#idk where I'm going with this and maybe it's not so much a misconception many people have but I sure as shit didn't expect to find all that

[skibasyndrome]

because my main focus is modern lit I always forget how fun medieval lit is like.... you'd think in times when paper was rare and valuable and only the most important things were written down and religious institutions still had a big monopoly on written creation in general there was no place for like... funny and weird and whacky stories, but let me tell you! humanity hasn't changed, we've always loved poop jokes and sex, we still love poop jokes and sex - people in medieval times were just like us in that regard

[sheepwasfound]

Hi! I'm really curious what are your thoughts on dnf "queerbaiting" their audience? I know this topic is quite often been discussed, but it seems like many people don't see it as a baiting at all, while it is very obvious in some cases (for example, their texts, tweets, sometimes "jeoulosy" thing seems kinda off, "some interactions are seemingly staged - the one where dream "didn't know" that george was streaming etc). Don't get me wrong, I don't want to bring any negativity, but their relationship really confuse me - sometimes it is obviously geniune flirting, sometimes they very clearly exploit this topic for clout. And well it's hard to blame them for this, I mean it's not really their fault that the audience got so invested in whatever happens between them, but sometimes the "staged" part seem a bit too much tbh. I just really wonder to what amount this whole thing is real. Because well I feel like if you "play pretend" as a couple so much with someone it may start feeling odd, weird, somewhat real and then you may start questioning your own feelings. Idk, it kinda feels like what is happening with them, but maybe they are just really really good actors.

eh, i think it's a mix, but the parts that i personally find shippable about them are not something they do for show imo. however, i do think they occasionally do play things up for fun.

first of all, they're actual people and actual friends so they can't "queerbait" (as a bi i hate that misconception with a passion but that'd be another essay), but if we ignore that and just consider what you're talking about as them...playing things up because they think it's funny and it'll get a reaction from the audience. that's just something entertainers do. one example of this is when dream said "well, obviously we're gonna kiss" when asked about what they'll do when they meet. ofc i don't know their motivations, but i'm guessing a fair bit of the reason they make those kinds of comments is because they themselves find it funny. many friends do this. dream's also said they did it before youtube. maybe they also find the audience's reaction funny. it's still not queerbaiting. i don't think they do it consciously as some kind of marketing ploy, cus let's be real -- they don't need it. i'm pretty sure they just plain enjoy that shit. they have a fun time doing it. and the audience has a fun time watching it.

the texts you mentioned btw, those are just between them, how could it even be "for clout"? if you think they plan out texting each other stuff like that and then posting it a few weeks later, i think that's going pretty far for two cc's who have a huge following and piles of money completely independently from their ship. they literally do not need to do that. i think a more likely reason is they have a fun time doing it. so yes, i do believe they sometimes play stuff up, but i think the reason they do it is because it’s fun for them, and they do it whether they have an audience or not. it’s not “staged”, they’re just having fun.

to top it off, as a shipper i'm not a huge fan of those very over-the-top lines or whatever, cus they pretty clearly come off as jokes. ofc...well...making jokes like that is also a way to flirt...and figure stuff out...and lines can blur... but anyway, the parts i like most about them are the ones they don't play up. their dedication to each other. their dumbass bickering while they're still obviously having the time of their lives. being able to talk all day and not get sick of each other. wanting to live together. always being hyperaware of each other. knowing every tiny detail about each other. most of these are just...things that super close friends do too. for me, that's what i like about them. and that is absolutely real.

still, when it comes to shipping them romantically, the thing that gets me beyond the friendshipy things isn't the over-the-top dnf jokes and whatever that they do (though like i said, that can be flirting too), it's the goddamn tension they have sometimes. such close friends that are so familiar and so comfortable with each other, how do they still get moments where they...well, get quiet. awkward. sometimes you can see george bite his lip and let out a little giggle cus he doesn't know what to say, and you hear dream's voice get even lower. it's like you can hear their hearts beating and thoughts racing. their acting ain't that fricking good anon

[vaveyard]

I know that on tiktok people have been discussing you as 'problematic' lately (something about 'rants on reddit against critics', bad behavior with fans in general + towards Brazilian fans in particular? and videos - on IG an tiktok - where you come off as bragging and classist? maybe you talked about money or how much you spent on your house? idk but your house was mentioned I think, and many say they used to support and follow you until you became a "rich, white girl who thinks she's better than others because she wrote a boring, copy cat series and got published because of her connections, and is only in for the money" - semi direct quote)

Idk I'm not involved on booktok and I just stumbled upon this stuff. But it might explain the negativity you're getting.

Some of these things are quite bad so don't feel like you have to answer this and give it visibility.

Oh thanks for letting me know! TikTok makes it pretty hard to follow or see anything like this, but good to know what's being said. Even if it's frustrating and based on a lot of misconceptions.

I don't know what rants on Reddit refers to - my Reddit username is VictoriaAveyard and I pretty much only post in Bravo subreddits, lol.

I try my very best to be 100% for all readers at events, because I know how much meeting an author would have meant to me as a teenager. Of course, that's certainly not foolproof.

I have seen some criticism regarding my Brazilian tour because I don't allow people to physically touch me at signings. I started this practice at the advice of other authors, and I try to uphold it at all my signings. Largely for health and safety reasons, but also because international signings can sometimes be very long. It sounds strange, but being hugged many times gets painful, and I have a chronic back issue. I realize this is a cultural disconnect, and the Brazilian readers were so, so lovely, but I don't do hugs on tour anymore because my body simply can't handle it. And going forward after the pandemic, I doubt anyone will for a long time.

The classist thing is, again, a misunderstanding over a joke I made about my fiancé's IKEA furniture not matching my already furnished house when he moved in. But I see where things went awry there, and that's on me.

Again, thanks for letting me know, and for the polite message. One thing we seem to have lost in the social media atmosphere is the benefit of the doubt, or the good faith conversation. And that sucks for everyone!

[threeletterslife]

Chana! I was reading thru your about page and I saw that you like Harry Potter 😄😄 I'm a really big fan of HP too! Would you mind sorting the BTS members in their houses? And I know you said you're a Ravenclaw! Would you choose any other house if you could? -Hufflepuff reader

yes! i was literally obsessed with hp for five(?) years now, which isn’t a lot compared to others, but it’s a fandom i’ve been in the longest LOL so happy to see another potterhead!!

and I WOULD NOT MIND AT ALL!!!! I LOVE HP X BANGTAN OMG (i will eat any hp x bts crossover ff uP)

but to answer your questions,,, this might get a lil long lol

namjoon actually sorted the members in their respective houses a long time ago himself. (not sure if it’s still accurate now, but i think what he wrote back then was all true.) also as a side note, these are my opinions, so you don’t necessarily have to agree with them! and aLSO i think there’s a common misconception going around with new harry potter fans. your hp house is NOT what you are the most—it’s what you VALUE the most! i’ll explain more later

GRYFFINDORS

seokjin

seokjin has always been a bit easy for me to categorize in terms of hp house

he just screams gryffindor to me

he tries to do what’s right

he’s the oldest in the group so he’s always taking care of his younger brother-like figures

he does his best to make sure the other members feel safe and comfortable in new environments (that’s why he cracks so many corny jokes—to break the ice!)

though he’s not the official leader of bangtan, he does a LOT of behind the scenes leadership work

i think seokjin can be mistaken as a hufflepuff (just because he’s so friendly and kind) BUT this is where the values come in. seokjin might have some hufflepuff-like traits, but he actually values the gryffindor traits even more. he values his passions, his confidence, his valiance

he doesn’t take himself too seriously, but he knows what’s right and wrong (great moral compass)

that puts him in gryffindor

namjoon

i’ve literally seen so many pple put joon in ravenclaw just because he has an insanely high iq

but i mean,,, as a ravenclaw myself, i don’t see him in my house

yes, namjoon is creative, yes, he is intelligent, and YES! he is indeed insightful!! BUT,,, it all comes down to his values

namjoon uses his intelligence, his creativity and insight for the good of everyone! he’s a team player (not an individualist, as most ravenclaws tend to be)

and, not to mention, he’s bangtan’s official leader, and he does extremely well with that extra responsibility (gryffindors are great leaders)

namjoon tries so hard to do what’s right

he doesn’t try to cut corners to get to his goals. he’s very moral and fair

he likes peace and justice

gryffindors are drawn to good morals (they’re always trying to fix what’s wrong too)

namjoon is the staple gryffindor in my eyes

HUFFLEPUFFS

hoseok

hoseok is so easy for me to categorize, but i’ve seen him be sorted into gryffindor sometimes

i don’t think he’d be in gryffindor, though. hoseok is someone who doesn’t exactly like the idea of *risks*

gryffindors are all about risks (stereotypically they don’t think about the consequences that much because all they want to do is wrong the right)

hoseok (though he is passionate and charismatic) is more fit for hufflepuff

he’s bright, kind and always has something nice to say

the persona he puts on in front of the camera is close to his real personality—he’s just a sunny person in general

what makes him such a hufflepuff is the fact that he’s so hardworking! hoseok just dOES NOT give up (he’s extremely loyal to the people in his life, and he’s loyal to his talents too)

he chased after his dancing talents and look where he is right now

he wasn’t originally a rapper but he practiced and practiced until it became one of his talents

he’s dependable, honest and values friendship

hufflepuffs are people’s persons. and hoseok is just that—A GIFT TO THE PEOPLE

taehyung

taehyung’s the hardest one to put in a house in my opinion. he’s what you’d call *divergent* (and yes, in theory, everyone is divergent. we ALL have traits of ALL FOUR hp houses. BUT there are some people who exemplify all four traits more equally than others. so now, it all comes down to what taehyung values the most)

taehyung, in my eyes, is such a people’s person. that makes him a strong candidate for hufflepuff

the tae that i know has many friends—and he’s extremely good at reading people too (like his vibe check DO BE trustworthy)

hufflepuffs are often underestimated because they’re written canonnly as just being “nice”

hufflepuffs are much more than that. hufflepuffs are essentially gryffindors but with higher eq LOL (hufflepuffs would ONLY right the wrong if righting the wrong didn’t hurt anyone on the ‘wrong’ side—does that even make sense??)

tae is someone i see as extremely trustworthy—he’s someone who’d die WITH your secrets

he’s also very emotionally available to the people in his life

therefore,,, i sort tae into hufflepuff

RAVENCLAW

jungkook

ravenclaws are intelligent, insightful and most of all, they value creativity!!

jungkook is the staple ravenclaw

i can’t see him in any other house

like if i see jungkook, i see ravenclaw. they are literal synonyms

ravenclaws are stereotypically jack-of-all-trades because they genuinely enjoy learning new things

i mean,,, jungkook’s lowkey perfect right? he’s good at everything right? yeah it’s because he has the thirst to LEARN! he wants to be good at everything! that’s such a mf ravenclaw trait

sorry i get so excited explaining about my own house omf

jungkook’s naturally curious; he likes to poke at new things because he wonders what it’ll be like to learn about it and do it himself

ravenclaws are also stereotypically the “artsy” kids (and i mean, this man can DRAW)

ALSO! just because ravenclaws get called jack-of-all-trades often, it doesn’t mean they’re good at EVERYTHING. it means that they’re good at what they’re interested in!! (jungkook doesn’t exactly care too much about math, which is totally fine! he has his other interests)

ravenclaws are smart, yes, but just because you’re smart, doesn’t mean you’re necessarily a ravenclaw. (i.e. hermione isn’t open-minded enough to be ravenclaw.) being a ravenclaw doesn’t mean you just read a lot lol. it means you read a lot AND you take the adventures from the protagonist in the book and then apply it to yourself. hence, the *imagination*

idk man i can’t see jk in any other house

SLYTHERINS

yoongi

yoongi’s also really easy to sort

i mean, the man screams slytherin

a slytherin would do anything (maybe even cross a few rules) to get to his desired end result

some people call it evil (usually gryffindors and hufflepuffs), but i call it working smarter not harder (to slytherins, it’s not immoral to cut a few corners to get to their desired result—if they don’t get caught, that is)

if yoongi were not slytherin, he would not have cut corners in those bts run episode games LMAO (icon behavior)

slytherins also value individuality (like ravenclaws) but in a COMPLETELY different way. ravenclaws love to be unique because with their insight, they conclude that everyone has dealt with different experiences, making them their each, special person. slytherins like to be individualists because they like to feel special (sometimes paired with a superiority/god complex BUT i don’t think that’s necessarily bad. but slytherins do tend to be more close-minded than ravenclaws; slytherins value tradition)

in turn, slytherins find more success than ravenclaws. sometimes, ravenclaws step back when they find that their ideals will be replaced with success. slytherins would rather replace/reform their ideals to find success (i.e. yoongi became an extremely successful idol rapper when he could’ve actually just become a producer instead)

slytherins also tend to have trust issues. they don’t like to trust others except for themselves (smart, really)

yoongi is very self-driven and self-reliant, making him a perfect slytherin candidate

he’s the staple slytherin

jimin

i lowkey wanna copy paste what i wrote for yoongi into jimin’s explanation lmfao

personally, jimin was easy to place in slytherin, BUT i’ve seen a lot of pple put him in hufflepuff

so lemme just refute that for a sec

jimin is very self-orientated (and i’m saying that in the nicest way possible)

he wants to be unique! he wants to be special! he wants to shine!! 

jimin’s just a naturally giggly, bubbly person

but behind the scenes (behind the cameras), he beats himself up to be his very best self; slytherin behavior

slytherins are perfectionists, okay? they value what others think of them a lot OR they value the INFLUENCE they have on other people

remember? slytherins are about pOwEr! and power comes in many shapes and forms

jimin likes the idea of being well-liked! he likes the idea of being thought of as charismatic and talented

he may act like a hufflepuff to fit what people want to see in him, BUT the fact that he has to ACT like a hufflepuff to be in people’s favor makes him a slytherin lol (i mean,,, remember his whole FILTER song???)

anyways i wouldn’t call him a staple slytherin (that’s for yoongi) but he’s pretty close to being one

anyways, to answer your other question,,,

i’ve mentioned before that everyone is *divergent* 

of course i have all four traits of the hp houses, but the traits aren’t very equal for me. i have all the traits of ravenclaw, hufflepuff aNd slytherin. except i’m not very gryffindor. i have a few gryffindor traits, yes, but i don’t value them as much as my other traits. with that said, it’s hard for me to acclimate in environments where people value things that i don’t necessarily find as important

i think it’d be best for me to be in ravenclaw (just because every ravenclaw i know has been my best friend). i think i’d also do well in slytherin (but sometimes, i can’t handle their intense ambition lol). i’m also a good hufflepuff candidate, but i don’t think i could trade up being a ravenclaw for that

in the end, your house is your choice (it’s what you value the most)

i would like to say i’m friendly, ambitious and creative. but when it comes down to it, i’m picking my creativity and RUNNING. so no, i would not change my house. never! i’m a solid ravenclaw!!

i am so sorry this is so long wtf 😭😭

*also disclaimer* this was written in the pov of a ravenclaw,,, it may or may not be biased 😀😀😀😀😀😀

[izzyovercoffee]

Hi there. We've briefly crossed paths before, but I see you're the resident Mando, so I have a question. I'm wondering how Mandalorian culture deals with mental illness, depression in particular. Would they write somebody off like 'haha you're weak, later loser' or would they be understanding of a person's struggles with their own mind and lend support to the fight, or something else entirely? Obviously not everyone would react the same, but as a culture on the whole, what are your thoughts?

There’s a short answer and a long answer. The short answer is that centrally to mandalorian cultural foundations, mental illness should be understood and not stigmatized, and the community supportive of the individual suffering. A community focused culture like those of the mandalorians is one of support, assistance, and understanding. The fact is, Mandalorian cultural foundations literally view struggle of all kinds as important to spiritual growth, as well as the physical and mental. The foundations explicitly venerate coming together as a community to support one another. It is, literally, in the Resol’nare.

While mandalorians are not all warriors, it’s no secret that a large percentage of their population work on battlefields or in war zones—enough for that to be a stereotyped profession. A society like this must learn to deal with all of the mental and physical disabilities that stem from such professions. Negative stigma is unsustainable—there is no way mandalorians, as a people, would have survived for so long as they did, and do, if they literally treated mental illness, such as depression, with the attitude of “haha, you’re weak.”

It’s just not realistic. It’s ignorant. 

The long answer is that because of ignorance and an obsession with harmful ideas of strength and weakness, and a complete misunderstanding of “warrior culture” on the whole in order to defend and prop up toxic ideas of strength and masculinity, the fandom pushes the idea that mandalorians would be intolerant of mental illness—when what we know about mandalorians blatantly expresses otherwise, if you know where to look.

So, let’s look.

Struggle versus Stagnation

The mandalorian creation myth, Akaanati'kar'oya, tells us of an eternal struggle between Kad Ha’rangir, the Destroyer, and the sloth-god Arasuum, Stagnation. During the time of the Neo-Crusaders, the creation myth was regarded not as just a story but a telling of factual events.

At the time, devotion to Kad Ha’rangir was expressed through ritual warfare — and it was said that a person is not a mandalorian if they give in to stagnation.

But, fandom often misses, overlooks, or outright ignores a major component of Kad Ha’rangir. They are not a destroyer god, They are a chaos god of change.

Kad Ha’rangir is not a Destroyer to destroy — They are a destroyer to clear out the things that would choke and trap you. Sometimes destruction is necessary for growth. Sometimes you have to cut out the parts of you, or your community, that is holding you down or preventing you from accepting change, from pursuing change, from growing and reaching your full potential.

Sometimes you have to clear the dead and the decay, violently, to allow life to flourish when it could not before.

“They served the god Kad Ha'rangir, whose tests and trials forced change and growth upon the clans he chose to be his people.”

— Vilnau Teupt, The Essential Guide to Warfare

Kad Ha’rangir was never about destruction for destruction’s sake. They were never about conquering. Huge chunks of mandalorian fandom can’t seem to wrap their fucking minds around that fact. They obsess over this misconception of “Proud Warrior Race,” completely misunderstanding Kad Ha’rangir and pushing a stereotype that just doesn’t fit.

And all this? Was explicit in the creation myth itself.

For those who would say they’re “outdated” and that mandalorians wouldn’t know about them … well, that’s not true either. The creation myth, Kad Ha’rangir and the original pantheon, was still known and discussed by Mandalorian academics as late as 24 ABY. So claiming ignorance won’t work.

This creation myth, among other myths and legends, are the very foundations and building blocks upon which the entire culture was born, they are integral to mandalorian cultural identity.

The parts of fandom who see the word “destruction” fixate on the aggressive violence inherent in the word, and that’s just … such a small, narrow view. It’s completely missing the point, usually in order to chest thump.

How is this relevant, you might ask. Isn’t depression (to use your example) idleness and stagnation?

Well, yes, actually, depending on how you might look at it. But that’s the point.

Anyone who understands depression from a place of education and not ignorance understands that depression is a sickness(and, lmao, mandalorians value education, so idk why the toxic parts of fandom are incapable of educating themselves and discarding misconceptions about mental health, but that’s an entirely different discussion). It can be treated, can be managed, can maybe even be cured in some cases, but it is literally a battle fought day in and day out against an invisible enemy.

And these kinds of battles are some of the most difficult to survive. How do you fight, and overcome, and survive, something you cannot see? How do you survive when it is your body that you are fighting?

Dealing with depression, fighting depression, surviving depression, is, in a way, the spiritual struggle against arasuum taken from an external form and brought internally—and there is no way that mandalorians, on the whole, wouldn’t be able to see its relevance or make that connection, ESPECIALLY considering the symptoms of depression.

And this isn’t even touching on other forms of mental illnesses—like PTSD, which is also heavily stigmatized in our society and carries that stigma into mandalorian “fans,” despite so many mandalorians being subject to violence and the potential of developing the disorder. 

A disorder which is so often co-morbid with depression.

For something that so many soldiers are at high risks of developing, and mandalorian fandom supposedly being drawn to the mandalorians due to their militaristic culture, it is mind boggling how the fandom treats depression, PTSD, and other mental health disorders / illnesses on the whole.

As I’ve said before: shabla mirsh'kyramude.

Add onto this the fact that mandalorians, in general, heavily practice adoption along the requirements of whether or not someone is mandokarla, or has the right stuff. What is often considered the right stuff?

surviving the impossible (often extreme violence or abuses)

displaying the potential for the incredible, often in a warlike setting

proving one’s self through extreme events

extreme devotion to family and personal code

I would be surprised if literally everyone adopted into the culture was perfectly stable and healthy. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb right now and say that anyone who says that, deserves a smack. In Legends, nearly every single goddamn example of adoption has been of someone who has been severely impacted by extreme circumstances and still survives—but is still clearly damaged by it, and struggles with it in whatever way they can.

And that struggle is venerated. Instead of stigmatized, they’re viewed through a lens of bravery, of courage, of atinla—a stubbornness to be admired and imitated, not a reason to be ridiculed and abandoned. 

Ultimately this all falls back into the toxic ideology that surrounds “strength,” which is unsustainable, and the stigma against appearing weak, which is, again, incongruent with actual mandalorian philosophy and cultural foundation.

Anyway, moving on.

Accessibility / Accommodations / Impact

Not solely mental health, but still relevant and still applies:

Parja reached up and patted [Fi’s] helmet. She’d painted it with the Mandalorian letters M and S for mir’shupur — brain injury — just like a battlefield medic might do for triage purposes. On Mandalore, the symbol functioned as a blend of a general warning to give the wearer a break, and a medal for combat service.

— Republic Commando: Order 66, pp 39

Now, the Republic Commando series holds a kind of … contentious position in fandom, as I’m sure you’ve probably noticed. However, this is one of the things it does get right, as far as mental illness and disability is concerned. Yes, Fi Skirata suffered a traumatic brain injury in the line of duty, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is still just as much a mental health issue as it is a physical one. Fi experiences disorientation. He forgets things he feels he shouldn’t, struggles with words and speaking, and so on.

The sigil painted on his helmet is a clear, public, visible way to alert everyone around him, explicitly, what to expect so that everyone in the community can accommodate and assist him.

What people don’t understand when reading this scene, is that this is not something done if anyone suspects he would be at risk of being taken advantage of. He is in a predominantly mandalorian community, populated by mostly if not only mandalorians, with the expectation that the community will assist him as a rule, not an exception.

You don’t paint a goddamn sign that says BRAIN INJURY on someone’s helmet in a society that stigmatizes disability or weakness of any kind.

This sets a precedence, whether knowingly or unknowingly: mandalorians, as a community, will assist another mandalorian with a disability. If there was any risk at all, Parja would never have allowed Fi to wander around a busy town alone, much less paint a sigil on his helmet that would make him an obvious target otherwise.

Another thing: it is specifically a sigil written in the mandalorian alphabet, not arubesh, and it’s implied to be understood to mandalorians only, and not aruettise (unless they’re familiar with mandalorian cultural practices, and alphabet).

Why is this important?

It is because it is the biggest, clearest, loudest example we have that mandalorians display both badges as well as warnings through art and sigils on their armor. They give signals that this person is suffering x disability as a warning and a request for patience, assistance, and accessibility. That assistance and accessibility is expected of the community, not something done out of kindness or saintliness or good samaritan whatever the hell.

It is the rule, not the exception. It is the rule.

I’m repeating myself, but I’m trying to drill in this point because fandom fails to recognize something so little as so important, and it is important.

It is so small and easy to miss, but it completely decimates any foundation to the argument that mental illness is a weakness and that the sufferer should be abandoned. 

Putting aside however briefly the fact that negatively stigmatizing mental illness is harmful and puts real people at risk of real harm and danger, propping up the idea that mandalorians don’t deal with or address disability or illness of any kind in the face of the above is just … ignoring all of the creative potential for telling interesting stories—creating art, sigils, and armor.

Consider: art or sigils indicating:

autism spectrum

schizophrenia

PTSD

blindness

deaf or hard of hearing

etc etc etc

What is the point of writing a people who are as community focused as mandalorians, who have a huge population who deals with war as an industry, who has a huge population of refugees and forced migration, and then never having the courage to sensitively deal with the repercussions of these terrible things? Never having the thought to even consider what it means to carry a sigil of depression as both an indicator of needing assistance as well as a badge of honor for fighting what could be an invisible battle for years?

What is the actual point of maintaining a status quo of demonizing mental illness when mandalorians, as a society, have firmly flipped the bird at status quo time and time again in order to come together and support all members of their community — even fighting each other to do so? 

The toxic parts of mandalorian fandom is lazy. Do not accept that laziness, that inadvertent worship of arasuum, as fact. 

To put it crudely, they don’t know shit about shit.

Mandalorians venerate, give respect, give honor, to struggle. All forms of struggle. Even surviving, just surviving, is a struggle. 

No real mandalorian would abandon another to arasuum. 

[zmediaoutlet]

wonder if you could talk a bit about your writing process? these charity fics.. 1 hour, srsly? I couldn't TYPE 12k in an hour, let alone WRITE it. stream-of-consciousness style notwithstanding, the way you just drop these little headcanon bombs like it's nothing -- these on-the-surface nothing moments that contain multitudes -- like a mic-drop, i'm reeling. it's like watching the world's best freestyler. to what extent do you have the story mapped out in your head before you start writing? xx

oh dear, oh dear, anon. Gotta get a misconception out of the way REAL fast: I haven't been doing the one hour thing for the charity fics for months. Oh my god, can you imagine? I actually stuck with one hour each on the first round but I got lazy and unspooled the time on the second round, and on this third round... man, idk. Some of them are taking weeks when they really aren't weeks' worth of quality. That's a separate problem, though.

So, mechanical writing process. I'd say, if things are humming and I'm in the zone, I can write... 1500 words in an hour? Maybe up to 2000 if things are really ticking. I "sprint" but not in the 'oh god whatever write anything we'll edit it later just TYPE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE' model -- I always, always edit as I go. My brain just doesn't work otherwise. "Stream of consciousness" is pretty much it but I'm always a little self-conscious, lol. (Note: I don't actually write true 'stream of consciousness' though. There's dialogue, there's dips into the past, there are scene breaks, etc. Ulysses this is not.) However, I also have a pretty solid internal voice (especially for Dean and mostly for Sam), so I don't have to spend a long time choosing particular words that sound right. I also have a strong preference for a... simpler style, for the most part, so I don't have to work out the most exciting convoluted new way to present a thought. I just want the thought out there. (I would not do well in an MFA.)

On planning... idk, it depends. I never write an outline unless something is going to get over 20/30k. I do think about it for a while, sometimes weeks, going 'hmm but why are we doing this? what's the point? where are we going with it?' It takes me a long time to come up with a first sentence, the place to start. However, once I do have the first sentence, I... do just kind of freestyle, I guess. I don't find it difficult to imagine what comes next because I know Sam and Dean really well and they're pretty realistic people who react to things in largely predictable ways -- if I have one say X, the other responds easily Y, and... you just kind of go from there. If I do get stuck, I assume something went wrong -- from there I try to back up and delete a few sentences and try something new to get the flow going.

I don't know what to say about the headcanon "bombs," though. Maybe, again, it's just knowing the characters/setting/situation really well. I just write stuff down and go 'oh, well, that sounds right.' I don't do second drafts because I don't have the time, and generally speaking the choices I made in the freestyle (so to speak) are what this story is. If I'd written it another way, it'd be a different story. I just have to hope that I've put in sufficient structural support that this particular version of the story makes sense and can make the reader buy what I'm selling.

I operate on the "many pots" model of writing -- I'll do lots and lots and lots of stories, in the hope of getting better, rather than trying to obsessively perfect one particular thing. It works sometimes better than others, lol, but... that's all I know how to do.