KibaElunal's Q&A
Hey everyone. Some of you may remember that early on in my career I had a Q&A story up where you could post questions and I'd answer them for you (duh), before I had to remove them for personal reasons.
Well, I'm excited to inform you that I'm bringing it back. Seeing as we're coming up on the TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY of when I started writing League of Legends Fanfiction, I've decided I'd give a chance for you, my awesome readers, to send me whatever questions you'd like answered.
Firstly, basic rules:
I will not answer any questions regarding upcoming plots or story elements; meaning if you ask something such as "What did Arashi do?" or "Who built Anna?" or "Is Ahri going to cheat on Kal?", I'll probably just inform you that you have to read on and wait to see what will happen. If you have a question in regards to an event that has already occurred in the story, I'll be happy to answer it. I'll mark it with a pretty hefty "Spoiler" tag before the question and answer, so that if you've yet to finish said story you can skip over the question.
Be aware that your question will be published along with the answer to it. That being said, if you're going to give me information that you don't wish to be shared as a foundation for the question you have for me (I.e. I had this deeply personal thing happen to me, do you have advice?) send it to me in a private message with the subject Q&A Private and I'll usually respond pretty quickly.
ANY question is fine. And I mean that; literally anything. Obviously if it's a question about some other person that may have been mentioned in one of my Author's Notes (my girlfriend, etc) I'll have to ask them for permission to answer it, so your question may not show up in the very next chapter, if at all. However, any question pertaining to solely myself or my stories will be answered, the only exception obviously being things that are unsafe for me to tell you (bank accounts, address, etc.) Other than that, ask away and I'll answer whatever you like.
If you'd like to submit a question for me to answer simply either leave a review or send me a private message with the subject "A Question" or "Q&A" or something of that nature. Originally I imposed a limit on my Q&A (post every five questions), but I will be doing this more on a time-basis instead. So if you ask me a question, it can be up to three to five days before it's answered in a post. Don't worry, I won't half-ass my answers. They'll all be at least a few sentences long (some have been known to become paragraphs).
Please make your questions clear. I know some of my readers are from foreign countries and have trouble speaking English, and that's fine. Plug whatever you want to ask into Google Translate and I'll usually be able to get the gist of it, but if you're concerned that what you're asking may be confusing, I'd much rather you emphasize what you're asking rather than hoping for the best. If I do answer you in a way that doesn't really tell you what you want to know, feel free to send me a private message telling me so. I'll gladly give you whatever information you're trying to get.
Next, FAQ's:
Going to get a few basics out of the way real quick. Here are some of the most commonly asked questions from my readers.
"Are you going to continue writing [insert story title here]?" Odds are, the answer is yes. Only two stories I've started have been canceled: Darkness' Embrace and Here Be Dragons, both due to lack of interest, skill, or both. I will say that I've placed my stories on a rotation, so I'm only working on three individual stories at a time. Your story will continue onward eventually, you may just have to wait for it to enter rotation.
"Will you read my story?" Oddly enough, as much as I love writing fanfiction I don't actually read much of it. That's not to say I won't read your stories, on the contrary, I generally will read the first chapter or two and give you my advice in regards to writing style, tone, etc. Don't panic, my criticism is always constructive and I'll never insult or berate your work in a review. I don't like it when it happens to me, I'm not going to do it to someone else.
"In the Author's Note of Mending Broken Wings Ch. 1, it kind of seemed like a big 'Fuck You' to your readers. What gives?" Sorry, it was not meant to be taken that way. The last thing I wanted was to give the impression that my readers are not important to me. What I was aiming for was to say that I want to try to write something that you'll enjoy without necessarily pandering to you as a reader. If you enjoy what I write, then it should be because you enjoyed my style, not the style that I guessed you'd like. It's a hard concept to explain, just know that my readers are special and important to me, and in no way was it meant to be a dick move.
"Where do you get your inspiration from?" To be honest, things just kind of flow out of me. Usually I'm inspired by dreams, daydreams, shows, movies, etc. George R. R. Martin once said that there are two categories of writers: Growers and Architects. An Architect will build their story from the ground up, having planned out every little plot point and story element before they even put pen to paper; a Grower plants the seed of a story idea and let's the elements take him where they go, letting it grow naturally from beginning to end. No writer is solely one or the other, and neither is better or worse than the other one. I myself am more a Grower than an Architect, and as such usually a story's events aren't even planned out until I get to them. When I wrote A Boy and His Fox, most of it was thinking like 'This would be cool, alright I'll start setting up what it takes to get there'.
SPOILER (A Boy and His Fox): "How dare Kal cheat on Ahri? And then she forgave him?! That's such bullshit, and I'm pissed off. I hate you and I'll never read anything you write ever again." Now, now, just calm down. Believe me, I know as much as the next person the feelings of rage and betrayal when a ship you like is tossed about on the ocean (Looking at you Starfox: Command -flips the bird-) but when you take a deep breath and think about what that means between them, it's a huge deal. For Kal, it shows that his word is more important to him than his own personal feelings about the subject. His first concern was keeping it secret, because he didn't want to lose Ahri, but he changed his mind because he knew it was the wrong thing to do. Also, everyone is quick to board the 'Fuck-Kal-he's-an-asshole' train, but let's not forget that Lux used his promise to essentially rape him. As for Ahri's quick jump to forgiveness: she was not happy about the events that played out. Anybody would be pissed, sad, and hurt and it's important to know that she was. But (and while this is the part that's hard to understand) when you have a very deep relationship with someone, and you really love them to the point where you'd die for them, well you'd forgive them for pretty much anything. It'd be one thing if Kal simply cheated on Ahri because he wanted to, but having seen his inner turmoil about the whole situation, she pieced together that he didn't like the situation either. So to recap, she forgave him because: She loves him, she knew it was against his will, and he planned on telling her after anyway (despite wishing to keep it secret at first). If you're still upset that's fine, you're meant to be. I didn't write it expecting everyone to nod their heads and just kind of pretend like nothing happened, but if you read Magic of a Young Girl's Heart you'll notice that Kal and Ahri even joke about it, because they're just that close with one another. Besides, Ahri gets her revenge anyway.
"Can you put my OC in your story/Can you ship these two?" While I do look into it as a case-by-case basis, my answer will typically be no. It's nothing against you guys at all, and I'm not saying your OC is bad or that I disagree with your ship, but chances are it's hard for me to wriggle in your character/ship into the plot. I'm a bit more willing with ships, assuming that it's not with a main character. (I.e. In A Boy and His Fox, I shipped Jarvan with Shyvana at a reader's request because it wasn't an integral part of the story, while I didn't perform a request to ship Caitlyn and Jayce in Smoothest of Criminals because it was an integral part of the story.)
"When is the second part of your original novel coming out?" Unfortunately, my focus has kind of shifted at the moment from my original work to my fanfiction for the time being. I'm still working on it every now and then, but it's moving very slowly. So slowly, in fact, that I'm not even sure I can give you a projected date. However, it will be done, and it will be published, I promise. Sorry to my readers overseas, Amazon indicated they would translate the book, but they have not. In addition, if you'd like to read the novel but don't have any money, just tell me and I'll work something out for you. Yeah, I'm a crappy business man, but I didn't write the thing to make money and let's face it, no one reads jack on fictionpress anyway. For those of you who would like to purchase a copy to support me, the book is titled Trinity Wars Book One: Behemoth. It's available in Amazon (digital and paperback), in all countries. If you do buy a copy, please, please, please leave a review of the book online. The more reviews I have, the more I'll get people to look into it.
"You mention a lot that your job has been taking a lot of your time. What exactly do you do that robs me of my beloved fanfictions?" Well, essentially I'm a teacher at a private school that is dedicated to what we call 'Quirky' kids. I know that in European countries this is a rather insulting term, but here it's a much kinder way of saying socially inept. Basically, if you've ever watched The Big Bang Theory, I teach a school full of Sheldons. Some of my students are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, Tourette's, etc. As one would imagine, it's rather draining of my energy, but I love it so what can you do? I usually get home and just pass out, but as you may be able to tell I tend to have insomnia so I write at the wee hours of the morning. That being said, if you ever need tutoring in Math(s) let me know and I'll do my best to help you. Or, if you'd like, I have some exercises for creative writing that may help you become better that I'd be happy to share with you. I'm not going to be so arrogant as to be all "Just watch kid, someday you'll be as awesome as me" but I think it'll help you find a different perspective on some aspects of writing that may be of assistance.
"I don't see you on League very often, are there other games that you play?" As a matter of fact, yes. Sort of, when I have time. I enjoy playing Minecraft, Onigiri, Hearthstone etc. I used to play Neverwinter. I very rarely (but absolutely love to) play Puzzle Pirates (don't laugh, it's fun D:). I don't really play any other MOBA's, mostly because I'm much more of an adventure sort of person than a PVP dudebro. However, a reader of mine (Heerco, who is a saint for all the help he's been), is about to start playing D&D on a virtual table with myself and a few others. We may record it, but we've also discussed doing it on a livestream, so be on the lookout for that. I also enjoy Roleplaying on IMVU, but again I don't do it often.
Well that's pretty much it for the introduction. I look forward to hearing your questions! I wish you all the best of luck in life and literature. -Kiba