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.

lilolilyr asked:

4, 8, 18 for the fic ask? 🙂

Thank you!!! 🙂

4) How do you choose which fics to write?
When I was writing fanfic it was mostly by prioritising.

I’ve said before about my lists. I get an idea – it goes on the list. Say I get an idea for an event – it goes straight to the top, everything else has to wait. When I finish a WIP/there’s no events etc. I can then pick off the list. Invariably though what happens is I don’t pick the oldest idea, I usually pick whatever is newest because it still has the shiny quality. In some ways the list is a bit of a death sentence for ideas.

8) Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip
I can’t really do this because I’m not writing fanfic anymore. Sorry. I post a line off my art the other day about “librarians win with what they know – not magic” but that’s all I have for you.

18) Do you enjoy research? Which fic of yours required the most research?
Answered here 🙂

You get two bonus questions because of the repeat/skip 🙂

3) Do you share your fic ideas, or do you keep them to yourself?
This is tricky. There is honestly nothing I like more than talking about my ideas. I can exhaust anyone and everyone. I remember back in the day when we did TMI Tuesday I used to be desperate for people to ask me. I would try and bait the question sometimes. It was probably kinda attention seeking and I should be more sorry than I am. I don’t know if this also tied into how I always feel like an outsider. Although I shouldn’t be claiming I feel invisible when I’ve had so many wonderful asks lately (I seriously do appreciate you guys so much).

The trouble is though, what happens if you never get round to writing the idea? Having talked about it, that feels a bit like a promise made, and a debt unpaid. It’s never my intention to tease. I just genuinely love my ideas and wish I could will them into existence. I want to read them!

All of this is about fanfic ^^ and I mostly don’t talk about my doomed ideas anymore. Sometimes I’ll make a reference because I’m nostalgic, because I wish I had got round to writing it. Also because I wish it could live somewhere other than in my head.

For my original novels I’ll make vague references sometimes, and I would love to talk about them, but I’m hesitant to share. I’m protective I guess.

24) How do you choose whose POV to write in?
(in which I apparently have a lot to say)

sarcasticsciencefictionwriter asked:

For the Fanfiction Writing ask: 2, 18, 29, and 48, please! 😁

Yay thank you for the ask!

2) Where do you get your fic ideas?
Ask me at the time and I’ll know. Ask me now and I’m not sure. Some are obvious. Like if there’s a specific prompt and then my brain chewed on it and lightning struck boom and it coalesced and came together into something.

As you are a Sanctuary friend let’s take some of those fics:

• Happy Ending = the song “this is the way that we love / like it’s forever / and then live the rest of our lives / but not together” and I was like, make it fluffy. I don’t know. I was just coming off writing Our Darkest Hour.
• Choosing Fate / Time Will Tell = the tropes. I was like let’s do an arranged marriage AU. Pretty sure I was watching Bridgerton at the time as well. And then I wanted to see if I could make Soulmates a trope I could like.
• Life Without Purpose = for a Zombies in July event
• Gentlemen of Blood = I was given the title, and had to think of a fic to go with it. That Bond quote by M came into my head of “when they say they have people everywhere, you don’t expect one to be in the bloody room” plus the Sherlock Holmes movies.

I don’t know, does that answer it a bit? My brain is a mess and it just needs prompting for it to spark basically.

18) Do you enjoy research? Which fic of yours required the most research?
Nope I’m too lazy. I get easily frustrated. If I can’t find the answer quickly I get annoyed. The internet is wonderful and I want to strangulate it sometimes. It’s like I know the information must be there, but can I find it? It’s no wonder I am drawn more and more to making my own worlds, because then I can just make everything up and don’t have to worry about if I’m right or not. I just have to be consistent within my own story.

The aforementioned Happy Ending actually took a surprising amount of research, which to be honest probably ruined the fic because once I had all the stupid marriage details, I had to include them because I had bothered to look them up dammit. Haha, I know, why self? Also Odyssey: Future’s Legacy had a lot of history in it and I had to make all the timelines line up. Let me tell you timezones + international travel = headache. I’m pretty sure Warehouse 13 never paid attention to travel times on the actual show but I made everything plausible.

29) What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of?
Already answered here 🙂

48) Who is your favorite character to write for? Has this changed since you’ve started writing for that fandom?
This is very close to question 41 (here).

Ok well let’s go with Sanctuary fandom. I’m going to go left field and answer with Nigel. Which isn’t exactly true but I will explain. Nigel is like the forgotten member of The Five a lot of the time. He’s the one that didn’t live until the 21st century and the one that isn’t romantically linked with Helen. There’s very little known about him and I was surprised and delighted as the more I referenced him, the more cohesive he felt in my mind. He got an actual personality, backstory, goals etc. So while Nigel isn’t a favourite character, I do enjoy how I developed him.

Bonus question as you had a repeat!

11) Do you write scenes in order, or do you jump around?
I’m a very linear writer. I literally can’t write out of order. Sometimes this trips me up because I think if I sense that something I have written isn’t right (aka the foundation is rocky) then I grind to a halt and stop making progress. Now with fanfic which I never tended to revise that heavily, that’s fair enough – I’m not going to do a complete redraft but with original work? Ehhh.

It is generally speaking better to revise a complete draft, to see the entire picture. I can’t recall where I first heard the expression but I have applied it to drafting ever since – “there’s little point in polishing a turd” – aka, I don’t know what I’m going to have to cut until I can look at the whole thing, so don’t waste time polishing a scene that might not make it. But yeah getting frozen because I have to be linear, but something isn’t right, but I shouldn’t waste time fixing it – frustrated mental scream!

Oh another point! I have a friend that exclusively jumps around, I don’t think they could write linearly if they tried. I have always wanted to ask them, but haven’t dared in case they think I’m judging them (and I’m definitely not!), whether they find foreshadowing/thematic arcs/character emotional journey’s etc. harder to write as it’s out of order. For me, I can’t imagine getting my head round it backwards but clearly people do it, so that’s a me problem. But yeah no I have to be linear.

chartreuseian asked:

Hey hey 😄 For the fanfic writer asks!!

10, 17, 29 and 41

Hey thank you so much for the ask!!

10) Do you work on multiple wips or stick to one fic at a time?
I thought I had already answered this but must have been for a previous ask meme. I’ve done a few of them lately and it’s such fun, thanks for playing all.

Anyway! I actively work on just one. More live in my brain obviously but ping-ponging between projects just makes progress so glacial it gets really discouraging. So one at a time 🙂

17) Do you have a writing routine?
I guess? I turn the PC on. Boot Plottr, open NovelPad. I get my planner and write down the scene I’m working on that day. I decide what my goal is for the day. Lately it’s been more time-focused rather than goal. I have a horrible habit of not focusing if I say “do X number of words” and then I sit there forever being miserable. Much better to give myself a time limit, and whatever I get done is all I get for the day. I keep hoping it will teach me to spend my time more wisely but alas there are still days I procrastinate badly.

29) What’s something about your writing that you’re proud of?
Already answered here 🙂

41) Who’s your favorite character you’ve written?
Hmm. What I enjoy the most I think is when I can hear the character, and I feel like I captured their voice. That doesn’t happen a lot. It has happened with Claudia (Warehouse 13), and I had it happen quite a bit in my Librarians/Sanctuary crossover. I think it helps if the characters have phrases they often use.

But favourite character to write just generally? You know I’m tempted to say Nikola. I went through a phase where I felt like I should tag every fic I was writing with “Nikola is a good friend” because it was just coming out that way. He’s a snarky bastard who talks a good game but he doesn’t fool me, he can bluster all he wants but I know how much he cares for his friends.

Although I have liked writing Eve in my Librarians fics.

Bonus question because you had a repeat 🙂

52) What’s the average word count of your fics?
943,505 / 81 (as I have 2 fanarts on AO3) = 11,648

Given my propensity for lengthy multi-chaptered I am surprised it’s that low, but then I guess there are a fair few oneshots as well, and it is an average.

I’m bummed it’s close to a million but not over it. Makes me wonder if I scrape my HD for all the prompt ficlets I never posted anywhere other than tumblr, or the fanfic I never finished/posted, if I would get there. I doubt it. I’ve probably got 20k or so but not nearly 60k. Sad.