#I love this badfic so much

[shadowgast-recs-weekly]

Funny Shadowgast Recs

This week, we have eleven funny fanfics featuring f-shadowgast. Look under the readmore for the recs, and as always, don't forget to comment and kudos!

Indecency by RainyDayDecaf (5898, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: Graphic Depictions of Violence

5+1 where Caleb and Essek keep accidentally engaging in courtship rituals from the other's culture.

Reccer says: Very cute and sweet, with imaginative world building about Zemnian and Xhorhasian courting rituals.

Sufficiently Advanced Magic by SaltCore (5879, General) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

A crossover crackfic where Shadowgast, Griddlehark, and Spirk all wind up in the same place; shenanigans hijinks ensue.

Reccer says: This is very silly, but but the character writing is incredibly on point. Watching these six bounce off each other is a treat

Girl, Interrupting by DefilerWyrm (1902, Explicit) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

Caleb and Essek are in the middle of, ahem, *exchanging theories,* when Jester chooses the worst possible moment to send to Essek. Or the best, depending on your perspective.

Reccer says: Both sexy and funny in the best possible way.

LOVE & OTHER ENCHANTMENTS by LivThael (2092, General) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

A send up on romantic comedies, starring Caleb and Essek

Reccer says: Made for a bad fic event, it's a hilarious and very readable send up of romantic comedies, filled with lumberjacks, bookstores, romantic declarations, and much more.

Safe For Work by Operafloozy (1501, Explicit) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

Caleb and Essek find a mysterious artifact in Aeor that has unexpected results.

Reccer says: Like if Patrick Bateman wrote porn' says it all. Written for a badfic event, this one takes corporate jargon to ridiculous extremes. You'll never sit through a corporate event the same way again.

A Weird Soup by mousecookie (1721, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

AU in which Shadowhand Essek is so bad at cooking that he accidentally summons a demon: Caleb.

Reccer says: I liked it!

Kryn Dynasty Skincare 101 by soot_and_salt (3571, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

Essek's vanity and intense multi-step skincare regimen turns into chaos when the Mighty Nein barge into his life.

Reccer says: It's funny but also heartwarming. It has tantalizing glimpses of how Essek and Caleb get together, told through different skin care items he gifts to the group. The middle part with the Nein and their hair is laugh out loud funny and the ending is such a sweet note.

Altered State of Mind by Defiler_Wyrm (6853, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Caleb polymorph shenanigans

Reccer says: All of the fic is great but the final section is HILARIOUS.

The Artifact by Chekhov (14378, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

A romantic comedy where the wizards find a mysterious object that seems to be related to the Luxon

Reccer says: This fic is funny and I laughed out loud while reading it. Their play fighting over the artifact is so silly and horny

A Scaled Splendor by royalgreen (656, General) Reccer's Content Notes: No Content Notes

Caleb has a mishap using True Polymorph. Veth is completely unsympathetic.

Reccer says: Caleb is trying to impress his boyfriend and messes up in the funniest of ways.

An Evening To Remember by Interrobang (1755, Teen) Reccer's Content Notes: None

Essek tries to surprise Caleb by showing up wearing his cloak, mantle, and little else, and is horrified to realize that Caleb has arranged a surprise of his own.

Reccer says: Author nailed the balance between anticipation and secondhand embarrassment when the situation doesn't turn out as Essek planned.

Aeor is for Lovers is an 18+ Shadowgast Discord server. The above fanfic recommendations were pulled from our community for this weekly event. All fics, unless otherwise specified, will primarily feature Shadowgast. Have any questions about what this is? Check out the FAQ! Next week, we’ll be back featuring fics with Shadowgast on a boat!

[enigma731]

regarding love triangle speculation, besides that idea being so dumb, I don't know if I just haven't paid this much attention to a movie release in recent years or what but I feel like a lot of vol 3 speculation is particularly bad in general. I remember reading some things for IW when it came out and EG too. But I don't remember everything feeling so lacking in deeper analysis of character and story. It's almost like nobody has ever seen a gotg movie or kept up with the marketing and anything James and the cast have said. Either that or they are purposefully ignoring it because they don't know how to actually write better articles. It's exhausting in some ways because there is objectively so much material for well reasonsed and interesting talking points. Especially where Gamora is concerned. At this point I'm wishing they release a poster with her that says "I didn't ask for any of this" similar to the Rocket one because it feels like people have forgotten how and why her story is like this. I hope whatever James Gunn wrote for her in vol 3 he 1000% hit it out of the park because I feel that's the only way people will give her arc the recognition it deserves

I don't know, because I try to avoid speculation as much as possible. But the fact that both Empire and Rolling Stone were like "Pratt just said Peter is depressed and drinking because the love of his life doesn't remember him, which leads to a hilarious attraction to Nebula" is just ???????

Like...I'm sorry but that is significantly worse than the worst badfic I could come up with. It is NOT going to happen and it pisses me off that they're wasting time on it instead of discussing the actual relationships in the movie. Like, you know, the Fandango interview where Karen and Pratt actually got to talk about Gamora and it was delightful.

[skrillien]

10 + 11?

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

hard one, definitely... in terms of MCR fic- i love fics that take gerard's onstage characters (the cheerleader, the nurse, the priest) and work it into his actual personality or the RPF interpretation of them (bexless did a really great job of this, i think it's why unholyverse is so popular, honestly.)

i love yandere tropes in or out of fic (my favorite interpretation of the trope is by far gasai yuno of mirai nikki)- i just think it has to do with how i relate, but you can do really interesting interpretations of characters who are just insane.

and... i'm not sure it counts as a trope, but i really have a soft spot for the kind of zany and unstructured fanfics you'll usually find written by kids on wattpad, the kind where the smut uses absurd euphemisms and anatomical inaccuracies, everyone's out of character or flanderized, and where the author made a one-shot and then just kept updating it without a clear sense of direction, just a series of events strung together... it would feel mean to call them badfics, but i'm absolutely in love with that clumsy style of writing.

11. Three tropes that are fine but overrated.

feel like i might piss a few people off here... i don't really like enemies to lovers much at all. i want them to either stay homoerotic rivals and never, ever have a proper conversation with each other (PG-verse gerardmau5. they're kismeses) or just stay enemies and never resolve their differences (i blame this on being a scorpio, i can hold a grudge forever.)

i also despise "pair the spares." ray/mikey is pretty much my NOTP for this reason. they're okay as a pairing, but if someone ships ray/mikey, it's probably just because they're a diehard frank/gerard shipper. you never really see standalone fics about them, they're always in the background while frerard is happening. i put off reading unholyverse for a long time just because i knew ray/mikey was second-place endgame. i hate shipping WAGs for the same reason- lindsey and jamia just... have no reason to be together, you just want them out of the way of frerard! where's the drama?!

aand... i don't know if this counts as a trope, but i hate when people write party poison with a vagina! i get wanting to relate to a character and stuff, but there are nonbinary people who are intersex or have penises, you know?! i don't want to shame anyone who does write them that way, but something about it rubs me the wrong way. (i'm not a fan of transmasc frank, either, but i think that has more to do with people saying he looks transmasc in real life. i met someone once who did genuinely believe he was transmasc. it bothers me and i'm not even sure why.)

[02cm]

Right.

The point of fanfic, even if it's an AU, is to stick with the essence of what you love and enjoy so much about a character and/or a ship.

If I wanted to read about literally just SOME guy (one that isn't """mine""" anymore and is barely recognizable) living in a different world and having a whole different dynamic with the one I ship him, I'd go for a book.

I believe that fics that could easily pass as an original are badfic by fanfiction authors that didn't get to understand the character in question, and how they would act and behave given other circumstances (the worst ones are when they're turned into an empty "vessel" for these authors to project onto them; so of course they're unrecognizable when I'm not reading about my faves anymore but about "you").

And I know that OOC is a thing... but I always say that there are OOCs and OOCs. Still, it's true that you're free to write the most OOC shit if you want, but- sorry. You missed the point of fanfic if that's the case... and I just don't get what's exactly what you love about the fandom you're writing for, then; and why you just don't write an original story instead.

in general i would say that “it’s not fun if they’re totally unrecognisable” is my fandom thesis. like the point of fanfic etc is putting your favourite little guys in situations. where’s the appeal if they’ve been through so many fanon spin cycles that they’re barely even your guys anymore

[hollowfaith]

10, 12, 19

munday asks

10. would you be interested into playing a crossover? if yes, do you have any limits?

yeah 100%! honestly when i write fic over 70% of my ideas are AUs so this is just that but with RP. as long as it's not high school AUs i'm good :3 (well if we weren't students in it but administration and staff that's ok too i think) too much HS AU badfics on ffnet scarred me as a child

12. what do you think about AUs?

im thinking about AUs right now actually! i just don't act on them bc i know i have no self control and would just end up creating multiple branches of the world tree destined for pruning and dead ends

19. do you have ship bias?

aury is klauslocked so that's pretty easy

but if this is asking about dynamic i seem to favor ship dynamics where one party is oblivious. like with love, aury doesn't 'get it,' wang yi knows it exists but doesn't 'feel it,' mary sue feels everything but doesn't 'see it' or 'have it'...etc.

edit: i forgot about my new son nezha im sorry nezha

he's stuck in unrequited hell tho because it's the other side who's oblivious (and very taken)

[zenxenophilia]

What is My Immortal fanfic, I swear for a second you were talking about the song lol??

Oh my sweet anon let me show you the world!!!  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Immortal_(fan_fiction)  

http://myimmortal.wikia.com/wiki/My_Immortal/Chapters_1-11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdv6Q68EutU

[somekindofadeviant]

Victorian Era Fanged Four Fic Recs

So, like, my absolute comfort fic genre is that old staple that used to be such a standard, though you pretty much never see it anymore, and that makes me very sad. It's works set in the Victorian era, when the gang were all together and happily evil, William's a bebe fledgling learning the ropes, and you got this family unit/polycule that's simultaneously brutal as hell but kinda sweet and domestic. I will devour this fic, especially if the historical detailing is on point, and apparently some others wanna see this trope too so lemme spread the love and massacres.

Warning: A LOT of this fic contains noncon and torture and oodles of murders. If you want to know detailed warnings for a given piece, DM me. I'm also including some fics that are pre-Will's embrace but still Victorian and honourable mentions to a couple of Georgian era Darla/Angelus ones.

Ensemble Works

Peasantverse by Peasant - A goddamn masterpiece. The absolute foundational example of this genre. A series of works starting with William's siring (deliberately vague who did the deed itself) and going through the following years. Lots of intriguingly plotty stories, just so many, and everyone in the family gets some love. The historical detailing is absolutely wonderful, the dynamics are wonderful, worldbuilding is fantastic, with some delightful lil footnotes to give extra context to some of the historical points.

Rating: NC17 Length: 14 works, total 232,438 words

A Winter's Tale by Coquette - A road trip of sorts. I love it so. The fanged four on a journey Oop North. Truly engrossing, viscerally descriptive. Followed by Temper which is, sadly, a long abandoned WiP but still worth a read.

Rating: NC17 Length: 74926 words

Queen's Gambit by Josey - Lots of plotty intrigue and politics and gorgeous detail. 'The year is 1880 and the family is sorting things out amongst themselves. Plus politics – and that’s never pretty.'

Rating: NC17 Length: Long

Followed by:

Demon's Aria Oh my gosh you have to read this one. 1881. And more plotty intrigue and politics and a surprise encounter or two that you just truly have to see.

Rating: NC17 Length: Long

Followed by:

Master's Voice - It all comes to a head in 1882. Oh hey could that be the consequences of their actions arrivin? It just might be. Sadly this is another long-abandoned WiP but again it's well worth a read

House-Guests From Hell And How To Send Them Back There by Glassdarkly - Oh hey it's seasonal. The fanged four dealing with unwanted Christmas guests, and they're at their dysfunctional best. Delightfully funny.

Rating: Teen+ Length: 12353 words

The Perfect Present by Glassdarkly - And another seasonal one to go with it. A lil Christmas shopping.

Rating: Teen+ Length: 1998 words

Charity Begins at Home by Glassdarkly - And one more seasonal one for the road. Well, things do come in threes. In a very grand house on the fringes of Victorian London heartwarming deeds of bloodthirstiness are afoot - or should that be bloodthirsty deeds of heartwarmingness

Rating: Teen+ Length: 6713 words

Ennui by Glassdarkly - Darla decides to shake things up a bit to reignite the waning passion in her relationship with Angelus. Things get in the way.

Rating: NC17 Length: 2240 words

Alone at Last by Glassdarkly - Darla and Angelus conspire to send the children away for a while.

Rating: Mature Length: 997 words

She's So Cold by Rebcake - Spike and Dru conduct a harmless experiment. Darla is not amused. Part of the Travels With Spike and Dru series (which has lots of good stuff go read the rest too!)

Rating: Gen Length: 100 words

Fanged Four Fairytales by Kita - Some lovely but brutal little smutty vignettes with delightful imagery

Rating: NC17 Length: 2210 words

The Web by kidcyclone - William contemplates, just a little snapshot, short and lyrical and gorgeous.

Rating: Gen Length: 573 words

FFWTF by soulless lover - What happens when you try to cram every Fanged Four badfic cliche ever into one fic?

Rating: Teen+ Length: 502 words

Darla/Angelus

A Lost Letter of Jane Austen by Hello Spikey - A clergyman's daughter writes her sister about two new acquaintances, a Mr. and Mrs. Angelus.

Rating: Teen+ Length: 2462 words

Followed by:

Darla's Letter by Hello Spikey - Darla reports to the Master on recent events regarding an authoress

Haunted Summer by Gill0 - In 1844 Mary Shelly recounts to a friend her time with our couple in the Year Without a Summer. Absolutely wonderfully captures Mary Shelley's voice and the writing style of the period.

Rating: Gen Length: 1443 words

Angelus/Will

Incandescence by wiseacress - A night at the theatre. Run and catch.

Rating: NC17 Length: 2568 words

Breathing Lessons by Hello Spikey - When Spike's coughing during a fire nearly gets them caught by Holtz' men, Angelus decides he needs to learn to stop breathing.

Rating: NC17 Length: 2499 words

The Adventures of the Concealed Closet by brutti ma buoni - Angel and Spike encounter Sherlock and Watson. Yes, really.

Rating: Teen+ Length: 1399 words

Darla/Drusilla

Venus and Mars by Glassdarkly - A young gentleman encounters two mysterious ladies in the National Gallery, London, in 1874. An absolute classic.

Rating: Teen+ Length: 7972 words

In Pursuit of the Appropriate Man by lillianmorgan - Darla and Dru in 1860s Rome. Contains a delicious abundance of politely cutting Victorian speech

Rating: Teen+ Length: 1691 words

Ye Gods And Little Fishes by Beer Good - The first, aborted, trip to China, and why they never got there.

Rating: Mature Length: 868 words

Darla/Will

Lessons from the Lady of the House by joycometh - Darla discovers William's education is lacking. She sets things to rights.

Rating: NC17 Length 1317 words

Drusilla/Will

Tea For Two by Glassdarkly - Spike will go to any length to please Drusilla. All the way to Wonderland.

Rating: Teen+ Length: 1347 words

[honestlyvan]

(Reposted from DW)

So I try not to make these rambles too powered by salt but considering Impactor is very near my favourite character in the franchise and as a result I read a lot of badfic featuring him out of sheer desperation for something, I'm seriously devastated by the way I've never seen it explored just what a harrowing and accurate description of moral injury and reflexive self-loathing he is.

Like, it's wild to me that we have it in the text, actually on page, that Impactor outright thinks he's a monster. We see it on page! It is written with plain words! He's stuck thinking like "can't survive if the other guy doesn't die", "your life is bought with the blood you spill, and you want to keep living so you best learn to like killing" to the point where he doesn't even want to live anymore and yet he can't stop, he's stuck, there's no safety for him to retreat back to because nobody taught him to value himself in any other way except in balance against someone else.

Like we know. Exactly what Impactor considers horrible, what he considers ugly and unseemly and corrupt. And it's all stuff that makes sense. It's all stuff the most of us probably find a little bit horrifying. We know that his perception of the world is so utterly bleak that there is no way but down, the only trajectory he sees for himself is to slip further and further from that surface because this is just his life now, this is what he is now, this may be what he always was, so isolated in his self-loathing that he can barely see the surface of where the horrible things end, and sure as hell doesn't think he can reach it. He's been cut off from his access to the sublime, to the fortifying, to the beautiful and wonderful and safe, this is all he has left, this is just what he is now.

I think the massive overriding misreading is assuming Impactor has any regard for himself. He may have the ability to act confident and move through the world with intellectual assurance over his own skill, and it's easy to take that as a sign that he has some kind of a core, undivided wholeness of personhood that lets him keep acting like he knows what he's doing. But I don't think that's it at all. His sense of self has been so completely fractured and damaged by the horrors he's committed and been isolated with that they've attached themselves to the space where his sense of self would otherwise be. Again, I'm not even extrapolating -- this just is the text of "Escape".

And then there's the negative influence of Guzzle, another person who thinks the way to deal with your trauma is by committing massive violence on it who has no idea this should maybe be something to discuss with people -- like, we see the way his abandon and reveling in having power and returning the violence drags Impactor down, too, because it's familiar, it makes sense, and then Impactor locks him in a box and goes "I can't fucking do this anymore". It's literally the most unsubtle death wish, it's a textbook flight arrest response, he doesn't want to keep doing the thing he's doing but he doesn't know what else there is, he sees no way out other than down.

And IDK I don't want to cast blame, honestly as a recovering abusive asshole myself, the terrible things he does to other people out of a sense of "this is how it has to be, don't be naive, don't be stupid", the loop of self-justification and grasping for value in his identity as an anonymous source of violence and ruiner of lives is a big part of why I love him so much, and his victims are really visible in the text, their mess deserves exploration and their pain deserves narrative validation, if only for completeness' sake

but like goddamn I just feel for this trash mech so much. He was left locked up with only his own bad thoughts for company, forced in a situation where becoming a worse person was the only way to escape further pain to the point where he's just completely cut off from his access to the sublime, to the fortifying, to the beautiful and wonderful and safe. Like where is there to go when the only things you know what to do are all fucked up? What do you do when all you've been "taught" is that living means killing, but you're getting extremely sick of the killing, when you're tired of your whole life being stained in blood and gore and the traces of the grotesquerie that is living with the knowledge that having power over other people is the ultimate act of survival when you never wanted that?

[ariadne-mouse]

19 for the writer asks? c:

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

This was a very interesting question to think about, thank you!

My true start as a writer is probably when I was six years old and had a school assignment to "make a book". I created an illustrated picture book about my favorite dinosaurs, using fat markers and oversized paper and one wobbly sentence per page. I think the protagonists somehow managed to put out an erupting volcano. I loved it so much I drew a sequel, too, and I was terribly proud of both of them. I generally enjoyed creative writing and art projects in school.

But my fanfiction-writing story begins when I was 12 years old and writing terrible self-insert OC genfic for Yu Yu Hakusho. No, none of these badfics has survived the grinding wheel of time and I consider that a blessing, but I am also proud of my wee badfic beginnings, because creation takes courage! I put pen to paper and I enjoyed it! I honestly don't remember how I discovered fanfiction at the time, but once I understood it, it felt like [free real estate.jpg] and I dove in.

A bump in the journey is that a year or two in I became terribly embarrassed about my badfic, deleted it, and put down my creative pen for a solid decade. I can't remember if my skills had improved enough to recognize the flaws and I fell victim to my own perfectionism, or (as I vaguely remember) a classmate somehow printed out a copy and made unflattering remarks, resulting in the same, but I just... stopped. I kept reading fanfic voraciously, and entertained headcanons and story ideas, but rarely wrote them down and never posted them anywhere. I dipped my toe into r/writingprompts for a while, a hodgepodge of poetry and short stories only a couple paragraphs each. For the most part I shifted focus to another passion: art, and happily devoted time to that instead.

I started writing again in earnest a couple years ago in a small rarepair fandom with a welcoming community, where it was very much "write or starve" because there was so little content. The seal on my old fanfic embarrassment had been broken, the old shame released, and I wrote because it was fun and rewarding. One of my favorite things about writing both then and now is the community around it; I have made wonderful, lasting friendships from fandom that I treasure.

Sitting now in my 30s, feeling more comfortable with the concept of writing, I am ultimately still six years old writing about dinosaurs going on adventures because it's fun. I love stories. I like writing for stress relief, catharsis, and exploring/processing the media I enjoy. I like writing to share those ideas with friends who like stories too. I like media analysis and I've found that writing helps me with that too because I've tried making stories myself.

Lately I've been trying slightly new styles and genres and generally pushing myself to do new things just for the hell of it. I don't have any grand ambitions - and am very protective of my hobby remaining chill and fun - but I am enjoying trying to grow for its own sake and the joy of it. The corner of the Critical Role fandom I'm in has such an incredible wealth of content and such a nice community that it's easier for me to maintain writing momentum than it's ever been. A fabulous journey, ongoing!

(weird asks for writers meme)

[badficniverse]

Please don’t end badfic this is the one constant in my life 😭😭😭😭

Buddy, I love the blog as much as you but I am ready to move on!!! We still have 11 months left of badficniverse though so no worries!

[breathinginthissilence]

✨Unconventional Writer’s Ask✨

— How long have you been writing fanfiction?

Okay, so technically I attempted my first fanfiction at age 11 when I decided I was going to rewrite Final Fantasy 7 into a narrative that would work better as a film, but got all of three pages into it. My first real, completed attempt at fanfiction was when I was 14, in 2001, when I wrote a fic where the Backstreet Boys were hunted and murdered, one by one . . . I was angst queen from the getgo. Since then I have been in a number of fandoms and, boy, it's cringe central looking back at some shit I wrote when I was a teenager but also nice as I can see how much my writing has improved.

— Do you have a favorite word? (One that you love. Doesn’t necessarily have to be one you use all the time.)

Please do not make me consider the English language for too long in an attempt to single out specifics.

— Share a favorite run-on sentence that you’ve written.

I've written a lot of run-on sentences in my time, probably too many, really, and nothing really sticks out at this present time, but this one, from a fic I will finish one day, I quite like:

But if he were to speak up, if he were to add more, Loki might foolishly suggest that an eclipse cannot exist without a sun and a moon, and what a shame that would be, to miss out on an event that fascinating, one that joins the two and casts the illusion of equality before they go their separate ways.

— Share a bit of a scene that you’ve written that still gives you FEELS.

A LOT of things happen in Livewire, but this little moment still gets me:

“Bono,” you start, before thinking better of it, whatever it was. There’s a pause, and then you are reaching out, your arms coming up and around my shoulders, pulling me into a hug that’s almost too tight but I think needed by us both.

A day at the studio and a night surrounded by cigarette smoke isn’t enough to take away the scent of you that still lingers underneath it all—soap, aftershave, you, just you, a home away from home in so many ways, but not the one that’s been the thought of the night.

— What is your favorite kind of character interaction to write?

THE YEARRRRRRRRRNING. Where two dumbasses who obviously are stupidly in love with each other but either don't realise the other idiot feels the same way, or knows they should not act on these feelings because ~reasons~ (aka wives or, ahem, being, you know, related) but, by god, they want to. I love that shit, man.

— Do you have a hyper-specific genre?

I would say slow burn, but also, in the past, I've been known for some crackfic.

— Any personal or frequently used tags?

Not especially, although "*insert character here* is a little shit" has come up a number of times.

— Share a joke or funny moment that you’ve written that still makes you laugh.

I have two, and I'm not sorry!

This ending to a Metallica fic I wrote in 2008 where Lars and James roleplay as hooker/customer respectively:

“You owe me a toaster.”

“Fucking buy it yourself, I got no money.” James looks down at Lars, cheeks still streaked with black and eyes both amused and sated and he has to add, “Some cunt just ripped me off.”

But also this part from my 2008 Batman/Joker deliberate badfic:

Joker was dying. This was obvious to Batman, as obvious as their love had been. The Dark Knight was broken. 

"I am Bruce Wayne," Batman said.

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long while, the love that they shared obviously shining through between long blinks. Blinks that stretched out for Joker with each blink, as each blink he took might just be his last blink. They both knew this. Treasured the blinks as Batman's admission hung heavy in the air.

"I knew it," Joker cackled, even though he hadn't. Then he blinked again and it lasted forever.

— Best editing tip?

Step away for a while (at least a day, but I think longer works better) and then come back and tackle it with fresh eyes.

— What drives you to write?

I can't find a gif, but for those who remember the 2003 Prince Charles Scandal video from The Daily Show (you know, the one where Colbert deepthroats a banana) there's a moment where Stephen says 'mainly how gay it is' and that is generally what drives me. The gay. But also a hint of something in the wind, something that is barely a hint of a scene or anything but also is like bitch fucking write or die . . . that works too.

— Where do you draw inspiration?

Canon, song lyrics, my brain being like lol you know what would be rad but also an absolute pain to write and therefore you should totally do it, excerpts from a novel I'm reading, etc etc.

— What is your immediate reaction when you receive a new comment on a fic?

— What is your biggest challenge in writing?

Just . . . just fuckin' writing, man. But also, me, an english lit and creative writing major who has two degrees and written a thesis, just fuckin' forgetting words and also how words go together and stuff.

— 1-2 sentence preview from your current WIP?? (Only if you are willing.)

How convenient for Loki, then, that their family is gone, Thor’s friends are gone, their world is gone. Away from their people, Loki is all Thor has left. He has the attention he’s sought.

It feels like a hollow victory.

— What story or scene are you most proud of?

Probably Livewire. It just all came together nicely, has some scenes and lines that still make me think 'I wrote that', and it was my first time writing Bono POV while also writing first person, something that was never my bag, so double challenge there.

— Please link your profile so we can admire your works!

Yo

Thank you @playinggalaga for the ask, and I'm not sorry y'all that it turned out this long. Ima tag @bonos-grindcore-sideproject and @amazinglyunlikely and @likeamadonnau2 tho no pressure, and also anyone else who wants to do!

[myevilmouse]

Hiii, if you're still doing it maybe ☀️ and 🤔 for the ask game?

Hi!!!! Thank you so much for the asks! I love asks and December was an absolutely insane month for me so I neglected this gift of an ask for too long, many apologies!

☀️ Has anyone ever left you a comment that made your day? What did it say?

This happens ALL THE TIME. Really any comment makes my day--some even make my week or month! Comments are love, that is the truth, and whether they are emojis, keysmashes, or long detailed explanations and feedback on the reader's thoughts, I really adore them all. I admit I get huge serotonin rushes when people pull out specific things they like and let me know, in particular, or a double comment, saying they are rereading an old fic. What a lovely compliment ❤ I also love hearing about real life moments like "I shrieked out loud when X happened" or "everyone on the train thinks i'm insane for laughing while reading this". It's a great reminder that our readers are REAL and out there enjoying something we put into the internet ether...

I am sure not all fanfic writers are like this, but for me, any comment is an excuse to talk about my story! So of course I want to reply and engage and tell you how much I love what you said, or what I was thinking when I wrote that tidbit you extracted, or anything like that! It's a chance to revisit the fic, the process, and also wonderful to know that someone enjoyed reading so much they took a moment to leave that ❤ or those sentences about how they liked it.

I admit one comment came to mind when I read this ask from you, and I don't want to ID the reader in case they aren't comfortable with that, but on one of my fics, which was really a niche sort of story, I got a comment that said:

and so of course that just lit up my life. But my point is, they all do! Comments are gifts and love and I adore every single one of them I've ever gotten! Readers have the power to bring so much joy with just a note. Thank you so much to any reader who ever left me a comment or kudo, you give life 😘

🤔 What’s one genre you’ve never written that you’d like to try?

This is a really interesting question!  I would absolutely love to write a film noir-esque hard-boiled dark and femme fatale kinda story but I have zero idea how I would pull it off without it being too much a parody.  Like a REAL film noir vibe.  I think Luke/Mara would be perfect for that setup but I don’t have confidence at the moment to tackle it without edging into satire or badfic territory... mmmm.  Maybe even throw an evil alien Imperial in the mix and we’d get:

hahah maybe someday! 

Thank you so much for the asks @loth-lisa and for your patience before I answered!  I love getting asks from you!  💙😘🥂

[hollygolightlyclub]

help i'm looking for a fic!!!!! it's a frank/gerard not!fic where frank and mikey become friends online, and franks family moves around a lot, and one day they move to the same town as mikey and they end up going to high school together! and then franks family is going to move again and frank gets all depressed but then ends up being like "just let me live at the Way house for my senior year of high school" and his parents say yes and frank at one point gets a boyfriend but then they break up and he has no one to go to prom with and gerard is like "i'll dress in drag and be ur prom date"

thats like most of what i remember of it? i need to find this fic though, i remember i really loved it and i wanna reread it dfjhldg

I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. The moment I read this I was like ☝ this is a bexless fic.............. that somehow has escaped this blog, even though I remember enjoying it, tf? I think I'm due for a reread myself 🤔

This Never Happened by Bexless [28k]

Explicit | Frank/Gerard, Frank/OMC

This is not a story. My thoughts on what would happen if Frank had to move in with the Ways for his senior year of high school do not constitute a story. It's ~in costume~ as a story. A twenty-eight and a half thousand word costume, because apparently even my badfic wolfshirt bullshit things are bafflingly long-winded.

Haven't read this in sooo many years, so I don't trust myself to say much about it atm, other than it's all done in bexless's hilarious halfbaked fashion and has a good bit of pining.

[illwynd]

I just want to say I love reading your Loki meta so much. There was something about the Loki show that bothered me so much that I couldn't put into words but I think I know what it is now. It just seems like a tumblr fanfic? Not that fanfics on tumblr can't be great!

Aww, thank you!! :D I am glad to hear anyone gets anything out of my ramblings!!

And hmm I’ve been thinking about this and part of me wants to rebel at that because there are definitely ways in which is it not like fanfic (how much it utterly fails to care about the characters, how much it wants to show off some bizarre, inexplicable “new direction” rather than exploring the character and situations already set up in canon, and so on) but I think I can see what you mean. It does harp on about two or three surface-level traits of the characters as is pretty standard for badfic, and it does kinda have the feeling of being something that a relatively new and inexperienced writer might bang out on a whim at 1 a.m. without thinking too much about it and might delete (or at least go back and revise) in the morning when they discover all the plotholes and weird phrasing and inconsistent characterization and wild leaps of narrative logic (and if they don’t, hey, it’s a hobby, who cares). In this case, though, all those problems were allowed to stand throughout the lengthy creation process of an entire TV show. Which, one imagines, ought to maybe have some slightly higher standard for having a compelling narrative.

So idk. Is it a fanfic? Ehh, most fanfics are written by people who love the characters and are at least trying to write a satisfying narrative for them. Is it a badfic..........

.....

I mean, kinda?

[anthonycrowleymoved]

fr the wincesties have always fascinated me like unironically. I really don't judge when it comes to ships and fiction like what do I care if you like tentacles, mpreg or wincest for that matter. there really are ways to incorporate even an insanely non-canon and frankly, gross, thinks into the world if the writer is skilled enough. I am absolutely not an mpreg fan like FUCK NO but I did read a fic where the author made it...good. ya feel? so I can imagine that you can make incest work too.

but it's never just "oh I like this ship and have fun with it" for these people. NEVER. they're literally always so aggressive and insane in a bad way like. they have so much negativity around them it's freaking me out.

most of shippers just focus on their ship and most of stans just focus on stanning their character/actor or whatever but wincesties put 80% their energy into hating something or someone. I've genuinely never went to a Twitter or a blog of one without immediately being bombarded with so much hate for everything that isn't their precious fantasy.

i always wonder what are these people like irl.

ooooookay before you start on this i SWEAR i have a point just stick with me here it’s a roundabout way of getting to my point but i promise

like. okay. i am going to admit something here. like. okay! i am pretty open about like, purposely reading fanfic that is bad. that is a hobby of mine. i genuinely just. like bad fanfic. you can ask me about it if you want more of the details but i just. okay i’m gonna wax poetic about badfic AGAIN for probably like. the fiftieth time but. okay. i unironically loooove fanfic in any form even if it’s unabashedly bad because it’s. i often compare it to the room. the film the room by tommy wiseau? because if you know about that film mr wiseau poured his heart and soul and money but that’s not relevant here into it and the result is absolutely insane but it’s like. there’s something endearing about it right? like he loved that terrible terrible movie and part of you can’t help but respect that right?? that movie isn’t a blatant cash grab, it’s a very very weird passion project, and people around the world recognize that, i think even subconsciously. and i think there’s like. a level of that that comes out in even the worst fanfics.

but like. okay. not gonna lie. i LIKE badfics. i PURPOSELY LOOK UP fics with bad pairings. and there’s like. okay. i am a connoisseur of this bad bad fanfic content at this point. there’s like. a variety. type one: people who like. need better writing skills. type two: people with good skills but bonkers premises/ships. like. those are the two types.

wincesties are like. type two who have gone BONKERS and think that their crackship/concept should go canon. and. okay. because of my hobby. i am going to admit. i HAVE read some shorter w*ncest fics (which i wouldn’t recommend for like. six reasons. starting with moral and going onto like. other things wrong with it) BUT. B U T. unlike other bad bad fanfic ships. the people who write w*ncest BELIEVE IT SHOULD GO CANON!!!! WHAT!!!! they say this on their blogs AND their weirdass fic!!!!! i mean this seriously because i have LOOKED i am interested in this shit intellectually WHAT are you people on!!!! it’s one thing to be like. writing shit like. oh this is fun content :) like i would still think you were a fucking weirdo for writing fucking incest but the people who unironically think that fucking wincest would be a ship worth rooting for canonically please. i would like you to ideally go to a therapist but at least get psychoanalyzed by someone you know. anyway. genuinely. how did we get here.

[wendelah]

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

There are 74.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

236,836

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

None of my fics have very many kudos. The "top five"? The first three are all TXF-RPF, followed by a holiday-themed MSR. Bringing up the rear, a Yuletide story in a book fandom that was recently turned into a streaming series on Netflix, maybe? I can't even say. I don't watch much TV anymore. We don't stream. Our internet is too slow to load Tumblr half the time, which is one of the reasons I'm not here anymore. (I need to figure out how to turn off infinite scrolling again.)

4. Do you respond to comments; why or why not?

Sure, when I see them. I like to be friendly.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the most angsty ending?

An X-Files fic about the childhood of Jeffrey Spender. It's objectively my best story and the only one I considered rewriting for publication. Naturally, no one has read it.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

"Perfect Storm" has a perfect and happy ending.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest most ridiculous one you’ve ever written?

Yes. As it turns out, I have written quite a few.

"The Real Housewives of Hades" is pretty cracked, I guess. It's also quite funny. Go read it. Leave kudos.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really. I did have a reader express dislike for a favorite character, which was thoughtless and rude, but that's hardly the same thing.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Badfic? Back in the day, I wrote a little for a porn battle but otherwise, no.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Maybe? I honestly can't recall.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did co-write a story once. Two betas gave us negative feedback and my co-writer decided that was the end of that. No regrets, though. It was the most fun I've ever had writing, and we're still good friends.

13. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

I'm not really a shipper in the usual sense of the term but Mulder and Scully, of course (who else?).

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I had a longish TXF-RPF that never got finished. What I had amounted to a bunch of disconnected scenes that needed a coherent main plot, and also a subplot that didn't involve writing a modern day version of A Midsummer's Night Dream set on a movie shoot. Crazy, right? That's not getting finished because I don't write anymore. Plus, the idea that there could ever be a third X-Files movie, given the travesty of seasons 10 and 11? I like a good AU as much as anyone who reads and writes RPF, but that's absurd.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Plot. Humor. Punctuation.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sex and feelings. I don't know why but that's how it is.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I...don't?

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The X-Files

19. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

"Five Times David Duchovny Didn't Make Love to Gillian Anderson and One Time He Did." There is nothing I would change about this fic. It practically wrote itself. I mean, it was almost like I was channeling some other, better writer, one who didn't have a problem writing about sex and feelings.

Thank you, @hoidn, for the opportunity to write about my writing. It was kind of fun. I'm not tagging anyone because I don't know who's still here, but feel free to do so.