#whew i can feel myself getting mad about that last part LMAOOOO it just ranks me bc like yeah yeah the publishing industry is not ur friend

[ofmermaidstories]

13, 16, and 23!

Also omg merm I read that…….. 20k review of Lightlark that u linked in an ask recently and goddamn. I am utterly fascinated and mourning the current state of the publishing industry 🫣

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Okay okay okay, like, here’s the thing: given enough incentive, I will happily ignore my own boundaries just to try something new. so if you were like, “Hey Merms, I bet you couldn’t write a Bakugou/Reader fic where Bakugou cheats on us and ALSO it ends with cannibalism” I would immediately rise to the defensive and be like, ok ur on. I would be incredibly unhappy doing it, and would do my best to try and make as many other people as possible unhappy too, LOL, but I would do it.

The problem is that it would make me miserable and peevish and depressed. Like, that would spill out from my writing time and I would go about the rest of my day—if not days—acting like I was the one who’d been cheated on and cannibalised, and simmering in that anger.

I like writing about intense things. I find it (relatively) easy to do. The difficult part is regulating how I feel about it afterwards, depending on what kind of intense it is. 🥹

(I do also wonder if this is an age thing, too. Like, When I was fifteen and a kissless virgin and writing fic, one of my most popular stories involved cheating. It was very melodramatic, and I would trot out the same trope/circumstances (our MC is cheated on by their beloved partner with someone said partner has history with) again and again over the next few years. I’ve never been cheated on! I mean, that I know of (🔪). But it was such an easy to-go for me, because it always meant instant emotional validation, right? Whereas now as an adult I prefer the relationships in my stories to either be the fun thing we’re chasing, or to be the supportive bedrock we need and NOT the source of angst, because if it’s going to hurt, then it needs to hurt in a im-going-to-cannibalise-you-and-then-kill-myself kinda way and not a we’re-gonna-break-up-and-you’re-gonna-be-a-jerk boring kinda way).

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

A plate and it was one time and I was desperate (and in the kitchen).

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

My desk is in the corner; it’s covered with letters and sketchbooks and magazines and I have four BNHA figures scattered around and one little Slyvanian baby in a blue duck costume and a ceramic jar that used to be an expensive candle that now holds a variety of lip balms and ibuprofen and also a random diamond ring that I don’t wear. I’m under a window—in the afternoon the light hits the wall and lights up my corner. Next to me I have a corkboard filled with cards and polaroids from and of my friends and also a bunch of postage stamps from Japan that I collected back when I was super into stationary.

But omg, pluvi, RE: Lightlark and the publishing industry—like, we all know that the publishing industry is there to make money, we get it. And I think that Alex Aster was probably, what, one of the first in that tiktok trend to be like, “would you read [insert tropes and Pinterest moodboard here]?” so I get it, on a purely business scale, why a publisher would swoop in and offer her money and then rush to get to get the book out. Like!!! Things and trends and interest move fast!!! You have to get that book into the hot lil hands of the teenage booktokers ASAP to make that 100k advance worth it.

But it’s so jarring to see in action! Because if Aster had an editor who cared, like, maybe a few of the bigger, more jarring problems would be tightened or changed. And idk, maybe it’s hypocritical to stand here in my un-beta’d, fanficy corner and be like, “check yourself!!!!” but???????? I will always, always be more ruthless with a traditionally published piece of work because they simply have more resources to do better. They have more eyes on it (which means, theoretically, more helpful critiquing), they have the time to write it (theoretically thanks to that advance), like—there’s just more. I expect more because they have more in which to tell this story with. If you want my money (new paperback books in Australia are easily within the $18-$30 range depending on size and genre!!!) then you have to show me that you have cared enough about this product to make it satisfying to read.

#ofmermaidstories-asks #surveys and stuff oh my #whew i can feel myself getting mad about that last part LMAOOOO it just ranks me bc like yeah yeah the publishing industry is not ur friend #it wants your money but like #at least do a better job of it guys COME ON #pluvi i… also need to dig up your tag too sdjklfhjsdkljflsdkfj i need a spreadsheet