3, 11, 13, 17, 27, 31 -- okay, I'll stop now! 8'D
3 - Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?Without passing judgment on anyone because this is entirely personal, but I don’t think I could write dub-con, non-con or hate sex in a way that’s meant to be seen as hot. I have a complicated relationship with smut in general, and I’ve found that I’m only able to make a scene sexy when I can get into the characters’ heads and “feel” their arousal, so to speak. And for that to happen, I need to be able to convince myself that those characters have a connection. Not necessarily love, I can write casual sex without a problem, but at the very least there needs to be consent and genuine respect, or I can’t do it. That’s just the way my writer brain is wired.
11 - Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?A passion for sure, but not the passion that goes above everything else. I do love writing, but not infinitely more so than I love my other creative hobbies, like photography, making graphics, singing, playing the guitar, interior design, that sort of stuff. At this moment, I probably enjoy writing just a little more than all of those other things… But also I have no ambition to become a professional writer, for the same reason I went to study science back in the day and not, say, languages: making it my profession would just take the fun out of it for me, and I prefer having hobbies that are pure relaxation and have nothing to do with my job. Which doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep improving as a writer - I do, and it’s always been my big frustration that even though I’m more than decent at quite a few things, I feel there’s nothing I truly excel at. Not writing, not art, not music… But excelling at one thing would mean giving up or at least dialing back on some of the others, and I don’t want to do that. In the end I enjoy being something of an all-rounder, and having several options to fall back on. Keeps things interesting. :)
13 - What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?Find a good beta, someone who knows your strengths and weaknesses and is in tune with them, and listen to their advice. Where ‘listen’ definitely shouldn’t always mean ‘do exactly what they tell you’, but even if you end up not following their advice, make sure you’ve taken the time to consider it and make sure you know why you’re not following it. It’s definitely not easy to have someone critique your work, but the times where I could see I was making the most progress with my writing style, where I was actually leaving my comfort zone and trying out new things, was when I was working with one or two very good betas, who managed to both encourage me and push me to perform to the best of my abilities. These days I don’t often get a beta anymore, mainly because I tend to focus on getting shorter stories out there quickly (which is skill I need to practice as well ;) ) but I’m convinced you can see a difference in quality with those stories I did have beta’d. And even now, whenever I write something that’s truly important to me (the last time was that B5 fic “My Graceless Heart”) I still force myself to look for a beta. It’s always worth it. It’s important to get a beta who gives you the type of feedback you need, though, and sometimes it takes some time before you find someone who is a good match for you.
17 - Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?I almost always write from start to finish, and for every story that’s longer than a few 1000 words, I’ll first write a (usually very basic) outline as well. The only exception is when one scene sparks the idea for a story, in which case I usually start with that scene and then build the rest around it. But that doesn’t happen to me very often, usually my story ideas start with a certain theme or premise, not with one specific scene. “Small Mercies” is one of those rare exceptions: that one started with the scene of Londo and G’Kar lying, fully dressed, in bed together. (I’m very linear in my writing, to be honest. I also never start on a new story before I’ve finished the previous one because then I lose focus and I don’t like that. As a consequence my output isn’t very high, but on the other hand I’ve never started on a story I didn’t finish, which is something I’m kind of proud of.)
27 - How do you feel about collaborations?Not sure if I could collaborate with someone on a fic, mostly because I’m a very emotional writer: I really need to ‘feel’ the characters in order not to lose touch with the story I’m writing, and it doesn’t take a lot to throw me off. So I’d need to be collaborating with a writer who has the exact same take on the characters as I do, and who writes in a style that’s very similar to mine, or otherwise I’d never be able to feel my way through their interpretation of the characters. Does that make any sense? Obviously there are formats (like roleplay, for instance ;) ) in which that’s not an issue, because you’re both in charge of your own characters and your own sides of the story.
31 - Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?I’m a canon girl. I can’t help it, it seems to be ingrained in me - it’s probably why I’ve never written an AU in my life, and I’m not even sure if I could. So yeah, I do try to stick to canon, though I’ve been known to play fast and loose with everything that’s not ‘official’ canon, like novelizations, word of God, etc, when the story demands it.