#itstartledme

Oooh okay! Yes, Circus is the Flower/Matt/Zats one.

11: What do you like best about this fic?This was actually the first hockey fic I wrote that felt like it was really about hockey in the way that a lot of my Buffy and SPN fic was about the canon of those shows. A lot of my hockey RPF has been just tropey romance with feelings, but Circus was me digging around in the dynamics of the Pens’ 2016 playoffs goalie situation, with Flower the beloved vet getting outshone by the red-hot rookie, while Zats just hung around trying to be supportive. Of course I did this via sex in a world where starters and backups always have sex for reasons, which is mildly hilarious, but tbh sex as a proxy and conduit for complicated non-sexual feelings is one of my fav genres of hockey fic, and this is the first time I wrote it. Circus was one of my fav fics I wrote that year, for that reason.

Author’s choice: What do you like least about this fic?OH BOY, A CHANCE TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. SO if you’ve read this fic closely, you will realize that there is either something artistically nonlinear going on with the chronology (specifically how they spend the whole fic playing the Caps in the second round and then in the final scene they are just about to start game one of the Caps series, again), or the author fucked up and has for some reason not fixed it.

It is in fact that latter thing. This was written for a flash exchange with a four-day writing period, so I did indeed fuck up the chronology, and I would have fixed it two years ago

HOWEVER

What medium/application/etc. do you write in or with? Mostly Word. It’s so visually clean, and I know how to do everything I want with it. The exception is the really long WIP, which is set up in Scrivener. Scrivener has a lot of features that make it really nice for a longer project, especially a long project on a string timeline, which this is. But I like Word better.

Do you collaborate with others Nope. I wouldn’t mind trying a collaboration sometime, though.

How much editing do you do before you publish? It depends a ton on th fic. If it’s something I’ve worked on for a long time, I’ve usually gone over the first parts a lot, and then I usually want a structural beta to make sure it all works. Then again, sometimes I don’t end up actually needing to do much - Camouflage, the 14k Sid/Phil fic, took over a year to write but was written pretty much as it reads now, except for one or two scenes deleted later.

But then there’s a lot of fic I’ve written and posted in a day or two, often for a prompt or for the kinkmeme, and a lot of that gets written in one sitting and posted with minimal editing.

Do you listen to music when you write? Sometimes. I have a particular set of albums I can listen to while writing - Wovenhand’s self-titled album has been a big one the last couple years. But mostly I work in silence.

How do you decide what to write about? Sometimes I have a deadline that decides for me, or something I’m just trying to finish. But if it’s not any of those things, then usually I prefer to be working on a WIP, and all of those are stuck, then I’m just casting about for something to put my typing fingers to.

When do you write? Anytime. Mornings and evenings are when I can most consistently write.

How often do you write? 3-4 days a week, on a good week.

Do you take requests? Why/why not? I generally don’t. I’m really bad at writing ficlets that I wouldn’t rather turn into longer things. If you give me a prompt today, you might get a 3k fic in six months, or you might never hear about it again. But I also feel pressure to finish them. The one exception is when I’m really in the mood and ask for prompts, but with a time limit - if I don’t write this tonight, I won’t write it at all. That’s where my Sid/Letang fic came from.

Is there any genre or type of story you want to write but are hesitant to? Oh, just more plot, always. Plot as in there’s a conflict that is not directly related to relationships, and it develops and is resolved. That kind of thing has always intimidated the crap out of me, although I’m slowly getting better at it.

Any inspirational quotes, videos, tricks, articles, etc. that help you stay motivated? Honestly, talking to other writers about writing and talking to readers about what they’d like to read is way more motivating than anything else I’ve found.

Go to page 7 of your WIP, skip to the 7th line, and share 7 sentences. My current WIP has only 6 pages so far, so let’s change all those 7s to 6s, shall we?

Zhenya was busy remembering what else he’d done at that Cup party. “Hey. You want to go underwater with me?”

“Isn’t that what I fucking just did?”

“Not like that.” Zhenya felt oddly shy, offering this when there was no Cup to celebrate.

Oh, man. I tend to be very *waggles hand* about rookie/vet, but I’m actually working on one now? I think age difference pairings just tend to go a lot of places I’m not interested in - I’m super picky, is what I’m saying. So if does exactly what I want, then it’s cool, but otherwise no. :D

And amnesia, IDK. I’m not really interested in blank slates, which is how amnesiac characters tend to get treated. Characters who lose just part of their memory can be fun, though! I really love established relationship amnesia fics, where they’re already together and then one of them loses all their memory of the relationship. (Which is how your Sid/Claude clothesharing one goes, too, despite being from a completely different trope in the scheme!) Aaaangst. I have a WIP kind of like that, too, although IDK if I’ll ever make much more progress on it.

You are adorable and should feel good about this. :) (Also, it's so useful!)

<3333

I only saw glimpses, sorry! But he’s definitely the first Penguin there and shoving around a lot.

12. least favorite rule?

Goalie trapezoid rule. Because it means we get less of goalies out of their net doing things, and how is that better entertainment than the alternative??

19. who do you think is the most underrated player?