#teitpp

https://www.tumblr.com/cornwells-couch/820147010672984064?source=share

Thank you for the ask!

1. if you had to dye your hair, what colour would you pick?

Probably brown. Wild, I know.

9. how would you survive an apocalypse or at least attempt to?

By clinging to my husband like the dependent koala bear I am 😂 I am under no impressions that I would survive a zombie apocalypse on my own lol 😂

Ah, thank you for asking @teitpp! ❤️

Fic sabbatical was wonderful. I worked on an original novel and I loved the freedom to fully create characterizations and relationships and histories and dynamics. I loved getting to choose places and occupations and quirks. I loved not being encumbered to any canon but my own.

During sabbatical, I was tempted by a Pikeuna fic that I actually still haven’t written and don’t know if I ever will.

I think the main effects the sabbatical had on my writing is I am more comfortable with the past tense (since the novel was in past tense) and I’ve changed my em dashes to not have spaces on either side (as is more typical in novels and less typical in online writing). After the sabbatical (which I gave up kicking and screaming), my fic writing expanded to more varied fandoms, and I’m not sure if that was an effect or a coincidence.

I do want to return to fanfic sabbatical and the novel, but the amount of time and concentration required by a novel is orders of magnitude above what I need to write fic. There are only so many hours in the day.

I will say that a fanfic sabbatical was good for me, and I hope everyone who wants to give something like it a try will similarly benefit from a purposeful step away (and some cleansing breaths therein).

Ahh, a second helping of questions from @teitpp!!❤️ I’m not bombarded—I’m over the moon! Thank you!

80. do you try to put themes, motifs, messages, morals, etc in your writing? if so, how do you go about it?

Um, so, try? No. Do? Yes. Not on purpose, but I think it comes through in terms of obvious stuff like “be kind to others” and “listening is learning.” I was raised on TOS and TNG, and I think that sort of sci-fi messaging can be baked into my thought processes, so character interactions (and growth) come from a place of implementing those concepts.

93. do you hear other people’s writing styles when they talk?

Oh, yes. Sometimes it’s little phrases, but often it’s as if the writing style is an energy that the person can flow into prose or chat, and it’s still wonderfully them.

Thank you again for asking these bonus questions, @teitpp! (Ask as many as you want, folks. I love this stuff.)

6, 7, 21, 32, 40, and 47 😘

Oh my goodness, what a lovely and kind compliment to actually hope I would reblog this ask game! Thank you, @teitpp! 🥹❤️

(Also, y’all can ask anything, anytime. I love asks.)

6. do you have any kind of consistent writing schedule or just hoping for the best?

Just hoping for the best! Real life is often busy and/or not conducive to writing, so I take what time I can get.

7 tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote.

Technically, my first fic was a fix-it to the ending of the Mary Tyler Moore Show (which I saw as a kid on Nick at Nite). I wrote the story on notebook paper from school and it was a romantic happy ending for Mary with a guy who looked like the love interest from the performer’s previous TV show. The first fic I wrote as an adult was a Janeway/Tuvok story that I later deleted off AO3 because I felt like the fic suggested the show had been wrong not to have those two in a romantic relationship when, of course, that pairing (or no pairing at all) was just an option among many.

21 pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about.

I plead the fifth. 🙈

32 do characters influence your writing style?

Definitely. I’m telling their story. I have to listen to how they want it told.

40 best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

If this means comments, maybe the genre of comment that starts: “I don’t usually like this [ship, setting, trope, etc.] but I love the way you wrote it.” But I also screeched with joy the first time I got a “🔥🔥🔥” comment on smut, so there’s that. I love deep analysis comments, of course, and some of the comments within bookmarks on The Autobiography of Kirsten Clancy (Gen, T) have moved me to tears. Honestly, as long as people are nice, I’m grateful and happy. I feel like I can’t choose a “best,” but I do have an email folder for comments that make me especially puddly with gratitude.

If this means beta help, two things stand out:

“But how does it feel?” (To remember to include character interiority.)

“I think we’re already firmly in his head right now.” (To remember to take out or refrain from verbiage that distances the reader from the character when the narrative is from the character’s point of view.)

47 what story are you most proud of?

Usually this is whatever story I most recently finished, so right now it’s Ain’t No One but You (Pikeuna, M), in which I tried a lot of new things to stretch and challenge myself as a writer on the way to hopefully telling a good story.

I’m also still proud of Youthful Exuberance (Some Kind of Love) (Pikeuna, E), in part because it was a labor of absolute love for the characters, and Fly Me to the Moon (Janeway/Paris, E) because it’s the most technically complex story I’ve ever written.

Thank you again for asking these wonderful questions, @teitpp! ❤️

“How big is a border collie”

“Height of a 6 year old”

“How long to sheep live”

“Name of the Golden Ram”

“How to make someone fall over”

“How to make someone fall over NOT love”

“Wing spans”

“Mountains”

“Fast rivers”

“Queen Beryl backstory”