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#also me: what if I just wrote a minimum of 15 chapter fic about this specific thing
theluckywizard · 5 months
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20 Questions for Fic Writers
Thank you for the tags @rowanisawriter and @nirikeehan
1. how many works do you have on ao3?
32
2. what’s your total ao3 word count?
359,445 (since February lawdy)
3. what fandoms do you write for?
Only Dragon Age
4. what are your top five fics by kudos?
In the Shattering of Things (Cullen x Rose Trevelyan, Hawke x Trevelyan long fic)
The Boy Who Talked too Much (Alistair x Cousland fluff smut one shot)
Some Kind of Witchcraft (Cullen x Rose Trevelyan fluff smut one shot)
The Protestations of the Commander's Bed (Cullen x Rose Trevelyan fluff smut one shot... sensing a theme here? LMAO)
Unvarnished (Blackwall x Rose Trevelyan Smuuuut)
5. do you respond to comments?
Yes, always! Someone is going to take the time say something nice about my writing? I'm going to like awkwardly hug them with words.
6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Probably toss up between
Fractures (Cullen x Rose Trevelyan whump smut)
and
Well Did You Miss Me? (Hawke x Rose Trevelyan angst)
7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Oh this is tough. I end a lot of short fics on a very hopeful note where two people are teetering on the precipice of Looooooove.
But actually maybe a short Bethany Hawke drabble where she learns her brother Garrett is still alive in the Fade.
Contact
8. do you get hate on fics?
The closest I've gotten to hate, which wasn't really hate, just kind of funny is a few different commenters messaging me after I introduced Hawke in my long fic (the other clearly labeled Love Interest, 250k words in mind you) asking whether it was going to be Cullen in the end because they aren't interested in Hawke x Trevelyan and they don't want to read it unless it's Cullen in the end.
9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?
Yes. I try to write really characterful, joyful/emotional smuts generally-- the kind where it's just 'totally THEM'. I think smut is only as good as the set up and characters expressing themselves, because clinical/gratuitous descriptions of sex acts without those things doesn't interest me.
10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?
Nope!
11. have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not to my knowledge
12. have you ever had a fic translated?
Nope
13. have you ever co-written a fic before?
I have not but I would loooove to!
14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?
God I can't risk showing my whole ass here because a bunch of long fic readers follow me but suffice to say the race for my love is real tight between the two separate ships in my long fic - Rose Trevelyan x Cullen and Rose Trevelyan x Garrett Hawke.
Also Dick Grayson x Barbara Gordon in DC 😍
15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?
Probably The Bequest which is my oc/oc/oc/oc/oc/oc spooky murder mystery fic. I want to believe I will but I would have to learn how to write a damn good mystery and I'm not sure I can. But will at least write some more chapters minimum!
16. what are your writing strengths?
-- snappy, authentic sounding dialogue and banter that captures the characters
-- joyful, ridiculous smut
-- setting descriptions when I really put my back into it
-- being inside a character's POV and capturing their narrative voice uniquely
17. what are your writing weaknesses?
PLOT. GAH. I only got into Fanfic in January and that's because I languished in Original Fiction Hell for two decades where I wrote and wrote aimlessly. I am a shit plotter and a shit planner. Stories come to me in scenes and feelings. So you can imagine that getting to write something that is fully plotted and world built for me is like THE BEST FUCKING THING EVER. It is so satisfying.
18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I have written in French a little bit for effect in the Winter Palace, but generally I don't do it, no.
19. first fandom you wrote for?
I wrote a sequel to the book The Witch of Blackbird Pond when I was thirteen maybe because the main ship gets together in the last pages and then it just ENDS and it was written in the 50s and the author was dead. I HAD TO RESOLVE THIS FOR MYSELF.
20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?
Aside from my long fic which is my ongoing baby and I am very proud (I am in the midst of Act 2 and still loving it), it would probably be --
The Commander, the Tevinter and a Bottle of Lightning which is Dorian getting Cullen drunk on fussy Tevinter booze and Rose showing up after he's sauced. (Fluff, Cullen POV)
or
Good Old Garbolg which is Rose and Hawke getting into the storage room to try a bottle of mystery booze (one of the Bottles of Thedas) and it having some unexpected consequences (Fluffsmut, Rose POV)
I have read both of these A LOT.
Tagging @crackinglamb, @greypetrel, @bluewren, @kiastirling, @melisusthewee, @rakshadow, @ar-lath-ma-cully, @ir0n-angel, @smutnug, @monocytogenes, @skyeventide and @ammoniteflesh
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recurring-polynya · 9 months
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Hello polynya! Hope you don’t mind but I’d like to ask you about your writing process. You’re really one of the best fic writers I’ve seen so I’d like to pick your brain a little. :) How long do you spend outlining something before writing it down? What do you do when you get stuck on something? How do you make sure you’re getting characters right? I’m very concerned about that last one since I haven’t seen Bleach in years and if I ever started writing something, I’m worried I’d make everyone OOC.
Hi! Sorry for delay on this. I wanted to take the time to write out a nice and thoughtful answer and then I got swamped by stuff. I really do like sharing writing advice, though, so thank you for asking!
Just gonna do a little cut for length:
How long do you spend outlining something before writing it down? So, I want to start with the caveat that I hate outlining. I am very much that dog-with-a-frisbee meme, only it's "No decide what happens! Only write!" I think that, in general, it's best to do as much outlining as you can stand at the beginning of a project, but there is a minimum amount that I force myself to do, but what that minimum is will depend on the fanfic I am trying to write.
Sometimes a fanfic will spring into my head, fully formed, beginning to middle to end. Just go for it. No outline. Fuck it, we ball. Generally, this is going to be a shorter fanfic, like <10k, but I ran all of Portions for Foxes with no net. There is like the Touch of God, though, there is no way to guarantee this process.
Usually, with the stories in my Heart is a Muscle series, I declare that I am Writing This Thing, and it has a broad concept and, like, 5 scenes I really want to write. In this case, I will make an iterative outline. I really, really didn't feel like outlining the one I am working on now, and for a significant amount of time, my "Ductwork Notes" documents just said: "Outline: lol". However, as I actually started to work on it, and completed some scenes, I put them in the outline. Also, any time I thought of a scene I wanted to do, or a scene I would need to do, I added it to the outline. At some point, I was able to feel my way around the shape of the thing. It takes place over ~2 weeks, and I wrote out when the big events happened, which made it more obvious where and what I needed to add. I just continue to refine and add detail. I'm maybe 10 or 15% of my way into this thing (by progress, not by word count). As I go, I continue to update the outline. Eventually, I will break it into chapters, with word count. Going back and forth between the zoomed-way-in activity of writing and the big picture exercise of thinking about my story as a whole is the best way for me to work (it's also the way I code, swapping back and forth between writing and testing individual functions with how they fit into the overall software framework.) I feel like this is not a thing that would work for everyone, but it works for me.
Plot bunnies. We all get them. I generally do not get gripped by them, the way some people do, but every so often, I have a bit of a wild idea (often an AU), where I get excited over an idea, and I need to decide how much energy I am willing to devote to it. In this case, an outline is a tool for that. The thing that separates a plot bunny, imo, from a "fic idea" is that plot bunnies are usually open ended hooks: What if so-and-so died? Oh, I love this splash page where they're all in a band. That's not a story, it's just a concept. So, if I am considering making a story, I force myself to make an outline. It must have a beginning, middle and end. It must contain a number of Big Scenes I am excited about writing and that I think people will be excited about reading. Sometimes, this process very clearly informs me that this is not a story that I want to take the time to write, and that maybe I'd rather just do a fanart or write a 1k throwaway scene or maybe just make a Tumblr post about. But if the process of making the outline isn't a huge turnoff, well, now I've got an outline, which is a significant part of the work done, and I can feel free to go for it.
What do you do when you get stuck on something?
If I am stuck on a specific thing, the best thing for me is to go do a chore that requires my hands and leaves my brain free. Washing dishes, folding laundry, weeding, are all excellent candidates for this. It can be enormously frustrating to get stuck, because I am very impatient, so I have a litany of things I tell myself at these times, like "this is what writing is. just let your brain chew on it." I often try to let my brain run down little possibilities, even when I know they won't work, just to see where they lead. I try to remind myself to have fun and enjoy the process.
If I am stuck in the sense that I have writer's block or just generally don't feel like writing, I try to do other things. If I catch up on my ao3 comments and my volunteer job, then, when the inspiration comes back, I'll have a clear schedule. I believe that there are cycles of writing, where sometimes you are in creative mode, but sometimes you are in rest mode, and sometimes you are ingest mode, so it's good to go read a book or watch a new show. It's also cool to go revisit the source material.
How do you make sure you’re getting characters right? I’m very concerned about that last one since I haven’t seen Bleach in years and if I ever started writing something, I’m worried I’d make everyone OOC.
I mean, why not do a rewatch, or even better, read the manga? You don't have to go through the whole thing, just the parts relevant to the story you are trying to tell, or the character you are trying to get write. I do this all the time, even though I already have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of the parts of Bleach I care about. The Bleach wiki is very helpful for figuring out what happened in particular episodes.
I think this ties back to the previous questions, but a big part of writing is that you have to sit with your writing in your head and figure out what you are doing and why and if you are accomplishing that. There are different ways of doing this that you may find you enjoy more or less. I don't like outlining, but I do like looking up little bits of canon and overanalyzing minor details and making esoteric Tumblr posts about them.
Once you are actually writing, I try to have a very clear idea for my major players of:
What is their tendency?
What is their goal?
Their tendency is what they do naturally, how they act when they aren't thinking about it. Usually, you are shooting for your character to have some growth or change, and that's what I mean by goal. How do they act when they are being intentional? Then, in any writing situation, you can decide, "are they being natural or are they being intentional?" and decide their actions based on that. I think the most basic conflict you can write about is the tension between who someone is and who they would like to be!
A very basic example of this is that Renji is usually a pretty casual guy. He uses informal speech and probably jokes around with his subordinates. On the other hand, when Byakuya's around, he straightens his spine and puts on his best officer voice, because he wants to impress his boss.
This is going to vary based on the story you want to tell. The "tendency" category is also going to include what your characters do when they are scared or angry or other circumstances where things move from "unthinking" into "involuntary." A nice thing about this is that if you write one million stories about the same characters, you can really show their growth over time.
I hate YouTube analysis videos, but I watched one that really rewired my brain, about how, in a panic situation, Renji freezes up and Rukia runs. Hihiou Zabimaru, as an incomplete bankai, often acts a protective wall around Renji, allowing him to act while standing still. Conversely, So-oh Zabimaru is a close-combat bankai and prominently features a grabby arm. Rukia's bankai, on the other hand, is all about standing her ground (and forcing everyone else to, too). And on one hand, this is a powers analysis, but I use this as a touchstone a lot when I write about their conflict resolution styles at various stages of their maturity.
Here's a bit of advice that may be controversial, but I am going to say it: I think that even if you prefer AUs (and I mean, like, coffee shop AUs, not twist-on-canon AUs) you should write canon-compliant fic once in a while, even just as an exercise. You don't have to show it to anyone, it doesn't need to be a complete story. You can even just take a canon scene and try to write it from the POV of one of your characters. I just people really underestimate the amount of character work it takes to write a good AU. It's super hard to keep the characters feeling correct when you've taken away all the character beats that have informed them as people! In fact, I think it's good for any writer to try out different kinds of writing once in a while, even kinds you think you won't like. It really builds your writerly muscles and forces your to think about things in new and potentially mind-blowing ways.
Anyway, I hope that was helpful! I hope you do give writing a shot and I wish you the best of luck!
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mengyao · 1 year
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3, 5, 6, 22!
3: What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need?
my problem is that i can always be arsed to write all the set-up and context and this is how i get into Pickles (all my wips get out of hand.) i'm sure there's something though… OH i know. it's the ling wen/pei ming/shi wudu fic of my dreams, which involves escalating bets/wagers and culminates in a sleazy threesome but they all have feelings about it but the feelings are complex and unnameable. they are not in love but they love each other but also they don't. but they do. you know.
to get the vibe i want, it couldn't just be pwp though. like i would want this to be a trojan horse of emotionally dense 3 tumours character study. but also funny, because they're comedians to me. minimum 5k of buildup necessary, and in order to do that and have it be good i would have to Get A Degree In Pei Ming And Ling Wen And Shi Wudu and tbh the reason i don't write more poly ships is that having to canon review to get two characters' voices down is enough work as it is… you expect me to do more than that……………….
5: What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?
i've flippantly posted about this before but i do feel like i have an elevated level of insight into the nhs + nmj dynamic due to the circumstances of my dad's health issues/head injury/death lmao. i would never do all of that though <3
6: What character do you have the most fun writing?
nie huaisang is the obvious answer (assigned comic relief at birth. a font of earnest sadstuck. deserves to go to prison. the swiss army knife of blorbos.) but shi qingxuan is edging up there. i thought my beefleaf sex pollen fic was going to be 3k but it ended up 8k because sqx as a pov character just kept going and going and going and i was having a GREAT time. i used to shy away from writing characters who are talky and have big personalities because i felt like whatever i wrote would turn out feeling fake and/or annoying, or that it would be more obvious if my characterization was off than if the character was more subdued… i guess i'm just more self-confident now?
more than just being extroverted and chatty, i think what's sooo fun and novel to me about shi qingxuan is that they're such a doer. after primarily writing cerebral repressos for the past 15 years it's so refreshing to write a character whose reaction to most situations is to follow their instinct… they keep the plot moving! never a dull moment!
22: Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
ah ha ha ha ha yeah no i reread stuff i wrote in the last ~2 years allll the time. i know what i like! and if it already existed up to spec i wouldn't have written it! there's definitely stuff i find cringe and parts i skim if i'm not happy with them but overall i spend a lot of time on my own ao3 page......
///
you also asked about foowd extras... i still find writing + sharing these kind of mortifying because despite bravado about my trans fanfiction brand, part of my brain is still like "okay but NOW it's cringe because NOW it's not 'suicidal closeted trans character is depressed and makes bad choices' but 'comparably emotionally stable character is a known transgender and has some good things happen to her' so everyone will point and laugh over your SELF INDULGENT WISH FULFILLMENT!!!1!1!!1" because the particular brainworm i find very difficult to remove re: residual shame over writing trans fic is the idea of anything you write being automatically discounted as personal projection basically on par with readerfic rather than coming from being genuinely interested in the canon character(s). and wanting to write about nice things happening to fictional trans people being like, THE WORST MOST CRINGE thing you could ever do. but i persisteth.
it's funny because i WOULDN'T even say they are just fluffy wish fulfillment stuff... the four "chapters" i'm planning on posting have a bit of an emotional arc, and what interested me enough to write them out instead of just leaving them as comfy eyelid movies were questions like "now that it's actually happening, how WOULD nhs actually feel about the prospect of not only stepping down from sect leadership but uprooting her entire life to go join another sect," with the idea that, if that were to actually happen rather than stay an escapist fantasy, she'd probably feel... pretty conflicted about it! it would be weird (even if ultimately worth it)!
so there's that. and then there's the fact that the entire original fic largely sprung out of ideas about sangcheng eventually being in a long-term relationship that looked a certain way, and then reverse engineering the interpersonal arc that would be needed to get them there (and that becoming the main fic.) foowd proper ends when they've only just even actually "become a couple," and you don't get to see much of that... so i wanted to chuck at least SOME of what i imagine about straight married sangcheng's day to day life into the world. (not that it's even at that point yet LMAO. EVENTUALLY!!!) if for no other reason than that there's a strong chance that sometime i'll reference something from the extended foowd lore in casual conversation forgetting that no one has any idea what i'm talking about because it does not exist anywhere except my brain
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snowblossomreads · 5 months
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20 Questions for Fic Writers
😌 thanks @smilingformoney for the tag (i know u tagged my main blog but that thot doesn't write anything but gibberish well..i guess it's the same here to..)
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
12
2. What’s your total AO3 word count?
113,472
3. What fandoms do you write for?
I would say Harry Potter but honestly, it’s just Snape and then other Alan Rickman characters…so Alan Rickman LOL. Also I’ve been known to write Final Fantasy fics (for 7,12 and 15 specifically) and a wild Naruto one in my olden days. There are others but Alan is my main thing rn and for the foreseeable future.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Bad Habits, Young and Beautiful, Seven Devils, Thrilling Tea Time, You Don’t Love Me Anymore
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Yes because it’s just nice to talk to folks who have enjoyed your things ^o^!
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
I don’t know what those are. I mean I guess Seven Devils? But it’s not really angsty (too me at least).
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
All of them because I don’t know what sad endings are.  Havent my blurbos suffered enough.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
I have not and hope not!
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yes (3 of the the top kudos are smut ranging from…unhinged to unhinged). I’ll write almost any kind of smut but I have some no goes but mostly anything.
10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?
Do I write them? No not generally. Have I written them? I was going to say no I haven’t and I would be lying. I have one that will never see the light of day that I wrote as a young teen that was a crossover between multiple fandoms that that had nothing to do with each other than I had OCs for each of them. The premise was that they all put on a homecoming production (if you don’t know what that is, in short students put on a whole thing where they dance and sing to songs from specific decades that end in the same date as the year the current year to celebrate alumni who graduated on years that ended in the same date. i.e. 2023, 2013, 2003 etc). ANYWAYS I don’t know what I was doing and it never got finished but I think about how unhinged it was. There had to have been like 5 different fandoms in it minimum. Man was preteen me having a great time.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
No and lets keep it that way 😊 or else.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Not that I know of.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No, it would be a disaster tbh bc idk what deadlines are.
14. What’s your all time favourite ship?
Any of my blurbos/OC or reader 😊. (i.e blurbo/me) LOLOL but like for a media where it’s not me, fictional me, or me again it would have to be Tidus/ Yuna from Final Fantasy X. They had a such a wonderful love story and they make my heart wobble.
15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
All of them but unfortunately some of them (most of them) may forever stay unfinished because I’m just not good at writing multiple chapters. See Seven Devils and how long it took me to get the last 2 chapters up. AND IT WAS ONLY 7 CHAPTERS THAT WERE PREDETERIMED. Anyways I have a Final Fantasy 15 one I would like to finish because all the chapters were planned out but then I went to university.
16. What are your writing strengths?
Erm I’ve gotten comments about how well I write details and it’s flattering because honestly, I feel like I’m just word vomiting (stares at the next question with dread). But I guess details are my strengths? 😅
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Everything! Next question.
Jk (is she) Uhm I think my dialogues can be a bit bland and go on and on with no real end or why the conversation is going that way (she should go outside and talk to ppl more). Also the transition from platonic to romance (nervous laughter) it’s why one of my HP fics isn’t being written and why I usually just dump readers into things that area already established or almost close to.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
What an apt question, I’ve actually been struggling with this for some fics lately because I have characters who speak another language (Mandarin). Some languages work well for fics written in English i.e the ones that naturally have Romanized words like French, Italian, etc etc . And some (stares at Mandarin) don’t because of how every word would need a tonal mark basically and it’s tedious (again just my thought). I could just write them in characters but that would be even worse for English readers LOL. So now I just go "and so said this in Mandarin" and sometimes I add clues giving readers a hint letting them know. Anyways TLDR: Go for it if you want to, some languages are tricker than others.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Either Final Fantasy 12 or Naruto can’t remember 100%
20. Favourite fic you’ve written?
Really asking the hard hitting questions aren't yall 😭Erm um. Ayo I don't really know tbh. I'll go with Seven Devils bc it was absolutely unhinged and it was the first multi chapter thing I completed which I'm proud of!
But also I'm quite having fun writing my current fic (shameless plug for Entangled Hearts right here u should click it!) mostly because @smilingformoney lets me yell at her about my thoughts and she yells at me about her thoughts and we are like yeee good times. Also I can also give my OC some trauma LOL but also a sweet puppy in human form as a boyfriend (and maybe even husband)
That's it my friends thanks for listening to the rambles and thanks again to Millie for the tags (ilysm 🥰) feel free to be nosy whenever.
Tags: Anyone who wants to do this!!
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bewitchedbodyandsol · 3 years
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fuck it, I’m writing a whole War and Peace! AU
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n7punk · 2 years
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2021 Writing Journal
I’m kinda burnt out right now and that oddly felt like the perfect time to write this, so I’m doing a year retrospective/writing accomplishments post. I’m writing this on the 17th and will update the totals on the 31st to get in December.
Date format is dd/mm/yy. This is a 2021 retrospective but also includes some mention of the 2020 since I only started writing fic halfway through that year. This is like half writing and half personal stuff. It’s basically a writing journal entry.
It feels weird to say “I wrote about a million words this year” and also “I didn’t reach all of my goals”, but there it is. I met (most) of my word count goals, but I didn’t do as many projects as I wanted to. Still, I did a lot this year, so I’m going to try to focus on that while also not omitting the parts that I’m disappointed in.
Stats:
Total fic word count in 2020: 642,829
Total fic word count posted in 2021: 949,240 (according to AO3)
Total word count in 2021 (including unpublished projects but not content cut edits): 980,702 (according to my tracking spreadsheet. Includes my novel and upcoming, unfinished fics).
Total updates (chapters/one-shots) in 2021: 122
I think the AO3 total is inflated thanks to things like the DITM edit bringing over the 36k that were already there last year into this year’s total. I know that my total in the tracking spreadsheet should be, at minimum, 76k more thanks to unpublished projects, not to mention one shots and other chapters still in progress. According to my spreadsheet, I wrote 903k in fanfiction this year. It’s also possible that AO3 just tracks word count differently as well.
Goals:
I started this year with an 800k total word count goal for the year, which I considered a lowball goal (I wrote 642k last year in about six months, so theoretically should have been able to write 1.2mil in a year), but I knew I was going to have some health struggles this year (and boy did I) so I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself to write. I ended up reaching that goal on 15/10 and set a new goal for 900k, which I reached on 18/11. I then set a goal for 1 million, which was really the minimum I had wanted to reach for this year despite my lower stated goals. I never reached that goal, sadly, but I at least came close.
Truthfully, I really wanted to write 1.2 mil this year, both because I knew it was kind of possible and because a friend told me about a fic they once read that was that long. Now, that fic was written over like 10 years, but I’m insane. It turns out that I burn out every few months though, so while it’s possible for me to write 105k in month (my highest count for a month this year, in October), there’s a backswing of unproductivity that comes afterwards, so I can’t do that for 12 months in a row.
I didn’t know that before this year, though. Writing has actually made it easy to see the pattern of my burnout and depression flares, not only because I can see my productivity in my word count, but also because I tie the emotions I was feeling at the time to what I produce so it is now very easy for me to recall how I felt in January because I remember how depressed I was while working on strange disease and I know I was writing it then. I’ve never had such solid markers to tie my mood to before, so writing (and tracking it) has really helped me to understand myself and my own patterns over the last six months.
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Beyond word count, I wanted to make a dent in my “Upcoming Projects” list. I didn’t have a specific number of projects that I wanted to complete, I just wanted to go back to blitzing through an entire 10 chapter fic in two weeks like I was doing at the end of the summer in 2020. As previously discussed about burnout however, that really wasn’t possible. I’m trying to be happy with what I can do, because I know it’s actually a lot, but it is frustrating when my ideas pile up and I have new ones at a higher rate than I complete old ones.
From what I remember, I started 2021 with a list of about 7 projects that I wanted to write: strange disease (done), asgne (done), the greys (done), ihtwcyn (done), wdtfd (done), 5gr (not started), and oesab (not started). While I did write most of the things that I came up with last year, I also came up with a whole host of new ideas, to the point where I am starting 2022 with 7 fic ideas waiting again and have even more novel ideas. It feels like I’m cursed to always have more idea than I have time, but who knows.
This year has seen me shifting towards more interest in original projects (starting around the Catradora anniversary actually, that’s when the first novel idea I had this year started forming) and I’m kind of hoping that the more complicated/involved nature of these ideas means the number I have of them will be lower so it feels less like I can’t keep up with my own mind. Of course, these ideas also take longer to plan and write so....
Still, I’m not complaining about having ideas. I know it’s a good thing. I wanted to complete more projects in 2021, but I completed 10 “major” ideas in the form of multi-chapter fics, plus 1 novel. Counting my ongoing project for December, that’s about one major project a month (even if that average isn’t how things were written in reality. Some projects took two months, others like 3m2 took two days).
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My other goal was to not adhere to a schedule anymore (after I found it was contributing to my first burnout period this year back in January/February) but to, on average, post at least twice a week. I sometimes went a week without posting (I think the largest gap, aside from the hiatus I took in November for my novel, was 15 days). Long gaps were usually in between projects as I planned the next one, got acquainted with the world, and wrote at least two chapters for the next project, but I didn’t want to force myself to write or get ahead in my writing, so I just post whenever I have one chapter edited and the next drafted, hence the “average” goal. For most of the year my schedule was 2-3 posts a week, leaning more towards two. I took November off posting entirely (after posting 3 days in a row at the start of the month) and then came back with the lesser goal of 1-2 times a week in December since I was struggling with burnout again.
I met this goal easily. I wish my posting wasn’t as variable with back-to-back updates and then an entire week of nothing, but its the nature of posting when something is ready and not holding it back, which I definitely prefer. I’m really happy with how much I posted and am fully planning to actually ramp it down in 2022 as I focus on personal projects more often (though I will be writing fic as well, I miss Catradora when I don’t).
--
Overall, reading this back it seems kind of ridiculous to be disappointed with how much I’ve written, though that doesn’t stop me from thinking “if I can write 10k in a day, why can’t I do that single day?”. I know it’s ridiculous, especially given the burn out thing, but it is something my brain does. Still, writing this made me feel a bit better about what I’ve done this year.
Writing Tracking:
On August 4th, I started tracking my writing in a spreadsheet. I did some research before going with a spreadsheet - I was certain there had to be a software or premade template that met my specifications - but I couldn’t find anything that met all my specifications, so I set about creating a spreadsheet from scratch. I have always loved making spreadsheets, but I usually use them for stuff like cataloguing or sorting. I was a complete novice when it came to Excel formulas, having never written one before, but I needed to learn it anyway so I taught myself Excel by creating this spreadsheet. I spent a lot of time working on the sheet in August, all while logging what I was managing to write at the time (which, given I was sick and burned out, wasn’t much).
I still tweak the sheet sometimes, and especially have been adding new features over time or fixing ones I implemented poorly initially, but it was mostly done in August or September. I love my writing spreadsheet and find it really helps with my motivation, as well as things like understanding my mood or burnout like I talked about above. I can see exactly how productive I’m being day-to-day in my monthly summary sheet and overall trends in my yearly summary sheet. I can compare statistics between my different projects in my projects sheet too, like tracking their length vs my predictions for them and how quickly I wrote them.
--
Community:
I was going to just put my final thoughts, and then I got a DM from a reader (my DMs are actually off unless I DM you once first, sorry) and I realized I would be completely remiss to not talk about another massive part of my writing experience: you guys. If anyone’s still reading at this point anyway.
All the engagement I get on my stories has not only been massively motivating, it has helped me improve my writing and gave me a purpose during the pandemic and my last year of health issues. I’ve had multiple people tell me that my stories helped them get through quarantine and I don’t have words to describe how that makes me feel. I often feel like I’m failing if I’m not meeting some certain, statistical metric and it makes me lose sight of things, but sometimes I remember the kind of impact my writing has had for some people and it almost feels like a purpose to life beyond the constant rat race of capitalistic life.
I got so many comments and asks this year, not to mention fanart and other things that when I think about make my head spin, and it was all because someone else enjoyed my work enough to dedicate a small part of their life to it. When my fics started getting more popular I remember thinking “the first time I get fanart from someone outside of my friend circle, that is when I will have made it” and then it... happened. And it just kept happening. It’s truly one of the highest compliments you can give a writer, to be so inspired by their art that you make your own, and that’s only scratching the surface of the stuff that has happened this year.
The engagement blows my mind as is, but it also inspires me. I’m much more interested in writing original stuff because I know there are people so invested in what I do. My entire life I have written and wanted to write (Remember, I finished my first full novel at age 11) but I always thought I would just write them for myself and maybe edit them to show my friends/family if I liked the draft enough. The way people have reacted has really motivated me to put more into crafting my original projects and actually doing something with them.
I don’t respond to comments/etc as much as I would like due to anxiety, nonverbal periods, and a general lack of spoons, but they really make a difference in my attitude. Sometimes the rare shitty comment can stop me from writing for the rest of the day, but the people who are truly kind or helpful really make a difference. Everybody who commented/sent an ask/drew fanart/etc this year: thank you. Without all the engagement I definitely wouldn’t have written or posted as much, even if my writing is ultimately for me. My writing came further in the first year of writing fic than it did in the decade of personal writing before that, thanks to stuff like people telling me their favorite parts that showed me what worked. You guys have made a difference in my life too.
Happy New Year, I guess, wherever you are. Here’s to 2022 being a better year (I’m not optimistic, but I refuse to be cynical either).
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isisishtar-archived · 3 years
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Popping in cuz I got tagged by @rochelle-echidna and this is an ample time to take my mind off getting minor dental surgery (again lol) soo enjoy this long ass post :3
1) How many fics do you have on Ao3?
36~
2) What’s your total Ao3 word count?
159,099 words, which...wow xD considering I went from minimum 500 words to 1,500 words on my one-shots; I expected this, but not over 100k
3) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
A King’s Challenge to Fate
The Blackest Bubble
On the Rebound
Heart on the Line
To Love the Moon
Funky lil TKB stans putting my Bakura Redemption fic (not to mention my FIRST event fic) as number 1 :P The only reason I can think the one Homestuck fic is 2nd is because it’s old lol
4) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
I didn’t used to, but now I try to respond to all comments I get c: I wish I could say the same for commenting |3;;;
5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
I think Hunter’s Moon, and only because the ending was ambiguous :P In my head though, they do make up and Ryou introduces him to Yugi and the gang to get everything sorted out (including why he’d stalk them when Ryou hung out lol)
6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?
I’ve written a lot of happy endings, but I’d honestly say Marry the (K)Night is the happiest~ MAINLY because of the final chapter ;P
7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?
I did one or two back in the day, my most ambitious one that I never finished (and apparently my mother read :x) was LOTR and Stargate SG1...Never finished it, I don’t have the file anymore...
And I call it the craziest because at one point I was gonna add Invader Zim into the mix as a result of Stargate messing with space-time :P
8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Not necessarily hate, at MOST just a really rude “critique” on how I was using the wrong Elvish for Legolas to speak because he was from Mirkwood. So basically really nerdy-ass hate if that is considered hate xD Though they didn’t really bother telling me where to find info to learn the “correct” elvish so eh :P
9) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
...I didn’t until recently with To Balance the Scales but uhh... looking at the Homestuck one, I realize I’m a bit of a kink smut writer. I can’t write vanilla sex without it going into purple prose, so I write kink so I can avoid using too much flowery language ;P
That, and it’s fun. coming up with funky peen designs is great lol
10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Nope, never got a fic known enough to have that happen....also I haven’t heard of THAT happening since like 2007, does that STILL happen? D:
11) Have you ever had a fic translated?
No, I wouldn’t mind if any of mine were translated though!
12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Nope. I’ve wanted to, but haven’t really had an idea that I felt comfortable opening up to writing with someone else nor has anyone asked me to. Considering how often I post though, I kinda understand why that might not happen so much xD;;
13) What’s your all-time favorite ship?
It’s a tie between Boundshipping and Crosshipping~
14) What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?
I have a couple, the domestic crosship fic and the ae sickleship fic...maainly because I wrote the first couple chapters of both without plotting it out and have had trouble doing so with both...especially with new fics/ideas popping up in their place |3
15 & 16) What are your writing strengths/ weaknesses?
My strength definitely seems to come through in world building, and I think I’m able to well convey a character’s emotions...or at least I know I can create emotions in readers, at least that’s what I know from comments xD
As for weaknesses, I deeefinitely get anxious about 3-4 chapters in and if I have a schedule set up, I tend to rush. It makes me over-critical of my writing in further chapters and I constantly worry the endings were rushed xD;; I can also have trouble writing action scenes, as I can’t picture them in my head. I have the idea of how I want it to go, but that’s as far as it gets.
17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
I enjoy seeing it if it’s pet names or being witty while another character doesn’t understand, though it can distract from the fic if it’s used a lot without translation in the notes. y’want your readers to understand those parts :P
18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Hamtaro and it was an OC insert fic paired her with Maxwell of all of them...and it was WRITTEN on LINED PAPER with PENCIL and had a TITLE PAGE DRAWN WITH GLITTER GLUE AND FELT xD
I don’t know if it’s around anymore :3;;;
19) What’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?
A Budding Relationship, cuz it was indulgent and cheesy and full of plant/flower puns~ It was also my first step into writing things I want to read more than it just being an interesting idea that hasn’t been done yet :P
Aaand since this is, of course, a tag game ;P @sitabethel @ariasune @ninjam117 @saijspellhart @thiefcat-niao 
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villa-kulla · 3 years
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Fic Writer Review
Tagged by @fontainebleau22, thanks for the tag, sorry for the delay!
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
26 at the moment.
2. What’s your total AO3 wordcount?
722 309. I’d have thought it would be more considering how long some of mine seem to get, although looking at other people’s answers to this meme, I guess 26 isn’t really a huge number!
3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
My first fic ever was a little Lord of the Rings experiment for an exchange thing. But my first proper dip into writing for a fandom would have been Breaking Bad, where I wrote for a couple of years before it felt like my ideas had run their course. Then there was a Kingsman fic, and then Mag7 where - similarly to BrBa - wrote feverishly for a couple years until it felt like the well had been plumbed. Oh yeah and then jumped into the Marvel fandom to drop one Marvel fic before immediately jumping back out lol.
4. What are your top five fics by kudos?
So the Marvel fic has officially just become my most kudoed fic, which is kind of hilarious considering it was a SUEZ! CANAL! FIC! But in my opinion, a good one lol. So yeah, it would be 1. The SamBucky Suez Canal fic, 2. The Kingsman soccer AU, 3. Desert Sand, 4. Chisolm’s 7, and 5. Blue Devils. That last one surprises me, but I guess it was an early one for the fandom, so I think it became an automatic read.
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not
I do! It’s possible I’ve missed some here and there, but generally I try to get them all.
6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
I don’t think any of them! While my fics definitely include angst, ideally it’s still in a fun way, or at minimum, bittersweet? I don’t generally want the last taste in a reader’s mouth to be angst. ALTHOUGH. I really really wanted to include an epilogue to the selkie fic that’s kind of angsty. Basically the story would end, but then many years later we’d see an old man get off a bus on the coastal road, carrying a suitcase. He’d be wearing a suit, clearly back from many years travelling. He’d walk to the coast, back over a hill where there’d once been a little fishing cottage, long since torn down. He’d walk down to the beach and into a little cove where he’d kneel by the water he knew better than anyone. Opening the suitcase he’d take out a box which he’d then empty into the ocean, ashes spreading across the water. He’d take out a folded bundle of cloth and wrap it around his shoulders. Then he’d dive into the water, disappearing into the waves, leaving nothing but an empty suitcase behind him, and a folded pile of clothes.
I loved that ending but I’m still not 100% sure if it was keeping in tone with the actual ending, so I left it out. Maybe one day I’ll go and add it as en extra chapter snippet.
7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?
I don’t know if I’d call them ‘crossovers’ exactly, although I did stick Goody and Billy into a Some Like it Hot ‘jazz band on a train’ situation, and I also did a Breaking Bad one that used some elements of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Those feel more like ‘AUs’ though. I like situational crossovers, but I’ve never been super into fics where characters from different fandoms actually interact.
8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Thankfully not. The most off-putting comment I’ve gotten was someone who - despite being very complimentary - decided to make a full-on laundry list all the anachronisms in a chapter lmao, like what. Stuff like "interesting that this character used this expression when XYZ would only been invented 10 years later!” etc. I’m positive they didn’t realize how it came off, but still, that was kind of hilarious in its.....obliviousness lol. It was special.
9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?
I do. And I guess I’ve done the full spectrum of ‘fade to black’ to ‘describe every bead of sweat in pearlescent detail’. It really depends on what the fic calls for! I’ve done some I’m quite proud of tbh, but there are others I’d like to go back and have another stab at, just because they felt kinda cookie-cutter.
10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I know of!
11. Have you ever had a fic translated?
There’ve been a couple! I can’t remember which ones specially, but I had some people asking to translate some Breaking Bad ones, and I think a Mag7 one too. I remember someone messaging to ask permission like “We love your fics in Russia!” and that was a very sweet and wild thing to hear.
12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Yes, I wrote one with @yoporkchopsandwiches! Our Victorian opium dens Breaking Bad AU lol. I was just thinking of that recently actually and remembering how fun it was to read what the other wrote! We plotted out most of it together, and then took turns writing chapters or scenes. But of course while writing you come up with other details or ideas, so we’d then present the new chapter to the other with all the new bits added. And it was so fun to read what the other came up with like ‘omg no way didn’t see that coming/good idea!’ and then picking up their idea from there. In that sense it was almost like improv but for writers.
13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?
That I’ve written? I think I’ve had the most fun with Goodnight/Billy, partly for the time period, partly for the dynamic, but mostly for the plausibility. While I really enjoyed writing BrBa, it felt more like it came from enthusiasm for the show, not the central ship lol. Don’t get me wrong, the chemistry and its potential was extremely fun to write in a fic setting, but I don’t find I actually shipped it while watching the show itself. Whereas it’s been nice with Mag7 to write for a ship that’s actually....more believable lol. 
14. What’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Ugh I can’t beLIEVE I have an unfinished fic up on ao3 lol it haunts me. I was sure I was done with Goodnight/Billy, and then early quarantine last year I had a train robbers AU idea, so I posted a couple chapters. But I don’t think my heart was super in it, I was more just messing around with the idea. I don’t want to delete it, but I’m also not super motivated to finish it haha, but we’ll see what happens. But tbh I like the poem summary better than the fic itself:P
15. What are your writing strengths?
Plotting, keeping things moving, and making stories feel visual maybe? They’re almost all movies in my head anyways, so I think I have good instincts for ‘cinematic moments’.
16. What are your writing weaknesses?
I think I’m a little lazy, and also ‘end-product oriented’. In some ways it’s helpful to picture the whole fic before you write it, but sometimes it results in some scenes feeling slightly slapdash because I’m just trying to get them out to move onto the next. Like ‘everyone did everything I wanted to in this scene? Great, next.’ I could stand to ‘stop and smell the roses’ more while I write, and actually see what else I can do to improve a scene.
(also if I use a word once it sticks in my head I end up using it like 5 other times in a scene and don’t notice lol, I need to stop that)
17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
All for it! Depends how it’s done though. I personally find long scenes of dialogue where you have to constantly jump down to the author’s notes for the translations to be distracting. I like when it’s integrated more naturally where actual translations aren’t super important. Like in River Grit, Billy overhears this little exchange between Goodnight and his childhood nanny:
“Ah c’est vrai, mon petit Bonsoir! J’en peux pas le croire!” she cried out and laughed as she embraced Goody. Billy realized with a start that he actually recognized one of the words: ‘Bonsoir’. Goodnight. (insert brief flashback of Goody teaching him the nickname) / “Ma Serafine,” Goodnight said with a laugh. “C’est vrai que tu ne vieillis pas. Tu vas me rendre jaloux, heh?” / Billy had no idea what Goodnight was saying, but he sure as hell recognized Goodnight’s tone for flattery, and it was confirmed when the old woman laughed and smacked his arm.
What they’re actually saying is: “Oh it’s true, my little Goodnight! I can’t believe it!” / “My Serafine, it’s true you never age. You’re going to make me jealous”. But it doesn’t matter because this fic is from Billy’s POV so it’s about how he experiences the language around him, which is why I wouldn’t have included a translation for the reader. If you understand it then it’s a bonus, but the words themselves aren’t really the point! 
18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?
That lil Lord of the Rings fic.
19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
Hmm for Mag7 I’ve always liked River Grit and love how it turned out. I also think Ashes feels very complete as a fic and I liked the flashback format. And while it’s not my favourite fic, in hindsight I’m impressed with the Kingsman football fic and how I had to write about 5 different soccer games and make them all feel different and exciting, and not just some variation of ‘He kicked the ball!’ I’m really pleased with how those sequences all turned out.
La fin! Not tagging anyone this time, but please feel free to do this if you see it! I love when people just take initiative to do these things without waiting for a tag (also please tag me in it if you do, ‘cause I love reading these things lol)
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redinkofshame · 3 years
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 1. How many works do you have on AO3?
17! My favorite number.
2. What’s your total AO3 word count?
178,176. Dang!
3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
@theDuckPond Solavellan slow burn? smlungst, 62,553 words
New Life papae!Solas with lots of smut, 6606 words
Marigolds in the Hanged Man Varrigold! :D Varric/Marigold, 43,527 words
(3.5 is Dreaming With You (Solas x Reader), but I’m only a partial writer on that one so I’m not counting it.)
Labor and Loss papae!Solas with lots of sad, 4097 words
Kirkwall Karaoke f!Fenhawke drunken shenanigans, 7023 words
Wow I wasn’t expecting my karaoke fic to be on this list! And you guys really like your papae!Solas :D
4. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I do, yes, because when I leave comments it gives me anxiety that only seeing them reply fixes and I want to do that for other people. Unfortunately back when I updated every week (lol) I got in the habit of replying to comments when I posted something new... So now when I go a long time without posting a new chapter I leave the comments on read for a long time. Sorry guys!!
5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
Honestly? This Nonsense. (Link is to a long series of messages to @keturagh at 3am, no joke.) 
But, since then, I’ve figured out an alternative ending that’s much happier. I can’t help it. I want happy endings.
6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?
As per #5, all of them lol. The first one that came to mind was Marigolds, but honestly my soulmate au Vhenaslin feels the fluffiest to me. 
And, of course, there’s this one ;) 
7. Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?
I haven’t, not yet :( Like, I like the concept but no combination I’ve thought of has given me even the slightest bit of inspiration.
8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Yep! I received one that was something like “Congrats! You’ve written the most insufferable OC I’ve ever read!!” and it was fucking hilarious because it was on, like, chapter 6? You read 6 chapters about a character you didn’t like and somehow it’s my fault?? lmao
There was another one I can’t remember, too, and twice people have called Elle a bitch. All of these happened to Elle from Duck Pond, so if that’s not a glowing recommendation~
9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?
ROFL yeah that’s why I’m here. Like literally why I joined the fandom. 
Everyone I’ve written is m/f and not particularly kinky but pretty damn explicit. Sometimes I do fade-to-black or gloss over for pacing, but mostly... Yeah. There’s smut. let Solas nut
10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I know of. Sure af hope not.
11. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Nope. At least, not that I know of!
12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Yes! There was a Solas x Reader post on tumblr that people were reblogging and adding a little more too, and I guess that the foreplay went on too long because @keturagh sent it to me like ‘you’re the expert of getting the P in the V!’ and I’ve never written Reader fic before (or since) but who am I to disappoint!! 
Then someone compiled it all and put it on AO3 here. I don’t have a damn clue where my writing begins -- other than I got the P in the V lol. Every once in a while I get a notification of a comment or kudos on it and  every SINGLE time I’m like
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13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?
Very clearly Solavellan. Though I’m also very into Opal/Nik from the Minimum Wage Magic books by Rachel Aaron. I listened to the audiobook because Patrick Weekes shared their reading list on twitter once and it was on there and I’m a HUGE sucker for juxtaposition. Gets me every time. 
I’ve since read uuuhhhh almost everything Rachel Aaron/Bachs has read, and there’s lots of great stuff in there, but MWM is still my favorite series of hers by far. My own personal Couch AU. 
14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Uuhhhh.... So many? Or more like I’m scared I never will, in any case. I started drafting a list of my WIPs and it got... long. I can’t think of any I made a deliberate choice to never finish. There’s only 1 fic that I wrote that I didn’t post.
15. What are your writing strengths?
Dialogue, pacing, and sex~ 
I consider my dialogue my biggest asset as a writer tbh
16. What are your writing weaknesses?
WRITING THE WORDS DOWN and also how do plot?
17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
In the fandom there’s a tendency to write lines in elvhen and then put the translation at the end and yeah no it drives me bonkers. It completely destroys the immersion and pacing for no pay off. I’m not going to scroll down to understand your story. I just read it straight and try to figure out what’s going on based on context. 
I stick with the well-known canon lines that most of us obsessed fans know by heart. I think sometimes I put a translation in there for newcomers, maybe? One time I used a feature on AO3 where you can hover your mouse over the work and it has like a footnote? that you can use to translate. But I immediately stopped bc #1 I don’t know how that works on mobile and #2 it really doesn’t seem like that’s going to work with screen readers. But otherwise I just say ‘they said in elven’ or have the narrator translate it themself for the reader. 
Also, a lot of people use the elvhen translations from that BNF’s project and like... If you WANT him to say ‘I want to paint you with my cum’ then just have the courage to say it straight! 
18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?
lmao Harvest Moon. Yeah. After that was Tamora Pierce (modern girl in Tortall yep). Then was like a 15 year gap until I got frustrated at the slow pace of the romance with this egg in this game so I wanted to see if there was smut... (Cue Googling: Is FanFiction.Net still a thing?)
19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
Oh gosh. Hmm. I love all my girls, but Duck Pond was/is a major work of love. Unlike my short works I really had the chance to explore more in a full length fic, you know?
(Marigolds is also full length but it was my first fic and there’s some spots that I’m not too proud of.)
That’s all the questions but I’m adding:
20. What’s a fic you’re proud of that hasn’t gotten much attention?
because I want an excuse to mention how hard I worked on Kirkwall Noir and how I’m surprised how little readership it’s gotten. It’s Varric! It’s Marigold! It’s super short, unlike most my stuff. Maybe that’s why people don’t like it?
Hmm, I also used a AO3 pen name, but it would still show on my page, right? 
Thank you for the tags, @roguelioness and @thevikingwoman !!  Consider yourself re-tagged so you can answer #20. Also tagging: @blarfkey @broomclosetkink @elveny @bardinhightown @keturagh​ @luzial​ 
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Note
For the fanfic ask meme :) 3, 15, 31
Thanks so much for the questions, hunny!! <3
3. How much do you edit?
Minimum is 1 edit. And that only happens with spur of the moment super short ficlets. I have never posted anything without giving it another editing pass. Which might be because I’m not a native speaker, but honestly I doubt it would be different if I wrote German fic. The only thing where this didn’t apply was writing rp because sometimes you just need to get your next bit out so that your writing partner can write her bit and keep the momentum going. Which is why it’s more difficult to reread my rps ;D
Usually, I edit a lot because I actually like doing it? The magic of minor tweaks making everything (hopefully) better? But it really depends. When I write something longer, over the course of several writing sessions, I usually start getting back into the story by rereading and editing so it’s usually the endings that are edited the least (oops), especially if I get too excited about posting straight away (though I need to get better about that).
And then there is a project like Nature 2.0 with its daunting everything, where I’ve edited the first four chapters and the epilogue sooooo many times because if I can’t get the story rolling, editing is technically still working on the story, right? I’m making progress, right? And I fucking love them, which makes it all the more tragic that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to share them. But ... I’m giving it another go, so who knows. I’ll just have to make sure to give the rest a lot of editing passes, too, so the contrast isn’t too harsh ;D
15. What do you look for in writing dialogue?
I mostly look for the right flow and to get the character’s voices (somewhat) right. It’s definitely the thing where not being a native speaker is detrimental because I’m just not very firm with colloquialisms so I tend to err on the side of caution. Which is why I also fall back on canon established things they say and rely on that maybe a bit too much.
But I also really love writing dialogue? There’s a lot of scenes where dialogue just happens because the characters can’t shut up and I’m just here typing as fast as I can, trying to keep up, and those moments are magical!
A thing I ought to look out for more, though, is to not have characters always say what they mean. My characters are definitely a lot better at communicating than is realistic ;D
31. What do you look for in an ending?
It needs to be satisfying in some way. Maybe that’s something structural, like circling back to the beginning. Or satisfying because the characters resolved their problems (and are together now). Sometimes, it’s satisfying because it’s a new beginning and you know things will go on, even if you’re not there for it (they will be happy, they will continue to explore, ...).
Most of all, it needs to feel like an ending (even if it’s an open one, if that makes sense) instead of “the author ran out of ideas here and now it just petered out”. There’s a great post here somewhere, complaining that in writing you can’t just “fade out” like in a song. The words don’t get smaller and lighter ... they’re there till the end. So you need to make them count.
So yeah, it needs to feel like a good point for things to end.
And obviously that’s always a stylistic/narrative choice because there are no such things as “true” endings (or beginnings) in real life. But narratives are created so you can and have to have a proper ending (see all cancelled tv shows that never got that!).
And I mean, is there anything more satisfying than a good ending (good as in well crafted, not necessarily a happy ending)?
Honestly, I did not know I feel so strongly about endings before answering this question but apparently I do. Though maybe that’s just because I finished my first proper longfic on the weekend and writing that last sentence actually had me tear up a little? Because it felt so satisfying? (I also decided against posting the epilogue I had planned for that because that ending did not feel like a proper ending ... though I’ll post it as a bonus scene)
Ask me stuff
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disdaidal · 3 years
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Fic Writer Questions
Nobody tagged me, I just stole this.
How many works do you have on AO3?
4 fics. I haven’t written a lot I know. But I have more ideas and I want to.
What’s your total AO3 wordcount?
12595.
How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
On AO3, only Harringrove. On Livejournal (and other fanfiction sites), I wrote mainly jrock fanfiction (band rps, yes) and some KieferLou.
What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Well since I only have 4, I can’t do top 5. 😂
It’s Always Been You (drunk Billy, love confession, yay)
Count Harrington (my first fic on AO3, two dorks celebrating Halloween together)
 I Want To See (All Of You) (Steve showing some love for Billy’s scars)
My Pain Brought You To Me (Bills with a migraine, Steve looking after, still a wip ughh)
Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
Yes. Haven’t got many of them and I love getting comments, so I always try to reply back.
What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
I don’t do angsty endings, sorry. I may be a cliché, but I want my boys to have a happy ending.
Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?
I probably did a couple of crossovers back in the jrock fandom, but mostly just pairing members from different bands together. Gotta tell ya, I’m not a huge fan of crossovers in general.
Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Given that English is not my first language, I did get some mean comments on my grammar back in the day. Even when I used beta readers lmao. I think the meanest comment I got was in my own language though. This person came to give me a long-ass comment, basically criticizing my characterization, their actions and well – pretty much everything that just happened to annoy them. I guess it made them feel better about themselves. :) I got so pissed off that I ended up deleting that fic in the end. Thus, I also stopped writing fanfiction for a long time, became overly critical of my stuff.
Do you write smut? If so what kind?
Yup, though none of my AO3 fics have any explicit stuff yet (I plan to write some for that wip though, hehe). But umm… I’ve rp’d Harringrove with another person for almost a year now and we’ve written a lot of smutty scenes together already, so. I guess I’m really into dirty talk. And the boys doing it in all kinds of places, not just the usual bedroom. And sex toys too.
Have you ever had a fic stolen?
As if. xD Please.
Have you ever had a fic translated?
Back when I still used Livejournal, somebody translated one of my ficlets into Italian. <3 I was so honored. I think I still have it saved somewhere.
Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No. I’ve only rp:d.
What’s your all time favorite ship?
Ahh man, I can’t answer this. I currently really love Harringrove, but I’ve had a long history in shipping in many different fandoms so I can’t possibly pick just one. They’ve all been important to me, more or less.
What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Last year when Resident Evil 3 Remake came out, I actually started to write this one Carlos/Jill fic. I got as far as writing chapter two and I had it all planned (for once), and my original plan was making it 6 chapters long. But yeaaahh… who knows, maybe I’ll write it and even publish it some day. Haven’t wanted to put it up because no guarantees that I will ever finish it and don’t want to disappoint people.
What are your writing strengths?
I don’t know. I’d like to say I pay more attention to my grammar these days but that’s not entirely true, because my shit brain keeps malfunctioning and voila – there are missing words and other dumb stuff all across my writing. xD I guess I’m good at rambling and describing stuff? Cause I seem unable to keep things short. Dunno if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
What are your writing weaknesses?
The fact that I get such vivid ideas in my head, but my fingers can’t seem to type that all down, and I get overwhelmed by it. And I still ramble a lot.
What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
Umm… If there are a couple of lines there and there, I guess it’s okay. But if there’s a lot of it, I’ll lose my interest very quickly. This thing happened quite regularly in the jrock fandom (people mixing Japanese with English) and it became confusing to read, especially if you weren’t familiar with those words/phrases yourself. So I’d advise to keep it at minimum if you fic is going to be written mainly in English. But yeah, I mean that’s just my opinion (don’t kill me pls).
What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?
This is going to be a little embarrassing to admit but when I was 14/15, I was very much into this one band from my country and sort of wrote a self-insert story with them. xD But that’s all I’m gonna say about it rofl.
What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
Out of the ones that I’ve published on AO3… Probably My Pain Brought You To Me. I wrote it specifically for someone else, so I got very invested in it. I’ve also got most comments on it and some people actually subscribed it too. So, I really intend to finish it.
I’m tagging @gothyringwald, @lazybakerart and @wingedbears because your fics have given me so much life recently. ♥ But I welcome other writers to take this too and tag me into it, so I can read your responses. :3
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Heya! One of your writing fans here, i’m just curious. How long did it take for you to write a chapter? (Cause dear god each an one of ‘em are 15-20k minimum, I’m genuinely impressed) and how do you come up with the plot? (at least for TPWP) Did you already map it out from start to finish or just type out whatever seems right and hope for the best— a.k.a wing it?
P.s. I highkey love it when your fic (or any fic in general) packed with an absolute shit-ton of words. It forces me to lay down and get *comfortable* before reading. Cause I know it’s going to be one hell of a ride. And it did, every single chapter of your fic. Well done m8!
Hi!!! Thanks so much for the ask! I’ll separate my answer in a few parts, to be more clear.
1. That depends on the chapter, honestly, ha. Most chapters took me a day or two to write, with the longer ones taking about 3-4 days. I can generally write about 10K a day when I’m in the mood, so writing a 15-20k chapter can take anywhere from a day and a half to two days. I wrote all of TPWP in the span of a month and a half, and the entire story totals about 375k words. I just… I get bored with things easily, you know? So when I get invested, I try my hardest to get the entire thing done as quick as possible to prevent me from dropping it and forgetting about it completely. I also am a very verbose person, which anyone who follows my Tumblr can tell, ha. I wrote the first part of TPWP while on winter break from work, but the second half I did while working, which was a bit trickier, but not much. I was doing virtual after school teaching then and had a lot of downtime, ha. Also! I tend to write in my phone while lying on my bed in the dark with my glasses off, so I’m all comfy and things, ha. It does cramp my arm and hand after a while, but it’s worth it I feel. :-)
2. I wing it, honestly. With TPWP, I had no plot at all when I started. This happens sometimes, where I just have the desire to write but have no idea of what to write, and figure that if I write enough words down, something will come to me. I knew that I wanted to have a story about Taka and Mondo while at school, absolutely NO killing games whatsoever, and to have Taka be anxious. That was the extent of my “planning.” The ideas and plot came after, which is why the first few chapters are a bit meandering and have more tropes from other fics I’ve read. It wasn’t until chapter 13-ish that I truly began having an idea of where to go with the story. Before that it was mostly… idea to idea, you know?
Also, I kind of hate planning things, ha. Mapping them out, writing my ideas down… I hate it, and a lot of it comes from the fact that I don’t ever tend to follow those plans. I am a very kinesthetic writer, where I prefer to just… write as I go and see what happens. Sometimes I’ll daydream about a chapter before writing it, but that often frustrates me since I forget the details about what I was day dreaming and do something completely different when I go to write it down. And I could, in theory, write down my ideas from the day dream, but that doesn’t work well for me since if I’m going to be writing the ideas down, why not just write the whole chapter??? Ha. I also tend to get inspired while writing and want to go down a certain path, but if I have this elaborate plan, then I can’t do that, can I? With TPWP, I had a loosey goosey idea of where to go, and followed it leisurely. When other plot points came to mind while writing, I followed them, all while having my end game in mind. Just… I took a bunch of detours.
Honestly, a lot of my writing style comes from the fact I do like day dreaming a lot, where I create tons of stories in my head about this or that. It’s why my writing is very informal and reads more like thoughts someone is thinking than a professionally written story. It’s just what comes naturally to me. I write kind of like I think, and I think a lot like I talk. So it’s kind of just… word vomit, ya know? But I happen to have a story to tell while doing it.
3. I’m glad you like the chapter length! When chapters get super long I get a bit nervous, since I know it can get annoying to be scrolling down a page forever, especially if the page accidentally refreshes or something, ha. But it does comfort me to know that people do like it. :-D
Anyway, thanks for the ask!! I’m glad you like the story and I hope you have a great day! Or night! Or afternoon! :-D
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35 Q’s for Fanfic Writers
From this post
I’m having a shitty, rude alter-y, crap night so I’m just going to answer all of these to distract myself and focus and to not bother anybody just making my own post and putting it under the cut btw, notice to anyone not aware: since I’m moving I won’t likely be updating anything until I’m done doing so.
1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing?  (No downplaying yourself!) 3/5? Could use more editing and description and can be weirdly paced.
2. Why do you write fanfiction? Because it’s better than focusing on pain 24/7. 
3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? I don’t seem to have a specific narrative voice that people recognize but I’m pretty proud of mostly organic dialogue. 
4. Are there any writers that inspire you? as a rule i never look up to anybody for inspiration but there’s some stuff in my ao3 bookmarks I fawn over.
5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of? Right now, none of them. It changes normally, anyway. If get too proud then I’d get my ass kicked by RSD if someone didn’t like it so it’s safer this way
6. What element of writing do you find comes easily? Dialogue. 
7. What element of writing do you struggle with most? Organic description, poetic language kind of stuff. I can paint a scene but I’m not so great with bring out out a feeling with description alone.
8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write? Janus and Virgil are probably tied. They both have things I struggle with but I don’t have to go back and do much adjusting of language and tone with them. Though admittedly my Virgil is signifigantly more foul-mouthed than canon and I tend to prefer pre-AA feral asshole Virgil.
9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write? Patton. I write him the least, so people can probably tell. I love Patton, I really do, but it’s so hard to keep away from fanon Patton. 
10. What’s your favorite genre to write for? Angst w/ H/C obviously. Or if you’re talking about regular book genres, Fantasy. I fucking love fantasy world building.
11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most? Trauma. I blame Daeram. As if Ayri isn’t a giant Angst Demon.
12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about. Slopes. I’m really into it. I’ve got three one shots running right now. Patrons can read the first part of the unnamed cat remus one, there’s also a coffeeshop au tropey nonsense one like eglantine & lycoris, but Slopes is addiction angst. Mmmmm. Virgil is addicted to coke and alcohol and will listening to his friends even be in time? Who knows, especially not me, but there’s already over 30k. 
13. First fandom you ever wrote for? InuYasha. Or was it Harry Potter? Or shit, The Blue Sword? Fuck, I’ve been writing for a long time, I really have no idea.
14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for? Sanders Sides. The characters are the perfect dynamic for writing since they exist in balance of each other and the popular, easy to project on archetypes featured are incredibly fun to do basically any scenario with.
15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for? Weird storywise? Kingdom Hearts? I can’t even follow the plot anymore. Weird Fandomwise? Sanders Sides. Its simultainiously the fluffiest and angstiest nonsense at the same time.
16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)? Vampires. Gay ones. Gay Vampires. I also love calm tol and angy smol.
17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for. Any tropes that normalize incredibly toxic behaviour or tropes that are inherantly ableist, but I can’t think of any.
18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written? Incorrigible continues to be complete nonsense.
19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between? AUs. I mean closest I even have is canon-divergence other than a single short.
20. Gen fic or shippy stuff? I like it when there is gay nonsense along with a plot that is treated as more important than the relationship the most. But I like both. There’s more shippy stuff in tss so i read more shipping action by default.
21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!) Anxceit/Sleepxiety, but in general, give me darksides or give me death/j
22. Do you listen to anything while you write? Almost everything I write has a special playlist I listen to to help me write it, but otherwise I listen to my Nyan playlist, an alter is picking the tunes, or a voidfam playlist. I never have music off. When my internet is down I just listen to the songs I own or Anxiety’s theme on loop.
23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas? I’m fine with all of them. I love working with prompts but I tend to deviate. And I’ve never done a challenge since I can’t do deadlines and bad things happen bingo never sent me a card and I applied three times.
24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works? I am generally multi-chaptered stuff, but I’ve been working on a few one-shots lately that are much longer than most one shots.
25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them! I was originally thinking of doing some little 13-year-old Dreaming!Roman (y’know, the one with a job) shorts but it turns out I just had an alter of that little bastard and that’s why I inexplicably know more about him then I ever even considered. I still might do them after Dreaming is done. But that’s paced so slowly who knows when that might happen. Otherwise I put stuff in my notes and just do shorts of it if I’m like “oh you know what’s cool???” but since I can’t daydream maybe this question doesn’t apply to me.
26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try? I want to do more autism stuff, and I’ve had it demanded a few times, but I’m scared of being that explict about it for some reason. Possibly because I might be, possibly because I’m scared of doing it wrong even though I’ve accidentally coded multiple characters autistic. I’m scared of explictly tagging them as such, too. 
27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received? That I can remember off the top of my head? I’m going with one from @a-genz-with-trauma-and-kins. It really helped me out and was just so kind and literally the best christmas gift I got in 2020. 
28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing? I can handle it alright but Daeram is a little fucking pissbaby about it. Constructive criticism helps people get better, so I appreciate it. I can’t handle critism that is incomplete, though. “i just don’t get it” or “I don’t know I don’t like it” kind of things. If I can’t understand the why to fix it then things get out of control. And then I spiral and RSD for like four days minimum. If it came from an anon or a troll, too, It might not bother me for as long. Things that are just like “this is shit and you should feel bad” just make me laugh. Couldn’t even bother to read it long enough to insult me proper? I don’t care.
29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out? I have a few times. Mostly in shorts and prompts, I think. I think they turned out okay. They’re not particularly inspired or anything.
30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst? Depends on my mood. Am I triggered? give me the fluff. Am I vibin? Angst. 
31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them! Fuck, fam, no, I can’t, I have so many. I have multiple original stories and some of them have very large casts and like holy fuck. Or do you mean in Sanders Sides fandom? Um, Morgan and Thorn in PD. The lesbian and her himbo dynamic. I love them. They’re dorks. Morgan is strong person with sharp tongue and soft romantic heart and Thorn is just so kind and so dumb and so exciteable he’s like a puppy. They were just filler characters and I got attached to them. Felton even gets redemption for being an ass later in PD, like oof i never intended to include so much OC content, especially for names I just picked randomly. 
32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less. nope I’m doing all of them because these are fun plea for my new self: 2 gay vampires, 4 humans, 1 braincell dreaming while I wake: trauma child needs therapy and so do you break: big oof, oh dragons, oh why, go virgil go rebuild: virgil is so not okay there’s more virgil to deal painful death: gay teens drink themselves into a new religion stargazing: whoops we didn’t realize people actually cared whole castle: everyone will throw down for kid!patton, even you incorrigible: found family with a shot of psychological horror and crack dangerous instincts: wholesome crime syndacite action  slopes: addict gets mugged and thinks that’s just fine with him conflagration: logan avoids everything ever like a champ cat!remus: bored fae shifts gay pining from one person to another  caffeine cyptids: caffinated gay panic goes faster than regular gay panic eglantine & lycoris: more tropes than you can toss a shoe at storytime: overpowered virgil also overreacts literally always
33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process? an alter and I write together and I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, what I’m writing about, or even what year it is. I often don’t even remember what I wrote. There’s no outline. I have an idea and I pick things at random for it. There’s just notes and an evil gleam in a demon’s eye. The only reason I know more than readers is because I take a long time to edit and some of these stories have fucking alters up in my head who can tell me things. Daeram tells me nothing. The writing demon supposedly has all this knowledge but I have absolutely no clue because he does not talk to me, he just fronts and slams out 9k in a few hours or we cofront to write and I’m like “oh no she didn’t” while typing 
34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of. i’m fond of the entire painful death series and I tried to find something I really liked without spoilers in stargazing and I couldn’t so here’s a random thing from incorrigble: “So, what do you do with your friends?” Patton continued on with a megawatt smile. “Grand larceny,” Virgil deadpanned and glared at Patton, who was taken aback. Remy and Andy just broke out laughing while Virgil tentatively sipped his still-too-hot-cocoa. 
35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!  slopes my dudes slopes i have learned so much about cocaine! like wow! I thought for a minute it was going to end with MCD around 30k but it swtiched from whump to hurt/comfort and I still don’t know if it’s going to be MCD but look at that funky little coke/alcohol addict go, it’s a medical wonder he’s alive! It’s not like there’s what seems to be a little talked about interaction between alcohol and cocaine that causes a toxic chemical to build up in the liver which can result in liver failure and sudden death at basically any moment! Which is part of why it may result in MCD but this time no ghosts! maybe it’ll be h/c with whump elements or maybe it’ll be whump with h/c elements we can’t know for sure
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dehydratedpool · 3 years
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hi!! so i saw a couple other writers on here do this (the one i remember is @soldouthaz lol hi) and i thought it would be fun to do even tho i didn’t get tagged [aka, i do what i want >:)] ((also ps sorry this is late))
2020 was an incredibly rough year for me, which made writing/creating even harder. soooo here’s my self evaluation on the dreadful year lol;
1. number of stories posted in 2020: 5
2. total word count: 133,496 wOaH
3. list of works published:
hath made thee a sinner
there’s blood on my tongue
my beastly (currently on hold, going through a rewrite/re-plan lol)
i’m so tired
warm
4. work you are most proud of (and why):
i would have to say “hath made thee a sinner”. it took me FOREVER to write, mostly because 1) i wanted to get my own coming out story right, i wanted to share my experience in a way that also made it a good read, and 2) i was writing about three sensitive topics; Christianity, physical violence and coming out of the closet, and i wanted to be sure i didn’t get those things wrong. louis and harry’s coming out in the fic slightly relates to my own, but i wanted it to be relatable to others who’ve gone through the same thing. ((fun fact: the speech harry makes is 90% copied from my own coming out post on Facebook LMFAO))
5. work you are least proud of (and why):
it’s not that i hate “my beastly”, i just wish i started it’s execution better. it’s been an idea of mine for several years, one i started writing on wattpad and then abandoned for whatever reason. i have yet to complete it, and i wanna go back and re-write the entire thing, focus more on character development and world building (which i feel are lacking severely in my beastly). i also want to change the god-awful name that 15 year old me thought was a good idea.
6. a favorite excerpt of your writing:
i have a lot of favorites, but this snippet from “there’s blood on my tongue” was a fun little bit to write. it was kind of comic relief during an uncomfortable scene/chapter:
A loud bang on the door awakened Louis from his thoughts. He watched as Ralph walked over to the door, “Probably my Roger Taylor lookalike of a landlord demanding I pay rent a day early.”
When he opened the door, none other than Lindsey Allen barged through the barely filled apartment, her eyes red, “You!”
Louis swallowed, “Hi?”
“Don’t “hi” me, you little shit,” Lindsey growled, “How the fuck are you so relaxed, so calm right now?”
“How did you find my apartment?” Ralph questioned as Lindsey vibrated with anger.
7. share or describe a fave comment you received:
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this comment from “there’s blood on my tongue” SENT ME. i don’t get comments often so when i do it’s always so exciting and i love reading and replying to everyone. honestly, every comment i get always warms my heart, they’re all my favorites, but this one definitely made my day when i saw it ♡
8. a time when writing was really, really hard:
tw // sexual assault, mental illness, PTSD
like i mentioned earlier, this year was a rough one. i got sexually assaulted on a tinder date in january 2020 (i was struggling with accepting that i’m a lesbian and decided to go out with a guy who i thought was nice), and in october 2020 i was coerced into sex with a guy who was trying to turn me straight. so ... those two things were like the cherry on top of an already shitty year.
after the january incident, i admitted myself into a psychiatric hospital after not having been back for 7 years. i was diagnosed with PTSD (along with my other issues i was already aware of lol) and it’s definitely caused a bump in my life.
to answer the question, writing the smut in “there’s blood on my tongue” and “i’m so tired” was incredibly difficult for me. i would get flashbacks while writing a scene, have panic attacks, and delete and rewrite in a vicious cycle until i wrote the bare minimum requirements of smut without hurting myself too badly, haha. i’ve never had an issue with writing smut until now, and i’ve been working on getting better at it and becoming comfortable with the idea of sex/smut again.
9. a scene or character you wrote that surprised you:
i cant say that anything i wrote surprised me, and to be honest, i’m a little disappointed about that. i write what i’m comfortable with, what i know i’m good at, and i would like to explore different tropes and au’s this new year. i wanna get out of my comfort zone and take risks in my writing in 2021
10. how you grew as a writer:
i’ve definitely grown in how i write romantic relationships/smut. when i’m not writing fanfiction, i’m writing historical fiction that doesn’t involve romance. i’m not perfect at it yet, but i’m getting there !!
11. how do you hope to grow this year?
as mentioned in previous answers, i’d like to get more comfortable with writing smut. it’s not that i don’t want to write smut and i’m forcing myself to and thus causing unnecessary pain to myself; it’s as if doing so is helping me heal from my trauma— and it’s FUN to write !
12. who was your greatest positive influence as a writer?
i would have to say anyone who ever read and commented and gave kudos to any of my work ♡ comments and love keep me going and make me excited to share more with the fandom :D
13. did anything from real life show up in your writing?
absolutely! i think that tends to happen whether you intentionally mean to or not. “hath made thee a sinner” was my coming out story with a dash of fiction, i wrote the beginning scenes of “warm” (the descriptions of the night time) based on my time in NYC, and so many other tiny little things. it’s actually kind of fun to add those little easter eggs that no one but myself will get haha
14. any new wisdom you can share with other writers:
PLAN. YOUR. STORY. making plot points has helped me immensely as a writer. i used to free write everything but it made me overwhelmed after a while and i would abandon the wip. by planning out your story, it helps things go smoothly, and it’ll be easier to catch any plot holes you may have. it doesn’t have to be heavily detailed; in fact, i don’t like to add too much detail in mine since i usually think of little things to add as i’m writing ! whether you’re an experienced writer or new to it, planning things out is essential, in my opinion.
15. projects you’re looking for to this year:
i really really really wanna be apart of the BLFF this year! i cant think of other projects that happen throughout the year at the moment, but i wanna join as many as i can !!
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thank you for reading this, this was a fun way to pass time at work lol. i’m supposed to tag other writers but idk if i really have any writer friends here so just do it if you wanna and tag me so i can read yours !! ♡
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missmaxime · 4 years
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Ahem let's try this again - 14, 23, 27, and 43!
Yes thank you for these!💕💕 And also for these:  I think you've answered all the questions already - so I'm gonna come up with some of my own! What's one non-Brio pairing that you'd love to write? What's one fic you'd love to write but know you won't? What's one fun fact about any of your fics? What's one non-Brio pairing that you'd love to write? Okay, so yesterday I woke up in this ongoing dream where Rio and Joan Holloway were dating in Mad Men AU and I can’t shake that pairing off (and, y’know, the last time something like this happened I wrote Beth/Turner). So there’s a chance that I might write that one in the near-ish future. While I don’t think I will write a main pairing not involving either Beth or Rio, there’s a few side-pairings I might write into fics someday. Like I’d like to write Annie/Amber because that sounds like all the fun and drama. Another one, for a very non-outlined, non-existent ISYTT follow up is Marcus/Emma, even though it’s again about Jane. What's one fic you'd love to write but know you won't? When we all did the Fake Title Meme, I got this one from @foxmagpie I think. And while I still like the set-up, I’m not really into writing teens. But then again, every time I tell myself I won’t write something, I end up doing it anyway at one point. It’s a pretty good incentive actually. But I don’t see it happening soon-ish, because I already have a lot of WIPs.
Never is a Promise Beth and Rio met in their teens/early twenties at a holiday or summer camp - Rio’s single and Beth and Dean are on a break. When they parted they’d told each other they’d keep in touch, but all kinds of circumstances prevent them from following up on that. Years later, when Beth’s divorced, she finds a stack of letters Rio wrote her in the garage, that Dean managed to hide from her. His final letter says something like ‘Never is a promise, and I’ll always be waiting for you’, and Beth sets out to find Rio again.  
What's one fun fact about any of your fics? I’ll give a few about some: - Before I wrote Ain’t No Sunshine, I was telling myself I couldn’t really do angst and kink, and then I got the idea of writing that pairing and I did exactly that. - I really thought I See Your True Technicolors was going to be this fun weird thing nobody would read but the prompter, and hopefully at least they’d be happy with the result. Now that blew up! - Originally I intended for The Girlfriend Experience to be a full Pretty Woman AU, but it ended up being a wildly different story. There’s still a few bits and pieces in it, like the shopping scene (even if that’s a Rio POV, I was kicking myself over that so much!!) and the assault scene (I really played that down in the fic compared to the movie), and the price negotiation was a little inspired by the movie, but even more by the Rio/Beth negotiation over Eddie. 
ACTUAL QUESTIONS from the list under the cut:
14. Do you have a personal word minimum that you hold yourself too? Why or why not?
No, absolutely not. I do like chapters being roughly the same length, but I don’t mind if it’s under 2k off (my chapters are usually on the longer side, so it’s not that much in comparison). Since I don’t outline every single scene, it’s never a dead given how many words will make up a scene or a fic for me. For the Reality Tv AU I’m starting to write I think I will aim for chapters to be around 4-5K, just because I personally like reading (at least) that length. When I read other people’s fic who post like 2K chapters a week, I can easily skip 2-3 weeks just to read more in one go. So I would like to give an audience the amount I would like to read. 23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write? LIKE YOU DON’T ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER TO THIS LAUREN!! It’s obviously fake-dating. It’s my all-time favorite trope ever. I love to write it, and to read it. There’s just so much space for comedy, yearning, UST, bed-sharing, banter. It’s got potential for everything I love. 27. Do you like to give your readers some warning of what might be coming or just slap them in the face with content at random? I do warn in the tags for future events I think might trigger someone (and also ask people to tell me if they feel like I didn’t do that enough). But I don’t tease a twist or something in my Author’s Notes. Especially for a fic like The Girlfriend Experience, I was very deliberately choosing my tags to still warn, but not give away the twist in that fic. I don’t think the impact would come across if I already teased it beforehand. 43. Talk about a positive experience with fanfiction or the fanfiction community that you will always remember.
Back in the days, like between 2005 – 2010, I was a member of a very close-nit (like 15 people) Harry Potter RPG forum. I had been involved with fandoms before, but I was super young and most people in those fandoms were 25-35 back then. And I never really had an opportunity to really make friends online, I was like orbiting around them, sometimes making some Ava’s or other artwork. But on that board we were all between like 14-18, and it’s the first time we didn’t just bond over the fandom, but also wrote together and created. This was MSN Messenger time, so we were in a group chat, but also discussed creatively which storyline we were going to play out, in between bonding over typical teen troubles and just our personal life. We mostly wrote our RPG, but we also started writing fanfic. And it was a super helpful and kind experience, because we knew each other so well that everyone could point out both good and bad parts about the fic, without there being hard feelings.
When we got older and went our own ways the forum died down. We had a brief revival, but the RPG is officially dead (the board that hosted the site is completely gone), but I still keep in touch with a few members on the board from time to time. It’s pretty fun to see what the people are doing in their real life now that you met fifteen years ago on a HP board. The GG fandom hasn’t even existed that long, and I haven’t been a part of it for even half of it. But hopefully I can feel a similar way about this one if it comes to an end.
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thesunnyshow · 4 years
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Name: Li
Age: 15
Writing Blog URL(s): @meraki-mark​
What fandom(s) do you write for? NCT! Formerly EXO.
Nationality: Chinese-American 
Languages: English and basic Chinese 
Star Sign: Virgo
MBTI: ISTJ
Favorite color: Black and blue
Favorite food: Ramen 
Favorite movie: Thoroughbreds or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Favorite ice cream flavor: Chocolate!
Favorite animal: Owls 
Coffee or tea? What are you ordering? 
Coffee and a Mocha Frappuccino 
Dream job (whether you have a job or not)
A realistic choice would be something to do with biochemistry writing/research, but something unconventional in my situation would be a fiction writer or a music producer.
Go-to karaoke song
Can’t sing, but if I do I usually sing anything from musicals with my friends. 
If you could have one superpower, what would you choose? 
Invisibility or time/space jumping. 
If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose? 
I would choose the Renaissance Era because of the explosion of creativity that occurred. 
If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you? 
Maybe parts of it. I would find more creative outlets and grow as a musician and I would appreciate the effort my parents put into making sure I could learn guitar. 
Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken? Um, I think I would rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses, because a big chicken could poke my eyes out. 
If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been?
I would be a side character that had a strangely specific backstory that the movie doesn’t get into but it is clearly implied. I would probably be there to be the total cynic and judge everyone.
Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures? Of course! How could there just be us? Anything is possible in my mind. 
Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know? 
I have owned an assorted collection of musical instruments. Currently I have three guitars. I used to have a keyboard, clarinet, and steel drum (of course a recorder since I feel like most people had one from elementary school.)
When did you post your first piece? 
End of December back in 2018.
Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why?
I write a combo of lots of different genres (fluff/angst/humor). For shorter works it’s usually only fluff or angst, but I find it hard to confine a work to one genre. If there are multiple genres it adds layers to a story and I like to try to make stories as dimensional as possible.
Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc? 
Currently only member x reader.
Why did you decide to write for Tumblr? 
I loved writing and I didn’t really have a “thing” to write about so fanfiction would combine writing and the groups/people I loved. I was on Quotev for a while and I figured there would be a wider audience on Tumblr.
What inspires you to write? 
I’m inspired by everyday things that happen to me, friends, or family. Movies and music also come in handy. I actually have two works that I’m working on based off of movies. 
What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most? 
I like writing angst the most and I swear I’m addicted to best friends and high school au’s probably because I can relate the most to it. 
What do you hope your readers take away from your work?
I hope they can feel something. I hope they can see the underlying themes of joy and heartache that some of my works have. As long as they feel like they got something out of the work then that is enough for me. 
What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively? 
I take a break to clear my brain and just get away from it. I play guitar or read a book. If it lasts for more than a few days I just let it sit and come back to it when I feel like I have some good material to add to it, or if it’s just that one work I try to work on another one.
What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful? 
I like either “goodbye” or “too fast too slow” they’re both Mark works. I like “goodbye” since it was a concept of telling a story backwards and it was fun for me to write. I liked “too fast too slow” because I feel like I got the mutual feeling of love and caring between the characters right. My most successful is “catch me if i fall” another Mark work with the Spider-Man concept. The people love goofy Spider-Man!Mark. 
Who is your favorite person to write about? 
I like writing for all of them equally. Some come easier than others, but I enjoy writing for all of them since they all have different personalities I can try to portray. 
Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose?
I think there are very minor differences because I know some writers write members exactly as they portray their personalities in public. So for fanfiction I guess you already have a personality to build off of while for originals you have to make your own personality from scratch. I personally like changing up the personalities, but I do have that blueprint if I wanted it. When I write original pieces the point of view is usually different and not in second person. Otherwise it’s still writing and building a story. 
What do you think makes a good story? 
I think it really depends on what the writer wants to get across to the reader. Whether it’s the emotional rollercoaster they wrote, character development throughout the work, the pacing to keep the reader interested, or even just the dialogue or descriptions keeping the reader engaged. Good is subjective and if the writer can get the right message or the message they wanted across to the reader I think that’s a “good” story. 
What is your writing process like? 
Spontaneous and sporadic. I can come up with ten ideas all at once and just let them sit there for ages. When I get into writing I do write in scene order. I don’t write down an outline, I just usually have one mapped out in my head beforehand. I do bare minimum proofreading, oops, but other than that very simple steps. 
Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story? 
I have thought about it. I’m not sure though. I wouldn’t know which one to build upon.
What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand? 
I like most tropes if you hand me a work and it has some random trope I would probably read it. I’m not a fan of yandere, but other than that I would read any. 
How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you? 
I used to think it didn’t mean much, but when a couple of my works flopped (oof) I felt bad and missed the little tags in reblogs or at least a like or two. I saw a post about writers writing for them, but writers post it for others to enjoy reading it as much as they did writing it. I stand by that. I will always love writing, but I want to hear what others think of it and that’s why I post them.If someone just comments or reblogs and puts something in the tags saying that they loved it, that’s enough for me. I’m a minimalist that way. 
What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)? 
Just hearing people say they liked it or general encouragement from my mutuals. I love talking to other writers and getting to know them. 
Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged? 
Yes! Just because it’s about someone who is 2D in comic books or in real life like actors or singers doesn’t mean it’s any less of a piece of written work.
Do you think art can be a medium for change? 
Of course. Art, let it be music, paintings, dance, writings, so on and so forth, can open a person’s eyes to all the possibilities of the world. The way someone perceives a work of art can be different from another and I think that causes great discussions. Art will always expose people to new ways of thinking and new ways to see the world.
Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself? 
I used to. I’ve started a series, got through two chapters and then put it on hold and then discontinued it. While it was in limbo I felt bad because I knew people really liked it so I wanted to write it. Now, that same series is sitting discontinued until I can find motivation and feel like I’m writing it for me. So currently no, not anymore. 
Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times? 
Well, maybe. I’m not sure. My works aren’t really that cryptic. Maybe with emotions that characters are feeling because I’m not very good at descriptions. Otherwise, I don’t think so. 
Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr? 
Oh no. I would rather die than them find out. They know I write, just not for Tumblr.
What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers? 
Thank you for putting up with my sporadic updates and random works. I’m very inconsistent so thank you for sticking around and having enough faith in my writing to follow me.
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there? 
Just start writing whatever! It doesn’t have to be the next Charles Dickinson novel, as long as you like it then that’s enough! You may think it sounds corny or awkward at first but as you write more you’ll find a style and become comfortable. There are so many writers and most of them are always willing to help if you just ask! 
Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr? 
So far no. I’ve met some pretty great people and I haven’t come across any problems yet. 
Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey? 
Well there’s @jaemericano​​, Gigi, who was my first mutual and has stuck around for such a long time. @neowrld​​ who gives killer reviews of my works. Now I’ve met @jensungf​​, Leyna, the best person in the world to talk to. She reached out when I was struggling with tumblr tags and then the conversation picked up from there about everything and anything. @ohnoyoonoh​​, Cayla, for starting our own personal foreign swaggers and being so nice to me when you first reached out, and always being so understanding about everything. @neocitybynight​​, sunny, who I can yell about Meteor Garden about with and I love it when she bounces ideas off of me and then we discuss our favorite types of noodles. Then to the rest of my mutuals who I have met on servers and nets.
Pick a quote to end your interview with
“In a time of destruction, create something” - Maxime Hong Kingston 
BONUS: K-POP CONFIDENTIAL
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