Hihi! can I have 2, 5, 9 and 11 for Ripped and/or fester? 🥹💖💖💖💖💖
2: What scene did you first put down?
5: What part was hardest to write?
9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?
11: What do you like best about this fic?
Oooh good ones.
Ripped:
2. What scene did you first put down?
I wrote Ripped in order, so it was Chapter 1, and it was right after I had a Jack the Ripper tour in London where the tour guide had beef with a resident on the route.
5. What part was hardest to write?
Ripped was sooo hard to end. The big lightbulb actually had to do with Astrid beating Grisly up with an umbrella, its' kind of where I learned the whole writing truth that for a story to work it has to be a story that could only ever happen to the character you've chosen to be your main character. And the fact is the concept of someone stalking Astrid with intent to harm is hilarious, because that wouldn't work. Like. It just wouldn't.
9. Were there any alternate versions of this fic?
Not really, I did lowkey consider killing Snotlout earlier in writing but I loved coplout too much by the time I got there and had to miraculously save him. Oh! there was also a concept of a Rufflout endgame but Coplout has been to therapy so that didn't work out.
11. What do you like best about this fic?
I love Ripped. Like, it was a big step forward with how I wrote and thought about story and I think it shows. I also just love that I was like well there used to be a Scandinavian crown prince of Boston and that would have been Hiccup but the monarchy went away for whatever reason so he's just a guy :) and everyone was like yes, naturally, tell me more about the American Jack the Ripper who Coplout doesn't care about because he's a Pats fan. Awesome stuff. No notes to myself.
Fester:
2. What scene did you first put down?
I also wrote Fester in order. When I was 20 human years old and should have been at the club. Quite frankly, what was wrong with me? (Awesome things)
5. What part was hardest to write?
It was hard to balance hiccstrid being at such different phases of their lives, because that's not normally how they are, of course. But to have Astrid being this settled mom of three while Hiccup was reluctantly on the cusp of settling with someone else. I also knew nothing about tiny babies when I wrote it, like I'd babysat, but no one 3 months old like Arvid is.
9. Were there any alternate versions of this fic?
No, Fester occurred in my mind like an inevitability that had already happened and I was just writing it down. Eret III had to be cursed with the burden of his birth which ruined so many lives, most of all his. Yay ❤️
11. What do you like best about this fic?
I love fester and I love that it spawned festerverse, I love that I made these OCs as children and they're so enduring to me. I love that I wasn't in the club. It's been hitting me lately that like, I am a parent in my 30s and I am not as old as fester Hiccstrid who were making the worst decisions possible and I really captured that when I was so much younger. Fester is also a big departure for me because I was having a very rough fandom time where nothing I wrote got the same attention or praise as Chasing Thunderstorms had and in fact I was getting a lot of negative attention (shout out to the reviewer who told me they were unimpressed as to how I'd regressed as an author, I think about that one probably weekly over a decade later, also that whole thing where other httyd fandom people were holding discussions about how much chasing sucked in the open on tumblr lmfao) and I'm so so so proud of myself looking back for going 'well, I'll write something no one will like but me' and then being brave enough to post it and I'm so so so so happy that some people did end up liking it and then stuck with me through the whole Eret III adventure.
Fic asks
