Hi! For the fic writer wrap up, 18. Favorite character to write, 22. Is there any trope you’ve never written, but want to try, and 28. Best part of writing fanfic? :)
:D :D :D thank you!!! I love an ask game. Excellent!
the ask meme
18. Favorite character to write:
Of the characters I’m writing currently, Fell/Real is my favorite to write. Don’t get me wrong, I love Frisk and Red and Black and Slim, but Fell!Paps is a character that I don’t get to write nearly enough, and he’s very compelling to me. He’s someone who just came so close to having everything he ever wanted--which, in a millennial Mood(TM), was the modest yet unachievable dream of a safe, stable living situation and a small family. But really, I mostly love him because he tries so hard, and there’s a charm to characters that consciously try every day to be kind and gentle. Especially when it fits awkwardly, and it’s not necessarily in their nature anymore.
22. Is there any trope you’ve never written, but want to try?
Yes! So many. The first that springs to mind is the “beloved antagonist” trope--especially in superhero contexts, the enemy that really isn’t wrong or evil, and who the hero feels a strong connection to, to the point of each of them wanting badly to live another life in which they could be friends/lovers/family.
Or, a permutation of that, the BBEG who looks at the chosen one and says “wow, you’re like, how old? 15? and they told you you were fated to die like cannon fodder trying to kill me? you know that’s not gonna,, work? right??? i’m not slaughtering a 15 year old in my living room. look just sit down and let’s have some soup, we’ll figure this out.” I love when the Good Guys are horrible (or just doing something awful out of desperation), and it’s the forces of evil that have to extend great compassion to the people who are being hurt. When the villain cares more about the collateral damage than the good guy? *chef kiss emoji*
28. Best part of writing fanfic?
I’ve almost certainly said this before, but: community. Community is so, so important. And I think that one part of community is the desire to tell stories together--not just to each other, but with each other. Inspiring each other, influencing each other, talking to one another. I’ve changed my mind about whole stories before, just because of the people who talked to me as I was writing them.
The biggest strength of fandom as a culture is that it’s founded on mutual love of one story, which creates hundreds of other stories because people love it and love talking about it and grow to love each other over it. If it were pure fiction, it wouldn’t be as exciting and lasting--but it’s not. Real people are behind the screen or at the convention. Real people are sharing something precious with each other. Maybe passion, maybe art, maybe just time. It’s all a piece of that person that they’re choosing to share, trusting that other people will cherish it. And overwhelmingly, they do.
Every time you start recognizing someone’s icon or username, that’s a tiny kind of love, I think. And if you keep at it long enough, and you hold it close to your heart, it can grow like any other love. Or even if you don’t--you have a thousand tiny loves in you, born out of a hundred shared stories. What could be more beautiful than that?
