7. Early influences in your writing.

Idek. It must have been horror movies. My very first fanfic (I didn't know it was fanfic back then) was a sequel to my then best friend's story, and it involved members of the band Marilyn Manson driving to Maine and burying other, dead members of the band in the Pet Sematary xD (so basically a transformative RPF/movie fusion, if you will.) Yes, it was as cracky as it sounds xD I also had a project called Old Torture Castle, which had all the classic tropes of car breaking down at night, someone suggesting they ought to check out this creepy castle on the hill to see if they have a phone there, etc. Oh dear. I also wrote some micro or flash fic with a bit of a creepy twist to them. One person talking to their best friend who urges them to run away with them, only to find out no one was in the room with them; another dude finding their best friend murdered in the living room and being afraid the killer is still there, but actually he himself was the killer, I think? That sorta thing. :D

Then there were Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles a friend forced me to read (I so wasn't a reader as a kid, a fact I now regret), Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series @divinesquishes forced me to read, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale which I picked up myself after I read a fusion that explored the concept with KHR characters.

10. How do you do your researches?

What is research? Since I write a lot of lazy, non-elaborate short stuff, I'm okay with DuckDuckGoing (is this an acceptable verb yet?) things I don't know yet. Or I go to Wikipedia. Or use Google Image Search. That is very helpful when I don’t know what the individual parts of something are called.

Or I ask @neurotoxia who is a treasure trove of trivia and knows a lot about how public life, and people, work.

30. Hardest part of writing.

Everything? No, seriously, I sometimes hate writing so much I want to throw my laptop and myself out of the window. (Joke’s on me, because I'd have to climb *up* onto the neighbouring roof to get out of my window.)

Plot. Especially when it comes to longfic. I cannot write long stuff to save my life. I have a lot of ideas that I want to explore, but I cannot come up with the necessary details that would help me outline the stuff. EVEN when I have a ton of details and scenes

And finding a place to start. I am unfortunately a very linear writer and will waste days and weeks trying to find a beginning I can work with. It doesn't have to be the final one, but it needs to get the ball rolling.

Also, world- and character building. For some reason, I cannot come up with random headcanons for people, like their backstory, random likes or dislikes, what their first pet was if they had one, what their parents were like, etc.

So, uh, it’s all hard. Writing itself is the hardest thing. I don’t know how some people do it. Sometimes I don’t even know how I do it.

49. Writing advice.

Look, I don't think I'm qualified to answer that. I barely know what I'm doing. Your own answer was excellent, as it boils down to two truths that are necessary to keep in mind: keep writing until the words come, and take all the time you need. 

1. things that inspire you

You know, I cannot even tell you that. Sometimes, I run around with a head that’s emptier than my bank account and nothing gets through, other times (mostly when I’m trying to be productive with stuff not related to fic-writing) I’m bombarded with one idea after the other. So, reading sometimes inspires me. And new fandoms, because there’s new stuff to explore. But also talking with friends about the fandoms we share. Their excitement is what keeps me going. And discussions will always, inevitably, spark new ideas.

For example. In the days I was more active in the Sherlock fandom, @neurotoxia and I would come up with ideas for her tattoo!lock AU. That was inspiring like whoa. When I fell into the DC Comics hole, I mostly hopped from prompt to prompt and let the canon context help me come up with things. Now, a friend has introduced me to TRC and the newness of the fandom is supplying me with a lot of ideas. It’s terrible!

And apart from that it’s the usual culprits: music, art, random stuff that happens.

2. things that motivate you

Other people, hands down. Knowing there’s a specific person out there looking forward to my stuff can keep me coming back to it. It’s magical! I often had the urge to simply quit, but until I’ve written all the things I’ve promised people, I can’t do that xD

Word count goals help, too! E.g., I have a streak since 2013 of posting at least one thing per month, even if it’s only a drabble. This year, I upped this goal to at least one fic of 1k or over per month. And I generally try to push my word counts, to write at least one word more than my previous best. (I’m sad I didn’t manage it this May. I would have needed a mere 1k more, but the words just didn’t feel right this time.)

Motivation is generally very hard for me to come by. But I have an obsession of posting on specific dates, like those ending with a 7 or an 8, so I’ll try to finish things so I can post them before the clock strikes midnight. That has led to more output in the past, but also to a lot of things I regret having posted afterwards. It’s a terrible habit, but I’ve noticed that if a fic is not done by midnight it just kind of… rots on my hard drive. All my zest to finish it disappears. By now I have a dozen fics that I’ve started to a degree I wouldn’t call “slapped notes together” anymore.

So yeah, other people’s interest, encouragement, and cheerleading. And outdoing all my word count records.

5. since how long do you write?

Uhh. I’ve dabbled a bit in writing when I was a kid, but idk if that counts since I never actually finished anything except for those creepy microfic things, which were slapdash at best. I also wrote some crackfic with a friend, but that was only for our own amusement and just a collection of jokes rather than what I would deem composed writing. 

As for English-language fanfic, that started in 2007, but since those attempts were so terrible I might be having nightmares if I acknowledged them, I’ll be going with 2008, which also was my most productive year until 2015 when I finally broke the record. (Word count goals, see.)

17. favorite AU to write

That is actually a tough question to answer, because I don’t really feel like I’ve written many AUs or see myself as a writer of them. Sure, I do that occasionally, but it’s not like I could say I have a favourite. Unless those scenario AU prompts you find on tumblr count. (I’ve a Series where I collect them in, heh.) I adore those and would very much like to write more of them in the future! :D

Other than that I seem to enjoy writing Artist AUs, especially those of the drug addict frustrated with their own art block variety, ahem. (Done that for Sherlock, doing that for TRC.)

I also love Canon-Divergence AUs, although I haven’t written many (or many I’m actually happy with). I have a handful yet to write and I’m dying to but at the same time I’m too scared to start, lol.