December posting: Update
hibernate asked me some excellent questions, and since it's still (just) December I am totally in time answering them!
I'd love to hear what you're into, fannishly, these days, if anything? Thoughts on being in the same fandom long-term and what effect that has on your creative processes?
I've been finding it harder to get into fandoms lately, for some reason. I recently acquired Netflix, so over the past few months I've binged a bunch of TV shows I hadn't watched before - Brooklyn 99, Orange is the New Black, Jane the Virgin, and the Good Place have been my favourites. I'm also very much loving the new Doctor, and enjoying Doctor Who as a show more than I have in years. For some reason, though, I haven't felt particularly fannish about any of them. I've not wanted to write fic, or even read any, and I've been pretty happy to just consume rather than engage with the material.
The only fandom I'm really active in is Harry Potter, my original fandom and the only one I've really gone back to properly after my hiatus. I do think that a fandom based on books is a better fit for me than one based on a TV show or film - books just get more inside my head - but none of the book-based fandoms that are doing well right now really grab me.(I am open to recs for this btw.)
Staying in the same fandom for a long time definitely affects my creative processes, and I've only been able to come back to HP because I took a break. The fandom now is very different when I left it, and I've changed too. Change is good, especially for creativity; the years I wasn't writing fic I learnt quilting, did an art course at college, knitted - being creative in different ways really helped me. It's good to be able to look at things from different perspectives.
Which is part of why I'm planning to tweak my fannish MO next year. This year I wrote almost entirely for fests, and next year my plan is to cut right down on them. I'll do femmefest and flonks fest but that'll probably be it.
Do you have an all-time favourite character who you can never let go of?
Yes, yes I do. Sirius Black is forever my favourite.
Sirius hits a lot of the "yes please" boxes for what I like in fictional characters. I'm a sucker for the poor little rich kid who took a tumble (I blame over-exposure to A Little Princess at an impressionable age) and Sirius has a lot of the personality traits I like best in characters - he's brilliant, angry, righteous, self-destructive, and emotional. He's also very easy to manipulate, which makes him excellent for writing about because he's very adaptable.
Also, I have A Type and it's posh, dark hair, gorgeous, might kill you and the only character who fulfils it better is Morgana Pendragon, on account of being more successful when she sets her mind to murder than Sirius ever was. I've always thought Morgana looks a lot like a member of the Black family and one of these days I'll write that crossover where Morgana has the time of her life seducing every witch at Hogwarts while Sirius complains bitterly about having to babysit his maybe-evil granny.
Do you have a favourite narrative kink?
Ugh, so many! I'll limit myself: right now what comes to mind is dramatic displays of solidarity. Say, for instance, a non-powerful character standing between their loved one and the baddy, or "I'm not going to stop them, I'm going to help them" moments. Ride or die, my friends, ride or die.
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