Hey everyone!
Longtime TiTS player here who’s finally decided to engage with the community a bit instead of just lurking. As someone who is thinking about writing her own smut, I wanted to ask the game’s writers (both volunteer and staff) some interview-style questions about their work. This questionnaire is primarily geared towards people who’ve done a lot of writing for TiTS, but anyone with any amount of lewd writing experience is more than welcome to answer.
I know there’s a lot of questions, so I really don’t expect anyone to answer them all. Answer as many/few as you want to whatever degree you feel most comfortable.
Longtime TiTS player here who’s finally decided to engage with the community a bit instead of just lurking. As someone who is thinking about writing her own smut, I wanted to ask the game’s writers (both volunteer and staff) some interview-style questions about their work. This questionnaire is primarily geared towards people who’ve done a lot of writing for TiTS, but anyone with any amount of lewd writing experience is more than welcome to answer.
I know there’s a lot of questions, so I really don’t expect anyone to answer them all. Answer as many/few as you want to whatever degree you feel most comfortable.
A. Introductory Questions
- How’s your day going?
- How long have you been playing/writing TiTS?
- How did you get your start in writing smut?
- What are some of the works you’re most proud of?
B. General Questions
- What are some of your favorite novels? How much inspiration do you draw from them?
- What motivates you to write smut specifically?
- If you could go back and re-rewrite one of your previous works, what would you change and why?
- What advice would you give to someone who is a total beginner at writing smut (assuming they already have decent creative writing experience)?
- To what degree do your characters draw from your own experiences, personality, or interests? Is this something you do intentionally or unintentionally?
- Approximately what percentage of your own smut are you actually “into”? If it’s a large percentage, how hard is it to type with one hand?
- Have you ever written lewd content in spite of finding that particular flavor of lewdness distasteful/uncomfortable? Was it worth it?
C. Trials in Tainted Space Questions
- What is your favorite part of the TiTS universe (e.g. the transformatives, the different alien races, the general vibes, etc.)?
- What is your least favorite part of the TiTS universe, and if you could, how would you change it?
- Who are some of your favorite TiTS writers? Why?
- How do you feel about the main storyline of TiTS? To what degree do you consider it when writing your characters?
- Given the bonkers amount of body customization available to Steele, how do you decide what bodily configurations/attributes (e.g. taurs, hypers, knots, etc.) to support in your scenes? Do you have a personal checklist that you follow or is it just down to vibes?
- How difficult is it for you to integrate your stories into the game without contradicting the existing lore/worldbuilding? Do you have any advice/resources on how to keep your works consistent with the rest of the game?
- TiTS sometimes touches upon heavier topics like colonialism, slavery, war, rape, etc. (albeit much of it is offscreen/in the background). For those of you who write in proximity to this darker side of TiTS, how do you handle these topics with the seriousness they deserve without straying too far from the game’s (mostly) silly/playful tone? In other words, what do you think is the right amount of “fucked up” you can add into your stories before things get too bleak?