What's your favorite part about writing Ellana/Cass? What do you find the most difficult?
Ooooh good questions. My favourite is when they know what they want, or they’re clear about the direction that they want to go in an it flows easily from the brain to the document and its easy and things just make sense (We’ve Earned the Right to be Selfish is a good example of this) This experience is rare though, so one of them giving me a good line of dialogue that I can build an entire scene around is good. Sometimes they come out with the most sentimental or beautiful line that just works and is perfectly them so thats always nice. All of these things make it easier to write their relationship the way that I do and the way people enjoy. I think my favourite part about writing them is knowing that people enjoy reading about them? And I have moments where I purposefully include things I know will get a reaction out of people - good or bad. The worst part is mostly on me, not the girls (they’ve never done anything wrong and I love them) because the intent is there to write, but for whatever reason I just can’t get the words out. One thing I do find difficult at times is being aware of the cultural differences between the two of them and the disparity of power between them because of it (dalish elf/chantry loyalist human) sometimes it helps give them both conflict to overcome, other times it just leaves me second guessing myself and paranoid that I’m going to write something in a way that people are are going to hate and call problematic (part of the reason chapter 2 of Deliverance is taking so long is because I haven’t decided who I want to rule yet because Celene and Gaspard are terrible candidates and I don’t like either of them but Briala deserves better than the both of them and stuffff so I’m at an impasse because I want neither.)
Currently I’m trying to write a couple of one shots that have popped into my head half formed but neither Cass or Ell are giving me anything to work with so it’s just been an exercise of coaxing whatever I can get out of them and editing it later. Though I have a vague idea why things are more difficult than usual. But that being said, I’ve definitely noticed that writing is easier when I have an assessment deadline so chalk that one up as a strong difficulty I could do without.
