#wrote this at like 4 am and i'm not fixing the typos in the tags just deal with them

[corvigae]

Me: Not all of my OCs have to be autistic and/or ADHD. Some could have other mental health struggles - for example, Ori has severe social anxiety.

Also me: Hm. Okay, but have you considered - he has severe social anxiety because he's autistic?

#anyways ori canonically autistic now i do kake the rules #he and nova are that teope of your family members not thinking you're weird #bc they're weird in the exact same way. bc they're family. #ori: having really specific sensory things you can't stand bc they send you into a near-meltdown state is normal #nova (adhd): of course - naturally. #nd to nd communication #also i find it kinda funny that actually gen 1 of the leonard family are largely completely neurotypical #and then in gen 2 you've got adhd...bipolar...dissociative disorder...and that's all just cosmo! #oc stuff #the leonard family #my ocs #orion leonard #wrote this at like 4 am and i'm not fixing the typos in the tags just deal with them

[maryellencarter]

Memed from this post!

1: Do you prefer writing oneshots or multi-chaptered fics? -- So funny story, almost everything I write alone is a short oneshot, but I'm the one who talked Leia into breaking up our longfics into actual chapters. She used to just drop a 20k fic in a lump and bail. Then she agreed to try chapters for one fic (it was Dutybound) and suddenly discovered that having the fic broken up that way really helps her focus during edits. So we did a bunch of rewrites ahead of our already-announced posting schedule, which I would not enjoy doing again, but it made a much better story, and now I break up our draft into chapters at the beginning of editing.

2: Do you plan each chapter ahead or write as you go? -- We start with a rough concept and then write the story, usually front to back. Then we break it into chapters and revise them. No outlining. Occasionally we'll have a scene or plot trajectory we're aiming towards, especially for our longer fics.

3: Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/story. -- I think I just did. We pretty much always write in RP style, with one of us doing a little bit of setup in a Gdoc and then just tagging back and forth, discussing in Discord DMs what we want to have happen if we're not sure we're on the same page. I'll do any light fixes for typos, grammar, and POV as we go, but by and large, our first draft is written straight through clean, like how Steven King describes his process. When we're really rolling on an idea, we can get a relatively solid 50k first draft in two or three months.

4: Where do you find inspiration for new ideas? -- Everywhere! New dubs or new canon drops have been a big one. Sometimes we'll come up with a sequel to one of our own pieces. Chatting with other writers and other fans about the canon is a big one. (Not in the way some commenters in megafandoms do where they drop a comment out of nowhere like "You need to write me exactly this very long detailed plot for free". More like when you're in a group chat talking about, say, ways of shipping nonhumanoid but sapient entities and then your friend surprises you with a TARDIS/Millennium Falcon flashfic. Sometimes those ideas just grab you and don't let go till you write them.)

5: Do you like constructive criticism? -- I am *very strongly* against the thing where people pop up in your comments to give unsolicited criticism, which is the usual context where I hear the phrase "constructive criticism". If I need a beta reader, I will find myself a damn beta reader. The only thing unsolicited negative comments do is make people stop writing. And let the commenter feel smug and virtuous about being a bully, I guess, which does not add to the net good of the universe.

(I, personally, at this point in my writing career, am not unconfident enough to stop writing because some idiot didn't get what I was saying -- which is how at least 99% of all unsolicited "constructive criticism" comments come across. Like the time I wrote a Yuletide sympathetic to a ditzy female character and some rando produced an absolutely massive essay on how actually female ditziness is irredeemable. I'm sure that person thought they were being "constructive" by telling me my whole fic wasn't worth writing. Luckily, the actual recipient loved it.)

A lot of other authors are a lot thinner-skinned or less confident in their writing than I am, and might actually stop if hit with "constructive criticism". Destroying someone else's creativity is an objectively evil act. Don't do it.

#well that got a bit long #might answer more of these later