20 questions for fic writers
i haven't done one of these in a hot minute and i have a deadline in a few hours so what better time, am i right (it'll be fine i'm mostly done)
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saltedpriv on tumblr, i just don't love text posting on there
1. How many works on AO3?
45 - there are other works on other, abandoned profiles plus stuff i've orphaned over the years so i think the real number is probably closer to 60-75?
2. Total word count on AO3?
452,423 (this account)
3. Top five fics by kudos?
tender prey (gk) - 897
flight of a one-winged dove (cql/mdzs) - 541
soft targets (gk) - 462
a man after midnight (gk) - 350
to keep you in that house on the hill (cql) - 342
i have jokingly called myself a fic writer's fic writer, because despite having posted fic publicly for 15 years and being a somewhat "known entity" in certain fandoms, i don't have a single work over 1000 kudos, not because i think my fic is even "unsuccessful" (however one would measure that)--it just tends to be quite niche. it finds the right readers..........
even tender prey is a bit of an anomaly, because i wrote it for the juggernaut slash ship in a nascent fandom, and there were almost no canonverse longfics. i just timed the market. once. and never again
4. What fandoms do you primarily write for?
i used to hop around a lot but i've been consistently active in various MXTX fandoms for five years now? which is crazy. i started making the switch over to tgcf mid-2022 and it's been pretty steadily that since then...
it takes me more energy to write for a lesser known fandom these days than it used to because i don't like to write for things if i haven't reviewed the canon at least once since my first pass with it, and honestly who has the time. i also just get the fanfic-writing bug less intensely than i used to, since more of my energy has moved to thinking about stories in terms of original works. i'm just still nuts about beefleaf, and i like how low stakes it feels... my little barbie dolls...
5. Do you respond to comments?
i used to be consistent about it but i lost my ability to respond to digital communication sometime in 2023 and it has not returned. i read them all instantly and cherish them deeply, though. like. seriously. if you're ever like "would they care" yes i care
6. Angstiest ending?
i talk a big game but my endings are usually bittersweet at worst... um probably bruising the velvet which involved thomas cromwell depressedly sucking off henry viii shortly before being executed... i can write fucked up little vignettes but for longform writing i'm weak
7. Fic with the happiest ending?
flight of a one-winged dove is fully just a hetero romance novel with a HEA, so probably that...
panting like a dog at the edge of your bed (aka pantingbed) maybe the most improbably happy, and it ends on a note of the protagonist feeling many intense emotions none of which i would describe as "happiness" ("the despair and exhausted relief of giving up on something that is very bad for you?") but which gesture toward the possibility of happiness in the future... and for beefleaf, what more can you ask for... [i say as if i don't have two other postcanon beefleaf wips going that also have happyish endings]
8. Do you get hate?
not regularly. seinen manga and danmei fandoms tend to be relatively less bad for that kind of thing since the canons are targeted at adults and filled with sex and violence
9. Do you write smut?
i just think it's fun to write!!! i very intentionally killed my internal embarrassment core for writing fic porn many years ago because i wanted to be powerful and able to DIY my own smut. a big part of the appeal of fandom to me is having an outlet to write low stakes BDSM erotica without having to come up with my own characters. so. naturally
10. Do you write crossovers?
i'm neurotic enough about keeping one canon straight let alone multiple
11. Ever had a fic stolen?
i honestly can't remember, so if i have it wasn't a big deal, clearly, lol. i mean besides all my stuff getting scraped for LLMs like the entire rest of the internet hayukyukyuk
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
i actually don't think i have
13. Have you ever co-written a fic?
not strictly, though i have a long beefleaf thread between me and a friend i've been trying to turn into a cleaned-up fic for crossposting
14. All time favorite ship?
"He Xuan/Shi Qingxuan (10)" THIS IS A LOT FOR ME OK
15. WiPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
i still really want to come back to the handful of post-FOOWD vignettes, which are all sitting around half-finished, it's just been long enough that i think i'd have to reread mdzs or rewatch cql first
16. Writing strengths?
i've put a lot of effort into not erring on the side of subtlety, in favour of going to big emotional places; i'm more interested in having a scene feel layered and nuanced while still maximalist rather than the sort of... "adult alternative" of it all. idk if i succeed but i TRY
i know i put a lot more thought into setting than most people do--i'm just a very visual and sensorily-engaged person and i struggle to write a scene if i don't know what the surroundings look like, which can make stuff feel more lived-in and allow for more indirect characterization than just describing the way a character talks or acts
17. Writing weaknesses?
at my worst and laziest, one of my default character voice modes always has a faint scent of bbc sherlock; too many adverbs and prepositions that leave prose feeling starchy; there are certain sentence and paragraph rhythms i can feel myself slip into which are not original or sharply drawn enough to be voicey in a good way rather than just repetitive
18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?
fine in theory but i don't write it
19. First fandom you wrote for?
h*rry p*tter for OCs, percy jackson for proper fanfic (which was incest fic. about the di angelos. mainly. and nico/percy. i've LITERALLY always been like this. my he xuan characterization and my nico characterization are NOT far apart)
20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?
my longfics are always such a pain in the ass but i'm always the most fond of them because in all cases, i wouldn't have made it through all the work necessary to finish them if i didn't truly love the story
my nie huaisang fic is always close to my heart and a river of changing faces was the first of those, which i hoped would be about ~5k but turned out 16k and i started writing a different 92k nhs fic shortly after, so clearly i enjoyed myself
tagging anyone who would like to do it--i truly enjoy reading these
tagged by
saltedpriv on tumblr, i just don't love text posting on there1. How many works on AO3?
45 - there are other works on other, abandoned profiles plus stuff i've orphaned over the years so i think the real number is probably closer to 60-75?
2. Total word count on AO3?
452,423 (this account)
3. Top five fics by kudos?
tender prey (gk) - 897
flight of a one-winged dove (cql/mdzs) - 541
soft targets (gk) - 462
a man after midnight (gk) - 350
to keep you in that house on the hill (cql) - 342
i have jokingly called myself a fic writer's fic writer, because despite having posted fic publicly for 15 years and being a somewhat "known entity" in certain fandoms, i don't have a single work over 1000 kudos, not because i think my fic is even "unsuccessful" (however one would measure that)--it just tends to be quite niche. it finds the right readers..........
even tender prey is a bit of an anomaly, because i wrote it for the juggernaut slash ship in a nascent fandom, and there were almost no canonverse longfics. i just timed the market. once. and never again
4. What fandoms do you primarily write for?
i used to hop around a lot but i've been consistently active in various MXTX fandoms for five years now? which is crazy. i started making the switch over to tgcf mid-2022 and it's been pretty steadily that since then...
it takes me more energy to write for a lesser known fandom these days than it used to because i don't like to write for things if i haven't reviewed the canon at least once since my first pass with it, and honestly who has the time. i also just get the fanfic-writing bug less intensely than i used to, since more of my energy has moved to thinking about stories in terms of original works. i'm just still nuts about beefleaf, and i like how low stakes it feels... my little barbie dolls...
5. Do you respond to comments?
i used to be consistent about it but i lost my ability to respond to digital communication sometime in 2023 and it has not returned. i read them all instantly and cherish them deeply, though. like. seriously. if you're ever like "would they care" yes i care
6. Angstiest ending?
i talk a big game but my endings are usually bittersweet at worst... um probably bruising the velvet which involved thomas cromwell depressedly sucking off henry viii shortly before being executed... i can write fucked up little vignettes but for longform writing i'm weak
7. Fic with the happiest ending?
flight of a one-winged dove is fully just a hetero romance novel with a HEA, so probably that...
panting like a dog at the edge of your bed (aka pantingbed) maybe the most improbably happy, and it ends on a note of the protagonist feeling many intense emotions none of which i would describe as "happiness" ("the despair and exhausted relief of giving up on something that is very bad for you?") but which gesture toward the possibility of happiness in the future... and for beefleaf, what more can you ask for... [i say as if i don't have two other postcanon beefleaf wips going that also have happyish endings]
8. Do you get hate?
not regularly. seinen manga and danmei fandoms tend to be relatively less bad for that kind of thing since the canons are targeted at adults and filled with sex and violence
9. Do you write smut?
i just think it's fun to write!!! i very intentionally killed my internal embarrassment core for writing fic porn many years ago because i wanted to be powerful and able to DIY my own smut. a big part of the appeal of fandom to me is having an outlet to write low stakes BDSM erotica without having to come up with my own characters. so. naturally
10. Do you write crossovers?
i'm neurotic enough about keeping one canon straight let alone multiple
11. Ever had a fic stolen?
i honestly can't remember, so if i have it wasn't a big deal, clearly, lol. i mean besides all my stuff getting scraped for LLMs like the entire rest of the internet hayukyukyuk
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
i actually don't think i have
13. Have you ever co-written a fic?
not strictly, though i have a long beefleaf thread between me and a friend i've been trying to turn into a cleaned-up fic for crossposting
14. All time favorite ship?
"He Xuan/Shi Qingxuan (10)" THIS IS A LOT FOR ME OK
15. WiPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
i still really want to come back to the handful of post-FOOWD vignettes, which are all sitting around half-finished, it's just been long enough that i think i'd have to reread mdzs or rewatch cql first
16. Writing strengths?
i've put a lot of effort into not erring on the side of subtlety, in favour of going to big emotional places; i'm more interested in having a scene feel layered and nuanced while still maximalist rather than the sort of... "adult alternative" of it all. idk if i succeed but i TRY
i know i put a lot more thought into setting than most people do--i'm just a very visual and sensorily-engaged person and i struggle to write a scene if i don't know what the surroundings look like, which can make stuff feel more lived-in and allow for more indirect characterization than just describing the way a character talks or acts
17. Writing weaknesses?
at my worst and laziest, one of my default character voice modes always has a faint scent of bbc sherlock; too many adverbs and prepositions that leave prose feeling starchy; there are certain sentence and paragraph rhythms i can feel myself slip into which are not original or sharply drawn enough to be voicey in a good way rather than just repetitive
18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?
fine in theory but i don't write it
19. First fandom you wrote for?
h*rry p*tter for OCs, percy jackson for proper fanfic (which was incest fic. about the di angelos. mainly. and nico/percy. i've LITERALLY always been like this. my he xuan characterization and my nico characterization are NOT far apart)
20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?
my longfics are always such a pain in the ass but i'm always the most fond of them because in all cases, i wouldn't have made it through all the work necessary to finish them if i didn't truly love the story
my nie huaisang fic is always close to my heart and a river of changing faces was the first of those, which i hoped would be about ~5k but turned out 16k and i started writing a different 92k nhs fic shortly after, so clearly i enjoyed myself
tagging anyone who would like to do it--i truly enjoy reading these