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sugareey-makes-stuff · 6 months

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20 questions for fic writers!

Ooo, this look fun! Thanks for the tags, @lumosatnight (x) and @anaxandria-writes (x) ! This is going to be interesting since I've only started writing again a few years ago, so I'll do what I can to make this writing-centric. This is also probably going to be rambly AF, so you've been warned. And onwards!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

118 (39 are fics, and the rest is all art). That number will change because it's spooky season, and there are definitely some fun things being posted for that very soon.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

91,266, but if you exclude a couple of collabs where I only provided art, then it's down to 68,276. I have a few works that are hidden and haven't been "officially" released yet because these are the WIP text fics I've talked about before, and they need more TLC!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter (31)

Teen Wolf (8)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Little did I know [HP: Perciver, T, 2.5k]

There's a guiding light [HP: Perciver, G, 1.5k]

Love me like that [HP: Perciver, T, 2.5k]

Help Me Out [TW: Sterek, E, 3.3k]

It's Enough For Now [TW: Sterek, G, 300 words w/ art]

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

You know what's funny? I had to take a break from answering for quite a while, and I just started replying back to comments to most recent works yesterday. So, progress! I really do want to show some appreciation to folks who have read and viewed my work, especially across multiple fandoms and ships over the last couple of months. The multi-fandom life is a tricky one to balance, but I'm hoping I can reply to a batch here or there when I have a chance to eventually get caught up with the backlog. If I haven't replied back yet, please note that I have read your lovely comment, but I just haven't had a chance to string together some words to say thank you! I cherish each and every comment I get, especially if I've made someone smile or their day a little brighter with my creations.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I've actually been in a whumpy phase lately, but I posted up The Walls Came Crashing Down (TW: Sterek, T, 4,242 words) maybe a couple of weeks ago because it's a Bloody Mary fic, and there was a near-death experience included. There's also so many terrible feels, crying and trauma after that happens. It's hopeful but yeah. I've been wanting make something like this for a long time, so I'm glad I finally did because it was such a fun and challenging fic to write (while keeping it at that exact word count :P).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Navy and Gold (HP: Perciver, G, 900 words) for Cruel Summer Fic fest, because I was given a song that had a lot of fluffy family vibes, and that's usually what I don't write? But I turned it into a wedding ficlet, and I think I surprised myself because it came out really well. Especially in such few words!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten some weird comments on both fic and art. More of the kind where someone wanted or expected a certain thing, or they were questioning that something was missing. Anyway, some friends have defended my honour or else tell me that those commenters weren't worth it, so I'm glad to have that kind of support!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Once upon a time I did not write PWPs. Ever since I came out of writing hibernation, PWPs have definitely slipped in. That's how I actually started writing more when I challenged myself to write drabbles for a smut workshop for Kinkuary. Now, I love writing sexy and kinky microfics and drabbles because they're short, quick and punchy. I've recently graduated to writing a couple of one shots (and heyyy, I'm actually working on a couple for Kinktober as we speak ;D). Kinkuary and Kinktober are usually my inspirations to get things written out anyway, but I'm open to other challenges too. There's a reason why A Study in Kink exists as an HP fic and art series. At this rate, I may need to make a new series for Sterek Sexy Stories. The amount of Sterek smut ideas I have kicking around in WIPs rn is kinda insane. But also, porn with feelings. <333

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not in the traditional sense. The most I've done is add in fandom references into a fic. So for Teen Wolf, I've been adding in little elements from Supernatural, especially if I want to bring a certain type of lore or big bad into the scene. But that's it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Thankfully, I haven't. Then again, I've only written short things these past few years (and I'm more concerned about art theft, considering how much of my art is out in the world).

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, I have not!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, I have! @crazybutgood and I got to know each other when we were paired up last year for the Owlery Exchange: To Days to Come and wrote I Just Want You To Know (Drarry, T, 3.5k) together. Epistolary fics are awesome btw! My Harry had a lot of fun bantering and bonding with her Draco, and I love how we didn't even know we were writing to each other until partners were revealed, and it was time for betaing and editing. That's how we became fast friends, which was totally meant to be! :D

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

That's just...I like a lot of ships, okay? I'm a multi-shipper and a multi-fandomer, so that's a tough question!! Hang on tight...this is going to be a long ass explanation. I'm not going to rank them, but I'll list three ships that have impacted my life in a huge way. I'll start with Sterek, because I've only gotten to know them for a little over a year. But Sterek was a blessing to discover at such a shitty time. Literally one year ago, I felt burnt out, like I was losing my muse, and I was recovering from COVID. Everything in RL kind of sucked. But when I got curious and started reading Sterek fics late one night, I was sold. Sterek helped me pause and get to know myself again as a creator, reader and a human. I really needed that, so the timing couldn't have been any better. I latched on to Sterek quickly and tightly because I see some of Stiles' and Derek's traits in me. They're also complicated and deserve Nice Things, and I can relate so, so much. That's why it's been easy to make art and fic for them. Their potential is endless because Sterek made my love for supernatural and spooky things deeper. Every time I write or draw for them, I can do it with ease and clarity. Everything just comes together and works. And it's so satisfying! Perciver is a rare pair I owe so much to. They're the ship that gave me the confidence to write again and they changed the way I currently draw. I think drawing Percy and Oliver helped me understand them as characters, and that translated into writing because I already had visuals. I know them in and out, and I made the fic series, Where do we go from here? because I believed in them. I wanted to share stories that haven't been told yet, but I wanted them to be real. And the fact I've figured out how to bring Perciver to life through art and fic has an amazing journey. They've given me the practice I needed to improve my crafts. It's because of Perciver that I've become a better artist and writer because I finally found my groove. And gosh, it's nice to have a well-established style. I will love these boys forever because they may be opposites but gods, do they go so well together. They get each other, they're each other's rocks, and it's beautiful. Of course, Drarry was my first ship I fell in love with. I still love them to pieces, and it's because of these two that I learned how to write and draw in the first place. I've been able to make some amazing friendships with other folks because of these two, and I cherish that a lot. Also, Drarry was why I entered fandom and the fest scene, and why I've stuck around for so long. What the creators in this community have made year after year is immaculate. And all the fics I've binged over the years got me through some of the hardest times of my life, especially when I was dealing with family issues, school and just growing up. I cannot imagine what life would have been like without Drarry, tbh. I think of Drarry as two sides of the same coin, and their banter and their snark and their complexities make it so they learn to understand each other. It's inevitable why they're drawn and will always be drawn to each other.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't want to say never, but more like when. I've mentioned way back in other posts that there are 2 text fics WIPs that have been kicking around, but since I have sooo much I need to rewrite and recode for each one, I have no idea when I'll have time? One of them is slotted to be a 50k Sterek fic with texting, IG messages and a scrolling playlist and I have half of it written out. Let me tell ya, coding alone takes more time than the writing. The other fic is a sequel to the above fic and has holidays vibes, and it still has the same coding setup, so yeah. I'll figure it out one day, I guess.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue is my fav and something I write out first because it shapes how the fic will read. It's how I develop voices, snark, banter and whatever else, and then I'll fill in the gaps with narrative, description and all that jazz. That's also how I end up getting the best ideas. The dialogue ends being my prompt to move the story along. I'm also a thorough researcher and like to check my facts before writing in little details. Just so I can have some perspective and so I have an idea how I want to explain something from a character's PoV. Also, it's super helpful to drop in little Easter eggs to shape things up and give a scene some context. Facts are fun. And I'm a nerd, but we all knew that. XD I've definitely gotten way better at showing vs. telling once I started writing again. I try to go for smooth or punchy if I can. It comes down to a lot of things like dialogue, selecting certain verbs and descriptors to explain a person's narrative (like what's going on in their mind), how those thoughts are broken up in multiple sentences and how those are punctuated. Those are the things that create beats and rhythms that keep the story going. And since I'm creative who also loves music and dancing, I'm all for that. I actually think I'm wired to think this way, so that's not a bad thing!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Extensive world building and making big plots that need a lot of ends tied up. I used to write longer fics that had all of this, and while I still have copies of these (not published on AO3 for reasons), they're not strong. Rereading things now, these stories could use improvements. It's easy to try to jam everything in one go, but that needs to be done strategically. And you know, sometime less is more. I also don't have a lot of patience to go crazy with intricate outlines (since I'm more of a pantser than a planner), and I've found that writing something that's super detailed ends up boxing me into a corner or else it's like dragging teeth to finish the thing. I think this is definitely related to my writing style having changed over time, which is not a bad thing! I just can't write like that anymore.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Yessss. I've done that with Love me like that! I also happen to know Scottish Gaelic, so I was able to drop words in pretty easily. I love the cultural sense another language adds to a fic because it shows more dimensions than just describing what someone looks like, where they're from, etc. I also like using a few words vs a long sentence. Names, or little sayings that hint at traditions or history are just nice touches. So if I do know a language and I know I can add in some words in correctly, I most certainly will!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter, specifically for Drarry (all of my older stuff is on LJ)

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Probably Feel You Breathing [TW: Sterek, E, 8.4k] because it was my 3rd attempt in writing a text fic, which ended up being a success. It's 100% texting, something I totally made for myself, but I'm really proud of it because I had a chance to write from alternating PoVs. Also, this somehow turned into porn with plot and feelings and had some minor world building included based on texts alone. I didn't think I could accomplish that, but I did!

Tagging (no pressure, this is just for funsies): @danpuff-ao3, @phdmama, @outtoshatter, @thistlecatfics, @phoebe-delia, @nanneramma, @theheadgirl, @raisesomehale, @thotpuppy, @bleepbloopbotz, @quackquackcey and anyone who wants to do this!

#asked and answered #sterek #perciver #drarry #tag game #20 questions for fic writers #ask meme #fanfic #writing #about me

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roseymoseyberry · 5 years

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Hey.. I need your help. So I've been writing fic for awhile now but have never posted them online until recently. And i got positive feedbacks right which made me love writing even more. My readers are all so nice and they're patiently waiting for updates which i had written halfway. Anyway life kept me busy for awhile buT now i can't get back into fics.. Rereading my fic i only see flaws and now with each new comment i received i just get overwhelmed. Kinda wanna delete my ao3.. What do i do

I’m so sorry it took my a couple days to get back to you anon. Life has been... well, life, lmao.

But ok, listen. I absolutely feel you. I went through a writer’s block as recently as this past summer/early fall for... I want to say two or three months at least? It was rough. I hated reading over my own stuff because it all just read as terrible to me, the pace rushed and dialogue bad, etc etc etc. (and lord almighty, don’t get me STARTED on how I felt when I realized I was abandoning a fic from an old fandom oops)

It’s hard to get out of that. And ultimately every writer is a little different, so I can only tell you how I get out of ruts.

Before we get to how to start writing again though, I want to say that if you’re overwhelmed by the stress of thinking of reader’s waiting for more? Officially put the fic on Hiatus. Edit your summary to say “This fic is on Hiatus” so that you know that anyone reading it knows it could be a very, very long time, if ever. I have only really needed to do that once, but found it helped to take the pressure off. If you receive email notifications for comments, maybe turn those off for a while. Come back to them later.

Ok, and now. My big, fancy, all important advice:

For me, the number 1 objective is to force yourself to get words down on the page. To get yourself writing again, you need to fucking write.

There’s a couple different strategies I’ve try when I’m stuck.

One of the first is to reread the story I want to work on. That usually works if it’s the kind of block that isn’t about hating my writing so much as just staring at the page and not knowing how to word. In your case and with that specific kind of feeling though, it may not be so relevant because yeah. Right now your writing feels like shit to you. So this is something to consider for future blocks.

The next thing I’ll usually do is just. Brute force it. I force myself to write a sentence, and won’t let myself delete it. And I’ll keep forcing myself to write until I’ve got at least a paragraph or two. It’ll be slow, and it will be painful, and it will feel like I’m writing the worst writing in the world. Just absolute garbage.

But a paragraph or two will eventually roll over into more, and usually when I reread over it later I’ll realize it wasn’t nearly as bad as it had felt like it was at the time. And the most important thing is I’m getting back into the flow of the fic. Often from that point the rest just falls back into place.

Brute forcing it by yourself can be tricky though. If you’re not sure how to get yourself to do that, look into some writing tools to motivate you to just get down words as fast as you can! A couple suggestions I have are:

Word Sprints: This website is just one way to do this particular exercise, but I found it super helpful in the past! Word sprint/word wars/speed runs/etc are basically a game-like situation where you and other writers have a set amount of time to write as many words as you can. The Word Sprints website has 25 minute spans with 5 minute breaks, and you can either join the global one (which I don’t recommend lmao) or you can make your own group and invite other writers to it. This specific site allows you to see how many words the other folks in the group have written in real time, so it can help motivate through fun competition if that’s something that appeals to you.

You don’t have to be constrained by the site though. I’m part of a TF fan content creators discord where folks sometimes just run our own, usually with more like just 10 or 15 minute long sprints and then everyone shares how many words they wrote at the end of the sprint. It can be a really nice way to change the focus away from the quality of the words your putting down to the quantity. Because listen -- you can always go back and edit lower quality writing, but you can’t do anything with no writing to work with at all, you feel?

(If you happen to be in the TF fandom and feel comfortable messaging me off anon, feel free to do so and I’ll definitely send you an invite to the discord. It’s really nice to have a space to talk with other writers and problem solve with folks who know the pain, haha)

Fighter’s Block: If something that involves other people doesn’t appeal, no worries! This web app is basically a simple little rpg style game. You put in a word count that you want to reach (so maybe something as little as 100 or 200 words) and then you go into a fight. In this case you’re motivated to write fast because your health goes down while you’re idle, and the enemy’s health is your word count, so you defeat them by reaching your word count. It’s a fun little game and is a great alternative to word sprints.

I know there’s other similar sites, so don’t be afraid to search for a tool that fits you.

Another way you might be able to get words out is by abandoning where you left off for now and writing another scene that you’re excited about. I personally don’t do this because I have to write in order -- I just have to!!!! -- but I know a LOT of writers who bounce around and then knit the scenes together.

Or really, just mix it up in general. Do you always write at home? Try taking your laptop to a coffee shop for the express purpose of writing. That’s something I do a LOT. Always write on a computer? Try writing on your phone. I’ve even seen a post going around about changing your font to comic sans and that helping! Shake things up. Try something new. You might find something that works better for you!

Mmmmm I think that’s about all the advice I have personally since those are my go to’s. But keep in mind it’s not the end of the world if that doesn’t work for you -- all writers are different!! If I’ve learned anything from talking to other writers, it’s that we all have different ways we do it, different tools and formats and styles and all of it.

And ultimately? Don’t forget that fanfiction is about self-indulgence. It’s about you! If it’s stressing you out way too much, take a break. Put that shit on hiatus. Turn off notifications from ao3. Leave it alone for a while. You do you. Ultimately, while it may feel cruel, you don’t owe your readers anything. You’re doing this hobby because you like to, and you shared it with them by choice.

If the need is strong enough that you want to delete, look into orphaning your works. That way it’s no longer connected to you in any way, but it’s still available to readers.

I wish you only the best, Anon, and can only hope I was of any help at all, haha

#anonymous

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