#also the idea that baby me writing gossip girl fanfiction in 2008

[swashbucklery]

hi friend, i hope you enjoy your day of crabs! (asdklfjlakjf this is so silly to type out.) just wanted to give you a lil joy and for giving us in fandoms joy (bless those gossip girl days)!

I am going to save the crabs; I have a little summon button on my dash and I can leave it there for a rainy day at which point I shall ACTIVATE THEM.

Also I'm so charmed that this stupid website has decided to monetize the feature of Make A Button To Infect Your Friends With Fake Computer Crab Disease For 24 Hours. It just - it gets me.

[bughead-fic-request]

I would like to thank @leaalda for making these amazing banners.

This is an effort to spread the word about all fan fiction writers in our little fandom. If you would like to be featured or nominate a writer, please contact me. Please reblog this post if you can and check out some of @lessoleilscouchants work!

1. First things first, if someone wanted to read your stories where can they find them.

I’m singsongsung on AO3. My older work is available on Livejournal at ampersandstars.

2. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m a twenty-something PhD candidate specializing in American Gothic lit. I’m an east coast Canadian living in a city and I really miss the beach. I take weekly ballet classes, I have a Starbucks addiction, I’m impatiently awaiting Tana French’s next novel, and my current favourite podcast is “With Friends Like These.” Like any good millennial, I treat my cat like she’s my child and enjoy avocado. I hope to one day get my act together and write a novel.

3. What do you never leave home without?

My phone, because I am a predictable citizen of the twenty-first century.

4. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Definitely a night owl. Very much not a morning person.

5. If you could live in any fictional world which one would you choose and why?

I really struggled to come up with an answer for this one. I guess the world of Harry Potter, circa now, so that I could just do some magic and not have to worry about Voldemort.

6. Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met.

Noam Chomsky, I guess?

7. What are some of your favorite movies/TV?

I’m into Game of Thrones, Westworld, Mr. Robot, The Americans, Brooklyn 99, and of course, Riverdale. My favourite movie is The Sound of Music.

8. What are some of your favorite bands/musicians?

Lana del Rey, July Talk, The Lumineers, Fleetwood Mac, and I’m currently loving old-school Beyoncé.

9. Favorite Books?

I have so many! The His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, Light in August by William Faulkner, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Caucasia by Danzy Senna, The Likeness by Tana French, The End of Everything by Megan Abbott, and about a hundred others.

10. Favorite Food?

Strawberries.

11. Biggest pet peeve?

People who don’t respect the fact that the left side of the escalator is for walking.

12. What did you want to be when you were little? What do you want to be now?

I wanted to be a ballerina. Now, I generally say I want to be a professor, but in truth I’d like to be a trophy wife with 12 dogs who spends her days writing in front of a window that looks out onto the ocean.

13. What are your biggest fears? Do you have any strange fears?

I’m scared of being trapped in one place. I’m fine with spaces of any size as long as there’s an exit available. If there isn’t one, I get panicky – airplanes are an excellent example of this.  I’m also terrified of raccoons and their creepy little humanoid hands. They’re not trash pandas, okay. They’re little devils.

14. When you are on your deathbed what would be the one you’d regret not doing?

I really regret letting my imposter syndrome prevent me from applying for grants. It was stupid of me, and it could have an impact on my future, but I can’t change it now.

Okay… lets talk about your writing!

15. Which is your favorite of the fics you've written for the Bughead fandom?

Probably “(my youth ain’t) tangled up in bad decisions” just because it’s been such a blast to write.

16. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?

Thus far, “fragile little flame,” because I keep wanting to put Betty in situations so unrealistic that I can’t expect people to suspend their disbelief re: White House internships to that extent.

17. How do you come up with the ideas for you fic(s)? Do you people watch? Listen to music? Get inspired by TV/movies?

Music, almost always, though two fics I currently have in the works (including “fragile little flame”) were inspired by prompts. Movie/TV plot AUs are also fun, but I haven’t written any of those for Bughead yet.

18. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

There used to be this MTV show about students at a performing arts school called Taking the Stage, and I have, for years, wanted to write a fic based on that show. I tried to write a Gossip Girl one, and now (unsurprisingly) I want to write a Riverdale one, but the plot just never seems to work for me.

19. Least favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?

I didn’t love writing Polly and Jason’s wedding in “(my youth ain’t)…” The wedding was important to the plot and the progression of Betty’s feelings, but I felt like it kept dragging and I still kind of have “urrrghhhh” feelings toward that chapter.

20. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?

The end of chapter 4 of ���we were both young (when i first saw you)”:

And then Betty begins to cry, great big breathless sobs in her chest, making strangled sounds that wrench at his heart. Archie unlocks the truck and Jughead opens Betty’s door, leaning into the car to put his arms around her. “Shh, I know,” he murmurs, holding her tightly. He puts his hand against the back of Betty’s head. “It’s okay, baby, I know.”

Archie has never, in his life, heard Jughead use a term of endearment before, not even sarcastically, but he supposes he’s also never, in his life, driven Betty across town in the darkness with the mark of her mother’s slap on her cheek and blood in the middle of her palms.

This was such an important moment for Betty, Jughead, and Archie, and I’m proud of the way it turned out. Even though I was in charge of Archie’s character development, given that I was writing the fic, I was still sort of proud of him, somehow? It’s a moment in which all three of them really have to grow up – and they do.

21.Favorite character to write?

Cheryl! Cheryl is so, so fun to write. But Betty is my favourite character if I’m choosing a PoV to write from.

22. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you've written?

I don’t think dialogue’s my strength, but I’m fond of this exchange from chapter 2 of “(my youth ain’t)…”:

Veronica narrows her eyes, inspecting Betty for a moment before she turns her gaze to Jughead. “You look secretive.” He’s concentrating on his computer again, editing photos, and he doesn’t look up when he says, “That’s just my face.”

And this one from chapter 4 of “we were both young”:

“Yeah,” she says quietly. “He gives me something that I need, Arch. I don’t have the words for it.” Trying to keep his voice light, Archie says, “I remember you saying something about love.” “It’s more than that,” Betty says. Last year’s dead leaves, hidden under the snow for so long, dance along the sidewalk in the wind. “I’m not perfect. I’m actually… kind of a disaster. And it’s like… it’s like, that part of me, I can give it to him.” She sighs. “Does that make any sense?” Archie shrugs. “I hear love’s not supposed to.”

23. Best comment/review you’ve ever received?

There was a line in “(my youth ain’t) tangled up in bad decisions” that had a certain meaning I wanted to get across, but I worried that it was too subtle. I hemmed and hawed about it before finally deciding not to clarify it, since I generally try pretty hard to “show not tell.” It ended up not being super obvious, and none of the initial comments mentioned it – and then the next day one comment pointed it out, and I was so happy I may have shed a tear.

24. How do you handle bad reviews or comments?

I’ve never received a constructively critical review or comment, but I’d definitely welcome those. For ‘bad’ comments that are just rude, I delete ’em.

25. If you could change anything in any of your stories, what would it be?

All the fic I wrote in my youth could certainly use some help. Like, for the love of god, 2008!me, stop referring to eyes as ‘orbs’ in every third paragraph.

26. What is your favorite story you’ve ever written? Any fandom?

I think it has to be a tie between “make up words to songs you used to know,” a Gossip Girl Serena/Nate, Serena/Tripp fic and “give me a second, i (i need to get my story straight,” a Hunger Games Cato/Clove fic. 

27. What are you reading right now? Both fan fiction and general fiction?

Fanfiction: pretty obsessed with @stillscape “for the life of me” and “all the road we have to walk,” and also “heart rise above” by @onceuponamirror.

Literary fiction: currently rereading Little Sister Death by William Gay.

Fiction: Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica.

28. Do you have an advice for writers that want to get into this fandom but might be scared?

Just do it! Honestly. I dove into this fandom blind and I haven’t regretted it for a moment. If you have a fic in your head, write it down so you can stop musing over dialogue in the shower. Post it, and adopt a que sera sera attitude about whatever happens next.