#i love getting au questions especially. it helps me worldbuild. bc just my own brain isnt as good as having others to bounce ideas off of

[cavefairy]

PLEASE ask me about my aus. ask me worldbuilding questions. ask me about the lore (even if im vague about it). ask me hyperspecific questions about the characters. ask me about little references to canon that may or may not be included. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE just ask me. it helps more than you know.

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: Now the light falls

This week, @lunar--resonance​ stopped by to talk about their Resbang, Now the light falls! Here’s some of what went down!:

Q: What inspired this fic?

Lunar: makapedia sent me a prompt for Ghost AU back in 2015 and I wrote this: http://lunar--resonance.tumblr.com/post/119962051400/41-for-soma-o. I had so much fun with the prompt that I started a notes file on it and it got so long that I was like, yeah I have to split this up into different fics. I knew from the beginning it was gonna be a trilogy, and I have basically all of the plot points planned out for each fic which is why there are some things that go unexplained in Now the night falls. Some of what I wrote for the original prompt differs from the actual fic but that was where it all got started. :D The plot went through many drafts and revisions ahah. What I envisioned when I wrote the prompt is v different from the fic. I had a draft running before Resbang started and then I hit a rut so I had to take it to pieces and regroup halfway through so that was fun.

Q: I want to know if Soul actually made Hiro's pudding explode cause he was jelly or if it was just Hiro being Hiro.

Lunar: Soul got jelly, but he didn't mean to make the pudding explode lmao.

Q: I'm super hype that this AU will have more stuff! I was like "they didn't answer a bunch of questions, this universe is super huge and well developed." "IMMA ASK ABOUT A SEQUEL!"

Lunar: YES I HAD SO MUCH FUN WITH THE WORLDBUILDING AND YOU WILL SEE A LOT OF THAT IN THE SEQUEL. Esp with Ghostbusters squad. I'm so excited for them to play a bigger role in the sequel.

Q: What was your favorite part to write?

Lunar: I really liked writing when Maka and Soul are out on the roof because that's one of the first times they truly connect. And I was really looking forward to writing the possession scenes lmao, like I had that planned way back in the earliest drafts. I had to do it. And it's also going to be a big plot point in the sequels. ;D

Q: The roof scene made my heart burst.

Lunar: The roof scene was one of the most emotional scenes I wrote and at first it was originally slanted that Maka was the only one going through anxiety stuff but after one of the revisions, I made it so Soul was also going through stuff (for secret plot reasons) so it was interesting to write two characters who are both very not okay support each other.

Q: What have you learned from participating in Resbang for three... years? FOUR?

Lunar: I participated in Resbang when it first started which was in 2013 I think?? So four years. WOW THAT'S A LONG TIME. I would definitely say that my writing process has been developed and refined so much, I basically had just begun to write when Resbang #1 rolled around so basically my process was just WRITE. Now I actually list and plan everything out in plot instead of being like, oh I didn't know the story was going this way. Which happens sometimes still lol, just not as much.

Q: What was your process like?

Lunar: For writing I like to go through things chronologically because my brain allows no other alternative so generally I make an outline of the main points I want for each scene. Generally snippets of what I'm envisioning come alive during that part so I also jot those down and by the end my doc is a trainwreck so I re-organize and that really helps me cement the timeline for the scene/chapter. Then I start writing and if I hit a rut then usually what I do is force myself to write in bullet points of what I want to go down but just....can't find the words. Because I know if I stop writing I'm just going to be staring at a blank page for two hours lol. OH AND MUSIC. That is super essential for me getting into the headspace of a character. I can't write without it.

Q: Do you have playlists you'd like to share? Or general artists you listened to a lot?

Lunar: I didn't make playlists because I would have procrastinated with that instead of writing but I basically listened to these songs on repeat while I wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwx6BNwXBaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VBc7VIibRA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so8V5dAli-Q http://listenonrepeat.com/?v=7FDAkpQSJVA#Fountain_soundtrack_-_Death_is_the_road_to_awe. With the exception of Control all of them are instrumental, which helps bc sometimes lyrics can get distracting.

Q: Is the pudding exploding an HP reference?

Lunar: YEAH THE PUDDING WAS AN HP REFERENCE LMAO.

Q: That bullet point thing is neat! Do you find it helps you to get out of your rut when you're having a hard time with a scene?

Lunar: The bullet points help SO MUCH. From past experience I know if I run into a block its going to take me forever to get out of it, so forcing myself to write and flesh out the scene def gets my inspiration going again. Breaking out of blocks is such a difficult struggle x.x It wasn't until my last Resbang fic that I figured out the bullet point method was the way to go lol.

Q: Did you have to do any extra research for this fic, and if so, what kinds of things did you look into?

Lunar: Working out the different levels of ghosts and how they evolve into each other took some research, I only hinted at it somewhat in the story but ghosts and the poltergeists are related as well as other ghosts that we haven't seen yet ahah. Also names of places like Orcus Hollow. I put some research into that bc symbolism and future plot points. Supernatural stuff was the main thing tho.

Q: Did anything inspire that sort of in between world with all the spiderwebs?

Lunar: Mmm so the in-between world is the new witches' realm; it's kinda like its own dimension overlaid on ours. So Arachne's part of the realm is overlaid on Orcus Hollow which was why there were all the spiderwebs and spider beasts and is also why Soul and Maka ended up in the same place in that dimension.

Q: That's v neat - looking forward to seeing it play out in later parts of the series. ;)

Lunar: Me too. ;v; There was so much that I put into developing this universe but there's only a fraction revealed bc the story is only from Maka's POV (with the interlude being the exception) but in the sequel I know for sure I'm going to be switching between Soul and Maka pretty evenly and adding in some other characters' POVS as well. So that will be fun ahah. I've been working on the sequel and there is gonna be angst. The obvious conflict is that Maka is alive and Soul is not but there is other pain that I kinda hinted on in the story that will be a much bigger part of the two sequels, especially this upcoming one. I have like, one happy ending and several sad ones ahahahah.

Q: What was the most rewarding aspect of this Resbang for you?

Lunar: Ahhhhhh there were so great things but I really enjoyed bouncing ideas with my artists, they helped keep my inspiration up. Also after being haunted (haha) by this idea for so long I was excited/nervous to see what people would think and if it lived up to expectations or not.

Q: I'm still waiting for ghost fam to make a reappearance. Q: Same. What happened to ghost fam? Except jk we will probably find out in the sequels, I hope.

Lunar: I LOVED GHOST FAM. I GOT INVESTED LOL. That was one part I meant to not go in much detail in but I realized it was needed to explain Maka's issues with ghosts later on. AND YEAH YOU WILL FIND OUT IN THE SEQUEL. ;D

Q: Are we gonna get to see more of Soul learning about modern things? Cause that was one of my favorite little details of the fic.

Lunar: That was a fave detail of mine too ahah. I have sections that I wasn't able to fit in the story of Soul experiencing riding in a car and going to the mall for the first time. I'm debating whether to see if I can work it into a prompt for SoMa week?? Or just finish and publish them lmao. It will get published one way or the other lol.

Q: Whats your [worldbuilding] process? Have you developed and tricks or hacks?

Lunar: Generally I start out with: what is necessary for the plot, especially from a reader's perspective? In answering that question, it's very easy to expand on that and develop from there. Like, for example I knew that Soul was going to be a unique kind of ghost so I figured out what kind of ghost he was, then built on that to make the other levels of ghosts you see in the story and in the sequels.

Q: Where did [that] idea come from?

Lunar: I was rewatching the episode of Maka and Soul facing off free while they were fighting and the part where Maka is like, is Soul trying to eat my soul, made me think about the process of becoming a kishin in canon. And I was inspired and borrowed from that in making the different levels of ghosts in Ghost AU.

Q: How'd it spiral into a trilogy? Was that always the plan?

Lunar: The plan was always a trilogy from the get-go; when I was initially planning out everything, I knew that all of the plot points weren't going to fit into one fic, but luckily there were two breaks within the plot points that made it easy to section it into a trilogy.

---

Big thanks to Lunar for stopping by!!! Stay tuned for more transcripts!