#barely but...

4. Which one do you prefer?

Hard to say, really. Fanfic has the advantage of constant reinforcement and, maybe more importantly, a strong interpretative element. That is, it’s ultimately creative writing, but it’s creative writing that involves analyzing and interpreting texts, which is my... Thing. So the union of the two halves of my brain is very appealing. OTOH, I do really enjoy the freedom of original writing, where I can be God and consistency is about being consistent with myself rather than somebody else’s stuff. And I can just be like, okay, this is something that I find interesting, so now it’s going to be part of the universe.

So, hard to say. 

5. For fan fiction writers, do you like using AUs or canon settings better and why?

What-if canon-setting AUs, definitely. For me, the engine of my interest in fanfic is always my interest in the original source. The further it drifts from the source, the weaker that thread of engagement is. 

So, for instance, I’m really fond of otherwise canonverse genderbending, which a lot of people find disconnected from canon by its very essence (...and which they feel the need to tell me about in otherwise-complimentary comments. anyway). But moderns and historical AUs are a lot more difficult for me. I’ve written them, but both in what I read and write, there’s a sense of remoteness, a shallower engagement. 

6. What’s your favorite platform to post your work to?

In theory, Dreamwidth, but nobody comments there, so in practice, AO3. And I do really love AO3 as a common repository, and as something that functions entirely as an archive, with features as an archive, rather than a platform for something else that’s been sort of MacGyver’d into an archive.

7. How do you feel about unsolicited criticism?

It’s okay. I mean, I’m pretty /eyeroll about most that I actually get, because it’s usually either a misunderstanding or something that I was already aware of, but I don’t have any objection to it in theory. I’m pretty uncomfortable with people insisting that things they put out into the world should be immune from criticism; the issue, IMO, is with how and when it’s done.

8. Again, for fic writers, what’s your favorite fandom to write for?

The Borgias was the very nicest, but I’m weak enough that I probably enjoy writing for SW the most, just because there’s so much feedback and interaction and little pockets of community. I particularly like RO fandom because of the heavy overlap between gifmakers/ficwriters/meta writers/readers, so there’s this kind of constant feedback loop between the different areas of fandom—I’m constantly reblogging things that I find pretty from people who turn out to leave nice comments on my fic and such.

9. What is it about a certain character/relationship/fandom that inspires you to write about them?

It varies, but it’s usually because there’s something I find intensely engaging yet incomplete—so there are things I uncomplicatedly love, like Darcy/Elizabeth, but Austen has such a light touch that I want to dig into the spaces she didn’t or wouldn’t have filled. 

There are things that I love despite flaws in the canon, but it’s in some way abbreviated and I pretty much long for more of a chance to roll around in it on my own terms—so in very different ways, Luke and Anakin’s relationship or Jyn and Cassian’s. 

There are also just characters/ships who fit into tropes I find viscerally appealing For instance, I really like troubled heroes and/or troubled villains who are fucked up by forces outside of their control and make choices that are driven by a mix of their own agency and the things they can’t control (I’m sure this has nothing to do with constant bipolar cycles >_>). So Korra, Tarrlok, Noatak, and Kuvira in LOK were Id Central and I shipped all in various formations. 

10. Do you do much research before starting a piece?

Depends on the piece! But usually, it’s more that if I’m interested enough to write something that would benefit, I’m already so interested that I’m researching independently. So it can look like I’m doing a lot more fic research, when it’s really that I’m doing academic research and fic research just piggybacks off that. 

Say, I’d often get a sort of O_O at the amount of research in my long and much-footnoted Borgias fic, but I was actually very interested in them professionally and published a paper, so fic-specific research was just an extension of what I was already doing. And I was so enthused about my research that I wanted to work it into the fic as much as I could!