#i was literally in the middle of reading dantes inferno for fic research when i got those last few responses adfggh

[good-beanswrites]

Thank you everyone who gave their ideas on my where is Milgram post!! I've collected them here -- I'm going to try and use/reference as many as I can in my writing, but regardless they're super cool to think about 👀 I'm definitely going to be rethinking some theories I hadn't even considered before...

Also if anyone wants their url removed lmk, I just wanted to give credit 👍

And gunsli sent this and this post 👀

[fanficwritersinterviewed]

ITWW, spqr

<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgment value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life.>>

In the Weeds Wednesday (with spqr, @andthepeople​ )

When you write a fic, how does it start, how does it progress? It very much depends. Usually the spirit moves me and I sit down and I stand up when the fic is written. This is how most of my fics have been written. Sometimes I have, like, a scattering of handwritten vibe notes. Sometimes I just have a feeling? Sometimes I will write an extremely detailed 5k introduction and decide the rest of the story isn't worth writing because at that pace it would take me like two years to finish. Sometimes I will write and delete the same 100 word paragraph a few times and give up. Sometimes I'll pick up 500 words I wrote three years ago and turn it into a full-fledged fic. I have never been very structured or consistent with how I write fic. It's supposed to be fun! I stay loose. Livin la vida loca, etc etc

And to be clear. You are being fairly literal when you say you sit and only get up when the story is done. You tend to write your fic in one fell swoop. Yes when it's physically possible. Like "who carried the hill" took me a couple days. I did sleep, but I had no plan for what I was writing and I just ripped it out. Same with “Good Idea.”

If you're in the right place for it, how many words can you get down in one session? Well if I go like 12 hours I can do 10k. That's about my limit. I can feel the carpal tunnel breathing down my neck.

Ha! I feel it for you. Okay, so. Outlines?��No.

How???? Just start writing and write in a circle. That's what I always say. You want to start your POV character at "home"--at a state of being which is familiar to them. And then you want to write them as far away from home as you can--good or bad. Usually in the case of fic it's good, which is backwards from other media.

So if I can use my own fic as an example, with "who carried the hill," you have Din, who is used to being alone and taking care of himself ("home"), who falls in love with Luke and becomes one half of a whole. For him this is far from home, because it's far from what he's used to. Then at the end you want to write your POV character back home, but the important thing is that they've changed along the way, hero's journey etc etc. so they return to home but they aren't the same, so neither is "home." Din has realized that he can be his own person and still have Luke--they can exist together while still being separate. And of course you want to put them through hell along the way. In shorter fic you can often get away with just doing this in dialogue or in prose--with a callback. Hit it three times, slightly different or opposite in the middle, and you're golden.

Ah yes. You are the master of making my heart ache. You want to talk a bit about this "hell" you put characters through? Well hell is the spice of life, as they say. All fiction needs conflict-- thus the hell-- and as in Dante's “Inferno,” hell should be personalized!

Research. I know you talked about how you're mostly made up of vibes and organic progression but let's talk about "down to a sunless sea" What was the research process like for that? (Also, talk about a personal hell. You set that AU up and then dragged them through all kinds of personalized hell.) Hahahahahahahahahaha. Well I have always been fascinated with/terrified by cave diving so I had most of that info ready to go. I tend to read a lot about what scares me. Generally in terms of research I'll look up what I need to as I write. If wookieepedia counts as research I do occasionally pop over there. Also I'll only look up stuff that's A) pertinent to the story, B) something I'd expect the layman to know.

What’s the hardest thing you've ever attempted with a fic, and why was it difficult? We must speak of my orphaned Reylo (Rey/Kylo Ren) fic.

Let’s! Basically, as an experiment, I wanted to see if I could "prove the hypothesis" of Reylo. Which sounds very pretentious, I am aware. I don't really read much Reylo because the tropes that that pairing ventures into aren't usually my speed, but I think Rey and Ben are both interesting theoretical proposals for characters, who were never really fleshed out. And who were done dirty by “Rise of Skywalker.” So I wanted to see if I could both A) infuse them with personalities, and B) make those personalities fall in love. (Also I love writing women, and it pains me that Rey, the female character at the head of a multi-billion dollar franchise, is so one-dimensional.) I had fun writing the fic, it was a good exercise, but it was ultimately doomed by a savage combination of no one who reads my writing liking Reylo and no one who likes Reylo wanting to read characters written radically different from the fanon versions. No one's fault but my own!

Okay, but I think that leads well into something I find fascinating about the way you write: you take a ton of risks in your stories. Like, super off the wall ideas that you completely commit to. Are you ever afraid to write something because you worry what people will think? Yeah I mean I definitely want people to like my writing, but at least for me, I like reading crazy bananas shit, so I assume there are other people out there who also want to read crazy bananas shit. And with most fic, you've only got like 5k? 8k? words to get in and leave an impression and get out, so you have to go big! Shock and awe! "Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a tactic based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight."

Bam. You are educating us all and this IS an educational blog so. Nailed it. Have you ever dealt with backlash and what impact did it have on you? I have, for sure. I have pretty thick skin, I think. It doesn't really phase me unless people start attacking me, like, morally? Like accusing me of immorality, as if they have not clicked on my fic with full knowledge of the tags???? If that really gets going I'll just take the fic down. In my opinion it's not worth it to fight it out. But it never really affects my desire to write.

Take down as in delete? Yeah.

Let's talk about those poor orphans out there. What leads you to orphaning a fic? Genuinely it's when I don't like it. If it's keeping me up at night thinking about how much I don't like it, I will get up at 2 in the morning and orphan it and then I will go back to sleep.

And it's all about you and how you feel. Because you've orphaned a fic with 10k kudos, so it's not about popularity or reception of a fic. Yeah. That fic belongs to God and the people now. Jesus take the wheel, etc.

How do you know an idea is worth following and when do you know it's time to let it go? Honestly it's usually what I'm enjoying writing. If I'm not enjoying it or I feel like it's not turning into something I'll be proud of, I'll put it in the garbage. Or post it and immediately orphan it. Part of it is also how far along I am. If I've got 10k/15k written I'm more likely to slog through to the bitter end, versus 1k/15k. The mentality being that I've already put in most of the effort, so I might as well.

Is that why you write fanfic? The enjoyment of writing it? I think I write half for enjoyment, and half because it's the only medium where you really get to connect directly to the audience. By which I mean, there's no publisher or editor or any sort of barrier between what you're trying to say and the people you're trying to say it to. My favorite kind of comment to get is when people accuse me of telepathy--how did you know exactly what I felt, etc etc. it's because I felt it too, and for me that's very comforting, that sense of total understanding, however momentary, with some complete stranger on the internet. And the sense of community you get from knowing you hurt for the same reasons.