I’m a sucker for fanfic memes, and I’d like to get back to posting regularly, so I’m going to try to answer one question at a time. Short posts, more often, you know.

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing? (No downplaying yourself!)

I think I average on a strong three, all things considered. I’m good at writing characters and emotions- I say I’m a strong 4 at that. But I’m definitely a 2 when it comes to plots. Most of my fics are fairly short, and with just two or three important characters, for that reason. Even my longer fics only have the main plot, and never any subplots. I’m just not very good at them. I also think I’m a strong 3 when it comes to writing- I’m not a native speaker of English, and even if I do my best, it’ll never be my first language.

The rest of the questions.

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Gakked from thisbluespirit

Ask me my top 5 of anything and I'll answer.

My usual reaction to fanfic memes. This one gakked from navaan

Pick a question and ask me - and copy the questions to your own journal if you feel like it!


What made you start writing fanfic?
Which of your own fanfics have you reread the most?
Describe the differences between your first fanfic and your most recent fanfic.
Do you think your style has changed over time? How so?
You've posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you'd written it?
Name three stories you found easy to write.
Name three stories you found difficult to write.
What's your ratio of hits to kudos?
What do your fic bookmarks say about you?
What's a theme that keeps coming up in your writing?
What kind of relationships are you most interested in writing?
For E-rated fic, what are some things your characters keep doing?
Name three favorite characters to write.
You're applying for the fanfic writer of the year award. What five fanfics do you put in your portfolio?
Question of your choice!

Account created: 2014-12-23
Total stories: 106. Which is not every story I have written, but almost all.

Total word count: 242392
Average word count: 2287
Longest story: Professor Keller with 20948 words.

Total kudos: 2640

Kudos per story: 24.9
Story with most kudos: Ghosts with 106 kudos.

Total comments: 273
Comments per story: 2.6
Story with most comments: My Only Love with 18 comments.

Total author subscriptions: 24
Total story subscriptions: 142
Story with most subscriptions: Dudley’s Cousin with 30 subscriptions.

Total bookmarks: 293
Story with most bookmarks: Ghosts with 25 bookmarks.

Stories with no comments or kudos: I don’t have any story without kudos, but several with no comments (though I think they all have got at least one comment elsewhere). Several of these are very short, in obscure fandoms and/or low hit count:
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Author Questions

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?
A Peter Pan-fic called Wedding Night.

22. Is there anything you regret writing?
There are things I have written that I’m not comfortable with letting people read anymore. But I don’t regret writing them. They were a very important part in how I managed to free myself from depression, and deal with some very painful memories.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.
There are many I’m fond of, but I’ll take Professor Keller, a Doctor Who-fic which centers on the Master when teh Doctor isn’t around. It’s one of my few multi chapters, and I think I succeeded quite well in writing a slow-building sense of horror. It’s also the fic I have spent most time and thought, it occupied my imagination for more than a year, and I also rewrote the whole thing.

24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?
I’m two fics in on what is going to be a trilogy about Dracula. But I didn’t know it was going to be more than one, and then two stories, and they need to be re-written slightly so the third fic fits with them. And they need to be edited too- all my fics written before 2015 do.

25. What’s your most popular fanfic?
When it comes to hits, a Peter Pan-fic called Not Totally Useless. But when it comes to kudos, which I think says more, a Mummy-fic called Ghosts

26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?
I often use quotes from poems or plays. Sometimes I use a sentence in the fic which sums up the story.

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?
Writing summaries all the way!

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?
Anything! I would be so enormously flattered I would be happy with something from any fic I have written!

29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?
Only sporadically. I try to find one for gift-fics, though I would love to have a beta for everything I write. But I feel shy of asking people for their time. Many of the fandoms I write in are also small and I don’t know anyone who also enjoy them.

30. What inspires you to write?
Lots of things. An image, a piece of poetry, the chemistry between two characters, a particular scene.

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?
I have got many wonderful comments over the fourteen years I have been writing, but the latest great one was on FF.net, of all places, for a Victoria-fic called But A Dream

I have become a Victoria-Melbourne 'shipper, and your wonderful story has a lot to do with that! This story is beautifully and sensitively written, and IMO you have done a fine job of portraying the complicated thoughts and feelings of the remarkable Lord M. I also like how you portray him as the mature man he is, and how in your story both his affections and his fantasies reflect that fact. You have a gift for descriptiveness, and for expressing the complicated feelings of a man who knows that his love for this young woman can never be consummated, indeed, never even clearly expressed. Thank you for writing and posting this insightful, deeply touching tale.

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?
I find it distracting to listen to music while I write, but music often often inspires me, and I often listen to it while I think about the fic. I’m a Elvis Costello fan, and for some reason I have always connected his music with Doctor Who. To the point that Professor Keller was partly inspired by his music, and I ended up naming the chapters after various songs, and starting them off with parts of the lyrics which had relevance to the content. I also named the main character Alison.

I have a bunch of other Doctor-Who fics inspired by songs. Crows Feet on the Prettiest Eyes was inspired by The Beautiful South’s Prettiest Eyes. Burning was partly inspired by Dave Gahan’s Deeper and Deeper. Sliding Down the Razorblades of Life owes a lot to The Divine Comedy’s Mastermind. And For Now Left and Forlorn was inspired by Come Again, a song by John Dowland.

33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?
Not epics! Most of my fics are a few chapters, or one-shots. I have written a few series, but usually the fics in them stand on their own.

34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?
Professor Keller with 20948 words.

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?
No, not really, though I have done so on occasion.

36. What’s your favorite genre to write?
I love history, and several of my fandoms are set in the past. So a lot of what I write has a historical setting. And/or fantasy. Apart from that, I enjoy writing darkfic, or at least rather angst stuff. But I also like writing funny fics.

37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?
I usually write in third person, but there’s no conscious decision behind it- I write in the way which I feel fits the story.

38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?
On the whole I use canon characters, but I’m not adverse to write OD’s when needed. I feel OC’s have a bad rap as people assume they will be Mary Sue’s, but I think it’s more about writing talent. If you write OC Mary Sue’s, then it’s likely your canon characters will behave that way too.

39. What is your greatest strength as a writer?
Emotions. I spend a lot of time thinking of why people behave the way they do, and when I write I want my character’s to behave in an emotionally realistic way. And I think I’m rather good in doing that.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?
Plots. My fics are character-driven, and usually there is only two or three characters in it, which is also why they usually are short. I’m in awe over those who can come up with, and sustain, a plot in a long fic.

xspike4evax asked: And if I may add a question, what myths & legends are associated with Sweden? I'm interested in mythology & it's always fun to find out something like this about another country.

This going to be long, and I won’t cover everything. In fact, this is turning so long it will come in two posts. Sorry. Naturally we share some mythology and legends with other countries. You will find myths about giants, troll and werewolves in Sweden, but no vampires though.

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Questions 11-15 as asked by verdande_mi, xspike4evax, florianschild, motordraconis, feliciacraft,
debris4spike and dariaw

11. Favourite native writer/poet?
Favourite authors are Inger Edelfeldt and Anna-Karin Palm. Both are great, but sadly not translated to English. As for favourite poets, Karin Boye. I’ve written about here at some length here.

12. What do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?
We go back to Karin Boye here, and I think the translations is very good.

Spellbound

When you are away, my soul hungers wildly.
When you are close, I long for you just as much -
in despair I see,
numb, secluded,
how empty and futile
is the minute which goes by.

Your essence of proud and regal perfumes fine
I secretly wanted to drink, a sacred wine -
but I stand heavy as death
as in dreams,
with a thirst like Tantalos
in clear streams.

In times of solitude my tongue has burned
to tell you of the beautiful thing I have dreamt and felt
but when I am near you
my thoughts slumber,
my door is closed,
and my heart is numb.

13. Does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?
I think all families have their own traditions, but I don’t know if they are particularly strange. I mean, for me they are perfectly normal. Our family always have Easter dinner at our summer house, which marks the beginning of time spent there, more or less. We don’t always spend Christmas, or other holidays, together, so Easter is the true family holiday for us. Which means that apart from my parents, sister, our spouses and children, it also includes Mims, My Ex and his wife, and as long as he was alive, my Ex’s father.

As a country I suppose Lucia is a bit strange. On the morning of December 13 Lucia arrives with her entourage. There are always her maids, but there can also be star singers, and, if it’s a children’s Lucia celebration, also “tomtenissar” and gingerbread men. Lucia is dressed in a long white smock with a red sash and a crown with candles. Her maids have the same smock, but sash and headband of evergreens or tinsel, and carrying candlers, and the star singers the smock and a paper cone hat decorated with golden stars. They sing Christmas songs, but also songs which only refers to Lucia, and how her arrival is a harbinger of the return of light, and that Christmas is almost here. Today’s peaceful Lucia is a rather new tradition, with a bunch of older stuff mixed in. The modern Lucia formed during the 19th century, taking bits from various parts of Sweden and making it into one.

Up until the early 18th century, Mid-winter in Sweden was just on December 13, and though the calendar was adjusted, it was still believed to be the darkest, and most dangerous, night of the year. It was a night to stay awake, but also to keep indoors, because on this night Lusse, or Lussi was around. Probably a remnant of a pagan entity symbolising the day, Lusse could be either male or female, but alway up to no good.

14. Do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?
Not really. Nothing wrong with the scripts and the photograph, but for some reason Swedish actors are taught to speak in a very deliberate and unnatural way, which grates on my nerves. It became glaringly obvious in an episode of American Horror Story where two Swedish actresses had dialogue both in English and Swedish, and they changed the way they spoke when they switched languages. The only movies I really enjoy are directed by Suzanne Osten and Colin Nutley (an he isn’t Swedish).

15. A saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?
Hmm, how can I know what other people will be able to get? But I always liked this sentence consisting of only vocals; “I åa e ö”. It means “In the river there is an island.”

Gakked from verdande_mi

I live in Sweden, so if there any of these question you would like an answer to, please tell me. And if there are any other Swedish related question you would like an answer to, ask away!

1. Favourite place in your country?
2. Do you prefer spending your holidays in your country or travel abroad?
3. Does your country have access to sea?
4. Favourite dish specific for your country?
5. Favourite song in your native language?
6. Most hated song in your native language?
7. Three words from your native language that you like the most?
8. Do you get confused with other nationalities? if so, which ones and by whom?
9. Which of your neighbouring countries would you like to visit most/know best?
10. Most enjoyable swear word in your native language?
11. Favourite native writer/poet?
12. What do you think about English translations of your favourite native prose/poem?
13. Does your country (or family) have any specific superstitions or traditions that might seem strange to outsiders?
14. Do you enjoy your country’s cinema and/or TV?
15. A saying, joke, or hermetic meme that only people from your country will get?
16. Which stereotype about your country you hate the most and which one you somewhat agree with?
17. Are you interested in your country’s history?
18. Do you speak with a dialect of your native language?
19. Do you like your country’s flag and/or emblem? what about the national anthem?
20. Which sport is The Sport in your country?
21. If you could send two things from your country into space, what would they be?
22. What makes you proud about your country? what makes you ashamed?
23. Which alcoholic beverage is the favoured one in your country?
24. What other nation is joked about most often in your country?
25. Would you like to come from another place, be born in another country?
26. Does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? what do you think about the portrayal?
27. Favourite national celebrity?
28. Does your country have a lot of lakes, mountains, rivers? do you have favourites?
29. Does your region/city have a beef with another place in your country?
30. Do you have people of different nationalities in your family?

Gakked from nenya_kanadka


Comment with one of my fandoms, and I'll tell you:


the character I least understand
interactions I enjoyed the most
the character who scares me the most
the character who is most like me
hottest looks character
one thing I dislike about my fave character
one thing I like about my hated character
a quote or scene that haunts me
a death that left me indifferent
a character I wish died but didn't
my ship that never sailed


Take your pic from: Doctor Who (Classic and New), Peter Pan, Harry Potter, Penny Dreadful, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sleepy Hollow (the movie), The Historian, Dracula, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Versailles, The Mummy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Agent Carter, Once Upon a Time, Labyrinth, Angel, Emily of New Moon, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, The Man in the High Castle, Grimm

Gakked from thisbluespirit It’s of course gloriously self-centered to think anyone cares enough about my writing to be actually curious about it, but sometimes it has happened, and it’s always fun to talk about oneself.

Here is my fic at AO3.

Choose a fic and 1 (or more) question(s) from the list below:

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?
2: What scene did you first put down?
3: What’s your favorite line of narration?
4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?
5: What part was hardest to write?
6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?
7: Where did the title come from?
8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?
9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?
10: Why did you choose this pairing for this particular story?
11: What do you like best about this fic?
12: What do you like least about this fic?
13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?
14: Is there anything you wanted readers to learn from reading this fic?
15: What did you learn from writing this fic?