#15x8

alsdkjfhas i'm cracking up, you're close!! 'adjust to the light' is the full title 😂

14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?

oh boy, kind of! it was tough – i didn't want to be all preachy (it's a fucking supernatural fanfic; i'm not exactly trying to impart a moral lesson lmao) but i did want to make sure i highlighted the way that society and the media talks about true crime victims and survivors.

i'm......pretty picky when it comes to the way i consume true crime content these days. my baseline is "are the victims being discussed respectfully, if at all" and unfortunately that's a pretty tough bar to clear. i think it's getting better, but sometimes it also veers into, like......crime porn territory. the ongoing discussion around g*bby p*tito is a good example of how well-meaning content can become clout-chasing clickbait very easily. so i was keeping all of that in mind while writing ATTL, mostly because i found it to be a good outlet for my own complicated thoughts on true crime.

but like i said, i didn't wanna get up on a soapbox about it. adam's arc and inner monologue was a good way to get the message across without beating readers over the head with it. and it also wasn't, like, necessary to teach readers anything – if they caught on, then great! if not, i still hope it was a good fic regardless!

👨‍👧‍👧 Do you tell people in real life that you write fic?

some people, yeah! both of my roommates (who are also some of my best friends) know, and some of my other irl friends know. a couple of them are reformed spn fans and actually help me with plot and stuff – we're a fic commune like that. most of those friends have ao3 accounts of their own. and also my therapist knows lmao.

💖 What do you like most about your own writing?

i like my dialogue-writing skills the best. one thing that bugs me in writing (whether it's fic or published books) is when the dialogue sounds obviously forced – or worse, when it sounds like dialogue written by someone who has no idea how people talk. people don't always speak in full sentences, and they're not always grammatically correct. they use contractions, and they shorten words, and they do all these other very specific things with speech that might not be "correct" on paper, but it's not supposed to be! so i make it a point to make sure the dialogue i write sounds realistic. even when it's dialogue for a melodramatic villain monologue, it still has to sound REAL. otherwise the whole thing falls apart (for me, at least).

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

hmm, i'm not sure. i know when people say they "hate" all the stress and angst i put them through it's not real, actual hate – but also maybe it is?? idk. i can imagine that stuff is stressful to read, so i wouldn't blame anyone for hating it but not being able to stop reading lol.

but i do enjoy it when people yell at me for the stress i put them through, so maybe that IS the answer lmao.