My Year in Writing
Favourite work: (out of all your projects, finished or unfinished)
Original - These Haunted Hills (unfinished, but if you want to beta read ask. It’s an LGBT paranormal set in the Hocking Hills
Fan Fic - It’s a tie between Come Undone (Prodigal Son), not quite finished and Like Stone (Angel the series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Work you're most proud of: (which is not necessarily the same as your favourite work)
Fanfic Come Undone (Prodigal Son) because this is a new to me fandom (starting in October) and this one just has amazing reviews.
Original Ghosts, Gangsters and Garland It’s my holly poly Christmas novella set in a 1920s era former gangster hotel and a group of polyamorous monster hunters, (Zia and Dolores are married and Kane is their boyfriend)
Your most under-appreciated work: (the work you think is great but which hasn't got a lot of attention)
Angel the series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom: Devour the Small Granted this has only been up a few weeks so it might need a little more time. Maybe I should have picked Hell is For Children though it’s a Halloween story so it’s not been out long either.
Prodigal Son Fandom- Of Snowmen and Hot Chocolate I think this one proves we like hurting poor Malcolm and less excited by sweet stories. Ha.
Original: Boston
Just a little something I’ve started for a story I started this time last year about monster hunters. I don’t expect original fiction to do that well on AO3
Your most over-appreciated work: (the work that's been more popular than you would have expected)
An Unlikely Source I tossed off this little Midsomer Murder ficlet for a comment_fic story and it took off. Shocked the hell out of me.
First Edition It’s a Prodigal Son AU and my shock with this one is that a) I wrote an AU (I’m good with canon divergence but true AUs aren’t my thing)
Favorite title: (the title that just perfectly fits your project)
Original - Ghosts, Gangsters and Garland It truly sums up the story
Fanfic - 2 A.M. Aftermath (Prodigal Son)
Like Stone (Angel the series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Least favorite title: (the title you stuck on the project at the last minute, in desperation, because you couldn't think of anything else) Caring Can Be Hard Prodigal Son. It’s just lame and that’s by my standards. I think most of my titles are pretty lame.
Where do your titles come from and what type of title do you use most often? (a quote from the work itself? quotes from classic literature or poetry? a quote from a song? a joke? one word? article-adjective-noun?)
Often song lyrics, poetry and classic literature. I think that might be why I liked These Haunted Hills so much. It came from none of those things.
What kind of working titles do you use? Simple and straightforward ("Medieval Murder Mystery Book 1") or cryptic and crazy ("Project from hell version 3 with added sass")? Or do you always come up with the definitive title as soon as you start writing?
Half of it ends up a with whatever professional open call or fanfic writing challenge’s title is. When holidays attack (Ghosts Gangsters and Garland), spook_me (Hell is for Children)
Most unsuitable/funniest working title: (the title you yourself use to refer to the project when you're thinking about it, but which you've no intention of using as an official title, e.g. Sexy Shenanigans in Regency England, Steampunk Sherlock Holmes with Crocodiles, Crazy Long Western Space Opera Version 3)
This year? Spicy advent’s title was just spelled wrong spiecy (god knows why). I was pretty good this year but I’ve had some with things like sexytimes threesome
Weirdest thing you had to research for a writing project: How long can the scent of sex linger in a room (which I found an article only 2 days old at the time of the search), electrostimulation sex toys (okay it’s not weird to me but I figure maybe to others)
Project you had the most fun researching: Ghosts Gangsters and Garland tied with Ghosts and Vacations Don’t Mix
The gangster one I got to research a lot of fun places back in my old stomping grounds in Wisconsin and Ghosts and Vacations is set in Salem MA which is also a very fun town.
Project that was the most difficult to research: My actual scholarly work on the Physicians of Myddai and the Bonesetters of Anglesey. There isn’t as much as you’d think out there and it’s really more a matter of time allotted by my university for this one.
Project that was the most difficult to write: above mentioned scholarly work
Project that's been a work-in-progress for ages, that you just can't seem to finish: (If you don't have one, congratulations!) I have several Buffyverse stories that fit this one which I’ve been slowly finishing thanks to groups like
wipbigbang. I also have ‘won’ nanowrimo 15 years running and have over a half dozen novels that fit in here as well
Work you want to write one day, but haven't yet started: Book one in a series of monster hunters set in New England. I’ve noodled with two scenes in book two before realizing it HAD to be book two otherwise there would be little impact from some of the reveals. The above linked Boston is one of the scenes
Work you thought you would never write, but finally did: This year it would be finishing Like Stone and the above mentioned scholarly work
Genre you write most often: urban fantasy
Genre you thought you would never write, but finally did: contemporary fiction
Genre you want to write some day, but haven't yet done so (and why not): Something with a trans character. Even though I have a lot of potential sensitivity readers (in recent years my local writers group has had four trans members) I’m hesitant because I myself am not trans.
Genre you'd like to write more of: mystery. Mysteries are my first love but I find urban fantasy a little easier to write
Genre you think you'll probably never write: contemporary fiction, novel length. It just doesn’t interest me. I can handle short stories but longer not so much
Longest amount of time passed between starting a project and finally finishing it: Well it took 15 years to finish Like Stone so probably that.
Favourite character: (your own original character or a fandom character you write about) Original - pretty fond of Brendan and Josh from These Haunted Hills (someone hold my feet to the fire and make me finish this)
Buffyverse - Connor (which is ironic since he’s such an unpopular character in most of fandom)
Prodigal Son - hands down, Malcolm Bright. God he’s being SO much fun to write.
Character who is the most difficult to write:
Ironically in the Buffyverse, Buffy herself often eludes me when it comes to capturing her voice. In Prodigal Son it’s Ainsley Whitly I struggle with.
Original fiction - you know, not too many of them are bugging me this year but to be fair I’ve done very little original fiction this year because it’s been such a hard year that I don’t have the energy for worldbuilding
Character who simply writes themselves:
Connor and Malcolm Bright won’t shut the fuck up so yeah those too. Brendan and Josh get pretty chatty too.
What's more difficult, plot or characters?
Plot, hands down.
(If you outline) biggest difference between the outline you prepared in advance and the finished work:
Not an outliner. At best I write note and pray for the best
Perfect word, and the context you used it in: (word that just perfectly conveyed what you wanted, that you found after spending ages looking in the dictionary and thesaurus or racking your brains)
Honestly I have nothing for this off the top of my head. This sort of thing isn’t anything I do so have this passage. I’ll pick animalistic as my word The animalistic cries - something humans could only make when they knew death had them in her cool unforgiving hands - ripped out of him until he ran out of air for it. He was locked in. from Come Undone (Prodigal Son)
Favourite opening line: (for a chapter or your entire work)
He woke up with a scream dying in his throat and feeling like he’d been punched in the eye. 2 A.M. Aftermath
Favourite ending line: (for a chapter or your entire work)
I lifted my glass in a silent toast to the future, whatever may come. Like Stone
Setting you managed to write about without ever having visited: (whether that's because it's in a part of the world you've never visited, or because it doesn't exist, or because it's in the past or future, or any other reason)
Any of my Angel the series fanfic. I’ve never been in Los Angeles.
Favourite POV to write: (1st, 2nd, 3rd, multiple different 3rd, alternating 1st, etc.)
I don’t have a favorite really. I tend to do alternating third mostly because I juggle tons of characters. I enjoy writing first and am always amazed at how many people hate first person.
POV you would never consider writing: (if any)
I wouldn’t like to say never but I’m unlikely to write second person
Do you mostly write for challenges/contests/fic exchanges/publishers' calls for submissions, etc. or do you mostly write in your own time?
All of the above. My novels I write in my own time. I’m doing Prodigal Son fanfic in my own time and most of my Buffyverse these days is for challenges. I also write original fiction for open calls (and am always looking for gas light fantasy/steampunk open calls so if you see any, share if you please)
(If you write stories with relationships) Mostly first time or established relationship? or something else ?
I do both. Of my two Christmas professional works, they were both established relationships.
Oneshots/standalone stories or series?
Yes to it all.
Is there a type of story you read but would never write? Or maybe one that you've written, but rarely read? No not really. I write what I like to read.
Original - These Haunted Hills (unfinished, but if you want to beta read ask. It’s an LGBT paranormal set in the Hocking Hills
Fan Fic - It’s a tie between Come Undone (Prodigal Son), not quite finished and Like Stone (Angel the series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Work you're most proud of: (which is not necessarily the same as your favourite work)
Fanfic Come Undone (Prodigal Son) because this is a new to me fandom (starting in October) and this one just has amazing reviews.
Original Ghosts, Gangsters and Garland It’s my holly poly Christmas novella set in a 1920s era former gangster hotel and a group of polyamorous monster hunters, (Zia and Dolores are married and Kane is their boyfriend)
Your most under-appreciated work: (the work you think is great but which hasn't got a lot of attention)
Angel the series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom: Devour the Small Granted this has only been up a few weeks so it might need a little more time. Maybe I should have picked Hell is For Children though it’s a Halloween story so it’s not been out long either.
Prodigal Son Fandom- Of Snowmen and Hot Chocolate I think this one proves we like hurting poor Malcolm and less excited by sweet stories. Ha.
Original: Boston
Just a little something I’ve started for a story I started this time last year about monster hunters. I don’t expect original fiction to do that well on AO3
Your most over-appreciated work: (the work that's been more popular than you would have expected)
An Unlikely Source I tossed off this little Midsomer Murder ficlet for a comment_fic story and it took off. Shocked the hell out of me.
First Edition It’s a Prodigal Son AU and my shock with this one is that a) I wrote an AU (I’m good with canon divergence but true AUs aren’t my thing)
Favorite title: (the title that just perfectly fits your project)
Original - Ghosts, Gangsters and Garland It truly sums up the story
Fanfic - 2 A.M. Aftermath (Prodigal Son)
Like Stone (Angel the series/Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Least favorite title: (the title you stuck on the project at the last minute, in desperation, because you couldn't think of anything else) Caring Can Be Hard Prodigal Son. It’s just lame and that’s by my standards. I think most of my titles are pretty lame.
Where do your titles come from and what type of title do you use most often? (a quote from the work itself? quotes from classic literature or poetry? a quote from a song? a joke? one word? article-adjective-noun?)
Often song lyrics, poetry and classic literature. I think that might be why I liked These Haunted Hills so much. It came from none of those things.
What kind of working titles do you use? Simple and straightforward ("Medieval Murder Mystery Book 1") or cryptic and crazy ("Project from hell version 3 with added sass")? Or do you always come up with the definitive title as soon as you start writing?
Half of it ends up a with whatever professional open call or fanfic writing challenge’s title is. When holidays attack (Ghosts Gangsters and Garland), spook_me (Hell is for Children)
Most unsuitable/funniest working title: (the title you yourself use to refer to the project when you're thinking about it, but which you've no intention of using as an official title, e.g. Sexy Shenanigans in Regency England, Steampunk Sherlock Holmes with Crocodiles, Crazy Long Western Space Opera Version 3)
This year? Spicy advent’s title was just spelled wrong spiecy (god knows why). I was pretty good this year but I’ve had some with things like sexytimes threesome
Weirdest thing you had to research for a writing project: How long can the scent of sex linger in a room (which I found an article only 2 days old at the time of the search), electrostimulation sex toys (okay it’s not weird to me but I figure maybe to others)
Project you had the most fun researching: Ghosts Gangsters and Garland tied with Ghosts and Vacations Don’t Mix
The gangster one I got to research a lot of fun places back in my old stomping grounds in Wisconsin and Ghosts and Vacations is set in Salem MA which is also a very fun town.
Project that was the most difficult to research: My actual scholarly work on the Physicians of Myddai and the Bonesetters of Anglesey. There isn’t as much as you’d think out there and it’s really more a matter of time allotted by my university for this one.
Project that was the most difficult to write: above mentioned scholarly work
Project that's been a work-in-progress for ages, that you just can't seem to finish: (If you don't have one, congratulations!) I have several Buffyverse stories that fit this one which I’ve been slowly finishing thanks to groups like
wipbigbang. I also have ‘won’ nanowrimo 15 years running and have over a half dozen novels that fit in here as well
Work you want to write one day, but haven't yet started: Book one in a series of monster hunters set in New England. I’ve noodled with two scenes in book two before realizing it HAD to be book two otherwise there would be little impact from some of the reveals. The above linked Boston is one of the scenes
Work you thought you would never write, but finally did: This year it would be finishing Like Stone and the above mentioned scholarly work
Genre you write most often: urban fantasy
Genre you thought you would never write, but finally did: contemporary fiction
Genre you want to write some day, but haven't yet done so (and why not): Something with a trans character. Even though I have a lot of potential sensitivity readers (in recent years my local writers group has had four trans members) I’m hesitant because I myself am not trans.
Genre you'd like to write more of: mystery. Mysteries are my first love but I find urban fantasy a little easier to write
Genre you think you'll probably never write: contemporary fiction, novel length. It just doesn’t interest me. I can handle short stories but longer not so much
Longest amount of time passed between starting a project and finally finishing it: Well it took 15 years to finish Like Stone so probably that.
Favourite character: (your own original character or a fandom character you write about) Original - pretty fond of Brendan and Josh from These Haunted Hills (someone hold my feet to the fire and make me finish this)
Buffyverse - Connor (which is ironic since he’s such an unpopular character in most of fandom)
Prodigal Son - hands down, Malcolm Bright. God he’s being SO much fun to write.
Character who is the most difficult to write:
Ironically in the Buffyverse, Buffy herself often eludes me when it comes to capturing her voice. In Prodigal Son it’s Ainsley Whitly I struggle with.
Original fiction - you know, not too many of them are bugging me this year but to be fair I’ve done very little original fiction this year because it’s been such a hard year that I don’t have the energy for worldbuilding
Character who simply writes themselves:
Connor and Malcolm Bright won’t shut the fuck up so yeah those too. Brendan and Josh get pretty chatty too.
What's more difficult, plot or characters?
Plot, hands down.
(If you outline) biggest difference between the outline you prepared in advance and the finished work:
Not an outliner. At best I write note and pray for the best
Perfect word, and the context you used it in: (word that just perfectly conveyed what you wanted, that you found after spending ages looking in the dictionary and thesaurus or racking your brains)
Honestly I have nothing for this off the top of my head. This sort of thing isn’t anything I do so have this passage. I’ll pick animalistic as my word The animalistic cries - something humans could only make when they knew death had them in her cool unforgiving hands - ripped out of him until he ran out of air for it. He was locked in. from Come Undone (Prodigal Son)
Favourite opening line: (for a chapter or your entire work)
He woke up with a scream dying in his throat and feeling like he’d been punched in the eye. 2 A.M. Aftermath
Favourite ending line: (for a chapter or your entire work)
I lifted my glass in a silent toast to the future, whatever may come. Like Stone
Setting you managed to write about without ever having visited: (whether that's because it's in a part of the world you've never visited, or because it doesn't exist, or because it's in the past or future, or any other reason)
Any of my Angel the series fanfic. I’ve never been in Los Angeles.
Favourite POV to write: (1st, 2nd, 3rd, multiple different 3rd, alternating 1st, etc.)
I don’t have a favorite really. I tend to do alternating third mostly because I juggle tons of characters. I enjoy writing first and am always amazed at how many people hate first person.
POV you would never consider writing: (if any)
I wouldn’t like to say never but I’m unlikely to write second person
Do you mostly write for challenges/contests/fic exchanges/publishers' calls for submissions, etc. or do you mostly write in your own time?
All of the above. My novels I write in my own time. I’m doing Prodigal Son fanfic in my own time and most of my Buffyverse these days is for challenges. I also write original fiction for open calls (and am always looking for gas light fantasy/steampunk open calls so if you see any, share if you please)
(If you write stories with relationships) Mostly first time or established relationship? or something else ?
I do both. Of my two Christmas professional works, they were both established relationships.
Oneshots/standalone stories or series?
Yes to it all.
Is there a type of story you read but would never write? Or maybe one that you've written, but rarely read? No not really. I write what I like to read.