#vermofftiss

[paradoxcase]

longroadstonowhere:

correct order is All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, Platform Decay

vermofftiss:

Publication order and chronological order are different. Chrono is all systems red, artificial condition, rogue protocol, exit strategy, fugitive telemetry, network effect, system collapse

Thanks! Is there any reason to read in publication order, or should I just read in chronological order?

[youknowmymethods]

Content Creator Interviews 2019: Master List (Complete with gratuitous gif of Sherlock looking hot, just because)

As some of you know, early this year a group of people in the Sherlock and Sherlolly fandom got together to conduct a series of interviews focusing on fan content and its creation. The result was twelve interviews, posted over three months, where writers and artists talk about their work, the fandom and show, and their own processes. I’ve finally gotten around to doing a master list of them to make it easier for anyone who’d like to read through them. Check out the links below:

OhAine interviews likingthistoomuch

 Likingthistoomuch interviews OhAine

 theleftpill interviews kstewmanipulation

 thisisartbylexie interviews writingwife-83

 ellis-hendricks interviews geekmama

 geekmama interviews ellis-hendricks

 ashockinglackofsatin interviews sunken-standard

 vermofftiss interviews mizjoely

 writingwife-83 interviews artbylexie

 OhAine interviews ashockinglackofsatin

 lilsherlockian75 and mrsmcrieff interview each other

 theemptyquarto interviews hobbitsdoitbetter

[thisisartbylexie]

vermofftiss replied to your post: What are your assumptions about me?

I assume that you are a fan of PB&J. Also up until about two days ago I assumed you lived in Germany but I was recently told you definitely don’t?

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE PB&J!!!

But because I prefer salty/savory to sweet, I will seasoning to it:

And no, I don’t live in Germany! I live in Los Angeles (and I have for 90% of my life). I keep meaning to visit Germany but haven’t had the chance! 

[thewinterspy]

i was looking for ‘cheaper by the dozen au’ notes for hours in my documents. and then i realized that i saved it as ‘yours mine and ours’. it’s basically a transcript of a conversation i had with @vermofftiss in the sherlolly chat

katie: I see Sherlock and Molly being more of a "Yours, Mine and Ours" type sam: aww, but that means they're both widows katie: Or they could be single people that decided to have kids on their own before they met sam: ooh, true. ... *whispers* what if widows for a moment. stay with me. what if molly was married to tom before sherlock, and all her kids are convinced she's only with sherlock because he looks like tom katie: hmmm. IDK I think that gives Tom too much improtance. I was thinking that Sherlock just keeps ending up with kids by finding them through the homeless network. sam: i was thinking something like that too. like it starts with maybe two or three he has doing  bit of spywork for him katie: he means to just be a temporary waystation until something permenant comes along but then every person that tries to adopt them he deduce something that makes him go "nope!" sam: but maybe they don't take his money and they're like "we'd rather have a bed than be paid" so sherlock's like "alright, keep up though". but then they stay the night, and the next day, and the next day... katie: and it's not even major things it's that he falls for them. yes! maybe molly is raising her siblings. like she had young siblings that she was left to take care of after her dad died sam: ooh yeah, that could be it. oh my gosh are we thinking hard on this au katie: like they can work together and never know the other has kids~ we could totes collab on this fic! sam: oh my gosh that'd be so much fun! well, sherlock being sherlock, he'd probably notice something on molly and be like "are you a mother, molly?" katie: their kids go to the same school, they meet up at the Headmaster's office because they were fighting and it's like... "oh..." sam: "Oh no, i just take care of my siblings" "Oh. okk." katie: yeah! sam: and sherlock assumes that means like one or two -- ohhh no katie: lol Molly is Catholic of course sam: i'm just giggling about all the misunderstandings. like, when molly meets sherlock's kids, and none of them look the same, and he's like "they're all mine" and molly's thinking to herself "really, you must get around" katie: let's do. YES! and none of his kids call him dead. and she's like "my that's progressive" sam: and it's not just for a minute, imagine if it gets dragged out for days katie: i think there should be three each sam: and the kids are offhandedly mentioning the things that happened in their homes before they ended up on streets and molly's just completely bewildered katie: too many and then it's just madness. yeah! like maybe one of their mothers is an addict and still on the streets and she tries to come around for money or something sometimes sam: "my dad says eat your vegetables or you turn into a bird" "my dad didn't like vegetables" "my dad would *never( be able to pronounce vegetable!" can you imagine one of the kids being used as sherlock's pressure point katie: AHHH! sam: sit back and imagine the catatonic rage if one of them was taken. katie: yes that can tie in with the addict mom still on the street sam: can you imagine if one of molly's siblings was taken! katie: like they could be taken together. sam: what if they're all like "we don't like sherlock" but then he saves them and they're like "he's ok i guess" katie: they fight over whose fault it. YES! ok so here it is. the kid is a pressure point so the person in question basically uses the addict mom by getting her set up in a flat with an income and polishing her up to look like she's recovered and she wants her kid back and then they stage the kidnapping to make Sherlock look like an unsuitable guardian sam: OOOH, yes! ..... oh my god, what if moriarty katie: and the poor kid can be conflicted because he really loves his mom sam: because when moriarty was first trying to ruin sherlock, the most important thing to sherlock was the work. katie: but she's not interested in recovering sam: but now it's all about family for him katie: yes! so where will john fit in? or is this after he gets with mary? sam: i think he's probably with mary and baby watson katie: works! sam: but he and mary probably stop by to help with the kids/cases/etc. "uncle john" and "aunt mary" katie: yeah and he's their pediatrician as well or something sam: of course sherlock's like "they're not your aunt and uncle" "whatever you say, dad" "sherlock." "dad." "sherlock." dad." "sherlock." "dad." katie: yeah and toward the end he and Molly find out they're pregnant and when they announce it his kids are like "congratulations, Sherlock" and he's like "You should call me dad." sam: AHHHH that's so cute. ok i'm screencapping this, this is all too great katie: so it can be angst and smut and fluff and everything that is awesome in the universe sam: yessssss. all i really want is sherlock being sherlock-ish with a bunch of kids katie: definitely! sam: BUT there's one small one where he just can't help but be very caring and gentle around katie: no OOC and no crack. yes! like maybe he found that one and he or she doesn't speak. and he can use his skills of deduction to understand what he or she needs or wants sam: g osh i'm just squealing, that's so adorable katie: like it's trauma-related psychosematic mutism sam: of course, if anyone ever told sherlock he was adorable, he'd go into a sulk katie: right!? one big moment in the fic can be after molly and sherlock are together and they're all cohabiting like a real family the little one starts talking again sam: AWWW. ok, my brain gave me this katie: like something super innocuous like "pass the wheetabix. pelase" and everyone is like O.O sam: maybe sherlock's tucking in the little one. he usually doesn't tuck in the kids, but maybe something happens and they ask him to, so he does it. and the quiet one just sort of snuffles and asks about molly. "is molly gonna be our mummy?" katie: awww! sam: and the others just look at sherlock expectantly. im just katie: And they'll definitely need to rent out 221c. OMG all the Mrs. Hudson moments would be priceless. sam: lol, yes! they need plenty of room. katie: Like Mrs. Hudson always has treats for the little ones sam: awww katie: the older ones go in and raid her cupboards without asking and she doesn't mind. sam: by older ones you mean sherlock? katie: like they come straight home from school and instead of going up to 221b they go to Mrs. Hudson and she's always stuffing them with goodies. they sit around and watch jeremy kyle and one of the kids is looming yarn with her sam: what a small sherlolly moment where molly's feeling unsure about taking care of her siblings, because she misses her dad, and something's gone wrong? katie: yes! sam: and sherlock ends up comforting her. but it's sherlock, so he probably does it without realizing he's done it. katie: yeah he helps her realize she can do it. Sherlock's kids help Molly's siblings come to terms with the death of their parents sam: all the squabbles though, can you imagine katie: YEP! sam: sherlock's kids might think molly's siblings are snobbish and ungrateful because "at least you still have a home" katie: i imagine the older ones will get into a squabble and one of Molly's calsl one of Sherlock's street trash sam: ooof, what if one of hte kids say that in earshot of sherlock, who's hurt by it without realizing he's hurt katie: and Molly takes them aside and rails on them sam: because he thinks he's done alright by the kids, but the kids are assuming that sherlock's care is temporary, because they've never had anything permenant katie: aww yeah! yeah realize this will be about a bazillion chapters long! well we definitely need to write this. i know AO3 has a cowriting option I just don't know how it works sam: i'm sure we can figure it out. ao3's not that tricky katie: that's why i love it! of cousre we have to have an epilogue with molly and sherlock's "oops" baby being raised in this epic blended family sam: aww, yes! all these kids need names too katie: like looking at her life and all her awesome brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and how her family is different from everyone else's that makes her extra lucky. yep! sherlock's kids can have really urban sounding names sam: i think sherlock's kids would probably make something up. like, little nicknames. katie: yeah! sam: oooh, and for the quiet one, maybe the other kids give them a nickname? katie: like they call her Kitty because she likes to curl up in your lap sam: awwww katie: in the official paperwork they settle on "katherine" OMG the older ones prank mycroft whenever he comes round. but kitty is always sweet to him and wants to sit in his lap and hug him and he's just like uhm... sam: "Sherlock what do I do with the small one?" "If you rub her back she hums." *"Sherlock."* "No, honest to god, she does." katie: like maybe he found her hiding in a skip and he had to lure her out with sweeties sam: awww, and what if kitty actually doesn't want to get close to him at first, but maybe he does one of those small monologue things about "it's okay to be scared" and stuff like that katie: yeah!! sam: maybe he finds her on a case! katie: yes! he thinks she might have been a witness. but by the time she's able to talk about it it's too late to do anything about it... legally. so they go vigilante justice on their ass sam: oooh, yes! katie: ooh ok so he lures her out with food! sam: Yes! oooh, maybe he just happens to have a sweet in his pocket because mrs. hudson was handing candies to the other kids? katie: at first he's just trying to get her out but she won't so he and John get sandwiches and just sit by the skip and lay an extra sandwich a little bit away from them and start eating and are like "mmm sure its good!" and she kinda sneakily gets closer and closer and they pretend not to notice that she sat down beside them and started eating the other sandwich

[sunken-standard]

I don't think I can pinpoint a specialty for your fics because there's just so much that's quality. Emotions! I feel many things when they feel many things! Descriptions! Profound and beautiful! Plots! Skillfully crafted and deep-rooting! Characterisation and development! So real and so much! Wow! Your fics are so very Yours and they're wonderful from start to finish. I'm fangirling now. Oh dear

LOL, thank you <3

Honestly I was mostly just expecting to hear “more dick and fart jokes than belong in romance stories,” but I’ll take it. <3

[majesticlolipop]

My good friend @vermofftiss is adorable and I had to draw soz

[youknowmymethods]

Content Creator Interview #5

Welcome back again folks! This week in our fifth interview @vermofftiss chats to @mizjoely about her love of lists, her fantasy season five finale, and reveals the truth about who really writes her stories...

Hi, @mizjoely here, chatting with @vermofftiss about my sherlolly writing and fandom experiences, and answering some questions submitted by a few other folks. I’ve been involved in fandom in one way or another since the early 1980s, which is also when I started writing fanfiction - for classic Doctor Who and Star Trek in its various incarnations.

@vermofftiss here, putting forward the aforementioned questions. I’ll also be trying to weasel some advice out of @mizjoely that I can use for my own writing, which has been a casual ongoing thing since I published my first sherlolly fic in 2014.

Vermofftiss: I think our first encounter was in the Sherlollychat in the fall of 2014, around the time I got onto AO3. Which means series 3 was five years ago. How does it feel knowing that series 4 was already two years ago? What’s changed in the time since it aired?

Mizjoely: Oh, I miss the sherlollychat, or at least I did until Channy came up with the discord version! It’s hard to fathom that so much time has passed since I joined the fandom! (I became active on tumblr in November 2013 after discovering Sherlolly earlier that same year, btw.) Series 3 was five years ago. Series 4 was two years ago. Crazy!

As for what’s changed since then, I’d have to say one positive thing is that the fandom wank has calmed way the hell down since S4…. Another change that I’ve seen is probably common to all fandoms over time - new writers and content creators have joined the fandom while (sadly) many others have moved on to other fandoms. Of course, that’s to be expected when your show is essentially over, but it’s still kind of sad to lose folks completely to other fandoms.

V: Which series was your favourite to play with as a writer? When did you really get into writing Sherlolly?

M: I would have to say Series 4 has definitely been a great series to write for - so much angst! The I love you! Mary Watson’s very sad death, Rosie Watson becoming a character, Mrs. Hudson showing us what a badass she is, and of course Eurus Holmes entering the picture. We might not have gotten as much Molly Hooper as we wanted, but the scenes we did get with her were tremendous and gave so much inspiration to me and many other writers.

I really got into Sherlolly as a ship after seeing TRF, as I’m sure is true with many folks - especially the “what do you need” scene. And it was so much fun to dive into the possibilities of life after Sherlock’s ‘death’ between Series 2 and 3, I consider that a real golden age of Sherlolly writing. My first published Sherlock/Sherlolly fic was “Conversations With A Dead Detective”, set Post Reichenbach, which according to fanfiction.net I published on 04/11/13 (so I’m nearly at my five year Sherlolly- versary, woo hoo!).

A quick look at my spreadsheet (don’t judge me, I love my lists) shows that I wrote or at least started 37 fics that year (one of which I’m still working on, yikes! - The World As We Know It, a vamp!lock fic). I’m currently sitting at almost 500 fics for Sherlolly, which still amazes me, that I could be that inspired by a pair of fictional characters! (For comparison, my second most prolific fandom is Doctor Who, for whom I wrote a total of 25 stories over a period of 20 years. And of those 25, only about a dozen were for my main ship, Five/Tegan).

V: A couple of questions from @ohaine - 

1) Based on the sheer volume of your work, I have this theory that you’re actually some sort of artistic collective rather than just one person, please tell me I’m right!

M: You have discovered my secret: I'm actually four raccoons in a trenchcoat! Seriously though, until I was bitten by the Sherlolly bug, my output was much, much lower, even though I've been writing fanfics since the early 1980s. For example, I love the Zutara ship for Avatar: Last Airbender, but I only wrote three fics for that. I wrote about 25 fics for Doctor Who, and about the same amount for the various Star Treks (not including Khanolly). Nothing set my writing muse afire like Sherlolly, and I doubt anything ever will again.

and, 2) You write a lot of AUs, and I’m wondering what inspires them?

M: Considering that I started off as a strictly Canon Universe/Canon Compliant writer in all of my other fandoms, it still seems funny to me how much I enjoy writing and reading AUs now. I started reading them after finally running out of canon compliant fics to read and discovering how much fun it was to transplant the characters into a different universe. And that, of course, made me think about what sort of AUs I could fit Molly and Sherlock into.

In fact, the very first BBC Sherlock story I started to write (never finished or posted) was an AU because I was nervous about trying to write Sherlock and figured no one would complain too much about him being OOC if it was a fantasy setting. (I ended up taking the plunge on a canon universe post Reichenbach fic and posted that and a lot of other canon universe fics before returning to AUs.)

Wait, that doesn't answer the question! What inspires them? The same things that inspire all my writing: wanting to read a specific kind of fic and not being able to find it; fics that other authors have written that make me itch to put my own spin on the idea; dreams; books I've read or movies or TV shows I've watched...inspiration is everywhere when you really, really, really love a ship. (Gawd that's cheesy but it's true - no love, no writing fanfic, period end of paragraph.)

V: This past spring I finally got the nerve to start working on my first proper AU (not CC, CU, or UA) after sitting on the idea for about 3 years. Have you ever had to wait to be “ready” to start working on a concept? How much do you need to know about a project to get going on it?

M: I have absolutely had to wait to be ready to start working on a concept. My very first attempt at a Sherlolly fic (never finished or published) was going to be an AU because I was so intimidated by the idea of writing Sherlock Holmes in the canon universe set up by Moffat & Gatiss. I was terrified I wouldn’t get his voice right, that he would be too OOC for folks, that I wouldn’t be able to make him clever enough or that I’d mess things up a dozen different ways. So I started writing the AU instead, and in doing so (over a course of several months), I finally realized that no, I wanted to start off in the canon universe. Just trying to write him at all, in any setting, made me a little less intimidated by him. But I might never have written anything if I hadn’t started that abandoned AU. (And I look forward to seeing your AU when you’re ready to post it!)

V: Does reader feedback ever impact the plots of your stories or the building of your AUs?

M: It absolutely can, especially when someone leaves a comment that makes me think about my story in a different light. I won’t go so far as to say comments have caused me to redo anything on a larger scale (such as change the ending) but certainly I’ve thrown things into the fic or expanded on ideas expressed in a comment to make the story that much richer.

That’s one of the best things about being active in fandom - the interactions between readers and writers. Of course, the reverse can also be true - I remember needing a LOT of fan-friend coddling when some folks were unhappy with the ending of my story ‘Abandoned’ (i.e., my Molly let my Sherlock get off too easily). But you have to have thick skin to be a creator, and remember that not everyone likes the same things. And you also have to be able to say yes, I could have done this better, or if I had to do it over I’d do it differently. It’s all part of the creative process.

V: Are there any scenes or aspects that were cut from a story that you regretted leaving out at the end?

M: Not really. Most things that I cut have been vetted by my betas (shout-out to ALL betas for being willing to help you make your story better!) and jettisoning those things has always made my stories better. (Plus I keep a folder of scraps that got cut and periodically review those scraps to see if I might be able to salvage them.)

V: On top of being one of the better-known Sherlolly writers in the tag, you’re also the single person behind the Sherlollbrary. As much as I love to organize my life and everything else I can get my hands on, that’s not something I think I’d ever actually want to do. So what made you decide to start cataloguing Sherlolly fics?

M: My love of lists. Seriously, that’s it. I love making lists of things - like, how many stories did I write in 2013 for Sherlolly (37, as you now know!), how many one-shots have I written vs. multi-chapters, how many were prompts...and then I started seeing people doing lists of various tropes. The one that made me decided to start my Sherlollilists side blog was one put together for Sherlolly omegaverse stories. As more and more lists were created, edited, and added (I’m currently at 140 official lists, with more than a dozen unofficial lists), I decided it would nice to organize them all (not realizing quite what I was getting into!) as one spreadsheet, with other tropes and tags and keywords for folks to help narrow down their searches. It always give me a little thrill when I open the library and see folks are browsing, so I like to think it’s a useful tool (although I am looking forward to finishing it someday!)

@writingwife-83 asked: You work tirelessly to organize all the multitude of writing this ship produces, but how do you feel that affects you as a writer? Does it make you less interested in writing your own fics? Or does it tend to help get the wheels turning and inspire you?

M: I have to admit, sometimes curating the lists can completely put me off writing, simply due to feeling oversaturated. This is especially true when I am reading or skimming over fics that are, shall we say, not the best of the bunch. Or the times when I'm just pushing myself even if I'm not really enthusiastic about doing it. Those times, I've learned to just step back, which is why sometimes the lists don't get updated very quickly.

On the other hand, rereading a favorite or a forgotten gem can really get my creative juices flowing. At times like that, I fall back in love with the ship and the fandom all over again.

V: When you’re stuck with writer’s block or just a lack of motivation, does it help you more to reread an old fave or to go back through some of your own works? Have you noticed your style has changed much?

M: It does help, absolutely. It reminds me why I love this ship so much, and helps me reconnect with others in the fandom. People think of reading as passive and writing as solitary, but to me it’s an interactive process. Reading great fics, new can old, helps feed your creativity. And nowadays the internet helps so much as well - there are awesome resources and fandom spaces to talk to other folks about their works and your own, reminding you that you’re not creating in a vacuum. (And I REALLY love the cheerleading section of the Sherlolly Discord site. That can help unstick my creativity like nobody’s business!)

As for my style changing - yeah, it definitely has. I feel like my writing has become more streamlined and less clunky since I first started. I still do a lot of semicolon abuse but at this point I’ve decided that’s just my style and will likely never change.

Thanks for the excellent questions and for letting me ramble on!

V: I’m sure we can do a lot more rambling if left on the trail. How about one last one: In the currently hypothetical series 5, how would you continue the story from where it left off?

M: Oooh, good one! If I was in charge we would see that Sherlock and Molly are continuing their relationship, culminating with a wedding at the end of the third episode. But since I’m not in charge, I’m thinking that Mofftiss would give us some subtle hints, like John casually mentioning to Sherlock that he and Rosie can’t join ‘them’ for dinner that night for whatever reason. And maybe some small changes to 221B to show hints that someone else spends time there other than Sherlock and the Watsons - a cherry patterned pillow, perhaps? A Bart’s ID card with a woman’s picture to show that no, it isn’t one Sherlock nicked to get access to a place he otherwise couldn’t get to? A woman’s coat hanging next to Sherlock’s? Something like that. And some private smiles between Sherlock and Molly, little things like that. Enough to give us hope but not enough to give us proof! They do like to tease that way!

Non-shipwise, I think Eurus would make a return because come on, how do you leave a character like that catatonic? I also think they would return to ACD canon to revise a few more cases for the modern age, and maybe (maybe!) have John start dating again (especially if they’re so married to canon that they killed Mary off - since John seems to have been married at least twice, they would probably explore that option).

I know, that last part is a bit vague but honestly? I hope they surprise the hell out of us in a good way if we ever get that fifth series!

Next Week, Friday March 22nd, @ashockinglackofsatin talks to @sunken-standard

[sunken-standard]

Can I have 1, 12, and 18?

1:Do you/would you like to write professionally?

I don’t, but I would love to.  Gettingoff my ass and writing things I can sell is harder than I thought itwould be.  I keep telling myself “Oh, I just need to finish thisone fic/ series/ whatever, and then I’ll buckle down and start doingmy own thing,” or “Oh, this is practice.  It’s boot camp,I’m training!” but like, I think the truth is that every time Istart something original, I choke because it’s never compellingenough for me.  Either the plot is thin or the characters are woodenor it’s an idea that’s been done to goddamn death and should just goaway already.  And like, if I’m going to just try writing porn tosell, how do I make characters just interesting enough that peoplewant to read about them banging, but not too complex as to distractfrom all the moist, writhing flesh?

12:Which trope would you absolutely abolish?

Ooh, this is a good one.  I mean,different strokes for different folks, everybody has differentbuttons and all that.  That being said, I think I’d get rid of thewhole ‘Sherlock has the emotional intelligence of an ashtray’ clichething.  If that counts as a trope.  Same thing with 'Molly is anomniscient Sherlock-whisperer cinnamon roll’ thing.  I feel likethey’re facetious readings of the characters and that’s just not mything at all.  Then again, I’m a person who injects angst into like,a character waiting for a bus or eating a candy bar or picking theirnose, so I mean… grain of salt.

18:Are you a ‘neatly designed outline’ writer or a‘fuck it i’ll figure it out as i go’ writer?

The latter, 100%.  I can’t write froman outline.  Just making an outline is one sure-fire way to guaranteethat I will not finish the thing I started.  I mean, I keep a lot ofnotes, and some of them are like “hit this, this, and thisaction/ note,” and “this is where it needs to end,”and there’s like a 50-50 chance I’ll stick to that.  Sometimes I’llwrite myself a blurb/ summary too, when I’m in the brainstormingphase, but it’s usually literally “This character says a thingand then another thing happens and the other one gets insecure, thenother stuff and angst, sex, angst, happy ending.”