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Asks for fanfiction writers
As of May 24, 2021

I'm too shy to do this on twitter so I'll put it here instead!
Here is a hodgepodge of asks that i've compiled and grouped together for your viewing pleasure! Feel free to use as your own btw!!!

Introduction
  1. Name: Ten
  2. AO3 account: itotoro
  3. Fandoms you write for: Twice (Dec 2019), LOONA (Nov 2020)
  4. How many stories have you written so far: Twice - 32, LOONA - 5
Fanfiction Profile
  1. What's your favorite fandom to write for? — As of now it's LOONA haha I feel like it's more from a need thing than a preference thing. I think Twice fan content is doing better than LOONA's by a wide margin ahaha
  2. What's your favorite character/person to write for? — Probably LOONA's Jeon Heejin HEHEHE
  3. Fic you're most proud of? — even the dust on stars are breathing. 60+k in three months??? Amazing
  4. Fic you'd want to improve? — Pot of Ramyeon. I love this fic a lot but there are a lot of composition choices choices I want to change ahahaha. Though i'll leave it as is to remind myself of how far i've come
  5. Hardest fic you've written? — definitely even the dust on stars are breathing HAHAHA complexity increases with word count.
  6. Easiest fic you've written? — strength. This was pure inspiration and self-indulgence HAHAHA
  7. What would you say is the most "famous" fic you've ever written? — hits-wise and kudos wise it's, you guessed it, even the dust on stars are breathing. I wouldn't mind if this stays the same for the rest of my life hahahaha it's THAT fic
  8. first line of the first fic you've ever written and published. — "If Momo were to love someone, it would be Nayeon." from Peach Heart
  9. Have you ever done a collab with another writer? — technically yes: The Fool and the Liar, though my main role here was to help out with Jihyo's scene
  10. Do you beta? — Yes!
  11. Do you like joining fic fests/exchanges? — YES. Out of my 38 fics, 15 of them are fic fest/exchanges hehehe maybe i just like the time pressure.
 Fanfiction Preferences
  1. Fluff or angst? — Angst <3 it doesn't have to be Monster Angst though, but I read stories for the conflict
  2. "OCs" or "Reader" inserts? — An OC would seem cooler than myself HAHAHA
  3. Blurbs or drabbles?— drabbles are cooler conceptually but I like reading blurbs more
  4. One thing you love about fanfiction — I love talking to the writers TT__TT they're all so cool
  5. One thing you don't like about fanfiction — I get really sad when authors delete their fics :( but i understand
  6. What is/are your favorite fandom author/authors? — i have a LOT but look at my bookmarks instead! It's more coherent and the authors are all amazing
  7. What is your favorite trope? — hurt/comfort
  8. Least favorite trope? — fake relationship or drunken confession. Unless it's hilarious
  9. A fanfiction cliché that you can't help but love? — the italicized oh
  10. Do you have a type when it comes to pairings? — I'm very fond of mix and matching for ships HAHA so as of now, no
  11. favorite setting/au? — I really like urban fantasy
  12. explain the meaning of your favorite line of dialogue you've written as if someone hasn't read it in context. — I will cheat because I have fics i want to gush about. ALSO THIS HAS SPOILERS
  13. strength
    "I can feel that you're tired," says Jiwoo. "Rest on me."
    So for this story we have Heejin overworking herself and Jiwoo finding her, recognizing her need for someone to help her and meeting that need. I love this line a LOT because Jiwoo demonstrates her perceptiveness and her dependability, which I want to see more of in fics TT__TT


    even the dust on stars are breathing
    “God,” Sooyoung whimpers, forearm pressed to her eyes, “I can’t let you go.”
    This is Sooyoung at her most vulnerable and most transparent. After literal years of keeping distance from Jinsol because of the guilt of having hurt her and the fear of hurting her again, Sooyoung finally admits the deepest desire of her heart. It shatters Jinsol's misguided perception of her trip to space, but gives her a reason to hope for something better than death.

  14. Favorite trope/genre to write? — hurt/comfort ahaha sometimes i just wanna feel loved ya know
  15. A trope/genre you haven't written but think would be a fun challenge? — High Fantasy!!!! The world building will be insane if I ever try this one out
  16. the one trope/concept you'll never touch and why — dead dove do not eat. I don't think I'll benefit from reading anything with that tag ahaha
  17. Which do you prefer to write: longer or shorter fics? — I like the concept of writing longer fics ahaha but the effort grows exponentially with the number of words
  18. Ideal length to read? — 5k haha anything longer is hard to fit into my schedule. But my favorite fics are way longer
  19. Ideal length to write? — i'd love to get away with 1k/2k fics ahaha
  20. How long was the longest fic you've ever written? — 62.4k!!!
  21. Have you ever written an AU? — most of my fics are AU fics! I think this is a function of the fandom (RPF).
  22. What's your favorite AU trope? — Urban fantasy. I just really like a lot of city imagery
  23. Have you ever written smut? — i don't think i have that power 😔
  24. what's your comfort genre? (the one you fall on most in writing/reading) — Slice of life is really easy for me bc I am mundane
  25. if you were to start writing in other fandoms, which would they be? — Stray Kids or ITZY
  26. is there a trope you think you could be easily recognized by in your writing? — none yet :)) i think i write all over the place
Writing Style
  1. How would you describe your style? — my sister calls me a maximalist HAHAHA the most consistent description I've heard is cinematic and immersive, and i think it's because I like including a lot of grounding detail with not much introspection. Consciously, what I try to do is minmax: maximize impact of the the minimum amount of words. Unconsciously I think i still use a lot of words HAHA
  2. Describe your style in three words — beats, detail, implication
  3. Favorite words to use when writing? — I have an unexplainable penchant for using the words "asphalt." And "hodgepodge". I'm sure i have a bunch of other words i insert whenever i can
  4. Least favorite words? — impactful
  5. dialogue tags or no dialogue tags? (she said, he said, they said, etc) — I think i'm heavy handed with dialogue tags HAHAHA but I lessen that with the power of action beats
  6. favorite dialogue tag (other than said, if you use them) — angry ones or primal ones haha. Like snarl, snap
  7. favorite mood word or phrase? — colors and temperatures are my favorite for setting a scene + light and shadow
  8. long sentences vs short vs a mix — I am a lot more conscious about this after writing a 60k fic ahaha. I mix, leaning on the shorter side, but I tend to use conjunctions more than necessary (like i just did). I also love using semicolons
  9. what colors would you use to describe your writing? — Purely arbitrary but blue. I want my writing to be like an ocean
  10. what song or music genre would you use to describe your writing? — Arbitrary again. that slow serenades of the 60s you hear on your favorite grandparent's radio when you come over for the afternoon
  11. what kind of metaphors do you rely on? - tangible ones? i don't use a lot of metaphors
  12. do you have words/phrases that someone could recognize and say "oh, it's you!"? — fic is set in fall, sunlight somewhere, lots of beats in character interaction. TEMPERATURE for emotion. tho tbh i don't think people would *recognize* me for this
  13. what's something you'd say is experimental in your writing at this time? - character voice haha. I love messing with word choices and keeping key phrases distinct per character (gonna/going to, okay/fine). in my asteroid fic I employed a heavier emphasis on inner monologue to make the narration more immersive and to flesh out Jinsol's character for people who weren't as familiar with her as others
Writing Habits
  1. do you prefer to write by hand or to type? — writing by hand is more fun conceptually but i'm more productive when typing
  2. What is your preferred place to write (notebook, laptop, cellphone, etc.)? — laptop!!!!
  3. What app/apps do you use to write (word, notepad, etc.)? — stealing this one from my cc
  4. I've written my first fics entirely on notepad HAHAHA. The memorable fics i've written there are Grief is inevitable, and so is the end and i held on, is that alright?. I wrote those two in one sitting HAHAHA and notepad was fantastic for getting the ideas on the page without being overwhelmed by the need to perform. BUT! Writing in notepad is hard when your fic breaches 5k words ahaha - length increases the complexity exponentially
    So I moved on to wavemaker! It's a free app with a lot of helpful tutorials but the most amazing thing about it is the power to sort the story into scenes and jumble them around. It essentially allows me to break my story into chunks and look at it both as a forest and as a bunch of trees. This allows me to write longer stories than I would ever be able to if i stuck to notepad. I wrote a heart in calloused hands; the Ocean with it and wrote most of even the dust on stars are breathing on Wavemaker!
    The rest of the time I used Google Docs because I worked heavily with a beta AHAHA and it's really good for collabs + showing fics to other people. A lot of writers i know use google docs and don't have a problem with it. Tips for google docs formatting: Use single spacing and tick the box for "add space after paragraph" to match the AO3 formatting! indentations don't carry over to ao3 though :(
    Recently though I took the plunge with Scrivener! Idk how it's going yet since it's really similar to Wavemaker but it's really pretty and there's a lot of flexibility with organizing the files. There's a lot of sync power for apple/mac, but wavemaker is pretty similar if you're an android user. I made the switch because wavemaker stopped working for my android phone for a while + i found a way to get it 50% off
  5. do you keep a notebook or file/notes page in your phone/device for notes on your writing? — Barely. i usually think/research as i write, so nothing organized - at most a timeline of events or bullet points for a backstory. but i've found that writing drafts in a scrap notebook helps a lot when i hit writer's block
  6. Do you listen to music to help you write? — Music helps when I already know what I need to write but am just too lazy to do so haha (My fave hype album is Querencia by Chung Ha). If i'm still brainstorming I prefer quiet
  7. Where do you usually go to write (bedroom, living room, etc.)? — I like anywhere with a lot of sunlight; my fave spot at home is the living room. I am a plant but I photosynthesize for words
  8. How long does it usually take for you to write? — On a good day (read: i know what i need to write) I can churn out 2k easy. Writing sessions are sporadic though, and i swing between two sentences and eight hours depending on how pumped I am
  9. What's your favorite font to use when writing? — I like serif fonts XD i wrote the entirety of even the dust on stars are breathing with Times New Roman LOL right now i'm typing with Noah though, and might move on to Lexend for that sweet, sweet readability
  10. Other writing habits? — coffee gets me through the hardest days. I also set five alarms spaced out for two hours and require myself to write two sentences minimum

Conceptualization
  1. How do you conceptualize your ideas? (See specific moments like they're a movie, writing specific lines in your head, don't know until you put the words on paper, etc.) — I think i see scenes. I don't have a strong visual imagination though because my head is too "grounded" in the present? but I see scenes play out and feel through them + the major emotion/sensation they have. I also let my fingers tell me things HAHA sometimes i type and words surprise me
  2. Which comes first: the pairing or the plot? — Most of the time it's the plot, then I plug and play with the pairings hahaha. On some occasions though though an idol shows up with orange hair and a mermaid fic just pops into existence
  3. Have you ever used a prompt? — Yes. More often than not, my fics are either inspired by songs or this sweet baby
  4. do you write around the story around a specific scene you want to get to or do you start from a plot idea — plot ideas. my fics either have a core song, theme, or question. then I think of good characters to place in those plot ideas and roll from there. the scenes write themselves so long as i keep a good grasp of the core, but it's very easy for me to get lost
  5. do you find that you include a projection of some part of yourself in the way you write a character? — a hundred times yes. How else can I make it convincing? ahaha though honestly i think i write my irl beta into more of my characters than i do myself
  6. do you research some of the things you write deeply, partially and kind of wing the rest, or play entirely by ear (in this case, go with whatever base knowledge of the subject you have)? — partially and wing hahaha the depth of the research is a need-to-know thing for me :))
  7. Have you ever had an idea for a story and forgot about it? — my dreams hahaha. Though I don't feel too bad; Stephen King once said that an ideas notebook is the best way to store bad ideas, and that the good ideas will stick in the mind whether or not they're written down. I don't believe the advice 100% but I don't worry too much about losing ideas anymore
  8. is there a trope you think you could be easily recognized by in your writing? — I don't think so :D at least not yet
  9. are there concepts you've tried that turned out better than expected? — screenplay fic!
  10. are there concepts you've tried that turned out worse than you expected? — an attempt at a vignette fic :(
Process
  1. How do you come up with titles? — i need tips :( i usually cop a song lyric or derive from it. I am trying to make my titles shorter
  2. What's your favorite emotion to cause on your readers? — relief hahaha and as a corollary to it, anticipation/dread
  3. what's your favorite emotion to write? — consolation
  4. Have you ever cried or felt any emotion while reading something you've written? — yes yes yes when i hit a sad scene I know it works if i cry
  5. Do you write in order or whatever comes to you? — the barebones of it is whatever comes to me, then I write as i want it to be read XD which means I write myself into a lot of corners
  6. Usual way you procrastinate while writing? — i go on a loona music video binge or a meme compilation binge YES
  7. Do you outline or free write? — I want to outline but I've found more success freewriting :( though as the story grows I then need to track it with an outline so I don't get lost
  8. If you outline - do you stick to the outline or let it evolve? — evolve! i let the characters surprise me
  9. do you set word goals or scene goals (scenes you want to include)? — scene goals! I am bad at estimating word count
  10. what do you consider when writing your scenes? what goes into making the atmosphere and mood you want? — it depends on my narrator e.g. fisher!hyo. choice of words and scenic details depend on who she is: a practical fisherman trying to feed her family. in contrast to: archi!hyo. she's stuck between past and present, so the scene blends those two together
  11. what's something you never considered to include in your writing that you can't leave out now? — the use of the em dash
  12. how do you start a story? — I like introducing the conflict as soon as I can!
  13. how do you end a story? — i like leaving the readers with a strong image that captures the essence of the story. Endings are hard.
  14. How do you get out of writer's block? Three things usually cause writer's block for me
  15. - a subconscious qualm with the story. This is the back of my head telling me "NOOOO THIS IS WRONG" so my body locks up. I am bullish so the way I go at this is ram my head at the problem again and again until something breaks ahahaha either the problem or my brain. If it's my brain, the subconscious will pick up the pieces and fit it together in the way it's meant to be
    - fatigue. coffee works for those bursts of insanity i need to chase a deadline. Also playing with my cat. Sometimes i need a day away. Or a month. But the hardest part is identifying when it's fatigue or when it's something else. If it's fatigue, rest is fine. If it isn't, rest is deadly
    - lack of confidence. I am not good enough sometimes! and that makes it hard to write things I want to be good off the bat :( but there's no way out of this ditch except through writing
  16. do you edit? or do you toss your writing out there? — Revise, revise, revise. I have to read it and feel good about it before publishing
  17. how do you edit? do you use spellcheck, grammar checkers, etc? — text to speech is the best friend! I'm pretty strong at grammar but I'm bad at sentence length and pacing.
Progress
  1. Do you usually like what you write? — not at first. This is why I revise like a maniac until the product is something i can be happy about
  2. Have you ever written something you didn't like but posted anyways? — i can think of two fics that fit this category
  3. do you find yourself rereading your writing often? — Yes <3 i am my number one fan
  4. Can you tell us anything about your current WIP? — The WIP i'm most excited about is a non-fest LOONA fic with urban fantasy elements and an ensemble cast HAHAHA ambitious as heck
  5. Can you give us a sneak peek on your current WIP? — sure
  6. Heejin was two years old on the day of the Hallasan Comet incident. She remembered nothing now, but she was there, in her mother's arms, when the Hallasan erupted for the first time in centuries.
    Sooyoung, older by three and a half years, remembered much more.
    "It was so scary, Heejin," said Sooyoung from across the carpeted floor of their father's study. It was a rainy day, classes suspended for students city-wide. Heejin had convinced her once again to tell the story. "It was mom's birthday—"
    "Can we get to the cool part, eonni?" Heejin, a second grader, drew a volcano on a piece of scrap paper.
  7. the last line you've written — It is the same as what's above but instead I'll give you a snippet of one of my WIPs on hiatus. This one is also something i'm excited to write
  8. The night is welcoming - the cool spring air smells of flowers as it sweeps through the neighborhood street, streetlights illuminating the way for passers-by going about their nightly business. It's a perfect 10:00PM to be out for drinks with college buddies, going on dates with persons of interest, or even curling up in bed with a good 500-page book.
    So why is Dahyun hiding by the front steps of an unnamed apartment?
  9. open a wip. what’s the first line? — a brain fart
  10. Jinsol stamps out the cigarette with the heel of her sneaker. Her last one for the night.

Insight
  1. What's your favorite thing about writing? — capturing my own impressions of things into something others can understand
  2. How do you keep yourself inspired? — it helps if I remember what makes the story exciting for me, and trying to power through the hard parts by keeping that in mind. listening to music that hypes me up can help when i'm feeling demotivated.
  3. What is your favorite thing to write? — I love writing action beats LOL especially when the context is built so well that the actions speak louder than words
  4. what do you think your strengths are in writing? — fleshing out the world and the characters hahaha. Bringing this back to the "cinematic" and "immersive"
  5. what are things you wish you could practice more? — making my writing pretty :(
  6. One way you've improved your writing since you began? — characterization! My IRL beta beat my butt for this one and I'm glad to say it worked
  7. One aspect of writing you're still working on? — endings. They're the hardest part for me, especially when it comes to tying up the theme and all the character arcs
  8. a piece of writing advice you've learned while writing — very recently: Nonspecific is not the same as inaccurate. i don't have to detail every calendar day that passes to say that it happened, only the ones that matter
  9. a bit of writing advice you can't stand — bringing a journal around. It does not work for everyone GRRRRR
  10. something you wish you knew when you first started writing? — the existence of Writing Excuses. the podcasts here completely revolutionized the way I write. So much of my writing development is because of this website.
  11. something you've learned in life that you apply in writing — Just Do It. hahaha. The only way you can get better at writing is by writing.
and that's it! if you're reading this wow thanks :D hope you enjoyed and learned

 

Date: 2021-05-24 04:58 pm (UTC)
pantomimes: (Default)
From: [personal profile] pantomimes
"One thing you love about fanfiction — I love talking to the writers TT__TT they're all so cool" I FEEL YOU!!! there's nothing i love more than talking to writers/reading their thoughts on quite literally anything... so imagine how happy i was when i saw this post on my feed T_T

- a fellow hurt/comfort lover i see... it's definitely one of my favorite things to write/read too. might be my favorite trope of all time? maybe?

- "i think i write all over the place" relatable T____T i just be writing anything,,, literally

- omg your writing process is so interesting to me i loved reading about it!! i can't imagine myself writing with sunlight :( also... finally someone who also just let things happen while they're writing? most writers try to outline and everything and even though i try to do it sometimes... it doesn't really work lmao. it always ends up being something else in the end. "evolve! i let the characters surprise me" YES!!!

- "lack of confidence. I am not good enough sometimes! and that makes it hard to write things I want to be good off the bat :( but there's no way out of this ditch except through writing" felt this in my soul. the struggle is real

- omg those wips sound so interesting and cool!! :O

this was so so so nice to read!! we have a lot of similar tastes and thoughts about writing in general!i'll definitely check out the podcasts you recommended :) thank u so much for writing this post!
Edited Date: 2021-05-24 04:58 pm (UTC)

Date: 2021-05-26 05:03 am (UTC)
hyojungss: zhou jieqiong (Default)
From: [personal profile] hyojungss
this is so neat thanks for sharing!! also i think you are so smart for labeling your bookmarks LOL i never thought of doing that... i'm also someone that would never delete a fic even though there are a ton that i'm not proud of lol i think i just hate the idea of it going to the void

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