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pikapeppa · 4 years

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You know what - I thought of a killer question! How has your portrayal of both Fenris and Rynne changed since you first started writing them? Both in terms of planned character growth, but also your approach as a writer. Thanks! Love you!

Ohhhh my god. Are you ready for a novel about the progression of Fenris and Rynne? Because THEY’RE BASICALLY 90% OF WHAT I THINK ABOUT ON THE DAILY. HAHA.

Here’s a TLDR summary. My writing of Fenris and Rynne started with one simple idea: my trash ass being like “WHY DOESN’T FENRIS LOVE ME”. Rynne started as a just a self-insert purple!Hawke, but quickly grew into her own character, albeit a character who is inextricably tied to Fenris because I created her for him. A big part of the early writing was an exploration of Fenris’s eventual softening toward Rynne, which is linked to his discovery that her laughter is often a mask for her pain, as well as her constant support and kindness breaking down his barriers. As time has gone on, my writing of them has moved from ‘for the sake of romance and sex’ to ‘how they deal with hardship together a couple and a team’, and that’s what’s ongoing with Lovers In A Dangerous Time… though I often have moments of desperately needing to write some fluffy smut for them because I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

The longer (MUCH LONGER…) story of Fenris and Rynne is below!

My first-ever FenRynne piece was honestly like 75% self-insert fluff because I was frustrated by two things: Fenris being my rival LOL, and Fenris flirting with Isabela. I WAS VERY JELLY OF ISABELA, that seductive pirate temptress, and Underpants was born. At the time, I was still in Act 1 and I didn’t know Fenris’s backstory; all I knew was that he had some serious darkness in his past that he didn’t want to talk about yet. Rynne wasn’t even really a character yet; I knew I wanted her to be a ridiculous purple!Hawke because of how that would play against Fenris’s broodiness and moments of dry humour, and I wanted her to have some serious darkness of her own, as that would be the thing that made Fenris realize there was more to her than lewd flirting and inappropriate jokes.

This actually calls to my approach when I’m writing any romances: my OC is built around the existing love interest, not vice versa. I always try to create an OC who complements the LI and is someone that the LI could plausibly fall in love with, rather than inventing an OC that the LI just happens to fall for despite having no significant commonalities. So in some ways, there is no Rynne without Fenris. Her personality and coping methods and ridiculousness are a direct consequence of what I thought would be an interesting contrast and complement with the rival!Fenris that I was gradually getting to know.

My early writing of their romance was very… scattered. LOL I kept on writing little bits and pieces while playing the game, taking prompts from people and writing little scenarios for FenRynne based on prompts. A lot of the early oneshots in Tantrum and A Know-It-All-Grin were my way of feeling them out and getting a sense of how they would interact. Part of what I’ve always enjoyed writing about them — in every AU — is how much push-and-pull there is between them and how varied their interactions are, especially with early pre-relationship FenRynne. Fenris snarls at her, she smiles and jokes. She does Mage Stuff™, he storms away but can’t resist coming right back. She flirts with him and he flirts back, then stops and is like “wait why did I do that, she drives me nuts”. But even when she drives him nuts, she helps him without question and spends time with him and treats him with the same kindness that she gives to all her other friends, and his little hort doesn’t know how to cope…

The idea for Rynne’s tattoo as a coping mechanism was extremely important to me, and one of the first things I developed. I liked the idea of her having a tattoo that was imbued with some darker significance as a contrast and complement to Fenris’s involuntary markings, and I knew early on also that I wanted the reveal of its meaning during Leandra’s death to be a huge punch in the gut for Fenris, and another way that his bond to Rynne became cemented, even though they weren’t together. By the time this moment happens, he’s slept with her and then left her while also realizing that she’s the one person he trusts and cares about the most, so their interactions had gradually become softer and more about real conversations than just flirting, and brokering an ongoing platonic relationship that continues through to Act 3.

By the time they finally get together in Act 3, I’d gotten Fenris where I wanted him in terms of softening up: he doesn’t lash out like he used to, he understands that Rynne’s incessant jokes are just as often a mask as they are genuine, and he wants to be with her but doesn’t know how to bridge the gap that the past three years had put between them. One thing that ended up shocking me when I was transcribing Youtube videos for Fenris’s dialogue was the fact that he’s sexually abused by Danarius. I didn’t get the dialogue option during Alone where Danarius taunts him about this, so I had to do wrap my mind around that (I WAS REALLY UPSET) and bring it into my writing of Fenris in a way that was sensitive and realistic. I’m relieved that no one seems to have caught the fact that I was unaware of this in the first half of Tantrum, since it’s a pretty significant part of his history. But I’m extremely glad I did learn it, since it was a really influential factor in my smut writing for FenRynne once they finally got together, particularly for chapters like My Body Is A Cage, which explicitly addresses Fenris’s attitude toward his own body and toward sex.

Around the time when I was writing all the fluffy reunion smut and fluff, someone in a Facebook group had put the idea for Fenris the Inquisitor into my head. As I kept writing Act 3 toward the end of the game, I started subtly highlighting more elements of their relationship that would become key in Fenquisition - specifically Fenris being overprotective of Rynne, and Rynne’s fears about losing or being left by the people she loves, including Fenris.

When I started Lovers In A Dangerous Time (i.e. Fenris the Inquisitor), I didn’t just want it to be a “what if Fenris was the Inquisitor” story; I wanted it to still be primarily a story about Fenris AND RYNNE TOGETHER and how their relationship would evolve with all the shit that Inquisition throws at you. I was also aware that a story with a pre-established couple can be a ‘hard sell’, so keeping it interesting but realistic has always been my goal. I was fairly confident I could keep it interesting because the events of Inquisition would keep the relationship dynamic and evolving. When Fenquisition starts, Fenris is very overprotective because of the Chantry trying to track Hawke down; the dynamic gradually shifts to her becoming overprotective of him because, well, INQUISITION. At the point where the story is now, there are some parts of FenRynne’s relationship that hearken back to the early days of their reunion: their style of flirting has never changed; she still thinks he’s brilliant and beautiful, and he still adores her humour and her optimism; and they always have each other’s backs. But the events in Inquisition have imbued them with an element of desperation that wasn’t there in the earlier days. They’ve become both self-sacrificing and co-dependent, which is a source of ongoing conflict between them, but conflict that they always talk out time after time because THEY JUST LOVE EACH OTHER A LOT OK.

So, uh, yeah... This is the story of how FenRynne became a Thing™, and why I am so much trash for them LOL. They’re the couple I’ve spent the most time writing and thinking about, and the couple I’ve followed the longest through time and in the most AUs (ENORMOUS THANKS TO @schoute FOR THE AU INSPO AND COLLAB). As much as I joke about Rynne being a self-insert - YES SHE LOOKS LIKE ME, OKAY, SHUT THE FUCK UP - both Fenris and Rynne have elements of my personality, and some of their interactions and the issues they’ve dealt with as a couple reflect experiences I’ve had in my own relationship with my fiancé. In summary, I love them a lot, @lethendralis-paints I LOVE YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT THEM, and I hope this answer wasn’t too boring for anyone who actually decided to read the whole thing HAHAHA.

#THANK YOU FOR ASKING LETH #YOU ARE SO SWEET #AND I HOPE THIS ISN'T BORING #fenris #fenris fic #fenhawke #fenrynne #rynne hawke #fenris x hawke #fenris/hawke #fenris x f!hawke #fenris/f!hawke #fenris/femhawke #fenris x femhawke #fanfic writer's life

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quillyfied · 5 years

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Got tagged in a couple of writing things a while back by @lorienleylines so while I have some time ignoring my responsibilities today, thought I’d tackle them.

2018 Writing Review

Words written in 2018: Let’s see…combining my AO3 wordcount with my NaNo this year, it looks like I managed to churn out over 100k. Holy beans.

Number of short fics/drabbles written in 2018: Looks like about 12.

Number of fic chapters written in 2018: Chapters…none, they’ve all been oneshots. 

Number of chaptered fics completed in 2018: Zip. 

Fandoms: All of it is Dice, Camera, Action!, baby. It really stoked my creativity the back quarter of the year. 

Relationships: Striath and Eveltin, mostly. With lots of friendship thrown in there, too. 

Proudest achievements: Besides finishing a NaNoWriMo for the first time EVER, actually writing anything at all was pretty sweet. Think I managed to hit that sweet and mushy spot with more finesse and subtlety this year. 

Writing goals for 2019: Do another NaNo. Finish something chaptered. Literally anything chaptered.

Writing Questionnaire

Short stories, novels, or poems? All of the above. Various things at different times, depends on what the story I’m trying to tell needs. 

What genre do you prefer reading? Speculative, heavy on the fantasy. 

What genre do you prefer writing? Speculative, exclusively fantasy :P I’ve made attempts at other genres but they just aren’t as much fun.  Though there’s one contemporary fiction piece that has potential, if I could keep interest in the genre for more than five minutes at a time.

Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person? I like to have an endpoint in mind and some highlights to hit, but otherwise…it’s a journey. 

What music do you listen to while writing? If there must be music, something instrumental and usually orchestral. But this year I experimented with white noise and found it much more conducive to tuning everything else out. 

Fave books/movies? Oh, no, this is a hard question always. Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins; animated Beauty and the Beast, Pacific Rim, A Knight’s Tale, Howl’s Moving Castle, the Lord of the Rings extended editions. 

Any current WIPs? Oh, always! Urban fantasy collection has been on the stove for a long time and I hope to finish at least a couple of novellas in that universe (the bones and blood club tag has inspo and info if you’re interested) 

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be? Omg. Probably skinny jeans, combat boots, a graphic tee, and an oversized cardigan.  That’s been my default this winter.

Create a character description for yourself: (Cue narcissism)

The best word to apply to her overall was “soft.” Soft belly, soft eyes, soft round face—a misshapen sponge cake of a woman, sweet and pleasant but without much structure, her short mousy hair falling in dandelion disarray and big blue eyes obscured behind glasses in desperate need of replacement. Her teeth were like an abandoned cemetery, her skin a pockmarked battlefield of losses against the sun and acne, and though her lips had a pleasing shape, the smile that followed was, in her estimation, an enormous disappointment, though the revelation of the dimple in her cheek was a point in its favor.

Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing? Not especially, though I’m sure they find their way in there regardless.

Are you kill-happy with characters? Absolutely not. I really hate doing it, which is probably why the only story I have that I can think of with any character death is a collaboration with one of my best friends and it was her idea XD  Now, writing about people who are already dead...that’s my cup of tea.

Coffee or tea while writing? Water or hot chocolate, but usually water; hot chocolate tends to be more of a distraction since I want to drink it while it’s still warm.  Used to be cream soda but my health demanded a change.

Slow or fast writer? Very fast, but sporadic, which is a terrible tradeoff, in my opinion. 

Where/who/what do you find inspiration from? Images and concepts are usually pretty big for me, as well as emotions. 

If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be? Well, that depends on the world, but I’ve always considered myself a latent hobbit. 

Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche? Hmm. I adore found family and absolutely eat up blushing, shy romance. I abhor interpersonal petty dramas and miscommunication. No. Stahp. Grow up, learn to communicate, and let’s go destroy the Big Bad with giant swords.

Fave scenes to write? I love interpersonal scenes in general, bc I’m pretty sure dialog is one of my strengths. Character voices have always been something I can naturally step into with my writing, and I love characters having to talk something out or engaging in witty flirty banter or getting in huge fights. Talking isn’t always direct and it doesn’t always solve the problems, but it’s nice how people try. 

Most productive time of day for writing? Night, usually. I’ve always felt most creative at the end of my day, even though in recent years it’s made me more tired, as well. 

Reason for writing? Because I have stories to share and I want to share them.

Tagging people is for people who have more energy than I do, so this is my formal invitation to readers to take on the challenge themselves. You can say I tagged you, if that matters to you. I’m too lazy for this.

#quilly writing #quilly writing: director's cut #i like that tag a lot #i should utilize it more

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