#this is the best writing process i've ever had for a novel in terms of balancing my needs + getting the results i want so YAY!!!!!!

[dallonwrites]

i love not counting word count literally only just found out that lover boy is past 10k. just a fun thursday night revelation

[zarvasace]

I have been tagged by @batrogers!!

1. How many works on AO3? 241

2. Total AO3 word count? 1.25mil. Almost to my 3rd AO3 anniversary :D (that's around 1,170 words every day for three years, not counting nonpublished words! Proud of that rate, even if it's slowing.)

3. Top 5 fics by kudos:

Status? about Four. I think this one hits the sweet spot for a lot of people: not too long, a bit angsty, but sweet.

so i admit that the mud didn't do much for me, about Hyrule. Actually the first fic I ever posted on this account, it's silly and I'm surprised to see it so high

incandescently happy, a post-LU happy ending. Posted little chapters every day for like a month which kept it in people's feeds so I think that's why it's so high

what is a stump supposed to do, a random Hyrule & Four one, honestly baffled why it's up here

Rise and Shine and Fall, my successful (by that I mean actually wrote and posted every day on schedule) Whumptober 2022 extravaganza compilation. I posted it all in one work, so it's higher than most other whump fics of mine, but there's a lot in it!

4. What fandoms do you write for? Zelda. In the past I wrote a tiny bit of Danny Phantom and a fair amount of FE3H!

5. Do you respond to comments? Always!! I admit to being SO VERY BEHIND right now, a couple months' worth. I'm trying to keep up on new ones, but I've had some beautiful wonderful readers going through my catalog and I can't always keep up!! XD

6. Fic with the angstiest ending: I don't write a lot of negative endings, so I think this badge goes to Counterbalance, my LU Darks AU. I'm actually fully in love with this fic, it's probably the best mix of silly and angsty I've ever written. It's full of what are essentially OCs but they're all my babies and I love them.

7. Fic with the happiest ending: incandescently happy, post-LU. The whole fic is essentially a fix-it ending, though LU doesn't have an ending yet. XD

8. Do you get hate? A couple silly comments trying to tell me I'm doing things wrong, but not really no! Oh, also can't forget the ask I got that was "Remember that Jesus is your first reader." I think that was meant to be passive aggressive but there's a chance it was meant like, genuinely? Not sure.

9. Do you write smut? Nah. And I don't plan to. Not my thing! Closest I get are vampire bites XD

10. Do you write crossovers? I swear I've done more but the only ones on my AO3 are a Vidow fic done in an original world (Nothing New Under the Sun (crystals, dumplings, jewelry)), and Blood-Sucker's Guide to High School, a Vidow retelling of a very fun vampire novel.

11. Ever had a fic stolen? Nope, but I did have one of my Vidow fake fic book covers stolen for someone's fake fiverr listing. Got it taken down with a DMCA but I was like, why

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to my knowledge.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic? Oh plenty. @enrolio and I spent most of 2020-21 lockdowns and beyond cowriting, mostly original stories (1.7mil) but a lot of fic, too (nothing published, but almost 400k worth.) We're currently in the process of working on a big epic original fantasy series, though that's a long-term project. @batrogers and I have done a few alt-POV-type projects too, which have been super duper fun!! Hope to do more.

In that vein too, I feel like the Bad End Links kind of qualify here—so much of the characters and their stories were brainstormed collaboratively and so many friends have contributed details and fics and art, it feels like a fun group project! I've really enjoyed working on it. :D (the encouragement and hype for it also helps a lot!! I'm really hoping to finish this big project out!)

14. All-time favorite ship? Ahhhh a harder question than you'd think, tbh, even if you're limiting it to fic. I've written the most for Vidow, and they're definitely up there (same with Fourdow though I've done less with them.) I do have to admit that Linhardt/Byleth might take the cake, though. They were the first ship I was ever actually obsessed with, and the first romantic pairing I wrote in fic.

I just really adore Linny in general, and I love how the pairing continues and closes off some of the themes in the Crimson Flower route of FE3H. That's the only route where Byleth doesn't become archbishop-slash-dictator, and I think choosing to live life in a small cottage, not particularly contributing too much to the government, builds nicely upon the themes of becoming human and choosing your own destiny, themes that are really missing from the other routes.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will? My old AO3 account (a couple FE3H fics and not much else) has a series where I wrote the beginning of a fic and then had several different endings planned, each a different ship with Linhardt, but I only ever wrote one. I'd love to read the rest but I have too many other fics calling my name!

16. Writing strengths? Um... Volume and speed? Also AUs. I think I can call myself good at fitting characters into new settings. Also fight scenes are fun and I think I do them well.

17. Writing weaknesses? I feel somewhat weak in the plotting and style realms.

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue? You can't count on a reader to know not-tagged languages, so that has to be accounted for in the text.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Danny Phantom, in high school or maybe just after. That's late for a lot of fic writers but... there are reasons for that, and a different discussion!!

20. Favorite fic you've ever written? This is an extremely rude question, because I love so many for different reasons. I write things I want to read!! Counterbalance (for the tone) and Blood-Sucker's Guide (for the finished novel plot) are up there but I linked them above, so I'll take the chance to call out a different few—Marvelous Misadventures is way up there, a Wind-focused modern with magic AU. I promise I'm still working on that last chapter (and the epilogue), I just gotta throw everything else aside one month and buckle down. Maybe June, I don't have any fic events planned and 06/23 was the last update. I think some earlier chapters need a refresh as well, once I have the ending written.

I'll also toss White Walls (medwhump, "non consensual body modification: the fic") into this category for how long it is and how proud I am to have finished even a collection this long, and a long walk, a Linked Nexus fic where I did so much math and had so much fun with it. :D

Tagging: @silvrash-797 @toyouhellohowareyou @nopenototdaysatan @skyward-floored :)

[yuurivoice]

Maybe kind of a basic question, but In what ways are writing a novel and writing for your audio rps/dramas different? In what ways are they similar? Also, congratulations on starting your novel!

The immediate wall I hit while approaching those first paragraphs was the pressure I put on myself to write "correctly". It's not so much the dialog, the story beats, structure, etc. which apparently is what a lot of writers struggle with, but for me it's like......the rules of writing? Like basic 101 type shit. Formatting dialog and the associated rules and unique little bumps you come up against in structuring it had me pulling my hair out.

But I just accepted that it is gonna be a little messy and probably need someone who Does This Shit For Real to come through in the earliest edits and show me what I messed up.

And as it turns out, once I accepted it, it really wasn't that fucking big of a deal lmfao

I still am not a planner. I feel very insecure seeing all these authors on Tiktok who have immaculate planning, outlining, etc etc etc and what I had to do there was like...have a real talk with myself.

I have made a career out of my writing. That's not bullshit. That's not ego. That's literally what every single person who has set out on this path dreams of doing, and I did that shit. So maybe, just maybe, I need to worry less about somebody who hasn't accomplished shit has to say about their process, and take my OWN process a little more seriously.

I was talking to my mom about it, and I told her i came to a conclusion after my little sit down with myself. I will throw myself at this the same way I have done everything else and trust myself. One of two things will happen. I will either be humbled and have to refine my craft and learn the hard way. Or I will succeed.

The same exact results of any other thing ever. So maybe just shut up and do the damn thing and start going!

My process is basically the same, but with some specific guardrails and planning. I get to layer things a bit deeper, I'm thinking about inner and outer motivations wayyyyyy ahead of time, reasons for things happening that extend beyond the text so it feels natural and logical. I think about character arcs well ahead of time and have a vague vibe path in my mind rather than an entire outline.

It's similar to what I'm doing with Evalas. I am planning and creating under the assumption of success. When I was making BitterSweet, Shattered, Lost & Found......it was sorta like living week to week. I got some ideas but this shit could tank and I'll have to pivot away from it. But now I have the confidence to create with a bigger, broader, longer term plan because I have a proven track record of success.

I'm doing a lot of learning on the job, but I think being an outsider in terms of my approach and way of doing things is what works best for me. I'm not an avid reader. I am not educated. I am not sitting on a stack of notes and doing a ton of world building etc etc etc.

It was similar with the audio stuff. I didn't know there was a whole community, didn't know what GWA was, didn't know there was a whole slew of creators on YouTube, and so on.

So reminding myself that I'm that fucking guy and I should act accordingly has really helped me. I don't love showing that outwardly all the time because I'm sure it can look some type of way to folks, but people who know about the journey and the story understand that it's earned. And I've always tried to use that confidence to inspire others, instead of jerking myself off or flexing. I was literally at ground zero, and it was a genuine love of creating neat stuff that got me up outta there.

So I gotta focus on what I do that works, and what makes me and my efforts tick. Not what everyone else has done, or the "right" way, or whatever else. If the words get onto paper, and I maintain the same charm and cheek that YuuriVoice characters bring with them, then I've succeeded.

Thank you for joining me on the ride!

[deputyrook]

2024 Writing Round-Up

Thanks @soupandsorcery for tagging me!

Tagging: @ex0rin @the-darklings @glitteringdust @darethshirl @gastlygallows @brightaxe @envysnest @fenharael and anyone else who would like to!

words posted: 29,066 on A03 | 3508 misc. on tumblr | 9601 on pythium (some of that is coding, though, so I'm going to count ~7000)

additional words written: 8439

grand total of words: 48,013 (slower year, most of this was written in the last few months- I blame crazy work burnout and recovery)

fandoms: dragon age, rogue trader, saw, bg3, original fiction

highest kudos: 837 on Playing Cards (!!!)

highest hit oneshot: Same fic, Playing Cards, with 5984

new things I tried: Besides learning how to code an interactive fiction game (which has been a fun challenge), I also experimented more with writing in different perspectives.

fic I spent the most time on: I think probably Alliance of Three, I worked on it off and on for a week and then two days straight (20+ hours for sure.)

fic I spent the least time on: I banged out In Her Absence in around 2 hours.

favourite thing I wrote: Either of these drabbles: Chocolate/Kitchen Fluff, or Alliance of Three, though I think Mala Suledin Nadas is the best thing I wrote.

favourite thing(s) I read: In terms of novels/novellas, some of my favourites this year were Blood Standard by Laird Barron; The Murderbot Series by Martha Wells; Thrum by Meg Smitherman; and I've been loving Kushiel's Dart but I'm only 25% of the way through.

Favourite fics this year include (mind the warnings):

River Rushing Through My Veins - LunarLich/ @nerendus

I've read this fic like at least once a month since it was posted. One of those rare fics that hits every note perfectly for me specifically, on top of being gorgeously written.

the hand you deal & pray for rain - mafalda_157/ @darethshirl

Absolutely stunning command of language- and the characterization work that gets done through the prose! Not a sentence is wasted. Also, so hot?

How the Game is Played (series) - TheEvilScribbler

This series had my jaw on the floor. Not just from how brilliantly it's written and how wonderfully in-character everyone is, but from the places the fic is willing to go. Truly, I was gagged.

To Tame a Wild Yakboy - BeeKazoo

In contrast to some of my other favs, this fic is just incredibly wholesome, and was a lovely read. It takes the bones of the good romance story from the game, and makes it a great romance story.

Uccellino - 2Wardens1Blight/ @2wardens1blight

This fic is exactly what I wanted to read after finishing Veilguard. I've read it a few times, and it's made me cry each times. It just brings me a lot of happiness to read.

Pity the Mayfly- envysnest/ @envysnest

Speaking of fics with unbelievably good character writing. The Tav in this fic is one of my favourites that I've ever read. She's a likeable, relatable protagonist, and both she and all of the companions are written with depth and a particularly strong character voice.

Inferior- Anonymous

I would be remiss if I didn't mention this mysterious little fic, which was deleted two days after I bookmarked it. I somehow found it again via Wayback Machine (and saved a copy). The dirty talk in this fic... woof. I'm taking notes.

Finally, everything I've reblogged in my fic-rec tag. I've saved many incredible fics and drabbles there. In addition to those I've mentioned, some of my favourite dragon age writers right now include (in no particular order) @glitteringdust, @writerfromshikahr, @soupandsorcery @ode-to-fury and a number of others!

writing goals for 2025: Definitely to both read and write more in general! I would love to really concentrate on writing this year, both more fanfiction and original fiction. It's something that fell a bit by the wayside this year, and rediscovering how much I enjoy writing has been a really fun process (now that I'm not being crushed by crippling work stress and burnout).

new works: Alliance of Three for my most recent full-length fic; this little Illario/Rook drabble; this fluffy drabble about Lucanis and Rook cooking.

There are so many inspiring fic writers out there whose work I enjoyed this year ♥ There was no way I could include every fic that left an impact on me. But thank you!!!

[intheorangebedroom]

Hi Maddie! I hope you are having a wonderful September and you are enjoying the start of autumn. This might sound obsessed or weird, but PTMY and TYBTM are seriously some of my favorite things I've ever read... ever, like I'm putting it up there with novels I've read. It is insane to me how much talent there is in this fandom. Like the Pedro girlies are literal authors, putting out works of art. For me, you are the best of the best! Obviously, both stories have me very hot and bothered lol, but it's just the way you write intimacy and relationships, the peculiarities of your characters and the world's they inhabit so brilliantly, beautifully. I'm sure you know that at times you write like it is poetry! It is so immersive and I love it deeply. My question (apologies in advance) is about writing. I was wondering if you have any tips on (a) how you have improved as a writer, like in terms of how you've been to find your style? (b) how to overcome perfectionism? I've been wanting to take a crack at some Frankie ideas I've had, but I get so weighed down by self doubt and inertia. And also, I worry it's just not original enough. Okay, sorry for the rant! I will never be as good as you OBVIOUSLY lol, but for you I am grateful. I'm so excited for the next part of TYBTM and sad we are almost halfway to the end. I'm so excited for whatever you have in store for the future. Sending you so much love and hope you're having a great day.

Hey Nonnie 🧡

I apologise in advance for the length of this answer. 

Your kindness, your generosity and your time mean everything to me. I’m the worst at expressing gratitude when I’m paid a compliment. "Compliment" doesn't cut it to qualify what you said about my stories, it’s too much, it’s so incredibly kind. You made me so soft but also so much stronger. Thank you 🧡 My first impulse upon reading your message was to throw away my phone and scream I’VE NO IDEA WHAT THE FUCK I’M DOING but I owe it to you to at least try to answer you. Also do you need some blood? A kidney? I have two. You name it it's yours.

I would like to start with the second part of your question, if you don’t mind. 

I have never ever thought any given piece I wrote to be perfect. At best, I think it’s not that bad, but that’s when I read it again a month after posting, because at the time I post it, it’s more like omfg if I read that shit one more time I’m gonna stab myself in the eye.” 

But life is too short for perfectionism. I’m sorry to be speaking like an old fart, but it is. You blink and it’s over. If you have a milligram of creativity in you, do not hesitate. Channel it. Create what you want, what you like. I’m serious. DO IT. Enjoy doing it. 

Self-doubt is a fucking bag of dicks. I’m riddled with it. In every corner of my existence. Every step of the way. Every word I type (not in my mother tongue…). How many times have I wanted to give up, especially during PTMY. The current tybtm chapter has fucking killed me dead. I hate it. It’s not good. Bad. But I’m forty fucking five years old and I’ll be damned if I let self-doubt and fear prevent me from achieving what I set out to do.

When I came back to tumblr in 2020, I saw numerous posts saying “you write for yourself first,” and I did not really understand what they meant. It’s nice to have an audience! It’s nice to be liked and validated! It’s nice to connect with people over something you’ve created. Musicians play live, and get a hell of a kick out of it, right? Why not us, writers? And one day, I think at the beginning of tybtm, it hit me. I understood. Fuck yeah I’m doing this for me. Because I need it. I need to tell this story. I need the satisfaction of having done it. The entire process makes me both incandescently happy and abysmally miserable, and you know what? That’s the fucking spice of life. I want both. I am alive when I write. Through the pleasure and the pain. So if you need it too, well, go for it. Don't let anyone, including you, tell you you're not good enough. Got for it.

There are 99% of chances that what you’re gonna write has already been written. So what? It hasn’t been written by you. No one sees people, life, or Frankie the way you do. Even if you write an age-old trope, even if you write the same trope over and over again in every story (me!), you’ll still bring your own precious singularity to the story, the characters, and the narration. That’s worth EVERYTHING. Please trust me. Maybe no one will like it. Maybe every one will like it. Whatever. At the end of the day, you still did what you set your heart on. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Carpe diem, baby.

Then, how did I improve as a writer, oh Nonnie, I’ve no idea. I don’t think I’m any good. I don’t think I am legitimate to give you any advice. 49.5% of the time, I think I’m too much (too gothic, too lyrical, too big with the feelings and emotions). 49.5% of the time, I think I’m not enough (not precise, concise, clear, good enough). But alright, I’ll try. For you. But please bear in mind I say all this in the most humble spirit.  

I write. All the time. In my head, in the shower, walking in the street, driving, aaaaaall the time. And then I type it down in a doc. And edit it and revise it again and again and again, until it feels smoother and/or I want to puke at the thought of having to go through it again. 

I try to take my time without panicking. If I’m stuck or in a bad mental place, I try to let it rest a bit.

My first year at uni, I studied screenplay writing. I would be unable to tell you precisely what I learned, but I think some of it is ingrained? In terms of conveying intentions through actions and dialogues (I know I tend to write pages and pages of introspection, and I swear I try to restrain myself, even if it doesn’t always translate to the doc).

Then, I’m an art vampire. I soak up everything I can, especially painting, music, and movies. I let it inspire me. I take notes on my feelings, fleeting emotions that I can’t articulate at first, and reflect and work on them until they become fully formed ideas I can inject in the writing. 

I read. A lot. And sometimes not at all when it feeds the self-doubt (comparison, you bitch!). I wait until I feel better, stronger. It may take time. 

With books/fanfics and movies, I analyse the narrative process employed. What I liked or disliked, what moved me, what didn’t. I take notes. To that effect, you can read reblogs of your favourite fics! Sometimes people reblog with some pretty neat analyses, just soak it up!

My obsession is finding the Right Word. I can spend days on the quest. A thesaurus helps. And sometimes it doesn’t. I also read my stuff out loud, because I like when it has a certain rhythm. And when the meaning of a sentence doesn’t work in a rhythm, I rework it tirelessly until it does. Fun times... 

I want to say that if you take the leap and start writing, after a while, you will feel instinctually what works for you. What feels right in terms of personal style. Maybe at the beginning you'll subconsciously write like someone else, but with practice and patience, your style will come out. If you need someone to cheer you on, I'm here.

Oh yeah because, very important, I whine to the very good angel friends in my phone whenever I’m stuck (they will recognise themselves if they read this)(okay they are @dreamymyrrh and @pedrit0-pascalit0). I forfeit all dignity and beg them for virtual hugs. I don't know what I did to deserve them.

And lastly, I have been privileged to witness the genius of Kelli ( @frannyzooey ) in the works and wow. She's it for me. Everything she writes resonates with me, so I just soak. it. up.  

So yeah. to sum it up: carpe diem and be a vampire 🦇

Hope that helps 🧡

I’m also gonna leave that here: 

Claire ( @just-here-for-the-moment ) is one of the best people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet here. She’s patient, sweet, kind, and SO FUCKING SMART. Don't be afraid to reach out.

Nonnie, again, I'm so sorry this is so long. I sincerely hope you'll find something useful in all this gibberish. If not, come back to my ask box with any question. And again, thank you 🧡 From the bottom of my broken vampire heart, thank you 🧡

[thestorieswesay]

9 books that shaped my personality

Gleefully stolen from @dreamingthroughthenoise.

1: Bad Moon by Dudley Bromley

I cannot stress enough how this book shaped my writing style and my appreciation for mysteries and fascinating characters and wild scenarios set in isolated locations. Lightening.

2: Of Two Minds by Carol Matas and Perry Nodleman

This book changed my life. I had never read a twist ending before. I have never read a better one in my life. It shaped my love of gender abnormality - a headstrong, masculine princess, a physically-weak, psychically strong boy who wants nothing to do with 'manly' pursuits. I began to play stories with my dolls where the prince was weak and had to be rescued by the princess. I cannot stress enough how this shaped my life, sexuality, and tastes in fiction. This book walked so Revolutionary Girl Utena could run.

3: The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

This one is cheating a bit because there are seven novels in this series, but apart from the first two, which can both stand alone in their own rights, the Sequence is the best one I've ever read in terms of interconnected stories. Rowling could only dream of creating such a lush world of magic and adventure, Dark vs Light, and mythology and fantasy vs mundane and inorganic processing. Cooper is a master of her class. I can still recite the two poems found in the beginnings of the novels (and set the first one to music when I was nine years old). I remember the Merry Lyon reveal every time I try to foreshadow anything.

4: GUT Symmetries by Jeanette Winterson

This is a book about love. This is a book about betrayal. It is about diamonds, cannibalism, doors that had an affair and had to leave home, about Grand Unification Theory, physics, light, love, and a universe that is so entangled it cannot possibly be redeemed. It is a glorious exploration of love and madness, hope and selfishness, and the desire to be seen above all things. My god, this novel is everything to me.

5: Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris

This was one of the only twist endings I never saw coming. The novel, about an aging classics professor at a private school in rural England and the mysterious figure trying to destroy the school for specific and tragic reasons, is compelling and both surprisingly dark and beautifully silly. The tragedy of youth vs the pain of growing older. I figured out The Sixth Sense before the opening credits finished but I did not guess this ending at all, and that fact made me seriously question myself and my biases and my blinders in life. Fascinating.

6: The Sparrow by Maria Doria Russell

I have written a little about this novel before but I don't know if anyone saw it. It is a novel about a Jesuit mission to a mysterious alien planet to make first contact and spread the gospel to a literal new world. It is about a crisis of faith, about the cruelties of the universe, and reconciling that cold, heartless nature with a faith in a loving and tender god. I am not religious but the book moved me in a way I cannot easily explain. I felt Emilio's agony over his mission's missteps and mistakes. I felt his attractions to his crewmembers and his inability to move past social barriers even as he shattered linguistic ones with ease. I felt my whole life grind to a halt when he is nearly killed and survives because of instincts born of decades of abuse at his father's hands. I wept when he was abused in the worst ways possible and how he cried to god to give him some meaning and some succor, only to receive nothing from the universe and everything from those who inhabit it. Truly one of the best novels I've ever read.

7: Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

I used to read this novel every summer for about a decade. The beauty of the Les Miserables analogy, the Glorious People's Republic of Treacle Mine Road, the beautiful and painful and both organized and disorderly ongoings of the Twenty-Fifth of May, and a hard-boiled egg. The concepts of identity, of memory, of fate, and of time, of purpose, of destiny, are so strong and so compelling here. Getting to see my favorite characters in a new (young) way was amazing. Getting to see them grow, win, lose, and learn was compelling. I love this fucking book.

8: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I know Neil Gaiman is a monstrous and cruel human being, but this book changed my life when I was 17. I had never read such a love song to mythology since Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising and Douglas Adams' Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. I had been to several of the locations in the book, including spending my summers as a child at Rock City, where the climax of the novel takes place. I felt kinship with the characters, felt moved by their struggles and betrayals, and by the bleak state of the gods of old and the flashy cruelty of the new gods. It felt magical and purposeful and gave me a great deal of hope at a time in my life when my mental health was spiraling out of control (I had my first psychotic break and a nervous breakdown at age 17, about four months before I read the novel). I felt seen. I felt heard. I felt the magic of the novel and I will never forget that nameless sense of satisfaction and contentment that came with finishing that book.

9: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Speaking of a sense of satisfaction and contentment that comes with finishing a book, I must talk about The Pillars of the Earth. This novel is about building a cathedral, but it is also about love, magic, faith, the business of selling wool, and the way the Anarchy of 12th Century England destroyed lives and built worlds. I have never read a more masterfully-crafted overarching plotline. The ending punched me in the stomach and then bought me breakfast as an apology. I read this novel in a fit of mania, all 800 pages in two days. I cannot stress enough how I devoured this novel. When the cathedral rose from nothingness, collapsed, and was rebuilt with newer, smarter technology, I felt like I was there, seeing the majesty of the building, feeling the emotions of the inhabitants. I felt like I was there when Thomas Becket was murdered in his own cathedral. I felt betrayed by the scheming villains and elated by the heroes triumphs, all illustrated with the coming of gothic architecture and the changes of medieval life as writ small and large by the buildings and hearts of the people. A magnificent novel on a scale that is overly-ambitious but works.

(bonus): Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson

I wish this was an even 10 novels because I feel like I would be remiss if I didn't include this last one of my most influential novels. I use excerpts from this novel on my tumblr and it is very dear to me. "...If you tell yourself like a story, it doesn't seem so bad," and "Tell me a story and I won't be lonely," are some of the most powerful lines I, as a traumatized and mentally and physically disabled author, have taken to heart.

"Why can't you just tell me the story without starting with another story?" - "Because there's no story that's the start of itself." - Magical.

I would like to tag @m34gs, @atreefullofstars, @sarcasticsciencefictionwriter, @aintgonnatakethis, @pinkantihistamine and anyone else who feels like doing it! If you do do it, please tag me because I want to see what you've read and been shaped by, and why! This is the best one of these games I've seen in a really long time and I spent HOURS writing this post because I felt so inspired by it! Show me what you got!

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

I've just finished Heart of The World and it was delightful! Frank the vampire minion and that mystery of his missing boss forever going unanswered is truly a tragedy.

I've not looked at any Lily and Sisyphus stuff but gathered Ilyn originated from Snape at some point in the development process. I truly enjoyed the "They put him in charge of children!?" realisation, but what had you decide he was going to be notorious as a warlord primarily for blowing things up with fire? Ilyn's hilarious retrieval mission blowing up cars, setting a house on fire, abducting a child and then not commenting on the most convenient portal you've ever seen form works brilliantly naturally, but when did you know that was the direction you were going?

Your remarkably nuanced handling of the very fraught political tensions among factions was very cool to see. It ends up making you feel bad for essentially everyone in some capacity (maybe not Questburger, he seemed like he was doing quite well for himself).

The Heart of the World (by me!) @janedoewrites

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! Really, this is very high praise indeed and I'm not only flattered but very glad to hear that I did what I set out to do successfully. (And yes, Questburger's done great for himself, at least so far.)

And that's a very interesting question.

So, Ilyn obviously started as a Snape counterpoint, same as Elizabeth is clearly what Hermione was, Theyn is clearly some mix of Dead Last and Neville, so on and so forth but he deviated in a large way very early/had that personality when he got introduced as a character in the first draft.

I don't think there was ever a draft where he hadn't set Lily's house on fire for no reason and was always this very taciturn/stoic/least talkative person you can ever find. @therealvinelle who helped with a lot of the editing maybe remembers better than I do but I think his characterization was set very early and the big surprise for me writing when it worked out and for her on editing is that he and Lily end the novel on very good terms.

I actually don't think characters changed that much in general between drafts. They changed a lot from the fic and in the outline for obvious reasons, the primary one being that they had different backgrounds now, different roles in the story, and that would inform who they were as people and how they best served the story but once they were decided on early in, they didn't change much in terms of personality. They've been very stable. The one who changed the most in a nitpicky manner was Lily herself who was made more... noble I suppose is the word for it in part of things happening or not happening to her in her youth, and being with the Tylors who are just absent versus the Dursleys who are present and awful. A lot of things about her and her lines changed between drafts and it took a bit to settle on just what her personality would be like with these changed circumstances and events.

But yeah, Ilyn's pretty much always been Ilyn, which is great because I love him and other people better like him because he's not going away any time soon.

[badbatchposts]

🎱 🍓 🌵🔪🪲. I reblogged the ask game from you, so I wanted to be courteous and send you an ask! I'm honestly curious about these.

Thanks for the ask, friend! It's really nice to be able to reflect on some of these things!! Sorry in advance for the super long responses lol.

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats:

Works: 2

User Subscriptions: 6

Kudos: 204

Comment Threads: 84

Bookmarks: 67

Subscriptions: 51

Word Count: 67,351

Hits: 4,652

I honestly have no sense of how these stats compare for the usual fanfic writer, but it makes me happy to see how many people have subscribed to my longfic, especially since I don't always get a ton of comments on new chapters. But it seems people are reading! And definitely more people than read my dissertation, lol.

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

I used to write a lot of original work in high school and early college, but then as things got busy--and as I convinced myself my writing wasn't good enough to be worth it--I largely stopped. I always felt guilty about it. I really enjoyed writing, but didn't think I was creative enough or had the right amount of stamina that it took to complete a long work, and I had this perfectionist idea where it felt like it wasn't worth doing if I couldn't be the best at it.

Then right as the new Bad Batch season came out this year I was struggling a lot with burnout and found that I was spending a lot of time thinking about the show, and decided that I might as well start reading some fanfiction--for the first time ever--and felt like writing it would be a nice creative outlet that might help me recover from my burnout. It really has been great, and some of what's made it so good is actually exactly the sort of things that used to make me think writing fanfiction wasn't worth it. Namely: it's not professionally publishable.

That is, legally, I will never be able to professionally publish and profit from any of what I write--it can only be posted and enjoyed. This actually just took so much of the pressure off. It doesn't have to be perfect--it doesn't even have to be very good, because that's not what it's for.

I started thinking of it more as an exercise for working on my writing skills (things like, okay, in this chapter I'm going to practice writing dialogue, or in this next one I'm going to work more on establishing an interesting setting). As a result, I'm now thinking more about the writing process and improving my storytelling, rather than worrying about trying to make it perfect or good enough to publish or feeling competitive or down on myself when I encounter writing that I feel is much better than my own. It's been really freeing.

All of this happened over ten years since I stopped writing in college, and the other great thing has been seeing that my writing skills didn't disappear. In fact, they've gotten better and grown as a result of the learning I did in the meantime. I'm now much better at envisioning narrative arcs, outlining, getting myself to write consistently instead of just waiting for inspiration to strike me, and a whole load of other skills. It's really helped soothe a part of me that worried that I had abandoned writing, that it was too late for me to "do" anything with it, or that I only would have gotten worse.

🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

Parasailing in Rio de Janeiro with a Caipirinha in Your Hand

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I've been spending a lot of time researching historical kitchens on sailing ships and historical brothels for the Pirate AU that I'm working on. Once for an academic paper I was working on a novel that depicts a (non-sexual) human-animal relationship but through very intimate and erotic terms, and I accidentally googled a combination of terms that came back with information on bestiality while on my university's wi-fi.

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

The most recent thing I wrote for my Pirate AU (I'm skipping ahead SEVERAL chapters to inspire myself with the steamy bits haha)

“I hardly think I can get into much trouble here. Your crew have been perfect gentlemen.”

Hunter’s eyes glinted in the half-light of the lamps. Though he didn’t move, all of a sudden she was all-too-aware of how close he was, how easy it would be for him to reach out and touch her. “And what about me?” he murmured. “Haven’t you heard from the ladies in port? I’m a scoundrel. A very dangerous man. Maybe you ought to be afraid of me.”

Thanks again, this was a lot of fun!!

[hms-no-fun]

do you have any advice for getting better at writing? More specifically, any books, lectures, or talks about writing that you would recommend?

i know i'm not gonna be able to give a super satisfying answer here because i don't really read/watch much on the topic of getting better at writing. the most important book in my early development as a writer was Stephen King's On Writing, which does a very good job distilling the essence of the job to certain tools in a toolkit and helped me come to terms with how disposable a lot of my writing is. i recently picked up Steering the Craft by Ursula K Leguin, because i read Left Hand of Darkness for the first time and it rewired my brain. i haven't spent much time with it because it's meant to be an exercise book that you write along with, but i feel it will be useful.

otherwise, i know from experience and from the mouths of many other writers that the only way to get better at writing is to write more. a big part of my early development came from a desire to always push myself with each project. if i detected a weakness in one story, i wanted my next thing to be about that weakness in some way. i pushed myself to write more dialect, to switch tenses and persons, to go out of my comfort zone and write from the perspective of (GASP) a woman. things of this nature. much of what resulted from those exercises was not particularly good, but that's not really the point. you do the best you can in the moment, but never let yourself feel wholly satisfied. there are always improvements to be made, new ideas to explore, more diverse modes of expression to play with.

i'd say the best thing you can do when looking for writing advice is to look to the writers whose stuff you like. i guarantee anyone who's been published will have a talk available on youtube somewhere. in the past i've gone ga-ga for the lectures of Neil Gaiman and China Mieville, because i like their books and wanted to know how that sausage got made. understanding other people's process is a good way to understand your own. pay attention to things you identify with, but pay especial attention to the things you feel a natural disagreement with. a procedural thing, say, that just doesn't make sense to you. a BIG part of becoming a better writer, in the "maintaining a self-confidence equilibrium" sense, is recognizing what parts of the process are yours. whatever it is the comes naturally to you, that draws you in, you'll invariably have strong opinions about that someone in some writing institution or other would tut-tut at. i find it's very difficult to really take something worthwhile from criticism unless you know what you're about on some level. i have a pretty good sense at this point of my strengths and weaknesses as a writer; i know the difference between a qualitative misstep and a choice that won't resonate with every reader.

it helps if you can find some like-minded people to write with in a low-stakes environment. or maybe not low-stakes! the only read i ever finished my first novel was because i was writing towards a contest deadline. deadlines can be good! but sharing stories around with some friends and giving each other feedback is a great way to build up some confidence. collaborating on a shared world or story can be immensely rewarding, as long as you don't go into it expecting to make money or get famous. don't put pressure on yourself to Make A Real Thing On A Schedule unless you really trust the people you're working with and have had a lot of conversations about professional conduct.

but otherwise, it all comes back to write more. don't be afraid to leave a graveyard behind you of countless unfinished works. the vast majority of things i started writing from when i was 14 to like 25 i never finished, then i finished a book and almost never wrote again. it's all part of the process, and it's not linear or obvious in any meaningful way. the trickiest part, for me, is learning how to write for your current project even when you don't feel the ~passion~ and ~inspiration~. and that's just a matter of time and honesty and elbow grease.

all any writer can ever tell you is how *they* write. they can give you signposts and guides and best practices, but ultimately no one will ever be able to teach *you* how to write for *yourself*. that only comes with practice. but it's doable and very worth the doing, in my opinion

[nanowrimo]

Back to School: Interview with Sarah Lile, Young Writers Program Educator

NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program helps over 85,000 kids, teens, teachers, and families set creative goals and tell stories they care about. We asked some of our amazing YWP educators to share how they take on the NaNoWriMo challenge in their classroom. Today’s advice comes from Sarah, a middle school ELA teacher in Richmond, Virginia.

Q: What grade/ age level do you work with? What type of NaNoWriMo group is it (whole class, club, homeschool, elective, etc.)?

A: Whole classes, grades 6-8

Q: How long have you been doing NaNoWriMo with your students?

A: Since 2019

Q: How do you structure the entire project (for example, do you start prepping in October and write in November, do you have kids work on it all year, etc.)?

A: We don't do much prep and I always regret it. Students use class time to write throughout November. Some students already have an idea of what they'd like to write, others are pantsers like me!

Q: What does a normal NaNoWriMo day look like for your students?

A: Arrive to class and settle in, open laptops and begin feverishly typing!

Q: How do you set and manage word-count goals?

A: I allow students to set their own goals, though I've started to require no less than 7,000 words.

Q: How do you manage grading? Do you grade?

A: I ask students to submit an excerpt of their novel each week and post them on the wall in the classroom. This helps with accountability and sharing.

Q: How do you approach revision/ publishing (if at all)?

A: I don't grade their novels, instead they revise an excerpt for a grade and a public reading.

Q: Any NaNoWriMo tips or tricks to share with other educators? Hard-won lessons? Ah-ha moments?

A: Every year I wish we had done more prep.

It's more fun when I write WITH them.

Students really like it when I read their work, so the excerpts are key.

My writers always hit a wall at some point, but I trust the process (and tell them to just keep typing) and the NaNoWriMo tools and they always get through it! They are natural-born storytellers.

Q: Have you ever run into resistance from your administration about doing NaNoWriMo, and if so, how did you manage it? What do you say to people who don’t see the point of having students write novels? 

A: Thankfully, no. I do send the Common Core standards to parents and admin so they see how this aligns.

Q: What are the most meaningful things you or your students take away from the project? What's your best NaNoWriMo memory?

A: That they CAN DO IT! The first class that participated set their own goals and wrote feverishly every class period and during the weekends. One student was out of town for the last couple days, sick in a hotel bed, and stayed up to meet her goal. Her parents were absolutely amazed at her commitment.

Q: Anything else you'd like to add?

A: In order for this to really work, students need to write everyday. It's hard to keep momentum over weekends and especially over a week-long Thanksgiving break. I'd love advice on how to keep students writing at these times—maybe set short term word count goals?

Sarah is a middle school ELA teacher at Sabot School in Richmond, Virginia, a progressive Reggio-Inspired school for children ages 2-14. She is a wife, mother, dog-mom, writer, food-lover, and amateur potter.

[artracha]

My Creative Journey

Art has motivated me since I was a child. Although I did not have any artists around me, I did see a lot of creative works as I grew up. I have spent time scribbling here and there, and I suppose creating art grew on me.

A sheet of paper and a pencil helped me begin my artistic path, and as far as I recall, a handkerchief with animated animal figures was the first item that inspired me to draw. I don't have a tangible proof of my work anymore because it was in first grade of elementary school.

As an only child, growing up with busy parents and no one else, I suppose I picked up a lot of interests that later became my passion. Aside from sketching, I write because I enjoy reading books, and these works have motivated me to write poetry, prose, and my own stories.

I had no idea how much my love for art elevated as I grew older, until I organized my belongings and noticed I already had a collection of books and loads of art materials in my storage box. I assumed I just appreciated art, but it may have been something deeper than that.

In junior high, I attempted sketching a portrait, and it felt like a significant step up from where I was in terms of drawing, so I thought I was interested in portrait art. To be honest, I've been struggling to develop my own art style since I feel like everyone around me has a distinct art style that is different from realism — or at least from what I am used to. Although it does not upset me too much because I am satisfied with what I am doing and sense myself improving.

In my high school years, I had the opportunity to participate in bookworm competitions, which increased my passion of reading books. I won the competition, which was a major surprise for me because I only joined for fun. This competition sought us to read three novels and take two levels of written exams and an oral examination. It was a nerve-racking event because the judges were college English professors who had previously competed in the competition. And as a junior high school student, I was quite intimidated. I simply followed my instincts and did my best to pass all levels of examination, and I am pleased that I did.

This is when my passion for writing began; I attempted to write poetry every day, as well as prose. However, when I began senior high school, my enthusiasm faded and I lacked the stamina to sketch or write. And, as a creative, I believe many people will relate to this period of life. There are moments when we experience burnout, however the fire may continue to ignite after some time.

Now that I am in college and pursuing Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia, I feel that my creative path will continue for a long time. And while I pursue this route, I am always honing my creative processes. So what can I say? So far, everything is going well!

First Ever Portrait (2017)

[recreated from Emmy Kalia's tutorial on youtube: https://youtu.be/80ewdDwAVk4?feature=shared]

First Try on Digital Art (2018)

Written Prose (2018)

[edited and uploaded on X app; 2023]

Latest Traditional Art Creations (2024)

Latest Digital Art Creations (2024)

[lesbxdyke]

So today I got two new comments on fics of mine.

(related but neither of the fics listed have anything to do with sex of any type)

This is to do with something I've spoken about before.

Quite a few years ago at this point, I wrote a Clexa fic. Other than my novel, it remains the longest thing I ever finished. It was a story about abuse, about recovering from it. And I wrote it because I was struggling to come to terms with my own abusive relationship. It is, in my opinion, not my best written piece, in terms of technical skill, but it is one of my pieces most full of bits of my Soul. Because (as I often made the point of saying in the notes) it was a greatly greatly GREATLY scaled up version of what I had experienced to help me process through what had happened to me.

I made a decision in my writing to have the proxy character forgive the people that hurt her. Because, at the time, that had been what I was aiming for. I was aiming for forgiveness, because I believed that would help me move on. (I've long since changed track on that point, but as I said, this fic was quite a few years old)

I had always planned for, in the next chapter, there to be some violent revenge. Because I understand narrative payoff, and because part of ME still wanted that revenge.

But people didn't want to understand cliffhangers. And went on the attack. I was called a rape apologist, I was told I must have deserved what happened to me, I was told all manner of triggering things. I didn't want to finish after that. Luckily, I was able to see my therapist, who encouraged me to finish because writing it had become an important part of my healing. So I did.

And now, so many years later, someone has decided that it's not okay that I've moved on with my life, and has decided to try and decimate my self esteem a second time. And they almost did, Honestly. Because these messages came on the back of a family emergency and on the morning of some medical tests I was needing. Exactly the worst time, right?

I'm lucky, I guess, because I have people on side who have spent most of the day sending me messages of support.

I know that what this person wants is for me to stop writing. And they nearly got their wish. This morning, I was ready to never touch my keyboard again. But fuck them. Fuck EVERYONE that said those horrible things to me. I will keep writing, because I love doing it. And I will not let you make me afraid to get messages from AO3. Not again.

If you're following me and you think it's okay to leave comments like this for people because you disagree with what they've written or how they've written it, block me. Right the fuck now.

(also I've deleted both of these reviews. I don't need that shit staining my fics)

[victorianpining]

Rebs! writer ask game for you!! <3

1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 14, 25, 28, 32 (if you want), 34!

Thank you Emrys!

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I go for something that looks "bookish," so my defaults are bookman old style, baskerville, or garamond. Vampire fic is currently being written in the Google font Spectral.

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

I have to be listening to music, either a playlist I am listening to to death so the words aren't distracting to me, or music without lyrics that matches the vibe. I always hope my session will start with me feeling really inspired but that almost never happens so I guess that's where the cursed part comes in. When I am having an absolutely awful time but know I need to get work done, I will break out my 20 sided die and roll it for how many minutes I have to focus before I get to take another break.

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

My greatest fear is that my work will have some kind of fatal flaw in it that I am blind to while working on it but that I will feel like I should have been able to see in retrospect that will lead to people getting hurt. And yet I've decided to go on writing knowing that is a very real possibility (it's happened before).

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

When I'm in a writing session and it's one of those times when it's all falling into place effortlessly and I feel like I'm not even really me anymore, just a conduit for the words, and at the same time more like me than I ever do the entire rest of my life, like that's what I'm always meant to be doing.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

For me, it's an idea that lingers in my head that I either can't quite make sense of, am not willing to come to terms with, or causes me some other kind of lasting sadness, something that feels unresolved to me, basically. I'm learning that the best way for me to become un-haunted is to reclaim those ideas and use them myself (though the story that comes out of that process can become a new ghost).

14. Do you lend your books to people? Are people scared to borrow books from you? Do you know exactly where all your “lost” books are and which specific friend from school you haven’t seen in twelve years still possesses them? Will you ever get them back?

This is an interesting question, and I think I have an easy out as a librarian, I'll be like "oh did you want to read that? Here I'll place it on ILL for you," but I hadn't realized until right now that no, I do not ever lend my books to people ghsahglhds. Listen they don't need to see all my unhinged notes.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

My writing process works in a way that I don't usually *have* details that aren't relevant to the story, because it's so much work for me to come up with details I feel like they all have to have some additional utility. Even if I spend time on something that doesn't end up being mentioned, they still originally had a point I was trying to hint at with them. I really admire people who come up with all these backstory details just to flesh out the world!

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

Ooh, I feel like I can't really go in detail on that one, so I'll just say a minor character in the original story I'm still in the planning stages for is an absolute treat.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

Oh, there are literally so many. I'm going to go with this part from the One Story interlude in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I could quote the entire chapter, but the ending is my favorite:

Stories are like that, too. That one story that has been going on forever is all around us. We- as readers or writers, tellers or listeners- understand each other, we share knowledge of the structures of our myths, we comprehend the logic of symbols., largely because we have access to the same swirl of story. We have only to reach out into the air and pluck a piece of it.

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

It is small, elegant, and precise. But also, if someone doesn't write with them and it's still clear what they mean, who cares?

[ouyangzizhensdad]

I'm gonna go on a limb here and say something I've been thinking about. So, I watched cql before reading the novel, and when I first read mdzs I have to say I was a bit thrown off by the Phoenix Mountain kiss, so of course my first instinct was to come to this hellsite and try to find what other people thought of it. The more I looked into it, the more I was convinced that the reason so many people hate it so irrationally and why it is apparently so hard for some to analyse any possible meaning beyond the obvious things in that scene, is because people that were introduced to mdzs via cql often go into the novel trying to get some sort of "fandom experience".

What I mean is that people will read mxtx's work and expect to get the same gratification they get whenever they find a good fic. Something tailored to their taste and characters built upon the preconceived ideas (often fanon) they have of each of them. It's a problem I've noticed a lot with queer media reception by people who are active in fandom. It's one of the things I am critical of and why I am so adamant to join fandom discussions, because I feel like many fandoms have created spaces where the queer characters are made to be these perfect examples of representation, so whenever queer characters are allowed to be flawed and make bad decisions people often jump on the bandwagon of calling it problematic and homophobic, instead of putting some effort into reading further than what is in plain sight and being critical of the possible meaning behind the character's actions.

Sorry for the long ask, but I wanted to get this out of my system. Tried my best, but English is not my first language, so I'm sorry if anything is weird or hard to understand.

Hi anon, 

I think you are definitely unto something when you say: “people will read mxtx's work and expect to get the same gratification they get whenever they find a good fic. Something tailored to their taste and characters built upon the preconceived ideas (often fanon) they have of each of them.” It certainly would explain why so many people, even while aware that the series is an adaptation of the book, say stuff like “novel!LWJ is OOC”. They might have approached the novel as just the “fanfic” of CQL that includes “canon Wangxian”, without considering how much had been potentially changed through the process of adapting MDZS and making it palatable according to censorship.

I agree with you that the current state of fandom, where fic writers seem focused on avoiding being Problématique at all cost, has not only stiffled creativity but created in certain fans unreasonable expectations towards other works. Fandom, as a creative context, is generally focused on (self-)indulgence, on feel-goodness, and is largely pretty dry in terms of themes. But to expect all creatives to have the same “goal” or approach when it comes to art is simply ridiculous. For some people, art is a safe means through which to explore difficult, violent or outlandish set-ups. Art can be used to make people feel uncomfortable, unsettled just as it can be used to make people feel uplifted and moved. Art can be focused on exploring nuanced and controversial topics. Art can be used to portray irredeemable assholes, losers or monsters. Art can be depressing and deny us any feelings of satisfaction. Art can do so many things! And, yes, sometimes creativity is mobilised in the service of writing the nth wholesome gay coffee store AU for a popular anglo property: but that’s neither the norm nor the rule. 

I think as well in terms of queer representation that we lose a lot when we try to argue that the only way to “fight” homophobia is to present queer characters and queer relationships that are Unproblématique and fit a constantly-shifting standard of what is “not-homophobic”. Take the current obsession with the idea that all gay men must be vers or otherwise be a homophobic stereotype: putting aside all that needs to be unpacked in that belief, imagine a world where it’s the accepted idea everywhere that you can’t write about gay men lest they be vers. How many queer experiences would we be erasing in the process? Or, again, this weird idea that it’s “bad” to write in fem queer men because that’s a stereotype, when the real issue is just that fem queer men have generally only been written as one-dimensional characters present in the narrative for comedic purposes or stereotypes, and not as fully-fledged humans with complex internal lives and relationships. As a Problématique Gay, I hate the idea that only perfect queer narratives can exist. Nah, people, queer existence is complex, and queer people are not perfect (although we’re cooler than the str8s). It’s just.... believe me, the continued existence of homophobia is not determined by whether characters in books have the “correct-according-to-you” kind of sex or whatever. 

NB: I have to say, as well, that the first time I came across the Phoenix Mountain kiss, I thought (in bad faith) that it had been added just as a sort of unfortunate fan service since the novel was published chapter by chapter. But when I finished the book and thought back on it, the inclusion of the Phoenix Mountain kiss made sense, narratively and thematically. It also forced me to recognise that, even if I had read MDZS before I ever watched CQL, I had started reading MDZS with my own preconceptions (which were certainly not helped by the framing of the translation) : that it would be a middling danmei full of the same tired tropes. I was glad to be proven wrong!

[glorious-blackout]

3, 21, 23, 30, 43 for the writer ask 😘

Thank you! 🥰

3. Are there any fics that inspired you to write what you do?

There must have been so many over the years! In terms of my writing style/favourite genres I've probably been inspired more by novels than fic ('A Series of Unfortunate Events' and '1984' have a lot to answer for), but I remember a couple of fics in the Muse fandom that I fell in love with when I first started out eleven(!) years ago.

One was called Wires which was an exercise in heartbreak and well-utilised present-tense, while another was called Synapse which was a wonderfully weird sci-fi story. Sadly Wires was deleted ages ago and I've never been able to find a copy of it, but Synapse has been preserved on AO3 😊

21. What’s your least favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

The final few edits, where you've read the story so many times that you're sick of the sight of it 😅 I tend to overthink things like word-choice and sentence structure to the story's detriment by that point.

I think that's partly why feedback is so important for writers. Seeing someone's reaction to experiencing your story for the first time can mean the world when you've been hyper-critical of it for so long.

23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write?

Does 'Main Character Being Put Through All the Wringers' count? 😅 I am an angst-junkie at heart... I don't usually think of tropes when I'm writing, but 'friends to lovers' has a habit of cropping up in my Milex fics 🥰

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words

I'll refrain from posting a snippet of my current WIP as it's technically a surprise, but I can share this (hopefully) non-spoilery bit from my big-bang fic:

"It was a sweat-soaked, sultry summer that heralded the birth of their third baby.  

At the height of an oppressive heatwave, the fierce sun had radiated the sleepy London streets, projecting illusions of melted tarmac and puddles that vanished the instant one drew near. News channels became preoccupied with reports of the third record-breaking summer in a row, the south of England depicted in blistering red on their displayed maps, and Alex’s delicate skin had adopted a permanent pink hue in spite of his ritualistic applications of suncream. 

It had been easy to ignore the fact that the planet was on fire. Within the safe, air-conditioned confines of Abbey Road Studios, Alex and Miles had shed all thoughts of the outside world as they noodled away on guitars and drew up new melodies on the piano. During lunch breaks they sat together, knee to knee like the old days, poring over lyrics and celebrating whenever a perfect metaphor joined their frantic scribbles. Within their safe cocoon, inspiration flared like an Olympic flame, unflinching and undying even in rare moments of creative conflict. The album came together almost too smoothly – certainly too quickly for Alex’s taste – as Miles’s reawakened love for Northern Soul married Alex’s seventies head in perfect harmony."

43. Talk about a positive experience with fanfiction or the fanfiction community that you will always remember

One of the best experiences I've ever had was writing a fic called 'Watch Our Souls Fade Away' which I'd initially posted as a one-shot, expecting it to be quickly forgotten, only to receive a humungous wave of support for it. The wonderful feedback inspired me to add several more chapters and it remains one of the most positive writing experiences I've ever had.

Another was sharing 'You've Always Been Here' which I again expected to just be a little project shared between friends, but @elorianna stumbled upon it and convinced me to post it on AO3. Thanks to that story I've met some wonderful friends within the Milex fandom, and it also marks the first time someone else has written something based on my own fic (@alexxturner-me-on's wonderful 'T-Minus Your Last Five Minutes') which might just be the coolest feeling in the world 😭🥰

[words-after-midnight]

Read a post earlier about conceptualizing the darkest scene in a wip (won't say by who as i'm not sure if they're comfortable being tagged), which reminded me of my own rather bizarre story about the darkest scenes (three) of my own wip. I won't say what happens in the scenes, nor where they fit in the story. The scenes are not actually included in the novel, and they were written around two years after I finished the first draft of the novel. They compose a "companion piece" (for lack of a better term) that, other than myself, one person has read (though I've offered it to three other beta readers, one of whom declined to read it and two others who want to wait until they're in the right headspace).

The piece is 2,288 words and was drafted on February 25th, 2013. The only reason I know this is because I kept a novel diary throughout the drafting process of the novel, up to the first version of the manuscript (2008-2013). I don't actually remember writing the piece at all. I'm not just saying that to be dramatic. I don't remember where I was, what I was doing, writing any specific passages, nothing. I do, strangely enough, remember the dream it was based on. I say "strangely" because I almost never remember my dreams.

The general sequence of events covered by the piece was planned in advance, but the dream gave me vivid details, an ambiance, and emotional context - even a few specific lines. The dream was essentially the entire sequence from beginning to end. I had the dream on January 4th, 2011 - a little over a month before the pre-planned "deadline" on which I would finish the draft of the novel - but I tried really hard not to write the piece. I honestly didn't feel like the sequence itself needed to be in the novel (and I still, firmly, don't). But, as many of you know, the thing about ideas is that sometimes, they won't leave you alone until you just fucking write them. And I really, really wanted this particular one to leave me the fuck alone. So finally, two years later, I wrote it. In one shot, apparently. And then I basically didn't look at it for nine years.

That's a bit of an exaggeration. I tried to revise it multiple times in that time period, but every time, I'd get to the end of the first scene, remember what came next, and nope out. I finally forced myself to revise it in March 2022, because I just wanted it to be done. Hand to god, I'm never touching that thing again.

It's the best thing I've ever written. Not because the prose is particularly good, or because it has the tightest structure, or because it's "original" or whatever, but because it's the only thing I've written, to this day, that I've been able to put on paper exactly the way I saw it in my head.

Anyway. I'll never publish it as long as I live, but it's the piece of writing I'm proudest of, and probably always will be. The whole thing was also a pretty interesting and unique (to me) writing experience.