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[anne-boleyn]

Hey,

I literally read all 19 chapters in one night bc it so good. Desperately waiting for chapter 20!!! Hope it going well and be out soon.

Hello! WOW that is a lot to read in one night - I am so glad you enjoyed it! ❤️

I literally have no excuse for how long it is taking me to get 20 out (especially since I’ve been actively drafting it since ~3 days after I posted 19) other than the usual “work, life, minimal free time, perfectionism” but I promise I am actively working on it and hope to share it with y’all soon!

[anne-boleyn]

it’s been over a year that you’ve been writing the gold that is aimed, and the world thanks you for it! You obviously had the show as it aired in the beginning, and mentioned rewatching episodes like Retired Janitors to get a feel for things. Are you still using episodes as reference/inspiration, any other movies/shows etc, or just your pure imagination at this point?

Hello! Thanks very much for the ask and the kind words - I can’t believe Aimed is now more than one year old 🫠

I rewatch the show in bits & pieces pretty regularly! I haven’t done a full start-to-finish rewatch in a while, but I’m pretty constantly checking back in with the source material, particularly when I’m working with a character with whose voice I’m not as comfortable (eg, consumed a Bunch of Connor content while writing 19). I don’t really look for writing inspiration from other media but as I’ve probably mentioned in the past, my teenage overconsumption of Brontë is probably the single biggest out-of-universe inspiration for how I write & think about Lukas!

[anne-boleyn]

Hey queen how’s the new chapter going😏 are we getting fluff or smut or god forbid, more tom…

Hi sweet pea! Thanks for the ask ❤️ The new chapter is coming along nicely (although - obviously - not as quickly as I would like)! General spoilers for ch. 20 under the cut:

No smut this time ALAS as we are spending this chapter in the several days immediately post-partum. There will definitely be a little fluff (or whatever passes for Shiv/Lukas’s pathologically unwell version of that), some Feelings regarding Shiv’s post-partum state, and - I very much regret to inform you - there will also be some Tom 🤦🏽‍♀️

[anne-boleyn]

hello hi! hope you’ve been well. i’m a bit of a succession/shiv drought, wondering if there’s anything you feel inspired to share from the aimed-verse, whether from the next chapter, a headcanon, etc!

hey hi hello! thank you, I have been well and hope you have been the same ❤️❤️

Spoilers for aimed ch. 20 under the cut:

Lukas says, “Hey,” barefoot in the doorway, heavy-eyed. Hasn’t been sleeping. He doesn’t sleep, mostly, when they aren’t –

Shiv’s chest seems to have constricted. She’d like to bite him. Not to hurt him, not really (maybe a little) but mostly to mark him, incisors and canines imprinted on his golden skin, marring the long clean lines of his forearms, his shoulders. He’d let her. As he lounges in the doorway of her nursery and watches her hold Maeve, Shiv thinks that she could take him apart with her fucking teeth if she wanted, one piece at a time. He’d hold still for her, show her all the places where his pulse beats closest to the surface and then, at least, they’d both be bleeding. “Stay over there.”

[anne-boleyn]

I saw you posted about Bridgerton, and more specifically Kate and Anthony! Do you think there's a scenario where Lukas would tell Shiv a modern version of the "and it is not far enough. do you think there is a corner of this earth that you could travel to far away enough to free me of this torment" etc etc

Hi hello & thanks for the ask!

One of the things I most enjoy about Bridgerton is its embrace of familiar romance tropes. Like, every season we get a new one and it’s just a big lovely mess with string quartet covers of pop songs and then we do it all over again the next season with a different trope and it’s supremely fun & pretty & easy to watch and I just think that’s neat! And S2 in particular knocked my personal favorite trope (enemies-to-lovers… shocking!) out of the park IMO. Kate/Anthony are obviously WILDLY different from Shiv/Lukas in personality, but I think there are elements of their dynamic that are similar enough that this could slot in somewhere in the context of Shiv trying to order Lukas back to Stockholm & him theatrically monologuing his refusal (I love his wild rambly little word-explosions).

Anyway tl;dr I unironically love Bridgerton in all its ridiculous glory & this ask made me happy! Thanks again ❤️

[anne-boleyn]

Not to be an absolute glutton, but could we get another teaser from chapter 20? Please? 🥺

Dear anon! I am so sorry it’s taking so long; work & life have been hectic but I am on a multi-day writing streak (fingers crossed) and am hopeful I will have the full chapter out in the next couple weeks. And to tide you over in the meantime:

(spoilers for aimed ch. 20 under the cut)

Tom says, “Honey?” from the doorway, and Shiv doesn’t answer.

Honey, as far as she can figure it, is not an inquiry that necessitates a response. She is, clearly, physically present in the room. She is, visibly, awake and alive, eyes open, capable of commanding her arms to keep herself and Maeve aligned in reasonably comfortable parallel. There is nothing she can offer Tom in return for his honey that shouldn’t be readily fucking apparent to him from where he hovers nervously at the mouth to Shiv’s sanctum.

Annoyingly, there is no follow-up forthcoming, and more annoyingly, she glances up to catch him looking particularly soft around the eyes. Milk-sticky, dried sweat at her nape and her hairline, wearing yesterday’s t-shirt and this morning’s disposable fucking underwear, Shiv could really fucking do without the maddening inconstancy of Tom’s faltering tenderness. She should have reinforced the nursery door with barbed wire, should have let Lukas pack the place out with a full complement of security – sunglasses and earpieces in the hall, a human barricade. The idea begins to appeal.

[anne-boleyn]

so, so valid of anthony to barely be in this season because he canonically can’t stop fucking his wife long enough to be a functioning member of society

[anne-boleyn]

what is the longest shiv and lukas ever go without sex & what level of Wild Animal do they reach when said drought period is over?

Hello and thanks for the ask!

Honestly I think the post-baby recovery stretches are their longest-ever droughts. And 10/10, fully feral!

[anne-boleyn]

Stumbled upon an old interview with Sarah Snook where she said that motherhood might transform Shiv into a lioness and it reminded me of the very in-character dynamic you’ve written of Mom Shiv and her little cub, Maeve. This of course means that she and Lukas are king and queen of the jungle.

well, I love this very much! thank you 🥹❤️

[anne-boleyn]

succession (2018-2023)

[anne-boleyn]

The best quality a fictional man can have is being deeply, pathetically, wretchedly in love with someone, I think

[anne-boleyn]

[anne-boleyn]

why do you think Lukas is so deadset on marrying shiv in aimed? Does it have anything to do with the obvious weight that shiv gives to the husband-wife relationship?

Hello and thanks for the ask!

For Me, his obsession with marrying Shiv is inextricable from his sense of possession over her and his need for her to be ~his~ to the greatest extent possible. If she weren’t already married I don’t think he would be nearly as set (if at all) on the idea.

[anne-boleyn]

Just found your story and I have to say that Aimed is probable my Roman Empire. I think about shivlukas all the time because of your writing. I just saw some pictures from the Emmys (and an interview of Alexander on working with Sarah) and all of I can think is Shiv and Lukas probably wearing the same thing to RECNY or some bs thing shiv makes them go to.

Hello and thank you so much for the ask & the kind words! I also spend a lot of time thinking about them at RECNY or some comparable black-tie event and will likely pack as many of those into future-Aimed as is reasonably possible!

[anne-boleyn]

As a non-writer, just curious about your process. How do you decide what snippet you’ll post on here?

Do you have a chapter outline and keep building out the entire chapter as you go or do you focus on one part then move onto another once you’re satisfied?

Do you have a writing schedule/actively choosing to write or only write when you feel inspired/in the writing mood?

Hello! Thanks for the ask!

My “process” plays out with about as much sophistication and forethought as you might expect from a bag full of angry cats, honestly, and it varies SO widely from chapter to chapter! There are chapters that I’ve built out from an intensely detailed bullet-pointed start-to-finish outline, and then there are chapters where my draft folder looks like “ch14; ch14 NEW; ch14 shivlukas w edits; ch14 FINAL; Chapter 14” as I pile docs on top of each other like a madwoman. I don’t stop editing until the chapter is posted - generally once I finish a section I run through it top to bottom, but then I always do a comprehensive top-down read of the entire chapter when I think I’m ready to post it and that has sometimes spawned additional hours/days of fine-tuning!

Snippets I choose to share here are usually either: (1) something I’m confident is going into the final draft of the chapter; or (2) something that, even if I tweak it later, I feel good enough about that I’m okay with sharing it. Generally when I get an ask for a sneak peek, I hang onto it until I have something to share that fits into one of those two categories (which sometimes takes a while).

I don’t keep a hard-and-fast writing schedule, and I never force myself to write. There are definitely days when I open my draft, eyeball what I have so far, say ‘nope’ and promptly close it again. On those days, I may do “passive” work on a chapter (e.g., running through plot beats etc. in my head while doing something else and occasionally jotting down something that sticks with me), which I find can still be really valuable in bringing a chapter together.

Thanks again! ❤️

[anne-boleyn]

Even if he's not staying at the triplex, will Lukas find ways to make his presence known from afar?

Hello and thanks for the ask! That is a very, very safe bet.

[anne-boleyn]

not to be greedy, but is there anything you can share from the next chapter?? if not any excerpts, even just info like on if it picks up where the last left off, anything to expect, etc. love your work so much! 🥰

Hello and thank you so much! ❤️❤️ Spoilers for ch. 20 under the cut:

Dueling Shiv/Lukas POVs, covering Shiv and Maeve’s first ~3 days home from the hospital! And a tiny sneak peek from Lukas:

In the back of the car he sits with his head in his hands, digs the points of his elbows into his knees, eyes closed behind the sunglasses he’d swiped from the driver. Shiv. Maeve. Shiv and Maeve stuck between his ribs, tightening his chest. He’d wanted her, Shiv, early – first, with a sort of idle curiosity, piqued when she’d stepped forward to meet him in Norway with her chin up and that flat, challenging look, thumped him between the shoulderblades like she learned to hug in a fucking locker room. Measuring her against Kendall, against Roman, he’d thought oh, okay, nicked open by the edge of her razorblade eyes, his gaze briefly stuck on the bored curve of her mouth, so you’re the fucking tough guy, huh?