#alas. if this was a soap opera AU then i'd keep it in

[ghoul-haunted]

like, this exchange isn't going to make the cut because I had to can this whole sub plot, but I get to write it for myself. for me. as a present. a little treat.

[oneofthosebells]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you @malinthebodyguard for tagging me! 💜💜 I'm not really on tumblr much at the moment for various reasons, but I can never resist a quiz.

(It's not a secret that oneofthosebells is a burner pseud I created just to write YR fic for Reasons I won't bore you with here, so the below is combined across pseuds.)

How many works do you have on Ao3?

67 (25 fics, 41 vids, 1 podfic)

What's your total Ao3 word count?

Just over 430,000

What fandoms do you write for?

I tend to be monofannish, so only Young Royals right now! My main fandom for a few years before that was Ballum (an EastEnders pairing), and I've written for various other sources over the last 20 years including several one-off fics in tiny fandoms for Yuletide.

Top five fics by kudos:

Incognito Mode - Young Royals

Salt and Vinegar - Ballum

Easy to Love - Ballum

The Picture Thou Hast Made - Ballum

Breaking News, Breaking Free - Young Royals

(Taking the executive decision to exclude my 20-year-old Harry Potter fics from the list above because...well. You know. I won't delete them from the internet because I don't believe in doing that, but honestly, if anyone's still reading them in 2024, ngl, kind of judging you. There are SO MANY fics out there not based on books written by massive transphobes, go read those.)

Do you respond to comments?

Usually! I tend to be all or nothing - I try to reply to every comment, but if I'm struggling to keep up, I sometimes end up not replying to any at all for a few weeks and then it feels daft to reply after that long.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

None! I don't like angsty endings, happy endings all the way round here. Probably the only one that even vaguely counts is Say a Little Prayer, which is a missing moment from canon from a very angsty episode - but even though it ends on a sad note, if you know the show you know they get married a few days later so it's still not that angsty.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hoping that if I can get my writing brain into gear I will soon be able to give several YR fic answers to this question...!

From my non-YR fics...almost all of them? But let's say Beginner's Luck because of the light-hearted romcom vibes throughout. (Or maybe My Heart Won't Let My Feet Do Things They Should Do, because it's not just happy from a ship pov, but also has a character coming to terms with his hearing loss, taking up dance again for the first time since he was 12 AND standing up to his homophobic, ableist dad.)

Do you get hate on fics?

Not recently, doesn't seem to be much of a thing in YR fandom thank goodness! In the past...yeah. (Soap opera fandom is toxic af.)

Do you write smut?

Yep. Not very well. 😂 I put it in stories that seem to need it, but mostly I tend to go for a M rating rather than E because it's really not in my comfort zone to write the explicit stuff. Never written PWP. (I tried to, once, but it ended up full of feelings and a bit of plot anyway!)

Craziest crossover:

Never written a crossover, never really wanted to. I keep my fandoms separate lol.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Hope not! Not aware of it if so.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I'd love to. Me and a friend kicked around an idea a few times, but never came to anything.

All time favourite ship?

Eep. Please don't hate me if I don't say Wilmon! I love them to pieces, I really do, but honestly I hyperfixated on their story and the show as a whole rather than them as a couple if that makes sense (which is probably why I don't really read/write non-royal AUs).

Gun to my head, all time favourite ship: Christian/Syed from EastEnders.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

There are many YR WIPs on my hard drive, but honestly I'm still hoping to finish all of them one day! So I'll say Not Giving In, which I do really want to finish but alas canon kind of killed my love for the characters (especially Jay who plays a big part in the last few chapters), so chances are high I never will. Will be the first and probably only fic I'll ever properly abandon, which I feel gutted about. Blegh.

What are your writing strengths?

Oh god, what a horrible question. 💀 Probably dialogue? Keeping a plot moving along? And people usually seem to like my characterisation, I've had comments in previous fandoms along the lines of 'could be an actual episode of the show' (which I'm taking as a compliment rather than a dig at my unoriginality lol).

What are your writing weaknesses?

Beautiful prose. Metaphor, simile, imagery, description, all of that. None of that's in my wheelhouse at all. If I could get away with writing fics that were 95% dialogue and 5% 'shrugs, nods, stands up, sits down' stage directions I absolutely would.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Eh, I'm not a big fan. With YR fics, I kind of take the view that if you're writing in English, you're essentially translating the entire fic from Swedish into English anyway - so why leave the odd phrase untranslated? It's distracting more than anything else. But it's not a red line or anything, I don't mind it too much in other people's fics.

First fandom you wrote in?

I won't lie: alas, Harry Potter. See above for my feelings on that now.

Favourite fic you've written?

No false modesty here, it's this one: The Picture Thou Hast Made. I wish I'd given it a better title lol as it might have got more attention, but super proud of this fic, probably my best ever attempt at balancing humour, fluff and angst. (Cough, it's an AU that's probably still enjoyable without any canon knowledge, just saying.)

Mind you, one of the YR WIPs currently lurking in my hard drive might just push it into second place... 👀

No pressure tags:

Hmm, lots of people seem to have already done this one! How about @piebingo and @peakotp (no pressure at all) or anyone else who'd like to and hasn't been tagged yet.