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nyxshadowhawk · 11 months ago

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A Retrospective on Harry Potter

Why did I like it in the first place? What about it worked? Where do I go from here?

I have decided to give up Harry Potter.

J.K. Rowling’s reputation now stinks to high heaven. At this point, she is quite indefensible. And even if that weren’t the case, she is not someone that I would want to associate with anyway. Meanwhile, the internet has not only turned against her, but against Harry Potter itself. An innocent question on Reddit, about which Hogwarts Houses the ATLA characters would be in, got downvoted to oblivion. Innumerable Tumblr threads insist that fantasy fans should get into literally anything else (suggestions include Discworld, Earthsea, The Wheel of Time, and Percy Jackson). And now that Harry Potter is no longer a sacred cow, there has been a recent slew of video essays that rip it to shreds, attacking it for its poor worldbuilding, unoriginality, and the problematic ideas baked into the original books (like the whole SPEW thing), etc. Those criticisms always existed, but now they’re getting thrown into the limelight.

It pains me to see such an ignoble downfall of Harry Potter’s reputation. If Rowling had just kept her damn mouth shut, Harry Potter would have aged gracefully, becoming a beloved children’s classic. I'd still plan to introduce it to my own kids one day (after Rowling dies and the dust settles). It’s not surprising that not all aspects of it have aged well, since it’s been more than twenty years since its original publishing date, and everything starts to show its age after that long. I acknowledge that most of the criticisms of the series that I’ve seen lately are valid, and I’ve read plenty of better books. And yet, when I return to the books themselves, even with the knowledge of who JKR really is inside my head, I still really enjoy reading them! There’s still a lot about them that I think works!

None of the other things I’ve read have had as collossal of an impact upon my identity, my values, and my own writing as Harry Potter. It’s hard to move on from it, not just because it’s something I enjoy, but because I have to literally extract my identity from it. I don’t know who I’d be without Harry Potter. I don’t know what my work would look like without Harry Potter. I don’t know how to carry it with me as just another piece of media that I like, as opposed to a filter for who I am as a person. So, with all that in mind, I have to ask myself why I liked Harry Potter so much in the first place. If I’m going to move on from it, then I have to be able to define and isolate the things about it that I want to keep with me. Something about it obviously worked, on a massive scale. So what was it?

It’s not the worldbuilding. The worldbuilding is objectively quite terrible, especially in comparison to that of other fantasy writers who knew what they were doing. At best, it’s inconsistent and poorly thought-out, and at worst it’s insensitive or even racist. Is it the characters? The characters are, in my opinion, one of the stronger parts of the story. But I felt very called-out by one of the many online commentators, who said that anyone who identifies with Harry is too cowardly to write self-insert fic. (I do not remember who said it or even which site it was on, but I distinctly remember the phrase, “Reject Harry Potter, embrace Y/N.”) The reason why people get so invested in Harry Potter’s characters is because they’re easy to project upon, and it’s possible that my love of Harry comes more from over a decade’s worth of projection than anything else. The incessant arguments over characters like Snape, Dumbledore, and James Potter ultimately stem from the fact that these characters do not always come across the way Rowling wanted them to. As for the writing itself, it’s decent, but not spectacular. Harry Potter is something of a sandbox world, with less substance than it appears to have and a crapton of missed opportunities, making it ripe for fanfic. For more than ten years, I’ve been doing precisely that — using Harry Potter as a jumping-off point to fill in the gaps and develop my own ideas, some of which became my original projects.

So what does Harry Potter actually have that sets it apart? Why are people so desperate to be part of Harry Potter’s world if the worldbuilding is bad? What, specifically, is so compelling about it? I think that there’s one answer, one thing that is at the center of Potter-mania, and that has been the underlying drive of my love of it for the past decade and a half: the vibe.

Harry Potter’s vibe is immaculate.

You know what I mean, right? It’s not actually a product of any specific trope, but rather a series of aesthetic elements: The wizarding school in a grand castle, with its pointed windows and torches and suits of armor, ghosts and talking portraits and moving staircases, its Great Hall with floating candles and a ceiling that looks like the night sky, its hundreds of magically-concealed secret doorways. Dumbledore’s Office, behind the gryphon statue, with armillary spheres in every single shot. Deliberate archaisms that evoke the Middle Ages without going as far as a Ren Faire: characters wearing heavy robes, writing with quills and ink on parchment instead of paper, drinking from goblets, decorating with tapestries. Owls, cats, toads. Cauldrons simmering in a dungeon laboratory. Shelves piled with dusty tomes, scrolls, glass vials, crystal balls, hourglasses. Magical candy shaped like insects and amphibians. A library with a restricted section. A forbidden forest full of unicorns and werewolves. That is the Vibe.

There are five armillary spheres just in this shot. They are unequivocally the most Wizard of tabletop decor.

There’s more to it than just the aesthetic, though. The vibe is present in something that writers call soft worldbuilding.

There’s a phrase that writers use to describe magic systems, coined by Brandon Sanderson: hard magic and soft magic. Sanderson’s first law of magic is, “An author’s ability to solve problems with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.” A hard magic system has clearly-defined rules — you know where magic comes from, how it works and under which conditions, how the characters can use it, and what its limitations are. Examples of really good hard magic systems include Avatar: The Last Airbender and Fullmetal Alchemist. If the audience doesn’t understand the conditions under which magic can work, then using magic to get out of any kind of scrape risks feeling like the writer pulled something out of their ass. It begs the question, “Well, if they could do that, then why didn’t they do that before?”

You may come away from that thinking that having clearly-defined rules is always better worldbuilding than not having them, but this isn’t the case. Soft magic isn’t fully explained to the audience, but that doesn’t matter, because it isn’t trying to solve problems — its purpose is to be evocative. Soft magic enhances the atmosphere of a world by creating a sense of wonder. If your everyman protagonist is constantly running into cool magical shit that they don’t understand, then the world feels like it teems with magic, magic that is greater and more powerful than they know, leaving lots of secrets to uncover. Harry Potter, at least in the early books, excels at this. The soft magic in Harry Potter is what got me hooked, and I think it’s what a lot of other people liked about it, too.

The essence of soft magic is best summed up by this scene in the fourth film, in which Harry enters the Weasleys’ tiny tent at the Quidditch World Cup, only to find that it’s much bigger on the inside. His reaction is to smile and say, “I love magic.”

That’s it. That’s the essence of it. You don’t need to know the exact spell that makes the tent bigger on the inside. You don’t need to know how Dumbledore can make the food appear on the table with a flick of a wand, or how he can make a bunch of poofy sleeping bags appear with another flick. You don’t need to know how and why the portraits or wizard cards move. You don’t need to know how wizards can appear and disappear on a whim, or what the Deluminator is, or where the Sword of Gryffindor came from. You don’t need to know how the Room of Requirement works. Knowing these things defeats the purpose. It kills the vibe, that vibe being that there is a large and wondrous magical world around you that will always have more to discover.

One of the best “soft magic” moments in the books comes early in Philosopher’s Stone, when Harry is trying to navigate Hogwarts for the first time:

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk. —Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 8

Many of these details don’t come back later in the series, which is a shame, because this one paragraph is super evocative! It establishes Hogwarts as an inherently magical place, in which the very architecture doesn’t conform to normal rules. Hogwarts seems like it would be exciting to explore (assuming you weren’t late for class), and it gets even better when you learn about all the secret rooms and passages. The games capitalized on this by building all the secret rooms behind bookcases, mirrors, illusory walls, etc. into the game world, and rewarding you for finding them. The utter fascination that produces is hard to overstate.

Another one of the most evocative moments in the first book is when Harry sees Diagon Alley for the first time, after passing through the magically sealed brick wall (the mechanics of which, again, are never explained). This is your first proper glimpse at the wizarding world and what it has to offer:

Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, “Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad....” A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium — Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand — fastest ever —" There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon.... —Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 5

What works so well here is the magical weirdness of wizardishness juxtaposed against normalcy. Eeylops Owl Emporium is just a pet shop to wizards. A woman makes a very mundane complaint about the price of goods, but the goods happen to be dragon liver. Broomsticks are treated like cars. All of these small moments contribute to the feeling of the wizarding world being alive, inhabited, and also magical. It gets you to ask the question of what your life would be like if you were a wizard. What do wizards wear? What do they eat? What do they haggle over and complain about? What do they do for fun?

In Book 3, Harry enjoys Diagon Alley for a few weeks when he suddenly has free time, and we get to experience the wizarding world in a state of “normalcy,” when he isn’t trying to save the world. He gets free ice creams from Florean Fortescue, gazes longingly at the Firebolt, and engages with delightfully weird people. He’s a wizard, living a (briefly) normal wizard life among other wizards in wizard-land. And that is fun. It’s so fun, that people want that experience for themselves, enough for there to be several theme parks and other immersive experiences dedicated to recreating the world of Harry Potter.

One of the greatest things about Universal was its phenomenal attention to detail. You can hear Moaning Myrtle’s voice in the women’s bathroom, and only the women’s bathroom. The walls of the Three Broomsticks have shadows of a broom sweeping by itself and an owl flying projected against the wall, so convincingly that you’ll do a double take when you see it. Knockturn Alley is down a little secret tunnel off of the main street, and that’s where you have to go to buy Dark Arts-themed stuff. It’s really well done.

Another thing that contributes to the vibe, in my opinion, is that the wizarding world is slightly macabre. They eat candy shaped like frogs, flies, mice, and so forth, and they have gross-tasting jellybeans. In the film’s version of the Diagon Alley sequence above, there’s a random shot of a pet bat available for purchase. In the third film, when Harry is practicing the Patronus Charm with Lupin, the candles are shaped like human spines. In the first book, this is Petunia’s description of Lily’s behavior after she became a witch:

Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that-that school, and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak! —Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 4

I remember reading this for the first time, and it just kind of made intuitive sense to me. I suppose it fits into the “eye of newt and toe of frog” association between magical people and gross things, but somehow it works. Unfortunately, this is retconned later with the knowledge that wizards can’t use magic outside school, but before that limitation gets imposed, the idea of Lily amusing herself by turning teacups into rats seems like an inherently witchy thing to do.

That association between magic and the macabre shows up elsewhere, as well. In The Owl House, Luz’s interest in gross things is one of the things that marks her as a “weirdo” in the real world. When she goes to the magical world of the Boiling Isles, weird and gross stuff is absolutely everywhere. That world’s vibe leans more towards the macabre than the whimsical, but it works because you sort of expect the gross stuff to exist alongside the concept of witches, and that they would be an intrinsic part of the world they inhabit. You don’t question it, because it’s part of the vibe.

(The Owl House is one of the few things I’ve encountered that has a similar vibe to Harry Potter, but it’s still not the same vibe. In fact, The Owl House outright mocks the expectation that magical worlds be whimsical, and directly mocks Harry Potter more than once. The overall vibe is much closer to Gravity Falls.)

The Harry Potter films utilize a lot of similar soft worldbuilding with the background details, especially in the early films that were still brightly-colored and whimsical. For example, the scene in Flourish and Blotts in the second film has impossibly-stacked piles of books and old-timey looking signs describing their subjects, which include things like “Celestial Studies” and “Unicorns.” When Harry arrives in the Burrow in the same film, one of the first things he sees is dishes washing themselves and knitting needles working by themselves, taking completely mundane things and instantly establishing them as magical. In that Patronus scene with Harry and Lupin, the spine-candles and a bunch of random orbs (and the obligatory giant armillary sphere) float around in the background. One small detail that I personally appreciate is the designs on the walls above the teacher’s table in the Great Hall, which are from an alchemical manuscript called the Ripley Scroll:

It’s all these little things that add up to produce The Vibe.

Obviously, much of the vibe is expressed very well in John Williams’ score for the first three Harry Potter films. The mystical minor key of the main theme, the tinkly glockenspiel, the strings, the rising and falling notes that mimic the fluttering of an owl, the flight of a broomstick, or the waving of a wand. That initial shot of the castle across the lake as the orchestra swells, as the children arrive at their wizarding school:

If you grew up with Harry Potter, just looking at this image gives you The Vibe. The nostalgia hit is definitely part of it, but The Vibe was already there, back when you were a child and you didn’t have nostalgia yet.

In my opinion, only Williams’ score captures this vibe — the later films, though their scores are very good, do not. But the soundtrack of the first two video games, by Jeremy Soule (the same person who did Skyrim) absolutely nails it. This, right here, is Harry Potter’s vibe, condensed and distilled:

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This is why I feel invalidated by the common advice “just read another book.” I have read other books. I’ve read plenty of other books, many of which are wonderfully written and have left an impact on me. But there’s still only one Harry Potter. To date, there’s only other book that has filled me with a similarly intense longing for a fictional place, and that is The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. That book deliberately prioritized atmosphere over everything else in the story, and actually lampshades this in-universe. The Night Circus has a plot and it has characters, but it’s not about its plot or characters. It’s about the setting and its atmosphere. It swallows you up and transports you to a fictional place that is so evocative and so magical that you just have to be part of it or you’ll die. And even then, The Night Circus has a different kind of vibe from Harry Potter. In this particular capacity, there’s nothing else like Harry Potter.

The thing is, I don’t think Rowling was being as deliberate as Erin Morgenstern. (In fact, given many of Rowling’s recent statements, I question how many of her creative choices were deliberated at all.) She was throwing random magical stuff into the background without thinking too hard about it, which works when you’re writing a kids’ story, but stops working when you try to age it up. Actually, scratch that — soft worldbuilding is definitely not just for kids! The Lord of the Rings has a soft magic system, for crying out loud, and Tolkien is the original archmage of worldbuilding. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you that prioritizing atmosphere over meticulousness is bad worldbuilding. That is a valid way to worldbuild! Not everything needs to be clearly explained, not everything needs to make sense. The problem is that Harry Potter doesn’t balance it well. Certain things do have to be explained in order for the magic to play an active role in the story (and the setting of a magic school lends itself to that kind of explanation), but no rules are ever established for the kinds of magic that need rules. When you begin thinking about the rules, you’re no longer just enjoying the magic for what it is. At worst, you begin running up against the Willing Suspension of Disbelief.

It wasn’t actually the “aging up” of the story that did it in, per se, but rather, the introduction of realism. The early books were heavily stylized, and the later books were less so. A heavily stylized story can more easily maintain the Willing Suspension of Disbelief. That’s why, for example, you don’t ask why the characters are singing in a musical — you just sort of accept the story’s outlandish internal logic, and the inherent melodrama of it doesn’t take you out of the story. Stylized stories are more concerned with being emotionally consistent over being logically consistent. The later Harry Potter books changed their emotional tone, but without changing the worldbuilding style to compensate.

In addition to the more mature themes and darker tone, Harry Potter introduced more realism as it went, but Rowling did not have the worldbuilding chops to pull this off. There’s the basic magic system stuff: When you begin thinking about it too hard, something like a Time-Turner stops being a fun magical device, and starts threatening to break the entire story. Then there’s the characters: Dumbledore leaving Harry on the Dursleys’ doorstep in the first book is an age-old fairy tale trope that goes unquestioned, but with the introduction of realism in the later books, it suddenly becomes abandonment of a child to an abusive family. The exaggerated stereotypes of characters like the Dursleys become tone-deaf. The fun school rivalry of the House system is suddenly lacking in nuance. And then there’s the shift in tone: The wizarding world that we were introduced to as a marvellous place is revealed to be dystopian. You start thinking about how impractical things like owl messengers are, you start wondering if Slytherin is being unjustly punished, the bad history appears glaringly obvious, the quaint archaisms become dangerously regressive. Oh, and the grand feasts are made through slave labor! The wizarding world suddenly feels small and backward instead of grand and marvellous. J.K. Rowling’s bigotry throws it all into an even harsher light.

This is why I’ve always preferred the early books and films to the later ones. There’s a lot of things I like about the later ones, but they’re not as stylized — they don’t have The Vibe. Thinking about things too hard is just a necessary condition of adulthood, but it’s still possible to tell a dark, mature story that is highly stylized. I really think JKR could have better pulled off that shift if she was a more competent worldbuilder. But it is painfully obvious that she did not think things through, and probably didn’t understand why she had to. In her defense, she did not know that her story would end up being one of the most scrutinized of all time. As it stands, her strength in worldbuilding was in the softer, smaller, deliberately unexplained moments of magic that were there just to provide atmosphere. And there were less and less of those as the books went along.

Pretty much all the Harry Potter-related content released since the last film — including Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts, Hogwarts Mystery, Hogwarts Legacy, Magic Awakened, and that short-lived Pokemon Go thing — have been unsuccessful attempts at recreating The Vibe. In fact, the only piece of supplemental Potter content that I think had that Vibe down pat was the original Pottermore, back when it was more of an interactive game. And of course that got axed. That was right around the time things started going downhill.

Some of the art from Pottermore’s original Sorting quiz.

So what now? Well, that’s the question.

I think I can safely say that The Vibe was the reason I liked Harry Potter. It’s the thing I still like the most about it. I’ve spent years chasing it, like an elusive Patronus through a dark wood. If I can capture and distill that Vibe, and use drops of it in my own work, then perhaps I won’t need Harry Potter anymore.

I'm gonna write the story that I wish Harry Potter was, and when I'm a famous author, I won't become a bigot. I'll see you on the other side.

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shouyuus · 4 months ago

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hi not a request but I want to know how you got to be such a good writer. Practice? Or maybe writing exercises? Did you fall inlove with writing? If so, when and how? Has it always been, i don’t know, a thing you like to do ever since you were a lil kid? Or were you inspired by other pieces and authors. (mind-boggling curiosity is driving me rn)

ASDLFKJSD thank you ?!?!?! so. this is a question that i sometimes got on my old blog as well, and i've always dithered on how to answer bc there's no like... magic potion, right. there's no secret sauce.

unfortunately (and super boringly), how you get "good" at writing is just... practice. just hours and hours and weeks and months and years of practice.

i've been writing almost every single day since i was about 10 years old. i'm 30 now so that's twenty years of practice -- neigh on SEVEN THOUSAND DAYS of practice. i also majored in comparative literature, so i paid like insane amounts of money to an higher education institution, for people who are objectively considered experts in this field, to teach me and help me and coach me. i can't discount at all how important that was in like getting my writing to the next level (i can name the specific professor and course in my freshman year that changed me as a writer like that's how deep of an impression it left on me)

that being said, you don't need to do all that to become a "good" writer. and i think that's the best thing about this craft is that anyone can decide to pick up a pen one day and #Nike Just Do It. (also, good is subjective and like blah blah blah all that stuff)

but if you want actual tangible things you can do to improve your writing, here's some things that have helped me:

read. read alot. read everything. think of your body like a car. you need to put oil in to run. you need energy in to put energy out. in the same way, you need to intake good writing to output good writing. ive always been a voracious reader, and for the longest time, even when i was actively writing fanfiction (both online and just for myself), i wouldn't read any other fanfics, i would only read published books, and published books either from authors that i know i like, OR published books that i've vetted (ie read the first few pages of and said okay, this is a style i like and a story that's interesting to me)

it's impossible not to be "inspired" when you take in a lot of good writing. so read. but don't limit yourself to just fiction or whatever. read narrative nonfiction -- some of the most moving stories and well-written things i've ever read are actually essays, or longform journalism stories -- try a bit of everything and see what you like, and make note of the things you like to read

then, dig a bit deeper. if there's a sentence you find particularly moving, take it apart, try to figure out why you like it. i rmbr in elementary school we did "sentence diagrams" and it seems strange but getting really technical with writing is a good thing! and i'm the kind of nerd that loves stuff like this so u__u. BUT BUT the point of this is -- once you figure out how a "good" sentence is structured, you can take that structure and plug your own words in! and voila! it's another good sentence!!!! kind of like a super nerdy advanced version of mad-libs LOL

i went thru a phase of my life where i thought it was super cool to memorize famous first sentences of novels LMFAO (yes. again. my parents should've KNOWN i had adhd as a child holy fuck) but i did that for a while and i think that also just... ingrained in me specific sentence structures and turns of phrase that have stuck with me to this day.

if you read a thing and you don't like it, try to pause and ask yourself why -- was it the pacing? the structure? the characterization? what about it was offputting? try to be a more active/critical reader.

COPYWRITING. okay OKAY so this is a thing that i discovered only.... a few years ago? i think? but its a writing exercise wherein writers will literally copy out word for word writing that they like from another author -- not to publish, mind you, but just for the FEEL of writing it themselves -- NOW. i know what ur thinking "what the fuck why" but think about it this way -- classical musicians spend their entire lives playing pieces written by other musicians. dancers learn dances from other choreographers -- even choreographers start by learning dances by other people right like. why should writing be any different?

this does a few things -- it makes you an "active" participant in the writing. don't knock it till you've tried it -- reading a sentence (even deeply) and having to write/type it out yourself are two totally and completely different things. the way you pay attention to pacing, cadence, punctuation, line breaks, shit that you don't even think about when you're reading, suddenly, you're paying attention to it bc you're the one typing each and every letter, every comma, every exclamation mark.

i have a whole separate folder in my notion just for copywork. for the days that i don't feel like actually writing anything, i'll pick one of my favorite books from my favorite authors, and pull it up on kindle, and just copy out a few paragraphs, sometimes an entire chapter. and you'd be surprised at how different you feel after!

read/listen to poetry. this is more of a personal thing for me but i love the cadence of poetry -- i love internal rhymes and spoken word, i love limerence and sibilance and alliteration. i love IAMBIC PENTAMETER GODDAMNIT. lmfao but like. alot of times, prose is more "forgiving" in a way -- you have more space, more words to do the thing. poetry is (i think) the essence -- especially metered poetry, or specific forms of poetry where you have to write within a super rigid set of rules -- and sometimes, i think that creativity flourishes the best under "stress" aka under a strict set of rules. the shit that people come up with in very strict poetry is INSANE and sometimes i copy those out too, over and over again, just to feel the words and the rhythm

read your favorites over and over again. i used to never re-read books, but as i got older and my tastes became pickier, i find myself going back to reread my favorite books over and over again -- and it's fascinating because every time i go back, i find something new to marvel at, a new aspect. and i think that's the lovely thing about media after it's been put out in the world -- you can consume it over and over and over again, and each time, because of the way your brain is wired, of your physical setting, your mindset, you'll notice sometime different.

if you want a list of my fav books/authors, i can def make one! or i'll just reblog the list i made on my prev blog but yeah! lemme know if that's of interest to you! and i think you'll find that if you read any of my fav authors, you'll see immediately how they've inspired me LOL

and FINALLY be kind to yourself! you do not have to be good at every hobby you choose. if writing is something that just gives you joy and you don't want to become 'better' at it??? then that's perfectly okay! also, there are TONS of different styles of writing -- and not all of them is for everyone! you might like super dialogue-heavy writing, some other ppl might prefer really rich prose! it varies by person, and you'll never please everyone. so the best you can do is just write the stuff that makes you happy and that makes you giggle (lord knows thats what i've been doing on this blog) and if you want to put it out into the world, then do! but if you wanna keep it just for yourself, then that's good too!

just because you don't put it out into the world, doesn't make you any less of a writer!

#🌧 raindrops #writing advice #im so sorry that got so long but i get very passionate about the craft of writing and i can yammer for ages lskdfjsdoi #also like when ur reading something try to 'read like a writer' try to notice lines that you like or words that you love #all my kindle highlights are just like cool sentences i've liked in a book that i can later look back on when i need inspo LOL #i hope this was helpful!!!! pls come talk to me about writing i LOVE TALK ABOUT IT

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disarmd · 21 days ago

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I adore listening to you talk writing! Truly would love to just sit in a coffee shop and pick your brain for hours about it. Since I can't actually do that, I thought I'd do the next best thing and send along some questions that you can feel free to answer or not :) 1. Have you or do you write original fiction? I'm being a bit nosy with this one but I'm so curious because of the way you talk about writing, etc, etc ^_^

2. Per chance do you have any tips to avoid procrastination? I really like writing but I have such a hard time just getting *started*, I find I do everything but the writing! And then sometimes I have the opposite problem, I'll get started but I won't be able to finish. I'll put it off and put it off and next thing you know a month has gone by and I haven't written more than a few sentences. Wishing you all the best with your current writer's block! I hope you can work through it ASAP!

You are truly so so kind for sending me this ask, nonnie, thanks for chatting with me about writing. I’m absolutely pretending that we’re having a lovely latte in a coffee shop with a massive greenwall ☕️🌿

1. I’ve written original fiction in an amateur way, but I’ve never had a go at getting published or anything. I was majoring in writing in my first undergrad before I switched, and then in my twenties I did a lot of continuing ed writing classes, and had a writing circle where we met every two weeks and workshopped each others’ stuff, but the volume of fanfic I’ve written is much higher than original. I’ve obviously thought a lot about it so I’ll just share where I landed, but I’d be really curious to hear what you or anyone else thinks on this topic!

So for me, I’ve thought before that I should try to focus more on original stuff mostly because of the secrecy around fanfic. I can’t talk about writing with rl people, so I have this hobby that I spend so much time on that's completely secret. I do sometimes wish I was able to show people the stuff I write (or like… some people, occasionally, anyway). But if I think about what you “get” from fanfic vs original, it’s like. Fanfic: community. Tons of people to talk to about the thing you're interested in. A level of interaction with people who read your stories that you wouldn’t get for original unless you’re like the 0.01% of successful writers. even if you get like three comments, i think that's probably three more than the average short story author is going to get. And you get to write exactly what you want, in exactly the way you want to do it. Vs with original, you’d be able to talk about it in real life. theoretically there would be some monetary compensation - but there is no chance I could earn as much writing as I get from my actual job. And you lose that complete freedom to just write literally whatever you want because now it’s become a commodity. For my writing in particular, I know I’m not as good as great writers and what what I write is not widely appealing, so I don’t think that it would be possible for me to be published, but that’s my rationale for not even trying haha.

Anyway, I'm so curious to hear anyone’s thoughts on this - I’m assuming it’s something many of us have thought about before and I’d be really interested in where others have landed.

2. Re: tips to write more... there are so many different facets to this! if you mean you have trouble getting started writing, maybe just create a routine. write 15 minutes every day at 8 pm or whatever. If you mean you have trouble starting a story, i think there is a feeling that comes with the wanting to write a specific story that is very motivating compared to the feeling of just want to write, in a vague way. having a particular story you want to tell and knowing all the aspects of the story, not just a concept - like you know the characters/settling/conflict/plot arc/etc. the full story. makes it much easier to start writing that story.

to the second part, in terms of finishing: there has to be motivation to go through the work of writing, so it really helps to have someone that you’re excited to share it with. It’s very common for people to share drafts with friends to get that encouragement to keep pushing through to the end. I sent Liza the first 5k of In Abidance like a month ago, and then the next 5k after that, and it helped because a) it motivated me to finish drafting those continuous sections of the story so now I’m not thinking about The Full Story; the first 10k are done and in the different gdoc with Liza where they’re safe, and b) having a nice friend say encouraging things makes it feel a lot better compared to being completely alone in the gdoc. I reread the comments Liza left in the gdoc as a comfort when i'm spinning out about writing more. and then my motivation for writing the story at all is that i want to write it for odds, who's been the kindest, and made the experience of writing this series so completely satisfying. they left this incredible comment last night and it got me so excited that i wrote 800 words before bed.

so not writing to an imagined audience or trying to please hypothetical strangers, but writing is an act of communication and i don't think anyone would finish anything if there wasn't one person they planned on sharing it with. have a writing buddy that you share your writing with every week or month can be very motivating. if there's a story you know one person wants to read, then you can write it for them... and you feel so much more motivated to actually finish it, for them.

but to also consider things a bit more broadly, if you like writing but are having trouble doing it - is it because you've been working at a difficult job all day long and don't have creative energy left when you get back home? are you too burned out from following the terrifying and unrelenting current events and don't have capacity to write on top of staying regulated? or, on the more fun side, is it that the other stuff you're doing instead of writing is just genuinely more appealing and that's where you want to spend your time? because that's fine too, like we don't have to write if there are other things we prefer. or if we're burned out or otherwise don't have capacity.

I'll be a bit more vulnerable because this is a long post and probably not that many people are still reading, but I don't have writer's block - i've been writing an average of 2,350 words/week for the last two years straight (I checked the actual stats on ao3 haha. and that's only published fic, it would be higher if we included all the wips). i'm not blocked from writing, it's just i've been feeling quite sad, which for me looks like self hatred, so the unpleasantness of continuing on while the mean voice says very cruel things. the reason why i muse about writing so much is certainly because i find it interesting, but it's also that i'm always trying to figure out how to be better because i feel tormented by all the ways i suck.

with the way people talk about productivity on social media, I could tell you that my "hacks" are to try to write a bit before bed almost every day and have some longer writing sessions on fri-mon (weekends & work from home days haha), and to move around throughout the story to write what is most urgent and interesting to me, and to only start stories when I mostly know the ending, and to set deadlines for myself that i have to stick to, and to motivate myself by sharing with friends, and all of that is sort of true, but i can make myself do almost anything because i have a nonstop internal monologue telling me that if i don't, i'm worse than worthless.

the myth of productivity is that you can reach a point where you feel like you've done enough and you just have to keep pushing until you get there, but in fact that point never comes.

so i'll just end with that, because any time I talk about anything with an achievement orientation (writing more! writing better!), i want to acknowledge the full picture.

#thanks for this lovely message nonnie i am cheersing imaginary coffee mugs with you #replies #anon

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jungkoode · 3 months ago

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SLOW BURNS | ADDRESSING CONCERNS

Okay my sweet chaos gremlins (affectionate), let’s sit down for a second and talk because my inbox has literally exploded since chapter 11 dropped. Like, seriously, you guys need to chill—kidding, don’t chill, keep yelling at me, it's my favorite thing ever (ಥ‿ಥ)♡

I’ve noticed a pattern: a lot of you are READY TO FIGHT Jungkook for sleeping around, and some are also ready to gently shake Phoenix for not being furious about it. First of all, can I just say how much I absolutely adore that you're feeling frustrated about them? The fact you’re emotionally invested enough to threaten bodily harm (jokingly, I hope) means I’m doing something right. Go me~

But here’s the thing (puts on psychologist glasses dramatically): Fuck Me Up is, and always has been, a slow burn story. Like, really slow. PAINFULLY slow. I know this fanfic has over 60k words already and some of you are shaking me by the collar begging them to get their act together and kiss already, but babes—we're literally just warming up. Phoenix has only been in town for TWO WEEKS. They barely know each other. Right now, the extent of their emotional connection is basically "You're dumb but hot, let's bang." They’re not even friends yet. (I know, shocker.)

As a writer, my ultimate obsession is realism. Relationships, feelings—they don’t bloom overnight. Especially not when we’re dealing with emotionally traumatized gremlins like Jungkook and Phoenix. They're carrying around some pretty heavy baggage, so they need time. Realistically, people do a ton of shit without even understanding why. Phoenix doesn't understand yet why she insists on keeping things secret; Jungkook doesn't fully grasp why commitment is terrifying for him. They both think they know, but trust me—they don't really. People are rarely fully self-aware about their deepest motivations, at least not right away.

I promise I'm not torturing you for fun (okay, maybe a tiny bit). The slow pace is intentional—I want their relationship to feel earned. Every glance, every conversation, every annoying yet somehow endearing moment matters. I am planting seeds everywhere. There are breadcrumbs scattered throughout every chapter—small details, tiny moments that might seem insignificant now, but they'll mean a lot later. If you pay attention, you'll see pieces slowly click into place. This is my favorite thing to do, and I’m not changing it because you crave instant gratification (though mood, same).

Also! It’s normal and healthy for people—especially messy twenty-somethings—to fuck around and make dumb choices. That’s part of growing up, figuring out life, love, and themselves. People date and sleep around before finding their forever, and sometimes the person who ends up being your ride-or-die was right beside you all along—you just didn’t realize it yet. They’re just quietly there, blending into the background of your chaotic twenties until one day you’re like, “Oh shit, it’s you. It’s always been you.” That’s exactly what I’m portraying—real humans making questionable decisions because we’re all idiots when we’re young. It’s okay for Jungkook and Phoenix to be messy. It’s okay for them to frustrate you. Actually, it’s fantastic. That’s the realism I live for.

They'll get there eventually, but their journey isn't about just ticking off a trope because this is a Jungkook x reader fanfic. It’s about authentic, organic growth. When they finally get together, it'll feel real and right—not because they’re obligated to fall for each other, but because they've actually earned it through every struggle, misunderstanding, and quiet moment.

If you’ve checked my “About Me” section (and if you haven’t, literally zero hard feelings—I barely check those myself), you already know I’m absolutely fed up with rushed relationships in stories. Like seriously, I’m allergic to insta-love. I write slow burn, I breathe slow burn, I procrastinate slow burn (it’s a problem). Everything I write is painfully slow-paced, intentional, and deeply psychological because that’s just who I am as an author. Relationships take time and work. They require deep emotional processing, especially when your characters have as many issues as mine do. (Yeah, I’m looking at you, Jungkook. Therapy exists, bro, use it.)

And this isn't just an FMU thing—it's gonna happen in Kkangpae too. Characters doing things for each other unconsciously because feelings develop in sneaky ways is my whole-ass brand, okay? So buckle up. We're nowhere near finished, friends, and there’s a whole emotional rollercoaster ahead. (I did say I was psychologically fucked up, didn’t I?)

In short: Please trust the slow burn. Let it cook. Let it simmer. Let it emotionally devastate you gently, because that's what love and life and my stories are all about.

ILYSM for engaging with this mess. Keep the asks coming—I'm thriving on your frustration. (≖ᴗ≖✿)♡

#jungkook x reader #jungkook smut #jungkook fanfic #jungkook fic #bts fanfic #fmu #fuck me up #kgp #kkangpae #jungkoode

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abigailnussbaum · 5 months ago

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The Georgette Heyer Master List

Is it just me, or has Georgette Heyer kind of... gone away? Ten, maybe fifteen years ago, she was a name I'd hear quite often. Especially in the circles of science fiction and fantasy fandom that also overlapped with the avid readership of Jane Austen or Patrick O'Brian, she was often recommended as a sort of Austen methadone. Over at Tor.com, as it was then known, fantasy author Mari Ness did a whole season of reading through Heyer's voluminous back-catalogue. These days, even as romance writing—and especially Regency romance, the subgenre that Heyer arguably created—has gained enormous mainstream visibility, and as science fiction and fantasy romance has become its own wildly successful subgenre, Heyer seems to come up less and less. One might have expected the success of Bridgerton, for example, to inspire some film or TV adaptations of her books (it was, after all, the reason the Austen fanfic series Sanditon came back from being cancelled after its first season), but so far nothing.

This might be one of those cases where the answer is contained in the question. The reason fewer people are reading Heyer is that, although she more or less created Regency romance, there are so many people writing within it now that readers looking for something like Jane Austen, but not quite, have a lot of other options on offer. Which makes it easier to notice the problems with Heyer, or simply the ways in which her style has fallen out of fashion. There is no sex in her books (and no queerness, obviously), but there are poisonous sexual mores—all her heroes have had mistresses who are, quite obviously to them and everyone around them, not the sort of woman one marries, while her heroines, even at the moment of declaring their love to their HEA, feel obliged to "resist" any physical display of affection. Her books are rife with chauvinism, antisemitism, and most of all classism (and frankly, I think the only reason racism is absent is that everyone in these books is white), and while this is arguably more realistic than a lot of starry-eyed modern Regency romances, it is also a reflection of Heyer's own prejudices.

Still, I took in all those recommendations a decade or more ago, and while I may be slow I will usually get around to reading something if a lot of people tell me I should. In the last year I've ended up reading a lot of Heyer—mostly stuff I had in my enormous TBR, or found at a used bookstore, or at the local library, so there's not a lot of intentional choice happening here. I'm not here to say that Heyer is an overlooked gem. All those problems noted above are very much present in her writing, and in addition she has some favorite tropes that she goes back to again and again—in a mere twelve books, the plot strand in which one character is kidnapped across the channel to France, while another character pursues them, going deep into the logistics of finding them and catching them up, recurs a surprising number of times. But she's nevertheless a more interesting writer than I think is commonly acknowledged today, more likely to pay attention to the psychology of her characters (and not in the modern, sometimes quite exhausting, therapy-speak way), and more interested in her setting (Heyer also wrote historical fiction, and some of her romances shade into that genre). I dipped into some of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels this year as well, and I have to say, beyond the fact that Heyer is just a better writer, it's a bit more palatable to encounter nasty sexual politics in novels written in the 40s and 50s, than to have to accept that the implied threat of sexual violence is but a stepping stone to true love from a writer whose books were published only twenty years ago.

Below are some thoughts on the Heyer books I've read so far. I will add to them when and as I read new ones, though I think I will continue to leave the selection of those books to happenstance.

S-Tier

Cotillion (1953) - This is the first Heyer I ever read, and to an extent it has spoiled me for the rest of her writing by being such a high water mark. Kitty Charing has been informed by her guardian that she will be forced to marry one of his nephews, and instead decides to run off to the city to find her own match, with the help of gadabout Freddy. The two end up first pretending to be engaged, and then trying to throw Kitty in the path of eligible bachelors, while inevitably falling in love themselves. This is a great book first because it's extremely funny. Heyer had a great ear for the absurd slang of the fashionable London set, and gets a lot of mileage out of Kitty's cheerful refusal to let logic or common sense stop her, and Freddy's Regency himbo antics. More importantly—and rather rarely for Heyer's writing—Kitty and Freddy are true equals. They're both a bit silly and a lot sheltered, but also able to rise to the occasion when it's required, and they lock into each other's wavelength early in the novel and never let go. Inasmuch as they change each other, it's only in revealing that they are able to pull off audacious schemes when someone they care about needs them to, and you can imagine the two of them having a long, ridiculous partnership in crime for the rest of their lives.

Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle (1957) - Informed that Lord Sylvester, who has a bad reputation that is only partly earned, is about to propose marriage to her, Phoebe runs off with her best friend Tom. When the two of them run into trouble on the road, they are rescued by none other than Sylvester, which throws him and Phoebe together for extended periods, with predictable results. This format—older, powerful man; younger, sheltered woman—is one that Heyer returns to quite often, but it works better here than in any other of her novels. Sylvester isn't cruel or a rake; he's arrogant and high-handed, though often with some justification (most of his bad reputation comes from his self-absorbed, thoughtless sister-in-law). Phoebe isn't a naif, but an intelligent woman with a hidden career as an author that she's quite devoted to. The two of them develop a compelling friendship long before they fall in love, rooted in the fact that they are often the smartest person in the room, and able to help each other steer a tricky situation towards calm waters. The twist that threatens their relationship—before meeting him, Phoebe wrote a novel in which the villain was a thinly-veiled version of Sylvester—is highly original, and the novel's final act, in which Sylvester must pursue Phoebe and his kidnapped nephew into France, is one of the most hilarious sequences I've ever read. By the time the two get together, it's obvious that they could only be happy with each other.

Good

False Colors (1963) - Returning from his diplomatic post abroad, Kit Fancot discovers that his twin brother Evelyn has disappeared, right before he was about to propose to Cressida Stavely. Persuaded by his mother to impersonate his twin for one night, Kit quickly finds himself hosting Cressida and a whole raft of other characters in his country home, while trying to keep up the charade and, of course, keep from falling in love with Cressida himself. This is a book that's interesting more for the background than the main romance—Kit and Cressida are quite sweet, but more because they're a point of calm amidst the chaos of all their relatives and friends. But it's that chaos—especially Kit's mother, an airheaded inveterate gambler whom Kit nevertheless adores— that is the real source of the novel's fun. The fact that Kit and Cressida are able to put all the various crises around them to rest is what convinces you that they will be a good couple, but it's not their further adventures that you'd like to follow.

Charity Girl (1970) - While visiting relatives, Ashley Desford encounters Charity Steane, the penniless ward of a family who are mistreating her. When Ashley later finds Charity running away, he convinces her to let him try to find her a respectable situation, and places her with his childhood friend Henrietta Silverdale. In any other novel you'd expect Ashley and Charity to fall in love (and indeed this is what several characters in the novel assume—when they're not assuming something more salacious). Instead, Ashley's efforts to untangle Charity's family situation, get the best of her odious relatives, and find a safe place for her are a method of throwing him in company with Henrietta, whom he has for years insisted is only a friend. It turns out that Ashley and Henrietta, having rebelled against their families' plan to marry them off at a too-young age, have been shame-facedly pretending that they haven't fallen in love for ten years, and it's only by becoming jointly responsible for Charity that they can work their way around this predicament. The stakes aren't particularly high, but the scenario is original enough (especially for Heyer) to make this a worthwhile read.

Interesting

These Old Shades (1926) - Infamous rake Justin Alastair encounters a runaway, Léon, on the streets of Paris and takes him in as his page. It doesn't take long to realize that Léon is actually Léonie, but the untangling of her convoluted family history—a tale of swapped babies, mistaken identities, and false heirs—is the business of much of the novel, during which, of course, Justin and Léonie also fall in love. The potboiler plot is quite fun, as is Léonie herself—having pretended to be a boy for years, she is at once indifferent to the mores she's expected to adopt as a respectable young lady, and immediately won over by fancy clothes and balls, which allows her to triumph over opponents in both high and low society. But this can't quite get around the problem that Justin is twice Léonie's age, and also a pretty bad person (the character previously appeared in The Black Moth (1921), where he was the villain, and a subplot in These Old Shades even throws Justin into the company a woman he had kidnapped in the previous book). Despite the force of Léonie's argument that she actually wants to be with Justin, this is a book better enjoyed for its rollicking, adventurous middle than its romantic conclusion.

An Infamous Army (1937) - Heyer was simply mad for the Napoleonic wars, and this is one of several books she wrote set in and around them. As aristocrats and officers await the arrival of Napoleon's army in Brussels, Colonel Charles Audley encounters Lady Barbara Childe, a widow with a scandalous reputation. The two feel an instant, powerful attraction, but end up having to navigate Barbara's habit of playing games with her suitors, and Charles's impatience with them, before the battle of Waterloo erupts and forces them both to confront more pressing issues while also realizing the depth of their feelings for each other. It's nice to have a central couple who are older, more experienced people, but An Infamous Army steps away from Charles and Barbara quite often. Sometimes this is quite interesting—the absurdity of 18th century warfare, with Wellington throwing balls for the who's who gathered in Brussels while everyone debates when to flee the city—and at other points quite tedious—several subplots in which Charles's extended family play forgettable matchmaking games. In the end, however, Heyer's interest is in Waterloo itself, with the novel culminating in an 80-page, blow-by-blow description of the battle. This can sometimes be quite moving, when it captures the sheer extent of the carnage, or the confusion of individual officers. But mostly it's just descriptions of military tactics, which is not what I signed up for when I picked up a Regency romance. By the time Charles and Barbara find their way back to each other, you'll mostly be feeling exhausted rather than overjoyed.

A Civil Contract (1961) - Adam Deveril is called home from the peninsula by the news that his father, a viscount, has died, and that the family finances are in such dire straits that Adam may be forced to sell their ancestral estate. The only solution, Adam is quickly made to realize, is for him to marry rich, to which end he's introduced to Jenny Chawleigh, the daughter of a fantastically rich but boorish merchant. In most books we'd expect Adam and Jenny to fall in love, and it takes a while to realize that this is not going to happen. Adam continues to think wistfully about Julia, the woman he had been attached to before his finances made the idea of proposing to her impossible, and the narrative is at pains to point out that he doesn't feel any attraction towards Jenny. What A Civil Contract is about, instead, is class relations. The complicated push and pull between Adam and Jenny's father Jonathan as they negotiate one's social position, and the other's wealth; the delicate negotiations between Adam and Jenny as she learns to understand the importance of tradition to him, and he realizes that she is actually capable of being a great viscountess if he just trusts her a little. The whole thing is a lot more Edith Wharton than Jane Austen, with some great scenes in which Adam is torn between genuine appreciation of Jonathan's energy and intelligence, and disgust at his determination to tear down everything old and replace it with whatever is newest and most expensive. In the end, however, it's all a bit too bleak, and Heyer doesn't quite have the courage to let us sit with that. She tries to assure us that Adam and Jenny have found a genuine partner in each other, and that this, too, is a form of love, but this is not very convincing. In the hands of another author, A Civil Contract would have been the half-tragedy it actually is.

Meh

The Convenient Marriage (1934) - Intending to propose to the eldest Winwood sister, who is already in love with someone else, the Earl of Rule is persuaded, by her younger sister Horatia, to marry her instead. That's basically the story—a marriage of convenience for both parties that turns into a romance. But while in other books Heyer has made a meal of this premise, The Convenient Marriage never convinces you of either its lovers being especially suited to each other, or the rather thin obstacles it places in their path. There are some interesting worldbuilding details—some information about how the invitations to Almack's used to work, or about the mechanics and norms of duel-fighting. And towards the end, there are some good scenes in which Horatia has to outsmart a kidnapper, or her brother has to arrange a highway robbery to retrieve a stolen jewel that might destroy her reputation. But ultimately, the fact that this is all in service of a couple who aren't particularly engaging (and whose age difference—35 and 17—is hard to get over) makes the whole thing a bit of a slog.

Cousin Kate (1968) - Kate Malvern is at the end of her rope, having been chased off yet another governess position by an employer with wandering hands, when a long-lost aunt invites her to visit her country home. When Kate arrives, she soon realizes that her aunt Minerva plans to pressure her to marry her cousin Torquil, and that there are secrets in the estate and the family that are being kept from her. This is Heyer working in the Gothic mode, complete with an isolated great house, a young woman being manipulated and lied to, and a dreadful family secret. It's reasonably well done for what it is, but there were better authors than Heyer working in the Gothic mode—by 1968 you could have read something like Mary Stewart's The Ivy Tree (1961) or Nine Coaches Waiting (1958), both of which do much more interesting, innovative things with the Gothic form than Heyer is even attempting. Finally, there is the fact that the dark secret being kept from Kate has to do with mental illness, whose handling is as tragic and sensationalized as you might expect from this author and era.

Yikes

Devil’s Cub (1932) - The sequel to These Old Shades, this book centers on Justin and Léonie's son Vidal, who has all of his parents' faults and none of their charms. After killing a man in a duel, he schemes to run off with a silly middle class girl, whom he of course feels no compunction about ruining. When her sister Mary takes her place, Vidal is shocked to realize that he has compromised a "respectable" woman, and tries to convince her to marry him. There are further twists, but none of them can get around the fact that the main character of this book is odious, and that the supposed love story between him and the girl he has kidnapped and ruined is highly unconvincing. Not helping matters is that an older Léonie periodically appears to explain that her son has done nothing wrong and that marrying Mary will obviously be the best thing for him, which frankly feels too much like the voice of the author for comfort.

The Spanish Bride (1940) - Based on the real experiences of Captain Harry Smith and his Spanish war bride Juana, this is another novel deeply rooted in the minutiae of the Napoleonic wars, beginning on the peninsula and culminating, of course, in Waterloo. In itself this might simply be boring, but right off the bat we get a scene in which Harry and other officers stand back while their soldiers, enraged after the bloody siege of Badajoz, murder and rape their way through the town for several days. Harry's marriage to Juana is arranged in the wake of this atrocity as a means of protecting her, despite her being only fourteen years old. The rest of the novel is spent careening between detailed descriptions of various battles, and cutesy interludes between Harry and Juana as they settle into their marriage—Harry often exasperated by Juana's stubbornness and emotional outbursts (I don't know, man; if you didn't want a wife who behaves like a child, maybe you shouldn't have married a child); Juana almost slavishly devoted to him but also prone to jealousy and anxiety. (Harry Smith left copious journals so one assumes his side of the story is fairly realistic; Juana Smith's feelings on the whole matter are, as far as I know, lost to history.) The whole thing is alternately boring and gross.

The Grand Sophy (1950) - Charles Rivenhall is informed that his family will play host to their cousin Sophy, whose diplomat father is being sent abroad. Accustomed to keeping house for her father, Sophy quickly takes over the Rivenhall household, rearranging her cousins' financial and romantic lives while a stunned Charles is at first outraged, and then won over. This is a solid premise, but the execution is appalling. Sophy is a bulldozer who interferes in people's lives not because she cares about them but because she always thinks she knows better, and eventually she comes to feel more like a bully than a savior. That Charles is attracted to these qualities might be taken as a defensive trauma response (or, in the hands of a more open-minded author, a kinky tendency), but at no point did I even begin to believe that Sophy had any romantic interest in him (there are a number of Heyer characters who would make a lot more sense if they were queer, but Sophy, in particular, is so clearly a lesbian that the very idea of her happily married to a man breaks one's brain). Adding insult to injury is a lengthy sequence in which Sophy "defeats" an odious Jewish moneylender—read, a collection of poisonous antisemitic stereotypes in human form—whom her cousin has borrowed money from and who, completely unreasonably, expects to be paid back until Sophy threatens him with a gun. I will no doubt ruffle some feather by placing this book—generally held to be one of Heyer's best—so low, but reading it nearly put me off her for life.

#georgette heyer

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mightybog · 6 months ago

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Twenty Questions for Fanfic Writers

Thank you @liviapeleia for the asks <3!!

Tagging longtime frond @breadkween, fabulous runner of @merlinmicrofic @queerofthedagger (thank you!) and reader and writer who's left me lovely comments @achillesuwu. @mythandmagic, Ao3 is down rn so I can't check but if you have any fics yourself, here's an ask game for you! There's no obligation, presh or time limit of course! Also like @liviapeleia said before me, consider yourself tagged if you see this!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

265,960

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now just Merlin. I've written for other fandoms in the past but each of those works have been standalone.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Always His Destiny | Merlin | A true love's kiss, resurrection and golden age AU written for Glompfest 2024.

Like Every Tree Stands On Its Own | Merlin | A longfic inspired by other Arthurian media/sources featuring Wildman Prophet!Merlin and a magical forest. This is my magnum opus.

What's Mightier Than a Sword and Robs a Prince of His Servant? | Merlin | Pre-slash Merthur minor canon-divergence in which Merlin's talents in speech writing land him a promotion and Arthur is Not Pleased™.

Only Human | Venom | A short gift/exchange fic about masturbation, lol. The fic I received in exchange was also about masturbation. In my defence this was a writing exercise (I promise).

The Sky Is Falling | Nightvale | Unfinished fic about alcoholism recovery, love, community and the complete collapse of reality.

...Okay wow what a mix :D

5. Do you respond to comments?

I really love comments and I love getting into discussions with readers! It really makes my day to see that someone has commented on one of my fics.

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

Am I allowed to choose a soon to be published WIP? Words Are Dead, a microfic inspired by the Agnes Obel song of the same name in which Merlin and Arthur are unable to communicate when Arthur returns. Merlin has lost Brythonic, his first language, and his capacity to relearn it. He's simply been alive for far too long and his mind has suffered :(

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

Like Every Tree has a prolonged bittersweet kind of ending but I think Always His Destiny wins.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope/not yet!

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

Yes, though so far it hasn't been the focus of any of my works, there's no reason why that can't change though (the Venom one doesn't count, I make the rules here). As to what kind I'd say loving and intimate, I guess? Sometimes with a bit of a hurt/comfort element to it. Again, no reason why I can't branch out in the future ;)

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

While not labelled as a crossover, Like Every Tree was heavily inspired by Arthurian media both new and old, and one medieval Irish source. I did so much research for this fic and I'm still down those various rabbit holes. It was a homage to my favourite, janky cartoon movie from my childhood Quest for Camelot. Otherwise I don't write proper crossovers.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Don't think so.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also don't think so.

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

No but I would love to!

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

I guess it really has to be Merthur! I don't recall a ship ever having such a hold on me. Those two are doomed but made for each other. The way they interact is so much fun to read/write.

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

Damn, this is definitely Be Here When the Weather Turns, a Mushi-shi fic. It has a very soft, restful and liminal vibe and I adore it. I really do wish I can finish it someday. So sometimes like a song, you share a piece of media with someone, or you associate it with a particular chapter in your life, and that song/piece of media brings up feelings. I'd like to think it's still worth a read. If you don't know Mushi-shi, please consider checking it out, it was weird and quiet and beautiful.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I can't deny that I put a lot of love into this hobby. Also @breadkween has told me that they really like my dialogue :3

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm really prone to typos. I can re-read something a hundred times and just fail to see them. I'm a very slow writer; what I put out usually goes through months of edits and change-ups. Lastly I have embraced a faux-pas or two for fun, such as starting sentences with 'and.' And no one can stop me >:)

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

I'd only be comfortable writing dialogue in a language I've formerly learned and have some level of familiarity with for fear of getting something wrong.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Okay I love this question because the answer is the highly formative Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, a YA series I was obsessed with, and have continued to read, and re-read as an adult and as unexpected prequels and sequels popped up in more recent years. I wrote it on a literal floppy disk :D First fandom I wrote for that I actually published online was Undertale.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Definitely Like Every Tree. I'm just really proud of it :3

#ask game #Ao3 went down while writing this #I had to employ strange and unusual tactics to be able to paste in the links #merlin fanfic

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gloriousburden · 8 months ago

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A few types of MCU Loki fans I’ve encountered/noticed being in the fandom for over three years now:

DISCLAIMER: DON’T TAKE THIS TOO SERIOUSLY PLEASEEEE IT’S LIGHTHEARTED!! Some of these things apply to me as well, and some don’t lol. Doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone it’s all just for giggles.

The Lokius shipper Series Fan:

- Usually younger Gen Z. Can be anywhere from 14 to 23 years old. They’re younger teenagers most of the time.

- Heavily on TikTok but also on Pinterest/Twitter.

- Got into the MCU/Loki more recently. Either from the Series, or from Ragnarok.

- For some reason, wholeheartedly believes that one Tumblr post from like ten years ago that states Loki is 16/17 in human years. Even though that’s not canon at all and it does not work like that.

- Favorite depiction of Loki tends to be the Variant/Ragnarok. Sometimes Avengers.

- Almost ALWAYS a fan of Good Omens or OFMD.

- Obviously… Ships Lokius.

- Very anti Sylvie/Sylki, but LOVES Mobius.

- EXTREMELY anti Thorki, even though not a lot of people ship them anymore.

- Spreads a lot of misinformation. Such as taking the fact that Marvel confirmed that the Scepter influenced Loki, and mistaking that with them 100% confirming the theory of Loki being brainwashed by Thanos.

- Thinks Loki’s eyes are green???

- Newer to fandom in general.

- Doesn’t talk a whole lot about the series outside of the ships/fanon discourse.

- Making Loki tree/Yggdrasil jokes CONSTANTLY.

- Either thinks that Loki before the series was completely evil, or an angel. No in between.

- “For you, for all of us 🥺” / “Your savior is here!”

- Often forgets/doesn’t remember the fact that Loki/OG Loki are two different characters, and groups them together.

- Either a Swiftie who likes to constantly joke about when Taylor and Tom dated for 3 months like 8 years ago and also associates a lot of her Songs/Lyrics with Loki, or is someone who has a bit more of an Alternative taste in Music/Fashion.

- Doesn’t really talk about Thor that much, or really wants him and Loki to reunite.

- They’ve probably seen other movies including Tom like Crimson Peak, Skull Island, and High Rise. The more popular ones.

- Owns a lot of TVA related merch.

- “He’s not Odin’s son, or Laufey’s son… He’s Frigga’s son 🥺” or insists on calling Loki by “Laufeyson.”

- In Fanon, sort of treats Loki as a very normal, modern human, and not a god from an entirely different realm.

- Has either dropped the Series/their love of Loki a few months after the Series ended for the “next best thing”, or is currently still raving about all of it.

- Quite immature about other’s opinions/perspectives on Loki/or even people who ship the opposite ship from their own. This is mainly because they’re younger or because they really like their Fanon idea of Loki/Which ship should be Canon.

- Has some questionable headcanons/opinions of their own on Loki.

- Loves Frigga.

- Hates Odin.

The OG Loki fan who’s been a fan of him since 2011/2012, but is a bit more casual about his characterization:

- Usually a Millennial/in their late twenties or mid thirties. May even be in their fourties.

- Has been here for a good while, and saw just about every movie featuring him as well as other MCU movies in the theater when they first came out. Was probably a younger adult/older teenager when Avengers came out.

- Fanfic writer!!

- Favorite depiction of Loki tends to be Ragnarok, TDW, or Avengers.

- Mainly reside on Tumblr/AO3 but also on Twitter from time to time.

- “The Sun will shine on us again.” / “Love is a Dagger.”

- Some depict Loki in their Fanfics in a Smutty/BookTok YA Fantasy Novel style. Some in other ways. They also have a lot of fun with their Fics! So many AUs.

- They are carrying the Loki x Reader tag, I won’t lie. 🫡

- Doesn’t necessarily love the Series, but also doesn’t necessarily hate it. Does prefer the OG Loki they know and love over the Series and had a few disappointments with the Series, though.

- MAJOR Hiddlestoner. Some may like Tom more than they like Loki. Have watched his entire filmography and then some.

- A lot of them have really cool Loki related tattoos.

- Collects a lot of merch. Both from the Series, as well as more OG Loki merch. Also owns about fourty Tom magazines.

- Probably has met Tom/owns an autograph or something signed by him.

- Usually ships Loki with Sigyn, Jane, Tony, or an OC they’ve had since 2013. Honestly, I don’t personally see them that often anymore, but may ship Thorki. Does not really ship Lokius/Sylki whatsoever, or uses Sylvie as a bit of a self insert in Fics.

- Sometimes also a huge fan of Bucky/The Winter Soldier or Sebastian Stan. Associates Bucky and Loki a lot especially in Fics.

- Some are also fans of Star Wars who love Kylo Ren.

- Actually they like a lot of other morally grey characters.

- Probably has a pet named after Loki.

- Feels deeply for Loki, and relates to him in certain ways. Really likes humanizing him in their fics. Loves the more vulnerable side of him.

- Loves Frigga.

- Hates Odin.

The Loki purist/“He’s literally me” Fan:

- Anywhere from 16 - 28 years old. May be a bit older than that. Usually Mid/Older Gen Z, or younger Millennial.

- Has either grown up loving Loki, or became a fan a bit more recently.

- Favorite depiction of Loki tends to be TDW, but obviously can be any of the three OG depictions of him.

- LIVES on Tumblr. A bit of an extinct species elsewhere, but some may also be on Twitter.

- #1 Loki defenders. Very protective of/sensitive about how he is depicted not only in Canon, but also in Fanon. Usually deemed as harsh by series fans/non series haters whenever they criticize the Series or Ragnarok, but in reality, deeply relates to Loki and takes it very personally when he is depicted inaccurately. They see themselves in him, and are so, so, SO tired of seeing him mischaracterized. But also can be genuinely harsh at times. I’ve been guilty of that.

- Either heavily believes the “Thanos Brainwashed Loki” theory, or completely rejects it.

- “I never wanted the Throne. I only ever wanted to be your Equal.” / “Trust my Rage.”

- Very creative. Creates Art of Loki, Fanfics, Edits, Cosplays him, etc…

- Sometimes weirdly resembles him in ways??? LOL. Taking “He’s literally me” literally

- Has a more Alternative taste in Music, Fashion, Aesthetics, etc..

- They either see Loki as their bff, their life partner, or as an enigma to observe. Or all of the above.

- Pretty into Norse Myth, and likes incorporating aspects of it creatively, or when talking about Loki.

- Has a good amount of Fandom experience, and does not tend to argue with other Loki purists/OG Loki fans over petty things. Because at the end of the day… it’s just Tumblr. And we usually all have a common middle ground. Or, is constantly arguing with others.

- They don’t really ship Loki with anyone, but if they do… it’s usually Sigyn or Thor. Or someone really random.

- Either really enjoys depicting Loki in a more Feminine/Neutral form, and wishes his fluidity was depicted in the MCU, or doesn’t talk about it all that much.

- Single handedly keeping the memory of Loki (prior to Ragnarok) alive. 🫡

- Loves the comics, or hasn’t touched a single one.

- Disliked Taika Waititi before it was cool.

- Lost complete trust in the MCU after the handling of Loki’s characterization in Ragnarok, and had no hope in the Series when it was first announced. Or… really hoped it would be our last hope.

- Either deems Thor as the origin of all evil, or actually likes him.

- Wishes it was still 2013 everyday of their lives.

- Either respects/likes Tom to a certain extent, or really does not like him.

- Has a few really cool merch items, or has a lot of everything and anything they can find that doesn’t include Ragnarok/The series. Usually, they DIY their merch.

- Needs to emulate him at any given moment and in any way possible.

- Likes Frigga, but acknowledges that she has messed up in ways. Or really does not like her, period.

- Hates Odin.

The… Male MCU casual/dudebro who strictly lives on TikTok/Instagram/Twitter and did not really like Loki that much until the Series finale came out and thinks Loki is a Sigma Male who dropped everything in order for his friends and his… “Girl” to live:

- ????? Wtf

- Okay I added this one more as a joke because obviously they’re not Loki fans, but…

- Anywhere from ages 15, to 24. No older than that.

- Definitely disregarded Loki’s character before the Series. Also due to him having a fanbase where Women/Girls are the majority. Now Loki is the best MCU character and has the best arc out of everyone else. 🤦🏻‍♀️

- Wholeheartedly believes that Loki was a narcissist/was overreacting about everything he’s been through, or believes that Loki is an angel now because he had a “Redemption Arc”.

- Has never picked up a single Loki comic.

- Jokes a lot about Loki “loving” himself (Sylki kiss).

- Calls the Series “Peak Fiction” just because the rest of the bullshit the MCU has been putting out was absolute garbage, and also because they haven’t really watched anything else.

- If you as an actual Loki fan correct them on any of their bullshit, they act like they know more than you because they loved the series. How could anyone hate it?

- Makes self insert memes/tries to project onto Loki in the absolute worst ways possible.

- Worships the ground that Michael Waldron walks on. Though, they all hated Multiverse of Magic..

- “Let time pass…” / “I know what kind of god I have to be. For you, for all of us.” (Once again.)

- Similarly to our Lokius shipper Series Fans… they do not realize that Loki/the Variant are literally two different people.

- Loves Mobius JUST because he is portrayed by Owen Wilson.

- Also very annoying about Loki being confirmed bisexual in the Series.

- Really wants not only Thor and Loki to reunite, but also Hela.

- Hated the earlier Thor movies, loved Ragnarok, hated Love and Thunder.

- Probably thinks the treatment of Thor in Endgame was funny af.

- Who’s Frigga?

- Loves Odin probably. (Hehe)

#all jokes #loki #mcu #loki mcu #loki fandom #mcu fandom #fandom #loki odinson #loki laufeyson

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darkwitch1999 · 12 days ago

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TOTAL DRAMA RE-WRITE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!!!

Hey there, everyone! Hope everybody has been doing well in the new year! (I'm pretty sure I haven't made a new post since 2024. Time just flies by y'know). As you probably guessed from the title of this Tumblr post, I am in the works of making a rewrite fanfiction of Total Drama Island!

I actually started writing a rewrite of Total Drama Island and Total Drama Revenge of the Island in what feels like a decade ago but most likely it was only five or so years ago or something, but I never got to finish them because I got busy with college and I just hit major writer's block in general (probably didn't help that I added a lot more characters in both fanfictions.) I still have both of the original fanfics posted on Wattpad and AO3 if anybody is interested in checking them out (they are under the same username).

Anyway, I've always wanted to finish a Total Drama Rewrite series of my own after being inspired by other authors' rewrite, but I lacked the motivation to finish them.....until now! So far, the cast is going to be made up of twenty-four characters. Eight character from the original cast, eight from the Revenge of the Island cast, and eight from an OC cast that I will either be creating myself or asking others if they would like to have their OCs featured in my rewrite, with credit being given to them of course. While I don't have a complete list of characters that will be featured in my rewrite series, I currently have a list of "Non-Negotiable Characters" who will be featured no matter much hate they may or not get:

Non-Negotiable TD Characters List

Owen

Heather

Noah?

Duncan

Courtney

Mike

Zoey

Dawn

Cameron

Lightning

Brick

These are the characters I have so far for the rewrite cast. Currently I have two spots open for the Island cast and one spot left for the Revenge of the Island cast. While I definitely still have a lot of options to consider for the island cast, I'm kind of leaning more towards adding B as the last character of the revenge of the island cast, but the decision is not final as I have considered other plotlines to write in this rewrite (the plan is to not only write a Total Drama Island rewrite, but I also plan to continue with Action and World Tour as well). I would love to hear y'alls opinions on this cast and who you would like to see added in the rewrite series.

Well, that's all for now folks. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments or ask me any questions. I'll keep you updated on how the series is coming along and post the final cast list when I make the final decision.

@booksrbetterthanpeople @msweebyness @imsparky2002 @thetwistedarchives @miraculousfan1232 @t-bird510 @nerdy-chocomallow @eillanu @miraculousladygirl2003 @dragicani @eternalstarlitwonderland

#total drama #Total drama rewrite #rewrite au #total drama heather #total drama owen #total drama island #total drama mike #total drama zoey #total drama cameron #total drama dawn #td noah #td courtney #td duncan #td jo #td lightning #td brick #ask anything #share your thoughts #announcement

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iovestuck · 5 months ago

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YOUR FAVS TAG GAME 2024

I have made this in my old account and decided to make a end of 2024 one so here you go! Feel free to do your own one if you wish to! I would love if you could tag me in so I can see what's yours favs and such!

rules are simple! Answer the questions that are provided, and feel free to tag the users or link their stories like how I did. Any K-pop readers & writers can join! Tag your friends and followers to join! Have fun!

what are your favorite fanfic(s) you read

vanilla coconut [kim sunoo] - gyuuberryy

tied up in you [nishimura riki] - senascoop

pancakes & champagne [sim jaeyun] - neoras

toxic until the end [nishimura riki] - haruahungs

do you think I'm fragile [lee heeseung] - just-nc-tea

the same heart [nishimura riki] - babeyun

is it new year yet? [yang jungwon] - hoonven

love like the movies [yang jungwon] - won4kiss

fade into you [lee heeseung] - i2sunric

love-batter [lee heeseung] - heegyukeluv

wrongful rejection [nishimura riki] - luciathcv

what are the cutest fanfic(s) you read?

smiley eyes [sim jake] - mochiwonz

in sickness and in health [park jongseong] - lcvclywon

sulking when he has to leave for work [lee heeseung] - jaysng

enha & the little things they do [enhypen] - heelix1r

what fanfic(s) do you think should get more recognition/hype?

when i was your man [lee heeseung] - iovestuck

twenty [yang jungwon] - iovestuck

feeling a bit shy [park jongseong] - iovestuck

love languages [txt ot5] - iovestuck

aka my works lol-

What are your favorite fanfic authors?

senascoop [enhypen]

mochiwonz [enhypen]

gyuuberryy [enha & txt]

tinietaehyun [txt]

milkbobatyun [multi-fandom]

jjunberry [multi-fandom]

which author or reader or whoever do you admire/adore the most and why? You may promote their account and work, too!

hmm, that's a good question past me. Well, the people I listed above and more first of all. That's cause they are literally ones of the best writers in Tumblr! They deserve all of the support and love they can get! I love their works so much and will always support them! All writers are the best that I have seen/read/etc!

Also, me. Lol, self-promoting myself because I'm not a popular writer yet. I am still growing, of course, and learning too! I will do my best to create a space/place for those who wished a place where you can feel comfortable and can read fics whenever you want! I hope my kindness shines brighter than any of my flaws. I hope my kindness and comfort are the ones people talk about. Something like "Do you remember that kind and sweet writer that I feel comfortable with on Tumblr?" That's my real dream in Tumblr. To be remembered as that kind and sweet writer/friend on Tumblr that everyone feels so comfortable with. I love having 1k followers and people interacting with me, but being that kind of person is my main goal and dream. Hehe.

tag: anyone who wants to join! (Pls do join)

#╰ 💭 ．tag games #enhypen fanfic #txt fanfic #kpop #kpop fanfic

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sunny374940 · 2 months ago

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20 questions for fanfiction writers

I saw this on my dash when @bygonesigh answered it and it looks like fun (hello, I enjoyed reading through your answers <3). So here are twenty answers from me that no one asked for :D

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

Okay let's see... 38. Wow. That sure is something, considering I only started writing last December.

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

97 572. More than I expected.

3) What are your top five fics by kudos?

I would like to make you blush, if I may (emmrook smut. I am not surprised)

I will rip the world apart for you (oh, I like this one, it's about Rook getting kidnapped by Venatori and Emmrich going ballistic)

Tell me I'm yours (emmrook smut again)

Let me show you how beautiful you are (yet more emmrook smut, there seems to be a theme here. Emmrich gets praised in this one and I actually liked it when I reread it just now, even though I'm usually too embarrassed to reread my own smut :D)

Patience, darling (and... more emmrook smut)

Okay this is funny cause I've written nine smut fics and four of them are in my top five. The readership is clear on where my qualities lie I suppose.

4) What fandoms do you write for?

Dragon Age. I have never written fanfic before Veilguard came out, but it just Gripped me and I had to start writing. And now I'm deep into my original fantasy story as well. This is all great fun.

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

Of course I respond to comments, it gives me life. It's so great to be able to talk about the stories I write with others (which is why I make it a point to leave comments on everything I read in turn).

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

Ooo. The one where I killed Emmrich dead. And Rook too. It's this one: I will be waiting with open arms. I made myself cry writing it. But it has a happy ending anyway, because I am literally incapable of a bad one. (They see each other in the afterlife again. Amd they were Old when they died. So there's that.)

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

Wow, that's a tough one. All my fics end happily, so it depends, I guess. Possibly the emmrook wedding, if we're going by character happiness. It's When I see your light shine, I know I'm home. There are happy tears, so I guess it qualifies.

8) Do you get hate on fics?

No, happily. Though it boggles my mind that it's a thing people do. Like why would someone waste their time reading something they don't like and then go to the effort of telling the author that?

9) Do you write smut?

Yep. And I am terribly embarrassed about posting it every single fucking time. I wonder if that feeling ever goes away. But the fics seem to go over well, as established by the amount of kudos. So I guess I'm doing fine in that regard.

10) Do you write crossovers?

Not as of yet. But I had no clue I would be writing original fiction either, so... who knows what the future might bring.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I very much hope not.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

13) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nope. But who the hell knows what might happen. I certainly don't.

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

Hm. Tough one. Right now it's definitely emmrook, but adoribull will always hold a special place in my heart. I love those dorks.

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

Oh I will finish them all one day, it will just take a terribly long time. The one suffering the most right now is the emmrook honeymoon though, I have two chapters posted, two more half written and three more to go and I keep getting sidetracked.

16) What are your writing strengths?

Writing feels? I enjoy those. And I like writing dialogues, those are fun. And I have been told I can write a good panic attack.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Fucking sentence length my beloathed. I keep making my sentences the same length and rhythm and it reads so annoyingly clipped. Also I am unable to use the comma properly.

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I would likely fuck it all the way up. It's enough to be writing in my my second language as it is, I keep wondering if I'm messing something up :D but so far so good, apparently. I don't mind reading dialogues in another language though.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I have never been caught by such a need to create before and it's amazing.

20) Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

That is a very difficult question. Gotta go check them out... Kay I'm back and indecisive. But maybe I missed you, little brother, in which Rook's sister comes to yell at him for not letting her know he has a daughter. It's a very nice blend of funny and sweet and I actually made myself laugh and cry reading it just now.

Okay so this was fun and I am throwing no pressure tags at my darlings again. @lavender-tea-fling, @spinfins, @sorrowsfallallarpund, @mercars-musings, @redheadsramblings, @starfleetteddybear

#20 questions for fanfiction writers #tag game

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hollow-lime-green · 5 months ago

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AO3 Wrapped (hana's version)

Since I just did the fanfic writer interview post a while back, this will be short (although I love to yap so send me asks if there's anything you want to hear me yap about RE my writing this year). I'm going to keep it short - something I've never done before! New Year New Me.

Words Written: 139.8k (about 3 great gatsbies, I think)

Works Published: 5! All in the FIYM verse!

Fastest Work (per word): string theory

Slowest Work (per word): 2sorcs chapter 12, probably

Number of WIPs I'm Taking into 2025:

1 posted (2sorcs) I really really really wanted to finish 2sorcs this year, but alas, I did not. But then I'll be able to say I've been writing 2sorcs for two years!

4 in the drafts, also all for the FIYM-verse (man I should write other things)

Favorite Character to Write: Nanami!

I use him sparingly because his narration will get old if I overdo it, but it's such a delight to write him sometimes. As the straight man of 2sorcs, he gets to be an outlet for me to say "look, I know this inconcievably gay situation has jumped the shark multiple times, I know this is ridiculous."

Favorite Moment(s) I've Written:

"The Mario Bros Bully Sailor Satoru"

Kenjaku Reveal

Malevolent Kitchen as a real cooking show (based on Cutthroat Kitchen, which is my Roman Empire)

Hardest Thing I've Written:

The missions in 2sorcs, not even close. Oh my goodness that was such a bitch to write. I just wasn't happy with it for such a long time, until finally it clicked for me and I figured out what I wanted to do.

Some of my Favorite Lines and Jokes:

From string theory -

“...You’re self-conscious?” Suguru stares at him like he’s grown a second head. But Satoru feels like he isn’t even working with one functioning brain at this point, let alone two. I know I’m not the shape of someone you could love. “I…” Satoru bites his lip. He shrinks back as Suguru settles next to him on the bed. Please don’t hate me for wanting to pretend.

From 2sorcs -

“Maybe,” Suguru shrugged. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.” “Mmmm. Very panopticon of you.” Panopticon? Suguru considered himself bisexual, but he was kind of fluid with labels.

also

You see, Kenjaku was not an artist, Kenjaku was a patron of the arts. Best to let the real artist work his craft. Of course, Kenjaku had theories about the plot. Multiple theories, in fact. These ‘anime-onlies’ (so to speak) were so invested in what would happen to their precious Starks, while true manga fans (in a sense) like Kenjaku were already well into arguing (on online forums) about the identity of Azor Ahai, The Warrior of Light, The Son of Fire, wielder of Lightbringer, the Prince That Was Promised. Anyway, if the old man didn’t get his shit together, Kenjaku would have to take steps. They had connections. All it would take would be a few galas, a donation here and there, and they’d be in the writers’ room by Season 7.

From relativity (I just posted this yesterday, so check it out if you haven't) -

Because every top in gay porn is some muscle hunk with a buzz cut, twenty tribal tattoos, and enough oil on their bodies that George W. Bush would accuse them of hiding WMDs in their pants. (And he’d be right).

This list is mostly inspired by @fushiglow's wrapped post! (Also thanks for the tag @marichild - since I have only really been writing in one ship/fandom this year, that set of question/answers wouldn't have been super interesting to read for my stats, probably).

#jjk fanfic #writing #fanfic #fire in your mouth

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someotherdog · 3 months ago

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hey y'all. long time no see, sorry for my absence. unfortunately due to just... the general state of the world i have absolutely no desire to write a word. :/ i'm trying to get my muse back but i can't even force myself to read other people's work anymore even tho my tbr book list is like waist-high. (i did however finish my first quilt, it looks like shit but at least i'm not completely unable to express myself through art... small mercies) so i'm very sorry to anyone that's waiting on a reply from me, i truly can't say when i'll be able to write back so i understand if anyone wants to drop a thread or break mutualship. i'm gonna explain some more under the cut but no one is obligated to read it, i just don't have anywhere else to put my feelings.

2025 is my twentieth anniversary of roleplaying. of course i haven't actively roleplayed every single month of every year, there were a lot of long breaks, some even more than a year or so, but collectively yeah it's been since 2005 that i've roleplayed in some fashion or another. whether here on tumblr for the last ten years, or on sites like roleplayer.me (which i often dream about for some reason?) or myspace or even those forum boards way back in the day. so it's been part of my life longer than it hasn't. after my father died when i was a kid, i basically had free rein of the internet and eventually stumbled upon rp during my harry potter phase when i saw a myspace profile for padma patil and was like 'huh she's a fictional character?' and basically it just snowballed from there.

rp has been kind of a secret shame i've had, i've only told like two people in real life about it; i basically just describe it as 'collaborative writing' when i get even close to explaining what i'm doing on my phone or computer all the time, and tbh i rarely get close enough to anyone irl for anyone to ask, my family's just used to me being so secretive, but i don't volunteer that information to acquaintances or anything. idk why i'm so embarrassed of it, it's really not a big deal, but it just makes me feel like a loser somehow. idk. i guess because for a very long time, it was my only outlet and only way to socialize, so it and the internet in general was my only lifeline when my agoraphobia was at its worst. i guess i just feel that i should've been at the club instead of writing replies that don't matter, basically shouting into the void besides the writing partner in question and maybe like one or two random people that may come across my blog, but i didn't want to be at the club. i don't want to be at the club. my life has been pretty shit my entire life but i don't want any other life. not really.

so as i approach twenty years, i've been thinking a lot about retiring. not that i want to stop writing, muse permitting, but that at some point, i will have to stop roleplaying. i know that on other sites like jcink, it's normal for writers to keep roleplaying into their forties, but here on tumblr, there is a ceiling. a point where people stop putting their actual age and go with 20+, 30+, etc because no one wants to write with someone who is old. i know that a lot of people go on to write while having partners and kids, two things that are very very unlikely for me, but at some point whether we want to stop or not, we will just log off one day and... never return. we won't have time anymore, or we can't find anyone to write with, or just a sudden indifference, but eventually it all ends. and i don't really want it to end, despite my lack of inspiration. i just can't really imagine my life without roleplay, but i know that it will end, that i'll just run out of time or interest or feel too old for it (tho i don't feel like there are really... new younger roleplayers anymore, at least not so much on tumblr), but i find that prospect really scary. to have something be part of my daily life for twenty years and for it to just... go away.

i actually reread a fanfic i wrote in 2010/2011 last week. it made me a little sad because i was just a baby when i wrote it and i was so, so, so lonely at the time of writing it, but it was also a time when i didn't know it was should've not should of (lol) and i also plagiarized IT by stephen king for a single line (it must've been what i was reading at the time) but the bare bones of the way i write now was in it. the language was a little simplistic, but my tone of voice was in there. and it just made me feel bad for seventeen year old me because i'm still doing this. but i don't want to stop doing this, but i know at some point i will need to.

it doesn't help that i haven't felt inspired to write a narrative sentence in weeks. i go through dry spells and writer's block frequently, but this one has felt so much different than before. i'm stressing out a lot about politics (obviously) and also i've been having a lot of health anxiety. mostly about bird flu and the morality rates for cats, because i work a public facing job where i interact with hundreds of people a week, and while i mask at work and frequently wash my hands/use hand sanitizer, and i also never let my cats out or feed them raw food, there's still a risk of tracking it into my house on my shoes or my dogs bringing it in after going outside (tho that's not very often bc it's very cold in the midwest and they're not breeds that love snow) and after i had to put down my cat last summer, i truly fear losing my cats now after only having them for six months because i lost my soul cat after eight years together and it just wasn't enough. i also have health anxiety due to, as mentioned, my father's death at a young age and i've been basically having daily panic attacks. it's just creatively sapped me when my inspiration is fickle enough and generally only comes in short bursts (that's what she said). it makes me sad to not write, and when i look in my drafts for something that might inspire me, i just get overwhelmed because there's so many replies i've let sit for months. so i know anyone would say mental health over replies, but when my mental health is just so bad lately no matter what i do... idk it just feels like a bottomless pit or something. it doesn't help that i had a really bad group rp experience last year lmao but that's a story for a different day. so it's just made me question and ruminate a lot, and while i know i need help, i just don't have the money either to take care of myself in that way. i feel very stuck, but at least i'm not agoraphobic anymore? but it's kind of strange because i miss it so much sometimes. it feels sick to miss my metaphorical cage, but i do.

so anyway if you actually read all of this, i really commend you for being a trooper. thank you for listening if you did! and again sorry if you're waiting on any replies from me, i hope to be back soon.

#an american werewolf in traffic ( ooc. )#mental health tw #health anxiety tw #death mention tw #politics tw

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