FA+
Shop
"What was your favorite part of writing?"
a year ago
Don't do it first. Do it better.
About a month ago, after the last chapter of Never Too Late was posted on AO3, GimmeABigPush and I were asked a very thoughtful question by an anonymous reader:
"🌺 - So glad you finished Never too late! I'm sooo gonna miss refreshing your a03 to see if a chapter has been added. What was your favorite part(s) of writing it? Keep up the great work!"
And it was such a lovely thing to ponder and answer, because I don't think anyone's ever asked me something like that.
I'll let those interested see what BP said here https://www.tumblr.com/gimmeabigpus.....o-late-im-sooo , but with it having been a month since I posted the last chapter here, I wanted to share my own answer:
I know that feeling, when you’re enjoying something in installments so much and then it’s over. That’s why I mentioned, in the last epilogue’s notes, one time I still empathize with someone who knew every story has to end but sometimes you’re not ready for the story to be over yet. I’m just plain delighted by everyone who stuck around to read the story.
Speaking only for myself, that question of yours is a tough one to answer and it’s been on my mind for a couple of days. It’s kind of like asking me, “What’s your favorite part of going to a park full of happy, playful dogs?” Or, “What’s your favorite part of having a purring cat in your lap?” Or, “What’s your favorite part of learning about something that captivates you? Not your favorite thing you learned, but your favorite part of learning it?” It can’t really be put into words, because there IS no real answer. But since that’s such a thoughtful question to ask, and one I almost never get asked (let alone for a specific story), I’ll hit a few highlights.
For one thing, at the time I came up with the idea, I was going through a pretty rough patch in my job and had been for quite a while (and, while it’s wavered between better and worse, it still is). Without giving too much away about myself, there had been a period of about six months that I couldn’t write anything, I just didn’t have the energy or a way to vent all the stress. That’s not the longest dry spell I’d been through, there had been a three-year period of that once, but once I realized that I NEEDED to do this, to finally get back to writing and to finally turn stress energy into writing energy and to see something I really wanted created done by my own hand, I broke personal records when I wrote ~25K words in only 38 days. I finally felt like...MYSELF again, just like when I ended the aforementioned three-year period before. And as of now, I’ve written at least a little bit every single day since (with one exception due to illness).
Speaking of which, the next thing was how validated BP made me feel every time I presented her with my work, both with the chapters I wrote and the ones I expanded on. Each time I shared it with her, I was more than ready to take criticism or need to make corrections, and I was especially interested in how much I kept Sara in character since she’s not mine and, in this case, I was getting direct feedback from her owner. Plus, this wasn’t just my story this time and I needed to write things we’d both approve of. But when I heard so much positive feedback, it once again made me feel like I was right to feel so good about what I was doing because the one other person I wanted most to approve of it did, indeed, enjoy it. I loved collaborating so much with a writer whose work I’ve admired and feeling like both of us were better off as writers for it.
After that, as I mentioned several times in the author’s notes, these characters had so much great chemistry that was so much fun to play with. I loved getting in all three of their heads and thinking of how they’d react to each other. Their teamwork that’s strengthened more and more as the story goes on made it feel like I was watching them develop right before my eyes. It’s not for nothing the “Team” aspect became such a leitmotif, and I’m glad BP brought that up because that relit the fires of inspiration for me all over again.
And, in closing, while this doesn’t exactly have to do with my favorite parts of writing the story...let me just put it this way. You ever played a video game that has “And YOU” in the “Special Thanks” section of the credits, or anything else that thanks you for enjoying it? Well...feedback like yours is something I never take for granted. I write because it’s in my nature to write, but when I have an audience that enjoys my work, that feels pretty good.
I could go on for even longer than this, but...I think you see what I mean. I can’t explain what my favorite part is because writing this story had me feeling like I was creating something that, as BP has called it many times, special.
"🌺 - So glad you finished Never too late! I'm sooo gonna miss refreshing your a03 to see if a chapter has been added. What was your favorite part(s) of writing it? Keep up the great work!"
And it was such a lovely thing to ponder and answer, because I don't think anyone's ever asked me something like that.
I'll let those interested see what BP said here https://www.tumblr.com/gimmeabigpus.....o-late-im-sooo , but with it having been a month since I posted the last chapter here, I wanted to share my own answer:
I know that feeling, when you’re enjoying something in installments so much and then it’s over. That’s why I mentioned, in the last epilogue’s notes, one time I still empathize with someone who knew every story has to end but sometimes you’re not ready for the story to be over yet. I’m just plain delighted by everyone who stuck around to read the story.
Speaking only for myself, that question of yours is a tough one to answer and it’s been on my mind for a couple of days. It’s kind of like asking me, “What’s your favorite part of going to a park full of happy, playful dogs?” Or, “What’s your favorite part of having a purring cat in your lap?” Or, “What’s your favorite part of learning about something that captivates you? Not your favorite thing you learned, but your favorite part of learning it?” It can’t really be put into words, because there IS no real answer. But since that’s such a thoughtful question to ask, and one I almost never get asked (let alone for a specific story), I’ll hit a few highlights.
For one thing, at the time I came up with the idea, I was going through a pretty rough patch in my job and had been for quite a while (and, while it’s wavered between better and worse, it still is). Without giving too much away about myself, there had been a period of about six months that I couldn’t write anything, I just didn’t have the energy or a way to vent all the stress. That’s not the longest dry spell I’d been through, there had been a three-year period of that once, but once I realized that I NEEDED to do this, to finally get back to writing and to finally turn stress energy into writing energy and to see something I really wanted created done by my own hand, I broke personal records when I wrote ~25K words in only 38 days. I finally felt like...MYSELF again, just like when I ended the aforementioned three-year period before. And as of now, I’ve written at least a little bit every single day since (with one exception due to illness).
Speaking of which, the next thing was how validated BP made me feel every time I presented her with my work, both with the chapters I wrote and the ones I expanded on. Each time I shared it with her, I was more than ready to take criticism or need to make corrections, and I was especially interested in how much I kept Sara in character since she’s not mine and, in this case, I was getting direct feedback from her owner. Plus, this wasn’t just my story this time and I needed to write things we’d both approve of. But when I heard so much positive feedback, it once again made me feel like I was right to feel so good about what I was doing because the one other person I wanted most to approve of it did, indeed, enjoy it. I loved collaborating so much with a writer whose work I’ve admired and feeling like both of us were better off as writers for it.
After that, as I mentioned several times in the author’s notes, these characters had so much great chemistry that was so much fun to play with. I loved getting in all three of their heads and thinking of how they’d react to each other. Their teamwork that’s strengthened more and more as the story goes on made it feel like I was watching them develop right before my eyes. It’s not for nothing the “Team” aspect became such a leitmotif, and I’m glad BP brought that up because that relit the fires of inspiration for me all over again.
And, in closing, while this doesn’t exactly have to do with my favorite parts of writing the story...let me just put it this way. You ever played a video game that has “And YOU” in the “Special Thanks” section of the credits, or anything else that thanks you for enjoying it? Well...feedback like yours is something I never take for granted. I write because it’s in my nature to write, but when I have an audience that enjoys my work, that feels pretty good.
I could go on for even longer than this, but...I think you see what I mean. I can’t explain what my favorite part is because writing this story had me feeling like I was creating something that, as BP has called it many times, special.
