Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2026-05-28 06:51 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2026-05-28 06:51 pm
Entry tags:
Computers Could Talk In The Sixties, But They Didn't Know What To Say.
Some questions about writing fanfiction I was asked over on Tumblr! (The original list of questions that askers were selecting from, in case anyone wants to answer them or reblog it to their own Tumblr, is over here.)
is there an au or trope that you haven’t written before, but would want to try?
I had to think about this for a moment; usually, if I'm interested in writing a concept, I'll just write it! But maybe smut? I've written sex before, but my efforts at sex scenes tend to be very sparse and vague; I've never really attempted to write explicit, 18-rated 'you can see exactly what's going on' banging. It's crossed my mind that it'd be nice to be able to, but I find the prospect of research daunting; I feel the most educational options would probably be having sex for research purposes and/or watching a bunch of live-action pornography, neither of which I'm especially keen on.
what genre is generally the easiest or most enjoyable for you to write? which is the hardest?
I really enjoy writing comedy! I hadn't written much for a long time before getting into The Goes Wrong Show, and my Goes Wrong fandom adventures have really reminded me of how much fun it is to write something comedic. This may well be why I wrote such a startling amount for this fandom in such a short time; I was just having such a blast!
I really struggle with anything that requires sex or action scenes. I'm a dialogue person; description is something I'm much weaker on, and it's hard to get through a sex scene or an action scene without description!
if you could sit down and finish any completely new fic without anything stopping you (time, tiredness, etc), what would you write? tell us about it if you want!
Given that nothing is stopping me, including my tragic inability to write smut, I would write substantial quantities of absolute filth about Robert Grove of The Goes Wrong Show. The man does not get to fuck enough in fanfiction, and I deeply regret that I am unable to fix that.
To be fair, it’s not a smut-heavy fandom; I don’t think Robert specifically is being neglected! This is a ‘the fandom has a grand total of fourteen explicit fics’ situation rather than an 'everyone’s writing porn but nobody is into your favourite character’ one. But there is nonetheless a dire shortage of E-rated Robert fanfiction, and I can’t do anything about it!
what’s something you like about your writing?
I think I'm generally solid on character voice, provided we're in the magical window when I experienced canon recently and I have the voice established in my head! I lose my grip on character voice too quickly for my liking, but, while I've got it, it often feels like I have a good sense of how they'd phrase things. Some characters' voices come more naturally to me than others, though; I find it a lot easier to get into the 'middle-class, slightly pretentious English southerner' speech patterns of Chris Bean or Robert Grove than the voice of, say, Dean Winchester, who is a lot more American than I am.
is there a certain kind of fic that feels the most satisfying to finish? any reason why?
I post chaptered fanfiction very rarely, and I'm always nervous when I do! I've committed to this incomplete fic being seen in public; will I be able to finish it? I'm thrilled when I successfully manage to wrap one up.
if you were to write a part two/sequel to a fic, what fic would you want to write it for?
I wrote a Severance fic, The Long Road Home, in which Gemma escapes. I wanted to write a follow-up where it turns out she automatically severs when doing mundane or unpleasant tasks, e.g. going to the supermarket or the dentist, but I never managed to make it work. Here's basically all I managed to write of it, in case anyone's curious!
-
The forty-third time she wakes up, everything is different.
She’s still in a supermarket, of course. She’s always in a supermarket. But it’s not the same supermarket where she’s spent every other moment of her life: the windowless room, crammed with shelves.
There are windows here, there’s daylight; she doesn’t remember ever seeing it before. The room is larger than anything she could have imagined.
And it’s full of people. The only person she’s used to is the man who usually hands her a long shopping list and then goes to sit at the checkout, where he will later keep her waiting for up to two hours, despite the lack of a line.
There are actual lines here. The wait will probably be even worse. But it’s different, and she turns slowly on the spot, taking it in.
“Gemma?”
There’s a man next to her. She doesn’t know him. But he’s speaking to her.
“Gemma?” she echoes.
“You okay?”
“Is Gemma my name?” She’s never been given a name before.
Something changes sharply in the stranger’s expression. “Are you Ms Casey?”
“I—” She’s a little frightened by his sudden intensity. “I don’t know who I am. I just do the shopping.”
“Is this the Overtime Contingency? Do you remember Lumon?”
She can’t make sense of the questions.
“I just do the shopping,” she repeats. “I don’t remember anything else.”
is there a fic you wish you received feedback on, but didn’t get any/much?
There are assorted fics I've written that didn't get much feedback because they're in obscure fandoms, which is fine; that's to be expected! But the reception of Handprints (How to Get Away with Murder, Connor/Laurel/Michaela/Wes) surprised me a little; it's received almost a thousand hits, but only a single comment. For three and a half years, it had no comments at all, and I was convinced I'd screwed it up somehow; I was so thrilled when someone commented to say they liked it!
(solspeak, having asked this question, then very kindly left a comment on the fic in question, so it now has two comments!)
tell us about a wip/idea that you’re excited about!
I'm struggling with a shortage of ideas at the moment, unfortunately! There's one fic idea I've had that sort of fascinates me: the character of Chris is occasionally played by a woman in amateur productions of The Play That Goes Wrong, which got me wondering about writing Robert/female Chris. What changes about their dynamic when Chris is a woman; what stays the same? I bet Robert is still weirdly fixated on Chris, regardless of gender. But I just can't get any writing done on this concept; it's somehow not clicking into place in my head!
do you have any writing projects/goals/plans you’re working on/want to work on?
My writing goal is always just 'write things, have fun'! I've been contemplating whether to sign up to write fifty one-sentence fics about Robert Grove of The Goes Wrong Show for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
1character, but I don't know if I'd be able to manage it; it's so tough to do comedy in one sentence.
how do you want your writing to feel to your readers?
This is an interesting question to contemplate! I suppose, stylistically, you could say that what I'm aiming for is invisibility.
My writing style tends to be very straightforward and unornamented. It's not to everyone's tastes! (I got a comment eight years ago describing my writing style as bland and 'a bit boring' and encouraging me to 'put your voice into it', and I have carried the wound of it to this day.) Some fic authors come out with gorgeous, poetic, memorable lines in the narrative, and, alas, I'm not doing that.
But what I'm often trying to do is let the style fade into the background. I want the narration to be as comfortably readable as possible, so the reader can focus on the story or on what's being said. My main stylistic priority in a scene, particularly a dialogue scene, is often 'how do I keep the narration from being distracting?'
So I think I just want my writing to feel readable and flow well! And I hope it's clear that love and enthusiasm went into it; I like the idea that people might read my fics and go 'oh, the author was having fun with this concept' or 'the author really loves this character, doesn't she?'
give a hint/teaser about something you’re writing without any context or explanation!
Alas, I don't really have any writing projects on the go at the moment! I'm largely inviting these fic questions because I'm suffering from writer's block, and I'm hoping that talking about writing might shake some sort of inspiration loose. I've been sort of playing with the idea of a Goes Wrong Show fic in which Chris kicks Robert out of the drama society and then starts to miss him? But the problem is that this fic requires Robert not to be there, and I enjoy writing Robert far too much to accept that state of affairs.
answer any one of the other questions that you want to!
Most of the questions have been asked already (thank you all!), so I found myself contemplating 'if you were to rewrite [insert fic] with [insert different character/ship] how do you think it might change?', and it suddenly hit me that Twice Shy (The Goes Wrong Show, Robert/Chris, Robert becomes a vampire) could very easily be rewritten as a Robert/Vanessa fic! It's established that Robert is feeding on Vanessa offscreen, after all.
A Robert/Vanessa version of Twice Shy would basically just be the story from Vanessa's perspective. She learns that Robert is a vampire; she's terrified by the prospect of letting him drink her blood, both because being bitten by a vampire is inherently scary and because it's Robert, but she's worried about him being undernourished and she doesn't know how to say no. Like Chris, she's an anxious person who might find some relief in the calming qualities of Robert's venom. Unlike Chris, she's probably not going to tell Robert 'no, don't use the venom, make it hurt'. Which is a shame, because it's a lot hotter when it hurts!
(Fun behind-the-scenes fact about Twice Shy: I originally only planned to have one scene with Robert feeding on Chris, but, writing the first feeding scene, I found myself going 'no, I fucked up, it's not hot if he's not in pain.' I was forced to engineer a way for it to hurt.)
is there an au or trope that you haven’t written before, but would want to try?
I had to think about this for a moment; usually, if I'm interested in writing a concept, I'll just write it! But maybe smut? I've written sex before, but my efforts at sex scenes tend to be very sparse and vague; I've never really attempted to write explicit, 18-rated 'you can see exactly what's going on' banging. It's crossed my mind that it'd be nice to be able to, but I find the prospect of research daunting; I feel the most educational options would probably be having sex for research purposes and/or watching a bunch of live-action pornography, neither of which I'm especially keen on.
what genre is generally the easiest or most enjoyable for you to write? which is the hardest?
I really enjoy writing comedy! I hadn't written much for a long time before getting into The Goes Wrong Show, and my Goes Wrong fandom adventures have really reminded me of how much fun it is to write something comedic. This may well be why I wrote such a startling amount for this fandom in such a short time; I was just having such a blast!
I really struggle with anything that requires sex or action scenes. I'm a dialogue person; description is something I'm much weaker on, and it's hard to get through a sex scene or an action scene without description!
if you could sit down and finish any completely new fic without anything stopping you (time, tiredness, etc), what would you write? tell us about it if you want!
Given that nothing is stopping me, including my tragic inability to write smut, I would write substantial quantities of absolute filth about Robert Grove of The Goes Wrong Show. The man does not get to fuck enough in fanfiction, and I deeply regret that I am unable to fix that.
To be fair, it’s not a smut-heavy fandom; I don’t think Robert specifically is being neglected! This is a ‘the fandom has a grand total of fourteen explicit fics’ situation rather than an 'everyone’s writing porn but nobody is into your favourite character’ one. But there is nonetheless a dire shortage of E-rated Robert fanfiction, and I can’t do anything about it!
what’s something you like about your writing?
I think I'm generally solid on character voice, provided we're in the magical window when I experienced canon recently and I have the voice established in my head! I lose my grip on character voice too quickly for my liking, but, while I've got it, it often feels like I have a good sense of how they'd phrase things. Some characters' voices come more naturally to me than others, though; I find it a lot easier to get into the 'middle-class, slightly pretentious English southerner' speech patterns of Chris Bean or Robert Grove than the voice of, say, Dean Winchester, who is a lot more American than I am.
is there a certain kind of fic that feels the most satisfying to finish? any reason why?
I post chaptered fanfiction very rarely, and I'm always nervous when I do! I've committed to this incomplete fic being seen in public; will I be able to finish it? I'm thrilled when I successfully manage to wrap one up.
if you were to write a part two/sequel to a fic, what fic would you want to write it for?
I wrote a Severance fic, The Long Road Home, in which Gemma escapes. I wanted to write a follow-up where it turns out she automatically severs when doing mundane or unpleasant tasks, e.g. going to the supermarket or the dentist, but I never managed to make it work. Here's basically all I managed to write of it, in case anyone's curious!
The forty-third time she wakes up, everything is different.
She’s still in a supermarket, of course. She’s always in a supermarket. But it’s not the same supermarket where she’s spent every other moment of her life: the windowless room, crammed with shelves.
There are windows here, there’s daylight; she doesn’t remember ever seeing it before. The room is larger than anything she could have imagined.
And it’s full of people. The only person she’s used to is the man who usually hands her a long shopping list and then goes to sit at the checkout, where he will later keep her waiting for up to two hours, despite the lack of a line.
There are actual lines here. The wait will probably be even worse. But it’s different, and she turns slowly on the spot, taking it in.
“Gemma?”
There’s a man next to her. She doesn’t know him. But he’s speaking to her.
“Gemma?” she echoes.
“You okay?”
“Is Gemma my name?” She’s never been given a name before.
Something changes sharply in the stranger’s expression. “Are you Ms Casey?”
“I—” She’s a little frightened by his sudden intensity. “I don’t know who I am. I just do the shopping.”
“Is this the Overtime Contingency? Do you remember Lumon?”
She can’t make sense of the questions.
“I just do the shopping,” she repeats. “I don’t remember anything else.”
is there a fic you wish you received feedback on, but didn’t get any/much?
There are assorted fics I've written that didn't get much feedback because they're in obscure fandoms, which is fine; that's to be expected! But the reception of Handprints (How to Get Away with Murder, Connor/Laurel/Michaela/Wes) surprised me a little; it's received almost a thousand hits, but only a single comment. For three and a half years, it had no comments at all, and I was convinced I'd screwed it up somehow; I was so thrilled when someone commented to say they liked it!
(
solspeak, having asked this question, then very kindly left a comment on the fic in question, so it now has two comments!)tell us about a wip/idea that you’re excited about!
I'm struggling with a shortage of ideas at the moment, unfortunately! There's one fic idea I've had that sort of fascinates me: the character of Chris is occasionally played by a woman in amateur productions of The Play That Goes Wrong, which got me wondering about writing Robert/female Chris. What changes about their dynamic when Chris is a woman; what stays the same? I bet Robert is still weirdly fixated on Chris, regardless of gender. But I just can't get any writing done on this concept; it's somehow not clicking into place in my head!
do you have any writing projects/goals/plans you’re working on/want to work on?
My writing goal is always just 'write things, have fun'! I've been contemplating whether to sign up to write fifty one-sentence fics about Robert Grove of The Goes Wrong Show for
1character, but I don't know if I'd be able to manage it; it's so tough to do comedy in one sentence.how do you want your writing to feel to your readers?
This is an interesting question to contemplate! I suppose, stylistically, you could say that what I'm aiming for is invisibility.
My writing style tends to be very straightforward and unornamented. It's not to everyone's tastes! (I got a comment eight years ago describing my writing style as bland and 'a bit boring' and encouraging me to 'put your voice into it', and I have carried the wound of it to this day.) Some fic authors come out with gorgeous, poetic, memorable lines in the narrative, and, alas, I'm not doing that.
But what I'm often trying to do is let the style fade into the background. I want the narration to be as comfortably readable as possible, so the reader can focus on the story or on what's being said. My main stylistic priority in a scene, particularly a dialogue scene, is often 'how do I keep the narration from being distracting?'
So I think I just want my writing to feel readable and flow well! And I hope it's clear that love and enthusiasm went into it; I like the idea that people might read my fics and go 'oh, the author was having fun with this concept' or 'the author really loves this character, doesn't she?'
give a hint/teaser about something you’re writing without any context or explanation!
Alas, I don't really have any writing projects on the go at the moment! I'm largely inviting these fic questions because I'm suffering from writer's block, and I'm hoping that talking about writing might shake some sort of inspiration loose. I've been sort of playing with the idea of a Goes Wrong Show fic in which Chris kicks Robert out of the drama society and then starts to miss him? But the problem is that this fic requires Robert not to be there, and I enjoy writing Robert far too much to accept that state of affairs.
answer any one of the other questions that you want to!
Most of the questions have been asked already (thank you all!), so I found myself contemplating 'if you were to rewrite [insert fic] with [insert different character/ship] how do you think it might change?', and it suddenly hit me that Twice Shy (The Goes Wrong Show, Robert/Chris, Robert becomes a vampire) could very easily be rewritten as a Robert/Vanessa fic! It's established that Robert is feeding on Vanessa offscreen, after all.
A Robert/Vanessa version of Twice Shy would basically just be the story from Vanessa's perspective. She learns that Robert is a vampire; she's terrified by the prospect of letting him drink her blood, both because being bitten by a vampire is inherently scary and because it's Robert, but she's worried about him being undernourished and she doesn't know how to say no. Like Chris, she's an anxious person who might find some relief in the calming qualities of Robert's venom. Unlike Chris, she's probably not going to tell Robert 'no, don't use the venom, make it hurt'. Which is a shame, because it's a lot hotter when it hurts!
(Fun behind-the-scenes fact about Twice Shy: I originally only planned to have one scene with Robert feeding on Chris, but, writing the first feeding scene, I found myself going 'no, I fucked up, it's not hot if he's not in pain.' I was forced to engineer a way for it to hurt.)
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Ahaha, for this I read a lot of other people's E fic. I like Literotica a lot.
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If you have sufficiently open-minded friends, you can sometimes ask them questions relevant to your writing. (Generally "Hey, friend who's comfortable answering sex questions, does what I'm planning to write in this scene make sense? Anything else I should include to make it feel real?" is less awkward than "I know you've had sex, what's it like?")
Aw! Get Robert fictionally laid!
Oh, interesting!
Ooh! I feel like Chris's end would change more than Robert's would. Like a woman in Chris's position would likely have different interpretations of Robert's behavior, while Robert would keep up the same Robert-ness.
I think your style isn't bland, it's good at knowing when to be spare, knowing when to not over-ornament the scene and instead let the moment land. I really like your writing.
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If you have sufficiently open-minded friends, you can sometimes ask them questions relevant to your writing.
Seconding this! And it's also the kind of thing that communities like little_details are for
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Get Robert fictionally laid!
A noble cause! I keep hopefully checking the AO3 tag.
I feel like Chris's end would change more than Robert's would. Like a woman in Chris's position would likely have different interpretations of Robert's behavior, while Robert would keep up the same Robert-ness.
This rings very true! It would be interesting to introduce female Chris and male Chris to each other and watch them discuss Robert, slowly realising that, although they have different perceptions of his treatment, he treats them exactly the same.
And thank you so much for your kind words about my writing! ♥
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Female Chris and male Chris together talking about Robert would be great! Especially if it was female Chris’s perspective, where she kept bringing up examples of behavior she suspected was sexist, and the other Chris as all “No, sorry, that’s just Robert still.”
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He is almost cartoonishly American, to be fair. Like Yosemite Sam levels.
I wanted to write a follow-up where it turns out she automatically severs when doing mundane or unpleasant tasks, e.g. going to the supermarket or the dentist, but I never managed to make it work.
That's a really interesting premise: like someone who has DID but instead of being triggered by Obviously Traumatic Situations, their front-swapping is caused by just... tasks.
(I love that snippet, I'm kind of sad you couldn't finish the fic).
(I got a comment eight years ago describing my writing style as bland and 'a bit boring' and encouraging me to 'put your voice into it', and I have carried the wound of it to this day.)
What a load of cobblers. What absolute nonsense.
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Thank you! Maybe I'll have another crack at it when I next revisit the show.
What a load of cobblers. What absolute nonsense.
I appreciate your support! I was able to recognise it as a difference in taste rather than anything I actually had to worry about, but it still bothered me a little. To be honest, my very petty reaction at the time was to look at their fanfiction just so I could internally go 'hmm, this is a bit overwritten, isn't it?' (I didn't say anything unkind to them, of course!)
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I also struggle with action scenes, though I'm less intimidated with conveying those accurately, for whatever reason.
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The live action porn isn't necessarily as useful as you might think? A lot of stuff in them is done so it's better for the viewer who wants to see various elements; you'd probably have to dig around to see what more independent producers are making for this and that, and then you'd have the other problem of not being able to see much.
Also stuff like actual foreplay tends to be rare as well.
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I suppose, stylistically, you could say that what I'm aiming for is invisibility.
This question/response was really interesting. I write similarly to what you describe and I'm always impressed by authors who have the ability to write really poetically/descriptively. But I like the way you put it, it makes me feel less like my writing is bland sjdhfkjshdf It's a stylistic choice!!