mbeebinds ☕️

Why do you write Steddie?

I love the way they compliment each other - two very opposite people who fill a need in the other. I love an I’m too much/I’m not enough dynamic, there’s just something so sweet about the idea of finding balance in a person you never would have expected.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Oo, I love a gut-wrenching, soul-crushing slow burn. MAKE IT HURT!

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

HA, I think my friends would say it’s angst, and they’re probably right. I love to explore trauma and loss in writing, to kind of work through some of my own, and I think that’s so special in fic - that it gives us the space to do that within the world of our comfort characters. But always with a happy ending!!

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

Tis The Damn Season by HairMetal666, I’ve read it so, so many times and it always hits so good. Time for a Christmas reread, I think!

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’m actually writing a bit of a crack fic right now, something silly and low-stakes - which I’m sure a lot of my readers won’t believe. I can be funny, y’all!

Are there any memorable Steddie collaborations (art, writing, podfic, etc.) you've done or would like to do?

Dear Steve was the coolest thing I’ve had the chance to do. It went from a small idea that my friend @staymagical had to write and bind a short gift fic to this huge thing where I got to work with some of the most talented people in the fandom - @staymagical, @tone-mariie, @celestial-abyss-ay, @ok-peepaw - to create something special for our sweet friend @mbeebinds. We had such a short time to pull it off, but came out the other side with the most gorgeously bound book, incredible artwork, and a brilliantly done podfic. Fandom is fun but more than that, I’ve met such incredible, creative, and giving people. Working with your friends to create art for a friend is a gift, and I’ll never stop being grateful for it.

What is your writing process like?

Uh… I haven’t been a writer for very long, comparatively. I don’t know if I’m technically very good at it, or that I have a process really. Mostly I’ll get an idea that I fixate on, wordbarf a bunch of random, messy thoughts into a doc, color-code it in a way that only makes sense to an insane person and then try to tie it all together and hope for the best! I’ve been blessed to have the most amazing friend from the very beginning, revenge_unicorn over on ao3, who has edited the majority of all my work for the past 3 years - they know me so well and I trust them entirely. It’s the one thing that makes me feel supported and confident in what I’m putting out, even when I’m less so in myself and my abilities.

What writing tools do you use, if any? For example, do you participate in community writing events like sprints or prompts, or have a favorite writing program aid like Scrivener?

I love a good sprint, but other than that it’s all chaos, panic and unhinged voicenotes yelling at my friends at all hours of the day (and sometimes from my shower, sorry about that to those who have been personally victimized by Jenn’s Shower Thoughts ™)

Do you have any writing quirks?

I have to write from start to finish and I cannot deviate from that. I’m so envious of people who can jump around from scene to scene, because I so often will get stuck on something and can’t move on (I’m looking at you, Beast).

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

I usually don’t start posting until I’m done, or at least very close to done - it gives me too much anxiety otherwise!

Which fic are you most proud of?

Esquire, I think. That one was so outside of my comfort zone to write, but it has resonated with so many people, so that’s been very rewarding. I had thought it would be a more niche fic for us gremlins, but instead it’s my most popular one!

What's a funny or interesting or completely wild research topic you've dug into as a result of writing Steddie?

I’ve had to become a temporary expert in some really ridiculous things - ballet, baseball, legal documents, rose gardening. I finish the fic and then instantly forget everything I’ve learned.

How did you get the idea for Pas de Deux?

PDD is based off of the seminal 2000s classic film Center Stage. Such a guilty pleasure watch - those leg lifts! I caught it on tv one night, and then saw a picture of a male dancer en pointe and away we went.

When writing Pas de Deux, what was something you didn’t expect?

As I’ve said, I’m really bad at pre-planning my fics in a concrete way. I hadn’t necessarily planned to do a dual timeline in that fic, but I was so pleased with how it all came together in the end, and the way details from the “past” carried through to the “present” in the story. It was unintentionally done but had such an impact in the final iteration of the fic.

What inspired Glory Days?

Ha! Another fic written for @mbeebinds, entirely and solely inspired by her DMing me from a game saying, “ok but those baseball pants tho” and the two of us gremlin-ing together down the rabbit hole.

What was your favorite part to write from Two Birds, One Stone?

Their first kiss in the car as they’re watching the snow. They know they shouldn’t, but they are helpless to do anything else in that moment, falling so softly in love.

How do/did you feel writing Esquire?

Esquire is an au based on the film Secretary, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s something that has meant a lot to me in my life, and I’d wanted to write for its themes for as long as I’d been writing. For as much as I love that movie, it’s a very one-sided story, and I was excited to be able to dig into that world and flesh out the characters in newer, more multi-faceted ways. It was probably the fastest I’ve written anything, but it was also challenging because a lot of the themes are ones I haven’t tackled before and I wanted to handle them with a certain level of sensitivity. I was lucky to be able to work really closely on it with my friend @ok-peepaw to make sure I was honoring these characters’ journeys, both from the standpoint of retelling the story of Secretary, but also in making sure it felt authentic to Steve and Eddie as characters we know and love. I loved finding correlation there and tying the little details together between these two worlds to create something new.

What was the most difficult part of writing Dear Steve?

Myself! It was meant to be a lil oneshot, but I can’t be normal about anything so it became an angsty long boi with poetry and music and time travel. Knowing we had so many talented people helping us to create this surprise was such a good problem to have, but it made me really aware of the time I had to finish it, even as the story got bigger and bigger… I even added stuff in after the fact, and my poor, angelic podficcer and book binder both had to go back in and rerecord/retypeset parts of it - I’m a monster! Maybe some day I’ll have some chill, but it was not this project!

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

Chapter 12 in Esquire was so validating to write from the characters’ perspectives - watching Steve finally take ownership of himself, of who he is and what he wants, in front of everyone in his life, while also having Eddie witness Steve choosing him again and again was such a great moment. Loved being able to give them that after everything they had gone through. Also, for as much as I struggled with Beast, the first chapter remains some of my favorite writing of all time - steddie as kids I MELT.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I’m currently working on my surprise fic for the holiday exchange, so I can’t really talk about it, but I hope to have it out for Valentine’s Day. After that, it’s wide open skies!

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

I just want to say how much writing has meant to me these past few years. I truly never thought people would read my silly lil stories, so it’s been a wonderful surprise to pick up a new hobby as an adult and see it grow. I love answering comments and talking to people about steddie and fic in general. I’ve made some amazing, lifetime friends through it, people that I can’t imagine not being in my life now. Don’t be shy, talk to your writers! Come yap at me, I’m here for it! I’m so eternally grateful for the people I’ve met all because of two fictional bros falling in love.

Thank you to our author, @malikat24601, and our nominator! See more of Malikat22's works featured on our page throughout the day!