#Totally didn't forget to tag the ship what are you talking about

[dragonofsapphire]

My response to seeing dumb drama on Twitter is making dumb memes and throwing them here

[nearsbday]

hello - this event is a wonderful idea, everything is so neatly organized, and i love the tumblr theme too! i would like to ask - am i mistaken in thinking an event like this pretty much consists of doing all this (wonderful) organization of the blog, the rules, the prompts - just leaving it all there for people to see, and then reblogging everyone's fanworks? (and of course, doing a great job at answering everyone's questions!) i've always been intimidated by how much work fandom events look to be, but it's occurred to me recently that a prompt-based, free-to-opt-in event like this doesn't involve all the job of putting out surveys and collecting their results, organizing teams of people, following up with unfulfilled submissions, etc. so i'm kind of hopeful i might be able to organize a similar event one day. you guys are doing it amazingly, it's no small job, but i was genuinely wondering because it also feels pretty achievable :) but of course that might be me being a bit naive. is there any other work behind the scenes? i'm honestly just curious to know how much work it takes either way! i've seen other people do a surprising amount of work for events like this - getting people to make countdown art, tons of surveys, interest checks, etc. did you guys also do something like that? do you think it is or is not strictly necessary for a prompt-based event? thank you so much in advance for replying, good luck with the event, and i hope it's a blast! (and i'm so sorry for being too long winded! i always get caught up in trying to clarify!)

HI! thank you for the question, and no worries about long-windedness. i'll do my best to answer your question. we did not do any surveys, because we had ideas for prompts already and wanted to use those! we also didn't really worry too much about doing a big interest check. i don't have a good explanation for that other than "personally knew enough people who were nominally interested to feel pretty good about it" lmao. if the event were more niche -- for example, if this were an event for a small ship, or a less popular character -- i think it would have been prudent / useful to do an interest check and to poll people for when they're available, but since Near is fairly popular (though arguably under-appreciated. in my totally non-biased opinion.) and his birthday is on a set date, interest wasn't too much of a concern, and the dates weren't too hard to land on, either.

so far, the graphics have been the largest amount of work, as well as thinking of how to organize and run things-- stuff like determining when to release prompts, how often / how to do promotion for the event, when to post reminders / countdowns, rules, submission guidelines, determining a tagging system for submissions once the event starts (we will be tagging with prompt, day, fan work format {fic vs art vs playlist etc}, whether or not it's sfw, username of the person submitting, and honestly probs at least one more thing i'm just forgetting rn)... so on and so forth. i have a lot of fun making graphics for fanfics and such, so i took charge of creating those, and what we have so far pretty easily took around... 14-16 hours? this is including things that aren't posted yet, like the graphics we have for each day of the event. i still have a few more graphics to make as well for things like the countdown :-)

it's hard for me to say how much work the rest will be, since it hasn't happened yet-- and since i imagine it'll depend on how much participation we get!! -- but, if you'd like to talk more about the set-up for an event like this, or if you'd like to hear what i think after the event is finished / listen to whatever lessons we end up learning from running our first event, feel free to reach out to me at @blondiest or @neallo <3 [i won't speak definitively for my co-runner, but i imagine she'd be happy to weigh in as well!]

[roipecheur]

20 questions for writers

Thanks to @chejuu and @wingdingery for the tag!

1. how many works do you have on AO3? - 32

2. what's your total AO3 word count? - 800,588

3. what fandoms do you write for? - Marvel street level heroes, usually centering around fratt (Daredevil/Punisher) and their various friends / canonical love interests / enemies. DC bats & birds aka Batman and co., the Titans, and Slade Wilson + family, usually centering around sladick. I've also written a few fics for Peacemaker (DC show).

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos? - hold on to let go, gift wrapping, blind date, for the right price, double vision (about an even split between sladick and fratt)

5. do you respond to comments? - yes, though I sometimes read them, go 🥰 and forget to reply for weeks (sorry, if I've done this to you know that I did read your comment and I love you)

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? - the better half probably had the most bittersweet ending; I don't think I've written any that were straight up sad

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? - most of my fics have happy endings, but I think twenty questions and for the right price are a toss-up for the happiest endings that also predict a happy future

8. do you get hate on fics? - I've gotten a few rude comments because people missed warning tags, but no outright flaming

9. do you write smut? If so, what kind? - yes, not sure how to answer 'what kind'

10. do you write crossovers? - love bites is a fratt crossover with The Magnus Archives

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? - not that I know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? - I've had 5 translated to Chinese

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? - no, not that I never would, but it would definitely have to be the right person and the right fic, as writing tends to be very personal and individual for me

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? - in some ways, wincest will always be my forever girl

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will? - it's called "a room with a view" and it's an obikin Star Wars fic that starts right after Obi-Wan's death in ANH with a very fucked up premise. (come talk to me about it and maybe I will discover the motivation to add to it again 😭)

16. What are your writing strengths? - I like to think I'm funny. Also I've been told I nail character voices.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? - taking 5ever to finish things, and Idk, maybe I need to kill my darlings more because I've written a few fics that I felt should NOT be that goddamn long but I also didn't know to cut them down

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? - I prefer to use the « » symbols and note that it's in another language in the text of the fic (sort of following comic book conventions). If I do use another language, I tend to use it sparingly and note what was said in English.

19. First fandom you wrote for? - Teen Titans 2003. I handwrote it on college rule paper and gave it to my friend to read in middle school. From what I remember, it was as bad as you'd expect lmao. The first fic I ever posted online was for Death Note, I'm pretty sure.

20. Favourite fic you've written? - sometimes I still think the future: a history is the best thing I ever wrote.

-

Tagging:

@lazaruspiss, @mattdillon, @jellyfitzjelly, @zeroducks-2 and anyone else who wants to do it!

[read-and-write-]

10 Questions for fic writers

I love when this game makes rounds again and this time i didn't forget about it, thanks @14carrotghoul for tagging me<3

How many works do you have on AO3? 23, which is somehow less than I thought

What's your total AO3 word count? 177,144

What fandoms do you write for? right now, actively, red white and royal blue

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I try, but I get overwhelmed very easily trying to come up with answers to all of them so it's either a slow process or it never happens as evidenced by my 478 unreplied comments BUT i read them all and I value the so SO SO much

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

Have you ever co-written a fic before? YES AND I LOVED IT now @inexplicablymine and @happiness-of-the-pursuit are bonded for life after writing a 111k word fic

What's your all-time favourite ship? River Song/The Doctor probably, I think I always come back to it because every new doctor is ✨ a whole new world ✨

What are your writing strengths? I think I am good at nailing character voices down, I feel like a few times I've been told "this looks perfectly like something X would say" in my writing and it's the highest compliment ever. I think I also am good at feelings and at transmiting them through words

What are your writing weaknesses? Actions and descriptions, I have to make a very conscious effort to add both, I even act out dialogue scenes to be able to get the characters to just do something while they talk

First fandom you wrote for? ✨Violetta✨ what a wonderful time that was, also that was the first one I posted for at the tender age of 12 in 2013

and that's it! I have been sick this week so i am not sure who has done this but i'm tagging @littlemisskittentoes @happiness-of-the-pursuit @inexplicablymine @affectionatelyrs @gayrootvegetable @gay-flyboys @wordsofhoneydew @heysweetheart-writes @cactusdragon517 @suseagull04

[slow-burn-sally]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @totallysilvergirl for tagging me <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

171

2. What’s your total A03 word count?

2,559,305

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I live for the days when anyone asks me this question, because listing things I love is just so great. I don't actively write for all of these any longer, but I would go back to all of them if anyone threw me like, half a prompt.

BBC Sherlock

Good Omens

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

The Terror

Our Flag Means Death

What We Do In The Shadows

The Adventures of Tintin

The Hobbit

BBC and CBS Ghosts

Pacific Rim

Father Ted

Lord of The Rings

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Death In Paradise

Dalgliesh

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Crowley's Game - Good Omens (Ineffable Husbands)

2. Return To Sender - Good Omens (Ineffable Husbands)

3. Silk All Around You - Our Flag Means Death (Ed/Stede)

4. Oh Good Lord - Good Omens (Ineffable Husbands)

5. Out Of Suffering Into Love - Good Omens (ineffable Husbands)

hmm. Guess GO fandom is where I've cashed in the biggest, kudos-wise *Raises a glass to Good Omens Fandom*

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to respond to as many as I can, and I want to respond to all of them, but ADHD and work and life keep me from doing it right away, and then ADHD and being off work and life make me forget. I will sometimes loop back around to read a new comment, then see that I never replied to another, far older comment, then go about replying to several, two years after they were left. I hope people don't mind. I promise everyone who's ever left me a positive comment, that I eat them all up like chocolate bonbons and count myself blessed for each and every one.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably that Childercelles fic where Henry dies in the end. I think maybe 10 people read it. If you're in JSAMN fandom, and you ship Childercelles, and you want a link, PM me, but I can't remember the name of the fic for the life of me. It was pretty angsty. Outside of that, I hate angsty endings. Everyone eats ice cream and cuddles at the end of my fics.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Gonna echo the wonderful @totallysilvergirl and say that I don't do unhappy endings. That Childercelles fic was the only one I think I ever wrote with an unhappy ending, and even that was more of a melancholy ending. Everything else is Häagen-Dazs and rainbows.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten a few harsh criticisms, and a few snarky comments, but never actual hate.

9. Do you write smut?

I sure do! I've written a whole lot of smut, and I really love it. Regardless, it can be challenging sometimes. I have to be in the right place, and have the right focus to write smut, and lately, it's been feeling more labor intensive. I've been taking a step back from the explicit stuff lately, and playing around in M rather than E, and less sexual waters for a change. Sometimes a gal needs a break. I'll always happily write it for others, but don't feel inspired to write it for myself right now.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I really see my Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell/BBC Sherlock crossover as my first and only crossover. It involves main characters from both fandoms meeting one another, and John and Sherlock live in a world where England's history is the same as the history in JS&MN. It's been a very fun experience, but I'm really writing it for @keirgreeneyes 's birthday, because we share a lot of stuff between those two fandoms, not because I love crossovers. I don't feel drawn to them at all usually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope. Someone came to me a couple of years ago, saying they were being bullied over accusations that they were plagiarizing my good omens fic. They even showed me the fic people talked about, and after scanning it for a bit, I didn't see anything that looked like plagiarism. I posted on tumblr saying I'd rather people plagiarize me than cause one moment of suffering due to bullying, and left it at that. I was really just jazzed to have people *want* to plagiarize me, honestly. It was flattering.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! In Korean I think.

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

No, and I'm not sure I could. I also don't like cooking with other people or showering with other people. I just like having the reins on writing and cooking and showering fronts I guess.

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

Oh god please don't make me choose. My children, my precious children. After careful consideration though, I'm gonna have to go with Crozier/Jopson - Jopzier from The Terror. I mean. Come on. It's me.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I wrote many chapters of a really fun, but really complex and pain in the ass multi-chapter mystery fic for the rarest of rare pairs, Jack Mooney/Florence Cassell from Death In Paradise. So yeah, I would love to finish it, but I don't have the spoons, and it will have a readership of roughly four people.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I write good dialogue. I write good smut. I can make up stories at the drop of a hat, and then put them down very quickly, in large amounts of words. I'm a long distance runner when it comes to fic. I like my sense of humor in fics, and I'm always so happy when someone leaves me a comment telling me they laughed really hard at something I wrote. Ditto incoherent babbling about my fics making them horny. Those comments are so good.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Eh, my weakness is I'm just not an amazing writer? I do it because I love it, and it brings me so much joy, and people reading my fics brings me so much joy, and that's pretty much it. Also, I use a lot of run on sentences, and I have like six tropey things my characters always do, and I can't break out of it.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I didn't understand this one. I would love to write dialogues in other languages if I spoke them fluently. Outside of speaking a bunch of Spanish, I'm not fluent in anything but English.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

eeeeeeeeee @keirgreeneyes @totallysilvergirl my first ever fanfiction was BBC Johnlock! I tried writing a fic, probably back in 2013 or something, and gave up after a handful of paragraphs. I just lacked the confidence. Then, it wasn't until 2019 when I went nuts for Good Omens and wrote a bunch of fic that I wanted to go back and write that one, first, Johnlock fic. And I did it! It's Homecoming. BBC Sherlock is my first fanfiction fandom, and my introduction to fanfiction.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh wow. That's a tough one. I really loved my one Father Ted fic, A Sweet, Hot, Sticky Romp, because I loved emulating the comedy style of the show and thought I did a good job.

I loved Out Of Time, my Jopzier time travel wackadoo fic for The Terror.

I guess I'll stop at two. I've written 171. I should get at least two favorites.

I tag @fol-de-lol @ilthit @yeswevegotavideo @keirgreeneyes @holycatsandrabbits

[senditcolton]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

saw @hauntedppgpaints do this and i really liked it and wanted to do it so here i am! adjusted a few of the questions to general fic writing instead of specific to AO3.

How many works do you have published? ≈ 44 [I just looked at my folder of word documents but that doesn't include some chaptered WIPs and my blurbs]

What's your total fic word count? ≈ 322,792 words

What fandoms do you write for? Right now, it's just hockey RPF. I have read plenty of fics in other fandoms though.

Top 5 fics by notes "It's Just a Question" (Jack Hughes / 518 notes) "Open Invitation" part 1 (Anthony Beauvillier & Mat Barzal / 496 notes) "peace" (Matthew Tkachuk / 414 notes) "Monsters" (Pierre-Luc Dubios / 395 notes) "just what i want to hear..." (Tyler Seguin / 358 notes)

Do you respond to comments? I don't but I really should. But trust me, all of them mean the world to me. I have a word document of every comment I've gotten on a fic.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending? It's probably "Taste of the Truth", chapter 3 in the "we're a bad idea" series (Matt Martin)

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending? I'm going to go with "My Love, My Life" (Colton Parayko)

Do you get hate on fics? Not yet, and hopefully never.

Do you write smut? Yeah. I would say at least half of my published fics are smut.

Craziest crossover? Haven't done any crossovers but I have a few wild alternate universe fics planned.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but that would be so cool! [with proper credit of course]

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not yet, but me and @comphy-and-cozy have talked about it

All-time favorite ship? I can't choose one overall, but in the world of hockeyblr... Kreidbanejad.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Right now... all of them. But, realistically it's one of my AU/OC fics.

What are your writing strengths? I think my figurative language is really strong.

What are your writing weaknesses? Going overboard with world-building. Sometimes I forget that I actually need to write the fic, not just daydream about it.

Thought on dialogue in another language? I love it but am hesitant to use it because I don't speak any other languages which means I mainly rely on Google Translate which isn't the greatest.

First fandom you wrote in? This one actually! Like I said before, I've read for a lot of different fandoms but didn't write until now.

Favorite fic you've ever written? It has to be one of the fic exchange fics I've written. I feel like I write my best works for other people [which is a good thing, I suppose] "Always Be Venice to Me" (Mat Barzal) "Breakable Heaven" (Adam Lowry) "I'm Still Glad I Met You" (Nico Hischier) "The Movie of Us" (Josh Anderson) "won't you stay 'till the a.m?" (Mitch Marner) "Youthfully Felt" (Sidney Crosby)

tagging some of my favorite writers: @comphy-and-cozy @laurenairay @tkachvkmatthew @wyattjohnston & any other writer that wants to do this! no pressure, obviously.

[galadrieljones]

Author Interview

Thanks for the tag, @littlelindentree ^_^ Happy New Year!

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

20

2. what's your total AO3 word count?

981,132

3. what fandoms do you write for?

I have written for Dragon Age: Inquisition, Red Dead Redemption 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Last of Us, and The Walking Dead

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

The Lily Farm (Arthur Morgan x Mary Beth Gaskill, RDR2)

That he may hold me by the hand (Arthur Morgan x Albert Mason, RDR2)

The Dead Season (Solavellan, DAI)

Magnolia (Bethyl, TWD)

Yours, Sadie Adler. (Sadithur, RDR2)

5. do you respond to comments?

Yes, as often as I can. Sometimes, I forget on older fics. I'm sorry about that. If someone is rude to me in the comments though, I will respond rudely!

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Teen Wolf. It's a story collection so the ending isn't really "true," but it's the end of Solas and Ghilan'nain's love story, in my mind. It's sad and bittersweet, as in the story, they are talking about building a house on the back acreage of Solas's mother's property, but I envision the very next day as being the day that Andruil invades the Weathers, kidnapping both Ghilan'nain and Solas's mother Leanathy, and beginning the Great War. In the ensuing days, Andruil's men leave Solas for dead, and when he wakes up, he goes to Mythal and begs her to free his mother in exchange for his loyalty. She accepts, rescuing and protecting Leanathy in her Blue Palace, and Solas becomes her Bodyguard. Eventually, he is elevated to her General, then he becomes her lover. During the war, after Ghilan'nain's betrayal, the Evanuris murder Mythal, and Solas, out of vengeance and grief, builds the veil and imprisons them all, including Mythal's soul, which would, over time, resurrect into her body, using special magic taught to her by Solas's mother many thousands of years before.

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Well, most of my long fics are unfinished. I'm sorry about that. I think that The Dead Season has a happy ending. So does Yours, Sadie Adler., thought it is bittersweet.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Not tons at all. I have gotten a few rude commenters over the years, mainly people being weirdly critical of my writing style in ways that are, frankly, moronic, and also some people who just want me to write more smut. But I don't write much smut anymore, and I don't think fics need smut to be worthy or interesting. If you only want a smut fic, you probably won't like my writing. Remember that tags exist so that you can see what you're getting into before you crack the first chapter!!!!

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Lol. Speaking of. I used to write much more. It was never the overly explicit kind and I didn't have any specific kinks I liked to explore, but I wrote a lot of it for DAI and RDR2. I still write sex scenes for sure, it's just that they tend to be character driven.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

I have never written a real crossover; however, I do have some crossover characters in The Lily Farm. In the later chapters, I have two main characters who are taken from other texts: Woodrow Call from Lonesome Dove and LaBoeuf from True Grit. Both are Texas Rangers, and in my fic, they owe Dutch a few rather large favors. They help Arthur and Mary Beth on the river boat job, which goes terribly wrong. They also help break John out of federal prison. They are two of my favorite characters in the fic.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. I've had plenty of art stolen over the years and I don't even keep track anymore. Mainly it just gets reposted without credit on like, Pinterest. Oh well!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of! But I am amenable.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

I don't think so!

14. what's your all-time favourite ship?

I have several though Bethyl and Solavellan are probably tied for first.

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The Lily Farm. In truth there's not a ton left to write. But it's been 84 years like I don't even remember the geography of the game. I would have to replay RDR2, at least through chapter 4. I also wish I could finish Zero, my Niloy fic for HZD. I still think about them, and I still occasionally get really really nice comments on that fic. I honestly wish I could finish all my old fics. Like That he may hold, which also has maybe one closing chapter left to write. I wish I could finish As You Were, too, my TLOU fic, just so that I can save Joel's life, and as a big fuck you to Neil Druckmann.

16. what are your writing strengths?

I'm not sure. Pacing has probably always been my greatest strength.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Overwriting, getting bored. My issue is often that I start a fic with modest goals but then those goals get bigger and bigger as I go, and I can't help myself. Then, I eventually get bored and I don't finish. I view fanfic as a way for authors to express themselves and their hyperfixations in the moment. I think that the quality of being "unfinished" is, in an of itself, conventional to fanfiction; however, I still view my general lack of focus as a weakness.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Don't translate it. Just put it there. If your reader cares enough and doesn't know the translation, they'll look it up. If they don't care enough to do this, then they're not your target audience. The internet makes this sort of thing very easy.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Technically it's the boyband fandom (*NSync and Backstreet Boys, mainly) in like 1998, but in actuality, it's Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2016.

20. favourite fic you've written?

Probably Yours, Sadie Adler. It feels the most complete, and I still don't know how I managed to write that fic so quickly, when I was like three weeks postpartum with my second baby, and with very little revision. It just flowed out of me, like it was already written in my mind, and all I had to do was type it out. I have received some really lovely comments on it over the years. It seems to affect people deeply, which makes me very happy, because it came from a very raw place in my heart.

I will tag @thevikingwoman @bearlytolerant @roguelioness @gneebee @shallow-gravy @a-shakespearean-in-paris @pipergirl17 @sasusc and @im-immortal <3

[lmtyl]

Story Time Double Feature:

The Divorce of My Least Favorite Aunt

When I was a baby, my dad's brother (let's call him Uncle F) eloped with who we'll call Aunt L.  They adopted two kids, not at the same time; I've referred to them as my Little Cousins here in the past.

Aunt L and Uncle F ended up being holier-than-thou parents, always lecturing the Sibling and me about the evils of watching TV and eating junk food, ignoring that they'd been letting their son play Call of Duty since he was 6.  An Xbox update accidentally removed the parental controls and my cousin spent about $300 on skins and loot boxes before his parents noticed.  Boy is ten years younger than me, and he's totalled twice as many cars as I've owned.

I struggled with anxiety and depression and Aunt L had a way of giving me "pep talks" that, in hindsight, were awful, along the lines of, "you need to stop taking medications and control your brain yourself."  Ugh.

Anyway, Aunt L had been studying Naturopathy, and finally got her doctorate, at which point she declared to Uncle F that they were divorcing and she was getting back together with her college boyfriend from waaaay back in undergrad.  Like, bitch didn't even get established with an office, just got her diploma and peaced out.

For like two or three months.

But cost of living in their metro area is fucking ridiculous, and she came back begging to forget the whole thing and keep being married.  Uh, no.  That's not how that works.

Anyway, she moved to live in a shipping container house in Hawai'i and set up shop as a Naturopathic Oncologist (read: sell snake oil to cancer patients).  After a year or two, when the kids were mid-teens, they all sat down to discuss custody.  Aunt L proposed that she get 100% custody of the daughter and Uncle F get 100% custody of their son, Parent Trap style; she was caught completely off-guard when the kids clung to each other and declared "Hell no!"

Last I heard about her, Aunt L's house unfortunately narrowly avoided the wildfire that ravaged the island of Maui.

Vanilla Extract

My dad's been travelling to Madagascar for years; he mostly lives there now.  It started with him tagging along with a friend's film crew, making indie documentaries on traditional medicinal plants.

On one of those first trips, he brought back a whole freaking pound of vanilla beans in one big vacuum-sealed bundle.  Even through multiple layers of plastic, these things are FRAGRANT.

So, I'm a teenager at the time, so please excuse what I did: I went and got the vanilla off the shelf and, holding the bag up against my face, inhaled deeply.

It.  Burned.

So bad.

And I couldn't smell a damn thing for the next two days.

A large portion of that vanilla ended up soaking in a bottle of Everclear in the kitchen cabinet for years; home-made vanilla extract.  My "secret ingredient" whenever I made cookies.

That's it.  That's the vanilla story.

[longeyelashedtragedy]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

i was faux-tagged by @prosopopeya ! it was fun reading your answers!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

147...damn

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

434,625

3. What fandoms do you write for?

right now i only write "Men's Football RPF," but occasionally i have the desire to write in my previous fandom, and then never do.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

these are all a song of ice and fire/game of thrones fics from way back in the day

drabbles of ice and fire (does what it says on the tin)

captivated (arya/jaqen AU)

ends and beginnings (arya/jaqen university AU)

egg baby (arya/jaqen, au)

arya saves the day (arya/jaqen, the same university AU)

...as you might have guessed, i was THEE arya/jaqen BNF back then, lol. (if you have familiarity with the characters please note these are all AUs because arya is aged up in order to ship her)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i try, i really do! comments just get my executive function so snarled up and i wind up forgetting.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

that's most of them. how am i meant to choose? it's hard for me to get through the end of "i tore off the golden branch" without crying even to this day. "like a song on repeat, nothing has to end" has some nice sad transfer window angst, and as i've said, the ending to "visited upon the sons" really slaps. is it cheating to say mare liberum?--that ending only exists on my notes app, and it's more "tragic" than angsty i guess.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

oh, hmmm. i wanna say... "5.VII." poor dejan, always fearing he'll somehow be alone and unwanted, not good enough, and in that moment at the end of the fic those worries leave him.

“So...that means...these things...These things we do together...” Dejan waits impatiently.  No, he’ll be honest with himself.  He’s waiting nervously.  “We’re just going to have to keep doing them forever, right, brate?”  Dejan lets go of the breath he’s been holding and as he does, he feels those wings again, stretching out from his shoulder blades and shaking themselves out and giving him an incredible lightness. He could float away right now with Šime in his arms. They could float away together.   “Yes. I guess we will.”

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not really, i think they're so poorly written or strange that they just don't get much notice. i did see some "piquira" people back in the day talk about how my fic "soy loca con mi tigre," where shakira pegs piqué (RIP) with sergio watching them on video chat, was "weird." god, it must be painful to be that boring

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

unfortunately yes. i think it's usually pretty straightforward, but maybe not blunt enough to be grimy-hot. i don't like anything flowery. i wish i could write some m/f from time to time, but i have too many gender issues to feel comfortable writing about an AFAB body in a sexual sense most of the time. i am trying to channel this discomfort into writing a fic where jamie jamie jamie takes franko out clubbing to drown his sorrows and they pick up some Girls it is what it is!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

i used to with my ex, we had an amazing AU where we crossed over a million different punk/metal/alternative musicians with some other rpf type people. oh, and not to forget--my first ever footyfics were crossovers, lol.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

i sure have! it was shameless as fuck. however, justice was served because my version got more kudos and comments, so i didn't even bother to start shit. as they say, she thought she ate!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, into russian, chinese, and persian. i have enough fics translated into russian on ficbook to have my own Author Page on there--a point of pride, because i love ficbook :)

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

yes, many with said ex! i would love to do a collab again--anyone? hit me up

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

idk? rakidrić, šejan, movren, xhakarteta RIP, JAVEY from AFI, cersei/jaime, aged up!arya/jaqen. am i missing anything?

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

maybe my really long 'ivan rakitić coming of age' fic, where the running plot is "what is he doing to keep himself at barça even tho he's out of favor?" as you can see, it would be very outdated, plus it was never intended for a wide audience

16. What are your writing strengths?

not sure :/ characters' emotions, good use of repetition and parallelism (i like to think !) and good use of rhythm. i also think i write a good ending. my bff said "the way you describe love and loss is unlike anyone else" which i thought was nice!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

plot, pacing. good porn, being unfiltered (like--my writing feels too repressed lol)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

it has to make sense so it doesn't feel like tokenization or fetishization and can't be cheesy. the only time i think i was going to include actual multiple lines of dialogue in anther language (spanish), i then changed it so the fic didn't have it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

the first like, true established fandom i wrote for was a song of ice and fire/game of thrones. before that i wrote a lot of bandfic, but mostly for bands and artists who didn't really have any fic or canons. like, 98% of it was private for just me and my ex, but a few of the pieces still exist online here and there.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i cannot pick favorites. there's so many reasons why something would be a favorite. and i have 147 fics on ao3! plus many things that aren't. plus my unpublished bandfic was some of my best writing. i don't know!

i almost wonder if it's "his return: a story of ghosts" which...i initially wrote as a fic but then changed it up. it was a "magical realism" au based on my undergrad senior thesis, lol. (the most common remark about it in my advanced creative writing seminar was "uh, it sounds like you know what you're talking about.") it's so imperfect, but writing it was SO much fun, and i had a whole soundtrack i listened to as i wrote, and then a few years ago i did a massive edit of it which was even more fun and it's still very imperfect and can't figure out why. i also don't like daniel's name but i named him after 2 ppl i knew at the time and now i can't change it, lol.

OH AND ALSO: granit's first flashback chapter in dangerous AU!

if you write fic, you are tagged, but i definitely tag: @new-berry @protect-daniel-james @fanficburner @purefractals @colorsofmyseason @bsaka7 @arsenalgbt AND ANYONE ELSE I FORGOT please do it if you see it!!!

[itsasweater]

HSMTMTS thoughts before season 4 pt. 2

So this is my second part after my re-watch of season 1 through 3 before the final season airs. After giving my thoughts on the seasons in general I thought I would talk about the ships on the show since a lot of new content dropped. The discourse has been interesting to say the least lol

Warning!!! I am going to be brutally honest about the ships on the show because I don't mind discussion, discourse or pushback. I'm not going to put any anti tags because I think the fandom could use some brutal honesty right now, especially with the severe lack of media literacy when it comes to this show and it's ships.

Rini (Ricky and Nini or is it Nina lol):

So I would categorize them as a typical Disney ship, pretty cookie cutter and unoriginal. It's the typical relationship that was formed because of childhood and growing up together. This type of pairing has been done before and will certainly be done again. So for a new show it is understandable to promote this relationship to bring in the audience.

During season 1, the show placed a lot of easter eggs that would forecast the downfall of this relationship, re-watching season 1 definitely helped me catch more of them. As curtsies-from-princess-ashlyn pointed out, throughout season 1 Ricky is looking for comfort and emotional support from Nini but he doesn't get that from her because she doesn't understand what he is going through when it comes to his home life with his parents. Obviously Ricky spends the first half of season 1 trying to get Nini back with her not giving him the time of day, until the homecoming episode changes everything for him because of a certain new girl (Gina). He kind of forgets about Nini while building this new relationship, a relationship that both Nini and EJ notice. The show eventually has Ricky and Nini come back to each other towards the end of the season 1. The thing that stands out to me the most is that in order for them to be put back together, they literally had to remove Gina from an episode for it to happen. Shows tend to do this a lot, when they want a certain pairing together they remove another character so that the pairing can stand alone without any competition in the scenes. But to me this is something that always makes me go hmmmmm you had to remove a character and stop total interaction in order for this pairing to get back together. Ricky and Nini have the moment in the finale where he confesses to her bringing up all these moments from childhood and bam end of season. I think a major reason why that confession scene did nothing for me is that he mentions all these moments that he has had with her from their childhood and we the audience didn't see any of it so it kind of falls flat. How am I supposed to be invested in that speech when I didn't see those moments. I also think putting them back together just regressed their characters. I always have a hard time watching that scene because the acting was just off, I think it was mentioned that they let Josh improvise it and maybe they shouldn't have.

Season 2 starts with Rini back together and in the very first episode Ricky looks directly at the camera and says that him and Nini are never breaking up ever again lol. I don't know if needing media literacy is necessary for that line because the show is spelling it out for the audience foreshadowing that they are going to be over again. That line was not a mistake, it was telling the audience to be prepared. Nini starts the season by not being truthful to Ricky about leaving and going to YAC until she just blurts it out with everyone around. The communication with these two has just always been non existent. Nini doesn't even know that Ricky moved, she goes to his old house yet Gina knows his new address, that's another thing that made me go hmmmm and wonder. Nini starts feeling held back by Ricky and that he doesn't like/love her for the right reasons, which makes her write the Rose song that is clearly about Ricky even though she denies it when he asks her. Ricky gets all excited when Nini comes back and thinks she came back for him but in a brutal way tells him that she didn't. She was already off the bus when he called. Where having media literacy comes into play is understanding that with everything else in Ricky's life changing which is something that he hates, his relationship with Nini and Nini herself represents something the same. He clings on to Nini because he wants at least something to be the same and not change like everything else in his life, which is unfair too Nini. Midway through the season they break up with Ricky initiating it with him saying he doesn't like who he is/becoming while with Nini. The breakup scene was honestly done really well. Obviously the relationship was needed in the end so that the characters could grow and understand what they actually want.

It surprises me how many people in the fandom still cling to this relationship because they were truly miserable with each other during season 2. If you truly cared about the characters you would not want them back together, they clearly outgrew each other and just didn't work anymore. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised though that people still cling to them because of the weird Jolivia stuff that I still see. Liking Rini and wanting them back just seems to be a cover for Jolivia's, like seriously people.

Lastly, people in the fandom like to say that if Olivia didn't leave the show or that if the drama didn't happen Rini would have been endgame yet season 2 was already written before all of that. Like I said at the start, the easter eggs were already planted in season 1 for the downfall of the relationship. I certainly think Rini was definitely endgame if the show was a limited series having only 1 season because of how season 1 ended with them together, they couldn't end it on a cliffhanger with no resolution. They did not know if they were going to be picked up for another season, once they did, they were able to go in the direction they wanted too.

I was planning on going over all of the ships in one post but by the time I finished my thoughts on Rini it was already too long lol so I might just do a post everyday leading up to the new season on the other ships.

Thanks for reading if you did! If you just read the title, thank you!

[abovetherainandroses]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Storm here! 🌩 Tysm for the tag @27-royal-teas! <3 I haven't done a tumblr meme thing in forever! And I don't really have any friends on this blog so I don't have anyone to tag, but if you're a writer who follows me, consider yourself tagged! (And also come be my friend)

This got long! I talk too much! Answers are below the cut!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

So I have two accounts lol, because for some reason I decided to make a separate RPF account even though I have other embarrassing things on main account anyway?? Anyway, I currently have 100 fics on my main and 5 on my RPF account.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Across both accounts, 379,693 words for an average of 3.6k per fic. Longfic? I don't know her.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I usually write for one fandom at a time, but I will revisit/cycle through fandoms. Currently it's Fall Out Boy. Previously, I was writing some MCU stuff (mostly Spider-Man). Also wrote a handful of Good Omens stuff back when S1 came out. I have the most fics posted for Haikyuu (volleyball manga/anime) lol.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Oops I only have 5 fics so far on my RPF account and I'm still debating whether I want this account directly linked to my main.

But I will take this opportunity to tell anyone who needs it not to put too much stock into kudos!! Kudos count relies on a lot of factors, but a big two are fandom/ship size and when you post the fic relative to the height of the fandom's activity. (Getting in early with a fic right after a new movie/season/etc. comes out so you're one of the first fics for the New Thing can be huge too.)

External validation is obviously very nice but if you rely too much on it, you're not gonna have a good time.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Comments make my entire life and I always want to respond to them, but I inevitably fall off because the brain energy isn't there, and I keep putting it off, and putting it off, and putting it off, and then it feels too late. But seeing as I only have 5 fics on my RPF account, I recently went and responded to everything, even if it was years late. In the past few weeks I've actually gotten responses to some comments I left on fics like 3 years ago so it inspired me, haha.

I myself am not always good at leaving comments (continuous goal to get better at it), so I really appreciate the people who take the time to leave kind comments for me and I want to express that appreciation.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't usually write angsty fic... I'm too softhearted. That said, I have made a few forays into angst, but Your Mileage May Vary on which one is the angstiest. Is it the major character death? Is it the one where they're soulmates with the last words they'll say to each other written on their skin, and in the end it's not death that separates them, but their own inability to have a functional relationship with each other?

Or is it the one I didn't even think was super angsty and tagged "bittersweet ending" but then it made a bunch of people cry? I'm still like "...my bad" about that one lmao.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Fluff is my lifeblood and almost all of my fics have a happy ending. I couldn't tell you which was the happiest, haha. Again, I'm incredibly softhearted, and also a big sap. I cannot deny this!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thinking very hard... I have been posting fic for............. several years so it is possible I am forgetting something but nothing comes to mind! I have always felt too relatively unknown for haters, which is just fine by me.

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

"What kind" lol. What does that even mean. Listen, my kink is holding hands during sex and being ❤️ in love ❤️ (I mentioned I'm a softhearted sap, right??)

Sometimes I might explore some light kink but nothing too hardcore imo.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Again, I've been writing/posting fic for several years, so I could be forgetting something, but I don't remember ever writing a true crossover. Though in my personal definition of fandom terms, crossover = characters from fandom A meet characters from fandom B. I have written a few fusion AUs in my time (characters from fandom A existing in the world of fandom B), which you could say falls under the crossover umbrella. For example, I've written Kingdom Hearts characters in a Pacific Rim AU and Haikyuu characters in Dragon Age AU.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. Though I did once see (this was a SUPER long time ago) someone repost my fic on tumblr the same day I posted it on FFN, even though I also posted the full text of the fic on tumblr myself. They credited my FFN account, at least, but like. Hey. Don't do that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, I've had some fics translated into various languages! It's definitely an honor that people want to share some of my stuff in other languages and take the time to do that translation work. I try to ask people keep translations on AO3 but it hasn't always succeeded so there are some translations of my works floating around on foreign language fic sites... Ah well.

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

I successfully co-wrote one (1) fic with one of my friends years ago. I've tried a few other times to co-write fics (including with the same person) but none of them ever finished... Co-writing fic is hard! Idk how to do it effectively. I've done a handful of fic/art collabs with my wife though!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don't know that I have a single all-time favorite ship, but Peterick is definitely the current fave. I........ adore them. So much.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Listen, I am a hoarder of WIPs and a clinger to delusions that they will one day be finished. But okay, one of my peterick WIPs from 2016-2017 that I really liked but highly doubt I'll ever finish is a no-band, dating show AU where Pete is the eligible bachelor on a queer offshoot of the Bachelor/Bachelorette and Patrick (through machinations by Joe) ends up as a contestant on the show. Patrick is camera shy and does not want to be there, but he made a deal with Joe to stay til he was eliminated. Pete, who just went through a public and messy divorce with Ashlee, does not want to be there, but he was guilt-tripped into using his moderate fame to help bring viewership to the underfunded little queer show.

Pete finds out Patrick never wanted to be there in the first place and offers to eliminate Patrick. I will copy/paste the next bit from my gdoc:

"[...] pete’s like what if…i didn’t eliminate you and we just stayed friends and hung out and stuff and patrick finds himself agreeing bc pete’s a really nice dude and they have a lot of interests in common

But then Patrick keeps sticking around through the weeks and Patrick and Pete fall in love and both end up having separate private crises because they agreed to be friends. Patrick sees Pete spending time with other candidates and clearly being attracted to them and it sucks because now Patrick is in love with Pete and Pete isn’t considering him at all. Meanwhile Pete is having a good time with the other candidates and sure there’s lust there and even some like but he can’t stop thinking about how perfect Patrick is for him except for oh wait Patrick doesn’t even want to BE here and Pete was the one who convinced him to stay and now he’s fucking in love with him."

Blah blah blah, stuff happens, Pete eliminates Patrick in the last few weeks then when he has to make the choice between the final two candidates, calls Patrick and confesses to him instead, blah blah blah, happy ending.

Anyway. I wrote 11k of that fic and I was about 1/3 of the way through. It will never be finished. But now I've told you all about it and that's good enough, right?

16. What are your writing strengths?

Internal narration and emotions. Tightly focused fics that span 1-3 scenes. Spelling and grammar.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Longfic or fic with several scenes that take place over an extended stretch of time. Related to that, coming up with external plot events rather than just internal conflict HAHA. Describing the setting/environment so the characters don't just exist in a nebulous empty space.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

As with most of my preferences re: fic, it depends on the execution. It can feel clunky and maybe even cringey, or it can feel natural and realistic. Just be intentional about how you're using it. Also, it always helps if you know a fluent speaker who can review it for you but understandably you may not always have someone like that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior... cats...

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is impossible to answer hahahaha. Certainly if we look at my main AO3. But if we're looking at my grand total of 5 (as of yet) RPF fics, I can say that I'm still quite fond of get us right (quitters never win), a fob AU fic where everything is the same but they all have minor superpowers, featuring empath!Patrick and telepath!Pete.

Aaaaand we are done! If you got this far, I am giving you cookies.

[thephantomchronicles]

20 questions for writers

tagged by @mac-lilly (thank you for the tag🥰)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

97! Didn't even realize when they got to be so many😅

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,011,650

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mainly Julie and the Phantoms and I used to write a lot for Legacies before it got canceled (plus a few others here and there depending on what I'm watching at the moment😅)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I’d Like to Be My Old Self Again (But I’m Still Trying to Find It) (Spider-Man: No Way Home)

Life Is a Risk, but We Will Take It (JATP)

I’m Only One Call Away (9-1-1: Lone Star)

Our Best Days Are Yet Unknown (JATP)

Will You Hold Her Tight and Not Let Go? (JATP)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! Unless I can't think of anything that makes sense to say, I usually try to reply :D Sometimes I feel like I'm getting repetitive, but I'm really insanely grateful to everyone that comments🥰

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Technically it has to be i'm talking to a memory (haunted by the moments of what we used to be) - although considering how angsty the fic is, I would say the ending is the least angsty part of it😂

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm, almost all of my fics have happy endings, I guess I'm going with You’re More to Me (We're Everything) mainly because there's a juke wedding and if that's not happy, I don't know what is😅

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't gotten anything yet, hopefully it stays that way😅

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

Nope

10. Do you write crossovers?

Well, my main thing on ao3 is a JATP x Shadowhunter Chronicles crossover, so yes definitely

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I haven't

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

Not really - I sometimes talk some ideas through with friends just to get another perspective, but I usually end up doing the one I want anyway😅

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Impossible to choose just one, I will hyperfixate on a different ship according to what I'm watching/reading at the time, but jatp will always have a special place in my heart so I got to say Juke and Willex

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

There is a juke pregnancy fic I've had in my wips for nearly 3 years that I keep saying I'll finish and then I keep forgetting about it - I think I've got to be honest with myself and accept that it'll stay unfinished...

16. What are your writing strengths?

Probably dialogue... And usually the angsty parts of a story😅

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Fight scenes - and the main series I'm writing is full of them😅 and describing places and physical appearances - it's one of the reasons I like fanfiction, characters and places are usually already established!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've written a few lines of dialogue in Spanish because of the Molinas, but I'm always nervous because I know very few words in Spanish and I try to look things up as much as I can because I want it to make sense😅 And I've written a few lines in Greek in a fic too :D

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Julie and the Phantoms💜

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I've previously said i'm talking to a memory (haunted by the moments of what we used to be) but I also really like i am pacing back and forth, wishing you were at my door - a willex fic from my first responders series

I'm not sure who's already been tagged, but I'll just go ahead with no pressure tagging😅 @onlygenxhere @writerownstory

[babischlong-six]

20 Questions Writer Meme.

tagged by @the-marron <3 Thank you darling <3

How many works do you have on Ao3? Officially? 93. Unofficially, over 120.

What's your total Ao3 word count? 358,732

What fandoms do you write for? Currently Babylon 5, Star Trek (TOS, DS9, ENT), WeiLan Derivs. But there are always more things I get into.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Sorry about the blood in your mouth, I wish it was mine. (The Merciless: canon-compliant alternating POV of Jaeho/Hyunsoo's relationship, angst and romance) "Is not general incivility the very essence of love?" (Star Trek DS9: Garak and Bashir discuss Jane Austen and Cardassian flirting, humor) The Admiral (Star Trek TOS: Post-TSFS, Spock grapples with the memories he is regaining, introspective) Desperate Times (Star Trek DS9: Set during "Doctor Bashir, I Presume," Garak and Bashir's relationship develops, romance and angst with a happy ending) hold me tight and never let go (Star Trek ENT: Archer and Shran get it on, but alien biology proves to be an unexpected hurdle in the relationship, sexual humor)

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not? Yes, absolutely. If someone liked my fic enough to tell me about it, I appreciate it! Also a lot of people say interesting or insightful things that I hadn't thought of, or HAD thought of but didn't include, and I'm always down to talk about things I'm interested. It's a great way to make fandom friends!

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh that's a hard one. I'm an angsty writer tbh. There are a lot of fics I've written where one or more characters die. I think one of them would be the Detecive L/The Rebel crossover - We Both Know How This Ends: where two former spies, who had once placed their hopes in a new, better era, have to live with the truth of what bitter end they have achieved. It's also heavily implied that Lin Nansheng will not be allowed to survive long by the very system he sacrificed everything to help instate.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? This is also a hard one. Most of my longer fics are angsty. I guess there's Da-ge's Midlife Crisis Boyfriend: a Mo Sanmei/Qiao Yicheng slice-of-life romcom where nothing particularly bad ever happens, and everyone ends up happy together in the end.

Do you get hate on fics? Oh yeah I used to, for sure. Cray-cray shit. But that was more of a fandom issue. I tend to leave fandoms that get toxic, and I'm happy to report that nowadays I no longer do. (niche retro sci fi fandoms my beloved <3)

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Occasionally. Usually it's either humorous or some kind of character development. Smut is like fight scenes, there's a lot of movement going on, it's hard to keep track of who's doing what with which body part, so I tend to avoid it, but now and then I dabble. I've found that it's easier to write smut when one or both characters is not Human, for whatever reason.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? WeiLan Derivs babeyyy! Yeah, I've written a ton. The craziest one would probably have to be the little one-shot prompt collections I've written about two characters from different fandoms shipped together, but they're played by the same guy.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I've had concepts and plots stolen, bits of dialogue stolen, and way back in the day, someone re-uploaded my shitty InuYasha fanfic from ff.net to WattPad, but it's been deleted since.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yeah! A few different ones.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No. Sometimes I bounce ideas around with someone, or ask for help when I'm stuck. But I'd be curious to try it, if only it wasn't so involving - IRL is a bitch.

What's your all-time favorite ship? Just ONE?? You're kidding, right??? I'm currently obsessed with G'Kar/Londo Mollari from B5, but then there's also Garak/Bashir from DS9, and I can't ever forget Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan from MDZS, but also ENT's Shran/Archer have a special place in my heart---- [gets shot]

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Oh fuck dude... So many. There are so, so many.

What are your writing strengths? Beyond a shadow of a doubt, dialogue. I just like writing people talking. Everything else is so hard...

What are your writing weaknesses? Run-on sentences. Repeating stuff I already said, even in the same words. Scene blocking. Scene description: I tend to just offer up a paragraph of "where this is happening" and then completely forget where everyone is standing or sitting and what room they're in. I keep having to go back and add characters interacting with their environments between dialogue tags smh...

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? If it's a language you know? Go for it! If it's a language you don't know, ask someone who speaks the language whether the dialogue sounds insane. You have no idea how many times I stumble across someone having decided to slip in some Russian or Chinese into a character's speech, and it sounds ridiculous, and I have to immediately stop reading because of the cringe (even if it was a good fic up until then!)

First fandom you wrote for? I'm pretty sure it was InuYasha? Maybe Bleach or Naruto? I was 14 and a weeb, for sure tho.

Favorite fic you've written? That's another hard question! Most of the time, I'm pretty neutral on the stuff I've written, unless I actively despise it. For me it's about hearing the characters in my head as I write, rather than even the finished result. I think that's what I tend to mean when I say I'm writing for myself - I'm trying to recapture the feeling of watching or reading that media for the first time, by creating some extension of it in my head, and then bringing it out on "paper." That aside, I've been getting quite a lot of enjoyment out of my Babylon 5 ficlets lately.

'whoever wants to do it, please feel tagged' is a fantastic concept <3 I'll add in: @elemental-queen-writes @hingabee @polkadotcravat @spaceoperajay just for funsies, no pressure <3

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Episode 4 Coherent Thoughts

Spoilers for Episode 4 and before, obviously.

Christ, I have come up with ANOTHER fic idea that has to be posted before Thursday if I want it to be relevant for a little bit, and boy howdy, it is not short.

I think Sylvie got to Mobius. I'm gonna time it next time I watch it (and report back here when I do), but I'm pretty sure even if Loki and Sylvie's conversation happens at the same time as the scene in OB's workroom that immediately follows, there was still enough time for Mobius to look into his memories and get hot cocoa before. Even if he just finds files somewhere and tucks them away to look at later. [EDIT: YES. Sylvie and Loki's conversation in "pie land" takes about 4 minutes and 31 seconds. If we assume the hot cocoa machine takes 1 minute roughly, the total time he's with OB, Casey, and Timely plus that minute is 2 minutes and 42 seconds, leaving 1 minute and 49 seconds to do something that helps him figure out his memories. What that something is in that time, I don't know, but that's still almost 2 minutes of time unaccounted for.]

Listen, I know it's episode 4 so it's too early to be in pain. I know it. But goddamn I still feel bereft. That look on Loki's face that they left us with HURT MY SOUL. (And also I was there (kind of) for Supernatural at the very end and shit went down two episodes before the finale and DID NOT GET ADEQUATELY RESOLVED and I'm not gonna say I was traumatized because that's dramatic, these are tv shows, but I'm a milder version of traumatized. I've been burned by bad endings that started two episodes before the end before.) And I'm just really upset about seeing Loki in pain in general (don't get me wrong, DO IT, it gives me writing ideas and hurts really good, but ouch), and the comics seem to be implying some worrying shit coming down the pipe for my boi, so I don't like shit happening from both ends. I DON'T HAVE THE CAPACITY TO HANDLE IT, Y'ALL!!

I feel like we're going to restart the clock next ep, but I DON'T KNOW HOW WE'RE GONNA DO THAT. The Loom (or timeline, I'm gonna get to this thought in a post tomorrow) exploded without any time for the main six to turn back the clock.

I haven't talked about it much on here, because I don't want to address a rumor and I don't want to believe it, but I have been dreading episode 5 since ep 1 because of Mobius and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Spoiler. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm very suspicious of this rumor and also a little superstitious of looking at it head-on because I don't want it to be real, so unfortunately you're gonna have to go into the lokius tag yourself to see if you can find it. It might also be in the Mobius tag. There is ONE good-ish possibility for this possible spoiler if it's legit, and it would be that it might prove one of my theories (plus maybe something else if they do it justice, but I don't have too much confidence they will), but either way it kind of upsets lokius and I'm not thrilled by that. I have a theory that's coming tomorrow that could have this happen while still giving us lokius endgame, but given how much time is left in the season I'm not very confident so I'm just gonna sit here for the next few days and pray it was a troll.

Also: "oh no" is a code phrase I've started with my friends that has made its way into my personal reaction notes, and now congrats, you've been (unwillingly) witnesses to it now, too. It means "I am starting to ship this and I don't want to-slash-I know I shouldn't, but I am." And (yike) if you recall this showed up on the reaction about Sylvie jumping into the lokius bickering. I'M NOT SAYING that I ship sylkius. I'M NOT SAYING that I'm GOING TO ship sylkius. I'm just saying I had THOUGHTS when she did that and I didn't love the thoughts I had. I think episode 4 of season one was when I started shipping lokius, though, so...fuck. (It should be noted that 90% of the time I go "oh no" just in general, though, I forget about it pretty quickly afterwards, so statistically it's unlikely.)

[kitaychan]

Fic Writer Questions

Thank you for the tag :D @spinyfruit

1.) How many works do you have on AO3

34! they're mostly Oneshots and drabbles.

2.) What’s your total AO3 count?

208,218

3.) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Just Hetalia

4.) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. I call it a draw (Rochu/ Amechu)

2. Nerium Oleander (rusamechu)

3. We need to talk (Rochu)

4. Secret (Rochu and one sided Rusame/ Amechu)

5. Western pleasure (Rusame)

5.) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

It's either Together (rusamechu) or I'll come back to you (RomeChu)

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

Sublime since Itapan is my comfort ship I usually write fluff about them

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

I haven't done this o:

8.) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yeah, I have a couple of Oneshots and Nerium Oleander has smut too. I guess they can be described as explicit m/m, tough I think it's mostly Rusame or Rusamechu smut

9.) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to, sometimes I forget or just don't know what to say. I think it's nice to reply, as a reader I get happy when an author replies so...

10.) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Three of them. Nerium Oleander, I call it a draw and I'll come back to you were/are translated into Chinese (⁠ ⁠≧⁠Д⁠≦⁠)

13.) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet

14.) What’s your all time favorite ship?

The black triangle trio (rusamechu) and whatever pair comes out of it

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

We need to talk, idk I've reached the point of not knowing what's next in the story. It's probably the only fic I didn't really planned before hand, and it wasn't supposed to have multiple chapters haha

16.) What are your writing strengths?

I like to think that descriptions when it comes to settings and like the overall mood of the chapter/story is what stands out. Also I think I'm getting better at foreshadowing :D

17.) What are your writing weaknesses?

Probably pacing, I struggle to move forward certain parts sometimes, I don't usually plan or pay attention to the time within the story so it's pretty much vague.

18.) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fic?

I think it's pretty common in Hetalia fanfics, I did it a couple of times too. I think it's fun and it's a nice touch for a character who's native language is not English but as a writer I find it it's difficult to add it without butchering a language or getting overwhelmed by adding footnotes with the translation haha. If I were to write characters like Spain more often, I would totally do it.

19.) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Hetalia

20.) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Ahhh this is a hard question

I will say that Nerium Oleander because I am focused on finishing it and it's been very rewarding.

But White Flame is also my favorite because it's just me having a bunch of fun with words and world building.

Tagging:

@darcymariaphoster @crumpled--notes @magictrio1118 @fireandiceland @koolkat9 if you want to~

[shivunin]

✨9 Ship Songs✨

Rules: List nine songs for one of your ships

Tagged by @brother-genitivi---Thank you so much! I am always delighted by any opportunity to talk music c:

I didn't want to pick one ship, so here are three songs for each of my canon DA ships instead (I have great playlists for all of them that I want to show off haha), so nine total split across the three.

So:

Arianwen/Zevran

The Killing Kind by Marianas Trench (YT link)

The ghost in me was true but you were haunted too just didn't see it all along. Nevermore to leave here, nevermore to leave here You should never be here I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I know my love can be the killing kind.

Howl by Florence + The Machine (YT Link)

If you could only see The beast you've made of me I held it in but now it seems you've set it running free Screaming in the dark I howl when we're apart Drag my teeth across your chest to taste your bleeding heart

Got Weird by dodie (YT Link)

I got weird when we made out What a goddamn kiss to think about Poured a drink all over my wiring Short a fuse, all cylinders firing It got weird when we made out Clearly I've got shit to figure out Baby, baby, please don't hate me Call me up again, I won't get weird

Maria/Fenris

Francesca by Hozier (YT Link)

Now that it's done there's not one thing that I would change My life was a storm since I was born How could I fear any hurricane? If someone asked me at the end I'd tell them "put me back in it." ... I would still be surprised I could find you, Darling, in any life

reckless driving by Lizzy McAlpine (YT Link) (with Maria singing the man's part)

Now we're at 180 and I can finally see but then it's over in a second, crashed the car into the tree Yeah, I can see it all happen You'd rather die than take your eyes off me

Lose Myself by Lera Lynn (YT Link)

Don't want to talk Don't want to listen You'll just convince me That you're what I'm missing If I stay longer, I know what I'll do I'll lose myself in you

Emmaera/Cullen

Dark Doo Wop by MS MR (YT Link)

The world is gonna burn, burn, burn, burn As long as we're going down Baby you should stick around It's all gone to shit; it's out of our hands Baby if you could, I know: you would hatch a plan That's my, that's my man

You and Me on the Rock by Brandi Carlile (YT Link)

I'll build my house up on this rock, baby, every day with you There's nothin in that town I need after everything we've been through. Me out in my garden And you out on your walk Is all the distance this poor girl can take without listening to you talk I don't need their money, baby Just you and me on the rock

Photograph by Cody Fry (YT Link)

If I wished myself a superpower I would make this moment last for hours If I had my will, time would just stand still Wait for me until I find some magic film To take a photograph and live inside I need some way to prove that this was real A memory is not enough I'm scared that I'll forget the way it feels To be young and in love Let me stay right here---just a moment longer The picture is so clear Please let this last forever

Tagging (no pressure): @greypetrel @demandthedoodles @star--nymph @vakarians-babe @scribbledquillz @zenstrike @gaysebastianvael @transprincecaspian @ndostairlyrium @gvnseylike @idolsgf @layalu @bitchesofostwick @jtownnn and YOU

Tell me what music you like for your fellas!!