#ask nem

[nemaliwrites]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗

whoa...mostmagical in my inbox... okay. if nicole demands it of me, i guess i have no choice.

this is tough... in no particular order:

All of This Is True - i do like this one a lot. the guilt, the angst, the feeling of being trapped in your own head but you're doing it willingly. gravedigging. the concept of an epitaph and all that it can reveal. isn't being buried alive, at the end of the day, not unlike being tucked in? it might be hard to breathe, but that's okay. none of this is real.

Something Opens Our Wings - in some ways, this feels like my felinette thesis fic. the icarus parallels. who has your amok, marinette? the personification of a ring. the concept of control, and wondering whose orders you're really following. a constant chess game of a conversation. whiskey bottles under the bed. peacock, fool thyself. if i were to pity you, who should i kill? if i were just a boy and you were just a girl - if we were both human - would we still feel like this?

"Unfair," he whispers, "isn't it? You and I shouldn't be like this. It's them who are hollow. They made us this way, and then they died. How is it fair that we're the ones picking up the pieces now?"

also. somno. oprah gif.

Should I Wade No More - i really don't think anyone cares about this fic except for me, which is a shame, because in some ways, it feels like me at my best. unreliable narrator. ghosts. choosing to haunt yourself. threats of murder as flirting. having a mentor figure who you worship and want to fuck and also want to kill soo bad. we are the only people in the world who understand each other. if i kill you, then don't i carry you with me for the rest of my life? and isn't that, really, what love is?

To Shear, to Skin - i think i mentioned this to autumn before, but i think this is the first thing i wrote that i actually thought was good. somewhere north of two million words written at that point, and this was the result. i put a lot of myself into this fic, too, which i don't normally do. the extended metaphor might be a bit heavy handed at times, but i like it a lot. soo so many headcanons that i just made up. doomed siblings learning to trust one another. learning to be a family outside of their mother's shadow. you might think you're a bad person, but you are so desperate not to be your mother that you braid your sister's hair and tuck her into bed every night. what are you, really? the answer is, and has always been, a sister.

What Real Human Beings Do - the odd one out, maybe, but i am quite fond of this weird little fic. wrote it at work. lol. the dissociation, the identity issues only exacerbated by the italics and form of the text itself. they haunt you, but is that because they hate you or the opposite? they are loyal. they are a part of you. if you hate what they've made you, what's left? what else are you? i also just really really like the ending.

If I were the one who died, you tell your sister, I wouldn't have come back to haunt you. In the mirror, Emilie shakes her head, disappointed. "Then that just means you don't love me like I love you." Behind her, your husband cocks his gun in agreement.

[rider-extra-critters]

Hi Guuuuys!

My name's Nem, and I'll be running my mom's account while she's out sick! Feel free to ask me anything you guys want to about us! Just, don't expect many pics. I'm uuuh, I'm not that good at working a camera (ㅎᴗㅎᵕ).

[nemaliwrites]

hello! love your writing so much, you're my favourite author in the ml fandom ❤️ i was wondering if you'd be willing to offer some advice on when to end stories. do you usually have a good idea of what the last words are going to be before you write? or do you write something and go: yes, that's it?

what the hell :') you are so sweet... and you know exactly where to hit me... i LOVE talking writing...

ooh this is a good question. broadly speaking, if we look at things from a story structure perspective, it's important to understand what an ending really is. and a beginning. and a story itself. LOL

there's this advice that floats around often that you should start your story as close to the 'beginning' (which usually refers to the inciting incident) as possible. i think that can apply to endings as well - you kind of want to end things as close to the 'end' as possible. so what does that really mean?

most stories, at their core, are about a character who goes through things and changes, either for the better or worse (yeahh i know this might be an oversimplification and there definitely CAN be stories that proceed with static characters, but. this can still apply, i think, bc usually in those cases the character ends up changing the world around them. i digresss). and if the inciting incident is the 'start' of whatever journey the character goes on that will end up changing them, then the beginning should be the 'before snapshot' of who your character is. in the same vein, an ending is an 'after snapshot' of who your character has become, how they've changed, and what this new life of theirs looks like.

you also want your character to be like. a fully realized person. so it helps, i think, to kind of hint at what will come next for them.. that doesn't have to be anything big, to be clear. it's just something that shows us that yes, they still have a 'life' after this particular story ends. they will still wake up tomorrow and live their life.

now, me personally? i think... rarely do i know where a story is going to end. in some ways, i suppose i have a sort of goalpost i'm writing towards, though... i very much like writing endings that are cyclical, in that.. yeah, our character has changed, but in some ways, they're still backsliding. their journey has changed them, and they know that they're prone to making mistakes. but this time, they're doing it on purpose. that's not a mistake anymore. and doesn't that mean they've changed as a person? for better or for worse, though, remains to be seen.

there's another piece of advice i see on occasion that when you're trying to end a story and you feel like you're kind of rambling/feel bogged down, chances are that your 'real' ending is a couple hundred words behind where you are, and you might have to delete some stuff.

i think generally the most important thing about endings is having some kind of 'final image' that you can leave your readers with. but what that looks like is definitely personal preference, and i think it's worth experimenting with! i used to end all my fics with dialogue back when i first started writing, but after a while, i felt like that was a bit too abrupt for my tastes and i started changing things up. these days, i usually use a line that appeared somewhere earlier in the fic, but is recontextualized based on what came after. i think... it was.. the breathplay fic? that i ended with a question. i don't usually do that, but i think it worked for that fic, and i like the effect it had.

but yes, those are my thoughts on Endings!! i'd also love to know yours, if you have any... :3

[nemaliwrites]

Heyy! I really enjoyed your fic "The Parable of the Caller" so I wrote a poem inspired by it. Hope you like it!

A Forgotten Past

The chronicles of a life

that were once secured.

Now they lay raw and bare,

stories of what’d been endured.

Something new is revealed.

But nothing shocking, really.

More like seeing with clarity,

through a fog of uncertainty.

It challenges his reality.

Something new, he heard

everyday, leaving him confused,

curious even, but he persisted.

A bond is formed

with this unfamiliar voice.

He listened to it, despite the noise

screaming that he was who destroys. 

His hand trembles when

he gets to the end, the last

message to him that’s passed.

“I am you, from a forgotten past.”

i've heard, once, that it's an unparalleled feeling, to have someone inspired enough by your art that they create their own. something something inspiration to the point of creation.

all that to say, this is so so beautiful.

i loove that you've employed a rhyme scheme here - in the bit of poetry i've dabbled in, i always shy away from it because it scares me :3 memory as the 'fog of uncertainty'..YEAH! 'the noise / screaming that he was who destroys'.... I AM YOU FROM A FORGOTTEN PAST!!! fuck yeah. this is sooo good. i'm so honored that you shared it with me, thank you so much!!!

[nemaliwrites]

what the fuck happened in my kitchen HAHA

me crashing out about writing. and drinking chobani creamer. also you were there <3

[nemaliwrites]

23, 40, 42 :3 please, love 🦋

okay. but only because you said please. and the lil butterfly emoji, just for me :3

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

ooh interesting... i don't really like to give advice to people bc i know that everyone has different goals when it comes to fic writing.... but. if i had to boil it all down to one thing.. it would probably be to experiment.

and i really do mean that in every sense of the word. experiment with writing different ships and characters!! experiment with genres and tropes - especially ones that you don't like!! experiment in the writing process! plot, pants, do a million drafts, post something without editing!! set a deadline! post chapter by chapter! write the entire thing out without posting!

idk. i think when it comes to writing i'm very much a 'try anything once' kind of girl, and that always helps teach me sooo much about me and what i like/dislike. and also the knowledge that like... every single writing project is different. so if you have more tools to fall back on, then i think it does make it easier to adapt, in some ways.

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

oohh.. another tough one. tbh i don't think my writing is very Cinematic... sooo many of my fics are just like. two people sitting next to each other and talking. Boring! yeah. sorry. i don't think i have a good answer for this one... i have thought that The Pain of the Lover would make a cool illustration/comic, just bc of the stage directions.. and i've wondered before about the overlap between drabble and comic, and if the translation from one medium to the other would be simpler, but. idk

42. What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

i reread oh my god, look at that face by @indigotigress7. again. soooo good. would INDEED highly recommend. the fic i'm writing now is kind of loosely inspired by a line in here, so i'm using that as an excuse to go back to it again and again. genuinely have not stopped thinking about it since i read it.

fic writer asks

[nemaliwrites]

i swear i'm N O T a creep but i was gonna sit down to read '100% perfect' again and i pressed the kudos button like the lovesick fool i am when it told me that i've already left a kudos and then, as is my habit, i scan the list to look for my name WHEN I SAW YOURS

OMG

MY WORLD'S ARE COLLIDING (once again)

yeah

that's all.

lots of love, bye bye

girl you should have seen my face when i got this ask... i was like FUCK what devil's sacrament did you see me at

but ooh yes 100% Perfect by @sometimesiship is SUCH a good fic!! thank you for giving me an excuse to reread it hehe.. there's literally this one passage from that fic that i copied into my docs and i think about all the time.. let me find it

Winter becomes spring. She buys a new bed, a new couch. Rearranges the furniture. Sometimes she scrolls through that website again, looking through every section, not just the Twilighting models. She hopes he’s had a surge in popularity. She hopes somebody else loves him now. She hopes lots of others might love him next, hopes he’s finally seen the ocean at night.

HOPES HE'S FINALLY SEEN THE OCEAN AT NIGHT fuck my life. anyway. yes. everyone should go read this. and the author's other fics because if memory serves, they all fuck.

[nemaliwrites]

hi hi! do you have any editing tips/anything from your own editing process you could share? for either original work or fanfics. if you don't mind of course haha

hello hello! i certainly do! caveat that my process is always always changing, sometimes from work to work, so i might not always Do all of these, but they're all in my Editing Toolbox forever and ever. and regardless of the plotter/pantser debate (which...i Hate) i think a lot of these processes are adaptable to any workflow!

first, some craft books that i've read and really helped me understand What Editing Is, especially for longer works. Seven Drafts by Allison K Williams was SUPER helpful for me when i first started out and i didn't really understand what a draft was, or what its purpose was. people always talked about draft one vs draft three and i was like ?? what does that mean?? but the ideas she breaks down in this book, along with a ton of good advice, are primarily to break each draft down to address one issue (i.e. the Character draft, the Technical draft, etc). a good way to see each picture instead of getting overwhelmed by the full thing!

Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Yates Martin is probably the BEST editing book i've ever read. if you only read one of these books, i would recommend this one. or if not, she's actually got a self-editing checklist (link here) that is a really helpful reference.

Another one, which you might argue is more process than editing, is Writing into the Dark by Dean Wesley Smith. I've spoken a bit about him before, but I do think this process is worth trying out, especially if the idea of editing as you go or having one clean draft appeals to you (i am a lazy writer, so this appeals to me LOL).

and now, my one single most important editing tip. this sounds so clickbaity, but it genuinely changed my writing and my mindset. and i know you're probably gonna be like ew what the fuck but HEAR ME OUT:

rewrite the entire thing.

i'm completely serious btw. sometimes, if i keep fiddling with the same piece, eventually i end up losing sight of the whole thing and not knowing where i'm going. so (i use scrivener, but this is possible anywhere!) i open a new doc side by side with my old one, start from the beginning, and retype every single word. it is SO helpful in a way that i think rereading a draft doesn't really replicate. so many lil wordings or repetitions that i am able to catch and then fix.

it's also helpful for me mentally bc if there's something that i (lazy) don't like anymore in the first draft, i just don't type it! less work!

i've actually been switching over to handwriting my first drafts more, and the same process applies to typing it up! 10/10 would recommend.