5, 20, 22, and 72 for the fic writing meme!
5. How many wips do you have? What fandoms/pairings are they for?
I have 5 that I have worked on recently.
-KKM- Conrad having at least a one-night stand with Adalbert and Julia (maybe more). (This is sitting as a wip because every time I think about writing the smut, I don’t write it lol).
-KKM- Murata courting Wolfram.
-KKM- A messed up situation where Yuuri and Wolfram both cheat on each other with Murata.
-Tales of Xillia 2- Julius and Ludger reincarnated.
-Stranger Things- Mike comes to terms with the fact that he likes Will but doesn’t want to break up with El.
I have 3 older ones, and 2 really old ones that I haven’t worked on in over a year but I still plan to finish at some point. I have a bunch of other random started things buried in my google docs and years-old bits and pieces saved on my external hard drive. Plus numerous other ideas living inside my head.
20. Do you prefer writing AUs or canon fics?
I prefer writing canon or canon-divergent fics. I enjoy reading certain aus, but whenever I think about writing a detective au or something I just think that if I was going to write something like that I might as well just write an original story with the same idea.
22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?
I usually title my fics after. If I think about the fic enough before writing that I know the entire plot, then I can sometimes come up with the title first. I try to make my titles meaningful to the point of the fic. If I can use a title that does that and is relatable to the fandom, then even better. For example, I named "It's Hard to Let it Go" after the lyrics in Simple and Clean.
Usually, I first try to think of what the main theme or mood of the fic is. Then I try to think of saying or general phrases related to that. If I can't think of anything, then I try to think of song lyrics. I also sometimes just take a phrase from the fic to use as the title.
72. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve gotten?
This comment on my Nier Automata fic Suffocation. They quoted my lines, showed that I gave them emotions, complimented my writing style, and even gave me nice constructive criticism.
OKAY I AM HERE FROM TUMBLR AS PROMISED IN MY TAGS ON THE REBLOG (IDK IF YOU READ TAGS BUT YEAH HERE I AM)
FIRST OF ALL;
"He never knew what hit him, eyes still smiling." THAT LINE. That was /really/ well-executed. The way you structured the entire opening passage did a great job building up towards the fact that 2B was going to fall in love. And you dropped all these small things, taking the canon and using it like ammunition for the angst. It's good. Reeeeally good.
SECOND,
"No, I called you Nines." THAT WAS LIKE A KNIFE IN THE CHEST. And then you followed it immediately with her telling him they're not friends. Your word choice for the dialogue through this bit was fantastic, and I pretty much read their lines in their voices. You really nailed 2B's distress and bottled up emotions to the reader throughout the piece, and you did it with relatively sparse wording! You showed instead of told and it /really/ worked here.
MOVING ON;
"Desperation spurred her on until they were writhing together on her narrow bunk. I love you. I love you. The words spilled from her mouth." I'll be honest, this entire fic was making my chest tight with sadness but it was this part that really stood out to me as breathtakingly tragic. It's written with such a beautiful flow. The staccatos of "I love you. I love you." immediately following that longer sentence really worked for me. Also, the fact that it was her desperation and /sadness/ that drove her to bring him to bed with her again.. It made them sleeping together feel bitter rather than joyously intimate like it would be were their situation different. Lastly for this bit (and sorry for fixating on it but it's such a GREAT line), you managed to describe the act of them having sex as something almost ethereal and intangible rather than something animalistic and crude. It didn't feel at any point like I was reading something lewd; rather, it gave me an artistic mental image, almost like a painting.
NEXT,
THE BREATH PLAY PART WHEW BUDDY THAT WAS LIKE MEGA OUCH. And, re: your A/N at the bottom, I believe I read somewhere in supplementary materials that 9S regarded the strangling as being intimate in a sick sort of way, like he was closer to her than ever. So, it might actually be realistic that he would enjoy/ask for breath play. Just a thought!
In terms of the actual events there, wheeeeeewwwwww. "Phantom chills crept along his neck and for a moment she missed the thrum of his heartbeat." and then, later, "Without a word, she fled." Those were two very masterfully placed lines. Again, you made the act of having sex (which is sweaty and messy and altogether indecent) into something that felt like a poem. And then you said everything you needed to about how 2B was feeling in that short, five-word paragraph. It's really great stuff.
Lastly, and I'm sorry if this comes off as unkind in any way, but I do have a little bit of concrit for you. Only a little though, since most of this was REALLY solid.
-For your last line, one more repetition of "And again." would have left it on a somewhat more powerful note, I think. That's just my opinion though. :o
-"When the order came, she realized fondness had settled in her chest without her realizing." You used the word "realize" here twice and it did stick out. Perhaps something like "...she realized fondness had settled in her chest without her noticing" or if you don't mind a slightly bigger change, "...she realized fondness had grown in her chest unnoticed." (I find that 'unnoticed' tends to be a bit smoother a word choice than 'without her noticing,' but leaving the verb as 'settled' makes it sound a bit clunky there, in my opinion)
-"...one day he punched her right in the gut by asking..." This fragment feels out-of-place in terms of the word choice. Most the words you use are smooth and vivid; putting slang idioms like "punched in the gut" feels sort of like breaking the language palette you chose, if that makes sense?
Again, I don't mean to come off as unkind! The piece is fantastic and you maintained a rhythmic flow throughout most of it that wove despair and love together quite beautifully. I hope you keep writing!
