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gleppy · 11 months ago

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Hi sheep! Its StrawberryWritezz! I have a few questions for you

1. How do you feel about fanart? :0

2. In relation to art question, can you describe what N and Uzi look like for reference?

3. Whats your writing process?

1. i LOVE fan art! i've gotten a couple of pieces of fan art inspired by tiny angels already and i've been absolutely floored by it every time. you honestly don't even have to ever ask my permission to make art inspired by my fics, all i ask is that if you're posting it somewhere you include a link to the fic.

2. nolan: 6'2, white, same curly hair as he has in canon but more of a pale blond than straight-up white, amber eyes, heart-shaped face, muscular (he's not like, ripped, but he ain't scrawny either)

uzi: 4'11, asian (japanese/mongolian), olive skin, also the same hair colour/style she has in the show, grey eyes (but a very dark grey, like, almost black), round face, freckles, blonde eyebrows (she bleaches them), slim body type. it's also mentioned a few times in the fic that she's heavily pierced and tattooed, so here's specifically what i imagine her to have -

piercings:

left eyebrow

right side of nose

septum ring

snake bites

tongue

she has a lot of piercings on her ears too but i haven't thought specifically about what she'd have so just take some creative liberties with that i guess

she used to have her nipples & belly button done too but unless you're drawing her naked it isn't really relevant lmao

tattoos:

octopus on left shoulder/upper arm

gothic cathedral sleeve on right upper arm

vampire bat across chest

laser gun on lower stomach

constellations on the top of her foot (specifically the ones for cancer, sagittarius, capricorn, and gemini - yes this will make sense later. she also gets more constellations on her other foot at some point)

deftones "white pony" album cover on forearm

a crow somewhere (i'm thinking right below the octopus maybe)

patchwork sleeve on her thigh of caps from various anime/manga she likes (eg. serial experiments lain, oyasumi punpun, neon genesis evangelion, & junji ito's uzumaki, to name a few)

the date of her and n’s wedding anniversary on her left ring finger

a really ugly poorly done stick n poke of a skull and crossbones on her wrist that she did in high school but has never gotten removed or covered up despite how shitty it is because she sees it as a part of her that tells a story

at some point after her daughter is born (since pregnant women can't get tattooed) she gets an american traditional style portrait of her late tarantula on her shoulder blade. she also gets a tattoo for her daughter buuuuut i can't say what specifically it is because #spoilerz

she probably has way more, these are just the ones i've put thought into, however most of these would probably be a complete bitch to draw so if you wanna give her different tattoos or even forgo the tattoos entirely i would not be mad LOL. n and uzi's marriage in my fic is so funny to me... a goth baddie and the most normal guy ever

3. this is a pretty vague question haha but i'll try and give a generalized answer. the number one rule i have for myself (and the biggest piece of advice i can give to other writers) is to only write when i feel like writing. the reason i've been able to update tiny angels as frequently as i have (idgaf what anyone says, 100k words in 3 months on top of grad school and a job is damn productive) is because it's a fic i feel excited about and have a lot of ideas for. on average i'm able to post a new chapter within 2-5 days, but there's also been a few incidents where it's taken me a week or two. when this happens, it doesn't always mean i've been too busy to write, it usually means i either A) didn't know what i wanted to write or B) didn't feel like writing. or both.

if i feel excited about writing something (and this could be anything, from fanfic to essays for school - yes i am that nerd who gets genuinely excited to write essays), i will shit it out in no time at all. i see a lot of posts by other fic writers about being excited to write only to then open and stare at a blank google doc for hours on end, and i can sympathize with this to an extent but can't relate to it at all, because if i'm looking forward to getting my next chapter out there, the words will literally just flow from my fingertips and onto the document. sounds cliché, but it's true. if i'm forcing myself to write when i don't actually want to, then i'm putting out something that's less than the best work i can do. at the risk of sounding selfish and ungrateful, i'd much rather keep my readers frustratedly waiting for a new chapter and have it turn out great than deliver a lackluster, mediocre chapter just because people got tired of waiting. think of it this way: if you wake up early enough in the morning, you'll have time to make yourself a nutritious, filling, and tasty breakfast. bacon cooked to perfection, eggs prepared whatever way you like them, a stack of fluffy pancakes doused in maple syrup, a bowl of fresh fruit, coffee with just the right amount of milk and sugar (or tea if that's what you prefer, or freshly squeezed orange juice if caffeine's not your thing). if you wake up late, you'll throw a slice of bread in the toaster, slap some butter on it, scarf it down and head out to work, school, or wherever it is you need to be. both options are edible, sure, but one probably sounds much more enjoyable than the other, right?

something else i do is never coming up with an excuse not to write, even if i'm in a situation where i'm typically not "supposed" to be writing. as creatives, we can't control when or where inspiration hits, and if we don't log our ideas immediately, they can leave us just as quickly as they came to us. i have these little mini-notebooks that i bring with me everywhere along with pens, so that if inspiration strikes when i don't have access to a computer, i can just physically scribble down whatever i'm thinking and transfer it to a google doc later. this especially comes in handy when i'm at work - i don't think i'm exaggerating when i say probably about half of tiny angels was written while i was on the clock, LOL.

also: i never don't proof read. proof reading is helpful for not only catching grammar, spelling, punctuation, and continuity mistakes, but making sure i'm effectively conveying whatever it is i want to convey. i can't tell you the amount of times i've re-read a chapter before publishing it and decided to throw in an extra sentence or even just an extra word because even the finest of details can make a HUGE difference in impact. it also helps me to realize if i've repeated the same word too many times in a single chapter - for example, before publishing chapter 18, i read through it and noticed that i had used the word "completely" about 5 or 6 times. so i went back and swapped out some of those instances of the word for a different word with the same meaning - something like "utterly," "definitely," "totally," "entirely," etc. now, the word "completely" only appears twice within the chapter (and it's within the same sentence, which is intentional). a varied vocabulary is so, so important!

on that note: DESCRIPTIVE LANGUAGE. SIMILES. METAPHORS. these things are your best friends. use them, but don't over-use them. not every single sentence of your fic needs to be poetic prose, there's no shame in the occasional simple "He sighs." or "She shrugs." but a total lack of poetic language isn't going to make your story memorable and it sure as hell isn't going to evoke strong emotions in your readers (which is exactly what you're trying to do as a writer). for example, take this short paragraph from chapter 18:

Jade's eyebrows twitch up briefly and her eyes flash with something that almost looks like anger, as if she can't believe her brother would dare to challenge her like this. But just as quickly as it appeared, the indignation in her expression evaporates, her face frosting over with indifference instead.

now imagine if i had written this instead:

Jade briefly looks angry, but her face quickly becomes indifferent instead.

both betray more or less the same thing - that jade is mad at nolan, but is pretending not to be by pulling a poker face. however, the first one is much more immersive, and actually gives the reader an accurate glimpse into how jade is feeling during this moment. every word i've written here was carefully cherrypicked to make a statement about jade's character. "flash", for example. what else flashes? lightning flashes. ambulance & police lights flash. flashing indicates danger. the indignation in her expression doesn't just "go away," it "evaporates." evaporation is the process of a liquid turning into a gas. gases can be toxic. jade is toxic to nolan. her face doesn't just become indifferent, it "frosts over." frost occurs in the coldest months of winter, when temperatures reach below freezing. jade's personality can absolutely be described as cold. she assumes an unfriendly, emotionless demeanour here to conceal her true feeling, which is anger - thus, the word "frost" is appropriate. that post about how "the author just meant that the curtains were blue" couldn't be further from the truth - every word that went into this line had at least some layer of intent behind it.

that was a really fucking long winded answer. i'm sorry. tldr: write whenever you feel like writing but ONLY when you feel like writing, proof read, try to avoid repetition, use poetic devices but don't abuse them.

oh, and lighting either a scented candle or some incense while i write. i have no clue why it helps, but it does. 👍

#me: i don't really know how to answer this question but i'll try! (writes an entire essay)#this is a regular thing i do btw #if you ever ask me a very open ended question like this prepare to hear me yap because i am nothing if not a fucking yapper #btw for future reference i prefer to just be called my name in lieu of variants of my username! but i'm not mad dw #answered #writing tips #as you grow so do i #strawberristarzz

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