silveradept | A Q+A set about ficcing, plus a Doof recommendation. (Reply)

Before I get into the question and answer session, I have to say thank you to

cosmolinguist for introducing us to Chaos Emergency Doof Broadcast Network, a project that a couple of DJs are doing that started from the lockdowns in the UK and is still going on weekly. Lee Chaos and Duracell Bunny have some great sets, especially when they turn over a significant part of the show to requests that come in through their Discord channel that match a theme, like "Fruit Salad" (The song title, the artist, or a lyric must reference a fruit somewhere, which allows "Holla Back Girl" because there's a line about how "This is bananas") or "I have Paid Money To Put This On A Jukebox" or other such things. I'm having a great time with these three-four hour sets to listen to as I work my way backwards through the archives. (Plus, they play bangers, even when they're playing jokey songs or themes.)

Onward, to the question set! Via

anneapocalypse via

commoncomitatus, about various aspects of fic creation and the entity doing the creating.

How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

It is probably unsurprising to you, the reading audience, to know that someone who eventually chose the path of libraries was a feral child in the stacks of my local library, reading up shelves in teens and adult well before I had obtained the chronological age to be considered such things. Publishing has done a much better job of diversifying its holdings and promoting more diverse offerings, especially in genre fiction, from the time when I was roaming the stacks as a youngling. What that means for me, however, is that I was being raised on Robert Silverberg, Anne MccCaffrey, and Piers Anthony. One of the works that will get the treatment of grief, because I will absolutely enjoy sporking the hell out of it is the Apprentice Adept series, because it is the genesis for my username, and some amount of the worldbuilding I did as a much younger ficcer. There's a lot of my early Internet life that's tied up in that idea and the transformative works approach to it, which I'm only as ashamed of as Piers Anthony has turned out to be a terrible person to have made that decision about. (And, as it has been with Pern, I suspect that going back over that series with the eye that looks out for the Suck Fairy will help establish and solidify the alternate universe that will exist if I ever do fic for it. That part will have to wait, however, because I won't do that series until Piers is past the grave, so he won't send his fans after me if he catches word of me being critical.)

Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback?

By far and away, the most comments, kudos, bookmarks, and everything else I've received has been for Chat Noir's Convention Cosplay Crisis, which is another one of those "I wrote this because I thought it would be funny, and it seems to have resonated really well with the fandom." (By which I mean it's gotten over 1000 kudos, and I will probably never write anything that popular ever again.)

What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

It's a spirit creature from Princess Mononoke holding a trombone that is playing ghostly notes. It's basically been my default internet icon since the very original that came from a T-Shirt was modified by the icon people on the CRFH!!! (the three exclamation points are for quality) forums back in the very beginning of my Internet existence.

Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

Not really. I have some regulars from the Miraculous Ladybug world when I write in that space, and some regulars who come by when I have the brain and the time to move more of the Griefing of Pern to AO3, but the thing about primarily being an exchange writer is that I don't usually build an audience of committed regulars, just a lot of people who are pretty happy that I wrote something they enjoyed for the exchange. (I could be wrong about that, but there's no easy and obvious way of going "who's commented the most on my works over time, other than me?" in my stats.

Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

No, not really. I'll read some of my own over here and there, for when I'm looking to have a little bit of confidence-boosting myself, but I don't have one that's like "this is my comfort read, I can always go back to this, I've gotten it downloaded on everything just to be sure." Which is no knock against any of the people who have written really great things, and done really great things for me in the exchange circuit. I just haven't had The One, or One of The Ones, happen. Although I was really impressed with Fantasia 2020.

How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I thought I didn't have all that many, but it looks like I have about 20 subscriptions, mostly for series or works that are unfinished and that I'm waiting for more installments to. I've got 27 bookmarks, all of them recs, since that's what I use the bookmark function for.

Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Canon divergence? Or crossovers and fusions? I don't necessarily write a lot of things is specific AUs, as it turns out. Or the changes that I'm making are things where I'm leaning on places the canon didn't actually say anything about. Or it's the canon characters doing canon things in a situation that's not in the canon, but could have been. Or I'm exercising the Nick Fury rule and didn't tag it, possibly.

How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total?

If I'm reading AO3 Stats correctly, when I looked at this, I have 79 accounts subscribed to me (so they get notified of everything I write, when it gets attached to my account after exchange anon periods, or otherwise.)

But that also says there are 296 work and/or series subscriptions for specific things, and 1,655 bookmarks on the things I've written. And Chat Noir's Convention Cosplay Crisis only counts for about a fifth of those. That's boggling, like that's still 1300+ bookmarks spread across a couple hundred other works.

Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

There's nothing that I'm specifically worried about being judged for writing. It's always possible that the actions of others will make certain fandoms less desirable to write in (stares at the TERF of Hogwarts) or that certain companies will show their entire asses and make things very difficult to keep enjoying their product. (Rooster Teeth has done this in something unrelated to RWBY, but that makes it much more difficult to keep enjoying RWBY, even though they have already done a good thing by ditching Vic.)

For the most part, I try to write things that I would enjoy reading and I wouldn't judge myself about. Also, if I want to write something very self-indulgent and then share it with people who would also enjoy it in the same way, then that's the point of the thing, and I will hope that I can tag well enough so that everyone knows what they're getting into.

Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

Surprisingly, I'm not great at writing explicit sex scenes. (And by explicit, I mean the kind of thing that Sailor Jim was commenting on, where it's body parts and mechanics.) I think some of that comes from not having read well into the right genre to see how it can be done well, but also I feel like much of what is supposed to make the sex scene sexy is the feelings and reactions to the mechanical parts, rather than the mechanical parts themselves? I figure that if I can describe the feelings or the actions in a way that gets across the idea of what's being sought, the reader can fill it in for themselves what the actual mechanics were. That also keeps me from trying to describe something mechanically improbable or that wouldn't happen outside of the mainstream adult film industry, I suppose.

Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

The exchange fairy tends to select for me things on the rarer side than the more popular ones, which is a thing I try to encourage with my signups. I'll also usually include a "safety" fandom or two in places where there's a lot of possible setups so as to make myself more matchable, but I do like writing stuff that has smaller fandoms or that are the rarer pairings in their fandoms.

How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

When I wrote this, I had 216 visible stories available. (There are more, but we're not supposed to mention what we're working on during exchange periods.)

How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

No full stories, but a few fragments of things here and there as I try to work out what they still need before they're complete.

Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

Some of both. Since I tend not to remember good ideas, if it's something that I want to work with, I'll usually put it into the program I draft with. Some things I have in my head, but I have nothing else to go with them, so they stay in my head until they start resolving into actual words and scenes.

Have you ever co-authored a story?

Officially, yes - although rather than it being something we plotted together and co-wrote into existence, I took an unfinished story and finished it with the parts that were missing from the Shiny Bits.

How did you discover AO3?

I think I got brave enough to sign up for an exchange, and that required an AO3 account. I already knew about it from earlier, because I was reasonably well-connected on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth and other people were talking about it. And also, I lived through Strikethrough and more than a few other things that led to the creation of the OTW and AO3.

Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

No. (I could be wrong, but someone else would have to tell me I'm a BNF.)

Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

Nope. I don't have a cheering section or a set of regulars or anything like that where I would have a nickname for them. (I've only recently started calling the people who follow along with my stuff on Slacktiverse the Book Club, because that's kind of what we are.)

Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

No? I've always been a writing person, and while I have been learning my style by imitating others when I was young, it's not a thing where I wasn't interested in it and then someone turned on the light for me.

What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Write the things you enjoy. If you're trying to learn a new form or a new fandom or a new style or any of those other things, do it in a context where you're going to enjoy the final product, even if it's a little wobbly or isn't quite what you wanted to achieve. Trying to write something you're not going to enjoy, because you're chasing audience or likes or other such is going to make writing a major chore for you, and it'll show. When you're starting, you want to write for you and see if there's anyone else out there who likes it. (There usually is. It might take a while for them to find you, but they get there eventually.)

Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

If I were a more talented visual artist, you would see a lot of my works show up as storyboards, where there are specific set pieces or visuals that are the important parts to get to, and then everything else comes into existence as the connective tissue to get from key element to key element. This often lets me make progress on a work even when I don't have the next major picture in my head, because I've got another picture I'm still working toward. And often times, working toward the next small picture helps open up what the next major picture is going to be.

Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

Behaved poorly in return, for some of them (and have apologized for that as well, in a lot of those cases.) For other ones, did my best to redirect them or explain politely to them that their belief that their interpretation was the only valid one doesn't work in a place where everyone is reinterpreting things to suit themselves. Some threads get frozen when someone doesn't get a clue and continues to insist that they are the sole arbiters of fandom and everyone must conform to their tastes and beliefs.

Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

See above about difficulties writing explicit mechanics of sex. I think I do okay at smut in the general, but I also generally don't have people asking for that on the regular.

What story(s) are you working on now?

Spoilers!

Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

Intentionally. I try to have more than one exchange or other projects in the fire at all times so that if I'm stoppered on one of them, I can swap over to another and make progress there while I backburner the thing that's not going for me.

Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

I try to have made some words on a project every day, but I don't have a numerical goal that I'm trying to meet.

Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

I assume so. I can certainly see a difference in quality and ability from when I started writing as a small child some [mumble] years ago, but I suspect that the changes that have happened over time and practice are subtle enough that I wouldn't spot them if I were comparing work to work. Someone with outside perspective who's followed me from when I started or who binges the archive could probably tell me more easily.

What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

They're all good, and they're all written for different reasons. Saying one is the favorite over all the others betrays that understanding. And, truthfully, they'd be favorites for different reasons ("I like this one for its witty banter the most", "I like this one because it's got the best action scene I've written", "I really love this one because it tells a really good story in only a few words", and so on.

What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

Similarly, they're all potentially bad for different reasons, or they have spaces where there could be improvement or better craft or other things at work. I don't see those flaws as easily as I see the good bits, of course, but to call one of them a least favorite would imply that I failed at making something I would enjoy out of any of them, and if I do that, then it's not really up to the standard.

Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Mostly doing the same thing I'm doing now - Book Club, the exchange circuit, the occasional "Oh, hey, that's a really good idea, and I should turn it into something." work. And writing for work and for work-related opportunities, and the link collecting that I'm doing now. Maybe a little more writing about my personal self here and there. I don't see there being a lot of change. (I'm wrong. There will be a lot of change.)

What is the easiest thing about writing?

Finding a spot to put in a reference or a pun or some other bit that's there for the fans to recognize and either grin, laugh, or groan.

What is the hardest thing about writing?

Titles. And, sometimes, the writing itself when things just aren't going for me on a particular project. It's not easy doing the thing, but there are definitely harder and easier things to do about it.

Why do you write?

It keeps the brain occupied. It's fun imagining new things, or writing the way the thing should be, rather than what it is, or tossing characters into new settings. It's not something that I'd want to do for a living. And there's something nice about having created a thing that other people say they enjoyed, especially when it's something that they left as a prompt on the hope that someone, somewhere out there is interested in filling the prompt for them. (Some of the best comments I've gotten on works are from people who go "zOMG, I didn't think anyone would write this, but you did and it's amazing and I love it so much, let me recount to you all the ways it was great.")