hindsightseeing (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hindsightseeing) wrote2026-05-12 04:41 pm
hindsightseeing) wrote2026-05-12 04:41 pm
Fic Writer Questions!
Another fun one from maevedarcy for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
3weeks4dreamwidth!
Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?
Of my current fics on my current account, none. Most of them are less than 20k, which in my weird, silly brain translates to 'ficlet' and thus not worth it, and the two big ones are part of an ongoing WIP which, if I really didn't like the first two parts, I wouldn't be compelled to continue in the first place.
Of my older stuff... I've talked for years about wanting a do-over on my ill-advised DS9 mirrorverse fic. It's the longest fic I've ever written at 370k, and it's also well over a decade old and contains some elements that dated beyond poorly. It's the one fic I would like to revist from the ground up, talk at length about my choices at the time, and dissect the whole entire thing, but... ain't no way I'm rereading 370,000 words of my own writing, you know? Especially not when I know I won't like it.
What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?
Most of the Archive Warning tags. The only one I use in itself is 'graphic violence'. The rest, I feel, are often up for reader interpretation, and I most often prefer to 'choose not to warn' with some elaboration / more specific details in author's notes.
Also, tagging specific sex acts. Like, I definitely see their value and appreciate them... but even my PWPs have an annoying amount of Actual Story in and around them, and tagging specific acts feels like placing too much weight on the sex parts.
How slow is a slow burn?
Depends on the author. For myself, personally... y'know, as I mentioned, I still think of 20k as "shortfic", and I just can't get into the meat of anything in that few words. That said, I do think it's more about the pacing than any specific word count. I could buy a drabble as a legitimate slow burn if each sentence were to span a year or three, you know?
Top three favorite fic tropes.
Hurt/Comfort and every possible subcategory thereof. Gimme all of it.
Found Family, especially if it takes a while to build trust.
Intoxication, whether for ill-advised confessions or just drunk sex.
What's your favorite plotless fic you have written?
Um. Y'know, even my plotty fics feel pretty plotless most of the time, so. I dunno, I think I'm going to cheat here and once again point back to one of my deleted older fics, which was a very short, very simple character study of Marion Lavorre from Critical Role.
First, second, or third person?
Third, always and exclusively. I despise first-person with every fibre of my being, and while second-person can be interesting when used to explore an existing canonical character (I once attempted this with my dear emotionally constipated Cassandra Pentaghast), in recent years it's become the almost exclusive purview of reader-insert fic, which is a hard, emphatic 'no'.
Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.
Hoo boy. Assuming I can even find a snippet from the current WIP that doesn't give away precisely what it is (and why I should not be writing it)...
Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?
I prefer to focus on a single project, especially if it's long, so I can maintain momentum. That said, I do find taking a little break here and there to throw out the occasional palate-cleansing shortfic can help keep me focused in the long run.
Still not sure where I stand on that with the current WIP. I'd like to throw out something short and sweet, but this one is very... set in its own very specific space... and I suspect stepping out of that space, even briefly, would be detrimental.
Dialogue or description? Why is the other one so hard?
Honestly, I bounce back and forth on this one, and I've pretty much come down to "the one that is hard is the one I need for this specific moment in this specific scene". Whichever I need is the hard one, and the other one, while useless, would definitely, absolutely be super-easy.
Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?
Ignore writing advice, especially if it comes from people online. Learn the basic rules of how sentences work and how to make them coherent, then just find your own style. Especially if you're a fic writer -- so much 'writing advice' is geared towards "how to make your writing more marketable", and there is so little that centres on "how to work with your own style and interest instead of against it".
What was the most difficult fic for you to write?
Hrm. There are always exhaustingly difficult parts of stories I'm writing -- especially the longer ones -- but in terms of fighting with the whole thing, I dunno. Most of the fics I remember really struggling with were ones I probably shouldn't have been writing in the first place -- either for fandoms I really wasn't vibing with but wanted to force myself to try, or fandoms I was just about done with but not ready to admit it, and that 'one last hurrah' fic felt like pulling teeth.
Do you write to improve? Or is that not a concern for you?
No. Absolutely not. I write for fun, and because it keeps my brain (just about) on the right side of functional, and because I am desperately in love with these characters and want to explore every atom of their feelings about themselves and each other. I am not here to be a quote-unquote "author", I'm here to spill little bits of my heart onto the page and hope it comes out vaguely coherent.
How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?
Song lyrics, song lyrics, song lyrics. Also song lyrics.
To this day, the title I'm most proud of is the one for my first-ever published fic, my aeons-old Seeker Big Bang fic, Change The Words, Make Me Blind. I have spent more than fifteen years trying to make that lightning strike twice, and have not even come close.
Do you research before writing or while you write? Is it fun or boring for you?
Both. My current WIP is pretty big on needing research, so speaking from very present, ongoing experience... the thing is, if research is needed in any considerable amount, you're never going to get it all done before you start. There's always going to be something to check, double-check, re-check, or something that pops up that you didn't even think you'd need to research in the first place, so you might as well just do what you can before and accept that you'll be doing (sometimes the exact same) research over and over and over again until the thing is done.
Fun? Sometimes. Boring? Never. The worst I can say is that it's sometimes frustrating and yanks me out of the flow when I need to stop and look something up, and then it's a bugger to get momentum back. But if I wasn't at least moderately interested in the thing I need to research, I would've just found a way to not have to write about it in the first place, y'know?
"This never happened" fix-it fics or "this happened but" fix-it fics.
Meh. I really enjoy both "this never happened" and "this happened but" what-if fic... but I really do not like the concept of fix-it fic at all. I don't want to "fix" canon -- even the parts of it I don't like, even the parts I actively despise. I want to explore alternative pathways, alternative journeys, alternative outcomes, etc. But just because something isn't what I wanted, just because it happened in a way I hate, that doesn't mean it's broken or in need of 'fixing'. I just want to poke at other forks in the road, y'know?
maevedarcy for 3weeks4dreamwidth!Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?
Of my current fics on my current account, none. Most of them are less than 20k, which in my weird, silly brain translates to 'ficlet' and thus not worth it, and the two big ones are part of an ongoing WIP which, if I really didn't like the first two parts, I wouldn't be compelled to continue in the first place.
Of my older stuff... I've talked for years about wanting a do-over on my ill-advised DS9 mirrorverse fic. It's the longest fic I've ever written at 370k, and it's also well over a decade old and contains some elements that dated beyond poorly. It's the one fic I would like to revist from the ground up, talk at length about my choices at the time, and dissect the whole entire thing, but... ain't no way I'm rereading 370,000 words of my own writing, you know? Especially not when I know I won't like it.
What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?
Most of the Archive Warning tags. The only one I use in itself is 'graphic violence'. The rest, I feel, are often up for reader interpretation, and I most often prefer to 'choose not to warn' with some elaboration / more specific details in author's notes.
Also, tagging specific sex acts. Like, I definitely see their value and appreciate them... but even my PWPs have an annoying amount of Actual Story in and around them, and tagging specific acts feels like placing too much weight on the sex parts.
How slow is a slow burn?
Depends on the author. For myself, personally... y'know, as I mentioned, I still think of 20k as "shortfic", and I just can't get into the meat of anything in that few words. That said, I do think it's more about the pacing than any specific word count. I could buy a drabble as a legitimate slow burn if each sentence were to span a year or three, you know?
Top three favorite fic tropes.
Hurt/Comfort and every possible subcategory thereof. Gimme all of it.
Found Family, especially if it takes a while to build trust.
Intoxication, whether for ill-advised confessions or just drunk sex.
What's your favorite plotless fic you have written?
Um. Y'know, even my plotty fics feel pretty plotless most of the time, so. I dunno, I think I'm going to cheat here and once again point back to one of my deleted older fics, which was a very short, very simple character study of Marion Lavorre from Critical Role.
First, second, or third person?
Third, always and exclusively. I despise first-person with every fibre of my being, and while second-person can be interesting when used to explore an existing canonical character (I once attempted this with my dear emotionally constipated Cassandra Pentaghast), in recent years it's become the almost exclusive purview of reader-insert fic, which is a hard, emphatic 'no'.
Share a snippet from a wip without giving any context for it.
Hoo boy. Assuming I can even find a snippet from the current WIP that doesn't give away precisely what it is (and why I should not be writing it)...
Don’t do that, Debbie didn’t say.
Once, twice, she’d said it already. Once, twice, and it hadn’t made any difference at all. Ruth was still talking, still thanking her, still looking at her with those sun-bright eyes, the corners of her mouth twitching back up in another smile, watery but still impossibly warm. No amount of repetition would be enough to shadow that sunlight, and no amount of ice in her bones could banish that warmth.
Besides, there was a very tiny part of her, stupid and sentimental but undeniable, that didn’t want to.
Don’t do that, and she meant, don’t expose your weaknesses, don’t give them something to use against you, don’t lay your soft spots out in the open for anyone to pierce or puncture or pummel.
Don’t do that, and she meant, don’t feel so much, don’t be so raw and open and honest, and she meant, don’t be so real, don’t be so human, don’t be something people like me eat for breakfast.
Don’t do that, and if she was honest, the one thing she did not mean was, don’t look at me like that.
Do you work on a single project or many at the same time? How does that work for you?
I prefer to focus on a single project, especially if it's long, so I can maintain momentum. That said, I do find taking a little break here and there to throw out the occasional palate-cleansing shortfic can help keep me focused in the long run.
Still not sure where I stand on that with the current WIP. I'd like to throw out something short and sweet, but this one is very... set in its own very specific space... and I suspect stepping out of that space, even briefly, would be detrimental.
Dialogue or description? Why is the other one so hard?
Honestly, I bounce back and forth on this one, and I've pretty much come down to "the one that is hard is the one I need for this specific moment in this specific scene". Whichever I need is the hard one, and the other one, while useless, would definitely, absolutely be super-easy.
Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?
Ignore writing advice, especially if it comes from people online. Learn the basic rules of how sentences work and how to make them coherent, then just find your own style. Especially if you're a fic writer -- so much 'writing advice' is geared towards "how to make your writing more marketable", and there is so little that centres on "how to work with your own style and interest instead of against it".
What was the most difficult fic for you to write?
Hrm. There are always exhaustingly difficult parts of stories I'm writing -- especially the longer ones -- but in terms of fighting with the whole thing, I dunno. Most of the fics I remember really struggling with were ones I probably shouldn't have been writing in the first place -- either for fandoms I really wasn't vibing with but wanted to force myself to try, or fandoms I was just about done with but not ready to admit it, and that 'one last hurrah' fic felt like pulling teeth.
Do you write to improve? Or is that not a concern for you?
No. Absolutely not. I write for fun, and because it keeps my brain (just about) on the right side of functional, and because I am desperately in love with these characters and want to explore every atom of their feelings about themselves and each other. I am not here to be a quote-unquote "author", I'm here to spill little bits of my heart onto the page and hope it comes out vaguely coherent.
How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?
Song lyrics, song lyrics, song lyrics. Also song lyrics.
To this day, the title I'm most proud of is the one for my first-ever published fic, my aeons-old Seeker Big Bang fic, Change The Words, Make Me Blind. I have spent more than fifteen years trying to make that lightning strike twice, and have not even come close.
Do you research before writing or while you write? Is it fun or boring for you?
Both. My current WIP is pretty big on needing research, so speaking from very present, ongoing experience... the thing is, if research is needed in any considerable amount, you're never going to get it all done before you start. There's always going to be something to check, double-check, re-check, or something that pops up that you didn't even think you'd need to research in the first place, so you might as well just do what you can before and accept that you'll be doing (sometimes the exact same) research over and over and over again until the thing is done.
Fun? Sometimes. Boring? Never. The worst I can say is that it's sometimes frustrating and yanks me out of the flow when I need to stop and look something up, and then it's a bugger to get momentum back. But if I wasn't at least moderately interested in the thing I need to research, I would've just found a way to not have to write about it in the first place, y'know?
"This never happened" fix-it fics or "this happened but" fix-it fics.
Meh. I really enjoy both "this never happened" and "this happened but" what-if fic... but I really do not like the concept of fix-it fic at all. I don't want to "fix" canon -- even the parts of it I don't like, even the parts I actively despise. I want to explore alternative pathways, alternative journeys, alternative outcomes, etc. But just because something isn't what I wanted, just because it happened in a way I hate, that doesn't mean it's broken or in need of 'fixing'. I just want to poke at other forks in the road, y'know?