Q: Apparently, I haven’t touched this in a while. I feel like it needed a little something so I decided to spruce the place up with an actual bio. Because those are a thing.

About me.

So, skipping the clandestined hi or hello, I’m Q. My name was originally Ø, which literally means empty, null or void. A very fitting name, I think. Sadly, since Ø is a little hard to pronounce, someone dubbed me Q and the name stuck.

This account started off as a joint account for myself and my friend who goes by the name Alpha, hence the name AlphaQ. She betaed for me and I wrote. Unfortunately, not all friendships survive and now I’m the only one here.

Other than that, much of my personal information isn’t pertinent. What I have elected to do is add a little Q&A of things that I, as an author, feel my readers might be interested in knowing.

1. What inspired you to become a writer?

To this day I’m not quite sure. I used to despise writing. Somewhere along the way though I got into a fandom, Creepypasta. To sate my inner fangirl, I started reading fanfictions on another website, Wattpad. Most of what I found was pas si bon. Two stories stood out to me though. One made me say Wow, I want to write something like this! and the other made me say Wow, I could write something better than this!

That night I was up till past three A.M. just spewing words onto a page.

After posting that first chapter of Two Broken Minds on Wattpad and being very discouraged when it did poorly, Alpha convinced me to post it to this website and the rest is, as they say, history.

2. What are some things you love to see most in stories?

Other than a general love for a emotionally captivating story that has proper spelling and grammar. I suppose I would have to say I love seeing someone respecting and honoring the English language. I know, it’s a helluva mess to decipher, especially if it isn’t your first language, but I’m a sucker for a well written piece. I love stories when they’re written as though each word matters. There’s no waste, no pointless circles, everything has a point, everything ties back into itself, it’s perfect.

That, in my mind, is the mark of a well crafted story. It seamlessly takes me into another world without jarring me back to reality every time there’s a clunky sentence or a meaningless train of thought that leads to nowhere.

Now, nobody’s perfect (least of all me) but when you treat the words with dignity, you can spin from them some beautiful creations.

3. What, in your mind, is the most important thing to remember when writing?

Pacing! If you, dear reader and potentially fellow author, take nothing else from this useless bio, it’s that pacing matters.

I’m an open minded reader, I’ll give almost anything a chance, but the one thing that never fails to turn me off of a story is pacing. Every story has a tempo. You, as the author, set that tempo and it’s your job to adhere to it! It doesn’t matter if you’re working with a slow burn or a quick flame. It doesn’t matter if it’s a one shot or a fifty chapter story that takes weeks to read, if your pacing isn't right, nothing else will be.

Good pacing might not garner many extra readers, but bad pacing will put them off!

There have been stories that I’ve read where if the author had put a little more time and effort into pacing the story, it would have turned out better. If you want it to go fast, set it up fast. If you want it to go slow, set it up slow. Don’t let the worry of having to get all your ideas out on paper limit you. If you need to, write bits down and save them for later.

Sometimes, it’s okay to have a great idea and just turn it into a strong one-shot. Likewise, sometimes it’s worth it to wait and let your story go where it wants to go instead of forcing it into a few chapters.

Trust me, you will end up with a more satisfying result if you aren’t rushing ahead or dragging your heels. Your readers will thank you.

4. What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

Well, when I started writing I was going through a very bad spot in my life. I had largely forgotten how to feel most emotions and just felt empty. When I started reading fanfictions, I began to connect with the emotions of different characters and when I started writing, it breathed life back into me. There were moments where I would realize, Oh, this is what happy feels like, or, this is what sad feels like, that simply reduced me to tears because I could feel again.

It seems stupid, but the ability to let emotions flow from the characters, through me and onto the paper is one I don’t think I could live without. It’s my favorite feeling of all. Seeing something tangible that I’ve created, it means something to me that’s hard to express in words, despite how many of them I seem to have in my head.

5. Do you have any advice for aspiring young writers?

Never limit yourself just because you think what you’re writing might not be popular. Fanfiction is and always will be a very niche genre. Even though it's a vast medium, there are a lot of diverse, and sometimes highly specific, categories. Every reader is looking for something different and likewise, every writer has something different to offer. That’s what makes this place so great.

I know, it’s nice to get external validation. I love getting comments and views and faves and follows as much as the next person, but in the end, it’s my story and you should feel the same way about yours. You have to write for you, otherwise, it’s never as good.

I’ve written really popular pieces, I’ve written ones that I’m lucky to have views in the double digits, you never know what people are going to like. The only thing you can do is write whatever comes to mind at see how it goes. It doesn’t matter if it’s an OC story, it doesn’t matter if it’s an unpopular ship, it doesn’t matter if you kill every character in the universe, one by one. Someone out there is going to like it, that’s how this website works and thrives.

As long as you are happy with the work you’re putting out there, you’ve got it all figured out.

Final thoughts.

Writing is a joy and reading is a pleasure. Sometimes, slowing down and delving into a great story is worth it.

So while we’re on the subject, if you’re here looking at my different favorite Authors/Stories, I guess I should explain.

These select few stories are ones I think exemplify all the best of the pairing/fandom they represent. I don’t favorite stories lightly so if it’s there, it’s because it’s very good.

Same goes for the authors. Each one of them has excellent work that I would recommend to anyone who asked. If a writer’s work is good, I feel it would be a crime not to hold them up so others can experience the same joy of reading the very best.

A little afterword~

Because I felt like it would be a fine idea, I've created a FB profile specifically so I can chat with any fellow fanfiction writer/reader who is so inclined. If you're interested (why you would be is beyond me but...) the handle is Que Darling. It has the same picture as my profile so I'd hope it's easy enough to find me.

I'd love to talk to any of you about pretty much anything so if you ever have any questions, ideas, random thoughts, ect... I'm open to it! Really, I don't bite.

Much~

Well, that’s all for me!

~A very happy author,

Q