POP YOU STELLAR STUPENDOUS AND SWEETHEART OF A HUMAN BEAN HELLO, HELLO MY FREN HELLO *hugs*
I can’t believe you picked my nickname, oh my god bwaaaahahahahahahah, you darling ❤
D: If you had the choice of going without writing forever or going without dinner forever, which one would you choose?
THIS IS A TERRIBLE CHOICE, A TERRIBLE TERRIBLE CHOICE. But I think I have my solution. I will skip dinner – but I shall also begin keeping Hobbit-meals. Second Dinner shall happen, and THAT I shall have. 😀
E: Have you ever participated in National Novel Writing Month or any of its variations?
Nahhh, I’m happy just frolicking around in fanfic tbh.
T: What’s your favorite part of the writing process? Why?
That magic span of time – though sometimes it can be very brief – when you’re so deep in the moment that you can write and hear the characters say the dialogue as you type it, give an action and see it happen. Those perfect synchronous moments when you are able to slip into your character’s skins effortlessly, hopping from one to the next, seeing the world from their eyes, telling it, feeling it, trying to capture it all before it fades.
That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy those moments where it feels like carving or scultping something, laboriously and carefully, chip by chip, lest you shatter the whole thing. I absolutely do, I am a stickler for minute detail, I like the fine puzzle-piece research stuff HOLY HECK YES i do!
But those moments where you’re soaring and seeing and speaking and feeling, and your fingers can barely capture it – those are what makes it beautiful, for me.
(aaaaand naturally, when you come back to those moments in edit? Usually a big mess, lmao. I do hope that the raw emotion and connection between narrative and character remains after I’ve cleaned it and cleaned it. Hopefully I just distil it!!!)
S: Would you let a stranger off the streets read your first drafts?
Probably not, tbh. I am an obsessive sort of editor!!! I’d be like NO IT’S NOT ANYWHERE NEAR READY FOR HUMAN EYES. I’ve never let anyone read anything that was not 80-90% polished. I am my own worst nightmare. Comes from my English teacher background, I suspect!
I’ve gotten a few really sweet comments on Of Iron that have really made me feel guilty for not updating in… months… so I thought I’d dedicate this Sunday Six to that fic (since, despite appearances, it will continue. Eventually.)
Anyways.
Have my first ever foray into writing Bagginshield. (Well, offscreen Carrock sex Bagginshield, buuut Bagginshield nonetheless.)
(this gif is fucking amazing. I could stare at it forever.)
I would marry Bilbo, because living peacefully in Bag End sounds wonderful.
And I would…oh would you look at that. Guess I’m fuckin’ Sauron, too.
(Honest to god @determamfidd made ONE JOKE to me about Mairon being a Fallen Jedi (with the name change and everything IT WORKS) and Aule being his forlorn Jedi Master, and now I feel nothing but pain in TWO FANDOMS for this duo.)
Well, Sansukh is one of those amazing, game-changing type of fics that stick with you years upon years later, so chock full of amazing OCs and fantastic worldbuilding and character development that it raises the damn bar of what you expect out of fic. Stories in general really. Sansukh is definitely on my shortlist of “Why the fuck isn’t this a published novel series/movie set/WHAT HAVE YOU yet?”
Honestly, though, you gotta look beyond the fic itself too. @determamfidd deserves all the praise she gets and more. Not only is her writing superb, but she is a humble, caring, altogether kind person…and I think that translates well into Sansukh’s popularity. (You can write stupendous things to begin with, but if you’re an asshole people won’t go near it.)
But still, be wary calling her famous! In a sense, yes she is. I mean DAMN PEOPLE HAVE SANSUKH QUOTES TATTOOED ON THEIR SKIN AND THEY COSPLAY AS HER OCs IT’S SO TERRIFIC AND AWESOME TO SEE, but under all that she’s still just as much a fan as you or I, anon.
I’ve seen it happen before. People with very popular fics get hate spewed at them because of how much others love what they make. It’s such Catch-22 bullshit and it’s a horrible thing to see, so I’m wary of saying stuff like she is famous all (I’m a bit wary posting this ask ngl. I’d hate to see it fall on Dets negatively). If anything, fandom-famous is a better thing to put. At least in my humble opinion.
I’m gonna post it anyway, however, because Dets deserves to see it. Because nice words are nice words! Sansukh AND its creator are great!
Oh
my god
pop
*brain departs my body and orbits the earth several times making this sound: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*
Mahal save me, oh my heart, my wonderful friend. What an amazing, amazingly kind, gorgeously thoughtful thing to say. l am allasldjhfgaskjhdfgashjsgdfkjasghdf *brain ascends ONCE MORE*
ajsgdfjhdahgakjsgdfkajsh really though. You beautiful, wonderful talented and gorgeous soul. I count myself very lucky to know you and to call you my friend. I count myself very lucky that people like my lengthy what-if blabberings. I count myself GOBSMACKED AND FORTUNATE BEYOND WORDS that people like my blabberings enough to draw, sing, podfic, etc… and I am gasping and flattened with awe and gratitude that I’ve ever written anything that resonated with one or two folks to the extent that that they decided to tattoo it on their bodies. That. THAT. Just makes me want. TO.
*brain departs, puts a girdle round the earth once more: AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
I do get stupid hate messages, yeah. Not as bad as some (there’s some awesome folks who seem to get hate on a fucking weekly basis, which ????). It usually comes in waves. I brace myself every time i post a new chapter tbh. I used to get upset. But nowadays I just delete the bull and keep moving, so don’t worry, dude. The way they treat me and speak to me, like a thing or a machine or a corporation or some all-powerful Machiavellian manipulator, makes me feel… depersonalised and othered and not really real? I’m musing aloud here but yeah, it’s weird, it gets to the point where the hate is so removed from reality that I just detach. It’s just so preposterously OTT, it’s so evidently not real, it’s so not me. Like, I can barely manage myself and the hectic rush that my life has become, I have no time or energy for such nonsense? This idea of me is so skewed and rubbish. So I don’t take the spite to heart, I shrug, and I just move on. I’m a fan, and I’m doing exactly as other fans do.
idk, riffing on that idea: too, I feel it is amazingly, breathtakingly arrogant to speak for anyone other than yourself. That’s a personal belief, something I’ve held to for years. So when I see people declaring that they are the Sole True Representative of say, hmm, mental illness? (lol) in fandom AND THEREFORE BOSS OF EVERYTHING, ordering people about, silencing other mentally-ill people and trying to police other mentally-ill people’s fanfiction (wut), I can only eye-roll and think
And that stops me getting outraged at the arrogance of it.
Fandom ‘fame’ is funny, too. I’ve met truly famous folks before. The sort of people whose names have wikipedia entries. That’s fame, that’s perspective. Me, a small Aussie nerd, I have a Sansukh-sized playpen, tucked away in LOTR Niche Corner, somewhere in the vast and varied and gargantuan City-State of FANDOM which is itself a niche interest, let’s not forget lmao.
I like my playpen, and I’m so happy that others like visiting it.
*HUGS POP TIGHTLY* ilu my dear, you know I do (how can I NOT GUSH OVER YOUR STUFF THO it is AMAZING you are AMAZING and also I am ashamed that I haven’t ever seen ROTS so i dunno anything about your current stuff BUT I WILL WATCH IT OVER THE HOLIDAYS, BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE INCOMING-FLAIL OF DOOOOOM)
So…anyone remember that Camp Nano project I talked about earlier? The Kylo Ren and Finn surprise Force bond one?
Well, I made a cover for it so you know I be serious now.
Finally came up with a title, too! I think ‘Traitor’ will work rather fucking nicely, wouldn’t you say? (Especially when the plot revolves around, you know, two traitors. And yes, because I like the meme, too.)
I also might make a Kylo variant piece to this, for giggles.
And if you’re wondering why his hair is so long, it’s because the fic takes place quite a few months after TFA, so I assume he’d probably let the fro go free for a bit. I mean, I doubt the First Order just let them wear their hair however they pleased. They probably had regulation hair lengths or some shit Idk…
Aw Yiss 