and for meme #2, I recommend Heget’s fanfiction for anyone who likes their fic to be written by someone who is conversant in canon enough that any deviations are very deliberately in response to the canon work rather than being haphazard or simply because they don’t like something. She follows in the footsteps of Tolkien by filling in the margins, and she does so masterfully, with cultural tidbits and OCs who fit the world so well you’d believe they were canon if you didn’t know otherwise.

I have the blurb to add to the back covers of my works now 😉

Canon-like without being slavishly devoted to it is, I think, the goal of any fanfic writer, Tone-wise with the writing I can’t come close to capturing the feel. Read too much HoMe to be haphazard about canon sounds about right lol And one of the main purposes of fanfic is to explore the margins!

*pulls dryope aside, whispers* all those Ingwë of Cuiviènen fics are explicitly because I didn’t like canon Unbegotten elves or that Finwë, Elu, and Ingwë would have been such. Okay, I wiggled and bent the fuzzy canon to disprove that and then tried to beat the myth/fairy tale into submission with science while screaming in vain. Or BEST AU EVAR.

woohoo, memes~ For the making you write things meme, my entirely selfish answer is Gorlim/Eilinel fluff because they’re my OTP and there is not enough fic of them. My slightly less selfish answer is more about the Band of the Red Hand before they ran off with Beren because you give so many great hints about their lives and I’m ;; at them

I had to look up which mutual wrote it, but @houseofhaleth‘s Gorlim and Eilinel (also here) was the first centered solely on them and now I completely and utterly believe that both were adorable introverts and Eilinel had a clubfoot -or because I re-read 1632: The Devil’s Opera recently and two of the main characters are ‘Stark’ Hans the prize fighter whose goal is to raise enough money for his sister who had her hip and leg shattered during the Sack of Madgeburg so i guess I could put my own spin oh hey the cop and Hans’ sister were a really cute couple in that I could make Edain expies and Gorlim becomes the son of the Bëorian equivalent of a town burger and one of the other twelve is now the Samson of Rvil’s Well. …Okay I have angle now so if I do get around to writing Gorlim/Eilinel I feel I could, because I love what jess has written for them.

As for the Band of the Red Hand, as I still have Aglar, Bân, Gadwar, and Edrahil to get through, there are more backstory and Nargothrond/pre-Nargothrond tidbits to go. Bân in particular is such a long piece because it’s flashbacks nestled in flashbacks and a majority of them located in Menegroth. Aglar’s story will be mostly back in Valinor- Formenos and then the Exile including the Sack of Alqualondë. Gadwar’s will have the most Nargothrond stuff, as my notes for him are all about his half-brother and him. I still have no idea what Edrahil wants his one-shot to be about. Everything else for them is post-First Age hanging out with Faron in The Hangover-esque fluff comedy.

Túrin and Niënor for the character meme!!

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life
hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang
hogwarts house: GRYFFINDOR | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff
best quality: They are both very bold and brave and honest, with Túrin especially he has this compassion and empathy for those in unfortunate situations- he wants to help. Also he sees in people the chance for redemption
worst quality: Hi tempers, hi foolhardiness and charging off thinking you know best without consulting with someone like Mablung, have some forethought, you two
ship them with: ~~each other~~ Finduilas and Gwindor. Yes, both of them. All four of them, any combination of them
brotp them with: Mablung, Beleg, Nellas, Brandir
needs to stay away from: GLAUDRING
misc. thoughts: I’m glad being around this fandom made me appreciate and like them

and Edel from Princess Tutu ;D

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life
hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang
hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff
best quality: kind and self-sacrificing even when she was/should have been nothing but an automaton plot device for Drosselmeyer
worst quality: She was only a puppet, and is destroyed/dies and replaced by Uzura who was a cute character but also annoying and would have rather kept Edel
ship them with: no one
brotp them with: Uzura, Ahiru, Fakir, whoever the narrator is
needs to stay away from: Drosselmeyer, open flames
misc. thoughts: How the heck does her hair work? Mostly just that ring of curls- how does it attach in the back? Also now thanks to Over the Garden Wall I can’t help but think she was carved from Edelwood trees. Also- perfect crossover OtGW and PT

It literally just occurred to me I don’t have to stick to the Silm for this meme, right??? so. Moiraine Damodred

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life
hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang
hogwarts house: gryffindor? | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff …ask @anghraine. Whatever the Blue Ajah is
best quality: Gandalf/Obi-wan/Dumbledore is a middle-aged woman that should not be as revolutionary as it is, She’s gonna save the world with her crafty plans and admits when she needs to change tactics, she does care about her Chosen One, she’s snarky without being mean, has flaws
worst quality: Dumbledore-like close-lipped controlling behavior backfires
ship them with: Thom, Siuan
brotp them with: Lan, Siuan, Egwene, Verin, those Grey twins, Matt and Perrin and the various Aiel
needs to stay away from: Lanfear, the Snakes and Foxes
misc. thoughts: It’s been too long, i can’t remember most everyone’s names or plot things that happened especially in the last two books

Nellas for the character meme

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw? | hufflepuff
best quality: She’s very cute. She was fulling willing and patient to take a small mortal child under her wing and teach him
worst quality: i don’t know much about her. Um, I can’t judge her at all for being shy and being afraid to testify in public- that’s a best relatable quality.
ship them with: precocious crush on Mablung or Beleg, idk?
brotp them with: Túrin, Mablung, Beleg, Beren and Lúthien (headcanon that she knew Lúthien -wasn’t she a handmaiden of Melian?- and at least met Beren and they bonded over wildlife and how awesomely nice friends trees can be and that’s why Nellas latched onto teaching Túrin)
needs to stay away from: Kinslayers (the knowledge that there’s a 90% chance she died in the Second Kinslaying breaks my heart), orcs, people who demolish trees, people who hate the Sindar, Nandor, and/or mortals
misc. thoughts: Influenced now to picture her as very young (for an elf), so concepts of her hotness or shipping her with others gets very iffy for me. Also still haven’t read CoH for more Nellas. It’s understood that she has brown hair, right?

18, 26!

18: any fanmixes you’ve made for this fic/verse?

I’ve never made a fanmix (though I’d love and heart-eyes forever if anyone wanted to do something for any of my stuff), but I like to listen to music and get inspired by songs, so that’s close enough. So, songs I can link to fics:

Florence + Machine, especially her first album, Lungs, which I listened to on repeat in that middle period between several years in on my obsession with the Silm but before I started to de-lurk and share my head-canons and write my fics. So the older fics/fics whose roots come from those years, “Brides of Death/Gift of Men”, that Andreth story, is Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) and The Dog Days Are Over. “Howl”, where I zero in on the festival/ceremony of remembering their exodus towards Beleriand, is also that song and the fourth song, Howl. There’s several Florence songs that scream Aegnor/Andreth to me, and that one that’s the Lay of Leithian in pop song form, so there’s “Hold Fast Err Night Comes”, but I still haven’t written the exact scenes of Aegnor/Andreth fluff that Paolo Nutini’s Candy demands.

For “Of Ingwë Ingweron”, especially the early chapters, I listened to the Journey video game soundtrack.

Also when writing “Release from Bondage”, I listened to the Game of Thrones soundtrack, in particular tracks from season two and especially Theon’s theme and variations on it and Winterfell’s theme, for obvious reasons.

26: anything you’re planning to write in your fic that you’re worried readers might like?

Aha. ahaha. ha. hahahaha. I’m not a BNF and I’m not writing the fan favorites or favorite settings, my work is heavily OC centeric (and interconnected to each other), so I struggle with the feelings of wondering if any readers will like the very premise of my work with the desire that they should and would love it as much as me. In specifics- Am I respecting the horror of what I’m writing about, these imprisonments and death and war, and is the awfulness coming across to the reader in a way that they are satisfied? (then the counterpoint voice- is this too much? should this have been tagged for warnings and rated higher? Oh gods am I a bad/rude writer and triggered someone?)

With characters like Aglar- will this be too much screen-time connected to/about the Fëanorians- but it’s unflattering so will I have the lynch-mob from their fans?

Are my tangents on fish and food and rivers interesting? Is there enough romance? Too much unrequited love in the backstories of the Ten from Tol Sirion?

How much of Oromë among the Elves and the Three Prophets going to Valinor do I have to write to satisfy readers? Can’t I write slice-of-life and quasi-anthropological dissertations on early life of Ingwë and others and not betray the expectations of “Of Ingwë”? Can I flesh those scenes out enough?

3 and 33 for this fic writing meme

3: what motivates you?

SPITE.

Okay, that’s a gross exaggeration and not entirely accurate for every story I’ve written. But to out-pour all my love for Indis, Elu and the Sindar, write about the Valar, Bëorians up in Dorthonion, wax eloquently and profusely on the Swanships, that the Bór will dump the Fëanorians just like Huan and all dogs did – that writerly effort is loving in defiance of not just fans and fandom wank, but for instance my anger at how the Game of Thrones TV ruined the only characters/plot that held my interest in ASoIaF is why I wrote as much as I did for Release from Bondage. On nicer notes, I’m also inspired by songs and footnotes and of course the ‘how can I make this fusion work?’

33: favorite one-shot you’ve written?

I hold a large litter of puppies in my arms, as the fluffy little things squirm in my grip, you ask me to pick just one. I stare at you.

Uh, maybe Grief is an Undertow. Ilsë’s list of the unjustly slain is my id candy and the fundamental anger of the Teleri is me as this tower of salt.

❋ and ✽ and ❧ and ❦ I mean to be fair I love everything about your fic so picking only a few was difficult, but the reason I was drawn to your fic in the first place is how you fill in the blanks and wander around hidden corridors in a way that is at the same time creative, delightful, and canon compliant. You make Arda seem that much more real to enough of an extent that I consider you part of my personal ME canon :P #shameless fangirl

Aw I’ve told you again and again your praise makes me blush! I like my details too. And such a lovely description- yes it does feel like I’m walking through the servants’ corridors and into the unused rooms, through the doors that don’t get as often used. Those always lead to the good rooms, the ones with the cool artifacts. And then I drag back my treasures for show-and-tell. Hey, highest praise is to have my headcanon adopted in as other people’s canon too. 😀

gdi I saw the memes when I was on my phone and said “I’m going to do those” and FORGOT so I hope it isn’t too late?? Anyway AUs, hurt/comfort or body swap.

AUs are my favorite thing to write (and heck, mentally I think I need to label the canon compliant stuff semi-AU). Half the planned (or perpetually unwritten) Andreth/Aegnor, the Ingwë and Elwë swap places, The Best AU EVAR (aka Miriel refuses to marry Finwë) … yeah that’s not even touching the fusions. Hurt/comfort is I think what Release from Bondage could also accurately be labeled, along with Slow Burn. It’s not a fanfic category I conscientiously write, but my love of bittersweet and fluff means I end up halfway there, and I’m a sucker for reunited in death/afterlife stories, of which Mandos and Elven Reincarnations is tailor-made for me (with the ambiguity of mortal fates aligning with my agnostic leaning towards atheist personal feelings, so to have that reflected so perfectly in a text that also has the confirmed afterlife and mythological beings, this strange and perfectly written have my cake and eat it too – that’s another reason why I love The Silm).

Body swap. Okay, honestly never thought this before. I like narrative role swap AUs (see above) or things like Luke and Leia switched who got raised where (why this works for me and not gender-swaps, idk). But actual consciousnesses swapped around probably only good for a crack fic. And I’m not sure I could write that. Switching a mortal and elf around would be maximum fun, and I have a feeling Finrod would be delighted in an anthropologist’s fever dream way, and as for mortal, let’s face it, there’s no better candidate for humor than Túrin- and now I’m wondering if we switched him out with one of the terrible seven, for competing curses. of course then it’s Túrin convincing his ‘brothers’ to actually try a foolhardy attack on Morgoth that dooms them all, but still causes less collateral damage and fewer intentional genocides. Depending on which son of Fëanor, Nargothrond is more doomed, Finduilas suffers a worse fate, poor Gwindor, poor Brandir, poor Beleg, Thingol welcoming his foster-son with open arms only to be shanked until Melian realizes what happened. It’s all Glaurung’s fault somehow.