#also most of these are written by 15 year olds so why am i surprised lol

[cinoman]

astrology observations on tumblr be like:

people with moon in the 5th house are SUCH good listeners, they'll drop everything they're doing just to make sure you feel heard

having sagittarius 8H could mean that the native finds peace in traveling to graveyards

people with saturn opposing venus may struggle with being objectively beautiful

people with leo suns tend to dress in bright colors

source? trust me bro. the leo sun in my class only wears bright colors

[starstruckodysseys]

20 questions for 20 writers !!

thank u to @localdisasterisk for tagging me in this! i honestly do not know how many writers i follow so um. ill tag my pibe fic besties @wheelsupin-azarathmetrionzinthos @angelwiththeblue-box @fatestitcherr @incorrect-play-it-by-ear and the rest of u can fight amongst yourselves

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

48. i don’t know if its more concerning that almost half of them are from the past five months or that almost half are play it by ear. its the same almost half but still

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

143,389. woof

3. what fandoms do you write for?

obviously play it by ear. everyone knows that. also d20 occasionally and project sekai. unfortunately

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

toya and mizuki’s step by step guide to romancing a shinonome — i will be so real with you guys i specifically crafted this one to be popular. and then i fell in love with it along the way. but it did start as a science experiment

let me take you with me (just like this) — WHY. this is my second pjsekai fic and my fourth fic ever posted. it’s not at all reflective of my current style. help

kiss it better — yeah. same issue as the other one. this one’s better though lmao

say you miss me (say you want to kiss me) — honestly? just impressed a honakana fic made it up this high. love my girlies

the moon is crumbling (but that’s okay) — yeah everyone pretend to be surprised the ruikasa fic got this high up. it was a new concept for me, though, so i’m pretty proud of that

5. do you respond to comments?

i used to, but not really anymore unfortunately. to be fair, i will point you all to the fact that most of my recent fics are pibe, and then to the discord where we all scream about them together

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

i don’t usually. write sad endings. bc i don’t like them. okay that’s not true i just usually don’t. i guess the moon is crumbling?? if i had to choose?? it’s more bittersweet than anything, but people did say they cried, so…

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

99.9% of my fics are getting together fics. it’s just the same ending a million different ways. you tell me

8. do you get hate on your fics?

not publicly!

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

i would simply be too powerful if i could. this is for your safety actually

10. do you write crossovers?

in the sense of characters across universes/media interacting? no. in the sense of “i am going to put my blorbos in every single other setting i slightly enjoy”? absolutely. putting them under a microscope. researching and recording how they react to their surroundings

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i simply do not think there is a demand for my fics in other languages. not in like a depressing way, it’s just that i’m writing for like five people including myself, so. yknow

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

no, but if someone wanted to… 👀

14. what’s your all time favorite ship?

i’ve never written for them (yet, at least), but by sheer volume and span of time i have to say souyo persona4. my silly boys. i’ve never scoured the entire tag for a ship multiple times on ao3 like i have for them. i have so many thoughts about them that have never seen the light of day but they exist!!

15. what’s a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

stares awkwardly at feed your anger like fire… i’ve tried!! but it turns out that sometimes you get stuck on clothing designs and stop writing and then lose passion for the project and then stop updating for three years because you were too ambitious and also you hate your old writing style. not that i would know anything about that

16. what are your writing strengths?

i think i’m really good at dialogue, or at least banter. unfortunately this makes me very judgmental but that’s not important. also i can create a vibe well i’ve been told

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

in general? i SUCK at character description, or at least knowing where and when to place it. i also always worry about characterization and if my characters sound too similar

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

i used to read so many fics that centered around using another language (shoutout bmc fandom when i was. in that. a dark period of my life, but alas) and honestly if it’s done well i think it’s cool!! i’m not going to get into the intricacies of bilingualism on account of being an english only speaker but it is rad to me

19. first fandom you wrote for?

wrote for? probably warriors. yes the cats. i had a whole fanfic for my oc. shoutout to… honestly i don’t remember her name but she was a real one! wrote for and posted is another story, by which i mean i don’t remember At All. probably bandori tbh, bc i don’t remember if i posted fanfic on my wattpad

20. favorite fic you’ve written?

either the venn diagram of curses and crushes (which is still my favorite fic title ever) or soaking in the glory. one of them is a 3k word expedition into the play it by ear canon space and the other is a 7k word fever dream i went into a fugue state to write in two days. honorable mention to the like the sweetest cup of chai series which i hold so close to my heart. silliest besties of all time

[void-of-unparalled-chaos]

This whole civil war on reading vs not reading comics is baffling to me. Like honestly this whole arguement is stupid.

Full disclosure before people come after me: I am a comic reader! I love reading comics (although I havent been able to read nearly as many as I would like)

Anyway yeah my whole 2 cents on this.

On one hand, I get why avid comic readers are annoyed. You're favorite character being what you perceive as wildly misinterpreted and being unable to find the content you want is annoying. But also it's so easy to just... click off? Like no one is forcing you to read it, just go find a different work instead of complaing to the author or whatever.

Also, comic characters have been written and rewritten by so many people and have had so many changes to their storylines and personality that a lot of stuff being argued as "not canon" very likely could have been at some point! And that's not even talking about other media like shows and movies.

The first example that comes to mind is Superboy (Conner "Kon" Kent). Comic Kon and Young Justice Cartoon Kon are drastically different in both personality and appearance. Comic Kon is the most bisexual coded person I've ever seen and Cartoon Kon is a grumpy asshole who looks like he stepped straight out of bootcamp. But guess what? Regardless of which one you like most both are canon in DC!

As far as I'm concerned, comic timelines and characters are a mess with or without other media types and we should be allowed to pick and choose whatever traits we want from it. Do I want Kon to have bisexual hair? Yes! Am I ignoring that Batman beats his kids in some runs? Also yes!

And because I saw a few complaints like these once before I'm going to address them.

"Character A can't be into this. It only happened like 1 time in the comics!"

Yeah but it happened. If people want to take that little hint of a trait and expand on it then power to them!

"Character A never actually had this role or did this so stop writing them like that!"

It's called a headcanon or an AU. This may be surprising to you, but both of these are common in fandom spaces. If that headcanon or AU is popular it's because people obviously like it. That person may not be you, and that's fine too! Just let them have their fun and leave to read something else.

And I'm not claiming to be innocent in all this btw! Lord knows I get loud and angry about many MCU fans' interpretation of Jake Lockley from Moon Knight. That being said, the reason I'm loud and angry isn't just "oh they made him less friendly and changed some personality traits". Its the fact that they interpret him as an "evil" alter which perpetuates hateful stereotypes about a very real and very stigmatized disorder with very little decent representation. The whole "Jake is an evil bloodthirsty alter" spreads those fearmongering ideas and has the potential to harm actual systems in the long run whether it's intended to or not. Disclaimer: I am not a system, but I do try my best to listen to what they have to say. By all means listen to their opinions on the situation over mine.

Even so, I don't go and yell directly at those creators. I click off. I don't have to read or look at their stuff if I don't want to.

Another complaint from comic readers I see a lot is "oh but it's so easy for them to just pick up a comic and read it! They are just being lazy/stubborn/etc." And honestly...

It's really not!

It took me YEARS to start reading comics because it was so overwhelming and I had no one to help me. Keeping track of all the comic runs is hard enough let alone actually finding and reading them. Comics are simply not well organized and it's hard to find a part to jump into when so many of them rely on prior knowledge.

"Well ask somebody who works at a comic bookstore!"

I did. He had no answers for me and looked like he would rather be talking to literally anyone else instead of a clueless 15 year old girl. Stepping into spaces like that can be intimidating in itself for a variety of reasons, let alone trying to ask for help. Online it's not always much better. So many people won't give an honest recommendation and others won't be specific enough. Many comic runs have similar titles, and honestly it's best if you just know the name of the writer.

Trying to break into comics is just genuinely difficult for a lot of people depending on their situations whether it be enviornmental, financial, or mental.

Also you can't just force someone to read the comics! If they don't want to and just want to watch the shows or absorb fanon content then that's their preference! You don't have to interact with it! Am I saying that no one should read comics? No! But I am saying that not everyone has the same accessibility and the way some comic readers treat these people isn't doing favors. Attacking them over stuff and getting annoyed at them isn't going to encourage them to pick up a comic and read it but rather push them away from something really fun.

Okay now that's out of the way, time for me to turn my sights on the "not reading" camp.

You can't just attack people for suggesting canonical content under your prompts. Unless they are being a dick about it. Then you can go ham. But if someone is coming in like "hey btw A is a thing that happens canonically and it might be fun to do!" then there is no reason for you to act like they just ate your baby!

It is also not completely unreasonable for someone to simply suggest that you try out a comic or two (provided that they are being polite and are actually willing to help you with clear reccomendations). There is no reason for you to get pissy at them, just as it is not a requirement for you to take up their advice. If you don't want to read it or can't currently that's fine, but just know that you have the potential to be introduced to something you really enjoy and that consuming canon content will more than likely help you with your writing!

[sasheneskywalker]

am i the only person who has never struggled with their queer identity?

i was thinking about it recently and i don't remember ever being ashamed, scared, angry or sad about being bisexual, nonbinary, grayaromantic, grayasexual and polyamorous. (yes, i use that many labels. it makes sense in my head.) i had unrestricted access to the interent from a pretty young age (11) and i discovered what a sexual orientation was after entering more english/american spaces and reading fanfiction when i was around 13 years old. i've just read the definitions and went, "yeah, i'm bisexual. why would anyone limit themselves to loving only one gender?" and that was it. my only frame of reference about queer people was fanfics and cool people i've seen online. my parents never talked about lgbtq+ issues (neither in a positive nor in negative light) and i didn't know anyone who was queer in real life, so you could say i was a blank slate when it came to any preconceived notions or biases (of course we live in cisheteronormative society which probably influenced my views on a subconscious level but i'm just taking about being consciously aware about something here.)

it was similar with realizing i was nonbinary, grayaromantic, grayasexual and polyamorous. i've read the definitions, comments made by people identifying that way, some research papers and books and came to the conclusion that these labels fit me. no angst anywhere.

i came out to my family pretty much immediately when my brother asked me if i was interested in any boys in middle school and i replied with full indignation that if he had to ask about it, he should also ask about any girls i might be interested in. my mother was there too. i don't think any of them took me seriously considering my age (i was 14) and the fact that i had to have many more conversations with my mother about being bisexual (and later nonbinary, grayaromantic, grayasexual and polyamorous) before she believed me in some way and even now she still thinks it's just a "phase" and that i'm "confused" or "just looking for attention" and that my girlfriends are only my good friends (but she still supports my relationship and tries very hard not to be outright homophobic/transphobic). my brother realized like 6 years later and asked me if i really was queer and seemed surprised when i told him i was. i still don't know what my father thinks. i told him i had a boyfriend when i was 15 and i told him i had two girlfriends when i was 20 and his reaction was exactly the same: nodding his head and saying "okay". he sometimes uses slurs but also supported me during a project i was doing on being nonbinary and bought me a book written by a trans scholar on christmas.

and i've never done any official coming outs either. in most friend groups, it comes out naturally that i'm queer when we're getting to know each other and it has never been a problem. i've never been met with a negative reaction. (it's worth noting that most of my irl friends are from middle class families, live in big cities and went to very good schools).

and it's not that i'm not aware about queerphobia existing in our society. i read books written by queer people and i read histories of lgbtq+ communities (and it's often pretty bleak). our country is one of the most homophobic countries in europe. the previous government of our country said that "lgbt ideology" and "gender ideology" are a threat to our nation and should be eliminated. i had close queer friends whom i supported when their families and friends didn't accept them. but it all feels one step removed from me.

i can walk alone at 3am around my city (the capital of poland) as a female presenting person with a rainbow handbag and flag pins in a party outfit and nobody ever bothers me. i went to a pride parade this year and there weren't any counter protests, the police were chill and nothing horrible happened. and despite talking with people who used some passive aggressive remarks and weren't completely accepting, i've basically never experienced violent or threatening queerphobia in my life.

i guess it's just interesting to me how much my experiences differ from common queer narratives i observe in media and in real life around me and how my upbringing shaped who i am today.

[wifiwuxians]

20 questions writer meme.

tagged by @heyholmesletsgo THANK YOUUU

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

not counting things i'd rather remained anonymous, 21!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

513,621 lol

3. What fandoms do you write for?

mdzs, vaguely tgcf, hotline miami (though mostly past tense) and we'll see about the future

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Wei Wuxian's Super Special Super Secret Book Club still reigns supreme with 1229 kudos, and will most likely be my legacy despite it being the second fic i ever wrote for the fandom (i think?)

If You're Reading This, It's Too Late with 513, one would think i'd still be messing around with this AU but i'm happy to leave it where it is and just keep messing around with the crackship

Dawn Chorus, my most precious baby, at 251 by some miracle despite being oc/canon. you guys spoiled me with the love for this one tbh. none of my other xue yang centric works got anywhere near this close and i'm at peace with that because he's bonking my oc in this one and they have a kid.

The Book Club Extras at 232, which is hilarious when compared to the original but at least new readers will see there's more and maybe in the year 2055 i will publish them for fun

Frozen Pond with 156 at the end of the list, written for my friend @petitjams and taking place in a silly AU we made together (wen chao stays winning on here which is very funny)

i'm attributing the popularity of the first two to mostly being centered around super popular characters, because my later stuff is naturally better yet struggling haha

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

always unless they're like just emoji, because i like conversation! though i may also reply with a little heart hehe

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

i wouldn't call it angstiest ending, it's bittersweet, but the threads that bind us is my top pick. and it also needs more readers so go read it. your hands and mine has a bit of an 'angsty' ending but only for song lan. xue yang had it coming :p 💖

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

excluding the two above, so far they all have a happy ending, or at least neutral??? i'd say Book Club, though, because that's the massive 'everybody lives!!' silly fixit fic

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope. i hope i didn't just jinx it. i get hate on art and through anon though! woo! (not anymore on here tho thank god)

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

i do and i feel like it sucks so i almost always end up fading to black LMAO my actual explicit stuff remains private... it's like too embarrassing for me. i got judged for it as an 18 year old and 10 years later haven't gotten over it. i like bondage and bdsm though and that seems to crop up in private 😏

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

i do on occasion! i love roleplaying them, but the only one i have out there is The Way To His Heart Is Through His Stomach (Oh God Please Don't Eat Me), which mixes mdzs and tgcf characters in a unique setting :3

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge, but i've had art stolen plenty so i wouldn't even be surprised

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes, a few have been translated into russian!

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

NOT YET BUT IT'S IN THE CARDS

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

all time? jeez. somebody tell me why i always freeze up and go blank when asked these simple questions? it's like i forget who the fuck i am. i feel like i should also say songxiao? but they're relatively new so it doesn't seem correct. fuck it. my all time favorite ship is [DATA MISSING OR CORRUPTED-- PLEASE PROCEED TO NEXT QUESTION]

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

haha... (looks at my abandoned hlm fic with the seventh chapter halfway written) haha...

16. What are your writing strengths?

i'd definitely say dialog. it makes sense, since the stuff i'm most used to doing is drawing silly comics. i also like to ping-pong emotions around and feel like i'm pretty good at that too

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

using the same words over and over and feeling like i never write Enough, like everything is always light and never in depth. i don't like making scenes too heavy with padding but i also feel like i need to find a balance

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

i'll do it only if it's a language i speak!!! this doesn't apply to peppering words like gege and stuff just for funsies. i think the best way to go about it is to just tell the audience what language they're speaking in that moment

19. First fandom you wrote for?

we're gonna have to go back to when i was 10 years old here lol... i think it was tokyo mew mew in terms of stuff i put online (oh god)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

it's hard to pick favorites, but i once again must say the threads that bind us in terms of work i'm most proud of.

i tag whoever sees it, plus @sugarapplebaby because ily

[moonsheen]

fic writer meme

1. how many works do you have on ao3? 112. And thank god that doesn't include the REAL old stuff.

2. what's your total ao3 wordcount? 552,904 ...that's...both more and less than I was expecting

3. what fandoms do you write for?

...a...lot. Most recently? MDZS/SVSSS, Trigun (er, sorry for the weird stuff), and 13 Sentinels (PLAY 13 SENTINELS). Long term oldies but goodies? Kingdom Hearts, Devil May Cry, Overwatch, Supergiant games, Evangelion

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Recovery (SVSS, Qijiu --woah, that one pulled ahead in the last few months) Husband x Husband (Hunter x Hunter -- I did this as a yuletide treat to make up for defaulting one year and it's the gift that keeps giving) Minor Delays (SVSS, Qijiu -- wait really?) The Way Back Home (SVSS, Qijiu -- ....Qijiu nation represent. This one doesn't surprise me though, Chira did an amazing comic for it) Hold the Baby (MDZS -- okay this one was just where I was dumping the old twitter threads of a VERY specific Xiyao fix-it AU but you know what, thanks everyone)

5. do you respond to comments?

I try to. If I don't succeed it's often because life kicked my ass.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Probably On Your Six (Reaper & Soldier 76, Overwatch)

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

This is hard mostly because all of my fic tends to be some kind of fix-it in some way to give someone an obscenely happy ending. If you had to have me narrow it down based on what my most blatant fix-it to some miserable canon character ending was? I'd go with either Happiness Exists (As Long As You Believe in the Possibility) (Qijiu again!), and the Recovery-verse as a whole, or maybe Abstraction White Rose (Revolutionary Girl Utena), because by god I needed Utena and Anthy to kiss and I MADE THEM DO THAT, A LOT.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Xiyao troll hit me once or twice and I got a few cranky dudebros who got mad at me for my Eva fic on a message board once, but nothing all that bad if I'm honest.

9. do you write smut?

...well, I've tried but the plot gets in the way.

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

The first that come to mind are the MDZS/TGCF crossovers, but those are the same authors so I don't know that that counts. I DID write a very silly How The Grinch Stole Christmas/Nightmare Before Christmas short once upon an internet. It has since been lost to the great yawning of time and collapse of several social media platforms.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Someone once scraped the awful Naruto fic I wrote when I was like 15 and changed the names to make it a Samurai Champloo fic which, um. Why? But that was pretty damn funny in hindsight.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! In Russian, Chinese, and French. And I love every time it happens.

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

My dayjob these days is cowriting with people. But on the fanfic side -- well, in short, yes. With the usual suspect (that would be Chira) and with my wife, who has once or twice dictated an entire story outline to me which I write in a day.

14. what's your all time favorite ship? Internet, I am old and you cannot expect me to pick one. Utena/Anthy maybe?

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

I still need to do the last story for the A Troublesome Charge series which I SWEAR will happen it's just I had a literal baby.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Character voice. I love character voice and I am told I am good at it.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Smut.

18. thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

To be honest if I don't know it I don't try. But I like bilingual writing when it's done well (see also: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once) -- but when it comes to fangirl Japanese or Chinese, I tend to leave that to the experts.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

mumblesBeastWars and thank god that was on a platform that crashed and burned. The Beast Wars fic I wrote for Yuletide was way better.

20. favorite fic you have written?

On Your Six, despite how I feel about Overwatch nowadays, I feel was probably one of the punchiest stories I've ever written. I would have absolutely used this story to audition to write for Blizzard's tie-in novellas if Blizzard hadn't...well, read the news on what happened at Blizzard.

The other one I'd probably say is Ghost Roads in my Troublesome Charge series (MDZS). I just feel like I nailed all the multiple plotlines and characters involved in that one and I'm super proud of it. I'm not tagging anyone because I have anxiety about this kind of thing, but please feel free to do this meme yourself if it crosses your dash!

[philtstone]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

thank you so much to the lovely @tllgrrl for tagging me! without further ado ...

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

as of this one, 197! i have been on these fanfic streets for roughly ten years, it all tends to accumulate

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,056,672 ..... do with that what u will

3. What fandoms do you write for?

yall, this is a prolonged list. i dont think theres been a source material ive written for once that i dont randomly write for again every so often. i have 1-2 big phases per year, usually. just go look at my ao3 dashboard sdlkfjldskf

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

to the surprise of absolutely no one, all five are from the age old skywalker happy trash family au. thanks for being so consistent star wars fandom, ur all real ones <3 but also my writing has improved so much since then that occasionally the hingeless urge to go back and re-write every fic in that verse is real

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

i try my best to! every so often life gets in the way, but especially in the last few years, i really try to engage with comments as much as i can. ive also been lucky enough to write in pretty small fandoms for the last couple years (ironically, given ive been in my second m*rvel era) so replying to comments has been a lot more intimate and friendly anyway

6. What is a fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

i was going to say "i dont know" because for the most part -- and especially my more recent fics -- everything ends up pretty consistently bittersweet. then i remembered vintage phil: "we want to live by each other's happiness", or the b99 captain america au

7. What’s a fic you've written with the happiest ending?

i tend to very consistently write things with shades of happy and sad. that said, some of my favourite purely "happy ending" fics include:

"easy, easy (my man and me)"

"i found a dream"

"hark the bluebells"

"i believe in you and in our hearts"

8. Do you get hate on fics?

eh, not really. i dont generally write chapter fic with controversial enough plot points and the unresolved nature of updating chapters to generate true "hate". i have gotten some really bizarre comments where one has to wonder what was going through the commenter's head when typing it all out, but most of those are not things that stick.

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

not me feeling emotional abt my ao3 tenure .... 15 yr old me would have such a different answer ...

i write often and (i hope) as authentically as possible about lived-in romantic relationships, and as ive gotten older it has felt more and more organic to include scenes in and around sexual intimacy where appropriate. i dont think most people would classify that as "smut", though.

10. Do you write crossovers?

if i am writing an au, it is a true au, with the single and sole exception of the force sensitive claire au, which is, on a technicality, a crossover

it also is, on much less of a technicality, unfinished ...

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of and i certainly hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

not to my memory

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

the closest ive ever come to this was, actually, writing the b99 cap au with maya Back In The Day. our tumblr messages used to just be draft upon draft of scenes evolving in real time. but never formally. friends are an integral part of the fic writing process tho

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

the world should know i am an anne-gil truther. blueprint if there ever was one

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

sadly, probably "happiness, like those palaces in fairy tales"; my beloved small time constance-centered parks-flavoured musketeers au .... my writing style has just changed so much since, and it was such a huge undertaking. i still have half of the unpublished anne/aramis flashback chapter saved in my google docs though.

16. What are your writing strengths.

ive been told im good at prose! and writing from childrens' pov, which i am fond of doing, though in a tragic turn of events i havent done much of it recently

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

as i see it, sometimes i dont know when less is needed for a fic to be more. often, this comes from a lack of clarity on my end re: what the fic is trying to be -- OR when im trying to write about something i dont really know. at the end of the day, though, this problem recurs because fanfic is supposed to be fun, so something being a bit too messy and a bit too long is not a huge deal to me. hopefully its also not a huge deal to my readers!

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

u can pry doing this from my cold dead hands. & are also always free to criticize my phrasing and translations, lol, except for that one time i made bucky barnes speak farsi, which is a language i actually know

19. First fandom you wrote for?

star trek aos, baybeeeee

20. Favorite fic you’ve written.

IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION. i love many of my children equally!

here are some all-timers from those fics which i have not mentioned yet:

hopeful./summertime

and there's a keepsake my mother gave me

then she'll be a true love of mine

just to hear the nightbird singin'

my daddy was a prominent frogman

**

thank u so much for the tag my friend! i had heaps of fun. tagging @firstelevens, @sesamestreep, @sennenrose and @flyinghome-againstthewind as well as anyone else interested!

[savagewildnerness]

For that ask meme: 4, 6, 13?

Helloooo! And thank you so much for your ask! 🥰 I actually meant for you all to answer the questions! But I shall happily answer these! And in answering, I realise asking 15 questions of you all would be A Lot! So, oooops! My apologies! 😇

4 - Any scene/moment you don’t like & why

I think it’s no surprise that I don’t like The Drop in S1E5. Book-Lestat wouldn’t do it. I don’t like that it means we won’t see the book-plot of the Armand-Lestat drop, I don’t like how it alters a lot of subsequent feelings, motivations & meanings that impact on the rest of the series (for example there was a big knock-on impact for me in the trial - both in its feeling & in many practical differences of events & meaning.) But it’s that it grates against Lestat’s characterisation for him to do that to Louis that troubles me most.

But I accept tv-Lestat did it. There is no part of me that thinks it didn’t happen in TV world & no part of me that excuses it in any way either. The revisit to the scene beforehand: I liked it, because adding the missing scenes added glorious gothicness… and Lestat got to apologise… but there’s literally nothing Louis could say or do that would make the drop existing ok for me, so that’s that!

It’s particularly hard to properly express why Louis smashing Lestat’s head on a coffin then saying he’ll chop his head off & feed it to the lions is yummy, transgressive violence & gothic glory, yet The Drop is so wrong I cannot abide it. I think I can best explain by saying that none of this is good or bad in terms of relating it to reality, and so it’s the feelings & meaning on the next, underlying level that matters. Which is a very fine, yet incredibly important (as I feel it!) line.

6 - Best thing for you about the TV show

The characterisations.

I’m a sucker for a deep dive into character. I adore all of the characters on the show (including small roles I don’t mention here.)

I adore Lestat as there’s my Lestat on screen! The second he watched Louis with his blade to Paul’s throat - instantly I saw & felt that that was Lestat! Lestat was THERE! Resonant!

I adore Louis, as he is absolute glow-up-Louis & I love that I can feel from him the way all the vampires describe they feel for book-Louis, but I never really understood from book-Louis! But now, oh how I feel it too!

I am astounded that Assad has somehow elevated my love for Armand, who was already my second favourite book character beyond even how I love book-Armand. S2 was your season. Armand was everything.

I love how smaller characters such as Santiago & Madeleine have been elevated too & then Claudia… I do need to caveat that Claudia cannot have the impact of an immortal 5-year-old vampire! However, this Claudia works & the changes add interesting, poignant & tragic elements to her story. I adore tv Claudia & I hope she haunts every season of the show.

Such incredibly strong characterisation also helps to access the spirit of Anne’s books & I love when I feel the essence of her writing in the show! Which doesn’t mean a strictly close adaptation necessarily. For example, I feel the spirit of Anne’s work incredibly strongly in S2E5 even though that’s in large part written solely for TV.

13 - Feelings about TV show versus books

I think I sort of answered this above. Generally speaking, I’ve loved the TV adaptation so far though! It’s such a joy to be able to see books that were so close to your heart & that you read at such a formative age they’re ingrained in your heart & soul & in how you see & feel & experience & think about the world adapted with such love & care & attention to detail & to the spirit of the books. And the exquisite poetry of the writing - Anne’s words directly on screen at such poignant moments & the writers’ own beautiful poetic language also.

Hope that’s ok! I’ll end there as my phone keeps randomly deleting paragraphs & I’m worried about losing the whole post! 🥶💀

And on this note, please feel free to just pick whatever question(s) interest you to answer, everyone! 🥰🥰🥰 I’m so curious to read your thoughts!

[catsandgoodbooks]

20 Questions for Writers

Tagged by @bleue-flora (I am sorry it took so long it's been like a month I was procrastinating)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

22, because my brain hates to stay focused on one idea at a time and I just have to make everything worse. I've got a lot more half-formed ideas and three-paragraph beginnings of fanfiction too <3

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

124,920 - that's...a lot. And it's only been about a year, so yay!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Dream SMP. I'm lurking in a couple other fandoms (mostly the Locked Tomb and Dragon Age), but I haven't written anything for those yet.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Off the Planned Course

Not that surprising because it's one of the fics I've been writing the longest, is the longest of my actual stories (so not counting Whumptober stuff), and it also has the most people reading it (I blame including the Syndicate for that). It's probably my favorite too, so the validation is really nice (even if I keep getting writer-blocked by it).

2. Unfortunate Circumstances

Also one of the long ones, so it makes sense that it's on this list. Also, literally the second Dream SMP fic idea I ever had, so it's great that it's still going.

3. Easier Said Than Done

This one I kind of feel bad about - I decided to change a few details a while ago and I'm still not done with editing the old stuff so I can start on new chapters, so I really haven't been writing much for it recently (i.e in the past six months). Maybe this will get me to work on it again but I wouldn't hold out hope. It's not abandoned, but it's still basically on hiatus.

4. Shared Scars

I really like this one, but I didn't really expect anyone would read it because it was just a random AU with no basis in canon about two side characters, y'know? It's just really fun to write.

5. Dive Deep Into The Dark

This one is the one that surprised me, because it's just a collection of Whumptober oneshots that I wrote in like an hour each. But, hey, apparently people liked that, so yay?

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

Whenever I can, because they're taking the time out of their day to read my stuff and going the extra step of leaving a comment, and because I just like talking about my stories and stuff <3

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

Okay, this and the next question are kind of difficult because I am allergic to finishing anything, ever, and that means I have to stick to oneshots, but I'd say either everything I've ever written for a Whumptober prompt (because those are all terrible, basically) or Old Habits Die Hard (Old Reliances Die Harder) because it's an angsty canon-compliant (ish) oneshot where nothing is resolved and everything is just terrible. In my longer fics, I don't really plan for tragic endings, because the ending should be happy even if the journey there wasn't, or else the whole things sad and there's not really any point.

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

Again, only oneshots count for this, so I'd probably say burn the scorecards, balance out the scales, because the ending is hopeful and probably the best possible outcome via rivals duo.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

Not really, which is great. The most I ever get is a confused comment or someone making assumptions, and that's all fine.

9. Do you write smut?

No, and I don't plan to.

10. Do you write crossovers?

No, but I have some ideas I might write that involve crossovers and I might write them eventually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, I have not <3

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No, but I would like to in the future.

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

Drunz, for sure. It's the ship that really got me into the fandom and I've always liked that sort of toxic codependence even though they're terrible for each other.

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

All of them? Well, besides that, I'd probably have to say Off the Planned Course, because, although I really love it, I have no idea how to end that thing or when.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Absolutely no idea, maybe internal monologues? It's hard to evaluate your own writing.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. 100% dialogue. I get in my head about if it sounds natural or if anyone would ever say that or if I'm writing a character right and then it turns about clunky because I'm too busy worrying about it.

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

I don't have a problem with it, but you should provide translations in that situation so the readers have context and know what's going on.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Dream SMP

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Probably Off the Planned Course, there are some chapters were I was just having the time of my life writing that thing even if they were immediately followed by two months of struggle.

Not tagging anyone because it's been ages and I'm bad at doing anything quickly so yeah. Also, it's my birthday today and time is really fucking weird <3

[dracomort]

Is there a reason why you dislike Red, White and Royal Blue?

Honestly, I read it and enjoyed most of it, but the ending I hated. But that's just me, I like fluff, but that ending was something else...

What is your gripe with the book?

RWRB fans keep scrolling. I'll try to keep it nice (post-writing edit: this was not kept nice) but I really disliked this book. I am also NOT AN AMERICAN and I think that makes the biggest impact on enjoyment of this book. If it were a romcom between a random American boy and British boy then I could critique it on its writing merit alone, but the choice of the author to engage with politics in such a brainless manner is really symptomatic of the cancer that is modern American liberalism.

Disclaimer: I did not finish this book. It's one of the only books I've ever DNF'd. I paid real monnies to buy the ebook. This waste of $15 is probably why I'm so bitter.

With RWRB it really comes down to four Ps:

Premise, pacing, prose

This is perhaps on me, but when you look at the blurb: "photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations. The plan for damage control: staging a fake friendship between the First Son and the Prince."

See now, to me, that premise reads as—fake friendship, enemies/rivals to lovers, where they slowly come to understand what they like about each other. From a narrative pacing perspective, I would expect to see this click for our protagonists at the midpoint or perhaps the climax. Certainly not them having a conversation and resolving all their differences within the first 10% of the book (hospital broom cupboard). It's been a couple years since I (attempted to) read this book, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I strongly feel that they went from hating each other—with no substance to that hate beyond a petty misunderstanding—to resolving their differences, to kissing and fucking, within the first 20% of the book. What is this pacing??

After that I realised that this book should've been pitched with a forbidden love/Romeo & Juliet premise, because clearly that was what the author was going for. I don't necessarily have an issue with that. It's just disappointing to me because it was misleading and I wasted my money on a book that's actual premise doesn't interest me in the slightest. I read romance primarily for the internal conflict within the relationship, not the external conflict, though having both is fab (e.g. Captive Prince).

I'm not quite sure anything happens in this book. The protagonists are 'enemies' for maybe 10 pages and then fuck for the rest of it?? I skipped pages and pages and pages of 'banter' between Alex and those girls, and politics that read like it'd been penned by a 12 year old, and somehow managed to miss nothing. I've never read a book where I could skip so many pages with it having so little material impact on my understanding of the narrative.

I also found the prose and dialogue very... 'aliens guess at the way humans speak based on a diet of nothing but mediocre social media themed fanfiction'. And I say this as a fic writer myself. There's a bunch of female characters that serve no purpose other that to cheerlead the main couple and be wholesome, flawless, quippy and supportive, because that's feminism, baby. I can't speak at length about the characters because I dropped the book pretty early on.

2. POLITICS

RWRB is very much a product of its time and its author's nationality. That it was written and published during the Trump administration is no surprise. I think, just as Cinderella (2021) will be a perfect specimen for future study of the hot mess that is 2020s liberal feminism, RWRB will serve the same for 'left-wing' democrat politics for the 2016-xx political landscape. It's an AU where a while, blonde female presidential candidate wins the election and leaked emails have no effect on the outcome of said election. Jee, I sure wonder who she's meant to be 🙄

I understand that this book was intended as a light-hearted romcom, a silly romance for readers to turn off their brains and enjoy the wholesomeness. But clearly I am not the target audience as I am incapable of turning off my brain under any circumstance, especially not when reading a book. I am also not a romance reader, nor much of a genre fiction reader. Again, not the target audience. I also do not think you get to introduce politics as one of the most prominent themes and then not have your book critiqued on its handling of that subject matter.

I am far too much of a political cynic to read about this wholesome good working-class American political family that hold all the right views and have no flaws. I was disappointed but not surprised as soon as I realised this was really gonna go for the pro-democrat lens. I'm too foreign to view that party as anything more than middling centrists and outright antagonists on the global stage. Perhaps some people enjoy reading books that put them in a fantasy lala land where everything is good and just in the world, but I think this sort of passive idealism is exactly why the USA is a conservative hellscape in the first place.

A goodreads review that articulates my thoughts well: "This is the most idealized, grotesque, good-versus-evil look at politics I have EVER SEEN. In this book, the Democrats are a rainbow-wearing gloriously diverse coalition of kumbaya-singing angels, and everyone else is a villain we won’t talk about. Democrats are 100% motivated purely by the love of Doing The Right Thing, and they have never done anything wrong, ever, in their lives. The American people love them implicitly and will turn historically red states blue just to show them that. It’s not only sickening, it’s damaging. DO NOT IDEALIZE POLITICIANS."

And even moving away from politics to just address the wealth and privilege of these characters who fly back and forth over the pond on private jets to see each other... like, I don't have an issue with rich MCs (tbh Henry should be exactly my fave type), but I do have an issue with the desperate, self-aware attempts the author makes to keep things 'progressive'. Yeah, sure the characters lampshade their privilege. But these themes are not engaged with in any meaningful way, to the point where I wish they'd been excluded entirely. If you're going to write a book about the top 0.000001%'s issues, at least be unapologetic about it. If you keep mentioning privilege but do nothing about it then it feels hollow and insincere. I have nothing but contempt for philanthropy, so don't get me started on that.

Bonus: (not a P but) Anglophilia

As a foreigner from a culture closer to the UK than the US, the British fetishism vibes were pretty hilarious. I am certainly not gonna call it 'problematic' (I hate that word regardless). It's just cringe and excruciating to read. No one talks like that! No one. Not even the Prince of England.

Edit: this goodreads reviewer really gets it

[attractthecrows]

OC INTERVIEW

I was going through my Sy tag and found this old tag game from [checks timestamp] 2015. Since I'm dusting her off for a new playthrough I thought I'd update it. 

Tagged: some 9 years ago by @ofwolvesandshatteredshields (HAHA SURPRISE!)

Tagging: oh god oh fuck um. uh. hm

@storybookhawke @hawkeykirsah @greywardan @dammithawke @warden-mahariel and ive run out of people. do it anyways its fun 

Pick one of your characters and answer as if you're them being interviewed. Tag some others. 

CHARACTER: Sylaira Mahariel (Longbowman, Ranger, Assassin, HoF, died bringing down the Archdemon)

If I get into it I may compile like an actual article written by Brother Genitivi about Warden Mahariel (interviewed after the Landsmeet but before the battle of Denerim) but thats a bigass maybe lmfao

ANYWAYS LET's BEGIN

1. What is your name?

Sy Mahariel

2. What is your real name?

That is my real name. Sy is short for Sylaira, if you wish to be pedantic. Most simply call me Grey Warden, which suits me just fine.

3. Do you know why you were called that?

I'm called Grey Warden because that's what I am. …Oh, you meant the name?

My parents died before I had the chance to ask them. Ashalle told me once that my mother honored Sylaise; I assume that's why. Our names are similar, though I'm not exactly the best disciple of the Hearthkeeper.

4. Single or taken?

Taken for granted, primarily. Next question.

5. Have any abilities or powers?

I am a Dalish hunter. What does that tell you?

…Oh, all right. We - the hunters, that is - are proficient with longbows, shortbows, light blades, and simple potion-making, though we usually leave that for the craftsmen. Basic survival and tracking skills are also standard. Personally, I prefer longbows. Mine is dragonthorn and sylvanwood.

And over the course of the Blight I've picked up the skills of a ranger, and Grey Wardens have their own abilities.

6. Some have called you a Mary Sue. Thoughts?

Is that a reference to some shem hero? There are far too many.

7. What's your eye color?

I'm sitting right in front of you. Have you not eyes? They are blue, last I checked.

The color used to be deeper, in fact. It's faded out some in recent months. Blight sickness will do that.

8. What's your hair color?

…Black, as you can see. Have you received a blow to the head recently? What is the relevance of this, anyways? If you're committing my likeness to paper, focus on the vallaslin. It is the Hearthkeeper, Sylaise's pattern of clan Sabrae. Also in blue, I may add.

9. Have you got any family members?

My clan is my family. I had to leave them when I was recruited by the Warden Duncan, or risk spreading the Blight to them all.

10. Oh? What about pets?

There is a wardog that imprinted on me after the battle of Ostagar. Clever thing, highly loyal, obsessed with food. He reminds me of an old friend of mine, so I call him Fenarel.

11. Now tell me about something you don't like.

You don't have enough paper in that little notebook of yours, Genitivi, nor do we have time. In summary, though: Darkspawn. The Chantry. Wastefulness. And arrogant shems who think they know what's best.

12. Do you have any hobbies you enjoy?

Look around us, old man. We are in the midst of a Blight. I am one of two total Grey Wardens remaining in the entirety of Ferelden. Do you think I have time for hobbies?

Before the Blight, I enjoyed assisting Master Ilen, the clan craftsman. He tells me I have a good hand for bowmaking.

13. Ever hurt anyone before?

I challenge you to find me a Dalish hunter who has not.

14. Ever killed anyone before?

[She stares deadpan at me.] Are you serious?

You're serious.

Yes, I have killed people, you stupid shemlen.

Humans threatening our clan. Bandits. Carta. Blood mages. Tevinter slavers. Overzealous templars. Casteless thugs. Deeply, deeply stupid farmers hoping for reward money. Idiot knights defending the honor of an honorless man. At least two Arls and a Teyrn. Shall I continue?

15. What kind of animal are you?

I am an elf.

Ah, metaphorically. I've no idea. Wardens are associated with griffons, are they not? Likely one of those.

16. What are your worst habits?

I hold onto hope when I should be practical, according to Sten. I am too forgiving, according to Morrigan. I am too compassionate, according to Shale. I catastrophize too much, according to Zevran, which seems silly, to me; we're in a Blight. This is a catastrophe. I am too reckless, according to Alistair. And I drink too much.

17. Do you look up to anyone?

In the clan, I looked up to the hahrens; we all do. I looked up to Duncan, when he was alive. Neither of those are available to me now.

18. Orientation?

Looks to be… south-southwest.

That's not what I meant.

I know what you meant and am giving you an easy out.

19. Did you go to school?

Isn't that what shem nobles do with their children? No, we don't do that. We follow the Vir Tanadhal or Vir Atish'an, and every hunter knows the Vir Banal'ras. Dalish children are taught our history and culture by the hahrens. But no, there is no "school".

20. Would you want to marry and have children one day?

I did, once. I was… you humans call it 'betrothed'? I had hoped to marry Tamlen. But that is not possible anymore.

21. Have any fans?

Preoccupation with me tends to lead more to assassins than 'fans'.

22. What are you most afraid of?

I do not hold fear in my heart.

23. What do you usually wear?

I spend most of my time on the battlefield, so, armor.

24. Do you love someone?

Yes.

24a. Care to elaborate?

No.

25. When was the last time you wet yourself?

[she levels an icy glare at me and does not answer]

26. We're not done yet…

Then stop asking stupid questions.

27. What 'class' are you?

What, like noble, commoner, mage? The Dalish don't do that.

28. How many friends do you have?

More than you'd think, although likely I will not see many of them again. And the people traveling with me will always be important to me.

29. Thoughts on pie? 

Leliana's mentioned that. It's a type of food, yes? I've never had it.

[We take a brief intermission while I find us some pie.]

This is… fruit? In a pastry? It's good. Impractical - we could never make such things in the aravels - but tasty.

30. Favorite drink?

The only 'drink' we get with any regularity is… I'm not sure how to describe it, actually. Alistair calls it "Grey Whiskey". It's quite something.

In my clan, we make honey mead and wild fruit wines. Those always remind me of home.

31. What's your favorite place?

There is a birch grove in the Brecilian forest. I imagine it's fallen to the Blight, by now. I used to go there with Tamlen, a long time ago.

32. Are you interested in someone?

[She does not meet my gaze.] Even if I were, such follies are dangerous.

33. What's your cup size?

[I had barely enough time to notice her glare before her fist shot out and collided with my nose. In lieu of an answer, she threw a rag at me to staunch the blood.]

34. Would you rather swim in a lake, or the ocean?

[She laughs. It's unexpected, but a lovely sound.] Have you been to the Ferelden coast, Genitivi? It'd be safer to swim in Orzammar. Lakes, thank you very much.

35. What's your type?

Not you. Next question.

36. Any fetishes?

[She glares at me.]

37. Top or bottom? Dominant or submissive?

[She stands to leave.]

38. No, please don't leave. I'm sorry. Do you prefer camping or sleeping indoors?

[She sits back down.] You, old man, have a fondness for dangerous and inappropriate questions. This I will answer, though my patience wears thin.

I prefer camping. My entire life prior to the Blight, I remember being able to hear the wind in the trees and see the sky. It is comforting to know one's place in nature. Walls and roofs have their place, but I don't like them, and I particularly dislike being underground.

39. Do you carry anything sentimental?

…Yes. All Grey Wardens wear a pendant that we receive after the Joining. And I've kept my old hunting gloves; Ashalle gave them to me when I received my vallaslin, and they were made by Master Ilen. [After a long, heavy moment, she slips a ring off of her finger and places it in my palm. It is a simple band carved from wood, detailed with elfroot leaves, warm in the hand.] And this - you call it a promise ring, I believe. Tamlen gave me this, a long time ago, before we came of age, before the Blight, to declare our intent to marry. Ma vhenan. Ma abelas. It reminds me of what I have lost. I will carry it until my death.

40. Thank you for your time.

Mhm. I recommend leaving the city, old man. You're in no condition to defend yourself from hordes of darkspawn, and they're approaching quickly.

[queen-susans-revenge]

Writer 20 Questions

seen via @findswoman!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

58

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

177,314

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Dragon Age, fairy tale retellings, and one fic each for Sherlock Holmes and Batman

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

so Fade to Black and Fade to Black and Back, my two multi-chapter smut series for Star Wars Rebels, are I guess going to be my enduring fandom legacy lol. 637 kudos for the first and 452 for the second.

After that it's...more smut, but Talk About It is Dragon Age smut, and I guess my most popular stand-alone story at 399 kudos.

Then it's back to Star Wars Rebels, but Wedding Dance (377 kudos) is a gen fic, so that's my most popular non-smut piece. Braided at 320 kudos is another explicit one.

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

I always mean to, but sometimes when a bunch come in at once I get overwhelmed. I try and go back and respond to unanswered comments every time I revisit an old fic. Just this week I answered a couple that were seven years old *wince*. It's never too late, right?

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

That's Scenes From Rivendell, no question. I can still make myself cry re-reading that fic. Poor Celebcarch.

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

Most of them have happy endings really, but I'll say the happiest is Marriage of Convenience, because it was written to provide a happy ending for Alistair and Anora--and that's a pairing that only arises out of some pretty grief-laden circumstances in Dragon Age: Origins. So that's the fic that takes something sad and makes it better.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

A couple times people have tried to chide me for writing smut, which is like ??? Did you not see ALL the warnings? My sister what were you even doing at the devil's sacrament?

9. Do you write smut?

I doooooo. Yes I do. I don't feel even a little bit bad about it, either.

Sex is important! It's one of the most intense, emotion-rich experiences in life! Especially in a love story--there is nothing that will tell you more about the dynamic between two people than showing how they have sex. And the smut is the part that's usually left out in mainstream media, so it's the big "missing piece" that I am often drawn to want to fill in, creatively.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't, but it would be a fun challenge.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes and it's the best feeling every time. Same for getting podfic made of my stories, or fanart. Just the best.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No, but from rp experiences, I think collabs are absolutely the way to go if possible. It just gets lonely writing on your own, and having a partner keeps the energy up.

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

Space pirate OCs. But excluding my own characters... man, I've had poor luck with my ships, honestly. Looking back through the characters I was really passionate about, canon screwed me one way or another on all of them. I loved Mulder/Scully, Xena/Gabrielle, and Kanan/Hera, and all of their shows went off the rails at the end, so I think about them all with a tinge of sadness now.

It's better to love your own characters, because then at least when you make awful things happen to them, it doesn't come as a surprise.

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

My only current WIP is a kid's book, and I hope I do finish it!

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialog, and also there's a sort of lyrical register that I can shift into pretty easily (it's a trick I often use for endings).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh, self-indulgence. Things like writing about Kanan's seaglass eyes, or people "growling" their dialog. Cheese, basically. I don't rein myself in too much for fanfic, but in original writing I have to be strict with edits because if I don't force myself to stay spare and restrained, I'm probably getting cheesy with it.

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

Tricksy, very tricksy! It's certainly not something you can just hand off to Google Translate. I personally wouldn't do it unless I had some first hand experience with the language, or could consult with native speakers.

Funny story on that, for the space pirate novel, I had a bit where I needed an automated warning looping in various languages. The English was "Warning! Please evacuate the building!"

I asked my Russian friend to give me a translation, and he said I'd need to do some cultural translation first, because the Russian "would be a lot more direct. And they wouldn't say 'please.'" So he gave me Vnimaniye! Vyhodi zdaniye! which apparently translates more directly to "Attention! Exit building."

That's the kind of thing Google Translate can't do for you.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X-Files. This was Usenet days. Alt.tv.x-files. Many many memories. At one point there was a spinoff group so we could roleplay, but not roleplay being in the show, exactly. Just like all living in a town. It was almost a proto-Tumblr.

I miss Usenet.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

It might be The Last of the Rebel Angels: that one's not the best, I don't think, but it's the weirdest and most ambitious. I had something to say, and even if I only managed to sketch it out or gesture at it, there's still a really tender place in my heart for that fic.

Any fic writers who'd like to fill out the questions, please consider yourselves tagged!

[morathicain]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers!

Thank you for tagging me @inrainprose :D

Here we go! ^^

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently at 227 on Ao3, which might change any day with how obsessed I currently am with writing for Kiseki XD Also have a few on animexx and fanfiktion.de from old old times which I probably should start transferring ^^°

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,120,354 so far which I'm quite proud of, especially since most of it was written during the past 4 years (3wbf be thanked)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

A LOT! I constantly write for 3wbf and then whatever I am watching (whether it be show or movie that inspires me). Some fandoms appear more often or reappear after months or years again, others just once and then never again. Lots of niche stuff though (either the show or topic) XD

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Wait what (My Engineer - RamKing) with 737 kudos

Mutual anything (KinnPorsche AU - KinnPorsche) with 7 chapters and 700 kudos

One Moment to adore you (My Engineer - RamKing) with 649 kudos

Now you know (Not me the series - SeanWhite) with 608 kudos

Loving you on my second thought (My Engineer - RamKing) with 536 kudos

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

Absolutely, YES! I've met some of my best friends through comment-discussions and -talks and I also wanna thank the people who take the time to show their appreciation <3

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

Oh ... PHU! Good question? I guess it would be "One last call", a JynCassian fic which of course ends with them dying?

Or "I wish you were mine but I wasn't yours", a Bad Buddy fic which has Pran push Pat away?

(if anyone has other contenders in mind, let me know, my brain is a bit overwhelmed XD I don't count the BMF one because while it ends with a breakup, for me it's a hopeful ending)

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

I ... I don't know? I suppose each fic that has Ter and Mae and Phon alive and together should be considered a worthy contender for that question! And I love them all <3

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really. Got some when I started writing in English but I'm glad I managed to continue anyway ^^° only weird ones sometimes that are hard to interpret but are usually not meant in a mean way? I think?

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

Yes, I do. It always depends on the fandom actually. And ... I don't really know how to describe it but I'm usually not that explicit, I think? Lots of emotions are involved and I try to switch things up.

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

Probably the SPN One Piece crossover from over ten years ago? XD They were in a prompt I got, so I had to do it :P Otherwise the crossover between Manner of Death and My Engineer "It's all about the plants, babe" with King as TanBun's child. That was a lot of fun :D

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of? Fingers crossed and wood gets tapped!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yessssss! A few into Russian and French and a Cherry Magic one into Vietnamese ^^

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

So many years back. One with a friend, another with my brother, a crack one with another friend XD Not sure we ever finished any of those and it was fun back then but I don't think I can do it again ^^°

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

To no one's surprise at all it's Shin/Neo/Miw <3

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

So far the wips I really want to finish are still on my list. I fear I might not be able to finish the one 3wbf one or the The Player one because other shows and ideas get in between, but it's still planned!

16. What are your writing strengths?

I was told I'm good at yearning and banter? Definitely like diving into angst XD

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Long plots, I tend to get distracted and also lose myself in the technicalities v.v

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

If it makes sense, why not? But not if it should be understood by everyone and happens more often.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Inu Yasha! It's been a long long time since then XD

20. Favorite fic you've written?

You ask WHAT of me????? askdjbaksjbdakjsbd

I can't say for sure. Like, I enjoy my own atots bodyguard AUs often enough, I love my own version for Moonlight Chicken more than the show itself, I very much love my current collection for Kiseki because they've taken over my whole soul. So many favourites when it comes to RamKing and omg, don't get me started on my 3wbf fics!

Me and you, both of you is one of my faves when it comes to giving Shin/Neo/Miw a happy ending though and when it's about underappreciated fics, I had a lot of fun with is "Revenge is a dish best served dead" with Ter and Phon killing Thana as ghosts :P And one I am still happy about, even if it's an old one, is a High&Low one: A kitten's persistence

Tagging now (but no pressure): @ommited-miscellaneously @nevaehs @himmelsstern ;)

[burgiethewriter]

Asks for a Fic Writer! 🔆

Tumblr really didn't want to show me this, the fiend, but I was tagged by @randomsquirrel (thank you!)

How many works do you have on ao3?

Oh only about 1,365 (6 if I remember to post another tonight)

2. What's your total ao3 wordcount?

2,676,845 I am very mentally well thank you for asking

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Whatever ones the brainworms are currently wiggling in. So currently it's ffxiv and ffxvi and a little dash of sso

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Breakfast NSFW Stranger Things steddie. Which is actually the sequel to the second most kudosed one but I guess we're all sluts for domesticity.

Monster in the Bed more NSFW Stranger Things steddie. The lines of kudos emails I got from those two were fantastic.

Sunny-weather Snuggles and now for something COMPLETELY different, SFW mlp appledash. I used to have this little tradition, I suppose, of starting a new '30 day otp challenge' for every ship I liked. Don't think I ever finished one though.

Garden Party which is another SFW mlp fic but this time rarijack (I love their dynamic).

Odd Tattoo NSFW wtnv cecilos, god knows why I gave it the mature rating. I actually had this on ff.net initially, it's THAT old. But wtnv is just that popular I guess (for good reason! Night Vale my beloved).

5. do you respond to comments?

I do now after sitting there making flustered noises for a good ten minutes.

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

Funny thing about me, I never remember my fics. Ever. Legit I surprised myself one day discovering a stash of estimeric fics that I just. Don't remember writing. I feel like there was one though. It could be Frozen Wasteland SFW ffxiv which is about the bloody banquet at the end of arr which. Yeah. The saddest part is that I never went anywhere with it because then I started sb and met Lyse and um. Yeah.

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

Starlight Kittens sfw ffxiv Lyseka I think. There are probably happier endings but that's the one that immediately springs to mind.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Sometimes there are weird 'this is so cringe wtf' comments but hey it's not my fault if they don't embrace the cringe.

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

I was called sin mother for a time for a REASON okay. All kinds, vanilla, kink, monster, you name it. Very much into a/b/o and monsterfucking but I keep overthinking it and that kills the mood so fast.

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

[hides the ffxiv/ffxvi one under the bed] I mean yeah. Craziest one was probablyyyyy the Gotham x SSO one. I can't remember what happened but I remember the crossover.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge but it's not like I go looking. Wouldn't surprise me if someone had stolen an sso one though, some of those kids man...

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Again not to my knowledge but I also know that ffxvi is very popular in other languages so honestly I'm waiting for it.

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

I swear to god I have but I can't find it (unless Jack posted it??? It was years ago though) but I suppose the Wild West AU also counts? Green-eyed Drake's Revenge was the last one (god I miss that era so fucking much I met some of the best people but also the worst but I just really loved being a part of such a big project).

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

The answer probably would've been easier before I played ffxvi but uhhhh yeah it's Terence/Dion from FFXVI. Which you wouldn't know from my fics for that fandom (I keep getting distracted by other ships) but like. Canon gays. Hello. How can I resist. Ship that makes me go 'eeee' and then think about for a while after I see it.

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

Haha what unfinished WIPs I don't have those scattered everywhere. I would like to actually finish Frozen Wasteland (linked above) someday but there's also a phoenixflareknight fic that I'm slowly pecking away at but it has no real plot or anything so I don't think I'll finish that. And the aforementioned ffxiv/ffxvi crossover.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Making anything look good, baby. Or so I've been told. Sheer determination? Dialogue maybe?

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

"And where is all of this action taking place?" Shrug emoji. Descriptions.

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

I think it's fine as long as there's a translation somewhere.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Sonic. I don't think I published any of them though. It's probably better that way.

20. favourite fic you've written?

There are a few that spring to mind but I associate them with an ex-friend so ew but Lost and Found is the ffxiv/ffxvi crossover fic I do have published where I put my character and her sister and the arr-era Scions into the world of ffxvi. I love it and wish it got more attention but maybe the time's just not right yet, idk.

I tag @tiredassmage @trusted-friend-ffxiv and @sso-eden-dawnvalley

[epersonae]

from @veeagainsttheday in the comments:

1,5,8,15,24

1: Is writing cathartic or stressful for you?

Yes? Slash it depends? I love the framing of these two things as opposites, lol. It does depend a lot on the thing I'm writing and the frame of mind I'm in.

5: Share a snippet that you’re proud of from an upcoming fic/chapter.

Mary says, in their texts, too simple or not that serious or not that much of an artist — never mind about how the sharp lines of the trees feel like the careful distance between Stede and Mary in a photo, or the way that the curves of hills glow in the painting over Mary’s desk. The sketches in their progression of images and ideas, building one to the other, so that she can’t look away. But she doesn’t know Mary well enough, doesn’t have the right words for it. 

(this is one of the bits that benefited greatly from you pushing me about interiority, so thank you)

8: How do you develop your OCs?

Oh you are just coming for me, huh? I would say over the course of my fic writing, I rarely write OCs, but there are a couple of exceptions, and one (two?) of them is a character who has been in my head for almost six months. I was talking about her with some people over the weekend, and ended up with the description "three youtube videos and an architectural digest article in a trenchcoat", also "a vibes-based creature", which is sort of the two poles -- I have influences which I am careful about balancing, and then an overall sense of how I wanted the story to go, and how she fits into that story, and the kind of person who emerges from that combination is who she is. (all of this project has been about combining characters and people and finding a balance of the resulting amalgam, how much is "real" and how much is "fictional", how much is famous people and how much is people I have known and how much is honestly just me?)

my other main OC, from my TAZ days, is the half-orc who Ryn and I referred to as "our son" Kenneth, who was initially a plot device but then he got a character that we developed together, again thinking about what the story needed and the kind of character who was going to provide this pivotal moment. (And also Ryn wrote the most lovely reflective thing from his POV right after I left my ex, and it's one of the most meaningful things I have from that experience.)

15: Which fic that you’ve written relates to you and your personal life the most?

There's a lot of me in a lot of fics I've written. The bit I mentioned with Kenneth is just one of many little things in that fic that are deeply personal about that story. "She's survived the impossible before" and "you're here, so be here" are basically how I've gotten thru the last five years. (The series it's part of also gave me my first tattoo, which Ryn and I both got together in 2019.)

There's a TAZ fic that I wrote about Lucretia briefly erasing her own memory that is uhhhhhhhhh kinda close to the bone, emotionally; likewise there's a lot of Cool Trauma Stuff in the one I wrote about the years between the creation of the Relics and Year 99.

The AU where Izzy gets yeeted before Ed gets back to the Revenge has maybe the tightest description I've written of my immediate grief experience. My post-S1 fic, unfinished, has a lot of that too. And of course the impulse I had to write Hungry for love was the feeling that I knew exactly what was up with Stede as far as how much did he understand his feelings. (None, but also yes, which is a weird thing to try to write, but it's exactly how I was with Ryn until an IRL conversation that is a spooky mirror of Stede and Mary's talk.)

New Project has maybe more of me than I would have realized when I started, and I feel oddly exposed thinking about it lol.

24: Which fic of yours do you wish people would ask about more? Why?

I never know how to answer this question! I'm excited to get asked about anything, so it's always a delightful surprise, both the deep cuts from my old TAZ writing and my WIPs!

Fic ask game

1: Is writing cathartic or stressful for you?

2: Do you focus on attention to detail when you read fics? Are you more or less attention to detail focussed when you write fics?

3: Do you have any upcoming WIPs? How far along are you with them?

4: Tell me about one of your abandoned WIPs. Why did you abandon it?

5: Share a snippet that you’re proud of from an upcoming fic/chapter.

6: What are some topics you will never write about?

7: Were there any ideas you had for [insert fic] that you couldn’t make work? What were they?

8: How do you develop your OCs?

9: Are there any fics you’d love to see but don’t want to write yourself? What are they?

10: Who has been your favourite character to write about in [insert fic]? What do they bring to the fic?

11: Which OC of yours do you think is the most similar to you? Which OC is the most different? Why?

12: Why did you choose to write [insert fic]? How long have you been working on it?

13: Do you prefer writing multi-chapter fics or single-part fics? Do you prefer reading multi-chapter fics or single-part fics?

14: Do you think you would be friends with your OCs in [insert fic]?

15: Which fic that you’ve written relates to you and your personal life the most?

16: Do you stick to canon when you write characters and fics?

17: What has been the proudest moment for you so far since you started writing?

18: Do you feel like your work gets enough recognition? What kind of feedback do you like to receive?

19: 15 words to describe the aesthetic of [insert fic].

20: Which fic have you put the most work into? Which fic have you put the least work into?

21: If you were a character in [insert fic] where would you fit in?

22: Have you used any symbolism in [insert fic]? What does it represent?

23: What’s one piece of advice you would give to anyone who wants to start writing or posting their writing online?

24: Which fic of yours do you wish people would ask about more? Why?

25: If you could remove one character from [insert fic]’s universe, who would it be? Why?

[stitchyladybird]

14th June - Excited or nervous?

It has been a while I have written here, tons of water flew down the Danube... xd Hungarian proverb. So anyways, on 30th May I finished the University. I FINISHED!!! Damn, got so tired, nostalgic and empty. Didn't know what to do instead of stressing and stdying, didn't know who I really am. This was a though 1,5-2 months, full of stress, disbalance and studying. After 2 weeks I am starting to feel myself a bit relaxed and chilled out, that my batteries are refilling.

To make my soul feel better, drank a bit (too) much lived my social life with some old and new friends and went to Necc (retro) party, Hollywood Undead & Papa Roach concert and also to yome houseparties. I met and got to know people that really like me for my crazy soul and are really cool, I mean they do not get hurt and throw a tantrum if I decline or portpone a plan, or they had to call it off. I think we are grown ups. (SADly or luckily)

Now it's the night before my first ever job interview. The past 2 weeks were really fantastic because I felt myself free but on the other hand, I was scared of the insecurity of the FUTURE. Now I am meeting tomorrow the head- physiotherapist of the DPC, which I really liked before, when I was there for the big practice. I do not know how embarrassing I am going to be, but we shall hope the bests. Fingers crossed they will like me (even if I left my thesis at relatives, so I can't bring it with myself... )

And yeah, my big reason for writing here is some overthinking again.... :P So yesterday I realized that my all time favourite band is Hollywood Undead <3 Which is very awesome and adult like. Like yeah, when I started High School my one and only was 1D and I was so naive and carelessly cheerful but also depressed, just never knew about that. And now to go over the nights and the years of my teenage years, Hollywood Undead was always there even if with only one song. Anyways, it was a huge recognition of myself, that what I thought in e.g. 2013-14-15 I will be, like a cheerful careless life-enjoying conscious adult, haha that's not me. I get it, that a surprising pandemic came in the way and some friendships were broken up or got stronger, also got knotted. But never thought that becoming an adult will be this hard. I am thinking of the disappointments and responsibilites, getting the casual adult problems like how much you spend on money or who do you spend your precious time with.

IN CONCLUSION, the real reason I wrote these things here are that I got a bit sad that in life when I'm 24, I experienced tons of disappointing moments and I reckon that is why most of the adults become so selfish. Like fck you, I am not adapting my day to yours, so if we can't make it for a chat or going out, it is your loss, btch. And that is what made me unconfortably sad, and also disappointed. That we do not care for each other anymore, we only care about ourselves. All in all, it is a messed up world and we are ready for an apocalypse.

If you made it to the end, you are an awesome and intelligent person, thank you for spending you priceless time for reading my stupid conversation in my head. <3 Kisses to you

Ladybird