#birbchatter

[lockandkeyblade]

I spent the evening working on my VaniLeon oneshot and I’m delighted with how it’s going but probably the thing making me laugh most is the WIP summary

[lockandkeyblade]

Hi! Just wanted to say I really love your stories. Especially the VV ones of course, since I myself love VV. I used to write a lot of fanfiction and have started dabbling in it again as you've inspired me, but it's been years since I've written, and everything I write sounds... bad. I wanted to know if what you post is your first draft, and if not how many rounds of edits do you usually do? Do you have people look over your work and suggest edits too? I used to just post my first draft but looking back at my old works, I now recognize they're not very good and I'm really determined to be better

Well first of all, thank you so much! I’m really glad people enjoy my works, but hearing it’s inspired you back into writing is beyond exciting!!! I’m gonna say right off the bat just from the structure of your ask I have no doubt you can write some pretty awesome things, but our minds are our greatest enemies.

-my way of editing is peculiar in that I will write 500-1000 words before scrolling right back up and reading it all through. So whilst it probably still counts as a “first draft”, it’s a first draft where the good majority has been edited anywhere between 6-10 times, roughly. This is absolutely not the only way (and I’m sure if I even tried to say it was the best I’d be laughed out of multiple writing discords), but it’s the style I’ve found most comfortable for me! 

-Betas are a very popular concept but so hard to obtain. I have friends I bounce ideas around with, who I’ll talk scenes over when I’m stuck, but they are a double edged sword of sometimes giving me Way Too Many Ideas. It’s also a double edged sword depending on your patience; you can’t expect a beta to be right there to look things over the second you’re done…and I’m admittedly too impatient to burden someone with that LOL. That said, super helpful if you can find someone you have good rapport with and shares similar interests!

-a few things I do want to point out with you just coming back…writing is like a bicycle. Yes, if you’ve done this before you can do it again, but if it’s been years you need to give yourself time to wobble, to oil the chains if they got a bit rusty. It’s hard not to expect perfection from yourself, but at the moment it’s a lot more important to Do, rather than Perfect.

-you know how artists use references and sometimes trace to learn skills? This is what reading is for, but take it an extra level! Emulate what inspires you. Do you like the POV I write in, the way the dialogue is done? The descriptions or the size of the paragraphs? Obviously I wouldn’t expect you to copy things word for word, but I try to emulate what I like, too. Every time you see the word “ontologically” in my fics that’s me falling in love with a word @finitevoid showed me that they in turn got from someone else who uses it. Back in the Undertale fandom I was so impressed with some of the amazing 2nd POV fics that I wound up writing in exclusively 2nd POV for like, two years. Finding out what you like, how to make that yourself? That’s how you grow into your own style.

-I know for me right now there’s a few multi form or 30kish projects I’m endeavouring to work on, but I’ve also just had a big break from writing. Reading is a good way to get back into things, but also subject studies! I took a bunch of smut prompts recently and they are precisely that; specific set ups that I can study to get back into the swing of things. Prompt lists and drabbles are great to build yourself back up without stressing that it must meet a word requirement or be the next Lord of the Rings. Indulge! Remember that your writing is meant to be enjoyed by YOU first!

At the end of the day this is your journey with writing, not mine. What works for me might not be a fit for you, and that’s okay! These are different things to consider and try, but there are so many more things beyond this. I hope some of these hit the mark for you, but don’t stress if they don’t!

Lastly, please do remember to drop me a link when you start posting things cause I wanna seeee <3

[lockandkeyblade]

Okay so I made an Extremely Stupid KH Gameshow for my friends using Google Slides. And it went about how I expected (I got told they hated me (lovingly) a great many times and my name was yelled even more frequently).

But anyway have some snippets of the Utter Bullshit I just made the past 3-4 hours of my friends lives.

[lockandkeyblade]

stares at you with the big riku eyes...... 👁️​👁️​

au where vanitas and leon were an item? 👉🏼​👈🏼​ and are now bffs? 👉🏼​👈🏼​ (i know it's. probably not the main focus but i'm licking my plate clean to get any vanileon crumb i can atp)

(from @peachy-ciel <3)

laughs I will warn you that the main pairing is vanven and there’s akuroku in it, but the fic is Bubblegum Pop Princess, which is my disaster slide right into the concept of how much healthier vv can be if vanitas got to be a sugar daddy.

the context for LeonVanitas in this is that they basically started out in the same gang together and as Vanitas ruthlessly took over the entire goddamn mafia Leon was wise enough to go “this kid is insane” and became his second. The second half of the first chapter is literally vanitas executing someone at point blank range as Leon idly ponders how badly Vanitas needs to get laid in the background. Did Leon Squall Leonhart introduce Vanitas to BDSM in this universe? Yes. Yes he did.

[lockandkeyblade]

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

uhhh a hard earned wisdom, I won’t go into why I had to learn it, but two conflicting emotions can both be felt at the same time and be equally as valid. You can be distressed and relieved at the same time and that is okay. You are allowed to have multifaceted responses to things.

❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

See dream plots always change… but lately I have been into a very specific niche in the FF7 fandom which is dimensional time travel fix-it with a side of soul mates.

I KNOW ITS VERY SPECIFIC but god it’s super fun. There must’ve been a gang of people really into the same idea because there’s a fivesome ship that has like, the exact same story with the exact same OCs just rewritten five times in the different authors styles and I. Am unexpectedly insane for it. I’m feral for it.

And I’d say Ini except I know Ini does not enjoy most soulmate stuff, plus KH does not lend well to time travel fix-it, ironically. Too many characters who’d cease existing if you did that. 

[lockandkeyblade]

This isn't a fic question, but if you were to design a Kingdom Hearts inspired ffxiv job, how would you do it? Would it be based on a mechanic, gimmick, a character, or just the general idea of (metaphorical) Hearts?

This— actually turned out harder to answer than I thought! My first instinct was to say that Keyblade Wielder sits as an interesting mesh between Red Mage and Viper, but that’s not necessarily true for the whole cast? Terra and Riku definitely sit better as Dark Knight (heck if you argued Terra more as WAR I would not argue). Vanitas is probably more Reaper than anything? You could make some really good arguments for Kairi as a Pictomancer…. YMX is a whole kettle of fish what would he even—-

So I feel like the issue I have with designing a Keyblade class is— which Keyblade Wielder? They’re too divergent for them to sit in FFXIV’s classes as one neat box, unless we’re gonna start talking 1.0 class building mechanics and look, we dropped a whole moon down to get past that, we’re better now.

[lockandkeyblade]

Do you think Sora and Vanitas can pull off imitating the other's voice? In what scenario do you think each of them would try to do so?

Sora? Never. He'd give himself away so damn fast; not only would he have trouble keeping up the chain smoker voice, but he'd be way too nice. Someone would get angry and upset and he'd apologize, completely blow his cover.

Vanitas might be able to pull off Sora... if he actively practised. Like, a lot. I always figured part of the reason his voice is so rough is because he probably doesn't actually say more than a few words most days, so like, he's gonna have to practice to get the roughness out of his voice, and also to keep his own disgust at some of the bullshit he's spouting at bay.

So I'd say he could... though I don't think he'd bother. He's not really a smoke and mirrors kind of guy, even if he does obfuscate the truth sometimes.

[lockandkeyblade]

🎲 🍄 🥐

For the writers ask game!

🎲 ⇢ what stops you from writing more in your free time? 

Honestly I’d love to be banging out stuff at the rate I was at the start of the year, but that pace was at the cost of socializing at all, doing any other hobbies, and uh, sleeping. And cleaning. Sometimes other things need to happen or I just need to engage with the world.

Exhaustion also plays a big factor. I was severely iron deficient to the point of almost being hospitalised in July, which- absolutely destroyed my writing drive. It’s still recovering, but we’ll get there!

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

I never know what to put for these because dynamics change all the time LOL but okay-

For VanVen, Vanitas loves showing off that Ven is his. Hickeys, pulling Ven into his lap, smushing his face into his neck, shoving his hands up his shirt. The more people witnessing this, the better.

Ven also unsubtly loves this. He wishes he was actually embarrassed but lol he’s not normal enough for that, Vanitas starts going PDA and he’s like okay <3 yay <3

🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh 

I have a personal love of the ‘hold my flower’ meme. Kick his ass baby I got your flower. uwu