#also this is technically my first fic? i wrote a small drabble for another fandom beforre but uh

[lurking-latinist]

reviving a meme I previously got from @swinging-stars-from-satellites

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

158 (one currently unrevealed).

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

103,185. I cracked 100k recently!

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

All the Doctors Who + Gallifrey + Iris Wildthyme + The Time Travellers + GoR etc.; Ancient Greek Religion & Lore; WtOVPIC; Blake’s 7; Dracula; Discworld; Windrose Chronicles & Sun-Cross series also by Barbara Hambly (one crossover); All Creatures Great and Small; Lost at Christmas, heaven help me. That makes nine as I count it. Most only for one small thing or crossover.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Skipping kudos bot victims:

Ms Smith (13 and Sarah, fun with fake names)

don’t worry, he’s with me (Ten and Donna five-times-fic)

Vicarious (Six & Martha drabble)

Time Flies Like an Arrow (witches fly on a broomstick) (Discworld, Lancre Witches, having a philosophical conversation about time) (I have come to detest this title but I’m glad people enjoyed the fic)

to all our nights and days to come (Seven/Romana Time War AU)

It’s helpful to include extremely popular, well-known characters in your fics. Or, apparently, to write a slightly darker twist on your rarepair OTP and happen to plug it one day on a relevant popular post.

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

I do, because I love getting comments and I am always genuinely grateful to hear that someone has enjoyed my work!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Wow, last time I did this meme I said it was That Which We Call. That’s changed. It might actually be to all our nights and days to come, or else one of the Six-post-Trial ones.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Apparently! But not much, and not well.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, touch wood.

9, Do you write smut?

Not my thing.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! @sci-firenegade translated Making History into Portuguese! It is so cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Sort of, with Moki! We more tend to write sequels to each other’s stuff, but we also have listed ourselves as co-authors on a couple of things.

13. All time fav ship?

Seven/Romana.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Never say die! Probably the Eight/Charley babyfic AU, though. If I go back to it it’ll be as a very different writer and I’ll probably want to rework what exists and it’ll be technically a different fic.

15. Writing strengths?

Character voices & dialogue. Also, focalization. I always know what A thinks of B and what B notices about A, which is hilarious as I absolutely do not know any of this in real life.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Used to be length; I’m still very brief but I feel like I have more control over the length of a fic now. Like it comes out more or less the length I expect it to; I can tell what size something’s gonna be. Probably now I would just say plot. I’m not great at Things Occurring. And like everybody else I get hung up on how to describe basic actions like walking across a room.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Don’t do it if you can’t get the other language right (as well as how code-switching actually tends to work). Also, translation convention exists for a reason. Probably don’t pull an ‘opening lines of War and Peace’ unless you are in fact Tolstoy, in which case you don’t need my writing advice. Nothing inherently wrong with it though.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Officially, DW. Unofficially, probably something as a kid before I knew fandom existed. Redwall or something.

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

to all our nights and days to come, probably.

Not tagging anyone, but memes are for stealing!

[bluestringpudding]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @silently--here and @uncannycerulean for the tags!

How many works do you have on AO3?

19 (+ 1 that's waiting to be revealed for a fest)

What's your total AO3 word count?

329,661 😳

What fandoms do you write for?

Just Harry Potter. Maybe I should diversify?

What are your top 5 fics by Kudos?

Live like common people Dramione/Draco pretending to be a muggle (88,794 words)

How did we get here? The sequel to the above, aka Draco wishing he could still just pretend he was a muggle. (153,536 words)

Dragons Only The Draco/Charlie drabble (289 words)

A Song of Ice and Fire and Awkward Ex Boyfriends The other Dramione, this time with dragons. 🐉(20,272 words)

Just a Minerva in time The MinMione time travel one (6,460 words)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! Unless you're an absolute arsehole, and even then, I would rather reply (but only if I can come up with an appropriate retort). Why? Because I love the interaction. Getting a comment, no matter how small, will always make my day. So, it feels right to at least say thanks. Also, I met one of my now good friends through us chatting in our fics' comments. So who knows what might come of it.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, probably One Last Cup.

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I've not written the ending yet, but it's going to be How Did We Get Here? If only because I have become waaayyy too attached to all of the characters to give them anything but.

Do you get hate on fics?

It's not quite hate, and I know it could be worse, but How Did we get here? garners some pretty strong reactions. They're a downer.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I've only published very mild smut, but I have written more explicit stuff since, and some of it is in the next chapter I'm publishing, and I'm scared.

Do you write crossovers?

No, I struggle enough with one fandom. Huge respect to the people who manage it

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nah. They're not good enough for that.

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes! Three actually. Idle in Kangaroo Court W1, for the mixed up writer fest. We ran out of steam, so it's unfinished, but I keep promising myself I'm going to finish it one day. Then two more with some friends, one short one for the rare pairs fest, that will be revealed soonish. Then one long fic that 3 of us a writing, which is err... in progress.

What's your all time favourite ship?

Call me a basic bitch, but I will always be such a sucker for Dramione.

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I have a really unhealthy stubborn streak that won't let me leave things unfinished, so hopefully none. Though Idle in Kangaroo Court is most at risk, because its been so long (and I feel I have to reach out to my co-author to check they don't mind, and my social anxiety is one of the few things that trumps my stubbornness).

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. I keep thinking I should try writing something as a script.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions and flowery language. I have to work hard at imagining visuals, so a lot of the time I don't. And I'm too literal to do well with metaphors.

Thoughts in writing dialogue in another language?

I've never really had any before. I guess I don't mind it in small amounts, if the meaning can be inferred from context or reactions. It's annoying if you miss something by not understanding what it means.

First Fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter

Favourite fic you've written?

Oh god, that's like asking me to chose between my children! Live Like Common People will always have a special place in my heart, as it was my first and the characters will forever live rent free in my head.

But also, I'm most proud of Tattletail, because I think it is technically my best piece of writing.

Tagging anyone who wants to play, as I suspect I'm one of the last of my mutuals to get round to this.

[a-problematic-writer]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @space-cat-in-a-teacup! Thank you for the tag Bestie! Making a separate post just to keep things clean 😭

How many works do you have on ao3? Nine! Though, technically it's ten. One work has been archived.

What's your total AO3 word count? 125,596!

What fandoms do you write for? MCSM! I also write for Fortnite. MCSM fics are the only published ones.

What are your top five fics by kudos? Small Moments We Are but a Beautiful Chaos dance with me, make me sway Secret Admirer Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

Do you respond to comments? Yes! To the best of my ability, I try to respond to every comment I get! They are greatly appreciated 💚

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Honestly? Probably something I haven't posted for the public to see, I'm not gonna lie to you.

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I'm gonna vote my current WIP: Stop the Stars.

Do you get hate on fics? Haven't seen any! I think I'm too small of a fandom name to get it, I'm gonna be so real with you.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? None that the general public will EVER see ;)

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? One of my current projects is a crossover! Ain't No Rest for the Wicked (MCSM/Borderlands) Though I am also writing a MCSM/Fallout fic.

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

What's the longest you've spent working on one fic? And the shortest? Longest? 3 years and it's currently still ongoing. That would be for a still unpublished fic: Stop the Stars. Hoping to get that one out by the end of this month, but the end of the year works too. Shortest, a couple of hours for a drabble.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes... technically. Me and my friends are all working on a for funsies personal project that will never be posted and we bounce off each others pieces and lore a lot!

What's your all-time favorite ship? From all fandoms? Aidesse (MCSM). I don't even think there ARE others at this point. Maybe Drift/Stray (Fortnite)? MacCready/Sole Survivor (Fallout)? MariChat (Miraculous)? But yeah, no, I think it's just Aidesse 😭

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Carry the Fire. It was my first project and still holds a special place in my heart as my entrance long-fic into the fandom. But I don't think it'll ever be finished sad to say, but I'm leaving it up. I don't know. That's half the fun of writing fic, you never know which one might suddenly capture your attention.

What are your writing strengths? Dialogue definitely! I also am pleased with where my Description is right now!

What are your writing weaknesses? Oh most definitely plotting a piece out. It's why a lot of my longer fics fall through. Trying to remedy that! It's a... Work in Progress 😅

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I wouldn't be against it and am not against it, if that person is mostly fluent in the language. Because oh boy can it get cringe fast 😭

First fandom you wrote for? The Walking Dead Game 💚 I was 13 years old lol. Published and then deleted. None of my stuff from then was saved.

Favorite fic you've written? Completed? What if it Doesn't End Well. Ongoing? Ain't No rest for the Wicked <3 Tagging @zonerz! Don't EVEN feel pressured, bestie! But! If you vibe with is :> I would like to see it <3 (sorry abt there being no blank btw ;;) Also tagging anyone else who see this and wants to do it!!

[brinkle-brackle]

Thank yall so much @mjf-af @cheriboms and @alex-a-fans for tagging me!!! This is gonna be a fun one :D

This year:

1. How many times would you guess you watched the first Back to the Future movie?

I think around twice!! Once in a hotel room and once at a friend's house for labor day, plus the last 7-ish minutes when we found it on TV in another hotel room over Thanksgiving break :D

2. Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what!

YESSS I DID!!!!! My dad gave me a Hot Wheels DeLorean from the third movie for Christmas, and my bf gave me a Doc and Einstein funko pop that I'd been losing my mind over 😭 those off the top of my head, I'm sure I bought myself some other things that just aren't coming to mind lol

3. How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year?

I don't think any,, I'm more of a regular pepsi enjoyer myself

4. What was your favorite bttf fanfic you read this year?

In all honesty I didn't read much fanfic this year, but it was always a pleasure to read @bg-sparrow's mcflyjuly and doctober drabbles!

5. A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year? (please give us a link, not a screencap/repost!)

Ohh jeez I cannot choose just one so here are...

^^ this one from @cineshemp, the colors and lighting of this piece are so pretty (and it's true to life too!! I live a few hours away from the actual mall where they filmed and the sunset there looks so similar to this), and both Marty's pose and expression are so on point it's crazy. Like the cheeky little half-grin?? That's him. That's his spitting image. That's so him that's my Marty McFly <33

^^ this one from @fiddlstyx, I love this one because 1) just fiddl's art style in general is so cute, and 2) because this is so true to the scene! Fiddl nailed Marty's spooked expression, and the hand vibrates my brain so good. Both the shape of the hand (I struggle so hard with drawing hands lmao) and also especially the transparent effect, which is hella impressive to me on its own but on top of that it's traditional art,,, I would've struggled so hard to achieve that effect on paper so this totally blew me away!!

^^ and finally this one from @cheriboms!! I absolutely loved the perspective and expression on this one, I adore how cartoony it is :D cheri is somehow always able to draw doc looking incredibly doc-like while simultaneously making him look entirely her own (same goes for Marty too) and it never ceases to amaze me. This fandom is filled with such incredibly talented people and I'm so lucky to be friends with them <33

^^ OH OH AND!! THIS MARTY THAT MY BESTIE @goldendoodlerlockerlove DREW ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY TODAY :))) THE SEROTONIN I GOT WHEN I OPENED MY PHONE TO SEE THIS SILLY GUY

6. Did you create any bttf art or fanfic? If you did, what one(s) are you proudest of?

I did!! I didn't draw or write a whole lot of bttf stuff this year, I only did a few small things but I'll link em anyway cause I'm still proud of em :)

^^ the one mcflyjuly prompt I had the time and energy to do!! I based this fic off of a few episodes of the 90s cartoon iteration of The Moomins. The episodes I based this off of are about a child who turns invisible because of her bad family life (Marty's circumstances in this fic aren't as severe, but he's still Going Theroux It™️). I wrote this a little angsty throughout but with some hurt/comfort at the end,, and I really love how it turned out :)

^^ and then this is I think the one piece of bttf fanart that I drew the whole year 😂 just a lil Marty I drew on a to-go cup during my work shift. I'm very proud of him tho I feel like he's very Marty-y :D

7. How many times were you late for school this year?

Uhh not very often!! I think I showed up a little late to maybe 3ish classes? Which isn't too bad haha

8. Did you watch any other movies/TV shows with BTTF actors in them?

Yep! I watched Clue (1985) for the first time which had Christopher Lloyd, then had one one of my friends watch Star Trek III: The Search For Spock with me which I actually forgot had Christopher Lloyd as the main villain 😂 my college friends and I also watched Over the Garden Wall twice in the fall (Elijah Wood voicing Wirt and Christopher Lloyd voicing the Woodsman), and then my family and I watched Elf on Christmas day which had Mary Steenburgen :)

9. Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year?

I don't think anything really groundbreaking, just a few times when I was in a store and one came on and I started jamming haha

10. How many times did you fall down this year?

Probably a lot but the only moment I can immediately recall was eating it hard on the residence hall stairway right after saying goodbye to my parents for the semester LMAO 😭

11. Did you get to see BTTF: The Musical? What was your experience like!

Sadly no, although I really want to 🥲 I still gotta look up the clip from the Thanksgiving day parade that I missed!

12. How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met?

Mmm probably around 3-5? But it was never really the same retelling,, it was more like she just told me new details or stories about when they were dating. It's always really sweet :)

13. If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be?

"Ah, wait a minute, wait a minute Doc--" (this year moved WAY too fast lmao)

14. ⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a DeLorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive thru Burger King this year?

15. Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year?

I'm gonna try to make more of an effort in my classes, and I'm hoping to expand more upon a play I started writing for class last semester! It was initially just for the assignment but now I've gotten attached to the characters and I have a little lore down so who knows >:D

Gonna be honest I have no clue who to tag lmao. I feel like a lot of the people I know have probably been tagged already so! If anyone else sees this and wants to do it feel free to :D and thank you so much @mjf-af for making this game, I had a blast doing it!!

BTTF Year-End Tag Game!

This year:

How many times would you guess you watched the first back to the future movie?

Did you get any sweet bttf merch? If so, what!

How many cans of Pepsi Free did you chug this year?

What was a favorite bttf fanfic you read this year?

A favorite bttf fanart you saw this year? (please give us a link, not a screencap/repost!)

Did you create any bttf fanart or fanfic? If you did, what one(s) are you proudest of?

How many times were you late for school this year?

Did you watch any other movies/tv shows with BTTF actors in them?

Was there a memorable moment you heard a Huey Lewis song this year?

How many times did you fall down this year?

Did you get to see BTTF: The Musical? What was your experience like!

How many times did your mom retell the story of how she and your father met?

If you could describe your year in a BTTF quote, which one would it be?

⚡️LIGHTNING ROUND⚡️ Did you get to: go on any trains, skate on a skateboard, ride a horse, drive a Delorean, run in the rain, go to a dance, hang up a clock, play the guitar, pull an all-nighter, read science fiction, or drive thru Burger King this year?

Your future is whatever you make it! So what are you going to make of this coming year?

I tag: @agentmcfly24601 @moonlightandstarshimmer @brinkle-brackle @bg-sparrow @bttf-dork @mrfutureboy @pepsifox88 @tsukinikawatteus @itsthemorph @synthsays and anyone who would like to answer these questions! as always, no pressure!

[1-800-get-sherlocked]

this was supposed to be an incorrect quote but it spiraled out of control

note: im american idk if yall brits have cuties (kidding im sure ur all cuties ok im sorry i couldnt resist) but i really had to alright pls be-ryllium ar-gon with me yes im sorry we are revisiting chem lads dont worry i will provide you translations/i will make it obvious also theres switching povs & im telling you ahead of time: the puns are very, very bad 

also i wrote this at like late 5am un-beta-ed so please forgive me for any mistakes, i have 0.5 braincells left and i used up 0.279 for academic papers

kind of a crackfic btw 

ok without further ado bc i ramble too much, other notes at the end: 

*on Valentine’s Day*

John woke up to the sound of clinking and the faint sound of rustling of papers, the other side of the bed empty and cold. Ah, probably on that experiment again with those oranges he said were also a good pet name for me. What was it again? Right, cuties. A small smile appeared on John’s unshaven face. His hubby was too endearing for his own good sometimes. 

In the kitchen, Sherlock paced back and forth, eyeing his failed experiment with disdain. Which he was totally worrying more about rather than whether his plan would work. Would John like these? Maybe he should have just gone with George’s advice and went to get some takeout Angelo’s like they often did during quarantine, but Sherlock wanted to make this special. He nervously adjusted his shirt collar, looking down to check that he was indeed wearing the purple shirt John loved so much. Apparently it was called the purple shirt of sex or something? The detective honestly had no idea how or why but that wasn’t important, what was important was John. John. He still couldn’t believe the brilliant, patient, and gorgeous army-doctor was....his husband. After the drunk night they had that one day, things got a bit heated and...well, you could say they definitely had a good time and cleared up their feelings for each other, much to Donovan’s chagrin who lost Scotland Yard’s bet by just a week. Mrs. Hudson was the winner, obviously. 

Thank god for Mrs. Hudson’s and Gavin; he didn’t know what he would do without both of them giving him advice, though the DI wasn’t always pleased to be summoned in the middle of a case to help Sherlock out. 

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Sherlock scanned his surroundings to make sure everything was in place. Ah, he could now hear John about to step into the aisle, right on time. Quickly, Sherlock went back to pretending he was working on his experiment. 

Just a few moments later, John padded into the kitchen, clean shaven, and as expected, looked at Sherlock pointedly. Of course, the detective was used to this and promptly ignored it, waiting for John to say something. 

“Sherlock,” John said, tilting his head to the side a bit, “What is going on here? Why are there little sticky notes all over the place?” 

Sherlock simply shrugged. “Why don’t you go take a look for yourself, John? I’m sure you would be able to find out that way.” 

Sighing, John went back into the living room and perused the various bright colored sticky notes. Sherlock’s scratchy handwriting was on all of them, along with small drawings on some. Stepping closer, John took the first one off the wall above the couch and read the note out loud: 

“Jawn, you’re small and angy, just like the bunch of Copper (Cu) Tellurium (Te) Iodine (I) Einstieinium (Es) we got the other day. Will you be my clemenvalentine?” Belatedly, John noticed a small orange drawn next to it, with a small >:[ face. Sherlock still wasn’t going to let him ever live it down, huh? 

Shaking his head with the faintest hint of a smile crossing John’s expression, he moved on to the next one. 

“John, the first time we met and dined at Angelo’s, I said girlfriends weren’t really my area. What I really wanted to say was that I was Gallium (Ga) Yttrium (Y), John. Obviously, I am married to my work and love of my life now, but would you still be my Valentine again, for the 11th time?” This one was written in rainbow ink, probably one of those pens Rosie got for Sherlock, insisting that he would have some use for them someday. Which he did, evidently.

As John picked up more and more notes strewn around the room, and read more and more puns, some of his favorites being, “Forget Hydrogen–you’re my number one element” and “Why don’t we go back to the bedroom and form a covalent bond ;) Or we could do it on the table, periodically” he didn’t know whether he should have laughed or cried. Maybe both. Some were so bad they were hilarious but the fact that they were that bad just made it more funny and endearing. Oh Sherlock, where would I bee without you? who would I be without you?

Oh god, John realized with horror. Sherlock’s terrible puns were rubbing off him and invading his thoughts. Typical of him, that bloody cute charismatic arse.  

Finally, John reached the last one. 

“John, I know I’m not very good with expressing my affection for you, but I want you to know, especially today, that Iodine (I) Lutetium (Lu) Vanadium (V) Uranium (U). You are my best friend, my lover, my husband, and my lifelong partner. You’ll always be my doctor and blogger at heart.” On the side, a small smiley face was drawn. 

The entire time, John knew Sherlock’s eyes were on him, even though he pretended to be busy with his experiment. The doctor knew those telltale signs: tense shoulders coupled with a nervous biting of his lip. Watching closely, trying to gauge his reaction after reading all of them.  

“Sherlock, were you trying to test my chemistry knowledge again? You know it’s been awhile since I’ve studied all this, right?” 

Of course, Sherlock knew this. Sherlock always knew but was somehow still an oblivious idiot. My oblivious idiot, John thought affectionately. 

“Well yes but I-” a beat. Sherlock took a deep breath. “Well, it’s always you making plans for Valentine’s, and I thought, maybe I should take charge this time, with something other than Angelo’s–don’t worry, I’ve already ordered takeout for dinner, I know you love their food, John, so I still did it. But I wanted to do more for you this time. Mrs. Hudson and Rosie agreed it would help me express myself better, so I tried it out. Um-” Sherlock stopped mid sentence as John walked up to him, and put a finger over those pouty lips. 

“Sherlock, you amazing, adorable, gorgeous man, you’re so cute, you know that? And I did in fact notice your shirt–we will be making use of that later, obviously.” The detective gulped visibly. “But for the record, I want you to know that I know how much you love me, and you know how much I love you, so don’t ever feel bad about having trouble expressing it verbally; I can always tell through the small thoughtful gestures you do for me and the looks you throw my way when you think I can’t see. What you did for me today was very sweet, and it made my day–I will always cherish this memory on this Valentine’s, but I can assure you my love for you will never change no matter what, whether or not you do gestures like this for me. My love is of the same magnitude as yours to mine, and it never stops growing everyday”

Sherlock beamed, that charming crooked grin of his slowly spreading across his face, and John pulled him down for a kiss, both laughing against each other’s lips lightly as their mouths clumsily crashed together. 

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

[enigmalea]

2021 Fandom Recap

I’ve been putting it off because I keep thinking “I haven’t done much this year”, and yet, that is categorically untrue. It’s uh... been a lot more productive than I realized.

IN 2021 I...

☆ Consumed every piece of non-game Dragon Age media in (roughly) chronological order. Last week, I managed to finish up with the 2021 DA Day short stories, even. That’s every web series, comic, novel, and short story, including the anime. I’m considering reading the WOT and Art books next year.

☆ Launched a Discord bot, Archivist, which is currently in 1070+ servers. It’s a simple AO3 scraper that grabs the info for an AO3 fic, user, or series and post it in a rich embed in Discord. It really should say, I learned my first programming language and made the bot, but, you know, technicalities. I have some updates planned for 2022! ☆ Participated in two exchanges:

wrote three fics (two short fics, and one drabble) for @black-emporium-exchange.

ran the first Dragon Age Poly Exchange, and wrote one longer fic for it.

☆ Hosted @dapolyshipping Day monthly

☆ Modded, created layouts, and wrote for @dragonageannual

☆ Completed various other small fandom coding projects. A couple of page layouts, a tutorial on getting AO3 fics delivered to your discord server, etc

I also managed to hit my writing goal!

TOTAL WORDS WRITTEN:  47,001 / TOTAL WORDS PUBLISHED: 44,438

Stay Back From the Edge Cullen/Solas, rated E, (4068 words)

Getting Used To It Cullen/Dorian/Iron Bull, rated E, (23617 words)

Darkest Alleys of Kirkwall Anders/Male Hawke, rated E, (2765 words)

Any Dream Will Do Solas/Male Lavellan, rated G, (644 words)

Booty-ful Assets Alistair/Male Tabris, rated G, (528 words)

I'd Love You To Love Me Varric/Male Hawke, rated T, (2243 words)

In Another Cup Anders/Solas, rated T, (4058 words)

Wait For Me Abelas/Female Lavellan, rated G, (100 words)

Home Anders/Cullen/Dorian/Solas, rated G, (100 words)

Tea-vinter for Two Cullen & Cassandra, rated G, (1948 words)

Fix These Broken Things Anders/Dorian, rated M, (2648 words)

As you can see, I wrote quite a bit more than I published - I’ve been plugging away at a few WIPS for a while that I’d like to make progress and publish next year.

I’m still trying to decide exactly how I want to goal track/plan for next year and what my focuses will be. I’ve been sick for about a month, so as much as I’d love to get those posted by tomorrow I don’t know if that’s realistic.

Either way, I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and I’ll see you all next year!

[herosofmarvelanddc]

Fic Writer Review

Thanks for the tag Ash @maos2013 ! You happened to catch me when I had some free time and this was super fun to look through and think about.

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

31 but I have like 10 wips currently 2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

84,088 because I posted this morning but again I have like 25k in drafts on my computer lol 3. how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Three (AoS, MCU, and Blacklist) if you lump all of the MCU together (I have fics for TFATWS and one that touches on BW and WandaVision)

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Allies and Hope we find in Liminal Spaces - 232 Kudos - My first big crossover fic with Nat and Daisy (and some May). I'm super proud of this fic and I was happy that so many others loved it too

Come Back To Me - 167 Kudos - My first Romanogers fic! I love Endgame fix-it fics and I decided to write my own version with a Soulmate AU element to it as well. This fic definitely holds a special place in my heart.

Saving Daisy from a Future of Pain - 163 Kudos - This was one of two fic ideas that actually started me writing so it holds a special place in my heart. A S7 rewrite kinda with Philindaisy feels overflowing

Our Precious Miracle - 152 Kudos - Another Romanogers fic. I wrote this while in my feels about people close to me being pregnant and how there isn't enough media showing the harder aspects of child bearing such as miscarriage and premature births. Anyways, I love it though and never had expected to write it lol

How far she’s come (How far she’ll go) - 122 Kudos - This is Part 2 from the Allies and Hope fic. A happier, post S7 follow-up with Nat, Daisy, and May. Even though I love this one so much, I'll be honest that I felt a little disheartened when it didn't get nearly as much love as the first story.

5. do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Um YES! I love responding to comments! Comments make my day and I always know I get super happy when I get a reply to a comment I left, so I want to repay the favor!

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't like writing things without a happy end so none of mine probably truly meet this criteria lol. The Allies and Hope fic is pretty angsty and is a semi open-ended so that one might fit. Or the fic I just posted today, Someone New To Rely On, is also slightly angsty and open-ended.

7. do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Unless crossovers between AoS and the MCU count, no. I sometimes think about crazy crossovers but I would never probably write them. I love crossovers between different Marvel branches though so I will continue to write those.

8. have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t think so? I hope not at least

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

Nope, I don't know how to write anything higher than a Teen rating lol

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of

11. have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that would be awesome!

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

No. The concept sounds interesting but I don't think I have enough confidence in my writing to co-write with someone.

13. what’s your all time favorite ship?

All time favorite??? That's way too difficult. I'd probably fall back on Percabeth but Olicity, Booth x Brennan, and Romanogers are definitely contenders.

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

I have a fic temporarily titled "Daisy's Family Jouney" that technically has been done for 9ish months, but I don't love it. It needs major revisions and I don't think I will ever bring myself to the point where I can do them. The fic has some traumatic and personal elements to it and I don't know if I can do them justice or even if people would want to read something so heart achingly personal. The fic means everything to me but I'm unsure it will ever see the light of day.

15. what are your writing strengths?

Feels with a happy ending

16. what are your writing weaknesses?

Humor. I am not a funny person and if I'm being honest, a lot of comedy just doesn't make sense to me. So it can be really challenging to write funny characters

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

I always get too scared I'm going to mess it up so I do the lame thing and just put it in Italics or something lol. If it was a phrase I knew or in a language I knew (which I only have an intermediate level knowledge of French) then I might put it in but so far the only languages I've needed is Russian, Mandarin, and German and I don't know anything for those.

18. what was the first fandom you wrote for?

Agents of Shield! Unless you count the Percy Jackson and GWM small trashy drabbles I wrote as a kid.

19. what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

This is so hard! They are all so different and have different aspects that I love. Definitely my top 3 from question 4 are in my favorites but The Sweetest Little Part of Fate and it's sequel of one-shots, Family: where Life begins and Love never ends, rank high on my list of favorites. The idea of Daisy adopting kids in need holds a special place in my heart and I love these kids and their story I created. I haven't updated in a while because I was getting disheartend by a lack of love for something that meant so much to me. But hopefully I can get back to writing and posting it soon.

I've hardly been on Tumblr recently so I'm sorry if anyone has already been tagged but I tag @pocketmouse18 @cloudypaws @browneyedgenius @samanthaswishes and @momentofch-aos

[sope-and-shine]

Content Creator Year in Review!

Oh what a year it has been indeed. There have been ups, downs, goods, and bads, but I’m happy to have made it through with the people I have. I wanna thank Miss Sora ( @honeymoonjin ) and Miss Flor ( @minjoonalist ) for tagging me and Belle!

first creation and most recent creation of 2020: uh...well...let’s just say my first creation was definitely something. We’ll just go with my first creation on Tumblr which would be my Seokjin Christmas Drabble about retail workers around the holidays. My most recent creation would technically be what I will lovingly call ‘A year of This’ is my most recent. 

one of your favorite creations from 2020: 

One of my favorite creations has to be ‘Lamb and Wolf’ (even though i haven’t worked on chapter 3 in a bit ) The world building that Belle and I did and all the thought into how the whole series is going was a lot of fun for me and I’m excited to work on it again.

a creation you’re really proud of: 

I can’t decide between ‘The Right of a King’ and ‘Nothing on You’ Both of them have a very special place in my heart and I put so much work into both of them. Namjoon’s just has such a cool plotline and it’s fun to write him so confident yet so unaware at the same time. And then there’s Yoongi and Hobi and it’s my first smut fic and it’s an Among Us AU of all things! It saw so many changes, and I’m so glad it came out the way it did. I feel like both of these have helped me challenge myself as a writer and I only want to continue to grow from here!

a creation that took you forever: 

‘Lamb and Wolf’ no doubt. So much went into the detailing and I had to stop for a month at one point just to figure out how to word one big chunk of exposition we needed for the story to make sense.

a creation from 2020 that received the most notes: 

Lost and Found and I’m very happy it did. Namjoon deserves all the love and the prompt just really fits him the best! I’m really glad everyone enjoyed it!

a creation you think deserved more notes: 

‘Nothing on You’ I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s honestly a fic that I get so hyped up about when I talk about it. 

a new fandom you joined and a creation you made for it:

I joined TikTok and started cosplaying again on there. It’s actually a nice outlet for when I get writer’s block because I can outsource my creativity there.

a creation you made that breaks your heart: 

‘Lamb and Wolf’ I have it all planned out and I think most people can guess what’s the main theme just from the summary and the warnings. It itself isn’t a very action packed, gorey fic as some would think it is with it revolving around death. It’s more light-hearted and sentimental as a way to cope with the concept itself. But once again, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea

a ‘simple’ creation that you really love: 

‘You Drive Me Nuts’ It’s such a crack fic but it’s also so sweet. I think it fits Jeongguk so well, but I think Jeongguk himself is a crackhead so...

a creation that was inspired by another one: 

Oooo, I have to be VERY secretive about this. I have a new fic that I’m going to be writing as soon as I finish ‘The Right of a King’ It’s in the same universe, but I can’t say much more than that for now.

a favorite creation created by someone else: 

Uh...how about a list? ‘Ambergris’ and ‘The Gentlemen’ by @honeymoonjin , The Most Beautiful Moments in Life SMAU series by @bts-reveries , 'Blood Moon Rising’ and ‘Carousel’ by @yoonia , ‘Reasons Wretched and Divine’ and ‘Of Fire and Love’ by @hollyhomburg, ‘Pulse’ by @rohobi guys i could literally go on FOREVER

some of your favorite content creators from the year: 

@minjoonalist, @bloomsuga, @btsaudge, @sakuraguks, @ironicarmy @missgarnet, @wintertae, @xotoosweet @purpletigertaetae, @kinktae This includes the people above as well, but I have so many people that i want to tag. So much love not enough space

and for good measure, another couple more creations of yours that you love: 

‘Pregnancy Problems’ and ‘Little Things’ are two one shots that are just feel good and comforting. They’re small, but I’m proud of them because I wrote them and I should be proud of the things that I write even if I think they suck sometimes.

tagging: Anyone that’s already been tagged in this post or sees it and wants to add on!

[takaraphoenix]

So, @kimmycup​ tagged me in this game. Let’s do this. Alternately titled:

Let me rant about the difference in receiving feedback on FFN vs AO3

Because I am really getting lost in the math behind “most popular” fic. And it’s most definitely more than just “reaching a different audience” when the feedback for one and the same fic differs between over 1k comments on one site vs not even reaching 100 comments on another site.

Author Name: Takara_Phoenix

Fandoms You Write For: Okay so let‘s only involve the ones I am still actively involved with, not the ones that are like... eight years old and I haven’t thought of them once, yeah? That’d be: Percy Jackson, Shadowhunters, Marvel, Rise of the Guardians/How to Train Your Dragon, Detective Conan/Magic Kaito, Vampire Academy, Jungle Book, DC Comics/the Arrowverse, Descendants

Where You Post: AO3 and FFN, but occasionally also on tumblr - when it’s prompts or drabbles

Most Popular One-Shot: Depends on where you ask. And what you define as popular. Personally, the only value I see are in comments - kudos are literally just the press of one button, they mean nothing, and hits aren’t an indicator of much either considering it counts as a hit even when you opt out after a paragraph.

I’ve only had my AO3 for five years now, meaning that the fics on FFN still had four more years to simmer on there and gather attention, I suppose. Meaning, a fic posted for the first time obviously gets more attention than a four years later mass repost on another site.

On AO3, the oneshit with most comment threads would be How to Court the Prettiest Omega Ever in Five Years or Less, my first PJO ABOverse fic, featuring Nicercy. Which, you know, is only 37 comments on there. Seriously I genuinely blame the existence of the kudo function for the overall lackluster comment-response on AO3 because “press one button vs actually writing words”... but that’s a different conversation to be had. (I mean, seriously, in comparison, this fic has 51 comments on FFN... and it is by far not the one with most comments I have over there).

The clear winner if you look at FFN is Something Went Wrong, my first Minotaur/Percy smut fest with a whooping 116 comments. And yes. Positive. Genuinely did not expect that when after weeks of debating, I decided to post this story. *chuckles* (Again, for comparison, this fic got a total of 8 comments on AO3... eight... the difference there is staggering... Which, I’d like to tag on that, on top of the kudo-nonsense, the fact that AO3 displays total amount of comments to the readers and not comment threads is also misleading and I don’t think it helps, because I think you’re more inclined if you see it’s only 8 comment-threads in total on a fic you like vs it showing you 16 comments as the total comment-count.)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: THIS IS TOO HARD TO ANSWER. I’d have to consult my chart, but that hasn’t been updated in ages. Because overall amount of comments means little if you don’t also take into account the amount of chapters - 50 comments on a oneshot are a lot, 50 comments on a 5 chapter fic, not so much, and 50 comments on a 50 chapter is frustrating to receive.

Okay, let me go full nerd on this one. Y’all know I love charts. There was a time where I was interested enough in finding this out that I had a chart going of all my multiple chapter fics. With a collumn on how many chapters the story had at that point in time, how many total comments on AO3, how many total comments on FFN and what, by combining those two numbers and dividing them through the chapter-count, was the average amount of comments per chapter.

However, that chart had last been updated on December 31st 2016. There’s been a lot of influx, lot of new stories and other stories gaining/losing popularity, so when I now say Meet the di Angelos with a 2016 average of 57,25 comments/chapter, that is completely exclusing ten fics I wrote since then.

Damn now I really wanna update the charts...

Also if you can’t tell by now how much actual feedback and comments mean to me, I genuinely don’t know how else to convey it... xD”

If you go by total comment-count - which, again, is misleading because you gotta keep the chapter-count in mind - it’d be Chasing Fireflies on FFN with 1749 comments (on 102 chapters. And, again, for comparison, 88 comment-threads on AO3. 88 vs 1749 is insane) and Percy and the Ghost King of Summers High on AO3 with 749 comments (on 50 chapters. On FFN that’s actually on 990 comments. Far smaller difference here compared to other stories).

Though I dunno, if you measure popular by fanart received, Summers High comes in with five, while my Chasingverse is in with 6... and multiple fanfictions written for it.

Favorite Story You Wrote: Favorite to write, or favorite to reread? There’s a difference there. I’m insanely proud of Chasing Fireflies and the plot and world I created there, the character development. I... don’t really reread it it’s over 500k long I don’t have that time.

Currently, I am really loving The Primal Instinct, it is sooo much fun to write, I get to put basically all my favorite headcanons in there, I’ll get to write Aline and Helen more and Jace’s interactions with others, it features both my favorite OT3s at once. (And it is faaar from my most popular one. Just, feel like mentioning this because my numbers-obsession may read as only writing for comments, which I don’t, I mainly write for myself. The comments are just... very, very nice treats to receive. Also, I love numbers and charts and were curious to see if there is a kind of trend there in what does receive most attention sooo...)

Story You Were Nervous to Post: Uuuh every new thing. Every time I step outta my comfort zone. Trying out a new pairing for the first time. Venturing into a new fandom for the first time. Experimenting with a new kink and wondering if this would be too much. Literally every single time, still.

How Do You Choose Your Titles: On a whim. I suck at titles. Mostly I try to force alliterations because I am a sucker for alliterations, but otherwise I do try to go with “as it says on the tin”, or I try a pun/being clever. Aside from my Triton/Percy fics. Every single fic I’ve written for them is named after a song from Disney’s The Little Mermaid franchise and I have yet to run out of songtitles to use for fics and hey, by then they’ll probably have included a new song in the live-action remake so there’s that! :D

Do You Outline: Depends. Oneshots? No. I just write those. Multiple-chapter fics? ...Depends. xD

If I have a clear vision for where it’s going to go, I do tend to divide into chapters and make myself small notes on what goes into said chapters. Mostly, it’s just a rambled “and x happens and then y” at the end though and then I see how I can make it fit into chapters.

Complete: 795 stories on AO3! Damn, I’ve been busy.

In-Progress: As of right now, 4. Because this week features my Ace Awareness 7-parter, though technically we’re right now down to 3 multi-chapter fics because the next one is only due to be released and join the rotation!

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: Well, that is two entirely different things now.

Coming Soon:

Shadowhunters, Asmodeus/Jace, “The Royal Consort of Edom” oneshot on the 23rd

Shadowhunters, Magnus/Alec/Jace, “Nesting 101″ oneshot on my birthday this Saturday

Percy Jackson, Nico/Percy, “Something Borrowed, Something Green” oneshot on the 30th

Shadowhunters, Magnus/Jace, “Dancing with the Monsters in the Night” an out-side-of-schedule oneshot for Halloween

And I do think that that is what constitutes “soon”.

Not Yet Started:

HTTYD/RotG, Hiccup/Jack, “The Origin of the Blue Hoodie”, planned for November 27th

Shadowhunters, Magnus/Jace, “Set-Up by the Guard-Cats”, planned for December 4th

Descendants/PJO, Nico/Percy, Ben/Carlos, Uma/Audrey, “Demigod Defenders of Auradon”, planned for December 11th

A-and that is as far as I have planned my schedule ahead. Those three are the only fics on my personal schedule that I haven’t started working on yet. I don’t like to plan ahead too much, because then you just completely lose interest in the story by the time you get around to actually writing it.

Do You Accept Prompts: Prompts, not so much. Requests, yeah. For one, prompts always seem so demanding, while requests are more polite - and also more structured. Prompts are always like “here have one quick trope thrown at your head” and like... I do have a well-enough planned-out schedule with more than enough fics of my own set, I don’t need to try and turn one random prompt into an actual story. But if someone has a specific request, a pairing and an actual plot, that they really wanna see, I do always hear them out, I may not always like the pitch and thus not accept them all, but on the overall I do accept requests.

More inclined to accept birthday requests than random requests, because random requests would be put into the rotation of my schedule and, well come on that shouldn’t be a surprise, they tend to be pushed off then in favor of fic ideas I came up with myself because there’s nearly always more enthusiasm about writing an idea that you came up with yourself than the idea of someone else. Whereas birthday requests have a set date that doesn’t disturb my schedule and I am a big softie who has a weakness for getting gifts myself so I do like to do something nice for someone so they get something special for their birthday.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: Most excited to write? Well, that’d be the Descendant/PJO crossover atm, because that is something very new and shiny and I do love shiny, new things to experiment on. But also The Prince of Pluto, my next multiple-chapter fic that I have already started writing.

Tagging: Whoever wants to do it! <3

[five-wow]

Author Asks

Rules: answer these questions and tag five other fic writers to do the same.

I was tagged by the wonderful @novemberhush. Thank you, omg, because I love rambling about writing and this is the best kind of opportunity to do so, handed on a silver platter, ahh. 😊

-

Author Name: Square / Squares / SquaresAreNotCircles

Fandoms You Write For: I’m a fandom hopper! In the past year or so it’s been Hawaii Five-0 (a truly ridiculous amount), Shadowhunters, Venom, Harry Potter, due South and Stargate Atlantis. Other fandoms I’ve written at least one fic for are Twilight, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Glee, BBC Merlin, BBC Atlantis, Teen Wolf, In The Flesh, Star Wars, Supernatural, the MCU and High School Musical. And uh, Alexander the Great/Voltaire fic (which would be... history fandom? RPF?) and one (1) Judas/Jesus Biblefic. If we’re getting really technical, also a tiny little bit of One Direction fic.

It should be noted that all of this is about fic that ended up getting posted somewhere on the interwebs - there are multiple Star Trek (TOS/AOS and DS9) fics lingering in my drafts (!! one day I will finish one of them), as well as some How To Train Your Dragon, The Good Place and Deadpool stuff, and definitely more I’ve forgotten.

Where You Post: Since I made the switch to writing in English everything has landed on ao3, but I used to write mostly in Dutch, so there’s still close to a million words, I think, under my name on quizlet.nl (not to be confused with quizlet.com, which is a very different website).

Most Popular One-Shot: That depends on how you’re measuring popularity! Going by kudos, it’s Tell me I’m perfect (but tell me the truth), a Magnus/Alec Shadowhunters fic. It’s the truth is a really old fic about Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood from Harry Potter that has the most hits out of all my works, and That time Steve kissed every single Avenger (and also Bucky), an MCU Steve/Bucky fic, has the greatest number of comment threads.

Also, since this is an h50 blog: for my fic in this fandom Wanted: partner (in crime) has the most kudos and hits; You had me at meow has the most comments.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: I’m working on one for h50 (going slowly, so slowly), but I don’t have any posted to ao3. I used to write a lot of multi-chaptered work in my quizlet.nl days, and I think my most popular fic there was probably the second fic I ever wrote, when I was fourteen or fifteen, which was a next-gen Harry Potter fic with shifting and overlapping POVs from the three Potter kids. It was kind of, well, not great, but it’s probably what really cemented my writing habit, it’s still my longest fic ever (over a 100k!) and I got my first fandom friends out of it, including one I’m still in contact with to this day, even though neither of us writes much if anything for Harry Potter anymore.

Favourite Story You Wrote: Ohhh, that’s such an impossible question, especially because I’ve been churning out one-shots like I might actually be getting paid for it, so there’s so much to choose from, which is a thing I have difficulty doing at the best of times, holy shit. Uh, I once wrote a 70k Remus/Sirius (Harry Potter) modern college-ish AU in Dutch that I still like; weirdly, I think that Biblefic holds up (also Dutch), and the HSM fic is fun to reread once in a while because of the fourth wall break, as is That escalated quickly, a Percy/Oliver fic. Ooh, and the fic about Shuri and Stucky and a goat!

For h50, it’s even harder to choose, because my preferences change pretty much weekly (a combination of newer fic being shinier, looking back at fic from even just a few months ago and finding things I would have done differently now, and comments influencing the way I personally look at my own fic), but right now, I’d say I still really like the fic where Steve adopts some guinea pigs, the one with the slightly tipsy team bonding by talking about mutual crushes and this 9.11 coda fix fluff getting together thing.

Story You Were Nervous to Post: That Biblefic, haha, because it’s a very complicated topic and my aim was definitely not to offend. People were really sweet about it, though! Mostly, they were kind of shocked it wasn’t crack, but that’s fair, because so was I.

Also pretty much anything I post in a new fandom, really, and low key just... anything at all. I’m always a little scared I tagged something super badly or accidentally copy-pasted the wrong text or unknowingly wrote something super offensive or whatever, despite my double- and triplechecking of the posting form. (I’m also still kind of scared people on ao3 will randomly decide they hate my fic and my writing and me personally (ao3 is really big and very anonymous and coming from the small town that was quizlet.nl even in its heyday, that’s scary), but that fear has abated as I’ve posted more, just because the data is showing pretty conclusively that thought is as irrational as it sounds. Everyone is always so nice, gosh.)

How Do You Pick Your Titles: Mostly, I steal lines from random songs. I have a small pile of song lyrics to use as potential titles, because going on a seperate hunt for every new fic would take most of my waking hours. Sometimes, I’ll use a pun (like You had me at meow or Retail Therapy) or something else that I think sounds good, especially if the fic is mostly comedy and/or has a specific premise that would do well in a title (like Five times the Governor of Hawaii suspects his taskforce leaders are violating fraternization policies (and one time they tell him they are)).

Do You Outline: I’m mostly writing fic of (sometimes much) less than 5k at the moment, so not really. I do sometimes write tiny bits of a bunch of scenes and then fill in the rest around that, which is a kind of outline, in a way. For longer works, I usually make a one page bullet point list of things that need to happen and work from there, because I can’t do really extensive outlining or I’ll just get caught up in the details and lose all of the oversight a tool like that is supposed to give you, as well as most of my enthusiasm for the project.

How Many Of Your Stories Are Complete: Of the ones posted? On ao3, all of them, because unfinished posted one-shot works would require some strange bending of those concepts. On quizlet.nl, I do have some abandoned works, but I think 80% is finished.

In-Progress: SO MUCH. Seriously, just, so much, oh god. I’d really like to write another Stargate Atlantis fic (and I have 30% of one done), and something more for due South, too, and maybe a small Percy/Oliver thing again some time because they were my very first OTP and I kind of miss them, but mostly I have, like, 100+ half written things for h50. I really wish that number was an exaggeration. There’s no way they’ll all get finished, but maybe... a third? Mayhaps?

That One Truly Long H50 Fic that I was already talking about way back in October last year is also eternally “in progress”. The thing is that it has about 25k now, after a year, and I think it needs... at least four times that. Probably. So either I’ll have to stick with this fandom and my slow progress for another three years to have a shot at getting it finished, or I’ll need to find a way to up the speed a little. Maybe I could try working on it for NaNo this November? That would be pretty awesome, but honestly, part of why it’s moving this slowly is because NaNo-style fast and messy writing for this scares me a little, because I might end up writing a lot, decide it’s not what I wanted for it, and become too intimidated to ever edit and/or rewrite the entire thing. But idk, I probably just need to get over my own fears, because I really do want to write Longer Fic again. Short stuff is fun and feels really productive and that’s great, but I miss the actual slow burn and build-up that only 50k+ words can give you.

Coming Soon: Hopefully a lot? For h50, that is. I have no idea what’s getting posted next, because I’m never entirely sure what’s going to be finished next and something really random might come jumping in, but at the moment I’m trying to direct most of my energies at a slightly longer fic I’ve been working on for months (not The Long Fic, a different one), a fic labeled “9.01 memory loss fic”, another one temporarly entitled “Perfect Kauai beach house vacation”, and maybe an ace!Steve fic I’ve been working on, if I ever manage to uh, actually finish that, instead of rewriting three sentences during every round of editing and never actually adding anything to fill in the gaps it still has. There will also be more season 10 codas, in all likelihood.

Do You Accept Prompts: I’ve never done that before in the traditional way, but I’m thinking about it! I’d love to try (and it would be a breath of fresh air, in some ways!), but the main thing holding me back is that I have way too much on my plate with just my own ideas to work off of, and I don’t want to disappoint people. Maybe if I do drabble-ish prompt fills? It’s definitely been on my mind.

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For: I’m excited for a lot of stuff, but honestly, the top spot right now probably goes to the ace!Steve fic. I’m not even sure it’s that good, necessarily, but it’s, idk, really cathartic, I suppose. Seriously self-indulgent in strange but very good ways. I really like writing it. (Second spot goes to the beach vacation fic, because I haven’t actually written that much for it, but it’s been my go-to easy happy place for the last few weeks.)

-

I’m tagging @love2hulksmash @thekristen999 @stephmcx @girlonastring @flowerfan2 and @pterawaters, which is six people because I can’t count, but I’m about to make it seven because I’m also tagging you, the person reading this (hi there!). Say I tagged you and tag me so I can read it! I know that kind of thing can feel awkward, but it won’t be, because I’m cheering you on. Go for it, if you want to do it. :D

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Author Meme! tagged by @purplepencilshades, thank you!!

Author name: Swift~ Ao3 link is on my blog already but im SwiftIsHere there (and p much everywhere) 

Fandoms you write for: whatever im hyperfixating on atm! which is mystery skulls rn and hopefully for a good while longer. the one wolf 359 fic i have up is leftover from.... That

Where I post: Ao3! i usually crosspost to here too, either as a link or the full fic. 

Most popular one-shot: uhhhh, lemme check... in terms of hits, that would be for all the friends that we have lost. only one for me is technically more popular, but I don’t count that and I’m p sure it’s just bc it’s been up longer. 

Most popular multi-chap story: only got the one! it’s Little Magenta Lies. i’d like to post more multichap stuff but none of it is... done per se...

Favorite story you wrote: ah geez... published, i think i’d probably say The Darkest Place. it’s so soft and i really like the characterization. as for unpublished, i really like the royalty au that i keep talking about and am working on in theory 

Story you were nervous to post: ooh, this is a good one. magenta lies makes me nervous every time i update it lmao, but Step in the Right Direction might actually be the one i was most nervous about initially posting. it’s so small and i didnt know if it would. count?? i guess?? it’s barely even a story and more of a retelling of canon events?? i really like it but?? 

How do you choose your titles: i dont choose the titles the titles choose me. seriously tho? i dont know i just kinda go with whatever string of words comes to mind. i like to follow what i call the “world of goo” naming theme, which is “just throw some word spaghetti at the canvas it’s fine just go with it” (this is a DIRECT call out for world of goo, whose names i love so much for being completely inane) 

Do you outline: i try to? i don’t as much for oneshots, but id never be able to continue anything long if i didnt. i just can’t think the story through in my head. i dont know how some people do it. 

Complete: i dont know that word sorry

In progres: yeah

Coming soon: i have over 40 wips in my msa writing folder. does that answer your question. more specifically: 

-some writing prompts i’d really like to finish

-aforementioned royalty au which has the most in-depth plot i think ive ever written? its VERY good i really want to share it but unfortunately i have to actually write it first

-some more drabbles, including but not limited to: another “first time something goes very wrong” fic along the lines of darkest place, some self indulgent “rsd is a Grade A Bitch” arthur stuff, a sickfic bc this fandom doesnt have nearly enough, some post-canon stuff about lewis and arthur making up, the list goes on

-a longer post-hellbent thing about lewis killing art, coming back to the rest of the group, and erasing vivi’s memories of arthur (i think ive either posted about that or talked abt it w/ someone? i dont remember exactly tho, anyway its ANGSTY)

Do you accept prompts: yes!! whether i will finish them is another question entirely

Upcoming story you are most excited for: royalty au again. also i forgot to mention for “in progress” but im also writing a very canon divergent fic where after the cave, lewis knows what happened as soon as he wakes up and he goes home and doesnt blame art at all... its good

i’m tagging @doodletrashcan, @ghostly-business, and @yepiamthesmileyface! (sorry if any of yall have been tagged already, & you dont have to do it if you dont want to!) 

[elareine]

Author Meme! elareine

Author Name:

For English stuff it’s elareine. I had other usernames before but that one stuck. 

Fandoms You Write For:

This year it’s been DC, mostly batfamily, a lot JayTim. If you count what’s on AO3, ff.de, Animexx and my notebooks, I’ve written in over 30 fandoms, most of them very small. 

Where You Post:

AO3 for longer one-shots and WIPs, and Tumblr for drabbles. If anyone has a suggestion how to organize those on AO3 without annoying the shit out of everyone, hit me up! Please.

Most Popular One-Shot:

By comments Feather, by kudos and hits Finding Surety, by bookmarks But you were always on my mind. All of these are Hockey RPF. 

For DC it’s Reasons to be jealous by kudos and bookmarks and A soft place to land by comments. As for Tumblr drabbles, there’s these two.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story:

I had stopped writing multi-chapter stories for at least six years (probably longer) until I started In the Shallows last year, and the reception has blown me away.

Favourite Story You Wrote:

Uhm. There’s one self-indulgent Lotr/Silmarillion/the Hobbit one-shot that exists only in handwritten form and which I’ll likely never post because my style has changed since, but I kinda love it. On AO3, A Woman Is Herself, which is the first time I was the first to post in a fandom, and a reminder to myself to write about women more.

For DC, it’s probably To love and to honour. I wrote that when my father was in hospital and I was basically just clinging to anything keeping me distracted. I’d stumbled upon the JayTim two weeks before that and threw myself headfirst into JayTim Week. And this my personal fave from that. It’s not perfect, there’s about 12 things I’d change about it now, but still. 

Story You Were Nervous to Post:

Everything I ever wrote for an exchange, especially touched your head gently (felt my heart melt) because it’s about being a father, and also my first DC story ever.

How Do You Choose Your Titles:

Song lyrics and quotes that fit the theme or mood if I can’t think of anything, which is often. I try to go with the style of the fic a little, e.g. for Secret Witness, it was about making it sound like a TV show (while totally forgetting Silent Witness is a thing,) and with The Reluctant Brides I wanted it to resemble Georgette Heyer. 

Do You Outline:

Yes, except for drabbles. Length and details might change, but I need something to orient myself. A Hope Like You is the first multi-chapter that I only have an over-arching plot and a list of things I want to happen at some point for, instead of a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline. We’ll see how that goes.

Complete:

40 on AO3. Technically two more that I deleted. 

In-Progress:

Too many.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started:

First chapter of my Urban Fantasy Week contribution is almost done; I hope to post today or tomorrow. After that, I have a few non-JayTim oneshots I want to work on, and the next chapter of Secret Witness.  

I also got like three requests today to do more regency, so... 

Oh, and it’s DCU Bang posting time soon! 

Do You Accept Prompts:

Yes, and it really doesn’t have to be from that one kiss prompt list. I might re-blog another one soon. 

Will I get to them in a timely manner? Different question.

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write:

Apart from my WIPs? The companion fic to Reasons to be jealous, because it’s been a while since I wrote from Dick’s POV. 

Tagged By:

@glaciya​, thank you :D Reading yours, I suddenly realized that my friend sent me ‘Time After Time’ years ago with about one thousand exclamation points about how good it is and how it’s her favourite. (I concur.) I just double-checked with her and she said she still re-reads it every few months on her kindle. 

Tagging:

@scootboot97 @magoril @reah22 @spiritsflame - If you feel like it! Or anyone else that wants to, seriously, feel free to just put me in as ‘tagged by’.

[aftgonice]

Writing Tips - General - Pt.1

Disclaimer: I’m just a fandom writer and I write for fun and I realized that whenever I sit down and write I seem to learn something. That’s why I’m doing this series: I just want to collect what I learned so far so that it might help others. I never took writing courses so these tips won’t be very technical at all but just the result of my own experience so far.

Some (most) of these tips will only apply to fandom writers.

My biggest tip is:

Read

Read                      r

READ                                       e

read                                                                    a READ                                                                                        d

r e a d 

r e a d

READ

Obviously read books and read fics, because fics are a very specific kind of subgenre of literature that has its own rules. True, some fics could be read as novels or as short stories, but most of them rely on very specific tropes that are much easier (generally speaking) to explore if you’re just starting out.

For example, I was always an avid reader, but before I started being active in the world of fandom and actually started reading fanfiction, I had no idea about the different kinds of AUs and tropes.

Knowing and reading what’s already out there can be scary at first. You’ll read a perfect coffee shop AU that you wished you’d written yourself and you’ll wonder, “But why should I put myself out there? Why should I write something when other people are already doing it and doing it better than me?”

The thing to remember is that readers will always want to read something, no matter how many times they’ve read the same trope applied to the same fictional couple, so one coffee shop AU isn’t enough. Good thing you’re just now planning to write one, right?

And the thing is, you won’t actually know if your writing is good or not unless you try. Even if your first fic isn’t that good, writing is something that you get better at with time and with practice, so there really isn’t any reason not to write (unless you have no interest in trying it).

Let’s say you’re now convinced that you want to try writing something: you might still be wondering how you’re going to get ideas for a fic or a story.

I think we’ve all been there. So...

HOW DO I GET IDEAS?

If you’re someone who doesn’t have a lot of imagination (like me), the thought of writing something is really scary. Of course, you can’t write a story without ideas, so I want to go over a few ways to actually start getting them.

Interact with the fandom

You don’t have to participate actively and you can just reblog stuff, but in my experience, the more you interact (even just by commenting on someone else’s post or tweet), the more your brain starts working on ideas that are yours.

I basically see it as an exercise or workout: the more you do squats the more your muscles build themselves, right? The same way, the more you get your brain to think of even just small headcanons (like, what does a character like to eat? Are they a morning person or a night owl?), the more you’ll get used to thinking up new ideas that could potentially become a full story.

Oh, and when I say interact, I really do mean interact. I was really surprised when I first came to tumblr and found out that it’s perfectly normal for people to randomly start talking to you in your DMs, and the conversation usually starts with some headcanon or just general screaming about your favorite characters or something that just happened recently in the fandom. Sometimes that wraps up in a couple of lines, but others it can lead to wonderful virtual friendships. While that’s amazing on its own, it’s actually also a great support system for any content creators (especially writers), because so many ideas are born out of simple conversations.

Know your sources

The better you know your fandom, the more ideas you’ll get. You’ll start seeing details of a character’s personality that you didn’t see or read the first time, you’ll re-analyze a certain interaction, etc. It’s very difficult to write fanfiction if you’ve only watched/read canon once. 

Sometimes canon is not enough: find metas about characters and scenes and interactions. Metas aren’t canon, but they help a lot and you’ll not only understand things better, you’ll also get new ideas for content you want to write.

Know other sources

You and your ideas don’t and shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. A lot of great ideas come from knowing other works so you can make AUs and retellings.

Also try to remember the difference between the two and ask yourself which one fits better:

[fictional source] AU: the story should be more or less the same as your source and set in the same world, but the characters will be the ones from the fandom you’re writing for.

[fictional source] retelling: your plot is heavily inspired by [fictional source] but you add elements or take away what you don’t need if something from the original source doesn’t fit your characters. It can also be set somewhere different (for example modern retellings of fairy tales). 

Know your tropes

Knowing popular (and less popular) tropes helps you think about what kind of story you want to write. It also helps you categorize the different stories you read and start thinking about them in a more analytical way.

You need to see the mechanisms (enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, etc) behind a story to be able to analyze it and relate it to other stories, and understand which rules you want to follow once you understand what trope you’re using for your story.

Notice that I said which rules you want to follow, because I think it’s perfectly fine (and even admirable) to be more daring and break trope rules or mix them up. No matter what you want to do, you definitely need to know them first, and then you can start writing them and/or changing them and making them your own.

BEFORE WRITING

Okay, you have a few ideas now (you don’t need to have the full plot before you start writing, but at least an outline would be nice - I have another post planned about plot so look out for that). 

There are a few extra steps you might want to take. Most of these you will kind of just feel in your gut without really having to think about it, but in case that doesn’t happen, here’s a noncomprehensive list of a few of them.

Understand what your story needs in terms of POV:

A POV can make or break a story. There are some things that just don’t work well in a certain person, or they’re extremely difficult to pull off.

Learn what your favorite POV is when you read, and that will probably be the POV you’ll write best. 

Regardless of the type of POV, your story might need more than one (if it’s third person limited or first person). It’s difficult to describe how you can understand it, and I think it has a lot to do with plotting and characterization:

Do you want to keep a character’s motives mysterious until the Big Reveal of chapter 16? Then you should stick to only one character POV. Does your fic follow more than one storyline? Then you will almost definitely need more than one POV.

In case it needs more than one POV:

First of all, I can’t stress this enough: make it understandable when the POV switches. Be it with a completely different chapter or a visual separation, make sure your reader understands it.

With that said, you need to know your story and ask yourself, What POV works best for this scene?

A scene can be extremely powerful and memorable from one POV but completely dull and boring from another. It all comes down to the different characters’ personalities and I can’t possibly cover all the different examples and scenarios in this post, but if you’re familiar with your fictional world enough then you should be able to understand it yourself.

Understand what the best tense for your story is:

This is something that for me usually just happens by itself when I start writing the first few paragraphs. I’ve started fics deciding that they needed to be in a past tense, and then no matter how many verbs I wrote down, my mind would always make me write them in present tense unless I forced a past tense in there. But that’s the thing, whatever you write, it should never feel forced. That’s when I realized that present tense was what felt more natural to the story, and it didn’t matter that I don’t even like present tense. The story didn’t want to be written any other way.

Follow your instinct on this.

Understand what the best format is:

Ask yourself: Is it going to be a long fic with 20 chapters or a one shot? Do you only have enough material for a drabble?

Every fic length is valid in my opinion, but you need to be clear about what you want.

If you do decide to make your fic chaptered, try to make each chapter its own little story, with a beginning, a plot/character arc and an end (which can absolutely be a small cliffhanger, but try to not abuse it).

SHOULD I TELL SOMEONE?

So this is a point I wanted to include even though it’s not exactly about writing itself, BUT I think it’s important to talk about.

Should you tell someone, “Hey, I have this awesome fic in mind that I really want to write!”? 

I don’t think the answer to this is universal. I think generally speaking telling someone definitely helps you stick to your goal, especially if people get excited about your WIP. 

It can also backfire though, you can get anxious about other people expecting something from you when you’re at a point where you don’t even know whether you’ll actually write/finish your story or not. 

(A small addition on this: if you’re like me, you’ll never know whether you’re actually going to publish something until you’ve written all of it. You might have written more than half of your fic and then decide that you don’t want to continue it, for whatever reason. If nobody is expecting it anyway, you’ll feel less bad about abandoning your work because you won’t feel like you’re disappointing anyone.)

This is one of those things that require for you to know yourself because only you will know whether people’s expectations can be a motivation or a hindrance for you. 

My suggestion is not to tell anyone right away if you’ve never written anything in your entire life. Posting without anyone (not even my virtual friendships) knowing about it was what made it possible for me to actually write. I only began sharing and interacting with people as a writer here on tumblr after about three fics (two of which were chaptered ones) and getting enough positive feedback, but I still keep my real identity hidden because I don’t want anyone IRL to be able to find my stuff.

If you know you’re going to be very self conscious about your work, I encourage you to start a tumblr alias like I did, because it can be liberating to write what you want to write without being afraid of what people will think of you if they actually find your fics. 

Of course, this is what worked for me and it might not work for everybody, but try to take measures to protect yourself if that’s the only way you you think you can publish your writing without feeling scared.

This post is already too long so Pt.2 is coming soon!

Other writing tips: (coming soon!)

yuri on ice edition | general pt.2 | plot | dialogues | characterization

[bmorley]

top 5 and bottom 5 kudos fic

rules: tag the person who tagged you, always post the rules, answer the questions, and add the date! i was tagged by three beautiful ladies - @clarkescrusade, @prosciuttoe and @kay-emm-gee; thank you so much, sweets ♥

What are your five most popular works? (in descending order)

1. Crown (wear my love like a) (bellamy/clarke, 13k+ wip, Feb 2015)

When Clarke agreed to enter a courtship with the Commander's second-in-command, she had no idea what was awaiting her but she figured it couldn't be that bad. But when the gifts started coming and the silly rules were laid, when some of the Grounders tried to sabotage her and she found herself on a different sort of a battlefield, the whole deal became a lot more complicated.

It’s an arranged marriage au thrown together with some enemies to friends to lovers trope and weird courtship thingies. Not at all surprised that this is the first fic on this list tbh. I’m also really proud of my Clarke&Murphy&Wells leadership trio? They’re just so fun to write (now somebody kick me back to picking up this fic again lmao).

2. and love, you taste like magic (bellamy/clarke, 2.8k, June 2015)

For a moment she was sure she was seeing lightning marks, her lightning marks, but then the sunlight hit his arm just at the right angle and the black ink glinted under her fingers.

But tattoos weren’t real soulmarks, no matter how much she wished them to be.

Technically the second place belongs to When you land on Earth but since that’s a collection of drabbles and oneshots, I’m not counting it to this list.  My first soulmate au (if you don’t count the strings that bind us)! It’s a bit sad but also hopeful story, a dash of angst with a happy ending and I’m really happy how it turned out despite being shorter than I would have liked it to be. It was also written for a good friend of mine and it holds a special place in my heart. 

3. the clockmaker (fixer of hearts) (bellamy/clarke, 4.9k, Feb 2016)

He seemed at war with himself for a moment and then circled his warm fingers around her wrist and lifted her left arm closer to his eyes. Her compass sat right above her wrist, a glass sphere covering a light brown dial and a thin bronze needle. The needle seemed to be sitting slightly lower at the tip, nose not moving from the bronze embossed N letter. It didn’t move from there, no matter how much he turned her wrist around.

“Curious,” he muttered and tapped gently on the glass to try and get the needle moving.

Another soulmate au! I’m in love with the compass concept in this fic and the subtle throw to Bellarke being each other’s true north. Bellamy’s character is one of my favourite things about this story, and it makes me so happy that people like it so much. 

4. You vs. Me (bellamy/clarke, 3k, Oct 2014)

Clarke was ready to tell the person to fuck off, she was in bad mood, when her words died in her throat.

Because she was looking at Batman.

She wanted to kick herself – of course, who else could be Catwoman’s love interest than a guy dressed as Batman.

[Or the three times Bellamy commented on Clarke's costume and left her speechless and the one time they unintentionally (or maybe not) went dressed as a potential couple]

I’m actually very surprised that this fic made it to top 5? It was very fun to write and basically an excuse to play dress up with Bellamy and Clarke, lmao. I read it again and it’s a bit cringey at times and it could use an edit but oh well, at least I have proof that I’ve gotten better(ish)?

5. Whiteness (bellamy/clarke, 62k+ wip, May 2014)

He set her blood on fire. He questioned her and challenged her at every step she took. But as their bodies entertwined and he granted her the whiteness she craved so much Clarke couldn't help but get addicted to him, Bellamy. And he was just as addicted to her.

AU of 1x07 up.

Oh god. This started as a oneshot and making it a multi-chaptered fic was a mistake. I’m not happy with it, at all. I just- I want to either re-write the whole thing from scratch or just delete it. It gives me a headache just looking at it right now, it’s such a mess and my characterization is off and my writing is so subpar. It did get me into the fandom though and I got to know a lot of awesome people because of it so I guess it has a positive side as well! 

What are your five least popular works by kudos? (in ascending order)

1. The second door on the left (abby/kane, 2k, Oct 2014)

Abby fumbled with the camera in her arms and pushed it in Kane’s chest.

“Here, do it.”

Marcus passed her the flashlight and took a picture of her in front of the bed. The flash of the camera illuminated the whole room and for a moment blinded Abby.

“God, I hate this.” She sneezed.

Kane was just about to respond when the sound of breaking wood made them look up just as the chandelier was coming down on top of Abby. He was faster and managed to push her aside the crashing zone, in time for Abby to get away. Shards of broken glass flew in every direction and one nicked Kane’s cheek as he protected Abby with his body. The sound of the crash left them with ringing ears for a while, the fallen flashlight shining upon the numerous glass pieces and reflecting light all over the place. 

This is ridiculous and we Don’t Talk About It. My only Abby/Kane fic and I’m pretty sure it will stay that way. 

2. across the bridge (bellamy/clarke, 1.2k, Jan 2015)

Sometimes, the things we do for peace are worse than the things we did for war.

Not surprised that this has so little kudos. It’s a Clarke-centric character study fic set in-between 2x08 and 2x09, with a very small hint of Bellarke. It focuses very heavily on guilt and remorse, and living with your choices and the consequences of that.

3. tell me, Atlas, do you want to hear a story? (monty/miller, 1.5k, Feb 2017)

The first time it happened it was a complete coincidence, a slip of the tongue really.

It was just that Bellamy had looked so confused at the prospect of why would somebody desire him after all the things he had done, so lost and so obviously still missing Clarke that Nathan blurted it out before he could think it through. At this point, anything was better than seeing Bellamy’s defeated slouch.

“I have a boyfriend.”

It became a habit after that, talking about Monty.

He didn’t know if it was of any help, but Nathan talked.

And Bellamy, Bellamy seemed less dead every time.

This is one of my favourite pieces I’ve written so far. It’s a Monty/Miller fic but it’s told through Miller’s interactions with Bellamy, and thus we get to experience the way Miller sees his relationship with Monty. It’s kinda bittersweet because of the Bellamy/Clarke situation but I love it for the Bellamy&Miller friendship and the Monty/Miller secret relationship.

4. for now (claire/matt, 852 words, May 2015)

Claire is struggling with her feelings about Matt and her indecision on how to proceed, while, once again, patching him up on her couch. In other words, nothing new.

My semi-decent attempt to try and write something other than Bellarke. It’s more of a Claire’s inner struggle study than anything else. I’m a bit meh about it tbh but at that point I was just happy that I was writing something. 

5. together or not at all (bellamy/clarke, 1.6k, May 2017)

She had let Bellamy open the bunker. She had doomed her people to a possible death. She had risked the fate of the human race. She had lied and gone behind the backs of people she had claimed to care about only for it to be just another hollow promise, another hollow explanation, another deceit born out of desperation and having the world rest on her shoulders.

She took a shot but couldn’t pull the trigger, not on him. And there laid the problem.

One of my recent works, a sort of a fix-it missing scene for 4x11. I wrote this more as a self-indulgence than anything else. Basically your standard canon Bellarke angst with a dash of them coming together again and trying to move forward.

Now, on to tagging people. I tag @nathenmiller @ofhobbitsandwomen @captainnagata @spacecleavage @hiddenpolkadots and @selflessbellamy!

[tackyink]

Since yesterday we were on the topic of bad irrational feelings, and since I’ve read this amazing blog post by Amanda Palmer, and these are good things to say out loud because there are always others who are thinking the same but are afraid to, because it’s ugly, because maybe it’s just them (it’s never just you, in anything, ever), I’m going to.

Jealousy sucks.

Comparing yourself to others sucks.

And both things are completely normal when you are producing content.

I’m going to talk about writing, because it’s what I do, but I think it’s applicable to many other things.

I can safely say that the three things I struggle with the most when I’m writing are these:

Planning story arcs

Remembering why I’m writing

Not thinking of what others are writing

And while the first one is a technical aspect, the other two are very much tied, and relate to expectations: the expectations of my readers, and the expectations I have towards myself, respectively.

So I have a bit to say about those two subjects.

Remembering why I’m writing

I can say without hesitation why I began writing everything I’ve written: drabbles, one-shots, long stories. It may have been an idea, a feeling, a character that stood out, but there’s at least one reason that’s prompted me to sit in front of a screen for hours on end, painstakingly chaining words while I could have invested that time in something more productive like, say, finally learning to play my guitar, or how to flip a Spanish omelette without transforming the kitchen into a war zone.

The problem pops up with longer stories, and I honestly can’t say if it would if instead of posting chapters on their own I wrote the entire story before I began to share it.

The comments, hopefully, arrive. They are, hopefully, mostly positive. And when the initial rush of the shiny new story has worn off, I am left with an empty Word doc and an inbox full of well wishes and update soons.

Well, I think to myself, I can’t disappoint them now. So I sit down and hammer away at the keyboard.

This cycle keeps repeating. It’s mostly a positive, encouraging influence. But sometimes, in the process, writing becomes a drag, an important plotline stale, and I need to force myself to go through the motions. I keep thinking, will they like this? Should I throw in some shippy moments? Are they reading for this? Will they feel baited if I write this way?

(Nowhere in the description of Inked on Skin says humor or romance, I excuse myself, but unwittingly or not, the tone is what it is. Maybe the genre tags I slapped on it are a lie, a shield to protect myself from expectations. But while I write, it’s a constant of not funny enough, not dynamic enough, will they want to stick long enough to see where this relationship is going? And jokes don’t sound funny and intimate moments aren’t as touching when you’ve been staring at those pages for six hours that day.)

And sometimes the most obvious question is forgotten among all the others: Do I like this? Would I read this?

The answer isn’t always yes, but writing gets much, much easier when I direct the questions towards me instead of them. I think I’m doing a little better on that front.

Not thinking of what others are writing

This is the worst offender. The one that is capable of keeping me away from my own stories for days or weeks. The great, disgusting self-pity generator.

I’ve said it a few times, but just for the record: when I have an ongoing fic, I usually avoid reading stories for that same fandom. Very rarely I make exceptions, though some things are so well written and catch my attention so powerfully that I can’t stay away from them.

And here come in the bad, ugly feelings of inadequacy. Because mixed with the happiness of having found that fic with perfect characterization and a plot you like is also the question, ‘why can’t I be like that author?’

It’s insidious, pervasive, and it takes over if I dwell too much on it. I hate it, and I keep doing it. I see in them things I want to do, styles I want to write in, characters that I wish I’d handled that way and ideas I wish I’d had, and I look at all the things I don’t have instead of those I do.

And it’s so easy to land in that pitfall it’s scary. Then I start wondering where I went wrong.

If I’d read more. If I’d read better books. If I hadn’t wasted nearly a decade of my life not writing. If my native language was English. If all those things that haven’t happened would have, well, that’s fucking silly, I wouldn’t even be me to begin with. They haven’t happened, never will, and I gotta make do with the resources at hand. And I am not doing badly, if I’m being objective.

In fact, I’m doing pretty fucking swell. When I was writing fic over ten years ago, getting more than two or three comments in any given chapter would have been a blessing. Getting over 100 reviews on a story? Ha. That was something only really good writers did. Those were on a whole other level. Maybe, maaaybe one day I’d get like, 20.

I can feel sixteen year old me glaring daggers this way. I’ve become one of those people I envied, and what now? Now I’ve found somebody else to envy. What else do I want from me? I don’t know. But it’s always more, more, more.

And I think it’s important to recognize that these feelings exist, because otherwise, they eat away at you. And if you see them for what they are, you can air them out, or put a lid on that train of thought. You can step back and tell yourself that you are being an idiot, that you have the right to be an idiot because feelings are not something you can just avoid, but you also have an obligation to yourself to stop it. Take a breath, look another way, look at your work. Don’t let them drag you down. You’ve come all this way, and that’s amazing. There are people who wish to be in your shoes. You can keep getting better, closer to your ideal, if you keep working, keep in mind that whatever defines your work is never the same that defines another’s. That the same way you find something special that touches you in your favorite authors’ works, someone out there is getting the same from what you do. That’s incredible.

It can be a small consolation, sometimes, but it serves me well. And I thought it was important to share, because creating content is often a lonely work, and the more time you spend in your mind, the easier it is to forget that there’s an entire world outside of you, and that it’s never going to judge your work as harshly as you do. And that often, you are much closer to what you want to be than you realize.