10, 19, and 30 for the fic asks, pls
10. what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?
the genuine and for-real answer to this is 10 literal years: I had a les mis/teen wolf crossover fic that languished on ao3 for a decade without being completed. This is why now I never post anything multi-chaptered that I haven't fully finished.
Otherwise, it's probably 1-2 years maybe? When something is basically there but I know certain parts will need a big rewrite (like a this-is-going-to-increase-the-wordcount-by-10k level rewrite), they usually end up getting pushed to the back of my mental queue to work on when I have enough brain energy to dive into something but not enough to start on a new thing.
19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic
the most interesting is when I'm going to add something in (usually as a throwaway one line thing) and then pause to double check what I'm about to say, usually to figure out whether it would be feasible for someone in the 1880s to know about something or have access to something (there's a difference between it being invented and it being in wide use after all) - George's stray line about weather reports (they wouldn't have been part of a newspaper yet! But he might have heard about people trying to accurately predict weather patterns in that way), or trying to find what paperback dimestore/penny dreadful novel would have been available (again, wild and absolutely soul-liftingly wonderful to me that you can find these archived online!!), or even just generally looking at shipwrecks from around that time.
and as someone who loves clothes and costumes, I love an excuse to search through the Met's archive to find something to reference (noting that Bertha Russell basically only wears House of Worth) no matter what era or fandom I'm writing for, and I have a couple of clothing history books too that I'll use, especially for nsfw fics to figure out how many layers need to be involved (Lyke and Es often run into this too). Even when I don't link the outfits in the notes (would people be interested in me doing that? idk), I usually have it on hand to reference the texture of the fabric or to dictate how a character moves in a scene. Also I love thinking about how the pieces of clothes literally fit together, with detachable shirt collars and the like!
also, any time I have every included any book, movie or tv show in a fic I have agonised over it. I must have gone back and forth with myself like twenty times about what book Jack finds in the library before I settled on Barry Lyndon, even though it's not any kind of point in the story (except that it sort of is, because of what Bertha liking a story about a scrappy Irish sort-of-blundering social-climbing con artist with an unhappy end says about her (and what George only wanting to read adventure stories with characters who are "straightforwardly heroic" says about him)).
30. share a fic you’re especially proud of
I love all my children equally, this is too hard!!! Cass!! I've written over 600 fics!! I can't do this
I mean, I'm proud of the season 3 rewrite, which I think is the longest thing I've ever written. I'm proud of the fantasy high hockey au because I think I was really able to get canon to gel with the setting and keep multiple arcs in the air at once. I'm proud of the MASH and Ferris Bueller's Day Off fics I wrote for the holiday season a few years ago because I feel like I nailed the character voices. I'm proud of the Lisa Frankenstien fic that I wrote for me but that other people really liked, and the Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 fic that I wrote for me that basically no one read. I'm proud of any fic when someone told me I made them feel sympathy for Clementine Kesh, one of my all time favourite horrible girls.
But I'm especially proud of any fic that made someone laugh, or cry, or made them feel like they understood a character or a pairing a little better or in a different way than before.
ask meme!!
