I, M, N, P for the writing meem!
Link here. *cracks knuckles*
I. What’s your favorite work you did this year? Why?
The Avernus arc in “Vigilance” because it’s been one of those big plot points I’d been looking forward to writing. The situation was a major setback and catalyzes/spawns relationship and plot arcs, and let me deal with a heavy topic in Warden meta. A lot of stuff to sink my teeth into.
M. Meta! Have any meta about a story you’re dying to throw out there?
Looks like I gave myself a good segue! In reference to the above: it’s clear in the notes and other bits you get about Avernus in Origins and DA2 that, although he’s managed to stave off the Calling a very respectably long time, he’s actually now starting to hear it. He says in his own writing:
I can feel the corruption starting to take its toll on my body. I must not succumb. There is too much work to be done. Through my magic I’ve been able to slow its inevitable spread, but not stop it completely. I am starting to hear things, even while awake: A voice–more beautiful than any other–that calls to me from the depths. In my dreams, I see the Black City, and I am drawn towards it. There is something there, an answer to what this taint is, this taint that we share with the darkspawn…
I’ve always felt that while you could squeeze a few more years out of him, he wouldn’t be good for much more than that. So in my opinion, when his magical dam burst, it was gonna burst hard. For my fic, I basically gave that dam a shove while trying to plug its holes. :D
N. Anything you were planning to write that never got written?
For 2018? Oh for sure. I was hoping to be done with the Solavellan stuff, but apparently not. Four more pieces and it’ll be complete, though.
I was also hoping to be a *lot* further along in “Vigilance” than I am. Even if I hadn’t gotten to another of the major plot points, it should have been a chapter or two away from it. As it is, I’m realizing there’s a piece of accompanying art that I should get started on as soon as possible so it can be published around the same time as its companion chapter.
P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work?
I’m trying really damn hard to let go of petty things like a misspelled word or incorrect word choice when I’m otherwise enjoying a work. It’s trivial and it’s on me - if I like the characters, and/or the plot, and/or everything else about it, I’m just gonna saddle up and enjoy the ride anyway. A continuing resolution into 2019.
What really plucks my nerves, though, and makes me walk away from a work or decide I do not care for an author’s work as a whole, is making canon characters act or speak in ways that are completely out of character for them. Not a little bit that could be shrugged off with different character development, but so much change you’re wondering who the hell this character is supposed to be. (And to really get me going, mischaracterizing into ugly, bigoted ideas and actions to serve convoluted, incoherent, or terrible tone-deaf plots and main characters. Or cartoonishly blowing up a character’s already ugly ideas into places they would never or should never go.)
