#(i do still love that fic and everything and i have stuff written and outlined and planned... but you know life)

[hithelleth]

You created the BEST Azgeda that a fan of The 100 (King Roan) could have ever dreamed of, did you know that? Thank you for providing what the show didn't.

#blackcatking

Thank you so much! ❤️ Yeah, the show didn't give me what I wanted so I had to make it myself but I am so glad it also pleases others, such as you. :D

[thecousinsdangereux]

i just recently discovered your soulmate au and i loves it so much. so incredibly intriguing and well written and damn is it hot 🔥 thanks so much for sharing with us. in your mind, does it have a happy ending for them?

also wanted to ask if you'll be checking in to see the big warrior nun announcement coming tomorrow?

Ahhhh thank you! This ask is kind of tragic now given how everything with Warrior Nun ended up going, but I thought I'd use it as a way to share my ideas for the rest of a beggar in the morning, if anyone is interested in learning how it was going to go. Long story short, it was going to have a happy ending. :)

Here's a full outline for what I had in mind for the second half of the fic. Under the cut because it's very detailed in the parts that I'd started writing. Also in case anyone cares about spoilers? At the moment, I don't plan on finishing this fic, but I do plan on returning to writing in general, so guess there's a non-zero chance that I could come back to it. Stranger things have happened.

Beatrice keeps looking for the recipient of the Letter she's been trying to deliver and starts taking trips out into the countryside. She takes Ava's advice and takes to enjoying the journey - stopping into small cafes for lunch rather than eating in the car, taking the long way when it means she can enjoy a new view, etc.

During one of these side quests, she's told about a man who lives way off in the middle of nowhere who has the last name of Reis (the last name of the Letter recipient: Lara Reis), and she tracks him down. He had a sister who had a child with someone who was not her Match. I wanted to go more into what this looks like (and how the church is still anti-abortion in this world, because they think this could potentially ruin a future match, cue eye-roll) but in this case, the woman was basically run out of town. The man directs Beatrice to an orphanage where the child was raised.

This trail eventually goes cold because the orphanage has no records of the girl. They only know she left when she became of age.

The end of chapter six is basically Beatrice being frustrated and taking some 'advice' from Lilith to find someone to fuck hfkjshlk so she goes to the bar and ohhh nooo Ava is working that night, filling in for someone. Ava gets jealous, Bea does some shots, and it's basically a rehash of the lemon drop scene from the show, but hornier. Eventually, they make out, and decide to be friends with benefits.

Chapter 7 was honestly just going to be porn. lol. It's actually some of the first stuff I wrote for this fic - just a page of porn. Beggar came out of a Secret Santa fic exchange, and my friend Alex asked for lots of sex and a soulmate au. So... Chapter 7 was the payoff (part 2). Here's a few disjointed scenes, in case anyone is interested in reading some unedited very E-rated stuff.

A few months go by and all the nuns visit Beatrice for her bday and they're like huh so what's going on here and Beatrice has to pretend that it's not that serious with Ava (lol). I also wanted to do a conversation between Shannon and Beatrice where Shannon talks about the whole Mary thing and loving someone against the will of god (or at the very least, in the very gray areas).

The end of chapter seven is Ava finally talking about her past, which is that Ava doesn't remember hers. She woke up in a hospital without her memories and then spent the next decade traveling around trying to find something that felt like home.

In chapter 8, a lot of time passes, and the fucking continues. Beatrice is kind of losing it, poor girl.

I hadn't exactly decided what was going to happen next, but Ava was going to overstep in some way (or in some perceived way) and Beatrice was going to panic. Either Beatrice was going to have a brief thought about being in love, they were going to have reallyyyy soft sex, or something like that, but either way, Beatrice was going to have to admit she has deeper feelings for Ava than what's allowed allowed, so she goes back to Spain and ignores Ava's texts/calls/etc.

Eventually she realizes she owes Ava closure. She comes back and kind of explains why she's reacted the way she has. She gets more into why she joined the church and it's not for God or the Church itself, but because she does genuinely believe that love itself is holy. She admits she's falling in love with Ava, but she can't break her vows. She believes giving into her feelings would be putting herself above the whole history of love... the sanctity of the entire universe... and to be that selfish would be monstrous.

There's a callback to their early game of three questions, and how Ava still owes Beatrice one answer. Beatrice nearly asks if Ava loves her, but pulls back because she's scared of the answer. They basically break up, but Ava tells Bea to let her know when she's ready to ask her last question.

Beatrice takes it HARD. She buries herself in her work and starts visiting hospitals in various towns. She finds a Spanish doctor and he recognizes the number (or rather, the system behind the number) that is on Letter Beatrice is still trying to deliver. He tells Beatrice she's not looking for a hospital in Portugal, but rather in Spain - one in a small town in Andalusia. He mentions a patient who was in a coma, who woke up without her memories.

At this point, Beatrice obviously knows and she flies to Spain in daze. She visits the hospital, gives them the number, and asks for the name of the patient. When they'd brought the girl in, no one knew where she came from, she didn't have an ID, memories, etc. Nothing except for an old receipt from a restaurant in Portugal. ("Beatrice braces herself for what she already knows, but doesn't want to face.") The nurse at the hospital tells her they used a generic Portuguese name for the girl and it stuck: Ava Silva.

Beatrice visits Cat's Cradle because what else is she supposed to do? How is she supposed to deliver this Letter to Ava, who she's obviously in love with. She talks with Mary and we get the other side of the whole Mary/Shannon thing, and Mary is kind of like, okay, the Letters matter but they don't Matter. Beatrice asks Mary what she would do if she got a Letter (since Mary isn't a nun and could get one, but Shannon never could) and Mary basically says she would throw it away without opening it because she wouldn't want to give Shannon a reason to go self-sacrificial.

Of course, Beatrice doesn't really think this is her call to make. She's going to deliver Ava's Letter. There's this whole scene of her very dramatically and angstily getting ready for the delivery in the Official White Habit, then walking through the town she's come to associate so completely with Ava. And chapter 9 ends.

When Beatrice walks through the doors of the bar, Ava looks up, but doesn't seem surprised, even says 'oh, finally', which is pretty much the last thing that Beatrice expected, but then again, maybe it should have been the first, because Ava is always surprising her, and shouldn't she expect it by now? She asks Ava if she'd known that she was the person Beatrice had been trying to deliver to all along and Ava looks confused at this, like she hadn't considered that at all. "It's not that. I just knew my Letter would be coming because I'd already met you."

Beatrice is like, no no no. That's not how this works. It can't be me. I've been carrying this Letter with me this whole time - before I met you - and the Letters are only sent to a person when they've met their soulmate. And obviously, Beatrice is a nun and can't have a soulmate, etc. etc.

And then Ava says something like this: “Maybe every once in a while, God -- or the universe or whatever it is -- knows that it’ll be really hard to make two people meet organically, so it fudges the rules a little bit. Makes one girl a nun, makes another one hard to find, and sets up the dominos really early on."

And when Beatrice says she's being ridiculous/it's impossible, she says, "I know what’s in that letter. It’s you. I don’t need to open it to know it's you." and "Maybe it’s like some people say and god arranged it all. Fine. Then god chose me for you. Simple. He made me in this exact way, down to my hands and toes and whatever, so that I was perfect for his favorite creation in all of the universe. Because that has to be you."

And: "Or maybe it’s like what those other people say. You know - the past lives reincarnation stuff. Fine, then in our first lives we fell in love and then I found you in the second and third and the five hundredth. I found you and I picked you and I wanted you every time. Or okay, fine, maybe it’s what the the pseudo science people say. Even if those guys are right, I still know. It’s you because at the very start of the universe - at the very beginning of everything - we were the first two bits of something. The first two tiny little sparks. One of those was you and one of them was me. And even when we split off into a million trillion billion infinite pieces, the core of one was you. And the other one was me."

And: "In every religion or in any theory, the world exists so that I can find you again, and the world will do whatever it takes - bend the rules in whatever way - to make sure that at the exact right time, we would meet. And maybe it wasn’t perfect - maybe it was stupid hard for us to get to this point - maybe there was an easier way to make it happen - but I don’t care. Because it worked and I found you and I fell in love with you and I would do anything for that. So yeah. This Letter is telling me that I’m for you. That’s easy. It’s not faith. It’s just a fact.

And: "Besides, whatever’s on that paper? It’s going to be you. If it’s a picture of a butterfly, then it’s going to be you because of that time we went to the dam and one landed on your hand and you said “isn’t the world beautiful?” and that’s when I knew I loved you for the very first time. If it’s the notes to the first bar in At Last, then it’s you, because we used to play it all the time in the bar and I always thought it was fucking stupid to think you'd know like that right away, before everything, but it was the song that played in my head anyways when you walked in the bar that first night. There she is, I sort of thought, a dream that I can speak to."

"It could be any single word or phrase or letter and it would be you, because I love you and I love you so much I see you in every part of this entire world. I love you and I want to keep you with me always, and so you’re always there in my thoughts, slipping over and into everything else and I love it. It makes me love everything I see a little bit more, because it reminds me of you. It makes the world more beautiful."

"So, no offense, but I don't really give a fuck about the Letter. I already know it's going to be you. But I think you need to see it. So you know you’re not as selfish as you think you are."

And Beatrice admits that she wants to be with Ava anyways. Even if it makes her selfish. (Even if it makes her heretical.) Love is holy and what she feels for Ava is holy too, even if it's a sort of holy no one else will ever understand.

I went back and forth about whether they actually SHOULD open the Letter. lol. But I think I eventually settled on that they should, and that when Ava does open it, it's a blank page with like, 7 little dots and Beatrice is like??????????????? But Ava recognizes it instantly and it's the freckles on Beatrice's cheeks, the ones she's always tracing, and she does that again, following the ink on the paper.

Beatrice had been ready to give up her religion for Ava, so getting to keep it, maybe, suddenly is a LOT. She can't quite believe something divine would do something like this for her. But maybe she can believe that something divine would do something like this for Ava.

Later, I wanted Beatrice to have a conversation with Mother Superion. I thought it would be interesting to get into the philosophical bits of it. To debate if Ava could actually be right in her ideas about how this could be, and still fit into what they know about god/Letters/religion. I liked the idea of the conversation ending with neither of them really knowing, and Mother S being like, look girl, you'll never know for sure, but that sounds like faith to me. And Beatrice says no, no this is different, capital F Faith is for the divine. This is just trusting that Ava isn't lying about the freckles thing, or won't get tired of me, or won't find someone else. Etc etc etc. because it's panicking time for Beatrice, suddenly. And Mother Superion just raps her knuckles sort of in the most gentle way she can manage and says "That's love, Beatrice." in the way way someone might say "That's pussy, babe."

Beatrice does leave the church (though she eventually goes back to 'consulting' kind of like Mary). And when she does actually physically leave as well, Ava is waiting outside on a bench. Beatrice asks why she didn't just come inside, and she says something about being a little afraid of churches these days. She did steal god's favorite, after all.

And then they walk off into the sunset, with Beatrice being like wait a second, I thought you said this was all God's plan. And Ava shrugs and says that she would never willingly give Beatrice up, so god might come to her senses and change her mind.

I was going to end it there, but I did consider doing an epilogue as well. Early on in planning I had this idea where, years later, all the nuns regularly come over to the Silvas (because Ava does keep her 'second' name, though she does start to learn more about the Reis family, and meets her Uncle - the dude Beatrice learned about the orphanage from). And on one of these occasions, the nuns are all in white, and they're delivering Beatrice's Letter, which is addressed to Beatrice Silva. In the end, I decided against this, because I liked leaving it more open-ended, but nothing had been set in stone at this point, of course.

So yeah, that was going to be a beggar in the morning. lol. I plotted most of it out before I even started writing, because it wasn't the sort of story you could make up as you went and still tell it well. And I did want to tell the story well! There's a part of me that's sad that I wasn't able to, but I do think it was worth writing what I did. I really loved seeing people realize that Lara was Ava, even as early as chapter 5! And I also loved people coming up with theories about how Avatrice would be endgame. Some of them were honestly really good and maybe better than mine fhdskjhfd I had one person be like PLEASE let Ava's Letter be for someone else so they can metaphorically spit in god's face and honestly that was valid.

I don't know if anyone is going to bother to read this very, very long reply to an ask that doesn't actually ask for any of this, but it honestly just feels nice to put all these ideas together and 'complete' the story. Even if I've done it in the most half-assed way possible I am so sorry fhadskjlfhldsj

[sirsagrell]

While I'm usually critical about Veilguard, and will probably continue to be critical, I want to switch gears for a bit and engage in some positivity. Because there are things in it I liked and I don't want to lose sight of them.

So this is a collection of random Veilguard positivity rambles about some things I genuinely liked:

The entire character of Davrin: Davrin and his confusion about sacrificing himself as was expected of him but surviving, Davrin and his complicated but constructive relationship with his heritage that informs everything about him. Davrin knowing what is and isn't a monster, and giving Isseya her name back. Davrin is just very Dragon Age to me. Also holy shit, hot.

Generally, most of the stuff that surrounds the Wardens - the Hossberg Wetlands, the siege of Weisshaupt, the wardens Ivo, those records about the first qunari Warden, the First Warden trying to take the sacrifice of killing Razikale upon himself, the fucked up fortress for hiding fucked up stuff, the surviving wardens saying fuck it post-Weisshaupt and turning the joining into a blight vaccine.

The flowers in Hossberg quest (or was it a hidden quest?). Loved that. Flowers starting to bloom on previously blighted land was a plot point in that DA fic I outlined in my head 10 years ago and never wrote.

While I'm on the subject of plants, Harding's greenhouse was just stunning. Went to just stare at it multiple times regardless of Harding having anything to say to me. And it's thematically resonant too.

Neve as a concept seems like a character designed specifically to appeal to me personally in every way possible. If I was a Dragon Age character I would want to marry Neve. In my actual playthrough Neve never quite stuck, but I wasn't playing myself, I was trying to play a character who fucking hates Tevinter. So I am actually considering doing a separate Neve appreciation playthrough, and I have never replayed a game just to get more of one particular character before. You are too alluring, Neve.

Taash is interestingly and realistically flawed. People like to critique their coming-out scene because Shathann wasn't even really rejecting them, rather trying to understand them through concepts familiar to her, but I like it as written. You get so used to your mother being relentlessly critical of you, you work up the courage to have this important conversation because you know that is the right thing to do, you come prepared to stand your ground, you've been imagining everything she will say and rehearsing what to say back, and when she's honestly trying to understand and reach out, you don't even really notice it and lash out anyway, because you expected this conversation to go badly. This is very human.

Also, I vibe with Taash a lot. I too am socially challenged, sometimes unintentionally rude, surrounded by things that are certifiably messed up, struggle with cultural shit, and think dragons are the best.

I honestly liked the hair. Especially those luscious curls on Teia. This might be the first game I played where hair wasn't some kind of a distracting eyesore. I kid you not it improved my immersion.

I don't actually remember if it was like this in previous games, but I am very glad they labeled the flirt/romance dialogue options in the most unambiguous way possible. I played Baldur's Gate 3 recently and the most seemingly innocuous dialogue options led to flirting all the time. I realize this may be a me problem (see above, socially challenged), but having the options labeled and never having to reload because I'm not trying to flirt with you dammit is very relaxing. Which reminds me.

I think, that despite all its flaws, and weird narrative decisions, and wild shifts in theme and tone, Veilguard still made a better attempt at saying meaningful things than everyone's game of the year 2023 Baldur's Gate 3 did (runs away and hides under a rock).

[crow-quilll]

Hello :) i really like ur writing style and wanted to know your writing tips!

Like, how do you get a clean and nice pace? Or how to write intense scenes? Or what words to choose? Etc

I thank you graciously for sharing your works 🙏🙏

HELLO SLEEPY!! I meant to respond to this way earlier but stuff got in the way -- however I have arrived!!

Let's dig in:

In terms of pacing, it is always helpful to have a clear outline of every event that will happen - I write all of mine in a notes app, write down each key event and how the chapter will progress. I think that way I get a good idea of what sections should be longer, which are more important and need more detail, and which should be intentionally fast to amp up pressure. Ofc it depends on what you're writing! I've always written these sorts of angsty hurt/comfort fics, so I've just had a lot of practice with them. I can assure you that I'd struggle with a slow pace slice-of-life au in any fandom.

Writing intense scenes mostly comes with practice, I've had 10 long years of experience haha! But there are some things that I've learned to do for those scenes:

Positioning is important, set it up early. You want your readers to know exactly where your characters are so they aren't confused which will slow down how they read the scene. You want them following the speed of the scene you've set.

Shortening your sentences and descriptions will make your scene more intense because your reader feels like they are struggling to keep up with it. It also makes them predict a breaking point - a point in the sentence structure where it reaches a limit and either stops completely or slows back down. So they hang on to every word, waiting for that drop.

Metaphors and imagery are great for describing emotional or physical pain - but I try not to overdo it, especially in "Nobody's Soldier" when those scenes are pretty lengthy. I try to keep those scenes feeling intense and quick because the stakes are supposed to feel high for Gi-hun - and by extension, for the readers.

As for word choice, that really depends on your style and where you find your inspiration from! Like I said, I've primarily written hurt/comfort and whump fics, so my style developed to be very physical: I always think about the facial expressions of the characters, the way their body reacts to stimuli, where they are standing and how they stand, etc. That comes from working on how to describe reactions to pain, and they always tell you to show it instead of telling it: "he winced/he flinched" rather than "it hurt him".

A lot of my style just comes from the things I take inspiration from. Funnily enough, I don't read fics or books for fun because I read so much for university in my history/english program. So I find my inspiration in the historical sources and literature I read. I think a good example I can give is from a poem by Wilfred Owen, an English poet who fought in WWI, called Dulce et Decorum est, which uses very visceral language (ie. "His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;/ If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood/ Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs..."). I'm sure you can some similarity between his descriptions and my own -- albeit, mine are far less sophisticated than his. But I still try to emulate how grotesquely he describes the human body, as well as the sharp rhythm of certain lines like "sick of sin." ANYWAYS thats enough university talk that i'm sure sounds boring haha. I also find inspiration in video games, in TV shows, in everything. The world around us is composed of sentences waiting to be written, you just have to look for them and put pen to paper :))

One last tip I can give is to just write what you enjoy! I know ao3 can be disheartening if your work doesn't get a lot of love, but honestly as long as you are having fun, it is well worth it. I have written for dead fandoms in the past - and in fact, I have more often written for dead fandoms than for popular ones. I'm somehow always late to the party, except this time ofc with Squid Game.

Anyways, I think that is all I have for now!! If you have any further questions, please ask away. I'm so flattered to have been asked about something like this, thank you to coming for me and reading what I write <3 <3

[eowynstwin]

'Peristalsis' is making me go feral... I love how visceral it all feels in your descriptions, like I can taste the salt of the sea and the wind whipping in my hair. UGH. SO. GOOD.

And Soap?? Don't get me started. I need to be tossed, thrown, manhandled, and MANGLED by that man. Also love the little appearances of the other 141 men... 🤭 Patiently awaiting the next installment 🤞

Also, this may be a big question to answer, but I'm curious: what is your writing process like? Do you plan everything out then work on it, or just go all in with a vague premise?

Thank you!! I’m really concerned the most with making the sensory experience feel immersive so I’m glad it’s that effective :)

Re: my writing process right now I tend to prefer having a holistic idea of the story I want to tell before I get to writing. I’ve written general outlines for basically everything on my docket. I find that this helps a lot with maintaining my enthusiasm for a fic—a lot of the time “I can’t wait to write this part” keeps me motivated to get through stuff that isn’t as exciting.

I’m not married to the outline though, because sometimes something much better than what I originally planned occurs to me. With Peristalsis, a pretty pivotal scene leading to the climax wasn’t even on my mind until after the new year and now it’s like, literally nothing else would work for the story MORE than this. As I develop my writing process I’m learning that I have to leave room for stuff like that to happen.

However it’s almost essential for me to have a completely clear vision of the ending, right down to the minutiae. Knowing how a story ends is actually pretty important for figuring out how to get there, I find. The Peristalsis epilogue is already written, and having that basically done kind of lit a fire under my ass because that’s a big thing! The fic is finished! I just have to fill in the space between where I am now and where I want to go.

It’s all kind of experimental though because I’m still learning. So far this is working for me :)

[valeriianz]

For the fic writer asks:

4. Obviously you did research for BitB. I'd love you to ramble about it if you like I'm sure you've got STORIES

5. Did you outline it?

7. How'd you decide it would be Hob's pov?

25-27 I'd love to know a/some favorite lines, details, and any lore you might want to share

omg TJ what wonderful questions! thank you!! this is going to get LONG!

4: Rambling about research!

do you wanna see a screen shot of my bookmarks under my "band au" folder?

man, and that's only what could fit on the screen.

there is... SO MUCH i chose to ignore for this fic. ideas that i had to drop, lines or extra details about the other band members equipment. more logistics, what Lucienne actually does, what Mervyn has to put up with as the new touring stage manager... i realized very early on that i couldn't possibly cram all this (super cool and eye opening) information into the fic and still keep reader's interest and, most importantly, to not stray away from the fact that this is a dreamling fic. whenever i felt myself getting carried away with a side character or job or even social media numbers, gossip, outside POVs, i had to reign myself in and get back on track. there will be time for exploring everything i missed in side stories after BitB is finished. i just hope i still have the energy to write it all.

once, i was so deep into research that after publishing chapter 2, i went into work and when my chef asked what "GA" meant on my prep list, i answered with full confidence, "general admission."

(it means "get ahead.")

the worst part of this entire writing process is im still learning new shit. i havent rewatched or read a lot of what i've saved because, to be very honest, i was feeling a little burnt out. it's why we're kinda full steam dreamling now. it's why ive been glossing over a lot of technical stuff and being vague about conversations amongst the crew/not including it at all. i don't prefer ignoring my research, but at the end of the day i want to still enjoy writing this fic and finish it. even if i can't be as descriptive and detailed and nuanced as i used to be.

5: Did you outline the fic?

(also asked by @hardly-an-escape!)

i wouldn't call what i have a proper "outline," it's more like a 20k word document filled to the brim with notes that i skim at least a dozen times while i'm writing a new chapter (being in my brain is literally hell). i live multichapter life very dangerously. i copy and paste lines or sections (always scattered, never together! augh!) that are meant to go together and plop them in a new document titled "band au ch.#" and then i structure the chapter around what i want to happen.

but to answer this question in the plainest of terms: yeah. i know exactly what's going to happen up until the very end. even if its all in my head and the only concrete shit that's written down are beats/plot points. i'll figure out the rest later!

7: How'd you decide it would be Hob's POV?

i actually never even considered writing it from Dream's POV. this was my first fic in the fandom (which is so nuts to think about lol) and writing in Dream's POV sounded so scary lol. i also just thought Hob's would be easier because i have worked a few backstage shows, back in my college years. i figured eh, i can make this work. and i loved exploring how weird and mysterious musicians can be, from a normie's POV. making Hob a fan first and having him worry about developing a parasocial relationship... it was fun to explore.

25: Share your favorite line

oh god, i have so many haha.

“What are you thinking about?” starting in ch.2 and onward lmao

“It’s–” Dream laughs quietly, bitterly. “I don’t like change.” He says each word with emphasis, eyes trailing down to fixate somewhere past Hob. “And I still hold onto the things I can control, like my instruments–” his eyes swing up to regard Hob apologetically. “Or my clothes or my–” he brings a hand up and wiggles his fingers around his head. “My hair.” ch.4

"His majesty is pleased." ch.5

“You are obsessive,” he states, slow and cool and with a quiet smile cracking through his composure. “Just like me.” ch.7

“You look good.” Hob has to lean in to say so, unwilling to raise his voice amongst the roar of the fans. ch.11

“Del looks like porcelain, but she’s actually made of steel.” Desire swirls the contents of their glass before pushing their shoulders back with a deep breath. “She's tougher than all of us.” ch.11

“Everything. I want…” his fingers tighten in Hob’s hair, pulling him closer, speaking against his lips. “…Everything.” ch.14

26: Share your favorite detail

how intentionally coy Dream behaves. i love keeping him a mystery and deciding when and how much to allow his intentions to peek through has been so fun lol.

Despair is in fact covered in tattoos and piercings! i say this because i feel like sometimes i forget lmao. (but also her and Hob don't interact much so. my bad haha).

Delirium's constant explosion of color in the way she dresses <3

Hob's dedication to his job, Dream, and the people he cares about the most. i don't care if people think i'm making him too soft and good, im gonna project on that man and make him a sweet, sweet simp lmao

and ah, this doesn't matter anymore, and i kinda regret doing it but. i originally had Dream's favorite bass all black but the pickguard was white. so it actually looked like Jessamy. not gonna lie when @designtheendless drew it all black i decided i liked it better that way. and truly i do. that's when i went back to ch.1 and changed it haha. to actually see the guitar with Dream, all done up sparkling black and purple flecks... gosh it's just so him. but then i got up to the reveal that the guitar's name was Jessamy and i was like, "oh, right." lmao. no one seems to care so i'll leave it be.

27: Share a piece of lore you made up for the story

i have a lot lmao. and this post is already so long... im hoping i can get to some if not all of it in side fics in the future. but for now, here's some that's more like headcanons but:

Dream hates flying. he can full on go into panic attacks on the plane if he allows himself to get into his own head.

this was mentioned briefly in ch.4, while Dream was discussing the formation of the band, but Despair was in another band before joining Endless. she is the only character in the fic who gets to keep her English roots (lol sorry) and is the oldest in the band (30).

all of the band members ages: Dream, Desire, and Death are all 28 and Delirium is 22.

Dream can experience subdrop after going too hard during a performance.

Dream paints his own nails, it's very therapeutic.

as an exercise, i explored my own headcanons for Dream in this verse in a word doc, and one thing i will share from it that you might find interesting: If I were to ever give Dream a theological values, I would describe him as a satanist. He is a physical and pragmatic person, nonconforming, and although he is introverted, he enjoys being a part of a community (he loves his band).

also found this in my notes: How Desire and Dream got along was Death making them fight it out. Hob raises an eyebrow “like in a brawl?” He couldn't imagine Desire throwing hands. “No, in a pillow fight that escalated in hair pulling and verbal taunts.”

fic writer asks

[harruandlou]

✨Writing Self-Evaluation 2024

thank youuuu @red-pandaaa for tagging me 🫶🏻

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 4 this year! (10 total!)

2. Word count posted for the year: 262,441

3. Fandoms I wrote for: One Direction

4. Pairings: Louis Tomlinson/Harry Styles

5. Story with the most:

Kudos: i would know you from touch alone

Bookmarks: sunshine, baby! (literally 1 single bookmark more than iwkyfta or this would be a clean sweep)

Comments: i would know you from touch alone

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): I think sunshine, baby! I did a lot of research for that fic into swimming and law school (and the olympics) and it's the longest thing I've ever written on my own.

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): I'm really proud of all of them, but probably your brightest star only because I wasn't in a good place writing and pushed myself through most of it. I think it could have been better if I hadn't been so strict on myself for posting time, etc.

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received: I got so many really wonderful comments this year and every single one makes me go mush inside. In particular anytime someone says I'm one of their favorite authors or my fic is one of their comfort fics I just want to cry lol.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: I started slipping into a rut in like May and didn't really claw out of it until October. During that time I wrote ybs and about 25k of a wip I've since put on the shelf. The whole time was such a struggle.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: Louis' roommate Mina in sunshine, baby! surprised me a lot this year. I added her in a scene because I wanted Louis to say something in particular, but fully expected her to show up once. But I really loved writing her and then she ended up bring the kick in the ass he needed more than once and i love her so much.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: this is from i would know you from touch alone. I added this scene in editing and it's one of those moments that it seems impossible now for the fic to have existed without it. I love it not necessarily because of how its written, but it like such a good reminder that editing a million times can be really important to shaping the fic 😂 (I need that reminder for the next time I edit something to death)

Hours passed, the night crawled towards dawn, but still Harry and Oli sat diagonally to each other. At some point Liam came in. He had Harry’s broken phone in his pocket and a sad look on his face. Oli eyed him warily, but Liam just clapped a hand on Harry’s shoulder and sank into the chair next to him. Some time after that another Tomlinson came over and sat next to Oli. Harry didn’t know his name, but he’d been at the warehouse. Harry could so clearly picture him glaring at Harry over the barrel of his gun. Before long there were a handful of them who had migrated around Harry and finally he realized what it was. He was surrounded on all sides. He was protected.

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: I got really good at outlining this year! And being a bit more strict on myself about making sure I have things properly planned before I start writing (can you tell I've had problems with this in the past lmao). I also picked back up something I'd put aside that I was really afraid to try to rework and had convinced myself wasn't worth the effort. So I think trusting myself and the process more in general.

13. How do you hope to grow next year: I think maybe be a bit more risk taking lmao. I tend to play things safe or overthink everything, but I think some of the best stuff happens when you let yourself get a little silly.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): 2024 was the year of @red-pandaaa saving my ass every 5 minutes lmao. We started working together at the end of last year and they helped with everything - beta reading, cheerleading, listening to me bitching and moaning. Oh and the friendship was nice too 🤣

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: Oh for sure, always. A lot of Louis in sb! was based off a friend of mine (actually a lot of sb! I pulled real life experiences for). I'm always putting places I've been, food I've eaten, weird personality quirks I have or friends have in fics.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Always know the ending before you start. You don't always need to know how to get there, but at least know where you're going.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: I'm really excited to get back to the fic I put on hold in the summer. I think I'll start working on that in January (once edits for you're all i ever dreamed of are finished!!!)

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read.

@blueskiesrry @petitommo @wishingforloushair @28goldens @lunarheslwt @larry-hiatus

[gunnerfc]

Update :)

Hi! I know it’s been literal months and I’m so sorry for that!

After I lost all my outlines for my 1k celly (I lost other outlines for other fics I was working on as well), which I still don’t know how I managed to do that, I lost all motivation for writing and kinda woso in general. I still watched games and whatnot but it just wasn’t fun until the Olympics (which RAHHH USA GOLD). Plus I did not have the best mental health but thats besides the point.

I just wanna say sorry for not writing the 1k celly fics, I hate that I lost everything and lost motivation right as I hit 1K </3

I do plan on slowly returning to writing, with the new seasons about to start, my excitement and love for the game is coming back and I want to channel that through writing! Gonna be a slow restart but I’m glad my love for writing is coming back :)

There are a few changes tho!

-> I changed who I write for! I’ve taken quite a bit of players off my list solely because I hardly ever wrote for them in the first place and I mainly want to focus on the ones I know the most!

-> I also will be starting to write for a few fictional characters that I like, I know this is a WOSO blog and all my followers are WOSO fans but im so hyper-fixated on some of these characters and I haven’t written for fictional characters in ages so I wanna get back into it even if they flop lmao

-> I won’t be doing any more NSFW alphabets (aside from doing them for the fictional characters I added) and I won’t be doing any more insta posts/stories etc :)

-> I’ve cleared my WIP list and inbox from months-old requests to sorta give myself a true fresh start so im so sorry I never got around to some of them </3

Lastly, please bear with me as I get back into posting and writing and stuff, I’m sure my writing is a bit rusty but hopefully, people still enjoy my works! - ⚡️🫶🏻

[farmersfieldwolf]

Since you sent me an ask, I'll send one back! <:) Particularly in reference to your fic, how do you organize things? Do you write whatever you think in the moment and refine later or do you plan things out thoroughly before approaching your chapter? You use a lot of different alignment settings and bold/italics to convey different emotions, memories, etc-- Do you write everything out like that as you type or add those details later? Your writing style has always really amazed and inspired me, it's super unique and has left a lasting impression on my own writing! I'd love to hear more about your process!!! :D Thank you in advance!!!!

PREPARE FOR LONG- first of all that's incredibly kind of you and means a lot to me; i am pretty self conscious about my work because basically everything i do starts as a very big feeling i am having and it is kind of hard to understand inside of the process what it comes across as

to keep a dash tidy- a break

I make pretty rough but silly bullet points to get an outline- this is part of chapter four's outline (when I started doing outlines, the first three chapters just kind of happened in a fugue state lololol)

part of it is that it being silly helps vomit it out, like some of it is WILD. I also don't name characters just give them all caps monikers and ctrl+f and replace them (so like fejul was just YELLOWCAT throughout and still sometimes is if i can't remember their name), because that way i don't get stalled on naming someone (it helps the game generates names)

especially since it started as just being a conversation between two very broken people it helped make it not so sad. a lot of it still makes me cry to read let alone write it out. it helped with my grief through

tbh i think part of the process that i go through is very much informed by thinking of the mechanical delivery of the game; thinking about the tension between dehumanization of the player and thus the lamb, the implications of Godhood as the weathering of humanity. i could talk about play theory forever lololol

the alignment is because i have pretty bad adhd and at the time i started writing i was FILLED with ghosts so thoughts were ind of hard to hold- ghosts are a sort of joke among friends of when you get the like i must create feeling, mine lasted about 6 weeks before i decided to post it (and made a tumble a couple of months later). my friends were very kind and put up with me rambling constantly until i did! i even rambled in board meetings and make myself a custom sweater from joking about it being in our minutes. the joke here being is as a nfp our board notes are legally required to be available upon request by like the government or members- so they'd be like wtf why are you talking about blorbos??

i think it (the ghosts) is mostly done, at least the manic portion of it. there's 30 chapters give or take that are mapped out in various states of done at least the lamb/narinder stuff is mostly done the side plots are kind of still developing hence why i think i am going to take some weeks off so i can figure them out

but it's written like that because it's kind of how i think? everything sort of happens simultaneously- so for narinder in particular in the beginning it's a lot of that where he's overwhelmed by everything. he's going from relative omniscience to a single perspective and that's hard. At this point he's a lot calmer but i think he could probably feel every follicle for a while there

it also helped that i realized narinder is essentially a character i already wrote for my thesis and a lot of it was a reflection of the feelings i had near a decade ago. nothing is canon in cotl, not really, there's just kinf of like little lore puddles; he's pretty far off interpretation for that reason. but the core idea, why does the lamb decide to save him, remains the same from the idea of the hermes i trapped in a box lololol

i didn't know how formatting in ao3 worked- so it's actually WAY more wild and i simplify it. there's also a bunch of stuff i have thought about that i think would be too much- using unicode is probably way too far but also it would be so fuuuun- LIKE if Super God didn't just speak in sub caps but like-

₦⏃☈↟⩀⨵⋶℟

i have always been frustrated having to like fully describe everything so it's a work around for that- a lot of scenes are just dialogue between characters that i add things into later so there's a bit more visual description going on. i hadn't thought of him for a long time, but Michael Ondaatje is a pretty big influence on that i think. i like his work a lot in my memory and the flipping between like very intimate description and vague interpretation i like a lot

this is the longest thing i have ever written; most of the other stuff i have done is short form or just dialogue in a scripting way- or comics. it's also way more long term planned? i have written lots of like 100-500 short stories, i did a project where i wrote 300 (only made it to about 120) short stories and my "i am going to work on a thing" right before these ghosts took me and ran with this was recording them as a binural audio and using conducive headphones to simulate hallucinations with a body horror alternative controller- i wanna finish it but am having fun working on this. i also started rewriting some of them as like little outdoor arts but i got stalled because i had no packing tape and was using scotch tape and it was taking a long time

realizing i am writing this long after adhd meds have long worn off so this is seriously ramble-y

for other things i usually just write and hope it makes enough sense. the last thing i made i wrote inside an ide while programming with yarn spinner- then decided to make my game recursive? it was a nightmare tbh, don't decide halfway through a project to entirely change the format. nor write in an ide while learning a new dialogue manager. this is advice seldom will need but YOU KNOW WHAT- IF YOU NEED IT IT'S IMPORTANT LOLOLOL

my playlist being 60+ hours at this point is also a big method of organization- the songs chosen are often either the emotional perspective or foreshadowing for the future of what will happen. it also helps editing? like what was the vibe was i going for- good old sufjan being so gay for god helps. drawing and making the little comics has helped a lot too- i think it makes it clearer in my mind who's doing what and what's happening. the lamb got a lot more personality from being drawn and a lot of scenes just came out of the fact that their tears are so juicy when i draw them

this project has now become a personal challenge on seeing it through but WOAH- it's been a long 4 months! it's kind of wild to me it is both been that long and i have done so much in 4 months and is a nice confidence boost

i just love monsters so much- have a super god doodle from a sketch series that has too many spoilers on it

THIS WAS LONG AND I DUNNO IF IT IS HELPFUL? OR MAYBE IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE HELPFUL?? i love talking about process though- i could wax on it forever because i think it's the coolest part of the art making process

i appreciate being asked; i am very chuffed with how it is turning out as i had stopped making art for... 6 years? to the point i thought i never would again and kind of had accepted that. so having something to do and have folks be excited about seeing it honestly makes me so deeply emotional in a nice way

[virtie333]

Hey, everyone. I never thought I would have to write this, but here we are.

Those of you who have been reading my stuff for a while know that I’ve been through the ringer these last several years. Three personal losses combined with simple bad luck created clinical depression (on top of a lifetime of anxiety) and suicidal ideology. I discovered that I am mostly likely high-functioning autistic and now I’m dealing with age-related health issues. Writing, especially Damerey, has been my escape, but it hasn’t been easy. Dealing with chronic pain and chronic fatigue takes its toll.

Recently, my boss decided that everyone must be independently wealthy like she is and reduced my hours significantly. I have a horse and a cat that need their teeth worked on, another cat and a dog that need vaccinations, a car that needs repair, a house mortgage, car payments, debt from a previous vehicle, and now medical bills. So, for the first time in my life, I had to get a second job just to make ends meet. With my health issues, this is going to make life rough, and I don’t foresee having the time or energy to write anytime soon. I have the outline for a new long-fic, but the odds of me actually getting it written are slim to none right now, which is why The New Recruit may be my last one. I gotta admit, I’m so damn tired of keeping this ship afloat.

Last week on my birthday, I was reading through several old Damerey fics, stories written during the height of the ship. As someone who came into it late, I often wonder how my stories would have fared if I had written and posted them back then. Would they have gotten 500+ kudos? Would they have 20+ comments per chapter? I’ll never know. I struggled to complete The New Recruit. I love it and I’m proud of it, but it kills me seeing it struggle. The kudo count is respectable, but the feedback is… well, I rarely get a lot of comments. Those that do so regularly have become friends, and I am grateful for that, at least. But feedback literally feeds a writer, and not having much leaves me feeling starved and unable to write, especially when I’m already physically and emotionally exhausted. (If anyone is really, super shy, you can send an anonymous Ask!)

I love this ship and I am not leaving it, so anyone else who posts Damerey stories or artwork, I WILL BE THERE!!! I will support it with everything in me. I still have stories galore in my head, including that one that I’ve never had the guts to write, but they are going to have to stay there for a while.

Maybe something wonderful will happen in the next year and things will get better. In the meantime, I hope you continue to enjoy this story, and if you’ve just started reading this one, I’ve got over four years of stories for you to read! And if I do come back, I hope that my regulars will still be around, ready to join me on a new adventure with Rey and Poe.

Thank you all so much for reading!

My AO3 Masterlist

[starlightmeissa]

out of curiosity, do you have any notes on your discontinued stories?

i don't! pretty much all of my discontinued fics were done prior to me using outlines, so what you see on ao3 is literally all i wrote for the fic. that's why they're all discontinued! i didn't think about those fics much outside of the current chapter i was working on, which made it harder to return to them when my interest waned.

all of my currently active fics have outlines and hefty notes sections, especially in regards to cheek to the wall and fluffy clouds. thats part of how i know i won't drop those fics, bc i just have so much stuff to look at if i need inspo in the future.

BUT! i can give a rough synopsis of thoughts i vaguely had for a few of my discontinued fics. whether or not i remember everything is up to fate though. also disclaimer that i wrote Every Single One of these fics while i was still in high school/same year i graduated so i include my feelings on how i would write them differently now that im like. an adult.

magneto:

(this is probably why you're asking, most people only really want to hear about magneto when they ask about my discontinued stuff. so i'll put magneto first!)

kenzo was going to enter a confrontation with her father and utterly destroy him. he would have said he's proud of her when she almost kills him.

all for one would have tried to take kenzo's quirk

in the future kenzo would have been one of the top ten heroes, maybe not first but very close.

really not much to say. the only future thoughts i had were literally having kenzo beat the shit out of her dad with his own baseball bat and with her own hands

something something daddy issues something something you're just like your father and it makes you want to rip yourself open and take every part of him out of you

feinting on your blind side:

jane would have lived happily ever after with bull. no sadness. honestly i consider my au of the chargers dying to be my internal canon, if only because it's actually finished. in a case where the chargers Don't Die, jane is just there along for the ride

really not sure if i love the age gap i wrote for these two. probably would have made her older now, even if part of their dynamic was jane's fear and inexperience with the world around her, that doesn't require her to be 21-23(? i don't remember)

characterization wise i don't think it's correct to assume bull would enter a serious relationship with someone younger than dorian. i think hook ups are different, but the sheer level of inexperience jane has would probably make him push her towards people closer to her age, like krem. for sure he could be fond of her, but he is old enough to be her father. like. her proper, normally aged father.

solas dynamic was crazy in this fic i literally think jane's anxiety about him gave me major anxiety while writing. i don't think i understood dai's companions as well when i wrote the fic, but i do think if i wrote it now i would flesh out solas and jane's dynamic much more.

also side note jane should not have gotten away with smart mouthing vivienne in this fic idk what i was on. i love you vivienne but you have never suffered fools and worse suffered a SERVANT talking back to your face and saying the circles are evil

one of the few justified moments of jane's anxiety was fearing viv's retribution cause girl i would be scared too

artists and dragons:

tera was being influenced by hermeus mora. her insatiable pursuit for knowledge was for his benefit

i wish i had written her as older, because i felt like there was the chance for a more interesting dynamic with brynjolf. i think i was just too young when i was writing artists and dragons to consider more serious topics like sexual relationships and SA (both very lightly touched on in fic due to their sensitive nature and my being a teenager with no idea how to even approach that)

honestly there is a non-zero chance i rewrite this fic with an older tera and more outlining in the future, because i still like the concept. my skill level has increased and i dislike the fast pacing of the fic. (ie tera and her companions all sharing a bed after knowing each other a month max in fic. so weird. it had been 5 months of writing so it had felt longer to me)

brynjolf would have figured out tera was under daedric influence after becoming a nightingale, due to a inherent Sense for when someone else is a daedric worshiper etc etc

the dragonborn would have used tera's information to find information she otherwise wouldn't have had access to

les etrangers:

reavv and i discontinued it because the scope was too wide and Every SIOC We Wrote was based on a real person we knew

which really complicated being able to develop those characters and feel comfortable with killing any of them off etc

the company would have supported a revolution in Orlais, maybe a reinstatement of the Dales. general revolutionary thoughts, general mayhem.

love this fic because it got me and reavv to become friends and realize our writing style's meshed very well.

qui vivra vera:

maria would have won her games at great personal loss. the entire 11-12 alliance would have maintained itself as long as it could. 12's boy would die first, then 11's girl, then at the end of the game it would have been 11's boy and maria.

11's boy would be injured critically and maria would have held him until he died.

maria probably would have had a kill count of 3(?), all careers. augustus (the original winner of the games) would have died by her hands. really impressive considering he is jacked as shit

maria would become the youngest winner ever, swiftly dethroning finnick after like 2 years(?) of him breaking the last record (jesus why did i write her like that thats so fucking horrifying)

you can imagine how poorly that goes for her in extremely unsavory ways. due to her willingness to offer herself to save a stranger she didn't know very well it would be very easy for president snow to keep her in line.

this fic would have been much darker in tone if i wrote it now and much less obnoxious about underage drinking. i was in highschool when i wrote it and had never drank or been drunk before, as you can probably tell.

the dumpster fire situation:

genuinely have no idea where i was going with this one. i was a junior in high school and just depressed tony stark died

came home crying in the car like "I CANNOT ALLOW THIS" and then started a fic so early in the timeline it was literally impossible to get where i wanted to be

i decided to give jay access to her phone so she could get social media fame from the ordeal (losing literally her whole family and being stuck in a warzone) and also because i was fascinated by how people would react to a person who is like. earnestly saying they are in the mcu-verse and no this isn't cgi. im serious. its bad guys can someone send me a link to the wiki

extremely funny idea i don't know if id rewrite it, but by god imagine a tiktok live and it's just a fucking dusty teenager swearing on her life she's just experienced the battle of new york

no real plans for this fic. i think she was going to get herself access to tony but i have no idea how. they dont really let random teenagers have access to tony stark billionaire playboy philanthropist. actually it would be really fucking weird if tony agreed to meet this random teenage girl without like Viable Proof she needs his help for saving the world reasons. and even then she may just end up dealing with sheild instead.

AND THATS ALL! i have other discontinued dragon age fics, but those are all short. if you care about those just comment and i'll talk about them. but other than that, thanks for the ask!

[potatoplace]

Writing tag game by @bonecarversbestie !!

I was tagged by @thelov3lybookworm 💖 thank youuuu

Describe your writing process from idea to posting/publishing

Normally an idea will pop into my head while I'm at work - my job is physical and can be pretty mindless, so it's perfect for coming up with entertaining stories! I normally end up running through the plot of what I want to happen a few times before I even get to writing, so I have a good mental outline of the story. When it comes to the actual writing part, I tend to go full speed ahead for hours. Also most of the time I'm smoking a lil bit, I find being just a lil stoned can help move the writing process along. I veeeery rarely edit my works except for mistakes I notice as I go. And once I'm done, I post right away, pasting it into the app and editing it to look how I want. I give myself as little time as possible to second guess my writing lol

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

I'm normally a plotter, I like to know what I want to happen, but if fun ideas come to me in the moment then I go with them! Very rarely will I have an idea that I don't think about and plan for at least a few hours beforehand.

What do you listen to when you are writing?

So many things... Taylor Swift, Halsey, Chelsea Cutler, Blackpink, and more, but those are the main artists I listen to while writing. I also end up having stuff on in the background, lately it's been between Grey's Anatomy and Gilmore Girls.

What’s your drink of choice(while writing)?

I love me a monster ultra, strawberry dreams has been my fave since it was put out! Coffee too, and water of course (I'm a big water hoe)

Promote yourself! What’s your favorite thing you’ve written?

Probably You Can Have It! It's such a fun, cozy world that Reader lives in, and I'm sooo excited for all the plans I have for her, Feyre, and Rhys!!!

Share a fic of yours that you think is underrated/deserves more love.

This was tough... You guys give all of my stories so much love, none of them ever really feel left out! The only one that I think deserves more love is probably Omega Needs, it's my first fic on here and I love how I've changed the dynamic between Feyre and Rhys, and all the shit going on in the Spring Court. I just love them 🥹

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Just! Keep! Writing!!! I have been a new writer at so many points in my life, and every time I've enjoyed myself, but this time feels different. I've pushed myself to keep writing and not reread my fics to death before posting, and that has helped immensely with how I've approached writing this time around. Also! Write what YOU want to read! I know that I don't feel motivated when I'm not very interested in the story, so make sure that you like what you're writing!

What is a writing style/technique that others do really well that you'd like to get better at?

Ooo definitely the style where the pacing matches so well with intense emotions, like the punctuation and everything changes to match it. And also poetry! I love the way people can capture a feeling so perfectly.

Is there a character you were surprised you enjoyed writing as much as you did?

Definitely Shitty Azriel from my tears ricochet. I'd thought I might have a problem making him hateable but still like... acting sweet to reader even with all the lies that she didn't know about. But I didn't, and the response was an overwhelming "fuck you Azriel" (which I delighted in, thank you guys 😂)

I'm tagging @mira-says and @icey--stars, don't feel pressured or anything tho!!

[soaps-mohawk]

Hii! I love your COD fic so much. I’m just beginning my own writing journey, and was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing what your outlining/writing process is like? ^^

Hi!! Hello!! Thank you!!! 💚 Aww, best of luck on your journey!! Writing is so hard but it can be so fulfilling at the same time!!

Hehe yeah, so I don't usually really do outlines for fics. I just kind of get a general idea of what I want to happen, and in the case of fics that follow plotlines of shows directly how the character/reader is going to fit into those events, and then just start writing what comes to me when it comes to me 😅 that's led to some fics getting quite out of hand, though, in the past.

I think CRCB is the first fic I've actually like physically laid things out as far as chapters and what I want to happen in them (which has changed about 10 times since I started around chapter 3). So yeah, I just kind of lay out how many chapters and what I want to happen in each chapter. I don't come up with everything that happens in the chapter right away. More filler type stuff I kind of just write as I go depending on what fits the vibe of the chapter. Sometimes things change a lot, and that's okay. My original outline had like 25 chapters and then the fic would be done and, well, as you can see we're nowhere near that now lol.

As far as the writing process, I just kind of take the outline and lay out what's going to happen in the chapter by section and then start writing. Sometimes I start at the beginning of the chapter and sometimes I start in the middle. Quite a few I've written the last scene first and then just kind of jumped around as inspiration came. I've found that's helped a lot with writer's block and motivation, as I can just kind of go where the words are flowing in the chapter and not have to worry about getting a certain section done before I write the next.

I also do a first draft where I can just lay out a basic description of something that happens if I get stuck and move on. If the words aren't flowing, drop a quick little summary of what happens in that scene and then move on and come back to it when you edit. Sometimes the first draft is just a super basic walk through of what happens and then I go back a second time and add in all the fluff and details. That can be really good if you're going to write smut scenes. Just get down the basics and then go through and add everything else later. Same with dialogue. Just write the lines and then go back and add in details, other things happening in the scene.

Your first draft does NOT have to be the final product. Sometimes it is. Sometimes the words are flowing and you can put out a masterpiece with just some light editing needed. Sometimes it takes two or three tries before you're happy with it. That happens to me a lot. Some chapters are basically first drafts with a little grammar/syntax editing. Others (like chapter 10) I wrote up, sat on it for two days, read it through and was unhappy with it, so I went back and added in like over 1,000 words of fluff and details.

So yeah. Take your time, sleep on things if you're not happy with them, don't be afraid to change things and jump around while you're writing. I know a lot of writers struggle with wanting to be linear in their writing and write a fic or chapter start to finish. You don't have to. Jumping around while writing has saved me so much stress.

I hope this helps, and best of luck with your writing. The best way to get good at it and figure out what works for you is just to write. Practice, practice, practice. It's taken me well over a decade to get to this point where I've figured out what works best for me and I'm still learning to this day.

[scimitar-and-longsword]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged by @cactusdragon517 almost a month ago lol, I'm slow to get these done.

How many works do you have on ao3? 21

What's your total ao3 word count? 202,835

What fandoms do you write for? Currently? Call of Duty and I'm still hanging around the TOG fandom. But I've hardly posted anything in years lol. Someday when my toddler is a little older I'll get back into posting more.

Top five fics by kudos:

Share Your Address - Fencer!Joe/TA!Nicky College AU - Insta-love. So much texting. Everybody wants to punch Keane.

It Feels Like Flying - Joe/Pilot!Nicky AU - This is porn. Enjoy.

Brothers Fight - Joe & Booker working through their issues post movie.

Everything I Did to Get to You - Sequel to Share Your Address (my top fic by Kudos) - AU - A few years later Joe and Nicky spend the holidays with friends and family.

Collapsing Walls - Book of Nile!!!!! - Established Booker/Nile - Booker and Nile get caught in a building while trying to assist during an earthquake.

Do you respond to comments? Yes!! I try to respond to all comments for at least a few days after I post something.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't write a lot of angsty ENDINGS. I'll Never Love Another (Prince!Joe/Knight!Nicky) has a fuck ton of angst in it, and I know some people thought the ending was bitter sweet bordering on sad.... but idk (spoilers?) no one died and they're together sooooo that's a happy ending in my book lol.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Gees, idk lol Share Your Address?? It's so sweet you'll get cavities.

Do you get hate on fics? I never have. *knock on wood*

Do you write smut? Hardly ever. I mean I HAVE, and actually the most recent thing I posted was like straight up porn lol. But mostly if there is sex it is only hinted at/fade to black. Or buried in a 60k fic so you have to work for it!

Craziest crossover: Probably Book of Nile + Princess Bride (it's a WIP that I haven't touched in like 3 years *sweats nervously* I swear I will finish all my WIPs EVENTUALLY)

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of???

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes!! A one shot I did was translated onto a Japanese website that I forget the name of lol. I've also had a podfic made of one of my one shots if that counts.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Ashley and I tried at one point lol it was a modern AU DinLuke fic.... it kind of fizzled out eventually. @ashleyrguillory we should look at that again someday lol

All time favorite ship? Obligatory "Just one??!!" ok but idk Charlie/Claire (LOST), Korra/Asami (Legend of Korra) and Derek/Stiles (Teen Wolf) are the most important to me??? I read the most fic for Ghost/Soap, [redacted controversial ship that you could not pay me to reveal #1], and [redacted controversial ship that you could not pay me to reveal #2] lol

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I refuse to give up on any of my WIPS!!! I have 4, and all of them are planned/outlined to the end... I even have multiple completed chapters for two of them. I'm not a quitter... I do take my time though lol

What are your writing strengths? Oh gees... idk someone else who has read my stuff needs to tell me this... I think I've gotten a lot of comments complimenting me on keeping characters true to canon?? idk guys! someone else answer this!

What are your writing weaknesses? I really struggle with action and sex scenes. Where are they? I, the person writing this fic, certainly don't know. (come to think of it this might be part of the reason that I don't write a lot of smut)

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? Whatever floats the author's boat.

But I personally have done it a few ways. My favorite to both write and read is just to write what they say and then identify what language is being used if the POV character can understand the language. something like: "Oh no," he shouted in Italian.

OR if the POV character doesn't understand the language I would write something like: Nicky shouted something in what Joe thought was Italian. OR Nicky said something in a language Joe couldn't quite place.

First fandom you wrote in? Supernatural lol

Favorite fic you've written? One????? You're getting 2!

I'll Never Love Another - Prince!Joe/Knight!Nicky AU - SO MUCH LETTER WRITING - This was my Big Bang in 2021, and I love the FUCK out of it. It's my favorite fic I've ever written and I reread it kind of often because of how much I enjoy it lol

Impelled by the Persuasion of Love - Canon verse Joe/Nicky and Andy/Quynh - Takes place in France during the 100 years war. I have an obsession with courtly love/chivalry and figured I should shove it onto our favorite immortals <3 - I wrote this for a TOG zine that came out in early 2021

=== Truly, IDK if I've got 20 people to tag but I'll give it a go!!

@innerslumber, @alloutofgoddesses, @ashleyrguillory, @stevethehairington, @sindirimba, @disregardandfelicity and anybody else who wants to do this, consider this your tag!!!

[blarrghe]

Shop talk! I know you're currently doing the whole writing and posting thing differently than before - like the whole thing is written, you're just editing and posting once a week. So what do you think of that? Do you prefer it over how you worked previously? Does it depend on the fic??

And how much editing are we talking? Both in terms of words changed as well as time spent on it? Do you do editing the next chapter for a whole week? Are you constantly editing all upcoming chapters??

Thanks for the ask! I love talking about this stuff :) Sorry for the obscenely long answer.

So it's the first time I've done that, and now that I'm in the posting part I am liking it a lot. I like the structure, I look forward to Wednesdays, I feel like I gathered a little bit of an audience that is there weekly with me as well, which is nice for everyone. I don't know if it makes any difference to people in terms of engagement if they hear that its completed in advance or see it posting regularly, but idk if it was me as a reader I would appreciate the regularity so I hope people do. At least one person has told me they're waiting to read it until it's finished/waited to start until it was over half posted, idk if I'll suddenly get new readers when its up in full or what but I def understand that. But yeah! The posting weekly thing has been nice. It feels productive even if I actually don't do a ton of writing every week.

Actually writing the thing took like two years though, specifically because there was absolutely no gratification to it haha. I didn't really even post wip snippets or talk about it much, because I wanted to keep my secrets. I was writing either Matchsies or A Complicated Match still when I had the idea and started plotting, so part of it taking so long is also that I was dividing my attention, and devoting more of it to the ongoing stuff I was actually posting. But I started this fic with the intention of letting it be a slow side-burner project so that I could make it "really good" by the time it went up. And that was a good call, because I did a lot of re-writes and re-structuring to elements of it, especially some of the early chapters, when I got further into the plot. To be clear, it's had the same outline all along, but there were connecting details that didn't work, like logistical travel time things that would have been glaringly annoying if I'd posted the first drafts of the first few chapters before writing the later ones. Also I re-vamped Sylvanna's character really early on into a more major role. She wasn't originally a bodyguard! Or really a main element of the story at all. Absolution came out at some point and I got Ideas.

Anyway, a lot of the editing that went into the fic before I started posting was pretty major, but by the time I was ready to actually start posting everything was much more concrete. I tend to edit the next chapter in the days before it goes up, and right before posting, mainly just for little details. But I try to give myself some distance and not overdo the constant editing so that when I do look at it right before posting I have some fresher eyes, right now I haven't looked at the next chapter (lying, I read it last night, but not from an EDITOR standpoint) in a couple weeks and I plan to put on editor glasses tomorrow morning before I post it. A big part of the editing that is ongoing is for how the prose reads, like I might come up with some gorgeous metaphor or re-do how a scene is described but keep the content the same. You get better all the time as a writer, so it's just about getting the Good Copy as Good as I can before it goes up. Every now and then I have a genius thought and go stick it in where it fits. Every now and then I also delete stuff or have a genius thought that doesn't actually fit and stick it in "CUT CONTENT" on the bottom of the doc. There's some Taren-perspective Bher stuff in there that didn't work with how I structured Ch. 20, for example. I was thinking for a sec I'd re-write that whole chapter and do a flashback chapter for him but it did not suit the flow at all and I only got a couple paragraphs in and then just... added like two lines of Taren Thoughts to get the point across instead haha. I also cut a couple chapters in half but didn't change them (19 and 20 are an example, which is also why a ch. 20 rewrite did not work.)

The most major edits I've made have been to the last two chapters, mainly to add in a few new ideas I had or to tie up loose ends I realised I was still leaving. I haven't majorly changed any of what was going to happen, it's more just me trying to really nail those last chapters. I am also constantly re-reading it in full (sometimes making minor tweaks to names in the narration ;) and also boring stuff like punctuation). I'll post a chapter and immediately get excited for the next one and go read from that point to the end...

There's also a "secret" epilogue that I wrote, really liked, and then cannibalized and entirely re-wrote like, yesterday. I wasn't initially sure I'd even post it but now I definitely will. So stay tuned for that ;)

[tarabyte3]

Fic Updates

It's been a while soo....

I Want You to Show Me Weak — As I've stated before, there are only 2 chapters left in the entire fic. I'm going to be finishing both of them before I post chapter 26. Then I'll be posting chapter 27 the next day. Gonna end the fic with a bang 😏 I have everything outlined and thought out, I just have to finish writing it (I'm very excited about what I have planned/written for the final chapter, which includes the ending). Though I will admit, it's been difficult to write knowing I'll be saying goodbye to this story. I'll miss my boys SO much 😭, as well as this version of Kino x Reader, but I want to finish it for myself and for all of you! Besides, there's always the possibility of oneshots set in this universe in the future AND I'm not done writing for Kino. Not even close! I have no date estimate at the moment, but I'm trying to give this one my full attention so 🤞

The Devil Makes Us Sin — Once Show Me Weak is done, I'm going to give this one my full attention for a while. (Though, to be honest, even though I'm trying to focus on finishing Kino first, I still keep this document open and regularly pop in to write a paragraph or two. What can I say, David is VERY fun to write for 😏, I love him, and I must follow the serotonin). The next few chapters will be shorter so they should go quickly, and I already have around the next 4 of them half written (I actually have about ~25k of future stuff written last time I checked, including parts of chapters MUCH further down the road 😅).

Other Wips

While my focus has been on my ongoing stories, I do have a few other WIPs I have actual content written for! So here's an update on those as well. For fun.

Personal Trainer!Kino x Reader Modern AU — I have the beginning of this story and a few scenes written, and SO many notes for it. (My relationship with my trainer is fantastic. He's 50% big brother energy, 50% wingman energy, but he says THE most out of pocket shit so I immediately write it down after my sessions. Because him saying it does nothing for me, but imagining Kino saying it?? 😵‍💫🫠🥵) It will probably end up ~5 chapters total. Probably.

And Your Heart, Love, Has Such Darkness (David x Reader smutty Oneshot) — I started this one a year ago because I wrote something for TDMUS that didn't quite fit, but I liked it enough to keep it and make it its own thing. It's over half done right now, so it will likely be the next oneshot I post.

I Didn't Want to Hurt You, but You're Pretty When You Cry (Dark!David x Reader) — I think this one will end up about 3 chapters long and will contain a lot of content warnings. It's going to be more horror focused (with splashes of dark humor because I cannot help myself). I adore the opening chunk I've written. It gave me goosebumps.

Secret Andy Blorbo x Reader Oneshot — This one started as a joke on Discord about an Andy blorbo that is not only incredibly niche/unknown, but is actively not attractive (one of the very rare times Andy Serkis does nothing for me. In fact, when I see him, my vagina makes the windows shutdown noise). Except I made the mistake of saying, "I want to try to write for this character as a fun challenge just so I can sexually confuse everyone." And it, uh, spiraled from there and made me rethink my entire stance on this character (thank you for not only indulging me, Hannah, but encouraging me and giving me more ideas 💖 I loved [redacted] thirst day in TNBF)

Halsin x Tav — That's right, I'm writing for the sexy druid. It'll be 2 chapters, and it's about a third of the way finished. This Tav will be a human fighter, but is otherwise written more like a Reader Insert. (Side note: going back to 3rd person POV after writing a lot of 2nd person POV is harder than I imagined 🙃)

Paz Vizsla x Mando!Reader Oneshot — That's right, I'm also writing for the big Mandalorian. It's about a third of the way finished as well. (These last 2 are actually a little intimidating because the fandoms are MUCH larger, but I need to get them out sooo fuck it, it's happening.)

So as you can see, even though I haven't posted very much outside of Liam Black, I'm still writing a lot. Apparently I just have commitment issues and a lot of ✨thots✨ 😌💖