#what do you MEAN t100 went past praimfaya

[t100ficrecsblog]

an interview with @writetheniteaway (she/her)

what are you working on right now?  For the 100, I’m completely revamping my bellarke Big Bang to be more canon compliant with the first half of season 7 (it’s worth the pain…at least that’s what I keep telling myself.) Additionally I’m considering adding more scenes onto my latest one shot “After the War”, but I’m not certain what’s going to look like just yet.  If anyone here is a Rogue One fan, particularly rebelcaptain, or a Newsies the Musical fan, I’ve got some long standing works in progress there too that I’m hoping to return to as well.  

what’s something you’d like to write one day?   I would love to tackle the all too cliché Bellamy also stays on the ground during Praimfaya, there’s so much potential there. I definitely don’t hate Echo, but it wouldn’t even have been a question of what was going to happen if Clarke had made it back in time, and that missed potential is one of the greatest tragedies, if not the greatest tragedy, of their entire arc. I think giving them the space and the chance to be themselves, and not be responsible for everyone else, it’s such a gift and there’s so many really nerdy literary options to play with too.  If someone wanted to prompt me to write a really filthy kink filled adventure, that’s on my list too.

 what is the fanwork you’re most proud of?   For Bellarke, definitely my most recent one shot After the War; I think it captures their voices and their dynamic well without shying away from the complicated healing process of it all, and the speed and enthusiasm with which people responded really made me feel like I had succeeded in getting their points of view across.  My greatest pride in any fandom would be “Ten Days in A Mad House”, which is based on the true experience of Nellie Bly, a reporter who went undercover into a mad house in order to report on the abusive conditions there. In Newsies, the leading lady Katherine is based on Nellie Bly, and it was such a fabulously angst filled story that I had to play with it. It’s the only long fic I’ve completed to date, so that helps too.  

why did you first start writing fic? I wrote fic as young as second grade, before I knew any sort of language or culture surrounded it, I just wanted to know more about what my favorite characters were up to. When I was a teenager I started reading fan fiction avidly, but it wasn’t until I started college that I started publishing what I wrote.  

What frustrates you most about fic writing? Sometimes I have more ideas than I know what to do with, and then I find the time to sit in front of my computer and nothing comes out right; or I’ll post something only to find a dozen mistakes in it a few hours later.  

what are your top five songs right now?   I have really eclectic music taste so I’m sorry in advance: 

Far Away Boys, Flogging Molly It’s Good to be Alive, Skillet  125 Yards, Outlander Season 2 Soundtrack, Bear McCreary  Laughing, Nathanial Rateliff  Some Lipstick, Anita Coats 

what are your inspirations (books, songs, other fic, really good cake?)?  I really love working with canon compliant, or at least world building compliant stories, so a lot of my inspiration comes from the source material itself. I also love putting together playlists for different characters, and a lot of those become my writing inspiration while I work. I was a playwriting major in my undergrad so I tend to write my dialogue first, and then fill the rest of the narrative in after I know what the conversation looks like.  

what first attracted you to Bellarke? My best friend told me to watch the 100 for years, and I always knew it on tumblr as “one of the ones that killed their gays,” so I resisted for a long time. But when I got past all of that and gave it a chance, I loved both Bellamy and Clarke instantly. Clarke’s desire for a better world and Bellamy’s unwavering loyalty both resonated with me hardcore; and that iconic season 2 reunion hug sold me on Bellarke as end game. 

what attracts you now?   Hope that when this is all over they can go back to being the perfectly in sync power couple we’ve come to know and love. I think all of season 5 was out of character to the point of absurdity, and I hate that it took an entire season to undo all of that damage, and now we have only a handful of episodes left to clean it all up. I love Rogue One, and you really can’t have any happiness in that fandom unless you throw canon out the window, so I’m preparing for the worst. I’m so grateful for brilliant fic writers who do so much with these characters who mean so much to me, and I look forward to rewatching the early seasons of the 100 many times, and reading all those brilliant fics.  

BESIDES Bellarke, what character or pairing do you like best on t100?   I think Monty has every one of Bellamy’s good qualities just in a softer, quieter way and that parallel is really special. As a writer Marcus Kane has one of the most incredible character arcs. I have a soft shippy spot for Murphy and Emori. I think Raven is a really fantastic character, and I love Miller for the hundred subtle ways he makes character choices.  

why did you decide to start writing for bellarkefic-for-blm?  I’ve been really struggling to find ways I could contribute. I can’t safely protest, and I can only afford to donate so much, but then this opportunity came up and it seemed like such a positive way to use fandom. For all the flack fan culture gets, I’m really moved and inspired by how we can use it in very positive and powerful ways.  

what’s your writing process like (esp for prompts, chopped!, etc)?   I’ll usually spend a couple of days chewing on what I think the general body looks like, type it all out once, then walk away. I’ll edit for grammar and typos first (I have serious issues with switching tenses, grrr) and then content after. One of my most important ways of editing for dialogue is to imagine it being read in the character’s voice, and if I can’t hear it, then I’ll tweak until I do.  

What are some things you’d like to recommend?   I just binge-watched Harlots, I also really enjoyed Sex Education, Derry Girls, and Gentleman Jack. I’m studying for a major exam in October, so I haven’t done much reading outside of fan fiction, so here’s a couple of my bellarke favorites: Sugar by asoroarke, Paint Me in Trust by Pawprinter, and Danger and Doubt by Aiepathy. If you’re interested in musical theatre, Newsies Live on Disney+, and if you’re looking for a great concept album Rise by Skillet. You can find @writetheniteaway here on Tumblr, or you can find her on AO3 here. If you’d like to request a fic written by her, you can do so via @bellarkefic-for-blm.