20 Questions For Fic Writers
Thank you for the tag @ofdemonsandangels! Finally got me to babble about writing, eh 😂
As always, I won't be tagging anyone but if you see this on your dash and feel like doing it, feel personally tagged by me!
⭐ How many works do you have on AO3?
Currently twelve. All finished, but there's one in particular that's part of a collection of stand-alone one-shots that I'd like to add more into sometime, hmm.
⭐ What's your total AO3 wordcount?
⭐ What fandoms do you write for?
At the moment, it's mostly Bungo Stray Dogs (it only took me 7 years to realize I could write fanfic for this one), but I also have some Genshin Impact works and one D.Gray-Man work posted. There's a long, looong doc (38 pages, 16,700 words) in my WIPs for DGM.
⭐ What are your top five fics by kudos?
The Meaning of Sharing Happiness ➡️ To Hold Dear and To Own ➡️ God's play ➡️ Just a Short Break ➡️ A Moment to Cherish
⭐ Do you respond to comments?
I might take a while to get to it, but I always read all the comments I get and am always extremely grateful that people took their time to write something; so I usually worry about giving each reply the proper attention and if my gratitude is translating well into my words whenever I get to reply.
⭐ What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Hmm, I haven't one of these. I only wrote mild angst once and even that got resolved within the specific work. I don't see myself writing anything like this but it might depend on your definitions of what's an "angst ending"?
⭐ What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
Definitely New Pages in Our Very Own Novel - my three-chapter wedding and honeymoon fanfic written for dazatsu week this year. I was pressed by time constraints to make it in time, but I poured a lot of love and care into this one, merely because they deserve to be happy and at peace; so many of the moments in this fic are light or meaningful in some way, but still lovely, all the way to the ending.
⭐ Do you get hate on your fics?
Not that I know, thankfully!
⭐ Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I do, have some posted and I'm still rather proud of them! Describing "what kind" is a little hard (no pun intended) because my ideas usually stem from the thought of "I want to see this specific thing happening so I'll make it". I went into kinkier territory once, but in general, I think what drives me to write smut is having the people involved getting down and dirty but in a passionate way, if that makes sense? I like to make their love for each other show in how they handle each other but I also like the couples to be unapologetically into it, show off their sensuality and personality while at it. A good mix of sexy and lovely.
⭐ Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
My brother in Christ, I already have trouble managing people from one universe in only one work. So, no 😅
⭐ Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Hopefully not?! I'd be very upset.
⭐ Have you ever had a fic translated?
If it's been translated by myself, does it count? I translated one of my fics to my native language (Brazilian Portuguese) via voice call with my little sister once, she's still studying English but she was adamant on reading something from me, so I translated that one for her. It was a very fun experience, actually!
⭐ Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Not yet and I don't think I ever will; I have such a demanding pacing for writing that I'd overworry about inconveniencing the other person.
⭐ What's your all-time favorite ship?
No matter if it's in regard to posted fics, or in my general opinion, my answer is the same: Dazatsu (Dazai Osamu x Nakajima Atsushi) means the world to me.
Story with this ship began years ago but like I mentioned in question 3, it took me a lot of time to realize I could write for them as well. Every single fic I write for them has a dedication to my spouse in the notes, but that's the most I'll say because trust me, this story is LONG haha
If we're talking about the amount of rent-free living inside my head, then it's a tie between them, ChuuAki (or ChuuSano, not sure which ship name people use mostly nowadays for Nakahara Chuuya x Yosano Akiko) and ZhongVen (Zhongli x Venti from GI). I definitely plan to write more for chuuaki at some point; they all live happily in a three story building inside my mind 😂
⭐ What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
There's a rather extensive GI WIP (for Lumine x Noelle) in my folder that I feel doubtful toward purely because I'm so uncertain about it; when I started writing that one, we were only at the start of the story of the game so things looked very different from now. I'll need to rework and scrap many things in that one...
⭐ What are your writing strengths?
One thing that I put a lot of attention and care into, and that has been praised time and time again, much to my happiness, is character portrayal. I've been told on various occasions that my characterization of the characters felt close to the original to the point people were able to easily picture them doing and saying the things described in my works, how I got their "voice" right and how enjoyable it was to read because of it. It never fails to put a smile on my face, and I've replied to comments more than once saying that these are the best kind of praises I could get from anyone.
⭐ What are your writing weaknesses?
Not sure how much of this is a weakness or simply a personality defect, but: obstination and self-imposed pressure. I won't be able to relax until I have finished a work I feel I must finish, because I'm so used to not having free time for my hobbies that I have this - usually extremely self-destructive - mentality that goes "I must do all of it now while I still have the chance since I don't know when I'll have time again"; which means I tend to get no breaks at all, will sacrifice sleep hours to work on it, and destroy my back all for the sake of a condition my head imposed on me.
Probably not the answer you were expecting, but it's what I struggle with the most; this ride or die mentality born from perfectionism and a little (?) pinch of anxiety.
⭐ Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?
If it's a language I can speak, then it's not a problem, though I haven't had the chance to do so (yet).
But here's a random language trivia for you: I tend to think a lot in Japanese for all my BSD fics to make their dialogues as accurate as possible even with the work being written in English - for example, there are certain puns/jokes that exist in English but either don't work or don't exist in the Japanese language, so I avoid adding them; things like these. It's small attention to detail no one but me would know about, but it's something I do because it matters a lot to me.
If it's a language I can't speak, or a cultural aspect I'm unsure of, I either ask a friend or delve into those "Ask A (insert nationality here)" subreddits. It's always a riveting learning experience!
⭐ First fandom you wrote for?
Officially published and first ever: that would be D.Gray-Man. Though Jesus Christ, I would not show my 15 yo's crazy DGM fic full of nonsense and OCs. There were even ships in there that I can't bear to listen the name of nowadays. How the times change 😂
⭐ Favorite fic you've written?
I'll cheat my way on this answer, because I can't pick just one.
SFW: New Pages in Our Very Own Novel & Healing Touch
These two are undoubtely the ones I've gotten the most praise for as well as very, very long comments that had me giggling and kicking my feet like I was a teenager again; but what I like the most about them is, respectively:
New Pages: I did a lot of research for New Pages. I actually used Google Maps to trace their routes during their stay in the Ginza Prefecture for the honeymoon, just so I would know if they'd need to take the train or if they could just walk to their destinations. One thing that I've always loved in BSD are the real-life places references, so I went for that: I referenced real-life places as well, and even the hotel I picked was also inspired by a real-life one, located in the same place. I paid a special amount of attention to landscapes and their descriptions and it was as fun as it was exhausting! haha The contents of the fic are still the most important, but the experience of writing and doing research for it, learning more and viewing so many pictures to describe things, was one of a kind. I'll never forget it.
Healing Touch: This fic was born from a wish of mine to do a certain character study, and I'm still proud of how it came out. Dazai as a character is extremely complex and we all know it, but I wanted to, at the very least, scrape at the surface of his humanity hidden underneath all those layers - all the while I worked on Atsushi's perception of things and the way he dealt with his own sense of sadness and grief and used those to try and understand Dazai's. I can't really say much about it because it'll just sound like a lot of babbling out of context, but I feel like I did a good job on those bits (it's not the entire focus of the fic).
NSFW: Baring Stripes and Bandages
I'm sorry, I'm just a furry.
Jokes aside, this was the one time I went for an approach that explored some kinks that aren't too vanilla and I'm still quite proud of how it came out. We - my spouse and I, this fic was born from a headcanon of his - often joke saying it's my magnum opus, and then it's just a kinky fanfic 😂 But I'm still so proud!
