The Musings of the Midnight Fox

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

Still Life with Dogs is by far my favourite. It's Canon compliant, treats all the main characters as real and rounded, and is deliciously funny without any smut.

Seriously.

It is possible, and to tell the truth, I prefer writing romance and feelings. And I can't help but think that the possibilities that lie after the last scene in the story are much sweeter than many I could write overtly.

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

In front of the telly (with a music video collection on), and on the computer. But if I'm travelling, I'll take a large notepad and write by hand. Although it's a total pain to transcribe it after.

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

Alas, no. Although my husband certainly gives plenty of helpful (and not-so-helpful) advice on stuff.

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The wonderful rivertempest pointed me at this animation, the "Prince's Story". Be warned - it's a four-hanky job.

*sniff* *sniff* *Iamnotasymp*

Ahem.

Back to the serious stuff.

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

I mainly post to the Pit of Voles, although they have ratings restrictions, and while some people tend to ignore them, I wouldn't post my darkest fic there. The Petulant Poetess is another I will post more at. Stories posted there have to be edited by their people for grammar, canon, etc, and they're really tough about it, and that makes me feel inadequate so I've not put as many there as I should. But I fully acknowledge that my writing could do with the improvement, so I will put the sshg_exchange piece there. Which nicely leads to the next bit:

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?

My dear husband is my main Beta, and thank goodness for that or a half a chapter would have been missing from the last one. Very short stuff I tend not to get anyone to check, because I can guarantee that as soon as it's up, all the errors will dance wildly about and yell at me to fix them :-)

AS to horror or dream, no, luckily. I've beta'd one for last year's LBB, and while there were mistakes, it was more because the author wasn't writing in English, and there weren't many. Less than mine, in fact. I've never beta'd anything that was written with terrible grammar, although I have beta'd a couple where the story itself wasn't great (trite dialogue, cliched scenes, just not engaging). My main trouble with that is it's often hard for me to pick why the story isn't working.

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

I lost a few bunnies along the way, so I now have a lovely little Moleskin notebook in my wallet that I write the bunnies in. Most will be useless, but you never know...

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

Not really, no. Not that I know of. Although I'm aware that some ideas might have filtered through from other areas without me being aware of them. (One of the hassles of being an Aspie is apparently it's quite common, but then I've seen plenty of non-Aspies do it too. Especially when it comes to women in meetings having their ideas taken...)

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16 – Summaries – Do you like them or hate them? How do you come up with them, if you use them?

As someone who has read far too many cheesy romances, bad thrillers and cheap sci-fi, writing a summary (or a teaser) isn't usually that hard. I just imagine what would draw people in.

Severus caught Tonks and Bill doing something steamy in the bathroom.
Luna, her soul still damaged after the final battle, has bought an old Children's Home outside a grubby mill town. Hermione is helping her turn it into a refuge, but someone who had been there as a child comes back. (Probably the longest fic on the site)
Why did Dolores Umbridge have so many kitten plates?

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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've written the Really Naughty Stuff, but it's not so much a matter of being comfortable as writing it believably. (I've written straight smut too, and that too tended to be a little unrealistic). I do prefer to do the whole "what they're feeling" rather than "What they're doing" in the naughty bits. More of M or MA (M+/R US) than NC-17. This doesn't mean that I don't like reading it - I just prefer my smut to be believable and I have problems myself writing that.

And I was very amused when, by total accident. "Still Life" ended up G rated! (I only called it PG because of one reference to "Merlin's large and pendulous hairy ..."). In fact, the review of it that I loved the most was from a lady who had cracked up laughing reading it and her nine-year-old had asked what was so funny, so she read it to her daughter!

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12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

Alas,no. And I should. Although there's an awful lot of Jane Austen-style-HP stuff out there.

Ohhhh - Severus/Hermione as the Assassination Bureau. ***plots***


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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 deliberately went outside my comfort zone for Reliable, and was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked out. Dragon Taming is Charlie/Neville, and that too surprisingly made sense and was easy to write.

I had to push myself to write the Smut for a kinkfest, and while I thought Draco would be easy, he just came out nasty. To Pansy, to Hermione, to Ron - and just generally. And I'm not happy with how he came out in Changes, a Hermione/Draco piece. It just didn't feel right.

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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.

Ohhh, I've been waiting for this question.

Yes. And I wrote two stories particularly for the "Not a Mary Sue" Challenge on marysues (the challenge fizzled but the stories got done).

What do I do to make them not Mary Sues?

There's a bit (a lot, actually) of basing them on people I know. There's some "what is their weakness" stuff too - the little old lady in Next Door, for all her protestations, is the fussy, nosy neighbour who is still likeable, but sometimes a bit much. And the Cafe Lady just got toned down a pile to get her there. I was very proud of her. That, and the perfect non-Mary Sue thing - give her an outrageous name that she hated and much preferred the mundane version of.

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6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

Usually I prefer male characters, because I can write them more straightforwardly. Females I write are supposed to be strong (thanks, Beckett and Hermione), and I have extreme problems writing fluff.

That, and thanks to a few quirks in my own makeup, I just don't understand Girl politics. This does, however, mean that I can write a girl who doesn't understand girl politics :-)

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