16) Do you research for your fics? If so, how deep of a rabbit hole have you gone down by accident when researching?
I definitely do research, especially for the more historically-oriented fics (e.g., for Austen, The Borgias, that sort of thing). I think the most ridiculous amount of research has to be for my Borgias fic we get dark, only to shine, which is high-octane problematic but also involved looking up medieval Valencian poetry and researching types of chairs and ways of dying hair etc. The furthest I went, I think, was a scene where the Borgias are using Llibre d’Amic e d’Amat from Ramon Llull’s Blanquerna as a cipher, and each translated word actually corresponds to the Catalan text.
23) What’s your absolute favourite trope to write?
Ohh, there are some good tropes out there. But realistically, it has to be m -> f(ish) genderbending. Not my most popular fics, but probably my most beloved!
38) What does your writing process look like? How chaotic is it on a scale of 1 (very tame) to 10 (you can’t handle this kind of chaos)?
2 or so? I tend to either write self-contained one-shots with a clear idea of what points it needs to hit, or elaborate outlines for long fic.
Tolkien, mainly LOTR; Austen, mainly Darcy/Elizabeth; Star Wars, mainly Skywalkers and Jyn/Cassian
Where you post:
Wherever I happen to be active, but also at AO3 under anghraine.
Most popular multi-chapter fic:
Season of Courtship, the Darcy/Elizabeth engagement fic I wrote 15 years ago (but revised ... maybe 7-8 years ago?). It was surpassed for a long time by some other fics, but picked up a ton of kudos/bookmarks this year for some reason, so now it's well ahead of the rest in both bookmarks and kudos.
Favourite story you've written so far:
That's hard to say ... I've written a lot. In some ways, my short P&P sequel The Letters of Elizabeth Darcy, 1796-1798 will always be a fave because it came out so closely to what I wanted it to be. But the dearest to my heart are probably always going to be my Lucy Skywalker series starring f!Luke, and my f!Darcy/m!Elizabeth fic, First Impressions.
Fic you were nervous to post:
Hmm. Perhaps Better Choice, my very flawed Faramir-goes-to-Rivendell fic, which is the first fic I posted anywhere. I thought of we get dark, only to shine because of its many taboos, but Borgias fandom was so nice that I don't think I much worried about it, beyond hoping people would read it. IDK ... I'm a very nervous person, and I definitely am on the edge of my seat after I post a fic, but I don't think I'm nervous about posting fics in this sense.
How you choose your titles
They're usually general statements of what the fic is about ("Redemption," "Anomaly," The Jedi and the Sith Lord), references to a quote from the canon (Season of Courtship, tolerably well acquainted), or excerpts from songs ("But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul In Hell," "like a storm in the desert").
Do you outline?
Sometimes—I have some things that just start with an idea, others where it's pretty clear in my head, but I ultimately work best when I have the structure and some details all sketched out.
Complete fics:
169, says AO3. Mostly one-shots, of course.
In progress:
Posted WIPs that I have active plans to continue at this time: once I'm writing fic again—Lucy Skywalker, tolerably well acquainted, and Fíriel (f!Faramir) are at the top of my list!
Posted WIPs that I have given up on: I'm terrible at really giving up on things, tbh. I always have scraps that I poke at and things like that. Such Terms of Cordiality is vanishingly unlikely, though.
Exchange fics due soon/unrevealed: none. I had the sense (speaking for myself) not to do exchanges this year.
WIPs that live in my fanfic folder and are incomplete and who knows when they'll be finished: not a whole lot, actually, in the sense of things that haven't been posted. I mostly do post my WIPs. I've got the companion fic to my Darcy-Fitzwilliam headcanons in the folder—we'll see how that goes.
Coming soon/not yet started: hahahaha, nothing. I've got quite enough to be going with.
Do you accept prompts: not exactly, these days. I don't mind them, and if they inspire me, I'm glad to write when I can spare the time, but at this point they don't usually kickstart me and I just feel vaguely guilty when they do but I don’t have the time/energy, so I don't actively invite them.
Upcoming story you are most excited to write:
It's not a story, but there's a scene in the Fíriel-Éowyn-Merry fic that I'm reallyyyyy looking forward to (though it only has Fíriel and Éowyn in it).
Tagging, if you want to do it: @ladytharen, @incognitajones, @irresistible-revolution, @kazaera, @ncfan-1
I was looking at my AO3 page, and ... I have a pretty jumbled mix of feelings about what I’ve written, honestly.
I don’t expect many people to care, but going with the top 11:
1. Season of Courtship (Austen): I wrote it at 19 alongside The Rich Are Always Respectable, alternating on a schedule, in fits of depression and mania. A few years later (in a better frame of mind), I revised it—some sections quite substantially. I’m glad people like it but feel kind of weird about it being The One.
2. per ardua ad astra (Star Wars): I wrote this in a haze of Rogue One feelings between early 2017 and mid-2018. I was dealing with some mental health issues, but not 2005 hell, and it helped with them. I feel vaguely bad about the perpetually unfinished half of a chapter on my Drive, but I am fond of the fic generally.
3. But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul In Hell (Star Wars): I was listening to The Messiah and had the idea of a bunch of short SW fics set to various lyrics; this is one of them. It was a strange but fun project and super soothing after Austen fandom, so it’s nice to see such a short thing up here.
4. we get dark, only to shine (The Borgias): I wrote this during my MA, and the academic and fic research crossed over heavily, which made both easier. I’d finally gotten diagnosed as bipolar and put on mood stabilizers, I was getting A’s in everything, and its fandom was the absolute nicest I’ve ever been in. Best fandom experience bar none.
5. tolerably well acquainted (Austen): I had some P&P feelings and started self-indulgent drawer fic that just kind of grew. Slowly. Very slowly. But eventually it reached the point where I decided to post what I had, and ... it’s still ongoing.
6. Contradictions and Varieties (Austen): this comes from my better Austen fandom days. There was a prompt at Firthness and the first half of the fic was my fill for it, and then I tacked on an ending later. I feel like the division is very obvious and it’s pretty uneven, so I’m kind of meh about it.
7. Anomaly (Austen): the ace!Darcy fic, inspired by the ace manifestos community on Dreamwidth. I thought of actually writing a manifesto for him, and then just wrote fic instead. It’s not my best fic, but it is my precious child and every nice comment warms my heart to this day.
8. Ten Facts About Harry Potter (Harry Potter): my take on Slytherin!Harry, something I’ve always deeply loved in concept and very rarely in execution. It’s ... eh.
9. First Impressions (Austen): also not my best fic, but I planned it for a year and then wrote it for a big bang, and it largely turned out the way I wanted it to turn out. That doesn’t often happen! And I had friends who were super encouraging the whole time, and was in a good place mentally, and ... it was a joy, really.
10. The Talk (Austen): It sure exists. (More seriously, it’s not really “me” and feels very remote.)
11. Redemption (Star Wars): this was my first SW fic ever and I shoved a lot of my ambivalence about ROTJ and the PT into it while trying to stay away from fix-fic implications. It was really fun to write for a new fandom, so I just did whatever popped into my head, and ... it doesn’t bother me, since I had such a good time writing it, but in retrospect it’s a strange little thing.
Apparently, I’ve been plagiarized, so I looked at my AO3 (sorted by kudos) to see if it was at least from my top five fics, since people don’t always realize how much they’re picking up and re-using.
No, it was not! But in fairness, I’m pretty ????? about what logic governs which ends up at the top. It’s currently:
Season of Courtship—Darcy/Elizabeth engagement fic I wrote at 19 (though I revised it later). It hadn’t been in my #1 slot for a really long time, but got a bunch of kudos over the last few months for some reason.
per ardua ad astra—Rogue One AU where Jyn, Cassian, and Bodhi escape Scarif only to get sucked into the Death Star. So close to being resolved, and yet, not. Def my most popular for a long while, but I posted most of it in the RO fandom heyday.
But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul In Hell—ROTJ AU where Anakin/Vader seriously considers Luke’s offer to leave with him. It is 841 words and I desperately wish I had it in me to write more.
we get dark, only to shine—my longest fic ever at 168k; an AU for The Borgias that tries to bring in history and stay essentially true to the show’s dynamics. Another one that had its time as my #1 fic (despite being a problematic checklist).
tolerably well acquainted—canon-compliant fic expanding on Elizabeth’s time at Pemberley and afterwards. It’s actually something I’m invested in right now, so it’s been nice to see it climbing past most of my old fics.
Don’t take this the wrong way but it’s very encouraging to see a writer I admire who has similarly hmmm feelings about their most popular works on AO3
Oh, thanks! My feelings are certainly ‘hmmm’ wrt a lot of them ... some came out of an unpleasant part of my life like Season of Courtship, some are things I wrote on the side while I was working on other ideas that seemed more important, some were mostly just getting an idea out, and a few are things where I was uncomplicatedly excited to write the idea and more or less happy with the results. It’s definitely a mishmash.
hello!! I was wondering if you have any plans to continue writing for the borgias? not to pressure you or anything!! we get dark, only to shine is my favorite fic ever and I reread it all the time. happy new year!💓
Belatedly, thank you very much! I’m glad to hear that it’s still enjoyable, even stopping in kind of the middle of nowhere.
I’d like to say I’d definitely come back, since it was probably the most enjoyable fandom I’ve ever been in, but I honestly don’t know. These days, I spend my fannish time going pretty much wherever the impulse of the moment takes me. Sometimes it takes me back to previous fandoms—I always go flitting back to Austen/Tolkien/Star Wars, for instance. So I could end up wandering back. But also, I might not.
Sorry—I’d like to be clearer, but that’s about where things stand.
I've been rereading wgdots cause i wanted to immerse myself in your story again, and I got to the chapter where jeronima passes away, and I basically burst into tears. Not only is that chapter as beautifully written as the others, but my dad had passed away a only few years ago from cancer, and the way you wrote isabel and lucrezia made me think of the day he died, and i couldnt help to start to cry. Your writing is powerful, and while it brought back painful memories, I love it so much ❤️
Oh, thank you very much! I’m very sorry about your father.
The lower I get, the higher I’ll climb
And I will wonder why
I get dark, only to shine
—“Numb,” Marina and the Diamonds
TW for (canon) incest:
The one where Cesare detours to Pesaro to see Lucrezia after his trip to Florence, the two of them slip into an affair while conspiring against Sforza, and soon they're conspiring against the world.
(The Borgias | Cesare/Lucrezia | S1 AU with a side of history | M)
