Elephant

do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

on a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy incorporating romance into the average story?

what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

have you ever made a playlist about something you were writing as an elaborate means to procrastinate when you could have been actually writing and if yes drop a link, son

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

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

what’s your relationship with constructive criticism and feedback like? do you seek it out? how well do you take it?

in an ideal world where you’re already super successful and published, would you want to see a tv or movie adaptation of your work? why or why not?

at what point in the process do you come up with titles, and how easy or hard is that for you?

what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

do you ever have trouble focusing on writing? how do you get around that? 

talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

what’s your worst writing habit? 

where do you share your writing?

where is your favorite place to write?

what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

what is your most and least favorite part of writing?

what are some books or authors that influenced your style the most?

what is your favorite trope to write?

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

describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

how do you deal with writers block?

on average, how much writing do you get done in a day?

what’s your revision or rewriting process like?

do you like to write one-shots or series, and why?

do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? 28. And who do you share them with?

handwritten notes or typed notes?

give us a spoiler for one of your stories.

most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.

tell us about one of your characters who’s an absolute joy to write

do characters influence your writing style?

do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

how do you name characters and places?

tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

do you base your characters of real people or not? If so, tell us about one.

when creating characters, what comes first: appearance, backstory, motivation, personality, something else?

how many stories do you work on at one time?

are you an avid reader?

best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

what is the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.

describe the aesthetic of a story in 5 words.

how did writing change you?

any writing advice you want to share?

name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

what time are you the most productive when it comes to writing?

what story are you most proud of?

do you reread your own stories?

do you want to be published some day?

do you plan or do you write whatever comes to your mind?

share the synopsis of a story you work on that you haven’t published yet

how many unfinished ideas/stories are you working on at the same time?

when writing, do you have an outline? and do you stick to it?

what’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were reading it?

what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were writing it?

where is the most dangerous place that you’ve read fic?

where is the most dangerous place that you’ve written fic?

what was the first commercial property (book/movie/tv show/etc) that you realized was actually professional fanfiction?

what’s the weirdest reason you’ve ever shipped something?

what’s the best insult you’ve read in a fic?

what is your favourite title for a fic you’ve read? 

what is your favourite title for a fic you’ve written? 

when have you felt the most confident in your writing? 

when have you felt the least confident?

how long will you spend on a story or scene before you give up?

how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel?

are you very critical of your own writing? how much do you find yourself editing (either during the writing or after the fact)?

how do you balance writing and life? do you ever feel overwhelmed by the amount of writing you have to do?

what do you do if a scene gets too serious?

how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

are you a planner, pantser, or planster?

do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

what is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain? 

how do you write kissing scenes?

how do you choose where to end a chapter?

are you an over-writer, under-writer, or just-right-er?

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

if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

“proper” punctuation or all lowercase?

less is more or more is more?

said: overused or underused?

what would be on a moodboard for your current wip(s)?

which season best matches the mood of your wip(s)?

does your writing style change depending on the genre you write?

if you could have another author write your wip for you (bc we all dream of this occasionally), who would it be?

sarcastic narrators: entertaining or overdone?

do you notice your own voice in your writing style?

how has your writing style changed over the years?

first, second, or third person?

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

do you prefer dialogue or description?

do you describe a character’s appearance all right away or in pieces?

romantic/social sideplots: interesting or irritating?

abstract or detailed romance scenes?

what don’t you like about your writing style?

was being a writer a dream of yours when you were little? or did it spring up when your older? or is it just a hobby? 

open question to the writer.

What I am even doing wrong 😓😓

You're not stupid at all, anon! I'm still somewhat shaky with work skins myself, and I build site skins. Aside from both using CSS, they're somewhat different beasts.

With a *site *skin, all you have to do is copy the code to your profile and then turn the skin on or off.

With a work skin, you'll need to add the work skin to your profile, apply it to your fic, and then do some coding of your own. The coding will be in HTML, not CSS - CSS is what gives HTML its style and the person who coded the work skin already did that part.

If you're using a work skin that a fan has coded and shared out, they will probably include instructions for how to do that. At least, all of the work skins I've seen do. But if you're using one of the public work skins that were created and shared by AO3, read below the cut to learn more.

I have fantastic news for you! You don't actually have to code anything at all. That notes feature is built into AO3!

Below the box where you type in your Summary, there are two check boxes.

If you click or tap on the first box to tick it off, a new text box will open up. That's where you can type in an author's note that appears at the top of the fic.

If you tick the second box, a text box will appear where you can type in an author's note that appears at the end of the fic. The link will appear on your work automatically because that's how AO3 designed the end note feature.

Since this is your first time posting, I'll add one more valuable piece of information. If your work is set to only 1 chapter (you haven't indicated that you'll be adding more chapters later), then the note will appear at the end of the entire fic - even if you add more chapters later. *

To fix that issue, just check off the box that indicates you're posting a multichap and save as a draft. Then edit the work to add in your end note for chapter one.

You can find the multichap check box just above where you choose your language.

* This was a known issue at one point and it might already be fixed. I haven't posted an end note on a multichap in a while but this was how I worked around it before.

In the beginning notes, type <details>. Everything that comes after this and before the details end tag (</details>) will be hidden behind a dropdown, which will be represented by a little triangle upon publishing. A reader clicks (or taps on mobile) the little triangle, and the information is revealed. It'll look like this:

When the triangle is clicked, it will go from pointing at "Details" to pointing downwards, and the content hidden inside the details will unfold under "Details."

If you'd like to give specifics about what's inside the details tag, you can do that using the summary tag. Right after <details>, type <summary>. Write whatever description you want (HTML tags like bold, italics, etc. can be used here), end the description with </summary>, then proceed to write the information you want in the details tag. Now, when the chapter/fic is published, your summary will replace "Details" next to the triangle. Here's an example from one of my own works, where I've used bold, small, and italic HTML tags to further format my summary:

In practice, the backend of HTML in the beginning notes looks like this:

<details><summary><strong>Regarding the "Additional Warnings In Author's Note" Tag</strong> <small><em>(contains some spoilers for the story)</em></small></summary> [additional warnings]</details>

For more information about the details tag and to play around with it some outside of AO3, I recommend checking out the W3 Schools page on the tag.

You can also use the details tag (and accompanying summary tag) in the summary of a work or series, as well as the Notes section on a summary. Or in comments. On info pages for Collections. In your AO3 profile. The sky's the limit!*

also agatha anytime anyone does anything:

Criticism vs. Disrespect

As writers, it's very, VERY important to learn how to take criticism. A lot of newer writers find that idea very intimidating because people don't often take the time to explain what that actually means.

Good writers are receptive to criticism. At the same time, they also do not have to tolerate disrespect. In my experience, I've ended up tolerating some very rude and hurtful behavior because I didn't want to be seen as unreceptive to criticism. But here's the thing: there's a big difference between constructive criticism and critical disrespect.

Here are some examples of constructive criticism:

"I think you could do _____ differently."

"I found ___ confusing."

or even

"I think you should cut this line/character/scene."

Here are some examples of critical disrespect:

"Your work is really cringey."

"I don't think this story is that serious."

"I would be embarrassed to have written this."

All of these comments are critical but not all of them are constructive. When people talk about learning to accept criticism, they are generally talking about constructive criticism. Constructive criticism is criticism with direction. These sorts of comments are meant to help, not hurt. That doesn't mean that they will always be easy to hear, but it does mean that they are well-intended and are meant to help you develop your work and make it better.

Critical disrespect is remarks that both hurt and do not help. These remarks are critical, but not constructive. They are not intended to develop your work, they are intended to make you feel bad.

If you get intimidated when people talk about accepting criticism as a writer, know that they almost always mean constructive criticism, not critical disrespect. You will probably encounter the latter at some point, but not all that frequently.

I've been a writer for 5+ years and I've done a Bachelors in Creative Writing. Through all of that experience sharing my work, I can count on one hand the number of people who have responded to my work with critical disrespect. (That doesn't mean my work is good! It just means that even if your work is still in a very rough phase, people are very nice and helpful about it 99% of the time.)

So, when someone gives you truly constructive criticism, they're doing you a kindness and trying to be helpful (even if their feedback can feel painful to hear). But when someone gives you feedback that is neither helpful nor kind, remember that you do not have to tolerate that. You're not just a writer, you are a person and if someone doesn't like your work, that is okay, but they still have to be respectful about it.

Good luck and happy writing!