enigma731

3. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?

For Avengers, the hardest to write in terms of plot was my Avengers-as-pirates fic, Rascals, Scoundrels, Villains, and Knaves. Most of the fic I’ve written has been written very quickly: Crosshairs took me something like 36 hours (on no sleep), and Nobody Puts Dummy in the Corner was something like 16 hours. I’ve been playing chicken with writing longer stories as part of my post-epic hangover, so I haven’t committed to anything very long. RSVK, however, was 16 chapters of team fic, which meant figuring out how everybody translated to the historical setting, how they would react, and what would happen that would keep them interesting. Plus, I had to deal with the fact that they were stuck together on a ship, which was more challenging than you would guess!

11. If I’m showing off just one of your pieces to someone, which one should it be?

The Woman in the Crosshairs if we’re going Avengers. It’s probably closest to my overall style of writing and how I feel about everything. It doesn’t really have much team!fic, which is what I think I enjoy writing the most, but I think there’s a reason it’s my most kudos’d fic on AO3.

13. Are there any things that might have happened in any of your stories, but you changed them at the last minute? (So-and-so dies, they don’t actually kiss, main character has long extended ballet-based dream sequence, etc.)

Coulson was supposed to die in RSVK, I think. And Clint was supposed to have way more of a backstory, but I felt really embarrassed that I was giving icecream_junkie such a long fic to begin with, so I cut his story down to the bare bones. For my Chuck fic, Sarah and Chuck were supposed to take a gondola ride in the final chapter of Fates that never made it into the story because I just plum forgot and then I fell in love with the ending I picked and didn’t want to hack at it any more (read: was so exhausted I didn’t care).

18. If you could go back and revise one of your older stories, which would it be?

My Avengers stories are all too new to make me want to give them this treatment, but I would love to go back to the beginning of Fates and clean up the Jill arc. However, my neuroses and lack of time will (thankfully) prevent this.

mkudron

3. Which was the hardest to write, in terms of plot?

Going with a Chuck theme on this. I think the hardest thing, plot-wise, was probably Fates just because it was so long and there were so many things to balance. It also took me the longest to write, and I was the most fastidious about it. After that, plot-wise, Walker’s Eleven and Romeo and Juliet… tie for second. The latter because it’s so piecemeal and the former because it was a lot of people to juggle.

8. Favorite plot point/chapter/moment?

I reread Chapters 17 and 45 of Fates a lot. I enjoy Casey and Chuck’s trash talking each other in 45, but one of my all-time favorite moments of Fates is the scene where Chuck gives Sarah all of the apology gifts for accidentally tranquing her. She sticks her face in the flowers for a second and it’s so silly and girly, and I love that moment.

10. Favorite line or lines of dialogue that you’ve written

“How come you’re not wearing a tie?”
“Because it’s a casual thing. Besides, your Uncle Morgan warned me to never wear a tie on the first date.”
“Why not?”
“Because it makes it easier for ladies to strangle you if the date goes badly.” - That Which is Greater, Chapter 3

12. What WIPs do you have going now? Are you excited about them?

I’ve got one I can’t talk about, but I’m super-excited about it! Just know that it’s big! And exciting! And possibly terrifying to more people than me.

That Which is Greater is slowly getting the end it deserves.

I’m almost done with a massive Maria Hill & Natasha Romanoff friendship fic called Counterfeit and Counterpart that’s loosely based around the concept of a 5+1 fic. I’m debating whether or not it will be an entry for the Heroine Big Bang going on right now. There’s a lot of SHIELD life in the fic, and those fics will be posted only a month before the Agents of SHIELD show takes place, so chances are, I might pull it and just post it as is.

I’ve got an original story underway. It’s exciting because it’s kind of based on one of my fanfics, but since I may not have ever finished that fanfic and it was so absurdly AU, it’ll be something new for everyone.

The Outline for the Final Few Chapters of What Fates Impose

For Crumby’s birthday, I was going to write something, but I’m tired and I am in the middle of a long fic I’m writing for a Big Bang. I didn’t want to switch gears from Natasha and Maria to Sarah and Ellie (yeah, I know, lots of groans at that—sorry, I’m really not in the Chuck fandom and don’t really want to be), so instead I dug through my files, looking for something from Fates because I think the marvelous Crumby was my biggest fan for that story. Last year on this day, I posted the final, very short chapter of What Fates Impose. 

It was a project two years in the works, and I’m not normally an outliner, but given that I worked with a forgetful beta, I did end up writing everything I was going to do in the final arcs as an outline. Now, I don’t stick to outlines very well, as you’ll see, but they’re pretty handy for generalized tools and free-writing to get ideas onto the page, where I refine them. So I’m including a document I called Fates of the Future, which is a far more poetic name than it deserved.

And you’ll see why you rarely see my first draft for anything, I think. Here’s to you, Crumby, for always being amazing, French, and kind of a troll—all things I adore about you. Joyeux Anniversaire!

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laughterkey:

samaralex:

Lights at Riomaggiore - Simone Pomata

I need to go back.

Me too.

For Catrogue. Because of course I would write this.

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Anonymous

11. If I’m showing off just one of your pieces to someone, which one should it be?

Probably not Fates if they’re at all faint of heart. And my one-shots are probably off-limits because most of them are tied to a certain story. Plus, there’s fandom to consider. So I’d say for Chuck, maybe Walker’s Eleven? That one shows all of my weaknesses and strengths as a writer, I think. I mean, it drags in the middle, the ending’s maybe a little rushed, but there’s witty banter and some chemistry. For Avengers, probably go with Nobody Puts Dummy in the Corner just because I write a lot of teamfic over there. Or possibly The Bechdel Test, as that one’s weirdly popular. And for Downton, well, even though it’s not finished, Guide Us Home, I guess.

14. Would you want to write canon for any of your fandoms (like be hired by showrunner to do an episode)? Which one?

Yes. Chuck. In a heartbeat. Just let me fix Sarah. Please. I CAN DO IT.

9. Favorite character to write?

Sarah Walker.

4. Which has the most “you” in it, however you’d define that?

Uh, this is a tough one. Really, really tough. Because there’s a little bit of me in every single story I write. If there weren’t, I wouldn’t be writing it—somebody else would be. But on the other hand, I do try to mask a lot of the things that make me “me” while I’m writing. Call it general neurosis, if you will. I don’t want somebody to look at my work and pick every part of my psyche apart, even though I know it’s possible, and I take that risk every time I put my fingers onto the keyboard to type. But the worst risks are the ones you don’t take, I guess. When did this become an essay on living your life? Oy vey.

The fic with the most “me” in it, though, I’d have to say…is DEFINITELY NOT FATES. For a long time, everybody assumed that fic was the norm for me, and that happy, fluffy, romantic things were not my wheelhouse, when in reality, it’s kind of the opposite. Actually, what’s probably most in my wheelhouse and my comfort level is Rascals, Scoundrels, Villains, and Knaves because I got my start writing high fantasy and typical teenager stuff. But I think the fix with the most “me” in it is probably The Woman in the Crosshairs, as Natasha’s philosophies are similar to my own, and I wrote that fic very quickly (less than 36 hours for a 12.5k fic) and the writing was definitely coming from someplace for that one (I don’t ascribe to the theory that we have muses, so that place must have been me). It had a lot of my own brand of humor in it and both Clint and Natasha are reserved like me. Probably not the answer you expected, huh, ANON?

catrogue

“Seriously, you hit that?” Fates asked.

DA Carina shrugged and said, “I know he’s a nerd and all, but he’s got nice hands and why not?”

“Uh, you lost me at nerd.”

mxpw replied to your post: If you were paid to rewrite one of your stories, which one would you rewrite?

Okay, Ill pay you five dollars to re-write Fates. Go!

For five dollars you can have the first five paragraphs rewritten.

mxpw

“Today sucks,” Sarah Walker said and when the other Sarah Walker waved at her to keep going, she said, “I lost all of my memories and I have no idea if I have any special Valentine’s Day traditions, but the little bearded one—Morgan, I think—keeps saying things about wings.”

“Wow,” the other Sarah said, “and I got you beat. Two weeks ago, my boyfriend disappeared off the face of the earth after discovering I lied to him from pretty much the beginning—so there goes my couple’s massage session at Luxe later on.”

“At least you remember you had a boyfriend,” Canon told Fates. “I forgot I had a husband.”

“You win,” Fates said, and handed her a mojito.

fezzywhig

Hey! I think somebody has asked me this before, but not in a public setting. And I definitely don’t mind getting asked a question multiple times, as long as that question isn’t, “IS THERE GOING TO BE A SEQUEL?” (while not commenting on the fic itself) or “WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO UPDATE SO AND SO?” when I’ve already said that that story is on hiatus. Also, a lot of it has to do with the tone of the question being asked. :)

To answer your first question: I’m tempted, a lot, to go back and change my work. Every time I reread it, I see something I could tweak or even rewrite. Just watch me reread That Which is Greater sometime. It will enlighten you as to how hard somebody can grit their teeth. There are entire chapters of that I would cut or rewrite in a heartbeat.

Now here’s where some authors are about to disagree with me because, even though I’m tempted to go back and rewrite things (like the first chapter of Fates, for example), I don’t, and I won’t. My philosophy is that once something is published, it gets minor cosmetic changes and nothing else (like, fixing a grammatical error, or using Angry Birds in 2002 on accident). I don’t believe in going back and rewriting my old fics because to me, those stories have been told. They’re done. Hopefully, I told them the best way I could, but it’s time to move on and to use the things I learned writing those fics to write newer and hopefully better tales.

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If you need a sign that bunnies are truly evil, HERE IS ONE EATING MY FRINGE DREAMS.

Because there’s no better way to say thank you to the world’s best beta reader than to tease him mercilessly. Note: he earned those beta awards for more than Fates, but it’s still funny!