campbyler

[campbyler]

hi!! just wondering if you have any plans for fics or anything after acswy is done?

also im so so excited for the next chapter and love your work sm!! ❤️

hello!! we have some companion fics that we want to write that take place after the events of acswy, but i would say that they aren’t super a priority for us and we both want to work on other projects after we finish the main fic!! that said, i wouldn’t rule out a random upload now and then when we find ourselves missing them :’)

[campbyler]

hello!!! just wanted to see any little spoilers we can get for the next chapter or a little hint of what it’s going to look like, I know everyone’s super busy with work and stuff so I am sending love to all but I’m SOOOOOOO OBSESSED WITH THIS STORY😂. But again, I do hope all is well and much love to you and everyone else💗

hello!!! ty for the love 🥰🥰 sending it back to you!! so here is your out of context little spoiler for ch11:

[campbyler]

re: reluctant popular fic readers...

i think people avoid popular things because they can be a sign of low quality because often people ONLY read things that are popular and don't discern quality for themselves. so some people tend to avoid big things because it could mean that its actually not great but just trendy.

ofc this isnt really a good reason to not give it a go as you said, privately in your own time. tbf anon said they did read the first paragraph and still said a hard 'nope', so they did try it but seeingly didnt like it. but this seems like an unnecessarily backhanded compliment to then come and say 'hey i like it now that ive given it a second chance!' i mean, that might be true, but did the author NEEEEEEEED to know that? imagine saying that to an author you met at a booksigning or something! writers can be interested in how their work is received because it's a form of demographic research in a way. but at the same time, do they care if you individually don't like their work? probably not. its hard to find the balance, but i think politeness is a good place to start.

so to that end, i think the people you've seen in the tags who publicly shop around for advice on whether they should read acswy are actually trying to start some kind of conversation. they aren't just pondering reading it; they want other people to start talking to them about it, sometimes with good intentions, and sometimes because they just want to bitch, with little regard for how you guys might feel if you came across their posts.

sometimes its not even about [your fic], they just need to vent their real-life frustrations and fandom is the easiest place to do it. you see it a lot in fandom: its a wild jungle where people just fire flaming arrows into the trees with no regard for who might be on the other side. as always, its online anonymity. no repercussions for poor emotional regulation. the dopamine hit of bullying people online, the illusion of having some form of control over how someone else feels.

i'm sorry you had to experience it, but i guess its part of putting your creative work into the world, especially in such a free-for-all place. the very fact that people HAVEN'T had to pay to read fic is what they think gives them the right to judge it more sorely. you see it in other aspects too, such as the anti-sex puritanism that pervades this and many other fandoms. professional creators are allowed to examine adult/dark topics, but amateurs and fan creators are considered perverts if they do. i can't figure out if its because it's just easier to bully and try to control fan creators, or if these antis truly don't understand that all professionals were amateurs until they weren't.

we genuinely mean this with all the kindness and respect in the world but we have been scratching our heads trying to answer this since it came in but we don't rly know how to. there are definitely some things said in here that we both agree with for sure! but overall there seems to be a lot of back and forth and contradiction to your own statements and so we just like. don't super understand what you are even trying to say. sorry 😭

[campbyler]

What program do you guys use to write? I just google docs and I’m wondering what you guys use/recommend using.

we both use google docs! we find that it’s really convenient when collaborating since we’re able to share docs and the suggest/comment tools are very helpful when it comes to the editing process. i know that i sometimes write a little bit in my iphone notes app (🧍) if it’s a super quick thought, but we both also frequently use the google docs mobile app!

did not mean for this to come off as a google slobfest bc they are Nawt my favorite, but unfortunately i haven’t found another alternative that has the same features i listed above. if anyone does have any recommendations, please drop it in the replies!

[campbyler]

hii! this is something you kind of touched on in the last question answer but i thought i’d ask anyway. so i’m working on a story but i feel like it is mostly just dialogue. like 70% of it is conversation. that’s just what feels most natural to me to write. i’m not sure if it’s really a problem because i feel like that’s what the story needs. but i feel like i would like there to be more just narration paragraphs. you guys have said that there’s a a lot of conversation in acswy but to me you still have plenty of narration in there so it’s not just dialogue. i’m just wondering if you have any advice for me

hello!!! like you said, suni touched on this a bit with her last response, but the best piece of advice i have received re: dialogue is Do The Dishes. as in, make one of the characters doing a chore or doing something so that you can interject narration with that. there’s also a lot of opportunity to add in facial expressions and body language — if a character is anxious, having them fidgeting, or if someone is upset and trying to hide it, putting in a line about how they’re smiling but their eyes are bright (this is a common phrase to indicate tears). so it could read something like:

“I don’t know,” Mike says with forced nonchalance, reaching for the sponge sitting next to the faucet, “I just think it would be really cool to go to a concert where the only song they sang, over and over, was Baby by Justin Bieber.”

Will makes a face. “What?”

“Come on,” Mike reasons, shrugging his right shoulder. “It’d be unique. New. Never-been-done-before.”

“Well, yes,” Will says slowly, like Mike sounds insane. Maybe he does. “I agree with all of those things,” he continues, twirling the pencil he’s holding between his fingers. “I just don’t think cool would be a word I’d use. Funny, maybe — but not cool.”

Mike scoffs. “Doing something no one else has ever done before is super cool,” he says. The plate he’s scrubbing at is clean, ready to rinse, but he continues running the sponge over it anyway, a little overzealous. It’s fine. He’s just really committed to clean dishes, is all.

“No one has ever kicked you in the teeth, but that doesn’t mean it would be super cool if it happened to you right now—“

He’s cut off by his own laugh as Mike flicks dishwater at him. “Shut up,” he says, shaking more water off his hand in Will’s direction. Will continues to laugh, pulling his sketchbook to his chest to keep it from getting caught in the crossfire—crosswater—crosswhatever.

“I won’t kiss you if you have no teeth,” Will declares, apparently in the business of picking and choosing which of Mike’s comments he’ll listen to. He’s clearly holding back a laugh, his eyes lit with poorly concealed amusement.

“I won’t kiss you if you kick me in the teeth,” Mike bites back. Which he can do happily, since he has teeth, and will continue to have teeth long after today.

obviously this is super silly but hopefully that got the message across as to how you might be able to creatively add some dialogue! and of course i did make mike Actually Do The Dishes but you can really make them do any chore or action and the concept is the same :) hopefully this was helpful at all!!

[campbyler]

ik part of it is that life and work just Be Like That sometimes, but every time i check back on your blog it seems yall are going through chronic ao3 author syndrome. sending love and good vibes your way i hope all three of you are doing ok and can catch a break soon!! (ik suni and thea yall are the ones writing the rest of it but sending love to andi as well)

also any tips on writing longer chapters without them sounding like they’re dragging on? i’m a (more casual) fic writer and my chapters always end up a little shorter than i usually hope they’d be

awake at 3am in a fit of jet lag and laughed aloud upon reading this bc you’re not wrong 😭 i feel like part of it is just timing, like thea’s work has a big busy season during the fall every year and her schedule also varies week by week and even day to day so i know some stretches are more difficult than others by default (rn she has been having to work from home on her weekend or after she clocks out which has been extra rough). my work tends to have bursts of insane work days every few weeks or so, and i just have a shitty daily commute on top of that and will sometimes get home like 12 hours after i left in the morning or something. so honestly there is a nonzero chance one of us is having a subpar time on any given workday i fear, and that schedule is pretty unpredictable given the nature of our very full time jobs. i also think it’s just statistically more likely that when we are active there is a reason for our Grievances to be brought up, either organically because we are coming out of a slump and are complaining about the Horrors or because someone checked in on us in a period of absence and we are giving a quick update, but either way, thank you so much for your wishesssss! thea will be getting a break soon (thank god) and i’m actually entering a bit of a busy stretch at work for the next week or so because we have a grant deadline to meet, which always means 10000 last minute experiments that i have to work into my schedule in the middle of the week and it’s really fun and lovely and great. woo hoo. 🙂

as for chapter lengths, i wish i had more solid advice but my problem is genuinely that i can’t for the life of me seem to trim them down 😭 i guess a part of it is largely how your chapters are structured — i only have a couple chaptered fics outside of acswy, but all of them are planned so that each chapter is quite meaty in terms of content or what i want each scene to accomplish. i will say that the singular thing that consistently drives up my word count is DIALOGUEEEEE!!! a blessing when i’m in a rut or have writers block and am trying to get something down on the page, a menace when im editing a scene transition i left to fill in for later and my wc is right at 29k and im sweating watching the number tick up. i find there’s absolutely nothing wrong with shorter chapters if it’s accomplishing what you hope for and i honestly am working really hard on trying to be more concise, but i do find dialogue to be a good way to slow down a scene that’s maybe rushing or is paced a little quicker than you intended. real conversations often stray off topic, people ramble or get sidetracked or get interrupted by things they’re doing — i love describing people talking while doing chores or eating or whatever because you can break up the dialogue with bits of action — and at least for me, it’s a lot easier to work in some narration or description in with dialogue than it is to just write a couple paragraphs of it straight up, which also sometimes feels a little more blunt and Quick than i intend it to be. one thing we both do a Lot is script out dialogue between characters and then go back in to fill in things like speech tags, action descriptions, inner monologues and thoughts, etc. literally just like:

character 1: ___ character 2: _______ 1, (note on how it’s meant to be said or what they’re thinking/intending to say to cue us in later): _____ 2: _____________ (small description of them moving around/something happening in the background to give a visual for describing later)

so on and so forth. it helps a lot either when we want to establish the setup of a dialogue heavy scene before we forget our inspiration, or we’re feeling a bit too blocked to be able to write more descriptively at the moment, etc etc. it’s a really natural way to focus on the flow of conversation without getting caught up in transitions and repetition of dialogue tags and stuff, and usually is the culprit for a scene taking way longer to finish than expected for me.

all that being said, the times i have actually felt like a chapter is paced too quickly is usually either when the dialogue exchange is too fast and feels like the conversation could be more fleshed out, or maybe likeeee a transition happens a little too immediately and it reads a little bit like one thing happening after the next after the next without much of a pause for expansion. if you’ve managed to get your point across in fewer words and your main concern is driving up the word count, i really wouldn’t worry about it! you could always have someone look at it with a fresh pair of eyes and ask for places they feel could use more explanation or detail (maybe describing a setting more vividly? or giving more insight to some of their thoughts at a certain point?) but genuinely — conciseness is a Skill, and seeing how i have once again accidentally answered an ask with one million words, i’ll actually just trade you some of my internal word vomit right now. here you go -> 🎁

[campbyler]

okay, so, i will admit that even though i keep seeing your fic EVERYWHERE, i avoided it despite being a byler, for the sole reason that it's so popular. idk why but when i tried reading it before, i barely got past the first paragraph before going nope, nope, NOPE.

but now i'm reading it again and I AM OBSESSED. what the hell did you all put in this fic?! i literally missed my train AND bus stop on the way home because i got too hooked reading the fic SIJXNDKSKSK

anyways, you guys are such amazing writers and this fic of yours is going to live in my soul rent free for a LONG TIME.

hello! warning for a long post incoming, but like 90% of this is just some thoughts i have on the matter, not directed at your specific ask anon. so glad you ended up liking it though!! i can deeply sympathize with the public transit horrors though omg a couple weeks ago i accidentally rode my first bus almost to the end of its line when i should’ve gotten off about eight stops earlier. genuinely don’t know what i was doing to not notice for that long lol. i also am not putting this under a read more because mobile decided it hates me so i am so sorry if it doesn’t automatically add one 😭

neither of us are believers in having to like things solely on the basis of them being big — there are plenty of popular things in fandom and outside of it that we don’t personally care for — and while we are so so grateful for all the support and interaction and appreciation we’ve gotten, i feel like this is also part of the inevitable consequences of a fandom piece breaching containment? our fic isn’t going to be for everyone, and there will always be people who dislike it but that’s ok! it’s a niche au with a Lot of lore and longgggg chapters in a fandom with a seemingly significant preference towards in-universe best friends to lovers fics, usually some form of canon divergence or compliance. we have said this so many times before but we literally expected our first chapter to get a FRACTION of the interaction it did, because a lot of people also don’t love to read long incomplete chaptered fics while they’re still updating. if we were writing a fic hoping it would get popular, we would have chosen literally any other premise, and so i would like to make this one thing clear: whether someone doesn’t like the fic itself or doesn’t care enough for the premise to try, it’s okay! it happens and it happens often and we literally do not care.

with that being said, the thing that does get a little 🤨 — both as authors of a larger fic and also just seeing it happen for other Popular Things — is this weird like. groupthink mentality that often seems to come with the Popular Thing in question? while we do actually get this sentiment directed at us pretty often, people usually aren’t saying it To Our Faces — it’s more often posts under the tag or mentions or whatever being like “everyone’s read acswy but me, should i read it?” or “am i the only one here who isn’t obsessed with acswy” or “why is it so popular what’s the hype” etc. and while, like i said, we don’t care if someone likes or doesn’t like our fic, what does annoy us a bit is when people seemingly have to like. conduct a survey or something just to see if they should even TRY reading a fic. like, you have ao3 access, you know the title of the fic and the fandom and probably even have a link — literally just open it up and read a little bit! why are you waiting for 20 replies to your post to hype you up to try something that will have absolutely zero consequences if you end up disliking it!! it just honestly feels like people are trying to gauge whether their investment of time will be worth it and i get it to an extent — fics are long (guilty), they take time to read, sometimes the plot takes a bit to pick up if there’s a lot of exposition and it’s hard to get past that hurdle, and we are all busy people — but to a farther extent it does make it feel like fanworks turn into a product to consume after they reach a certain level of popularity, and “is [insert fic] good, should i start it even if it’s long?” starts sounding an awful lot like asking if something is worth your money to buy. i just can’t wrap my head around why something as innocuous as a fanfiction, created by other fans for you to read for freeeeeeee, would require so much deliberation and crowdsourced input to even just be checked out. and i cannot stress enough that there is no consequence to disliking this fic or any fic, popular or not. like, the worst thing that can happen is you lose 20 minutes of your life, but tbh people who hit post on this stuff at 2am don’t strike me as particularly concerned about this lol

anyways, genuinely all we ask is that our readers give acswy a good faith effort because they actually want to, not because they feel like they have to or are trying to slog through it just to feel included or whatever. even from the interaction we actually get via asks, comments, etc (not even counting stuff like twt mentions or the general tag) it immediately becomes sooo apparent who’s reading our fic because they like it and are having fun engaging with it and us as part of a fandom community vs the people that are…. Not doing that lol. and all that to say: thank you for giving us that good faith effort! we get it, we would both be lying if we said that we have never fallen victim to the anti-popularity mindset — that’s not at all what we are implying here. there have been so many times i have not cared for a popular fandom fic and so many other times i’ve loved them. i guess i just wish it was a more common mindset to accept that you won’t necessarily like something if it’s popular, but also that the fact of it being popular doesn’t automatically detract from its quality. the only way you’ll know is to try for yourselffff (maybe without having to conduct that survey first. lol)

[campbyler]

i think tumblr is tripping bc we have more than 50 likes on our pinned post alone. but i think it’s really funny that they want us to celebrate 50 likes so here we are ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[campbyler]

yesterday i saw a bright orange mustang with racing stripes and i was so exited like OMG A MUSTANG W RACING STRIPES MIKE WHEELER ARE YOU HERE anyways can’t stop thinking about it😭🫣

HELP soooo this monstrosity would actually be the lovechild of lucas and mike’s cars i fear. and you can’t tell them that their cars had a baby because they will both throw up

[campbyler]

hello! im a big acswy fan! this is not a question, i just wanted to thank you guys for making acswy mike wheeler be a one direction stan, a glasses-wearer, a book annotation enthusiast and a pin collector. representation matters and i am being represented!!!!!! he is me!! i am him!! we are one!!!! super excited for what's to come (this isn't pressure in any way shape or form, just thought i'd let y'all know im looking forward to the rest of our camp whiteman journey!!) 💙💛

you know, i was actually just talking to someone about this the other day but i think it’s so interesting that we gave both mike and will glasses in this fic (astigmatism4astigmatism so true to me) but we get so many more comments about people loving mike with glasses than we do will! i do know some aspects of mike’s characterization are more intertwined with the plot/more written in than will’s are (the zeldaisms, annotations, etc) but i can probably count on one hand the comments we’ve gotten about glasses wearer will LOL. maybe i should conduct an official study or something? i feel like that could be interesting data to collect. ANYWAYS, just thinking aloud there for a mo bc it reminded me and i have a hard time shutting up but THANK YOUUU and you are so welcome!! i think we have adequately represented ourselves in our mike and will and pretty equally as well (and also very bravely refrained from projecting when it wouldn’t feel right. even when we Reallyyyyy wanted to 😔) not to delve too much into the details of Everything but book annotator mike specifically is such a real and true hc to me!! i think his copies would just be so well loved and dog eared and scribbled in, except for maybe some special editions or gifts, etc. i just see him as someone who really enjoys and appreciates his things but without feeling the need to keep them perfectly preserved or pristine. and — this is very important, i don’t think it has officially come up here before —the lore behind the 1D part of his characterization is that mike is a happy victim of Guy With An Older Sister Syndrome and was exposed to their full discography when nancy was into them during their peak. i think the combination of the music being catchy and fun and all around good and enjoyable + the nostalgia of rare sibling bonding time would have really made it stick for him! (<- spoken as someone who spent years holding her younger sister hostage in the car and playing music for her. can guarantee it works)

[campbyler]

impatiently and annoyingly asking abt the werek fic?

thea is chipping away at it! she’s had a Rough couple of weeks at work and has also had to work from home/on her weekends in addition to the work week so writing has been a pretty low priority for her recently and i fully support that. she’s hoping to get back into a rhythm with it over her upcoming weekend but honestly if she wanted to sleep for 48 hours i would support that as well she has Earned It

[campbyler]

If Dustin met Suzie in summer camp in the show, where did he met her in acswy?

probably on a reddit forum or a minecraft discord if we are being honest and real.

[campbyler]

what do you think wills fav pokemon is and also i agree that grass starter will is so real and true

thank you SOOO much for sending this ask i cheered and hooted and hollered (and suni did on my behalf as well) 🙏🙏🙏 allow me to provide you with more info than you asked for 😌

so obviously mike’s fave pokémon is oshawott bc i think he’s very nostalgic about his First Partner Pokémon and although he love all pokémon nothing can beat oshawott. i’ve said at least part of this before but i def think for acswy specifically, gen v (black/white) was mike’s first gen hence why oshawott is his fave, and for will his first gen was gen vi (x/y) — this is what makes to me sense based on when these games came out/when mike and will respectively would be able to access them!! so while will’s first starter was chespin (and he actually loves all of chespin’s evolutions which is why he is better than me) and i do think that there is emotional attachment there i think there are others that he really really likes and always tries to use if they’re available to him!! this also means most of my picks for will’s faves are gen vi and later but it goes without saying he also loves All pokémon. duh.

i think one of his absolute faves is dragalge mostly bc it fucking looks cool and i do think will would love a dragon type as a whimsical fantasy lover 😌 dragalge for everyone’s reference:

i think some of his other faves would be rockruff (bc will byers loves a puppy pokémon and i will die on that hill, not that i need to bc i am right), hatterene and mismagius (the wizardy vibes of it all), armarouge (knight in shining armor 😳), and milotic (i know i just said post gen vi for the most part but milotic transcends generations. bitch.)

references (in order of how they were listed):

anyway tysm for letting me rant about pokémon it is one of my fave things to do.

[campbyler]

I JUST SAW A LIGHT BLUE MUSTANG 2014 WITH BLACK STRIPE it was literally mike it was mike's car i cannot stress enough how WEIRD AND STRANGE it is to see a car like this where i live (the UK!!!) let alone this exact car i thought i was straight TRIPPIN i screameddddd in the middle of the street

it was on my running route where i have gone sooo many times listening to your playlists and thinking about the camp fic and summertime and the boys and and and

it drove round the corner, not too fast not too slow, and it could only have been more perfect if i was already listening to the gorillaz or something but alas

but wow oh wow guys... the sound that car's engine makes? i am NOT a car fiend but damn mike wheeler driving that... it's sexy af i can't lie, it's sexy af

RIP will byers is all. place a kiss and a lily on his grave

🪦🌸💋<- here lies acswy will, loving son, brother, counselor, situationship, and certified menace. cause of death: mike wheeler driving a muscle car with sexy engine noises. everyone please pour one out for a fallen soldier 😔🙏🕊️

[campbyler]

i’m still thinking abt the cliffhanger we were left on in chapter 10 😭😭

girl (gender neutral) me too . <- is the one who both wrote it and now has to pick up from it

[campbyler]

ok ok ok so based on what you said and the timeline and how they both view this situation... (mike needs will to say it first! wow this feels like SUCH a revelation for the story as a whole! mike being honest with himself is so so special, i just love him)...

so i'm guessing that the kiss summer 2017 led to a confession from mike (?) cos he now needs WILL to confess first implying he did before... and HE was the one humiliated (by will?? :( oh mike... )

but then he wasnt actually out back then... so...

but then will's not saying it first, he won't, and you just said that will only just feels like he can trust mike and know mike is there for him... ouch! so this implies that it was MIKE who did something to humiliate WILL back in the day when they kissed. did will find mike dating el the following summer to be embarassing for him?? even though they only kissed and mike possibly didnt promise anything?

man, if this is just an issue of 'you didnt actually SAY you wanted to date' me im going to be sooooo mad haha

let there have been an intervention of divine proportions cos if these kids simply had a few issues with 'but you didnt sayyyyy itttt' then raaaaaaaahhh

i meannnnnnnnnn… there isn’t really a way for me to give a solid and reassuring answer to this ask without it requiring an explanation that maybe gives a bit too much away! but all i can say is if the sole conflict in this fic ends up simply being that they didn’t verbally clarify wanting to date each other (at 13 years old as well) and subsequently ended up in a years long rivalry about it then i’m giving you all permission to throw tomatoes at us in our ask box. you’re definitely right in saying that there is a lot going on and much back and forth between them regarding their reasonings for things over the years but i’m afraid you’ll just have to have some #faith to see how it plays out 😗

[campbyler]

i just saw mike wheelers car and I SCREAMED 😰

going to pitch mike wheeler’s mustang as a haunted house for this year’s [redacted] premier halloween event at [redacted}