#stormscoming

I've talked about this one a bit before but basically it's Quentin returns from the dead 10 years post the end of the season, Eliot is married to some nice rando who's actually good for him, but he and Q have a messy affair that ends Eliot's marriage.

Here's a snippet, I haven't written a ton of this but my goodness I really want to. The vibes of it are so specifically tough and kind of mean and messy and Not Pretty in this way I worry I am incapable of pulling off, but I want to give it a try.

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In the end, he has to excuse himself to the bathroom to throw up before he can hear the full story. It’s funny, all the times he used to imagine seeing Quentin again, some miracle giving him a second chance, and he’d never imagine nausea being the overriding physical sensation accompanying what should be the happiest moment of his life, but it’s there, roiling through his gut, his head pounding and eyes stinging, entire body recoiling from sensory overload as he hears Julia’s excited, loud voice telling the story. He keeps flinching every time Quentin’s voice cuts through to embellish the details. He’d forgotten the sound of his voice. Forgotten that he’d forgotten it, forgotten to think about the way his mouth moves. Fuck.

“El, are you okay?” Quentin asks at one point, and Eliot makes an involuntary whine in the back of his throat. Quentin’s voice, saying his name. Quentin’s voice. Quentin. Q. Quentin. He’s going to be sick again.

Thank you! <3

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

From my Those People (2015) fic, my love should be celebrated:

It's not the unfettered, excited sex they were going for the first time. This is slower, more serious, and as Sebastian fills him up, Charlie starts to feel overwhelmed—high pitched, breathy laughs spilling out of him.

"Stop laughing," Sebastian chastises, a small huff escaping from him as if the laughter is contagious.

"I'm not, I—" Charlie manages, feeling hot tears springing up. "It's just a lot."

Sebastian shifts his weight slightly, pressing his thumb to where the tears are gathering at the edge of Charlie's eye, and Charlie's breath hitches into a sob at the sincerity of his expression. He pulls out a couple of inches, then pushes back in, biting his lip, his eyes still locked on Charlie's. He does it again, a little harder, and again, faster. He leans down to press kisses to Charlie's open mouth as he fucks him, deeper with each thrust, and Charlie is still sobbing; it's a mess, it's wonderful.

To this day I don’t know where this fic came from. It’s just so different from what I usually write, and it flowed out of me after seeing the movie, like it had to be written. Still one of my proudest works.

17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?

I write the scenes out of order! Depending on the idea/driving force for the story, I may start by bullet-pointing the beginning, but I absolutely jump around as ideas come to me. I almost never have a complete picture of a fic when I start working on it. I’ll just think of something that I want to happen and work on that while the inspiration is flowing. I fill in the blanks a lot as the first thing I do in a day, as I read through what I’ve got, and the last thing I typically do for a story is fill in the small bits that are left.

25. What do you look for in a beta?

A healthy balance of real talk and cheer. I am a delicate flower and can easily be discouraged by too much criticism. I’ve been very lucky to find folks who are cool with this and validate me while also helping me improve my stories. I also work better with suggestions for problematic areas than just ‘this part isn’t working’. I don’t want my beta to just fix it for me (though if they do, I’m cool with that too 😅), but it helps me understand way better why the original text doesn’t work when I see what they think does work.

5. Share one of your strengths.

I mentioned this in a previous answer, but I'm good at endings! I love finding great end beats — quite a few times, the last line is the first thing I've thought of after a new bunny is born.

If that doesn't count, then I'd say dialogue, I feel like, is a strength of mine? I think I'm good at making characters sound like themselves. Or at least the people they are in my head.

11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?

Somewhere in between, probably. Writing fic is a hobby I'm passionate about (particularly in Magicians fandom, where it's fueled by vengeance). I've taken a stab or two at making it my profession — a couple spec scripts, two pilots, a half-finished novel — but that never quite stuck.

21. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Do people count this? Is this something I'm supposed to count? Because if so, I am in trouble.

I edit as I write. And by that, I mean that I edit constantly. Line by line, sometimes, until I feel like it's right (and even a "right" line could change if some subsequent line three lines on then makes it wrong). A freneticfloetry first draft has never existed, because I can never put down my red pen long enough to write something straight through without revising.

Trust me, I know this is not productive. (Though it does save a hell of a lot of time on the beta back end.)

37. Talk about your current wips.

Oh my goodness. Well, the evermore fic is still underway. It's unlike anything I've done (or planned to do) in this fandom so far, but it is kind of a return to my sparser snippet-to-snippet Yuletide fic days. I thought perhaps the humor was lulling people into a false sense of security (which I felt really bad about), but apparently it's painful for people already? To that I say: I'm so sorry, the part I thought would actually be painful is still to come.

I recently pulled out of the Magicians Big Bang, because I completely switched the fic I was doing, like, last month, and while I love the idea and the outline and the bits and pieces I've pulled together for it, there's no way I can actually execute it in the time that I have. It's still going to happen (as will my original idea), because I'm already so enamored with these versions of these boys, but it won't be for June. And that's because…

PPFT has finally decided to cooperate! I had a bit of a breakthrough on a scene that's had me stumped since November, and now it's basically all I can think about. That said, this chapter is a beast. It's a monster. I keep calling it Cerberus, kinda sorta jokingly, but it's true — it's a lot, content-wise; hard and heavy and hugely emotional, which is both gratifying and exhausting. It's the chapter I've been waiting to write since I started the fic, which — I'm sure you know — is so often the hardest one to execute. And these two are not making it easy. (Also, I'm fairly sure it's going to double the word count, all on its own.) I am so happy to have delightful folks like you, who are still interested in reading it. :)

There are a million other things percolating — Vampire!Eliot, the next MHEA, a book fusion that’s going to make people hate me... my brain is full of bunnies. So many fics, so little time.

38. Talk about a review that made your day. 

Your recent comment on PPFT is definitely up there! Especially at a time when I was just getting going on it again. It was the perfect motivation at the perfect time. @rubickk7​ and @yourtinseltinkerbell are constant sources of smiles in my inbox. The comments on scenes from an unfinished story, in general, have been some of the best I’ve ever received — really thoughtful and enthusiastic, a lot of them in-depth in really lovely ways — but there was one recently that touched on things no one had mentioned, little moments I included as nods to canon, and it made those choices really worthwhile, for me.

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

not that i can think of off the top of my head? like i’m sure there are SOME, but i can’t think of any tropes that i’m not at least interested in exploring and subverting, you know?

4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing?

at any given moment, i am nurturing 20+ ideas for fics. i have been cursed by g-d for my hubris with limitless ideas and extremely limited writing spoons

10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?