#metatomato

of dilf mika and his jock girlfriend? why yes.

It's not an obvious question, as someone whose taste and writing skill is evolving I'm still figuring it out for myself ! But I suppose it's when the author knows more than the reader about the story and its characters, and is selecting what to include and what to omit with clear intent (in service of character / plot development, or generally with a sense of what is necessary for the reader to know and what isn't)

E.g. when the story is from character A's POV, and they observe something about character B that they can't resolve, and then later in the course of the plot, A works something out that 'backlights' B's mystery -- or, it's just left unresolved, because of the limitations of A's perspective, but as a reader you get the sense there is an answer out there, just one not privy to you. Similarly when there's a minor character, and you can guess from their internally consistent reactions in 2 different situations that they have a specific personality, that's probably borne out of a specific set of life experiences, and so even when they have a small role they feel lived-in and real

When this is done well in a story I find I'm curious and engaged, doing emotional detective work and trying to figure out why something has happened or what is about to happen. Conversely, when the author is roughly on the same page as the reader, that tends to result in predictability -- the reader can predict beats, exact dialogue. Nothing is a mystery, because everything is explained

i think we all just see what we want to see in the world and that is blonde max

@metatomato i couldn’t resist…i present to you…

rhu you’re in luck (or out of luck, depending on your feelings about fics of this species…) because my brainrot over single-seater racing has got so deeply entrenched that i’m now in the process of writing a single-seater au of a completely separate fandom…yeah…

so i don’t know if you’re into the radio comedy cabin pressure at all, but i’m writing a work where a rarepair (it’s a rarepair for sure, there are four works in the tag and it only became an official ao3 tag this year) of two women who do not even interact in canon growing from karting rivals to w series rivals to f1 rivals eventually…and in the midst of all that get caught in the crossfire of a separate, discrete rivalry between two former racers who are both now engineers…

ok this is the point where i admit: i’m such a fucking mess kahdkdsk

here’s an excerpt from the prologue

“I heard you were looking for me,” the girl says—and what’s her name? Something beginning with Spo, or Spa? “I’m Theresa Sponheim, by the way.”

“Linda Fairbairn.” She looks down to Theresa’s overalls belt to see an unfamiliar flag embroidered into the lightweight fabric, two colors with a little symbol in the upper left. “Where are you even from?”

“Liechtenstein,” Theresa replies. “But you’re obviously not that interested in that.”

Something in Theresa’s tone—the defiant lilt, the implacable Central European accent—stirs up Linda’s indignation again. “I’m just wondering what country it is that teaches their kart drivers to pull last-second stunts at the finish line,” Linda retorts, clutching at her trophy a little tighter.

Oh my gosh! Listen, I always get so 💖💕 💝 whenever someone brings up my Brocedes fics because most of the time I... genuinely don’t think anyone’s gone that far back and just assume they’ve been lost to time for the most part. I’m glad it still holds up as like a sort of snapshot of that era. The whole attitude towards and atmosphere around Nico at the time just really struck me and I felt I had to somehow put that into words, so I’m really glad it resonated with you!  And ah, I’m glad you liked that scene! I remember reading about how there’s this one restaurant in Maranello that’s affiliated with the drivers and how they all get pictures taken with the chef/owner and leave their signature there and just how deeply ingrained that little restaurant is in the Ferrari tradition. Also, y’know, I wanted an excuse to sneak a little past Sebchal implication in there. But more than that, it was Pierre still feeling out of sorts, still feeling that he’s got big shoes to fill (given that Seb was such an intrinsic part of Ferrari for so long and that they both grew up idolising him in their own ways) while also having to deal with this worrying shift in his and Charles’s relationship. I’m glad that comes through!