#my fav part of fandom is how we inspire each other and build off ideas

[letstrywritingmaybe]

Love Me, But Don’t Fall For Me

Isn’t it a little late for that? Aka the fake dating fic, CoAi edition

Chapter One: Picture Perfect

Posted on ao3 <3

[englandsgray]

Sherlolly Self-Interviews 2020

Well hi 👋

Ignoring the internal image of Gilderoy Lockheart smiling smugly while flashbulbs pop and saying ‘In my autobiography, Magical Me...’ 🙈😆 I shall take the opportunity of this lovely event to introduce myself as a writer of Sherlolly fanfiction on AO3...

I am English and somewhere over 30.  I watched the show as it aired, and lost my heart as quickly to Molly Hooper as to Sherlock Holmes.  The kiss is British television history.  Series 4 is my favourite.  Moriarty on the beach is life.  The Holmes brothers break my heart every time.

I am extremely lucky to have been provided some questions to answer here by @ohaine and @mybrainrots - huge, huge love and thanks to these two lovelies, and not just for this.  I admire you both so much as writers, and your support means the world to me ❤️ Thanks too, to @sherlollyappreciationweek!

Where did you begin to write, and have you written for other fandoms?  I wrote my first fanfic when I was eleven years old - a 100 page ramble about The Monkees.  Oh yes.  Then in 2018, I fell for the characters of the Disney Pixar film Cars and began writing and publishing.  So far so random!  Writing in this fandom sprang from binge-watching all four series of Sherlock during lockdown.  I remembered reading Louise Brealey talking about being disappointed Molly didn’t get chance to ‘roundly kick Sherlock’s arse’ and agreeing with her wholeheartedly.  That, over a few weeks, turned into my first fic - Who You Really Are.  

You’re a recent (and welcome!) arrival to the Sherlolly ship, and I was wondering if writing in an established, less active than it used to be fandom has been a challenge?   Thank you, firstly.  My experience of this fandom has been incredibly positive - the sense of welcome has been wonderful.  I will admit I was terrified posting the first fic - there are hundreds of times more stories posted daily in the Sherlock fandom as in the one I had some experience of.  But I needn’t have worried, it’s been a blast.  I will also admit, that it’s no small thing to be surrounded by such brilliant writing and the long-standing passion which goes with it.  But I find that inspiring in itself, and I’m very glad to be here - how supportive the fandom are makes me feel like I always have been!       

What’s your favourite place and way to write?  My aesthetic is Lin-Manuel Miranda in his in-law’s laundry room 🤣 I wrote my first ten-thousand words on the notes app on my phone before my other half told me to stop being ridiculous!  I switch between the laptop, my phone and longhand (I’m a sucker for a nice notepad and a Uni-Ball Eye) and, more often than not, not sat up properly at a table.   

Since you’ve (done something I’ve never managed successfully and) written a novella length fic... how did you organise/keep track of all the details and where you wanted the story to go?  Did you outline/plot in advance?  First of all - I would love to see a novella length fic from you @mybrainrots!  The final scene of Who You Really Are came to me very early on and I knew I wanted the fic to fit within TFP - a lot of it takes place in the timeframe of the final montage.  At first, it was going to be much more about Sherlock’s relationship with the ideas of sentiment and love (the phrase ‘I’m not sentimental about you, I love you,’ haunted me for a while) and I spent some time researching the psychology and playing with scenes from throughout the series - one of my favourites I didn’t go on to use was inspired by the final scene of THoB.  Using scenes from the canon gave an automatic structure, and I was always aiming for the final one I wrote early on - the two of them on the beach (everything is about the beach, with me!)  As I went along and started, inevitably, to slow down, I mapped out the chapters with a short note of what I wanted to be in each, then would add notes or phrases as they came to me - often emailed from my phone!  I had to force myself through a tricky section set in Baker Street at one point, but it came together in the end.  I did plot The Pathologist’s Skeletons on paper first, as I found with a casefic which remains a WIP, that I can get confused and lose focus when it comes to details and how to reveal them in a way which stays paced and interesting.  I’ll certainly do that from now on with longer stories and cases.  How did you keep up enthusiasm for the work?  I want to write an original novel, so I am forcing myself to work through the knotty bits and blocks as a learning experience.  Not everything is destined to be finished or finessed, of course, but I’m finding this process is building my confidence that I can overcome problems and slow periods.  I also find I know when I need some external inspiration - some of my favourite scenes have come to me while out walking the dog or sitting on the beach.  I’ve also been inspired by books or other series or things going on in the world, as we all are, and sometimes that’s pushed me on.  Plus, of course, I’m a newbie - I’m very much in the honeymoon period of my writing, even though I’ve loved Sherlock for ten years! (Ten years! Bonkers.) 

You’ve got a knack for writing Sherlock’s thoughts and capturing his voice.  That said, which character do you find easiest to write?  Which is the hardest?  Thank you so much.  I absolutely love writing Sherlock and Mycroft, and I’m sure that’s because they suit my somewhat over-the-top writing style!  I find Molly and her POV really difficult.  I want the scenes I write from her perspective to sound completely different to Sherlock, but that means writing in a style which doesn’t come as naturally to me.  I’m a long way off happy with that at the moment, but I’m enjoying the challenge.

Is there a scene or character that specifically inspired you to start writing Sherlolly?  The whole of TFP, but especially from the moment Sherlock arrives at Musgrave onwards.  I am desperate to see what a Sherlock Holmes who has been reacquainted with his own heart would look like.  I find his emotionality in those final scenes hugely compelling (Mycroft’s office is one of my favourite moments from across all four series) and, as I have always believed in him and Molly, I practically jumped up back in May after watching it and said ‘right, where’s my notebook?!’.

There’s a lovely peaceful, quiet feeling to your fic ‘We’re All Right At The Moment’.  Can you tell us what inspired it and if you’ve thought of doing the backstory that goes with it?  Thank you!  Like everyone, I would go back to January of this year and start again in a heartbeat, but I am hugely fortunate to be able to say that I have a lot to be grateful to the UK lockdowns for.  I might never have begun writing in this fandom otherwise, for one, and I have had a brilliant time so far and met some lovely people. Honestly, I don’t feel able to do any sort of justice in my writing to what has happened in the world in any broader sense than drawing on my own experiences of staying at home and enjoying my family.  This particular super-short fic sees Molly cutting Sherlock’s hair at home in Baker Street.  I wrote it in the evening after I had cut my other half’s hair and had been reminding myself that despite how horribly worried I was - and still am - about everything, we were all right in that moment, and to focus on that as much as possible.  I wanted to try to capture that, if for no reason other than to look back on this entire experience and remember something lovely, so I am so pleased to hear you felt the fic did that.  It was only after I finished it and reread it, that I realised it is ambiguous as to whether Molly is worried about Sherlock contracting the virus, or whether she is remembering him being treated for it... As I say, I don’t think I could write more about these extraordinary circumstances - perhaps it’s just too close at the moment - so I don’t plan on extending it.  But you know how it is, the plot bunnies hop where they will... 

Do you have a Sherlolly music playlist?  What are your top five favs from the list? Here’s a run down of (6 🙊) songs I have been getting emotional over in the last little while, leading my brain to assign their significance to my favourite couple...

Kissing You - Des’Ree - It’s so 90′s, it’s a bit cheesy, it’s oddly disturbing.  It helped me write A Request, Made Properly, and that gave me an excuse to have Sherlock kiss Molly in the snow.

How Long Will I Love You? - Ellie Goulding - part of the playlist, but also in remembrance of a friend who passed away recently.  Life is very short, love is forever.

High and Dry - Jamie Cullum - It’s made me emotional for a very long time.  The original is my partner’s version of choice, this is mine.  

Think About You - Delta Goodrem - Okay, this one isn’t emotional, and it’s not my usual vibe!  Blame the zoom exercise class I do!  But oh my goodness, it’s Molly.  Bless her.

Blinded By Your Grace (P.T.2. F.T. MNEK) - Stormzy - One of the best ever, I reckon.  Spent an awful lot of time thinking about angels and demons, grace and what it takes to save someone, while writing my latest - The Pathologist’s Skeletons.  This has been in my head most of the (blimmin’) time!

Love Me Like You Do - Ellie Goulding - I didn’t know I was a fan of Ellie until I wrote this list... I don’t subscribe to the theory that the love Molly wants or that which Sherlock has to offer is any lesser because it isn’t ‘normal’ or expected. I don’t think romantic entanglement would come easy to either of them. But it’s still love and it would be beautiful.

Thank you so much for reading.  Thanks and love to @ohaine and @mybrainrots. And thank you @sherlollyappreciationweek for the event and for everything you do ❤️

Feel like I should sign off with a quote from the show...

“You’re not a puzzle-solver, you never have been. You’re a drama queen!” Dr John Watson (Moffat & Gatiss) 2014 😜

X

A fav fic of mine by @mybrainrots

https://archiveofourown.org/works/7563193

A fav fic of mine by @ohaine

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10562904

My stuff:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnglandsGray/works

[theguildedtypewriter]

Tag Game

Answer the 10 questions, and then make 10 of your own up.

I was tagged by @sirilikestowrite and I am answering all the questions! Yay!!

1. When creating your characters, where do you draw inspiration from?

Sort of everywhere. Movies, TV, other books, dreams, random people on the street, some weird place in my brain that goes, “hey this would be cool.”

2. What is your naming process for your characters?

I like to choose names from the country of origin of the character that directly plays into who they are as a person or is ironic is some way. I also have characters pop up and say, “hello, I’m Thaine.” “Thaine?” “Yes, deal with it.”

3. Is there an important, overlying message that you want your readers to glean from your piece? If so, what is it?

Each NBC series book is different but for the first one it’s definitely that love has the power to heal and that running from something is never the answer. For the series as a whole: power corrupts, always. And I don’t just mean the antag.

4. Is your piece going to be a stand-alone book? Or do you intend on writing a sequel (or multiple sequels)?

It’s a series of 10. Yah. I’m nuts.

5. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? What part do you enjoy the least?

I love every aspect of writing except for editing. I feel soooo bad and sort of like a failure when I go over my stuff and see how much I need to change. Even though it’s nuts I want it to be good on the first try/draft.

6. What part of writing do you find most difficult? What do you do to get yourself through this process?

Moving past a difficult scene or overcoming a block of some sort.

7. When discussing your piece, what is your favorite thing to tell people? (Ex: Characters/World-building/Plot/Sideplots/Etc)

Everything! I love my little world so much. 

8. Where do you like to write?

In my office where everything is set up how I like it.

9. Do you prefer to write multiple pieces at the same time? Or just focus on one. Why?

I don’t know if it’s prefer so much as I can’t help but work on a bunch at once.

10. When did you first find your passion for writing? What caused it?

Well, in kindergarten we would dictate stories to our teacher who would write them down and then in second grade we had time to write our stories and make little books, my parents actually saved them, and it all exploded from there.

Siri’s ten questions:

1. What was the name of the first story you ever wrote? What was it about?

Well, I dictated a story about a princess with a cat to my kindergarten teacher. The first real novel I worked on was a story about people who could control the four elements, two of them fell in love- fire and water, but couldn’t touch each other, super dramatic sad scenes of them holding their hands up to a piece of glass, and then Pyra, fire girl, dies saving the world and can finally touch Acquin’s, water guy’s, hand as her powers leave her. I built a giant world around it and got to chapter 8 before my computer crashed and I lost it. I have it on paper up to that point. I may rework it at some point.

2.Who is your favorite of your ocs?

All of them, they are all weird, badass peeps

3.What is your fav wip?

NBC is the one I’m dedicating the most time to. I am excited about Through a Hawk’s Eyes though.

4.Which plot point destroyed you?(Aka what part of your plot hurt you most? You don’t need to give a lot of detail)

I had to put Ciaran through something horrible so that he could finally let go of the past and I had to have Hope do something really stupid so she could see the error of her ways. I’m sorry guys don’t hate me.

5. If you are a planner, what is your way of organizing your thoughts and if you are a pantser, how do you keep track of what you’ve written before?

Yes and yes, I plan and pants. I use evernote to keep track of things and if I just have to write something I save it in google drive and evernote so I can find it and incorporate it later.

6.What is your favorite book?

Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. I read it at the perfect time. I also really love anything by Neil Gaiman, especially American Gods, and I love JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, yes it’s romance. I like it, so there.

7.How do you make your ocs real? How do you develop them to make them feel more real to the reader?

People are walking contradictions and they have unique “flaws/habits” that affect their lives. I try to remember that when I create a person.

8.How do you get through writer’s block?

I re-read what I just wrote to see if it gets me in the mood, or I paint something and see if that image sparks an idea. Or, I read.

9.Most favorite and least favorite parts of writing?(Copying this from one of the questions I got cause I wanna know!)

Already answered above.

10.What do you think your fandom symbol would be?(Like the hallows symbol for hp, the ring for lotr, the mockingbird for hunger games…)

Oh wow, I don’t know. I don’t really have a symbol used in the books. But maybe a quick image of the sun coming up, since the Dawning is when demons were revealed.

Okay my own questions, hmmm...

What character pisses you off the most?

Which scene do you think will make people cry, or laugh?

What’s your worst writing habit?

Who is your favorite author/who do you aspire to write like?

Do you follow your outline?

Which character makes you laugh the most?

Do you like a good love story?

Do you like a good horror story?

What trope/stereotype is your least favorite?

What fairy tale is your favorite?

I’ll tag @brynprocrastinates @firewritten @she-who-fights-and-writes @merigreenleaf @audreyroseb @the-modern-typewriter @byjillianmaria