Thirty Days - Day Thirty

Day 30 – Do you have a favorite story you’ve written? What makes it your favorite?

Favorite story? No. Favorite storylines, yes. My favorite storylines are pretty much the main arcs that I've written in the various fandoms. For Darkwing Duck that's my Tension Convention and Like Earth and Water story-verse. I love the Bushroot/Liquidator pairing, and I enjoy playing around in the head canon I have set up around the Darkwing Duck characters as a whole. I'm looking forward into getting into the stuff I have planned but not written/posted yet, as I have plans for other characters that haven't turned up yet. (Loopy McQuack and Camille Chameleon, just to name two.)

For Voltron, it's my Chronicles of a Dark Planet storyline. That's probably obvious considering how much of my writing in that fandom is focused on it, and how even a number of my side stories (like the Doom Fleet: The Boot Camp Years series, for instance) come from that same fanon universe. I'm not ashamed to admit that I love my take on Doom and their society, and all my other OC Doomites that have become a fixture in it, such as the Aldar'ach clan.

For Thundercats, I think I can get a little more specific and say Revival and Path into the Darkness are my favorite stories. They're part of the same universe, but I really enjoyed being able to expand it and do things with other characters and imagine what it might've been like a little bit in the future and past. I enjoyed the way these stories really let me get into the heads of the characters in different settings. It's also fun to write the Lunatacs as semi-good guys. They'll never be "good" (at least, not the six we saw in canon) but in this storyline they're gray area characters and protagonists rather than just the Thundercats' enemies like they were in the show.

And so we've reached the end of the 30-day Q&A session! I hope you've all enjoyed reading my answers as it's gone along. It was a lot of fun to do.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Nine

Day 29 – What is your current project or projects?

From how recently I've posted anything, you would think I don't have any! The last fanfiction I posted online was almost a year ago now. That makes me kind of sad. I have tinkered with some stories since then, though.

In the Darkwing Duck fandom, I have two storylines I'm working on. One is the sequel to Tension Convention and the other is Forget Me Not. On the Voltron front, topping my to-do list is editing and posting Crown of Arus, my 2011 Nano story. Thundercats is the fandom lowest on my priority list, but if I did get bitten by that fandom bug, I'd probably consider my rewrites of old fic still the biggest project. My mind is blocked from working on new material until I can go through all of what's up of Path Into the Darkness and make sure it's up to the standard of the other stories I polished in the last couple of years.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Eight

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

Yes. I haven't done any collabs in a long time, though. Most of these were over ten years ago back in the Thundercats fandom. It was interesting how when I collaborated with different people, how we would go about writing. One story was written with a friend over IM, where essentially we each wrote for certain characters and their reactions. When the story was finished, we put it all in a document and polished it up so it flowed properly.

Other times it was done round robin style, where one of us would write some, and then email the document to the other. We'd go over what the other person wrote, add in our input, expand and write new material, and send it back, until it was done.

I don't really do collaborations much these days. My husband is the only person I've co-written with in recent years, and that's because he's conveniently located in my house and we can discuss things in real time. When we do collab-type work, we go about it in the way described above, with taking turns going over the document, adding to it, and passing it on to the other, though.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Seven

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

I missed yesterday, so we get two today. It's just as well, since I've got a short and sweet answer for this one. I always write at the computer. I find writing by hand very slow and tedious since I type so much faster than I write. Most of the time I write on my desktop computer, but occasionally I'll take my laptop out onto my deck and write there when it's nice out.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Six

Day 26 – What is the oddest (or funnest) thing you’ve had to research for a story?

Most of the time I don't need to do much research for my stories. If I do, it's usually just something like double-checking a word's meaning on something like dictionary.com, or little things in canon to be sure I have the details about something that happened right.

As far as actual research goes, I've looked up scientific names of plants while writing stories involving Bushroot. I'm not a big enough biology nerd that I know all of them off the top of my head. I've also double-checked some plant biology specifics to be sure I'm doing it right. While I did know all of that at one point, it's been many years since I took the biology class that went over botany in detail, and I like to double-check what I think is correct before I write it in.

What makes that the oddest thing I've had to research? The fact that I was checking reproductive biology of plants to see how Bushroot could or would reproduce if he wanted to do so, and what a mutant plant-duck would find sexy.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Five

Day 25 – Music – Do you listen to music while you write? Do you make playlists to get into a certain “mood” to write your story? Do you need noise in general? Or do you need it completely quiet?

Sometimes I have music on when I write, and sometimes I don't. It depends on how distracting I find the music at the time. If I do have it on, though, it has to be the right music. The wrong background noise can throw me out of the zone for writing. Other than that, I need it to be quiet when I'm writing. It's not a coincidence that I get a lot of my writing done when my son is at school or otherwise out of the house, and when my husband is doing other stuff that doesn't involve conversing with me or trying to engage me in some way.

As far as the music goes, I am one of those people who has playlists for different characters, pairings, and storylines. For example, my "Bushroot" playlist has 16 songs. My "Bushy/Liqui" and "Bushy/Rhoda" lists have 23 and 20 songs, respectively. My "Voltron Fic (Chronicles)" playlist has 26 songs, and my "Thundercats Fic (Path)" has 15. Some songs overlap, too. Guns 'N Roses "November Rain," for instance, is on both the Chronicles (for Lotor/Allura) and Bushroot/Rhoda playlists. "Weird Science" by Oingo Boingo is on both Bushroot's playlist and the Chronicles list, because it's also a Haggar song. I also have a playlist called "Negaverse" that has songs that inspire me for the Origins of the Friendly Four storyline, and some short playlists for DW/Morgana and Megavolt/Quackerjack, as well as a general DWD fic playlist. That has a range of stuff from Ugly Kid Joe's "Everything About You" (a Negaduck song) to "Delicious" by Andy Bell/Claudia Brucken, a song about a bitter divorce that makes me think of Bud and Brooke Flood. (Although I did once make an AMV of that to Lotor/Merla, as it also fits them.)

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Four

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

I use one beta: my husband. He's great for bouncing ideas off of and showing first drafts to, because he'll give me feedback and let me know if things work or not. He's got a good grasp on characterizations in the fandoms I write for, and always has solid advice and input for plot points. It works out well, because I beta for him the same way when he writes.

The only downside is that his grammar, spelling, and punctuation leave a bit to be desired. I make up for that by doing multiple edits on my own work. I'll read through the first draft with him, and then let that sit for a couple of days. Then I'll tackle it again, and go through fixing things like awkward word flow, editing out adverbs that aren't needed (too many always sneak in on those first drafts), and typos. Then I let it sit again.

On the third read-through, if I only find a few things to fix, I'll fix those and call it good to post. If I find I've had to do more editing than expected, I'll let it sit yet again, and do a fourth read-through and edit. By that point, the story is usually ready to post, but if not, I'll rinse-repeat that process until I do feel confident that it's polished well enough to share.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Three

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Thirty Days - Day Twenty-Two

Day 22 – Have you ever participated in a fest or a Big Bang? If so, write about your favorite experience in relation to one. If not, are there any you’ve thought about doing? And if not, why not?

None of those specifically. I have done NaNoWriMo several times, though, and that's bigger than a Big Bang, I think. (Those are fics that are 25k words or more, right?) I enjoy Nano, but it does get stressful, so I'm glad it's only done once a year. The years I've been successful, I had to make writing a high priority at the expense of other things, and by the end of it, I've always felt frazzled and burnt out as well as accomplished. The year I failed Nano, I was distracted by a burning desire to play Sims 3 Late Night, because it had just come out.

I've never signed up for a Big Bang for two reasons. Number one is that I write in small fandoms that don't have a lot of people doing writing challenges. Lack of interest and people to geek out with is a big factor. Also, most of my friends in fandom are just as busy as I am, and would have an equally hard time committing to writing a big story in a short amount of time. Nano is a big organzied event, and not all my friends from fandom manage to finish each year. A lower-pressure one would probably get even less participation, and I just don't find participating in that stuff alone as much fun.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty-One

Day 21 – Sequels – Have you ever written a sequel to a story you wrote, and if so, why, and if not, how do you feel about sequels?

Yeah, I've done the sequel thing many times. Usually it's because I like the storyline and don't want to see it end, so I think about how it might continue. It's also a bonus when people say they want to see a sequel because they liked the original so much. That can make me think about continuing when I might've otherwise left it alone.

Years ago, when I wrote Stone Sickness, it was supposed to be a stand-alone story with a different ending than it wound up with. Some feedback I got along the way made me want to change it to a less depressing ending, and from there, continue. I'm a sucker for fluff, so I did go ahead with that, although I never wrote a story following up on the last one posted in that series. I have a couple of starts to it on my hard drive from back then (2001 or so) but I couldn't decide exactly what I wanted to do with it, and then I started to lose interest in that fandom for a while, so it just died.

Thirty Days - Day Twenty

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

Bunnied inspired? I'm starting to think that something ate the word "or" in the original copy/paste of this list.

Sometimes I get inspired to by others' stories. Reading a good story about a character or pairing that makes me think more about them can lead me to want to use those characters or that pairing in my own writing. Often that happens with characters I haven't thought much about one way or another before.

With art, where crack pairings are all over the place, I sometimes get to thinking, "interesting idea. I wonder how that could actually work..." and then a story to explain it starts to form in my head.

Thirty Days - Day Nineteen

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

Bunnies ideas? Heh, I think someone needs to beta-read their questions.

Anyway, it's rare that I can sit down and write an idea right away. Like I said in a previous answer, I'm often not anywhere near a computer when I get an idea like that. If I remember, I try to at least jot the basics down in a notebook for when I do have time and the ability to write them out uninterrupted. I'm one of those people who can't have many distractions around when I write, so finding the right time to write can be a challenge in and of itself.

Thirty Days - Day Eighteen

Day 18 – Where do you get the most inspiration for your stories (aka “bunnies”) from?

Music, driving and/or walking alone, and other shows or movies. Music is probably biggest one, because if I hear a song that makes me think of a character or storyline, it gets the wheels turning. I have playlists for various characters, pairings, and storylines in my iTunes, and whenever I discover a song that fits in it, I update it. Listening to those playlists can really help get the creative juices flowing.

When I go on walks or drives, my mind often wanders to story ideas. Granted, I also tend to listen to music on these, and that gets the inspiration started, but that combined with the solitude has given me many an idea. Also, walks or drives with my husband often involve discussion about story ideas, and we bounce stuff off of each other. Lots of good ideas have come from those sessions. Unfortunately, it's also a time where I can't write anything because I'm driving or not at a computer, so sometimes that inspiration evaporates by the time I get to one.

Last but not least, sometimes watching or reading stuff in a similar genre or setting can inspire fic thoughts. Watching Game of Thrones and reading the A Song of Ice and Fire books with all of its fantasy medieval political intrigue brought me right into the mindset of writing my Voltron stories. (Yeah, I know Voltron is space fantasy, but it also has a medieval flavor to it as far as the royalty and such in it goes.) Shows like Rome and The Tudors also helped with inspiration for my Chronicles of a Dark Planet stories. It helps that all those series have characters that remind me of some of the Doom crew.

In a different vein, I've found recently that watching reruns of World's Dumbest... on TruTV makes me think of the Fearsome Five or the Lunatacs working like the cast of that as a MST crew of sorts. When Coldwin and I watch that, we both sometimes say things like, "I can see Negaduck saying that to rip on that guy," or "Haha that was such a TugMug line!"

Thirty Days - Day Seventeen

Day 17 – Titles – Are they the bane of your existence, or the easiest part of the story? Also, if you do chaptered story, do you give each chapter a title, or not?

Whoops! Somehow I got a week behind on this. It's like the New Year made me take a vacation. (Or was that Sims 3?) Anyway, the good news is that means I'm going to catch up with seven entries today!

Now onto the question. Titles are a pain for me. Often they're the last thing I come up with before posting a story, or at least the first chapter of a story. I was almost done with my Nano story, Crown of Arus, before I decided that would be the title. I had it there as a tentative title, but I was never thrilled with it and hoped something better would inspire me. Path Into the Darkness, my longest (and still unfinished, sigh) fanfic to date, is one of those titles I still feel "meh" about, and it took what felt like forever just to come up with that.

I love it when titles just click in my head and I'm like, "YES! That's what I'm calling it." I find humor fic titles easier, because puns and spoof names come to me naturally. Tension Convention was one of those titles. I think my favorite title ever is still These Boots are Made for Knockin', my Voltron humor lemon where Cossack winds up with lust-inducing odor eaters in his footwear.