9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I tend to get inspired by visuals.  I’m more likely to fill an art prompt or picture prompt than a word prompt, though I think I’m getting better.  I also enjoy filling in the spaces so often left in canon… how did this character get that way, what happened during these missing weeks between scenes, etc.  I occasionally write short aus, but I’m much more tempted with tweaking the canon.

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

Generally alone, sometimes in silence, but often music can help me set the moot, especially if the characters are in particularly emotional places.

12) your weaknesses as an author  I think it’s hard to know one’s own weaknesses, but I can think of a few.  I don’t think I’m particularly good at (or at least have sort of gotten away from) describing scenes and creating moods.  I think it’s easy to assume in fanfic that the reader already knows a place, so there’s no need to describe it, but that’s not always the case, and while we should avoid describing the canon and boring our readers, sometimes it’s nice to remind them or show them what’s different in this version.  I fear that if I ever write anything original, where this is actually important, I’ll have forgotten how to do it.

13) your strengths as an author

I think I generally do a good job with dialogue, though it often takes a few times through (i.e., first I just write the back and forth, then I go back and add in looks, pauses, characters doing something in the environment to help show their headspace, which makes dialogue much more bearable to read and allows you to get rid of a bunch of tags and adverbs.

As an aside, I once wrote an entire story in texts, and it was really hard NOT to have those character movements.  I had to rely on “…” to show a character struggling for words or otherwise being delayed in responding… those ellipses had to do so much work.

24) have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

OMG so many times.  My first long fic, as I’ve said in another answer, was for Twilight, and featured Carlisle and Edward circa 1918 through about 1930 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6254265/1/Prelude-in-C).  Edward is a pianist, and I love piano music, but the music basically became another character in the story, charting Edward’s progress as a character, his emotions, his ability to think beyond his own needs… it was all shown through the music.  I became a complete expert on Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Litz, the jazz of the 20s and 30s.  Back when I was posting, I had a playlist for readers to enjoy, but that’s all long defunct.

More recently, for the last 00qRBB, I wrote Stained Glass, which involved researching stained glass windows all over the world and making them part of the set of the story.  That was good fun, and at least a few readers chased the links and saw the windows along with Bond.

Thanks so much for the asks @platypushko!