scorpio: how much research did you have to do for your current wip?
You don't even know, it's ridiculous how much research went into Recuerdo that barely even makes it into the end product!
I have a whole google doc full of Salamanca facts, and tbh I spent more time than anything on the Salamanca family timeline...! It all started with being frustrated/amused about the canon flasbacks and other Salamanca facts being such a mess and me then getting way too invested in making it work somehow anyway orz
And then I have like five more pages on symptoms of antisocial personality disorder in children, plus some examples of manic behavior I thought could fit, just as an inspiration for fleshing out younger Lalo.
It’s wild! I know for other writers, that’s probably a pretty standard amount of research, but I’m really not used to this - I usually don't do any, or just quickly read up about one central thing to get some inspiration and that’s it. Fics are low planning, full indulgence for me! But once I started a Salamanca doc, things got out of hand and now I'm writing a multichapter fic about Lalo’s life ???
I guess it shows that I just really suffer from Lalo withdrawal </3
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what was the weirdest thing you had to google?
The dumbest thing I googled was probably "are there crickets in Mexico"...
I honestly don’t know what qualifies as “weirdest” because that’s just what fic writing is: googling inappropriate things!
Some choice things I've googled for the next chapters are:
- 70s/80s cars and car paint colors
- how severe blood loss affects your thinking (and how likely you’d make dumb decisions then)
- multiple quora threads about whether and in how far the loss of a family member affects psychopaths (which are btw a great insightful read, lots of ppl sharing their experiences)
- gifts for prison inmates!
- how to destroy a bicycle (it’s hard and there’s a huge amount of trolling video on youtube for some reason, it’s bizarre)
- what it'd be like to stand behind someone who gets shot in the head (turns out: not fun)
- popular candy bars in the 80s in the US
Oh, the joys of writing about events set in the 80s and in two countries you are not first-hand familiar with... :,D
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(oops you wrote aquarius!! it’s way too hot and my brain is barely functioning dfkdflk - the most unique thing about my current wip is definitely that it’s multichapter! i haven’t written a multichapter fic on my own for over ten years - it’s exciting and daunting!)
sagittarius: do you find your writing humorous? do you have any comic relief characters?
I love writing awkward, funny smut and humorous moments, especially funny dialogue - but I wouldn’t say my writing is humorous. Most of the time, the humor in my fics lies in the disconnect between a character's perspective and reality - for example, a character being obviously wrong or mistaken, but too full of themselves to see the irony of their thoughts / situation (like Ford Pines or Seto Kaiba). I have a lot of fun writing characters being self-absorbed hilarious douchebags!
I don’t like comic relief characters all that much, but I like writing characters that are utterly ridiculous! <3
what do you do if a scene gets too serious?
Idk I enjoy writing a lot of things that might be considered serious? There can be fun in a character’s suffering!
I guess my go-to method if I want to keep things from becoming too much of a drag and sort of lighten up dark fics is a pinch of sarcasm and irony.
Things being aesthetically pleasing is more important to me than humor though - I enjoy writing pretty words and describing messed up but gorgeous things more than anything. Basically, I rarely think about whether a scene needs more humor, but I sorta make sure every scene has something to offer in terms of aesthetic, be it haunting, weird, pretty and/or kinky! I get bored otherwise sdfkdlf
replay > lucifer > ring ding dong > view > dream girl > married to the music > 1of 1 > tell me what to do > everybody > sherlock > why so serious > hello > love like oxygen > amigo > juliette > jojo
i feel like this a lie bc all shine songs are my favourite songs (ok maybe a few exceptions hmmm)
send me the name of a kpop group and i’ll list their title tracks from fave to least fave!
