#and i'm referring directly to what can be used to scotty & she's not going to utilize other pronouns

[ambrossart]

Hi, I know I've said it a lot of times, but I really love your writing. It seems like watching a movie because while reading I can actually picture it in my head.

I wanted to ask you how you plan your characters or stories. I mean, do you immediately get an idea and start working on it or you have to think and rethink about it until you find the right inspiration?

like you mentioned in a previous ask about how you created Vic, and you said you were flexible because he wasn't really described in the novel, but still he had to fit in some image. But what about implementing new characters to an existing universe? I'm thinking about dwm reader, Scottie, Evelyn, Hannah-Beth etc, they all feel like they belong there and I'm wondering how you decided to create them the way they are.

Also, if I think about DWM everything is falling into the right place and when I read a knew part of the story I'm like "oh this was hinted chapters ago" and I think it really is amazing or also the little references here and there, I think it shows how much effort you put in that story. And..I'm curious to know...are the reader and Jason actually friends? He had some kind gestures towards her, but were they out of kindness or because she is his girlfriend's bff?

Regarding the future fics... I'm kinda loving all of your ideas, I'm looking forward to read the one where he gets jealous, or when she gets high because I strongly believe it's going to be hilarious and super cute, and you know everything involving Scottie or Gareth and the other guys.

I always write too much, so I get it if you want to skip this one 😂

Hi! First of all, I would never skip one of your asks (or anyone else's for that matter). If someone takes the time to write me a question, they deserve a well-thought-out response. Always.

Anyway, regarding how I approach my stories, I usually get an idea (or a random scene pops into my head) and I build off that one idea. With DWM, for instance, it was the image of Eddie hanging out in the bathroom with a girl at prom, and I just built the rest of the story around that. "Who is this girl?" "Why is she here?" "Why is Eddie here?" etc. I always have a general outline before I start writing, but it's not rigid because I always come up with new ideas and directions for the story as I write. For example, I was always planning on having the reader have a little crush on Eddie, but it wasn't supposed to be as deep as it ended up being (certainly not one she was harboring for 6 years 😂). That changed while I was writing Pt. 3 and then by Pt. 4, I had their relationship and history completely figured out, and that ultimately changed the entire direction of the story.

I have a similar approach to characters. With DWM, I knew instantly that I wanted the reader to be Chrissy's best friend who's kinda stuck living in her shadow. I think she plays up her sarcastic, snarky persona in an attempt to stand out from Chrissy. She wants to be the sour to Chrissy's sweet; otherwise, she would be even more invisible than she already is. I also gave her a lot of my own qualities and flaws, and most of her personal anecdotes are taken directly from my life. Yeah, DWM is completely self-indulgent. I basically created a fictionalized version of myself and had her date Eddie, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

With Paper Men, most of those characters were born out of necessity. I needed a main character to guide us through the story, and Richie already had a sister (who doesn't appear) in the movie, so that was an easy starting point. I just created my vision of his sister, taking a lot of his qualities and twisting them around to suit her. Since I decided to make Evelyn a very friendly and outgoing person, I needed to give her friends, so I made Hannah, the shy Christian girl who's obsessed with trashy romance novels and lives vicariously through Evelyn (I love her so much), and Paul, the professional slacker who's always sabotaging her grand plans with his laziness. Because most of the story takes place at school and Evelyn is so involved in school, I needed the school to feel real, so I created a bunch of students to populate it. Gradually, a lot of them developed their own unique identities, and I let them go crazy.

Another thing I like to do is create a lot of shared history between the characters. I think that's an easy way to make all the characters feel like they exist in the same world. That's why both DWM and Paper Men make so many references to the past.

Speaking of references, I'm glad you appreciate all my foreshadowing and callbacks to earlier stories/scenes in DWM because that's one of my favorite things to do when I write. Whenever I'm working on a new story, I always try to think about how it relates to what's already happened and how it will affect future works. For instance, the most recent fic "Out of the Loop" has set the foundation for a lot of future fics. The reader is definitely going to find out about Claire Dunnock, the girl who Eddie absolutely slept with 😬. Claire said she had a class with Eddie last year, well... guess who else was in that class? The reader and she saw them flirting. I don't have it on the list, but it'll be a story. The reader has already expressed discomfort about Eddie's previous sexual experiences, and this will only make that worse.

Finally moving on!

To speak about Jason and the reader's relationship. They are truly friends and not just because of Chrissy (although that is a huge factor). They've known each other since elementary school. They weren't "hang out outside of school" friends, but they were friends. I've mentioned this before, but the reader used to have a crush on Jason back in elementary school, but once she found out he liked Chrissy, she had to let that crush go. She can't compete with Chrissy. Nobody would ever choose her over Chrissy. So she had no choice but to step back and surrender. She doesn't have romantic feelings for him anymore, but she still admires his good qualities (and Jason does have really great qualities). That being said, Jason does truly care about her as a person, which is why he bought her a corsage and danced with her at prom. It wasn't just because he felt sorry for her or because he felt obligated to do it. He genuinely cares about her, and he thinks she can do a lot better than Eddie.

Lastly, regarding future fics, the one where the reader finally gets to high school is going to be funny (because Scottie's in it and he knows that Eddie has been pining for the reader for the last two years) but it's also going to be really sad. They're both so excited to see each other and are secretly hoping to jump back into their friendship again, but as we know from the main story, that doesn't happen. They don't talk to each other. Nobody apologizes. They just fall into their expected roles and go back to being strangers. It's almost as if that summer never even happened. It's really sad and Eddie takes it very hard.

Holy crap, I wrote too much. Gold star to anyone who finished this! ⭐️

[ladybelowdeck]

acceptable ways to address Scotty

Mister Scott/Miss Scott

‘Mister’ is, in fact, acceptable for female officers both in canon and in the navy in real life, however ‘Miss’ can be used based on preference. presumably if you don’t know the gender of the person you’re speaking to, use mister over any alternative. Scotty isn’t especially fond of miss as it comes off almost diminutive, but may or may not correct it.

Sir/Ma’am

again, pretty straightforward. ‘Sir’ is acceptable for women, both in ST canon and the real life navy. ma’am is more specific. again, presumably ‘sir’ is the one that should be defaulted to if gender is unknown or has no term. Scotty has a very strong preference for ‘sir’ in this regard and generally corrects it.

Lieutenant Commander/Lieutenant Commander Scott

this is pretty obviously okay. I should note, though, that insisting on calling someone by the full Lieutenant Commander can be offensive, though it is not automatically so, by way of emphasizing that they aren’t a ‘real’ Commander. It can be used derogatorily especially if the Ltcdr in question is in a position (the XO or similar) usually held by someone of Commander or higher, and someone is trying to say that the Ltcdr is not qualified without outright saying so or being overtly disrespectful. it’s like refering to an lt jg as lt jg instead of just lt. you’re deliberately drawing attention to the fact that they aren’t a ‘full’ lt. in casual conversations that do not require full rank you can also use--

Commander/Commander Scott

this is the acceptable way to shorten the rank ‘Lieutenant Commander’ in an on-duty situation/while speaking about them, etc. the line between ltcdr and cdr is not so wide that the difference is important. lieutenant commander is a bit of a mouthful when just trying to talk and is can be very unwieldy if you’re trying to quickly relay info, hence, commander is an easy stand-in. one cannot use ‘lieutenant’ as referring to someone by a lesser rank is incredibly offensive. don’t do it.

Engineer/Engineer Scott

this is typically for superior officers only, if at all. kirk has canonically done so but I haven’t been able to figure out if it’s the same thing as calling bones ‘Dr. Mccoy’ instead of his rank or if it could be dismissive when used. Certainly for lt and ensign ranks ‘engineer lastname’ is acceptable, so, presumably it works for her as well. Scotty doesn’t really mind this, as being an engineer is, truthfully, all she wants.

other notes:

don’t use her first name at all ever while on duty. or any officer’s. the moments where crew use jim’s name are meant to be surprising and are also almost never in front of other crew members.

even if you have a personal relationship with scotty, platonic or otherwise, you don’t get to start refusing orders or addressing her in a personal manner while on duty. don’t fucking do it.

I’ll admit that gets fuzzy with characters such as bones who really doesn’t give a shit when it comes to formality versus letting you know you need to get your life together, but remember that mccoy gets a lot of leeway for being CMO and on top of that he can literally overrule the captain if it comes to it. he’s earned his leeway. a random ensign has not. that’s the distinction i’m going for, here.

remember that ‘Scotty’ is actually a nickname and is, thus, informal and lower ranking officers generally SHOULD NOT use informalities on duty, though Scotty’s liberal with her tolerance of it (eg. have half an ounce of respect in your tone and she doesn’t care if you call her scotty instead of sir/her rank.)

using ‘Scotty’ is perfectly acceptable off duty for pretty much everyone

‘boss’ is considered an acceptable and respectful way to address a superior, especially when revealing chain of command isn’t a good idea.

‘Captain’ is a position as well as a rank so anyone in that position is due that title, regardless of rank. If Spock, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, or Ensign Joe Blow have the conn and are in charge, they can be addressed as ‘Acting Captain’ or just ‘Captain’, regardless. The exception to this might be admirals/commodores/etc. When in doubt, use the higher rank of address.

other positions/billets factor into who is in charge of who on board. scotty automatically outranks anyone else on board the enterprise short of kirk and spock because of her position as second officer! period! the duties of a second officer are separate from the other duties she performs! the only exception to the rank rule would be the chief medical officer acting in a medical capacity, as usual.

department heads also outrank those in their department; even if scotty were an ensign and not lt cmdr or second officer, she would outrank everyone in the engineering department by her status as chief engineering officer; this is why someone with a department head status is typically lt cdr or above, to avoid rank/rate/billet/position issues.

senior staff, at least on star trek/on the enterprise herself, seem to treat each other as relative equals without regards to rank. it should not be assumed this will hold true for every other crew member and certainly not for those that are not stationed on the enterprise. the main crew all know each other and where they stand in relation to each other, they don’t need to establish positions and boundaries with each other, they’ve already got them.