20 Questions for Fic Writers
Dec. 18th, 2023 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeTagged by verecunda over on Tumblr—thank you! :D
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
88 excluding as-yet-unrevealed collections, but some of those are podfic, so for the purposes of a fic writer meme, 82.
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
416,274 (again excluding unrevealed works). Over six-and-a-bit years, I don't think that's too bad.
3. What fandoms do you write for?
At the moment chiefly the Jacobite And/Or D. K. Broster Extended Universe fandoms; in the past Raffles and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, to which I still sometimes return; and a long string of one-off (or two-off) fandoms largely written for exchanges, mostly old books and traditional songs.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
The first three were all written for Yuletide, and Susanna Clarke's books are popular in Yuletide! And the other two are older fics which have had time to accumulate kudos—I think they are pretty good as highlights of my writing in their respective fandoms.
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Yes! Partly because it's polite to say thank you, mostly because I enjoy talking to people about my ideas and writing process and blorbos.
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Most of my fics have happy endings, actually! I do enjoy angst, but perhaps more as a reader than as a writer. Lovely on the Water (Raffles) is pretty tragic, but all the angst comes from the knowledge of what's canonically going to happen next, so I can't really take credit for it. So it's probably No Man Can Shun It (Flight of the Heron), in which I take the canon angst, drag the focus determinedly back to it and then make it worse.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
…Most of my fics have happy endings! :D But probably the most conclusive happily-ever-after is On That One Spot of Earth, in which my OTP grow old and do botany together.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Not so far! It's one of the advantages of writing in tiny obscure fandoms, I think.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I have a couple of borderline M-rated fics but no real smut. Perhaps I will some day!
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
I do, but I think they've all been fairly sensible combinations of canons set in the same area and period (in one case, characters who canonically live in the same building), or otherwise similar in mood and themes. If we expand the question to encompass fusions, I suppose The More Ardent, featuring Raffles as Carmilla, was a bit more out-there :D
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
I suppose with the amount of bulk-reposting, data-scraping etc. that happens on the internet there probably has been something, but nothing blatant enough for me to hear about it individually.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes,![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
PyshechkaPushkova has translated some of my Kidnapped fics into Russian. It's very cool!
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
I've never co-written in the sense of more than one person doing the actual writing, but I did collaborate withluzula to write I'll Mount the Air on Swallow's Wings ('Song Composed in August' by Robert Burns) as part of ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
pod_together—we worked out the story between us, then I did the writing and she recorded it, with various back-and-forth along the way. It was great fun and a really interesting experience writing something to be read out loud like that.
14. What's your all time favourite ship?
That's a secret.
15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I have a couple of abandoned WIPs that arguably fit that description, but none of the reasons why I won't finish them are things I can talk about here. Oh dear, sorry for being so mysterious.
16. What are your writing strengths?
Landscape and nature descriptions; prose, especially in the old-fashioned, historical book canon pastiche style.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Characterisation and character voices; dialogue.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
Usually unnecessary (if you're in omniscient POV or the POV character understands the language, just say '"Translated dialogue", he said in French'; if the POV character doesn't understand, they shouldn't be able to tell the reader more than 'he said something in French') and confusing. Occasional short phrases in another language, where it's in-character and the meaning is clear from context, are OK, and can be an especially good choice where translating would lose the specific nuance of the words or the significance of saying this in particular in that language.
Exception for actually bilingual stories, obviously, which can be a pretty cool thing.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell!
20. Favourite fic you've written?
Well, that is not a very fair question to ask any writer, is it? But I think I am the most proud of That Loyalty of Friendship; it was a lot of work, and I like how it's ended up :)
If you would like to answer these questions, please consider yourself tagged!
verecunda over on Tumblr—thank you! :D1. How many works do you have on AO3?
88 excluding as-yet-unrevealed collections, but some of those are podfic, so for the purposes of a fic writer meme, 82.
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
416,274 (again excluding unrevealed works). Over six-and-a-bit years, I don't think that's too bad.
3. What fandoms do you write for?
At the moment chiefly the Jacobite And/Or D. K. Broster Extended Universe fandoms; in the past Raffles and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, to which I still sometimes return; and a long string of one-off (or two-off) fandoms largely written for exchanges, mostly old books and traditional songs.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
- When the Winds Begin to Sing (Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell)
- Concerning the Language of Birds (Piranesi)
- The Education of a Magician (JSMN)
- Under the Jewelled Sky (Raffles)
- Iron Enough to Make a Nail (JSMN)
The first three were all written for Yuletide, and Susanna Clarke's books are popular in Yuletide! And the other two are older fics which have had time to accumulate kudos—I think they are pretty good as highlights of my writing in their respective fandoms.
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Yes! Partly because it's polite to say thank you, mostly because I enjoy talking to people about my ideas and writing process and blorbos.
6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Most of my fics have happy endings, actually! I do enjoy angst, but perhaps more as a reader than as a writer. Lovely on the Water (Raffles) is pretty tragic, but all the angst comes from the knowledge of what's canonically going to happen next, so I can't really take credit for it. So it's probably No Man Can Shun It (Flight of the Heron), in which I take the canon angst, drag the focus determinedly back to it and then make it worse.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
…Most of my fics have happy endings! :D But probably the most conclusive happily-ever-after is On That One Spot of Earth, in which my OTP grow old and do botany together.
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Not so far! It's one of the advantages of writing in tiny obscure fandoms, I think.
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I have a couple of borderline M-rated fics but no real smut. Perhaps I will some day!
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
I do, but I think they've all been fairly sensible combinations of canons set in the same area and period (in one case, characters who canonically live in the same building), or otherwise similar in mood and themes. If we expand the question to encompass fusions, I suppose The More Ardent, featuring Raffles as Carmilla, was a bit more out-there :D
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
I suppose with the amount of bulk-reposting, data-scraping etc. that happens on the internet there probably has been something, but nothing blatant enough for me to hear about it individually.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes,
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
I've never co-written in the sense of more than one person doing the actual writing, but I did collaborate with
luzula to write I'll Mount the Air on Swallow's Wings ('Song Composed in August' by Robert Burns) as part of pod_together—we worked out the story between us, then I did the writing and she recorded it, with various back-and-forth along the way. It was great fun and a really interesting experience writing something to be read out loud like that.14. What's your all time favourite ship?
That's a secret.
15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I have a couple of abandoned WIPs that arguably fit that description, but none of the reasons why I won't finish them are things I can talk about here. Oh dear, sorry for being so mysterious.
16. What are your writing strengths?
Landscape and nature descriptions; prose, especially in the old-fashioned, historical book canon pastiche style.
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Characterisation and character voices; dialogue.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?
Usually unnecessary (if you're in omniscient POV or the POV character understands the language, just say '"Translated dialogue", he said in French'; if the POV character doesn't understand, they shouldn't be able to tell the reader more than 'he said something in French') and confusing. Occasional short phrases in another language, where it's in-character and the meaning is clear from context, are OK, and can be an especially good choice where translating would lose the specific nuance of the words or the significance of saying this in particular in that language.
Exception for actually bilingual stories, obviously, which can be a pretty cool thing.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell!
20. Favourite fic you've written?
Well, that is not a very fair question to ask any writer, is it? But I think I am the most proud of That Loyalty of Friendship; it was a lot of work, and I like how it's ended up :)
If you would like to answer these questions, please consider yourself tagged!
no subject
Date: Dec. 18th, 2023 06:35 pm (UTC)make it worsemake it better.There, fixed it for you. ;-) I do love that story. You give the canon tragedy meaning and weight that it never had in the original, imo.
Goodness, you are being very mysterious! I'm sorry for whatever thing soured you on your WIPs; it's always a shame when a story you loved enough to begin can't be completed.
And I'm looking forward to reading the final cut of That Loyalty of Friendship. I have other things I need to finish first (one for you! I'm nearly finished!), but I'm looking forward to curling up with it as a treat.
no subject
Date: Dec. 20th, 2023 01:29 pm (UTC)Thank you! It is one of my favourites...
I also have a few old 'WIPs', usually planned in the wobbly stage of getting into a new fandom, that floundered and never got further than planning—but I tend to end up reusing ideas from them for later, more successful stories and that's why they never get written in themselves, so they're still getting somewhere.
Aww, I hope you enjoy the finished fic when you get to it :D
I have other things I need to finish first (one for you! I'm nearly finished!)
Ah, that! Excellent, thank you :D
no subject
Date: Dec. 19th, 2023 07:49 pm (UTC)Solidarity on writing (mostly) happy endings. :D
no subject
Date: Dec. 20th, 2023 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Dec. 20th, 2023 03:44 pm (UTC)ETA: Oh wait, you're a podficcer now too! We could do, like, an epistolary fic for pod_together where I write the letters that you are to read and you write the letters that I read. : D
no subject
Date: Dec. 21st, 2023 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Dec. 22nd, 2023 08:36 pm (UTC)