Cover art for Royalty the sequel to Giants

Inspiration for Giants

I read a bit to much one punch man, I enjoy the crap out of all things MCU, the cinematic universe, and a bit of my hero academia and a certain scientific railgun, throw in a dash of wanting to build what I think a superhero society would look like. And then because the cast is so large and people come and go I have all sorts of characters from different fandoms. Motherland: Fort Salem, WWE, Daredevil, DC, tongue in cheek references to characters, The seven from the boys and for the epilogue well, I haven’t written that yet, but we’re nearly 500k words in people. Who knows who is going to show up. When I finish, and I will finish it, angels and demons and smut is next up on the docket.  

Is there a story behind your screen name astarpen?

I Thought I was being clever. I was not XD

Can you talk about your outlining process? How do you come up with such creative ideas and see them all the way through? And do you have multiple wip at one time or do you focus on one at a time? Your fics have inspired me to get started on writing my own btw!

I don't outline I write off the top of my head, I've tried outlining but that just doesn't work for me. That works for me I do not recommend anyone do it my way, because it's an awful way to do these things. That said, my biggest advice is just keep writing, even if it's absolute crap, have people read it, and then comment on it and take it and keep writing. Also have an ending in mind, the ending should never be concrete, but have a general idea of where the end goal is.

Like remember it's a journey.

i'm reading home right now, which is great so far, and i'm curious as to your inspirations for the story

I was probably playing this game a lot at the time that the idea for Home came, I wanted to do an illuminati fic, but that wasn't working and the Templars was easier. It also made sense in the sense it worked with Quinn's faith and it became this thing. There was a what-if that I worked on for a bit with Home, what-if Charlie had been raised by Lawrence instead of locked away. I played with the idea but ultimately dropped in favor of giants. Maybe one day I'll do a what-if story and complete it. But who knows.

what would you consider your best stories? like top 3-ish

...I can barely remember all my fics.

1. Giants*

2. Stitches

3. Unwritten

Giants isn't done, so it might end in disaster but right now, it's got everything that people wanted from The Original Family ad bits of Family Portrait, and it is an epic. 409k words and not done yet. I also haven't lost interest, I know how it ends and I know it's probably going to get a much smaller sequel.

You’re my all time favorite writer! I reread your stories all the time they’re so good

Thank you! I haven't been getting notifications for Tumblr or I would totally answer these more. But I hope you enjoy what I'm now calling my magnum opus whenever you get to see it. You'll know it when you see it because it's already close to 500k words.

Hi, I’ve been in the glee fandom since its original airing so I’ve seen plenty of your works around. I’m just curious why is it that you write so much for Charlie/Santana? usually for most fanfics it seems that if there’s OCs, the fics get less readers. I’m personally a Quinntana shipper so I’m more invested in that pairing, but I’m wondering what distinction you’ve made between Quinn and Charlie that’s helped you build such a following?

Quinn and Santana in my fics have a set personality to some degree, there's only so much you can do with them, and Charlie is her own character her own person, she can be anything the story calls for without fundamentally breaking the character. Like when I write Quinn and Santana which I have done, their relationship to me is more fraught with the same problems. Since Charlie can be anything, I've always thought that Santana needed someone who could support her, who would love her no matter what and I don't see that as Quinn. Quinn is Quinn. Charlie is Charlie. She might share the exact same face as Quinn, but she just works better with my version of Santana better than Quinn and Santana in my fics. Like I don't see Quinn as a drug addict, but Charlie can be that because she can be anything, without the constraints of the show. I know it's fanfiction and Quinn can have any personality that the writer wants to give her but with that, she's not exactly Quinn is she?

In any world that I write. In every story that I write, even if they're detours or bumps, Charlie and Santana are endgame. And that journey is something that I think that my readers love. The world building, is also something that I think I'm getting better at.

And at the time that I made a name for myself. I posted daily, sometimes multiple times a day.

Are you finished true love

I really should read my Tumblr more, but yes I am!

how long do your stories from patreon appear on fanfiction . net? also what stories are on there that have yet to be on fanfiction. i've been thinking of supporting you on it but i honestly don't know how patreon really works

It’s complicated, I finished Home in 2018. The rule of thumb is once all my patreons read the story it gets posted to fanfiction. Giants which is what I’m working on now will probably be a be in 2022-2023. I’m 300k words in and counting and I’m half done it feels? Or when I remember to post a story it gets put on fanfiction. 

this has been bugging me for quite a while but whats the first power on your giants cover? the atom one with moon like atoms? fire and lightning are self explanatory and the music one doesnt take much to figure out but i'm just so confused by the first one. also, good luck writing it all, i love power/superhero fics

Charlie - Electromagnetism 

Santana - Fire

Rachel - Song based abilities 

Quinn - Molecular manipulation (Quinn has powers but out of the 4 of the people, barely uses her abilities. She has the ability to control molecules, speed them up change them from a gas to a solid, she just rarely uses her gifts)

i'm not sure if you made mention of this before, but will you update your fics on ao3 at some point or are you fully on ffn for convenience sake?

I’m lazy so maybe I will one day, when I have time. 

Are you going to finish original family on fanfic?

I always get asked about the original family, honestly I probably won’t. The entire story is a complicated mess, and while i could streamline it, a lot of things have happened since then. I mean the best I could possibly do is have a summary of what I wanted to happen in the end, but not an actual story. I realized at some point I could wrap it up in about 20-25 chapters (which probably means 40) and I would honestly rather be writing a superhero epic called Giants that will be finished, once I get over this small writer’s block

My heart and thoughts

Go out to Naya and her family, I can’t even imagine, what any of them are going through right now. I am hoping for the best, I want a miracle to happen. She played my favorite character on glee, and I was hoping for a career resurgence for her. 

<3  Please everyone be safe out there. 2020 has not been kind, we’ve lost to many people and we’re barely into month 7. 

are you going to finish the original family? or keep writing new stuff. would love to see either. you are a fantastic writer

Working on several things at this moment. Just takes time. I do have finished stories that will appear at some point. =D

Hi! can you finish the stories on Fanfiction about Santana&Charly?? I love what you write. Kiss from Italy

I am working on things, there will be more stories