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elephant-in-the-pride-parade · 7 days

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20 Fic Writer Quesions

First, thank you @singeart and @mytardisisparked for tagging me!. I did a set of these last year and it was fun to see how my answers have changed since then!

How many works do you have on Ao3?

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

1.6 million and counting!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Trek Voyager

Star Trek Prodigy

Sailor Moon

Harry Potter

Madam Secretary

Ive debated writing SwanQueen for a long time but by the time I had the energy and time to write, I'd lost interest in the show. I might rewatch and come back to it one day...

I have thought about writing Wynonna Earp or Tamora Pierce universe fanfiction but have yet to get an idea that grabs me. I like to find things i want to fix and it's hard when the source material is perfection.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Parent Trap (305)

Sailor Moon H Order of the Phoenix (289)

Sailor Moon H Half Blood Prince (222)

Eden's Deception (167)

Out of Reach (150)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to! although if I'm busy or feeling down it can take me a while. Sometimes I forget.

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

I still think What Even is 3 Minutes takes the cake. Or I'll be Your First if You'll be my Last

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

I Heard the Comm on Christmas Morn and Parent Trap

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Unfortunately I've gotten hate on fics since I started writing them... and it's become just something I expect to happen. Sometimes it's funny. Sometimes it confuses me. Sometimes it makes me sad. It really depends...

The memorable haters:

There was the delightful Fanfiction.net reviewer who got pissed i was "making everybody gay" (that was funny actually). I forget if they were the same person who flamed me when Mcgonagall and Hooch kissed under some mistletoe. I digress. They thought queering up the canon was like sinful or whatever. I was delighted to disagree and make the story even queerer.

Another person cussed me out for magically restraining Sailor Plutos time travel powers so my plot would work and for making her have feelings about it. aparently mad the senshi were not all powerful deus exmachinas who never feel feelings... That one stung. That was the reason I left FFN.

Hate because in Sailor Moon H, Harry Potter was not the main character.

Hate that I made a magic bio baby for the magical lesbians. (I can't have a biobaby with my wife irl, can't I at least let the fantasy girlies have one!)

Hate for including C/7 in a story

...I wouldn't call it hate for the fic but I have had an uncomfortable amount of commenters who hate on Chakotay any time I have him involved with Seven / don't have him grovel to Kathryn / really any time I let him advocate for how he's been hurt... at first comments like this stressed me out because i worried i had not written the character sufficiently sympathetic. But then Parent Trap breached containment and I got enough comments to be able to see I had definitely written the character fine... it was just that some people were always just rooting for a "Chakotay falls over himself to apologize to Janeway for not immediately dating her" storyline that... I'm not sorry 😅 I'm never going to write that. The older I get the more I feel like both of J/C just need therapy! They've been through so much trauma. Their feelings are valid (yes, even for other people).

Parent Trap breaching containment also meant that when I hit an irl rut and couldnt get in the writing headspace for a bit, a bunch of - sincerely, well meaning - fans got into their heads to start a commenting campaign to get me to update. I heard about it and panicked (i had bad experiences that year of getting people who only commented "update soon" and those conversely stressed me out and made me not want to write - I love fic writing for the conversations and community... so it made me feel like readers thought i was just a content vending machine). so just the thought of potentially getting an avalanche of guests, well meaning or not, begging me to update made me lock commenting until the fic was done. I wound up deciding after that that since "update soon" requests were becoming a lot more frequent that I'd consider before posting whether getting them would hurt my ability to finish. So most of the time now if I know a fic is going to reach a bigger potential community, I don't start posting it until it's almost done. That has had some upsides! (Im less dependent on positive feedback for motivation now!) and some downsides (no one comments on my fics with their theories anymore) but on a whole, a good decision.

Immediately after finishing Parent Trap I wrote Fever and got this amazing guest comment from someone who said (paraphrasing cuz i'm too busy to go find it) "Youre better than this. how dare you write this filth. J/C are better than this" that one had me laughing for days. But the comment did prompt me to create a second account later when I wrote a tentacle fic. At the time I worried i'd get a ton of similar flame comments from people who were subscribed to my main for other types of fic... but I am even feeling like that's unnecessary now. I write what I write! Yes, some of it is really dirty, weird smut. I'm not sorry.

Currently any time I post a Threshold AU fic an anon drops into my comments section in order to call me "Sick" and "Deranged"... they make me so sad I don't even make a quippy reply. I just delete them. I write that universe for my own wish fulfillment... Someday (soon, hopefully) I'm gonna have kids. And I am going to have to have conversations with them about who their biological dad is. Why they look like one mom and not the other, whether their non bio family love them even if theyre not blood related. I might have a kid who feels different from everyone else because they're queer or they're neurodivergent or they're some new alienating feeling I am totally unprepared for. and I'll need to help them navigate that.. Writing about hybrid salamander kids getting raised in a blended family is FUN. But more importantly... it helps me practice those situations. It comforts me to know that if the characters can figure this out in the AU then I can figure this out in real life! What the hell is sick and deranged about that!?

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

I write all sorts of smut. I post the stuff that doesn't totally mortify me once i've gotten out of whatever mood had me writing the smut in the first place.

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

I have exactly two crossovers to my name: Sailor Delta and Sailor Moon H. I think on the basis of word count alone Sailor Moon H (>500,000) is definitely the craziest.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I consider the unlicensed use of the AO3 archive for ChatGPT and similar LLMs theft. (and there are several court cases pending that are also seeking to address whether it is legally theft as it pertains to published fiction and newspapers). The canon creators of the fandoms I write for aren't allowed to make money by using uncredited ideas pulled from my fanfiction (just like I am not allowed to make money from writing fic with their copyrighted settings and characters) and i continue to be apalled that ChatGPT and other LLMs think they can get away with using others copyrighted ideas without permission. Especially that they can take advantage of people who cant profit off their own work.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No but i would be open to it!

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

Yes! Once with @magdalenejaneway, once with @jellybeansarecool and once with @trekflower and all three were fantastic!

Most of what I write for Threshold AU is also increasingly collaborated on a great deal by the AU creators and a few other folks. It's been going for over 2 years now and doing that more and more has enabled us all to drop more references to previous fics and to create a more cohesive body of fic for the AU. in general its just been so fun and fulfilling to make these stories with other people who are as invested in the characters as me and it just fills me with joy. I'm really grateful for you guys.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

On the one hand J/C have inspired over 50 fics, But on the other I have also been loving Sailor Moon and those ships since before I knew what fandom or shipping were. And really the only reason J/C inspire more fic is that all the sailor moon characters got a happy ending.

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

I never want to give up on a WIP...

but I am in knots about what all to do with Out of Reach.

Out of Reach is a St:Prodigy S1 AU where Chakotay has amnesia and doesn't remember anything from his time on Voyager, all the while he and Kathryn are in a situationship with a baby.

There's two questions I never figured out how to answer: 1. Does he get his memories back. If so, how much and what enables it. and 2: Do he and Kathryn stay together?

On the memories front. saying he never recovers seems unfair to the character. But saying he magically does thanks to 24th century science feels cheap and disrespectful - to the reality of real memory loss and to the plot that built up so much tension around this. Saying he gets back some or more over time is more realistic, but left me uncertain of where exactly to end the story. Tying his retrieval of memories to Kathryn also tied me up in knots. On the one hand they're in love and thats romantic. on the other hand the optics of his recovery totally dependent on one person is icky.

I also found the baby really annoying to have there by the end - I still think he's cuteeee i really do!!! - it's just... he makes the "we should stay together and try to figure this out" answer a bit too convenient 😅. and he complicates Kathryns reluctance to restart their relationship. The more she resists, the more callous she seems (deliberately not trying to patch things up with her kid's father) when i really just want to focus on her fears that Chakotay would be happier without her and that even if they restart their romance, she might lose him again on a future mission. It's ironic because i originally created the baby to ensure she wouldnt just run away from her fears. And now hes contributing to my difficulty ending the fic...

Actually the more I think on it, my real problem is I could write my way out of this, but I cant do it in only one or two chapters and that makes me feel tired. i was sorta hoping to wrap that fic up. 😅🙈

16. What are your writing strengths?

Imagery has always been a strength for me. But i think I'm also getting really good at action scenes too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Oneshots.

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

Only if it was information i wanted the reader to understand but not the POV character.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

W.I.T.C.H way back when I was 15.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Universe to Mend - I even have a few sequel or companion novel ideas to come after it.

This has gone on a while... 😅 - thank you for tagging me and letting me ramble! i'll tag anyone else who wants to answer! have at it.

#writing asks #elephantwrites

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steveharrington · 2 years

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Could you talk more about the issues you have with s4? I’m only asking bc I think you’re very sensible when writing about ST!

yessss i love to whine and complain <3 plus ive had a lot of time to Reflect and Marinate on the season so i think these thoughts will be more coherent than some of the stuff i was posting directly after it came out. here we go <3

biggest overall complaint is steve's storyline taking a sharp left turn back into stancy territory. before anyone sends me a why dont you like stancy ask: stancy itself isn't even the reason i disliked this storyline! (also they arent compatible and want different things and its canonically stated like 5 different times in the show) but the Main reason i disliked steve's writing this season was that it largely undermined the value of his relationships with other people. season two established that steve would willingly put himself in harm's way for the kids both against billy and in the tunnels, and season three went on to establish that steve feels the most comfortable when he's hanging out with robin and dustin and just being himself, free from social expectations. all of these discoveries that we worked up to since season one were basically just forgotten in this season. steve is annoyed with dustin, annoyed about staying with the kids, gets injured and only has a meaningful interaction with nancy while robin just walks off screen, doesn't get a single emotional interaction with dustin about the danger they're in or the trauma they're undergoing even after eddie fuckin DIES and overall i just felt like he wasn't acting like himself in terms of his relationships with other people, and this to me seems like an issue with the duffers wanting to prioritize a love triangle once again

i also just have issues with the plot writing as a whole. soooooo many glaring mistakes that just do not seem typical of a stranger things season! ive seen people say "well what did we expect" NOT THIS?? idk from small details like will's birthday and hopper apparently just lying on the floor completely unscathed to larger overall bad writing like eddie's death being absolutely pointless and no one talking about it afterwards, the season somehow feels rushed? even though it was 2x as long as any other season and they had three years to write it? how do you have a 2 hr 30 min episode and not a single scene where the people who spent all season protecting eddie don't get together and talk about his death. that's just...unfathomable to me

out of the four storylines in volume one, two of them were like unbearably boring to me. im so sorry. it got to the point where every time it cut away from hawkins i would text em "FUCKKK" because they were far and away the most compelling story. i always predicted the russia plotline would be boring like the second s3 ended i said oh boy thats gonna be boring. but the HNL storyline......was somehow even more boring. and i love el! i liked venry as a villain! i LOVE JAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER but jesus christ is brenner a redundant boring ass character who's always entering the frame sneakily and saying some shit like "eleven......the virus inside you is spreading.....you are an evil evil little girl" like JESUS dude we get it. idk ive never found his character nearly as interesting as the show seems to think he is, and i think spending this much time with him this season was honestly a mistake! so glad he's dead rip. i also wasn't a fan of the stretched out bullying plotline because it was very cartoonish to me and also just like. not necessary. we already know el feels alienated. watching her get shoved to the ground and have a milkshake spilled on her precious little dress just felt like kicking her while she was down

anyways theres a lot this season did well! quite honestly, it all falls apart in the last episode. without the mistakes made there, it would have been so much stronger. but alas i fear it's my least favorite season of stranger things so far because of these issues </3 to me there were times where i was like "am i really watching stranger things right now??" because the writing choices were just so bizarre and uncharacteristic of the show as a whole. praying season 5 is better but i have a strong feeling season 2 will always reign supreme

#anon #answered

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joshuaalbert · 1 year

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harry kim… ive missed your voyager posting but i want to hear your thoughts on dear harry boy…

favorite thing about them

he's my most favoritest guy. i love him. if like .03% of the things that had happened to him happened to me i'd be out there murdering bitches or something and he's still just out here being a nice friendly guy who tries his best for the ship and for other people. like sometimes they do a rly good job of making it clear that there's this very deep well of resolve to him and he is an incredibly hard person to break despite experiencing the horrors so so so often. BUT i also love it when he's unhinged like he absolutely deserves to get to go off the rails sometimes. and i like it when he's making little petty comments he deserves that too.

least favorite thing about them

i mean we all know this but he's SO fucked over by the writers/showrunners. there's literally no reason for the no promotion/left out of major storylines/frequently sidelined in favor of other characters deal except some like. racist bullshit. writers will be like "well we just don't think he's an interesting character" bitch then make him interesting lol that's your job.

brOTP

harry and b'elanna literally the single most important dynamic in the show to me. every episode that they don't have a scene together i think about committing unfathomable acts of violence. i really enjoy that they genuinely feel like friends who care tremendously about each other (although i wish we saw them hanging out more off duty or in the mess hall or whatever).

also like idk if it's a brotp because they're not like Bros but the harry and janeway dynamic makes me feel uhh vaguely insane. now that you're here someone can understand what i mean when i say it's kind of the inverse of picard and wesley in a lot of ways lmao.

OTP

honestly i cannot deny the weird gay thing he and tom have going on. with tom and b'elanna i can be like yeah she deserves better but a) he's usually better to harry than b'elanna because the writers don't seem to know how to write romantic storylines without some bullshit and b) it lowkey doesn't matter if harry deserves better because regardless of my opinions they just Do Have a weird and compelling fucked up gay thing. the chute literally exists.

also my beloved friend @aberfaeth who was my source of voy knowledge before i started watching voy is a ptk enthusiast and i like. very much see that in some arrangement i like whatever they've all got going on

nOTP

uhhh. hm. i dont know that i have one in terms of things that people actually ship? i am very not fond of the show's trend of giving him like tall blonde traditionally (western) beautiful women as like short term love interests that we're clearly supposed to assume he has absolutely no chance with because he's a lame nerd. in a vacuum him always going for like women that fit a specific mold of Hot Girl that he basically never actually has chemistry with would give comphet but i do think in this case it's far more representative of, again, the racist bullshit and it being very clear that they don't see him as being a viable romantic option.

random headcanon

i have not been rotating him in my mind long enough to have a ton of these but i do very much stand by my harry and b'elanna undefeatable battle bots build team headcanon

unpopular opinion

im not immersed enough in the voy ecosystem enough to know what opinions are popular tbh but i do think any headcanon that has harry like pining after tom is simply not a correct interpretation of events imo

favorite picture of them

like I said. I like it when he’s unhinged and when he’s petty.

#i didn't have answers to some of these so i just uhh got rid of them but i still had a lot to say anyway lol #ty ty!!!#when nobody else got me etc #ask game

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jeonqkooks · 1 year

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Hello lovely jen, its been a while since ive been active on tumblr and its safe to say i did not remember much of what I left here but i had my following list to help me remember what my interests and favs were before i decided to leave tmblr.. and while i was going over my list and catching up with the long list of amazing authers and fics, i came across Velvet cherry, and then I remembered all over again, why I followed you in the first place why seeing your username made me feel happy and a wave of relief washing over me, I am currently trying to read all of your works new and old, but I'm specifically here to confess my love and admiration to velvet cherry... not one sec, did my heart stop thumbing against my chest, every word gave me some sort of emotion not once did I got distracted I felt myself completely and utterly devoted to the world you've created and I loved every second of it, and I think that's the biggest accomplishment a fic could ever achieve, to make its reader so invested and devoted and I believe you've done an amazing job on bringing justice to the storyline, characters everything. I am here to support you and I really really wish you enjoy writing just as much as I enjoy reading it, Thank you for being so amazing, and talented and sweet and just talented 😂🤦🏻‍♀️ I just love you okay if you didn't realise already (that is)😁😁

thank you so so much for this, i don't know if i can properly tell you just how much i appreciated this message.

i'm glad that you're back on tumblr again, and i'm beyond happy that you remember who i am :') the fact that you took the time to write me this means the world to me, and you guys always me feel so grateful to have a community like this full of wonderful people who are so much kinder to me than i deserve. it's what makes my tumblr experience so worthwhile and comforting.

i think this message came at a perfect time too. i might even call it divine intervention hahaha. i teared up reading this, because last night i came kinda close to deactivating, which is ironic because 1) what i just said about loving my community here and 2) yesterday was this blog's 1 year anniversary and 3) this is one of the things that bring me the most joy. so i guess this is just what i needed. hearing (or reading would be more correct hahaha) you say that seeing my username made you happy and relieved is probably one of the best things anyone has said. just the fact you remember me is already enough to make my whole day.

honestly i don't even know what i'm trying to say. i guess the point is that i love you and there is so much love to be passed around here even though all of us are quite literally strangers and i'm thankful that you think i deserve any of that love and i'm thankful that you're reading my writing and giving me a chance :')

#i'm sorry if i don't make sense hahahah i'm all over the place rn #re: velvet cherry #anon #answered #💌

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sothischickshe · 2 years

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A secret for you: I don't understand the hype around Bridgerton. It's basically Downton Abbey meets Gossip Girl without the charming appeal of either

oooh! ok so ive seen gossip girl (the original, not the revival), but i havent seen downton abbey. and i have seen bridgerton! though ive not read any of the books. i don't think i'd say bridgerton was charmless, and im not sure i liked it (much?) less than gossip girl (although it’s hard to compare one short season to however long gossip girl eventually went on for), but i am sure i liked it more than the thing i havent seen, ha.

i guess you weren’t actually asking haha but this sparked THOUGHTS so im gonna arbitrarily claim there are ~3 prongs that account for the hype (and/or noise?):

1. fake dating

it's a top tier trope!!! and this was the main storyline!!! i am already charmed, ha.

i must admit i didn't really care that much about what was going on with any of the other von trapp children and barely remember the wider cast of characters, which is a point against the charm for sure.

plus omg! amongst all these boring young ppl i really feel we were robbed of a main chick's widowed mother & main dude's cool godmother(?) romance. (but i do often feel this way abt media focused on young ppl, so it's not special in that regard.)

2. a british(ish) period piece ft black british actors WHO AREN’T PLAYING JAZZ MUSICIANS

!!!!!!!!!!!!! this country's biggest export really might be period shows, which are overwhelmingly white, & that deffffinitely contributes to the ♻️cycle of (particularly screen) actors of colour having difficulty finding work & leaving. in fact snl parodied this trend (i say parodied, I'm now half convinced ice cube is secretly english), in the ep that regé-jean page hosted last yr!

I find it very difficult to muster much enthusiasm for this endless parade of these period shows, and im aware im poss being unfair to downton abbey but i just...dont care abt it? beyond the good fight’s meta parody anyhow.

personally i think bridgerton mightve worked better with ~actual race blind casting, cos instead you end up with this weird context where race does but also doesnt seem to exist in the show’s world, but i was left kinda willing to see how that developed in future seasons, and theyve announced a queen charlotte prequel spinoff, which sounds like it could be genuinely interesting?

anyway it defffffffff felt like a breath of fresh air in this regard so again, I'm immediately charmed!

3. marketing/furore

the show first appeared in that weird taint of a period btwn xmas & new year, which’d generally be a great time to air cos a lot of ppl are pissing abt barely interacting with reality AND pretty much everything else is on hiatus. throw in a global pandemic & you can deffo see how this generated more hype/noise than it probably wouldve otherwise! Plus I'm sure all the brouhaha abt the ‘steaminess’ contributed!

there’s also ofc criticism of the show (’historical’ ‘accuracy’, too much steaminess, depictions of lack of/consent, casting, adaptational success etc etc), and while that stuff doesnt directly contribute to hype... it does contribute to noise, and i think those can kiiinda end up being one and the same...? 🤔

My greatest piece of criticism is probs that it's RIDONK to feature wisteria (a FAMOUSLY short flowering plant) for the whole season??? Am I to believe the span of the first season was like 3 weeks???? 🤯 Wisteria should pretty much only feature onscreen TO start withering to provide a sense of 'time' 🤺🗻❕ (or to not wither to demonstrate a show is set in a fantasy world where time moves differently!!!!!)

But also: i feel like the show had the makings of a potentially interesting & nuanced conversation about consent -- a period piece obvi easily allows you to show how definitions & attitudes change, the fake dating plot is kicked off by honour-defending so it's already a main topic, & then main dude kinda exploits main chick’s complete lack of sex education cos of his (!totally valid) non-interest in having kids. and the conclusion to her spermjacking is... oh suddenly we've solved all our problems in the last 45 seconds cos actually everyone DOES want to have kids which ARE a magic balm for everything actually....? um. 🤯

i thought the show’d kinda shot itself in the foot cos main duke’s left 🍿, but it sounds like each season focuses on a different one of the siblings so maybe he’ll be doing deeply important business somewhere offscreen the whole time lol. the fact that i didnt care that much abt the other characters doesnt super bode well for my investment in further seasons, and i wouldnt be that surprised if this show goes the way of the avatar sequels, but im probs up for checking out s2 if it sounds vaguely interesting......? (and that prequel!)

but gossip girl is such an interesting point of comparison... cos i am ALMOST tempted to rewatch it, primarily to see how well it hangs together w/ the reveal of who gg is. but.... idk i think i’d probs get annoyed fast? I feel like it's taking up a fairly rosy spot in my memories but if I interrogate a little... It DID get way overly convoluted & introduce too many rando characters & there were a few too many rounds of the partner shuffle & it's another show that kinda backed itself into a corner with an ill thought out inclusion of a(t least one) rape plot, I assume from the source material 😕

But also and probs most crucially... It's centred on young ppl like SO much media and given I watched it first when I was a young ppl it's def got a nostalgia vibe but idk, as a no longer young person I do find it harder to get invested in stuff about babies? So I wonder if perhaps bridgerton isn't much less charming than gossip girl, rather you're just old now 😂😘😘😘😘😘

Tell me a secret!

#Julia it was very wrong of you to send me this! I can't believe you got me posting w*steria d*scourse 🙄#I should be working on my fic! Tut! 😂#Bridgerton #TV #Adaptations #Gossip girl #Rape #Tropes #UK #I must say I don't think bridgerton seemed THAT American which is a point in its favour #I'm so tired of watching stories where ppl who don't want kids learn the error of their ways tho 🙄🙄🙄#& this was a particularly graceless example #Also can't believe I'm arguing FOR the demonstration of time 😂#But if you include a famously short time flowering plant in your opening credits you should know how to use it!!!!#I feel like short time flowering plant is not the phrase I'm looking for 😅#But idk sickness came and chased my brain cells away 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️#Ergo im really not sure this makes sense but eh you get the drift! 🤝🧓#Could I have looked up these characters names..... Yes. 💤🤷🏼‍♀️#But anyway the bridgerton (God?)~mothers is such a great ship!!!!!!!!

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tommydoesntpayforsuits · 2 years

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Festival questions for the beautiful Ms. Marina:

🌊 what are your favorite and least favorite foods to eat?

📖 were there any storylines you were going to include for MIFTB that you didn’t?

💣 if I had to assign a season to you, it would be the transition between fall and winter. It's such a cozy and wonderful time of the year. There’s no resolutions (unlike new years) and it's such a comfortable season (I love the cold because I love big sweaters, boots, fluffy scarves, stuff like that). Warm coffee is an all day delight, snow is beautiful. It fits because you seem like such a warm and delightful person, full of comfort and joy.

And 🖋: ive always wanted to be a writer, but I find even the smallest works so daunting and hard to start. Since you’re an experienced writer and you’ve worked with other published authors, do you have any advice on fleshing out ideas and planning them?

Congrats on 500 my friend, im so happy for you 💚 (I know you technically haven’t hit it yet, but I know you will so it's an established fact in my book!)

HIYAH, KIRSTEN!

🌊Ooh, interesting! I detest black chocolate. I hate chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream for this very reason, because it's almost always made with black chocolate. I can only sorta stand it with fruit and yogurt. Recently, I have been craving a trifle something fierce. It's one of my favourite deserts.

📖Yes, actually! In the first part I focused a bit on portraits, specifically Grace's portrait. When I was writing the second part, I was going to start it off with Charlie waking up from the position he was left in, and when he's going down to breakfast, he starts noticing things around the house. We get the impression from him that it's not the first time this has happened, but he starts noticing that Grace's portraits were being moved around/being put in a secluded room slowly, slowly. Through his internal monologue, we find out why Charlie hates his stepmother so much as he accuses her of slowly erasing his mother.

I played with this idea for a long time, but I could never make it work. I could never justify the action (i will touch on this in a second), I could never make it "fit" into the rest of the chapter, I felt like we didn't need a play by play on why Charlie hates his stepmother, because I felt that was obvious, I wanted to do some other emotional arc involving the portraits and removing them wouldn't lend itself to that.

As for justifying it, I usually shy away from this. I don't like my characters to be completely morally good. I like them grey and complicated, because it lends itself to better conflict. But I could find no reason for why Tommy (yes, whilst I was writing, the person who was doing it was Tommy, not the reader) would move away Grace's portraits. At first, I thought it was to show reader that he loved her so much and that he was moving on from Grace's death, but that didn't fit with his arc because the point is that he's still hung up on Grace, and that he loves Charlie so much, so why would he hurt both of them by taking away the portraits? That doesn't make sense. Even if he would hurt himself, why would he hurt Charlie that way? For Reader? That is completely selfish and unjustifiable and not how I wanted the relationship to be portrayed.

💣You. Are honestly. The sweetest. For you, I view you as winter. Only in the sense where everywhere else everything feels cold, sterile and lifeless, you go inside, and sit by the radiator, with a cup of soup and you feel safe and protected another day. You just feel like a warm house welcoming you from the cold.

🖋Well, first of all, you have to identify what's so daunting about them. Is it because you don't know where to start? Is it because you feel you're not good enough? Is it because you feel you need to xyz before you get to the part you want to write? You need to learn this so as you can overcome it. Because it's more than likely anxiety or fear.

A big mistake new writers do is that they don't write what they want. I fell in this trap myself at one point. We've all been there: you want to write a thing so badly, the story is playing in your mind like a movie and the prose is fizzing in your brain. And you sit down to write it and suddenly, the motivation is gone, because you're writing the set up, the part before what you want to write. And I'm here to tell you: YOU LITERALLY DO NOT HAVE TO DO THAT. Just cut to the part you want to write. Whether it's 2 sentences long or 2 pages. If you don't you'll just burn out and won't want to do it anymore.

What I suggest: Write drabbles. A drabble is a piece of writing under 100 words. It literally can be as short as you want, just write the part you want. Once that's out the way, your brain maybe will like the feeling of creating for the sake of creating, and it will develop more ideas, or develop the same idea. As long as you write the bits you want, and make writing an enjoyable experience for yourself, it won't be daunting.

Thank you, my love. You are truly something else with how kind you are. 500 Followers Celebration!

#kirsten the kindly fairy #🖋 500ff!#💣500ff!#📖 500ff!#🌊500ff!#500ff!

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nagito-kissmaeda · 3 years

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Alright, I so badly want to send this on anon because haha anxiety go brrr, but I just want to show my appreciation without hiding I suppose.

So, the first thing I ever read from you was the first chapter of A Lapse in Judgment on ao3 a few weeks ago (or probably a month ago, I'm not good at keeping up with dates and time lmao) when I was getting back into Danganronpa and reading lots of fics because they're very good. Anyways, I just have to say that the reader being the ultimate empath??? It sounds like such a good and unique ultimate! While I was reading, I could feel myself get so immersed into the plot/storyline and that other good stuff because of how well written it was! Honestly, it was so good!!! I really cannot express how much I loved reading it uwu

So when I discovered you here on tumblr and found out there was more than one chapter of A Lapse in Judgment, I kind of just went wild and read through all the current chapters you have (all the way to the fifth chapter I believe?) and man. . . the writing. The use of words. The way I got hooked immediately surprises me a lot! Makes me wanna read through all the chapters again to be honest since it's just that good, you know?

But yeah, I just wanted to say all this. And your other works are very amazing and immaculate as well??? Like, pls spare talent *grabby hands* sorry if this all sounds terrible or is just a bunch of gibberish lmao bHEIWK3K7-

Anyways, that's all. I really don't know how to end this since I'm just. . . awkward, especially when I speak to the people I look up to and admire so much, but like I said, yeah! Continue being your awesome self!!! And I hope you're doing well, dearest! Don't forget to eat, stay hydrated, and take breaks when you need to! And, and euwjwsiwj have a great day too!!! 💗

Also, one last thing: that sex on the beach with Nagito that you posted a couple hours ago or so was *chef's kiss* bJWRIWO2K OK BYE NOW I DON'T WANT TO EMBARRASS MYSELF ANY FURTHER 😭

Sorry this took so long for me to answer, but this was so long and heartfelt so i didn't want to half ass my reply 😅 I am so so so happy that you've been enjoying a Lapse in Judgement, i dont talk about it heaps, but i've worked really hard on that one and it's kind of like, my baby? I know it isnt as fun to read as a lot of my oneshots so i understand that is doesnt get heaps of attention, but like, it means so much to me when people tell me that they have been enjoying it. It was my first fic in the tag and i am getting close to finishing it now, but it feels like it's been carrying me this whole way through if that makes sense? Also, im so stoked that you like the Ultimate Empath, i think it's a really interesting talent to play around with in fic and ive been really loving the chance to explore what Nagito's emotional state is like on a deeper level through their talent, it's fun! I feel a little bad though, cause ultimate empath has always been the talent that i would give myself if i was in danganronpa, but like, i've already used it now so it feels like im stealing from the reader character asahfjsasha Thank you for your reminders to take care of myself. I am very bad at doing that, left to my own devices i just forget to eat all the time, so this means a lot to me. I'm so honoured that you took the time to send me this wonderful ask, and i am still baffled that people enjoy my work as much as they do, im just having fun in my little niche, but im happy that so many folks are in here with me haha. thank you again 💞🍀🍀

#/ask #thank you so much #ily

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bethevenyc · 6 years

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Don't try to label this actor a 'woman' or 'man'

“Billions” star Asia Kate Dillon speaks on playing non-binary Taylor Amber Mason in the hit Showtime drama series. (Photo: Build NYC)

Asia Kate Dillon is a fierce actor with arresting eyes and a buzz cut, known for breakout roles including a Nazi skinhead inmate in Orange is the New Black and, currently, a calculating hedge-fund intern on Showtime’s Billions. But what the 33-year-old gets asked about perhaps most frequently is gender identity: Dillon’s is “non-binary,” with the preferred pronoun of “they.”

Still, frequent explaining is not something they mind one bit.

“I’m really grateful for that,” Dillon tells Yahoo Lifestyle at New York City’s Build Studios (part of Yahoo’s parent company, Oath), where they had dropped by for a live studio interview. “I mean, I spent so many years not understanding my own gender identity, not having the language to talk about it, and not feeling safe in many environments to talk about it. And so now, having the opportunity to talk about it and have it printed is extraordinary for me, and it doesn’t get tiring.”

One particularly notable moment of explanation was when Dillon was a guest on The Ellen Show, noting about being non-binary, “It’s a term used by some people, myself included, who experience their gender identity as falling somewhere outside the boxes of man and/or woman… Female is a sex, and sex is between our legs, and gender identity is between our ears.”

Dillon’s Billionaire character of Taylor identifies as non-binary as well — a point that caused them to weep with joy upon first reading the script. “If there had been someone like Taylor on TV when I was young, it would’ve meant a great deal,” they say. Below, some highlights from our quick but deep conversation.

Why is it important to you to identify as non-binary rather than to just expand the definition of what “woman” can mean?

It’s important to me because it is me. That is my experience of myself, and so I’m just living my life as me. Non-binary gender-nonconforming and trans people have always been around, just as long as any other type of person. So in that sense, I think expanding the definition of what a woman is is great — for people who identify as women and want to work at expanding that definition for themselves and the world at large. That’s not where I’m coming from and so that’s why it’s important to me.

yahoo

So have you felt excluded, then, by the women’s movement, and specifically the Women’s March?

The short answer is yes. I think a lot of the women’s movement is perpetuating the synonymous use of “woman” and “vagina,” and not all women have vaginas, not all people with vaginas are women. And the pussy hats — not all pussies are pink, but that association is totally exclusive, and not just of non-binary people, but of transwomen and people of color. And so the future, to me, is inclusive, and it’s intersectional, certainly. And if it’s not intersectional then it’s not feminism, really. So I do feel left out of conversations that continue to align femininity and womanhood with uteruses and vaginas. I think that’s an archaic alignment, and I’m excited for a future in which we don’t do that.

Let’s talk about your buzz cut: When did you first do it and why, and what does it feel like for you?

The very first time I buzzed my head I was 21 — I’d had short hair since I was 14 —I just remember it was like two in the morning and I just was like, I really want to do it, I want to see what I look like and what my head shape is. And I remember taking the clippers that my roommate had at the time and just going for it. And it was incredibly freeing… and ultimately, I felt like there was nothing to hide behind, it was like, here’s my face, here’s what I look like, and the world is going to really see me now.

Since then, I’ve had all different kinds of styles and colors, and for Orange Is the New Black I played a skinhead, so it worked for that. And then when I was cast as Taylor, it felt like the shorter buzz just felt right for the character, honestly, so that’s why I’ve maintained it. I’m so grateful that neither Brandy nor Taylor wear any makeup — although they do cover my neck tattoo for Taylor — but it’s a real easy time in the [hair and makeup] chair for me.

Asia Kate Dillon attends the Showtime Golden Globe Nominees Celebration at Sunset Tower on Jan. 6, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Tara Ziemba/Getty Images)

How challenging was it for you to play Brandy, the pretty scary white supremacist skinhead character on Orange Is the New Black?

I was really grateful to be playing a white antagonist in a Black Lives Matter storyline, because you need white antagonists to tell those stories. And I’m certainly happy as a light-skinned white person to play an anti-hero onscreen, because we have so many examples of white people as heroes. Is it hard and challenging to play a character like that? Certainly. Although as an actor, I’m never judging the character that I’m playing, because that’s not helpful. My job was to show up on set, put on the costume, play the character, and then take off the costume and leave the character at work. So that’s what I did.

In my real life, I’m a Black Lives Matter social justice activist, and so it was incredibly interesting to me to play somebody coming from the totally opposite side, whose beliefs are as deeply entrenched — as deeply felt, and given as much gravity, as I give my beliefs. And I think just knowing that, understanding that, allows a possible road towards a way in which to approach conversation with a person who is coming from a totally different perspective, but who is holding it in the same place within themselves that you hold your beliefs.