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dross-the-fish · 3 months

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This might be the dumbest question on this blog, but is the motley crew like your AU/fanfic or is it an actual show? Can you also please give me a short summary?

I’m so sorry for asking such dumb questions I just really like your blog and I want to know more😭❤️🫶

It actually started out as a DnD style table top game I made for my friends. I decided to post some of the stuff from it here on tumblr and I'm re-writing it as a fic.

There is a LOT of lore, so I'll try to keep it brief and stick to the broadest points.

It's a goth lit crossover story, it begins with strange events happening all over England. There's an increase in the rat population, clouds of bats fill the sky at night, there are rumors of occult activity. The great detective Sherlock Holmes is called out of retirement to investigate a string of grisly murders and disappears without a trace during the investigation, leaving John Watson to try and find him.

Meanwhile Lawrence Talbot and his best friend Quincey Harker, the son of Jonathan and Mina (dracula) trying to rescue a woman from a wolf attack one night while passing by Baker Street. Lawrence is bitten and the bite is treated by Watson who finds it odd that there are wolves in London as wolves had been extinct in the UK for several centuries at that point and no zoo had reported a missing wolf.

Lawrence feels ill but otherwise fine and goes home thinking he'll sleep it off. Through the bite he contracts the curse of lycanthropy, on his first transformation he kills his entire family. The police investigate but don't connect Larry to the murders. The scene of the crime is a similar state to the one Holmes was investigating when he disappeared leading the newspaper to report the Talbot's as the latest victims of a serial killer at large. Watson questions Larry and Quincey, thinking they may be able to provide him a lead to finding Sherlock and, not knowing who else to trust they reveal Larry's lycanthropy. Watson is skeptical but once it's revealed that Larry is a werewolf he's convinced to help them find the cause of the curse and hopefully a cure.

Their search for a cause and cure leads them to fragments of a strange journal about an allegedly deceased man called Henry Jekyll who's own story seems to loosely mirror a werewolf curse and while trying to break into Jekyll's abandoned lab thinking his serum may have been the source of the curse they run into an unsavory character, Edward Hyde. Edward is at first, unhelpful, but once he realizes Lawrence Talbot is from a wealthy family he offers to help, stating that he knows a few things about Henry Jekyll and can get them access to his research in exchange for a place to stay and some money. Watson is mistrustful and advises the boys not to reveal Larry's condition to Edward until he proves himself an ally. At first Edward plans to mooch off of them for awhile, steal their money and disappear but once they figure out that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person they get him to agree to research Larry's condition and develop a cure derived from Hyde's serum.

Their continued investigation and search for Sherlock and a cure for Larry lead them to all kind of places and they start to assemble a group, picking up the Frankenstein creature and the Phantom of the Opera along their way.

It's eventually revealed that vampires, lead by Dracula have set up a society in England with the intention of taking over. Dracula is working for and with other villains from gothic literature like Dorian Gray, Carmilla, Imhotep the mummy, Dr Moreau, and Griffin the invisible man. Most of whom have sold or are in the process of selling their souls in Faustian contracts to Mephistopheles (Dorian's portrait physically is one). The crew's quest to find Sherlock and cure Larry turns into a bid to save the UK and possibly all of the world from team Dracula and Mephistopheles's machinations.

#This is just the tip of the ice berg #there' s 3 solid years of lore

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see-arcane · 5 months

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Writer asks

Thank you, @bluecatwriter, one of my favorite subjects to write about is me writing about things

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

39 so far

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

289,213. No wonder I have carpal tunnel

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The Magnus Archives, Dracula (the novel), and one story apiece for Frankenstein (the novel) and Last Night in Soho

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Family, Found

Chamomile

Deserving

Along Came a Spider

Another Guest for Mr. Spider

(Fair warning to new folks who followed me for Dracula antics, these are all TMA stories.)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do my best to respond, but sometimes messages will fall through the cracks in the email pileup :c

6. What's the fic you wrote that has the angstiest ending?

...

......

.........

That implies the list is small enough to trim down to a single Angstiest title. I don't think that flies with my stuff. So, a handful:

Zephyrus

Along Came a Spider

Found and Lost

Gnaw

(Again, also TMA. It's a podcast made for woe.)

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

Also surprisingly rife with those!*

*(All you naysayers hush. Just because I drag the characters screaming over broken glass to start with does NOT negate a happy ending.)

I can definitively whittle the options down to two big ones:

Death May Die is best for sheer Happily Ever After catharsis factor. It's a big old classic supernatural lit crossover and basically an AU take on The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk webcomic currently being made.

Extinction, Emerging is best for the undiluted ecstasy of the shock ending. Note, this is another The Magnus Archives fic. And it's probably the most hopeful and joyous thing I have ever or will ever write.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nothing I've received personally in comments/inbox

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

I can do smutty scenes and paint in erotic strokes here and there, but even then I don't think what I publish is enough to qualify strictly as smut. More horror/drama with sexual bits peppered around.

When it does sneak in, it's usually there as a flavoring to the larger story or atmosphere. In Kiss Him No More, sex is used both as a predatory act that Dracula plans to inflict out of petty vengeance and possessiveness, and a contrasting act of love and mutual care between Jonathan and Mina. When I write eroticism, I treat it like fire--only as tender or terrifying as its use.

That said, I have written notes and vignettes about some significantly raunchy goings-on, both happy and horrifying, that have never seen the light of day. Time will tell if that changes. ;)

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yep! The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk was the foundation for three of my biggest and favorite fics in the The Adventures of Jonathan Harker and the Strange Old Men series, and that comic-in-progress is itself a growing medley of Victorian era classic literature characters.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. (But I do keep my account locked so that only Ao3 members can read--AI scrubbers can fuck off.)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No clue

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope

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

[INSERT DISTRAUGHT ENGLISHMAN NAMED JONATHAN HERE] x The Horrors

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but don't think you ever will?

Not a fic, exactly, but there's a Frankenstein tale that I've been pulling apart like Penelope putting her tapestry through the shredder. So many false starts and do-overs! But I'm taking a break from it to come back fresh later

16. What are your writing strengths?

I am so good at making words. So many, many words.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Too many words. Brevity and I are only rarely in the same room together and even then it's because I locked the door and ate the key.

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

I will only hesitantly add snippets of non-English language to dialogue because I'm positive I'll screw up another tongue even with translations

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The Magnus Archives 👁

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Extinction, Emerging, The Adventures of Jonathan Harker and the Strange Old Men series, Along Came a Spider, (all linked above) and Molt.

Tagging

ANY AND ALL WRITERS WHO ARE READING THIS.

ALL OF YOU.

👁

#my writing #and rambling about writing

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rallamajoop · 3 years

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Dracula, The Witcher, and the Peter Cushing connection

So, no, I haven't had much new Witcher stuff posted in a while. Still got fics in the works there (the next bit of the Discworld crossover is coming along quite well), but I've been a mite distracted.

That little Dracula kick I was on a few months back evolved into an extended mission to watch all the Dracula adaptations – well, at least most of the major film versions (Nosferatu, the 1932 with Bela Lugosi, the 1958 with Christopher Lee, the 1979 with the hair, the insane 1992 Coppola one, the 2002 Guy Maddin silent-film ballet version with the hot Chinese Dracula...) And though I can't usually watch adaptations of anything I loved without compulsively nitpicking, I've been kind of loving all of them – but that's a subject for another post.

Hammer’s 1958 Dracula, starring Christopher Lee, isn’t necessarily the most iconic version, or even really my personal favourite – but it is where I got a little stuck. It’s the version that costars Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, being the same Cushing you may have seen cited as the visual inspiration for Blood and Wine's take on Regis – y’know, that Witcher-vampire I have been ever-so-slightly obsessed with for the past year or so. Up to this point, I knew Cushing mostly as that guy who played Grand Moff Tarkin in the first Star Wars film – but once it’s been pointed out to you, it’s pretty hard to miss.

We may as well note the irony of CDPR having modeled their vampire after an iconic vampire hunter. Actually, those sideburns aren't even Van Helsing's – these hail from Cushing's time starring as Victor Frankenstein in Hammer's other big-name high-gothic film franchise, which involves no vampires whatsoever.* Still, I suppose Baron-Dr-Cushinstein does spend a lot of time covered in blood and/or hanging around alchemical paraphernalia, which doesn't hurt for relevant visuals where Regis is concerned.

Whichever performance they may be referencing, CDPR’s design for Regis is a charming nod to classic horror cinema, and Cushing's skinny, mild-mannered, pleasantly-authoritative Van Helsing makes a more fitting choice for Regis than any of Hammer's actual vampires. You’d be hard-pressed to find any much better fantasy fancast for Regis than Cushing in his prime.

Now, primed as I obviously was to fall headfirst into what amounts to original-alternate-Regis fandom, the truth is I came out of Hammer's first Dracula film going, "well, that was pretty good – maybe I'll get around to the sequels at some point." But the series’ next entry didn’t do a lot for me (Brides of Dracula, which I am disappointed to say contains neither a) Dracula, nor b) any actual brides thereof), and Van Helsing isn’t even in the next four.

Not until Dracula A.D. 1972 does the series reunite both the original stars, Peter Cushing's Van Helsing (now playing his own grandson) and Christopher Lee's Dracula, and most critics seem to feel the series was long past its prime by this stage. But putting all expectations aside, in watching it, I discovered several things:

Van Helsing II having to calmly, authoritatively explain to a skeptical 70's cop that they’ve got a vampire problem on their hands and somehow pulling it off is EVERYTHING I never knew how much I wanted from this series.

If this film is garbage, it is emphatically MY KIND of garbage. I loved that Van Helsing vs. Dracula is now some kind of epic, generation-spanning rivalry; that Van Helsing II gets some real stakes via his (surprisingly likeable) granddaughter; I loved Johnny Alucard the beta-villain chewing all the scenery, why do people not like this movie?

Despite having aged about 14 years in real time (and perhaps several more internally**), Peter Cushing only gets better with age

I have officially fallen head over heels for this man's face ridiculous cheek bones everything

People, I do not do the whole celebrity-crush thing. Let alone over long-deceased actors from my grandparents' generation. But it quickly became Very Important that I watch pretty much everything Peter Cushing had ever been in. And Cushing (as I may have mentioned in a footnote around here somewhere) is an actor who kept busy.

If I had to summarise what made the Hammer Horror formula work, I think I’d have to go with “enjoyably trashy, but with a touch of class,” – and delving into through Cushing’s back-catalog is like making a laundry list of exactly that class of low-mid-budget 60′s-70′s British horror. Actors like Cushing and Lee lent a similar quality to those films that that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen brought to the X-Men franchise: a bit of gravitas and a lot of style. Whether playing the hero or the villain, Cushing’s old-fashioned air of authority could carry off an awful lot.

In addition to Van Helsing, Dr. Frankenstein and Moff Tarkin, he also played Sherlock Holmes, an actual vampire, (sort of) Dr. Who, and even Mr Darcy (in a 1950′s TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that, to my great disappointment has long since been lost). Unavoidably, there are some films not even he and Lee combined could hope to save, but Cushing single-handedly makes a lot of otherwise-middling films worth watching. It’s a crying shame some of this stuff isn’t better known and remembered today. It’s as hard not to wonder that an actor of this calibre didn’t get to do more higher-brow work, but then again, to quote the man himself, Who wants to see me as Hamlet? Very few. But millions want to see me as Frankenstein so that's the one I do.

My Internet history tells me I first watched Dracula A.D. 1972 way back in May. Honestly, I was kind of expecting to be over it by now, and yet here I am.

Anyway, if you do share my taste in Witcher-vampires, may I also highly recommend Hammer’s Frankenstein series, their Carmilla adaptation, The Vampire Lovers, and 1959′s The Flesh and the Fiends (which is not a Hammer production, but still very much in that vein). Dark Corners’ youtube episodes on the Hammer Dracula and Frankenstein series are great introduction to both (even if I do feel they’re awfully unfair to what is now my favourite Dracula film).

Or if you’re reading this as a Peter Cushing fan, well, I can’t honestly pretend the main Witcher video game series will necessarily interest you – but there is this one relatively-standalone expansion pack called Blood and Wine that just might be worth your time...

* (back) Though to see Cushing at peak sideburns (pictured in the first comparison above), you’ll want 1959's The Flesh and the Fiends (which isn't technically a Hammer production at all, even though Cushing is basically still playing Frankenstein by way of Doctor Knox).

** (back) The story goes that Cushing spent the 70′s doing film after film because he’d recently lost his wife, and was desperately trying to bury his grief in work. Which only makes the number of grieving fathers and/or widowers he plays in his later years that much more ouch to see in effect.

#Peter Cushing #Regis #emiel regis #The Witcher #Dracula #Hammer Horror #Hammer Dracula

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sledgefuweek · 3 years

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Each year we take a close look at the prompts for Sledgefu Week, for those who may be stuck for ideas or not quite sure about what the prompts could entail. Below the readmore are all seven prompts, as well as a short write-up exploring what they mean and some ideas to help get the creative juices going. Enjoy!!

Sickfic

This is a really popular and well-known fanfic trope that I feel probably needs little explanation, but I’ll write a little bit about it anyway! It essentially covers fic where one character is ill and the other cares for them -- it could encompass any kind of illness at all, (including chronic illnesses) and there’s a lot of room to get creative with it. You can go for angst, hurt/comfort, or fluff: it’s just a really good general prompt that I think works nicely to kick the week off!

It suits for Sledgefu pretty well, considering Snafu’s canon mild hypochondria, as well as the fact that Eugene’s dad is a doctor. It could be fun to lean into it: make Eugene play doctor for an actually-sick Snafu, and it could be just as fun to subvert it! There’s really endless options for canon fic: shrapnel wounds turned bad, heat-sickness, seasickness, illness from bad food or bad water or any kind of tropical disease you can think of (malaria is a big one!). You could make one of them (or both) a medic; you could genderswap them and write the gay field nurse fic this fandom sorely needs. And of course if you choose to branch out into modern AU you can begin to think of what might afflict them outside of a war setting: has Eugene been working too much and come down with a cold? Are they hungover, and need mutual care (and lots of takeout)? A lot of the time sickfic focuses on one character doing the comforting and the other character feeling unwell, but there’s nothing to say they can’t both be feeling shitty! I think we say this every year but there’s really no rules at all, you do whatever you feel inspired to do. With Sickfic, just be mindful to tag anything that others might be affected by eg. vomiting, blood, needles, etc.

Tarot

I feel like Tarot is pretty well-known to the Sledgefu fandom, or at least to those who like to write Snafu or his family a little witchy. In case you just have a vague idea of what Tarot actually is and what its purpose or origins are, I’ll explain it as concisely as I can! Tarot decks started life in Europe as playing cards, but eventually began to be used for divination. It’s made up of four suits, or the Minor Arcana, (Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles) as well as a twenty-two card Major Arcana (the imagery of which you’re probably very familiar with). Commonly, tarot decks and tarot reading is used as a means of communicating with the higher self, deities, or with the universe. They can be used as a way to see the future, answer questions, or to give/receive advice. There are different ways of reading them too, depending on how one lays out the cards: I don’t want to make this too wordy, but if you’re curious I encourage you to check out this site to learn more!

For writers, there’s a lot of places this prompt could take you! Probably the most obvious will be fortune teller fic; a classic. Lean into Snafu’s Louisiana roots and have him telling fortunes in the depths of the French Quarter, or go against the grain and have Eugene reading cards and palms and tea leaves as a practice passed down through his family. Or maybe more casual: modern AU Sledgefu flirting through amateur tarot readings with a deck picked up from a junk shop. If you read Tarot and have a connection to it, you can express that through writing! It’s a pretty open-ended prompt, especially if you consider some of the meanings of the cards; you could even write a story inspired by that! The Hermit: Snafu withdrawing, leaving Eugene on the train to spend the next few months in solitude, working through things. The Moon: Snafu and Eugene hitting a rough patch, hiding things from each other. The opportunities really become endless once you start taking the readings of the cards into account! And for visual artists, this must be such a fun prompt: I feel like it’s so a visually rich, whether you’re re-drawing the cards to encompass Snafu and Eugene within them, or making a collage based around some of the things mentioned above: fortune tellers shops, witches cottages, etc.

Trinket

Every Sledgefu Week we tend to have a couple prompts that are a little more open to interpretation, and this year’s ‘Trinket’ is one of those. It might be difficult to try and think of something to base a whole fic or piece of art around, but we really encourage you to let your imagination run wild! There’s already some great trinkets in the show itself: Eugene’s ring, the lighter that Gunny Haney gave him, Snafu’s stolen gold teeth, or their dog tags. Think of small, special objects that you might have: what imbues them with comfort or meaning? What makes you love them? You could have Eugene giving Snafu his ring, or have Eugene musing over war and death and loss while smoking a cigarette lit by his lighter. If you’re into Modern AUs, how could these objects carry through to modern day? Once you start thinking about it, the ideas start rolling in. Feel free to invent special trinkets for them: or maybe trinkets that they hate and want to get rid of, trinkets that remind them of bad times. Trinkets that remind them of each other, or family, or war. So much meaning can be held in the things we own, and I think it’s such a lovely concept to explore!

Crossover

So this prompt was born from the sheer number of suggestions we had for various movie, TV, and book AUs. We didn’t want to put them all to the poll and risk a lot of you feeling disappointed over the one you wanted not being selected, so thought it’d work best to condense them into a ‘Crossover’ prompt so everyone could do whatever they liked. So this is a very very broad one! It would be impossible for me to really go through the prompt and highlight some things that you could do for it, because you can really do anything you want to! Anything! It encompasses movies, video games, TV, books, musicals... if something tells a story, you can do a crossover. So if there’s ever been a film/book/etc. AU you wanted to do for Sledgefu Week but couldn’t quite get it to match the prompts, now is the time!

Vacation

A pretty self explanatory prompt, and one that I think can appeal to people who prefer canonverse and those who like modern AU too! Do you want to send Snafu and Eugene on the holiday of their dreams, or are they gonna be bickering in a gas station over who gets control of the map? Is Snafu gonna drive across a couple states to surprise Eugene by visiting? Is Eugene gonna do the same? There’s a lot of scenarios you can apply to the backdrop of them vacationing, and a lot of emotional journeys you can take them through! And for the canonverse crowd, you have the extra addition of letting them go have fun on an R&R, or taking a road trip post-war, visiting 1950s Paris... you can really do whatever you like!

Historical

This was another prompt like ‘Crossover’ that came from a lot of various suggestions that all boiled down to a similar thing: different historical events or periods. So like Crossover, I won’t linger too long on it (this post is long enough already) except just to say again: do whatever you’re inspired to do! There’s no rules here, you could even take everyone out of the Pacific and put them over in Germany: give them a different experience of war. In fact, you can do that with any war if you wanted to! Wanna do a M*A*S*H AU but made something else for Crossover? You could do it here! Want to put them in the 1920s? You got it. In the 1850s? Yeehaw, they’re cowboys now. 1969, Summer of Love? 1600s, make Snafu a prince? Literally the world is your oyster!

Horror

Past Sledgefu Week prompts have included things that could come under the horror umbrella (Supernatural, for example) but didn’t necessarily have to be made 'horrific’. For the ‘Horror’ prompt this year, we want to see frightening! Disquieting, uncomfortable; creations that either cross over with existing horror franchises, or lean on horrific things you come up with yourself. Horror movies, or TV shows, or books or podcasts or pieces of art all seek to elicit a sense of fear: this can be done by tapping into common phobias, or nightmares, those things which are universally and almost instinctively scary. We want to see things which lean into that, in whatever way you want to do it!

I’m no horror media expert (not by a long shot) but the opportunities for this prompt are really vast simply because horror has so many subgenres to work with. You could go gothic horror; Dracula, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights (a personal favourite AU -- Eugene soaked out on the moors, searching for Heathcliff-Snafu? Divine). Or you could go to the opposite end of the spectrum: Jennifer’s Body AU, Final Girl AU -- there’s no set way to do horror, in fact you could even bring horror into canonverse if you don’t like AUs. Think the Terror: some unknown beast lurking beyond the borders of their camp on Pavuvu, or Okinawa. Or you could even take the prompt entirely literally and explore the horrors of war and the toll it takes on them both. Please don’t feel stuck into needing to do Scary: horror is about fear and revulsion and dread, and these feelings don’t necessarily need to come from a haunting! (This is also a prompt ripe for monsterfucking, just FYI).

- - - - - - - - - -

So that’s the prompts for this year! They’re all really really great, and have a lot of potential to make some fantastic stuff :~) And to reiterate something I said right at the start, there are no rules here! I think every year we normally get at least one person unsure whether their idea will be okay for the prompt they’d like to make it for, so I just wanna say here: don’t second-guess yourself! As long as it can be linked back to the prompt in some way or another (can literally be the vaguest way possible) you’ll be absolutely fine. We don’t vet submissions at all, especially not for their content relating to the prompts. All we ask is that you remember to stay respectful in what you’re writing, and when the time comes to post it, you tag and warn appropriately :~)

On the subject of writing respectfully, we’d like to just take a moment to link the document on mindful writing re: race and gender that was made last year. Please take a look at it, even if you read it last year! It’s always good to keep these things at the front of your mind, as fandom is a community sport and we want to keep it fun and safe for everyone involved! So thank you if you’ve made it this far through this whole post, check out the doc, and enjoy the rest of the run-up to Sledgefu Week!

#sledgefu #sledgefu week #mod talk #info #if you saw this post before yes you did no you didn't <3 it has the horror prompt on it now lmao

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relishredshoes · 3 years

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Interview given to The Severus Snape and Hermione Granger Shipping Fan Group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718373383293/

Hello CorvusDraconis and welcome to Behind the Quill, thank-you so much for sitting down with us to chat.

You’re a well known and beloved figure in the SS/HG community for your many stories - including a personal favourite of mine, A chance for happiness.

Okay, let’s jump right in. What's the story behind your pen name?

I have always had a fascination for the shiny things and the Northwest Coast depictions of Raven the Trickster/Creator, and, I tend to hoard (and get super protective) of my art supplies. Corvids have always been a positive sign in my life. They tend to show up when I’m feeling down and engage in funny antics in the yard. As for dragons, I’ve always had a love for them and think the Western depiction of them as dangerous beasts with no mind but for hoarding treasure and killing people only to be slain by a knight quite despicable.

Which Harry Potter character do you identify with the most?

Severus, actually. I see a lot of my life in his. Hardships, challenges, bullying— trying to be something better and later wondering about unwise decisions. I have a very similar dislike for dunderheads, but I do not share his inclination to denude rosebushes of their petals. Do you have a favourite genre to read? (not in fic, just in general) I have always preferred fantasy and sci-fi.

Do you have a favourite "classic" novel?

I am not sure if you would call it a classic novel, but grew up on all things Tolkien (and even puzzled through the Silmarillion at the grand age of seven), and have a special place in my heart for Watership Down. While I’ve read pieces like War and Peace, Iliad, Ulysses, Pride and Prejudice, Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick, Great Gatsby, Little Women, Catcher in the Rye, Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn, Scarlet Letter, Don Quixote, To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Jane Eyre, Lord of the Flies, Tale of Two Cities, Heart of Darkness, Robinson Crusoe, Alice in Wonderland, Great Expectations, Odyssey, Frankenstein, Dracula, Crime and Punishment, Heart of Darkness, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Secret Garden, Treasure Island, Anne of Green Gables, Les Misérables, Peter Pan, Gulliver’s Travels, all things Jack London, 20000 Leagues, etc.— they never captured me as aptly as Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern or Mercedes Lackley’s the Last Herald Mage. Though, if I were to pick classic stories I read more than once (litmus test for things I like) it would be things such as The Secret Garden, Call of the Wild, Wild Fang, The Hobbit, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and The Last Unicorn. At what age did you start writing? The moment I could pick up pencil and paper, I was writing. I had notepads full of stories I wrote as a kid. Alas, my dad found them one day when I was off to college, made fun of them, and I came home and burned every single one in mortification.

How did you get into writing fanfiction?

The moment TV shows did “stupid things” to their characters. I used to write things about Beauty and the Beast (the old CBS show) when they killed off the main character, Knight Rider, Robocop, Transformers— there are probably far more that I just don’t remember now. I was writing it long before there was a fanfiction dot net or a term to even call it. What's the best theme you've ever come across in a fic? Is it a theme represented in your own works? I am a shameless romantic for the beauty within and sometimes the quite literal love for a monster (not just some person who acts like a monster and changes into a better person.) The misunderstood monster is perhaps my most favourite theme, and it shows up in my stories often if not always. What fandoms are you involved in other than Harry Potter? I ship SessKag from Inuyasha, Lucard/Sophie from Dracula: The Series, and Loki/Hermione when I’m feeling crossover-y. If you could make one change to canon, what would it be? Do you have a favourite piece of fanon? Other than my favourite fanon that Severus lives/survives/finds a better life free of two masters and his guilt, I would say I would want Harry to wise the heck up and realise his father was a swine, his godfather was an almost successful murderer that used his own best mate to try and kill off another student, and his mother wasn’t all that hot either. I would want him to find value in himself without having to make stuff up about his “perfect” parents. Then again, I would want Vernon/Petunia to be arrested for child abuse and put in gaol, but— then the story would have been very different XD Do you listen to music when you write or do you prefer quiet? Sometimes quiet, sometimes music. But usually, I am best mates with Spotify.

What are your favourite fanfictions of all time?

In the HP universe: I honestly don’t read many of them because I’m always writing my own stuff XD, but when I really feel like I need a good Ron bashing SSHG HEA, I read just about anything by IShouldBeWritingSomethingElse. However, that being said, I often return to “The Sun is Often Out” by Hannah-1888 for just the right amount of angst and HEA to make me happy.

In the Inuyasha universe: A Trick of Fate by PristinelyUngifted

In the Marvel universe: Mutual Respect Sends His Regrets by moor

In the Star Trek universe: Gratified By Your Company by starfleetdream

Are you a plotter or a pantser? How does that affect your writing process?

I go by the seat of my feathered rump, to be honest. Inspiration is a fickle, unpredictable beast, and I usually don’t know what is going to happen until it does.

What is your writing genre of choice?

Fantasy

Which of your stories are you most proud of? Why?

Chance of Happiness because it was my very first publication. It may not have been my best, but it was my first, and it very well could have been my last yet somehow wasn’t.

Looks Can Be Deceiving and One Step Forward, Two Decades Back are two epic tales that seemed to demand being written. The fact I finished them was something I think deserves a little pride.

Did it unfold as you imagined it or did you find the unexpected cropped up as you wrote? What did you learn from writing it?

Looks started off with me attempted to write Dramione just once. It failed. Draco demanded to be her brother of the heart, Viktor came in and said “nope she’s mine,” and no one was more surprised at the outcome of that story than me. The characters did what THEY wanted.

I learned that trying to plan a story from start to finish is useless when the characters decide what they want. The story demanded more, and I was just a conduit that typed it down. For me, at least, attempting to outline and plan is utterly useless

How personal is the story to you, and do you think that made it harder or easier to write?

I think every story I write is personal in some way. The inspiration comes from somewhere inside, and I often have no idea what it is until I go back and read it later. I think the story wrote itself in a lot of ways, which made it easier in a way, but there are a lot of things I can’t say were from personal experience because as a high fantasy of talking gryphons and such I can only imagine it. There is no basis in real life on how any of that would go down. There is a freedom in that but also many challenges in making it real enough to identify with despite how alien and fantastic the idea is.

What books or authors have influenced you? How do you think that shows in your writing?

Dragonriders of Pern introduced sentient dragons and the idea that despite a vast difference in species there could be teamwork and love between the two as they teamed up against a greater threat.

The herald-mage books by Mercedes Lackley were also important staples in my childhood because it impressed the values of responsibility despite having powers others did not, and that people were fallible despite greatness and potential.

Gandalara Cycle by Randall Garrett and Vicki Ann Heydron: I cannot tell you how often I read this story. I had dog ears on these novels because there was so much I loved about them. It was a search for humanity when displaced in a seemingly alien world, societal clashes, and the great sha’um (the giant rideable cats) that were the main characters’ partners for life.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C Wrede: A princess rebels against her arranged marriage by running away to be a dragon princess.

All of these books had creatures in it that chose to partner with a human and be with them for life, not as lovers that you find in the more modern supernatural romance blender out there, but the ultimate friend for life— the family you choose.

Do people in your everyday life know you write fanfiction?

Oh heck no. Hah. They have their secrets, and I have mine. Personally, I think mine are more healthy than theirs.

How true for you is the notion of "writing for yourself"?

Very.

I write for myself. Sometimes I’ll write a story for one of my betas or a sshg friend, but for the most part, I write for my own entertainment because nothing like what I write is out there. There is a lot of SSHG out there, but mine is almost always a creature feature story. I blame X-Files growing up. It tickles me that others enjoy my stories, but in the end I write to get things down and out of my head. They just so happen to entertain others as they do me.

How important is it for you to interact with your audience? How do you engage with them? Just at the point of publishing? Through social media?

I will often engage in A/N talk at the end of chapters, but I really don’t engage in the fandom. I loathe social media. That being said, I read every review, and while I don’t reply to everything because FF dot net is a horrible platform for messaging anymore (or ever was really)-- I appreciate every single one. Sometimes it helps to know people are enjoying the story for the story’s sake.

What is the best advice you've received about writing?

Get a beta, even if you are pretty good at writing. Get one because a second pair of eyes will catch things you don’t. Read your own stuff out loud. If you trip over it, your audience will too. If you stumble, so will they.

Get a beta who isn’t afraid to tell you that your shite stinks in places and you make no sense. You may want a cheerleader, but what you need is a beta. If you are super lucky, you can have both at once.

What do you do when you hit writer's block?

I play computer games and sew things. I’ve sewn a lot of things lately. Scrub caps and masks for work—

There has been a lot of writer’s block lately due to the times, and I will not write when I’m uninspired. I will not force inspiration. That’s not fair to me or those unfortunate enough to share in the reading. I want to be able to go back on a story I wrote and enjoy it and not curse at myself. XD

Has anything in real life trickled down into your writing?

Sometimes certain catch phrases and things from real life friends have trickled in as a sort of Easter egg (unbeknownst to them since I don’t tell them I write fanfic). Sometimes random news stories or whatnot find their way in. Lessons of the day. Random events. Things that are too odd not to stick in my brain somehow. I can’t say I always do it on purpose, though.

Do you have any stories in the works? Can you give us a teaser?

No, I have a goal this year to finish off the unfinished stories. This is made harder because Dragon and the Rose keeps adding more and more bunnies into the idea bin, and my brain wants to run with them, but I’m like NO DANGIT, I HAVE STUFF TO FINISH STILL! It’s a hard thing trying to finish what you start when so much interesting stuff pops up and waves at you like “heeeeeyyyyy I’m cool too!”

Any words of encouragement to other writers?

Keep writing but remember you can always be better. You can always improve. Writing isn’t a popularity contest. It isn’t about how many reviews you get or how many fans you may or may not have. Write because you want to write. Write what you like not what other people like. Write for you because in the end, you are the one who goes back to read it and say “I wrote this story, and I still love it” instead of forcing yourself to write something just because the topic is “popular” and gets a lot of visitors. Write something you’ll be proud to go back and read and enjoy. You’ll find when you write something genuinely, readers will come. And if only one person leaves you a paragraph review on how much your story meant to them out of someone else’s hundreds of “great!” (with nothing else)-- think of what you value more.

If my story helped someone through a dark time.

Just one person—

Then it was a good effort.

Maybe that person didn’t have the bravery to leave a message. Maybe they are ashamed. Maybe they send you a PM instead of a review.

That is, to me, the ultimate reason why I realised that despite writing stories for myself that there are people out there that needed to hear my story at just the right time in their life. If my story can bring a little joy to someone else, then it doesn’t matter how many reviews I have. It doesn’t matter that I don’t have thousands of reviews like “that other author.” What matters is that I told my story; someone out there read it and it spoke to them.

I love hearing from people and what they liked about my stories, but I also am glad that there are some people out there who secretly like my stories but do not feel safe enough to review.

So, I would say to the aspiring author: write for yourself but share it. You never know whose day you will make with your story. They may never tell you. They may tell you years later (happened to me!). There is a good chance that someone out there needs your story as much as you need to write it. That being said, find yourself a beta to share your journey with you. You may find a few friend in the process.

Thanks so much for giving us your time.

You are quite welcome.

#fanfiction #fanfic #ss/hg #snamione #writing

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elliot-orion · 4 years

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Fanfiction Is Real Writing

Mkay so Elliot has officially had 1 too many people look at me condescendingly when I say I mostly read fanfic so it’s time for a Post. Let’s get one thing clear here right off the bad. Fanfiction is real writing. If you write fanfic you are a writer. You don’t need to tack fanfic on there. You are a writer. You can participate in all the writing spaces without shame. You are just as worthy and valid as any writeblr on this site and what you do is impressive. And on the same vein, reading fanfiction is not inherently lesser than reading published books you get from Barnes and Noble. 50 Shades of Gray was a mistake, but at the very least it proved that. I have read books by canonized authors that were less engaging, dynamic, and well written than a fanfiction I found on AO3. Yes, fanfic might have the occasional gratuitous blow job, but that means nothing. Still real writing.

Now that that’s out of the way, I want to get just a wee bit more in-depth with this, because I know I can say however many times I want that fanfic is real writing and still people won’t believe me. So let’s bring forth some actual arguments on why fanfiction is super fucking valid and fanfic authors are actual authors.

Reason #1 - Published Fanfiction

Fanfiction is out there all over the place. You see people reading it all the time. They teach it in classrooms. They make movies of it. Don’t believe me? Well Dante’s Inferno is a three part, self insert, super self indulgent fanfic of the bible. Literally any Christian literature would also count under this bible fanfiction collection, and any and all biblical paintings? Those are fanart buddy. I don’t know how to break it to you, but Caravaggio’s St John the Baptist reclining with a single cloth covering his nether regions is on the same level as a digitally drawn Tony Stark with a flower in his mouth saying draw me like one of your french girls in terms of fanart credibility okay. It be like that.

And trust me, it’s not just biblical shit. Ever read a book with some sort of Frankenstein’s monster in it? That’s making fanfiction off the goth queen Mary Shelley. Any single piece of vampire literature? Dracula fanfiction. Hotel Transylvania is an epic slice of life crossover with some OCs thrown in for spice. Are you starting to see my point here? Because if not I’ve got more examples, just send me an ask, I can go for a while here. Like, you know, literally anything that’s got to do with Romeo and Juliet, or Sherlock, and so on and so forth. Get it? 50 Shades is super far from being the only published fanfictions and if you think it is then wow you need to get out more.

Reason #2 - AO3 Is Just Digital Publishing

As a self published author, I can confidently say that making an AO3 publication is super similar to self publishing something. I used Kindle Direct Publishing to publish Sparks Fly. I had to age grade it, like I have to put down General, Teen, Mature, or Explicit on my AO3 fics. I had to add tags for people to find it, much like you tag stuff on AO3. I had to mark off it was explicit. I had to list the genre, like one may tag Gen, M/M, and so on for an AO3 fic. I wrote a summary. I gave it a title. Really, taking an au fanfiction, changing the names, and publishing it as an E-book would be remarkably easy. Just actually let a beta read it this time, format it, and make a quick cover, and boom. You’re published. Does that extra step mean you’re any more of an author for doing so than you were already? Of course not, unless I missed the memo that said you need to know how to format and make covers to be a writer.

Reason #3 - Fanfiction Is Fucking Hard Okay?

Fanfiction is no less creative or difficult than original writing. It requires a plot, characterization, worldbuilding, because even if it’s not an au canon gives us all very little to work with half the time, and dedication. You need to have a grasp on the English language and how to make written dialogue, description, and internal worlds. The only difference is that fanfiction has something to go off, but that does no make it lesser. In fact, in many ways I argue it’s harder. If your character is slightly out of character, no one will know. If you write Han Solo out of character, you’re in for a nightmare.

Actually, fanfiction is an excellent way to develop as a writer, and I highly suggest trying it if you haven’t already. You can assume your audience already has a fairly decent grasp of the characters, their basic interactions and characteristics, world (unless it’s a new au), and general backstory of anything canon. You don’t have to spend time with developing a relationship from the ground up if you don’t want to, you don’t need to waste space on exposition, you can, as I like to say, get to the good stuff from the get go. If you start your fanfic off with Harry kissing Malfoy, people are going to understand the dynamic between those two and their history together, meaning you can skip all that and get right into the aftermath of two rivals kissing and whatever you want that to mean for your story. You have so much more room for characterization, and you don’t even need to stick to canon. I find the best fanfictions to be the ones where they take canon elements and break them. Canon means nothing you fools, the writer is now god and if they want those two to have a 200k slow burn coffee shop au then they will and it doesn’t mean shit that they are 2 ageless warriors from hell. It’s coffee time baby. But no matter how much you snap and step on canon, those characters need to be recognizable, which is especially difficult when it’s not a written media and that means you’ve got no idea what the inner world of the character is like and only 2 hours of material to work with and oh god.... Yea, fanfic is harder than you think folks. Again, as both a fanfic and original fic author I can say I’ve struggled equally as much with my 50k Hydra Peter Parker hurt/comfort au as I did with writing The Other Beings.

And these are so very far from the only three reasons!! And even if there weren’t it wouldn’t matter because fanfiction has characters, plot, and is words on a page/screen, whether it’s a 100 word drabble or 200k agonizingly slow burn (seriously how do you have the PATIENCE) and guess what last I checked that’s all you need for fiction writing don’t you think? So now if people could stop snickering when they catch me pulling up AO3, that’d be just great. Have a good day.

#Elliot is bitter and decided to rant about it #fanfic

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