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loudsnapdragon · 3 months ago

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This week’s writer spotlight feature is: @pinkie-quinns! pinkiequinn has 9 fics in the Stranger Things fandom posted to AO3 and all of them are in the Steddie tag.

@dame-zoom-a-lot recommends the following works by @pinkie-quinns:

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

freehill

Sleep Therapy

Eddie Munson is a Piece of Shit

I Bear a Charmed Life

"Their fics have such a solid… feel and color to them if that makes sense, and they're all so distinctly good. I've read several of their fics and they're all very different from each other while still being incredible. I love their sense of humor. Sometimes it'll come through in the situation, sometimes in the dialogue, but it's always there and when I least expect it" -- @dame-zoom-a-lot

Below the cut, pinkiequinn answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I read Steddie for two years before I ever tried to write anything!! Honestly it got to a point where I kept trying to find these hyperspecific fics that matched exactly what I wanted and I just kept coming up a little short. So eventually I was like… okay… No one’s doing rockstar Eddie who’s an addict but also did go through the canon events of the show and also is coming home for the holidays and also is a celebrity that’s deeply imbued in 90s culture. Time to pick up the pen. In terms of Steddie itself this is gonna sound strange but there’s an atmosphere and a texture to them that really compels me. Stranger Things in general has that. I’ve just always been really intrigued by small town Americana and I think they’re both characters who are really really shaped by their town, whether that’s through its love or rejection of them. And they’re foiled in such a perfect way where you get the sense they could really learn a lot from each other and both grow through the other. They’re just, endlessly compelling to read and to write!

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Honestly, like, it’s a little boring but a historically informed slice of life friends to lovers fic with a healthy dose of angst does something to my brain… Especially if they’re in their 20s and it’s the 90s and they’re in Chicago or some other big city. It’s like crack to me. I also adore a real pining secret relationship! I think those can be so so so beautiful.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Dark Eddie… I don’t know if it's my favourite but it’s definitely the one that comes up the most. I’m just very naturally drawn to the darker bits of his character. I think 7/9 of my fics have Eddie doing Morally Questionable things. It goes in varying degrees of like… jerking off to a dubiously consensual incident with his crush to um… leading a cult that’s surrounded by a lot of “mysterious” deaths… to literally being Satan.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

There’s so many! Brutalist Masterpieces by Great Unironic is one I come back to a lot. The space in that fic and the atmosphere are just so gorgeous to me. And wow… the weight of time in it. Better By You, Better Than Me by palmviolet i think is our all the young dudes just the depth and texture of that world astounds me. How in its time it is, the music in it!! That version of Eddie also informs how I think about that character nearly as much as canon Eddie. Some more recent fics I loved are almost nothing, almost everything by Loudsnapdragon and Heaven cannot wait forever by rabidheart. Almost Nothing is genuinely like my platonic ideal of steddie fic. It’s hot, its world is sooo detailed (could write an essay about Steve’s ED in that fic) it's set in the city!! Eddie in it is SO cool! The characterizations! The dialogue. It’s a perfect read. And then Heaven Can’t Wait Forever does this really amazing thing where it takes a relationship that is like… a smut trope relationship and then just digs in and past that. Just really stellar, engaging writing and so hot! Honestly they are both fics I feel really perfectly build to their (literal) climax- it’s so tough to do! And they make it look seamless.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention I’d Even Sell the Bimmer by dirtyvalentine which is like, the fic of all time to me.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’d love to do a proper slice of life, like, steddie in the city fic… I may have something in the works in the long run but I have two big wips (freehill and the desperado series) to finish before then.

What is your writing process like?

It really depends!! I’m generally a very very slow writer and right now I’m in a dry period so I’m having trouble even stringing together a hundred words. When my brain is functioning better it involves a lot of research and world building in the initial ideas generation stage. Depending on the size of the fic, I make playlists of music the characters might be listening to, watch movies that evoke the vibe of the story, & bury myself in wikipedia articles. It’s my favourite part. I have pretty bad adhd so I find I work best when I’m really locked into the world of the story. I also walk like 35 minutes to and from work everyday and I find that a really good time to ideate about the story and come up with bits of dialogue. I never write in order so I have a pretty difficult time piecing together the scenes I’ve written and making them fit with each other. Chapter 4 of Freehill is sat at about 8k words foreverrrr and I had to rearrange the order of the scenes about 9 times until it finally clicked together. It’s all a bit of a mess.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I’m, like, a criminal repetition over-user. I don’t know why this is the case… Maybe I am a circular thinker so it translates into my writing, maybe I just like the patterns! Who knows! I definitely find repetition and repetitive phrases very beautiful and I think capable of evoking some emotional response beyond the actual words of the text, which is to say, I think it does something to my brain. If you read anything of mine there will be at least five bits of egregious repetition per chapter.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Prefer is a strong word here… I post when I finish a chapter… and unfortunately that means I both don’t post when wips are completed nor do I stick to a schedule… I think years down the line when I am a more seasoned fanfic writer I will wait until the whole thing is done to post… until then… here we are.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Born Under a Bad Sign, hands down (and the rest of the Desperado series sitting in my wip folder). That fic is my baby, it’s what got me to start writing seriously again after years and years of aborted attempts in random gift journals. I also just… have so much love for it and what it’s trying to do. Imperfectly for sure, but thematically I’m still really compelled by the ideas it's grappling with. I feel like I was always really searching for fics that dealt with the lived consequences of having been so close to death and there’s lots of great ones but I really wanted to explore how healing from that isn’t always a linear process. How things tend to get worse (a lot worse) before they get better, and how that kind of core trauma can totally shape you and the people around you. It’s just.. Endlessly fascinating to explore. I also am quite proud of freehill so far (it’s soooo fun to do the foreshadowing in that one) and I do also love You Could Call Me Nancy. I think that one is probably the tightest writing I've done.

How did you get the idea for freehill?

It was another one of those cases where I was constantly craving Cult Leader Eddie and there is just… almost no cult fics? Which is crazy to me bc not only is he such a wildly charismatic character but he’s also accused of being a cult leader in the text of the show! I was a bit reluctant to take it on at first because I’m not really someone that is super into cults or true crime. I’ve definitely done a lot less research on the cult aspects of Freehill because I just don’t always love the framing of that kind of media. A lot of it is just me going on vibes and prior knowledge (and the You Must Remember This podcast series on the Manson family that imprinted in my brain when I was 17). Freehill is definitely made up of tidbits I’ve learned about over the years. The Manson Family, Jonestown, with a bit of NXIVM and the Sarah Lawrence cult thrown in for good measure. This said, despite my reluctance the plot just kept revealing itself to me the more I ideated on it. I remember taking a shower (the best place to brainstorm) in the summer when I first was coming up with the bones of the story and realizing exactly where I wanted it to end up. I’ve had the last scene of the entire fic fully drafted for seven months now. It just totally transformed from a story I would’ve preferred someone else tell into a story I absolutely had to tell myself.

When writing freehill, what was something you didn’t expect?

It was supposed to be like… 15, maybe 20k… And then all the sudden it had twists and turns and lore and there was just no way… I realized pretty early on that it really needed the space to lure you. As I’ve been writing it, especially the first few chapters, I had that line of Louis’s from IWTV just on repeat in my head “Let the tale seduce you, as I was seduced.” I wanted the reader to be just as compelled towards Freehill and Eddie (and disarmed by them) as Steve was, which meant establishing a lot of space and a lot of time.

What inspired Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails?

Honestly? I woke up one morning possessed and was like… what’s the most pornographic thing I can write? And the answer was demon sex lmao. That immediately evolved into a Rosemary’s baby au bc I had just rewatched it a few months before with my friends and was shocked no one had done an au of it in Steddie fic!

What was your favorite part to write from Sleep Therapy?

Something about successfully incorporating the plot of Deep Throat into that fic always makes me laugh. It’s such a silly fic. The recorder line in the second chapter also really makes me laugh.

How do/did you feel writing Eddie Munson is a Piece of Shit?

Ah such a fun one! I had just finished Charmed Life and was kinda scarce on ideas but knew I wanted to write another light one shot. I’d gotten a lot of comments on Returning the Favor asking for a follow up so! A follow up. Charmed Life had been a bit of an exercise in finding Steve’s voice, which I find a lot harder to write. Eddie Munson is a Piece of Shit was me returning to my creature comforts and going totally ham on Eddie’s voice. I’d really missed his um… dramatics (Poor Eddie Jr </3)

What was the most difficult part of writing I Bear a Charmed Life?

I started writing that fic when I had covid this summer and most of it came together really quick!! But the sex scene…. the sex scene haunted me so bad I almost scrapped the whole thing. I think every sex scene I’d written until then had either been totally obscene (everything in Snips & Snails and Sleep Therapy) or a bit subversive (Born Under a Bad Sign’s failed sex scene comes to mind) so honestly just figuring how to write a scene between two consenting, equal parties and still make it hot and fun was oof… very challenging for me. I ended up reading a ton of smut just to wrap my head around it.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

There’s a scene at the beginning of chapter 3 Born Under a Bad Sign where Steve is treating Eddie’s injuries (after getting beat up) in a gas station bathroom and he’s giving Eddie all this casual affection that’s Eddie’s been craving from him for months and I just.. really really love that scene I find it really tender. My favourite line is from the same fic! But at the end of the last chapter: “Indiana was a specter, the entire state. It was always going to haunt him. He strewn like raw meat over the whole of it.” I just like “strewn like raw meat.” The letters sound nice together.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Forever wip-ing on Freehill on the Desperado series! I’m very Freehill-focused right now and it’s just been so fun working on that story and sharing it (especially seeing people’s theories oh my gosh!) so I’d definitely recommend it if you're wip-tolerant.

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

I want to say I’ve always loved your guys’ blog and I love how much you guys foster and nurture the community. It’s amazing! I’ve followed this blog since the start and these writer’s spotlights especially have been such a massive inspiration to me! Literally one of the reasons I started writing again was reading about other writers' processes. It really helped to make it feel like fic writing was something I could do and not just this mystical, unreachable thing. I get so much joy out of writing and finally having access to my creativity and also being part of a community that makes sharing my work so exciting! All this say this is a very full circle moment for me so thank you guys so much for existing!

Thank you to our author, @pinkie-quinns, and our nominator, @dame-zoom-a-lot! See more of pinkiequinn's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

#pinkiequinn understands sad wet dog eddie munson AND evil asshole eddie munson like no one else #stranger things

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