Totally BlazzingInferno's fault · 12:16am Dec 18th, 2020
1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
My real current project is a thing called Sunrise. It's a novel. The summary is, "And that's how Equestria was made!"
But I also have a bunch of shorter stuff either waiting to clean up and publish, or being written, including a thing that Admiral Biscuit gave away an idea for and I had (what I hope is) a really interesting idea for the concept so I grabbed it and ran. You'll probably see a few of those first in the run-up to publishing my true "big fish."
2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project
Finishing Sunrise. Good God, I so want to finish it and publish it.
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)
Well, I've got one: it's a scene of Sunset Shimmer double-dog daring EqG Rainbow Dash to xerox her butt on the school library's copying machine, having over-confidently presumed that this will finally be a line Rainbow won't cross and she'll have to eat some humble pie - but then Rainbow actually follows through and does it. Because Rainbow Dash.
I haven't written it for a number of reasons: first, I'm not sure if the overall payoff is there for writing a whole story revolving around the scene, and second (more importantly), it's a funny scene in a vacuum that turns into a very problematic story real quick if it's not handled exceptionally correctly. Because, you know... underage teenage girl making photocopies of her, uh, stuff. This might be a humorous moment on its own, when it's just Sunset and Rainbow goofing off in the empty library after school, but the larger context that emerges around it once this moment gets beyond them is something you can't and shouldn't try to play for laughs. Someone's getting in trouble. Politics are gonna happen. I don't even know what the fallout is gonna be. But I do know that at a certain point, it's not a comedy anymore.
So, yeah. It's a scene I wish I could write, but a story I don't know if I like.
4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)
Platinum was silent for a long moment. “You know what might actually bother me the most about this, when it’s all said and done?” she finally muttered, staring down at the rich carpet, vivid red like blood as it cascaded in an almost liquid flow down the short, wide dais steps. [Redacted] hadn’t bled when she died, Celestia realized. The carpet seemed to substitute, spilling with crimson color to defy the false tidiness of a murder by precision neckbreak.
A snippet from a later chapter of Sunrise. The mood... the visual metaphor... this paragraph's kinda got it all! I really like reading it.
5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?
Sunburst (the OC, not the one from the show). After all, I'm the original, don'tcha know.
6. What character do you have the most fun writing?
Honestly? Rarity, a lot of the time. She's got big personality and a lot of depth to dive.
7. What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?
Sometimes I tend to write overlong sentences that get slightly awkward for being overlong. My pre-reader seems to agree, at least.
8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?
Yes. I'm a big believer in reading the kinds of things you want to be able to write.
9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
Definitely a plotter in terms of the overall story. I have to have an outline in some form, whether it's a formalized written document or just in my head. But when it comes to individual scenes, I certainly don't say no to a sudden inspiration to write spontaneously when it strikes.
10. How would you describe your writing process?
1. Have a mostly formless blob of a possible story idea.
2. Think about this blob a while and shape it into a fully formed idea, mostly by asking questions like, "But why would [thing] happen?"
3. Create an outline making this idea concrete.
4. Write scenes.
5. Self-edit until the end of time.
6. Get pre-readers, edit more.
7. Copy-paste the final draft into FimFiction
8. Go fix everything that FimFiction screws up for me (it usually doesn't screw up too much)
9. Publish.
10. Obsess unhealthily over the reception the story gets.
11. What do you envy in other writers?
I envy writers who are really adept at driving a story by connecting the reader with how the characters experience the narrative in personal ways. Those are the stories that exemplify what I think stories should be: fiction that tells us truth.
Also, prolificness. I should write a lot more stories than I do, but I don't. I'm not sure how some of ya'll keep that pace, honestly.
12. Do you want your writing to be famous?
I mean... some of it, yeah.
You might have noticed I'm pushing Sunrise pretty hard and shamelessly. Plz read it and promote when I finally publish it, kthx! 
13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?
Oh, I think you can find my stories here on FimFic easily enough. 
14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?
Usually pretty close to the beginning of the process. I think you really just need to know the overall theme to come up with a title, and I tend to know the theme early on.
15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
Summaries, for sure.
16. Tried anything new with your writing lately? (style, POV, genre, fandom?)
2nd person perspective (no, really, it'll be good, not just a trashy gimmick, I promise!)
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?
I'm not sure. I know that at a few points in some of my past stories, I've accidentally implied things that I realize make sense to the interpretations of people who don't know what I'd had in mind, but those are really just down to my own failure to convey exactly what I'd meant. I don't know if that counts.
18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.
I guess the closest to that would be the final edit version of First. I adjusted a bunch of stuff, but I don't think it actually changed the story as opposed to the style.
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?)
Overuse of eye contact (or lack thereof) as a way of showing the state of the tension between characters. I do it a lot, and maybe that's a weakness in that it ends up lacking variety.
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?)
I don't know, I want to be really careful about ex post facto explaining things, because I'm a big believer in Death of the Author. I don't want to pull a J. K. Rowling and retro-canonize stuff to the detriment of the actual text and any readers' previous enjoyment thereof. It's hard to avoid bungling into that when you start going back to point out how clever you were to everyone with declarations about "ACHTUALLY this is what [thing] really meant all along!"
I will say there's a lot of stuff in the upcoming Sunrise that I'm very proud of, though, and that I'm pretty sure people will catch. I might indulge in some rambling about those, at a later point... maybe. If I can do it without "breaking" the story from outside.
21. What other medium do you think your story would work well as? (film, webcomic, animated series?)
If someone out there wants to make a film adaptation of Ghost Lights or something, feel free to get in touch.
22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?
I do read them, once in a while, and I like them. Except for the cringy ones, which make me cringe. I don't feel bad about them, though. They were part of getting me where I am.
23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?
Sunrise. For sure.
24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?
Well, it sucks a lot less now than when I started. I hope. Although my very first MLP fanfic got into Equestria Daily right off the bat, so... I don't know, that maybe kinda skewed my bar early on?
But no, really, I think I actually am a lot better now.
25. What part of writing is the most fun?
Finishing. 
No, actually, it's seeing the story come together and getting excited by the realization that you've got something here. That's the moment that really fires me up.
Mwahaha
Gah, I forgot to list that one myself.