Writing Meme

Got this one from Jaiden.

1. Describe your comfort zone—a typical you-fic.
I like to write humor. And awful sadness… so you get one or the other and sometimes both.
2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?
Not really.
3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?
I have written almost everything but I don’t write much of anything explicit anymore. 
4. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?
Hmm, maybe two.  One is a continuation of Steve/Tony after Civil War.
5. Share one of your strengths.
I can jerk on heartstrings.  Is that a strength?  
6. Share one of your weaknesses.
I get impatient and rush endings.
7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
From Rumors of War:
June 1876 

Little Big Horn River

 

The buzzards flew over ahead of General Terry and his troops.  He expected to see dead Indians, many dead Indians, even after meeting up with several groups of Cheyenne and Sioux in Army Blue.  No one could kill that little yellow haired bastard Custer, no matter what he’d been told.  He had come to believe this almost as much as Custer himself believed it.  Everyone else had believed it too.

 

This time they were wrong.  All of them.

 

Dead wrong. 

 

Terry and his men had warning, but it did not prepare them for the scene.   Scattered all the way down the hill toward the Little Big Horn River were the already rotting corpses of horses and the pale bodies of dead soldiers.  Lots of bodies. 

 

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.
This is from “Love is a War of Lightning”    (She is Natasha Romanov)
The pizza was good with thin crust and lots of fresh toppings. And cheese.  It was smothered in cheese.  He ate the first piece in record speed and dug into a second one.

“God, have you never had food before?”

“I’m hungry!”  He opened a beer and took a long drink.

“Do you do everything like that?”  She asked and her meaning was clear.

 

He blushed and didn’t answer. 

“So are you going to ask Sharon out?”

“Really?  The whole word is falling apart and you ask me that?”

“Steve Rogers, you need fucking worse than anyone I know.  You are uptight and cranky and a pain in the ass.”

 

He opened his mouth and closed it.  What could he say? 

9. Which fic has been the hardest to write?
“No Safe Place” because the subject matter was abuse and torture.  
10. Which fic has been the easiest to write?
“’Til the End of the Line” because it was just so fun to write Cap and Tony.
11. Is writing your passion or just a fun hobby?
Depends on the day.
12. Is there an episode above all others that inspires you just a little bit more?
Hmmm. Not even sure what that means.
13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?
Write every day.
14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?
Never use first person.
15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?
Rumors of War
16. If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?
Not big on pairings anymore.  But I like Steve and Tony right now.
17. Do you write your story from start to finish, or do you write the scenes out of order?
Start to finish.
18. Do you use any tools, like worksheets or outlines?
No, but I do research, lots and lots of research.
19. Stephen King once said that his muse is a man who lives in the basement. Do you have a muse?
Nope.
20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.
Here at my desk.
21. How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?
Not a lot.  I write it and read over it and fix things that don’t work.  
22. Have you ever deleted one of your published fics?
I don’t think so.
23. What do you look for in a beta?
someone to fix my typos and reversed words.
24. Do you beta yourself?
Yeah for several people.
25. How do you feel about collaborations?
I did one with a lunatic – it was awful but the others I’ve done were nice.
26. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.
Truthfully, I seldom read any fiction so these are old ones.  I liked Runedancer’s zany story, but she ran into some awful fan and left the fandom for good.  That’s all I got right now…
27. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?
Um, no idea.
28. Do you accept prompts? Sure.
29. Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?
I like canon.
30. How do you feel about smut?
I don’t read a lot of it.  Those days passed.
31. How do you feel about crack?
Love it.

32. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?
Not a lot of interesting in reading it but I have written such things.
33. Would you ever kill off a canon character?
Not if they don’t die in canon.
34. Which is your favorite site to post fic?
OEAM
35. Current WIPs – Um, if I’ve abandoned them, they’re not WIPs.

36. Talk about a review that made your day.
Once a person wrote me about the one Brokeback Mountain fic I wrote and said my story was the perfect ending to Janck and Ennis’ story and my voice was just like Annie Proulx’s.
37. Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

No, not really.  The oddest one was when someone sent me a review for my Sherlock Holmes investigates Lizzie Borden and said that I got the murderer all wrong. 
38. Write an alternative ending to [insert fic title] (or just the summary of one).
For No Safe Place, I almost had Orando Kill Viggo.