#those are the names of two genera of amphipods

[amphipodgirl]

fic writer interview

Thank you to @omgcmere for tagging me!

name: Chris. I have two fan fic posting names, Ampithoe for General and Teen rated fic and Gammarus for Mature and Explicit. If you ever see an AmphipodGirl on some other social media platform, it’s probably me. 8^)

fandoms: Carry On is my first love, my fandom home, the only fandom I’ve written for (not counting some crossovers). I really love reading TRC fic and hope to write some eventually, and there are also some RWRB fics that I love. I’ve recently become obsessed with Alexis Hall’s explicit mlm romances (the Spires and Arden St. Ives series) and would love to see more fan fics written for those!

where you post: AO3 -- it’s the only fan fic site I’ve been either a writer or a reader for (yes, I’m a newbie!)

most popular one-shot: The Courtship of Princess Agatha, a cute little fairytale AU, almost a fable.

most popular multi-chapter: Parent-Teacher Association I had been really loving some slow-burn non-magical AU fics, so I gathered up my courage and wrote one of my own. I don’t think I really nailed the “slow burn” part -- I’ve learned some stuff since then -- but I do love it dearly. They say “write what you know” and I don’t know anything about working in a coffeeshop or a bookstore; I know about IEP meetings and chronic illness -- so Foster Dad Simon and Crohn’s Disease Baz were born.

favorite story I’ve written so far: I’m awfully fond of PTA, but my real labor of love was Mi Chamocha (Who Is Like You). It has Baz as an Egyptian scribe and Simon as a Hebrew slave living (and eventually loving) through the tumultuous events of the Biblical Exodus. I really enjoyed digging deep into Exodus and I also feel like I really made the slow burn work.

fic you were nervous to post: I don’t usually have a lot of nerves about posting a fic, but A People Pet was my first smut fic and that had me kind of uncertain. 

how do you choose your titles: Usually something comes to me at some point while I’m working on the fic. I’ll feel stuck for a long time, but then something will just hit me, and I’ll be like “Yes! That!” I was so happy when I came up with the title for Mi Chamocha, which had been a WIP for months under the name Exodus AU.

do you outline: A bit? I usually spend a while thinking about the fic and jotting random notes, which include different things that could happen in the story. Eventually I pick the ones I want to use and put them in some order and that’s my very simple outline. I’ll then write each one up as a chapter, and rotate between chapters as I write -- going back to put more detail and polish on each one. Cycling between chapters helps me keep my brain fresh. I have one current WIP that’s pretty complicated -- four important characters, and I want to be sure that I’m covering feelings and character development for all of them -- and my old, lightweight outlining style isn’t going to be enough. I’ve downloaded Scrivener and I’m hoping that will give me the ability to see all those dimensions and keep track of all of it.

complete: I have 14 published fics between my two accounts -- three are multi-chaptered and the rest are one-shots. I wrote all of those this year -- I published my first (short and slightly pointless) fic at the beginning of March.

in progress: I’m working actively on the complicated 4-character piece I mentioned above. I’ve also got a few other WIPs: one with the working title “cuff smut”, one where Shep first meets Blue, and The Longest Time, which is the sequel to PTA. I definitely want to finish The Longest Time; whether I finish the other two remains to be seen.

coming soon: A couple of days ago I wrote a sweet fluffy one-shot for the Carry On Winter Flash Exchange. I’ll probably post that on 12/23, which is the first day of posting for the exchange. I’m really happy with what I wrote and I hope my recipient likes it!

prompts: I don’t really solicit prompts; I’m not confident about being able to just come up with something for any given idea. When I looked at the prompt list for this year’s Carry On Countdown, I only had ideas for a few of the prompts, and I only ended up finishing and posting two of them. 

I tag @banjjakbanjjak @flammable-grimm-pitch @im-gettingby @arca9 @super-duper-twelve @gampyre @carryonsimoncarryonbaz @thehoneyedhufflepuff @captain-aralias and anyone else who would like to ramble on about their writing life.