Interviews With Mcyt Fanfic Writers

9. ThatOneWaterCat

Any Ethdubs fan is sure to have at least heard of the fanfic Smells Like Coffee by ThatOneWaterCat. They are a very popular Ethdubs author and are actually working on a sequel called Tastes Like Coffee! They also some have Hermitcraft fanfics including a Season 8 AU titled A Chaotic Camping Trip.

So here's my interview with them!

Question 1: How'd you stumble across mcyt and start writing? I honestly can't remember exactly who or what I watched first (possibly aphmau?) but I clearly remember my introduction to hermitcraft at least! I had recently watched the hobbit, and Mumbo was a hobbit for the start of season 7, so I watched his second episode (didn't realize it was the second one for a while) and I liked it! I then watched iskall, not even realizing they were different people for the majority of the video, and then Grian, who I realized was someone else slightly quicker, but only because I saw Mumbo's build in his video. I basically only watched the jungle hermits of that season, learning about the other hermits when they popped up in one of the videos of someone I was watching. I was also into the Dream SMP at the time (I never watched streams, only clips and highlights channels lol) and when I saw a clip of fundy and tubbo talking about 'dreamons' I had an idea for a story and thought 'it would be so school if there were a book for this! ...oh. Wait. I can write something for it!' so I wrote on my own for a while, and it was fun, and I learned people posted stuff sometimes, and I could too so other people could maybe see the story too! I didn't care as much about sharing it, but looked into it anyways, and asked my dad for help. He figured wattpad was the safest (it's a little more directed to younger audiences, and the setup looks nicer than ao3 to figure out how to use)v so he helped me set it up, and I posted 7 chapters at once.

Question 2: Do you ever think of doing something else? Maybe writing original stories or maybe even stepping away from Wattpad and moving on with your life? I have actually written a few original stories, but I've never posted them, because I know they would et a lot less attention than any fanfic I wrote. That probably wouldn't've bothered me when I first started writing, but nowadays it's a little too easy to compare my more famous works with my less seen ones, and I don't want to pour my heart into the story I've been thinking about starting over and finishing for like 4 years, and then have no one seeing it, y'know? Maybe one day I'll write and post them, but I don't think I'll stop writing fanfic for that to happen either. Also, I've thought about stepping away from Wattpad, but honestly, I have no reason to. Every comment still makes me overjoyed, and I've barely even had a drop of negativity from people here, so why would I leave? Everyone has their hobbies, and I think writing fanfic could be my hobby for a very long time. Plus, haha, I still gotta finish Minecraft manhunt on earth someday!

Question 3: If you're comfortable with it, would you mind telling me a bit about your home life? Do you enjoy time with your family or is it hard? And do they know about your Wattpad life? My home life is pretty good most of the time. I love my family and have a good relationship with my parents, and I'm incredibly close with my sibling. My parents don't know I'm bi, and honestly, they probably won't for a long time, but other than that, its all pretty good. I moved out recently for college and miss them (and my cat and dog and birds) a lot, and I think that's a good sign we're close. I will say though, I don't show my family (other than mentioned sibling) any of my works. They've asked to see them, and I've said 'sure but its very long, and not good, and you need to know the characters to get it' and basically any excuse I have to not show them. I don't know what their reactions would be exactly if I came out, and I've thought about trying to a lot, but I know it wouldn't be unconditional acceptance, and I don't want to break the relationship we have, not yet, anyways.

Question 4: Do you share the fact that you're on Wattpad in your life, such as at school, or do you keep it under wraps? A bit of both I guess? I mean, I didn't tell anyone about it until like last late spring. And even then, it was only 1 school friend I trusted to be chill about it. I joke about it a little more often now and I'm slightly more open to tell people (but I still disguise it as 'oh yeah I write online and have a few fans') but only my roommate knows its specifically wattpad too. So mostly under wraps, because I like my online life and real life very separate for the most part, but a few people know I wrote online, and 2 friends know its wattpad.

Question 5: Any plans for the future with your writing? Maybe any upcoming stories? i have so many upcoming books i don't think i can write them all! i know that at least when i finish another book (i'm not letting myself start a new one until at least 1 older one is finished, or i'll never finish the old ones!) i have a plan for a book centered around bdubs about a road trip with him and etho that i'm excited to write that has yet to be named, but the concept and outline have been done for a while! i also have a spy au with a lot of hermitcraft members, centered around bdubs as well that stills needs a lot of plot sorted out but i'm excited to write that too. oh! and i'm still working on a physical trauma recovery much smaller book centered around jimmy, with ranchers and lots of hurt/comfort. i definitely have more books planned, but a lot of them only have half-finished ideas or super vaugue plots, and i'm going to wait until i'm down with all of the ones i mentioned first before starting them. one i have is called "one hundred ways to fake your death" and it's going t have more senstive topics including suicidal thoughts and so i need to do that one more carefully, finishing most of the book before i post anything so i don't leave a part of the book in a heavy place for a long period of time and make anyone uncomfortable. that one is going to take a while to even start.

Question 6: Are there any big mistakes that you regret in your life or anything you wish you can go back and change? Yeah, but I'm not gonna talk about the sad ones, I'll say, some slightly more 'AUGHHHH' moments are when I wrote part of any of my stories, only to edit it, post it, and reread it much later to see there are continuity errors (or spelling errors that were so obvious). Also promising I'd finish books, and then just not being able to. Of course I want to, but I just can't and I regret telling people I could or can for so long to only get both their and my false hopes up. Also, to all the yougin's out there: I regret getting straight A's. That sounds contradictory I guess, but trust me, its not worth it. Colleges don't care that much, and aiming for perfect grades ruins more of your life than it helps, trust me (this is for American schools at least, can't talk much about other school systems). I wish I learned how to chill out about grades a little earlier so I was less paranoid about being a perfectionist nowadays. I also regret not branching out as much in high school, and sticking with clubs I hated just because I felt bad leaving

Question 7: Are you facing any big struggles in your life right now? You don't have to share any specifics if you do not feel comfortable with it. College is hard, and I am tired. I'm overworking myself, while also barely doing anything. Surviving is a struggle.

Question 8: How did you come up with a lot of the angst and twists and turns in Smells Like Coffee? Well first I made a draft of the book on a notes page, and then in that draft, any fun ideas I came up with, I put below it. For example, I had something like 'future me! Have Bdubs write on the coffee cup and screw up a bunch!'. The first outline really only had the start, the conflict, and the end. Then every time I got a new idea for a plot point or chapter, I just stuck it in! each chapter, I also wrote a more detailed outline (for example: my book outline only had 'stargazing chap' but the more detailed one included the car ride and Etho bringing tea that they share) I will say, a lot of ideas I had were just random thoughts that I was smart enough to write down and just luckily fit in perfectly. I had a lot of scrapped ideas still sitting in my notes pages but even those are just ideas for later! Sometimes I need a character in a place (or away from a place) so I make up a 'behind the scenes' situation for them to take away from the 'camera' and honestly that sparks a lot of creativity, and sometimes even foreshadowing for later events! Also just us- forgetting to ad stuff in sometimes (like entire characters) forces me to address it in a later chapter or find a creative work around so continuity mostly stays the same. I've slipped up a few times, but no ones noticed yet! Sometimes the words just write themselves, and that can lead to a spiral of events that are just fun to include. (the entire Scar going to the hospital plot was a rando last second idea that just happened to work well to push the story forward and give the audience a little scare before some major plot points I had planned. Hehe that's fun to say fast) in short: I make an outline, random ideas for things are written in a notes doc to come back to, if the story gets boring, I add something interesting to spice it up, and sometimes the words just write themselves! (oh, and reluctant credit to Cloudy who sometimes forces ideas in it)

Okay, let me know what you want next!! You can only recommend other people, no alt accounts, and you can only vote once. and know that the next one will come out a week from November 27 (December 4th) I'm doing that bc I liked updating this on Monday's but I wanted to get this interview out today :D