xviruserrorx asked:

1, 2 & 20 for the ask game 😁❤️

Oooooh thank you 🙂 🙂 🙂

1) Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?
On one hand my answer to this is “how long is a piece of string?” because a story is only as long as it needs to be. I have written novel-length fics, I have written oneshots. A few years back I wrote a handful of shorter Librarians fics and I like those, but they were just one moment in time, one particular plot point. It all depends on the story I’m telling.

However, on the other hand it’s asking what I prefer and in which case I’m a multi-chapter plotty shenanigans type writer. I like multiple POV’s and conflicting agendas, character arcs and themes, subplots and genre mash-ups. I suppose to put it another way when I fall in love with a TV show, it’s not just with one episode – it’s with how all the episodes string together. When I get a spark of inspiration for a story, it’s not usually just for one moment, it’s for a lot of moments all strung together into a greater whole. I’m not creating one story, I’m creating a universe – in some cases literally.

2) Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?
I’m a planner. For my fanfics how deep the planning goes depends on the length of the story. I always have the broadstrokes, even if it’s just a handful of bullet points. For my novels I do a complete scene by scene outline BUT I don’t plan either of them by ‘chapter’. I don’t know how long scenes will be and I try and break my chapters so they are all around the same length (unless story-wise it works better for a chapter to be ultra short or long). So I tend to break into chapters by feel/word count, as I write, rather than as part of the planning process.

20) Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?
Oh definitely. No words/expressions are immediately coming to mind but that will be something I look out for when I do revision. I don’t want my ‘voice’ to overpower the characters.

However, something that I always, always come back to is the notion of masks and acceptance. My characters always seem to want to be seen, for someone to know them as they are and accept them. It doesn’t have to be romantic (though that’s often an easy way to write it). But yeah if we’re talking what a character needs vs what they think they want, then almost always what they need is true acceptance. I think this is probably a theme in every story I ever write.

It’s probably not the only repeating theme but it’s the first one that comes to mind.

purlturtle asked:

13, 14, and 16 for the fic writer asks, please!

Yay thank you for the ask!

13) What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?
Ooof erm. I always feel like I wind up picking at the phrasing of these questions, like what qualifies as being ‘common’ and does ‘almost always’ mean exactly that rather than always? I’m probably trying to be too precise but this is just how my brain is.

You see I was going to say “maintain POV” as opposed to head hopping, but I always maintain POV these days, as I trained myself out of the head hopping.

For an ‘almost always’ I think I’m going to say “schedule writing time” – aka that quote about… (let me google) “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” -W. Somerset Maugham.“ – basically it’s about being disciplined. Make a commitment and show up for yourself, and for your story. I almost always try and do this. It’s not easy, some days I procrastinate badly and don’t get a lot done, but I still have my butt in the chair, and that’s half the battle sometimes. I don’t do everyday though. Tried it, couldn’t make it work. I aim for 5 days a week and I can ‘undesignate’ days if I have appointments or something is going on. The important thing is on any day it’s possible, I show up for the writing.

14) How do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?
I don’t consciously draw from personal experience. Indeed I very rarely have any kind of matching experience with my characters (my life is far too limited) but I know fear, I know pain, I know shame etc. and I guess that helps in the abstract. It’s a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, piecing it altogether.

I know the scenario, I know the character, I know their personality, their history etc. Because different characters would obviously react with different emotions even to the same scenario. So I have to work out what kind of emotional reaction is right for the character in that moment and how they would portray that. Somebody might be feeling something intensely inside, but now show it much on the outside. Somebody else might throw things, scream or cry etc.

I don’t think I feel what the characters do, but at the same time I do think it does affect me somehow. Like it’s not “sad scene = sad Sam” but maybe the intensity? I find that I have more of an extreme reaction to things. So perhaps writing emotional scenes makes me more sensitive?

16) How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?
I can’t 100% recall how my fanfic ideas I had on my list when I decided to quit fanfic. I get nostalgic sometimes. I really wanted those ideas to exist BUT just because they won’t as fanfic, doesn’t mean that a spark of them won’t one day exist in an original story of mine.

For example I always wanted to write a Bering and Wells tropetastic Christmas story. Well who says that one day I can’t write the fake dating, bringing a colleague home for the holidays, snowed in, huddling together for warmth, oh no there’s only one bed etc. lesbian romance. It’s certainly on my list.

I have well over half a dozen different series ideas, and a few standalone novel concepts. I got first drafts of a fair few ‘Book Ones’ as I have jumped from project to project, not sticking with a series or even a genre. I’m trying to be a bit more disciplined about that from now on. I picked a series and started to reboot it this year. I redrafted Book One and I should probably start the revision on it tomorrow. Then onto Book Two. There’s six books in this series and it does make me a little sad sometimes to think I’m unlikely to write anything else for a couple of years. I think I’ll always have more ideas than time/spoons.