An interesting question. (No need to apologize by the way, your ask is written perfectly clearly.) I do find that it is a very particular mood when I want to open up a document and type prose, start planning a story. That is a unique 'itch' that crops up... Historically, I used to switch between writing and drawing depending on what it was I was trying to convey. Especially as a young teen, I would bemoan that I lack so much raw artistic skill, that the only way to express all of my ideas was to have it written out. My cute chibi art cannot remotely convey all the complexity of romance, sorrow, uhh fetishistic torture, etc. Writing felt like the only way to externalize and explore all of that... Of course, I Growed Up and developed more skillz, so I feel more harmony with my ability to express my thoughts in artistic form. So now it's less about compromise, which is great. :o3

The pull towards fic, hmm, I think it's about the ability to almost 'slow down' and 'zoom in' on a scene, exist within the character's mind as they experience reality. Moment to moment, second to second, what is happening in their body? How they're holding their breath, the tension in their muscles, the pace of their heartbeat, all those secrets that you cannot know just by looking at someone. I like the feeling of taking a magnifying glass to someone. That's probably part of why writing feels so personal and revealing, a lot more difficult to confidently share than art... I always feel like I'm lifting the veil and exposing the way I see things, whereas art might leave more up to interpretation? Not that I want my art to lack that specificity; just commenting on the differences between these things. I would ideally like my art to be viewed in tandem with my writing, so that way you can get the whole picture of how I see a ship.

As for the actual process, I think usually my writing starts with very specific sentences weaving themselves together in my head. My mind starts to construct these, dialogue tidbits or descriptions, kind of like starting to create a composition in one's head. So I typically pause and write those sentences down in my phone notes, to review later. I also use my phone notes to sometimes sketch an idea in my head, so it's similar to that. 'Wait, I want to explore that more later...' 🧠 Percolate on it. Then I will go, hmm, how could this become a story... That's when it transitions into writing down things in bullet points or maybe more like a script. I start to formulate things like, how long do I imagine this (short, multi-chaptered...?) and what am I trying to accomplish? Kind of like, what is the 'point'? The answer to that can be pretty simple though, like, 'I want to show a snapshot of the Yugi twins childhood, how close they were'. A more ambitious thing would be, 'I have this AU that diverges from this specific canon event, so I want to show how that unfolds, and the epic sex that happens as a result!' There's always a ~blue sky~ stage for me, where I dream of all the awesome things I could write. And then usually I just jot down what I have immediately in mind, until, I later decide how serious I am going to be about any of it. At which point, I usually present it to Avvy, to help me iron out the details and plan how to go about it.

I do not really make mood boards or anything like that, though sometimes I want to add art to particular scenes. Or it will even be, I already drew something that could be retroactively suited for the work, and I consider pairing the two. This isn't a super frequent habit, though I would like to someday be better at attaching art with my writing. I feel like it would be best experienced that way.

These days, dedicated writing is a rare urge... since RPing is so accessible between me and Avvy, something that can be done both really casually, languidly, or with focus and vigor. It's also a way of 'playing' together, so obviously the perk is that we go back and forth and are stimulating the other. I find that the motivation to start an RP comes from wanting to ask Avvy's perspective on 'what would happen?' Or what 'could' happen (let's explore various possibilities!) or what 'should' happen...? (I've got an idea in my head but it's not fully formed, can you help me?) We embody a particular character typically, so I want her to lend me her mind on what that character would think, feel, do. I think it's like both of us handing the magnifying glass back and forth, to see into the minds of one another, if I do this, what would you do...? What if I suggest you do that? Conferring, discussing, perhaps going back and trying different 'options', forking paths, new hypotheticals. It's building the train tracks together and moving in real time, and also deciding how serious or silly we are being about it. Some of my favorite parts of RP is making each other giddy and laugh, whether it is the characters being silly themselves or, a situation so serious we have to comment on the absurdity (as having the omniscient perspective.) It's funny though because collaborating on writing isn't entirely dissimilar, in that, I really enjoy the feedback of passing an idea back and forth, problem solving, poking each other's brains about what can be done.

Just different ways of playing together.🏓