for the writer ask
💭🚦💛 💌
💭 What inspires you and your writing?
this is a real marketing major-ass answer (from your local marketing major), but i love sharing knowledge and telling stories. writing’s one of those things that’s a bit of a compulsion for me—i’m always writing something. i took a five-year break from fiction writing before i stumbled ass-first into fanfic last year, but even in those years when i was focusing on my career, i was writing guides and trainings and a ton of other stuff—just not anything fun, lol.
writing is also so cathartic. sometimes i set out to tell a specific story, but at other times, a particular emotion gets me in a vice grip and i have to put it to words before it’ll go away. my stories tend to wind up as emotional dumping grounds as a result.
i don’t write things pulled directly from my own life, but there are bits and pieces of myself and things that have happened to me scattered throughout stuff i’ve written, and usually when i’m about 75% of the way through a piece, i’ll realize it’s absolutely related to something i’m currently going through. funny how art works that way, even when you don’t intend for it to.
and occasionally i just have a fire lit under my ass about an issue and i get so hot about it that i gotta compile my thoughts. looking at you, silver snow
🚦 What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?
look, i would love nothing more for them girls (pick whichever girls you please) to have a happy ending where they kiss and are stupid in love for the rest of forever. i love reading those kinds of stories. but in my heart of hearts, i love an ambiguous ending. i like when there are still questions after the story ends. i like thinking about where things could go or how the characters will go on after the events of the story. like, shared space could be read as having a happy ending, but i don’t really think it is. and with the victors; the vestiges, well. you’ll see :0)
come to think of it, i’m not sure i’ve ever written a happily-ever-after, but i don’t think i’ve ever written a 100% bad ending, either. i read too many bury-your-gays stories and watched too many sad european queer coming-of-age films in my youth to ever be happy putting that kinda thing out into the world. i want to write about love with all its ugliness, but not despair or hopelessness. i think what most appeals to me about an ambiguous ending is that lingering feeling of hope. it’s not the same as the kind you get from a happily-ever-after, and something about it speaks to me.
💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?
honestly? how to take criticism. i took a creative writing class in high school where we had to read our work out loud and then receive feedback on it from the other writers in the class, and that did a lot for me. going into that class, i’d already been writing for forever and had won some little local writing contests and such, so i was a wee bit of a pretentious douche. but i’d never gotten real critique before beyond, essentially, spelling and grammar checks. it humbled me lol. it made me grow so much as a writer, and i could see where i needed to improve or where my head was wedged way too far up my own ass for others to follow. it also helped me recognize strengths i didn’t know i had, and that was huge. it’s easy to get into a self-doubt spiral when making creative work, and good, constructive criticism can do so much to help avoid that.
to this day i love critique. i like knowing what worked or didn’t work so that i can continue to improve as a writer and do better next time. did my themes land? did something really work, but another part fall flat? i’d love to know!! i try to treat everything i write as practice for the next thing, and frankly that’s helped take some of the pressure off so i don’t go into total Perfectionist Mode.
i know critique is kind of a sensitive topic in fan spaces, but i think that’s because a lot of people have gotten unsolicited criticism that is purely critical and isn’t constructive. but getting good, constructive criticism will do so much to help a person grow as a writer. it’s scary, and sometimes it hurts! writing is very personal for most people, and it stings when things aren’t received the way you think they will be. but i know i’ve grown more from having my failures pointed out (and, very importantly, having the good things about those efforts acknowledged) than anything else.
💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?
actually Just answered this in another ask!
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*jumps into your inbox* AUGUSTINE REFERENCES WHAT?
According to Ianthe, he referenced Anne of the Island! From chapter 23 of Nona the Ninth:
From chapter 24 of Anne of the Island:
It’s been a very long time since I read the books so I’m not the best person to analyze this, but in this letter, Philippa is writing to Anne to tell her about a theological student she’s just met named Jonas Drake. Although Jonas is ugly, she’s enraptured by the “splendid sermon” he delivers and she eventually marries him.
Also notable for possible John/Jonas parallels is a section from earlier in the letter:
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top ten guys who would uhhhhhhhh never hurt a fly. yeah we’ll go with that.
Rant incoming hee hoo
Uhhh not too much on him but his name is Archibald. Archie for short. Sometimes referred to as “The Finchman.” He gets a cool badass nickname why? Because all good serial killers get one yeah?
Sorry I meant uh. He’s so nice to you just as long as he doesn’t seem you weak. He’s got a weird “Survival of the Fittest” complex going on. Deems people weak based on an assortment of things and tries to eradicate the world of the weak cause uh. Yeah he’s just. He’s like that for some reason. Huh.
Also he’s like. One of the very few people who’ve managed to outlast that of Cuckoo. Yeah he’s a Bliss character.
(Special thanks to @pazam for helping me out with his face— I was having a little trouble with it initially!)
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12 Days of Hatchetfield, Day 6, Candle
@12daysofhatchetfield
Grace had been in choir for all four years of her high school career, and she had to say, she liked it a whole heckin’ lot. She didn’t quite approve of the music choice or choreography of the show choir kids, but of course that wasn’t up to her, and the general choir was much more her speed anyway.
Her favorite part of choir was the end of each winter concert. Every student, regardless of which choir he or she was enrolled in, would stand at the walls of the auditorium, surrounding the audience. After a soloist sang the first verse of “Go Light Your World,” the whole choir would switch on an electric candle and finish the hymn, being the only beacons of light in the otherwise dark theater. And if there was one thing you needed to hurry up and learn about Grace Chasity, it’s that she’d never pass up the opportunity to spread the gospel when she could, so of course she humbly accepted the request to be the soloist this year.
So came the end of her final winter concert. The lights turned off, and everyone else scattered to circle the audience. Soon, Grace was the only person remaining on stage.
Grace waited for her piano cue, switched on her candle, and began to sing.
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