i follow from @cometgirl :}

Why do you write Steddie? 

I think it’s a combination of the setting of stranger things in general and the fact that they’re very complimentary characters with good chemistry. I also just really enjoy getting into their headspaces - I find Eddie’s POV in particular very fun to write :) 

What’s your favorite trope to READ? 

Big fan of mutual pining, slow burn… I <3 yearning!! And tension!! I think regardless of the setting or other tropes at play, almost all of my favourite fics have an undercurrent of that throughout the work.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE? 

Probably accidental subspace, under-negotiated kink… things of that ilk :’) I enjoy the ‘characters are entirely uneducated in the realm of BDSM/any kind of dynamic like that but accidentally fall into those roles regardless + work it out together’ kind of trope.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic? 

So so hard to narrow down but I think it’s a tie between ‘Exactly What It Looks Like’ by BilbosMom (bi4bi idiot4idiot steddie my beloved) and ‘In the Kitchen or the Tulips’ by teddywesworl - I honestly eat up anything they write with a spoon, unbelievable craft.

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

Not so much a trope but I have been meaning to write some genderbent sapphic steddie for the longest time!! After reading all of Eddywow’s sapphic steddie works I felt really inspired to give it a stab… one day.

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

I haven't had the chance yet to do any kind of collab! I'm always open to collaborating on steddie works though, I often end up drawing art for my own fics anyway.

What is your writing process like? 

Mostly when inspiration strikes I’ll jot some initial ideas/headcanons down on my phone and then develop it further later on in gdocs. My longfics are normally pretty well outlined, scene by scene, but most of my oneshots/two-shots just get a very small paragraph of what I want to cover in the fic and then I just let my brain do the rest, inventing the scenes as I write.

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’m in a few steddie/stranger things centered discord servers so I very occasionally using writing sprint channels there but mostly I just daydream about whatever I want to write at my job (oops) and then go home and word-vomit in gdocs until it’s done. 

Do you have any writing quirks? 

I don’t know if this counts as a quirk, but I keep a list of fun words/phrases I enjoy from books, fics, whatever I see when I’m out and about. Then I try to feed them into my writing if they fit - latest additions are lissom, hellaciously, and capitulate :)

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

I do prefer to have my shorter fics (1-3 chapters) fully written before I post, and for longer fics I try and keep 1 chapter ahead before posting the previous one so that my updates are mostly regular, but that doesn’t always work out :’) since my schedule is busier right now, I’m mostly sticking to updating my current longfic as I write it, just when I can…

Which fic are you most proud of? 

By far and away it’s ‘dying to meet you (but everybody says I’m wrong)’. I think it’s maybe my most in-character fic (to me, maybe not to anyone else lol).

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

I’ve done a little reading recently about bats for my current ongoing fic and found that there’s a lot of crossover between the biological bat terms and omegaverse language… I found an article discussing how males develop scent glands during mating and courtship… female bats scentmark their pups… maybe that’s common knowledge but I found it kind of funny.

How did you get the idea for gross? 

It started from the prompt ‘mean dom’ for dom eddie week - I wanted to try something I’d never written before! 

When writing it's leading me on, every time we touch, what was something you didn’t expect? 

Maybe the response to it? I think it was the first sub eddie work I wrote so I wasn’t sure how many people were in the market for that since dom eddie is so much more common. Very glad people like that series though <3

What inspired wild, wild horses (couldn't drag me away)? 

It’s 100% a songfic!! I was listening to Wild Horses on repeat at the time and it just made me want to write something kind of centered around the song, the rest I sort of made up on the fly.

What was your favorite part to write forwards beckon rebound?

I really enjoyed writing all of the stobin moments. Steve coming out to Robin, seeking comfort in her company… also the scenes where they play DnD were very fun to work through! I play in two campaigns IRL anyway so it was fun coming up with little snippets of campaigns and storylines for them to play in scene.

How do/did you feel writing linchpin? 

Linchpin is the fic I struggle with the most because it forces me out of my comfort zone in two ways: angst, and kind of funky pacing set over multiple years. I find it more rewarding when people enjoy it but it takes way more mental effort to write than any of my other fics… so it is currently on hiatus while I finish my post s5 works right now! I’ll come back to finish the last three outlined chapters later on…

What was the most difficult part of writing forwards beckon rebound?

Probably the angstier miscommunication scenes? It’s really not my strong suit so I did struggle a bit writing any kind of rejection/arguing into it.

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

I like this snippet I guess because it just feels kind of in character to me for Eddie’s POV. I really loved writing him in this one (dying to meet you).

He tells Dustin anyway, over lunch. That it’s fine. He’s free after school. At four.

It’s not fine. He’s not even free, not really - he has a gig tonight, should head back straight away to get ready for a final practice. But whatever.

It’s damp, and getting colder now, as he waits for the Note-Leaver to arrive. He sits on top of the table, watches the dead leaves fall down, down, down off the trees. Brown and slimy, cold. He sighs, watches the air puff out from him in a little white cloud. Dragon’s breath. Wonders if Steve is even coming. Wonders if he’ll bring the nailbat. Bring out the bat and beat Eddie to death with it, minutes away from the school, like a cheesy slasher flick. He giggles.

“Eddie?”

Steve is all bundled up. He’s got a thick wool sweater on over his polo, and a leather jacket on over that. And a little scarf tucked round him. Gross. Cute. Yuck. Gross.

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

I’m halfway through my current longfic which is a post-s5 vampire!eddie work with some horror elements in there if that’s your thing! It also has a little henderhop spinoff work in the series, so feel free to check that out if any of those tropes appeal to you :)

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

I just want to say thank you to anyone + everyone who has left me a kind comment or a message after reading my writing :’) It truly makes my day, I’m always bowled over by the fact people enjoy reading my stuff!!!

Thank you to our author, @ro15in, and our anonymous nominator! See more of m4zzyst4r's works featured on our page throughout the day!