#40 questions for writers

[fictionadventurer]

A Biltmore Christmas may be the first Hallmark movie to drive me to fanfic.

[nervousladytraveler]

Writer's questions, 7 and 8 :)

Ah thanks, friend, for such indulgent questions!

7.  a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

I’m not really sure if I have a favorite but I remember being very happy with this bit from Which By Its Splendors Rivals the Heavens when I wrote it. It had been a long build/slow burn up to this point so I wanted to get it just right, not just have R & D smash into a fierce bout of kissing. I edited parts below but it’s still a long passage (what did I say about self-indulgence?) 

“How curious that a kiss--a first kiss especially--could feel so monumental. Perhaps even more intimate, more important than the act of making love? Was it the lips? Yes, delicate, perceptive, intelligent lips. Our first and favoured way of knowing.

These were lips that belonged together. They met as coequals, two halves of a matched set--rejoined. And between them, in this kiss, so very much was communicated--some understood in the moment and some promises of truths to be revealed at a later date.

All these impressions flooded through Demelza’s mind in one heartbeat, all at the same time and all intertwined. It was as though time--linear time--had been unraveled and each sense was experiencing the world around her at its own pace, to be knit together later in memory.

But she knew that was the way profound happenings could be understood sometimes. Several years before she’d had a rear end shunt that similarly had jarred her understanding of time. She had felt the jolt as her car was forced through the intersection, but the shattering of glass seemed to happen at some other moment all together--later? Before? She couldn’t say. The impact as it was absorbed through her body was terrifying yet the tinkling glass was beautiful and magical, almost sublime. And around her the January afternoon light appeared dim and soft, as though muted through a filter. What she felt, what she saw, and what she heard, had broken loose from the mesh of time that usually held sensations together, as though all had happened at separate instances.

And that's how it was now in the first few seconds of their kiss. A thousand thoughts, a thousand sensations, and none could be ordered or fully understood.

Something new and at the same time very old awoke in them both. Yes, they’d both felt like this before but it had been years. Or was this something entirely different?

To be so alive, so present in the moment but also leaning into the future at the same time, holding and possessing the whole fullness of life in one single moment.

But time was something for other people--not for them.”

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

I truly don't have a favorite snippet of dialogue--and in fact I’ve actually been thinking that I need to cut back on dialogue in my writing and allow a narrative voice to step forward. But I do have fun when I get Ross and Demelza teasing each other. Winston Graham wrote pages and pages of their banter, and while I would never claim to do it as well as he does, it is something I like to write.

Thanks so much @veryflowerobservation for these fun questions!

[sunsetgloom]

Jedi High Council members as of 40 BBY:

FULLY CONFIRMABLE (7) Yoda (it's Yoda) Oppo Rancisis (has been there since 232 BBY, still present 32 BBY) Yarael Poof (see above) Eeth Koth (on the Council before Windu according to one source, appointed by 40 BBY according to Wookiepedia) Plo Koon (took over for after Master Tyvokka 44 BBY) Mace Windu (replaced Master Katri at 28, born 72 BBY, joined 44 BBY) Poli Dapatian (can confirm canonically on council at the latest of 41 BBY) PRESUMED (4) Yaddle (presumed due to age and lack of full rosters for prior years) Micah Giiett (died 33 BBY, was a Councilor up to that point, presumed on it for the 7+ years beforehand) Sifo-Dyas (no known join date that I could find, kicked off 33 BBY, presumed on it for the 7+ years beforehand) Saesee Tiin (stark hyperspace war veteran. nothing concrete other than that according to my notes :/) CAN SWITCH BETWEEN ANY (1+) Jor Aerith (died during Order 66 but was not on the Council during the Clone Wars as far as we know. Presumably she retired) Gretz Droom (Jor's padawan. Also not known to be on the Council during the Clone Wars but was a Council member at one point. Presumably retired) Tera Sinube (retired during the 40s. We don't know when exactly, but unlikely it was 40 BBY exactly. I just included him because I forgot about him entirely while trying to work out earlier rosters :/) Even Piell (ehhhhhh this one's iffy. He's definitely on it during TPM but nothing points to him being there before that but TPM takes place 32 BBY and Sifo-Dyas and Micah Giiett made the PRESUMED category so he's here too :/) Adi Gallia (see above) and there you go. all 12(+) Council members during the year 40 BBY

[liesmyth]

for the fic writer asks: 37. ramble! you deserve it!

[37. talk about your current WIP]

anon!!! you're twisting my arm soooo bad!! ❤️ I'll talk about my current WIP if you insist... one that's been slowly cooking but I haven't actually talked about here is the royjamie amnesia fic. There are many really cool fics with this premise in the fandom already, but what EYE am interested with is not “surprise! you lost your memory and you're in a relationship now” but rather... “Surprise! You are a professional athlete and judge your self worth based on how well you can kick a ball. The you lost your memory and you're retired now and you don't remember the end of your career. Who even are you now?”

anyway. that's it. that's the WIP

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What do you think the best ghostwritten book is in the series. I lean towards 29 myself.

Oh man. There are some really good ones.

I like how #25 handles Marco's unreliable narration, from him calling himself "Mr. Ruthless" as he's worrying over the baby seals who just lost their mom, to his pointed "Yeah, Dad, what do we do?" as a way of calling out everyone else for being too demanding on Jake. Plus, Visser Three going "Cursed parasites!" while scratching a flea bite and Rachel shooting back "He's one to talk" makes me laugh every time. Between that and #35, I think Jeffrey Zeuhlke (credited in both books) might be my favorite ghost.

That said, I think Ellen Geroux does a great job with specifically Tobias's navel-gazing in #33 and #43. He spends a lot of time in both books just thinking, and in a series as dialogue-heavy as Animorphs that could get slow if not handled as skillfully as it is. That said, #43 is also one where Jake and Rachel are weirdly out of character (Jake "snaps at" Ax to "watch it!" after they bump each other; Rachel "more sweetly" asks if Ax is okay) so it's never going to be a winner for me.

But never mind that. Because #29 might just be the best Animorphs book. It's tightly plotted. It's beautifully written. It has humor, and sweetness, and melancholy. It gives us excellent character moments for all four boys as we see their separate responses to falling ill. It shows Rachel being good in a crisis, and Cassie being friggin Wonder Woman in a crisis. It has former enemies working together to save a friend. It has hunter-tracker bots defeated by bird poop. It's making me want to find out what else Melinda Metz has written, because honestly it might be better than any of the books K. A. Applegate wrote alone.

[tokuvivor]

8, 11, and 38?

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

From A Mutual Understanding Between Oldest Siblings…

“Huey-“ Lena interjected.

“Yeah?” Huey asked.

“Not to be dramatic or anything, but…WHY ARE YOU NOT MAD AT ME RIGHT NOW?!” Lena interrogated.

“From a personal standpoint, yeah, maybe I was a little,” Huey explained. “But there’s a difference between frustration and anger, and during the challenge-and this is not just because of you or Violet-I was definitely feeling the former a lot more. Because at the end of the day, even without the smack, would it have been enough to ensure my victory over Violet? Probably not. Because I wasn’t racing enough to actually win.”

The episode this fic is based from, Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!, has resulted in Lena and Violet getting a little too much crap for what they said to Huey. Fans demonize them (though I’ve mostly just seen this on AO3) without really stopping to think about why they did it, as well as Huey’s frame of mind during the episode, beyond just the smack talk.

This excerpt shows exactly why I wrote this story: trying to convey that Huey, while thrown off mentally by the smack, absolutely understood why Lena taught Violet those jibes in the first place, and that he was as frustrated, if not more so, with himself during the Challenge as he was with them.

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

Hobby. Writing is fun, but I don’t think I could necessarily make a career out of it.

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

I got this one on the first chapter of The Power of Three…

It made me realize that this story is so much more than just something to write for fun (at least to some people). I spent the first chapter gradually building up Huey and Violet’s dynamic, and seeing as it was my first published story, I was worried about whether I’d done a good job writing them, especially the whole neurodivergent aspect to their personalities. But this endorsement rang out loud and clear to me that I had done just fine.

[exhuastedpigeon]

8 & 38 🩵

Hi Tanis <3

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Okay this is HARD because dialogue is one of my favourite things to write. This is from loves a game, wanna play, my Buddie Love Island AU. I just love writing Eddie being a sappy romantic and I got to write a lot of that in that fic.

“You got to give a big romantic speech tonight and I didn’t get to,” Eddie said, handing Buck a glass of wine. “But I wanted you to hear it, because I practiced in the shower this morning and everything.” “Is it going to make me cry?” “I’ve seen you cry at videos of kittens cleaning each other, so it might,” Eddie said with a shrug. “I’m more of an action kind of guy though so maybe it won’t be very good.” “Now you’re just sandbagging,” Buck said fondly. "Go on then." “When I met you I had been drowning for a really long time, so long that I didn’t actually remember what it felt like to be on solid ground,” Eddie started and then had to pause because he got choked up. “And then you came into my life like a bratty tornado and turned my entire world right side up.” “You saw that I was drowning and instead of doing what other people had done before and tried to tell me different ways I could have avoided drowning, you just - you threw me a life raft and helped me save myself,” Eddie let the tears fall. “You’re always choosing me and I need you to know that I choose you too. Easiest decision of my life.” “Eddie,” Buck said and then he was kissing him. It was a little salty since both of them were crying, but Eddie could not have cared less. He was here in paradise with the man he was so fucking in love with and they were finally, finally together. 

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

This happened just this week - someone left a comment on loves a game, wanna play that was detailed notes they took as they read it and it was so long they had to break it into two comments. It made me cry and was just so lovely and kind.

40 Questions — Meme for Fic Writers

[hellisanhonourstudent]

Teenaged Logan Echolls is a naked Chaotic Neutral.

Adult Logan Echolls is a Lawful Neutral LARPing as Lawful Good.

[guildtree]

First of all, how did I not realize it was you TreeofWords!! Welcome to Tumblr. Glad to have you here finally! :D

40 Fic Writer Ask:

How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Would you ever kill off a canon character?

Hello! I am here. You all have lured me to Tumblr like a stray cat with treats. Thank you for the asks!

How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

I have about 3 that are actual ideas instead of cloudy blobs of inspiration. The first is a short Kasjory and Gorrik/Taimi thing that I want to drop on Valentine's Day and that I'm actually drawing an art piece to go with! I want to make an Aurene fic that involves her talking to and coming to terms with her extended dragon family through her magic, but I'm waiting for the Soo-Won legendary set to drop so I can get a better feel for her character. And finally, I have ideas for a sort of sequel to Left Behind set in Season 4 and following Kas and Jory's travels through the desert: one part action road trip, one part relationship drama.

Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

I usually write start to finish so I can use the cool parts I want to write later in the fic as motivation to slog through the boring parts. For longer stuff, it's also helpful for me to have the earlier parts set in stone so I can build off them later. Very occasionally, I have written down a later scene that was just crystal-clear in my head and that I was afraid I would forget later.

If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

This is hard for me because usually I don't want to write someone else's fic - I want them to write more of their fic! A large part of why like a particular writer is their technical style, and I feel like I can't really replicate that (not that it's impossible to copy someone's style, it's just hard and I don't really like doing it). If I had to choose, there is this great Miyani and Zommoros fic by Arutyh called First Winter in Lion's Arch, which has some interesting djinn lore in it. I would write a sequel or prequel to that (maybe how the two of them met?) just so I could use the lore.

Would you ever kill off a canon character?

Sure, though I'd make sure I specified it as an AU and tagged appropriately and all that. I have Procreate doodles of Marjory as an Awakened simply because I got bored and thought it might look cool (sorry Jory).

[redjaybathood]

37 Talk about your current wips.

ohhh thank you for this question! There're so many of them I'm gonna talk only about the ones I opened the file for at least in 2023.

the jaytim thing, which, is actually going to be a story about jason forgoing revenge and murder, and still tormenting tim.

jaytalia, which - let's just say, she didn't show up at that hotel room to congratulate jason on killing the joker. she has her own life! and she's in trouble. it's gonna be a road trip fic.

hey, judas - actually changed my mind on the ending! but i don't know which ending is better, if jason becomes what bruce saw in him, or if he raises above it. while first will be a moral failing, and a self-fulfilling prophecy, Bruce creating a monster when he thinks he's fighting them, but Jason personally will be free and happier. and the second will only mean bad things for him. for literally no fault of his own. and I'm like. very much on the fence.

fake marriage for real - this is a story with my favorite brujay plot bunny. Bruce suspects Jason is evil. Jason wants to con and possibly murder Bruce - or is he? This fic kinda reminds me both of A Renaissance Man (more in the drafts than published; which, hey, is silly, so I am gonna go and update it) and This Should (not) Be A Love Story (I don't get why people like it better than my other stuff that I personally like better, like the next on the list).

Myth You Have To Believe - you know, the fem!Jason carrying a possible demon child. Or possibly, her father's. Which! Is a horror in any case!!!

Ask me something from 40 Questions — Meme for Fic Writers

[merryfortune]

7 and 8 for the writers meme :3

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

My magnum opus, Maiden, Mother, Crone <3

honestly any moment from it but I like this one best atm since I thought I'd be ask to revise certain lines but nope hehe and I am proud of it because I think I am very big-brained and adore Spectre

   Walking into the inferno, he laughed. He wasn’t sure what it was about the prospect of certain doom, but it was hilarious. Arms outspread, begging for one last embrace from his dear mother, he walked into the flames where he saw her visage. Sunavalon Dryatrentiay was waiting for him and with every step he took, he remembered something sweet. Something kind. His upbringing may not have been ideal, but he found it idyllic, nonetheless. The moments of his childhood where he had the opportunity to bond with his mother; clambering atop her limbs, sleeping amid her roots, every memory took him further and further back unto his rebirth. He did not remember being abandoned but he remembered being adopted.

  Walking into that blaze, Spectre had just one hope in his heart as it would be her face which would be the last thing that he would ever have the good fortune of seeing. He hoped that he had been a good son to her. His Myrrha. The mother of Adonis. She who had been rejected by society and transformed into a tree for her incestuous transgressions. Spectre could empathise. He knew how heartbreaking it could be to be rejected and punished.

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

From an incomplete wip, it was the only thing which sprang to mind atm and I am proud of it because I am. An Australian idiot. I don't even like footy, touch or otherwise but goddamn I love writing Jim sm

   “You ever played footy before?” Jim asked and he started to get keen a bit, shook out his shoulders and if Manjoume didn’t know any better, he would describe his eyes as having a gleam of national pride.

   “Do Australians call it football or soccer?” Manjoume said.

   “We call it soccer but footy’s different to soccer and different again to football, if you're imagining the American one, anyway, we call that gridiron and don’t play it much. And it's different again to rugby, if that’s what you're familiar with, but we do like a bit of rugby but I like footy best. Or, y’know, Aussie rules, if you know it by that name.”

   “You are not speaking any language I know.” Manjoume replied after Jim’s little spiel on the intricacies of sport down under and elsewhere. 

I hope to finish this fic.... soon

[ptrckjcne]

Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

i hate writing dialogue so anything i write that actually has dialogue works perfectly here–

jokes aside i don't hate dialogue, i just suck at writing dialogue that is not two characters lowkey biting each other's heads off oops

but i think this one (below the cut) works as one of the better dialogue bits i've written lately!

“Earth to Daniel.” She spoke, leaning over to nudge his arm, his head whipping up as he offered her a sheepish smile. “I was asking you about your partner, Steven. What’s the story between you two?”

Danny sighed, placing the glass on the top of the bar, nudging it as close to the bottle of beer as he could get it without the two touching. “What is there to tell, really? You’ve spent the afternoon with him, I’m sure he’s told you everything you wanted to know.” He shrugged slowly, turning back to look at his ex-mother in law, who simply smiled at him – a smile he found himself struggling to read.

“He doesn’t speak too much, your partner.” 

Danny stifled a chuckle, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “Yeah, he tends to do that. Sits back and remains silent. Does it with me too, allows me to spill whatever’s on my heart or brain, and he will just sit there and listen.” Danny shrugged slowly, lifting his gaze to look at her. “Partly that’s why I brought him in to be your security detail. He suits the job in more ways than anyone I know.”

“He’s a good man, though.” Amanda started, gaze still on Danny as she sipped her champagne, seeming to truly soak up the expensive liquid (something Danny truly hoped she would, it was his wallet that was left bleeding because of it). “He told me how he considers you to be the best man he’s ever met in his life. Considering he’s a Navy SEAL, who has served this country in elite teams, that says something.” She continued, her glass meeting the surface of the bar a little quicker and a little harder than she had intended for, the slight crash startling Danny. “I know you told me you care about Rachel, and I know the two of you have been spending time together – and yes,” she raised a hand, knowing Danny was about to protest. “I know you will tell me that it’s due to Grace needing her parents, and I have no problems understanding that.”

[kitkatt0430]

5, 8, 9 and 12!

5.) Share one of your strengths.

My imagination. My brain is always going 'what if this' and 'what if that'. So I'm just constantly coming up with new ideas. Some of which I even manage to finish writing. :D

8.) Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

"Mark Mardon attacked the station today.  He went after Joe and put Captain Singh in the hospital.  Joe's fine, but he's gone looking for Mardon," Barry said, leaning against Eddie's car.  "He's afraid that Mardon is going to go after one of us."

"Because he shot Clyde to protect me," Eddie said, sounding a bit distraught himself.

"To protect both of us," Barry corrected quietly.

~ From Hurricane

I'm a sucker for fix fics for the Out of Time/Rogue Time episodes and this one featured pre-Westhallen with Barry choosing to out himself as the Flash to Iris and Eddie - twice over thanks to time travel. This is from the first time he tells them right before Mark makes trouble with the hurricane and tsunami over the lake. (I think the trouble Mark causes on the lake in those episodes is what convinced me that Central City and Keystone had to be located on either side of a river feeding into one of the Great Lakes despite where it's traditionally located in the comics.)

I particularly like this fic in part because it was unexpected. I hadn't intended to write any fics from PoVs other than Cisco and Hartley in this series, but once I finished Hartley and Cisco's take on the two episodes I felt compelled to write an accompanying fic from Barry's PoV.

But I especially liked having the chance to explore Iris and Eddie's reactions to Barry voluntarily telling them he's the Flash. The first time around, Barry has the realization that not telling Iris the truth from the start was a mistake and so was continuing to hide it from Eddie too. And when he has to repeat the day, he chooses to tell them again, this time less impulsively... in part because the first time around went well.

Iris is upset over Barry hiding it from her so long but she loves Barry so all she really wants is to be there to support him. And Eddie knows he was basically a stranger to Barry in September, so that Barry values Eddie enough to trust him now?

I do see Barry's actions in canon as seriously damaging his friendship with Eddie after these two episodes - so I wanted to show Barry making the opposite decision here. Twice over. He chooses to strengthen his ties to both Iris and Eddie and it starts here with admitting he was there the night Clyde Mardon died.

9.) Which fic has been the hardest to write?

The Day After the World Ended (It Continued Spinning On It's Axis Just Fine)

I started writing this and then part way through both wrote myself into a corner I've been struggling to write my way out of and screwed up my knee tripping over a vacuum cleaner. I've tried finishing it, I've tried starting over with a rewrite and... it's just not working.

I'm determined to finish it eventually, but I just don't know when it'll happen.

12.) Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?

Since I'm such a Hartley fan, probably The Sound and The Fury/Crazy For You. Not a single episode, I know, but the two episodes carry Hartley's S1 plot line and I've definitely gotten a lot of mileage out of them when it comes to writing Hartley focused AUs.

I think the next runner up would be S2's Welcome to Earth-2/Escape From Earth-2 which have inspired things like my character study/AU fics for E2 Killer Frost and Reverb and the E2 Coldwestallen fic where E2 Barry is precious and Harry has guessed more about their love lives than he likes.

[liesmyth]

3, 10 and 22 for the fic writer game?

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

Coffeeshops AU. Or, like, tattoo artist / florist, or standard-US-sounding-college-AU — basically most common mundane modern AUs settings. Unless there's a hook like the college AU is between the faculty having affairs or the tattoo shop is a mafia front, but even then it's doubtful, because I'm generally drawn to character dynamics that just don't adapt that well to everyday settings

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?

Beloved NtN time loop fic! Considering the fact that I was trying soo hard for a Gideon POV pastiche + the fact that there were dynamics that were a bit out of my fandom comfort zone (Wake) + it's my longest published fic in the fandom, it came together really easily. I had the world's best enabler in @/nikkicafeina <3

22. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).

Oh this is FUN! Here's a fic I wrote ten years ago. ASOIAF AU, Lyanna lives.

Current version.

They call her the Soiled Queen when her back is turned, more and more often as she falls further away from her husband's favour. Lyanna hides her grimaces under her coronet and never forgets a name, clinging to the hope that one day she'll be able to do something with it. For now, she bears it with the same ill grace she bears Robert's cock inside of her every other night. Her influence is waning, the shimmer of her tragedy waning. She can't even keep a lord's second son from calling her a whore. She thinks: they'd all love me so dearly if I was dead.

Past version (longer, painful to read) under the cut.

The Soiled Queen, they call her; and Lyanna grins her teeth and pretends she doesn’t hear. She just smiles, as prettily as she can, safe in her knowledge that there is no one left around her who knows her well enough to read her lies in her eyes. Perhaps her life would be better, she muses, if she had someone to share it with. But Benjen had refused to stay, no matter how pretty the white cloak she offered him, no matter how much she cried and pleaded. Atonement, he called it,  his exile to the Wall, hoping the black would wash away his sins – and what about mine? Her own penance was as hard as her brother’s, in its own way, the golden life she couldn’t escape, but no one would ever recognize it as such. It would have been better if I’d died, she finds herself thinking more often than not. Blood would wash away her faults as well as Benjen’s oath had, and no one would dare slander her if she were dead. They would sing of me instead. If I’d died, Ned would have forgiven me. But she lived instead, to wither away, never to see her family again; alone but for Robert’s arms and Robert’s men and Robert’s children she cannot bring herself to love.

.

[jadevine]

Preindustrial travel, and long explanations on why different distances are like that

Update March 1, 2024: Hey there folks, here's yet another update! I reposted Part 2a (the "medieval warhorses" tangent) to my writing blog, and I went down MORE of the horse-knowledge rabbit hole! https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/741423906984951808/my-post-got-cut-off-so-i-added-the-rest-of-it Update Jan 30, 2024: Hey folks, I've posted the updated version of this post on my blog, so I don't have to keep frantically telling everyone "hey, that's the old version of this post!" https://thebalangay.wordpress.com/2024/01/29/preindustrial-travel-times-part-1/

I should get the posts about army travel times and camp followers reformatted and posted to my blog around the end of the week, so I'll filter through my extremely tangled thread for them.

Part 2 - Preindustrial ARMY travel times: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/739342239113871360/now-for-a-key-aspect-that-many-people-often-ask

Part 2a - How realistic warhorses look and act, because the myth of "all knights were mounted on huge clunky draft horses" just refuses to die: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/732043691180605440/helpful-things-for-action-writers-to-remember

Part 3 - Additional note about camp followers being regular workers AND sex-workers: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/740604203134828544/reblogging-the-time-looped-version-of-my

--

I saw a post on my main blog about how hiking groups need to keep pace with their slowest member, but many hikers mistakenly think that the point of hiking is "get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible" instead of "spending time outdoors in nature with friends," and then they complain that a new/less-experienced/sick/disabled hiker is spoiling their time-frame by constantly needing breaks, or huffing and puffing to catch up.

I run into a related question of "how long does it take to travel from Point A to Point B on horseback?" a lot, as a fantasy writer who wants to be SEMI-realistic; in the Western world at least, our post-industrial minds have largely forgotten what it's like to travel, both on our own feet and in groups.

People ask the new writer, "well, who in your cast is traveling? Is getting to Point B an emergency or not? What time of year is it?", and the newbies often get confused as to why they need so much information for "travel times." Maybe new writers see lists of "preindustrial travel times" like a primitive version of Google Maps, where all you need to do is plug in Point A and Point B.

But see, Google Maps DOES account for traveling delays, like different routes, constructions, accidents, and weather; you as the person will also need to figure in whether you're driving a car versus taking a bus/train, and so you'll need to figure out parking time or waiting time for the bus/train to actually GET THERE.

The difference between us and preindustrial travelers is that 1) we can outsource the calculations now, 2) we often travel for FUN instead of necessity.

The general rule of thumb for preindustrial times is that a healthy and prime-aged adult on foot, or a rider/horse pair of fit and prime-aged adults, can usually make 20-30 miles per day, in fair weather and on good terrain.

Why is this so specific? Because not everyone in preindustrial times was fit, not everyone was healthy, not everyone was between the ages of 20-35ish, and not everyone had nice clear skies and good terrain to travel on.

If you are too far below 18 years old or too far past 40, at best you will need either a slower pace or more frequent breaks to cover the same distance, and at worst you'll cut the travel distance in half to 10 or so miles. Too much walking is VERY BAD on too-young/old knees, and teenagers or very short adults may just have short legs even if they're fine with 8-10 hours of actual walking. Young children may get sick of walking and pitch a fit because THEY'RE TIREDDDDDDDDDD, and then you might need to stay put while they cry it out, or an adult may sigh and haul them over their shoulder (and therefore be weighed down by about 50lbs of Angry Child).

Heavy forests, wetlands and rocky hills/mountains are also going to be a much shorter "distance" per day. For forests or wetlands, you have to account for a lot of villagers going "who's gonna cut down acres of trees for one road? NOT ME," or "who's gonna drain acres of swamp for one road? NOT ME." Mountainous regions have their traveling time eaten by going UP, or finding a safer path that goes AROUND, so by the time you're done slogging through drier patches of wetlands or squeezing through trees, a deceptively short 10-15 miles in rough terrain might take you a whole day to walk instead of the usual half-day.

If you are traveling in freezing winters or during a rainstorm (and this inherently means you HAVE NO CHOICE, because nobody in preindustrial times would travel in bad weather if they could help it), you run the high risk of losing your way and then dying of exposure or slipping and breaking your neck, just a few miles out of the town/village.

Traveling in TOO-HOT weather is just as bad, because pushing yourself too hard and getting dehydrated at noon in the tropics will literally kill you. It's called heat-STROKE, not "heat-PARTY."

And now for the upper range of "traveling on horseback!"

Fully mounted groups can usually make 30-40 miles per day between Point A and Point B, but I find there are two unspoken requirements: "Point B must have enough food for all those people and horses," and "the mounted party DOESN'T need to keep pace with foot soldiers, camp followers, or supply wagons."

This means your mounted party would be traveling to 1) a rendezvous point like an ally's camp or a noble's castle, or 2) a town/city with plenty of inns. Maybe they're not literally going 30-40 miles in one trip, but they're scouting the area for 15-20 miles and then returning to their main group. Perhaps they'd be going to an allied village, but even a relatively small group of 10-20 warhorses will need 10-20 pounds of grain EACH and 20-30 pounds of hay EACH. 100-400 pounds of grain and 200-600 pounds of hay for the horses alone means that you need to stash supplies at the village beforehand, or the village needs to be a very large/prosperous one to have a guaranteed large surplus of food.

A dead sprint of 50-60 miles per day is possible for a preindustrial mounted pair, IF YOU REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO. Moreover, that is for ONE day. Many articles agree that 40 miles per day is already a hard ride, so 50-60 miles is REALLY pushing the envelope on horse and rider limits.

NOTE: While modern-day endurance rides routinely go for 50-100 miles in one day, remember that a preindustrial rider will not have the medical/logistical support that a modern endurance rider and their horse does.

If you say "they went fifty miles in a day" in most preindustrial times, the horse and rider's bodies will get wrecked. Either the person, their horse, or both, risk dying of exhaustion or getting disabled from the strain.

Whether you and your horse are fit enough to handle it and "only" have several days of defenselessness from severe pain/fatigue (and thus rely on family/friends to help you out), or you die as a heroic sacrifice, or you aren't QUITE fit enough and become disabled, or you get flat-out saved by magic or another rider who volunteers to go the other half, going past 40 miles in a day is a "Gondor Calls For Aid" level of emergency.

As a writer, I feel this kind of feat should be placed VERY carefully in a story: Either at the beginning to kick the plot off, at the climax to turn the tide, or at the end.

Preindustrial people were people--some treated their horses as tools/vehicles, and didn't care if they were killed or disabled by pushing them to their limits, but others very much cared for their horses. They needed to keep them in working condition for about 15-20 years, and they would not dream of doing this without a VERY good reason.

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UPDATE January 13: Several people have gotten curious and looked at maps, to find out how a lot of cities are indeed spread out at a nice distance of 20-30 miles apart! I love getting people interested in my hyperfixations, lol.

But remember that this is the space between CITIES AND TOWNS. There should never be a 20-mile stretch of empty wilderness between City A and Town B, unless your world explains why folks are able to build a city in the middle of nowhere, or if something has specifically gone wrong to wipe out its supporting villages!

Period pieces often portray a shining city rising from a sea of picturesque empty land, without a single grain field or cow pasture in sight, but that city would starve to death very quickly in preindustrial times.

Why? Because as Bret Devereaux mentions in his “Lonely Cities” article (https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-part-i-the-ideal-city/), preindustrial cities and towns must have nearby villages (and even smaller towns, if large and prosperous enough!) to grow their food for them.

The settlements around a city will usually be scattered a few miles apart from each other, usually clustered along the roads to the city gates. Those villages and towns at the halfway point between cities (say 10-15 miles) are going to be essential stops for older/sick folks, merchants with cargo, and large groups like noble’s retinues and army forces.

Preindustrial armies and large noble retinues usually can’t make it far past 10-12 miles per day, as denoted in my addition to this post. (https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/739342239113871360/now-for-a-key-aspect-that-many-people-often-ask )

[tokuvivor]

Let's do 1 and 22 for the fic ask game.

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Something that involves friendship, and at least one deep conversation, with the length of it being dependent on the plot.

22. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person sending the ask is free to make suggestions).

From The Power of Three…

All of a sudden, Huey was thrust into an entirely new environment from what he had built up over the past five years. Yes, he was still new, but at the same time, he had all that experience following him to Duckburg.

Overall, I’d say my writing hasn’t changed a massive amount since my first story. But I think I am better now at elaborating things in my stories. Let’s see…

All of a sudden, Huey was thrust into an entirely new environment from what he had built up as part of his first troop over the past five years. Yes, he was still technically new to this one, but at the same time, he had all that experience following him to Duckburg.