#she memes

[bbq-hawks-wings]

Shit posting will continue until morale improves.

[nookisms]

So anyway this was what happened when Sans joined Smash

[restivewit]

how I write meme

@probably-a-synth, the esteemed Overbun, tagged me! (hey - thanks.)

is there a snack you like to eat while writing? I… can’t snack while writing. I make messes.

what time of day do you usually write? right in the middle of it – afternoon/early evening. if I’m on deadline I’ll write late, but I'm never satisfied with what I write early in the morning or late at night.

where do you write? on the floor, usually. I don’t have a desk, so my trunk that serves as a coffee table becomes my desk.

how often do you write a new thing? I write a new thing whenever a new thing pops into my head. it’s the finishing that’s the problem. (I have… so many… unfinished fics. so many half-baked ideas. my Google Drive is a graveyard where fics come to die.)

do you listen to music while you write? not usually; it’s too distracting for me. I wind up writing the lyrics instead of, you know, my words.

paper or laptop? laptop. it’s easier to keep organized, and I have a habit of revising as I write, which is much easier to do with a Google Doc than paper.

do you have a special pre-writing ritual? lololol that would imply there’s any rhyme or reason to my writing. (yeah, okay. if I’m working on an actual assignment, I’ll get together my interviews and notes and get the document formatted and all that, but for my fiction, there’s no method. it’s just madness.)

what do you do to get into the writing? hey, I also daydream! usually something will pop into my head that prompts me to write, so I’ll get my shit together and write it down.

do you have a reward system for wordcounts? well, for work, it’s “congrats, you get paid!” for everything else – not so much. 

is there anything about your writing process your readers don’t know? yeah, here’s my big secret: there is no process. I make it all up. it’s fun, but not very productive lmao.

hey, @seaborgois – let’s hear from you. :)

[nookisms]

Because no one expected the last panel

[restivewit]

[unfamiliar territory]

I was tagged in this little Q&A thing by @probably-a-synth, who is a real peach.

the rules:

always post them.

answer the questions given by the person who tagged you.

write 11 questions of your own and tag 11 people.

1. What is one movie from your childhood or young adulthood that has really stuck with you to this day?

I have always believed, and will always believe, that Jurassic Park is the best movie ever made. what a goddamn masterpiece.

2. What’s your favorite body part (yours and/or in general)?

I like hands. not mine, necessarily, but in general. I like the way they move, and all the different ways people use them.

3. If you could live in any fictional universe, what would it be?

Star Wars.

4. What is your virtue/vice from the heavenly virtues/deadly sins lists?

virtue: diligence

vice: gluttony

5. What was your first major ship? If you don’t ship, what was your first fandom?

when I was 12, the first fanfics I discovered were for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II. who was I before I shipped Atton/Exile? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6. If you could hang out with a character from a TV show for one day, who would you hang out with and what would you do?

I was going to write about some badass babe from something Violent and Serious, but honestly? Leslie Knope from Parks and Rec. I’d just be her shadow for a day while she did her thing. 

7. If you could get a tattoo RIGHT NOW, what would it be?

a lantern, on my thumb meat. I have a plan.

8. You just got the ability to time travel/teleport. Where and when do you go?

forward, to when affordable, accessible space travel is a thing. then I’d go the fuck to space.

9. What’s your Aesthetic™?

the whir of a laptop fan. early morning sunlight peeking through window blinds. a giant mug of coffee/tea gone cold. the hollow warm spot of a recently slept-in bed. bare feet on cool concrete. a hundred shades of blue and grey and gold. the clean smell of the air after it rains. (this one was so hard omfg)

10. Do you believe in magic?

the mundane kind, like when you plug in your USB the right way on the first try; when you have exactly the right measurement of an ingredient when you’re cooking; when you wake up (really wake up) before your alarm goes off. that kind of thing.

11. What was your favorite childhood toy/comfort object?

I had a little blanket my grandma knitted for me when I was a baby. it was tan (tbh it probably used to be white and I just can’t remember a time when it was) and had little pink rosettes and a pink satiny border. I would poke a spaghetti server thing through the holes in the blanket and drag it around.

I’m going to break the rules now and not write 11 of my own questions or tag 11 people, but if we’re mutuals and you’re into like… sharing and stuff, this is your official invitation to steal probably-a-synth’s questions and tag me in your answers. :)

[restivewit]

@matredaen tagged me to share the most recent sentence I’ve written,  because she knows the nanowrimo fever is contagious.

here you have it, a piece of that long dead longfic I keep poking at.

“Well, I won’t ask what caused the change of heart,” Des says with a shrug. “We could certainly use you out there.”

[restivewit]

@philosoverted tagged me to do a little about the writer meme, so here we go. thanks, my dude. :)

it’s a little long, so here’s a cut.

which writing advice do you dislike the most?

I hate the discourse around said. there’s a time and place for everything, and sometimes said just works better than other dialogue tags. said isn’t a cop-out — but there’s nothing wrong with other descriptors, either. look, sometimes people say things, and sometimes they shout or murmur or hiss. it’s all fine.

same with -ly adverbs. “said in an undertone” isn’t any better than “said quietly,” which isn’t necessarily preferable to “murmured.” there’s a bajillion words in English, and a limitless way to use them. let’s not police language.

different styles work for different writers. as long as the reader doesn’t struggle to understand what’s happening and is enjoying themself, who’s to say that one way of writing is better than another?

how do you create your characters?

since I write fic pretty much exclusively about video games, I like to think about how the character fits into the story and the world. what qualities would make them interesting to play with? it’s role-playing, is all.

how long does it take you from getting the idea to actually write it down?

I chew on stories for months. I’m slow, and very easily distracted, so I have a lot of WIPs that hang out in my drafts for a long time.

what’s the most you’ve written for a story (aka word count)?

in the neighborhood of 20,000, for my half-finished, mostly abandoned longfic, where there is ruin (there is treasure). I generally stick to shorter fic for a reason — the longer it goes, the harder it is for me to see a clear end, and I started ruin without a clear idea of where I was going, so it floundered.

do you have a headcanon you haven’t told yet for your current story? which one?

I headcanon that Ari, my priest Watcher in Pillars of Eternity, loses her ability to do magic when she decides not to worship Eothas as a god anymore. she gets her mojo back at some point, but I’m still figuring that part out. I also haven’t… you know, finished any fic about her yet.

with which of your minor characters would you get along with the best?

hmm, probably Piper in Fallout. we have the same profession, so we’d have stuff to talk about, at least.

where do you get your inspiration from?

video games, mostly — I like to dig into the world and lore of big games and see how people fit in them. there’s often some emotional and personal layers missing, or at least incomplete, in games, so I like filling in the blanks in fic.

do your WIPs (if you have more than one) fit together? or if you have only one: do you plan on having fitting stories?

most of my Fallout fics are about the same Sole Survivor, June. and like I said, I have a few WIPs about my Pillars of Eternity Watcher, Ari. those will get done someday.

which one of your characters do you like the most?

I like my characters for different reasons, so it’s hard to say who I like most. June exists because I wanted to explore the duality in someone who is violent in a violent world (and who relishes that violence), but who also holds on to her softness and who loves and is good at being a mom. Ari exists because I needed an outlet to write about faith and where to place it.

would you like to get published?

for fiction? nah. I’m happy keeping that as strictly for-fun.

do you prefer to schedule your writing time, or go only whenever the creativity strikes?

I write when the urge strikes me. I’d love to get more structured about it someday, but I already have to force myself to write for work and that’s no fun, so I’d hate for my for-fun writing to just turn into more work.

home, coffee shop or library for writing?

home. I have too much anxiety to post up and write fic in public lmao.

would you ever collaborate with another writer on a story?

I dunno, I’m not consistent enough with my writing to feel okay with working on something with another person. if we had a shared idea that we’re both super motivated to work on, sure? but I’d hate to wind up in a situation where the other writer is putting in more work on a project than I am.

@matredaen has already been tagged, but I’m doing it again — get at it, girl.

[jugandbettsdetectiveagency]

I said whoever thought leaving teenagers to run a whole town was a good idea, your mom’s a ho