#mango writes things

[malevolentmango]

A preview of my piece for the @rivalszine akeshuake charity zine! So much incredible talent involved in this, I'm honored to be a part of it! Look out for its release on 2/2 👀

[malevolentmango]

Just read your “old habits die hard”

Soooo good bro.

Yummy tasty scrummy that akira finally gets taken care of like he deserves.

Love how you went into the relationships with the phantom thieves.

Love how you portrayed goro/akira’s relationship, so sweet, lovely ending.

✨Nice ✨

thank you!! I'm really glad you liked it! 💜

[malevolentmango]

43 for the fic writer ask game?

43. Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

Technically answered this one here but since I gave kind of a meme-y answer before...

In previous fandoms I was actually like, hardcore the second one. Nearly everything I posted was fluff, and sometimes it was smut which also had heavy amounts of fluff. I think I am still that, in the sense that it's hard for me to write things that end badly and I like adding a lot of positive emotional depth to my writing. And adding tension and drama is important in stories too! But those weren't really my focus in the oneshots I did, I just wanted the characters to be happy you know.

But what happened between those old fandoms and p5 was that I got really into dnd. And have played in several campaigns, and got really invested in the idea of telling grand stories where my characters are traumatized to hell and back but ultimately come out on top, and now we're here. I'll probably never be a pure whump kinda guy, but I'm more into the idea than I used to be.

fic writer ask meme!

[malevolentmango]

56 for that ask meme!

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

ailem how dare you make me say something nice about myself. rude.

uhhhh I think like... the older I've gotten the less I care about being cringey. This is a general statement about me but it matters for my writing because it means I just write whatever the fuck I want. It's trope-y, it's indulgent, there are paragraphs that are just one long sentence, there are paragraphs that are only three words because I want to punch you in the face with those words In Particular. There are sound effects! There are characters having thoughts in italics! There are entire scenes where I pile the metaphors on so heavily that you will be crushed under the weight of them and that's the POINT.

It's fun! I want it to be as fun for me as it is for anyone who reads it! like honestly the best comments I get are the ones that are like "I don't even know what to say here because I was really absorbed in the whole thing" like yes!! good!! that's the goal!! I am proud of my writing when it has that effect on people because that's how it felt when I was writing it!

[malevolentmango]

7, 10, 11!

answered 7 & 11 here because mis hogged all the prime numbers laksjdf so uh

10. Cltr+f "blinks" on your WIP & copy paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up

This is from my shuake bodysharing AU. :3c

fic writer ask meme!

[malevolentmango]

for the writer meme, all the primes (1 not included)!

hi mis you're an absolute terror (affectionate) cracks knuckles okay let's do this. I'm just gonna go ahead and put this under a read more from the get go, it's gonna be long laksjfd

link to the ask meme!

2. Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go?

I do a secret third thing called "hallucinate wildly about scenarios and then put them in an order that eventually becomes an outline and chapters."

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

see above

But really though, to use wyab as an example, once I had an idea of the direction I wanted the story to go I just broke down the scenes in a way that made sense and tried to keep a sort of overarching theme for each chapter. Which is why those chapters ended up so long. >.>

5. Do you like constructive criticism?

Only from people I trust <3

7. How do you choose which POV to write from?

I choose the one that I think would make the fic more interesting! Like, wyab would not have worked if it was primarily Goro's POV, even though his perspective on certain scenes would've been really cool. Though now that I'm thinking about it, I do tend to favor Akira...

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

Been working my way through MistressEast's After Hours at Leblanc series for the past week or so (I'm a slow reader alskjdf), it's fantastic!

Also obsessed with @honeysweetcorvidae's NG+ AU and a certain someone's rebel AU. :3c

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

In high school one of my AP English teachers told me the word "that" is often unnecessary in a lot of the places people use it and can drag down the flow of your writing and ever since I've been culling it from my sentences unless it's actually necessary. There were at least two places in that one sentence where I tried to use it!!

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

Cry. Do something else. Pretend my writing never existed.

Serious answer: Music helps me focus a lot! I either have a full playlist for each writing project, or a handful of songs that work for me for things like oneshots. Reading through what I've already written or my notes can also help because it reminds me why I was excited about the thing in the first place (this is a double-edged sword - sometimes it's just frustrating alksjf).

19. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

Top 3 for funsies. You might say I'm predictable.

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

Oh I should not be giving anyone advice. Uh. I think my favorite bit of advice in general is that you should absolutely say fuck the rules when it comes to grammar, but you do have to know what the rules are first. Break them in a way that's impactful.

29. What’s your revision or editing process like?

I have trained and worked as an editor, so I can be kind of ruthless with myself sometimes. I do at least one pass where I just pick every line apart and make it sound as good as possible, but I try to limit myself to just one of those, maybe two if it's a scene I'm really into/worried about. I'm also guilty of editing as I write, but I've gotten better at quelling that over the years!

31. Do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

I guess technically the characters because a lot of my stuff is very character-centered/driven. The plot often comes from me going "what happens if I put [character(s)] in [situation]?"

37. How do you choose where to end a chapter?

Depends! I try to make it impactful regardless, whether that's a cliffhanger or just something punchy and meaningful. For wyab, I decided that the last scene of each chapter would be from Goro's POV - like we were checking in on him hehe. I thought it was fun!

41. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

Generally one-and-done! But I do reread in certain cases, like when I was writing the epilogue for wyab and wanted to make sure I was calling back to earlier parts of the fic correctly. Or when I'm thinking about sequels... >.>

43. Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

I am the embodiment of the "angst with a happy ending" ao3 tag so. both?

47. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Answered this earlier but I try to leave it at one pass! If I do more than that I tend to start hating my own writing and/or talk myself out of posting it alskjfa

53. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

idk if it's a perfect split exactly, but I'm definitely both! I think it fluctuates - when I first got into p5, I devoured a large portion of the shuake tag before writing anything at all. And then I got absorbed in my own writing and barely read anything that wasn't friend fics alskjdf

59. Does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? if not, would you tell anyone?

At this point all of my friends are also fic writers and/or in fandom lmao. But my family doesn't know, and I simply do not want to explain all that to them.

61. Why do you continue writing fics?

Because I love the characters! I want to make them dance for me :3c

67. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

Both! I like going full indulgence with my own ideas, but prompts are great for challenging myself.

71. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

Again using wyab as an example: The entirety of the fic is in one google doc. Makes it easy to search for things, and to make outlines. Part of the reason I added the p5-esque calendar dates was to keep myself on track, and to indicate that time was passing without having to spell it out every time. Other than that... I tend to stream of consciousness write my notes as they come to me and organize them later.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

oh god uhhhhh. fuck. I guess probably the fact that I try to balance flowery language with overall concise storytelling makes my writing style pretty distinct? And I'm a slut for themes and metaphors, and that definitely comes through too.

[malevolentmango]

hey!!! caught something on a reread of your fics and need to know if I'm overanalyzing everything or not

is Loki's "don't give up on him" line in Everything Or Nothing At All alluding to What You've Already Buried? I picked up on the thiefling nickname being a carryover, but I figured I'd ask abt that lol

-cosmoechi

oh man that would've been so galaxy brain lmao but no, Loki saying that was just the impetus for Akira to find a way to keep Goro from dying in that trilogy. It's not meant to be connected to wyab, I just think thiefling is a fun name for Loki to use hehe

[malevolentmango]

hey there!! i've come to do an ask regarding the wip meme! im pretty sure you've answered all of them but here's my picks [👻🤔]

hi hello!! happy to answer again, I have too many wips lol

👻Is there a scene that you find intimidating that you have yet to write?

There's a wip I have for shuake week that I have completely outlined and ready to go, but it's So angsty that I haven't sat down to just get it done yet because there's a particular scene towards the end that I just fucking Know is going to make me cry. I'll have to get myself in the right mood for that one lmao

🤔Do you have an WIPs where you wish you had chosen a different fandom/character?

Not really, at the moment. There's a like... a wip I wish I had, if that makes sense, of combining p5 with horizon zero dawn, because the latter has been one of my favorite series for Years and I love making aus with it in whatever fandom I'm currently in (even if I never write them) (I have not one but Two of them for my dnd characters). But I haven't figured out how to make that work with p5 yet.

ask meme here