#also on the reworking ones. there are some fics of mine that are older and just kind of okay. and i definitely could rework them but-

[tiberius-kirks]

all the hearts for the fic writer meme: 💞💘💝🤍

💞what’s the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

I think the most important is probably getting the characters right -- if you're writing fic and your characters are off then it's not really fic anymore, right? it can still be fun and good but like. those aren't my guys

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

honestly I don't think there would be much benefit to me reworking or more tightly editing my newer fics, and there's something charming about my older works being clunky. so no? but honestly because I think a lot of the premises of my older stuff would have to be completely rehauled and thus change the core of the fic, and that's not super worth it to me.

NOT THAT MY FICS ARE ALL GOOD THEY'RE JUST CHARMING AS IS IN A WAY TO SEE HOW I'VE GROWN

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

my very first ever published fanfic, pay attention, will still get a dribble of kudos to this day. this is genuinely very shocking because I think I wrote this when I was 14?

🤍what’s one fic of yours you think people didn’t “get”?

already answered this! honestly there's really only one fic that people didn't get in the way I intended

fic writer ask meme! or ask my anything about my fics in general!

[wolfjackle-creates]

Ghost!Robin Part 4

Here's your next part of the Ghost!Robin fic for WIP Wednesday. I'm gonna start putting fic designation in the title field rather than WIP Wednesday because I think it makes it easier to read.

Also, everyone came out in numbers for last week's segment! Damn! Thank you and I'm glad so many of you are enjoying this little fic of mine. We'll probably get one more week of this before I go back to Bring Me Home, but it'll depend what I feel like. I want to rework some of what I have written next.

First, Previous

1.1k words + a 464 word Omake (cut scene)

----------

Tim asked more details on the specs of the PDA which Danny happily answered. The things he built with Tucker were always his favorite inventions.

“So are you in school to become an engineer or something?” asked Dick who’d gotten Damian calmed down and sitting. The boy had gotten his knife back and was spinning it in his hands. Bruce seemed to be fondly exacerbated by the scene. Robin had pulled out a ghostly weapon and was trying to copy Damian’s movements, though he wasn’t quite as adept.

Danny shook his head to Dick’s question. “Nah. Hard to get into engineering school when you fail high school.��� Danny narrowed his eyes as Damian’s mouth opened, but Dick whispered in his ear again and the boy didn’t say anything.

“I ended up dropping out of high school and getting a GED,” said Tim. “It can work just as well.”

Robin was nodding along and pointing at himself, too. Had he died before he could complete his schooling, too?

“I’m sure. It’s just not a priority for me right now. I don’t need one for my job and I can’t become an astronaut because of my accident when I was fourteen.”

Dick was nodding, but Tim looked confused and asked, “Fourteen? I thought you had your accident when you were older?”

“Why would you think that?” Had he or Jazz made any reference to when his accident was? “No, it happened when I was fourteen. A few weeks before I started my freshman year of high school.

Before Tim could ask anything else, Steph called out from the other side of the room. “Did you say you wanted to be an astronaut? Totally awesome. What made you pick that?”

“I honestly don’t know why everyone doesn’t want to be astronauts! Space is so cool. We can learn so much about the universe by studying it in closer detail. And with how many aliens are now living at least part time on Earth, it only makes sense to explore and see what else might be out there.”

Bruce nodded at him. “I am sorry you aren’t able to become one.”

Danny just waved a hand in the air. “I came to terms with it a long time ago. And my current job is fine. Might not be what I would’ve chosen, but I’ve made it work for me.” Deciding he should change the subject before someone had the brilliant idea to ask more about his accident or job, he asked, “So what is for dinner, anyway? You’ve all talked about how amazing the food is, but what are we having?”

Someone tried to speak up, but Jason held up a hand. “I’m the one who helped Alfie cook. Demon-brat is vegetarian so we have a vegetarian curry. If you like meat, there’s a prime rib roast. Then a half dozen different sides—vegetables, rice, potatoes. Huge salad with all the fixings and a dozen different dressings to choose from. And dessert after.”

“Damn, that sounds amazing. I haven’t had a good home cooked meal in ages, so I’ve been looking forward to this.”

“Has your Grandpa been keeping you that busy?” asked Jazz.

“That, but also getting things in order to take this evening off. There’s just been a lot. I’m spending the night at yours, by the way.”

“I’d be offended if you didn’t.”

Danny knew he could rely on Jazz.

“Ooh, do you have any good stories about Jazz as a kid?” asked Jason.

Laughing, Danny said, “So many! But I don’t think we’ll be able to get to those tonight. I’ve a feeling you’ll be interested in other things by that point.” At his words, Robin grinned and pointed at himself. Danny gave him a slight nod to confirm that yes, they’d be talking about him.

Before Jason could ask for clarification, Alfred came in to announce dinner was ready.

Robin cheered and flew over to sit on Alfred’s shoulders, hand extended, to lead the way to the dinning room. Danny couldn’t hold back the chuckle and Jazz shot him a look which he ignored.

“There better be a place setting for you, Alfie!” called Jason as they followed.

“You made your opinion quite clear, Master Jason. And as I wish to meet your young lady and her brother as well, I have set myself a plate at the main table.”

Tim leaned over to whisper to Danny. “Alfred considers his role as butler very important. He rarely eats with the rest of us unless we join him in the kitchen.”

Danny nodded to show he understood, but had no idea how to actually reply to that. It seemed needlessly complicated.

Once they made it to the dining room, Danny grinned as Robin did a flip off of Alfred’s shoulders and landed sitting down on one of the place settings facing the associated chair. He bit his cheek to keep from laughing as Jason sat down at that same place. Jazz took a seat next to him and Danny sat to her other side. Dick ended up sitting next to him.

The scents of all the food wafting off the table made his mouth water and he closed his eyes just to breathe it in. “This smells amazing. Thanks Alfred. And Jason.”

Even Robin had moved to look over every dish, reaching out a hand to try and take something and sighing when he just phased through it.

Even Jazz looked a bit overwhelmed at the quantity of food. “This is so much effort. You didn’t have to do all this just for Danny and me.”

Bruce smiled at her. “It is so rare for all of us to be together for dinner so we make a spectacle of it any time it happens. And this is the first time Jason has ever brought anyone with him which makes it an even bigger event.”

Danny nudged her. “So, Jazz, what’s it like living with someone who can cook?”

Jason laughed. “Jazz isn’t allowed in the kitchen. You know, I caught her grabbing my chef’s knife before going into the fridge the other day!”

Danny furrowed his brow. “Of course she did. It’s a fridge.”

“Wait, is that a family trait? Why do you grab a knife to open the fridge? There’s gotta be a good story behind that.”

Before Danny could make the obvious statement regarding attacking food, Jazz elbowed him. “We’ll tell you later. It has to do with our parents and that’s a large topic and not one we should get into now.”

Before Danny could ask any questions about what the big deal was, Dick nudged him. “Which do you want—curry or beef?”

---------

Omake

Ignoring all of it, Danny shook his head and answered Dick. “Nah. Hard to get into college when you fail high school and are legally dead.”

Multiple people, including Jason, exclaimed at that statement and he looked to Jazz.

“Did Jazz not tell you about that? Our parents swear they saw my ghost and had me declared legally dead. I was missing at the time so the coroner agreed. Sighting the ghost of a missing person is all you need to confirm death in Amity.”

Under her breath, Jazz added, “You were only missing because they had you.”

Danny elbowed her and quietly chirped a Safe now.

Bruce was no longer smiling and was looking at Danny with narrowed eyes. “Your parents had you declared dead.”

“Yeah. It’s fine, though. I’ve an amazing doctor if I get into trouble. My grandfather is watching out for me. I’m financially stable. My partners are able to rent an apartment large enough for all three of us. I have other places to stay when I’m traveling. Honestly, it doesn’t impact my life all that much. Just means I’m not gonna go to college. And only reason I wanted to go to college was to be an astronaut, but my health makes that impossible.”

“Hn…” Bruce hummed.

And Danny had no idea what that meant, but Robin was now laughing, and Dick was exchanging grins with Tim, and Steph and Cass were whispering together. Damian was glaring at him even harder, blade hilt gripped in his hand. These people were strange.

Danny looked over at Jazz who shrugged. Jason was glaring at Bruce and said, “Don’t you dare.”

“Look, it’s really not a big deal. I know it’s kinda a messed up situation, but ghosts are generally treated really well in Amity. As well as any living human, at least. So long as you avoid the Guys in White and my parents that is. So outside of interactions with them, nothing has changed.”

“If you are ever in need of a place to stay or a meal or anything, you’ll have a room here,” offered Bruce.

Robin landed on Danny’s shoulders and was sending out happy-celebrate feelings. Steph handed Cass a few bills. Tim and Dick mimed giving each other fist bumps. Jason put his head in his hands and groaned. Duke was grinning at them all.

Damian half stood and said, “Father—!”

But Dick was at his side and pulling him back down to the couch with an arm around his shoulders, hand over his mouth, and whispering into his ear before he could do more than say the one word.

“Seriously, it’s not a big deal.” Trying to think of anyway to change the subject, he asked, “So what’s for dinner, anyway?”

And for the Tag List! (Which absolutely exploded this week. Holy shit.)

----------

Next

@addie-lover-of-stories, @justwannabecat, @gin2212, @amercurio, @regonold, @overtherose, @readerzj, @sjrose1216, @echoednonny, @deeterzz, @blu-lilac, @number-one-jew, @rowanaway-fromthisbs, @vythika96, @tired-yet-awaken, @themirrorghost, @all-mights-asscheeks, @darkhinauniverse, @blep-23, @phandomhyperfixationblog, @larkcoe1, @thegatorsgoose, @job-ross-the-second, @britcision, @lenacraft, @bubblemixer, @androgynouslordofescapism, @purefrickingspite, @leftmiraclechaos, @lizisipancardo, @starlight-sparks, @miraculousandmore, @gildedphoenix, @sometimesthingsfallapart, @letmesayfuxk, @phoenixcatch7, @skulld3mort-1fan, @abaowo, @dhampir-princess, @idkmrpianoman, @sarina-elais, @ballzfrog-blog, @undead-essence, @spookytragedyshark, @emeraldcorpral

The celebration post for 100 followers will be going out in another day or two! I've just had a really busy few weeks and didn't do as much writing as I was hoping for. But I hope to finish writing today and then I'll just take a few hours to edit.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

i have a problem

my dash is getting filled with merlin content and now i have all the thoughts ever, i am slowly going insane-

first of all, i was literally part of superwholock (and merlin!) which meant there was a lot of room for chaos and shenanigans- as a roleplayer, i remember this was so illiterate but i can't handle that and so i'd troll people by replying in solely multi-para responses, but going back to my ideas!

on one hand, i could see about reworking on my older abandoned works - mostly due to hyperfix drops - but honestly, i might genuinely see about bringing them back! let yourself be 'cringe', write what you want and don't let anyone stop you! i never finished my superwholock fanfic because i thought it would be ill-received but if i can publish a fic for secret quartet- i can write that too

but i also had plans for a theoretical continuation of the series, and i genuinely had a smaller arc where it involved once upon a time- and merlin having his own antique shop and just- grrr, it was this whole thing cooking in my brain before i dropped it

except now, i am immensely and horribly fixated on rc9gn and that has to be one of the best (and equally worst-) interests i've ever had, i can't get enough of it which leads to this: merlin x rc9gn crossover. hear me out-

somehow, merlin ends up in norrisville and begins to realize there's a deep magic in the area, and it haunts him to the bone- he still hasn't found arthur which is a story for another day (meaning this idea is a wip-)

because it's merlin, he doesn't know how to let things be and decides to investigate; he inevitably learns about the ninja and is surprised when the energy seems young- that the current ninja is, in fact, a teenager and not an 800-year-old spirit. deciding he can't let this slide, merlin becomes involved in randy's life- wanting to help him but of course certain individuals make this incredibly difficult

so now, you have randy who's being mentored by both the literal embodiment of a book that's centuries old and the most powerful warlock to ever exist- but he fears being too much, can he really do this? though by technical terms, randy has magic; this has been proven, and i honestly thought of pyrokinetic randy- yk, because of his connection with the tengu

things slowly grow tense because this isn't a cartoon- how could it be? the sorcerer is a dangerous foe and eventually, he manages to escape; norrisville is throwing into disarray but randy has his mentors- he is not going to let them win... and happens to discover something about himself he didn't think was possible...

merlin will not see randy die. he will not witness something like that- but he knows randy's different, he isn't like the past ninjas (as i feel merlin would be contacted by the nomicon at some point-) and everyone will remember his feats, but things are never that easy

this is another extremely self indulgent idea but it's mine and i will write it, so if you see this more (and things like the warrior cats crossover for rc9gn) then that's what will happen pfft

[swordsmans]

happy WIP wednesday! i am once again Putting Zoro In Situations. this is gonna be a rework (in the loosest possible sense) of a much, much older abandoned fic of mine that i'm cannibalizing for the bones. it'll be zolu (ob v i o usly) and also have lots of character conversations (MY BRAND), and it's not going to be finished any time soon. However. It has words now, which is better than last week.

text under the cut!

The kid advances, eyes focused completely on him now—like he knows what Zoro’s thinking, or has had enough experience with hostile adults to know the little signs of violence. “Don’t move!” he shouts. At the very least, he has keen observation skills. “What did you do to my little brother?”

Zoro ignores the question but stops, again reaching out with his observation haki looking for someone—but he’s alone, still, save for the kid whose near-invisible haki presence is detectable only now that he’s standing there glaring at him. “I’m only going to ask this once, kid,” he says, raising an eyebrow. “Where are my swords?”

In response, the boy glares and bites out, "And I’m only going to ask this once, old man—what did you do with Luffy?" already assuming a kind of rough, haphazard fighting stance. No formal training, Zoro notes—the kid’s loose and nimble, with a practical mid-low grip on the pipe, but he’s also so sloppy it’s clear he’s been self-taught by survival. It’s unlikely that there are any real fighters nearby, then—

—and then his brain catches up with what the kid’s just said. Zoro sighs.

In one motion he snaps the ropes around him, then steps forward, stretching the stiffness of being tied to a tree for who-knows-how-long out of his arms and back. “Ha, ha,”he enunciates deadpan, scowling down at the brat. “Whatever stupid game you two are playing—who even are you, some friend he made?—don’t mess with my fucking swords.” The kid brandishes his pipe, but Zoro just bats it away—if Luffy’s roped whoever-this-is into something, he can’t be as weak as he looks—and says, “Where are they?”

To his credit, the kid doesn’t back down—he just grits his teeth and holds his ground, even as his eyes widen and Zoro can see his knuckles turn white around the base of his weapon. That does give Zoro pause, then—because even though he’s holding his own, the kid is clearly scared. Which doesn’t bode well if Luffy’s been fucking around with the locals.

Suddenly, a battle cry roars up from the bushes to his left and something leaps up to smash the back of his head, screaming, “Stay the fuck away from my brother!” Zoro pivots in time to catch a second (sloppy, inexperienced) blow from the new kid—not much older than the first, but buzzing with a kind of rage that promises a dirty fight to anyone who tries. While the blond kid looks mostly put-together, this one looks like he’s been raised like a wild animal—shaggy black hair full of sticks and leaves, mud-streaked and torn clothes just a size too big. (He also looks vaguely familiar, and Zoro’s annoyance doubles.)

[coldgoldlazarus]

Ok, what are you have in mind for the metroid fic? (asking here because I felt going back and forth in the notes of that one post wouldn't be very efficient)

(Ahhh, that makes sense)

To give a bit of context, this idea is somewhat of a rework of part of an older Metroid project of mine. Metroid: Equilibrium was supposed to be my take on a follow-up to Fusion, but it petered out pretty quickly (and for the best, I think, in hindsight) and then a couple years later Dread came out and did some of the same stuff, but like, way better.

But there was one part of Equilibrium's story that was completely unique to it, that I wanted to do more with. In Metroid Prime 3 there was an offhanded mention in a scan entry, talking about how the Reptilicans were once peers of the Chozo, Luminoth, and another species called the Ylla. Since there was nothing else known about the Ylla, I took and ran with it, and wound up developing a bat-like race and the dark world they called home.

In Equilibrium they were to play a moderately significant role, helping Samus find a way to stabilize her disparate collection of DNA before it killed her, in exchange for assisting them in warning the Federation of the antagonistic Chozo faction I had introduced, and later helping fend them off when they directly attacked the Ylla homeworld. I even intended to introduce a Ylla bounty hunter to somewhat represent them and play off of Samus, as someone who would have a healthy respect for her without entirely buying into the hype, suspicious of her due to her connections with the Chozo and habit of leaving large planet-sized explosions in her wake.

Again, Equilibrium wasn't actually that good in hindsight, but I did like the Ylla, and I did like that yet-unnamed Hunter, so I always wanted to find a way to reuse them elsewhere. So that's kinda the first main goal with this, to more properly utilize that and further flesh out my prior ideas.

And then just recently, my Metroid hyperfixation has started up again in just the past few days, and I was thinking about what sort of stuff could happen after the crazy events of Dread; mainly if that would finally be what would permanently break the previous uneasy relationship between Samus and the Federation.

At the same time in the opposite direction... Hashtag Give Samus A Girlfriend was also on my mind again. I started thinking about, given her general lifestyle and circumstances, what sort of person could actually work well in a relationship with Samus without it falling apart very quickly, and realized that prior-mentioned Ylla Bounty Hunter, as I had loosely concieved of her, could potentially fit that bill.

And so those three thoughts - doing more with the Ylla, exploring the Federation (and Pirate?) response to Samus's new status as The Last Metroid, and wanting to Give Samus A Girlfriend (who won't just die on her right away) came together into this new concept.

In essence, what I have most fleshed-out right now is a prologue arc establishing their prior meetings (Taking place somewhere between Prime 2 and Prime 3 and Samus Returns) and dynamic, similar to the one I had intended for them in Equilibrium. From there, the story would then skip forward to the end of Dread, with sketchier parties within the Federation now setting out to paint Samus as Public Enemy No. 1 and capture her for study, with the remnants of the Space Pirates doubtlessly eager to take advantage of this turn of events. And with Samus now having a bounty out on her own head, even with her fearsome reputation there would be at least a few Hunters out there willing to try to take her down, with this Ylla being among them, at least initially.

But yeah, this whole part of things is a whole lot less fleshed-out beyond that setup, the general intention for an enemies-to-lovers sort of arc, and figuring out some way to make the bulk of the actual metroidvania-ing take place on the Ylla homeworld to show it all off more.

And unlike Equilibrium, it also still needs a title. ^^;

[astriiformes]

For the writers ask meme: 1, 2, 17, 35

1 - Do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

I usually know how stories will end, but not necessarily where, if that makes sense. There have been exceptions in both cases, but usually I have some idea of how the central crisis will be resolved and general emotional beats I want the ending to have, but not exactly what that's going to look like. The former gives me something specific to work towards and lends emotional coherence to the work as a whole, but even when I'm working towards a particular ending scene, I don't always have a totally clear picture of it.

Like, I knew "Several Witches Are Typing" would end with the team getting back to Willow's house and her dads discovering them, but hadn't necessarily fleshed out everything beyond that when I started the story. Sometimes I'll even have really specific details pinned down but be missing another big, important chunk (by the time I actually started writing "Aurum Horizontale" I knew Keyleth was going to give Percy the friendship bracelet made from the fragments of his exploded gun, but wasn't entirely sure if Percy was going to leave with Vox Machina or not -- an uncertainty that I ultimately realized he would have himself, so I dug into that).

I don't like having nothing though. The stories I don't have a clear ending for are also, not coincidentally often the stories that end up abandoned. Every time I think my excitement at the start is enough to propel me through, I end up being wrong.

On the flip side, the stories I do have endings in mind for are the ones I hang onto for years and years, and am confident I have a shot at actually finishing even when I've taken long hiatuses. I know exactly how "I Breathed a Song Into the Air" is going to end, as well as the transgender Marty McFly WIP I've had in my drafts for ages. I also have a pretty solid idea of the ending of my trans Caleb Wittebane fic ("Go Down to the Netherworld, Plant Grapes) and the TOH Sherlock Holmes pastiche that I haven't even officially started writing yet. And I'm working on defining the ending to the longer of my two Pentiment WIPs ("Beharren ist Eine Kunst") for exactly this reason, so hopefully that can lend anyone interested in those stories some hope even if my updates are uh, inconsistent.

2 - Talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

Usually this happens because they've decided to make the story longer (or I've misjudged how long a scene would actually be...)

Unfortunately the best example I had of this was a fic I'm still contemplating ways to rework -- I had a oneshot I was working on mid-S2/S3 TOH hiatus that collided with another idea of mine and had the potential to be a really interesting, long story, but ultimately hit me during something of a writing slump, and the show restarted before I got much of it written. I'd love to at least clean up the original oneshot into something postable one day, but would have to scrap a lot of my favorite parts of the longer story now since I don't think it can be repurposed into something I like.

Alas. It was a really cool thing to have happen (writing two things at once and realizing there was enough fascinating thematic overlap to turn it into a single story if I played my cards right) and I hope someday it happens with a fic I can actually get off the ground.

17 - What is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

A more recent example, but I'm awfully fond of this one from my Pentiment exchange fic, "Long Upon the Land" (Paul, my boy Paul)

It wasn’t fair, and the older he grew, the more he found the gentleness and piety he’d always tried to cultivate tested by the bitter serpent that had curled itself around his heart, whispering that one day he ought to spit back “Fathers, provoke not your children to indignation, lest they be discouraged,” with a less-than-righteous venom the next time he was told obedience was a virtue.

35 - Tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

A recent one, but I am extremely fond of Magdalene Druckeryn, even as someone who is a lot more like Andreas myself. She's so incredibly stubborn and plucky, an a lovely example of how to do female protagonists in historical fiction that are constrained by the position of women in society but don't let themselves be completely limited by it (and, have lovely and encouraging relationships with other women of the same time period instead of falling prey to the idea that "interesting" historical women have to be an exception). The game gave her such incredibly demanding shoes to fill as an Act III protagonist and she does so wonderfully. I lack her particular brand of snark and courage -- my own looks quite different -- but I love her, and I'm loving having a fic project where I get to write her, too.

[theplanetprince]

Welcome to the Thanatology Anthology, Danny Phantom AU/Rewrite FAQ THREAD--

With me, your host, theplanetprince.

SO, I suppose the first question should be--

Q: What is the Thanatology Anthology?

A: The Thanatology Anthology is a series of fics/art made by me, theplanetprince, based around the 2004 nickelodeon superhero Paranormal SciFi cartoon Danny Phantom.

Simply put it's the name for how I would reboot the show. Including designs of certain characters, characterization, aspects of world-building, redos of moments in the show, etc. Truthfully, told I'm unsure what label to put my series of fixes and nitpicks under-- I've heard some people call it an outright rewrite/reboot of the continuity which I'm more willing to agree with.

Although I am borrowing a lot of aspects from certain aus, ecto-hunger, the core stuff, though they don't really bare a lot of resemblance to the original material or I simply can't find sources to double check if I'm getting all the details right. There are a lot of differences from the canon that I'm incorporating that some people might want to borrow and use for their own writing like for example Danielle (AKA Ellie) being Danny's future daughter rather than a clone. I guess I use the au label as well, in case people like my ideas enough to use.

I'm probably making it sound a bit more complicated than it actually is, but the idea is that I'm rewriting the show from the perspective of an older fan influenced by horror movies who wants to give the characters a bit more nuance and life.

Q: Okay, but what does 'Thanatology Anthology' mean though?

A: Ah, Thanatology is a word that comes from Thanatos IE the greek spirit of Death. Thanatology means the Study of Death. I thought I was clever. A few other work-shopped titles were "In the midst of our lives we die." "Pine box parables" "Six Feet Shallow" and "Death via Misadventure"

Q: When does this rewrite take place?

A: It can really be whenever you want it to be, but I've always shot for the late 90s, or early 2000s.

Q: Do I have to read these in order?

A: I mean, I'm not writing it in order! I'm writing the story as it comes to me. One piece might take place in the character's Freshman year and the very next I release might be their Junior year. I've done my best so far to cobble together some kind of order as well as catagerize stories via the series function on AO3 by the character arcs. Like for example Wes's arc is under the series label "That Messed up Thing That Happened To Wes When He Was A Kid." Each story in that series is ordered by every appearance of Wes that pertains to his character arc. You don't have to read these stories in order if you don't want to! I'll try to put enough context in each piece to make it approachable.

First Year (Freshman):

Amity Park Anomalies

Cherry Flavored

Second Year (Sophmore):

Pick Your Poison

Schrodinger’s Adolescent

Q: You said you were making changes to the canon, what kind of changes are there going to be? What are you keeping? What are you mixing around?

A: For the most part the concept is still the same, Half-Dead teen antics. ✨Now gayer✨

I'm mostly removing world-building concepts that no longer mesh with how I think the story will flow. I'm mostly trying to rework the appearances of the Medieval Ghosts Eudora and Aragorn. That is strictly a personal preference of mine, I just don't find high fantasy concepts that interesting-- and they're kind of confusing when you open them up in a more SciFi setting like Amity Park. It feels more realistic for aliens to mesh into the setting than medieval ghosts/dragons. I probably won't be including the likes of Pariah Dark either. However, I do have plans for the Fright Knight that I hope people will find interesting. The furthest back in time in setting I'll go is probably to the witch trial days because I find that setting is not only easier to write for, for my skill set, I just find folksy/witch horror oodles more fascinating. Also with the villain set, I wanted to incorporate more Guys in White lore and more original ghost hunters. Making the humans in Amity Park just as threatening as the ghost threats. I'm putting more of an emphasis on technology, ghost weapons, and characters versus high fantasy elements.

Q: With characterization, how do you plan to change that?

A: Truthfully, I don't plan on changing much except fulfilling character arcs to iron out the main character's flaws from the original run of the show. It never felt like they grew or evolved much beyond simplistic stereotypes. I plan on getting into the heads of our teenage protagonists to really bring out their best and worst aspects so they can grow. Not to mention conclude Valerie Gray's arc from the original run-- as well, as giving the fan-created character Wes Weston a villain arc in tandem.

Q: What Ships are endgame?

A: TeddyGhost. I wish I could be more blunt about it (LMAO)

but Teddyghost or some poly quartet of the Main Trio + Dash. This started with Schrodinger's adolescent a Danny/Dash fic, and I would like to keep it that way. But I promise not every fic in this series will be centered around a romantic pairing. Some of them will just be good, clean, bad one liners and fights. Other ships that will probably get some spotlight are VeggieBurger (Sam/Tucker) and PunkPoet (Ember/Ghostwriter). I'm not too sure what the official name decided on Val/Wes is but DeceasedDesist is my personal label for it haha.

Q: I want to help/I want chapters and releases to come out faster-- Where can I find more stuff?

A: I'll be real with you, I am just one person and I am just making it up as I go along! But if you would like to help contribute, maybe consider checking out the stories I do have on my AO3, Under the Thanatology Anthology Series. What really helps motivate any author is comments and asks. Share my work! I don't mind. But as long as there's still work to be done I'll be here doing it.

[mazzal-fic]

News in Fic:

Get the Guy: not abandoned, but I do plan on reworking it and posting a new chapter one in June! The only major fixer-upper in my catalogue, as looking over it as an older writer made me realise I want to take it in a different direction now

To Chase a Hart: on brief pause—not hiatus! I know how I want this fic to end but planning out the middle is complicated ahahaha. While I get the creative juices flowing, expect bts research sources, concept art/sketches, and other production materials to be posted instead!

Reaching for Empyrean: officially 1/3 of the story will be done once chapter 21 is posted; that chapter is also 1/3 done. Expect some production materials to be posted for this as well!

A Single Pale Flower: have not worked on the next chapter as of now. Production materials are also planned but are not as big of a priority as the previous entries in this list

This Flesh of Mine: have not worked on the next chapter as of now. At the moment one of the most straightforward of the bunch and whose planning process (beginning, middle, end) is definitely shaping up to be one of the easiest for me

Miss Paragon: last three chapters out of five are being completely reworked—not in terms of plot, but in terms of pacing, order, and word choice. This fic will most likely be completed in March

Koko wo Shinogu: renamed to 凌ぐ, and the other two fics in the planned trilogy will also have kanji titles from now on. Production materials will heavily lean on character profiles, outfits, and some side sketches

Les Ravageurs: renamed to Ravageurs. Second chapter out of 3 is finished and will most likely be posted on Friday or next weekend. This fic will most likely be completed either this month or in early February

Only the latter two in this list have been fully transferred from my old account to my new one, and a full moderation policy will be enacted across all fics to screen comments beforehand. My old blog and AO3 will not be abandoned and you will also see kudos coming from both old and new accounts (since we all mention how badly we want to double-kudos our faves! ;3). Renaming fics for safety purposes will definitely be the hardest step of all.

Once again, thank you all for your continued support! Happy New Year!

(Image credit: NASA; font and composition through befunky)

[meggie-stardust]

Tagged by the always lovely @myletternevercame. Thanks babe < 3

how many works do you have on AO3? 57

what’s your total ao3 word count? 18,2645 (dang!)

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Acts of Man | Merlin | Merlin/Arthur

Nightmares | PJO | Jason/Percy

Looking for the Things We Lost | Teen Wolf | Peter/Stiles

Here I Am (Stuck in the Middle With You) | PJO | Jason/Percy

The Legend is True | Teen Wolf | Peter/Stiles

do you respond to comments, why or why not? I try to as often as I can. When I first post something and I get an influx of comments, I try to do it once a day. But when I get random comments on old stuff, I often forget to go back and reply, but I read every single one, and I do try to remember to write back.

what’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? Oh man. Most of my fics happy endings... But the happiest?? Probably Acts of Man, since it's a Christmas fic and it has this kind of storybook coda on the end of it.

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Hmm. My older fics tended to be a little more angsty and open ended... probably this old Sterek fic Those Who Hunt Us or this Isaac Lahey study Bygone

do you write crossovers? Not much anymore, but I did a cool 3 sentence fic challenge back in 2014 and each prompt (from tumblr folks at the time) were things like MJN air + Supernatural or Sherlock and John work at Mooby's. I also have a soft spot for this Sherlock/Cowboy Bebop xover cleverly called 221Bebop: Honky Tonk Woman. And of course, there is the abandoned HP/Sherlock crossover bestie and I started and will never finish, so IDK why I even bring it up. Actually come to think of it, I also had the Sherlock Monstrumologist one... I just wrote a lot of Sherlock xover fic back in the day, huh.

have you ever received hate on a fic? Not on AO3 comments. I haven't gotten some odd reviews/comments, but I have been very fortunate to have not experienced much of this in my 20+ years in fandom.

do you write smut? if so, what kind? Yes. All of the kinds?? I remember thinking it was such a big deal to write a "lemon" back int the day, and now it's old hat. Of course, I can't really write PWPs (I think I have one maybe??), I always have to write a giant backstory just to get to the good stuff (see my 18k GW beast of a fic for a lemon/smut fest. smhd)

have you ever had a fic stolen? not that I'm aware of...

have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! And it's such an insanely wonderful honor. I've also had fics written that are inspired by mine and I just... blanket permission to anyone who wants to remix, translate, art, whatever my work. It's so flattering.

Most recently, I had Black Sails in the Sunset translated into Portuguese.

have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, but it was abandoned. I would love to do something like that again. Or something slightly different, like a comic *cough*@bettertasting*cough*

what’s your all-time favourite ship? How does one even answer that? Heero/Duo was the ship that got me into fandom; Harry/Draco is something I will still occasionally return to when I want like nostalgic comfort; Merlin/Arthur has some of the best fanworks I've ever consumed and they feel more like canon works than fanon; I've been reading and writing Stiles/Peter for like 5 years now... So, this is my non-answer. IDK man. I have a whole fleet and I'm ok with that.

what’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? I had this idea for a Stranger Things OT3 fic at the end of Season 1, and then I wrote the first chapter and never posted it or wrote more before Season 2 dropped, and meh. I'll never go back to it. I loved the idea, but the characters have changed so much, I don't think I could capture what I wanted anymore. Maybe I'll post my WIPs I'll never finish someday and clean out my WIP folder.

what are your writing strengths? I think I'm funny and can inject that well into characters? And I like to think that I am good at writing in the character voice.

what are your writing weaknesses? If I need a "real" plot. Like, I cannot write case fics or mission fics or anything like that. I spent ages reworking my last fic so I could "Kevin Smith" the action by only have characters talk about some stuff that happened to them, and never see any of it on screen.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I think I would take the easy way out and do it like: "blah blah blah" she said in French; or "she let out a rant in French" but never actually worry about translating anything.

what was the first fandom you wrote for? Gundam Wing! And back at it 20 years later!

what’s your favourite fic you’ve written? Hmmm. I really do like the last fic I wrote, my reentry to GW:

Our Love Keeps the Things it Finds | Gundam Wing | Heero/Duo/Trowa

And on the other end of the spectrum, and short 500 word fic that I really, really love:

A Slow Deep Panic | PJO | pre-Jason/Percy-ish

ok tagging: @punchedbymarkesmith @gatesofdisorder @lolahardy @pineappleglazedham @gentleranium @theheadgirl and you! Yes, you! Do you write fic? Are we mutuals? Do you want me to tag you in things? Let me know by doing this and tagging me!

[incomprehensiblelentils]

@dollsome-does-tumblr​ does this and opened it up to anyone and I am feeling chatty today SO!

Because I co-write a lot with my lovely wife, I might answer some questions including those co-written stories, or I might not, depends on how I feel when I get there.

name:

Megan but I go by Lentils most places on the internet, Shadowcrawler over on AO3

fandoms:

at the moment: MCU, especially Agents of SHIELD and Daredevil; Terminator: Dark Fate; Halt and Catch Fire. Oh and I wrote Dollhouse fanfics a thousand years ago. Sometimes I will watch a movie/show and think “those two girls should be gay” and bang out 2k of fic about it and then never write for that fandom again. (I THOUGHT this was going to be HACF but as it turns out, no, it’s not done with me yet.)

where you post:

AO3, at Shadowcrawler. I also have a tumblr @lentils-writes​ where theoretically I post links to fics/advertise them in the tags, because I used to be real precious about not putting porn on this blog, but fuck it.

most popular multi-chapter fic:

Co-written, it’s definitely mallverse, which is I think the reason most writers definitely hate us because it’s very long and there are a lot of tags lmao. The problem is that every tagged character HAS shown up in a significant fashion at some point so we can’t just...untag them! It doesn’t update weekly anymore because we’re exhausted by life lmao so at least there’s that???

As for a multi-chapter fic that was just me, I don’t tend to do that so much, so actually it’s say you will, my 3-chapter Endgame fix-it where Clint dies instead of Natasha and Natasha and Laura have a past. It actually has over 1000 hits which is very exciting! I feel like it’s...niche in a way that is frustrating but understandable lol. I put a lot of my heart into it and some people really liked it, so that’s gratifying.

favorite story you’ve written so far:

Co-written, I think our SHIELD Dollhouse AU is very underrated for the amount of work we put into it. Author bias evident here because I love Dollhouse warts and all, and it’s a lot of fun translating episode plots as well as the general trajectory of the show into stuff that will work with SHIELD characters. We don’t just rewrite episodes, we really try and rework them as needed. Also it features both Skimmons and my beloved rarepair Bobbi/Kara, though of course they won’t get together until later.

Of my own stuff, I’m still really really proud of the AU where Kara Palamas didn’t die. I think that was a pretty severe misstep of the show and I think I did a good job of fixing it. (I haven’t forgotten Kara, promise!)

fic you were nervous to post:

lolololol I wrote some uh. Terminator pornography last year and. They are very porny! I had co-written a bunch of smut obviously, but that was the first time I’d posted like, PWP all by myself on purpose??? and that was TERRIFYING. Also I was very nervous to post the Engame fix-it because that was my own personal goodbye/tribute to Natasha.

how you choose your titles:

They are always either song lyrics or jokes (such as Three Lawyers and a Baby, my Daredevil Accidental Baby Acquisition fic). My WIP docs are always titled either obvious shit like “RoseJannah horse girls” or memes like “what if we belonged to a fire cult and we fucked haha just kidding unless...?” or “Morgan has two mommies.”

do you outline?:

B and I typically outline for the co-written fics, although it’s more often chapter-by-chapter outlines since that’s how we write them. On occasion we’ve fully planned multi-chapter stuff out in advance but that’s less common. Oh and the one-shots are nearly always outlined as well, just to keep ourselves organized.

When I have written planned multi-chapter fics in the past I have used outlines - particularly for the Kara one and I had to do that for the SHIELD Kill Bill AU because I was trying to follow the format of the movie. For things that are allegedly supposed to be one-shots I almost never outline, which turns out to be a terrible idea when they inevitably balloon beyond my control and become 45k like say you will. That one, I wrote out a list of scenes I thought needed to be in it and then I wrote about 75% of those scenes and then I wrote a bunch more scenes I hadn’t planned for. Don’t be like me, kids!

complete fics:

According to AO3, 89 as of right now. Uh, you do not want me to list all of them, here’s a link, I guess!

in progress:

I don’t understand what the difference is between this question and the WIP questions lmao help????

posted WIPs that I have active plans to continue at this time:

Cowritten: mallverse as I said, and its femslash smut oneshots spinoff and character flashbacks spinoff and older characters/teachers spinoff (these get updated, uh, irregularly), the first half of a Piper/Snowflake SHIELD s7 fic that we are planning on finishing the second half of soonish, SHIELD Dollhouse AU, SHIELD Teen Beach AU, SHIELD Buffy AU. You may notice a pattern!

By myself, I have: Have Your Elf a Merry Little Christmas, a Terminator Hallmark Christmas fic that I ambitiously posted the first chapter of in 2019 and then lost steam immediately (I am going to go back to it sooner or later bc I had some cute ideas for it); the SHIELD Fate of the Furious AU that has one chapter to go and which I do intend on finishing eventually; Three Lawyers and a Little Lady, the Daredevil Accidentally Baby Acquisition AU that is literally just cute kidfic and poly avocados and which I have a bunch of ideas for and just need to buckle down and finish some.

posted WIPs that I have given up on:

Lol so there’s a Dollhouse Caroline/Bennett Doctor Who AU that I wrote purely as idfic and which nobody ever cared about except me, and I think that ship has sailed! RIP darlings. I also had an ongoing Skimmons series waaaay back when where I posted oneshots that were like missing scenes or gay readings for each s1 episode, and I just feel like it would be inauthentic to even try and finish it at this point. (It does include the first ever Skimmons fic to be posted on AO3! Really truly, there’s one fic that shows up as older but it’s an ongoing fic and was updated with the tag way after I posted mine.)

exchange fics due soon/unrevealed:

I haven’t done an exchange since like 2015 lololol I am so bad at them. I am currently working on finishing up my MCU Femslash bingo card, very late, and I do have plans for almost all of the remaining squares!

WIPs that live in my fanfic folder and are incomplete and who knows when they’ll be finished:

“RoseJannah horse girls,” which has been put on hold temporarily but is literally just Rose and Jannah being gay while riding orbaks

half of a Daisy/Gwen fic from Marvel Rising because I know they’re not making any more of those but I stg those two were really gay

multiple fics about Elise Nelson-Page including: avocados Halloween with smol Elise, Aunt Elektra very reluctantly taking smol Elise shopping until she realizes smol Elise also likes weapons (she buys her a fake katana), Uncle Frank is a pushover and spoils the shit out of Elise, and baby Elise has a high fever and everyone freaks out but then she gets better and smile at them for the first time (inspired by baby me lol).

coming soon/not yet started:

“Morgan has two mommies,” yet another Endgame fix-it where Maya Hansen did not die in Iron Man 3 and she resurfaces and she and Pepper kiss and eventually she adopts Morgan

Claire and Colleen go on a nice date to get coffee/tea where Danny doesn’t interrupt them goddammit

Bobbi/Kara Warehouse 13 AU which is sort of like “For the Team” but gayer ft. grappling hook

X-Men: Evolution Tabby/Amara fluff

Cameron/Donna character study disguised as smut

Grace proposes to Dani with a ring made out of the metal from her power source and Carl officiates the wedding 

Dani gets horny watching Grace eat a peach and jerks off and Grace ends up hearing her and then they fuck (I have been calling this “the peach fic” in my head but I gotta stop being delicate about it lmfao it is just porn)

B and I have plans to do a Nico/Karolina Jasper in Deadland AU but we keep forgetting

I MUST WRITE FOGGY AND KAREN SADLY FUCKING IN A CHURCH WHILE THEY MOURN MATT THIS YEAR I STG

do you accept prompts:

uhhhhhh I have on occasion written a prompt for someone before but it’s pretty rare and I have enough trouble writing the shit I come up with in my own head lol. but never say never?

upcoming story you are most excited to write:

I’ve got a bit of the Bobbi/Kara Warehouse fic written and it’s nice to go back to that world. Also I’m weirdly excited about the Cam/Donna smutty character study I mentioned above, I have a lot of what I think are good ideas for it and it’ll be fun.

tagging @unwind-myself @swiftzeldas @swashbucklery @loved-the-stars-too-fondly and, if you want to, you!

[stefciastark]

MJ ~ Webpril Day 10

A/N: So this was an older work of mine from years ago that inspired me to rework and rewrite it to fit the prompt fill. It's quite different from anything else I've done in this collection thus far, in that it's set in an AU where it puts Peter quite OOC compared to his MCU persona. The Peter I've portrayed in this short one-shot is quite jaded and pessimistic in his adult life, having been hurt in love before and instead has become a sort of tortured artist. Peter also doesn't have powers, Harrington is now an arts professor, and Ned is inexplicably clairvoyant. Peter somehow knows he's seen the woman he's painting before, and maybe he has, in another lifetime. This story is a bit darker in sub-tone and doesn't contain any IronDad, but what's a compilation without a bit of variety :) This is a project I've considered making into a full fic, but we'll see what happens with it.

~Read on AO3

~Read on FFN

Paintbrush in hand, he let each colour blend together in a unique dance of raw emotion, letting each stroke convey a secret that resided deep inside him, and he found that the strokes directed themselves once he began. Her face, though only seen ever so briefly, embedded itself into his memory.

The image was beginning to take place on what was once a blank sheet of white, and now a woman with olive skin took over the surface, framed by long and dark hair cascading down the figure’s shoulders. Hazel eyes stared back out at the artist, and the dimming light from the busy city below surrounded the piece of art with a haunting yet dauntingly beautiful quality.

What really caught the eye of the artist, however, was the dark necklace that hung just below her collarbone. It was a black dahlia flower made of glass, some petals cracked, and some completely missing. The memory of it stood out so clearly in his mind, just as her face had when they fleetingly passed each other on the metro during that midsummer afternoon.

An angel must have been looking down upon him and had granted him the opportunity to find love once more, but he couldn’t tell if it was an opportunity that could be defined as cruel, or a golden chance to redeem his heart that had begun to blacken as he got older.

Startled from his reverie, Peter turned around, paintbrush still in hand, palette now empty and canvas now full. The door had creaked open ever so silently and tentatively that he would have nearly missed it if it weren’t for his overindulged paranoia.

“Didn’t anyone teach you to knock?” His tone was laced with annoyance, and it was poorly covered up. This of course didn’t go unnoticed by Ned, but his urgency far surpassed his need to grace Peter’s biting comment with a response.

“Peter, there’s been an accident on Queens Boulevard, and I think this woman you drew may have been involved.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun had now completely set on New York as Peter turned right and onto where 71st Avenue met Queens Boulevard. Peter had come up to the scene first, the man he still called his best friend arriving moments later.

What met his eyes was an absolute catastrophe, and he wondered how anyone or anything could have survived what was the largest vehicle pileup he had ever seen in his twenty-eight years of existence.

A large semi-truck was keeled over sideways on top of a number of smaller cars. It was a mess that consisted of an assortment of wheels and metallic parts that once belonged to a whole. He could smell the acute tang of iron amongst the powerful odour of gasoline and burnt rubber. In a moment at the wrong place at the wrong time, the lives of ill-fated drivers and unfortunate bystanders alike had ended. Even if some had survived, there would be permanent scars, physical and mental, that would remain for the rest of their lives. It gave Peter a fleeting sense of sonder.

Quashing his initial surprise and his odd sense of apathy regarding what caused such an accident, he turned to Ned and frowned, indifference transforming into confusion and mild vexation. He sighed. “Why am I here, Ned?”

“So, you’re telling me that you’re not expressing an ounce of concern for these people? That’s cold, man.” Giving him a brief sidelong glance and pressing his lips together, Ned moved to be amongst the crowd and reached out to the first man he saw – a police officer – and swiftly made to gather all the information he could about the situation at hand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The clock had ticked forward about thirty minutes since the two arrived at the scene of the accident. He returned around fifteen minutes later, having grown weary of (what was essentially) interrogating person after person. He shook his head slowly, communicating ‘nope, I got nothing’.

“Look, this is tragic and all, and I feel really bad, I do, but dude, did you really have to distract me from my artwork? I need to get this piece finished and handed in to Harrington by tomorrow, I don’t have time to be checking out depressing wreckages on the main road.” He paused, shifting his eyes away from the disaster zone and instead transferred his full attention to Ned. “Wait wait, why did you say the woman I drew might be here? And why did I believe you?”

“Because I’m usually right?”

Peter felt a small pang of unease dart across his mind despite himself. He trusted Ned’s intuition – it was rarely ever wrong. Most things that Ned had seen in his visions had come to pass, and Peter hoped that this mystery woman would be no different. He had to meet her, and not in a creepy way. He felt as if in another life or another timeline - should such a thing exist – they had been happy together. Unexpectedly, the image of himself giving the necklace to her featuring himself as a younger, less jaded version of himself, played through his mind. They were standing on a bridge in the night, in a place that was not their home yet was. He felt that anywhere she was became home. It was such an unexpected thought, and yet it was so strangely profound and vivid that it felt more like a memory.

He scanned the wreckage from afar once more, but most victims had long since been extricated from the pretzel made up of what was now just scrap metal. He knew who he was looking for. He was looking for that face he drew in his painting, the face that had been etched permanently into his mind for some time. Once more he recalled that figure silhouetted by long, dark curls that fell like a waterfall in the night. That necklace of a flower with a meaning he had yet to understand.

If she wasn’t there, he didn’t even know where to begin looking. New York was a massive city, full of seemingly infinite twists and turns he hadn’t discovered and probably never would.

He was taken aback by his own obsession with this strange girl. He’d never even truly met her.

His musings were broken by the sound of sirens echoing down the main boulevard, the final ambulances at last departing with the injured and deceased citizens of New York.

He wondered sadly if she was one of them.

A/N: SO, that was definitely different haha What'd you guys think? I enjoyed writing with a bit more of a 'serious' tone, but today's fill was a bit difficult for me, hence the shorter length as well. I also wanted to try something a bit different, so here we have it! See you back with another update tomorrow xx

[a-charm-of-witches]

Andromeda, Aries and Lupus, please.

Andromeda - Describe your main characters

HMMMMMmmm well. I wanna save the big descriptions for the RO profiles, so let’s go with short descriptions this time.

RIVER: A punk rocker with a heart of gold who’s done a lot of work on their anger management issues.

VALENTINE: A cheerleader who tries really hard to pretend that nothing matters to make themselves feel better about the fact that they don’t matter. 

NATSUKI: A garden punk who learned a long time ago to stab first, question never, and always, always shield their heart.

HENRY: A older sibling (of way too damn many) who wears their heart on their sleeve because maybe then someone will acknowledge that there’s more to them than being their parents’ enforcer, or their siblings keeper. 

Aries - Share a line that you’re proud of!

This is already in the demo, but honestly, this moment:

"Werewolves?" I yelp, jerking backward and looking around immediately. "Don't worry, Kiddo," Alice says as she scoops up my bag and drags it inside for me. "They only bite if you ask real nice."

Lupus - Have you abandoned other WIPs? Tell us about some and why you abandoned them?

Oh lord. Well... that depends? Or maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better by pulling hairs. So here’s the thing. 

Do I have any abandoned IF WIPs? No. This is my first solo game attempt. I actually have a pretty decent track record for games, though part of that was writing for an actual game studio. Deadlines, producers, and paycheques make finishing a thing a lot easier. You aren’t allowed to “baby” the story as much as you might otherwise. 

That said... My WIP list is long when it comes to fanfiction, including more than a few abandoned WIPs, and I technically have two novels I keep pulling on and off the backburner. There was also one spectacularly failed web graphic novel from... holy crap, was that a decade ago? Maybe. So let’s talk about them.

(And I’m going to put everything past here under a cut because it’s long)

The graphic novel is probably the one I regret the most, and also the hardest to talk about so it’ll go first. It was called Wind Spirits, and if you google it (and actually manage to find it) be prepared for blood and nudity. While nothing in the comic itself was sexualized, it was a fantasy world based in a climate similar to African savannahs and the majority of the cast didn’t really do clothing. This turned out to be a mistake, to some degree. 

I briefly mentioned this in another ask, but along with the whole “I don’t know what attraction means to most people” thing, I also don’t and have never understood the concept of nudity as something that’s inherently sexual. People’s bodies don’t bother me one way or the other, and my training as an artist only emphasized this. So it never occurred to me that simply depicting characters in the nude, in a way that was clearly meant as naturalistic and non-sexualized, would garner a fair amount of “omg this is adult!!” reactions, as well as a LOT of unwanted sexual comments from viewers. Not until I started receiving intimate details of my viewers, uh, fantasy lives that I was in no way comfortable with. It wasn’t just comments, either, but seeing people sort the pages of my comic into “spank bank” folders on DeviantArt, submitting them to fetish groups, etc. 

Now, if I had been choosing to write something erotic, this wouldn’t have bothered me. I have since written soft core porn for a living, and have seen comments made about said writing without taking it in the same way. But context matters, right?

And for a little more context, it especially made me feel A Way because, well, the larger reason why I ultimately walked myself back from the project: 99.9% of the cast were black. Which isn’t a problem, in and of itself of course. It’s just that... 

I’m a white woman from the Southern USA. And while I deeply enjoy and love the world that I built for Wind Spirits (one that I’d been designing since I was about fourteen), well, mistakes were made. It wasn’t just the weird optics of being a white woman drawing a bunch of naked black characters, which I only really became aware of during the process, but also some deeply rooted racist beliefs I’d been holding onto that I hadn’t worked through, and hadn’t begun to even recognize as a problem until I was partway into the thing.

It was when I started learning about and unpacking these things that I realized I couldn’t keep moving forward with Wind Spirits as it was. Keep in mind, this was around ten years ago. I didn’t know about, and hadn’t worked through, even half as much as I have now, and couldn’t begin to fathom how to fix the problem. So while I don’t believe I publicly posted anything that was terribly racist on the face of things (at least, no one has ever called me out on it, if I did,) I knew the direction the project was heading at the time, and that it was a message I no longer agreed with, or felt comfortable putting out into the world. 

There’s a tiny possibility that I could salvage it one day, rework it into something better. In fact, I’ve toyed with quite a few outlines of story directions that would do that, but I’m not sure it’s actually going to happen. There’s just too much history there, for me.

... 

OK, so on a less heavy note, the other big issue with abandoned WIPs are fanfiction stuff. Those are my biggest downfall by far, but a lot of it has to do with... I tend to write really heavy AUs that don’t get a lot of traction in the fandoms they’re for, probably because they’re heavy AUs. (or just not that good.) I might hyperfixate on a fic for months, but ultimately drop the ball because life threw too much at me at once and, hell, it’s not like there was anyone engaging with the fic, anyway. 

Or, in the incredibly rare instance there were people commenting regularly, it just has to do with time and with the feeling that I’d rather be making this into something that’s mine, and mine alone. That I’m wasting really great original fic ideas by making them AUs of a property they don’t resemble in the least anymore (another reason why they don’t get much traction.) 

So yeah. If y’all’d like to hear more about the two original novels I have on the burner I can also go into that. This just seems like it’s really long already, and I kind of feel like I just wrote a callout post for myself, so. Yeah. 

[mannatea]

If It Takes a Lifetime, a Rose of Versailles ‘fic

Words: 5,294 Summary: Oscar and André survive the storming of the Bastille. Pairing/Character: Oscar/André Extra Info: This was originally posted on Fanfiction.net back in 2008. It is a full rewrite. Rating: T. Genre: Romance, Friendship, Angst and Stuff. 

A few li’l notes under the cut that you should read only after the story has been read.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I’m nervous to post this because I haven’t written for RoV in forever, but man when the iron is hot, you gotta strike, amirite?

Anyway, I was always really happy with my original idea for this story! The longer I marinated on the manga and anime, the more I pondered the what-ifs and whys of the series. I don’t think I know anyone who saw/read Rose of Versailles and wasn’t immediately like, “I wish Oscar and André had lived!” I wanted this story to be for them.

Or more accurately, I wanted this story to act as some kind of...I don’t know, definitive proof that even if Oscar and André had made it through the 13th and 14th of July, 1789, that they still had to contend with two glaringly tragic issues: André’s blindness and Oscar’s battle with TB.

In 2008, when I originally wrote this story, I had been writing regularly for a number of years (about seven), but I was still very...inexperienced. 

I still remember a close friend of mine telling me my writing was “too emotional” and I’m pretty sure the original version of this story, though not one she had ever read, was a classic example of that issue. When I re-read the original story, there were some good elements in place, but it felt underdeveloped—almost lazy? Or maybe...uninspired?

Having rewatched the anime just now (and read the manga for the 10th time at least), I feel like I’m seeing the characters in a way 21+ year old me could not have seen them. I’m older now than Oscar lived to be in the series!!! And I think due to that, and life experiences, I just... Get The Characters. 

So while the original idea remained intact (Oscar and André survive but the tragedy occurs anyway, just in a different fashion + we see them reincarnated as teenagers who tease each other about the “legend” of their past lives), I reworked much of the story to help it work.

I also had a particular desire to mimic the tone of the manga. I’m not 100% sure if the English translation for the later parts is going to sync up with the French or not, but the manga has this waxing-poetic way of speaking. It’s my jam. I love me some metaphors. And I wanted to incorporate some of that into the story, because otherwise...it just wouldn’t feel like Rose of Versailles to me!

If you do remember the original story, you’ll probably remember how bland the second part was. I broke the original into two acts, more or less: Act I was Oscar and André dealing with their own struggles (a blind man caring for someone dying of TB), and Act II was the teenage reincarnations talking about the story that has just been told and concluding in the end that maybe their shared names aren’t a coincidence after all.

I...love cheesy reincarnation ‘fics as much as the next person, but it didn’t fit the characters enough for my liking. I can’t imagine that Oscar would ever believe the story deeply to begin with, so I had to scrap that. Instead, I had them tease each other and left André to be the character who “might” remember something of his past life, and let Oscar remain ignorant. I kept the original date of the “reincarnation” scene because it just...worked for me. With the current turbulent times we’re living in, it puts Oscar at a similar age to she was when she sided with the people in the French Revolution. :)

As far as Act I went, it wasn’t as flat as the second IMO, but it wasn’t very good, either. There was a lot of emotion without the right stuff surrounding it to make it feel Real, and part of my rewrite was just completely retooling those scenes. I think I was also trying for 3rd person omniscient and I hated it, so I rewrote it as third person limited, which meant scrapping lines and scenes anyway.

I also added a few scenes to make the passage of time feel better.

I’m pretty confident that the rewritten product is The Better Story, if only because I had clear goals and worked specifically toward them. The 2020 rewrite of “If It Takes a Lifetime” feels more to me like a Rose of Versailles fanfic than probably any RoV story I ever wrote.

So hey! I’m happy with it! And I hope if you read it, you were happy with it, too. (So please comment on it at AO3 so that I feel motivated to re-write some of the others.)

[bisexualterror]

(banner not mine, simply copied from @ao3commentoftheday)

so i have a lot of bookmarks saved on google chrome (hmu if you want me to do a writing resources list or a second fic rec), and i thought might as well do a fic rec! i seperated them by fandom’s and i did my very best to tell you why i love the fic, but i think i just rambled lmao

tagging my friends who i think might b interested: @ocfairygodmother​ @phoenixwench​ @leftzonkpsychicland​ @artish-calamity​ 

minor warning, this is a long list~

Vampire Diaries:

Bits of Sunshine is my favorite Vampire Diaries fic, it has a really funny and charming OC and gives you a different perspective of the main characters and it really inspired me with my own TVD fanfic, it’s still on hiatus but it’s nearly 500k makes up for it 

The Bystander offers a unique view to OCs, where the OC is separated from the main plot for the most part but interacts with main characters that eventually pull her in

Crimson Peak is really good if you love a powerful Bonnie Bennett, it explores the magic of Expression more and her family background and OC Bennetts and it offers a interesting plot and a rare pairing of Klaus/Bonnie

The Next Chapter is a Buffy crossover fanfic, it puts Buffy in the Vampire Diaries, and though I still haven’t finished it was pretty good at meshing the two shows and exploring more of an older Buffy ~

My Paper Heart is really good if you’ve been trying to look for f/f in this fandom and haven’t found it, it not only explores the oc’s sexuality but also their supernatural identity

beneath the steady waves of fearless hope and grace is also a really good queer bennett witch oc, the oc wakes up in TVD in the body of her parallel fictional universe self I guess you could say, and it has a lot of angst like whoo boi, prepare yourself, it’s so good! 

Human is pretty good, love their oc, it hasn’t been updates in a very long while but it has 100k+ and it’s 100% worth it if you’re looking for something different

Harry Potter:

Changes Everything is really good at addressing the potential problems in the Wizarding World through the lenses of an OC, and it has Harry getting the family he fucking deserves sooner rather than later, and it goes into amazing detail and depth over the magics of the universe. also, lots of lgbt+ characters~

@nonchalantxfish ‘s Rose Petal Red is so good, like, you want Slytherins being amazing and devious, this is the fic for you! you want ocs galore?? this is for you! you want changes to the plot but with serious consequences?? this one is for YOU! Although it’s on haitus rn, it has a shit ton of words, like 500k+ and it’s 100% worth it~

The Clockwork Locket is so good guys, it’s an Marauder era fic, and it has an amazing mix of humor and mystery and romance and friendship and by the end you’ll be shipping the oc with literally everyone lmao, but overall it’s just really good if you’re looking for a Sirius/OC but still want to read about the mysteries in Hogwarts and the OC has her own plot and storyline. The second installment is still in progress but the first installment is like 270k words

Daphne Greengrass, Side Character is what it says on the tin, it’s about daphne and takes a different approach to the character with humor and wit, it’s very enjoyable, still not finished but it’s at 100k+ words

To Be a Slytherin, pretty sure everyone’s seen this one at one point, it’s a really good oc potter twin fanfic, goes into detail with magic and it’s just really good and has one of the longest word count i’ve ever seen at 1,166,349 

The Observer Effect is a MCU crossover with adult fem!Harry, it hasn’t been updating in a while, but from what I remember it’s super good and funny!

Naruto:

A Holmes in Konoha is super good, an Holmes OC is reincarnated as a orphan in Konoha, it explores the Nara’s more and it’s just so good at meshing investigation, friendship and relationships, action and drama~ 

Deja vu no Justu is a time travel fic, it’s really good, have not caught up to it since it first started but it has 500k+ words written and from what I remember it was very well written, like holy shit that was good writing ~

How to Obtain a Reverse Harem in Naruto by @burntpetal16 is pretty freakin good at making me laugh, it’s a remake of their finished fanfic, Sakura, which is equally as good, it’s about an self-insert OC suddenly waking up as Sakura, and Sakura def does what it says on the tin but also there’s an air of mystery surrounding the OC and how they got in the universe who she was before

The Yondaime’s Assistant is finished at 165k+ words and it’s good, like so good, it’s an OC reincarnated into Naruto fanfic, and it’s different from a lot of other OCs in the fandom because the OC goes into the Genin Corps instead of going out into the field, the writer manages to enthrall you with paperwork basically as the OC saves people from the background, it’s also endgame poly relationship between her, Genma and Kakashi!

After the Rain is a fem!Naruto time-travel fanfic, another fic which i haven’t finished, but from what I remember it was it’s done really well and has a lot of angst and drama and action and it’s just, prepare YOSELF for HEART wrenching ANGST!! also it’s 500k+ words!

The Witcher:

The Sorceress, The Witcher, The Bard and a Girl is what it says on the tin, it’s AU and an established ot3 situation w Yen/Geralt/Jaskier and it’s just,,, family fluff, disgusting domestic with all the drama that comes with three emotionally... complicated people trying to raise a young girl who has powers, starts off in a small town

Lullaby of the Isles is more so the game/book fandom, but it’s so good that I just didn’t care about that small fact, it’s still only four chapters but all together those four chapters have 17k+, and it’s about an OC suddenly waking up as a siren, a boss monster siren to exact, right after the siren had killed someone, and it’s just really good and different

And Yet Here We Are  is a collection of more ot3 fanfic of Yen/Geralt/Jaskier, it’s basically a lot of sexy times, but also some funny situations

to grow in adversity is the only fanfic that on this list i haven’t actually read, but the premise seems interesting enough, it’s about Renfri surviving and it has Jaskier as her baby bro

Better Love is surprise! another ot3 fanfic, only this time, you get to feel the pain of an unestablished relationship, it’s basically just Yen & Jaskier bickering while Yen tries to get Jaskier to fuck Geralt. It’s v horny, with a big hunking side of angst and some fluff. Completed and waiting for me to finish the last two chapter!

Teen Wolf: 

Sonder is @musiciatee​ ‘s OC fanfic, and it’s so good??? like every update I get to read blesses my imaginary crops, cures my depression and makes my skin glow like an goddess. If you’re looking for a good POC OC in this fandom, this is it okay. 

Kerosene Hearts and Matchbox Bodies is an OC fanfic, by @thegalanerd​, it’s being reworked right now, but 100% worth the read, but like, I would recommend any of their fanfics, it’s all very good like HOLY SHET it’s good. 

Red Rover, Red Rover is a pretty damn good OC fic, it’s on hiatus but it has 73 chapters and like nearly 500k words, it’s very dramatic, angsty, slow burn, mysterious, and the OC has their own little drama to deal with outside of the main plot

The Unconventional Life of Abigail McCall is probably one everyone has read by now, but if you haven’t, give it a shot, it made me smile a lot

Doctor Who: 

Three of a Kind, The Stuff of Legends is an male OC Tyler fanfic, and by god it is so good, very angsty, lots of drama, very AU, lowkey domestic, this drama gay OC must be protecccted at all costs

London Born is another Tyler OC, but Rose and her have different dad’s and she’s a character of color and bisexual, it’s just such a good fucking story and a favorite of mine, it’s also very AU and has a lot of original stories that the OC goes on, sometimes by themselves. It’s the first in a series, but this first installment is finished so I’d suggest subscribing to the collection for the second installment~

The Blonde Girl is the first installment of an AU of Rose’s start in the Doctor’s life, starting with them meeting randomly during different parts of their life and it basically slowly weaves Rose into the Doctor’s life/past. It’s really good, haven’t finished it yet, but I liked how they changed/expanded Rose’s character. Once you finish that you’ll want to start Defender of the Earth and The Companion Connection, the other’s I haven’t read yet so I don’t know the order they go in, but they’re all like 100k+ words and the author is still regularly updating their newest installment so enjoy~

Alexander-The Seer and Changer of Time is probably the longest DW OC fic out here, and was only last updated early last, but at a word count of  1477k+, I’m sure we’ll survive. This is another fic I haven’t finished reading, but one I’d high recommend either way. If I’m remembering correctly, don’t like quote me on this, but I believe their OC was non gender conforming.

The Dread of Tomorrow and Yesterday  was sadly cut short before the author finished, but the OC is so amazing and just my hero, and a character of color, will fight everyone and probably win, and just I love this OC so much and even though it probably won’t ever be finished it’s worth the read and it’s at nearly 800k so, enjoy each word~

Sailor Moon:

Rabbit of the Moon, is literally the ONLY fic I’m rec in this fandom, mainly because it’s the only fanfic I’ve ever read in this fandom, but it’s so good, like I was just feeling nolgastic over what was my first anime, but the OC is so...scary and smart and cunning and intense af

Twilight:

Twilight'd is a really good OC, it made me laugh a lot, and it makes you love the characters more than the actual writer made you like them

A Hundred Winks of Sunshine by @tsume-yuki​ is so good, like, I don’t know how to articulate how much I love their SI!Bella, like, I don’t read these types of stories a lot, but, tbh any story made them is just worth taking the risk to read because you won’t be let down. It’s very funny and charming and so good!

GOT/ASOIAF:

How To Lose Your Dragon is not really what it says on the tin, trust me I would never read a fic that would have anyone steal Dany’s dragons, it’s just the dragons like Jon, hmm I wonder why?? kind of fic, and I really love the way the writer writes Dany 

Can beauty come out of ashes is another Dany-centric fanfic, and it’s really good so far, but I’m only on the second chapter so I can’t say much but I like the idea of the Starks and Dany becoming pack. It ignores s7-8, so we already love~

MCU:

The Scientist is a good Loki/OC fanfic, like it’s so good because the OC doesn’t put up with any shit, and is very smart and it’s just so freakin good and cute and such a fucking slow burn, like get ready for some slow burn

Just An Old Fashioned Love Song by @izhunny​ is such a good Frostiron fic, like, so fucking good, just THE FLUFF~ THE DOMESTICS??? SO GOOD!! ALSO!! ALMOST ALWAYS MAKES ME FREAKING HUNGRY!!! haven’t finished this, but I’d highly recommend it 

Code Blue by @jarvis-is-my-copilot​ likeee, I haven’t finished reading this either, haha sorry, but I really like the OCs and it’s just.....SO....GOOD!!!

The Wooden Puppet is a really good OC fanfic, very different from ur usual OC, love the way the OC interacts with the characters and I love the way it started, it’s hilarious

Archaic Kinds Of Fun is like, all of my dreams and hopes for the Avengers put into one fic with an amazing OC, like did you want the team as a family, or hell even friends??? do you want them to get fuckin therapy??? HERE YOU GO! It hasn’t been updated in a while because the author has been through a tough time, but it’s at 370k+ and it’s just really good. an inspiration to me. Bruce/OC too, which is rare, but like, it’s just so fuckin cute and the OC is super fucking close w Tony too and Loki joins in later in the fic and it adds some comic book characters but, WOO, it’s just...SO GOOD!

Lilies Say Sorry is another Loki/OC fanfic that I liked that didn’t make me concerned over the power dynamics of Loki being a, well god. It’s the first in it’s installment, still haven’t finished the second installment, shocking, I know, it’s almost like I have a habit of doing that. But I’d highly suggest reading this, it’s just so good and the DRAMA!

I Need You is a Tony/Reader, and like, I usually don’t read Reader fics, but holy shit this is so good and the Author doesn’t do Y/N to address the character, but like, it’s just really good at drawing you in and it’s good at putting the character into the movies in a fresh way. It cured my acne. Very regular updates. almost at 400k. 

Caught Hot-Rod Red Handed is a Stony fic, it’s really fucking good at making me laugh so I’d highly suggest reading this if you’re feeling low, but also don’t read this late at night, you’ll wake up ur family and make them think ur laughing in ur sleep

Life In The Fast Lane is a Fast and Furious crossover fanfic, it’s the first installment, but you don’t need to know anything about the movies to be able to read it, it’s Tony/OC, (hahha you can literally see who I favor from my recs), and it’s so good, and the OC is bisexual and I love her and more people need to read because the author writes romance and action so freaking good

ps: please leave a nice review on their fanfics if you do read and enjoy some of these, because just one nice comment can make a fanfic writers day if not week, it lets them know that real people really are reading their stuff, even if it’s just a ‘good chapter’

[mysterious-prophetess]

Opinion: Updates/Rewrites and Originals in regards to Fanfiction and the Digital Archive

To touch on it VERY briefly-- far too briefly than the subject actually deserves--in academia about digital media (the digital humanities) there is a problem with our archive being digital and hard to curate due to advancing technology and the fact is is hard to curate digital forms. Website deletions, people pulling their stuff down, and other internet centric problems are a subset of this archive problem we are facing.

So, how does this pertain to my subject line? With fanfiction, we as fanfic creators in the modern era possess the ability to retroactively edit our works that have been long completed since it is not a static object and so long as we have access to wherever we posted it (and the platform allows it) we can change it to redress whatever it is we please.

However, if it’s a complete reworking where does the line between archive and editions lay? 

For instance, say I actually wanted to go back and edit my first ever completed fanfiction- Dragon’s Tears a Dragon Ball fic- that was written back in 2004. I was only thirteen-going-on-fourteen at the time.

It’s....not great at all. It’s exactly as it sounds like it would be-an inexperienced thirteen-going-on-fourteen-year-old’s first attempts at DB/Z fanfiction. 

If I were to redress some of the problems I had -pacing is something I can recall off the top of my head as being horrendous as well as my OC being very flat-the style would be radically different. Not to mention stuff like Dragon Ball Minus has come out and made parts of Goku’s Origins different retroactively. 

I-personally-would post this reworking of that OLD fic as a new story with a disclaimer that this was an update/refresh/reworking of the old fic and leave the old one in existence. 

I would do this for a few reasons:

1) I am sentimental. It was my first completed fic. I do actually have to give the honor of my first posted fanfic to an ABSOLUTELY shitty InuYasha fic I posted on a different account than the one I posted Dragon’s Tears on and I’ve since deleted that fic and lost the files in the intervening seventeen years (but it was no loss. Trust me).

2) Archival reasons. 

By putting the fic with the additional post-posting elements that came out in the Dragon Ball universe since the year 2004, it’d be somewhat....incongruous to my eyes to have a fic whose publication date is in 2004 to host a lot of stuff from 2012. It would also erase that previous version.

I’ve heard enough fandom rumblings about a certain Warring Stars series and special editions replacing the theatrical releases and I’m certain others have too. I’m of the opinion that I’d like to be able to see the original trilogy like I first saw it at age 7 again but in blu-ray quality vs the VHS tapes we have.

By replacing my 2004 fic with my 2020′s rewrites, I’d essentially be pulling a Lucas and special-edition-ing my fic. 

3) To have the old to be compared to the new. 

It’s a policy of mine that I will never go back and majorly edit anything I’ve written in the past, no matter how embarrassing it might be to me now. There’s a Harry Potter fanfic I wrote that I am deeply ashamed of to this day because it is lousy. One of the worst things I’ve ever written. But I leave the old on my profile on FF. Net because it’s a way of measuring how far I’ve come as a writer. From my earlier attempts to my more recent works. 

The same can be said for a reworking of an older fic that just disappointed you in its first posting but you didn’t have the distance to see how to fix those things you were unhappy with. 

It can be a great meter of seeing how much you’ve improved by having the original not-quite-as-polished work to be compared to the new and hopefully better version. 

However, this is merely an opinion piece as given away by the title. If someone doesn’t actually think it’s worth keeping the older version around, that’s their prerogative. I’ve already admitted I’m sentimental. Overly so, at times. In addition to my sentimentality is the fact that as a digital scholar, I already have to deal with the media I study being dynamic and semi-impermanent. Both of these aspects are why I like the maintenance of the original alongside the new. 

Others may weigh in, if they wish, but I reiterate this was merely my opinion on the matter. 

[pumpkins-s]

(1/2) Hi! I just came here from SLAOS to say that your story is so, so awesome and I saw that part of your trouble with continuing is the association with VLD. Have you ever thought about turning it into something original? It might sound daunting if you've never done that before, but it's not that bad - it's something I've done a few times (though I've never written anything as good as SLAOS!). I could even help you, if you have an outline or something?

Hey!! Thank you for this Ask--it’s always a little startling but so nice to get these occasional reminders people still read (and reread) and enjoy SLAOS. The enthusiasm for this fic has always bowled me over and even years on continues to do so.

In answer to your actual question...I’m afraid my answer might get a little complicated, so forgive me for that, but it opens the door for a lot of things I have previously and continue to think about in regards to SLAOS, and in such a direct context I can’t help but address them.

This might get a little lengthy, so for sanity’s sake, I’ve put it under a cut.

I’ve certainly thought in the past about reworking SLAOS into something original. And writing original work on its face isn’t necessarily something I’m concerned about. I’m an MFA in Writing student. I do that.

I do have concerns regarding SLAOS specifically, though, that make me very hesitant to ever consider adapting it to an original work without significant changes. These are very separate from my original problems with VLD and its fandom nightmares. It’s true that the main, original, reason I stopped working on SLAOS is because of VLD. However, since then, my reasons for not finishing this fic have changed somewhat. I’ve had enough time away from VLD that I think I am capable of going “fuck canon, my city now,” and finishing this fic purely out of love for it, my characters, and the dedicated fans it has. As I’ve always said, the utter love people have for this fic has always moved me--it has helped me heal in many ways I cannot begin to explain and further encouraged me to pursue my dreams of being an original novelist. 

So, my main issue here is not about VLD and its bullshit. There’s a number of other factors influencing my considerations on finishing this fic, such as time and what fics I should prioritize, but I wouldn’t say even any of these are a deciding factor on finishing SLAOS.

For me, it’s a question on whether it is a smart, prudent, or even ethical decision to make in finishing SLAOS. 

Let me say this: I love SLAOS. I love it with my whole heart. Lance and his family kept me company in very dark times, and a lot of it came from very personal places about my own gender struggles, family conflicts, and struggles to find places I belonged. 

But I often question as to whether I should have ever written SLAOS.

Certainly, as a 21yr old, I do not think it is a fic I would start now. But I was 17 at the time, and my perspectives and the amount of forethought I put into my work have changed. 

When I started SLAOS, I had very little plans going in. I loved Lance, I loved angst, I have a known propensity in my work for family drama and death, and I wanted to write Lance the kind of complex, perhaps sometimes tragic backstory I felt he deserved as much as, say, Keith or Pidge, who got that in canon. So, I crafted a tale about a youngest child raised largely by his sister, who is gender nonconforming and free spirited, and who then loses his sister and must learn to live in a world without her--and without his childhood innocence. He grows up, he learns when he must conform to achieve his goals and when he will stand his ground, he learns about the complications in his own family he didn’t see when he was younger, he forms new relationships and tries to work through a grief that never leaves him. 

On the surface, I don’t think any of this is bad. In fact, it sounds like a pretty good story to read or to write. Continuing on, though, the complications form. 

I’m not cuban or cuban-american, and I’m not latinx, and Lance and his family are. I am nonbinary, queer, half-jewish, and the child of immigrants, and all of that absolutely influenced the writing of SLAOS when digging into my personal and family history (even Lance being a youngest child raised primarily by an older sister was inspired by my own grandfather--who was the youngest of 10 children and was raised by his sister)--as too did my childhood in a largely-latinx area of Southern California, and the latinx friends I had and have, influence the story. A lot of it came from very real places experienced, felt, and seen--and what was pure fiction was just that. Innocent fiction written out of improvisation and love for that character.

However, in making Lance and his family less economically-stable, and similar things in the story, I perhaps inevitably wrote into stereotypes about latinx families I’m now more cognizant of. These may be stereotypes that come from many realities, and from many people I have known, but that doesn’t deny they’re stereotypes. Writing a stereotype is not inherently a bad thing, of course, but it does become more sticky when you’re not of that exact minority demographic. I didn’t write into that stereotype intentionally--my logic as best as I can remember was “I want Lance to have a complex backstory. Lance’s family is canonically big. I love big families who are emotionally close--they should all live in one house. Hm, they maybe have financial struggles”--but that doesn’t make it any less there.

I can point to other flaws in the work. The other perhaps questionable improv decision to make Lance’s father a gambler and then kill him off, even if that was pretty much just done on the logic of “oh god I don’t want to write about fathers. I have a shit relationship to my father. Fuck. Shit. I’ll kill him off there” is another sticky issue for me. Ritzie’s introduction scene has...issues, to say the least, as well. These may be scenes and plot points people don’t find issue with, haven’t considered in that light before, or even find me silly for worrying over now, but I am famously hyper-critical of my own work. I can’t help but worry and think often on how to be the best writer I can be, and with the most empathy.

There’s a lot of recent and ongoing discussion about who is allowed to write what stories. Certainly, I don’t subscribe to every opinion just because it’s been argued by someone or other--for example, I’m semi-critical of the concept that one can only write narrators and main characters of their own exact identities, particularly and especially if your work is removed from a plot or major content that deals with that identity. But being critical of some opinions does not mean that the overall thinking on “am I a good person to write this kind of story” is bad.

I don’t question that I was the only person who could have created the McClains exactly as they are in my story. They are mine, my characters, and that is intrinsic to me and who I am as a writer. But, I do question whether I was the best person to write that exact narrative, and whether I should have at least made different choices about some of the McClain’s circumstances and their world. SLAOS isn’t a story about race or wealth, but I cannot deny that those factors are present in the story, perhaps more heavily than others I have written.

In short, if I was a novelist conceptualizing this story now as an original piece of work, I do not think I would feel comfortable writing it. I would be concerned about the optics and the potential harm I could cause, to say the least. So, the only original adaption of SLAOS I can see myself ever writing would likely have to be different in many ways.

As it is, I am cautious of any original adaption or thoughts of adaption of SLAOS, at least at the moment--even if it was only released online and never published in any official manner. 

As for finishing the fanfic.. I still have remaining concerns. It is one thing to say I wrote this fic in good faith at 17, it is another to say I made the conscious decision to finish it at 21. Even if my concerns are seen as hyperbolic, I never know what the future will bring, and I don’t need the heat and I don’t need discourse. It’s in the past now. If I finish it, I make it my present. 

This isn’t me saying hands-down I will never finish SLAOS. I certainly know what I wanted to do with the rest of the fic, and I loved the ending I had planned (literally line by line planned. it was a killer ending). The readers and their pure love for this fic have always moved me and made me want to finish this story, if only for them. I’ve heard testimonials on how much this fic has helped people through dark spaces, and that means the goddamn world to me. It’s all I’ve ever wanted as a writer.

But--again momentarily setting aside my real ethical concerns about finishing this--I also have to consider what’s best for me, my career, and my own sanity. I would worry to death about the potential consequences of finishing this fic--who it may hurt, and how it could hurt me. I do not see a world where I finish this fic without modifications to several scenes, and disclaimers in my notes concerning my current adult thoughts on this story and its problems in regards to things that are too rooted in the fic to change, like Lance’s family’s economic situation. And, as of now, I just do not have the time or energy to do that. 

So. SLAOS. I love it, I hate it, I worry about it intensely. I don’t want to let anyone down. I don’t want to hurt anyone. Will I finish it--do I want to finish it? I have no goddamn idea. It’s complicated. that’s the TLDR of this post. it’s really complicated.

Some of you may be completely boggled by my concerns addressed above, some of you may even find them silly. Some of you, for the first time, might look back on this story and see it in a less glowing light. I don’t know. You’re welcome to send me your thoughts and questions. But this is something I have been thinking about for a while and I had to get it off my chest.

Idk. Please try to understand where I’m coming from, even if you don’t agree with my concerns or the opinions being discussed among writers I’ve talked about. For me, these are incredibly real concerns, issues, and fears. 

That’s it. Loraine loves you. Stan Mavis. Peace out.