Is this a thing now? Alright. Hit Feather up with some Qs!

[Joe ST he/him]

Yes, the more you get to know Joe, the more you might realize he tends to be like this with everyone he knows. He's occasionally been called the "niceness monster" to combat my regular level of monstrosity.

 

Trying to stop me being nice is futile, cuz you all deserve to be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy, at all times, and whenever you're not feeling great then I am there to do whatever I can to support you and help you through the rough times. 

[FeatherWriter she/her]

What is your proudest accomplishment?

Similarly, what are you least proud of?

I'm pretty proud of the fact that I finished Nano one year. Also, back when I was in Academic Decathlon, I had the number one speech in the entire state of Texas. That gold medal felt so good.

Fandom-wise, the fanfic I am proudest of is... actually not Cosmere, dangit. (It's "Fade's Wager" if anyone's curious.) My proudest Cosmere fanfic is probably "Beneath the Bells of Kharbranth."

Least proud? That's difficult. In terms of things people think are awesome that I did but I'm not all that proud of, there's this one post I made about Hufflepuffs on tumblr that took off but I'm just so done with it. I don't even like Harry Potter that much! Why is it so popular??

[Haelbarde he/him]

 

As said, let's not derail. It's an internship, and I probably won't say more than that, but if you have more questions, please PM me.

 

Or lets use your AMA?

 

If I were to run a SE game, I'd have to wait my turn on the list (which I expect to be at least a couple of months). So present availability wouldn't be an issue.

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Or lets use your AMA?

 

If I were to run a SE game, I'd have to wait my turn on the list (which I expect to be at least a couple of months). So present availability wouldn't be an issue.

 

 

The AMA works. For those not following other threads, we're referencing this post: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/14511-having-a-bad-day-stop-here-for-a-good-rant/?p=287400

 

Here's my warnings: 

1. I'm a recent college graduate who's slinging her way through looking for jobs and internships. I have no idea what my schedule might look like for... well, the forseeable future. It's highly possible I might not be able to commit in a few months either.
2. I am only vaguely a DW fan. I have seen the show, but as stated previously in this thread, I've got some major issues with stuff (Moffat, Moffat, and Moffat, mostly.) But, I might feel weird if the main audience were mostly DW fans and I'm sitting here like "yeah, not really my thing."
3. I've only played one Sanderson Elimination game, and it was... okay. I liked the roleplaying aspects more than the game itself, and it took a lot of time because I got all character invested, so... that's kind of a significant commitment.
4. Considering that there are already people on this site who are, well, not fond of me, let's say, in terms of my Renarin defenses, I just want to be sure that setting me up as a character intent on brainwashing people into agreeing with her doesn't come across in poor taste. I love playing villians and pretending I'm evil, but I don't want to make anyone feel bad or perhaps have those who think it's not really all that much of a joke.

[Haelbarde he/him]

 

The AMA works. For those not following other threads, we're referencing this post: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/14511-having-a-bad-day-stop-here-for-a-good-rant/?p=287400

 

Here's my warnings: 

1. I'm a recent college graduate who's slinging her way through looking for jobs and internships. I have no idea what my schedule might look like for... well, the forseeable future. It's highly possible I might not be able to commit in a few months either.
2. I am only vaguely a DW fan. I have seen the show, but as stated previously in this thread, I've got some major issues with stuff (Moffat, Moffat, and Moffat, mostly.) But, I might feel weird if the main audience were mostly DW fans and I'm sitting here like "yeah, not really my thing."
3. I've only played one Sanderson Elimination game, and it was... okay. I liked the roleplaying aspects more than the game itself, and it took a lot of time because I got all character invested, so... that's kind of a significant commitment.
4. Considering that there are already people on this site who are, well, not fond of me, let's say, in terms of my Renarin defenses, I just want to be sure that setting me up as a character intent on brainwashing people into agreeing with her doesn't come across in poor taste. I love playing villians and pretending I'm evil, but I don't want to make anyone feel bad or perhaps have those who think it's not really all that much of a joke.

That's fair enough. 

Also, do I frequent the wrong parts of the Shard? I've not yet noticed that sorta negativity.

 

A question then: Should I join the Feathertip/blades?

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Fret not, you basically have to know what you're looking for, and I'd rather not drag anyone's name up, you know. It's easier to notice if you're the subject, after all. 

 

Oh goodness, the Featherblades/tips. Okay, real talk: while I was very flattered to have a fan club/bodyguard unit/cult, I... am always a little bit uncomfortable with being celebrated like that, so I was kinda more than a little relieved when that thread died down. I feel like it makes me seem intimidating and/or famous when really I'm just a girl who writes stuff sometimes and cries about Renarin a lot. Like... I don't want to scare off new people I'm interacting with (and the staff sigil already does enough of that.)

 

So yes, while I appreciate the offer, it's probably best to leave that thread well enough alone. I might end up taking it out of the sig (though I don't want those who "joined" the club to feel like I don't appreciate them!) I just, don't want to seem intimidating or anything, I guess.

[Haelbarde he/him]

Mods/admins are only scary when they don't talk, or if they're telling you off (if you actually care about being told off :/). I can't say that I've found you scary at any point. Chaos was scary. But then the I saw him posting on the shard, and he made an AMA. 

 

And because I feel compelled to have at least one question whenever I post in these AMA's, you writing a book at all? Nope, reading gives details like the fact that you in fact are. How about, have you finished a book? Or, how do you come up with the seed for a story? I often like come up with a world which has got some cool things in it, but then struggle to place characters that I'd like to follow for the length of a book.

[Joe ST he/him]

I must asure you, Eric is still pretty scary XD

[BenevolentTyrant he/him]

 

 

Um ... I don't really have much to say except that your writing is really, really awesome .

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Mods/admins are only scary when they don't talk, or if they're telling you off (if you actually care about being told off :/). I can't say that I've found you scary at any point. Chaos was scary. But then the I saw him posting on the shard, and he made an AMA. 

 

And because I feel compelled to have at least one question whenever I post in these AMA's, you writing a book at all? Nope, reading gives details like the fact that you in fact are. How about, have you finished a book? Or, how do you come up with the seed for a story? I often like come up with a world which has got some cool things in it, but then struggle to place characters that I'd like to follow for the length of a book.

 

So, yes I am writing a book (kinda sorta in the midst of way too many fanfics). Current working title is Called Forth, but I really dislike that title and will almost certainly change it before trying to get it published. I have not ever actually finished a book, at least not a publishable thing. I do have three finished long-form fanfics: The Fangirl: Weaponized (29,454 words) which is Marvel Cinematic Universe fic, The Mess We've Made (17,371 words) which is Dragon Age 2 fanfic, and Blades and Barriers (31,331 words) which is Dragon Age Inquisition fic.

 

I've had a few Stormlight Archive long-form fics on my docket before. A Strange Mix of Both was supposed to be many more chapters, but has since been abandoned after Words of Radiance tore huge holes in its premise (and my heart). I've had a Renarin-in-Bridge-Four-during-WoK AU fic that I started a while back, but it's been a long time since I worked on that one. I might go back to it eventually but the sparkly lure of other projects has captured my attention.

 

Alright, so you asked how I came up with story ideas. Honestly, it depends! I can tell you Called Forth's story idea began with two characters "a selfish summoner and her familiar, whom she habitually kills for fun because she can just summon him back and he won't stay dead." Those two became Len (summoner) and Kasten (familiar), and they're still very much at the heart of the story. From there I started trying to build a world around them, and then a universe with multiple worlds, and then a plot, and the rest of the cast. 

 

Lots of my fanfics start from some kind of prompt or idea. If it would cause pain, I'm all for it. My friend Kogiopsis is a great source of little prompts like this "what if Renarin ended up in Bridge 4 under Sadeas?" or "What if the Stormlight crew was in the Dragon Age universe?" or "What if Kaladin ended up in Kharbranth as a surgeon, rather than as a soldier?" Answering those questions in interesting ways and to the best of my abilities is a really fun way to explore characters, relationships, and situations. (If you ask me about my Dragon Age AU, I will talk your ear off because it is INVOLVED and EVERYONE NEEDS A PLACE IN THEDAS.)

 

I've also been known to borrow and relocate characters and worlds from one idea to merge them with another. The Called Forth universe adopted one of my other worlds, Kannar, and the desert society there, the Jaiseti. I had an idea for a frozen ice-world (combat figure skating, y'all) and thought "can I make this part of the CF universe too?" Yes, indeed I can. My characters tend to get shuffled around quite a bit too, especially Len. (She's the main character of that Dragon Age 2 fic, The Mess We've Made as Len Hawke). My Seeker informant from the Elendel United RP, Eliane Casuana, shows up in CF as Eliane Kassuan, with a very similar role. 

 

So... yeah, that's a not-so-quick rundown of my idea and building process, I guess?

[Mailliw73 he/him]

Oh goodness, the Featherblades/tips. Okay, real talk: while I was very flattered to have a fan club/bodyguard unit/cult, I... am always a little bit uncomfortable with being celebrated like that, so I was kinda more than a little relieved when that thread died down. I feel like it makes me seem intimidating and/or famous when really I'm just a girl who writes stuff sometimes and cries about Renarin a lot. Like... I don't want to scare off new people I'm interacting with (and the staff sigil already does enough of that.)

 

So yes, while I appreciate the offer, it's probably best to leave that thread well enough alone. I might end up taking it out of the sig (though I don't want those who "joined" the club to feel like I don't appreciate them!) I just, don't want to seem intimidating or anything, I guess.

Oh, yes. My Featherblades. That was...interesting. Looking back, it was pretty fun in an RP way, but kinda weird, not gonna lie. Feather's still awesome and I love her writing, but I'm no longer advocating a creepy stalker cult.  

[Joe ST he/him]

and let me say, all of your writing is SOOOOO goooooooooood SOOO GOOOD SOO GOOOOOOOOD

 

 

and I may have missed the reasoning, but did you intentionally miss out Sydney Scroungers from that list? because your character(s) in that are incredible and the whole bunch of people that wrote that are just INCREDIBLY WONDERFUL and I suggest everyone go read it even if they don't like Pacific Rim, though it's even exceleneter even then. 

 

 

anyway, I'm going to wish you very much luck on your sabbatical, and bid you goodnight XD *cuddleswarms*

[Quiver he/him]

Heh. The Feather blades/tips were how I got introduced to your writings, and started my social forum reputation asthe most detestable traitor, so something fun came out of it.

Hmm...speaking of your writings: in retrospect, with the benefit of hindsight (and because it is currently stalled), what did you honestly think of my reviews/commentaries for your fics and Sydney Scroungers posts?

(Its how I review things now in general lol)

Also, can I spam you with my MLP fan fiction?

Edited July 1, 2015 by Quiver

[FeatherWriter she/her]

and let me say, all of your writing is SOOOOO goooooooooood SOOO GOOOD SOO GOOOOOOOOD

 

 

and I may have missed the reasoning, but did you intentionally miss out Sydney Scroungers from that list? because your character(s) in that are incredible and the whole bunch of people that wrote that are just INCREDIBLY WONDERFUL and I suggest everyone go read it even if they don't like Pacific Rim, though it's even exceleneter even then. 

 

 

anyway, I'm going to wish you very much luck on your sabbatical, and bid you goodnight XD *cuddleswarms*

 

Scroungers was my JAM. My first really big RP with some really excellent peeps and I absolutely fell in love with the characters and players and everyone involved. I guess I don't really consider it entirely "my" writing, since I only played 1/6th of the cast (give or take). But it was a really cool project, and I loved every minute of it!

 

Heh. The Feather blades/tips were how I got introduced to your writings, and started my social forum reputation asthe most detestable traitor, so something fun came out of it.

Hmm...speaking of your writings: in retrospect, with the benefit of hindsight (and because it is currently stalled), what did you honestly think of my reviews/commentaries for your fics and Sydney Scroungers posts?

(Its how I review things now in general lol)

Also, can I spam you with my MLP fan fiction?

 

Y'all reviews, liveblogs, and comments are THE BEST THING EVER. Guaranteed to make a writer or artist love you forever and put you forever in their favor. Quiver, your liveblogs of Sydney Scroungers are so great that I go back and read them sometimes even now (because I am a horrible narcissist). 

 

And sure, why not! You've certainly read enough of my stuff! I warn, I may not get around to it for a bit, but I'll try to save the links for my free time!

[DanTheSeamonster he/him]

Would you rather have to stay in the home you're in now for the rest of your life, or have to move to a different home every three months? 

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Would you rather have to stay in the home you're in now for the rest of your life, or have to move to a different home every three months? 

 

Move every three months. Not even a question. I've got a serious case of wanderlust and I want to see as much of the world as possible! I mean, it'd be hard not settling down and knowing people, I guess, but I don't wanna get trapped anywhere. Especially not America. Not that America's terrible perse, it's just... well I know America. I've done it. Cool, thanks, what's next, what's new? SHOW ME THE WORLD.

[Joe ST he/him]

Not that America's terrible perse

An outsiders perspective.... America is pretty terrible at times

*cuddleswarms* luckily I don't think I've met any persons who I'd consider anything less than wonderful, and the problems are being brought up and maybe worked on a little more than ours at least. So I'm hopeful but yeah.

What's been your fave book read in the last year or so?

[Delightful]

I started reading Fangirl: Weaponised, and I'm trying really hard not to squee myself to death. It's *fantastic*.

[+Slowswift]

Will you play the Fandom Game? [/shameless plug]

[FeatherWriter she/her]

I started reading Fangirl: Weaponised, and I'm trying really hard not to squee myself to death. It's *fantastic*.

 

 

Oh wow! Thank you! Yeah, The Fangirl: Weaponized is one of those fics that I'm kinda embarrassed to try to explain to people, but I'm actually really, really fond of it in execution. I mean... Avengers fanfic where a bunch of fangirls help Loki escape? It sounds intolerably silly, but I really like the way that it turned out, and I feel like I managed to play it a lot more seriously than most people were expecting. TF:W was the first long, multi-chapter story that I managed to finish and it kinda was what convinced me that I actually could write good stories that were longer length.

 

 

Will you play the Fandom Game? [/shameless plug]

 

 

I... actually have no idea what that is. Got a link and/or explanation for me?

 

EDIT: Ah I see the link in your sig. Looks like a tumblr ask meme but on a forum, so SURE.

[Quiver he/him]

What advice do you have for people who want to write?

[FeatherWriter she/her]

Ohhhh my god I totally wrote up a super long response to this and it got eaten. Nooooooooooo. Alright, that's fine. I'll just TYPE IT UP AGAIN 17S.

 

Alright, so here's my advice: Write. Like, a whole lot.

 

You've probably heard this advice before, but really it works. I always remember Brandon wrote like 16 novels before he ever even started to get published, and that makes me feel a lot better about the fact that I'm probably not publishable right now. You just gotta write a lot. Try different things, write different genres. Go crazy or be careful or whatever but just write.

 

That's why I love NaNo so much, because it's a great way to keep getting kicked in the pants until you get your fingers on the keys. It doesn't have to be good. It probably won't be good. My favorite encouragement is that "Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist." It's true, just get something on the page.

 

Later, you can go back and see how you've improved over time. Characters get deeper, plots get a little more subtle and well developed, prose gets cleaner and nicer. It's fun to see, but if you don't ever get started, you'll never have a starting point to look back on, you know? One of the reasons I like fanfic so much is that sometimes its easier to just pick up someone else's characters or setting and just run with it, rather than having to think everything up from scratch. That and it can be really fun to do things with other characters that you might never get to do with your own.

 

Another thing I'll recommend, since I know you Quiver, and that's RP. Because RP is great and fun and I loooooooove it so much. It also helps you stretch and learn your characters, since you have to react to outside writers. Sometimes I make up entirely new characters, like Eliane Casuana, from the Mistborn RP I'm in. Eliane I ended up loving so much got adopted into the Called Forth universe, as Eliane Kassuan (since Casuana is not a name I came up with). But other times I like to use my regular OCs. I stick Len, the main character of Called Forth, into ALL KINDS OF RPS. And I know her character really well because of it.

 

Other characters like Sylvie Mansen, from Scroungers, I try to shove into original works now, because RP developed her so well. Sylvie (and by extention Vee and fiVe) are kinda difficult to do that with, since they're very setting-dependent on the Pacific Rim universe, but I managed pull her into the Dragon Age universe for a bit to RP with Seiko and Miranda. (She's an apostate mage who managed to get herself possessed by two different spirits: Vigilance and Hostility. Specializes in electric magic, of course.)

 

So yep. That's my advice. Write a lot, and find fun things to write so that you stay engaged.

[Quiver he/him]

Random cosmere point:

  Brandon wrote like 16 novels before he ever even started to get published, and that makes me feel a lot better about the fact that I'm probably not publishable right now. 

Huh. So, maybe that's where the Sixteen Shards thing comes from...

 

Anyway... thanks for the advice! Since you mention roleplaying -and since I am trying to get into that, on this site and others- I guess I'll follow that up with: do you have any advice on how to start or get into roleplaying?

 

...And, for non-writing related question:

Arrow has been my "theme" since joining this site. Have you ever watched it?

[FeatherWriter she/her]

My first real intro to RP was a DND group with friends. Then RP over Skype (which is still my favorite format) and then I did some tumblr RP, which... is slower and tends to have weird expectations about formatting, so that one's probably my least favorite. My recommendation would be to find a friend who might also be into it and just make some characters together. Maybe do characters in a setting you're already familiar with, like one of the cosmere worlds, though if you're feeling adventurous, you could go for a full original setting or something.

If you want something more structured, I'd recommend checking out the FATE Core system, which is very easy to use if you want more of a campaign-like set up.

As for Arrow, I've seen the first few episodes, about a year ago, but never got any farther into it than that.

[+Slowswift]

Well, first off, that was great advice.

 

And second, you mentioned in Splintercast that you were taking linguistics classes? As someone who is considering majoring/minoring in linguistics, what was it like, and what should I be aware of?