#wornquillsandspilledink Fanfic Ask Game

[threewaysdivided]

For the fanfic ask: D, S, and U ;) thanks!

For wornquillsandspilledink’s Fanfic Ask Game:

D: Is there a song or a playlist to associate with your fics?

Hmmm… I’m not a particularly music-based writer - a lot of my inspiration comes from other stories, or visuals, or personal experience.  Usually musical associations come afterwards, once I’ve got a scene/character fixed well enough for a song to resonate with them.  It also means that I tend to associate songs with fic-moments, characters or fandoms-in-general rather than with a single entire story.  So, a list:

As mentioned before, the opening Instrumental of the Disturbed Sound of Silence Cover is a good match to the ambience of YJ:DW Chapter 15.

Coldplay’s Paradise gives me angsty S1 Artemis vibes.

For Danny Fenton, Coldplay’s Gravity and Simple Plan’s Astronaut get the sad feels going.

Most Imagine Dragons songs tend to make me think YJS1 due their being used in a bunch of super talented fan-animations and AMVs.

More broadly the general emotional tone of ColdPlay’s Fix You and The Fray’s You Found Me kind of underscore sadder, heavier moments of writing.

There was a lot more Sad™ and Coldplay in there than I expected.  Whoops…

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

I’m one of those annoying Tropes-are-Tools-not-Guarantees types so there aren’t many tropes I can confess to seeking out for their own sake, or deliberately inserting into all of my stories.  That said, I tend to be pretty characterisation-focused (even though I like long-fics to have some kind of accompanying plot too), and there definitely some tropes/patterns I’ll gravitate towards:

Believable Depictions of Grief/ Trauma and Healing/ ClosureI enjoy finding stories that actually address the hard experiences or losses that characters have gone through, that the process is messy, and ways they might attempt to work through/ around it, while still letting them be themselves, have moments of levity, live their lives and eventually reach a point of closure.  Grief depicted like this is weepy, delicious, catharsis and I am here for it.

Trust and RevealsI can get a bit frustrated with stories (especially crossovers) that have characters just know or decide to immediately overshare secrets and personal information.  Always more satisfied when those secrets are treated as secret by the narrative, with characters having to sleuth it out or build genuine respect and trust before learning/earning the truth.

Intrigue and the Suspense of AnticipationLove me some Fair Mysteries.  Also when creators are willing to play games with the audience, letting us reach the answer ahead of the characters and wait in anticipation for the penny to drop.  Good stuff.

 Actual Communication and MisunderstandingsThere’s a certain sort of masochistic anticipation that comes from seeing two or more characters end up in conflict because their own personal biases and hang-ups are causing them to misrepresent and/or read  things into the other person’s words/behaviour that aren’t actually there.  Usually followed by either a fight or moment when someone says something that throws that misinterpreted reading off-balance and the whole truth ends up being brought to light and resolved.  I also like this because it lends itself well to grey-on-grey conflicts; no clear “good vs bad” but instead all sides somewhat sympathetic and somewhat at fault for poor communication.

Character studiesKind of self-explanatory: stories that focus in to put the microscope on a single character’s emotional reactions to, and reasoning behind, specific canon behaviours/ events make me happy.  The more believably close to canon-characterisation the happier this gremlin will be.

U: Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much. 

Fair warning: I tend to read pretty widely, so this has the potential to balloon into a huge list. While I could definitely recommend some of the classic fandom bigs like BNHA’s PitViperofDoom and Laquearia, or DP’s Haiju (all of who deserve it and you should check out if you haven’t), I think I’ll take this chance to ping some writers from older/ wider fandoms:

tactfulGnostalgic’s Into the Spiderverse The Family Brooklyn Series.  Hits a lot of my personal trope favourites (character studies, reveals, believable depictions of grief, actual communication, accepting oneself) and also because oh my gosh that prose.  There’s an almost Markus Zusak-ian quality to their writing at points and the rest is just impeccable and fun.  Also packs some really good snappy dialogue.

skyflower51′s Skyrim storiesI really enjoy the environment design, side-quests and lore of Skyrim, and Skyflower51 does a great job of writing interesting characters to fill the blank-slate player-insert MC position, fleshing out in-game plot-lines and characters with much more nuance and detail by having a specific personality from within that world interact with and push them beyond what the limited RPG writing would allow, as well as exploring the possible identity/responsibility issues that come with being thrust into the role of legendary hero.  If you want a look at what Skyrim could be if written as a fantasy world instead of a videogame backdrop, these will probably scratch the itch.

Blackfriar’s Young Justice storiesOh hey, a fandom I actually write for.  Lovers of fluff will want to tread carefully here, as their stories are frequently rated M for angst and violence with good reason.  That said, if you like white-knuckled suspense, horror and anguish, or seeing Batman, Robin and Kid Flash being trialled by difficult situations both in and out of uniform, these will certainly get you your fix.  They also have some crossovers with Under the Red Hood which may satisfy those disappointed by YJ’s lack of Jason.

Also want to give a quick shout to Daruku Janubu/ DJAnubis, whose art for the TTxDP fic Turning Tables was what first got me into fanfic, and whose own story, Unfair Justice, made me cry.

Thanks for playing!

#fanfic ask game #wornquillsandspilledink Fanfic Ask Game #3WD answers #anonymous