#i realised that a little while ago re: TIP2

[not-poignant]

What has been your personal favorite of all the Fae Tales canon stories so far? XD

Oooo, this is a tough one!

This is hard because my favourite now versus my favourite to write are not actually the same.

My favourite story to write, so far, has been Game Theory. Which is probably how I managed to churn it out in a matter of months. Though it wasn’t super healthy of me, I lived and breathed that story. I acted out sections. I daydreamed about it nearly all the time. I was sort of in this space where all the worldbuilding was being generated as the story was being written, so it was this huuuugely creative time where I was still making the rules for myself.

And though the original number of readers was small, the people who did read were super passionate about it. So it was just, very involved and immersive and fun and filled with revelations like: ‘holy shit people are reading an original serial’, and ‘holy shit I think I might want to do this as a job’, and ‘holy shit did someone just cosplay my characters????!!!!’ and ‘holy shit I think this might actually be an okay story’ etc.

It blew my life wide open. There were a lot of bad things happening at the time, but I just remember the intensity and the giddiness and the passion of the process and I’m pretty sure I’ll never have that again (which is honestly for the best), but means in my memories, writing Game Theory makes it my favourite canon story to have written so far.

BUT, now to the next part. My favourite all-time Fae Tales canon story so far overall is actually The Ice Plague #2: The Seething Seas.

For while it was actually Game Theory, and it stayed GT even while I was writing COFT and even while I write Deeper into the Woods. And then during The Ice Plague #1, I think Deeper into the Woods became my favourite for a little while (objectively, the quality is pretty good, whereas GT suffers from a lot of issues that make it harder for me to just love it unabashedly these days, which I’m really salty about tbh because I want to love it again, flaws and all).

I think by about chapter 5/6 of The Ice Plague #2 I realised I hadn’t been as consistently immersed and excited about and passionate in a story since Game Theory. That was really surprising to me! Especially because this time around like, the readership had dropped off, the Patreon had dropped off, I was actually feeling really insecure, and yet I loved - and still love - this story in particular.

Like it wouldn’t surprise me to look back on the whole of The Ice Plague and still love book 2 the most. I just...didn’t expect that, at this late stage. I didn’t expect to love a Mosk/Eran book as much as the Gwyn/Augus books. I didn’t expect to find myself in a place where I’m so eager to share chapters with you all that waiting two weeks is like a kind of torture. And I know for some people Mosk/Eran will never hold a candle to Gwyn/Augus, because I felt the same way. I am as surprised as anyone to realise that right now, TIP2 is my favourite Fae Tales story, from start to finish. I think it’s objectively strong writing (for me) and I think it’s got a lot of really crunchy, delicious hurt/comfort and angst in it of the kind I personally enjoy.

Er so yeah! I’m sure the answer will be different again in a couple of years anon! It’s definitely changed over time!

#asks and answers #fae tales verse #fae tales #the ice plague #game theory #the court of five thrones #deeper into the woods #i realised that a little while ago re: TIP2 #and how much i was enjoying it #i still find it hard to believe #but it's been an amazing process #in fact i'm going to go reread some of the chapters right now #administrator Gwyn wants this in the queue #Anonymous