Tag: how does a Dets write?

Do you ever listen to music when you write? If so what kind? What’s your favorite? I think that sometimes what you’re listening to affects the writing, at least it does for me when I write.

Not really – I’m a muso, and I’ve been trained since a very young age to give music my full attention. It can be annoying, actually, particularly when you’re watching a film and you miss the dialogue bc you’re listening to the film score, ugh. 

So, I tend to listen to ambient soundscapes when I write, if I listen to anything at all. Mostly not, tbh. 

This is one that I used a bit when writing the Paths of the Dead, for instance.

And The Guild of Ambience are awesome. Seriously awesome. 

Or, I sometimes listen to a piece of music and then write, while the emotions & thoughts the music brought up in me are still strong and fresh. Sometimes I will hear a piece of music and it will instil the urge to write in me, without my direction or intention lmao.

When you write Sansukh, do the characters have voices in your head? Are they the voices of actors from the movies? The cast of the podfic? Really curious about how those inner voices might influence your writing, I know it influences mine sometimes. When the characters have voices, they feel a bit more real and less like I’m controlling them.

A bit of all-of-the-above!

At first, I had the actors from the films for many of the characters – however, not ALL. I did not always hear JRD for Gimli, for instance… I ‘heard’ someone similar, but closer to how I’d imagined Gimli speaking when I first read the books way back in the 90′s. It was a mishmash of actor voices and my own internal ideas of how the character should sound. Not always coherent!

After the podfic came out, I began hearing Cully as Gimli, without fail. Cully of the golden tonsils, my star! @culumacilinte

I hear Ricky unfailingly for the narration nowadays, and I write the descriptions with their smooth, engaging, flexible honey voice in mind. @fuckthisimgoingtoerebor

I still hear Christopher Lee for Saruman and John Noble for Denethor, etc…

But I 300% hear @baruk-hashem for Thorin now, and not Richard Armitage. @poplitealqueen‘s adorable goddamn voice is Pippin to me, not Billy Boyd. @morvidra IS Fili to me, not Deano.

I cannot CANNOT hear myself as Mahal. Frankly, I hear a nonspecific deep boomy voice when I write him!

I HAD A GOOD WRITING NIGHT, AT LONG LONG LAST (probably bc I had an hour and a half! HUZZAH). I just pumped out 1.7K in one sitting!   

I’ve missed having a decent stretch of actual, uninterrupted writing time. 

For the ask thing I’ll do N I A ;)

Hi Nina! *hugs*


N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you? 

If anyone would write a Gigolas opera AU, I would probably go INTERSTELLAR WITH HAPPINESS. 

(but i beg: please, please don’t make Legolas amazingly kickass and competent, and Gimli as mundane and boring as batshit, pleasepleaseplease i am TiredTM )

I: Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

Nah, not really? I will read what I like, cheerfully and without guilt, heh. See you all in the Special Hell. 


A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

For Sansukh, I thought of Gimli’s Dark-name first. I liked it so much, and thought it had a lot to say about the story as a whole, so I used it!

I had a HELL of a time finding the title for ‘Snowmelt’. Eventually I was re-reading my work in frustration, and one word stood out to me: “We are probably bathing in snowmelt.”

BAM, done, post, AUGH. 

Oddly enough, it ended up being a really good title!

‘Some Other Beginning’s End’ was a quote – I was looking for quotes about firsts, because of the prompt! but I liked that one the best.

‘So Cloaked and So Crowned’ is a title that came out of nowhere. I can’t remember if it is a half-remembered lyric, or from a play, or WHAT. I can’t find it anywhere else, and so I am forced to conclude that it came wholly from the murky recesses of my brain. 

‘From One Age to Another’ didn’t have a title until the very last sentence. Neither did ‘They Know.’

Irreconcilable Differences is one that had a title before I had a storyline! I wanted a divorce joke, heh. 

A large part of me wants to ask EVERY SINGLE ONE PLEASE but I’ll sticks with DETS. (Though if you wanna do them all, do it. Please)

ILU POP THANK YOU ❤

Um, I’ve answered D, T and S, so here’s E! (I CAN’T FACE ANSWERING THEM ALL IN ONE GO – snippets is good!)

E: If you wrote a sequel to [insert fic], what would it be about?

If I wrote a sequel to Sansukh, it would be about the modern fanfiction Sisyphus, forever working upon a story that never seemed to end. 

lmao, joking aside tho, I will be pottering in the Sansukh Appendices for some time, I think, but it will not have a sequel. The story is nearly finished, and when it is done, it’s done. 

If I was to write a sequel to ‘Irreconcilable Differences’, though. Hmm. That has some appeal!

Possibly I’d write something about the Infinity Gauntlet stuff, when it comes out? I always enjoyed that TBP (it’s on my shelf right now, about three metres away). I liked the conversation between Hulk and Wolverine. ‘In our way, we’re both monsters, pal.’ Classic stuff.

I would also like to add more about Steve and the Buckster.

Possibly Stucky too.

My characterisation in IR of Steve is very influenced by the first Avengers film, and there’s been a whole crapton of meta and two more Cap films since then. I feel like I know him better these days!

I’d also add more friendship between Steve and Bruce, bc heck these boys have a lot in common. 

Still Science Boyfriends, absolutely – I liked Bru/tasha and read fics about them before AoU came out. Then it came out, and URGH no – I completely disliked the ship afterwards. Which I thinks says that fic writers are better at writing both characters than Joss Whedon, frankly. 

And developing the nascent relationship I left Natasha and Clint in at the end of IR could be fun. 

for the ask game- L O T R ;)

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Answered 🙂

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

Usually with a half-baked idea for a plot. Then it all gets a Lot Bigger. 

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

Turning a good character into a villain in order to give a ship an artificial antagonist, fridging the female characters and minimising their friendships and relationships, woobiefying the bad-but-pretty ACTUAL villain, trite oversimplification of characters, codependency, cramming one member of a m/m ship into a ‘feminine’ stereotype – ok, look, this list is long and I am stopping here 😀

I have AO3 Savior, and I recommend it wholeheartedly!

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

OH MY GOD TONS AND TONS. I am indebted to Terry Pratchett, Ursula Le Guin and Tolkien, of course. Douglas Adams, who basically sculpted my sense of humour. Also, Diana Wynne Jones, the queen of clean and conversational prose. There are a lot more, but my mind is coming up blank this evening!

There are honestly a zillion fanfic writers who have influenced my style over the years. I’ve been reading fanfic for 15 years, after all! I humbly salute each and every one of you. ❤