#iylhybhn

[aparticularbandit]

20 Questions for Fanfiction Writers

tagged by: @andtherewerefireworks. THANK YOU. <3 <3 <3

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

206, apparently. O.o I didn't realize it was that much. Whoops. >.>;;;;;; ...when did I end up with 55 fics in the MCU. I knew I had a lot in JTV, but when did I end up with that many in the MCU

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

2,039,621.

3) What fandoms do you write for?

Uh...currently? ...uh...let me check my pinned post. Uh. Danganronpa (not DRV3 because I haven't finished it yet; specifically Junko etc. I like rewrites and consequences more than...crossovers...right now. I would rather play with canon...ish). MCU (specifically Wanda-related etc. re: Wandavision and DSMOM, but also add the Ancient One and also add Viv Vision because I love her). JTV (because yes, I can be persuaded to write more Roisa stuff). Miscellaneous Kathryn Hahn etc. (frequently referred to as Hahnverse, specifically beyond Agatha I will also write Eve Fletcher and Claire Debella). Who Framed Roger Rabbit (because yes, I can also be persuaded to occasionally write more Jessica Rabbit stuff, although it is often highly specific to my Jess). Puella Magi Madoka Magica (just because I haven't in a very long time does not mean I can't). Noir (the 2001 anime; just because I have very little posted doesn't mean I won't write for this). The Haunting of Bly Manor (specifically Dani and Viola and we pretend that most of the last episode didn't happen because I love Viola and I like looking at the complications of that whole situation). ...probably others that I can't think about at the moment, honestly.

4) Top Five Fics by Kudos:

By kudos? 1) What Dreams May Come. 2) Finding Family. 3) Lost Causes. 4) Make Life Worthwhile. 5) Take A Sad Song and Make It Better. Surprised by that last one, honestly, but not by the other four. The top two on my stats are pretty much always Bly Manor Fix-It Fic and FF; they just switch places every now and again.

5) Do you respond to comments?

Sometimes. I respond to comments if I feel I have a response or if I want to continue the dialogue or if I'm asked a question and don't put it off for a while (I'm really bad at this, actually). But I feel like a lot of comments...don't need...a response? And have been running into the weird situation lately where responding to comments...feels like...it keeps people from commenting? Which is? A weird feeling?

6) What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Timeline canon doesn't count (I see you out there reading this) because that's not fic, that's rp. And, I mean, technically that had a happy ending. Technically. the day her line went flat. hands down. i've got some other angsty stuff that comes to mind, but like. nothing like that one, i don't think. ...but if I ever finish it all happens so quick, that may take it.

7) What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

...uh. Hm. I think probably Finding Family, because it was nearly 375k of build up (385k if you include the Holiday Special) and character development and relational development just to get to that ending so that it felt well earned and deserved and still not expected even though set up and just. I knew the ending of that one when I started it, and it was exactly what I wanted it to be, and I think it's the most happy because it's the most right and complete and just.... I don't know how to put words to it, but that one.

8) Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten bot hate on my MCU fics by bots who want me to switch to a different fic website, which I don't think really counts. I haven't gotten hate as comments on AO3 fic, BUT I DID have a period early last year and some the year before of A LOT of Anon hate, some of which was fic hate. Specifically character interpretation. But that felt more like a campaign of hate against me and that was just the avenue they were deciding to use at that particular time because there was so much other hate they were sending, so like. ...yeah, that was a thing.

9) Do you write smut?

Nope.

10) Craziest crossover?

Heart in Motion aka the JTV/ODAAT crossover that no one asked for and then everyone asked for and then I never went back to. XD

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Partly! Someone started translating Finding Family into Russian! With permission! You can find it here!

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

Yes! Room for One I co-wrote with @butimnotasexyrussian! IT WAS GREAT.

14) All time favorite ship?

Honestly, I don't think I have one. I love Jess/Scully and Jess/Regina. I love the Valentines. But my shipping favs are flexible at best.

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

What Dreams May Come. I don't think I left it in a good spot, as opposed to If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now, which is unfinished and will probably stay unfinished but at least stops at a good spot.

16) What are your writing strengths?

Consistency. I'm very consistent in terms of world-building and maintaining exact specifics through a fic. I keep my through threads, usually, and if I set something up, it's probably going to pay off later.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS SO LONG. WHAT IS WRITING SHORT STUFF, I DON'T KNOW HER. But also plot. And description. And setting. I suck at all of these things. Oh, also, having characters have distinct voices. All of my characters sound the same. -shrugs-

18) Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I don't have a problem with it, but I very rarely do it. I'm worried I'll get something wrong!

19) First fandom you wrote in?

Tales of Symphonia. I was in, like, middle school, and I did not post it. Fortunately. (This does not count RP, which I was doing earlier than that. That's not the same. And to be honest, I'm not sure I would know the answer then. Teen Titans or Inu-Yasha, maybe? I'm not sure.)

20) Favorite fic you've written?

It's a toss up between Luisa and the Fox and Surrogate. Probably there's something else I'm forgetting but will remember after I post this. But honestly? It's probably one of those two.

tagging: @adhdavinci (FINALLY I CAN TAG YOU BACK BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T TAG ME FIRST! HAHA!); @captaintoomanybattles; @auburnlaughter; @eriquin

[aparticularbandit]

me: I WANT YOU TO KNOW

me: but if i tell everything it ruins the experience

me: but collective brainstorming and test subjects

me: NO KEEPING SOME BITS OFF LIMITS. FOR NOW.

fic writers are always looking for literally every opportunity to spoil their works. screw the finished product! i wanna tell you right now what’s going on!

[aparticularbandit]

I guess it's not really a Bandit fandom until Jess shows up somewhere, huh.

[aparticularbandit]

I've always been fascinated by the 'if you lived here you'd be home by now' turn of phrase, something about it is just very intriguing. would love to learn what that wip is about!

WIP Info Game!

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now is one of the first two Roisa multi-chap fics I started! (Roisa being Rose Solano/Luisa Alver from Jane the Virgin.) ((The other one is Carla, which I actually finished!))

If you haven't seen the show, Luisa Alver is a disaster lesbian who suffers from an, ah, unnamed mental illness that causes her to hallucinate (and which she seems to have inherited from her mother, who also suffered from unnamed mental illness before, ah, appearing to commit suicide (when Luisa was very, very young)). Rose Solano is stated - by the show and particularly by Luisa - to be a sociopath (not a psychopath).

Based on...a lot...of research and tidbits from the show, I tend to diagnose Luisa as bipolar I with psychosis. Rose is much more straightforward in that sociopath tends to be a term used for someone with antisocial personality disorder. In the show, Luisa ends up in a mental institute twice - once not of her own volition because somebody (Rose) convinced her family that she was hallucinating (she was not) ((LONG STORY) and once entirely of her own volition because she thought she was hallucinating again (she was not - also long story).

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now is a mental asylum AU wherein Luisa voluntarily goes to a mental institution after acknowledging her hallucinations (hallucination. one. singular. just Carla, as Luisa says in the fic. multiple times) and meets Rose there.

NOW. This is not a horror mental asylum AU. It takes inspiration in large part from Girl, Interrupted - both the movie and the memoir on which it was based - which really does focus on how living in a mental institution is. (The movie also adds in some dramatics because, you know, movie. But Angelina Jolie got her Academy Award for it, so there's that!) And a lot of the overarching plot pulls from the movie plot for Girl, Interrupted, particularly with Luisa similar to Susanna and Rose similar to Lisa.

It also takes huge inspiration from Next to Normal, particularly in terms of Luisa and why she's hallucinating Carla. If you know, you know. (If not, no worries, that would be story spoilers! But also, like, I was writing this while writing Carla, which was my backstory basis for a lot of how I wrote Lu at that time.)

I also populated it with characters I'd written before: Jessica Rabbit (here as Jessica Irving) as one of the other patients (and also taking her plot notes from one of the other people in the movie), Alana Bloom (from Hannibal) as Luisa's therapist, Harley Quinn Harleen Quinzel showed up as the group therapist, among others from the show proper as needed (and Susanna Barnett in an entirely different role which I won't put here because JTV spoilers).

But yeah. IYLHYBHN was a mental asylum au that focused heavily on mental health and best practices while also showing Rose and Luisa falling in love (while also the mystery of a lot of stuff surrounding Rose).

The fic itself currently has twenty posted chapters - the last of which I posted over three years ago - and is stopped there because that's a pretty good stopping point. (And also about halfway through what was planned for the fic, if I remember correctly.) I have the 21st chapter started and still remember the big points of the next part (so, like, if you think of it as a four part fic, it was about to hit part three, and I mostly remember the major points of part three), but I still wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to end it. I remember bits of what I wanted for part four, but like...there was a lot of that I wasn't sure about.

Also, the title is a direct quote from the movie and the book! One of the patients - her dad got her a little house to live in when she got out of the institution, and she said that the sign in front of the house said, If you lived here, you'd be home now.

And then a snippet from the last chapter I was writing below the cut! (This gets to hang out in WIP because I'd like to go back and finish it. I still remember the next part! Mostly! It's just also been. three years. So. >.>;;;;; )

Luisa stepped closer to herself and reached out one hand, palm out.  “Why were you yelling?” she asked, voice still soft, unsure what else to say.

“Why wouldn’t I be yelling?” she replied.  “The world is full of smoke and fire, and everything is burning down around me.  Who doesn’t yell in a situation like that?”

Luisa blinked again.  “I…I guess you’re right.  I…I would be yelling…too.”  Well, of course she would be yelling, too.  Here was this other person in front of her who was her and she was yelling, so of course, of course, she would be yelling.  That…made sense.  In a weird, dream logic kind of way.  She pressed her lips together and stepped closer, her hand still outreached.  “Do you, um, maybe want to get out of the smoke and away from the fire?  That would be good, right?  You don’t want to just stay here, do you?”

The other Luisa’s eyes narrowed, and for a moment, her face seemed to be more like Rose’s.  “Of course, I don’t want to stay here in the smoke and fire.  I’ve been trying to get out.  I don’t even know how you got here.”  She placed her hands on her hips.  “Are you saying you know the way out?”

Luisa bit her lower lip.  “Well, no, but I think I can find one for us.”  She gestured behind her to the fire-lined path that she’d walked to find herself.  “I think, if we just go back this same way, then we should find our way back out.”

The other her leered in that direction.  “You just want me to walk through the fire.”

Luisa’s eyes widened.  “No, I don’t!  I don’t want to walk through the fire, so I wouldn’t want to lead you through the fire anyway!  That doesn’t make any sense!”

“You walked through the fire already to get here, apparently, so you must be immune to it or something.”  The other Luisa crossed her arms.  “I’m not going that way.  You’re likely to be leading me somewhere that would kill me.”

“Why would I want to kill you?”

The other Luisa just continued to stand there, her arms crossed, and glared at her.  “I don’t know.  Why don’t you tell me?”

“I don’t want to kill you!” Luisa exclaimed with a huff.  “I want to get you out of all this smoke and fire and to some place that is safer and so that you aren’t hurting and we aren’t having trouble breathing and—”

“There has to be another way that isn’t through the fire!”  The other Luisa stared at her, and her eyes flashed a bright, startling blue for a second before returning to their normal hazel-brown.  She gestured with one arm to the smoke surrounding them.  “There are all these other ways we can go.  Why do we have to go that way?”

Luisa pressed her lips together and took another deep breath, followed by another round of coughing where she covered her mouth with one hand.  “Look,” she said, “I came here from outside of the smoke, and that path led me to you, so I know, I know, that path is going to lead us back to safety.  You may have to go through the fire, and the smoke may be worse for a little bit, but in the end, we’ll both be through the fire and out of the smoke and somewhere safe.”

“I don’t trust you.” Luisa stared at her.  “You don’t have to trust me.  You just have to come with me.”

[aparticularbandit]

i mentioned how rocky horror is now intertwined with junko (and probably also the remnants) right.

here are other small details that have been intertwined with characters i have written that are just part of how i write them now, even though there's nothing in canon to support this.

everything regarding miss lint and cat the cat

agatha harkness and the ancient one not only know each other, but agatha is in love with them and never said anything (and the ancient one is in love with her, too, but was waiting on her to do something about it)

luisa's hallucinations of carla are driven by grief; carla is an actual human being who she was dating who died, and someone decided it was better to just pretend carla didn't exist (because maybe that helps with the hallucinations idk)

agnes is a separate entity from agatha post-wandavision who will die if the spell on agatha is lifted (unless shenanigans)

there is a susanna barnett separate from rose solano

everything with claire and eve pre-mrs. fletcher

more to come as i remember them

[aparticularbandit]

someone called?

I need a Hannibal Roisa AU where Rose is Hannibal and Luisa is Will and they go on a double date with Alana and Margot

[aparticularbandit]

it's interesting how much higher the hits are on stuff like kiss/fall prompts or pick up lines or quarantine distraction stories - and i know it's because they are/were regularly updated and have a lot of chapters - but it's also interesting seeing which fics have hits that are actually comparative to those - neither of which have been updated in over a year.

[aparticularbandit]

new quarantine distraction story now up.

this one’s a little more sad angst?  but it’s a one-shot and self-contained, although it does have a reference to...something else.

[aparticularbandit]

over 8k in the rough draft of chapter 8 of iylhybhn.  kind of want to end the chapter there, but the chapter ending doesn’t feel like a chapter ending.  idk if that makes any sense, but it’s true.  idk.

[aparticularbandit]

me, almost halfway through my reread of what dreams may come: IT HASN'T BEEN A YEAR IN FIC TIME HOW IS THIS OVER 100K

[aparticularbandit]

okay so it's been a while since I've polled y'all so here's the new poll:

Which of these bigger projects are you interested in?

"Bigger projects" meaning "~100k or more already written" and/or "a longer series" (because I do have some one-shot series, so it isn't one-shots, these are series with multi-chapter fics).

The projects included are:

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now - the mental hospital Roisa AU which is approximately halfway done. Probably my earliest Roisa multi-chapter fic other than Carla, which is finished. This is currently my longest fic at ~112k.

JTV Soulmate Timer AU - what it says on the tin. A series with three fics (two multi-chapter) already posted, one multi-chapter fic roughed out and in need of editing/revising before posted (that is longer than the other three fics combined), and a proposed one-two fics remaining.

Roisa HP AU - also what it says on the tin. A series with one multi-chapter 100k+ fic posted and six other fics planned (the second of which has already been started and has a chapter-by-chapter outline; the other five are outlined in terms of major plotpoints and connecting threads that need to be included). Is more of a crossover than a simple au and includes main characters from primarily JTV, HP, and The Tick (2017) as well as minor characters from Hannibal (TV), although there are plans to include characters from another fandom starting in book 4.

What Dreams May Come - aka Bly Manor fix-it fic. Focuses on Dani learning to live with Viola as the ghost remembers who she is (and Jamie having to deal with all of this and somehow being the voice of reason more often than not). ~96k posted of 105k+ written. Unsure of how far into this fic exactly we are - I know the next major plot point and have a few planned but unsure of if they'll stay or change.

Epic Superhero Crossover - Crossover series potentially including characters from: Jane the Virgin, Agent Carter, The Tick (2017), Timeless, Person of Interest (mostly Bridget's character but potentially others), Deputy, Proven Innocent, X-Files, and SuperGirl (TV). This series had a projected seven fics but now would likely actually have eight (or more, depending on if the primary fic stays as one long fic or is split up into smaller fics with the auxiliary fics as smaller interludes between larger parts). This thing is MASSIVE in scope just by nature of everything it entails, which is why I mostly haven't posted much for it yet except in little bits in anthology projects or the DottieLint fic.

This poll doesn't mean that I'm abandoning smaller projects - like Meeting at Sunset or prompts - and it doesn't mean I'm abandoning other projects I've been loosely brainstorming - like the Paradise Lost post-canon fic or the JTV rewrite where Lu didn't get the wrong person pregnant. It just gives me some idea of what bigger/longer projects y'all are interested in. ^^;;

(Doesn't mean my focus will shift either. I just like to know!)

You can vote for multiple things, so vote for as many of them as you want!

[aparticularbandit]

finally finished the rough of chapter twenty of iylhybhn - which is basically the halfway turning point (ish) - so can probably jump into roisa fic week prompts starting tomorrow!

[aparticularbandit]

excited to see what y'all think of the next iylhybhn chapter. ^^

[aparticularbandit]

new chapter - chapter twenty! - of if you lived here, you’d be home now is now up!

and then next week is roisa fic week!  and then two more weeks!  and then roisa hp au book one!

i’m so excited, y’all, like i’m actually SO excited!

and i hope y’all enjoy this new chapter!!

[aparticularbandit]

new chapter of iylhybhn is now up!

this is a longer chapter - my apologies for that - but...with this chapter, i officially have the longest roisa fic on ao3.  i know that doesn’t really matter, but like...that...means something to me.  ><;;;;;;;

technically ao3 hasn’t updated that filter yet so it still has iylhybhn as third longest but if you check the word count it’s longer than its predecessors so maybe that’ll change soon idk.

[aparticularbandit]

new chapter of if you lived here, you’d be home now is now up!