15 Questions for Fanfic Writers
Aug. 18th, 2025 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phantomtomatoThanks to vriddy for pointing this out! Find the questions here from maevedarcy. ❤️
Which of your fics is your pride and joy?
I have a series for this, and I think it's mostly up to date, but to pick... either In Fealty to Apollo or A Sense of Self in Decline, which are messy mid-length fics for my two OTPs, and so I flip between them.
What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3?
Oh, I'm so proud of this: Explicit Sexual Content, POV Second Person, POV First Person. I believe strongly in using fic as a space for explicit depictions of sex (this was my challenge to myself when I started writing: I wasn't allowed to be afraid of publishing smut), so I'm happy to show that I really did work past that early fear and am now, I think, a fairly strong sex writer. And I fell in love with first and second person POV, so I'm extremely happy that so much of my fic uses it. It's one of my favorite things that people comment on!
What’s something you learned while researching a fic?
Just so much about different periods of historical dress, especially men's underwear. See above, re: smut writing.
Is there a character or ship you’d love to write for, but haven’t yet?
For how much I love him as a character, I'm really disappointed that I haven't written any of Clive from Maurice! I think that the right ship for me to do it with is Clive and Frank Maddox (of David Blaize), and the trouble is doing three books' worth of canon review.
What makes a fic ‘successful’ in your opinion?
For me, that I am proud of my writing when I reread it. I'm a big rereader of my own fic, and when something enters the regular rotation (so I revisit it at least once a year), that's a success.
What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks?
New comments! I respond to each one, and I use them as a chance to revisit the fic and offer some new insight or thought about it. I love seeing what people think about a fic, and I love trying to offer them something new in response.
Does anyone you know in real life know you write fanfiction?
Yep. Most of my close friends, and of course my spouse. Only perhaps two people know my fannish username, but I'm friends with lots of people who are or have been fannish, so it's easy to be open about my fanfic hobby.
Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?
I used to write fic meta posts, some of which are archived on this journal. I kind of miss doing that! It just always felt a bit awkward so I stopped the habit. Otherwise, nope, I usually just appreciate it being done and move on.
What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?
Too many. Uhh, a recent one would be for The Secret History, Richard/Henry in a post-canon Henry-lives AU. I’ve gotten as far as English Prof. Richard being invited to give a named lecture at a campus near Henry—either Henry’s a professor or he’s a benefactor—and so reuniting with Henry there in the audience. I could really see Richard choosing to be at a liberal arts college or at a school with a small honors program sort of deal, but striving to be as un-Julian-like as possible out of a fear of recreating the social dynamics which caught him. Henry would not understand this fear at all, but for whatever reason my mind says that he shouldn’t be in a position to become Julian himself—that it’s narratively important that they be contrasts in this way.
Do you ever prep your fics with outlines or warmups before you start writing, or do you just dive right in?
It depends on what length I'm aiming for. If I'm feeling rusty and want to take on a more involved project, I'll either do prompts from a random generator (or FFA 100 words threads) or sort of write to myself about what I want in the fic, until I start getting the actual prose of the story flowing. I'll also keep a list of necessary scenes for long projects.
How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
Depends on what revision means, here! I do at least three readthroughs, one out loud, for SPAG and flow. I'm not a big 'rewrites' person, though, so I don't usually redo a scene that's already written—when I feel stuck, I'll delete and/or set the work aside, but I don't write through a scene that's not working.
A character you enjoy making suffer. and A character you want to protect.
Tom Riddle remains my fave, and for the most part, if I want to do something in a fic, I want it to happen to him. But I wouldn't say that suffer/protect is a dichotomy that I find much use for when writing. It isn't my approach to fic.
What is your favorite fic to get comments/messages on?
Two categories of this:
(1) My rare fandoms! I will never cease to be amazed by someone stopping in to say that they've read, for example, my Middlemarch fic. Who is looking for Middlemarch fic?! I am delighted that there are other people like that in this world.
(2) My unhappy or bittersweet endings. I have a fair number of these, and I fully understand that they're not usually what readers come to fic for, especially mid-length fic (10k+). (I see the short tragedy as its own genre, with IME more takers.) So when someone does sit down and read 20k of maundering without even the relief of a clear happy ending, and then they tell me they liked it? Joy.
What fic took you the longest to write?
I think it was How anxious are his Lares, mostly because it came at a time when I started having to give more priority to what was happening offline. It's not particularly long for me, but each of those chapters kind of got written when it could. You can see it in the chapter publication dates: a bunch of quick shorter chapters over my winter break, and then more spread during the spring semester. I wonder how the story might have gone differently if I'd written it over the course of just a month or two, instead.
vriddy for pointing this out! Find the questions here from maevedarcy. ❤️Which of your fics is your pride and joy?
I have a series for this, and I think it's mostly up to date, but to pick... either In Fealty to Apollo or A Sense of Self in Decline, which are messy mid-length fics for my two OTPs, and so I flip between them.
What are your top three most commonly used tags on AO3?
Oh, I'm so proud of this: Explicit Sexual Content, POV Second Person, POV First Person. I believe strongly in using fic as a space for explicit depictions of sex (this was my challenge to myself when I started writing: I wasn't allowed to be afraid of publishing smut), so I'm happy to show that I really did work past that early fear and am now, I think, a fairly strong sex writer. And I fell in love with first and second person POV, so I'm extremely happy that so much of my fic uses it. It's one of my favorite things that people comment on!
What’s something you learned while researching a fic?
Just so much about different periods of historical dress, especially men's underwear. See above, re: smut writing.
Is there a character or ship you’d love to write for, but haven’t yet?
For how much I love him as a character, I'm really disappointed that I haven't written any of Clive from Maurice! I think that the right ship for me to do it with is Clive and Frank Maddox (of David Blaize), and the trouble is doing three books' worth of canon review.
What makes a fic ‘successful’ in your opinion?
For me, that I am proud of my writing when I reread it. I'm a big rereader of my own fic, and when something enters the regular rotation (so I revisit it at least once a year), that's a success.
What makes you happiest? New fic comments, kudos, bookmarks, user subscribers, story subscribers, or Tumblr asks?
New comments! I respond to each one, and I use them as a chance to revisit the fic and offer some new insight or thought about it. I love seeing what people think about a fic, and I love trying to offer them something new in response.
Does anyone you know in real life know you write fanfiction?
Yep. Most of my close friends, and of course my spouse. Only perhaps two people know my fannish username, but I'm friends with lots of people who are or have been fannish, so it's easy to be open about my fanfic hobby.
Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?
I used to write fic meta posts, some of which are archived on this journal. I kind of miss doing that! It just always felt a bit awkward so I stopped the habit. Otherwise, nope, I usually just appreciate it being done and move on.
What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?
Too many. Uhh, a recent one would be for The Secret History, Richard/Henry in a post-canon Henry-lives AU. I’ve gotten as far as English Prof. Richard being invited to give a named lecture at a campus near Henry—either Henry’s a professor or he’s a benefactor—and so reuniting with Henry there in the audience. I could really see Richard choosing to be at a liberal arts college or at a school with a small honors program sort of deal, but striving to be as un-Julian-like as possible out of a fear of recreating the social dynamics which caught him. Henry would not understand this fear at all, but for whatever reason my mind says that he shouldn’t be in a position to become Julian himself—that it’s narratively important that they be contrasts in this way.
Do you ever prep your fics with outlines or warmups before you start writing, or do you just dive right in?
It depends on what length I'm aiming for. If I'm feeling rusty and want to take on a more involved project, I'll either do prompts from a random generator (or FFA 100 words threads) or sort of write to myself about what I want in the fic, until I start getting the actual prose of the story flowing. I'll also keep a list of necessary scenes for long projects.
How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
Depends on what revision means, here! I do at least three readthroughs, one out loud, for SPAG and flow. I'm not a big 'rewrites' person, though, so I don't usually redo a scene that's already written—when I feel stuck, I'll delete and/or set the work aside, but I don't write through a scene that's not working.
A character you enjoy making suffer. and A character you want to protect.
Tom Riddle remains my fave, and for the most part, if I want to do something in a fic, I want it to happen to him. But I wouldn't say that suffer/protect is a dichotomy that I find much use for when writing. It isn't my approach to fic.
What is your favorite fic to get comments/messages on?
Two categories of this:
(1) My rare fandoms! I will never cease to be amazed by someone stopping in to say that they've read, for example, my Middlemarch fic. Who is looking for Middlemarch fic?! I am delighted that there are other people like that in this world.
(2) My unhappy or bittersweet endings. I have a fair number of these, and I fully understand that they're not usually what readers come to fic for, especially mid-length fic (10k+). (I see the short tragedy as its own genre, with IME more takers.) So when someone does sit down and read 20k of maundering without even the relief of a clear happy ending, and then they tell me they liked it? Joy.
What fic took you the longest to write?
I think it was How anxious are his Lares, mostly because it came at a time when I started having to give more priority to what was happening offline. It's not particularly long for me, but each of those chapters kind of got written when it could. You can see it in the chapter publication dates: a bunch of quick shorter chapters over my winter break, and then more spread during the spring semester. I wonder how the story might have gone differently if I'd written it over the course of just a month or two, instead.
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Date: 2025-08-19 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-19 03:57 pm (UTC)The other option is to convert some online friends to offline ones! I see one of my fandom friends about twice a year. :)
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Date: 2025-08-19 05:55 pm (UTC)Oooh I like this plan. It neaaarly worked when covid restrictions lifted and I could meet a couple of new friends, but then everybody got swallowed up by life again. Gotta give it another more deliberate shot >:D
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Date: 2025-08-19 05:22 pm (UTC)I agree about comments! I love when commenters find and point out something in a story that I hadn't considered, at all or from a particular angle, and thinking more about my stories in discussing them. And it is especially nice to get comments on the most obscure/likely to be unpopular stuff :D
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Date: 2025-08-19 05:38 pm (UTC)Yes, discussing fic is so fun! I know that the LJ era is viewed through a lot of rose tinting these days, but I do wish I’d been around for some of the comms for old book fandoms. Sounds like there were at least pockets of that kind of niche fic discussion!
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Date: 2025-09-07 01:58 pm (UTC)I’ve just finished David Blaize and I adore the concept of Frank and Clive as a crossover pairing! They’re such similar characters, narratively and temperamentally, but at the same time you’ve got some very compelling points of difference. I hope you write about them someday!
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Date: 2025-09-15 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-10-02 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-09-09 09:12 am (UTC)My unhappy or bittersweet endings.
Ooh, yes. As a reader and occasional writer of such fic, I know how rare they are! Always so lovely when someone else appreciates it too.
I see the short tragedy as its own genre, with IME more takers.
Yes, very true.
For my part, I even like the "100k+ with unhappy ending" genre, but ONLY if I've been able to mentally prepare (via e.g. a warning in the tags) for an unhappy ending.
no subject
Date: 2025-09-15 07:56 pm (UTC)