FanFic Ask Me Anything ~*~ Version 3.0 Daily Questions (See list on pg 164 or 1)

Findswoman - of the many sequels written by the Baroness about the further adventures of The Scarlet Pimpernel and his League, I would recommend The Elusive Pimpernel, Eldorado and The Triumph of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Unfortunately Marguerite's character development (or lack thereof) leaves a lot to be desired, but they are still fun reads.

This is something I thought I've thought a lot about in the past, especially when I've looked at common traits across my favourite characters and 'ships, and my "types" become pretty obvious.

1. I love out and out heroes with essentially kind hearts and great compassion for their fellow beings, leading them to do great things, but also heroes that do have that dark streak/potential for darkness they always have to fight against and overcome, showing just how difficult it can be sometimes do the right thing and act selflessly.

2. Strong women who are generally aloof, dry and private, but who usually learn to become more open through exposure to number 1 without losing their edge.

3. I lean very much towards introspection and character-driven work, and am less interested in plot, detail and world-building other than as a tool to get characters into a situation I find interesting so they can work out their respective issues.

 

Day 4 - examples can be found at TV Tropes if you would like to refer to something specific.

1. Are there any character types/tropes that you particularly dislike and why?

2. Are there any fiction tropes/cliches in general that you dislike and why?

3. Would you ever consider taking either 1 or 2 (or both) and try to put your own spin on it? If you can think of something you could do, please share it.

 

First of all - while it freaks me out when people *reduce real life* to trope speak, studying, deconstructing, applying, averting and subverting tropes has been one of my favourite hobbies of the past three years or so; so...I welcome and appreciate this particular set of questions. I am disappointed that there wasn't a positive set preceeding it, the way it was with the underrated and overrated works of art, but either way...this will be fun, oh my!

1. Are there any character types/tropes that you particularly dislike and why?
This is going to be a long list.

Tsundere, Yandere, Kuudere and all the other types of things that are basically more human than manic pixie dream girls, but for some reason, reality is annoying, needs to be simplified and/or taken to extremes.

A man is always eager, sex as a rite of passage and other bro type of stuff.

Girl on girl is hot and Guy on guy is hot - as said in the other thread, that's objectification of LGBTQ people, trivialisation of feelings that are in no way related to unresolved sexual tension and...I don't even want to think how trans and ace equivalents of this are called, but it makes me sick.

2. Are there any fiction tropes/cliches in general that you dislike and why?
Any kind of a plot where a person is accepted only when they become beautiful or whatever. Any kind of a plot where sex is salvation. Any kind od a plot where everything is mainly borrowed from Anglophone cultures. Any kind of a plot where mental and neurological conditions are turned into Hollywood slime: e.g when all autistics are idiot savant types, when a depressed person is necessarily suicidal and so on.

3. Would you ever consider taking either 1 or 2 (or both) and try to put your own spin on it? If you can think of something you could do, please share it.

Aaaand how. I am doing it all the time, especially with 1.

Here is the first example I can think of: in the third chapter of my main fic I averted the AManIsAlwaysEager trope and I think most readers didn't understand that playing it straight would have been date rape, amongst other things.

 

I had to ponder these answers a bit, my immediate thoughts didn't turn out to be quite right.

1. Do you have a male character "type" that you're particularly drawn to read/write about?
For the vast majority of the time, I'm attracted to the Anti-hero with a heart of gold (most of the time anyway). In thinking about my favorite male characters, a lot of them tend to have done something bad, or are bad, but underneath it they are doing what's right. It might not be in the best way, or the way society thinks they should, but they are good people.

Then there are the exceptions, where I like the sweet, almost pure good boy. Luke is a prime example of that. When does one win over the other, I have no idea because with the above, Han should be my favorite SW character, and I love him, but he is not.


2. Do you have a female character "type" that you're particularly drawn to read/write about?
Strong, passionate, smart, talented. But sadly, I'm a product of current times, and the vast majority of my favorite characters are men and the vast majority of the time, I'll pick to read and write about a man over a woman. It's something I've been working on, because I think it sucks, but it's true.

Everyone knows I love Mara Jade, but a recent example of a woman I really, really like (but isn't reading) is Olivia Pope from Scandal. I've only recently started watching, but I think she's a very well written woman. She is strong, but has her times that she is emotional, she is very smart, but occasionally does stupid things, she's very real and that's not something we get in female characters all that often.


3. Do you have a favourite genre/characterisation/area of interest that you are particularly drawn to read/write about?
I'm really drawn to times of high emotion, struggle, the human connection. How do people deal with things when times are tough. I love the occasional happy, happy, fluff, but I want to know how people react when times aren't great and when things are at their worst. So I guess I would say very character driven things, character development, and how that person got there.

 

Draco in Leather Pants/Ron the Deatheater.

To me, if a villain has crossed that Moral Event Horizon, there is no turning back. They are evil. They are evil, and no amount of brushing their evil deeds under the rug so that only their good side is the focus will change the fact that they are evil.

Giovanni is evil and manipulative and I don't care if he looks damn fine in a Speedo because Evil is Sexy, he is still EVIL.

Conversely, turning a nice character into an unrepentant megalomaniac also drives me nuts. Yes, we all have our dark sides, but come on! There usually isn't any good reason for the Ron the Deatheater trope, anyway. It's just a "I don't like this character, so I'm gonna make them unrepentantly evil!"

Hollywood Autism.

Not all autistics are eight-year-old nonverbal white boys who have savant math skills and an interest in train schedules.

I've played with the Draco in Leather Pants trope a few times in the past. Though, when I do, I try to find a balance between the good parts and the bad parts of a character and give them equal representation.

 

1. Are there any character types/tropes that you particularly dislike and why?

For female characters: Alpha *****, this is how Mara Jade reads to me and why I intensely dislike her. Snobby, bossy, sharp tongue, violent, and so many other things do not equal strong in my book. Yes, I know many here read her differently and as Luke's OTP mate but so not me.

Bad*** Princess is another, just don't like a gritty violent girl.

For men I detest Dirty Old Man because I LOVE me Elders! They are fabulous and age gap attraction is hardly awful.

2. Are there any fiction tropes/cliches in general that you dislike and why?

All Amazons Want Hercules

No, just no. Beefcake does NOT cut it for every girl.

3. Would you ever consider taking either 1 or 2 (or both) and try to put your own spin on it? If you can think of something you could do, please share it.

I do age gap pairings all the time to combat Dirty Old Man nonsense.

 

1. Agreed on Draco in Leather Pants/Ron the Death Eater. I dislike the woobification of villains and bad guys "because he's so hot/he really loves her/she made them lasagna" - and even worse when the hero or main characters are blamed for the villain's bad deeds ("it's Thor's fault Loki's a mass-murderer because he didn't pay enough attention to him")

I love complex, interesting villains, and I'm perfectly happy to see a redemption arc if the bad traits/wrongdoing of the character is acknowledged, addressed and worked on, or for a good story to be told from the villain's perspective, but I steer clear of anything propping up the villain by destroying the good characters (I quit watching Once Upon a Time because of Regina The Karma Houdini)

2. I'm not fond of Love at First Sight, since I prefer pairing where the characters grow from friends to lovers. I don't really like or read High School AUs or similar where the character are transported into a completely different scenario (coffee shop, college, medieval kingdom etc) - I love AUs, but within the confines of the same universe.

3. Never say never, I guess. I might write a far-out AU if I ever got a neat idea (although more likely I would do a Tumblr summary which I actually don't mind reading). I might write a fic from a villains perspective, although it wouldn't be by pulling a Maleficent and making all the other characters evil in order to make the villain's actions more understandable.

 

Day 5: In honour of the news that was released today.

1. Are you interested in LGBTQIA+ characters/pairings (canon or OC)? If so, please share which ones.

2. Have you written any fic with these characters? Please include any fic in which the character's sexuality was not disclosed/explored due to the ban.

3. Are you interested in writing/posting such fic here now that the ban has been lifted?

 

Much like Findswoman, I am so super happy that we managed to get rid of that archaic rule and that I was a (small) part of ousting it. However, I'm not sure if I will explore any 'pairings' as part of a central plot point. I'll have LGBTQ+ OC's for sure (see #3), but because I don't have too much experience in the area, I don't think I can do justice to a LGBTQ+ person as a central character.

However, I've always wanted to do a 'coming of age' story for Ben Skywalker, exploring some of those issues (IE exploring and finding one's sexuality). Because I, as A LOT of people (at least in my generation), questioned my sexuality at 16.

So, maybe? If the plot bunny bites.

Okay, time for "Briannakin set a horrible example as a user". Basically, I made reference in one of my vignettes to Ben being bi-sexual - or at least exploring his sexuality. It was REALLY VAGUE (I think I wanted to say "it was referencing an ISSR" if I got into trouble, but my readers knew it wasn't), yet very blunt. I said something like "First off, during those years, Ben was ‘exploring his sexuality’ during that time and, while Luke supported his son through a confusing time and a messy break up, he often feared the Ben would never give him biological grandchildren." I kinda do want to explore those years now.

Also, during the move, Jedi_Lover and I got REALLY BORED (that alone should explain EVERYTHING) so we dared each other to write Luke/'Someone other than Mara' fics, then there was some 'rear gunner' joke, so I wrote a post-Mara and post-Iella Luke/Wedge fic. They were bi-sexual and decided to get married. It was very PG.

Again, if the plot bunny strikes for the Ben "coming of age" fic.

I'm kinda incorporating a lesbian character into my Courtship of Prince Bail fic. Basically Bail's "back up plan" if he can't find a woman to marry and take the throne is to marry a lesbian friend of his (she's willing to marry him for Alderaan, but really wants him to try to find someone he loves before he resorts to her). Originally it was going to be a very vague "I'm not her type, nudge nudge" reference, but now I'm just going to say she's a lesbian and she may even make an appearance with her girlfriend.

 

1. Are you interested in LGBTQIA+ characters/pairings (canon or OC)? If so, please share which ones.

Not in Star Wars, no.

2. Have you written any fic with these characters? Please include any fic in which the character's sexuality was not disclosed/explored due to the ban.

Not fanfic-wise. I did attempt to write a story with a bisexual man that heals once as a growth experiment.

3. Are you interested in writing/posting such fic here now that the ban has been lifted?

No, not really. I prefer male-male platonic love and friendship.

 

1. Are you interested in LGBTQIA+ characters/pairings (canon or OC)? If so, please share which ones.
I only know of those two obscure gay Mandalorians. Don't ask me names...
In general, the orientation of a character is not something I think about. It's not a make or break, they are who they are. I don't think that as a characteristic of a story it is going to have influence on whether or not I read it.

2. Have you written any fic with these characters? Please include any fic in which the character's sexuality was not disclosed/explored due to the ban.

I have written one gay relationship (in which I overtaxed myself in ALL directions with the OC involved) where one partner is actually pansexual. It's not up here because it also has my only explicit SSR scene in it. It's part of my Wire Universe and can be found at AO3.
I have started to write a second gay relationship but that story is unfinished, if published here and this might be major spoilers for anybody who read last year's diary. Oh well. Plan to get back and finish that now that the ban is lifted.

3. Are you interested in writing/posting such fic here now that the ban has been lifted?

See above. I will finish the diary one day. The second part of the Reason I didn't update has spouted some SSR characters on the side. Bu I don't think I'll post that here because I'd have to brush up the first part first. Like all 204 chapters. Like - nope.

For new fic, who knows. My characters turn out to be a lot more colorful orientation-wise than they used to. And I am quite partial to the ideas of a demi Thrawn and ace Boba...

 

1. I have had a few homosexual characters in my stories but I haven't thought about writing a fic focusing on a same sex relationship.

2. There was a gay character in my story Choices and also in Alter of Waru.

3. The fics are posted here at TFN. I never had a story where the sexuality was not disclosed.

 

I have a few. Well, I have a character who is paired with someone else's character. Both are male.

Two. Still need to round out the trilogy, but haven't gotten around to it. They're stashed somewhere in the NSWFF forum under "Trak's Tangents" and I'm too lazy to go dig it up right now.

I already wrote a pretty blatant same-sex relationship prior to the ban's lifting. Not much will change, because I'm about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face with the word "SUBTLE" written on the front.

 

1. Are you interested in LGBTQIA+ characters/pairings (canon or OC)? If so, please share which ones.
I've always been interested in them, but not in the way common fanfic writers are. Rather than turning it into fetish fuel, "guy on guy is hot", "girl on girl is hot" or whatever people do for the sake of being popular in some web 1.0 community where swearing is still considered to be eccentric and where *these things* are used in serious context; I see it as a normal and natural thing. Therefore, I write them as a normal and natural thing.

Most of the relationships I have written into stories or planned to write include one person on the asexuality spectrum and one heterosexual, in one case without any sort of romantic feelings developed for anybody. I have not written a lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans character yet, but I do have plans and they're not what you expect. The idea of putting LGBT (minus the other letters, which can easily go stealth with a bit of acting - I used to pretend a lot myself) characters in a primitive surrounding is challenging and it has to be done.

2. Have you written any fic with these characters? Please include any fic in which the character's sexuality was not disclosed/explored due to the ban.
Err, all my fics.

3. Are you interested in writing/posting such fic here now that the ban has been lifted?
I can be more open about some characters' sexuality now, but since I do not center stories around romantic relationships and I see amatonormativity as a harmful thing, it does not change much for me.

 

1. Are you interested in LGBTQIA+ characters/pairings (canon or OC)? If so, please share which ones.
Sure! Though I don't think there's any specific pairing that I'm interested in right now, we'll have to wait and see. I did once read a triad fic where Luke and Wedge had a relationship during the rebellion, and then later Wedge, Luke and Mara had a triad. I'm very happy that this would be something that I could read here now.

2. Have you written any fic with these characters? Please include any fic in which the character's sexuality was not disclosed/explored due to the ban.
Not in Star Wars because I primarly have posted here and I knew the rules, so I just avoided it, because I didn't really want to go the so vague route. I did have an OC one time that was telling me she was bisexual, but that story never got far enough to get there. Maybe now she can be open, she might come back to me.

3. Are you interested in writing/posting such fic here now that the ban has been lifted?
Absolutely if it's organic and the character tells me that's who they are.

 

Sure. When it comes to characters, since usually they don't have explicitly stated orientations, I tend to headcanon them as biromantic unless I have a specific headcanon otherwise. I also headcanon more characters as being on the asexual spectrum than is probably statistically likely. Usually all that doesn't actually affect the fic I'm writing, though, since most (though not all) of my fic sticks to canon pairings and doesn't go into the physical aspects of the romantic relationships that do appear. I'm also interested in how gender might be treated in the GFFA, particularly given the diversity of species, so I'd love to read fics where a character (canon or OC) is interpreted as trans or intersex.

As for relationships...I tend not to focus on romance in my fics anyway, but yeah, I've written some Anakin/Obi-Wan, and when reading I'll give pretty much any pairing of characters of any genders a chance if it's well-written (assuming the characters are consenting adults and all that).

Yes. Exile, and also a fic called Brass Knuckles that I wrote a year or so back, which I have not posted on this forum and which doesn't actually involve a same-gender relationship, but in which Anakin's orientation (biromantic demisexual) is a minor plot point. I may edit that and post it here at some point.

Already have! Well, sort of, as I've only so far posted the first chapter of a fic, and the romance subplot won't come in until later in the story. But yes, I did almost the moment the ban was lifted.

 

1. SSR fics with canon characters have never really been my bag, because those I've read tend to shunt off/discount/demonise the female characters in favour of the m/m relationship. That said I have read a few done really well and I think the tide may be turning a bit with actual LGBT people writing such fic rather than cishet women getting really excited over two hot men getting it on.

2. Only in my fic The Shadow of Fate, when I realised that two of my OCs were LGBT:

Spoiler

Micah Skywalker is bisexual which will be revealed in an upcoming chapter, and Kara Ravenlok is a lesbian but as yet this is not relevant to the plot so hasn't been mentioned - there is a not-so-subtle hint in an upcoming chapter, though.

3. Sure, if I get the inspiration and it makes sense. I tend to only write canon pairings, though, so it's more likely I'll write characters if they are in new films or books.

 

Day 6: Let's talk headcanons


1. Choose a canon character and share a headcanon you have for them.

2. Choose one of your OCs (or someone else's OC that you like) and share a headcanon you have for them not revealed in the fic.

3. Choose any aspect of the GFFA and share a headcanon.

 

1. Choose a canon character and share a headcanon you have for them.

Padme- Didn't lose the will to live (the droid was wrong)
Luke-only child (yes, I know it obviously contradicted in the movies, but I ignore that)
Dooku and Jocasta Nu were close in the past

2. Choose one of your OCs (or someone else's OC that you like) and share a headcanon you have for them not revealed in the fic.
I am not much of an OC writer, but I created a Jedi character in the SWTOR(an online mmorpg). Her name is Kysuna Kyroto and I imagine her to be from Naboo and a Jedi who doesn't follow the traditional beliefs of the Jedi order. She tries to do good in the galaxy and help those in need, not just rich politicians.

3. Choose any aspect of the GFFA and share a headcanon.
I like to imagine Naboo having some aspects of Japanese culture. (yes I know the architecture doesn't look like it, but there is so much of Naboo we don't see and I can fill in the rest with my imagination.)

I also see the force different that how the Jedi and Sith view it.
I prefer to see it as a power certain people are born with that can use it for good or evil instead of an energy field with a dark and light side.

 

Got about a dozen headcanons for Zuckuss as well. And they also involve his early life. They're also mushed together in my head.

I have one headcanon that barely made it to an unpublished vignette and that was Zuckuss's art therapy sessions. He did a lot of painting.

Can't think of any at the moment. And any for Prof. Hypno would either be spoilers or just mundane stuff I keep on-hand for reference. Most of my headcanons for my OCs are just there to build the character and most are actually really mundane.

Like Findswoman I have a bunch of Gand headcanons, mostly relating to biology and culture.

 

Suddenly... Zuckuss singing while painting.