#...did I just do my first ever published CR fic???

[dragonologist-phd]

🍓🛼🔪!!

thank you!

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

the first fic i ever published was a little one-shot for Critical role! i had a lot of feelings about Vex'ahlia (still do!), and was so hyped up after watching Percy's resurrection episode that i finally made that jump into posting something.

before that i'd had a lot of OC thoughts from various fandoms, but had never posted anything about them. the very sweet feedback i got on my cr fics motivated me into actually writing stuff down for my OC's, and the rest was history!

🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis

⚔️😈👑😭💘

🔪 ⇢ what’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

hmm...usually it's just double-checking lore, to be honest, though i do get into some pretty deep lore rabbit holes! anything related to sorting out timelines probably qualifies because i always end up with five tabs of various fan wikis that all contradict each other lol

[alyssalenko]

2023 Year-End Fic Round-up

I was tagged by @pikapeppa and @illusivesoul for this one! You guys are the best! thanks for thinking of me!

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!): Published: 27,845 & in WIPs: 4,282

Smut scenes written (if applicable): 12 distinct smut scenes

New things I tried: Oooh. I wrote a full-on sexy spanking scene in Bossy, and a werewolf half transforming during sex, both of those were really fun and challenging. I also wrote a pegging scene for the first time ever

Fic I spent the most time on: Well, I did get the next chapter of Curious up, which was 7 years in the making, but other than that I would say Omega's Greatest ASSet because I'd never written pegging in my life and it took me some time to get it right.

Fic I spent the least time on: Shame on Me. I knocked it out in five days because I was inspired and had a deadline 😆

Favourite thing I wrote: besides the above mentioned werewolf scene definitely A Dose of Vitamin Me--the smut was super hot if I do say say so myself 😉

Favourite thing I read: I didn't read much last year because I did 6 exchanges one right after the other 3 of which I had two assignments each. And then BG3 released August 3rd...but In Amber by @underdark-dreams because the BG3 chokehold is strong. As well as The Naughty List by @vorchagirl because a little Shenko silliness was just what the doctor ordered to recover.

Writing goals for next year: the same as last year. Get through some WIPs and try some new smut scenes ;)

I will tag: @randomlygeneratedstring @kittynomsdeplume @wickedwitchofthewilds @commander-krios @hazelestelle @spacebunshep @cr-noble-writes and anyone else who wants to play!

[tumbleweedtech]

twenty questions for fic writers

Thanks @losersimonriley <3

how many works do you have on ao3? 69 (heh)

what's your total ao3 word count? 397,040

what fandoms do you write for? Right now? CoD. Previously? Critical Role and the Witcher (mostly Games)

top five fics by kudos Standing on the Precipice - Lambert/Jaskier, unfinished. (Sorry. I'll get back to it sometime.) The Viscount - Lambert/Jaskier (my first published fanfic omg be nice to it) Treasure - Jaskier, hints of Lambert/Jaskier. Lettenhove - Eskel/Jaskier and Lambert/Aiden Epilogue fic Bones - Ugh, Eskel/Jaskier ish, I don't even really like this one.

do you respond to comments? I... try to? I do respond to many of them. My inbox is very, very full because the nicest comments I leave in there to cheer me up on bad days. I appreciate all of them.

what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? You were Spring , probably. I'm not sure. I do tend to love a good deep ache. The pain makes the softness feel deserved.

what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? The Viscount , probably. Happy ending, everybody lives.

do you get hate on fics? Nah. Every now and then there's someone who borders on rude on my witcher fics, but I just delete them. So far I've been lucky and my CoD and CR fics have met with kindness.

do you write smut? Sometimes, largely when goaded or doing so to harass a friend.

craziest crossover: I don't know if it counts as a crossover, but I did There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury from the point of view of Kaer Morhen.

have you ever had a fic stolen? No?

have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, Three.

have you ever co-written a fic before? Yep. And while they aren't usually listed as authors, largely because they argued with me about it, @hungarianbee and @piranhaincaps are often major, massive, absolutely essential to some of the fics I've written because they somehow manage to poke the braincells into trundling along in the correct direction. There's a few lovelies in my discord server who are excellent at coaxing my ridiculously skittish muse back to the page.

all time favorite ship? Truly, no idea. There's so many ships (romantic and platonic) that just fill me with joy. I love, love stories and I love to break apart a character and see how they'd react under different circumstances, with different motivations. It's fun. I will say the only ship art I have on my walls (so far) is pacrimau!ghoap, and johnlock.

what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? There was a Scheherazade fic I had wanted to write but it ... well. Sometimes when you spin stories with other people, the story ends up reminding you too much of that person and you don't wanna write it anymore.

what are your writing strengths? I have no idea. I think I'm most pleased with when I succeed in showing you the emotion in a moment without saying "He was sad." Oh! I am also quite proud of how practiced I have become in writing characters without using any pronouns (or epithets, thank you) for them. I have two characters (one OC, one ... rare char that's basically an OC) that prefer their name, and it's given me a lot of practice. It makes me happy. I prefer my name, too.

what are your writing weaknesses? Tenses.

thoughts on dialogue in another language? Get over it, nearly every browser has translate abilities, no matter how remedial they may be. If it makes sense, if the character does and would switch, do it. Especially if that language is important to the story or the character itself. However - uerhg. Sometimes it's really, really jarring when people use the language in ways that bilingual people just don't.

first fandom you wrote in? Witcher. My first fic was this one: The Viscount . I've considered going back to fix it up but.... tbh? Nah. Let it live as it was birthed. I wrote that 70k monster in ... 12? days. There's bound to be errors.

favorite fic you've written? Essea Eate, probably.

Now for tagging... @jayofolympus-writes, @major-trouble, @frenchkey, @on-a-lucky-tide, and my beloved @hungarianbee. (Only tagging 5 to give the rest of you people to tag lololol

[theregoesmylurkerstatus]

Your name is… Well, Tealeaf you can agree on. You feel, bone deep, that Molly is a part of you too. You would be the same — same body, same soul — but. But. You were part of Lucien too. And being part of him changed part of you.

You remember these people, sort of. You woke up and you were scraped raw, a shell with so much of what it held gone, but even then… Even then, there are impressions. Before you recognised yourself, you recognised — friends, definitely. Red hair and magic, green skin and salt water, blue lips and joy and wrapped fists and intrigue, explosions and sharp teeth and — and. Lightning. Dark and light. Comfort and safety and affection.

But more than that slips through your grasp. And things snap back into clarity of thought before the rest of your heart does.

You’re too familiar with things. You know you weren’t — Molly wasn’t — when you were first chipped away from Lucien. You don’t know how you know. You certainly don’t remember it. But alcohol is familiar, though you don’t recall the taste, and it surprises you. You know about the ocean. You know you’ve heard about it. You know these people told you. You just don’t know a thing they said.

It’s not that Molly doesn’t feel right. He might be your soul, and Lucien wasn’t. He’s just not you anymore. You don’t like being given names, even by people you — love? Probably. They would give you more than that name, would give you pieces of deeds and moments shared and advice given before you could ever claim them, if you could ever comfortably claim them at all.

And you can tell, whatever Molly did, you can’t be the same. You feel… quieter. The desire to be the centre of attention — you remember, as if through foggy glass, how Lucien twisted the world around himself, quite literally. The coat — they followed a madman into madness with that coat in tow, and you can’t remember making them care that much.

You feel like a shadow of him. You want a darker coat now. You want it to be clear that you can’t share the same jokes and passion and experiences, exactly.

You don’t want them to look at you and be sure more of what they knew is coming back, so — they should address you differently. Kingsley — that sounds right.

(Molly pretended to be a king more than once. That doesn’t surprise you. You still feel it in your bones.)

And these people — they’re funny, and they love you too fiercely, and the way they move… The impression they give is of being your peer, but the respect the most terrifying people in the land give them tells a story you can’t reconcile with how something in you wants to approach them. Nothing you do really surprises them, but what they do keeps surprising something in you.

You know these people are more dangerous than most others you will meet. They would circle around you and never let anything through again. They dragged you back from oblivion, from someone else, recreated a person that barely existed in the first place, and you know in your soul — because that is what they have their fingers in so deeply — that they will do it all over again.

If you want to regain anything of yourself, anything that isn’t warped by fragile memories, you need to leave.

You still can’t leave entirely, at first. Because you love them too. You don’t know why. They gave you this life and body, yes, but you drew your boundaries sharply, and there is distance as a result. You hardly know… So many of them. You look at the one in the yellow sundress and you keep forgetting her name especially, because if you are familiar but different, she is unrecognisable. The face you see out of the corner of your eye doesn’t match the one that meets your gaze when you turn your head to look.

But still. It takes a few years for you to be able to sever yourself from that company entirely. The one you first remembered as oh so joyful watches you, and you think she’s not surprised that you leave, just as you aren’t surprised she didn’t stop you. She knows you have to go, knows all about being trapped by love. But she could never have left you go unaided to your own dangers without you forcing her hand. This is how you must flee.

And you’re on your own — with a crew, but not… Not your crew. Not Molly’s crew. Being a pirate is different. You know Molly was never on the ocean. It helps distinguish from the cart rides you dream of at night, the horses with the stupid names.

You start to feel like your own person again, instead of someone gifted individuality by those that watched you make the choices years ago. Darktow doesn’t care for the Mighty Nein, and no one here has any idea you were ever part of it. As far as the Plank King is concerned, they were some assholes who messed up the order of things years before. No one here gets any inkling of wariness to people you know more than deserve it.

You can be funny again without being looked at too fondly. You can tell whatever extravagant tales you want, instead of having people know your life story better than you do. Mollymauk is your soul, is your ship, is what carries you forward — but Kingsley is who he’s become.

The dreams don’t stop. You know you didn’t really get these before. Or Molly didn’t. Whatever. There are chains and screams and vicious ego and you — you remember those people, that you died for them, that you reached out just to throw off the pilot as much as you could, and you start to feel like maybe… Maybe the intense love they direct at you isn’t entirely for the other model of you. Maybe you earned it. Maybe these dreams are the metamorphosis between the two. You wouldn’t be the Kingsley who stands back a little more without being the one who held Lucien back in a fight to the death. You wouldn’t have tried so hard to hold back in a fight to the death if you hadn’t been Molly.

It’s confusing. You stop worrying about the distinctions, eventually, as the impressions of light and laughter increasingly press against your eyelids when you sleep. All you know for sure is that you aren’t Lucien, and that’s a lot of peace you don’t think Molly ever quite had, though he tried.

Of course, the Mighty Nein come back for you one day. They have their fingers in too many pies to ever retire properly, and you — you’re number nine. You made them and broke them up for some peace, but when that peace isn’t eternal, you aren’t surprised.

And when Caleb and Fjord and Jester and Beau and Veth (Nott, Nott, Nott) and Yasha reach out for you again, you know — you died for them. You chose to live for them.

Whatever else you are — Molly or Kingsley or both — you don’t think you could be anything but one of nine if you tried.

They love you, and you love them in mind and memories and soul, and that's all your heart ever wanted to know for sure.

Even if they are far too ready to rip apart anyone who looks at you funny.

[moonbeamsung]

•works of 2020 tag•

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want so we can spread the love and link each other awesome works.

tagged by @astroboy-lele and @moonlightjeno!

okay i barely have enough works to do this but i’m surprised you guys don’t mind my extremely slow writing pace, thank you everyone

—————

1. i fell for you like the autumn leaves (chenle)

my longest (11k) and my favorite fic that i’ve ever written. i based it on a simple family tradition of my own of going to the pumpkin patch, and i really just wanted to write a fluffy/cozy autumn-themed fic. including the dreamies in it was one of the best decisions i’ve ever made, too. feedback on this particular work especially means a lot to me, & i had so much fun writing it!

2. bad dracula (jaemin)

this one was written on a night when i really should have been doing my homework, honestly. but even though it’s the shortest thing i’ve written on here so far it did really well and i’m very very proud of it! it’s somewhat simple but i love the song it’s titled after and i just thought: why not make it into a story, hehe.

3. winter nights & city lights (mark)

okay not a published work yet but this wip is actually going well and the only thing i’m worried about now is just finishing it, my ideas are nailed down though! i am officially taking back what i said this morning because i have a feeling it’s gonna turn out okay :)

(12/27/20 — read here!)

4. crΣΣks (jeno)

my first serious attempt at some serious angst. it didn’t get as much attention as i would’ve hoped but i don’t mind too much, i’m proud of it all the same.

5. serendipitous synergy (haechan)

this one’s my most popular, and the best way i can describe it is this: there’s no way i would pass up an opportunity to write about haechan dancing to michael jackson. i don’t have much else to say except i’m happy that so many people have enjoyed it!

—————

tagging: @jisungsmochi @donkey-hyuck @doiedreams @jenojam @daybreakx and anyone else! feel free to ignore this if you’d like, as well ♡

[faintwalker]

On Fic and Triggers:

(Always feel free to skip posts you don’t want to read.  Just a reminder.)

I wanted to put down some thoughts on fic, tags, triggers, and our choices as individuals.  I’m breaking this into three sections.  They are as follows:

1.  Squick vs. trigger, a quick look at terminology.

2.  Tag advantage and the power of viewer discretion.

3.  It’s an imperfect system (but that’s okay).

(Under a readmore because it’s over 1k.)

---

Part one:  Squick vs. Trigger:

A squick is like a personal gross-out; something which disgusts or unsettles a person can be said to be a squick of theirs.  Most people would be upset to find rotten meat in their fridge, right?  For many people such a thing may be considered a squick.

A trigger is more severe than a squick, and is usually tied to a person’s trauma.  Sometimes it’s something like a loud noise, but for the purpose of this post going forwards, I will be discussing written content and triggers that may be found there.  When something triggers a person, it shakes them up and threatens to (or manages to) throw them into a bad mental state.

A squick might make someone go “ew” and consider clicking out of a fic.  A trigger will need some recovering from.

Sometimes the line between the two is difficult to find.  Triggers happen to different extents and may set someone off more or less on certain days or have diminished impacts as time goes by, but all that stuff varies by individual.

---

Part two:  Fics Have Tags (on ao3) and You Can See Them:

Browsing on ao3 is cool because of the tags.  If something says it has something in it, I can avoid it or brace for it (or even seek it out, if it’s something I’m looking for).  It actually gives a lot of power to the reader.  I have taken advantage of the warnings to explore things difficult for me at my own pace, and honestly I’ve felt very safe overall while doing so.  Nobody is pressuring me into it, and I can quit reading anything at any time.  Overall, it’s safer to browse than random published books tend to be.  

(Nothing against published books.  I don’t think we need tags everywhere.)

Properly tagged fics are nice, even if I don’t like the tags.  If I don’t like the tags, it means I can give the fic a skip instead of receiving an unpleasant surprise. That’s always a good thing.

---

Part three:  Don’t Expect Perfection:

Improperly tagged fics?  Not so nice.  I don’t enjoy sudden explicit sex scenes popping up in the middle of a teen-rated fic, but I can’t say it never happens.  The thing about the tagging and rating system is that it’s up to the authors to provide those things.  Sometimes mislabels are an honest mistake, but I have a theory that some of them stem from certain attitudes towards certain content types held by some ideologies in fandom spaces.  Fear makes people hide, but hiding warnings where they would be expected can lead to people suffering a bit.

This section isn’t about that, though.

This is about triggers, right?  And I’m writing it.  So let me just say:

Most of my triggers aren’t things I will find warnings for in a fic’s tags.

It’s a tricky field, and I’m pretty difficult to set off, but the closest I get on the real risks for me are vague guesses.  Some tags do cover possible triggers for me, but the content won’t actually be what gets to me in, uh, let’s say at least 95% of the cases.  It means I let my guard down sometimes when I’ve technically been warned, and then I end up sitting there thinking, “Oh, you actually did mean it like that this time…”

It’s a thing that happens.

What happens even more often is that there is no warning whatsoever.  With many things, I’m running the same risk as if the fic was untagged altogether.  I’ll be enjoying a nice story, then bam!  Right in the trauma.

But that’s okay.

Getting set off is never fun, and it can leave me messed up for days, sometimes.  I’ve been through some stuff.  Other things, things that aren’t fictional, can set me off too.  That’s also okay.  It’s life.

It’s life, and fiction is still fiction.  I don’t always get set off by the same things, and some things that are fine some days… really aren’t fine on others.  My mental state is influenced by many factors, after all.  Some of the fics that have set me off the worst are fics I have come to love.  Others are ones I would never willingly look at again.

This post is also about tags.  So.  Do I get angry?  Do I think those things should be tagged?

The answer to the first is almost never, unless I feel there was a specific negligence/attempt to harm at play.  The second is no; not if it’s in that “usually untagged” camp of content.

People are triggered by all kinds of things.  To give a personal example, I have a history of being triggered by swear words.

I can’t swear, not really.  In recent years, I gained the ability to say damn, and that’s about the extent of it.  I can’t even write the words without… trouble, let’s say. 

I used to flinch whenever anyone cursed, even when it was a “mild” word like cr#p.  I would jolt straight back into the hypervigilance from the times that left me with this issue.  It was pretty bad.

Swear words aren’t really something that can be avoided in real life, though.  Think about it for a moment.  Swearing is everywhere.  Can you go a day without reading a swear on tumblr?  Most of it is pretty harmless, really, but not inside your brain when it says you’re in immediate danger because of the words.

Recovery takes a long time.  Like I said, I can’t swear, but I can read the words and not panic, or really even react at all, mostly.  I can talk to people and not get freaked out the second they curse.  I can’t handle any aggressive yelling of the words, but I read Homestuck and loved it, something which would have been impossible for me at age seventeen.  Heck, the other day I edited the “#”s into “u”s in the f#cks in my Homestuck fic.  I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to do that, not when typing that censored word right there still just made me feel funny.

Back to the point.

It would be ridiculous to expect fics to tag for swearing in almost all cases.  I think we can all agree on that.  And what about things that are hard to put into specifically labeled words?  Or what about the fact that someone out there can’t handle spaghetti because of something or other?  We’re not going to tag all mentions of spaghetti.

Sometimes it’s a very specific phrase.  Sometimes something just hits a little too close to home.  Not everything can be effectively avoided.

And it really is okay.

I don’t want a world where content producers are plagued by constant guilt.  We’re all out here doing our best to catch the major warnings, and I think that’s great.  It still leaves one question:

What should someone do when they’ve been triggered?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer here.  The first step is caring for one’s mental health.  Getting back into a better state takes priority, but I can only care for me there.

For some people, processing why they were set off might be part of it.  Some will already know.  That all varies.

What people shouldn’t do is harass others or make it the problem of the content for existing.  Like I said, I didn’t used to be able to handle swears.  But would the world really be better if all swears were completely removed from everything?

I don’t think so.

For the most part, people are trying to warn for what they can.  Be kind to them, be kind to yourself, and enjoy fiction to your heart’s desire.

[p-and-p-admin]

Interview given to The Severus Snape and Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group.  (sharing here Admin approved)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718373383293/ Hello CRMediaGal and welcome to Behind the Quill, thank-you for letting us get to know you a little better.

Many of our members will know your Unquestionable Love series. 

We’re grateful you can spend some time with us today. 

Okay, so let's jump into it!

What’s the story behind your pen name?

CR is an abbreviation for “cracked rendition” and that comes from the excerpt from a poem I’ve loved since I was young. Years ago, to help put myself through art college, I did web design on the side and called my little company Cracked Rendition Designs. When I created my pen name, I combined all of these elements together to make CRMediaGal (for some illogical reason I thought it was a solid name at the time lol) and, to this day, I still think about changing my pen name altogether.  I figure it’s too late for that now, though. 

Which Harry Potter character do you identify with the most?

Luna Lovegood. I wish I’d had her self-assurance and confidence in who she is at that age but, that aside, I identify with how she’s a bit of a loner, an oddball, and tends to be left out (or does until she finds her Hogwarts friends). I’ve really struggled with being an outsider most of my life, so it’s comforting to see that representation in literature but through a young woman who possesses the self-confidence people like myself often lack. 

Do you have a favourite genre to read? 

I tend to love period dramas, so a lot of the classic novels are my favourites (i.e. Austen, Henry James, etceteras).  

Do you have a favourite “classic” novel?

The Portrait of a Lady is one of my favourite novels.  I reread it every couple of years.  

At what age did you start writing? 

I’ve been writing since I was very little, so probably seven, eight, nine-ish? I used to be much more of an artist/sketcher than a writer, so I’d make up stories and write and sketch and staple them together all day long lol. 

How did you get into writing fanfiction?

After watching Deathly Hallows: Part 2 at the cinema in 2011.  Severus Snape’s death hit me hard all over again (I hadn’t read the last book in a few years), and I decided that I desperately needed to change that for myself lol.  Unquestionable Love is the first fanfic (SSHG) I ever wrote and it’s become an ongoing series, so I’m grateful to have gotten the “spark” to write fanfic from somewhere around that time.  I decided in 2011 to try my hand at “fleshing out” my little Snape family that had been mucking about in my head for much longer than that.

What's the best theme you've ever come across in a fic? Is it a theme represented in your own works?

I’m a total sucker for the brooding, self-loathing male who thinks himself unworthy of love and redemption and the sunshine, kick-arse lady, aka Centre of His World, who loves him back to life. #GimmeMorePleaseandThankYou

What fandoms are you involved in other than Harry Potter?

I’ve written fics for Star Wars (ReyBen/Reylo is another one of my favourite ships outside of SSHG), The Hobbit (Thranduil/Tauriel), and Les Miserables (Enjonine). 

If you could make one change to canon, what would it be? Do you have a favourite piece of fanon?

Severus Snape’s death (he’s NOT dead! #nope #denial4ever). 

My favourite piece of fanon is probably Severus being Draco’s godfather. Regardless of where it originated from, I’m all for it. 

Do you listen to music when you write or do you prefer quiet? 

I used to need complete solitude and quiet to write, but nowadays I can write with some instrumental music playing in the background.  It depends on where my headspace is at. 

What are your favourite fanfictions of all time? 

I don’t read much fanfic anymore, as it’s hard enough for me to find time for my own writing…but off the top of my head, I’d probably have to go with a “classic” - The Tattered Man (SSHG) by Aurette.  It’s gutting and heart-wrenching and doesn’t have a happy ending, but it’s a hauntingly beautiful piece that stays with you. 

Are you a plotter or a pantser? How does that affect your writing process?

I’m somewhere in the middle. I tend to plot out certain points I want to hit from chapter to chapter (if it’s a multi-chapter fic and heavy on plot, for instance), but writing is an organic process and I enjoy allowing my muse to surprise me as well.

What is your writing genre of choice? 

A good mixture of Angst and Fluff (and nearly always with a HEA!) 

Which of your stories are you most proud of? Why? 

I’m proud of all my stories for different reasons, mainly technical milestones I was able to achieve with the writing or the emotional attachments I had to them at the time that I wrote them.

If I had to choose one (or two because I gotta cheat here haha!), I’d go with either Unto Their Own (SSHG) because the subject matter was so dark and took me to places mentally that were very tough for me to navigate (the fact that I finished that fic is an achievement for me because it could have very well been abandoned at various points in the story); or Unquestionable Love (SSHG), both the original and the series as a whole, because that story has my heart entirely invested in it.  That precious family means everything to me and the story, from beginning to present, is my headcanon for the SSHG pairing.  I really can’t see them any other way, though I’ve written other stories where their lives turn out quite differently. 

Did it unfold as you imagined it or did you find the unexpected cropped up as you wrote? What did you learn from writing it?

Sticking with Unquestionable Love here, the original story came together mostly as expected, though there were a couple darker turns the fic was supposed to take that I didn’t have the heart--or the stamina, I suppose--to end up developing.  

One of my dear OCs/one of the daughters was supposed to die at one point in the story and I realised that doing so would have ultimately changed Severus’s fate, as well as the entire course of the storyline.  (There is just no way that UL!Severus would survive the death of one of his children, so I guess I’m no JK Rowling or any other esteemed writer who can just ruthlessly kill off their characters haha!) I’ve learned through writing this series that I can tackle subject matters that are very emotionally tough for me and that’s a good feeling.  

I’ve also learned that I have something to say, even if it’s not much heard or well-liked, and that that still makes my storytelling worthy of being out there in the fandomverse; or, at least, I try to remind myself that it’s okay to exist.

How personal is the story to you, and do you think that made it harder or easier to write?

It’s intensely personal in some respects and those aspects are difficult for me to discuss.  I’m not sure if I’ll ever be ready to talk about them in depth, but I will say a couple scenes in the latter half of Unquestionable Love were incredibly trying to write due to personal experience. I pushed through those moments, though, and I think that, because of that therapeutic exercise, I’m able to tackle other tough subjects in my stories more easily. 

What books or authors have influenced you? How do you think that shows in your writing?

I admire various writers, mainly for the love of the language that’s reflected in their writing styles.  Anne Rice immediately comes to mind.  If I had an ounce of her talent, I’d write with so much confidence lol. I don’t think writers like her necessarily affect my writing style, but they’re certainly people I aspire to write more like.  

Do people in your everyday life know you write fanfiction? 

Only more recently.  I haven’t really allowed any of them to read my work, as so much of it is deeply personal, but just being upfront with my closest friends and family has been a nice development.   

How true for you is the notion of “writing for yourself”? 

I think this is something, as a fic writer, that’s essential.  However, I’m also of the mindset that fandom is about community, and fanfic writers want to engage with their audiences.  We want to feel less alone in these wacky and often times complicated scenarios we put our characters through, and we want people to respond to them...hopefully, with a positive reaction. 

That’s what it’s all about--interaction--and it can be rather heartbreaking, as a writer, when you don’t receive engagement because maybe your headcanons or takes on characters aren’t popular or are considered outside of the ‘norm’. 

For me, I find it too crippling anymore to continue sharing my stories with the fandoms I love when they’re met with silence or hate.  There’s nothing more soul crushing than just being dismissed or disliked or not accepted...and that’s why I’ve chosen to post my stories privately (for now, at least).

How important is it for you to interact with your audience? How do you engage with them? Just at the point of publishing? Through social media?

It’s pretty essential to me to be able to engage with readers.  I absolutely love it and I wish it happened more often haha.  I used to run polls and interact with readers on my fanfiction.net and AO3 accounts (both now inactive) and through my still active Tumblr account (http://crmediagal.tumblr.com/ ).  I now have my own website - www.crmediagal.com - where I can fully control the flames and negativity. 

It may be temporary but, so far, it’s working out pretty well.  It’s made my readership a lot smaller but, at least, I know the people who are there genuinely want to read more of my work and won’t leave me hate comments.  That’s so comforting and encouraging.  

What would you most like your readers to take away with them when they've finished your stories?

A powerful message of some kind...remembrance...perhaps, suggest one or two of them to other readers and shippers out there.  

That’s the only way our stories survive, really. 

What is the best advice you’ve received about writing?

That you need to protect your “voice”, no matter how unpopular it may be, and that there is no one else who writes like you and that you should take pride in that.  

I try to remind myself of these important pointers when I’m feeling particularly down about my storytelling abilities. 

What do you do when you hit writer’s block?

Watch my favourite films or television shows to help re-spark my creativity.  I come back to the writing when it ‘speaks’ to me.  I no longer press myself to push out writing because, more often than not, the result is going to get tossed and reworked anyhow.  

Has anything in real life trickled down into your writing?

Yes, certain experiences and people I’ve encountered in my life have definitely wound up in some of my stories.  

Many of my OCs in different stories are examples of that. 

Do you have any stories in the works? Can you give us a teaser? 

I’m working on a new SSHG story that’s based off of a fun prompt from a dear, long-time reader.  

It will start posting at my website - www.crmediagal.com - in the coming weeks/months, so if anyone would like access to it, you can contact me there.  

Here’s a short excerpt:

Cradling his head in his hand, Severus stomped to his front door and opened it a crack, jostling the handle loud enough that it caught three people’s attention, the woman firstly before the others.  

“What’s the bloody idea?” he snarled, shouting above them.  

Each individual—two wizards and one witch—went mute and turned to stare from the neighbouring sidewalk.  

“I’ll have you know that this is a quiet street!  And I was sleeping!”  When the guests next door to him, who were just towing the property line and about to get themselves knocked out, offered no response, he prodded, grinding his teeth together, 

“Are you daft, you fools?  Do you not comprehend?  HEY!”

The two gentlemen, who appeared to be fresh out of Hogwarts—or maybe they hadn’t gotten that far in their magical studies, judging by the stupidity on their expressions—startled and nodded in unison.  

“Yes, sir!”

“Oh, my...” the witch, in turn, murmured, seemingly more to herself than anyone else.

Severus identified her vacant, open-mouthed expression at once: she recognised him.  As of yet, he had little recollection as to who she might be and didn’t give a damn.  He kicked his door open the rest of the way with his boot, jostling the three near trespassers backward a few more paces, and stalked down his steps and onto his sidewalk. 

That was when he finally understood the reason behind all of the commotion: one of the branches to the old oak tree that shielded his stoop, and had been there since the earliest days he could recall of his childhood, had crashed onto the pavement, cracking the sidewalk in half. 

A part of his iron fence, too, had crumbled under the weight of the broken branch, and there was an assortment of boxes, some severely banged up, scattered across his property. 

“What the...?  That’s my tree you idiots hit!  And my bleedin’ fence...!”

“I - I’m sorry, sir,” stammered the witch with wildly curly hair and worrisome brown eyes, hastily stepping forward to intervene.  

“I’ve been trying to figure out how this happened—”Severus turned his glare on her.  

“And who are you?”  The seemingly thirty-something woman blushed to her roots, which he couldn’t account for, until she spoke in a faint, insecure whisper, 

“Um, Hermione, sir...  Hermione Weasley.  Oh, gosh, I mean, I - I was Hermione Weasley until...”  She cleared her throat and attempted to reintroduce herself, flushing in such a manner that it flaunted dainty-looking freckles that dotted her cheeks and nose.  Had she always had those?  Severus couldn’t remember.  

“Oh, bother!  It’s Hermione Granger, Professor.  Surely, you...you remember me?”Severus went as rigid as a column.  

“Oh, for fuck’s sake...” he blurted aloud before he could stop himself. Hermione blinked, taken aback.  

“I’m sorry?”Severus’s shock morphed into a tight-fitting sneer.  

“I thought I was done with the lot of you.”

Any words of encouragement to other writers?

Try not to get too discouraged by lack of reviews or not making the recommendations lists.  Keep persevering and know that someone out there, even if it’s just one reader, will love what you have to share with the world.  

Thanks for spending some time with us today CRMediaGal, we’ve enjoyed getting to know you.