hope you’re doing well!! I’m just about to finally catch up with the latest chapter of moving on in a maelstrom (I haven’t checked my ao3 inbox for updates in a hot minute!!), thank you as ever for writing!
WASABI THANK YOU FOR SENDING im hanging in there i hope youre doing good too <3 and i hope you enjoy the latest chapter grelhbqughoeiqg
:') i talk a lot gomen
17. talk about your writing and editing process
so i'm definitely not the kind of person who sits down and outlines their story and all the plot points or does a ton of planning (kind of a bad habit probably!!) and mostly my fics comes from some broad concepts or ideas, vibes, or any sort of vivid scene I imagine up while im daydreaming on the way to work, and then I just kind of run with it. Actually I think from all the fics I've actually tried to follow an outline for in the past, only one has gotten past a handful of chapters (that would be Turning Point, which is shockingly complete!)
And like the scenes or vibes or ideas aren't always related to major plot points or anything either, they're just character moments and either a) do not need backstory to explain the situation, so they get to be a oneshot, or b) are VERY PARTICULAR about the backstory of the Scene and then they end up a full-fledged novella/novel/epic.
So like for example, I started on Maelstrom fic for a very specific scene with a very specific character--and you might expect it to be related to the main villain! Except I didn't even have a design for him until the day I sat down to write chapter 5 (which came to me in a caffeine-fueled fever dream) and wasn't even sure what his NEXT ability would be until chapter 8. Yeah he's the main antagonist. But this entire fic. This entire damn fic. Is a stepping stone. To a scene where Yuri is going insane under house arrest and Barnaby goes to visit him. And it's the funniest fucking thing in my head. Like I want to be so clear this is just an elaborate slide puzzle to a one-paragraph gag and I have no idea if the set-up is even worth it. But then once I get started writing things kind of start to fall into place like dominoes because I spend a lot of time overthinking the world building and the canon orz
Anyways as for editing uhhhh well!!! You have probably noticed!! I have SO MANY TYPOS IN MY CHAPTERS!!! My cat hears me say so many swears after chapters are posted :( I tend to be like constantly reading and rereading and editing... the first half of a chapter. The further I go the more excited I get to post! And the less I end up reading. So uhhh yeah if anyone ever goes back to read any fic I've ever posted EVER and you're like huh I don't remember that or huh I thought it was different yeah. yeah it was. I edited it 3 months later when I reread part and realized I had 15 typos, non-sequitors, and the worst sentence composition known to man OTL
27. your favorite part of the writing process
getting experimental with it! :') i like fucking around with imagery and description and pacing to try and see what kind of vibes i can squeeze out of something. actually i forget how long ago it was but i think my buddy isleofair sent an ask once where I went on a rant about what makes a slow burn a slow burn and ever since then I've REALLY wanted to try and write a slow burn that diagetically takes place in like. one or two hours. i have no idea how it would work but i think it would be really fun to try.
otherwise i think my favorite thing is like world building but through the little background details, like trying to squish in regional dialects or brands or in-universe entertainment franchises. I was really fucking proud of myself for Barnaby's Gatorade ad reel and his promotional coffee in Maelstrom lmfaooo or like getting so fucky with Proton's slang in my pokemon fics. Still trying to figure out how to write an entire oneshot about no one understanding what he means when he says "freezycaff."
28. your least favorite part of the writing process
>:( what do you MEAN I have to have a coherent plot!!! What do you MEAN I should probably plan to avoid plotholes!!! What do you MEAN i have to write through writer's block or take breaks when I burn out creatively!!!!! NO STOPPING ONLY VIBES ONLY GOOFS AND GAFFS!!! ONLY FICS!!!
On a more serious note. My least favorite part really is since I don't do a lot of planning beforehand :( sometimes all I got be them vibes, and getting from point a to point b can be like pulling teeth if I'm not like. manic. A lot of times I feel like I have a big picture with a lot of missing little pieces, and sometrimes I just can't figure out a satisfying way to get over it. Then the perma-hiatus hammer comes out UmU RIP in pepperonis dead fics from 2018.
is it heretical to believe in a traditional afterlife but at the same time wish there weren’t one, or to hope that you don’t end up there (as in, hope your spiritual existence terminates at death so you don’t end up anywhere?).
much love! big fan of your blog
Hello WasabiCouscous,
I’m hesitant to say it is heretical when I want to ask if you’re okay. Why are you afraid of eternal existence if that existence is full of peace? This is a genuine question.
hi what do you think of the glass the waitress serves Odo Tarkalean tea in at the bar in ‘trials and tribble-ations’? (I don’t know if it appears elsewhere in TOS as i have not watched it! But I think it counts as a ds9 mug or mug ally because it appears in this ep, right?) I personally love the shape and would love to own one, but it doesn’t seem very practical for a tea because it’s glass and doesn’t have a handle, and the stem is pretty short - unless Tarkalean tea isn’t served hot?
hi!!! ok so I know you sent this FOREVER ago but if these are the glasses you mean I LOVE THEM! You're so right, this is THE mug ally :)
It's definitely interesting that they chose to serve tea in a glass without a handle so I'm wondering if it's sort of like a sweet tea situation?? (I'm from the southern US so I'm not sure if this is the same for everyone but I personally drink cold sweet tea in a glass and hot tea in a mug)
Thanks for reminding me about this!! Going back for a "Trials and Tribble-ations" rewatch really made me appreciate Odo and Worf drinking tea together in a bar so much more :)
beverly has the only braincell/bev is the only one who brought a gun (see: @little-brisk 's dirtbag bev for more, i cannot recommend her highly enough)
and some weird shit happened but just to a few of us and now we have to figure it out (ex: rascals, the next phase, remember me, timescape)
- Holodeck: fave Holodeck adventure
the one i rewatch most often is The Big Goodbye, but that's more about looking respectfully at beverly crusher and the picrusher tension from back when the writers were pursuing it sincerely.
Hollow Pursuits has to take the cake since it explores my favorite question about any futuristic technology: the personal question. while the "holo-character comes to life" trope keeps the wheels turning in most holodeck storylines (and is unfailingly hilarious), i find the exploration of barclay's inner life through the episode's projections (literal and figurative) more interesting. barclay gets so unfolded as a character, but he also gives us cause to further interrogate the holodeck's place in 24th century society.
with this technology, how do you determine reality from unreality? how do you set and maintain healthy boundaries? what do coping mechanisms look like in the 24th century and what limits should be set on those coping mechanisms? could the holodeck be a therapeutic tool if it was used properly? where is the line between imagination and escapism?
some questions are very particular to the fictional context of star trek and starfleet etc, but many of them are relevant in present day reality, and all address the more human side of this technology, the experiential side, which i find fascinating.
and, of course, there's the gODdesS oF EmPAtHy bit which i cackle over constantly.
do you have any headcanons on how Aizawa chose his name? i love all your trans Aizawa content btw!!
i don't feel all too qualified to answer this since i know very little about japanese names BUT i'll do my best
i'd say he chose shouta since it's a fairly common male name - and also one he was able to incorporate the kanji for 'erase' into, so a common name with a very unique spelling, which is something i've seen other trans men doing in real life (like, i've a friend named kristoffer. he's irish.)
i was going to say maybe he took the other kanji from his deadname (the kanji for 'fat') but i decided he'd choose a name with no connection to his deadname at all, so he really did just name himself 'fat eraser' for the fun of it and because he was fifteen
How I feel about this character: very ive got a lot of love for jack, i feel like hes a more complex character than people sometimes give him credit for. but overall hes just a very fun character
Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: IANTO. and i think him and john hart as a weird break-up rivals is funny but i only ship him seriously with ianto
My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: ok, i put martha here first but then i read down and realized it says fav friendship down below so im gonna say the doctor right here, i dont really like jack/doctor romantically anymore, but i think they should be companions who meet up and run around together
My unpopular opinion about this character: oh, i literally dunno if i have one i havent said before.... hmmm, oh! i know, i think trans hcs would really work for jack, i might write those some time
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i wish we had gotten to see him and iantos first date, that would have been nice
Favorite friendship for this character: Martha!!!! I love Jack and martha’s friendship, i feel like they understand each other well and they have a lot of shared ground it makes for a really good relationship <3 all their interactions are just gold
My crossover ship: again, i dont really do crossovers often, but for jack I feel like he’d fit into a lot of places. ok, this is kinda out of the blue, but im gonna say that jack/abed from community would actually be an unstoppable duo
hey, could I ask what your tag for dark phoenix spoilers is? I have “spoilers” blacklisted and that’s seemed to hold back those kind of posts so far, will that be what you’ll tag them as?
I use ‘dark phoenix’ tag for all of my posts, (maybe blacklist this too if you’d like to avoid spoilers) and I used ‘spoilers’ tag for my spoilery posts only. I didn’t use it for the last asks that I received, but those weren’t really spoilery(except maybe one), mostly it was just us complaining about getting Kurt’s characterization wrong. I don’t know, were they too spoilery? I wouldn’t like to spoil the movie for anyone!
if you don’t mind me asking, what are sun and moon “variations” on identities? like one of the mods made a sun bi and a moon bi flag, what do they mean? I think the flags look really pretty though!
I just wanted to make a sun and moon bisexual flag cause I saw a lot of lesbian variations of the sun and moon flag and I thought I’d do them to fit with the moodboards I did!
