#everlurker

I adore @awkwardeverlark and consider her a good friend, love her writing and have the honor of helping beta for Beneath Broken Stars. But @radi0active-sunrise (GreenWool) I've never really spoken to, just fangirled over her fics (& brilliance) from afar. I've been eagerly awaiting Everlurk's debut, counting down the clock, even the last two days of ToastCon I was thinking of how close we were to July 15th. Poor Jenna got hounded when I woke up Monday and there was no upload yet 🤭

Then the moment arrived only to be delayed by having to sign up for podbean! I finally get the podcast open and it's ONE HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES. How even will I listen to this!? Then I rolled my eyes at myself, if I can figure out how to read fics while thwarting my kids then surely I can figure out how to listen to this whole thing without waiting for the littles to be asleep. My first tactic was to hide in my bedroom. Second was to pause in intervals and write my thoughts down in an Evernote. I even had to rewind and listen to some parts a few times. By the time the kids were asleep I had less than 15 minutes left to listen to! Then promptly fell asleep in the middle of that 😂 I did wake around 4:30 AM and immediately finished up.

Once the initial shock wore off at time length, I got excited because c'mon an hour + forty of Everlarking? Bliss. I was told future episodes will be ~45 minutes which is perfect.

What I love most about this episode is the rawness and vulnerability, both are building blocks for their fics and as readers we get that they must've experienced these emotions in some way to be able to translate the feelings so well through our beloved babies, but to know subtle (& not so subtle) personal details changes your appreciation for them. The rawness and vulnerability was unexpected in the podcast but it deepens the connection you feel to their fics, to them. It makes you that much more grateful for their work.

As a newish writer I did find several tactics to try out. Their chat also raises more questions, which I hope they will consider adding an Asked & Answered style portion to the podcast whether the questions are writing related or individually related.

There was also some talk on which characters voice they struggle to channel and a line that I wrote down to help me when I'm struggling to focus on that characters voice. It would be great to hear from others in future episodes which voices they struggle with and see a dissection of how they get into that characters head because it truly is the smallest tidbits that help the rest of us. Other suggestions I had were an episode on writing amputee Peeta and writing M + E scenes.