#solo-talker

THE IDES OF MAR-

wait shit no wrong month

thanks for the ask :-D i'll answer with reference to meteoric. here goes...

10. How did you approach writing the fic? (e.g. wrote it start to finish in order, started with the ending, starting with the twist)

As I mentioned in the answer to @helpallthenamesaretaken 's ask here, the description of the smoking spirit capes from TCS was stuck in my head, and I wanted to end on that note. So I guess I was writing the fic toward that conclusion, that particular mental image. I had the first sentence ("the outhouse is blue with twilight when the gate begins to stir.") written down as the opening to a possible-future-fic aaages ago, it was only a question of taking that starting point, editing the wording a bit, and building the story towards the moment on the Other Side.

My approach was chronological in the sense that I wrote the actual fic from start to finish, though technically the first line I wrote would eventually become part of the ending (more on that in subsequent answers)

16. Talk about the fic’s biggest moment & how you came up with it

So, objectively speaking, nothing much happens in the fic plot-wise. The gate becomes active, they cross over and walk onward. That's... pretty much it. It was always meant to be a more emotion-focused fic (hence all the dramatic ass descriptions lol). I really wanted to slow down every moment and take my time picking it apart. Usually I go pretty heavy on the dialogues (celestial was pretty much all dialogue), but I didn't feel the need to add any this time.

I think the biggest moment(s), per se, will be the part where Tom gets lead across to the Other Side by Marissa ("It's far from their first trip..."), and DEFINITELY the end bit where he makes the connection to a meteor ("Twin trails of smoke...") Those are both times that you read some variant of "he doesn't care", and they are both moments of realisation.

The first moment I didn't come up with so much as it just... happened as I was writing. And I just read it and went oh. oh ok. you fucking simp It did the job of conveying why the hell you'd let yourself get wrapped up in such matters. I was asking myself why he cared and the answer was he didn't (ok yeah i'm making no sense atp, forgive me it's very late). So I ran with that sentiment and brought it back 'round near the end.

I think the second moment is where I wanted Tom, on a subconscious level, to realise the ultimate end they're hurtling toward. I came up with it to make the meteor imagery explicit, connect to the title, and finally put forth the image I was writing towards. Also I will never pass up on the chance to describe Marissa as some variety of "illuminated" or "burning" for a WHOLE BUNCH OF REASONS I SHALL NOT EXPAND UPON RIGHT NOW-

23. How did you come up with the title?

Ok, so funny thing is, MONTHS ago, I wrote this one line down in my drafts:

This was actually leftover notes from when I was brainstorming astronomy-related metaphors for 'Celestial', and referencing the canon material. I didn't end up using it there, but I did connect the image of a meteor to the "flames" on protective gear and trail of smoke left by living people traversing the Other Side. This one line served as the inspiration for the recent piece.

In my head, I was about 90% set on calling the new fic 'Meteoric' (or something related) even before I'd written it - this was always supposed to be the central and concluding idea. You usually use the adjective like "meteoric rise to fame/power", which felt very appropriate. However, meteors are literally falling, towards the inescapable crash-and-burn, which is also very appropriate and a delicious piece of irony.

It's easy to romanticize meteor showers - shooting stars - from afar, where it isn't a chunk of burning space rock. But can you see the beauty in them up close? Can you still see the wonder in them while being one yourself?

for meteoric !!

oh yay you're the first one! alright let's see..

2. How did you come up with the idea?

One thing that really stuck with me from the l&co series was the description of the Other Side when Lucy and Lockwood have to escape into it in The Creeping Shadow. The flat brightness, the inherent feeling of something being...off before they slowly realise where they are - I LOVED those. You see, Lucy and Lockwood (and the rest of the team, in TEG) work together to help each other OUT of that place. I guess I came up with this idea because I wanted to write a more introspective piece about two people who (willingly and repeatedly) enter the same realm - a stark contrast.

And ever since I read the sequences set in the Other Side (literally some of my favourite portions) in the books, I've wanted badly to write something about Marissa and Tom in that place as well 😅 I thought the image of the smoking spirit capes was very striking, and decided to include that in a prominent way.

18. Talk about your editing and revision process

Ah yes, my infamous email drafts... I don't tend to write overly long pieces for them, so I write my first draft in the email itself. For example, both Celestial and Meteoric were written in the same email draft, only in different sections I have separated out for each idea (hey, if it works it works).

I usually have a clear vision of where I want to take the story, and which points I want to hit upon, so I just try to fulfill those, and then start tweaking the specific words and phrasing. And, I do a LOT of tweaking and adjusting and going-back-and-forth till it gets to a point where I have to tell myself to stop going crazy and that no I cannot keep trying to make it "better" T-T

For editing, I transfer the piece to a Word doc for clarity and ease of formatting. I take a lot of time to revise because I'm very careful about my word choices and will agonize for days trying to find a way to express the feeling just right. I usually don't make major changes in story structure after the first draft. My editing is mostly about refining the language of what I already have. You'll find me fixing stuff even after I post it before people find and read it!

Sometimes I'll hit a dead end with a specific story beat and then I force myself to not look at the draft for AT LEAST 24 hours so that I can come back to it with fresh eyes. This happened to me with the last few lines of Meteoric, where I was struggling to conclude the piece satisfactorily. I took a break, came back, and was able to get words on the page - and then edit those.

25. Share your favourite line

Tom feels time unspool between his fingers, and he wonders how something so vast could feel so much like a secret he could nestle into the space between their still-warm palms.

It's... admittedly a long and verbose sentence, but I'm rather happy with the Emotion™ it conveys, as well as being able to pack in: a) perception of time being different in the Other Side b) the contrast between the truth of this realm being so huge, and yet being kept shielded from the world - just their secret ("his their still-warm palms") c) MORE cold/warmth, fire/ice, burning/freezing imagery, like the rest of the piece hehehe

Us, probably lmao

https://white-knuckle.livejournal.com/38962.html

Suzukiblu is also on AO3 these days, where I greatly recommend the Clay Kids AU. This is Jetko too, but ironically it's also the only fic that ever made me ship Jinko lol.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34938994/chapters/87007543

Hello! I'm sorry it took me this long to answer, but I'm glad you dropped by and stuck around! Hearing people's thoughts and encouragement really makes sharing my own experience with this wonderful show worth it :) The dodgeball moments have been my favourite too XD

And I really appreciate your 'gift', as you term it. I may...skip...certain parts...of the first one due to personal preference (or lack thereof) but any and all fic recs are always ALWAYS welcome! Thanks a lot!! This AU lives rent free in my head and I'll take whatever content of it that I can get haha. It's up to me to be discerning and filter out the stuff I'd rather not see (don't really have a set-in-stone list for that, it differs based on the individual piece of content and other parameters), so yeah this goes out to all of you!

Incidentally, I've chanced upon your second rec in my travels through ao3 myself, and it's so incredibly awesome and hard-hitting i'm not surprised to see it dropped in my inbox!

so i'm just scrolling through pinterest because i wanted to find that one raja ravi verma painting of savitri for a moodboard. i search it up and the first result that pops up.....is a advert post of a savitri & satyavan retelling with a list of tropes similar to the ones in tfsodal.

and i start freaking out.

like highkey freaking out (as one does when they find out that their novel they've been working a year on might already exist)

anyways with shaking fingers and teary eyes, i click on the link where it takes me to an amazon book listing, CONVINCED that 14 months of work has gone down the drain.

.....only to BURST OUT LAUGHINGGG

i read the plot and it's....the complete opposite of tfsodal, to say the least. those tropes weren't even for savitri and satyavan's relationship. in fact, the book isn't savitri x satyavan AT ALL😭😭 get this--the novel is about savitri falling in love with some other random dude while following yamraj and reconsidering saving satyavan 💀 (rip son)

anyways, we all learn something new everyday, and the moral of the storytelling really does come in different forms and there can be so many perspectives to the same story....quite literally. but hey, i'm not complaining !!

(you don't need to answer this, i just didn't want to stuff all of this text into a dm)

oh man i would have been so scared too! thankfully this has never happened to me with any of my serious WIPs (at least, up till now...), but it has happened with ideas i never really developed all that well to make public/share. I can imagine the relief when you found out that it was... very much not the same, to say the least XD

AND OMG POOR SATYAVAN NOOOO 😭 I mean....... I understand what the author might be getting at with this twist on the myth but it's so very different from your retelling that you have nothing to fear. But rest assured, though this may indeed be a practical challenge in the world of publishing, I and your friends who know about and follow your wonderful story would always be here to read it!

And you're always welcome to come yap in this ask box :D