#thinksideways

5. Share one of your strengths.

If pressed, I would say a strength is, uh, I do well with writing description? i used to be better 

23. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

My writing style changes every time I sit down and write, but I believe the core of it has remained the same. I like to think of style as the feel of the writing. I tend to leave a good amount out of my stories and leave things to be inferred by the reader. Also my writing is a bit…choppy might not be the right word, but it’s not always so smooth and flowing. I write in shorter paragraphs, and I’ll alternate a lot between paragraphs and lines of text. I also tend to write a lot about internal, physical feelings rather than just say their emotional state - a clenched feeling in the chest rather than saying they’re sad or anxious.

I feel that, in part because it is my most recent fic, Getting Off Track And Can’t Control A Thing would be a good choice. Everything listed above is very strong in this story, as are certain tropes and dynamics I fall back on frequently.

Aaron could tell that Alex was in a bad way. It didn’t take a genius. Alex had been on a downward spiral since Eliza kicked him out. His hair was greasy, his clothing unkempt, his under eye circles the darkest they’d been since grad school, but the smell of alcohol on his breath was the most obvious sign of the extent of it.

“Alexander,” Aaron said, voice even. 

“Aaron Burr, sir!” Alexander shouted, leaning against the door frame. “I find tha-that I need assis-help. I need help.”

“That much is obvious.” Aaron stepped to the side to let Alexander into his office. It was seven, most people were gone, and it was obvious that Alexander had started drinking hours ago. “Please tell me that you left work early and went to a bar and don’t keep your office stocked.”

Alexander fell into Aaron’s desk chair with a huff. “Whuz it matter?”

“Professionalism is a thing that exists.” Aaron sat down on his desk in lieu of a chair, and reached behind him to close the laptop. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” Alexander said with a sigh. “I do not know.” 

 Aaron crossed his arms over his chest and leaned forward, getting a good look at the man in front of him. The handsome man who stole the room’s attention with his obvious intelligence and brash personality was nowhere to be seen. 

“I can’t help you,” he said. “You have to help yourself.”

Alexander tilted his head to the side. “We dated once. I just wanted to suck your dick, but we ended up dating.”

Aaron shifted, but nodded and said, “Yes, we did. And now we’re not.” 

“I’m happy we’re not dating,” Alexander said, smiling. “Because then I wouldn’t have Betsey. I love her, you know. She’s perfect. My angel. The kids are great.” 

“Eliza is a wonderful woman,” Aaron agreed. “And then you went and shattered her heart.”

Alexander pouted. “Why’d we stop dating?”

“It didn’t work out,” Aaron said. “You thought I didn’t care enough, and I didn’t like you anyway. Not like that, at least.”

“I need help,” Alexander said, eyes wide and pleading.

“Yes, you do.” Aaron hopped off the desk. “But before we get into that, you need to sober up.” 

Alexander leaned forward and placed his hands on Aaron’s knees. “Burr, will you kiss me? I haven’t been kissed in so long. I want a kiss.”

“No.” Aaron brushed a piece of hair behind Alexander’s ear. It wasn’t easy seeing him like this. 

“Please?”

Aaron sighed, but leaned down and pressed his lips to Alexander’s forehead. “There,” he said, pulling away. “Now, let’s go.”

Alexander’s brows furrowed together. “Go where?”

“My apartment. You need a shower.”

write under a pseudonym you know what you can do to them

15. Do you go down each aisle when you grocery shop, or only the ones you know you need stuff from? mostly just the ones i know i need stuff from. except sometimes i don't know where something is so i have to do laps to figure it out. last time i was at costco i did an aisle by aisle lap of like 10 aisles looking for the at home boba kits that they apparently no longer have. devistating

20. What's in your freezer right now? we've got everything. we've got frozen pizzas and frozen microwave pretzels. we've got homemade waffles that i'm saving like eggos. we've got shredded cheeses so they don't go bad. we've got tons and tons of frozen vegetables that i keep forgetting about, which is why i froze them in the first place. a recent addition is leftover spaghetti sauce that i made too much of. there are possibly some new zealand meat pies. the freezer is where everything goes so that it won't go bad while i forget to eat it. i think there's at least one whole loaf of bread

25. Favorite old person activity? currently it is chatting with neighbors. yesterday the lady three houses down stopped me on my walk to tell me about the 4 baby raccoons we have in the neighborhood and how she found out about them because her dogs (5, all jack russel terrier mixes) discovered them at 5am that morning. i was 90% sure i'd never met this lady before but then she knew my name so apparently not. terrific human interaction