purlturtle asked:

6/7, 10, and 23 for the “even more fic asks” for Odyssey: Future’s Legacy, please!

Awww thank you so much!! šŸ™‚

6/7) How did you decide what tense and POV(s) to use? How did you decide what character(s) would narrate the fic?
In terms of tense I always write in third person, past. That’s not really a decision so much as it just comes out like that.

For POV oh boy, how many POV’s are in that fic? There’s a lot. I go with my gut and for each scene ask whose thoughts are the most interesting. I do a similar thing for original novels but I try and limit it a bit more. For fanfic as there’s a familiarity with the characters, it’s less of an issue to have lots of POVs (at least it feels that way to me). We already have the character connection and it’s not as confusing. Anyway, you can pry multi-POV out of my tightly clenched hands, I love it so. I see stories like movies, and movies don’t tend to just film over one persons shoulder the entire time.

10) How did you approach writing the fic? (e.g. wrote it start to finish in order, started with the ending, starting with the twist)
I’m a linear writer. I can’t write out of order (beyond notes or snippets that sometimes form as part of planning). Obviously the planning process is a bit all over the place because I start with wherever that starts, and then fill in the gaps. But yeah in terms of the actual drafting I go from the start, to the end, scene by scene in order.

23) How did you come up with the title?
Oh boy I remember struggling massively with this. I had more of a vibe/feeling. I wanted the title to shine like the bright warm sun bouncing off the blue sea of Italy, or the sun-kissed dunes of Egypt. I wanted it to evoke a sense of adventure, but I also wanted to hint at the meaning/theme if you like. That the characters were making choices, charting the directions of their institutions which would have ripple effects for years to come AND they were dealing with the legacy of past mistakes. So it’s like how do they want to be remembered? Do they want the future to be cleaning up their mistakes, or do they want to make a positive change and do better than the past?

I adore Warehouse 13 but the warehouse has done some very shady stuff. They make their own monsters in a way with their hubris. Peoples lives are altered irrevocably (like Sykes), and yes he became a villain but he didn’t have to be. Imagine if the Warehouse had a post-snag and bag team, who checked in on people who had been whammied, who helped them in the aftermath, rather than just never explaining anything and leaving people confused to try and pick up the pieces.

So yeah that was a LOT to put in a short title and I’m not sure I managed it but it was all of this ^^ that I was trying to encapsulate.

bookwormchocaholic asked:

Even More Fic Writing Asks: (fic of your choice) 5, 25, 39. šŸ™‚

Thank you!

Bit confused though… there is no number 39? I’m guessing because of sequential numbers you maybe meant either 29 or 30. I’m going to go with 30 šŸ™‚

Anyway you followed me from the Rumbelle days so let me go back in time and pick a Rumbelle fic. Lemme see. Erm, how to choose? Oh! In my last ask I referenced Between Two Fires so might as well go for that otherwise it’s rolling a dice time.

5) Did you outline the fic?
I never delete anything so I went to check my files. I am a planner but not always for fanfic. Sometimes if it’s short enough, then the plan is in my head.

For Between Two Fires I have a rather cool sounding summary. Seriously it’s got half the best lines of the fic in it. There must have been some heavy inspiration that day like brain was on fire haha. It’s not a scene by scene outline but it covers the main points, and the fic was quite short anyway.

25) Share your favorite line
Ok it was maybe not such a good idea to select this fic because this question. Argh!! So, so many. I know I probably shouldn’t say that because it’s egotistical but man I do love so many lines in this fic. It just hits the spot. Like I could literally quote half the fic but as I have to choose, I’m going to go with the opening line:

ā€œYou’re supposed to be dead.ā€
ā€œI’m supposed to be a lot of things.
ā€

30) Would you ever return to the story’s universe and write more?
No but also yes. I will never return to it in it’s fanfic Rumbelle form. But I have said a few times that I intend to take the premise and include it in an original novel series one day. Unfortunately ā€˜one day’ is kinda the operative word there because so many ideas, and writing takes so long! I rebooted my portal fantasy series starting Day Three of January. I’ve written and edited Book One (almost 100k) and I’ve planned and started drafting Book Two (got to around idk the 15% mark) but it’s JULY – that’s into the second half of the year. There are 6 books in this series so odds are not good that I can get to this idea before 2026 (which is so not a real year) and that’s if everything goes according to plan (which it inevitably won’t).

I do love it though. It will happen one day.

purlturtle asked:

2, 15, and 23 for the “questions I would like to be asked as a writer” ask meme, please – the last ask meme you posted! (I’ll get around to the other one too, in a bit! šŸ˜…)

Ooooh thanks! šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚ šŸ™‚

2) Go to your AO3 ā€œWorksā€ page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for ā€œAdditional Tags.ā€ What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits?
Lemme see. Ok in order we have:

  • Alternate Universe – Canon Divergence (18)
  • A Monthly Rumbelling (Once Upon a Time) (18)
  • Alternate Universe (17)
  • Canon Compliant (10)
  • Alternate Universe – Non-Magical (10)

Erm honestly if anything I’m surprised Canon Compliant is so many. Canon divergence being top is totally on brand (I mean what is fic, if not fix-it in some form?). Not surprised the event tag is there but obviously that belongs to past!Me and is no longer relevant.

I think if anything this shows I don’t make a whole lot of use out of the ā€˜additional tags’ function.

Ok I’m going to click on ‘canon compliant’. Oh. Oh. Yeeeeah that makes more sense. My related tag is ā€œyou can’t prove it’s notā€.

15) What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written?
For the longest time my answer would have been Between Two Fires. The sci-fi espionage oneshot. One day a seed of that will be in an original novel. But that was so long ago now, and not my fandom anymore. Trouble is I haven’t written any really AU AU’s in any of my current fandoms. It’s all been canon divergence or canon adjacent. Which is still kinda AU I guess but I have to be honest when I hear the term ā€œAUā€ I’m thinking something quite removed from their ordinary world.

I am inordinately fond of and the Sins of Atlantis. My Librarians/Sanctuary crossover. Given that the bulk of the fic takes place in an alternate present day, I think that’s the closest I have come. Even if leaving aside the crossover elements, and the Stargate backstory I gave the library, it’s still mostly canon. Honestly this is probably the most self-indulgent fic I have ever written – it’s certainly the longest! (well unless I count my original novels lol). I basically wrote this for an audience of one. I hoped someone else would enjoy it obviously but I still enjoy it immensely, however egotistical that is to admit. It’s got fun things in.

23) What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?
Oh so many. First thing that comes to mind is a Bodyguard AU. When I first rolled this concept around in my head I liked it so much I came up with 3 or 4 variations, and then wondered if I should make it a series, and so it lives on my ā€œfuture novel universeā€ list.

I don’t think I’ve written any of the ‘fakes’ either – fake dating, fake marriage, fake divorce etc. But they would all be fun.

Oh! Wait I did kinda do fake marriage once. It was arranged and they agreed to be partners in science rather than the bedroom. It wasn’t that well written as I did a lot of setup for what was basically PWP, and then I got tired about it being so long and skipped the best part (the mutual pining). It was for an event and to be honest I liked the world building setup/part way more than the shoehorned in ā€œmake this fit the eventā€ smut. Old fandom though so I won’t rework it.

Bwahaha I really can’t do something for Ahsoka week. I have Librarians Prompt month, AU August, Star Trek FemSlash and TimelessFest and yet… 🤣🤣🤣

I am reminded instantly of how I misheard a line in Episode 1. Sabine and Ahsoka were talking and for all the world I swear I heard ā€œYou should have married a good oneā€. I had to rewind and play it again 3x before I heard the actual line.

Now I don’t really ship them but boy did they have big bad breakup exes energy.

(I confess I took that inspiration and crafted a second chance romance in my serial with it)

But yeah it makes me want to make something based on them being exes. I’m not sure how or what but I will forever love that I misheard that line. My jaw dropped, my eyes popped out. For half a second I really believed it until I was like ā€œnope they would neverā€ and yeah no it wasn’t. Still it amuses me. I find it fun.

The thing about doing more stuff is it makes time feel like longer. This keeps happening:

Me: ā€œoh that was ages agoā€

(It was last week/a few days ago)

Me: ā€œBut it feels like forever.ā€

And this is fine until it becomes a problem because I want cake as ā€œit’s been agesā€ (nope last week), or to get a ā€œlittle treatā€ (nope already got something this month).

Honestly time is so weird how it’s not a constant.

Can I just rant for a second? I know I shouldn’t it probably goes against fandom etiquette but this hurts šŸ™

I just saw an AI art post someone did of an OTP. Now I could rant about AI and how bad it is for oh so many reasons but this rant is a lot more personal, and a lot more selfish.

That AI art had more notes than my most successful art post.

Now I know. I’m still learning and the older my art, the shittier it is, and people are well within their rights to not grace their dash with shitty art. However everything I have made has been done out of love. I have poured hours and hours into every piece (I’m even slower because I’m still learning).

I just find it so unspeakably sad that AI is stealing into fandom spaces like this. Into an arena where love is supposed to be an important component to creation – it’s why we do it right? Because my art looks even more shitty next to it. Because I can’t compete. And yes this is definitely a me problem but I try so so so very hard. Everyday I try to improve and maybe one day I will reach a level of competence and will compete. Maybe I will then look back on this whiny sad rant and shake my head and be like ā€œjust get good and stop whining past selfā€. However today? Today it just hurts.

Also fuck AI šŸ™

Watching Rizzoli and Isles and I reached Korsack’s wedding. I feel so bad for Kiki šŸ™

But I laughed so hard at the exchange Maura and Jane had where Maura said what Jane would wear at her wedding ā€œstrapless navy maid of honour gownā€ and Jane was adamant she wouldn’t be wearing that.

And my head immediately went ā€œno of course not, she’ll be wearing a wedding dress/suit as the brideā€ 🤣 I mean if Maura gets married who else is she going to marry but Jane?

I can’t help my mind goes there. It just fits too well.

I’ve seen a lot of posts lately about how hard writing is on my dash. It’s true it can be hard – very hard. But there are good days too.

I don’t talk specifics about my original writing here, as I kinda want to keep fan/personal!Me, and any potential future professional!Me separate. However, I do vague blog sometimes and here’s another one and with a major win.

I finished self-edits of my book today!!

It’s been a journey. I got the idea for this series October 2015. I said ā€œI’m going to do that for NaNoā€ and my friend told me I was nuts, as there was no way I could plan it in time – but I did. I wrote the 50k in November, and then finished the draft over the next few months. I then wrote Book Two, and half of Book Three, and then November 2016… life happened. I will spare you the whole saga but basically fast forward to January this year and I picked it up again.

A complete reboot, rewritten from the ground up. The general plot is still basically the same but everything about the character arcs, to the details of the world, to (hopefully) how well it’s written is all new. Applying everything I have learned in the last 8 years to do a better job this time.

258 hours – that’s how long it took me to analyse, replot, rewrite, revise and edit. Basically 4 months because I took April off.

Anyway! This is a positive. This is a success. This is a giant step forward and I wish to share that brief shining moment of positivity. It can happen.

I have my beta and editor booked for next month. So the next task is to analyse and replot Book Two!

So I saw a YT video the other day and there was a mention of the ā€œ5am clubā€ and I remembered that was a thing. People trying to get up early so they can do more stuff.

And this is yet another example of me doing things wrong šŸ˜›

You see I am up at 5am a LOT. I woke up barely past 4am this morning. Getting up isn’t the problem. Doing things? Yeeeeeah that’s where I am falling down. I did read some book this morning (I’m trying to read more). Maybe on a normal day I might have eventually started on the book edits. I often get to my desk around 7am when I have been up for ages. However it is Wednesday and ā€œchore dayā€ and so I have cleaning on my schedule and not a lot else. As I don’t wish to be a bad neighbour I refuse to run the vacuum before 9am and therefore I am stuck in ā€œwaiting modeā€.

Do you guys suffer ā€œwaiting modeā€? It’s the ā€˜I have a thing later so can’t do anything now’ type. It’s very dumb.

Perhaps my next challenge shall be to turn my early wake-ups into something a shade more productive? I mean if I am awake anyway…

Ok so now the Librarians prompts are out I have all four for the summer:

– Librarians (July)

– AU August (funnily enough August lol)

– Timeless Fest (end of August)

– Star Trek FemSlash (start of September)

And between them I have 20-25 prompts picked out that I think have potential. It’s a lot, more than I can do I am sure especially because I have trouble starting.

Last year I got a piano. Not to take it ā€˜seriously’ like I do with art or writing but I still want to learn and get better, because I want to play cool pieces. I find music soothing. Anyway I fell off doing regular practice and then just didn’t restart. It’s been something I have been screaming at myself for. Every week I am like ā€œneed to do piano practice!!!ā€ and then just not. On June 1st I was like ok let’s make it a goal/targeted priority and I have now done it twice, on the two days of the month.

There’s like this innate resistance. It’s breaking out of inertia I guess? Like the old ā€œrolling stoneā€ keeps on rolling, but getting it moving is oh boy the hard part.

Anyway I feel like this might be my issue with art. There are studies and practice exercises I need to do. Like with the piano every week I scream about doing it, and then just don’t. But I feel like if I can just *start* then I might be able to keep going. It’s taking that first step.

Projects/deadlines break me out of that but prompt events struggle as the deadline is too soft. Nobody notices or cares if I don’t submit. It’s not like an exchange or anything. That’s why ā€œYear of the OTPā€ just never happened.

So I don’t know how it’s going to go. We’ll see I guess. I hope I will make some cool stuff but breaking that inertia – that’s the challenge.