Following Up A Writing Survey! · 1:47am Dec 15th, 2020
A bunch of people I know including TCC56, Ice Star, and Posh, are doing this writing meme from Tumblr so I figure why not? I did say I'd do a blog post every time I did an update to Dead by Midnight, so here we go!
1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
Oh god, this is a long one. I guess you could say I have three primary current projects, not counting the more minor projects I'm doing for fun, so I'll list the first three, then the small ones. I will say that of my three primary projects, only one of them is MLP, the others are respectively a Warhammer 40k fic on AO3, and my original Novel (one of far too many I'm invested in).
Primary Projects
Dead by Midnight: Obviously this is the big one for this site. Dead by Midnight is the (apparently) long-awaited sequel to my Dead by Daylight Crossover fic, Dead by Sunset. The progress is good-if-frenetic. I'm in the middle of a writing marathon to support my Patreon and I'm currently dropping two chapters a week while trying to maintain my backlog of about 8-ish chapters in the pipeline for editing and consistency. The thing I love most about this one is the chance to explore the major theme I chose for this long-form story, which is Trauma. Not experiencing trauma, but what is, to me, the more important aspect which is what happens after a traumatic experience. People all experience that recovery differently, some don't recover at all, and this story is about that.
Ennui: This one is my Warhammer 40k romance-in-war fic. I've been in the Warhammer fandom for a long time, both 40k & fantasy, but I will always have a special place in my heart for SciFi. Progress is good with this fic, it stars a Sister of Battle, Alessandra Artus, as she gets stranded in a warzone between the Imperium and the Orks after her company is ambushed and killed, only to be rescued by a Dark Eldar Wych named Isarae who came to that world to die in battle after growing tired of her stagnated life. I'm over 100k words in and what I love about it is the subversion I approached the story with. Most Dark Eldar/[insert protagonist here] are about the former breaking the latter in one way or another. I wanted to explore what happens when it's the Eldar who succumbs to the mortals, and in this case it pulls together a romance between Sister Alessandra and Isarae.
Bare Knuckles & Butterflies: My original novel which can be read by mid-tier subscribers on my Patreon as I publish it chapter by chapter, so far I'm over 100k words into it, which is about 2/3 the way through. It began as a fic exploring what would happen if Sunset never made it back through the portal to steal the crown, but rapidly devolved into a narrative that bore almost zero resemblance to the core material, so instead, I decided to make it an original novel. The main character, Alata Kalek, has a lot in common with Sunset, including being a dimensionally displaced exile, while the love interest, a nervous girl named Imogen Cole, is kind of a fusion between a variety of characters. All are, very much, their own characters though. Like I said, I realised quickly just how little the actual story bore to EQG canon. Now the story follows Alata as she tries to find a reason to live in a world she doesn't belong in, while facing the fact that she treated Imogen, a girl she now realises she's in love with, like garbage back when she expected to never have to stick around. I absolutely love writing Alata's nature as she torments herself. She's very much a 'bad person who has recently not only realised but internalised how bad they actually were and is trying to make up for it.
Smaller Projects
Orchard Blossoms: Another one of my crackships. Sunset x Older!Apple Bloom, long after Sunset has graduated and a year after Apple Bloom has, Sunset is still a good family friend, and now contends with the fact that Applejack's little sister is very much over the moon for her. The problem is now that Sunset is faced with the fact that she genuinely likes Apple Bloom too, and finds they have a lot in common. This is fun for me to write. I like exploring how to make an unlikely ship bloom into a believable romance. I did it with my Rules series, I did it with Featherfall, and I'm going to keep doing it here.
Duskmaker: My Luna/Sombra epic prose story following Luna most heavily, who, feeling archaic and displaced, finds common ground with Sombra who has given up his aspirations of rulership after his 'death' following his first resurrection. Now he lives the life of a hermit in the tundra of the north. I enjoy writing melancholy, and there's a lot of that around these two. I also enjoy writing in epic sweeps, using immortal perspectives and the point of view of a being that has lived far too long to explore different aspects of reality. I like writing gods, basically.
2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
I'm most excited about, currently, about reaching the climax of Dead by Midnight's first Act. It really hammers home the theme of the world and the narrative, and I really can't wait to tell that part of the story. It really does set up the whole rest of the tale.
3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)
I legitimately don't have an answer to this. I have a habit of, if I want to write a scene or story, to just do it. The last time I had a scene bunny running pell-mell through my brain like that, I wrote the entirety of In A Rut.
4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)
If I had to pick something relatively recent, it would be this line from Running Out Of Air. It is a bit of a spoiler because it occurs at the end of the story.
This is okay. That’s what I tell myself because it has to be okay. Because now that I’m out of Sunset’s apartment, I can slowly drift out of her life. I can go back to being Wallflower Blush, the forgotten girl, and Sunset can go back to burning bright as a star, and never have to worry about the time that a silly flower fell in love with the sun.
5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?
You'd think it would be Sunset, but honestly? Sonata. At least the way that I write her. The disconnection she has from the rest of the world, the sense of being something that doesn't quite belong? It's all there in Rules of Hospitality if y'all have any interest in checking it out.
6. What character do you have the most fun writing?
That is a hard question to answer, but I think it would have to be Sunset. I love writing that disaster lesbian so much.
7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
According to a recent poll by others; Rawness and emotional honesty are the main characteristics of my writing style.
8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
Pretty much. I write things that I want to see written and since they're not out there I just opt to do it myself.
9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
Anyone who takes even a passing look at my works can tell you I'm a longfic writer. Even my short stuff is almost all part of some larger narrative.
10. How would you describe your writing process?
Constant. If I had to describe it in a word it would be: Constant. I'm always writing. I write a minimum of a thousand words a day, although I average a lot more per week. In terms of setting up a storyline, I establish the end first so I know the tone, then establish the major story pillars, the fixed points in the narrative that need to happen, then from there I find a comfortable starting point and just go. I write and write and write, grinding from pillar to pillar until I reach the end.
11. What do you envy in other writers?
Technical writing skills. My comma skills are atrocious.
12. Do you want your writing to be famous?
One day, maybe. It's not something I'm opposed to. I love writing and to be famous for doing something I love seems like a worthwhile thing.
13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?
Yes I do! I write here, and I also maintain a profile on Archive of Our Own, and post my own original content on my Patreon!
14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?
I almost always start with the title. There's something about the first words you read in a story that helps set the mood for it. At least that's how I feel about the matter.
15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Summaries. Titles are part of the writing process for me, and tags are easy enough, they just require you to know what you're writing. Summaries are a little trickier because they need to be informative and clear without being dry or too heavy with spoilers.
16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)
I'd honestly say that everything I write that I take really seriously, i.e. my primary projects and the like, are new. Everything I go into with my sleeves rolled up is something that I think will challenge me or make me a better writer. Featherfall was my first big long-form epic. The Rulesverse was the first foray into consistent sex scenes, etc...
17. Do you think readers perceive your work - or you - differently to you? What do you think would surprise your readers about your writing or your motivations?
Absolutely everyone has their own perceptions when consuming media. I assume they're all taking something at least slightly different away from my stories than I am.
18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.
Every single one of my major stories exists as a sort of parallel to the others. I constantly reference characters that are unique to my version of Canterlot, from the Sunset's social worker Sticky Note, to Crank Shaft and Gear Shift at the Ponyville Automotive, and more. Everything is bound together in some way. You could call the Dead by Sunset canon the 'darkest timeline' while the Rulesverse is one of the brightest, but all of them share a past; for example, Adagio's past in the story 'Adagio's Lament' is canon in all of my stories.
19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing? (favourite verb, something you describe ‘too often’, trope you can’t get enough of?)
Too many to name, but personally, I feel like certain turns of phrase are almost like a signature of a writer. Seeing a familiar line between multiple works done by the same author gives it a sense of continuity, at least to me it does.
20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)
A lot of my magic calls back to the occult sciences and hermetic alchemy. I tend to ramble on the concepts of faith, religion, forgiveness, and human nature in my stories a lot, although I rarely address it directly. I prefer to write in metaphor, like I am with Dead by Midnight in relation to trauma. As for references and callbacks, I'm constantly referencing classic noir and older anime that I grew up with, one of the most common is, as I'm sure plenty of my readers have noticed a noir anime called 'Big O'.
21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)
As a habit, I tend to write in the manner of episodes, so I imagine my work would translate well into an anime or other animated style.
22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
Constantly. And I feel mostly good about them. The main reason I do it is to keep my internal canon consistent.
23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?
Honestly not sure I have an answer to this. I tend to write what's in my head, not let it stew.
24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?
Without a shadow of a doubt. All I have to do is go back and reread any chapter of Featherfall, then go and read something recent I did, like Running Out Of Air, to see the stark difference.
25. What part of writing is the most fun?
Giving my girls their happy endings. That's what it will always be about. Getting them through the dark and ending them in the light.
You and me both, thude.
"Giving my girls their happy endings. That's what it will always be about. Getting them through the dark and ending them in the light."
Nice. :)
(And there was some other stuff I found interesting in here, though nothing that stands out enough to me to mention at the moment (though I am also presently in a hurry).)