#plus the intense content in my fics tends to revolve around people going through it mentally and physically in various ways

[kardia-library-official]

I'll just take this opportunity to say that if you want to read one of my fics but don't know if it has any of your no-gos, you can totally ask me and I'll tell you!

Like... Speaking of things not being one-size-fits-all... I tend to write some long-ass fics where a lot of stuff happens, and it's sometimes hard enough to effectively tag them based on what people might want to read, let alone what they don't. So I just use the tags like it's that section of a copyright page that lists all the categories a book can go in, try to determine which subjects and themes are plot-relevant enough to go there, and trust that any potential readers are sharp enough to use context cues to decide if they want to read. Or, again, that they know my inbox is open!

Is this ideal for everyone? Probably not, but I'm not sure anything really is! It's just what keeps me from agonizing/maxing out the tag list.

Tbh I think fandom generally needs to get better at sitting with the uncomfortable fact that a story/fanwork/meme/whatever can hurt one person and help another

[tea-with-veth]

Hello, and welcome back to The Tea Party, where I interview authors from the Minecraft Youtube fandom! Today’s guest is the one and only @aenqa, author of Protected, as well as a number of brilliant Dream SMP fics! 

Tell us about yourself!

Sure! So, I go by Aenqa online, and that's what all my social media is under - AO3 and Tumblr being my main accounts. I use both she/her and they/them pronouns and I'm a writer who's especially into MCYT and Dream SMP fic right now!

How long have you been writing?

I've been writing my whole life, really - I still have my very first "book" which was a few pieces of stapled-together printer paper that I made when I was around five years old. I've been writing fic for probably about a decade, since I was a teenager. For MCYT stuff, I've been writing since about August 2020. :)

Your fics have a lot of traction-- Protected alone has 9.5K kudos on AO3. Was there a moment for you where you went “holy cow this is big” or was it more gradual?

It was definitely gradual at first. When I was publishing Protected, it was getting a decent amount of traction, but it was pretty typical for fics at that time. When I completed it, I think it was around 1K kudos. Then there was a moment after it was completed when the whole "medieval AU" became a HUGE thing in the DNF fandom after the King George storyline happened in the Dream SMP. People were actively seeking out medieval content, and I happened to have a really long, completed story in that vein already written. I started getting a lot of mentions and recommendations on Twitter, and that's the moment when I was like, Woah. There are suddenly a ton of people reading this who want to see more from me. That was a totally unique experience for me, and it was really cool!!

Did that ever feel very intense or stressful, or was it generally smooth sailing?

It was stressful at times. When you have a fic that gets popular, there are some people who feel more free to criticize it or make slightly mean jokes about it online, which was a little strange to get used to. But overall, it was a really great experience. It was so exciting to see people talking about something I had written. And I'm super proud of Protected, so it made me really happy that it was bringing other people joy, too! Plus, it made me feel like I had something of a built-in audience for other fics I wanted to write, which was also really amazing.

What have you been writing recently?

I've been focusing a lot more on Dream SMP fics recently, rather than RPF. Although I dabble in a lot of different areas (like AUs or canon-divergent stuff), I'm really interested in fics that are more-or-less canon-compliant. The characters and character relationships in the Dream SMP are really rich and interesting to me, and I love being able to really dig into them and explore them in a way that can't always happen through the streaming medium. Both my AO3 stuff and the shorter fics I write for Tumblr tend to center around those characters, especially the SBI characters. But really I just love writing anything that revolves around the Dream SMP - it feels like such a fun and expansive playground for making fan content. There's so much potential from almost every angle!

I'm also really glad people seem to be enjoying my Dream SMP stuff, because as happy as I am with how Protected came out, I'm not overly interested in RPF in general, and I don't want to be seen as just a DNF writer. It makes me happy when people who find me through Protected are willing to give my other works a try. (Though there's certainly nothing wrong with being just a DNF writer!)

So, talking about readers, and the MCYT community in general, what are some things you really love about the community? And is there something you'd like to see change?

There are some things I really really love about the MCYT community. There are so many FANTASTICALLY talented fanartists and writers in this community. The sheer amount and overwhelming quality of fanwork for the Dream SMP, for example - and the way it communicates with and even influences canon - is so fascinating. I've met some really amazing people in this space and made some incredible friends, people who are just genuinely kind and immensely talented. I think there's a really cool writing community of people who are genuine to each other and support each other's work. 

I do think the MCYT community in general might be going through some growing pains as it gets bigger and bigger. I generally wish people could stop picking fights with each other over characters - although I understand the impulse to defend your favorite or preferred character at times. From my perspective, it's much more interesting to think about and explore the complicated characters and relationships in the story than to go to war over who's "right" in a complicated moral situation. I don't think that flaw is anything unique to MCYT, though. I think it's something a lot of fanspaces have to deal with.

A lot of young authors are getting started writing with the MCYT fandom-- are there some words of wisdom you have for them?

I would say the best thing you can do for your writing is to find other people who are on the same wavelength as you and want to write with you. Are you writing 100% for fun? That's awesome! And writing is so much more fun when you have friends who hype up your stuff and write along with you, regardless of the reception you get from internet strangers. Are you writing to improve your craft? That's great! And fanfiction can be a great place to get a lot of writing done and practice and hone your skills. You should find people who are willing to really push you, to beta for you, or give you comments and be honest with you and really push you to improve. 

At this point, I feel like I should give a shout-out to my friends who have done that for me. There have been several and I hate to name them specifically for fear of leaving someone out, but I have made several writing friends in this space who have made me a better writer. It's been an incredibly gratifying experience for me and I really hope that every young writer finds a friend or two like that, because it turns writing from what can be a somewhat lonely, intimidating experience into something that can be communal and collaborative, and fun. It also might take a bit of an ego check to accept criticism from other people, but once you can do that without taking it personally, you'll see major improvements - it's worth the wounded pride! 

Before we go, any final thoughts or shoutouts?

Shout out to the Free Real Estate discord (that's our title right now at least, I'm sure it'll have changed by the time the interview gets posted, but they know who they are...) you guys rock and I love you all dearly! and shout out to the lo-fi hip hop beats girl, she always has my back.

Check out Aenqa’s work on Ao3, and go follow her on Tumblr! The next Tea Party will be with HognoseSnake, coming soon! As always, if you have suggestions for who I should interview next, or questions you’d like to see answered, let me know! I’m saving ideas in my inbox, and I really appreciate them. Have a great day guys, and take care.