Fic Writers Meme

Tagged by @quinnlocke as well as @therealfrankenberry to answer the whole set of these! I like that better than waiting for asks on these question lists, come to think of it…

1. What is your favorite fic you have under your belt?

Does a WIP only one or two chapters away from being complete count as “under your belt” because if so, definitely Warriors Such As! And if it doesn’t count, then my next favorite is Placebo, in which Carver and Merrill bond over fake red lyrium.

2. What is your favorite snippet of dialogue?

Oh man there’s a lot of story to go through for one favorite snippet but…I remember how eager I was to get to the chapter in Warriors Such As where our heroes dealt with the magister and got out of Ath Velanis because I had this line of Fenris’ all lined up for the end of that one: (and pardon me, I’m including the paragraphs leading up to the quote, for context) (also, it’s a spoilery quote if you haven’t read chapter 10 of Warriors yet. so I’m going to go ahead and put the rest of this post behind a cut.)

Fenris dodged the kick easily and swung back around to face the magister. With a fierce smile he lit his lyrium and plunged his bare hand in to grasp the magister’s beating heart.

For half a minute, they stood eye to eye, or nearly so, since the magister had a few extra inches on Fenris with his feet swinging above the floor. But the swinging had become barely a tremble as Licinius went as still as possible, eyes bulging as Fenris squeezed.

Thayer, emerging from the shadows at last, approached with a polite cough. Fenris narrowed his eyes as they met the magister’s, fire in the elf’s matching fear in the mage’s, and finally he nodded, easing his grip on Licinius’ heart.

“You took my father away from me once, before I was even born,” Fenris growled at last, stretching up on his toes to glare more directly into the magister’s eyes. “You very nearly took him away from me again today. Be glad the Inquisitor came when he did, for if Metis had died here there would be no mercy.”

3. What inspired one of your fics?

Hm, well. a couple of my stories – the first one-shots I wrote for DA, in fact, after having completed the first three chapter-fics in the Hawkquisition series – were inspired by that word I couldn’t think of. It started when I was musing on Fenhawke on a half hour’s drive between my parents’ house and my own one Sunday, and I could not think of the word paradox which had come to mind in regards to how paradoxical Fenris’ intelligence versus his illiteracy were. It took a great deal more of musing on that very paradox for me to snap my brain back to attention and remember the word I was thinking of, so I put it all to use by writing the story Paradox when I got home.

I have since decided that any time I can’t think of a word, once I do recall it, I need to write a one-shot for it. That was also the inspiration behind Placebo. Most recently, I couldn’t recall the word barricade, so I’m thinking now about what I might write by that title!

4. Do you prefer writing long or short fics?

Depends on the story idea really. I like occasionally doing drabbles or one-shots just to play with a fairly well-contained story idea, or to stimulate my creativity by taking prompts. But I really enjoy the character development possible in a chapter fic. I don’t tend to plan out characters or settings in great detail before actually starting on a story, no more so than I need to: i.e., I don’t spend much time coming up with all the little details about my characters that might not even show up in a fic. Instead, they come to life for me as I write their stories, so the longer the story is, the more I come to love the character (*cough*Metis*cough*).

5. What’s your favorite headcanon you use in fics?

Metis is now my favorite headcanon of all time. Um, I suppose if you’ve read this far, you’ve already read the Fenris dialogue snippet above so spoiler warnings here probably won’t help, but my favorite headcanon is that Fenris’ dad is such a different type of survivor than Fenris himself: resilient and optimistic, enduring separation from his family, slavery, etc. but still able to smile. I mean, look at Fenris and Varania; between their combined tempers, that family really needs a more gentle influence. (Incidentally, I also headcanon that they both got the temper from their mother. Poor Mara; slavery must have been especially soul-crushing for a willful spirit like hers. I may write more about her part of the story someday…)

6. What’s the detail you wait on bated breath for readers to notice?

All the alliteration. (I am not entirely kidding; have you not noticed how many times I blog “oh look I alliterated again” while I’m writing a chapter?)

Actually, I would love if readers noticed more of the literary devices I use, but I don’t expect it much; they’re meant to be subtle (though alliteration never really is subtle – but did you catch the tricola? the anaphora? I might even occasionally use metonymy, I don’t notice that one myself as much. there could be praeterition. Have I used a simile lately?)

This is what several years of teaching AP Latin does to you. I am not sorry I am this way.

7. How much do you like symbolism in your fics?

Not nearly as much as alliteration? OK, to be honest, I don’t think very actively about using symbolism. But I do love to incorporate symbols from the games, like Hawke’s favor. I’m not sure if I’ve actively put any other symbols in. Like, I love details like Metis’ askew spectacles and all, but they don’t symbolize anything. Or do they? If you think they do, you may be committing the intentional fallacy (sorry! literature major…).

8. How often do people catch onto your little details?

Well, one reader guessed Metis’ identity in the very chapter he was introduced based on the little hints I’d put in the first chapter about Fenris’ anxieties about being a father when he’d never known his own, plus the (way too obvious?) similarities in appearance between Metis and Varania (I mean come on, every other elf in Thedas has green eyes. And red hair’s not that uncommon…but yeah, those were not subtle hints either).

That’s one reader out of…how many? Also, did anyone actually guess Hawke’s news from chapter 20 of Warriors Such As? No one that I’ve heard from yet. 😀

9. What’s the fic you like the least?

I am utterly crazy about them all. That “reblog if you’re insecure about your writing abilities” post that makes the rounds of tumblr? Sorry, I cannot relate. I’m not normally a very arrogant person but I am not the least bit humble about my writing. Also, as much as I like the feedback that comes from posting these things online, I really do write them for myself in the first place and they’d sit in the WIPs folder forever if I didn’t like them a lot.

10. What would you change if you had it all to do again?

Hm…I might try to be one of those writers who finishes a longfic entirely in order to edit it for continuity and pacing before starting to post the chapters? I envy such writers. And I kind of enjoy posting in serial form and letting feedback, when there is any, help a little to shape the rest of the story. But there are things I would tweak a bit in Hawkquisition if I hadn’t posted it a chapter at a time.

11. What’s a fanfic idea you haven’t done yet?

Gah there are so many! I’ve barely started. But I want to do something with Varania in the fifth part of Hawkquisition. I also had an idea for my Solavellan inquisitor’s backstory – well actually, the romance of her parents, it was swell – but I never got very far in planning that one out. It’s in the WIP folder for someday!

12. What’s the hardest thing to write for you?

I might say smut, but that’s more of a choice that I don’t want to write it so I have no idea if I can. Um…it used to be fight scenes but to be honest, I’ve gotten better at those by imagining in-game combat when I write them. Works like a charm and I do think I’ve improved at writing such things. I also do find it difficult to write truly tragic or angsty stories. I am all about the happy endings.

13. Do you have a favorite character to write for?

Definitely Fenris! That was probably self-evident.

14. What’s your favorite shipping fic you’ve written? Favorite gen fic? 

Well, for actual shipping as opposed to the “established relationship” couples that Warriors Such As really features (which I LOVE writing, by the way. Give me comfortable long-established romance any day over the silly early head-over-heels bits, if only because we get plenty of that in game…), I think it’d be Oculus Animi Index, because I, like Hawke, am mildly obsessed with Fenris’ eyes. Favorite gen fic – I think Warriors might count because of the established relationship thing? Or are the epistolary bits too shippy to count? 🙂

15. Give us a snippet of something from your WiPs!

OH my goodness, why did I choose to complete this meme at a moment when I’ve posted nearly everything I’ve got? Oh right, because it was something to do when I keep coming up with false starts and dead ends on my attempts at further Fenhawke Week drabbles. 😦 OK, then, have a false start that will probably not end up in any published fic:

“I cannot accept this, Hawke.”

Lisbet Hawke stood her ground, blowing a stray fringe of her hair out of her eyes with a huff since her hands were full. The elf, predictably, backed away into the dusty foyer of his borrowed mansion, hands up as if to ward off the basket she held out to him.

“Of course you can, Fenris. It’s just cookies.” She frowned, setting the basket down between their feet so she could fold her arms. “

Tagging (if you want to…and if you haven’t already done it, I may have missed it in the flurry of Fenhawke Week posts!): @broodywolf @kaerwrites @lingering-nomad @glyphron-dragon-age @theherocomplex @lyriumrebel @vertigosight