Alexei and I are huge Psych nerds. That’s a given. I’ve got my master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and was teaching my third semester of Psych 101 when we first came up with the idea for this fic. Alexei is a Psych/Concurrent Education major and was knee deep in studying The Stanford Prison Experiment for finals when it all began.

It started with this post (12/6/11):

place-that-ive-been-dreaming-of replied to your post: Only why do I want Zimbardo SPE Klaine fanfic now?

I love that you tag me on this post, because clearly I am the only one who would approve of this. Would one be a prisoner and the other be a guard? Star-crossed lovers and all that?

Yes. One prisoner, one guard, star crossed lovers. But I’m not sure which would be which.

You’re going to write it now, aren’t you?

Tags: place-that-ive-been-dreaming-of look what i’ve started

Sarah: At first, I really, really wasn’t going to write it. I tried not to write it in fact. I had (and still have) about a hundred other WIP fics that needed my attention and I was trying to finish up edits on master’s thesis and do all my grading for my Psych 101 course. But the idea just wouldn’t leave me alone. I kept thinking of scenes from the original study, and how well they’d translate to Kurt and Blaine. More to get them out of my head than anything else, I sent Alexei this email at 3:00 AM on 12/7/11. It was helpfully titled “Klaine Prison Study Fic Outline…God help us all :)”

Alexei,

So yeah, I finished my thesis edits and then couldn’t stop thinking about this fic. I think we are going to have to do it for real. Not something we need to start immediately though…I’m thinking I can start over the break and we can take it from there. I definitely want you as a collaborator though… I’m good with doing more of the writing, but I definitely want to bounce plot ideas and psych stuff off of you. Because really, this is more your idea than mine to begin with :) I think we’ll make a good team though. Here are my stream of consciousness thoughts. Enjoy! Tell me what you think when you need a study break :)

Klaine AU Fic: Possible Titles (The Lima Prison Study; The Dalton Prison Study; Obedience, Obedience to Authority; something else)

Oh holy hell, did I really just outline a ten chapter fic for us? Alexei, I warned you what happened once I got excited about a fic idea. We are really going to do this, aren’t we?

Love,

A very delirious but kinda pumped Sarah :)

Sarah: The email contained a ten chapter outline that was surprisingly close to what ended up becoming the actual fic. Alexei picked The Dalton Prison Study as the title she liked best, and we were off and running.

Why did you choose Kurt to be the prisoner and Blaine to be the guard?

Sarah: When I sent Alexei that first outline back in December, this is what I wrote about their roles:

I’m pretty sold on the idea of Guard Blaine and Prisoner Kurt. Thoughts?

I like the idea of the two of them going to different schools and not knowing each other beforehand. The study took place in August so I’m thinking that Kurt is at a performance arts school of some sort and is looking for a way to make a little extra money over the summer before he goes back to school for his Sophomore year of college. If we are keeping with Glee canon, then Blaine is a year younger. My head canon is that he’s just come out to his parents and been kicked out of the house, so he is desperate for the money. Like he has to finish this study so he has money to pay rent or he will wind up homeless. I think that’s important because we need a plausible reason for Blaine to stay in the study and go along with some of the guard stuff even though he’s personally repulsed by it. It just adds that extra tension. I’m thinking for Kurt, the idea is that he’s been away at college for a year and has so much more self-esteem and confidence now and decides he won’t let the guards break him. That he’ll stand up for himself and refuse to be bullied like he couldn’t always do in high school. Maybe Blaine recognizes him at some point b/c he saw him perform in Glee Club Blaine’s junior year and was secretly star struck by Kurt or something…I like the idea of a role reversal here where even though Kurt’s in the submissive position as the prisoner, he’s stronger than Blaine in a lot of ways.

Sarah: I highlighted that last line, because that was the key to me. Even though Blaine is in the position of power throughout the study, he’s in much worse shape than Kurt emotionally. He doesn’t want the power. He doesn’t know how to handle those pressures. And by being a prisoner, Kurt gets to be the one standing up to the system and defending the others. That was important to me. I wanted to see a Kurt that had moved past his bad high school bullying experiences and was more confident and self-assured.

Alexei: I had initially envisioned the opposite, with Kurt as guard and Blaine as prisoner. Like Sarah, I didn’t want Kurt to be submissive. But once I saw her rationale, it made sense. Here’s what I said to her at the time:

I was originally thinking of Blaine as prisoner and Kurt as guard. The big thing was that I knew Kurt could not be in a submissive role. It would be playing against expectations/stereotypes, which I’m all about. That being said, I like your angle on it. As long as Kurt gets to be the fighter that he is, I’m sold. Let’s go with that.

Read the rest of the writers' commentary on Tumblr (here)

The Dalton Prison Study Playlist

As promised, the fifteen songs I listened to on eternal repeat while writing The Dalton Prison Study, chapter by chapter (and in some cases, scene by scene), complete with selected lyrics that fit the fic. You can download the entire playlist here (.zip file via mediafire) or click read more for individual download links, lyrics, commentary, and more. 

See the full playlist post on Tumblr (here)