#cool asks meme

[roboticonography]

11, 19

For the Cool Asks meme.

11. Weirdest thing you’ve ever written/thought about writing/etc.?

I have a prohibitively high level of second-hand embarrassment when it comes to my own writing, particularly about sex scenes, so what I would consider “weird” for me personally would probably strike most people as fairly pedestrian.I did once start a story that involved one character - accidentally, and through circumstances beyond his control - secretly watching another character getting intimate with herself. Honestly, it embarrassed me so much I couldn’t finish it, even though the writing was quite good, especially the dialogue - I just felt so bad and awkward about putting those characters in that situation.19. Why did you start writing?

I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I started reading when I was about three, and by the time I was five I was writing short stories.

I don’t want to make too much of this, but I had kind of a sad, repressive home life growing up, and just putting my head down and writing was the main way I was able to endure that until I could get away from it.

Even as a kid, I wrote primarily about existing fictional characters that I liked, or placed my original characters in the universes of books and movies I enjoyed. And the urge to do that just never went away.

My teachers generally tried to steer me away from writing fan fiction - which makes sense in retrospect, as it occupied a lot of my time, to the point where I was slacking off on school assignments. But from my perspective, they made it sound like it was something I should be ashamed of. So I carried on secretly, until I made friends who had the same interests that I did.

By the time I was in high school, I had a pretty devoted reading circle of nerds, who would pass around a hot pink Lisa Frank binder of my Star Trek: TNG fanfic. I discovered that I liked writing a lot more when I was doing it for an audience - they used to leave notes in the margins of my stories, saying what they liked and guessing about the upcoming chapters.

Then in university, I got into online fandom, and I haven’t looked back since.

Making up stories about characters I love, and sharing them with my friends, has been a part of me my whole life, and now I don’t know if I’d recognize myself without it.

[roboticonography]

3 & 20.

For the Cool Asks meme. #3 I just answered in the previous ask! Here’s number 20:

20. 4 sentences from your work that you’re proud of

I wound up having to choose more than one sentence for some of these because my sentences are kind of short and tend to run in packs? It’s really tough to separate out a single one.

1. From Love Set You Going: 

He was rather a homely child: red-faced, stick-thin and bald as a post, entirely unprepossessing.

I am actually really proud of the entire “Baby Steven is the worst baby” sequence, but this particular sentence still makes me laugh out loud. And I wrote it. So yeah. And then the end bit of that same sequence:

It might have been different if he’d been the perfect, fat blond cherub she’d been envisioning. But this skinny, angry starveling could only be hers, hers and Steve’s, and she fell hopelessly in love with him.

2. From Revelator, and can I just say - this is probably one of the most poetic pieces I’ve written to date. I’m really proud of the entire thing. But there’s one particular sentence that I love, about Clint playing the guitar:

She's never seen him play before, but it isn't surprising that he can; it's all just curved wood and taut string and clever hands.

3. From Object Permanence, because I guess I just get really into metaphors when writing about Clint for some reason:

Clint stitches his life story together in a different way each time he tells it, and Steve does his best to discern the patches of truth from the embroidery.

4. From The Simple Secret. Pretty much every description of Peggy from Steve’s POV in that story is my fave, but this one in particular:

Peggy was sporting a magnificent black eye, and seemed pretty pleased with herself. As well she ought to be—she’d taken out seven HYDRA foot soldiers, by Steve’s count. Dugan said later that he’d seen her punch a guy in the neck hard enough to stop his heart on the spot.

Steve could believe it. He thought his own heart was going to stop every time he looked at her.

[roboticonography]

3 & 15 for the 'cool asks for fic writers' :)

Meme here. See the last post for the answer to #15.

3. What is your absolute favorite kind of fic to write?

My natural inclination is always for short pieces with lots of dialogue that take place in locations I’m familiar with. I find long plots challenging to maintain, and I hate describing settings. I also love to write pieces that fill in gaps in the existing stories. So stories like Barbed-Wire Fence or The Way You Look or Revelator are the kinds of things I typically write if left entirely to my own devices.That being said, I feel like some of my best and most rewarding work has come from prompts: The Simple Secret, Love Set You Going, The Wide and Starry Sky, Object Permanence, Double Walker, and Drive are all stories that would never have happened without contribution of ideas from sources outside my own head.

[roboticonography]

For the asks for fic writers: #10!

For this meme:

10. What inspires you the most?

I draw inspiration from all kinds of things and people around me, but a lot of it comes through conversation. As my buddies will tell you, just about any conversation with me includes at least three instances of me announcing “That gives me an idea for a story!”

I consistently get my best ideas in the shower, though! I’m not sure what it is. Could be the fact that I’m doing a repetitive task that doesn’t require a lot of brain power? Or maybe because I’m in an enclosed space without any visual or aural distractions - kind of like a sensory deprivation tank, but less frightening? Either way, that’s where the magic seems to happen for me.

Now you can all picture me naked while you read my stories.* You’re welcome.

*Please nobody do that, please.

[roboticonography]

1, 2, & 15

For the Cool Asks meme:

1. Describe yourself how you would describe a character you’re introducing

Bwaaaah, okay.

It was a beautiful, sunny day - a fact which was of absolutely no consequence to Robot, who sat inside with the blinds tightly drawn, answering fic memes on Tumblr. He was a small fellow of indeterminate age, and (as one might expect, given his aversion to the outdoors) quite pale, with a sprinkle of freckles across his prominent nose. His strawberry-blond hair, greying slightly at the temples, was badly in need of a comb and a small amount of pomade; his designer reading glasses were smudged, a state which was not improved by his wiping them on his black Iron Man t-shirt.

2. Is there any specific ritual you go through while/before/after your writing?

One of the rituals I enjoy most is making coffee to drink while I write. I have a particular chair in my living room where I do most of my writing, in the one corner of the room that doesn’t get direct sunlight for most of the day.

15. Your guilty writing pleasure?

Tumblr fic, probably - I don’t trouble myself to think it through or edit it as much as I usually would. Which makes it pretty cringeworthy when I re-read. :P

[roboticonography]

4, 7, and 9

For the Cool Asks meme:

4. Are there any other fic writers you admire? If so, who and why?

I admire a lot of fic writers, for different reasons: some because of how prolific they are, some because of their deftness with a turn of phrase, some for their skill with dialogue, some for their ability to use humour, some for their ability to put together a tight and cracking plot that keeps me guessing until the end.

But really, I admire anyone who’s willing to put their work out there for others to read. Because it can be tough!

7. Inspiration, time, or motivation. Choose two.

Time and motivation, definitely. I find that if I have those, and keep plugging away, I can usually come up with something pretty solid. Inspiration is kind of fleeting and can lead you in the wrong direction, but if I have time and energy to write, that’s all I need to get it done.

9. Do you ever have plans to write anything other than fic?

I do, and have; I’ve published academically and as a book reviewer, and I’ve researched and written instruction manuals and other large-scale projects.

One day I'd like to write an original novel - I see fanfic as my training ground for that. Every time I write a story, I challenge myself to do at least one thing I haven’t done, or am uncomfortable doing, so that I can improve.

I do have a rough, approximate outline for a novel, the idea for which came into my head while I was writing “The Simple Secret.” It has to do with Camp X, and is inspired partly by stories I’ve heard about my grandparents. If I ever finish it, and it gets picked up anywhere, I’ll be sure to let people know.