Fandom Questions Meme (35-40)
35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?
I do! Not as many as I used to. I have 491 works on AO3 and just think how much it'd mount up with more drabbles. It'd be very embarrassing. Which is silly. Given that I need to write short things at the moment and am failing, I should try writing more drabbles, maybe via
dw100 or
100words, but I don't.
Drabbles are something that I tend more often to write to specific prompts, especially for flashfic comms -
dw100,
fan_flashworks,
b7friday, or writing memes, so what I write them about is dependent on the prompt.
36. What’s your favorite genre to write?
I honestly don't think about it like this. I am not writing/trying not to write long things, but actually casefic (whatever the equivalent of "case" is, depending on the fandom) was my default. Now I tend to write a couple of characters interacting to a prompt in a short fic or ficlet. Humour, hurt/comfort, crossovers, occasional fluff, some stuff that's bleak and angsty. Some stuff I think is dark and everyone else thinks is mildly grey.
If I look at my top AO3 additional tags, they include Crossover, Humor, AU, hc_bingo (which doesn't automatically = hurt/comfort, as fills can be hurt-only, comfort-only, or hurt/comfort), and Fluff. But those are more Fanfic Tropes rather than genres. (The high AU count is partly the AU meme and partly apocalyptic things mainly. I don't have a lot of coffee shop/high school AUs in there. I mean, not that I wouldn't, if I had an idea that was funny or interesting enough. I do enjoy contemplating what terrible coffee shops pretty much all my fandoms would make some times and wondering which of them would be the worst.*)
37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?
I'd only write first person if the fic was epistolary for a reason (I wrote various diaries/accounts for some old This Time Round stories, First Year Camp, and Ghosthunting), or if the fandom called for it. Otherwise it'd feel very weird to me, at least in fanfic. So third person generally.
I have written at least one second-person drabble, though. (It was Sapphire and Steel, of course.)
38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?
Both. I have written a lot of fanfic, featuring canon characters, but I started out in Doctor Who and given the nature of DW, if you write a missing episode, you have to have original characters in it, and maybe even historical figures or world-build a planet and its alien inhabitants. And then I wrote the 1980s UNIT series, with a lot of OCs in. (The question was how the hell did Colonel Crichton manage to save the world without the Doctor being around so often, and then it all got out of hand. But the last time I wrote anything approaching a self-insert it was because I needed a character to kill off... *shrugs*)
I've also made up fake shows for the
isurrendered meme and written for them, including for a couple of years for Runaway Tales, and that was all original characters and a lot of fun. I do enjoy both, but origfic that little bit more when I can do it. (But both are good!)
39. What is you greatest strength as a writer?
Character and dialogue, I like to think. I also think, when I'm writing well, I do have a kind of lively style. I hope?
40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?
I am really bad at description because I'm not much interested in the surroundings etc. instead of what's happening and what everybody is saying and their feelings and funny lines, if you can get them. Action is always difficult, too.
But I do try, as it does matter, of course. Not so much in fannish ficlets which rely on shared knowledge and can be light and conversational and things (hurrah!), but elsewhere. It can be a matter of life or death in Sapphire and Steel fic, so in those cases you have to describe the wallpaper, or who knows what Time might get up to? (The difficulties of S&S fanfic: you keep needing to look up the base constitutents of what everyday things are actually made of, so that Sapphire can list them enigmatically to Steel. I am rubbish at writing S&S fic lately, but it is so very great and I love it and its unique fic problems/advantages.)
The only thing worse is my opening sentences. I used to think I was good at opening paragraphs, but I swear I just get worse and worse.
* Probably Enemy at the Door. It's the only fandom I have where there is no coffee or tea and an increasing lack of supplies and poor hygiene, not to mention the beige decor and terrible service.
But on the other hand, I can't think a Shadow of the Tower coffee shop would go well. And Manhunt would probably poison all the customers and get closed down, because Vincent, Nina and Jimmy are the worst at everything.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Please click through to comment. -- Current comments:
I do! Not as many as I used to. I have 491 works on AO3 and just think how much it'd mount up with more drabbles. It'd be very embarrassing. Which is silly. Given that I need to write short things at the moment and am failing, I should try writing more drabbles, maybe via
dw100 or
100words, but I don't.
Drabbles are something that I tend more often to write to specific prompts, especially for flashfic comms -
dw100,
fan_flashworks,
b7friday, or writing memes, so what I write them about is dependent on the prompt.
36. What’s your favorite genre to write?
I honestly don't think about it like this. I am not writing/trying not to write long things, but actually casefic (whatever the equivalent of "case" is, depending on the fandom) was my default. Now I tend to write a couple of characters interacting to a prompt in a short fic or ficlet. Humour, hurt/comfort, crossovers, occasional fluff, some stuff that's bleak and angsty. Some stuff I think is dark and everyone else thinks is mildly grey.
If I look at my top AO3 additional tags, they include Crossover, Humor, AU, hc_bingo (which doesn't automatically = hurt/comfort, as fills can be hurt-only, comfort-only, or hurt/comfort), and Fluff. But those are more Fanfic Tropes rather than genres. (The high AU count is partly the AU meme and partly apocalyptic things mainly. I don't have a lot of coffee shop/high school AUs in there. I mean, not that I wouldn't, if I had an idea that was funny or interesting enough. I do enjoy contemplating what terrible coffee shops pretty much all my fandoms would make some times and wondering which of them would be the worst.*)
37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?
I'd only write first person if the fic was epistolary for a reason (I wrote various diaries/accounts for some old This Time Round stories, First Year Camp, and Ghosthunting), or if the fandom called for it. Otherwise it'd feel very weird to me, at least in fanfic. So third person generally.
I have written at least one second-person drabble, though. (It was Sapphire and Steel, of course.)
38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?
Both. I have written a lot of fanfic, featuring canon characters, but I started out in Doctor Who and given the nature of DW, if you write a missing episode, you have to have original characters in it, and maybe even historical figures or world-build a planet and its alien inhabitants. And then I wrote the 1980s UNIT series, with a lot of OCs in. (The question was how the hell did Colonel Crichton manage to save the world without the Doctor being around so often, and then it all got out of hand. But the last time I wrote anything approaching a self-insert it was because I needed a character to kill off... *shrugs*)
I've also made up fake shows for the
isurrendered meme and written for them, including for a couple of years for Runaway Tales, and that was all original characters and a lot of fun. I do enjoy both, but origfic that little bit more when I can do it. (But both are good!)
39. What is you greatest strength as a writer?
Character and dialogue, I like to think. I also think, when I'm writing well, I do have a kind of lively style. I hope?
40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?
I am really bad at description because I'm not much interested in the surroundings etc. instead of what's happening and what everybody is saying and their feelings and funny lines, if you can get them. Action is always difficult, too.
But I do try, as it does matter, of course. Not so much in fannish ficlets which rely on shared knowledge and can be light and conversational and things (hurrah!), but elsewhere. It can be a matter of life or death in Sapphire and Steel fic, so in those cases you have to describe the wallpaper, or who knows what Time might get up to? (The difficulties of S&S fanfic: you keep needing to look up the base constitutents of what everyday things are actually made of, so that Sapphire can list them enigmatically to Steel. I am rubbish at writing S&S fic lately, but it is so very great and I love it and its unique fic problems/advantages.)
The only thing worse is my opening sentences. I used to think I was good at opening paragraphs, but I swear I just get worse and worse.
* Probably Enemy at the Door. It's the only fandom I have where there is no coffee or tea and an increasing lack of supplies and poor hygiene, not to mention the beige decor and terrible service.
But on the other hand, I can't think a Shadow of the Tower coffee shop would go well. And Manhunt would probably poison all the customers and get closed down, because Vincent, Nina and Jimmy are the worst at everything.
Crossposted from Dreamwidth. Please click through to comment. -- Current comments: