this is practically 5k words im so sorry i love talking about myself. feel free to scroll and let this fade into obscurity

from 1-5 stars, how would you rate your writing?

okay idk. it feels strange to rate myself on the high end because some of my bad writing is still public and accessible in the early chapters of paper confines, but i'd be lying if i didn't say i'm super proud of my writing recently, so maybe 3.5??? 4 on a really good day? i think i have the capacity to write at a solid 4 but i overthink my writing and a lot of the time i'm just eager to publish something so i don't edit thoroughly enough 🤷🏻‍♀️ chapters 1-10 of paper confines were all written in 2020 and very early 2021 and were way too heavy with prose, whereas now i think i balance it out better. i won't even get started on all the inconsistencies in arabelle if anyone remembers my zukotaras era... Shudders

why do you write fanfiction?

out of spite. and it's fun!! obviously!! it's much easier to expand upon a pre-existing world and characters than to write a new one from scratch, especially if the genre you're writing in requires a lot of that. i pretty much exclusively read and write in fantasy, paranormal, and dark academia (which i know is not a genre but u get what i mean), so any original stories i come up with are super demanding and the thought of accidentally creating a plot hole or leaving unanswered questions is agonizing, so fanfic is easier in that i have less to worry about. but like. 90% of the time i'm writing fanfic out of spite for the canon story. if i saw potential for something and the writer didn't exploit it then I WILL!!!!!

what do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

generally, i have no idea. i get a pretty even amount of compliments on dialogue and description which is amazing and really reassuring but it also means from the actual writing perspective, i don't think i have a "thing" that makes me stand out?? in terms of fanfic specifically though, i definitely think it's my plot ideas. i don't really like writing generic oc-inserts into the exact canon plotline because i don't usually find those stories interesting—if i wanted to read the source material i would yk?? i like exploring different eras in-universe that haven't been expanded upon in canon, rewriting history, adding new world-building and incorporating my ocs in a way that actually changes the story. there's nothing wrong with sticking close to canon but there are a lot of fics like that on wattpad so i guess maybe it's refreshing to see books that throw a complete curveball

are there any writers that inspire you?

amal el-mohtar and max gladstone, not to be a basic Loser but i do enjoy some richard siken poetry, i also think leigh bardugo created something so genius with six of crows that even though i don't like some of her other books anymore (sorry) she has reached god status to me for that duology alone and i would never forsake her. i've only just started the atlas six but i literally got it because of how much i love olivie blake's writing style—otherwise my biggest inspo on this app has always been and will always be felix

what's the fic you're most proud of?

mmm naturally paper confines since it's the only one that's survived the crierayla fic purge, but genuinely above any original story or fic or poem of mine, i think it is the most creative, immersive, and complex work i've ever written. i'm really really proud of it; so much of the plot and characters started so different to what they became because that entire book is literally a living entity separate from me at this point lmao, it's constantly evolving/changing which has never happened with anything else i've written.

what element of writing do you find comes easily?

it's weird considering how much i used to hate it and suck at it, but dialogue. i have thousands of words in my notes app of dialogue i've had to cut from paper confines bc there's so much of it and i have nowhere to put it. then again, i don't know if that's necessarily something that comes naturally to me in any context (gemini mercury yk how it is) or if it's another symptom of paper confines having a mind of its own. like i just hear nadya dialogue in my head all the time bc she's basically a real person to me 😭 maybe that sounds insane. idc.

what element of writing do you struggle with the most?

consistency. my writing style and preferences have changed a lot in the past two years, so a lot of my earlier ideas have needed to be completely revamped and even with copious changes, my older chapters still don't feel completely fluid compared to my newer ones. i worry about plot holes and characterization or themes being contradictory as my ideas of them evolve throughout my writing of the book, which, again, has been a two year process, so i'm not the same writer or even person as when i started. i think it's definitely easy to mess up because of the nature of the fanfic writing process, which is to publish chapters over an extended period of time as opposed to writing the entire book, having it thoroughly edited and beta-read, and then published as a whole.

i also struggle so much with just writing. i preach all the time that it's so important to write regardless of inspiration or whether you even like what you're writing, but i can't troop through it if i'm feeling insecure. i'm really hard on myself and i feel like i know what my best looks like and can't work if i'm not producing writing of that quality

which character(s) do you find easiest to write?

another arabelle throwback but she was so easy to write. belle is still my baby and i love her like my own child but like a lot of first ocs, she started as a glorified self-insert and only started to develop into her own character after i left wp for two years and came back at eighteen and was like "wtf this is not a human being" and then gave her flaws and a better backstory and a sense of humour. and by then it was already chapter 11 so the beginning of the book was pretty stale.

currently though???? maybe miss nadya sidhu? it's weird bc everything about her character has been written basically against my will. i am 100% serious when i say i think nadya is real and has invaded my brain like a parasite and possessed my thoughts. she didn't even EXIST in the original paper confines, one day she just popped up fully-formed and i haven't been able to get rid of her since. everything about her just comes naturally to me, and we're only alike in a few ways so it's not like she's a self-insert and i can just word vomit my own thoughts to write a chapter in her pov. it's like nadya writes herself, which is the most nadya thing to do.

which character(s) do you find most difficult to write?

tom riddle. sometimes he's really easy, but sometimes i feel like i'm writing an amalgamation of several different villains and he doesn't actually have a voice of his own. i can't remember who said it but there are multiple times someone commented they were reading his lines in the darkling's voice and i was like. Oh my god you're right. which is kinda funny actually because in some sense the darkling is probably exactly who tom wants to be and he so... Isn't. they're both insufferable in their own ways and there's definitely some overlap but tom lacks the tangible power and immortality the darkling has which is an essay asking to be written so i'll move on. tom is just a hard character to get exactly right because it feels like there's a canon characterization, like... somewhere??? out there, in a shrouded fog?? but it's somehow impossible to pinpoint. he's been written a thousand different ways and i get torn between using the little real information we have about him and just discarding it for my own ideas. i'm trying to mix both. compelling antagonists are annoying to write, but i am proud of how many comments i get saying how despite him being a compelling villain they can't wait for him to get dunked on. chad amoret, beta tom riddle

other characters i cannot fathom writing are the golden trio (they exist so specifically in my brain it just feels weird), frank castle (rip cortisol you never stood a chance), and literally any grishaverse characters because the narrative of that series and the motivations of every character confuse me so much i feel like crying every time i try to understand. for the soc gang it's in the best way possible (too complex for my little brain) and for sab characters they're just lost on me unfortunately😭 (though i do have lots of headcanons)

what's your favourite genre to write for?

like, loose fantasy? low fantasy? is that what it's called? i like magic systems incorporated into our world or something similar to it, like another era or a secret society or practical magic, instead of full-on high fantasy set in an unrecognizable universe. and that's not because i don't love high fantasy bc i do, but i just find there tends to be a lot of set-up for super cool concepts and it doesn't always pay-off. and i don't think highly enough of myself to believe i'm any less likely to make the mistakes i dislike in high fantasy if i were to try writing it personally lmao

who or what do you find yourself writing about the most?

angry women, women who want more than they've been given, who are considered selfish, women who have something to prove, who been wronged in some way and win against all odds, women granted the same complexity as men, who are allowed to be morally bankrupt and flawed the way male characters are. i rarely write men as main characters and if i do they have to be a little pathetic. as a treat

tell us about a wip you're excited about

original story that is the traumatized child of divorce of les miserables and six of crows with kiki layne as the fc and soooooooooooooooo much shittalking about rich people. steampunk-ish. sapphic grumpy one is soft for other grumpy one. #womeninstem

another one which is aesthetically kind of similar to caraval (which i never finished sorry) just in terms of the world "opening up" at night, or maybe a darker spirited away vibe? being as vague as possible, things have gone awry and must be fixed by two unlikely partners before the world at large is exposed and put in danger. a mystery is also being solved in the midst of this. it's fun

first fandom you ever wrote for?

ok when i was like nine, my mom paid me $50 to read harry potter, so obviously i DID but then i was pissed because every class at school was in french and i'd never had much of an opportunity to read in english so finally doing it made me realize i actually LIKED reading which i would have never previously guessed. so when we finally got an english class the next year and had an assignment to write a two-page short story, i confidently wrote twenty-one pages of what was definitely just plot of the philosopher's stone. but i got an A. i didn't know what fanfic was but i think that counted!!! and i could have outsold the original too!!

but the actual first fanfic i wrote was for like one direction or o2l or something when i was 12 and i don't wanna talk about it

what's your favourite fandom to write for?

i mean ig harry potter since i have so many drafts for it. there's just a lot of unexplored potential that u know who decidedly never did anything of substance with. i also have a lot of grishaverse plots sitting around and thg seems like there are endless possibilities if i can just get myself to reread the books

what's the weirdest fandom you've ever written for?

LISTEN IF YOU READ CEMETERY DOGS THEN YOU READ CEMETERY DOGS I WILL NOT BE SPEAKING ON THIS MATTER AGAIN.

any guilty pleasure trope(s)?

i don't really feel guilty for anything i like in fiction both because it is not real and because i don't like (subjectively, i guess) weird stuff. i am deeply afraid of the booktok people who read extremely questionable and narratively back-patted tropes and just call it "dark romance" like it's no biggie and has zero real-life influence. like genuine concern. i do love some good enemies to lovers and i do love a nuanced villain—i think it's mostly self-congratulatory internet etiquette to preamble for ten hours about how you like villains but don't worry, you know they're bad people and you don't defend their actions so it's okay!!! yes. they are villains. they do bad things. that's why they're compelling. if i woobify them every once in a while it's because it's funny. Grow Up

but also is this guilty pleasure idk.bridgerton s2 kathony served so hard despite teetering on the verge of a cheating trope the entire season. i don't like infidelity but it was funny of them!! they should be allowed!!

a trope you'll never, ever write for

like hannah said when she did this tag, teacher x student and similar power imbalances + big age gaps in general. if you write those literally never interact with me. I'M LOOKING AT YOU #COQUETTE GIRLS

also this one is obviously not morally wrong like the others, it's just personal preference, but you will never catch me writing heterosexual (childhood) friends to lovers i would have to be held hostage with my google docs open in front of me. it's like the least appealing dynamic in the world to me i'm sorry. and girl obsessed????????? a woman being more in love with the man? somebody sedate me this goes against all things natural

wildest fic you've ever written?

i have no clue. eternity is (was?) pretty insane but i feel like that's a requirement for anything involving time travel and when you have a cast of characters who are all eventually hundreds of years old it's fun to see who has changed in what ways after all the things they've seen and done

do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between?

canon compliant or something in-between. idk, full on AUs have never really appealed to me. if i wanted to read historical romance or vampires or something i would, i don't need to insert two characters from a world i already like into one i could find elsewhere. although sometimes i'll find one i never knew i needed and be like Oh hold on a

minute. i physically can't stand coffee shop AUs and college AUs or anything similar. WHY WOULD I WANT TO READ ABOUT REAL LIFE???????? so. canon-compliant lol

gen fic or shippy stuff?

shippy stuff always. if there isn't at least a romance sideplot i am not reading it idc how good it is. in fact romance sideplot with a fantasy or sci-fi main plot is the best formula ever it's true

favourite pairing to write for?

if we're talking about my ocs it's nadyacolette forever. i would die for them, i would sacrifice all my loved ones and personal belongings for them, i would be crucified for them. nadyacolette world domination

for fandom pairings, the only ship i've ever written anything for or have had interest in writing for is bellarke. i have one chapter of what was supposed to be a long s7 fix-it fic on ao3 that i eventually orphaned cause it was embarrassing to look at, but i'm a bellarke warrior and i will not apologize. every death threat i got in 2016 for them was worth it

do you listen to anything while you write?

sometimes i listen to designated spotify playlists i've made for each of my books (or sometimes specific characters), but usually inspiration comes at me all at once at random times and i'm pretty much just frantically typing 4k words and all outside sounds are gone to me

do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

i haven't really used prompts since i was maybe fourteen? it's not for any reason than i just genuinely forgot they existed. there are some really good ones to start stories with tho. i also don't know anything about writing challenges? from what i've seen, they're more for ship writers and reader-inserts, like those month-long challenges on tumblr and ao3. i don't think they ever got popularized on wattpad

one-shots or multi-chaptered works?

again, i feel like wattpad isn't really formatted for one-shots unless you have a book of one-shots, which... would still be a multi-chaptered work. but i've definitely considered making a book like that! it would probably be an assortment of random potterverse/grishaverse short stories with ocs in eras and parts of the universe that haven't been explored much, maybe some deleted scenes from fics, spin-offs of other characters, and fics for canon characters i'm not interested in writing entire books for. but that's like a very big idea and somehow it feels self-centred??? i just think it would be solely for my own fixation to be writing short stories and excerpts for my own ocs. so for nowwww i think i'll just stick to multi-chaptered works. or i'll post one-shots on ao3. i confess the urge to write a little lumax fic has been gnawing at me for weeks

have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? tell us about them!

ok i should have read this before answering the last question lmaoooo

but yes, especially for paper confines. i have literally written the entire story of amoret's parents and how they met and maybe after i finish paper confines i'll write it bc i've already decided lovie simone is perfect for a young khadija salahe-banks and i'm leaning toward josh whitehouse (specifically in poldark) for edan banks but i don't know yet. AND i have a whole backstory for zahra salahe, amoret's grandma, and the whole mystery surrounding her and why the salahe name was buried in secrecy for so long. zahra is so cool and khadija and edan are like... boy is more obsessed with girl, slow burn, banter, will-they-won't-they, jily vibes, everyone can see it except them... etc. they are so much fun. amoret talks a lot about her relationship with her mum and dad separately but their relationship with each other isn't mentioned much and there's just so much there and they're so tragic. also khadija and zahra are such an interesting mother/daughter dynamic with piles of history and i wanna write them so bad

is there anything you've wanted to write, but been too scared to try?