Writing meme responses
Thanks for the questions so far - I'll happily take more questions from the meme, if you like to put them to me
These are for beer_good_foamy, slaymesoftly, beelikejvelvetwhipsparrow2000curiouswombatgoldenusagighostyouknow27snogged kerry_220 - thanks for playing!
C. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?
Hmm. Not really. I enjoy writing weird pairings and cracky themes. I’ve written mpreg, a/b/o, incest... I tend to turn something that I find uncomfortable into something I *am* comfortable with. That said, plenty of kinks I don’t get and won’t touch; YKINMK, and that’s fine. I’m not very interested in AUs where there’s slavery, for example, which knocks out all kinds of things that potentially go along with that setting. And I don’t think I’d ever make unrelated characters into relations purely to give them an incest plot. I am usually wrong about that kind of prediction though.
F. Share one of your weaknesses.
As a writer? Loads, especially around plotting (see below around tools). But I think my worst weakness is that I’m terrible at taking criticism. It’s one reason I don’t post WIPs, because I can lose confidence in a fic before I’ve finished if someone is unenthused. So I still don’t work with a beta, which is probably holding me back (it’s definitely holding me back from writing hockey fic, where I would make a lot of Britspeak errors).
G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
The hangar lock ain't exactly romance central, but there's plenty of sex for sale here. Sixteen months on a freighter'd make any spacer think pretty much anything other than his own hand and his own skanky crew looks like a banquet. Jensen's seen it often, and done it enough to not condemn Nix and Wack for the glee with which they pounce on a pair of rank-looking nightbirds, all cheap stink, ragged net and slick silver painted on mouth and tits.
These days, Jensen thinks first. He thinks about the high likelihood of disease among these unfortunate whores, and the even higher rate of sleazebag pimps and lovers who hang about them, ready to part a careless spacer from his hard-earned. Now, Jensen can handle himself in any fight you care to name - last guy to find that out died with a blade in his eyeball, and a look of great surprise - but these days, he's older, more cautious, more tired. And, given the choice, he'll mostly handle himself, and save himself the trouble of involving others.
Which is handy, in deep space. Jensen's made a lot of money, lately, by not caring so much if he never sees nor touches another human.
So that ain't what's happening here. Yet Jensen ain't moving on.
This one's a kid. Well, maybe eighteen, nineteen, but he's all angles and legs, not near grown, though Jensen hopes he don't get much taller than his current beanpole self. He's pretty enough atop the heights, foxy eyes and wide mouth begging for dick. (Verbally, as well as metaphorically, so Jensen gets no points for symbolism there.) But he ain't Jensen's type. Whatever that was, back when it mattered.
And yet Jensen has stopped, and is standing.
"Rates are reasonable, and I'm willing, sir. You're gonna love how willing I am." The kid smiles, and it's sleazy enough, but it's also naïve enough to be nearly real. The same way the kid's clothes are tight denim and silver skin, nipples on parade and dick outlined clear as day, and yet he wears them like Jensen's kid brother would, apparently all unconscious of the picture he makes.
I picked this after choosing my answer to the next one, but it’s a very similar case: a short fic that spawned a verse, because the relationship, the voice, the setup here scream to be continued and expanded. (This is Three Steps Past Triton: http://brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com/397923.html - sequel coming soon) Jensen’s voice here is so rough, weary, cynical but not mean, and it has a rhythm to it (which, let me tell you was an utter bitch to write for 26k words, but I’m glad I tried). Writing sleaze is one thing, but writing sleaze from the POV of someone who’s not in the mood… I dunno, I just like how clearly this captured a moment.
H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
“Well, let me know when you need more of the text. All right? I can get to it whenever you need.”
“Yeah. I know. You got our backs.” She sounded tired.
“Yes, we have. I have. Take care of yourself, Faith. I need you to be strong.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.” Offhand. She’d heard him notice her vulnerability, and was reacting, trying to cover. “We’re five by-“
“Oh bloody hell. I thought you’d stopped saying that.”
She laughed: better. “It’s my other thing, G. You know that.”
“Yes. I know.” His smile was audible, and Faith reciprocated.
“Go back to sleep G. We’ll be okay.”
“I know you will. Good hunting.” Breezy good wishes, she would accept.
“Sure thing. Stay busy.” Offhand again, but happier with it. Strengthened by the contact with Giles.
“I always do. Love you.” He couldn’t resist it; but she never answered that one. Not on the phone, anyway. Just a soft “Yeah” and she was gone.
This is from Long Distance, which is the first ficlet in the Rulesverse, and is entirely a single phone call. I’m proud of it partly because it gives you two strong, very distinct voices, and I think it does capture both Faith and Giles voices pretty well. But I’m also proud because it’s tough to sustain dialogue enough to make a decent story, but this one not only did that but set up a whole universe, and particularly a relationship, that clearly wanted writing.
N. What's the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?
Tsuki no bara said ‘write what you know’, and I agree with that - but also ‘show, don’t tell’. There’s nothing actually wrong with either of those pieces of advice, as long as they’re seen as indicators of what might be helpful rather than iron rules that must never be broken. All show and no tell can make for a very opaque story, especially if it’s by someone who is terrified of telling/explaining anything. And a strong narrator can be great fun, though admittedly it can also be the most infuriating thing if you dislike it.
P. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Aaaaaaargh. No. I might well stop writing. Spike/Buffy, I suppose, but I would miss the AU possibilities of J2 a great deal. But I need some mythos to kick around, and RPF doesn’t offer that. But Spuffy is not the be all and end all of Buffy fandom for me, and it would be such a wrench.
R. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
No. I really don’t. I’ll scribble a few notes at the end of what I’m working on where I have ideas for what is coming next, but they’re as often rogue bits of dialogue I want to keep as anything else. I’ve found it extremely important not to block everything in detail because then I get bored. I write in sequence (and if need be go back and edit something in, or leave a gap for a Thing that I haven’t yet decided on). Obviously, this is why I struggle with complex plotting… I even found with asking for weird pairings and matching them against bingo squares was too much planning - I’d write the first and think it was all finished.
U. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
Write once, edit once, post. Unless it’s a big fic, in which case it will be 2 or 3 edits and there will be gaps/notes about rewrites/decisions needed, so I’ll have to do a last full read through. But I mostly write as you read; like tools and worksheets, heavy edits where you rewrite the structure entirely aren’t things that help me to produce something I feel better about - more something I want to throw away.
AA. How do you feel about collaborations?
I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with artists. Partly because Cassiopeia7 is the best art collaborator ever and I’ve worked with her more than others. But also because it’s very interesting to work in two different media and try to ping ideas around when you’re talking different creative languages. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but I’ve had a lot of fun that way.
I’ve never collaborated on fic with anyone (apart from 2 lines which started Quinara on penguin fic). I suspect I’d struggle - I get a bit compliant on joint projects, or else discouraged, and either could flatten a fic. Also I write really fast and move on, so I might well bug the hell out of someone who likes to work differently.
AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much
Oooh, that’s tricky. Have one from each fandom:
Sparrow2000 is one of the few Buffy writers where I’m really hooked on what she’s writing now rather than being in awe of her back catalogue. She’s way too overlooked by people who won’t read Xander, which is a shame, as she’s writing such subtle, creepy, fascinatingly canon-adjacent AU right now. (I am one chapter down on her current fic and it’s bugging me as I type)
In J2, I get no points for originality for saying Deirdre_c. She writes wonderful, nuanced, chunky but romantic fics. And By all means, Rome is probably the fic I return to most often for sheer heartburning pleasure: http://deirdre-c.livejournal.com/357261.html.
In hockey RPF I could name a round dozen great writers (just in the juggernaut pairing, browse this list of the most-bookmarked fics on AO3 and you’ll hit them all and be drawn in FOREVER because there is too much good fic in this fandom: http://the--northface.tumblr.com/post/88414986967/kane-toews-by-tropes), but I’m going to go with old friends and say Snickfic. She’s dragged me towards this fandom, like previous fandoms and pairings, by having an interesting, nuanced, delicate approach to people and to tropes, and dammit she’s started writing that in hockey too.
AI. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
Oh yeah! Only for FPF, though, as a rule. My fictional fandoms kill and resurrect so many characters, and indeed I ignore the killings off of characters so often, I feel like it’s open season. RPF not so much, even radically AU RPF. It feels odd to me, ‘killing’ real people.
AJ. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
Really, it’s LJ in many ways. I have the best conversations here. But I like AO3 for getting broader audiences, for allowing serendipity, and making it easier for people to filter and find. I like the tagging and so forth too. And I do like kudos, where people don’t have to think of a great comment but just register ‘I was here, I enjoyed myself’.
Tumblr btw drives me insane and I only ever find fic on it thanks to rec lists. Why and how, internet, have we gone backwards on discoverability that way?
AL. Talk about a review that made your day.
Honestly, any review that engages with the fic at all is a day-maker (I also like the ‘read and enjoyed’ feedback, don’t think I don’t, but people who I’ve made think? Winning). I loved the responses to my big bang this year: http://brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com/444673.html. Partly because it was my first big bang, but also because so many people were either doubtful about the premise and then were converted; or were complementary about the plot and action, which I’m not so great with; or said things about getting the characters - both Jared, who we only see through Jensen’s POV and could be a cipher, and Jensen himself, who is not a forgivable character but they could still emphathise with. I felt like that showed I did what I’d hoped to do with the fic, all around, and I’d been very doubtful before I posted whether any of that would work!
These are for beer_good_foamy, slaymesoftly, beelikejvelvetwhipsparrow2000curiouswombatgoldenusagighostyouknow27snogged kerry_220 - thanks for playing!
C. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?
Hmm. Not really. I enjoy writing weird pairings and cracky themes. I’ve written mpreg, a/b/o, incest... I tend to turn something that I find uncomfortable into something I *am* comfortable with. That said, plenty of kinks I don’t get and won’t touch; YKINMK, and that’s fine. I’m not very interested in AUs where there’s slavery, for example, which knocks out all kinds of things that potentially go along with that setting. And I don’t think I’d ever make unrelated characters into relations purely to give them an incest plot. I am usually wrong about that kind of prediction though.
F. Share one of your weaknesses.
As a writer? Loads, especially around plotting (see below around tools). But I think my worst weakness is that I’m terrible at taking criticism. It’s one reason I don’t post WIPs, because I can lose confidence in a fic before I’ve finished if someone is unenthused. So I still don’t work with a beta, which is probably holding me back (it’s definitely holding me back from writing hockey fic, where I would make a lot of Britspeak errors).
G. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
The hangar lock ain't exactly romance central, but there's plenty of sex for sale here. Sixteen months on a freighter'd make any spacer think pretty much anything other than his own hand and his own skanky crew looks like a banquet. Jensen's seen it often, and done it enough to not condemn Nix and Wack for the glee with which they pounce on a pair of rank-looking nightbirds, all cheap stink, ragged net and slick silver painted on mouth and tits.
These days, Jensen thinks first. He thinks about the high likelihood of disease among these unfortunate whores, and the even higher rate of sleazebag pimps and lovers who hang about them, ready to part a careless spacer from his hard-earned. Now, Jensen can handle himself in any fight you care to name - last guy to find that out died with a blade in his eyeball, and a look of great surprise - but these days, he's older, more cautious, more tired. And, given the choice, he'll mostly handle himself, and save himself the trouble of involving others.
Which is handy, in deep space. Jensen's made a lot of money, lately, by not caring so much if he never sees nor touches another human.
So that ain't what's happening here. Yet Jensen ain't moving on.
This one's a kid. Well, maybe eighteen, nineteen, but he's all angles and legs, not near grown, though Jensen hopes he don't get much taller than his current beanpole self. He's pretty enough atop the heights, foxy eyes and wide mouth begging for dick. (Verbally, as well as metaphorically, so Jensen gets no points for symbolism there.) But he ain't Jensen's type. Whatever that was, back when it mattered.
And yet Jensen has stopped, and is standing.
"Rates are reasonable, and I'm willing, sir. You're gonna love how willing I am." The kid smiles, and it's sleazy enough, but it's also naïve enough to be nearly real. The same way the kid's clothes are tight denim and silver skin, nipples on parade and dick outlined clear as day, and yet he wears them like Jensen's kid brother would, apparently all unconscious of the picture he makes.
I picked this after choosing my answer to the next one, but it’s a very similar case: a short fic that spawned a verse, because the relationship, the voice, the setup here scream to be continued and expanded. (This is Three Steps Past Triton: http://brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com/397923.html - sequel coming soon) Jensen’s voice here is so rough, weary, cynical but not mean, and it has a rhythm to it (which, let me tell you was an utter bitch to write for 26k words, but I’m glad I tried). Writing sleaze is one thing, but writing sleaze from the POV of someone who’s not in the mood… I dunno, I just like how clearly this captured a moment.
H. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.
“Well, let me know when you need more of the text. All right? I can get to it whenever you need.”
“Yeah. I know. You got our backs.” She sounded tired.
“Yes, we have. I have. Take care of yourself, Faith. I need you to be strong.”
“Thanks for the pep talk.” Offhand. She’d heard him notice her vulnerability, and was reacting, trying to cover. “We’re five by-“
“Oh bloody hell. I thought you’d stopped saying that.”
She laughed: better. “It’s my other thing, G. You know that.”
“Yes. I know.” His smile was audible, and Faith reciprocated.
“Go back to sleep G. We’ll be okay.”
“I know you will. Good hunting.” Breezy good wishes, she would accept.
“Sure thing. Stay busy.” Offhand again, but happier with it. Strengthened by the contact with Giles.
“I always do. Love you.” He couldn’t resist it; but she never answered that one. Not on the phone, anyway. Just a soft “Yeah” and she was gone.
This is from Long Distance, which is the first ficlet in the Rulesverse, and is entirely a single phone call. I’m proud of it partly because it gives you two strong, very distinct voices, and I think it does capture both Faith and Giles voices pretty well. But I’m also proud because it’s tough to sustain dialogue enough to make a decent story, but this one not only did that but set up a whole universe, and particularly a relationship, that clearly wanted writing.
N. What's the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?
Tsuki no bara said ‘write what you know’, and I agree with that - but also ‘show, don’t tell’. There’s nothing actually wrong with either of those pieces of advice, as long as they’re seen as indicators of what might be helpful rather than iron rules that must never be broken. All show and no tell can make for a very opaque story, especially if it’s by someone who is terrified of telling/explaining anything. And a strong narrator can be great fun, though admittedly it can also be the most infuriating thing if you dislike it.
P. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Aaaaaaargh. No. I might well stop writing. Spike/Buffy, I suppose, but I would miss the AU possibilities of J2 a great deal. But I need some mythos to kick around, and RPF doesn’t offer that. But Spuffy is not the be all and end all of Buffy fandom for me, and it would be such a wrench.
R. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
No. I really don’t. I’ll scribble a few notes at the end of what I’m working on where I have ideas for what is coming next, but they’re as often rogue bits of dialogue I want to keep as anything else. I’ve found it extremely important not to block everything in detail because then I get bored. I write in sequence (and if need be go back and edit something in, or leave a gap for a Thing that I haven’t yet decided on). Obviously, this is why I struggle with complex plotting… I even found with asking for weird pairings and matching them against bingo squares was too much planning - I’d write the first and think it was all finished.
U. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
Write once, edit once, post. Unless it’s a big fic, in which case it will be 2 or 3 edits and there will be gaps/notes about rewrites/decisions needed, so I’ll have to do a last full read through. But I mostly write as you read; like tools and worksheets, heavy edits where you rewrite the structure entirely aren’t things that help me to produce something I feel better about - more something I want to throw away.
AA. How do you feel about collaborations?
I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with artists. Partly because Cassiopeia7 is the best art collaborator ever and I’ve worked with her more than others. But also because it’s very interesting to work in two different media and try to ping ideas around when you’re talking different creative languages. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but I’ve had a lot of fun that way.
I’ve never collaborated on fic with anyone (apart from 2 lines which started Quinara on penguin fic). I suspect I’d struggle - I get a bit compliant on joint projects, or else discouraged, and either could flatten a fic. Also I write really fast and move on, so I might well bug the hell out of someone who likes to work differently.
AB. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much
Oooh, that’s tricky. Have one from each fandom:
Sparrow2000 is one of the few Buffy writers where I’m really hooked on what she’s writing now rather than being in awe of her back catalogue. She’s way too overlooked by people who won’t read Xander, which is a shame, as she’s writing such subtle, creepy, fascinatingly canon-adjacent AU right now. (I am one chapter down on her current fic and it’s bugging me as I type)
In J2, I get no points for originality for saying Deirdre_c. She writes wonderful, nuanced, chunky but romantic fics. And By all means, Rome is probably the fic I return to most often for sheer heartburning pleasure: http://deirdre-c.livejournal.com/357261.html.
In hockey RPF I could name a round dozen great writers (just in the juggernaut pairing, browse this list of the most-bookmarked fics on AO3 and you’ll hit them all and be drawn in FOREVER because there is too much good fic in this fandom: http://the--northface.tumblr.com/post/88414986967/kane-toews-by-tropes), but I’m going to go with old friends and say Snickfic. She’s dragged me towards this fandom, like previous fandoms and pairings, by having an interesting, nuanced, delicate approach to people and to tropes, and dammit she’s started writing that in hockey too.
AI. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
Oh yeah! Only for FPF, though, as a rule. My fictional fandoms kill and resurrect so many characters, and indeed I ignore the killings off of characters so often, I feel like it’s open season. RPF not so much, even radically AU RPF. It feels odd to me, ‘killing’ real people.
AJ. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
Really, it’s LJ in many ways. I have the best conversations here. But I like AO3 for getting broader audiences, for allowing serendipity, and making it easier for people to filter and find. I like the tagging and so forth too. And I do like kudos, where people don’t have to think of a great comment but just register ‘I was here, I enjoyed myself’.
Tumblr btw drives me insane and I only ever find fic on it thanks to rec lists. Why and how, internet, have we gone backwards on discoverability that way?
AL. Talk about a review that made your day.
Honestly, any review that engages with the fic at all is a day-maker (I also like the ‘read and enjoyed’ feedback, don’t think I don’t, but people who I’ve made think? Winning). I loved the responses to my big bang this year: http://brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com/444673.html. Partly because it was my first big bang, but also because so many people were either doubtful about the premise and then were converted; or were complementary about the plot and action, which I’m not so great with; or said things about getting the characters - both Jared, who we only see through Jensen’s POV and could be a cipher, and Jensen himself, who is not a forgivable character but they could still emphathise with. I felt like that showed I did what I’d hoped to do with the fic, all around, and I’d been very doubtful before I posted whether any of that would work!