writing meme

[spatz]

I feel like all I ever post around here is memes, sorry ya'll. But no one ever does memes with me on Tumblr, even though they interact in other ways. It is downright odd.

A. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.
B. Is there a trope you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
C. Is there a trope you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?
D. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
E. Share one of your strengths.
F. Share one of your weaknesses.
G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
I. Which fic has been the hardest to write?
J. Which fic has been the easiest to write?
K. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?
L. Is there an episode or section of canon above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
M. What's the best writing advice you've ever come across?
N. What's the worst writing advice you've ever come across?
O. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?
P. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Q. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
R. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
S. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
T. Describe your perfect writing conditions.
U. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
V. Choose a passage from one of your earlier fics and edit it into your current writing style. (Person asking the question is free to make suggestions).
W. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?
X. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?
Y. What do you look for in a beta?
Z. Do you beta yourself? If so, what kind of beta are you?
AA. How do you feel about collaborations?
AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
AC. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
AD. Do you accept prompts?
AE. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?
AF. How do you feel about smut?
AG. How do you feel about crack?
AH. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?
AI. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
AJ. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
AK. Talk about your current wips.
AL. Talk about a review that made your day.
AM. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?
AN. Write an alternative ending to a fic you've written (specify by title, link or general description)

Comments

[philomytha]

Memes are good! And doing memes on Tumblr is complicated, at least if you're a bit Tumblr-impaired, and I am.

Can I have B and D please?

[spatz]

B. Is there a trope you've yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Slavefic springs to mind!. It's a beloved trope of mine, but tricky to do right. Plus, I have to fight my self-censor, which likes to tell me it's too ridiculous. There's also sexpollen -- which I actually started writing once for Person of Interest, but then I fell out of the fandom due to Certain Events in canon. While I still like the particular angle of emotional agony I was taking for it, I'd have to rewrite most of it due to jossing so who knows if that will ever see the light of day.

D. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?

Ahahaha. Ha. SO MANY. The three that are churning around my brain the most right now but have not been written down in more than note form yet:

1) Bucky centric story following him from Army training through to the modern day. I have a lot of headcanon and characterization angles that I want to play with but haven't seen anyone else do, except this story requires a level of historical knowledge that I do not remotely have, and I keep stalling out at the research phase.

2) The one about Tony Stark creating a non-profit that takes Evil Science tech that the Avengers capture from the bad guys and turns it into stuff that benefits humanity - because I was thinking about the fanon that Tony uses that stuff for Stark Industries/himself, and realized that no, Tony of all people would realize that using HYDRA tech (for example) to advance his own company would ultimately mean profiting off hideously unethical human experimentation. But forming a group to take Villain Research and do good with it would appeal to his sense of irony. Like, thanks for all the prosthetics research, assholes, we're gonna give it to your victims/veterans/war orphans for free now. I need to think about the ethics of it a lot more, though, and how I want to frame the story so it doesn't sound like a press release.

3) backstory for Jack Robinson (from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, which I just got hooked on). Possibly a Five Things story, tracking him through the years with his relationships with various women (both platonic and romantic), because he's both an extremely kind person and a natural feminist, and I fucking adore that kind of dynamic.

[philomytha]

I really must get into this Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries thingy - was it you sharing pictures of it on Tumblr? It looked like it should be right up my street.

Slavefic, huh? There's one I haven't considered. But yeah, a good one to tackle. And sex pollen with emotional agony is the only way to write it, surely! At least, it's more fun that way :-D.

I kind of feel that the Tony Stark story might work well as a press release, or some other kind of epistolary/document story, now that you mention it.

[spatz]

Yesssss, Miss Fisher! My sister had an entire discussion about whether she would get along with Lady Alys or not, since they are definitely both of the 'dresses are weapons' school of thought, but Phryne is much more in line with Cordelia's mores and practical inclination to use *actual* weapons, with Miles's sense of mayhem and tendency to collect talented strays. There's some more coherent primers with shiny pictures and a rundown of the ensemble, or the Slashreport episode if you don't mind minor spoilers for early S1. Plotwise, it's very classically Golden Age detective novel-y, with a hefty dose of social liberalism thanks to Phryne, a fantastic and charming ensemble, and MASSIVELY AGONIZING but smoking hot UST between the leads. I just....oh god, you should watch it and then come talk to me about how Phryne absolutely hooked up with Lord Peter in London and/or Paris that one time. Or several times.

Yes, I started it as a fake interview transcript, but it was coming out very stilted and I just started writing it as notes after a paragraph. I did think about setting it in the vague future and having it be from the POV of that kid in IM3, who is just joining the company, but I worry that might be too twee. And then I got distracted by Miss Fisher, so. :)

[ignipes]

E and F!

[spatz]

E. Share one of your strengths.

Ugh, I have to be positive about my writing, this is hard. Um, I guess mimicking character voice? And I do enjoy puzzle-piecing together complicated plots, but I haven't finished much long fic since I'm so slow, so that structural/problem-solving skill is more evident in the beta work I've done, I think.

F. Share one of your weaknesses.

Finishing things/writing regularly. I have shitty self-discipline.

[icepixie]

A, M, and, for symmetry, N.

[spatz]

[note: I already answered A and N on Tumblr, so I'm reproducing the answers here. If you are offended by this and demand only the freshest of meme answers, then you are welcome to ask more ;)]

A. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.

Well, gen, definitely - well over two thirds of my posted stories are gen - focusing on friendship or team relationships. Detail-oriented - not necessarily canonical (I like my AUs), but always firmly rooted there in the details. I like writing stories that fit into the cracks in canon, either things canon hasn’t explained to my satisfaction or the little nooks and crannies that other people haven’t explored, since if I feel like it’s a story too many other people have told, I have trouble motivating myself to finish writing it. Heavy on either humor or feels and h/c. Also, POV of a character I like or respect — while I *could* write from a different POV, I haven’t so far (except Guidance, kinda, but that was pure crack) and it wouldn’t be in my comfort zone.

M. What's the best writing advice you've ever come across?

The first thing that sprang to mind was Resonant's essay on How to Write a Sex Scene, which also applies to action scenes and screenwriting in certain aspects.

N. What's the worst writing advice you've ever come across?

"Write what you know." SUCH BULLSHIT. At least, when interpreted literally, as so many people do.

[icepixie]

Your comfort zone is close to my own! I write more ship than gen, but I know what you mean about being rooted in canon/details.

"Write what you know." SUCH BULLSHIT. At least, when interpreted literally, as so many people do.

So much this. I had a writing instructor who revised it to say "Know what you write," which I think is much more realistic. (And also panders to my ALL THE RESEARCH! tendencies.)

[graycardinal]

Wandering over by way of icepixie, after having given her a set of letters: if it's not too presumptuous, I'll give you G, S, AB, and AK. [I am not tumblr-enabled; if you've already answered one or more of those Over There, reposts are totally OK.]

I will happily reciprocate; my iteration of the meme-post is over here.

[spatz]

G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

Dani didn't get how Crews had turned into the exception. Crews, who ignored her lines in the sand and her pointed silences, but tossed her the keys every time, bought her coffee with his fruit and listened when it was important, listened when she didn't say anything at all. Maybe that was zen – to give without expecting anything, and get everything in return. She'd given her trust almost without realizing it – believed so hard that she could stare at a photo and trust him blind, taunt Nevikov to his face and never doubt that Crews would come for her. But there was no debt there, even after he climbed into a deathtrap to get her out.

Like many things about Crews, it didn't make sense. She wasn't sure it ever would.

-from Precession

Precession is still my favorite story I've written - or the one I think is best, rather -- and this passage is one of the lynchpins. Life was a show that communicated in motifs and repeated phrases more than dialogue a lot of the time, and I was really proud of how I managed that in the fic.

S. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?

Yes! Her name is Lindsey, and she likes to sit next to me on the couch and kibbitz shamelessly. You might know her better as inmyriadbits.

AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

Answered this one on Tumblr!

AK. Talk about your current wips.

Ahahaha. Ha. Um, cutting the list down to things I've actually worked on recently:

-Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries story about Jack rescuing a suicide jumper, in the period after the stock market crash (VERY curious to see if the show deals with that at all, or if they're gonna take a more Fred & Ginger route), for hcbingo prompt 'suicide attempt'
-Lewis S8 (S7?) fic from Maddox's POV
-the Sam POV sequel to too old to die young now
-SES-verse short of Clint's POV on the first whipping, for hcbingo 'corporal punishment'
-Miss Fisher PWP involving Jack and Phryne have inappropriate sex in a church (or rather, a backroom)

[graycardinal]

Answers are shiny!

I'm not familiar with the fandom from which that snippet comes, but I definitely like the flow of the writing in it.

I can see both advantages and disadvantages to having a conveniently located live muse. On one hand such a muse would probably be a great incentive towards productivity; OTOH, I can also see said muse being a considerable distraction.

[pause, follow link to Tumblr, bookmark ensuing links, troll and find this, leave bemused comment]

Oh, my. Better save any further trolling for later. This looks as if it will take awhile....

And that's a healthy list of WIPs.

Thank you very much!