#genuineformality

thanks for the asks love <3

A: Of the fanfic you’ve written, which is your favorite and why?

i am very pleased that multiple people asked me this because it means i can pick multiple favourites!! i told anton my favourite was all tied up, which is definitely high on the list but i'm gonna tell you it's Multitudes.

now kid!fic is a controversial trope and i came into it with a lot of trepidation. partly because i despise the idea that all people in a cishet-passing relationship must end up having kids in order to be happy or that kids are more or less inevitable if they just stay together long enough. gross. also, i worry about it because it's way past canon which always comes with baggage and the risk of making folks ooc.

however, the way i approached multitudes it was very much an exercise in worldbuilding, with kaz and inej as background characters. it's a sibling of sorts to under a merciless white light (my fic exploring jesper's race) and further articulates my hcs about race/racism in the grishaverse as well as entering into the discussion ideas about gender too. the idea of exploring both these simultaneously was strongly inspired by conversations with @doorsclosingslowly, in which we discovered a large degree of overlap between my experience of race and their experience of gender. many things about being two things, multiple things, and nothing at once. being seen but not understood, being reduced to one thing over another. all this came together in matty ghafa-brekker, the little menace.

also just kaz being forced to deal with/confront inej's suliness via their child after having spent years belittling (even if only playfully) her faith and detaching her from her background in the context of the barrel!? inject that shit directly into my veins.

H: How would you describe your writing style?

i believe the word you've used a lot to describe my writing is sensuous and although i hadn't really thought of it that way until i started writing polycrows, going back over old fics i think it's definitely a hallmark of everything i've written.

even with things i read i am drawn to luscious, evocative narration. i wanna be there, in the scene. give me all the sights and sounds and smells.

this also relates to my narrative style which isn't very plotty. i write scenes, relationship dynamics, moments of intimacy and distance and how they inform our thoughts and behaviours.

R: Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

answered!

X: How would you categorize your fanfic reading?  Are you a voracious reader?  Do you carefully pick and choose?  Something in between?

i used to read a lot of fic but since i started writing i've had less time to read. it gets me down sometimes thinking about how much great fic there is out there and my missing it cause i'm writing my own garbage (/j) that three people will read. but then every time i check the kanej tag and there's like 10 new fics a day i get very overwhelmed.

since becoming more active in the fandom, i've also become more selective in what i read just as a natural consequence. friends send me their fics and their recs and so i read those rather than trawling the tag. it's not a bad thing necessarily but sometimes i miss early days cleo who just read whatever she could get her hands on.

~

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

🏅 What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

⏰ Do you spend more time reading fic, writing fic, or do you do both equally?

💖 What do you like most about your own writing?

Answered!

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

There were lots of places where her family made camp which Inej especially loved, of course there were. She loved the cabbage-stuffed pierogi from the markets in Ryevost, and she loved the boats and the tangy smell of the sea air at the docks in Os Kervo. She loved the crowds of spectators in Caryeva, who came to see the circus still riding the high of betting on the horse races and were eager for more entertainment, and she loved the firm feel of the unyielding, still-frozen earth in Tsibeya during the spring.

But for Inej, the consistency that most people associated with the concept of home came from the colours and smells of the caravan, and it came from being surrounded by her people.

🏅 What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

That I actually started a wip recently and took a little time to myself to do some writing. I haven't been very good at taking breaks lately so I'm proud of myself for that.

⏰ Do you spend more time reading fic, writing fic, or do you do both equally?

I would say reading for sure. I don't always have the best attention span, especially when it comes to text on my computer so I usually read about one fic/fic chapter a night on my phone before bed. Writing doesn't happen every day, much as I wish it could.

✏️ Do you write every day?

🍰 Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn’t have to be your all time fave).

⏰ Do you spend more time reading fic, writing fic, or do you do both equally?

ty for the asks love!!!

💖 What do you like most about your own writing?

perhaps unsurprisingly, i like the topics/subjects i explore in my writing. i love writing about touch and intimacy and overcoming trauma's of our own in order to become closer with others. all my fics are, in some way or another, about knowing oneself - the good and the bad. i think there's value in that. i'm proud to write stories about that. do i always like the way i write about that? no. but practice makes perfect and if fanfiction counts as practice i'll be perfect in no time lol

✏️ Do you write every day?

almost. however, i write for my job so it's not always fun writing. i have work writing, as yet still very early stages novel writing, and fic writing, and they all compete for my attention on any given day.

🍰 Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn’t have to be your all time fave).

ahh this is so hard - only one??

i do come back to Samples by @anonniemousefics a lot. it's a modern (college) au kanej fic in which kaz is completely incompetent, which is delightful. she'll probably flail to hear me say that but it's true. it's short and sweet and lovely, never fails to hit the spot.

⏰ Do you spend more time reading fic, writing fic, or do you do both equally?

these days i spend more time writing, i think. mostly because writing takes me so much longer than reading fics and i also have a substantial tbr i'm trying to work my way through this year. i wish i had more time to read though. there's so much good stuff out there and i just can't keep up.

~

Ask games! 17, 21, and 33 if you have the time and inclincation. <3

17. Past or present tense? Why? 

For me, present tense to write in. For no particular reason, to be honest. I like the immediacy of it, I think! I like to read stories in either, though!

21. Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what’s your secret? 

LOL. No. That’s how roomy ended up being 61k words when it was really meant to be about a quarter of that. But that’s a failure of both planning and self control on my part. I have something resembling an outline for Adagio and I think it’s going to be 10 chapters. Of course, having said that, it was initially only going to be 5, so...I am a disaster, essentially 😅 

33. Give your writing a compliment. 

It’s definitely not sparse!