#I'm still sad (Ryn was still mad)

[epersonae]

Fic asks: 25-29

What do you look for in a beta?

I want someone who can see both big picture (is there a whopping great plot hole? does it land the ending?) and little picture (what is UP with my verb tenses? does this moment need more detail?). I love getting another perspective on what I'm doing, to have someone who sees what it is I'm trying to do and helps me be better at that.

(I also appreciate getting comments in my docs about what does work, it's a huge confidence-builder!)

Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?

I do! And I enjoy it! I hope to be the kind of beta that I want; I know that there are specific detail things that I'm good at, both technical writing things (hi I have been doing some kind of editing as part of my work for more than 20 years now) and attention to canon details. I like to think about what the story wants, and try to be gentle as far as people's particular writing style, rather than trying to push it into something that's closer to my style.

(also: you tell me, what kind of beta am I?)

How do you feel about collaborations?

[stares into space]

The only person I've ever actually collaborated with was Ryn.

It's not even that I'm not open to other collaborations, or haven't been [hooboy there's a whole other story there that is NOT for public consumption], so much as it's just never happened, and honestly at this point I wouldn't know how to start.

It's also that the writing collaboration we had was so intimate, and I don't mean that in a sex way (it's INTERESTING, she notes in retrospect, that all of the writing we did where we were picking POV characters, none of those pairs were ones we shipped. I mean none of them.), I mean that in a very emotional way, where we lived in each other's heads about it. To look back at the previous ask: we were both writing about our deep emotional vulnerabilities through the characters of Lucretia and Taako, working out things that both of us were still kind of in the middle of in our lives at the time. (Goddamn 2018 was a fuckin time)

And so maybe in the way that I am apparently unable to casually date, can I casually collaborate as a writer? I honestly don't know.

Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

I'm going to pick OFMD folks for this one, since that's what I've been reading lately.

I will read almost anything Fyre/@amuseoffyre writes for OFMD; it's ranged all over, and all of it is just goddamn good writing. (the vampire/werewolf AU? remarkably moving and also funny as hell; I love selkie!Buttons with my whole heart.)

not only am I FUCKING OBSESSED with gangnamstiles/@sassygwaine's modern/mob AU, I loved the ttrpg podcast AU, and not just because it was my idea lol

finally, I'm going to go out on a limb, and recommend some just plain old smut, actually: alsaurus/@ofmd-alsaurus writes stuff that is weird, like genuinely quirky stuff, but always makes it so fun and enthusiastic and joyful that I'm always game for it.

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

I will admit that isn't something I think about very often? but I'm extremely tempted to write something in the same universe as @sassygwaine's a small adventure; I even started writing a bit of Lucius POV, and how it is he decides to join Stede's game. we'll see if I ever get back to that!