#maybe it's related to my (possible) thalassophobia?

[helladventurers]

God even now as an adult i get intimidated by the idea of exploring the whirlpool islands 💀 i can't even say why, but as a kid i hated the place, to the point i learned the quickest way to get to Lugia and leave without having to spend any extra second there

[bughead-fic-request]

I would like to thank @leaalda for making these amazing banners.

This is an effort to spread the word about all fan fiction writers in our little fandom. If you would like to be featured or nominate a writer, please contact me. Please reblog this post if you can and check out some of @sylwrites work!

1. First things first, if someone wanted to read your stories where can they find them?

They’re posted exclusively on AO3.

2. Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m in my mid-twenties and I live in Canada. I have a giant dog that’s a lumbering buffoon of an animal and less free time than I’d like.

3. What do you never leave home without?

As a true millennial, my cell phone.

4. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Early bird.

5. If you could live in any fictional world, which one would you choose and why?

Probably something totally unachievable like Harry Potter, just to be escapist.

6. Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met.

Literally no one. I saw Billy Bush from afar once (pre-Trump tape days), but that’s it.

7. What are some of your favorite movies/TV?

I’m a big fan of mafia movies from the 70s through the 90s, like Casino and Goodfellas. Shows like Riverdale are a guilty pleasure, but I also love Game of Thrones and Westworld.

8. What are some of your favorite bands/musicians?

I mostly listen to alternative rock/pop and indie, but honestly lately I mostly listen to podcasts.

9. Favorite Books?

For purely sentimental reasons, Harry Potter. I’m also a pretty big fan of dystopian fiction (like 1984, not YA).

10. Favorite Food?

Chicken, probably, in various forms.

11. Biggest pet peeve?

They’re probably all driving-related. I have hella road rage.

12. What did you want to be when you were little? What do you want to be now?

I wanted to be a writer when I was little. Now I am pretty fulfilled in my current job and its career path, but to be super-broad, I just want to contribute meaningfully.

13. What are your biggest fears? Do you have any strange fears?

I have thalassophobia (a persistent fear of the sea or of sea travel), for sure, and I really hate earthworms for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

14. When you are on your deathbed what would be the one you’d regret not doing?

Not travelling more, probably.

Okay… lets talk about your writing!

15. Which is your favorite of the fics you've written for the Bughead fandom?

My favourite fic I’ve written is ”a million ways to bleed”.

16. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?

Honestly, the most recent one – “meet the morning”. It wasn’t doing what I wanted it to do for no reason at all and it ended up as sort of a fluffy garbage-fest, which still made a lot of people happy, but it’s not my best work by a long shot and it’s put a little bit of a hit in my self-image haha.

17. How do you come up with the ideas for you fic(s)? Do you people watch? Listen to music? Get inspired by TV/movies?

Usually it starts with a basic plot point. In the case of Fall in Light, for example, it was – hey, let’s write a roommates AU. Then it just got way darker. Sometimes it’s informed by life experiences (I’ll go camping then suddenly sit with an idea about camping for two days, for example).

18. Idea that you always wanted to write but could never make work?

I’m still trying to figure out a way to write some kind of a Jason-Blossom-never-died canon divergent thing, but I’ve never hit on a great plot driver and at this point a lot of fics with that premise have been done so I’m no longer that interested in it.

19. Least favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?

I shall refer you to question 16 :)

20. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment you’ve written?

Man, I’m not really sure I can pick a favourite. I tried really hard to handle a certain event that happens to Betty in Fall in Light with as much respect, sensitivity and care as I possibly could, and I am pretty satisfied with how it turned out, so maybe that.

21.Favorite character to write?

Betty, because as a fellow Type A overachiever, I relate too hard.

22. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you've written?

I don’t have any specific lines of dialogue that I have been proud of in terms of their phrasing or anything like that. To be honest I think my fics are a little heavier on the prose than dialogue.

23. Best comment/review you’ve ever received?

Any review where people are able to break down multiple things in a chapter that they liked and explain them and why they liked them is my favourite. Particularly on new and/or ongoing fics; I hope those people understand how valuable I find the detailed feedback to be and just how much it gives me confidence to continue. A lot of these people are also writers, like @lessoleilscouchants and @onceuponamirror but there are a lot of them on and off tumblr that I am so grateful for.

I suppose if I had to pick one or two, there were a few people that reached out to me about Fall in Light who said that they were sexual assault survivors and that they were grateful to see their recovery experiences reflected in a respectful way, which I really valued. It wasn’t something I wanted to discuss if I couldn’t do it right.

24. How do you handle bad reviews or comments?

Really, really poorly, which is why my anon ask is not on and why for the first bit I didn’t even allow anonymous commenting on AO3. I totally welcome and love legitimate feedback, but rudeness for the sake of rudeness isn’t something I deal with well.

25. If you could change anything in any of your stories, what would it be?

Never look back, man, you’re not going that way.

26. What is your favorite story you’ve ever written? Any fandom?

Ever? Man, probably Fall in Light and its codas, honestly. Before this I wrote a little for The 100 and before that, I hadn’t written in many years, so there’s not that much to choose from.

27. What are you reading right now? Both fan fiction and general fiction?

I’m reading a fair bit of fic, I think. Trying to keep updated on a few long-running multi-chapters that likely everyone else is also reading. There are a lot of others out there that I need to catch up on/start reading as well, but I’m waiting for a little more free time to hit me as I do have a really stressful job and a pretty demanding ‘real life’.  

As far as general fiction goes, I’m not actually reading anything at the moment. I try to keep as updated on current events as possible and consume what is probably an unhealthy amount of news media instead. I am aware that this is not ideal, thank you in advance for your concern :)

28. Do you have an advice for writers that want to get into this fandom but might be scared?

A few key points:

Make a plan/outline, that’ll help to keep you going forward if you get distracted or lose your drive halfway through

Get a beta reader to help keep you consistent, in-character and on track

Get a tumblr to introduce yourself to the community and help promote your work

Then, once you have a finished product: just post it! What’s the worst that can happen?

If people are wondering about comment/kudo ratio and hit count and ways to increase all of those things, I’d say that length and frequency of updates are a couple other contributing factors to success (in addition to what a lot of other people have said in great posts elsewhere on tumblr). If you’re concerned about not having a lot of time to write in between updates, I encourage people to stockpile a few updates and release them at a reasonable rate so that you don’t put a lot of undue stress on yourself later when you have twenty-five asks all bugging you for updates. I think this goes without saying, but nobody who is writing fic is doing it for any reason other than enjoyment, and if it starts to cause you stress and unhappiness, that goes against its entire purpose. This is one of those areas where I am a big hypocrite, because I never do that (see: my impatience, greed, and need for validation through the kindness of internet strangers), but I do think it’s a great concept if you would like to keep your fic in the top few most recent pages of the Bughead tag without sacrificing quality because of frantic late-night writing that’s done simply to appease reviewer644 in Tulsa, or whatever.