#ehekic

[semperintrepida]

fic ask post: 2, 5, 24, 35!

Damn, I love it when fellow writers stop by. (Seriously folks, if the letters “TLOU” mean anything to you, go and check out @ehefic 's stuff.)

All right then. I’ve had half a bottle of wine and I’m feeling... truthy. Here goes.

2. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

This is where I get to admit that I’m terrible at fandom. These days, my ratio is 1%/99%. Always be writing.

I kind of hate this because I feel like an asshole. I have a “TO READ” list a fucking mile long. I want to support my writer friends. But I also have limited time and a burning desire to get my own words out on the page.

(It doesn’t help that I’m a bit of an idea/verbiage sponge, who lives in terror of inadvertently ripping off someone else’s plot/clever turn of phrase, etc. I know there’s nothing original under the sun, but I still worry. So I really don’t like reading while I’ve got WIPs cooking.)

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

HAHA yes. Burly detective syndrome (when writers refer to characters by descriptors such as “the blonde”, “the brunette“, “the doctor”) makes me nope right out of a story. And it’s everywhere in fanfic. (It’s extremely easy to fix, too: use your characters’ names or their pronouns. Stop worrying about overuse or repetition. You’re fine. It’s fine. Your readers won’t notice.)

24. What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write?

A/B/O and g!p, in equal measures. (No shade if that’s your jam, it just ain’t mine.)

35. How much has writing fic changed your life?

Eight years ago, I would have said writing fic changed my life in a bad way. I let the balance of it get all wrong. (I’m a Libra, such things matter.)

These days, I guess I’m feeling a bit meh about it.

I’m glad fic got me into writing fiction. I’m glad fic brought me some friendships, a few of which I’ve somehow managed to keep going like embers. I’m glad fic made me create this tumblr, because interacting with folks here has often been the highlight of my day.

But, but, but... sometimes I wonder what the fuck I’m doing spending all this time writing fic for a few thousand hits and a handful of feedback. (I’ve turned off my stats on AO3 via skins to keep my sanity, or I would have quit writing AC:O shit long ago.)

Sometimes I wonder if I should stop faffing about and put my effort into writing an original piece of historical fiction instead.

I wonder and wonder and wonder, and then I finish my drink, and go to bed, and wake up the next day eager to work on fic. It’s the circle of life.

[fic writer ask game]

[breezered]

2, 28, 32, 39!

Eeeeeee my dude! 

2. I’ve been reading less as the wells dry up in the fandom I’m currently in. I feel like when things are going well and all that, it’s pretty 50/50, but currently its probably 85 writing/15 reading. 

28. LOL the question about pressure coming from you eh....I mean I try not to put any pressure on myself. I definitely need some pressure to finish things because I don’t have much impulse control so if I get a new idea I am.......easily distracted. Back in my days of being 12 and writing on FF.net, I remember getting some “flames” (lmao) and feeling really discouraged, but I’ve always been the type of person to just keep on doing what I want even when people are being dicks. And deadlines are NOT real to me, so fuck deadlines. Haha

32. oh boy okay let’s see...

From state of confusion (im in): “Oh, Ellie,” Dina mumbles, and Ellie feels the press of Dina’s knees against her thighs, “aren’t you terrified?”

From i was born the endure (this kind of weather):  “Shut up and let me be sexy.” “Okay, sex me up, Ellie.” “Well that’s just…that just sounds wrong.” “Holy shit, this is the slowest foreplay I have ever experienced.”

From “your heirs know not your tombs”: A horn sounds and they both jump apart, looking around and seeing Dolls standing at the window of the bridge. He holds up a microphone and his voice crackles through a loudspeaker. “No making out on deck,” he says, straight-faced and monotone. Waverly rolls her eyes and Nicole groans. “If you can’t find me one day, just assume that the Deputy Marshal has thrown me overboard,” Nicole says to Waverly, her face very serious. Waverly just laughs and tries to kiss the frown from Nicole’s lips. “What did you do,” Waverly says when Nicole keeps her lips still, “did you see him naked or something?”

That was so hard haha. Sent me on a gd mission!

39. I like to think I write really realistic dialogue! I’m always trying to make sure I’m not just writing shit for poetic reasons or what the fuck ever, I try really hard to make it feel like these are real people, and real things that these people would say. For example, I don’t usually write any long monologuing dialogue, because how often in real like do people monologue about their tragic backstory? It’s not a Billy Shakes play haha.

Thanks E! ‘twas a blast, and I got to go hunting through my old fics which is always a funny time. 

[madamebadger]

what's on your front burner right now? :)

Good question!

I’m currently actively working on three things (I do my best work when juggling projects; I’m not the best at focusing on one thing at a time, since cross-pollination is an active part of my process):

Upcoming chapters of Book of Days, where the next chapter is the one I referred to recently as having to scrap and start over. This is also what the Cassandra-hot-in-Antiva fic I referenced is part of. I actually am working on a couple of chapters at once on that. (Ha ha, ‘thirty days of.’ It’s going to end up being thirty days over the course of 200 days at this rate. Oh well....)

The first giveaway fic, tentatively titled “a sword to pierce the sun,” for thegreenpaladin. Cassandra-centric.

That one fic that I posted a line from a while back in which Leliana tells someone to undress.

[madamebadger]

ehekic

replied to your post

“Re your comments on your Inquisitor and you having different opinions...”

I wonder if Cassandra liked HMS Pinafore :)

I think she would! And she and Josephine never miss a performance of The Pirates of Penzance. (Cassandra appreciates the irony of feeling honor-bound to do a dishonorable thing. Josie just really likes stories with pirates.)

She cries all the way through Les Miserables, shamelessly, because crying during Les Miserables just means that you have working tear ducts. But she also cries during The Phantom of the Opera, and woe betide anyone foolish enough to indicate that they noticed; she might actually kill a man over that particular shame.

She bites her knuckles all the way through Dreamgirls, even knowing how it ends up, and she has a soft spot for The Sound of Music. She appreciates the black humor of Sweeney Todd, but doesn’t care for Cabaret--too dark overall for her tastes. (She likes some of the individual songs, though.) She adores Mamma Mia! and really, seriously, no one in the world must ever know. Ever. Even Josephine theoretically does not know about her love for Mamma Mia! (although, yeah, she totally knows).

When people wonder at the fact that she goes to The Lion King every time it’s in town, she says something about the remarkable artistry of the costumes and puppets. Which is true. 

She does not mention that she identifies to an almost painful degree with Nala, but that’s also true.

[madamebadger]

does your young Cassandra fic include anything about being trained to fight right handed? I remember a post about how she's the only advisor who writes left handed, but she holds her sword in her right, which I can only assume came as part of Seeker training, unless she does fight right handed and write left handed..

No, because I had never noticed! That’s interesting, though.

I think the simplest explanation is that she’s one of the rare-but-not-unheard-of people who’s naturally ambidextrous (this would also have been to her advantage during her dual-wielding days), and that she writes lefthanded because whoever first taught her to write was lefthanded, but fights righthanded because whoever first taught her to fight was righthanded. But I’ll have to think about it....

[madamebadger]

ehekic replied to your post: I wish you would write a fic where Josephine helps...

did i miss a horseback riding pentilyet fic, or is it a teaser trailer for coming action? :D

You haven’t missed anything! In retrospect, upon looking at my drafts folder, all of my horse-focused fic is as yet unfinished/unposted.

Mostly it’s that I have spent too much time with horses, and loved them too much, to treat them as anything but characters in their own right. So I always know what kind of horse each character is riding, what its name is and its skills and its temperament are.

I should post my meta about what horse each of the inner circle favors at some point. (Yeah, I know, could be nugs or harts or dracolisks too--but horses are what I know.)

[madamebadger]

I wish you would write a fic where Josephine helps cassandra cut her hair and/or helps her put up her braid halo for the first time :)

This is extremely likely to happen, because people touching/stroking/brushing/caring for each other’s hair is one of my Things. 

(I am sure that there are some elements that people have noticed that I reuse all too much--bathing is another, back-of-the-neck kissing, horseback riding, specific scents--and... at this point I really don’t even care to try to rein it in, I guess. ;) )

[madamebadger]

ehekic replied to your post:So one of the things I’ve been thinking about is...

I wonder why all her clothes are so weirdly patchwork, though. I much preferred her DA2 attire since its practicality seemed to outweigh the “why so many random straps?” questions.

The only thing I can guess about the weird random Frankenstein stitching patterns on her shirt and pants is that it’s some kind of stylistic choice. It doesn’t make any sense practically, especially as the clothes appear to be all he same kind of leather, so I have to assume that the stitch marks are a decorative choice.

A weird decorative choice, granted, but not all that weird next to Dorian’s one-shoulder-bare-and-a-lot-of-straps or Bull’s I-totally-don’t-need-to-wear-a-shirt-at-altitude-event-though-I’m-from-a-tropical-country.

(I handwave the straps as being anchor points for her armor. I don’t know that that makes any sense, but at least it’s something.)