20 Questions For Fic Writers
Came across this and thought it looked fun! Wasn't tagged by anyone as I don't interact much 😂
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
56, spanning two fandoms.
2. What’s your total word count
1,801,514 (Of which more than 800K has been in the past year. WTAF?)
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Criminal Minds. Used to write for Glee (and still want to finish my epic series there someday). I also used to write a lot for Sports Night and The West Wing when I was young but haven't written any of those in a couple decades.
4. Top 5 fics by kudos
Between Shadows and the Soul
To Understand One's Mind
Hypothetically and Statistically Speaking
Lights in the Darkness
Emergency Pain Management
5. Do you respond to comments?
I always try to! It's just that sometimes I either get distracted and forget or (more often) time has passed so I have a fear of being people-y. But I really do try to, because I want people to know how much I appreciate it.
6. Whats the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Light in the Loafers, because it's about gay boys in 1959. In general, I tend not to write too many angsty endings - I like to end on something a little more hopeful - but I think the ambiguity of Hero Worship by Special Boys is kinda angsty.
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Probably Hypothetically and Statistically Speaking? To Understand One's Mind ends with a pretty neat little bow of a happy scene...?
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Not that I can recall. I will say that this corner of fandom is very pleasantly quiet and non-drama-filled. I had one person get very angry once with a love triangle fic because the ending didn't feel earned to them and they thought I was basically 'using' the primary ship somehow, which was weird. Otherwise at most it's "whyyyyy do you torture them so?!"
9. Do you write smut?
Sometimes. Usually not as a standalone. I get too plot-y.
10. Do you write crossovers?
Not generally. There are two stuck in my head though that I've been frustratingly tempted to write. (I just think Overachiever Dr. Reid and Lexipedia would be Good Together, okay?)
11. Have you ever had your fic stolen?
Not that I'm aware of!
12. Have you ever had your fic translated?
Not that I remember. I tried to translate one of my early fics when I was in high school taking advanced French, but I quickly realized how much harder it was than it looked.
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No. It's not that I don't play well with others, it's just that I tend to get an idea and zoom forwards without waiting for others to catch up. Instead of cowritten fics I just did RPs forever.
14. What’s your all time favourite ship?
Moreid (Reid/Morgan, Criminal Minds). Or pre-season 4 Klaine (Kurt/Blaine, Glee), but then the show ruined both characters plus the relationship.
15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
The Immutability series. I'm like 675K words into it and have SO MUCH I want to do, but in the meantime I sidetracked myself into a whole other fandom and a 750K-word series. I think it's because I can't bring myself to write the 80s.
16. What are your writing strengths?
Dialogue and mimicry. I was writing script fics from roughly age 13 and wanted to be a screen writer for a number of years. There's also a certain visceral stream-of-consciousness thing my writing does that works really well in certain circumstances.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
I'm too wordy. I also use a very small portion of my vocabulary when I write, and I keep meaning to get better at that.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in a different language?
Only in a language I'm at least semi-fluent in and/or can watch examples of. Otherwise it always feels cringy to me. Not that it's cringy to read when others do it, at least in theory, but for me.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
This is a complicated answer. The first fandom I was in, where I knew what fanfic was and could read other people's fic and post my own, was Sports Night (the tv show Aaron Sorkin did before he did The West Wing). But a year or two before that, before I had the internet, I was hand-writing Animorphs fanfic in notebooks I carried everywhere. And I literally have (at my parents' house) a tiny Minnie Mouse spiral notepad in which I wrote stories about cartoons I was watching. I was about 3 and didn't know how to spell most of the words I wanted, so there were a lot of initials involved. So I think technically the first fandom I wrote for is Rescue Rangers when I wasn't yet in preschool. But I usually consider Sports Night my first real fandom experience.
20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written
I definitely have recency bias, because the ones springing to mind are all CM from the last year. A lot of my old episode-related ones from previous fandoms still aren't on AO3, so it's hard to go back and revisit those. But I think it's a close contest between Light in the Loafers, Between Shadows and the Soul, and Hero Worship by Special Boys.
as much as I would love to see Immutability conclude, I get that the 80's part of it would take a lot out of you. I hadn't known you were writing for another fandom, but it makes sense.
