Fandom Questions Meme (35-40)

[thisbluespirit]

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

I do! Not as many as I used to. I have 491 works on AO3 and just think how much it'd mount up with more drabbles. It'd be very embarrassing. Which is silly. Given that I need to write short things at the moment and am failing, I should try writing more drabbles, maybe via dw100 or 100words, but I don't.

Drabbles are something that I tend more often to write to specific prompts, especially for flashfic comms - dw100, fan_flashworks, b7friday, or writing memes, so what I write them about is dependent on the prompt.


36. What’s your favorite genre to write?

I honestly don't think about it like this. I am not writing/trying not to write long things, but actually casefic (whatever the equivalent of "case" is, depending on the fandom) was my default. Now I tend to write a couple of characters interacting to a prompt in a short fic or ficlet. Humour, hurt/comfort, crossovers, occasional fluff, some stuff that's bleak and angsty. Some stuff I think is dark and everyone else thinks is mildly grey.

If I look at my top AO3 additional tags, they include Crossover, Humor, AU, hc_bingo (which doesn't automatically = hurt/comfort, as fills can be hurt-only, comfort-only, or hurt/comfort), and Fluff. But those are more Fanfic Tropes rather than genres. (The high AU count is partly the AU meme and partly apocalyptic things mainly. I don't have a lot of coffee shop/high school AUs in there. I mean, not that I wouldn't, if I had an idea that was funny or interesting enough. I do enjoy contemplating what terrible coffee shops pretty much all my fandoms would make some times and wondering which of them would be the worst.*)


37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

I'd only write first person if the fic was epistolary for a reason (I wrote various diaries/accounts for some old This Time Round stories, First Year Camp, and Ghosthunting), or if the fandom called for it. Otherwise it'd feel very weird to me, at least in fanfic. So third person generally.

I have written at least one second-person drabble, though. (It was Sapphire and Steel, of course.)


38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?

Both. I have written a lot of fanfic, featuring canon characters, but I started out in Doctor Who and given the nature of DW, if you write a missing episode, you have to have original characters in it, and maybe even historical figures or world-build a planet and its alien inhabitants. And then I wrote the 1980s UNIT series, with a lot of OCs in. (The question was how the hell did Colonel Crichton manage to save the world without the Doctor being around so often, and then it all got out of hand. But the last time I wrote anything approaching a self-insert it was because I needed a character to kill off... *shrugs*)

I've also made up fake shows for the isurrendered meme and written for them, including for a couple of years for Runaway Tales, and that was all original characters and a lot of fun. I do enjoy both, but origfic that little bit more when I can do it. (But both are good!)


39. What is you greatest strength as a writer?

Character and dialogue, I like to think. I also think, when I'm writing well, I do have a kind of lively style. I hope?


40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

I am really bad at description because I'm not much interested in the surroundings etc. instead of what's happening and what everybody is saying and their feelings and funny lines, if you can get them. Action is always difficult, too.

But I do try, as it does matter, of course. Not so much in fannish ficlets which rely on shared knowledge and can be light and conversational and things (hurrah!), but elsewhere. It can be a matter of life or death in Sapphire and Steel fic, so in those cases you have to describe the wallpaper, or who knows what Time might get up to? (The difficulties of S&S fanfic: you keep needing to look up the base constitutents of what everyday things are actually made of, so that Sapphire can list them enigmatically to Steel. I am rubbish at writing S&S fic lately, but it is so very great and I love it and its unique fic problems/advantages.)

The only thing worse is my opening sentences. I used to think I was good at opening paragraphs, but I swear I just get worse and worse.


* Probably Enemy at the Door. It's the only fandom I have where there is no coffee or tea and an increasing lack of supplies and poor hygiene, not to mention the beige decor and terrible service.

But on the other hand, I can't think a Shadow of the Tower coffee shop would go well. And Manhunt would probably poison all the customers and get closed down, because Vincent, Nina and Jimmy are the worst at everything.

Comments

[paranoidangel]

I am really bad at description because I'm not much interested in the surroundings etc.

My feelings exactly. I have a tendency to skin read if there's more than a paragraph of that sort of thing. I don't feel like I miss anything.

On a different subject, have you noticed Timeless is back on Wednesday?

[thisbluespirit]

Neither of us will ever be Victor Hugo! (I read The Hunchback of Notre Dame a couple of years ago and there was literally something like 80 pages describing the architecture of Paris!)

I have! I was very excited to see it in the TV Guide, because you never know if it'll actually make it over here or when, or if it'll be a free channel or not. \o/

[paranoidangel]

I was just assuming that since Timeless had been on E4 last year it would be again. Although now I think about it there are plenty of programmes that have started on a free channel and moved to a Sky channel. I am excited for it to be back, even though I've now realised I have no idea what happened at the end of the last series. I'm sure it'll come back to me.

[thisbluespirit]

I wouldn't worry about - they'll only go back in time and change everything again! (And I seem to recall Lucy's mother was revealed as Rittenhouse; that was the big thing. Jiya was seeing visions, and Flynn had been carted off somewhere.)

[paranoidangel]

they'll only go back in time and change everything again!

Good point!

I remember those first two, but not the last one. Flynn keeps confusing me because I keep expecting him to be Flynn Carsen, from The Librarians :)

[thisbluespirit]

remember those first two, but not the last one. Flynn keeps confusing me because I keep expecting him to be Flynn Carsen, from The Librarians

LOL, that would make for an entertaining crossover, with plenty of room for confusion all round!

[liadt]

I'm bad at description too and in familiar fandom surroundings where readers know what the background looks like doesn't make my habit any better!

I find having a comm to keep alive is good for drabbling;p Also something like 'The Simarillion' is great for drabbles as many characters only appear in a chapter or two so there isn't much research to do, apart from the names.....

I think you're good at opening sentences. Mine are dire!

[thisbluespirit]

Pfft, this is part of what fanfic is for! People who can't be bothered to tell you about the whether or what the armchair looked like.

[swordznsorcery]

The obligatory "Do you write OCs?" question, as though it's somehow possible to write a proper adventure without OCs. How many episodes of anything are there that only feature the regulars?! It would be like every episode of DW being like "The Edge Of Destruction".

As to question 39, I'd agree with your assessment, but I'd also add that you're particularly good at setting a scene in a drabble. Not many words to work with, obviously, but you always make good use of them. :)

[thisbluespirit]

I think what they really mean, is do you write epic fic where your (possibly self insert) OC goes out with your favourite character/actor in a coffee shop AU? In which case, I don't. So, yeah.

Although the challenge of writing something that was nothing but main-cast bottle episodes is kind of intriguing in itself... It would be difficult to pull off, though!

As to question 39, I'd agree with your assessment, but I'd also add that you're particularly good at setting a scene in a drabble. Not many words to work with, obviously, but you always make good use of them.

Aw, thank you!!

[vilakins]

With you on the first person. I do love epistolary first person, especially to write (Vila's Emails were my first fanfic), but when it's not, I have to wonder how the person remembers all the dialogue and why they're writing it all down.

What about tense? I much prefer past, but a lot of fanfic writers seem to write present only. I've seen it work well in some stories (and in some profic) but often it gets in my way.

[thisbluespirit]

I do love epistolary first person, especially to write (Vila's Emails were my first fanfic),

Yes indeed! Vila's emails are so great. :-) And, ha, yes who does remember dialogue like that? Still, it's a convention and it can work well as much as not, like anything.

What about tense? I much prefer past, but a lot of fanfic writers seem to write present only.

I wrote both (although hopefully almost never at the same time!)

I find that for some ficlets and drabbles, things that are capturing a moment, it works well. It also is very useful for Sapphire and Steel, for conveying the the weirdness of the show and its sense of time/now. But I use it for a particular style, in effect, and past tense for everything else.