#i've gone through the psych fics on ao3 at this point but i need more | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shadesofmauve · 2 years

Text

Writer Chat Tag game

Tagged by @swaps55. Thank you!!!

Tagging @virusq, @fenmere, @spaced0lphin if you feel so inclined.

What is your total posted wordcount on ao3?

292,540. But just you WAIT until the rewritten and expanded Sunset and Evening Star goes up.

Do you have a routine for writing?

When I was first writing A Star to Steer Her By, I was only working four days a week, so on Friday mornings I would sit down, gather all the pieces I'd jotted down over the week, and sew them together into a chapter. Since then I've developed exciting new health issues and switched to full-time work, so now I don't have a routine so much as a collection of Things That Work. To wit:

All writing is in google docs, because I can access it from all over, including my phone, so I can

Seize inspiration whenever it comes, play out the scene, and write it down. I've got a notebook by the bed and a water-proof notepad in the shower (THANK YOU, @swaps55, it's the BEST THING EVER). I'll stop partway through walks and write things on my phone. I will tell my boyfriend and occasionally house guests "NEED TO CAPTURE AN IDEA JUST A MINUTE BYE" and dash out of the room.

Write after dinner and before Bedtime Reading & Tea, IF I have the time and brain energy.

Revisit the outline once the chapter is done and record all scenes and important things discussed in them, because my memory has gone to shit and I'm in danger of leaving things out or putting them in twice.

Finding the time to stitch the pieces together is the hardest thing. I'm also working on putting everything that isn't the current chapter in One Big Doc, because I write wildly out of order and I keep losing shit.

What’s your favorite tropes/pairing

The pairings I write are obvious, so let's go tropes/themes. I love competence porn. I love teamwork and friendships that span more than a pairing. (The combination of those two things is why I love heist movies).

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

I re-read A Star To Steer Her By occasionally and enjoy it immensely, despite the rocky never-wrote-long-fic-before start, but I'm honestly SO PSYCHED about some of the deep emotional waters uncovered in the Sunset and Evening Star rewrite... does it count if I can't share it yet? Also, I'm too deep into it right now to be a good judge. I haven't had that experience of going back to it (the rewritten version) as a reader. (I've done it with the published version; it was shitty. That's why I'm rewriting).

Your fic with the most kudos?

A Star To Steer Her By, to no one's surprise.

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

I can so, so tell the times I tried to force something without hitting flow (see above re 'some of published SaES is really shitty'). That's different from "Put the butt in the seat and stitch that story together", which has to happen. I realize that's kind of saying 'I like it when it goes well, and dislike it when it doesn't.' But eh.

I definitely wonder sometimes if I'm too heavy-handed with whatever point I want to make. Like having to put Joker in a situation where someone is an ableist asshole to show what he's dealing with -- it can feel cheap, because what he'd *actually* be dealing with is all this micro stuff that builds up over time, but it's hard to show that in a story. So there has to be a larger stand-in event, and it can feel like setting up a strawman. Not sure I'd say I dislike how I've done it, but I'm not confident in it.

One thing that I hope rarely shows but is really a pain-in-the-ass is that, since I write out-of-order and I'm sometimes dumping things from two different notepads, a draft email, and a new google doc into one chapter, I'll find that I wrote the same scene twice. Or more. Because I knew that info needed to be conveyed and I forgot I'd already done it. Figuring out which version to use, or frankensteining them together, can be brutal, and then you've done all this work and only progressed by one scene.

Now something you do like?

Well, see, I like it when it works and I don't like it when it doesn't. :P

When I share snippets it's always funny dialogue, because that's easy for me (though conveying the comedic timing is absolutely something I put a lot of work into), and because it tends to share well as small pieces. But I'm more pleased by the scenes that make me choke up, because they aren't as easy. I suppose I'm more surprised when they work. This includes the upcoming Emotional Cascade Failure chapter and The Vortex of Tears.

#Shades writes #writing game

6 notes · View notes

andypantsx3 · 3 years

Note

hi there !! i hope you're doing well :) ever since i started reading ur fics i've just been really impressed with how u keep the quality of ur content very consistent. do u take breaks in between writing each fic? i think u mentioned this in a previous post when u talked about editing fics, but i guess i'm wondering how u keep urself from being burnt out/if u get burnt out! i'm going thru a slump rn so i'd be curious to hear about ur experience!

Omg thank you so much!! That is literally so sweet of you to say, much as I doubt the quality is all actually consistent—I'm looking at you, in cinders chapter two.🖕🖕🖕

Also please excuse how long this got, I have a lot of thoughts on this subject in particular!!

Personally yes, I do get burnt out, and I do find it very necessary to take breaks—from writing overall and from a fic if I'm having difficulties with it. In general, I try to write a little bit every day, but that’s not always possible, and there are times when that’s not the right thing to be doing.

If you were following me late last year, you may vaguely be aware that I disappeared for two months straight between December and February. Like, just let the queue run through and did not answer a single ask, post a single original thought, or even look at my ao3 comments. While I was gone I barely wrote a thing. I think at like 1.5 months into it, I started drafting the outline for subtle, but before that, I didn't do shit except focus on my personal life and hang out with my dog.

At that point I was just tired and I thought I could use a little recharging to get excited about writing again. I read a bunch of books and other people's fics, and reread a bunch of my old fave comfort ship fics. That break from my own work really helped me get inspired again. Since then I've been consciously trying to strike a balance between writing all the time and chilling/consuming the things that keep me inspired to write.

When it comes to taking a break from fics, I do that too. My Hawks fic lay low has been ongoing since December of last year, when I normally finish fics in under a month. I actually really love this fic, but I got a little frustrated with some plot holes and then again with the pressure I was putting on myself to characterize him (like, relax, Andie it's a fuckin fanfic) so that's been on hiatus like multiple times even though we're only three chapters in.

I think it was important, though, for me personally to take a step back from it until I had the energy to address the things that I wanted to, and until I was excited to write it again. I'm actually finally working on chapter 4 (!!!), but it really took a long time to let that bad boy marinate, and I hope the fic will be better for it.

And I did that with statistically significant as well. This was more due to my workload at my job at the time, and I worked on this one over the course of five months when prior to that, I had been finishing fics in 1-2 weeks. But slowing down and writing this fic over like ten times the amount of time it took me to write other fics was a really good learning experience for me. It taught me that it's totally fine to step away from a fic for multiple months, and that you can always come back and finish it later.

I think that's also going to be the case with the new Deku fic, and I'm happy I already know it's completely okay to take my time. I'm sure there will be new wrenches that life throws into my path, and I'll have to get hit by those and figure out how to get back up and learn to duck next time lol.

Anyway, I definitely get where you are coming from, and if I've learned anything in the year and a half I have been writing it’s that it's totally normal to hit slumps, be they long or short, fic-specific or related to writing overall. Burn-out/slumps are actually not a big deal at all if you don't psych yourself out about them.

I feel like every time I'm asked advice on anything I say this (but I mean it!!): listen to yourself. You know best what you need. If you don't feel like you have the brain power for writing right now?? You're definitely right, and you should take some time away to chill, just consume things without producing, or do other stuff in life that makes you feel good.

If you're two months into not writing and you get excited about a project outside of the one you abandoned?? There's probably a reason. Work on that instead, and maybe let your enthusiasm for that project remind you of what you liked about the other one you put down.

And if that enthusiasm doesn't return? Then let the damn thing sit until it does. There are literally writers I follow who stepped away from fics for YEARS, only to come back and post a new chapter like half a decade later. They are always, always better for it.

So literally just listen to what you are telling yourself, and ride out the slump however you need to. Please try your best not to feel guilty for it, or think that it is any reflection on you or your work. They're just a natural part of the process, and honestly you will be the better for having had this experience.

#ask andie

8 notes · View notes