#ask-a-thon

[katt-sports]

omg hiii!! r u doing ask a thon still?? if so,, i wanna ask my boo party phil smn/silly

party philll!! i made this for u and your sister!! hope u like ;3

ignore this if the ask a thon is over otherwise thisll be akward asf lmao

(OMG OF COURSE, THE SILLIES!!!)

Phil: ...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—

(That's happy screaming)

[ask-a-thon]

Day 13

Did you have any writing goals for this year? Why or why not? And if so, did you meet them?

What’s one achievement you’re proud of this year?

What’s one goal you hope to achieve in 2024?

[buggywiththefolkmagic]

Appalachian Folk Magic Ask-a-thon!

To celebrate coming back, I'm opening myself up to any and all questions about Appalachian Folk Magic/AFM. Anything goes! Only thing I will say is be polite, make any assumptions gently and be prepared to be corrected if you do happen to use some sort of stereotype in your question.

[romances-not-tragedies]

Happy Sunday Ask-A-Thon from the @ask-a-thon team! Here's your question for today: Do you use symbolism in your works? If so, how do you go about deciding when and where to include it? How important is it to understanding the story? If not, why? And what difference might this make?

Helllo!

As a matter of fact, I do. I use symbolism as a way of driving the point the kind of character he/she/they are and what their ideas represent. I decide on what symbol to use depending on the characters present in the story as a way to tell the readers who they are and how it relates to them. It makes a difference because readers can catch the meaning of a symbol and its connection with the character.

[rose-demica]

Hello! I'm so sorry I didn't get to you earlier in the week since your preference is weekdays. I'm learning to organize running the blog and wanted to go ahead and ask you your question now instead of you thinking I forgot you all together! We at (@ask-a-thon) are so very sorry.

If you get an idea for a new project, how do you handle it while currently working on your WIP? Does writing energize or exhaust you? What helps you conquer writers blog or writers fatigue?

Hello! Thank you for thinking of me! Sorry for my delay in answering, I have been drowning in assignments.

Normally/I used to move onto working on that new project, as well as the old idea, then phased into just working on the new one. BUT! I have not found it productive for finishing WIP's. So I am trying a new thing where I just outline the idea and the key parts of it, so I can come back to it once I have finished my current projects. (I've decided to have 3 in the works at any one time, all different mediums). So Imma give this a go and hope it helps finish things for me to share!

I think for the most part writing rejuvinates me, unless I'm stuck or really struggling with something, then it feels like a chore.

Writers block is one of my main issues I think, I often move on from a project when I get super stuck, and then (if I'm lucky) some time in the next year or two the solution to that problem will come to me, then I'll return to the story and keep going...

[symbioticsimplicity]

Happy Thursday Ask-A-Thon from the @ask-a-thon team! Here's your question for today:

What's the longest time you've had writer's block for? What did you do to get out of it, if anything?

Thank you very much for the question!

If we're being real, I've been...like...soft locked? For a while now? Its mostly due to circumstance but its been long enough that I feel out of practice. Its been about two years or more of that.

Ordinarily I'll reread old favorites of mine and try to pick out the things about that writing style that influenced mine so I can at least hone in on what skills and such I need to be working on, ad well as feel inspired again. I'll also reread some of my old work to get a feel for where I was last, it helps me sink back into the right mindset. Rambling to a friend about the part of any given project I'm passionate about also tends to get ne excited about the thing again as well. Then for the practical part, I require myself to write a new paragraph per day, or to edit a full page of work. Both are helpful and for me editing is a little easier, especially on days where I'm really not feeling it.

[rainisawriter]

Happy Thursday Ask-A-Thon from the @ask-a-thon team! Here's your question for today:

Do you follow a certain structure when plotting out your stor? Or just go with the flow? Why do you do things this way?

What is this *plotting* you speak of? lmao

I don't plot things at all. When I get an idea I just start writing and let the story direct itself. I'm definitely a "go with the flow" writer. Usually, when I try to plot things, it never goes according to plan haha

[serafyyn]

Happy Tuesday Ask-A-Thon from the @ask-a-thon team! Thank you for your patience while last week's ask issue got resolved. Here's today's question:

What is the most unusual pet a person living in your world can own? If it's not a real life pet / animal, what makes it appealing as a pet to your characters?

happy tuesday ask-a-thon to you too!

while it can be dangerous, people can take care of echovores in the anechoic universe! most curators including vitro however don't keep pets of any kind because of their work. but i can imagine many other characters (that i have yet to develop) have cool echovores as pets. like taking care of snakes :)

[amara-laz]

Happy Friday! Thank you for following us (@ask-a-thon) from the previous blog, or finding us in general! Now, on to your questions!

If you get an idea for a new project, how do you handle it while currently working on your WIP? Does writing energize or exhaust you? What helps you conquer writers blog or writers fatigue?

JSJSJJD this has been in my inbox for forever lmao

1. I don't usually have a 'current' WIP tbh. I work on whatever I feel like. So I usually just make a new doc and add it to the list lol

2. Depends! If I start I'll keep going for a while. Writing itself tends to be more exhausting, but coming up w/concepts n stuff tends to be more energizing

3. Just starting! Pop on a playlist and go. Eventually I get into a groove and pound out like a bunch of words lol

[lunarsands]

Happy Tuesday Ask-A-Thon from the @ask-a-thon team! Sorry for the delay in sending out questions while we adjust to the recent moderation changes.

How long have you been working on your main WIP? How has your writing grown/developed over that time?

The date on the prologue’s draft says Aug 31, 2022 so uh…Yup, over a year. 😅 I’ve been in and out of writer’s block but I’m chipping away at it, and plenty of planning has been done with plot idea suggestions piled up waiting to be implemented.

Personally, I feel like my writing has downgraded in that time, but that could be the writer’s block talking. I need to get myself into the mindset of at least creating a first draft, then worry about polishing it later!

[katt-sports]

Had the funniest Ask-a-thon question and since it came to mind

For Ethan: How do you feel about both of your children experiencing the horrors that is AUs (Specifically Abby in this case cause... 💀 /pos)?

Ethan: ...can I phone a friend—

(He seems a bit avoidant, poor guy's heard a lot)

[ask-a-thon]

Day 12

What’s your favorite thing about your story and why?

What do you feel is the most unique thing about your story and why?

Have you ever let anyone else read your drafts? Why or why not?

[anonymousfoz]

Happy Friday! Thank you for following us (@ask-a-thon) from the previous blog, or finding us in general! Now, on to your questions!

If you get an idea for a new project, how do you handle it while currently working on your WIP? Does writing energize or exhaust you? What helps you conquer writers blog or writers fatigue?

With new ideas, I either write them as practice or I put them on @identifiedfox-prompts as a prompt.

Writing is more of a way for me to get our stress majority of the time. Ir doesn't really enegerize me or exhaust me but is a great way to write our some stress or anger that's been building for a few days.

I don't really get writers fatigue. I love to write, I am in journalism currently so I'm always reading and writing. Always thinking and aware. I don't really experience it. Guess I'm just truly lucky.

(I am assuming writers fatigue is block, I don't actually know what it means and Google didn't help.)

[writingmaidenwarrior]

Happy Friday! Thank you for following us (@ask-a-thon) from the previous blog, or finding us in general! I'm the person who runs ask-a-thon and who asks all the questions, so since you don't have anon on you get to see me! Now, on to your questions!

If you get an idea for a new project, how do you handle it while currently working on your WIP? (You said you bounce around a lot in your intro, is that frustrating?) Does writing energize or exhaust you? What helps you conquer writers blog or writers fatigue?

Happy Friday @ask-a-thon,

I am a bit surprised my anons are off. On the other side Tumblr killed my having it in dark mode yesterday so who knows what else it killed in my settings. I will check it after my answer.

I bounce around ideas/WIPs where I am most inspired or got the feeling for to write it, or where I am obsessed with at that moment.

When a new idea comes up while I write, it depends on the idea what happens. Sometimes I note down the things that run through my head and build the basics of the idea. If this isn't enough I go ahead and make a Pinterest board with ideas and vibes to get rid of it.

If I got hit with a new idea while I am in a slump or in a writers block I use the new idea to get over it and keep writing/creative.

Bouncing around isn't frustrating to me because I follow the flow of my creativity and since I am a discovery writer this sort of forces me to read what I have written so far what helps me catch plot holes early on or find the little crooks where I can add ideas I got later.

If writing energized me or exhausts me depends on the scene I write. If something is emotional it tends to exhaust me because I always get too emotionally invested while I write.

In case I got blocked or end up with writers fatigue, what can last years sometimes in my case when it mixes up with my health issues, I do some of my other creative hobbies like making jewelry or crocheting.

[vsaintsin]

Hello! Happy Sunday! Just dropping by with a writing question. How do you approach writing relationships? What are your favorite dynamics to write (in general or between specific characters)?

Sorry for the delay here - I got sick (still, from when I first made this account), and the the meds to make me unsick made me much more sick, and now I'm still sick but experiencing a moment of semi-clarity. Thought I'd pop in to say I'm not dead! Pray the clarity lasts through the duration of this reply.

This is a well-timed question, because book two of the series I'm writing - which is also my current WIP - does feature more "romance" you could call it, even though it won't be enough to really land it in that genre. That does mean that Carlisle's life and relationships have been the predominant thought on my mind as of late.

I always look towards people's needs when I'm writing any relationship, though, and how two people's needs can line up to make a complementary pair. Whether that be friendship or romantic.

I'm not exactly caught up with the common terminologies for most relationship pairings (but through stalking everyone on here, I'm learning), so I guess I'll say I favor pairings that feel like comfort or relief. Like "ah, yes... that's my person, things are better now." Cold drink of water on an oppressively hot day sort of thing.

I like writing relationships that shake off the "change x about yourself for me" thing and focus more on the "i want to be better about x for you". A gentle offer, instead of a harsh ultimatum. I like writing any dynamic where they make each other better people, where they introduce safety and peace into each other's lives. Any dynamic that feels a little bit like home.

I keep losing the train of thought here, the clarity isn't lasting...

I guess I also like showing that people who aren't "desirable" in fact are. I like to take people who feel outcast by society - whether it be disability or otherwise - and reinforce that nothing that's "wrong" with them actually is actually WRONG. (Like, yes, something is wrong, but it isn't YOU. (Additionally, stomping on fetishists who sexualize people who are othered for the odd sake of doing so is fun))

As a disabled person and as a trans person, I've faced a lot of crap that makes me feel undesirable, and been told by a few people I thought I could trust that I should give up wholly on the concept of connections like friendship and romance because of said things. I refute that idea entirely. I like to show and prove, with any dynamic at all, that people like me are just as lovable and whole as anyone else. Just because the love might look and behave differently, and just because it comes with a unique road to walk, doesn't mean it isn't equally as valuable. Nobody is settling for the queer or disabled person, only accepting that loving them means loving those parts, too.

So I guess I accidentally dodge the question during ask-a-thon not for the first time and substitute an adjacent answer?

As the most direct answer I can give - people who act like old married couples bring me joy, because you can just tell that bond is deep.

Thanks for the ask! <3 Sorry for the delay. Hope sick brain hasn't made this too goofy.

[rainisawriter]

Happy Thursday! Thank you for following us (@ask-a-thon) from the previous blog, or finding us in general! Now, on to your questions!

How long have you been working on each WIP? How do you plan your WIPs (timeline, outline, seat of your pants, divine intervention, etc...)? Since you write/wrote shorts, do you prefer writing those or longer WIPs?

Thanks so much for your questions! ^-^)/

-> How long have you been working on each WIP?

The Misadventures of J&J was started back in June of 2021.

Always was originally a fanfiction that I started back in 2015 and I started re-writing it in 2023.

Heart Beats was also originally a fanfiction, started in 2017 and I started re-writing it in 2023.

Taco's Kingdom was started around March of 2021.

The Circle of Queendom was started this year in March of 2023.

-> How do you plan your WIPs?

This is a hard one because I really don't do much planning lol I just have random ideas so I write them down. I try to write in order, but if I don't write down something when I'm thinking of it, I lose it. That leads to me jumping around in the timeline, trying to make everything fit together like a dollar store puzzle 😭

-> Since you write shorts, do you prefer writing those or longer WIPs?

Short stories, easily. I struggle with finishing anything I start (stories, video games, tv shows, etc.) so I tend to avoid starting long projects. Short stories are fun to write because they are short and I know I can finish them. Plus, there's no need to try and remember plot points or character arcs for the future, another thing I struggle with haha