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lilacthebooklover · 9 months

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

@snarky-wallflower Thanks for the tag! This was a lot of fun :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

67 currently, but I have deleted a few old ones lol

2. What’s your total word count?

Now, when I tell you I went overboard on this question, I went overboard. My private, unposted, solely-written-by-me fics' total word count is 227,868. My total word count for fics I've collaborated with @charismabee on is 477,549, and my total word count on AO3 is 389,530. However, quite a few of my AO3 fics are collabs with Red, so if you take away everything like Wilting Flowers and Owl House but Kindergarten, you're left with 225,235 words written solely by me. So, if you total up 225,235 + 227,868 + 477,549, then you get a grand total of 930,652 words! Then, of course, there's the whole matter of my old fics on regular Word and not Docs, which would probably add up to at least another 50,000 total considering we're talking about my ASOUE and DT17 phases, as well as all of the private Viva Pinata and miscellaneous musical stuff lurking in there, and we've got that weird writing app on my tablet that I used a lot a couple of years ago whenever my phone got confiscated, but I cannot be bothered to search through all of that right now. So, it mostly rounds up to around 1,000,000 words. Fanfiction may or may not be taking over my life. (Gosh I love maths <3)

3. What fandoms?

I've written mostly for the Kindergarten 1 and 2 fandom, my total fics on AO3 for it totaling 38. However, I have written a heck of a lot of OMORI as well, and dabble in the Owl House, DHMIS, a few webseries on YT as well as the Hatchetverse sometimes, too!

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

1. World's Okayest Uncle at 799. My latest WIP, written for the Hatchetfield Universe and based around the concept of Paul Matthews becoming the accidental uncle of every kid in town. Each chapter focuses on a different child (the three so far about Alice, Richie and Pete respectively), and once all of them have been sufficiently adopted, I've been considering adding some slice-of-life stuff, exploring the changed character dynamics, and looking into parts of canon that would change in the AU as well. 2. Hollow at 455, a Hunter-centric one-shot for the Owl House set immediately after season 2 finished. It was written in the post King's Tide craze of awesome Human Realm content, so it got quite a lot of hits at the time. It focuses on Hunter dealing with the aftermath of Belos seemingly having died, and himself having being thrown into a completely new, unfamiliar world as an unfamiliar God took over his own :) 3. Flapjacks at 279, another Hunter-centric piece because TOH fans can't get enough of him lol (I am very much one of those fans). I began writing it back when Thanks to Them was first released, then got the motivation to finish it after I saw Watching and Dreaming. It focuses on Hunter returning to the Human Realm after the Collector's defeat, as well as Camila's thoughts on being a parent of who knows' how many kids at this point. Hunter finally gets the chance to mourn, and finds out what a flapjack actually is. 4. Gravesfield Historical Society, at 275. In which it's only natural that the Boiling Isles' leading Human Expert decides to do some research, and Gus does his very best to ignore the images plaguing him from looking into Belos' mind. Vee looks for some closure, Hunter is very protective over his little siblings, and Gus just wants to have a fun day at the museum. Things... Don't go to plan. 5. Fading, at 215. Yet another TOH work (I was around when the fandom was active as heck), one of the shortest pieces I've ever written at only 722 words. It's from Flapjack's POV during that scene in Thanks for Them. You know the one. I made lots of people cry, and sacrificed the birb.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Of course!! I thoroughly appreciate every comment I receive; they really make my day. Being part of an active fandom with the Uncle Paul AU has sort of taken me by storm so my inbox is pretty clogged at the moment, but I promise that I have read and smiled over and will reply to the comments all of my lovely readers have left behind! It means so much that someone's not only taken the time to read what I've written, but that they liked it enough to leave a comment behind. Even just keysmashes or "<33"s are really lovely to see, so thank you to the wonderful commentors out there! You guys are awesome :D

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ooh, now this is a tough one! Pretty much 95% of what I write is angst, with a good 70% being Hurt No Comfort. Still, I think the angstiest ending I've ever written would have to be that of either "Enough", in which 13 y/o me decided it was a good idea to follow the perspective of kindergartener Theodore Huxley as his brother pushed him to his death, or "Wilted", in which 13 y/o me decided it was a good idea to follow the perspective of suicidal kindergartener Lily as she gave up on finding the one person who cared about her and committed suicide as a result of being bullied. Wilted should probably win out considering the implications of what would happen to Billy as a result, and bc the ending subsequently led to Nugget's death too, but Ted's train of thought in Enough is so gosh darn sad.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Definitely "McDonald's". That's the fluffiest thing I've ever written, no doubt about it. Not a smidgen of angst, just a bunch of kids with colourful eyes and pointy ears walking into a fast food restaurant and discovering what chicken nuggets are. It literally ends with the promise of more cute adventures to come, so I'd say this one's a no-brainer loll

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've only ever received hate once, on a little Gravity Falls AU I made entitled "Puppet Strings and Stage Curtains". I got some pretty nasty criticism on it and, as a kid who was still very anxious about posting stuff online, it really impacted me at the time. I'm still a little nervous even now to open up my inbox because I think I might have gotten another comment like that shfjdhhgkjh. I wound up abandoning the fic because my motivation was completely destroyed, and I couldn't even look at the thing without feeling ashamed. However, I haven't received any hate since, which is great! There's just no reason for it, really; if you like something, leaving a comment is wonderful, and it makes the author happy! If you don't, just don't read the fic. Leaving a hurtful comment isn't going to make anyone happy, and can be really damaging to writers. Shoutout to @weedkillercentral, who, without fail, leaves the bizzarest comments known to man on almost every work I post.

9. Do you write smut?

Nope! I am a ✨minor✨ (@snarky-wallflower dw I too am a nerdy prude, sex jokes are Ew). Still, I do enjoy writing romance from time to time! Some ships are straight-up hard not to enjoy reading/writing for :))

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Funny story, actually. I used to have Wattpad and, as much as I hated using it, a friend of mine liked the site so I used it to support her. I wound up posting some of my own stuff on there at one point. I will never be able to get over the fact that when you searched up my username online, the images used to show a picture of Sharkbomb Glomgold. How do I know this? Because small me got bored and looked up my username, and accidentally found a mirror site to Wattpad with some of my stuff on. It credited my username and everything, but I panicked about it because as far as I was aware, I had no control over whether I could take it down or what else could be put on it. So, I deleted everything on my account, and just like that, the fics on the mirror site vanished. So no, I've never had anything outright stolen-- at least, I hope I haven't-- but that was a Not Fun experience for little me a few years ago

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, I'm not famous enough for that lol. I did have an offer for someone to make a podfic of smth I wrote a few years ago, but they never got around to it. Still, if anyone ever wants to translate one of my fics, I'd love it if you did! Please just let me know and acknowledge me as the OG author; having a work translated sounds awesome.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Many thanks yet again to the amazing @charismabee, my dear co-author and the Kel shirt to my Maverick cosplay wig. The amount of hours I've spent writing with her is actually insane, as well as the times we've just messaged brainstorming AUs or having far too strong feelings about the show Elena of Avalor. We've done joint Whumptobers and Febuwhumps, fics that are combinations of the nichest stories and characters, a lot of redemption arcs for 5-year-olds... If you like my stuff, I thoroughly encourage you to go give her work a read at TheFearIsRed on AO3! :D

If anyone else ever wants to try collaborating on something, I think I'd be willing to give it a try! There are loads of talented authors on here, and co-writing is a lot of fun <3

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hmm... Well, Paulkins is an obvious one (remember that one post about "hatchetfield fans when normal man and his barista crush show up for 5 seconds"? yeah that's me). They have a level of mutual trust and understanding that's just really nice to explore, they both have issues galore but will support each other no matter what, half infected Paul content is golden and as an avid Uncle Paul truther, Emma finding out about his many children is just too funny a concept to me. They act like teenagers when they see each other, they're both down bad, she knows he doesn't like the Christmas advert jingles, he thinks she's funny,,, they're so <3

Another strong contender is Pearla (Penny x Carla), from the K2 fandom. @goldmoth82 was the one who got me into writing about them with their absolutely incredible stuff (art, fics, you name it!). They're just a traumatised android and a thieving arsonist, what more could you want?

Gold rush (Kel x Mikhael) is another of my favourites though, mostly because it's so funny. Mikhael has declared them rivals, and Kel could not care less. Mikhael challenges him to races, and Kel beats him easily. Mikhael insults him often, but Kel doesn't retaliate. Mikhael wants to be independent and special, to stand out from everyone else. Kel wants to be appreciated as more than just Hero's brother, to be liked and acknowledged as himself. Mikhael would vehemently deny his feelings until Daphne and Bowen tied them up together and forced him to confess. Rivals are just lovers in disguise, everyone. One-sided gold rush is even funnier, because they're technically one-sided rivals. Kel was Mikhael's homosexual awakening. Mikhael looks so dumb and flamboyant because he's trying to impress him. Mikhael claims he hates him and that his bright red face is from anger after Kel effortlessly beats him time and time again. I love them.

But I think out of everything, Wrightworth would have to take my top pic for favourite ship. Gay lawyers who would die for each other for the win.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

Ohh gosh. There are quite a few, but I'd probably say this year's Whumptober. My mental health went schwoop this October and I only got up to day 11 despite my plans. I still intend to finish the collab one with Red when I have time again (exams suck), and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get around to completing it. At least there's always next year! :"]

16. What are your writing strengths?

Definitely characterisation. I have a lot of fun getting into characters' heads and making studies on them in different scenes or just overall, and have a lot of fun bouncing different personalities off of each other. Once I know a character, I know the character, and writing their POV is as simple as breathing lol. I'd also say that I'm pretty good at tension building and breaking, as well as Hurt No Comfort (you need some good old angst, I'm your gal).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes, for one, though I've been improving on them since I started the TOH Kindergarten AU! I'd also say that I struggle with slower-paced, filler sort of stuff. I might like to build up to an event, but chapters that don't have plot relevance just sort of stump me lol, even when they're necessary :)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I enjoy learning languages, and have been teaching myself Spanish for the past couple of years or so. However, writing them is a whole separate thing entirely. If I had a translator, I'd be all good! I just get a little worried when I write any language that isn't Spanish because google translate is unreliable as heck, so I typically tend to avoid it. Luckily, none of my fandoms really require it- but if that Franziska & Miles brainrot doesn't go away soon, I might be in a bit of a pickle trying to write German dialogue hshjhgfk

19. First fandom you wrote for?

A Series of Unfortunate Events (the Netflix show). It was the first fandom I got really, properly into, diving in headfirst at the age of about 12 and finding a lot of awesome content. The obsession I had with VFDBaudelaireFile13's Violet Snicket AU "Misery Loves Company" a few years ago was wild. My writing back then was very jolty, and I wrote in chapters that only lasted a few paragraphs with big, bold titles that often had at least two exclamation marks at the end. Still, ASOUE is one of my favourite shows to this day, and I don't regret a thing from my time binge-reading everything I could find for it (except that one lemons fic I accidentally came across when starved for content), nor any of the silly little unposted AUs I wrote on Word.

20. Top 3 fics I've ever written:

I puzzled over this question for ages, but found it impossible to choose just one! Ignore that I'm cheating a little here, and take three instead <3

1. An unposted collaborative work with @charismabee/TheFearIsRed that we called MPT. It was the first big fic I ever wrote, and it was probably what really got me into writing as a hobby. I got to spend time at random intervals writing about and whumping my favourite characters with someone I'm very close with, making up the plot as we went along. I remember coming up with the initial idea on a swingset, and spending hours colour-coding every segment of those 50,000 words based on each mention of a character as well as who wrote what. MPT is messy, and a tad repetitive in places, and while finished, I don't believe it's something I'll ever post. But it holds a special place in my heart, and it's a lot of fun looking back on my writing from a couple years ago compared to now 2. Not sure if this fully counts, but an untitled Omori WIP I've got going atm is definitely up there. It's Hero-centric with huge emphasis on his trauma, following the course of the year the events of the game occur in. I've had a blast writing his thoughts and time at college, and I'm geberally just really proud of it thus far. Hopefully, it'll be done by January in time for his birthday! :) 3. Now this one is a posted work– Magical Girls: Omori!, another collab with Red. We came up with the idea, binge-watched season one of Glitter Force on Netflix, and ran with the plot. We've planned out all of season 1 with ideas for season 2, incorporated a plethora of great characters, and been able to mess around with a fun fantasy high school full of our favourites. It's always wonderful to write, and I really like how it's been going!

Thank you again to @snarky-wallflower for the tag! You're amazing <3

As for people I know, I've tagged the vast majority of you already sjhkffg oops.

@charismabee @goldmoth82 @weltato @inprisonforsparkling hey there jpr the au mastermind, fanartist of the century, paul whump bestie and king of michie. you guys are some of my favourite writers out there, i'd love to see what you answer with for this (no pressure ofc!) <33

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