#i feel kinda guilty answering this given that i havent made any fic in months but im bored so //shrug emoji

[actualbird]

fic writers asks!! 

tagged by @icouldwritebooks​! thanks for the tag :Dc

What’s your total word count on AO3?

oh boy. my ao3 stats say 307,484 and i really dont remember writing that much. but then again ive had my ao3 since....2012....  

How often do you write?

everyday. i try to make a habit out of it. scene snippets, outlines, skeletons of stories. the real question is how much of it is decent to show to other people. the answer 98% of the time is NOPE NOPE NOPE. 

Do you have a routine for writing?

write an outline. more on that here because ive been told my outlining process is terrifying. this step takes the most time and suffering...

stop talking to everybody both verbally and online. only exceptions are my dogs. i cant seem to multitask on using words for a piece and using words communicating with the world.

sit down and write until one of the following happens. 1) i pass out, 2) i hate the thing so much i cant continue, 3) i finish it. 

i should ideally have an editing and revision step but i never do that with fic jdfhkdjfks

What are your favorite tropes/pairings?

COMEDY. thats a genre not a trope but GOD i love a fic thats just hilarious to the fucking bone. i love writing it and i love reading it and i love reading it again and again to painstakingly pick apart why it was funny. 

AUs!!!! im most obviously a sucker for magic/supernatural creature aus but every au immediately has my attention. it’s all about how well the fic manages to convince me of the premise.

mutual pining. im basic like that

not rlly a trope but Take Your Fandom To Work was a thing i ran into a bunch of fandoms ago and i LOVED IT. it was basically like, write ur fic as an au of what you do as a day job. i really really loved reading fics about jobs very clearly written by people who knew exactly what they were doing and all the consequences of that (i.e. ppl shading their own jobs djhkdsfs). broadway theatre tech!au, realistic teacher!au, shepherd!au, it’s WONDERFUL. i learned...so much...

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

On One Condition and goodnight moon. theyre the fics that i had the Most self indulgent fun with. like i genuinely just said “fuck it” and filled it with all the dumb stupid magic stuff i loved and logically knew wouldnt mesh with more audiences but i had fun and thats what mattered. 

i also just realized now that these are two fics where the main characters are dragons. 

Your fic with the most kudos?

Professional Werewolf Witch wins with a whopping (oh lord) 4,758 kudos. is this a forest comes in second with 3,192 kudos. i very much prefer forest to pww cuz as much as the kudos are astronomical, the teen wolf fandom’s fic engagement rate was like //holds fingers very close together. this much. lotsa kudos but not much feedback which feels like a big crowd of people silently giving you a thumbs up. it’s awesome!! but i’d take comments over kudos any day ksjfhkdj

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

pacing/cohesion. this is something that my writing profs have rightfully chewed me out for several times. i have trouble making scenes go from one to the next so i very often resort to scene cuts or in built fic structures like the 5 + 1 to avoid making one flowing thing. of course, pacing differs in every story for stylistic and tone reasons (i often use it for comedic effect. like trying to emulate how it happens in movies like. NOTHING WILL GO WRONG //cut to everything going wrong) but i use scene cuts and choppy pacing so often that by now i realize it’s a crutch for how i cant string my scenes together very well.

exposition dump. you know that bit in a fic where everything is just Explained. yeah. yeah i do that and i hate it. 

wording. this is me being nitpicky now but i hate how i phrase things on a visceral level. it always feels overly pretentious. sometimes i read the things i write and i can hear my voice instead of the character’s voice and that isnt necessarily a bad thing but i do Not Like It At All.

rambly. slightly related to above.  if im not paying attention, i write like how i talk and my sentences just never end. i like a good long sentence as much as the next person but theres gotta be a good balance to it and i havent found that balance yet. lately ive also been reading some fics and stories that use a more concise writing style (shorter sentences, more focused on moving forward than describing, every detail like a gut punch) and it’s gorgeous. i really wanna learn to pack a punch in less words than more. 

i could....keep going....but i think thatd be going overboard. 

Now something you do like?

im told im funny and good at dialog. on good days i can believe this.

Tag People

hhhshfdkdfh i never tag anybody in these cuz im chicken but hey if u wanna do it, go for it!!! talking about writing is so much easier than writing after all ksjfkdjf