39: Is any aspect of your writing process inspired by other writers or people? If so, who?
I had to catch myself here because writing process is different from writing style, Mich, and you know that. 😅
I don't know who does things like this. It's just a thing I've probably heard and adopted because yeah, it works really well.
In short: Draft ugly, edit pretty.
For fanfic, I do things in 3 rounds, maybe 4 if I'm up to it.
I list the beats of the scene.
I write out each beat and connect them.
I diversify my sentences and cut what feels like fluff.
Read for flow, maybe edit again.
For my books... well, that's a totally different story, isn't it? 😅 Because now I have a targeted word count to worry about, so I add 2-3 more steps. Read aloud and edit. Distance myself fully. Sharpen the scalpel and ask "does this really sparkle and sunshine?"
45: What’s something you’ve improved on since you started writing fic?
I'd hoped someone would ask this question. I can talk about the writing journey for ages because I've gone through a few phases now and feel like I've learned so much. 🙈
What's so fun about writing is that there really aren't a lot of rules. However, there are certainly a lot of things that will make a scene stronger.
I've improved my word count drastically. Shortened, that is, and that's a good thing.
I've stopped hand-holding the reader and trust them to get it the first time I say it. This is mainly why I cringe when I reread my really old stories. They're a mess of "lemme just add some internal monologue to make sure you REALLY got it", the lot of them.
I'm considerably better at showing instead of telling these days, and I think that ties nicely to the previous point.
I've found my style and voice, which is very Nordic Noir-adjacent direct and minimalist prose. I'm just not gifted enough to get poetic without making it too purple, though whenever I have a British head voice, my writing style becomes looser (case in point: Fifty Sovereigns).
And I'll say that it wasn't really fanfic that really kickstarted that learning curve. I don't have a beta. Not because I don't want one, but more because... idk. I just don't have one. 😅 Anyway, it was editing my own original book that really made me better. I still keep things a little looser in fanfiction because honestly? Fanfiction is fun. I'm not gonna torture my way through more editing than necessary when I'm not even expecting to get paid. I just want it readable, fun, enjoyable, and all the other good adjectives.
