#thatginchygal

[jadelotusflower]

Hi! Once you get this you have to say five things you like about yourself, publicly, then send this to ten of your favorite followers (nonnegotiable) SPREAD POSITIVITY!

Thank you @findswoman! I was also tagged by @thatginchygal - thank you too!

I always have trouble with these, but here we go:

1. I’m a compassionate person, I can appreciate different perspectives.

2. My eyes (they’re green).

3. I make a great bolognese sauce.

4. My singing voice (it’s passable, not great, but I enjoy using it).

5. I’m creative and have an entertaining imagination.

[findswoman]

I was tagged by @thatginchygal —thanks so much, as always, I appreciate it very much! I hope you don’t mind if I start a new post/thread. 🙂

Name: Sticking with my online handle for this one: @findswoman (Finds for short). I use this same name on pretty much every platform.

Fandoms: Various flavors of Star Wars: the Saga films (mostly PT and OT eras), Rebels, Rogue One, and a bit of KOTOR.

Where do you post your fanfiction? The fanfic board at the Jedi Council Forums (http://boards.theforce.net), and AO3 (username Findswoman, just like here).

By kudos most popular one-shot: Sixth Time’s the Charm, with 25.

By kudos most popular multichapter: The Prodigal Knight and the Tragic Cupcake, with 9.

Personal favorite: Oh, I’m never able to answer this one. I have a particular soft spot for my Lasan Series and Gand Series stories, though.

Method for titling fics: If I didn’t have one in mind from the start, I’ll usually try to base a title either on a line/word/phrase relating to the prompt (if there was one). Barring that, I just stew over it a long time! 😛

Work I am nervous about posting: All of them, really! (Right with you on this one, Ginchy!)

Do you outline your works or just wing it? Some of both. I don’t tend to do formal outlining much, but I usually start with at least a basic mental outline of what the story will be about. As I write, there will invariably be moments of winging it along the way, but I don’t think I write an entire story that way without starting with at least a general gestalt of a plan.

Are you excited about any of your upcoming works? Well, it’s hard to say right now, because I am between projects and have yet to decide what I’m going to work on next. I have various plans for one-shots based on various prompts—it’s just a matter of choosing. I don’t know that I’ll feel “excited” about any of them, exactly, until I actually start writing them.

AO3 statistics: Oh gosh, I feel naked now! Here goes:

User Subscriptions: 7

Kudos: 253

Comment Threads: 50

Bookmarks: 42

Subscriptions: 6

Word Count: 185696

Hits: 5141

And now I’ll tag (zero pressure, and I mean that): @jadelotusflower @gondalsqueen @fontainebleau22 @sassygirl579 @rendar-writes @independence1776 @tarisilmarwen @daughterofluthien @runrundoyourstuff or anyone else who wants to try!

[nunonabun]

For the kisses ask (if I can ask for two): #9 for Turnadette and #19 for ValxLucille) 🥰

#9 in public

Absolutely you can! I’ll put the Valcille one in a separate post

She had missed her chance last time, smiling and looking demurely down when she saw his eyes flick to her lips as he met her at her door. Much as Shelagh longed to be as free with Patrick as she saw other couples being, she felt the eyes of the neighbourhood watching them, judging them. And more than that, if she was being honest. She felt an uncomfortable prickle of self-judgement, of shame, though she also felt a wash of reflexive shame at that reaction. 

Even in private, confident as she was of this path, she felt almost as though each kiss, each embrace was a transgression. She knew that Patrick could see some of this, and that it troubled him, but he was gentle, taking his cues from her, his soft hazel eyes always reassuring. That too evoked a confusion of feelings in her. She loved him for his sensitivity and kindness, and knew that perhaps she too should be kind to herself. Yet a deep frustration twisted within her, largely at the distance she felt from the clarity of the misty road. She knew what she wanted, but navigating that seemed endlessly complex. She felt so close to Patrick, but also as though some border existed between them, a politeness that neither knew whether or how to broach. 

At times she was reminded that no matter how intense her feelings, she had launched herself into a present and future with a man who was only several steps away from being a stranger to her. Timothy would mention people and memories she knew nothing about, and she would become acutely aware that the bubble they lived in was far from being Patrick’s whole world, his whole history. That unbalanced her. She had her history too of course, but her world seemed so much smaller than his, so much more minimal. He knew much more of her world that she did of his. She tried to tamp down the unjust mix of uncertainty and jealousy this stirred up. She would come to understand the world of the Turners in time, she told herself. Of course it wouldn’t happen overnight. But it wouldn’t ever happen if she kept holding herself back. She had jumped into this relationship with both feet and now it was time to grab it with both hands. 

As they strolled home through the winding streets of Poplar she saw it again, the way his eyes sometimes lingered on her mouth as they spoke. And this time she acted on it once they stopped at her door, reaching up a hand to caress his cheek and confidently pressing her lips to his. She blocked from her mind any eyes that may be watching them, allowing herself to enjoy the kiss, focussing all of her attention on the softness of his mouth and the joy she felt passing between them. There was no shame in this. She held that thought fiercely, even as the kiss softened and he rested his forehead against hers. His eyes sparkled as they parted and he held her close for a few heartbeats more, savouring this boldness. The words would follow, she thought, hard-won confidence melting away the shadows of her solitary fears. She would have to go through this battle with her inner self many more times before it became easy, but she would happily do so. She was not alone.

[send me a number and ship and I will ship you a fic]

[jeeno2]

Hey there! :) For the ask, tangelo and kiwi!

Why, hello there!  <3

Tangelo: if you could be any mythical creature, which would you be?

A mermaid, so I could swim all day, have awesome hair, and lure dumb men to their deaths :D

kiwi: what’s something that fascinates you?

A lot of things! Today, though– the construction of really well-made cable knit sweaters, lol 

send me a fruit!

[gabolange]

I hope this message comes through. I suck at Tumblr (still). For the Fanfic Ask: 8, 25, and 48, please!

For the Fanfic Ask!  Ask me more questions!

8) Where do you take your inspiration from?

The characters, mostly. What part of their story haven’t we seen fully explored on screen? What has been left open to interpretation? How did they get here or where are they going?

I also read a lot, and so if there’s a gap in a character’s story that’s well explored in fanfic, you are less likely to find me there, in terms of how I prioritize my ideas. (I am a special cupcake, or something.) And I also like to push at fanon interpretations of character motivations a little sometimes, especially if there are dominant tropes that don’t quite line up with my vision.

But really…the character. My goal is always, always, always to tell the best story I can for the character.

25) Have you ever cried whilst writing a story?

Writing? Not really. Editing? …yes. 

48)What’s your favourite trope to write?

My favorite trope in all the world is outsiders finding out about the (possibly secret or more often just not-well-advertised) relationship. I wrote it in Cultural Drift (Stargate SG1). I wrote it in Two to Whisper Quietly (City Homicide).  My first somewhat successful attempt was Two at the End of the World (BSG).  But no one will ever do better it than Leverage *actually* did on the show, and I try to be careful with it because it is very, very hard to do well. (There was an early attempt at BSG fic that involved Kara walking in on Adama and Roslin…that will never, ever see the light of day, because WOW that was bad choices!)

But really, I’m always here for ANY outside perspective on the relationship, and I do it a lot. I enjoyed playing with it in various ways in When the Long Trick’s Over (Miss Fisher), A Benevolent Arrangement of Things (Leverage), Walls for the Wind (Leverage), and The Greatest Exception (Stargate SG1). And probably other things I’m not remembering right now.

But of course, the actual answer is that my favorite thing to do with tropes is subvert them, quietly and casually and just enough that you only kind of notice as I’m doing it. 

[nunonabun]

For the ship ask: Turnadette for what couple traditions they have and who has the most embarrassing taste in music. 😆

Couple traditions:

They’re a couple that I imagine has a number of traditions both formal and informal. The letter writing, especially around anniversaries, is something I imagine would be maintained. A letter to reflect on and commemorate a certain event as it develops over the years. Another element of care between them is also how they participate in and enable past traditions that were important to one another, such as traditions around loss, Shelagh’s religious traditions, etc. Not so much a couple tradition, but I’d like to think the silver Christmas tree makes a comeback, perhaps a present to the children the year after Patrick gave it away and Tim finds it and makes sure it’s out every year. 

Most embarrassing taste in music:

I think they both often have embarrassing tastes in music, though sometimes in a different way. They both like quite romantic, soppy music and I think they’re both rather uptight about these new rock and pop fads. I’d say Shelagh’s perhaps more likely to be more curious in her musical tastes and perhaps might find herself liking some of this poorly-enunciated music and being embarrassed by that, especially if someone were to come upon her covertly enjoying it. 

[findswoman]

For the Writer's Ask: 8 and 20, please! 😘

Thanks so much for the questions, Ginchy! :) Sorry to be slow in answering these—the holiday weekend has been off to a busy start:

8) Where do you take your inspiration from?

Oh, all over the place! Literature, films, and games remembered from my childhood (but not just from then). My academic studies (Ph.D. In musicology, 2009). Real-life religious and cultural traditions, my own included. And of course canon source material (though some more than others—I have personally have a soft spot for the early RPG sourcebooks and aliens guides, and Wookieepedia is a not too shabby resource, too). I give more details in no. 7 of this post (from a similar question on a past ask list).

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently?

Not that I can think of. In general I’m pretty good at writing things the way I want them the first time. During the writing process I might have in mind two possible endings for the same story, but it doesn’t usually take me too long to choose between them, and I’m usually pretty confident in my choice once I do. Still, there’s a first time for everything, so who knows how that might go in future!

[findswoman]

For the fanfic reader asks: 7, 17, 27! 🥰🥰

Ooh, yay! Great lucky-seven questions, Ginchy! Thanks so much! :D

7. What’s your favourite fic genre to read?

Oh, I enjoy various genres—drama, humor, horror, introspection, romance, mystery, you just about name it. I’ll give almost anything a try, genre-wise. Though I often have difficulties with stories with long, pervasive action sequences (which I often find hard to follow) and stories with lots of intrigue and double-crossing (which I also find hard to follow).

17. What do kudos mean to you?

I take kudos to mean that a person read or at very least looked over the story, liked what they saw, and wanted to briefly express that appreciation. In other words, I do see them as legitimately meaning someone likes or supports the story, and that’s why it always makes my day to see them!

27. What’s your favourite POV (point of view) to read? (first, second, third)

For first and third, I’ve enjoyed both pretty much equally. I personally find it hard to get into second-person stories—they feel very awkward and, I don’t know, accusatory? to me—but I also haven’t had a lot of experience with them, and maybe I just haven’t read many good ones yet.