Better than a kick in the knickers with a winklepicker

Stolen from annievh
Name a fandom you know I know and I'll tell you
1. The first character I first fell in love with
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now
3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t
4. The character I love that everyone else hates
5. The character I used to love but don’t any longer
6. The character I would totally smooch
7. The character I’d want to be like
8. The character I’d slap
9. A pairing that I love
10. A pairing that I despise

From capt_spork

Give me a character and I will give you some kind of meta about their relationship with their physical body (and/or how that relates to their sex life)


Much like Spork, I will find this much easier if you ask about characters I write a lot/RP. But I will have a good think on characters I don't write so much if you do want to go wild.

Oh look at me, falling at the (fourth to last) post.

Here we go with the final 4 questions.


27 – Where is your favorite place to write, and do you write by hand or on the computer?

At the pooter, whenever I get the chance.

28 – Have you ever collaborated with anyone else, whether writing together, or having an artist work on a piece about your fic?

I wouldn't call it 'collaboration', as such, but there was the Inversion Trilogy where I wrote a sequel to Sealgirl's story, and then she in turn wrote a sequel to that. And I've done some childish scrawls illustrating scenes from her fics as well... I think Sealgirl's been the person I've worked alongside (not really 'with') the most. And I've had some artists do great illustrations to some of my stories as well as lovely people illustrating/photoshopping Cumberholmes scenes, which I'm always delighted by and pimp to the high heavens (*hinty cough to any other artists out there*)

29 – What is your current project or projects?

I have just finished a story for the Cabin Pressure anon meme, which I may eventually de-anon with, once I've tidied it up. My next thing will probably be another Sherlock/Cabin Pressure crossover - tossing up between a companion piece to Luton and another anon meme prompt (a sexytimes one, this time)... or, the third installment of my Sherlock Bad Porn that I've been promising myself I'll write for ages. So, looks like whatever I write next will have sex scenes in. *Girds loins*

30 – Do you have a favorite fic you've written? What makes it your favorite? And don't forget to give us a link!

You can't possibly make me choose! I've been writing fanfic for about 6 years now, and I do love all of my babies... although some more than others, I'll admit.

I think my favourites - off the top of my head - are probably:

D&DC - Janapurna - One of my first ever fics, still stands up, I feel - lots of humour and, IMO, an interesting couple of OCs.
Life is Beautiful an AU where Eric was left alone as a Bogbeast. Heaps of Eric Angst, Hangst, etc, snippets of the kids' lives on Earth, and a nice ending.
O Most Wonderful Cracky fun with a genderswitch AU colliding with the Canon Universe.

Press Gang - I Need To Talk ALL THE COLIN ANGST IN THE WORLD. Lots of Colin/Lynda friendship, mystery and peril.
Inappropriate Physical Contact Kenny & Colin unwittingly fondling one another. Hijinks ensue.
Remain The Same My PG Epic - pretty much a 4th series, starting a few months after TAC & ending the next summer. Romance, life, death, money, journalism, a wedding, a funeral - growing up and moving on.

TNG - You know what we need? A harmonica Just Geordi & Data lying down in the dark, talking about stuff. I still really love it.
Nothing But Blue Sky A little bit Philip K Dick, a little bit Life On Mars. A darkly humorous SciFi mystery with a bitter ending. I've been thinking about this storyline a lot lately - I think I could rewrite it as an original story/script.
Rollercoaster My epic-est epic yet. An entire canon's worth of an AU romance, keeping on Tasha Yar and letting her grow and watching her relationship with Data go from a one-night stand she tried to sweep under the carpet to something very complicated, very flawed, very messy and very human.

Sherlock - It's Complicated - Teenage angst, slow dancing, snogging on a pool table, fake sex in Welsh, BAMFY 21-year-old Mycroft, a sexual relationship that thought it was friendship but wasn't and a friendship that doesn't know what it is and doesn't care.
Assume the Perpendicular - More Mycroft being wonderfully Mycrofty, and drugged!Sherlock&John to boot.
Naked Almost completely innocent nudity between Sherlock & John, and moments of weird, wonderful domestic madness.
The Gants Hill Variation Gay Porn. And Mornington Crescent. I am very proud.


SHERLOCK BADPORN - Something Something Scientific Purposes & It Was A Bit Not Good And Then It Was All Fine I refuse to apologise for this. All the overused/irritating/baffling Sherlock porn tropes I could think of, mashed up together. Still makes me giggle.

Sherlock/Cabin Pressure - Luton, or the Curious Case of the NotSherlock The little crossover that could.

Cabin Pressure - Boggle By Firelight Domestic fluff. (Here be chapters Two & Three)

23 – When you post, where do you post to? Just your journal? Just an archive? Your own personal site?

Depends. My very early D&DC script format stuff was posted to my own (now defunct) fic archive site. Then, I just posted to FF.net. I posted most of Rollercoaster to LJ as well as FF.net at the request of a few people over on d_a_t_a. Because my first Sherlock fics were actually Cumberholmes fics (or at least, heavily inspired by Cumberholmes), I started off just posting them to LJ. Because 'It's Complicated' was a sort-of Cumberholmes tie-in I did the same, then decided it worked as a straight Sherlock fic and so started my current habit of just posting to LJ and then posting a link in sherlockbbc. I've posted a handful of my favourite Sherlock stories to FF.net since, although I'm not comfortable posting any of my porn there. And, as far as I'm aware, there isn't even a Cabin Pressure category on FF.net, which is why I'm happier to post my CP fics purely on LJ & link in cabin_pressure.

24 – Betaing – How many betas do you like to use to make sure there aren't any major flaws in your fic? Do you have a Beta horror story or dream story?

I hardly ever use a beta. That possibly sounds foolhardy or even arrogant, but I research, I feel I know American English just about well enough to write US-centric characters (at least - to make sure that the character voices are Americanised and the narrative voice is suitable - I refuse to Americanise my spelling if I'm writing an American fandom - I wouldn't expect it of an American writing a Brit-fandom, I think it's utterly unnecessary as long as the voices are right), I generally only write for a fandom once I know all the canon (Star Trek excluded) and I always closely proof-read my own work at least once - often twice or more - before posting.

TNG is my exception. Even with the Star Trek Wiki at my fingertips, the canon universe is HUGE, and very far removed from the day-to-day life of this little Earth-bound idiot. There's a lot of potential mistakes there to be made, which is why I enlisted the help of the wonderful realmlife, who was invaluable to me while I was writing Rollercoaster.

18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your fics (aka "bunnies") from?

I don't know. Often, a cool idea will pop into my head and I'll daydream out a lot of the plot, some of the dialogue I want to use, etc. Once that's done, I'll either think 'that was cool - can't be arsed to write it, though', or 'THIS NEEDS TO BE PUT INTO PROPER WORDS ASAP, DAMMITALL', in which case, it must be wrotted.

19 – When you have bunnies, do you sit down and start writing right away, or do you write down the idea for further use?

See above. Occasionally if I'm not sure whether I want to write a story or not, I'll just do a synopsis or an extract for the time being & either use it later or incorporate into another story... or ignore forever.

20 – Do you ever get bunnied from other people's stories or art in the same fandom?

Very occasionally. There was Sealgirl's Inversion, which prompted a sequel fic be me, and yes, sometimes another writer will hint at an idea that I want to delve deeper into.

14 – Ratings – how high are you comfortable with going? Have you ever written higher? If you're comfortable with NC-17, have you ever been shocked by finding that the story you're writing is G-rated instead?

I write everything - from G rated banter and happy fluffy funtimes to graphic sex, violence and swears. (I still take great pride in being the first writer anyone was aware of to use the C word in Dungeons & Dragons Toon fanfic). Sometimes I start building up to something smutty but it just doesn't feel right, though, and I end up cutting to the imaginary fireplace, as I mentioned in an earlier entry.

15 – Warnings – What do you feel it most important to warn for, and what's the strangest thing you've warned for in a fic?

Personally, there's little stuff I don't want to even click on & give a chance to - I won't look at anything that graphically sexualises kids, for example, and I have to be in the right frame of mind to read darker fics, but even then I'll often give it a shot & if I find it a bit strong for my stomach, I'll just backbutton, no harm done. I think it's important, out of common courtesy, to give a rating and warn for sex - especially non-con - violence, gore... and I always warn for strong language. Actually, I've got into a habit of warning for as much as I can, although I don't always think that this is a good thing. I think there's a bit of a culture, especially on LJ, that the reader should be warned for everything that might potentially be distressing, even at the cost of spoiling a punchline or twist to a story. I end up fretting over what I should warn for and what would compromise the narrative if I announced it right from the start.

Don't know about the weirdest thing I ever warned for, but I was once very annoyed at the review to a story where I had warned for strong language, complaining about the use of strong language. I laughed, because she claimed that fuck was 'the worst word in the English language'. I was sorely tempted to reply 'no it cunting well isn't.'

But, I didn't.

10 - Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?

I really can't write Sherlock/Jim at all, despite me loving its harassment-tastic hate!sexosity. I've scoffed at some of the Sherlock/Jim fic I've read,which hasn't been of the best quality, but I've tried writing it twice now, and it's really very difficult to do well. I think my own Sherlock/Jim fic really isn't my best work at all.

As for pairings I don't care for - generally I just don't bother writing it, that's all. I suppose I've written sexualised Sherlock/John, but that was mainly for parody purposes, or as part of an orgy. I prefer to write them doing weird, sexy-yet-innocent things together, like platonic bathsharing & making Fake Sex Noise in Welsh.

Similarly, for some reason I just can't write Press Gang or TNG smut. I don't know why. Even with the pairings that I really root for, I end up cutting to the metaphorical fireplace.


11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

Action/Adventure, or some sort of character based mystery - with side orders of friendship and/or romance, smatterings of angsty hurt/comfort on occasion and almost always a good helping of comedy stirred in. It's very rare that I don't bung some jokes into my fics. Even with my porn, the sex often plays second fiddle to the jokey banter. I just can't help myself.

Oooh, I'm behind on this bad boy! RL has chosen to land me with a teething toddler, so free time hasn't been as forthcoming as usual, and what I have had has been channeled into a new fic I'm writing, funnily enough!

Anyway, here's the delayed Day 7 & 8.


7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

Like a lot of people who've answered this question, the answer is 'not really'. Although some fics have opened my eyes to different facets of a character, or different possible interpretations of them, possible backstories/motivations/pairings for them that I hadn't considered, etc. Any fic that reads like a doctrine in why people should love a character the author loves will generally have me backbuttoning, although not as fast as a fic that needlessly bashes a less popular (almost certainly female) character. (*Quirks eyebrow in accusatory fashion at Sherlock Fandom*).

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Yes. As seal_girl mentioned, they're actually pretty vital in a longer story, especially one with action, adventure, mystery etc. I've introduced OC's because:

- They'll create a new tension or conflict within the canon group (Janapurna, Pistol & Nym, Rocco DiMaggio, Morton Baker, Marven)

- They help fill out a backstory as well as creating conflict for protagonists (Charles Montgomery, Len Matthews, Daddy Holmes, Victor Trevor)

- Romantic Interests for characters with whom I couldn't think of a convincing pairing with a canon character, or certainly not in that particular narrative. (Liz Fish & Priti Manek. I admit that these are my most Sueish characters).

- Recurring "Background characters", who started to interest me so I fleshed out their characters a bit (Lester Llewellyn, who started off just guarding a door & ended up with a backstory, a crush on Worf and a heroic death)

- most frequently, because I just needed a rent-a-villain. (Oh God, so many. Favorites include Malison the Wizard, Furnus the Fire Demon, Dr Poklar the mad Romulan Cyberneticist, Aldous & Algernon Bloom the Holodeck Noir Gangsters and Mr Battenberg & Aloysius, the actual Gangsters.)

Apart from Liz, who is one of 4 protagonists, I don't make the OCs the main characters. They're there for the canon characters to interact with. I'm careful to make them well rounded and flawed, even if they're supposed to be likeable. I'm much less careful to round my villains out, mind you. Many of those are more plot devices than anything. And I almost always give my OCs silly names. Whether in a fantasy, SciFi or more everyday environment. It's a little running gag I have & I find it helps me not take my OCs too seriously.

Because these two questions are essentially the same, and because I was busy yesterday.

4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?

Short answer - no. I have favourite characters, I certainly have favourite character types, but I don't have a 'muse', and if a certain character has no place in a story, he or she doesn't go in. It's not to say that everything goes as I'd expected when I write a story - sometimes a plot organically ends up doing something different to what I'd had planned, sometimes a bit of backstory I'll hint at will bite and beg to be written much more in-depth, whether in that story or in a separate one, sometimes a background character will interest me and end up being much more fleshed out that I'd intended. But, no 'muses'.

Master list of questions

HEY I JUST SAW MY F-LIST & ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING DAY 2 TODAY AS WELL AND SO SO SHALL I.


2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.

- My first love: Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon. Started off with The New Adventures - a whole series of stories set 7 years after the never aired final episode (this remains, sadly, unfinished, as I completely ran out of steam while trying to write the final story). have also written several 20K-ish standalone stories and quite a few shorter ones. It's been a few years since I've written in this fandom. It got a bit of a bad atmosphere for a while, as will happen when one person in a small fandom decides the fact that her stuff never gets reviews means she gets to bitch about everybody else's work instead of, you know, slinging a few jokes in to her own dusty tomes so that people can manage to read them without propping their eyes open with matchsticks (oh hey, look at me and my epic grudge-holding!) and more to the point, I'm just out of ideas for it. Maybe some day I'll finish Endgame. Maybe not, though.

- The Small But Perfectly Formed: Press Gang. Written a few 10K Teen Angst Adventures for it, as well as a couple of shorter, sillier stories and Remain The Same - the Epic Fic for that fandom, set a few months after There Are Crocodiles & weighing in with 100K words. Remain The Same, like The New Adventures before it and Rollercoaster after, was actually a series of shorter stories that took place in the same story arc. Again, I feel I'm out of ideas for Press Gang fic, but I'll never say never.

- The Nervous Dip Into Big Fandom: Star Trek TNG. Started off with a couple of short stories, then wrote the longer freaky-deaky mystery 'Nothing But Blue Sky', then a short story set in an AU where Tasha was still alive for First Contact, during which I thought up so much backstory that I decided to use it as the springboard for my next Epic Fic. Rollercoaster - again, an interlinked series of short stories, is my longest fanfic yet at 210K words - 240K if you count Orpheus as well. As with the other two, I'm out of ideas for that fandom. For now.

- Accidentally In Love: Sherlock/Cumberholmes. I wouldn't have started writing Sherlock fanfic had I not started RPing, and I did that by accident. I've lost count of the little 'filling in the scenes' Cumberholmes stories I've written, because I don't put them on FF.net, I just sling them up here. Most of my Cumberholmes or Sherlock stories are shorter. I think It's Complicated is my longest Sherlock story & that's 19K words. I still get ideas for Sherlock fic & Cumberholmes fic, although these might slow down a bit due to me finding...

- My Latest Love: Cabin Pressure. Just done a few fics for this so far, but the characters are an absolute delight to write, and I really want to write more Molly/Martin as they're my new OTP. I also really like being back to a smaller fandom after the mostly-awesome-but-sometimes-scary-and-occasionally-plain-obnoxious bigger fandoms of TNG & Sherlock.

I've also written fic for Ghostbusters of East Finchley, Red Dwarf, Hitchhiker's Guide & Lost, but I don't think those really count.

Master list of questions