#I know it’s still April but does this count as an early Mermay?

[canarydraws]

May I offer you all a low-res wip in these trying times?

[mira--mira]

N: Any fic ideas brewing that you’d care to share? V: Are there certain comments you’ve received on your stories that have stuck with you? Y: What are your thoughts on your personal satisfaction with something you’ve written vs. the popularity of your stories?  Do you tend to be most satisfied with your most popular stories? ~~~~~~~

A. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic. AD. Do you accept prompts?

Wanted to say a big Thank you for all your amazing work, honestly just reading fics have made my day many many times.

Thank you so much!

N: Any fic ideas brewing that you’d care to share?

I joked that Twisting Fate was the fic that completely derailed my non-OoT writing schedule, but that honor actually goes to two fics, the other which is still a WIP and an Out of Time snippet: "Summer Solstice".

I lovingly refer to it as my "lore-dump" snippet because it focuses on Madara celebrating the titular summer solstice. More details about the Uchiha's beliefs and religious practices are brought up, what it was like before he was made into a ghost (and finally ties back into Sasuke's early line in OoT that Amaterasu 'looked away' from the Uchiha after the fact) as well as contrasting it to the Senju beliefs, of which Hashirama is not as devout as Madara is to his own, and Yamato and Sai who are both atheists. Yamato wants Madara to have his celebration because he thinks it'll be good for him but Sai is opposed, though he doesn't try to forcibly stop it, because he's worried that if Madara saw there was no Amaterasu, he'd be more crushed than if he didn't celebrate the holiday at all. There's also a scene with Neko-baa 😉. (It's 5K and nowhere near finished 😅😬)

V: Are there certain comments you’ve received on your stories that have stuck with you?

A lot of the early ones, tbh. I first started writing in BNHA (and really want to get back to that fic) and there was an awesome little group of regular commenters that really helped me feel confident about my writing (Shiryu @shiryusamarkanda, captainofmyfleet, beccaaahhhh) I find it hard to articulate how much those early comments meant to me, especially as they took an interest in the fic and engaged when I asked questions in my author's notes about what they thought. Even now those are still my favorite kinds, the comments that are basically "I love x" "I can't believe xyz happened" "is this setting up something about a?" etc. I worked through a lot of my imposter syndrome when I started posting and I know how to get myself out of it now, but those types of comments really mean the world.

A lot of time writing to me feels like I'm in a box, and I'm just typing away at my keyboard. I like being in the box, I go in there willingly but sometimes it's nice to cut open a hole and ask a question and get a response instead of constantly wondering 'I think that's a good line...it's a good line to me but I've read this 50+ times, would someone who's not me think it's a good line too?' or 'oh I love this plot point, I'm so excited to see how it fits into the whole...wait, does it fit right? does it keep up the same pace and energy or does it deviate too much?' I'm thankful for all comments, but readers who engage, ask questions, and take the time to copy and paste their favorite lines in their comments are just absolutely amazing. I've never deleted a single comment, I doubt most authors do, just mark them as read in my inbox and whenever I'm feeling down or unmotivated I go start rereading or just look at the number of total comments and tear up a little that I've come as far as I have. 💖

Y: What are your thoughts on your personal satisfaction with something you’ve written vs. the popularity of your stories?  Do you tend to be most satisfied with your most popular stories?

I do tend to be satisfied with my most popular stories! Mostly because I write when I'm engaged with an idea and that usually turns into a multi-chapter work which, statistically, is more likely to be popular just based on exposure and repeated updates. My top three popular stories all follow this outline, and I would rank them according to personal satisfaction as of now: Out of Time, The Diverging Path, and Birds of a Feather and they fall neatly into how much time/how long I've spent actively writing. For one-shots it's a bit mixed. "Fireproof" did insanely well for a fic that's just over 600 words and was tagged as a genfic. My MerMay series "Anchored" and "Oasis" kind of bombed and I was really surprised neither broke the 100 kudos mark, though I did notice a dip in activity in my feed for kudos/comments/views in general between April and May of this year so...idk what's up with that lol.

~

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

Out of Time. No joke. There's a reason it turned into the monster it did and that reason is I think it literally ticks off everything I want to write about. I like fix-it fics but I realized after BNHA that I like to take apart a complete work. I have all the canon information (not counting Boruto) and I can rework it as I see fit, like it's a giant puzzle. Time travel would let me do it in a new, interesting way (esp time travel forward) and I have a secure enough grasp on characters that I can imagine all the new interactions within the familiar framework without it feeling overdone to me. Add in my love of kiddo!hashimada specifically, established relationships, found family, and a chock ton of worldbuilding and...that's OoT 😂.

AD. Do you accept prompts?

Sure! I can't promise I'll write them, especially with the mess my schedule currently is...but I plan to do more reader-submitted prompts like I did in May for my hashimada anniversary, and you're always welcome to try your luck and submit one now and see if my brain latches onto it like a feral opossum clinging to its precious bowl of catfood. (Trust me, this is the best simile for my brain. No opossums were hurt in writing this.)