Fanfic meme
Because, y'know, it's the thing to do when you should be answering people's comments and reviews. XDD;;
Meme stolen from lucathia_rykatu
1. How about a brief introduction of yourself?
Dark Ice Dragon. :D Uh... I'm from Scotland and am really short? *can't think of anything else*
2. Fabulous! And what got you into fan fiction to begin with?
I got introduced to fanfic.net by drunkpuppy, where I started by reading Beyblade fics. I then started reading Animorphs fics when I figured out how to search fandoms outside of animé - whereupon I was spoiled about what happened to Rachel later on in the series on the first page. Multiple times. XDD;; My lesson about spoilers and not reading fanfic until I was level with most people with the canon was really early.
My first fanfic was an OC experiment Beyblade fic. Telepathic powers, sentient bitbeast, human experimentation... no, I'm still not carrying these themes and likes seven years on, what are you talking about? *innocent look* *cracks up*
My next fanfic was an OC experiment Pokémon/Animorphs fic. I deleted it, and I can't remember all the details. OC was from a Pokémon world, but got experimented on by Visser Three to be a 'perfect fighter/host' and... that's pretty much all I can remember of it. I think she didn't have any recollection of being experimented on. XDD;
I think. These were my earliest fics, and I'm not sure which one came first. I think I remember being amused that my first fic wasn't Beyblade, so yeah... Aaaaah, anyway.
3. I see, so what kind of fan fiction do you like to write?
Gen, very very much so. X3 I pretty much cannot write anything more than... Okay, I haven't really even written people hugging, but I try to show caring outwith the usual hugging and handholding when I do write pairings? So, like, people happy together, not saying anything direct, unless I'm actively actively trying to write romance (Late Nights was sort of a failure, while Uncertain's confession sounds a little forced, but since Marland wouldn't get anything but something extremely direct... I shied away from actually saying 'I love you' anyway because Shodin thought it was was a little cheesy.
... I really wanna get back to Searching again. I'm never gonna finish it by June, am I? XDD;;
Anyway, back to the question. Uuuuh...)
I like writing missing scenes a lot, because I want to know what happened in the scenes that we didn't see and I like filling in holes with my own little theories about what happened. :3 1/2 Prince just lends itself so much to filling in missing scenes because they're playing a game, so there's always going to be times that we don't see, and with people like Kenshin and Sunshine, there's always going to be povs that see things that others don't. ♥ Seriously, a lot of my fics for 1/2 Prince are scenes that are slotted in between somewhere.
Crossovers are another thing that I write a lot, or, at least I used to until I got into 1/2 Prince. XDD; As good as 1/2 Prince is for missing scenes, it is horrendously hard to cross it over with other fandoms if it's the mixing kind, rather than the fusion kind. D: D: Also, crossovers take a whole lot more work to write. X3
4. Do you tend to write the same pairings/characters? Or are you a fandom whore?
I actually thought that I focus on Kenshin pretty solely in my fics, but when I started tagging my fics with characters, I actually don't. Kenshin has less tags than Lan at the moment (6 vs. 10) - I haven't tagged all the 1/2 Prince fics yet, but yeah. ^ ^ I think I write really long Kenshin fics though as well, which is probably why I think I write more Kenshin fic than I have in physical numbers, if this is making sense. The numbers say I've written him less, but I've qualitively written more of him. :3
I've also got a pretty large spread of characters that I've written for in 1/2 Prince. I've got at least one fic with each character of Odd Squad as the narrative character - oh, wait, not Yulian. D: Damn, I was close. But yeah, I've written for a variety of characters in 1/2 Prince. XD;;
Before 1/2 Prince, I didn't really stay long enough in a fandom to set a trend in my focus of characters. Sometimes I'd only write the one fic - and that was usually a crossover.
I'm going for 'if I've written for a fandom three or more times, then that's enough to see a trend'. :3
Hmm. When I was in the Storm Hawks fandom, I focused a fair bit on Master Cyclonis and Piper, because I seemed to just bash people over the head with write 'Looook~ They really are friends and the Oblivion Crystal meant something!'
When I was in the Beyblade fandom, I solely focused on Kai - but hey, that was pretty much a given what with the whole extreme training type stuff going on. X3
In the Golden Sun fandom, I wrote different characters in each fic (though I'm not sure how The Path from the Past rates because that's a reincarnation fic).
How to Train your Dragon: Cutest. Dragon. EVER. 8D Um, yeah, focused on Toothless here. XDD
Legend of Sun Knight... Ahahaha. XD I started off writing different characters every fic, but then Sun started creeping into every fic after a while. Probably because it's a lot easier to write fic with him as the main character when we don't have that much characterisation to base him on, and the rest of the characters are seen even less!
Misfits: Nathan just crept in all the fics as well, but well, it's Nathan. XDD; He's going to be heard one way or another.
Noblesse: M-21! :D :D :D My favourite character in the whole series. And I keep saying that I need to catch up on this series, but then I never do. D: D:
Pokémon: two OC fics and one from the pov of the guy who teachers you how to throw a pokéball. XDD No focus here.
Yoroshiku Master: Rihito and Daisuke. ♥ :3 I love these characters so much.
*looks up* Eheheheh... I did a count-up recently of my fandoms, and uh, I've dabbled in 40+ fandoms? and have written 150+ fics. o________o;;; Seriously, when did that happen?
5. What is your most popular fan fic and why do you think people like it so?
Hands down, Fullmetal Ninja tops nearly all my stats, barring C2s, with a very clear margin. I sort of don't understand it, because, well, nothing happens in this fic, pretty much. Ed and Al fall through a portal into the Naruto world, get bandaged up, meet a few people... That's all that's really happened so far. =/ The gatebaby shows up and says spooky things but isn't a threat. It's not high on tension.
idunno, maybe I'll like it better if/when I reread it again, but I'm not sure.
My most popular oneshot is The Black Book. Seriously, it's been hit a lot and gotten a lot of reviews for something that's under 700 words long.
But yeah, the first fic is a Fullmetal Alchemist/Naruto crossover, while the other is a Harry Potter/Death Note crossover; those fandoms are massive. XDD
6. Forget other people, what is the fan fiction you're most proud of?
o______o;; So I went through my fanfic list, opening up the fanfics that I felt really proud of, and I've currently got nine tabs open.
Ah, who cares; I'm the most proud of them, so I'm talking about all of them. :P Too bad Searching can't be counted XDD
Late Nights: It's something that I wrote while trying to write romance. It didn't work out, but in the end, I got this long plotty fic that wasn't just about this one thing/theme/topic and it didn't seem forced (apart from Lan's slip near the end XDD).
I liked trying to write a pairing and it made me realise that I had different definitions of 'romance' in my head that seemed to clash when I was writing. I kept expecting some sort of, like, really obvious physical touching - there was a part of a scene that had been cut because all the scene was Gui dragging Lan off by her arm, and her not minding. So that definition went against my preference for not being so in your face about things, and... yeah. Show, not tell? X3;;
It was nice to have a lot of characters in the once fic as well, rather than focusing on about two. :3
Off Period: As lucathia_rykatu put it: A day in the life of Kenshin! I think this was - yeah, this was my first Kenshin fic. X33 I really liked exploring how he experiences Second Life.
And then there's Meatbun. XD
Reset: Yeah. A fic centred around memory, Kenshin, and friendship. ♥ I really am happy with this fic, and I just hope the third part'll be good! I just... didn't think it'd be this long. o_____o;;
Again, I'm happy that this is drawn out rather than focusing very tightly on the one subject. :3
Second First Meetings: I like how the chapters compliment each other here, and don't overlap too much. I am still amused by their different thoughts about their chance meetings. XDD
I guess I like Wolf's chapter better because it draws in more characters as well. :3
Step by Little Step: Friendship development fic focusing on Lolidragon, Sunshine and Kenshin! \o/ I was getting a little miffed by how Sunshine and Kenshin were getting pushed into the background in the manhua at this point, so I wanted to fix that. I wanted to give them something to be happy about, give them memories that they didn't have to question. :3
I just didn't realise that the fic was going to end up being a 5k monster. @_____@
I loved expanding upon Infinite City here. XDD I think I was trying to write more description in this fic.
Relearn: ajsfkj Just, Toothless. And I'm really happy about how the scenes mesh together with all the adjusting about flying. :3 And then Toothless helps Hiccup in his own way.
Wait: Again, just, I'm really happy with Toothless in this, in how he's communicating without needing words. X3 I'm also really happy at seeing the big paragraphs of description in this. XDD
This was, like, my test/self-imposed challenge to see if I could write thoughts/feelings without stating explictly what they were. I'd say I succeeded here. :D :D
Never Give Up: I'm happy with this because you're not so directly in Vincent's head, and I was able to write in a different style from my usual. Also, again, putting in description. X3
Called: Being able to write a pairing and just, how this all develops and then resolves itself and that nothing's been explicitly said either way. :3
Whew. Not as many as I thought, Exactly the same number I started with, but only because the other fics in the list were ones that I liked, but weren't so proud of compared to these ones. XDD;;;
Hmm. I'm more proud of my longer fics. :3
7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing you struggle with?
I used to find writing a lot harder. I'd keep second-guessing my writing, and I wasn't so confident with it. I'd have a list of words that I'd want to use, and there'd be phrases that I knew I wanted but I didn't actually know what they were, so I'd leave ____. I'd be agonising over the sentence being 'right' that some sentences would take ages just to write and be happy with. This became very apparent when I went back to Reset and found all these markers all over the place. O____o;; It made editing it really difficult actually.
NaNoWriMo really helped me with this, because it taught me to ignore my doubts, shove the words onto the paper and then just get on with it. So now my writing comes faster. :D Sort of, because I'm probably still distracted by other things. XDD Or the fic just keeps growing and growing anyway.
The most difficult aspects I struggle with is keeping my facts straight, I guess. I'm constantly going back to the source to double-check that my facts are right. Also, there's sometimes some stuff that luckily gets caught on the... what, fifth read-through. XD;; Something that's been said earlier that doesn't get brought back to later on, or I've described something one way, that then gets described differently later on. So, continuity.
I also struggle with dialogue. Sometimes it does just sound like I needed someone to say this specific thing, so I grabbed anyone and then stuck the words in their mouth. =/ Or what they're saying's pretty cliché and I just can't do anything about it.
8. Write a few sentences about your favorite pairing or character.
Kenshin from 1/2 Prince! 8D A construct that can't trust his memories that's a pet for someone! ... I gotta do a fic about what Kenshin thinks about being someone's pet. omg, how am I only thinking about this now?? Um, yeah, he has a lot of my likes all wrapped up in one. :D
9. Are there any fan fiction cliches/trends that you can't stand or you're just sick of?
I don't like high school AUs. Also Mary Sues/Gary Stus. OOC fics and character-bashing.
There's probably more, but I tend to not read so I skip most of the stuff.
10. Are you guilty of any of the fan fiction cliche/trends? Or any other ones?
Writing about memory/amnesia. Um... O____o I'm not sure if I write any other cliché/trends? I'm probably missing something really important.
11. What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Beyblade. *points aaaaall the way to the top of the post* XDD;; I somehow completed the fic and then went on to write a sequel.
12. Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them you love to write.
I have none? At least, pairing-wise. I'd read anything so long as it's written well and in character. I'll have preferences but I can be swayed pretty easily. X3
Character-wise, I'll like exploring a character, seeing how/why they think things.
13. What would you call your "writing style"?
Third-person limited. To the extreme. XDD;; Descriptions aren't really there, but I'm trying to put them in.
It's all pretty linear.
14. Do you read other people's fan fic? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
I read a veeeery small list of people. But I then read pretty much everything they write, no matter if I'm in the fandom or not. Which is how I then get into other fandoms. XDD
15. Name ONE thing you'd love to write but have been too afraid or shy to do so.
I don't think it's that I've been too afraid or shy to write - I just don't have an outlet for the idea? The canon wouldn't support it/it wouldn't work too well there. Which is why I started writing Searching (dragon!hybrid! Experimentation! Memory problems! Telepathic bonds! Magic! Socially inept protagonist! Chance to create monsters when I want!) and why I'm planning the master and slave fic.
Other than that, I think I write what I want anyway. XDD
16. Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse yet, do you have the bloated ego?
I don't explode at getting criticism - I love getting stuff pointed out that I can improve on, though I feel really embarrassed if it's something canonical that I got wrong. I just... don't tend to fix the fic, depending on what the crit is. ^ ^;; Sometimes it's because I'm doing other times; others because changing it would take a long time? Unless I know specifically what the problem is ('[This sentence] sounds a little clunky') then I also won't change it, because I won't know what the problem was and since I'd posted, I must have thought it was okay anyway and don't notice it no matter how much I try to find it. I try to take the crit on for the following fic that I write though.
It's kinda hard to have a bloated ego when you write for tiny fandoms. XD; I'm happy with any review I get for 1/2 Prince and Legend of Sun Knight.
17. When you write, is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?
Having the fic planned out and I know where my end-point is. The plan tends to change as I write, but my ending doesn't usually so even if I have this really long tangent *points to Late Nights* I still know what happens after we get back on track. :3
Music does help, because it drowns out the other distractors. If I'm right in the head of the narrative charater, then I won't even know what I'm listening to. XDD Also, I sometimes like having reflective music alongside what I'm writing - deep base and hard beats for fights, gentler stuff when the characters are thinking. :)
Removing myself from my house helps as well. Which is why the receptionist volunteering helps so much because I've got about three hours of nothing else that I can procrastinate with, apart from making tea. And when I drink tea there, idunno what tea they have but it's like I've had coffee or something. o____o;; I get distracted easily and can't concentrate on writing.
Having a long uninterrupted period of time writing is something that helps as well, because getting back into a character's head is hard if I keep getting called away every couple of minutes.
18. What inspires you?
Reading the awesomely written fic, and hoping that I might be able to write like that one day. X3 Which will only happen if I practice, right? So I have to keep on writing!
Characters and their situations and wanting to explore that.
Plotbunnies totally count, don't they? XDD;; Getting ideas that want to be written now, omg, write me now, write me now, omg OMG and don't let go until I've written them totally inspires me to write. :P
Seeing how fandoms overlap. *___* Crossovers~
Having Noodle Incidents/missing scenes that need to be explored.
Prompts! omg, I wrote so much for yuletide because the black hole of prompts that were available. XD
19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fan fiction experiences and yourself as a writer?
I've grown a lot in terms of writing over the years, but it's only been more recently (hm~ two years?) where I've been more active in bettering my writing. That was because I took a Creative Writing module at uni and that taught me that my editing wasn't really editing. It was more me checking for surface and physical errors rather than if the scenes worked or were even needed, was there any tension, stuff like that.
*checks dates* Wait, really? I only started asking for writing books as presents last year? I think I was only getting a couple of writing books before that. Huh.
I have talked to so many people because of fanfic! I'm a lurker otherwise and it's really nice to talk to people about series I'm into.
Fanfic is what got me into uni. No, seriously. XDD I used to chat to someone on MSN when I was in the Animorphs fandom, and she talked about doing psychology. That piqued my interest, and since there was no other classes I wanted to take in fifth year, I took a psychology course that was being taught at a local college in the free periods that I ended up with. Again, when it came into sixth year, none of the uni courses interested me apart from psychology, so I went for that. And in my final year, my honours project was centred around writing! \o/
*looks up* No, I don't really shut up when I'm talking about my fanfic... ^ ^;;
It's snowing at the moment. *blink* Weird.
Meme stolen from lucathia_rykatu
1. How about a brief introduction of yourself?
Dark Ice Dragon. :D Uh... I'm from Scotland and am really short? *can't think of anything else*
2. Fabulous! And what got you into fan fiction to begin with?
I got introduced to fanfic.net by drunkpuppy, where I started by reading Beyblade fics. I then started reading Animorphs fics when I figured out how to search fandoms outside of animé - whereupon I was spoiled about what happened to Rachel later on in the series on the first page. Multiple times. XDD;; My lesson about spoilers and not reading fanfic until I was level with most people with the canon was really early.
My first fanfic was an OC experiment Beyblade fic. Telepathic powers, sentient bitbeast, human experimentation... no, I'm still not carrying these themes and likes seven years on, what are you talking about? *innocent look* *cracks up*
My next fanfic was an OC experiment Pokémon/Animorphs fic. I deleted it, and I can't remember all the details. OC was from a Pokémon world, but got experimented on by Visser Three to be a 'perfect fighter/host' and... that's pretty much all I can remember of it. I think she didn't have any recollection of being experimented on. XDD;
I think. These were my earliest fics, and I'm not sure which one came first. I think I remember being amused that my first fic wasn't Beyblade, so yeah... Aaaaah, anyway.
3. I see, so what kind of fan fiction do you like to write?
Gen, very very much so. X3 I pretty much cannot write anything more than... Okay, I haven't really even written people hugging, but I try to show caring outwith the usual hugging and handholding when I do write pairings? So, like, people happy together, not saying anything direct, unless I'm actively actively trying to write romance (Late Nights was sort of a failure, while Uncertain's confession sounds a little forced, but since Marland wouldn't get anything but something extremely direct... I shied away from actually saying 'I love you' anyway because Shodin thought it was was a little cheesy.
... I really wanna get back to Searching again. I'm never gonna finish it by June, am I? XDD;;
Anyway, back to the question. Uuuuh...)
I like writing missing scenes a lot, because I want to know what happened in the scenes that we didn't see and I like filling in holes with my own little theories about what happened. :3 1/2 Prince just lends itself so much to filling in missing scenes because they're playing a game, so there's always going to be times that we don't see, and with people like Kenshin and Sunshine, there's always going to be povs that see things that others don't. ♥ Seriously, a lot of my fics for 1/2 Prince are scenes that are slotted in between somewhere.
Crossovers are another thing that I write a lot, or, at least I used to until I got into 1/2 Prince. XDD; As good as 1/2 Prince is for missing scenes, it is horrendously hard to cross it over with other fandoms if it's the mixing kind, rather than the fusion kind. D: D: Also, crossovers take a whole lot more work to write. X3
4. Do you tend to write the same pairings/characters? Or are you a fandom whore?
I actually thought that I focus on Kenshin pretty solely in my fics, but when I started tagging my fics with characters, I actually don't. Kenshin has less tags than Lan at the moment (6 vs. 10) - I haven't tagged all the 1/2 Prince fics yet, but yeah. ^ ^ I think I write really long Kenshin fics though as well, which is probably why I think I write more Kenshin fic than I have in physical numbers, if this is making sense. The numbers say I've written him less, but I've qualitively written more of him. :3
I've also got a pretty large spread of characters that I've written for in 1/2 Prince. I've got at least one fic with each character of Odd Squad as the narrative character - oh, wait, not Yulian. D: Damn, I was close. But yeah, I've written for a variety of characters in 1/2 Prince. XD;;
Before 1/2 Prince, I didn't really stay long enough in a fandom to set a trend in my focus of characters. Sometimes I'd only write the one fic - and that was usually a crossover.
I'm going for 'if I've written for a fandom three or more times, then that's enough to see a trend'. :3
Hmm. When I was in the Storm Hawks fandom, I focused a fair bit on Master Cyclonis and Piper, because I seemed to just bash people over the head with write 'Looook~ They really are friends and the Oblivion Crystal meant something!'
When I was in the Beyblade fandom, I solely focused on Kai - but hey, that was pretty much a given what with the whole extreme training type stuff going on. X3
In the Golden Sun fandom, I wrote different characters in each fic (though I'm not sure how The Path from the Past rates because that's a reincarnation fic).
How to Train your Dragon: Cutest. Dragon. EVER. 8D Um, yeah, focused on Toothless here. XDD
Legend of Sun Knight... Ahahaha. XD I started off writing different characters every fic, but then Sun started creeping into every fic after a while. Probably because it's a lot easier to write fic with him as the main character when we don't have that much characterisation to base him on, and the rest of the characters are seen even less!
Misfits: Nathan just crept in all the fics as well, but well, it's Nathan. XDD; He's going to be heard one way or another.
Noblesse: M-21! :D :D :D My favourite character in the whole series. And I keep saying that I need to catch up on this series, but then I never do. D: D:
Pokémon: two OC fics and one from the pov of the guy who teachers you how to throw a pokéball. XDD No focus here.
Yoroshiku Master: Rihito and Daisuke. ♥ :3 I love these characters so much.
*looks up* Eheheheh... I did a count-up recently of my fandoms, and uh, I've dabbled in 40+ fandoms? and have written 150+ fics. o________o;;; Seriously, when did that happen?
5. What is your most popular fan fic and why do you think people like it so?
Hands down, Fullmetal Ninja tops nearly all my stats, barring C2s, with a very clear margin. I sort of don't understand it, because, well, nothing happens in this fic, pretty much. Ed and Al fall through a portal into the Naruto world, get bandaged up, meet a few people... That's all that's really happened so far. =/ The gatebaby shows up and says spooky things but isn't a threat. It's not high on tension.
idunno, maybe I'll like it better if/when I reread it again, but I'm not sure.
My most popular oneshot is The Black Book. Seriously, it's been hit a lot and gotten a lot of reviews for something that's under 700 words long.
But yeah, the first fic is a Fullmetal Alchemist/Naruto crossover, while the other is a Harry Potter/Death Note crossover; those fandoms are massive. XDD
6. Forget other people, what is the fan fiction you're most proud of?
o______o;; So I went through my fanfic list, opening up the fanfics that I felt really proud of, and I've currently got nine tabs open.
Ah, who cares; I'm the most proud of them, so I'm talking about all of them. :P Too bad Searching can't be counted XDD
Late Nights: It's something that I wrote while trying to write romance. It didn't work out, but in the end, I got this long plotty fic that wasn't just about this one thing/theme/topic and it didn't seem forced (apart from Lan's slip near the end XDD).
I liked trying to write a pairing and it made me realise that I had different definitions of 'romance' in my head that seemed to clash when I was writing. I kept expecting some sort of, like, really obvious physical touching - there was a part of a scene that had been cut because all the scene was Gui dragging Lan off by her arm, and her not minding. So that definition went against my preference for not being so in your face about things, and... yeah. Show, not tell? X3;;
It was nice to have a lot of characters in the once fic as well, rather than focusing on about two. :3
Off Period: As lucathia_rykatu put it: A day in the life of Kenshin! I think this was - yeah, this was my first Kenshin fic. X33 I really liked exploring how he experiences Second Life.
And then there's Meatbun. XD
Reset: Yeah. A fic centred around memory, Kenshin, and friendship. ♥ I really am happy with this fic, and I just hope the third part'll be good! I just... didn't think it'd be this long. o_____o;;
Again, I'm happy that this is drawn out rather than focusing very tightly on the one subject. :3
Second First Meetings: I like how the chapters compliment each other here, and don't overlap too much. I am still amused by their different thoughts about their chance meetings. XDD
I guess I like Wolf's chapter better because it draws in more characters as well. :3
Step by Little Step: Friendship development fic focusing on Lolidragon, Sunshine and Kenshin! \o/ I was getting a little miffed by how Sunshine and Kenshin were getting pushed into the background in the manhua at this point, so I wanted to fix that. I wanted to give them something to be happy about, give them memories that they didn't have to question. :3
I just didn't realise that the fic was going to end up being a 5k monster. @_____@
I loved expanding upon Infinite City here. XDD I think I was trying to write more description in this fic.
Relearn: ajsfkj Just, Toothless. And I'm really happy about how the scenes mesh together with all the adjusting about flying. :3 And then Toothless helps Hiccup in his own way.
Wait: Again, just, I'm really happy with Toothless in this, in how he's communicating without needing words. X3 I'm also really happy at seeing the big paragraphs of description in this. XDD
This was, like, my test/self-imposed challenge to see if I could write thoughts/feelings without stating explictly what they were. I'd say I succeeded here. :D :D
Never Give Up: I'm happy with this because you're not so directly in Vincent's head, and I was able to write in a different style from my usual. Also, again, putting in description. X3
Called: Being able to write a pairing and just, how this all develops and then resolves itself and that nothing's been explicitly said either way. :3
Whew. Not as many as I thought, Exactly the same number I started with, but only because the other fics in the list were ones that I liked, but weren't so proud of compared to these ones. XDD;;;
Hmm. I'm more proud of my longer fics. :3
7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What are the most difficult aspects of writing you struggle with?
I used to find writing a lot harder. I'd keep second-guessing my writing, and I wasn't so confident with it. I'd have a list of words that I'd want to use, and there'd be phrases that I knew I wanted but I didn't actually know what they were, so I'd leave ____. I'd be agonising over the sentence being 'right' that some sentences would take ages just to write and be happy with. This became very apparent when I went back to Reset and found all these markers all over the place. O____o;; It made editing it really difficult actually.
NaNoWriMo really helped me with this, because it taught me to ignore my doubts, shove the words onto the paper and then just get on with it. So now my writing comes faster. :D Sort of, because I'm probably still distracted by other things. XDD Or the fic just keeps growing and growing anyway.
The most difficult aspects I struggle with is keeping my facts straight, I guess. I'm constantly going back to the source to double-check that my facts are right. Also, there's sometimes some stuff that luckily gets caught on the... what, fifth read-through. XD;; Something that's been said earlier that doesn't get brought back to later on, or I've described something one way, that then gets described differently later on. So, continuity.
I also struggle with dialogue. Sometimes it does just sound like I needed someone to say this specific thing, so I grabbed anyone and then stuck the words in their mouth. =/ Or what they're saying's pretty cliché and I just can't do anything about it.
8. Write a few sentences about your favorite pairing or character.
Kenshin from 1/2 Prince! 8D A construct that can't trust his memories that's a pet for someone! ... I gotta do a fic about what Kenshin thinks about being someone's pet. omg, how am I only thinking about this now?? Um, yeah, he has a lot of my likes all wrapped up in one. :D
9. Are there any fan fiction cliches/trends that you can't stand or you're just sick of?
I don't like high school AUs. Also Mary Sues/Gary Stus. OOC fics and character-bashing.
There's probably more, but I tend to not read so I skip most of the stuff.
10. Are you guilty of any of the fan fiction cliche/trends? Or any other ones?
Writing about memory/amnesia. Um... O____o I'm not sure if I write any other cliché/trends? I'm probably missing something really important.
11. What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Beyblade. *points aaaaall the way to the top of the post* XDD;; I somehow completed the fic and then went on to write a sequel.
12. Name your OTPs or most frequently written pairings/characters and explain what it is about them you love to write.
I have none? At least, pairing-wise. I'd read anything so long as it's written well and in character. I'll have preferences but I can be swayed pretty easily. X3
Character-wise, I'll like exploring a character, seeing how/why they think things.
13. What would you call your "writing style"?
Third-person limited. To the extreme. XDD;; Descriptions aren't really there, but I'm trying to put them in.
It's all pretty linear.
14. Do you read other people's fan fic? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?
I read a veeeery small list of people. But I then read pretty much everything they write, no matter if I'm in the fandom or not. Which is how I then get into other fandoms. XDD
15. Name ONE thing you'd love to write but have been too afraid or shy to do so.
I don't think it's that I've been too afraid or shy to write - I just don't have an outlet for the idea? The canon wouldn't support it/it wouldn't work too well there. Which is why I started writing Searching (dragon!hybrid! Experimentation! Memory problems! Telepathic bonds! Magic! Socially inept protagonist! Chance to create monsters when I want!) and why I'm planning the master and slave fic.
Other than that, I think I write what I want anyway. XDD
16. Do you have trouble taking criticism? Or worse yet, do you have the bloated ego?
I don't explode at getting criticism - I love getting stuff pointed out that I can improve on, though I feel really embarrassed if it's something canonical that I got wrong. I just... don't tend to fix the fic, depending on what the crit is. ^ ^;; Sometimes it's because I'm doing other times; others because changing it would take a long time? Unless I know specifically what the problem is ('[This sentence] sounds a little clunky') then I also won't change it, because I won't know what the problem was and since I'd posted, I must have thought it was okay anyway and don't notice it no matter how much I try to find it. I try to take the crit on for the following fic that I write though.
It's kinda hard to have a bloated ego when you write for tiny fandoms. XD; I'm happy with any review I get for 1/2 Prince and Legend of Sun Knight.
17. When you write, is there anything that helps? Music? Quiet room?
Having the fic planned out and I know where my end-point is. The plan tends to change as I write, but my ending doesn't usually so even if I have this really long tangent *points to Late Nights* I still know what happens after we get back on track. :3
Music does help, because it drowns out the other distractors. If I'm right in the head of the narrative charater, then I won't even know what I'm listening to. XDD Also, I sometimes like having reflective music alongside what I'm writing - deep base and hard beats for fights, gentler stuff when the characters are thinking. :)
Removing myself from my house helps as well. Which is why the receptionist volunteering helps so much because I've got about three hours of nothing else that I can procrastinate with, apart from making tea. And when I drink tea there, idunno what tea they have but it's like I've had coffee or something. o____o;; I get distracted easily and can't concentrate on writing.
Having a long uninterrupted period of time writing is something that helps as well, because getting back into a character's head is hard if I keep getting called away every couple of minutes.
18. What inspires you?
Reading the awesomely written fic, and hoping that I might be able to write like that one day. X3 Which will only happen if I practice, right? So I have to keep on writing!
Characters and their situations and wanting to explore that.
Plotbunnies totally count, don't they? XDD;; Getting ideas that want to be written now, omg, write me now, write me now, omg OMG and don't let go until I've written them totally inspires me to write. :P
Seeing how fandoms overlap. *___* Crossovers~
Having Noodle Incidents/missing scenes that need to be explored.
Prompts! omg, I wrote so much for yuletide because the black hole of prompts that were available. XD
19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fan fiction experiences and yourself as a writer?
I've grown a lot in terms of writing over the years, but it's only been more recently (hm~ two years?) where I've been more active in bettering my writing. That was because I took a Creative Writing module at uni and that taught me that my editing wasn't really editing. It was more me checking for surface and physical errors rather than if the scenes worked or were even needed, was there any tension, stuff like that.
*checks dates* Wait, really? I only started asking for writing books as presents last year? I think I was only getting a couple of writing books before that. Huh.
I have talked to so many people because of fanfic! I'm a lurker otherwise and it's really nice to talk to people about series I'm into.
Fanfic is what got me into uni. No, seriously. XDD I used to chat to someone on MSN when I was in the Animorphs fandom, and she talked about doing psychology. That piqued my interest, and since there was no other classes I wanted to take in fifth year, I took a psychology course that was being taught at a local college in the free periods that I ended up with. Again, when it came into sixth year, none of the uni courses interested me apart from psychology, so I went for that. And in my final year, my honours project was centred around writing! \o/
*looks up* No, I don't really shut up when I'm talking about my fanfic... ^ ^;;
It's snowing at the moment. *blink* Weird.