#cherryandcheek

Accurate. Hope you are okay. Pain or hot or a little bit of both. That's how I take my fics.

@cherryandcheek replied to your photo “This ER knows exactly how I like my fanfics”

Why you in the ER? Take care xx

Where do you publish your work? AO3. I’ve posted a few ficlets on tumblr but usually I just link - I feel like I get less feedback if I post things to tumblr directly, especially since tumblr killed replies.

What medium/application/etc. do you write in or with? WordPad, because I hate functionality. (It makes my mediocre laptop happier about my habit of having too many things open at once, and also Word makes me feel like I’m at work.)

Do you collaborate with others? Nahhh, I’m too controlling and I suspect my combination of limited free time + glacial writing speed + perfectionism would be frustrating to try and collaborate with.

How much editing do you do before you publish? It varies! I’m getting better at leaving things that aren’t right in the first draft and then coming back and fixing them when I edit. (Editing is so much easier than making the words happen in the first place, seriously.) So - usually about 3-5 readthroughs, but that’s only one or two passes of real editing and the rest is just fiddly perfectionist tweaks and my conviction that it never hurts to read it over once more before posting.

Do you listen to music when you write? Nope, too distracting. If there’s background noise I might put some Zoe Keating on, but even instrumental music tends to pull my focus off the fic.

How do you decide what to write about? I sacrifice a black lamb at midnight at a crossroads and read the omens from its entrails.

When do you write? When I have free time and I’m not too tired to focus or Doing Things or being tempted away by other distractions. (This evening is useless because I went to an after work thing and drank more than planned and now I am cheerful but sleepy, oops. Seriously, having waiters come round and refill your glass is lethal.)

How often do you write? I’m trying to write every day at the moment, but sometimes this comes out as, like, “one sentence which I delete the next day”. It really helps to have a few hours of uninterrupted free time because it takes me a while to get stuck into it and hit flow state.

Do you take requests? I have too many things I want to be working on as it is and I am a slow writer with limited free time. It sounds like maybe a fun thing to do, but probably not any time soon unless I get some unexpected time off or something. (I am saving up my holiday for whenever I manage to buy the flat which is taking f o r e v e r, god.)

Is there any genre or type or story you want to write but are hesitant to? Long plot-heavy fic. Seriously, how do people do it?

Any inspirational quotes, videos, tricks, articles, etc. that help you stay motivated?

"The only thing that will help is doing the thing.” Sometimes you just need to sit down and make yourself get things done.

Also, everyone rereads their favourite comments on their fic when they want a boost, right? :)

Where do you publish your work? AO3 for longer works and Tumblr for shorter stuff. I used to use ff.net (like everyone back in the day :D) but I don’t anymore.

What medium/application/etc. do you write in or with? For many years now, I have been faithful to the OpenOffice Suite, so my primary writing tool is OpenOffice Writer. Even though I have a legal Microsoft Office on this laptop :D As a rule, I try not to write by hand. Not only am I unable to read my own handwriting, I simply lose interest in handwritten stories and almost never type them up because why would I want to write the same thing again?

Do you collaborate with others? No. Not that I wouldn’t want to - it’s just that I am very bad at cooperation. I’m a great leader at work and I try to be a leader after work as well, and this aspect of my personality would prevent me, I think, from successfully writing a story with another writer. I would try to monopolize the characters and the setting. Although I would not say no to collaborating with an artist ;)

How much editing do you do before you publish? It really depends. Sometimes, I publish a story as soon as I finish typing it. Other times, it sits in my laptop for weeks or even months before I pick it up and apply heavy editing to the point of completely rewriting scenes or changing the mood of the entire story. 

Do you listen to music when you write?  I am literally incapable of writing/working without music. It helps me focus on the task at hand. The funny thing is, when I concentrate on writing, I don’t even hear the music in the background, yet I immediately notice if it stops.

How do you decide what to write about? I sit down, grab the laptop, launch the program and stare into the screen until an idea comes up. Sometimes it takes seconds, sometimes I end up with nothing and move on to other activities. Basically, the decision makes itself.

When do you write? Whenever I can. And by can, I mean whenever it is psychologically possible for me to write. Unfortunately, I still have days of a hard writer’s block when I cannot force myself to even look at written word.  But when I’m “in the zone”, I write all the time when I’m awake. I have so many unfinished things in my laptop, I could fill a small library if I printed it all out...

How often do you write? Either every day, all the time, or not even once a month. Depends on where I am with my depression. It really has a way of dampening the excitement writing gives me...

Do you take requests? Yes, but I am guilty of neglecting requests as well. I like to think all those unfulfilled prompts are simply awaiting their turn in my inbox, but I’m afraid it’s not that. I may just be a terrible human being.

Is there any genre or type or story you want to write but are hesitant to? I AM ALWAYS SCARED TO WRITE SMUT BUT I DO IT ANYWAY. Also, action. I wish I could write something action-y, fights, epic battles, clashing swords, magic spells - alas, I can’t. I just suck at writing action. It drives me crazy.

Any inspirational quotes, videos, tricks, articles, etc. that help you stay motivated? Recently, my meds keep me motivated. Comments to my stories help too.

Aaaaargh Melkor. This is painful and oh so beautiful, as your work always is! Loved the image of Mairon silently working away at his desk, and the involutary nature of Melkor's connection :''')

S: our babe is the master of stealth : I mean, he sneaked around a lot in his younger years to go to Melkor and conspire.

A: Ainur didn’t go to school but I think he would have been pretty good at maths; it’s a neat and precise subject, one that would appease his need for order.

U: Ooohh Sauron’s voice definitely is one of his best features: it’s smooth and soothing, very warm even when threatening someone and dripping fake sweetness like caramel. Only when talking to Melkor his voice loses that overly sweetness, becoming a bit more mature and melodious.

R: While I imagine Sauron to have very elegant hands, they clearly are those of someone who spent his life working in a forge: the skin is thin and dotted with burn marks, his palms and digits are calloused and vaguely roughened by the hard work.

O: Being called Sauron nearly broke Mairon - not because everyone dismissed his beauty to better focus on his despicable activities, but because it made his vision crumble. I think that chaos and general disorder would be the best way to break him and that’s why I think, in the beginning, joining Melkor was a form of self preservation; once Melkor started to be a synonym of order and perfection, his disappearance would break him.

Holding the Silmarils in his hands had felt dangerously elating, Eönwë thought as he observed the now empty chest he had locked them in - he would never admit it, but he was grateful for the sons of Fëanor stealing their family jewels.

The merest contact with those unbelievably shiny and smooth surfaces, lightened up by the light of a thousands sun reflected in a shimmering cloud of glass, had been enough to make him feel the thrall the precedent possessors had fallen to.

In a disturbing flash Eönwë had seen Fëanor’s tender hands manipulate the Silmarils into existence; he had felt the way those calloused and talented hands had cradled them to his chest as he showed their brilliance to his children; he let the churning suspicion of someone stealing his precious treasures dwell in his mind; he had felt Melkor’s impure hands touch them and sickly burn at the contact, but not letting go; he had seen another smith’s hands - Mairon’s - tremble with rage as he forged a glorious crown of iron as their new cradle; he breathed in the scent of blood and burning ships and dying people - every single life that had come to its end in the name of the Silmarils rushed through his mind.

Aww, thank you deary~

I love my big, squishy boobies OwO

I love my singing voice

I love that I understand my limits when drinking

I love my long hair UvU (even if it does shed like a motherfucker)