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ladytanithia · 2 months

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AO3 Twenty Questions

I was tagged by @dirty-bosmer Tagging @lillxart @gwilin-stay-winnin @skyrim-forever and @thequeenofthewinter (even though I know she's already done this!)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

416,292

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, only Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, although I have written a few Breath of the Wild fics (one one-shot, one short 8-chapter story, and two long fics that are unfinished). Once upon a time in junior high and high school, my friends and I wrote each other stories about Duran Duran and Def Leppard, but those are on paper and too old for anyone to care these days!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

You know, I hadn’t really looked in a long time, so I’m surprised/not surprised to find that mostly my LoZ fics are the highest in kudos (they’ve been there longest).

Dalliances with Dunmer (86)

Link the Anachronism (55)

Larissa’s Tale: Before the Hero (46) – this pleases me; my first story with an OC and a lot of research

Khajiit: Stranger in a Strange Land (45)

Starting Over: A New Woman in a New Hyrule (38)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely! While I write for myself and have to remind myself of this daily, it’s always nice to know that someone else has seen and enjoyed my labors of love. Readers who comment are rare and precious. And at least 2 of them have become actual friends!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Dalliances with Dunmer – but that wasn’t the end of the story, just the ending of the 2nd book in the story.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

What Might Have Been – because it was MEANT to be an alternate ending to the angsty one.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not usually. When I first started putting DwD on AO3 and fanfiction, one person called it dogshit and another person went on a mean, scandalized rant about Miranja’s “fatherless behavior.” But a dear friend told me, if there’s no controversy, you’re not doing it right, and I left the flame in the comments for that purpose!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Smut/romance/erotica – various levels depending on the mood and the characters’ relationship. There’s been everything from cuddly fluff to heart-pounding romance to jizz-in-your-pants or call-the-priest filth.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I can’t answer that definitively. I started a crossover (Khajiit) between BotW and Skyrim (a friend used Skyrim to wean me off of BotW, and now I live here forever), but I haven’t even gotten to the crossover part and now it’s been 2 years since I played BotW, so we’ll see where that goes.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. I can’t imagine why anyone would, unless they were training an AI!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes, just a silly little back-and-forth scenario with my OC and a friend’s OC. It’s not on AO3, but I’m hoping it will be soon!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Of my own, or anyone’s anywhere? Mine, of course, would be Miranja and Talvas. Elsewhere… I like to ship Kvothe and Devi in The Name of the Wind – if for nothing else but the hate sex!

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I want to finish all of them except the Link and Zelda stories, since those are moot points by now.

16. What are your writing strengths?

From others’ reviews, I’d say characterization and description. I like to get inside the characters’ minds and hearts, think up back stories for them that might have made them the way they are, make their interactions with other characters as genuine as I can. When describing a scene, I almost focus more on the sensations than the actual physical presence of, or situation of, things. What is the character seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, or tasting, and how does it make them feel? The feelings are what you remember, not the details. (Unless you’re Sherlock Holmes.)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Second-guessing myself. If someone says the story’s moving too slowly, I pick up the pace and skip the less important stuff that was kind of important to me. Then someone says I’m rushing the story, so I rewrite it and flesh it out the way I wanted it to begin with. Like, I BELIEVE I’m pretty good at re-reading and assessing the pace, but then I let someone else tell me I’m doing it wrong. Also, allowing things to distract me and keep me from writing until I don’t even remember where I was at.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

If it’s relevant to the plot, then of course! Otherwise, if it’s just idle chatter, that feels like extraneous flaunting on the author’s part. Look what I can do! Haha!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

As many things as I’ve been a fan of, I’ve never thought of writing my own fiction about them until I beat Breath of the Wild. Because I wanted so badly to know how they would turn the kingdom back around, I decided to write my own continuation.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Larissa’s Tale or Hrefna’s Crush. Shorter stories, but special to me in different ways. Larissa was kind of a self-insert character but better-looking, who got her hands and other body parts on Link before Zelda did. Hrefna’s Crush was sort of a birds-and-bees and starting to have crushes story, where Sondas Drenim is the object of her crush, and Miranja is the competition she loves but envies.

#tag game #20 questions #ao3 fanfic writers edition

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buttsonthebeach · 7 years

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First Lines

@idrelle-miocovani was kind enough to tag me in this - thanks, friend!

Rules: List the first lines of your last 10 stories. See if there are any patterns. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

In order from earliest to most recent in terms of publication, and not including my random Mass Effect: Andromeda fics, here are mine!

1. The World Turned Upside Down (Ellana x Solas - multi-chapter Hamilton-inspired retelling of DA:I, Trespasser, and beyond)

Solas knew he was in trouble - real trouble - the day Haven fell.

Not because there was truly no denying Corypheus’s existence now. Not because of all the dead bodies in the snow. Because of Ellana Lavellan.

2. Domestic Life (previous Ellana x Solas - current Adoribull. Dorian POV one-shot.)

Dorian got to the border town villa ahead of Ellana - no surprise, since she was coming through wilderness to reach it. He still didn’t much like the idea of her traveling alone, not since the loss of her arm and thus her ability to use her bow and all her related skills, but when he told her as much through the crystal, he couldn’t exactly disagree with her response.

“I probably have less to fear from his forces than any of you.”

That was how she always referred to Fen’Harel - Solas - That Asshole. Just him.

3. She Moved Through the Fair (Ellana x Solas - NSFW restored Elvhenan one-shot.)

Solas woke to sunshine, the sound of the wind rushing through the curtains of their bedroom, the music of a nearby spirit, but no Ellana. For a moment his stomach fell, and then he heard her laugh.

"Finally. I thought the whole point of tearing down the Veil was that you wouldn't sleep the day away wandering the Fade."

4. Body of Knowledge (Ellana x Solas; multi-chapter smut and complicated relationship exploration fest in a post-Trespasser setting)

**slight NSFW in this part - couldn’t help but post a bit more here because this is my favorite opening out of all of them, except for maybe Awakened**

Ellana would be lying if she didn't admit she had a habit of staring at Solas’s lips.

So much of him was sharp and austere - his cheekbones, his shaved head, his expressions, his clothes. His lips were luxurious by comparison. Soft. Almost obscene. Too beautiful, too beckoning, to be on display for the whole world. They were where he showed so many emotions he otherwise kept private - amusement, fear, frustration. Desire.

Many nights in the last four years since Corypheus’s defeat had been spent remembering them. The way they quirked into a smile, the way they moved when he spoke Elvhen, the way they felt on her collarbone, her wrist, her cheek. Her mouth. Her sex.

Those memories were shards of colored glass. Sharp fragments too precious to throw away and too jagged to hold close. She didn't summon them on purpose but she didn't run from them.

And now?

5. “Say Yes To This” (Ellana x Solas; their first night together, retold through Ellana’s eyes; NSFW, obviously)

Screaming - mud and blood and death and fear and nothing would ever be right again - the weight , the absolute weight of it all - not just the dragon on top of her chest but everything - dead dead dead soldiers crying out for the Herald, the sound of the mountain coming down on Haven, on her, the eyes of the Winter Palace, the war table tokens in her hand - Keeper Deshanna’s words as she left - we will be waiting on you, da’len - dimly she thought someone was calling her name but it didn't matter - it was just someone else to let down, another body for the sucking mud beneath her, more fingers to reach up and drag her down -

6. Awakened (Ellana x Solas; Ashara x Lucius; character-driven drama in which the Anchor is still killing Ellana and her daughter, Ashara is trying to save her)

Lucius Talvas would never forget the sound of his little brother's skull when it hit the cobblestones of Vyrantium's streets.

Erast was only eight. He did not understand that the elf who pushed him out the window had been beaten down, too. Then again, the elf didn't understand that the boy he tossed so easily, so carelessly, had also known days of hunger and fear. That though his ears were round, he was no stranger to want.

"Now you know that I do not play, human," the elf said. "Give me your money or -"

Lucius set the elf on fire, of course.

7. “Ruin” (pre-relationship Ellana and Solas one-shot; NSFW at end)

Solas was not terribly impressed by their Herald of Andraste. The bearer of his mark. Not at first.

He could not stop seeing a slave whenever he looked at her.

She was too skinny, clearly underfed, and marked for all to see. She had no magic, except for the twisted mark of his orb. She was the symbol of his failure.

He couldn't look at her, sometimes.

8. “The Story of an Hour” (background Ellana x Solas; a Cullen POV one-shot about Solas as a father to a young Ashara)

Cullen was proud of what he’d built in Ferelden. So proud that it didn’t even occur to him to be nervous about hosting Ellana, Solas, and their daughter when she wrote to him saying she had business near him, but could spare some time for an old friend.

Not until the day they arrived, of course.

9. “When you love someone, you don’t stop” (previous Ellana x Solas; Ellana at the Winter Palace)

Ellana knew, on some level or another, that letting Varric write about them was probably a mistake.

It was definitely a mistake to double-down on what he said in the book, once people started asking if it was really true.

10. “No One Else” (widowed Solas in Orlais, celebrating the wedding of one of his daughters; an AU of Awakened)

The Dales were beautiful in springtime, and the chateau Solas found himself in complemented that vernal beauty perfectly - and in the midst of spring beauty and song and cheer and toasts raised to his daughter’s wedding, Solas found himself grieving for Ellana.

***

I put a lot of thought into the first lines of each story; for me, they always have to start directly in a character’s head, and they always have to point directly at the central conflict of the story/of that character. I’m more successful in some fics (Awakened is the one I am most proud of) than I am in others (Body of Knowledge gets there, but you can see I had to copy a bit more to show it. But who doesn’t want porn of Solas’s lips??). I’m please overall, looking at these, to see that most of them fit what I was going for!

Tagging: @wardsarefunctioning, @empresstress13, @solverne, @ladynorbert, @kauriart, and anyone else who wants to do it! Tell them I sent you! This one was super fun!

#my writing #my fics #dragon age fanfiction #solavellan fanfiction #solavellan #original solavellan children #ashara lavellan #body of knowledge #awakened #the world turned upside down #what did i miss?#first lines

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