Thanks for tagging me @ninemagicks 💜
1. What’s your favorite genre to write?
I’m answering this question last, & I’m lying here thinking what am I writing? Is it fantasy? Is it regular fiction? WTF? Erotica?
I’m thinking about all the genres we had at B&N, & wondering where BTL would go. Regular fiction, probs. Sure wish I was better at fantasy (I mean, Rainbow has given me sufficient material to work with when I write in canon, but I’ve often had the desire to write a great fantasy but then realize that I don’t think I have the noggin to come up with my own magic system & rules, IDK).
Plus, if I write in canon I’m just treating it like “regular fiction” with the added bonus that they can do magic, so I guess I’ll say “fiction with a very generous heap of romance & also sometimes magic.”
2. Do you pull inspiration from real-life, or do you pull things from other books/fanfiction you’ve read?
I like the advice write what you know, but truthfully I’ve got inspo coming from all over the damn place. My own brand of write what you know tends to come from general states of mind, not actual events (barring the whole drunk-snogging on the couch incident, et al.) I spend a lot of time trying to think of where to take a story unless I’ve already had an idea.
Oh, you know what: movies & music are pretty influential tbh. Or they were on Fire-verse. I had very recently watched/read Perks of Being a Wallflower (& RHPS) before writing Splendid Morons, for example, & obviously that plays a small role in the fic. And we all know what Lady Gaga’s “Teeth” did for First Bite, RIP 😂
3. Do you tend to write one-shots, short stories, or longer things?
So, I guess all of the above, if we’re being technical? I really only write one-shots for events like the countdown or when I have prompts. My fics used to be relatively short (I can’t remember which word count technically qualifies as a short story, but l almost feel like the entirety of Fire-verse is just a bunch of short stories strung together? Probably not technically. Splendid Morons is 40k...)
Anyway. Between the Lines has shown me what a truly verbose bitch I am, & sometimes it’s a relief to take a break from it & write something short. But also maybe I have a tendency to write longer things since it’s the main thing I’m working on. I have no idea what the real answer is here.
4. Do you prefer to write description or dialogue?
This really depends! Sometimes I find description easy, but a lot of the time I don’t. I find that a lot of the time—especially for BTL—I will write out dialogue & then come back to suffer through the description later. IDK if I have an actual preference though? Both can be fun depending on context.
5. Favorite fic/book of all time?
TOUGHIE so I’m going to go with the things that have spurred me into obsessive phases (the good kinds of obsessions, y’know): Carry On (obvs), A Song of Ice & Fire, Harry Potter, & The Lord of the Rings. Also a big fan of The Kingkiller Chronicle. When I feel bad about not updating BTL for a month or six weeks or whatever, I think about the fact that the last installment of TKC & ASOIAF literally came out in 2011. Oof. (I was working at B&N, & it was a wild ride of a time.)
I ADORE truth or dare where they end up having to kiss—bonus points if it’s for the first time & it’s like, a realization, truth spells, accidental love confessions because we are intoxicated & or spelled...but IDK if I can actually write them?
I did write a truth or dare fic for last year’s Round Robin: Dare You to Trust Me. I had a lot of fun with it but admittedly the T or D part is pretty short. IDK I just...IDK if I can do tropes y’all! Why?!
First times tho. That is my shit. Does that count?
7. Are you the kind of person to work on more than one WIP?
Side-eyes the week-long DeNiall detour I just took, even though I actually consider that to be part of BTL. (The DeNiall fic totally intertwines with chapter 18, just FYI. Y’know.)
Also sometimes I just need to work on something different. Sometimes there’s just a visceral need to write something that isn’t my main WIP, & after I fulfill that need, I’m much more capable of working on the WIP again.
Also I thought I was done DeNiall detouring but they are STILL YELLING AT ME. I WAKE UP EVERY MORNING THINKING ABOUT THEM. WTF.
8. How long have you been writing for?
I can remember writing stories as far back as like...the early 90s, but I can’t recall what they were about. My friends & I wrote HP fanfic (& made like...little movies of them?) during the long wait for Order of the Phoenix. Then I worked on a very sprawling self-insert LOTR fanfic from the ages of like, 12 to 18 (mostly just for myself, not published). And then I wrote a novel when I was 18 & in the middle of an OCD spiral (it’s probably awful tbh, though I did get a small bit of it published as a short story in my community college’s anthology journal a year or two later). Kept writing through college—Spring Break 2010 was absolute cannon fodder for short stories—& then I got rejected from my university’s creative writing program & then didn’t know what to do with myself. And then I decided to take that LOTR fanfic & try to adapt it into an original novel, but I had a Lot of trouble trying to create my own fantasy aspects for it & I stopped trying...& that was probably around age 23?
Stopped writing for a while.
When I was 26 I started a blog about holistic lifestyle shit. And then I went to school to be certified as a holistic nutritionist. And I worked on that blog throughout school & then I graduated & didn’t know what the fuck to do with myself. The last time I wrote for that blog was sometime last year, & it’s on hiatus while I...still try to figure out what the fuck to do with myself.
BUT while I was trying to figure that out, I came across Carry On. And it’d been about 5+ years since I’d written fiction at all. But I had The Itch. (I’d actually had The Itch many times during that 5 years, but I had no idea what to write. Turns out Simon & Baz were just the thing I needed to get going again.)
This was an unnecessarily long answer, very on-brand.
9. Do you tend to write more during the morning, afternoon, or evening?
I try to write all day, but a lot of it ends up just being me staring at the screen &/or flipping aimlessly through apps. If I’m at work, I’ll sometimes keep my doc open in the background & jot down lines as they come to me. I’ll also write on my phone during my breaks, but that also sometimes just turns into my flipping aimlessly through apps + listening to songs I think are a good mood for a scene but not actually writing anything. Just in the last few days I’ve set a few BTL-verse scenes to new songs & written exactly none of it.
On the weekend, I’ve found I’m actually most productive in the evening. Though again, I try to work on stuff all day. Sigh.
10. Do you prefer to post & update your WIP chapter by chapter, or do you prefer to wait until your WIP is 100% finished before sharing it?
LMAO. So, IDK if I’m physically capable of writing something in full before posting it (barring one-shots, obvs). I wanted to try that with the direct follow-up to First Bite, & then never finished it. The only fic I’ve been successful at writing fully before posting is Don’t Leave Without Me, but that’s only because I had a big old crisis about it halfway through in which I decided that I was a terrible writer & had to set it aside for a few months.
Truthfully, I would love to be able to write things fully before posting them, but...alas. I’m too hungry to post things as soon as they’re ready. To all of y’all reading BTL & waiting for me to post the next chapter, I am so sorry. (But not really, because I try not to apologize for myself. Just. Condolences.) I’m going to try to be a bit ahead on chapters when I start posting the sequel but that’s probs just wishful thinking tbh
tagging @warriorbeeofthesea @f-ing-ruthless-baz @krisrix @pipsqueakparker @sourcherrymagiks @annabellelux @sharkmartini 💜
