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Writer's Q&A: New Year's Edition

Tagged by @sorrygoldfish! I love a tag game while I'm waiting for the post-bedtime toddler to stop issuing variously valid requests every three to 15 minutes and actually fall asleep.

Which story would you love to finish in the upcoming year?

Oh Varric Succeeds AU foooor sure. I started writing out notes for the full arc in longhand today, with the hopes that I can beat all the vague ideas I have into a coherent outline and get back to writing, finally. The good news is I definitely have a complete story to tell, the bad news for me is that it's going to be a lot of work. (I really got spoiled by how Crumbs was just a vibes-only firehose of a character study masquerading as a plot for 40k words.)

Is there a new story idea you’d like to start exploring?

Oh BOY oh boy oh boy I've had a Crumbs prequel percolating for a couple of months now and I'm a little bit vibrating about it. tl;dr Thorne : the Siege of Weisshaupt :: Lucanis : Bloodbath. (Goldfish once said they'd be really excited to read about Thorne and Lucanis falling in love and this is...... not... not that? I yam who I yam, as Popeye says.)

Which character do you want to spend more time with or develop further?

I want to write more Neve and Varric because they're really very fun to write, and I should get a chance to work with both in Ruined Stone, but I am basically dying to dig into Davrin properly in that Crumbs prequel.

What world or setting would you like to return to or build from scratch?

I have what I, personally, think are some really fun world ideas in Ruined Stone and I really want to get back to exploring them; but in the narrower scope I think :) the ruins of Weisshaupt :) deserve some quality time :)

Are there any themes you’ve been wanting to experiment with?

A constant theme for me is burden/responsibility (my therapist nodding along here) and that's not changing in 2026; but I also want to talk more explicitly about failure and forgiveness.

Are there any genres you've been wanting to experiment with?

It's not a 'genre' but I'm counting Ruined Stone as experimenting with plot, as absolutely everything else I've written has been character study and/or porn.

Are there any tropes you've been wanting to experiment with?

I dunno if AU is a trope in the spirit of the question... uh, I might be trying my hand at slowburn? maybe? in Ruined Stone. We'll see how the outlining goes. (I am not actually a fan of slowburn! it is a credit to how good yall are that I keep reading them!)

What aspect of your writing craft would you like to improve most next year (dialogue, pacing, structure, etc.)?

PLOT plot plot plot, which is, I guess, an umbrella under which structure and pacing go. I would also like to get better at background characterization.

Which writing habit or routine would you like to strengthen?

@sorrygoldfish said "Writing on the clock at work more. Fuck you, work." and she couldn't have been more right for that.

Is there a writing challenge or competition you’d like to enter?

I'd love to do one or two little things for Rookanis Week in March and again for Lucanis Week and Rook Week and maybe something this year for Spite Week??? But also I don't want to make myself crazy or stressed or guilty.

What’s one milestone you’d love to reach (word count, publication, finishing a draft, etc.)?

It would be cool to get another 100k posted, but I'm not holding myself to that at all.

What writing goal would make you feel proud to accomplish by the end of the year?

Oh finishing Ruined Stone would send me over the moon.

How will you celebrate your writing progress throughout the year?

Doing silly little dances and probably a number of exclamation points with the groupchat and/or jellofriend.

Who or what inspires your writing the most right now?

There is something in my brain that makes me need to take a shovel and dig into some threads of loss and pain and fucking up and love being there and meaning something but not being in and of itself enough. I did it last year and there's still gold in them thar hills! I don't know!!! I'm not a downer in real life!!!

How do you plan to keep your creativity fueled and your motivation high?

Reading more, and letting the well refill whenever it needs without self-recrimination, guilt, or stress. Doing what I need to do to keep it fucking fun.

What’s one piece of advice you want to remind yourself of when the writing gets tough?

What @sorrygoldfish said is once again perfect: "The stakes are so low. The stakes are literally zero."

How do you plan to share more of your writing next year (with readers, workshops, online)?

ao3, tumblr, and there's a writing community on discord I drifted away from but would like to get back to a bit more involvement with.

What kind of feedback or connection are you hoping to find in your writing community?

If I can make even one person care about Ruhi (Ruined Stone's Rook) the way I have been so, so lucky to hear that people care about Thorne and Morai, I will be hashtag blessed.

Is there a collaboration you’d like to pursue with another writer or artist?

I don't write collaboratively and I don't think I want to try? I am persnickety. But: I AM GOING TO MAKE FIC FANART THIS YEAR. CONSIDER THIS A THREAT/PROMISE/WARNING.

What kind of advice would you like to give other writers for the next year?

You should let that sentence be as long as it wants to be. Go ahead, put in five commas, a semicolon, and some dashes. Go on. Fuck the rules. Who's going to stop you? The cops? And if it sucks: that's fine. It doesn't need to stay. But, sincerely: I think that it's valuable to push yourself into more complex sentence structures just to see how it feels and reads. Don't worry about the "rules" and don't worry about what you "should" do. Where do you want to put those commas, that dash, if you're gonna put it in? Read it aloud. Does it have the rhythm you heard in your head? If not, can you adjust the punctuation to make it hit what you want? Does it change the impact? What changes between it being 50 words long and being three separate sentences? idk I'm maybe going a little insane, man, but even if you reel it all the way back in I think there's use in stretching prose just for the fuck of it.

Gentle tags to @adejareve @dags-over-caravans @rookamell @brainwyrmz @ratbagjasper @skogrr @rookanisstuff @rosieofcorona @slothquisitor @gloaminghagette @blightwashed @gingervitus @sunlight-shunlight @serensama @cravingcoconutredbull @rooks-dagger @master-of-the-elements @khayr @dudewheresmynug @thegeminisage @jadesabre301 @rosemary-andtime @loquaciousquark @cimmanombagel @wolfmoonwildflowers @in-the-drowning-deep @excited-hiss If you want on or off my tag list, please see this post!

#tag games #filing this under #2025 recap #so i can maybe find it against next year

I like bigenital omegas in omegaverse but something is lost for me when male omegas have both a penis and a clit. I quite literally cannot justify this with a reason why but it just doesn't feel right.

#filing this under #silly #bc it's not really great jackoff material at any rate #but idk idk