#ghost au foreshadowing is also dramatic irony because the reader obviously knows what happens

[thebreakfastgenie]

11, 24, 48, and 57 for the fic asks!

11. Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around?

I write in order! I've tried both ways, but I find writing in order helps me. It gives the narrative a natural flow, I guess? Plus I usually have certain scenes worked out first and I use them as waypoints to write to. I make exceptions if I know I don't have time/energy to get o a particular scene in that writing session and I'm worried I'll forget it. I also do sometimes change the order while I'm writing or after. But for the most part I write in order. As I've been experimenting more with non-chronological writing it's gotten a bit more complicated and so far it's been a mix of writing in the order I want things to appear (when I have that worked out) and writing the events chronologically as they happen and then moving them around.

24. How do you choose whose POV to write in?

Whatever feels right! Sometimes it's very instinctual, other times it's hard. Usually I choose the POV character by who has an inner thought I desperately want to include, and it gets tricky if there is more than one. If you look at older fanfiction, it used to be common to change POV many times mid scene and I absolutely hate it. I do like to change up POV (I have very few fics that stick with one the entire time and they're all petty short) but I always do it with a scene change. When I wrote safe travels I had a really hard time deciding between Hawkeye and BJ POV for their big climactic talk, so I found a way to write a break into the middle so Hawkeye could have the first half and BJ could have the second. I also tend to be biased a bit by which characters I get because their POV comes easily to me. You will see a lot of Hawkeye POV and Josh Lyman POV from me. But sometimes writing someone I don't write often is a really fun challenge and I end up enjoying it more! The Potter POV in safe travels was some of the most fun I had writing it. And the first two BJ POV scenes. It was my first time writing his POV and I was nervous about it but I had a ball and of course he's been giving me trouble since then. I also try to keep a balance when I use multiple POVs. hills like white elephants was originally going to be more back-and-forth between Margaret and Hawkeye and when it ended up being almost entirely Margaret, I almost cut the one Hawkeye POV scene just because I didn't like having just one. It stayed because I thought that moment of Hawkeye wondering if BJ figured out what he did but not asking was worth it. I also take advantage of only having to know as much as the POV character knows, but that rarely determines which POV I use.

48. Who is your favorite character to write for?  Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom?

This is surprisingly hard to answer. There are characters I write about the most, who are usually my favorite characters and the ones I feel most strongly and know the best. Those are Hawkeye for MASH and Josh for The West Wing. But I often find there are other characters I enjoy writing more, because I don't do it as much and it's different. So you could say it does change once I've written my faves a lot, I guess. Toby for The West Wing is in this category and for MASH it's probably Sidney.

57. How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

It really depends. I'd say I'm fairly conscious--I'm certainly writing foreshadowing into ghost AU, and the Hamlet symbolism in the play's the thing was obviously intentional, but a lot of it happens by accident and becomes conscious partway through the process. For example, in Wonderful, there's a scene where they're scrabbling across the rocks and Hawkeye keeps getting further ahead because he's been doing this all his life. The growing distance between them on the rocks perfectly symbolizes the growing emotional distance as they get on with their lives, and even more than that, it shows Hawkeye in his element and BJ not quite fitting. I realized that after I wrote it, and I did tailor it at the point. I wrote the rocks scene because I grew up spending summers in Maine and I've been scrabbling across rocks as long as I can remember. Even as a relatively out of shape adult, it's instinctive, and I really noticed this when my best friend came to visit and I was leaving her in the dust. This is even an image I've applied to Hawkeye and BJ before because I think it's funny. It ended up creating a lovely little bit of symbolism. I am trying to be more conscious about symbolism and I'm really enjoying it, but somehow I think the best symbols are always going to be accidents.