#i guess this has been quoted over and over but i'm finishing my rewatch and. damn. that one hit close to home

[piecesofbrokenrecollections]

"No tale is more compelling than one that never ends."

- Katsuki Yuuri

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Sorry if u have already answered this or this isn’t really ur blog focus but how do u structure and come up with ideas for such good and lengthy analysis?

Do u read and see the shows contents multiple times? Or interact with other fans/ fandom?

And once u have an idea how do u go about it?

— from a small niche fandom blog

I'm honored that you think my stuff is good! As for how I come up with it, well, I'll answer as best I can, but I don't know how useful it will be? If you wanna ask something more specific, feel free!

Most of my posts are responses to asks, so my general process is to read the ask, think about it as I go about my life, and then write a response once I feel like I have my thoughts in order. Then I add the post to my queue so I can reread it at least once before it actually posts to catch any errors and make sure it reads coherently. I usually find the time to do that, though not always.

The posts that aren't asks are just me talking about random things that I can't stop thinking about, so I need to scream into the void to get my brain to move on. Those ideas come from random thoughts, a trend I notice in fanfic, comments/reblogs in my asks, and a whole host of other places. I've got one post in my queue right now that I'm pretty sure was spawned by my latest rewatch of The Good Place, but I can't be sure about that. I don't try to look for post topics, they just come to me.

I don't watch the show over and over. Not really my thing. I've seen all of Miraculous seasons 1 to 3 once and I've seen most of seasons 4 and 5 twice (once subbed, once dubbed). Origins and Oblivio are the only exceptions. They're my favorite episodes, so I think I watched them a few times back before season four aired and my feeling toward the show started to really sour. When I'm pulling quotes, I just rely on my memory and the fan wiki, which has transcripts for all of the English episodes, allowing me to fact check myself. I occasionally pull up a specific episode to check the visuals in a given scene, but that's really rare and I only do it because I have access to the streaming version. If my SO ever cancels Disney+, then I'll be script only.

I read other fan analysis if it crosses my dash, but I don't go looking for it or follow any super active blogs. While I think there are others with valuable input out there, I already spend enough time thinking about Miraculous for my own blog, so I try to focus my energy in other spaces when I'm not managing said blog. I don't like to endlessly scroll on Tumblr and only follow blogs that don't post much to keep from feeling overwhelmed or sucked in.

I started talking about Miraculous on here because I found it genuinely fascinating how badly it was written. I think you could teach an entire class on basic writing principles using Miraculous as a case study because there are so many things it does wrong and failure really is a fantastic teacher. But the analysis I do for Miraculous isn't a skill that's unique to Miraculous. What you see on this blog is my default state. This is just how my brain works. How I engage with the majority of media. When I finish watching or reading something that I didn't like, I want to understand why I didn't like it and how it could be shaped into something I would like.

It's a honed skill. I've been obsessed with story telling since I was a little kid and my parents sort of accidentally started training me on analysis at a young age. Add in years of voracious reading and several excellent English teachers and I'm able to run this blog without too much mental effort. Talking and thinking about writing are legitimately fun for me. This stuff is my "I'm too drained to write" hobby.

None of this makes me some arbiter of quality or means that I understand every point of view about what makes a story good. All it means is that I know enough about writing to be able to clearly articulate why I like or dislike the way a story was told.

I guess that's the one piece of advice I can give. When you find something that bugs you, really think about why. Was it just a matter of taste or is there something more? Does it seem like the flaw is an intentional writing choice or not? Why? What changes could you make to fix the flaw? Can you make those changes without completely rewriting the story? Those are the kinds of fixes I look for first. There are certainly cases where massive change is needed, but looking for small changes will really hone that analytical ability to improve your writing as it forces you to focus on the fine details of the way stories work.

[jamiesfootball]

Tagged by @jamietarttsnorthernattitude and @asteria-argo

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

8

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

191,977

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Ted Lasso is the main one right now

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

A German, a Russian, and an American Walk into a Bar (The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015))

oh god, you're gonna get it (you have not been given love) (Ted Lasso (TV))

The Garrison Reserve (The Musketeers (2014))

The Dick String Incident (Ted Lasso (TV))

somebody's hands who felt like mine (Ted Lasso (TV))

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, though I am woefully behind

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It's a toss up between right next to the heart of me and somebody's hands who felt like mine. I think the first one is technically the sharper angst, but it at least has a sequel in the works to make things a little better. The second one is a softer whump, but open-ended and with no follow up planned.

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

In terms of fics that have actually ended, A German, a Russian, and an American Walk into a Bar wins by a mile

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet???

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes. Whatever kind. If I am feeling inspired by a thought, I'm gonna write it.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've written AUs but no straight-up crossovers yet, though I've lazily batted a few around in a sort of 'what if x met y' sort of way

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, A German, a Russian, and an American Walk into a Bar and The Garrison Reserve were both co-written

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Right now it's Jamie/Whump

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

It's not that I won't finish The Garrison Reserve (literally the last chapter is half written), but finishing it is going to mean a rewatch because I have straight up forgotten half the side characters' names

16. What are your writing strengths?

Maybe descriptions? Also my willingness to try to tell a joke

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

This is one I try very very hard to edit out, but I am literally the worst at writing my thoughts down out-of-order or forgetting to finish a thought entirely. Oh, and dialogue. It either comes naturally or I am forging that garbage with a hammer.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think there is a time for using another language in-text and a time when simply implying the other language or leaning on the perspective of a character who doesn't speak the other language is the correct decision.

That said I am currently writing a story about Dani and Jamie which involves some Spanish dialogue, but I feel fairly good about it because 1) when in doubt, I can (and do) just quote my mom, 2) if it sounds too simplified / non-colloquial I can always make the excuse that Dani, like my mom, doesn't want to confuse Jamie while he's learning, 3) any mistake I make could easily be a mistake that Jamie would make anyways. Wins all around!

Somewhat related, there was an absolutely fantastic Sherlock (BBC) fic back in the day (which was sadly removed from AO3) told from John's point of view where Sherlock decided he would go about his day in Italian. It included Italian dialogue that you could hover over for the translation, but the thrust of the fic was John playing along with his best guess of what was being said. The result was a fic that concurrently told two entwined stories by emphasizing two different povs by giving the audience the choice to ignore one in favor of experiences the other one first with no subtitles. It was very cool.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

a two-page handwritten DBZ fanfic when I was 11.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

oh god, you're gonna get it (you have not been given love)

tagging: @sighonaraa and @altschmerzes because I've not seen either of you yet