Happy New Year! For the Writer's Q&A: New Year's Edition, #4 and 11 plz :)
4. What world or setting would you like to return to or build from scratch?
I would love to go return to the incubus!Jou/vampire!Kaiba AU. There is a fair amount of opportunity to do more worldbuilding in that AU. But mostly, I just miss my monster boys.
11. What’s one milestone you’d love to reach (word count, publication, finishing a draft, etc.)?
My yearly word count goal remains the same: 60,000. So I would love to at least hit that and then go beyond it as much as possible. I purposefully set my writing goals at about half of what I can achieve in the given time, rather over-perform than over-promise and under-deliver.
Additionally, it would be really nice to finish What you can't bury sometime this year.
strings played against his throat, my whumpfic in which FeiHua's escape from Jiao Liqiao goes wrong, and Di Feisheng marries her to ensure the wellbeing of Li Lianhua, who becomes her concubine. Just updated uwu
My unpublished modern AU where Di Feisheng is an MMA fighter cowboy, Li Lianhua is his chiropractor, and Fang Xiaobao is the new sheriff in one of those Chinese towns they built purely for tourism. In this case, it's an Old West theme. Here's a preview.
Mo Dao Zu Shi
My Mo Dao/Percy Jackson crossover where WangXian and friends romp through Camp Half-Blood!
My Wen Xu/Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji AU where Wei Wuxian is adopted by the Wens instead of Jiang Fengmian. I swear I subvert so many jianghu tropes, this could be its own original novel, but here we are lol.
My two-part where Jin Zixuan flees to Lotus Pier and manages to alert the Jiangs in time for the Wang Lingjiao's attack. It's mostly written from Yu Ziyuan's perspective, and it's been a delight.
More Q&A below the cut!
Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?
Definitely #1 under Mo Dao. It's a huge labor of love, but I'm thinking maybe I thought too big with the plot. It could have just been a fun teenage romp, but then it turned into a drama that handles much larger themes, and the trouble is in being able to tie up all the plotlines I suddenly have.
What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?
Usually when I have two days in a row off of work, so my brain has had at least 24 hours to clear out and think about fun. I go into a pleasant fugue state, meaning I'm focused, but I can occasionally take a five-minute break to chatter about it with my frens or listen to a song. (I'm answering this post while I'm working on fic btw.)
Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?
Oh nah lol. I sometimes line some chill songs or ballads up in the background or like a Buzzfeed Unsolved marathon for background noise, but sometimes it has the opposite effect where I can't focus at all. So sometimes I just write in complete silence.
Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?
Balls to the waaaaaaall babeeeeeee. Aside from the ones that're born from me chattering with frens. Both my Lianhua Lou fics and #2 under MDZS are from very specific and thorough chats that I screenshotted for reference.
I tag @westiec @theleakypen @kingsandbastardz @tavina-writes @heyholmesletsgo @the-wintry-mizzenmast and whoever else wants to do this, how do I know this many people lol.
This is my deeply cherished pet project I've been working on since November of last year. It follows a young CQLverse Zhao Zhuliu from his invention of the Core Melting technique to his travels through the jianghu as a rogue cultivator, including meetings and partings with a young Yu Ziyuan and a pre-marriage to Jin Guangshan Madam Jin (whom I still need to think of a name for).
Yu Ziyuan was an astonishingly powerful cultivator. Zhao Zhuliu could feel the spiritual energy crackling within her from all the way across the inn, barely contained. She was also, obviously, a lady of some family. The two deadly-looking young women she made a great show of not knowing were clearly bodyguards or handmaidens or something of the sort.
Zhao Zhuliu pretended to buy into the fiction that she was night-hunting alone, since that was what she preferred, and ceded all claim to the herb. He'd only wanted to see it bloom, anyway.
As they traveled to the clearing where the flower grew, Zhao Zhuliu told Yu Ziyuan a few safe things about himself and learned about her in turn. She was a third daughter and eager to make a name apart from her sisters. She spoke like she expected to be obeyed, but also as though she had something to prove. He called her Yu sanniang, since her name was Yu and she was the third child. She called him Heiyi gongzi, lightly mocking, for the worn black clothes he wore. He thought about the rumor he was trying to outrun, Huadan Shou, and thought Young Master Black Robes far preferable.
(BTW, I can't remember if I ever told you this, but I love your user handle. It makes me happy every time I see it.)
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤
Is it cheating if I mention fic series I've written here???
Okay, here we go. My five favorite fics I've written thus far (may change in the future because hopefully I keep writing for a long while 🥺), in no particular order with a few comments.
Maybe it's more than skin-deep
This was me challenging myself to write something post-DSOD (which I range from being neutral about to disliking depending on the day) and also a "pretty" Jounouchi who was still secure and confident with his masculinity. It was also where I started to get self-indulgent about the smut I write. Overall, I feel I accomplished what I set out to do. <3
How We Break and Rebuild
A crossover fusion between YGO and Gundam Build Fighters. Literally written for myself and one other person. How could I not love it to pieces?
Lure
This series ate my brain for the better part of two-plus years. Completely obsessed with it. It's not for everyone, but it is for me. They're the worst but perfect for each other because of that in this AU. It's on a bit of a hiatus but I haven't forgotten about it.
Two monsters walk into the club
Monsterfucking; need I say more?
The tomorrows we'll never have
Somehow, to this day, this is still the only revertshipping fic I've written. I need to remedy that someday. And I always love pitting Kaiba against other versions of himself. 😈
I know the first season of Shōgun isn't over yet, but for Character Opinion Bingo: Usami Fuji, please :)
Confession time: I did not expect to like her at all based on her first scene(s). Because it kinda seemed like she might be a wet blanket of a character. I acknowledge she has very valid reasons to be grieving and reacting the way she was. But the narrative never does her that disservice! Which I think is a testament to both the original novel and the current adaptation! She grows into her own in a surprising and delightful way! Next to Yanushige, she's one of my favorite characters to see each episode. I want her to heal! I want her to thrive! Please! I need her to win!
Her name is Harley! She is queen of the household. My old lady tyrant. <3
She is named after Harley Quinn because of the two colors bisecting her face. (Her design from older materials predating the DC movies specifically, namely DC animated universe).
I can't even remember how old she is at this point. Probably 15? 16? She is elderly but you wouldn't be able to tell from how loudly she can scream. What does she scream for? Usually for food. Often for when she demands her Borg Cube beanbag to be fluffed into shape or the heat pad to be laid out and turned on in the armchair. Sometimes to be held or even "hey, go sit in the armchair so I can sit on top of your lap!"
No matter what, she will not be denied.
She is sadly a little prone to throwing up. ;;;_;;; Either because of hairballs or an inability to moderate how fast she eats. It's why her meals are spread out in pinch portions throughout the morning and evening to help here not get sick. Too often I will be in standup calls and I can hear her gagging in the background. ^^;;;
She has no interest in human food though. Unlike my previous cat, she doesn't feel compelled to steal food right off my plate.
Most importantly, I love her to bits. ;;;_;;;; And she sits in many silly positions that only a cat can.
For the list of Fan Fic Writer Asks: 9, 21 and 22 please
From Fanfic Writer Asks
9. Do you write every day? If you wrote today, share a sentence of what you’ve written!
I haven't written in five days and I don't feel like a human being anymore. ✌️
Technically, I have a daily word goal of 300 words. Couldn't meet that this week. Don't meet it on most days, but at least I don't beat myself too hard about it anymore. Otherwise I also have a more forgiving goal of 1000 words/week, which I often make over the weekends.
21. Have you ever deleted an entire scene after spending hours laboring over it? If so, why?
Yeah, it's unfortunate but it happens. In these cases, it's less about "killing your darlings" and more about the scene not serving its intended function. Maybe I've escalated the tension/stakes too much and it's affecting the character's ability to come down from that. Or conversations have spiraled into another direction and then will get stuck without a resolution.
There's a piece of writing advice out there that says if you're stuck on a part and can't move your characters forward, your issue is not around the immediate problem area, but in the buildup to the current point about several hundred words prior. When that happens, it is often best to go further back, discard what hasn't worked, and try again from scratch.
22. Do you know how your fic will end before you start writing?
Sometimes! But more often than not, I just start writing and hope that I flesh out an ending before I get there. But that can be a very long process. For example, I wrote the first chapter of A Striking Match 5/6 years ago and then left it in my WIPs until working in earnest on it last year. So I knew how it was going to end when I picked it back up again, but not when I first started to play with the idea.
If it's a story that grew legs after doing a one-shot or two, I definitely hadn't planned for it from the start. Both Lure and In bed with the mob were meant to be one-shot/two-shots originally, but I enjoyed writing them so much (and people seemed to also enjoy reading it) that I kept going. In those cases, they develop endings as I work through it after extensive workshopping and daydreaming with my enabler(s) haha.
