#and yeah this is basically how I outline fics and stuff sorry im not too funny unlike some others in their outlines

[iwannascreameurekaa]

A giant list of fics in the making

Being written to POST

Junior Year

Chapter 15 and on. I'm trying to figure out to get to the end of the school year in that fic.

To Storm or Fire, They both Will Fall

Valgrace in Tartarus fic. First chapter is almost fully written. It's going to have about 40 chapters total and I want to write the whole thing out before I post anything about it so it might take a while sorry!

Where Art Thou, Emilio?

Romeo and Juliet but it's valgrace! Almost want to fully write this before I post anything so it might take even longer because I cannot for the life of me find an easily accessible and readable translation of the play :(

A fic about valgrace first kiss (not titled yet) based off a tumblr post I have been unable to find :(

Basically about valgrace trying to have their first kiss but Leo keeps burning Jason's lips 

Sequel fic to Realization, is it You? 

Qinter fic but this one is a time skip to the end of the tenth book and it's winter perspective 

Back To Life

My valgrace angst series that has two works so far and I'm working on more!

Being written but unable to post 

Use your body

I have the 4th chapter done. I am in agony that I can't post on the fic. 5th chapter is halfway done and there's supposed to be about 11/12 chapters in total and most of them are half written already. Can't promise that anything will be posted on this fic any time soon I'm trying to work it out! Again I'm very sorry.

Two solangelo one shots that go together (smut) ofc

First one is called "an apple a day keeps the doctor bent over and moaning for me" and the second one has no title but it contains one of my fav tropes which it the aphrodisiacs so yippie!! Same at use your body, I don't know when these will be posted and the first one isn't even done and the second is barely worked on anyways so...

Random stuff that might be posted if I ever get them done

Fun-Dip!

A cheesy valgrace kiss fic about Leo having a fundip flavored chapstick. Silly and unserious. It's been in my drafts since may and is barely halfway done. I have no motivation to finish or worn on it right now but I might be possessed who knows.

Will Solace on the Argo II rewrite

No title for this yet. First chapter is less than a thousands words written right now. And that's the only thing I have written too 😭😭 rough outline for it and idk if I'll ever finish it tbh. 

Fics that I need to update and am trying to update but idk what to write

I Don't Know Who You Are but I Love You 

YALL I PROMISE IM TRYING TO WRITE ANOTHER STUPID CHAPTER. I'm dying. Last time I update it was APRIL... my bad guys... um and it has reached 14,000 hits since then and I wanted to post a celebration chapter but I had no motivation. Ughhhhrhhwsiyfiwdh

Girl Alone (titled I Am Something a while ago)

I'm thinking about writing another chapter but I'm not allowed to post anything with sh in it rn and that's kinda the whole plot of girl alone so... yeah... I just don't wanna write something that I'm gonna barely enjoy writing and not even be able to enjoy posting it either it just makes no sense to me sorry 

Olympus

You bitches have been asking for another chapter of this for over a YEAR it's insane and I am grateful for it. I am currently rewriting the first three chapters cause I freaking HATE how I used to write and also like it sucked?? How do y'all enjoy this shitty writing dude I was so bad at writing smut 😭 anyways idk when they'll be updated and idk when a 4th chapter will come out but I'm always thinking about it 

The Soul I Hold

Eeehhhh I lost motivation for this. I always get little scenes in my head about what I want in this fic but I never know how to connect them so I gave up. I will probably pick this fic up again and finish it one day but these days I have ahead of me are not those days. 

When I Die, I'll Let Go

I lost motivation for this one too. I have so so many ideas for this but I have no idea how to get them into words that make sense so I'm just going to keep making playlists for it until I get the spark back 

[elekinetic]

user elekinetic do you have any tips to spare for outlining fics 😭 i feel like I word vomit any of the concept that I have in my head, and dialogue ,and build off that adding paragraphs as I go and I go so slow bc of it. But ive been trying hard lately to write a list of “scenes” and bullet point the story but yeah.

do you know anything that could help me have an idea of where to go start to finish instead of starting at the random spot I’ve come up with first? I waste so much writing time because I haven’t built a backstory for characters and things like that so i don’t always know how they start the story off, only the situation they’re in. Is that something that could help? Making a list for each character or something? Would love to hear your thoughts thank you! <3

hi! first of all i’m so flattered you asked! to be clear, i am a very slow writer too lmao and i’m relatively new to prose writing, and though in very confident in my understanding of what makes a good story (W screenwriting), i am still figuring out my outlining process. but hey! let’s learn together.

sorry in advance for how long this is. i love talking.

so i basically figure everything out in the outline and write after i feel very good about it. if you have a strong foundation, everything gets a hell of a lot easier. t kind of sounds like your process might be similar to mine, so i’m just gonna explain what i'm doing for my current project.

my key document is my “bible.” i split it up into a couple different sections using page breaks (page breaks my best friend ily page breaks):

pitch/word vomit summary

scene ideas

outline

notes

ok so wtf does that mean.

1. pitch/word vomit summary — explain your concept. bc i've got a film/tv background, im starting off with my logline. (e.g. "after robin learns will is gay, they have a heart to heart in an abandoned video store about insecurity and feeling alone. they learn they're not." sometimes i'll follow that up with a note to myself like, "this fic isn't robin finding out, this is what happens after. starts with her already knowing. will pov, focus on his perception of robin changing. subtly reference toward feelings about mike, dont come out (haha) and say it") then, i write as MUCH of the concept down as i can, like i'm explaining it to a friend. (sometimes i copy and paste rants from dms directly into the document). it can be totally out of order, non-sensical, contradictory. just get as many of your ideas down as possible. you want to be able to come back to this and be like, oh i totally forgot about that. vague chapter summaries, personal notes about themes, whatever you want. i have a list of beats that you find in romantic dramas for inspiration and a paragraph abt ways i want to parallel/subvert s3 of st. just. go ham. 2. scene ideas — this is pretty self explanatory. i take some of the stuff i have in the p/s and flesh it out, or put down new ideas. this is where i'm writing out dialogue in bullet points, or what i want them to be Really Saying. (e.g. "mike: [panics bc he feels seen, tries to flip it back on (redacted) and fails] ") this is for when i can see stuff more clearly or i get out of the shower with a whole exchange in my head. gonna be out of order, a little all over the place. 3. outline — so. this is where you start piecing it together. put the bullet points in order. figure out objective of each scene and what needs to happen to accomplish that goal. figure out pacing, what needs to happen when. this step is where im looking at dialogue and thinking "why does mike say that? why does he feel that way? what needs to happen to get him to this point emotionally?" or looking at scenes and thinking "these are two scenes with people arguing back to back. lets make sure they feel different and give the characters different tactics to get what they want (byler argument where mike is avoiding will vs max argument where max is avoiding lucas. i could use this to highlight similarities and differences in the relationships, but having two scenes with the same tactics back to back might feel repetitive. maybe i move the scenes farther apart or change circumstances. maybe mike and will are having a veiled argument while theyre with a group of friends in a public space and max and lucas' argument is outside max's house.) also asking if conflicts are resolved too quickly, if the miscommunications feel too convenient, if characters disappear or are only around as plot devices. write. troubleshoot. repeat. 4. random notes — everything else that doesnt fit. for me this is literally just taylor swift lyrics (writing the fic vaguely off of a Specific Song that SHOULD BE STREAMED MORE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE anyway) and links to posts i use as character reference to make sure im staying true to the characters. (remembering will said "i was being a total jerk to el, i deserved it," AND "you're ruining everything, and for what!"/"i wasn't moping!")

i want it to be clear im doing all of this at the same time. im jumping around and pulling new ideas and rearranging as stuff changes. i think the thing that's really hard is that i want to be able to sit down, write the outline, and then move on. but for us scatterbrained writers, you're gonna have to re-outline and readjust like. a thousand times. and that's okay. that's good! it feels tedious as hell but the story is so much better for it.

take your time. let yourself be slow. keep finding holes in your story and fill the world in as you fix them.

here are some more questions i ask myself to make the story better:

What are you trying to accomplish over the course of the story? What is it about? (for the will&robin fic, it was something about feeling seen for the first time.) When you get lost in your story or aren't sure why a scene feels stale, come back to this. is the scene furthering that goal?

What is changing internally for each of your main characters? (yes theyre dating by the end but like. what do they learn.)

Are the side characters people or props? (will pov scene of a party-wide picnic where everyone's talking but will is focused on mike's hands.... where is max's head at in the scene? you don't have to have a super long backstory and she doesn't have to be a big part of the plot, but if she's saying something, figure out why she's saying it. if will is having a heart to heart with el, understand why el is responding the way she is. the scene's goal may be to get will through a breakthrough, but el's circumstances will change in the scene too. figure out how this conversation lands with her. oh, and remember the adults are people too!)

Why is this character saying this/why are they responding this way? (this should answer your "where do i start?" question. start in that random spot and figure out A) why they are there and B) why they are reacting the way they do (see last bullet point).

side note: some of the best advice i ever got was "enter the scene late, exit early." skip the prologue. try starting from that random spot. if it feels like something's missing, figure out exactly what that something is, and go from there

Do the stakes feel high enough?

What do i need to set up to make sure this scene/beat is satisfying as possible? (are will and mike going to have a big argument? oh, so we have to show tension before.... BAM you have another scene to write and your outline is fuller)

i could go on a lot longer but. basically.

i edit while i write. i'm someone who needs a very fucking strong outline and a very fucking clear idea of the story before i can start writing it. i'm putting probably 70-80% of the leg work in at the start so i can focus on making the prose (or script, most of the time) the best it can be.

THAT BEING SAID, this is just the way i do it and i have like. a fic and a half published. im taking my sweet time bc im creatively burned out and this is for fun first and foremost. like i said. i am a Very Slow Writer.

i highly, highly recommend hitting up the ask boxes of writers like @/strangeswift, @/wiseatom, @/astrobei, or @/andiwriteordie. no guarantees on responses bc they are busy ppl with busy lives but i really do think theyre some of the best writers out here right now, and im not just saying that bc they're my friends. abby (strangeswift) and i have been each other's sounding board through a lot of projects and she's almost done with one of her first Big Fics, so its worth asking her about that.

i hope this helps! ah!!

[somnas-writes]

Okay sorry if this is weird lol but in your "the bodyguards should have been friends" post you mentioned a fix-it fic and I am very intrigued- Is there anything about it you want to talk about?

Yeah!! I have a lot I want to write about (even though I haven’t finished the show, I’m already brain rotted)

The Theerapanyakun boys dynamic is one thing I plan to change/mess around with.

They would be genuinely unstoppable if they teamed up, but their dads (derogatory) are hellbent on keeping them isolated and in survival mode

They are all incredibly emotionally unavailable as well (they got HELLA trauma)

There’s five of them and I think each combination would have really different interactions/bonds

Khun, Kinn, and Kim are pit again Vegas and Macau their entire lives (major vs minor family feud, Korn and Gun being SHIT DADS)

They’re hostile because that’s what they were taught.

My plan/outline has them going through really big emotional break throughs (they get put in Situations and are forced to Confront their issues)

And as a result they band together

I also just want them to have good family relationships cause they deserve it

They bodyguards get to be Friends

I get that they had certain relationships and dynamics because it helped drive the plot

But holy hell imagine how uncomfortable that workplace setting was

Like big and Ken specifically hated Porsche. He hates them too, but it was an incredibly unhelpful thing

They all had their own duos (arm-pol, big-ken, Porsche-Pete), but as a group they could’ve had an great dynamic

Especially since they work for the same guys!! They get how crazy the work they do is, and they all know how these guys behave

They don’t even have to be besties (they aren’t for most of my rewrite) but for the sake of working smoothly they need to at least be casual and comfortable

I’m making Big work through his little crush on Kinn too

he and Porsche get to discuss what it’s like pursuing Kinn. it is something they should talk about, Kinn is a shared aspect of their life and having that grudge of “my crush chose him, not me.” Is just soooo petty and not healthy

Also Ken isn’t the traitor because I like him, he’s funky

Porsche and Chay are Good Siblings

I hate how they kept each other in the dark about huge things in their life

I understand (both as a younger sibling and as an older sibling) wanting to protect your family and not see them hurt. But it’s part of life!! Stuff hurts and it happens

They have a pretty special dynamic, with Porsche basically raising Chay

I wish we could’ve seen them being close siblings more in the series, I love the little montages we got of them together

But I think it’s missing that key part of them being unabashedly Honest and Real

Especially since Porsche choosing to become a bodyguard impacted a lot of Chays life. The one constant and stable figure of his life disappeared overnight and he had no way of contacting him

Porchay was alone during one of the most vital times of his adolescence. Porsche was isolated during a big change in his

In the rewrite, I want them to be more open about what they’re experiencing

They’re also just more ‘sibling like’, they go to annoy each other for fun, they work together against people because they’re a team.

One specific scenario I’ve been thinking about is Chay seeking out his brother to just be with him. (The scenario I’ve been envisioning is Chay walking into Kinn and Porsches room just to stare at him, dance Gangnam Style, turn off the lights and leave. I want Kinn to be absolutely baffled and Porsche to be Just So Done)

They’re siblings!!! It’s so fun to bother your siblings

Korn and Gun DIE

Im the second biggest Korn-Anti (Kim is first)

They’re Bad Parents and Shit People

They tear people apart just for their benefit and I’m Over It

I want these mfs DEAD AND BURIED

Kim deserves to stand at his dads grave, talk shit and walk away

I want their kids to heal!!! They deserve to be happy, even if 3/5 of them are Gigantic Meanies

And some silly little details for fun!!

Porchay is a Kpop stan, I’m a Kpop stan so I’m projecting (he makes Porsche watch music videos with him and they learned a dance together once)

Porsche (pre-mafia) was involved in a variety of activities (street racing, dance battles, catering, modeled once or twice)

Porsche can do street dancing, learned when he was like 11 and it became his go to dance style

Porsche and Chay have matching tasers (Kuromi and My Melody respectively)

They bond over sad music (Olivia Rodrigo, Lana Del Ray, Taylor Swift and Mitski)

Chay likes Sanrio

Chay gets his own ‘stage name’ (its Serpent, he wanted a cool sounding one like Phoenix)

Macau shows up more, no particular reason I just miss him

Jom and Tem show up more towards the beginning (they’re Porsches ride or dies)

Big also speaks English (while Ken is Aussie, he’s got a bit of a English accent)

Kinn really likes snoopy (he has a snoopy blanket from Khun that he hides)

Khun makes the bodyguards (main 6) dress up as the sailor scouts at some point. They all fight over who gets to be Sailor Moon (Ken won and actually ate it up)

A lot more name calling and cursing, I’m talking fun ones!! Porsche calls Ken and big lots of names when they’re rivals. (‘Mean girls’, ‘Dick riders’, at one point ‘Jack and Jill’)

Kim is into lots of alt-rock, pop-punk, and alt-indie American bands

his music as WIK is nothing like any of that. It’s just Jeff saturs discography (in my mind I’m mixing in other solo artists, mainly eric nam and RM) [i have a lot of brain rot regarding music]

Kinn is a LOSER (/pos, affectionate) he deserves it

The bodyguards get drunk together and make a tier list on which Theerapanyakun boy is the most likely to get canceled and why (ignoring mafia activities) [i might make this a post later lmao]

While they’re getting drunk Porsche falls and eats shit, big loses it and cries from laughing (that’s their little break through moment in their friendship)

[darkangel0410]

2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 14

sorry so many its only bc im obsessed with you and love your brain! and really genuinely interested in how it works!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ Don't apologize, I love talking writing stuff with you!!! This did get super long, tho, so I'm putting it under a cut:

2) What is your favorite fic of yours?

I mean, the real answer is all of them, lbr, but I'm really proud of trouble at my door (the necromancer au!!) because I love the worldbuilding I did, and it's basically the first case fic I ever wrote, and fight scenes that don't lead to sex!!! And a really good sex scene, too, if I do say so myself

3) What fic of yours do you think is underrated?

Hmmm, there's a couple answers for this, one of which is trouble at my door again, lol, but probably (this one) to the grave - it's an ultra rarepair (Chris Kreider/John Tavares), but I love the werewolf worldbuilding I dit, and sometimes I think about revisiting it

4) What fic of yours were you surprised by how popular it was?

Oh, probably any Tkachuks or Hughes (or Fantilis now, I guess lol) fic that gets over like 20 kudos or more than a couple comments, tbh. I get so much pushback from fandom (anon and otherwise) about writing it that it's always weird to me if they do well in that way

6) Do you outline your fics? If so, how?

I do not usually - for a series, I'll make notes as I go so I don't Joss myself, and if there's a case (so basically, necromancer au and in death au lmaoo) I make notes about it, but usually I just have an idea - what if Thom Bordelau was a necromancer? What if Jack Eichel was a crime lord? What if Trevor Zegras was a werewolf? and on and on forever - and then I sit down and start writing it to see what happens. After a few hundred words I mostly know how I want it to end, and what happens to get there. But I don't outline it the way plotters generally do - I tried before, when I was still figuring out my process for writing, but when I do write done everything like that first I don't want to write it anymore because the story feels told to me then, and my brain's satisfied.

8) Do you take inspiration from real life? If so how do you incorporate it into your fics?

Yeah, some - I think to a certain extent every writer does, we can't help it. As for how it ends up in fics...I think it's mostly little things, like. Someone's favorite song or drink - large iced mocha, extra chocolate from DD baybee (Turcs fave btw) - the way they tilt their head to the side when they ask questions, how impatient they are with people sometimes.

I do bring a lot of sex/kink/bdsm experience to my fic, too, I think - not necessarily in the sense that I write everyone having the same kinks as me, but I've been around kink and dungeons almost my whole adult life so there's stuff I know how to write that I'm not always into, and it makes it easier to have seen it done irl, or know someone who's into whatever I'm writing.

It also means I get a lot of people poking at me, through their own fic or in my inbox, about stuff that I've written, but at least there's hardly any death threats any more, unlike when I first started writing bdsm AUs/fics 😂😂😂

14) What is something you wrote in a fic that you are hoping readers picked up on but you don't know if they did? And/or, what is something that you were excited that readers did pick up on?

Oh this is such a good question - there's a couple, really, one of which is in (take this) to your grave by the end of that fic John's a very specific kind of crazy, and I love when readers picked up on that ❤️❤️❤️ there's also a part in the godlings verse where it's explained why Auston always looks so cranky when he's in Toronto (it's because he's the son of Apollo and he loathes cold weather lol) and I love the couple people who picked up on it 💕💕💕

*

Thank you for asking!!!! It was alot of fun!! ❤️❤️❤️ (fic writers ask meme)

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

Howdy-doo, Kat! 11, 20, 22,23 43,44, 33, 39, and 49 if you please?🥰

ngl the fact that these weren't in order threw me off more than i'm willing to admit

im also sorry for posting late!!! i was dead af yesterday and it took me 3 hours to write this jakdfkdf

come bother me with some writer asks! :3

11. what’s something neat you’ve learned while doing research for something you were writing? also, how much do you worry about doing research in general?

so im bad at doing research LMAO. but also because i never write with the intent to publish so i've never stressed too much about it. tbh i write a lot of canon divergent self-inserts so most of my research is actually making sure i get all the details for that right. like for this college fic i'm barely doing research on it, basically just asking my husband what phd life is like lol. but for the canonverse fic after that, i'm going to be scouring the animanga to make sure i have the correct details

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

100% the shutting-you-up-thru-kissing trope jkdjfkdjf it makes me fall to my knees

22. describe your writing process from scratch to finish.

oh lord uh so i have an idea. usually through rambling to someone or even sometimes a dream LMAO. and then i write it down on my google docs because adhd-brain will make me forget it if i dont write it down. and then i just kinda...find myself daydreaming about it? i've always kinda coped with life by daydreaming about selfships/self-inserts so it naturally just happens. and sometimes when i daydream something that seems cool, i'll write it down to flesh into an idea later. when i outline, i focus on dialogue mostly. i feel like it carries more naturally and then i can make little comments in the margins over how to narrate it. (outlining chapters also makes everything so much easier - hence why i'm trying to finish outlining this college fic before i start publishing :3) when i actually sit to write, it's pretty easy with the outline already done. it just consists of making things sound smooth and not repetitive. sometimes I *really* get into the flow of it and diverge from the outline and that's when I need to step back and go like "what am I writing about again?" (this is why outlines are a godsend for me jdkfjkdf)

23. how do you deal with writers block?

idk HOW DO I, IM GOING THRU IT RN ok so when im writing for myself i just kinda give up and trust that i'll get back to it eventually but when im writing with the intent of publishing...idk. as i said before, i tend to daydream a lot at baseline, so a lot of the times, that's enough to rip me out of it if i come up with a good enough idea

33. do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

characters! well, main characters. side characters i insert into depending on plot, like if i need a role to be filled.

39. are you an avid reader?

uh well, i have pulled allnighters just so i can finish reading a fic in one sitting so yeah id say so jkasdjfkdsjf

43. how did writing change you?

idk if it was just bc i started in my formative years but like it's kinda part of my identity at this point like who am i if not someone who writes porn and angst about a 2D man in all fairness, writing was like my way of coping when things got rly bad in high school, so i drew comfort from it and then at one point, i wrote regularly enough that i started doing it for real

44. any writing advice you want to share?

biggest thing i'll tell any writer whether they're new or experienced: write as if no one is ever going to read it. because then you'll just write it. prioritize writing for you. it's what gives you enjoyment, you just happen to sometimes share it for others as well. i found writing to be much more enjoyable that way and people just happen to like some of the stuff i post idk jadkfjkdf like i'm even trying to embody this when i write multi-chapter fics that i intend to publish

49. do you want to be published some day?

ehhhhhhhhh not for money in an official sense? i like writing fanfic. i like writing as a content creator, not as like as official author that gets printed copies and is subject to random critic comments. although the attention and appreciation for my writing would be nice (like if there's fanfic on it LMAO), it's never my intention :) i write for my enjoyment

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

Are you going to finish the Tiny Virgil AU? Cause the last chapter ended on a cliffhanger. If you don't feel like finishing the whole thing, you could maybe give us bullet points of what was supposed to happen?

Ahaha whoops, I kinda forgot that fic. at the rate I'm going, it'll take like ten years for that or any of my other fics to get finished. Tbh, I actually have a whole outline for that one? Acantha (@theeternalspace) and I brainstormed the rest ages ago and then I took our thoughts and bullet-outlined it out.

The thing is? Like, emotionally I want to hold onto my thoughts and finish it, but if I am to be completely honest, realistically it probably won't happen. Because I wanna prioritize Gibbous over it and all.

so tldr: I'd like to write more installments, but in the case I never finish it and/or you don't care about spoilers, check the read more for what happens.

warnings: hurt/comfort, crying, morally grey sides (all sides are present so beware idk its been awhile im not up to date with how the fandom handles this sorta thing)

Chapter 5

Anx cant believe he forgot about Thomas!

He was so caught up in Creativity wanting to play with him, he's forgotten about his whole purpose

He goes to the real world, worried about all the things that could've befallen his host without his guidance

Anx is confused to be faced with adult Morality and another...side?

"Thomas?"

Thomas is big, Anx is not

This can't be real, can it? How can he protect Thomas like this?

Roman shows up, but the damage is dealt (Ro and Pat converse a bit)

Virge starts panicking and panics even more when he sees Thomas affected by it

Ro & Pat try to comfort Virge but no use

It's Thomas who gets to him. Who is...helping? Why?

"Wh-why are you so nice? I'm bad, I hurt you--I do bad things."

Thomas looks sad at that. He tries to explaining that he doesnt think Virge is bad, he can be good

Virge doesnt really understand but at the same time...Thomas loves him??

Thomas offers him a hug and he accepts it. Still so confused but at least his host loves him.

Chapter 6

Virgil ends up tuckered up in Thomas' arms

"Crying is exhausting, don't like it" He complains to Roman.

"I know. You've been very brave, little prince."

It's not that late but Thomas seems nervous. "I should go to bed." (Basically feels like if he doesnt adhere to his childhood bedtime, he'll get in trouble aka lil Virgil's influence)

Patton asks if he'd like for him to accompany him and Thomas nods

Roman and Virgil end up back in the mindscape with Patton promising to follow soon after

Roman tucks him into bed

Patton comes back, looking tired, and both Roman and Patton agree to talk with Logan in the morning about things

in the morning with Virgil still asleep, Lo, Pat and Ro talk briefly

Logan shares some theories (Age regression maybe?)

Patton tells them what's up with Thomas

Roman decides to bother the Dark Sides. "If this happened before in the past, they would know, wouldn't they? And if they're behind it this time then I can get them to stop it"

They decide to have Patton look out for Thomas again and for Logan to watch over Virgil while Roman ventures out to the Dark Sides

Chapter 7

Logan mulls over what is happening

Grateful that Thomas is going to bed early at least

He is not worried, he is Logic

Tries focusing hard on his book

Virgil wakes up, disappointed to see Logan and not Roman

Roman ventures through the dark mindscape

infodump detail on how it differs vs. the regular mindscape, quiet, silence nobody is around

"HELLO" Roman screams as his brother pops up

"What do I owe brother dear for this visit?"

Virgil is worried about Roman, but Logan placates him a bit

The two end up doing a puzzle

During which Virgil randomly hugs Logan

When Logan asks why, Virgil explains "You're scared. Hugs make me feel less scared"

Logan thanks him for the sentiment but insists he is not scared

"You're scared, I can feel it. It's okay, I get scared lots of times so you don't have to." Virgil says

And then Logan's fear dissipates

He stares at Virgil, shocked, because did tiny virge take his fear away??

And if so, if tiny virge knows how to do this, has adult Virgil been doing it without them knowing??

Chapter 8

"I know you did it" Roman growls. It makes sense really. Remus did random things for sh*t and giggles

Remus blinked "Oh! You found out about ____, didn't you?"

"What no!" Roman says, disgusted. "I'm talking about Virgil."

"Wait, you think I did it with Virgil? Mr. Emo?"

"NO!" Roman snaps. "Stop playing dumb!"

The two have a scuffle, ending up with Remus having a sword at Ro's throat (who is stuck in green goop)

"I really don't know what you mean." Remus says, "What is it exactly do you think I did again?"

Logic must hate him, Anx thinks, otherwise why would he be looking strangely at him?

but its okay, even if it really really really hurts, Anx has done it before and would do it again to keep from any of them feeling pain

He asks if Anx took his fear away and he nods

surely this must be a happy thing but Logic seems even more upset

the fear grappling tiny virge is foreign. It's so different than fears he's taken before. He finds himself drowning in it. he doesnt quite understand most of it. But there's fears about himself, Logic being scared for him, not of him. (basically oh boy adult fears are much harder to process for a child Anxiety)

Logic grips his hand and asks for his fears back

"I can't" Tiny Virge says, shaking like a leaf

Logan asks it again. Virge shakes his head "I can't, I--I don't know how!"

He really doesnt know how. Usually he just holds it all in until it explodes.

Logic echoes some of what the fear is telling him, that Logic cares for him. And weirdly, it means a lot for him to hear that Logic actually cares.

But noooo he must only care because of Thomas, right?

Anyways this is resolved somehow idk lmao and then Logan is called to help with Thomas

Virgil promises Lo he'll be okay, not wanting to stop him from being able to help their host

Logan promises he'll back momentarily

Virgil squeezes Zola and tries his best to stay calm

Previously on Rem and Ro

Roman spills the beans on whats up

Deadbeat silence

Remus then babbles about how he has no clue what Roman is talking about, but is super intrigued and wants to check this out for himself

He sinks out as Roman grabs onto his ankle, but isn't enough to stop him from sinking out.

Chapter 9

"Hiya!"

Little Anx squeaks, shadows gathering at his feet, ready to strike at....

A Green-Dressed Creativity? He dresses fancily like him.

"Princey?"

Green laughs. "No, I'm The Duke! Princey's my brother!"

And Lil Virge is kinda confused but rolls with it because Creativity pretending to be someone else/splitting himself into two is a very Creativity thing to do and isn't too worried about it.

Roman shows up, fuming

However, because of Virgil, he has to play nice

They end up having a pretend tea party

Roman finds himself shocked that Remus is decent with kids? Or at least a Kid Anxiety??

He still says outrageous things but Virge giggles at them (Basically kids really have no baseline for moral right-or-wrong, they find talk of murder funny)

Roman feels a bit guilty/regretful realizing he never played much with Remus growing up

Eventually, Logan pops up slightly frazzled

He's relieved to see the twins there looking after Virgil

Explains the situation w/ Thomas to Roman while Remus and Virgil play

Patton pops up, looking slightly weary, leading Roman and Logan to insist he take a day off from watching Thomas

Upon seeing Logan & Patton, Virgil runs up to hug Logan, but shies away from Patton

Patton tries to hide his disappointment about this

Remus tries to leave upon seeing Lo and Pat are here

but Virge clings to him, insisting he stays

The Others agree, and Remus perks up a bit.

Somewhere, there's a discussion about Virge again, late at night?

Logan reveals Virgil taking fears from him

At some point it's decided to leave Janus out of it as it's unknown how little Virge would react to him and the fact that Janus most likely knows what's up and has chosen to stay out of it

It's decided that Remus and Roman will traverse the Imagination to see if there's a solution there

Logan will be with Thomas

Meanwhile Patton will look after Virgil

Chapter 10

Patton's POV

Little Virge is upset about both Remus and Roman leaving

they try to placate him but it does little. (Telling him how they'll stay safe and they don't want him going because they want to keep him safe)

Patton's heart breaks but he has to holds back Virge.

Eventually the two have heart-to-heart

Apparently the two had a classic childhood spat, that means a lot to Virge even tho poor Pat doesnt remember the spat at all.

Pat tells them they're the best of friends now, even shows him evidence

Virge feels a little better

Sees a snake stuffy in Pat's room, asks about Dee

Patton deflects

The two end up making cookies together

The Imagination is a bust, although the twins return squabbling in a good mood

And Remus has a "present" for Virgil, who delights in it.

They chat, when suddenly Virgil screams

Chapter 11

Virgil's POV

He's been trying his best to stay calm, to hold back the anxiety gained from Logan and also the other fears swelling inside of him

But it's too much, and push comes to shove. A burning sensation occurs

And it explodes

He has a panic attack and realizes it extends into the real world

Overwhelmed and upset, he runs off.

He runs off to his hideaway and sits there

Getting bombarded with fears

He's there for what feels like hours when--

"Oh my dear Anxiety" A crooning, unfamiliar yet familiar voice says

Virgil looks, surprised, to see Deceit!! There's a lot more scales and he's wearing a funny outfit but it's him

He is happy to see him albeit sobbing into his capelet because of what happened.

Dee holds onto him going, “Shhhh everything’s alright. Shhh it’s not your fault. It’s my fault, I’m sorry—“ and Virgil interrupts shrieking it can’t be his fault, because in his mind Dee would never do anything bad and it hurts Dee to know that young Virge has so much faith in him.

"You'll hate me" But Little Virge refuses to accept that. "You're lying, you don't mean that"

"Okay, you caught me. "We stay best friends forever" OR something along those lines

Dee convinces him to bring back to the others, that they don't hate him

When they return, the others "freaking out" is a mild understatement.

Dee slowly produces tiny Virge out of his capelet.

Hisses at them to keep their distance because crowding Virge will only freak him out

Apologies and misunderstandings are made clear

Thomas summons all of them and they all have a sleepover

Virgil falls asleep snuggled between Remus and Dee

Chapter 12

Maybe Roman's POV?

Along with Thomas, they have a discussion

Dee waits a bit, before revealing that he's behind the reason for Virge's current state.

As his role Deceit, he has access to both truth and lies. One lie is that Virgil believes his kid self died and is no longer a part of him--attempting to actively repress those memories

He then points out the childish aspects of each side's function. (Maybe Logan input something about growing up and stuff)

P: "But why would Virgil think this?" J: "oh gee, I wonder why. It isn't like he was made to feel like an outcast from a very young age or anything"

Instant Guilt for all

Anyways Dee explains some mishap occurred, thus reverting Virgil back to this state

You get the sense Janus isn't telling the whole truth.

Janus says he has a way to fix things, and that's when there's a noise

"Anx?"

Virge is there, standing incredibly still, slightly heavy breathing

"Anx, it's okay, we're not upset"

Little Virge heard everything and is upset but he understands

He knows Thomas needs big him, and the others reassure him that they'll be there for him, each having a small moment with him

Then he starts glowing brightly, causing them all to be alarmed, Janus included

Chapter 13

Virgil is back and boiiiiiii is he freaked the heck out

The Others including Thomas are all there, F*CK how can he ever recover after they saw him like that?

He's both embarrassed and mortified

Not to mention it hurts to have two sets of childhood memories rattling inside his head. One that was lonely and painful, and the other that was happy but fake

He snaps at Janus and ends up fleeing in his room

He doesn't duck out

He cant do that

He just doesnt....go out. He doesn't want to hear the jokes start. He doesnt want the babying or the pitying to start.

He does his job and that is that.

(inwardly he knew this would happen, but not like this)

They try summoning him (Thomas included) but he wont come out. His door is locked.

Patton slips a note under the door but Virge refuses to look at it.

Blares MCR

Somehow Zola appears in his room, and he'd like to tear it apart or something, but he can't help but squeeze the stuffed bat tight and cry for the childhood that never was.

A week passes, and there's a very sad prince at his door

Virgil ends up letting him in because look, he's not a monster

it's very...awkward at first

but they eventually have a heart-to-heart and some snarky banter

and Virgil is very confused when Princey feels the need to apologize to him

They also discuss Janus and Virgil very reluctantly agrees to talk to him

Virgil ends up talking with Janus over tea

Janus doesn't really look at him, staring at his teacup as he explains himself

and dammit, Janus has hurt him (but then again so has Virgil hurt Janus)

But a part of him really misses him. A part of him that has always missed him.

Janus explains he just wanted to know where he went wrong in their friendship, that he went the round-about way because knew Virgil wouldn't talk to him but messed with things he shouldnt and accidentally caused Virgil to revert to the age before their friendship started fraying by accident.

He admits that he almost wanted to leave Virgil that age, to take advantage of it as a way to start again, but ultimately couldnt let himself take advantage of virgil in that way

He also apologizes, telling Virgil "Showing weakness isn't bad. I told you once that you had to stay strong and not let anyone see it, but I was wrong" and that he understands if Virgil doesnt accept his apology right away or if ever

And Virgil doesnt completely accept, not yet, but he's willing to try

It ends happily with them going down to dinner with the others. (possibly Virgil having moments with the others??)

the end

BONUS, Written Scene from Chapter 11 w/ Virge's and Janus's reunion because I was self-indulgent and wrote ahead

“Oh my dear Anxiety,” A silky voice croons, so achingly familiar.

He sniffles, raising his head to meet eyes with the much older face of his best friend; Deceit. It has to be, there is no other side whose left side of face is reptilian in nature. He’s crouching beside Virgil, only one set of arms present at the moment. He’s wearing a funny outfit, but then Deceit has always dressed funny, just like Creativity. Neither of them have ever been worried about standing out.

“Dee!” Anxiety cries out, all but flinging himself onto the older side. The velocity of it flattens the two onto the ground, with Deceit letting a small grunt from the impact. He’d be more worried about possibly hurting Deceit if he wasn’t too busy bawling his eyes out into the strange cape Deceit is wearing.

Deceit strokes his hair, so soft and gentle. Then two sets of arms hoist Anxiety upwards, settling him onto Deceit’s lap. Deceit hugs Anxiety, cocooning him in a warm embrace. For a moment, everything feels normal again. As if they’re all kids still and Anxiety had sought Deceit for comfort after a bad nightmare.

Then Deceit speaks, saying words meant to be comforting. They are comforting at first, until Deceit says things that don’t make sense. And Anxiety knows Deceit is a liar, that he says things that aren’t true. But he knows when Deceit isn’t lying. They’re best friends after all.

“Shhh, it’ll be alright. Shhh, it’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s not your fault. It’s mine. I hurt you and I’m--”

“No!”

“No?” Deceit repeats.

“No, it--it--you didn’t do anything bad, you wouldn’t!” Anxiety says, nearly shrieking, “You’d never, ever, hurt me. We’re best friends and best friends don’t do that.”

A strange, choking noise erupts from Deceit. Anxiety looks to see Deceit’s human eye glistening. His best friend’s lips quiver, like Anxiety gets when he gets too scared to speak. Except Deceit is never scared. He always knows what to say in a situation, confident in ways Anxiety could never be.

“Oh, I’ve forgotten what you were like at this age,” Deceit whispers, so low that Anxiety thinks he wasn’t meant to hear it. Then Deceit shakes his head, a weird laugh escaping him. “You’re going to hate me, Anx. Or rather, you’re going to hate me more after this is all over.”

“You’re lying,” Anxiety accuses, his fingers tightening around the fabric of Deceit’s cloak, “You don’t mean that. I love you, Dee, you’re my best friend and--and...Big Me is still best friends with you, right?!”

Deceit inhales sharply, as if there’s something stuck in his throat. Before Anxiety can even grow concerned for his well being, he breaths out a long dramatic sigh.

He rolls his eyes, smirking, “Alright, you caught me.”

“I did?”

“Yes. I was only lying to scare you out of crying,” Deceit assures him, “I didn’t mean to scare you into thinking we weren’t best friends still. Of course we are.”

“G-good,” Anxiety huffs, “don’t scare me like that, Dee, I don’t like it!”

“I won’t do it again, I promise,” Deceit says, his smirk fading a bit as he takes on a somber expression, “it still isn’t your fault for what happened, Virg--Anxiety. Neither I or any of the others think it is. They certainly despise you for it.”

“Despise?” Anxiety’s heart jumps a bit, “Oh! You mean...you’re saying...they don’t despise me?”

“I don’t know,” Deceit raises an eyebrow, “Why don’t you try reaching out? See what their fears tell you.”

Anxiety closes his eyes, sticking his tongue out in concentration. If he thinks super hard, he can envision everyone's fears like spider webs, branching all over the mindscape, interconnected in some ways and in others, completely disconnected in each side's little corner.

And he is the itsy bitsy spider, that scuttles about and maintains the webs to some degree. Because a little bit of fear is good, it helps keep Thomas alive. So he traces the webs and searching for what Dee suggested. There is one thread present, in every nook and cranny of the web, he searches, even in the splinter-offs. One fear that repeats and loops through the whole network that he has never seen before.

"Oh." Anxiety breathes, eyes widening. They're not afraid of him. They're afraid for him, worried about his safety and wellbeing. Anxiety doesn't know what to think of that.

[letthefrogsbe]

remember when I was gonna write that parkner fic?

cool so I've decided I'm gonna, but because I cannot write for SHIT and I hate my writing every time I see it, ill just share my outline of what I have so far. its not coherent. sorry. 

Section one: aunt may dies. It’ll be like “it's been 3 months. 3 months since May was shot. 2 months and 3 weeks since she died.”

Something like that idc. Basically this section will base around peter living tony, because he’s not doing well, and he is only 17- which is not actually old enough to be on your own after something like this. Setting is established, with cameos from dr strange (who tony is dating and lives with (yeah bite me, this is my fanfiction i can make it what i want.) it will be made obvious that this takes place after endgame, which also means that tony is Not going to die. I’m not that mean lmao. The avengers are like largely together, there was not as much death in this as there was in endgame. Whatever. Everyone is very nice to peter because they know that for him its either this or him becoming a ward of the state so like.

Section two: harley gets kicked out. His mom finds out that he’s gay (from gossip sources idk) and kicks harley out. Im not going to write them having a big fight like in the moment, but harley will recount what happened somewhat to tony in this section, and then more to peter later in the story. Gay ppl trauma dump, we know this. Okay anywaysss so harley calls tony literally sobbing and like freezing fucking cold. IM SORRY IM BEING SO MEAN TO THEM I PROMISE THEY'LL GET A HAPPY ENDING. Okay. harley explains how his mom kicked him out. Tony asks why, harley says something like “she didn’t agree with my lifestyle choices” like bitterly. Tony is a good person in this (i know, im really taking some character liberties) and he’s in the mood for collecting strays apparently, so he has happy send over the quinjet. He can’t make it himself bc hes in fucking japan or something for the next few weeks,, but. Yeah! Tony also calls peter, who is presumably in bed and feeling depressed. “Hey pete. How ya feeling? Any better?’ ‘Not really, tony. Sorry.’ ‘you don’t have to be sorry-’ ‘damn tony you sound like my therapist.’ “sorry pete, but i do have something to tell you- you know harley?’ ‘only from what you’ve told me about him, but yea. He was the tennessee garage kid, right?’ ‘i mean. Yes. so- he’s gonna come stay with me for a while too- it might not be permanent but it will probably be a bit. He’s about your age, and he just has no where to go (just like u). He’s not going to stay in your room or anything, but with bruce and thor here, he will be in your apartment area.’ ‘okay tony.. Will i have to talk to him a bunch?’ ‘not if you don’t want to- i already warned him about you, so it should be okay. I wouldn’t worry so much pete- you guys are so similar in a lot of ways that i wanted to introduce you two long before he called me.’ ‘okay tony, i trust you. Thank you again for letting me stay with you :)’ (yeah that kind of got away from me)

Section 3: build up. this is a shorter section. Harley and peter are gonna meet in section 4. This section is harley’s jet ride (with an intuitive happy) and harley’s nerves about how he really isn’t worth this (i mean hes pretty intimidated tony sent a private jet just for him) and happy like reassures him. Hes still insecure though. Peter is also nervous bc what if harley doesn’t like him? What if he doesn’t like harley?? Tony did say they would get along, but peter hasn’t really been himself recently, so who knows? Yeah lots of that. I do want to emphasize though- peter is not completely unhealthily coping. Like he has a therapist and he has been reaching out to ned and mj, but its still an open wound for him. Obviously. He still has a sense of humor though, but its to cover these deep insecurities. Like the first month or so that he was with tony, he was reallllyyyy trying to not get close to him bc he sort of thinks he kills everyone around him. Like logically he knows this isn’t true, but he does really think the that non superheroes that he surrounds himself with are very at risk if they know about his spider-man-ness. The only people who know now are ned and mj (may knew too).

Section 4: the meeting of harley and peter. Keep in mind peter has been living in this apartment/area of stark tower for about 3 months now. He actually moved in while may was in the hospital because he couldn’t stand to be alone in the apartment when he knew why may wasn’t there. And um. Yeah. so peter is like comfortable in this space, basically. Also- the reason theyre in the same apartment is because stark tower was not really created with the idea of housing broken orphans in mind, so it only has a certain amount of residential space. Thor and bruce are currently staying there together (although no one really knows if theyre together, or if theyre just best bros who went through some extreme trauma together and are now inseparable. Hmmm wonder if thats gonna come up later) and theyre using one apartment, and happy lives there with his own apartment, and tony and stephen are currently sharing the penthouse, even though thats not public knowledge. Really only the people close to tony know that he’s dating stephen. So. this leaves just the one other 2 bedroom apartment for peter and harley. It has one bathroom, and the bedrooms are connected by a door but theyre pretty big so like. Theres a kitchen, a living room with a fancy ass tv, and a really pretty view (with a balcony bc <333). May died in march, peter got leave from the school in april, and it is now the middle of june btw. Tony is now peter’s official guardian (he was before may died anyways) and now has sole guardianship over him which he has fully accepted, even though peter and him both know that there are going to be times where he has to go out of town bc he does own a company after all. Times like right now. Harley is pretty nervous that tony isn’t going to be there to greet him and that he is going to have to like introduce himself to peter and everything. Cmon, theres no reason to feel like that, he’s the one intruding after all, he should at least be able to handle himself. (<--- harley’s thoughts). Yeah so theyre insecure super cool. A n y w a y s so peter was stressing about harley as he arrived, and so when harley walked in they were both complete bundles of nerves. Harley walks up but knocks. Peter actually jumps (bc spidey sense okay whatever) and goes to get the door. Oh my god these awkward teenagers i hate them so much (i love them). Peter kinda looks like shit, sorry king. He was a little bit crying earlier, then tony called and he switched into stressed out ball-of-anxiety mode. Distractions are good, its okay. Peter opens the door for harley and they like introduce each other all awkward (again sorry) and peter shows harley where he is staying. Harley doesnt really have muchhhh bc he was kicked out and all. He just has a suitcase full of clothes, his favorite blanket, his favorite stuffed animal (yeah whatever bc ofc he does) and his phone/charger. He sets all his stuff down at once. He thanks peter for letting him stay in his apartment and also said sorry. First thing peter noticed was harley’s accent. Stfu. peter asks why harley’s here- ok. Harleys had a long ass day. Too fucking long. He- he breaks down. He tells peter a lot. About how his mom found out that he was gay, and how she told him never to come back. Yikes. Anyways, this is establishing the beginning of their relationship as friends. Peter is there for him even though he doesn’t know him at all. Peter sees some of himself in harley in this moment, even though he’s not talking about himself yet. Eventually harley does ask about peter, and they really just get to know each other really quick. They have these deep scarring individual traumas, and neither has nearly recovered, but they find comfort in just knowing that theyre not alone in their suffering. At least for now. At least in this moment.

Section 5: the next day. Peter and harley spent that whole night talking about what they were going through. Peter said good night at around 5 am (there were no adults around they can do what they want to) and they both got good sleeps. In peter’s case, one of the first solid nights he’s had in a while. Harley was kept up a little longer after peter left, however, because he just couldn’t shut off his mind. It was really cathartic for him to just lay everything out there and for someone to just accept him. Peter told him he was bi, but he was.. Lucky. He had accepting people in his life. May was accepting. God, harley couldn’t fathom having lost everyone in his life, everyone he ever cared about, and still having the heart to sit and talk with the dumbass anxious gay kid who can’t go home anymore. His problems felt so small compared to peter’s, and all he could do was admire peter’s resilience and how he was seemingly able to bounce back from anything. God, peter was something. He couldn’t wait to get to know him more. With that thought circling in his head, he finally went to sleep at oh shit 6:30 am. Peter woke up around 1. Harley at 2. When harley woke up, peter was watching tv and eating cereal on the couch and he just sat down next to him. No words, just sleepy children being sleepy. They stayed like this for like an hour when someone knocked on their door. Enter stephen strange!!!!!!!!!!! Get excited people. Hes just coming in to check on them bc tony told him to, and he didn’t get the chance last night bc he was _busy_. K so now he’s here and hes awkward and he just wants to make sure these boys r okay bc theyve both been through too much recently, and it would be just the cherry on top if they didn’t get along. Him and harley had never actually met before so he like introduced himself and all that. Offered like if they needed anything he was there, and its only gonna be a few days until tony gets back (did i say a week earlier? Im retconning that bc i cannot find it in my writing so it is now retconned). Peter and harley just have to sort of explain to dr strange that theyre getting along gREAT and there is no need for concern….. And peter was even thinking about showing harley around the city a bit that night (something he had not yet told harley, but wanted to make it seem like he was doing well and not acting too depressed in front of Dr. Strange) so dr strange is like yeah !!!!!! do that, that sounds super fun petey !!!!!! and so now they have evening plans

ok ps I wrote this like 2 weeks ago and completely forgot I posted something on Tumblr about this fic idea, and so this is literally just how I talk to myself. was not gonna ever post this but then I decided to because I'm bored. there are more sections but I'm not gonna post them rn because this post is really fucking long already!!!!

[mediawhorefics]

Hi marie! I am interested on how detailed tts is! And i love the fic generally. May i know how you wrote the fic?? Like do you find the info abt the place first or you are actually live there haha? Also do you plot first before you write a full fic?? How do you know abt this place?? SORRY IF IM ASKING TOO MUCH! YOU CAN IGNORE/ DONT ANSWER IT ITS OKAY! 😅

hiya :) 

so tts was kind of a weird one in terms of how it was made. i’m a huge researcher when it comes to writing in general & i write a lot of historical aus, so diving in and researching a lot is often the first step for me when it comes to writing. but tts was a little different in that it was a combination of my research for a different project, my lifelong love of lighthouses, a prompt sent to me by an anon & my own experiences in/love of scotland. i lived there for two years, though not on any of the islands. 

so a few years back, as i was finishing uni and preparing to move to scotland, i signed up for this exchange where the concept was you received a quote as a prompt and had to write a fic based on that. i can’t remember the quote i had but it was something a oscar wilde one and i got really interested in writing a murder mystery/dark fantasy story set somewhere remote and isolated. i wanted to write a story where a series of shocking & slightly supernatural murders take place on a remote island with a very small population and a journalist comes to the island to write a series of articles about it. i got to busy with real life and had to drop out of the challenge, but i had found & thoroughly researched fair isle as the perfect setting for this story. harry was going to be the journalist coming in from london to investigate and louis was a sculptor who lived in the lighthouse at the tip of the isle; a recluse and an outcast; everyone’s favourite suspect. i made the choice of him living in a lighthouse because i love them and it’s been a dream of mine to own one and live in one for literally decades haha.

obviously, this story didn’t end up happening. but many months later, after i’d already moved to scotland, i received an anon essentially saying ‘ i wish you would write a story where recovering alcoholic/addict harry shows up to louis’ little b&b to recover’. now i rarely take other people’s prompts mostly because i’m very picky & fussy with ideas, but this one really inspired me and i basically said ‘okay, but it would HAVE to be set in scotland and the b&b HAS to be in a lighthouse’ and i just wrote a mini drabble outlining the main plot of the fic. people got really excited about the mini-outline/ficlet; i had lots of messages asking me to make it a full-length fic and big bang season was starting and tbh.... the idea wouldn’t leave me alone. so i signed up to write it and the rest is history i guess! 

but because i had done all this research on fair isle already, it was the only place that made sense for me as a setting. i’ll be honest though, not all of it is accurate; i used inspiration from other scottish islands and my own imagination to create this fictional version of fair isle. and some info in the fic is no longer up to date; like the whole no power at night thing! that changed while i was writing it :) 

so yeah, i def. found the info about the place first and no i don’t live there. from what i know, it’s a very tiny very closed community. and unfortunately, even though i lived in scotland, i never had the chance to visit. it’s not thaaaat easily accessible haha 

and yeah i def def plot first before writing. i rarely have a fully detailed outline before i start writing, but i’ll normally have the ending (or the Big Emotional Catharsis moment) planned as well as all the big beats. i research, make decisions on vibe, atmosphere, aesthetic, first, then i outline and then i write. though i guess with historical stuff, the research lasts the entire time you’re writing more often than not haha. 

anyways hopefully that answers your question <3 thanks for reaching out and for reading the fic x 

[purekesseltrash]

This is my final ask talking about BTD so it has to be perfect, I literally created a google doc so I wouldnt fuck it up before I sent it

Shoji replaying a song over and over while doing a task reminded me of when I listened to “Ophelia” by The Lumineers on repeat while drinking coffee on my kitchen counter and lemme tell ya, I’ve been chasing that high ever since

Yeah knowing you'd have *some* family but not all of them after coming out sucks major ass but its the truth, I'm ever so grateful that the only person who would react negatively that I know would be my maternal Grandmother whos a narcissistic bitch who I haven't spoken to in years so like, i dont give a shit what she thinks but I know that it would be hard on Shoji seeing how family oriented he is in this story and him knowing his relationships with his siblings and parents would be rocky makes my heart break for him

OOOOO BITCHHHHHH HES TEXTING HIMMMMMMM

That went over a lot smoother than I thought it would, I mean i'm incredibly happy that they’re like, getting together, but I honestly expected it to be more drawn out

Awww Tokoyami getting their as fast as he could and Shoji being soft for domestic Tokoyami

Sweet jesus I can relate to Shoji just randomly thanking his friend for being his friend, the amount of times I’ve wanted to just ominously text my friends a “thank you for everything” is too many to count

I LOVE GRITTY, HE REMINDS ME OF MY CAT WHOS A MAINE COON (his names Chewie if you're interested)

I knew Mic would suck at cooking, its just so him

I practically squealed at Shoji changing Tokoyami’s contact name to Fumikage

Okay, little background story, I keep a list in my notes app of headcanons for Tokoyami and literally one of them on there says word for word “Dogs absolutely love him and he loves them right back” so im SO GLAD you made him a dog person, making him a cat person seems like the easy route

LAWYER MOM IS INTRODUCED i honestly didn't picture her as a blonde but now I see it

Tokoyami’s mom being incredibly enthusiastic reminds me a lot of my mom, she always get excited when people have pride flags hanging up and suggested we get a pride flag so that made me appreciate my mama more than I already have been

I swear to god my eyes got as big as saucers hearing the part about cheesecake because I'm from New Hartford and forgot Hartford was a different city.

I can just picture Aizawa SLAMMING the brakes and whipping his head around, hair flying, as he looks at Shoji

“And he let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding” how much more cliche could you get, not gonna lie that made me laugh

All right I have to confess something. I've skipped every transcript of Put Your Sticks Up because I was impatient and wanted to get to the story. Now you know my biggest secret, I always felt bad but would get frustrated cause I wanted to hear ‘bout my boys.

The last precious worm ask! I am finally on my laptop so I can give this the proper attention.

Ngl, when my head isn't working, I will just put on one song and play it over and over and over and over and over until something comes into my head. My ShinOji fic 'Gold Rush' came from that. Still not sure how I managed to make a somewhat decent fic out of a song about gentrification but my mind is a wild and wonderful place.

Yeah, Shouji goes through it with his family. One thing that I can say though is that as Shouji starts to get more and more successful with his art, Tokoyami starts to spitefully send articles and reviews written on his work to his parent's house. He never gets a response but doesn't expect to, he just feels like they should see how amazing their son is, goddamnit. The one day, a letter comes back. Tokoyami opens it, expecting it to be them telling him to knock it off and instead, one of the pictures has been sent back with 'This is beautiful' written in pen, an arrow pointing to one of his vases. Tokoyami then has to show it to Shouji and explain what he did. Shouji cries basically all night. That starts a very, very tenuous back and forth with his mom.

Gonna put the rest of this under a break because it's gonna be long

You should have seen my first outline if you thought this was quick with them figuring it out. Basically, the only reason that Tokoyami broke it off in the first place was because he didn't see that there was a chance of it working. They worked so well otherwise. Amazing chemistry, complimentary senses of humor, Tokoyami didn't want to break it off at all. He just felt like he had to because otherwise they were both going to get more hurt. So when Shouji was like 'okay, but actually I do want to try this', he was all in.

Ojiro is legit Shouji's first real friend. Which is really really sad given that they met when they were eighteen but Shouji never really got a chance to do anything normal.

Maine Coons rule and Chewie is an excellent name for them. I was going to name their cat after Marie Phillipe Poulin, the greatest women's hockey player ever, but I decided that Gritty would be funnier. Mic as a bad cook is deeply satisfying, I picture him being like me, just all 'okay but I just do enough to make something to survive on and uh.... who needs all the details and stuff'.

The name change actually came from my beta. They asked why his contact was still Western Civ Tutor in the beginning of the chapter and I was like 'oooo, great way to show how they have changed'.

And maaaaaaaaaan. I'm sorry but how is someone who is a bird gonna like a cat. Nah. Tokoyami is a dog person. They do go on to get a dog. They were going to get a Shiba Inu or something catlike until Kenta came through with a hound puppy that he'd found in the rain while on his route and just dumps it in Shouji's lap like 'Surprise!'. They name it Lu after Roberto Luongo, famed goalie. The dog is a goddamned menace and Shouji ends up having to take it to classes and learn about dog training so they can all keep their sanity. He ends up loving Lu the most. (I do some part time dog training so I had to throw that in)

Tokoyami dyes his hair. He's actually a mousy blond under the dye like his mama. And yeah, my parents are hella supportive too. I figured it would be healthy for one of them to have accepting parents.

Aizawa was pretty pissed, ngl. For all that he should know better, he got caught up in the same shit that coaches tend to slip into, which is a responsibility because they have someone with potential that they must mold and then when they go on to do amazing things, they can feel a part of it. But then he realizes where he fucked up and how he was so busy seeing Shouji the hockey player that he couldn't see Shouji the person.

Listen, it's my fanfic, so I'm gonna get as cheesy as I damn well please. I'd written a super cheesy ending for the end of 'Black Sun' and was waffling on keeping it until somebody was like 'it's a fic, be as cheesy as you want'. I can has my cheese, as a treat.

WHAT IN THE FUCK WORM. HOW CONFUSED HAVE YOU BEEN THIS ENTIRE TIME?!?!?! this legit made me laugh out loud when I read it. GO BACK AND READ MIC'S SHOW!!! I set up so much stuff to try and prepare the reader to understand the emotional stakes, not to mention the basic facts of hockey! That being said, I get the feeling.

Thank you for this last super mega grande worm ask, sorry that it took me so long, I wanted to be able to give it my full attention. <3

[elizabeth-mitchells]

Tagged by: @morallygreywaren and @lilolilyr thank you so so much !!

Name(s): Dani (wouldn’t. Dani would never 😭) sorry i had to lol im moonflowery on AO3 (is that the question?)

Fandom(s): so the ones i’ve written fanfiction for aka the ones i’ve been most passionate about, Ocean’s 8, The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor, Birds of Prey, Portrait of Lady on Fire, and The Old Guard! 

Where you post: mostly on AO3 but prompts and one shots here too

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos) this year: Being with you (Makes the flame burn good) aka Quynh kills Andy back to life

Overall: same! that one shot is basically my greatest accomplishment ghdfjgh

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos) this year: one day at a time aka the bly manor flower shop au that i was legally obliged to write

Overall: same! that cute little one surpassed my tog multi-chapter by just a few kudos recently. 

Favorite story you’ve written so far: aaahh that’s too difficult! i’m reallyyy struggling to choose. i Think i have to go with  Being with you (Makes the flame burn good) because.... yes. but also? the poalof soulmate au one shot (Don't) Leave Me Alone i’m kind of proud of that one. i just was inspired and i wrote it impulsively and i really like it? i don’t know but then !! the ocean’s 8 x hill house au, the vampire aus, i love them all please dont make me choose

Fic you were nervous to post: surprisingly i don’t really get very nervous about posting fics. i feel no shame i guess lol and none has been a really out of the ordinary stuff yet so nothing to be embarrassed about. i get really nervous posting the first fic i write for each fandom! especially the poalof ones bc that fandom’s writing is intimidatingly good lol but if i had to chose... my first one!  One Of My Girls an ocean’s 8 ot3 fic? where the fuck did i even find the courage

How do you choose your titles?: that’s my favorite part lol okay so it’s either a line from a song from a playlist i’ve made for that particular pairing/movie/show, a line of dialogue from the fic, or something funny, dumb or obvious aka The Haunting of Hill (Coffee)House, (Red) Room for 8, and Room 28 lol i’m so clever and hilarious! ghjdfgh im embarrasingly proud of those titles

Do you outline?: hmm not much. usually i get an idea, start writing in a hurry and hope for the best. and when i do outline it goes a little bit like bullet points with random ideas that hopefully become chapters. or when it’s something really important that i can’t forget it’s the messiest rambling with dialogue and spanish and !!!!! and ????? all over

Complete: 18 stories on AO3 and an embarrassing amount of one shots here 

In-Progress: 8 on AO3 plus the ones not posted yet so the ones here:

Coming soon/not yet started: okay. so. there are a couple of prompts, then maybe a few more. there’s the andromaquynh secret santa story. the tog bang story. then the tog big bang story. the andromaquynh ghost au. if i don’t die in the process i’d like to write one or two christmas themed one shots. and if i survive all of this i really want to write a dani x jamie x san junipero au story (how will i manage all of this? i have absolutely no idea. please send help)

Prompts?: yeah! kind of. i’ve only written prompts for The Old Guard because idk it’s the only fandom were people paid me any attention lol but im gonna stop when i reach 100 prompts bc wow how the fuck did that even happen

Upcoming work you’re most excited about: Andromaquynh Ghost AU!!!!!!! it’s also the one i’m maybe nervous about. i have it all planned. i’m excited about the ending. i’m excited about some really self indulgent parts jk the whole thing is self indulgent i mean it’s just andromaquynh and ghosts that’s all i care about. but yeah i’m very excited about it!!

Tagging: @cryhardanddanceharder @andy-the-scythian @rupzydaisy @moonlightandromache @tinglingworld (if you guys want to do it! and any other mutuals that write fic but somehow i forgot/was too shy to tag, please you can say i tagged you!)

[thegeminisage]

hey liz i've been thinking a lot about story structure lately and i wanted your take on how you decide what structure your stories will have? i know there's that "you have to do what your story needs and tells you to do" thing but these bitches dont ever tell me anything they just multiply so. thoughts? - bma

(as an aside, i don't know whether involving medium would change many things but it may be worth considering. mainly i think medium is just a matter of arrangement and that the story would be for most intents and purposes the same no matter how you choose to tell it. i guess you could argue that structure is arrangement in itself and intrinsically tied to medium but i sort of feel like it is secondary arrangement, if at all? like if you consider time as an element to outline -- the time IN the story (how things happen to your characters) is not necessarily the time you’re telling the story IN (how you are telling your reader that things are happening) aka internal chronology doesnt equal your work’s pacing? or should it??? does this make sense? i dont think so. i am sorry.) - bma :|

NOOO dont be sorry ur making total sense

i think there’s 3 thots to unpack here (medium, structure, & chronology) & i’m gonna start with medium bc it’s easier. im also putting it behind a cut bc it’s gonna get just stupidly long and rambly. i’m sorry in advance if it’s not helpful to you, i have a lot to say for someone who has never taken even one single class on writing and as a result doesn’t know jack shit (there’s a tl;dr at the end dont worry)

about MEDIUM: 

so like ok i’m just some goof-off with a HS degree who writes fanfiction but In My Very Super Qualified Personal Opinion, i don’t think that most of the time medium is intrinsically tied to STRUCTURE of the main storytelling arc...i think the art of storytelling itself is distinct from the medium you choose to tell the story IN. this post puts it better than i ever could but basically for me, i feel like the story itself is sort of the raw, malleable concept, and the medium you choose to tell it in is how you convey the information??

like in a book, you can say “she forgot her keys” and in a film you have to show her smacking her forehead, heading back into the house, and swiping her keeps off the counter. you can’t TELL in film, you have to show. similarly i regret every day i cannot perfectly describe a facial expression with words when i see it so clearly in my head. for audio-only podcasts that are dialogue heavy out of necessity you have different limitations than you would for, say, animated music videos with no dialogue at all. games allow for more interactivity and exploration while sacrificing accessibility, tv shows allow for more length while sacrificing, uh, a big hollywood budget...medium affects the kind of story you can reasonably tell which is why some stories are better suited to one medium than another. i think trying things in other mediums is a good way to stretch your storytelling muscles but with enough skill nearly any story could be told in any medium. i think when trying to decide on a medium you just gotta weigh the pros & cons and what you feel comfortable with/what you think would be most effective/what would evoke the strongest reaction

re: structure:

firstly “do what the story tells u to do” is a little silly like...the story isn’t sentient. come on. that’s like “i can only write when the writing gods inspire me” there are no writing gods! inspire yourself! it’s all in our weird messed up brains! ok anyway.

this is, again, just how i do things, and i am 700% self-taught so take it with a grain of salt, but when i sit down and start blocking out a story from scratch i don’t...actually consider the big structure at all! sorry if that’s not helpful to you. i like to make a list of everything i want to happen, and then put it together in a few different orders to see what looks best. and when i’m finished, whatever i have just like...IS the structure i go with, with perhaps minor tinkering to make it flow more smoothly. (i think this might be in the same spirit as “do what the story tells you” with less bullshit and more Agency Of The Writer.)

for long and more complex projects, i actually usually have several lists - one list of stuff that is, for example, the Action Plot (the kingdom has been cursed, i’m tracking down my serial killer sister to bring her to justice, i’m running from djinn who wanna kill my dad, i’m trying to bring my dead not-boyfriend back to life). then i have another list for Character A & Character B’s romance or whatever. and maybe a even another one for solo character development (magicphobic prince learns to love magic, former werewolf hunter figures out his family is a cult, half-demon learns to embrace his own nature). and as many lists as we need for however many Main Characters and or Plots/Sideplots

how i order the lists: individually first. don’t mix them together to start with. when deciding the order of an individual list i like to, for example in a romance arc, use escalating intimacy. “A and B have dinner together” is naturally gonna go way sooner than “A and B kiss” or “A and B talk about A’s angsty backstory” because that’s more satisfying. draw it out, good/important stuff last, dangle that carrot so we have a reason to keep reading! for singular character development, it’s basically a straightforward point A to point B...if i want my guy to start hating magic with everything he is and end up being very comfortable with it, i have to put “reluctantly uses magic to save his own life” WAYYY before “casually using magic to light torches and reheat his cold stew.” 

the tricky part for me is when i’m done with these lists and then i need to mix them together To Pace My Whole Story. (this is usually why i wind up with a rainbow colored spreadsheet.) i don’t like to put too many things too close together because then the pace feels uneven. even if my Action Plot is only a thinly veiled excuse for romance and character development, i still don’t want to focus on a romance for 30,000 words and then go “and oh yeah in case you forgot Serial Killing Sister is still coming for your asses.” the more sideplots and major character arcs you’re juggling the harder it is to get an even distribution, which is my main concern always

and like, generally, whatever i have when i’m finished...is my structure. (sorry.) 

i don’t know much about the classic 3-act or anything like that, but i usually can divide them up into 3-5 big arcs based on story turning points. sometimes i take a scene out of one arc and put it in another because it fits better and i like for my shit to be organized, but usually by the time i’m finished with all that, that’s what the final story is mostly gonna look like. (there have been a few exceptions when i realized i needed extra scenes/changes while i was MID-DRAFT and let me tell you that murders me EVERY time. it happened on the merlin fic i’m currently posting and that was like my own personal hell.)

this is also where thots about chronology come in:

i think time CAN be an element of this if you WANT it to be, but it doesn’t HAVE to be. if you want it to be, i would consider it just another “list” like character development or the romance arc. 

i usually plot without considering Time very much...to me, it’s all down to the events you want to show, and however much time it takes is the byproduct. if you want to show something from a character’s chilhood but then tell the bulk of it when they’re adults, that’s one thing. if you want to show a scene from their childhood, teenhood, young adulthood, etc, that’s a different kind of pacing?? i usually do it this way so i can regard time like wordcount: it takes as long as it takes. 3 days or 3 years, a 1.5k drabble or a 100k epic...overall, my LARGEST CONCERN is that even distribution. in the same way that i don’t want one chapter to be 30,000 words when the rest are 10,000 words, i personally am not a fan of huge timeskips offscreen

(because this where i think someone’s own internal chronology DOES matter...this is just a personal preference, as a reader i have a hard time really comprehending, say, a year timeskip or a 10yr timeskip when all i did was turn one page. like, a year is such a long time. i can’t even begin to describe how different i am now to how i was a year ago. it’s the same for character development. time IS development and as a writer i’m not really comfortable having that take place offscreen - for main characters, at least. it’s just too jarring. a little prologue with something happening 10 or 20 years ago is usually fine, but for the most part, i’m not a fan. ...i can do one chapter per year a lot easier than i can do two chapters in childhood and the other 8 in adulthood. of course you can play with this a LOT with nonlinear storytelling, which is a whole other very cool thing, and someone skilled in their work can keep me sucked in no matter what, but imo if you don’t want to risk throwing your reader out of your work it’s better to keep things steady)

HOWEVER sometimes time IS an element u wanna consider outside of just making sure your shit is evenly distributed...if your heart is moved to tell a story in a specific timeframe, over a year, or from solstice to solstice (this was almost the timeline for my merlin fic and then i changed it), for the first six months of a friendship, or even a huge journey in the span of a single day (toby fox had a lot of success with this one lol).

i think it can help to choose a start and end point for your chronology the same way you do for character development (prince goes from hating magic to being ok with it, story takes place from ages 8 to 25, or from new year’s eve 2038 to 2039, whatever) - that way you can keep your distribution even, if that’s a thing you want to do...even if you have a lot of skips you can still note what happens offscreen to make it work better in your head? like, if you just make it another List, another column on your spreadsheet, when you’re in the early stages of organizing you can be conscious of it and make sure it’s playing into the story the way you want it to

anyway these r my thots im SOOOO SORRY this is so long lmao. brain machine broke today which is why i had to ramble more to explain myself. the tl;dr in case ur brain is melting out of ur ears & u didn’t sign up for an essay:

imo medium is totally distinct from storytelling tho ofc some stories are better suited to some mediums

structure? i don’t know her. i plot w/o regard to structure and then if it looks funny i mush it into a more structurally sound shape

my main concern when structuring anything, including time, is an even distribution of Events and a steady rate of escalation

structure to me is just what i have when i’m finished plotting. i’m sorry one day i’m gonna take a writing class

internal chronology matters to me personally because i have a little bit of time blindness but maybe not to everyone, i know many very successful stories where they disregarded that entirely to no ill effect

writer’s block isn’t real! everyone just needs more rainbow spreadsheets

thank u for asking I HOPE i didn’t make you regret it too badly lmao and that at least a little of it was helpful!! 

[softforcal]

hiii

hello! these types of questions are great don’t worry! everyones different but yeah, let me tell you about my writing process :) (this is a long ass writing rant and hopefully it’s helpful)

so for headcanons tbh, i just write them. like. i sit down and write it all in one go and tbh not much thought goes into them there isnt really a plot it’s just notes practically so headcanons for me are not difficult at all. fics/oneshots are where things actually heat up.

so for my fics i do note form outlines. what this means is i have all the major things that have to happen already lined out. i put it on a word doc on half my screen and the fic on the other and there’s no plan on how to get to each note point but i know i have to get there somehow, but having basic goals makes it easier for me.

when it comes to fics there’s usually a brainstorming process. i have two wonderful amazing loves of my absolute life @hereforlukescruff and @glitterprincelu and usually it will start with me saying an idea and we all just kind of start shooting ideas and bouncing off of each other. this process can take hours. like. i remember when i came up with gang luke (penumbra) i was in class and we ended up chatting about it for 3 hours and coming up with shit. when the main brainstorm is done i plot it all out. i have a few ocd tendencies, one of which is linear stuff means a lot to me. like i can’t start a fic at the end. i need to start at the start. so i’ll plan as much as i can but sometimes i stop at the middle and i re-evaluate once i get there and have a better sense as to where the story is going.

for me, characters are huge. like. i have the plot points but characters drive everything else. so i’ll often have a sit down and reevaluate what has happened to them and how they’re feeling and see if it’s all making sense for them, but, because i brainstorm a lot, usually i don’t end up changing much. strong characters are key my dudes. 

my biggest motivator to get to the end of the story is well, the characters. i love them so much and writing for them feels so comforting to me. LOVE YOUR CHARACTERS. but also. something ya’ll gotta understand about me is that i’ve been writing fan fiction for 8 years. i’ve probably spent an average of 2 hours a day (and that’s seriously low balling it) so thats 2x365=730x8=5840 hours that i’ve written and that’s probably too low to be accurate. so i’m a writer. i type fast as fuck and i’ve been doing this a while so writing comes very easy to me, ideas are constantly flowing. this is legit what im pursuing as a job so don’t be discouraged if you can’t write 10k in a day like I do because... well, i’ve had a fuck ton of practice. writing 10k in a day is pretty common for me i’d say, once i sit down with a oneshot i don’t want to leave until it’s done.

but. i also again, have a bit of an ocd thing and when it’s paired with anxiety, it makes it hard for me to stop. i need to get things done. to check stuff off my list. or i get bored. if i leave a fic for even a day or two, it’s likely i’m not gonna finish it. so for me, and i know this, its important to wait until i have a sufficient amount of time to bust something out and a plan makes it so easy because i don’t have to stop and ask myself “okay now what”

what more can i say about writing.... uh... characters. so important. dialogue. key. 

like i’ll start a fic with a general idea about an OC but as the fic continues they grow and i really enjoy watching them grow. i think a good rule of thumb if you’re having troubles with this is immerse the story view point in the most solid character you have (i’ll give an example of this in a moment) and use their perspective and musings on a different character, like what they notice, to promote growth.

example of what i mean when i say this. i recently wrote prince cal and from the start, he was my strong character. Ostara was new, she’s ashton’s sister, she’s back for the first time in a while. the very first paragraph establishes that calum is taken aback by how much she’s changed. there’s still some similarities to how she was growing up and i weave that comfort of the known throughout the story (with things like chicken fights in the pool or musing about how they used to play hide and seek as kids) but from the start, Calum is knocked off his feet by how beautiful she’s gotten and that’s a very obvious symbol of change, not just outside but in. so as the fic continues calum notices things about ostara. for example. the second time i wrote she was wearing a print of some sort, calum and i both mutually realized, ‘huh. she likes prints i guess.’ because ostara is ostara, i dont control her, in my brain she’s her own person, she’s dictating whats happening and baby just likes prints. and calum notices which says something about him, but its also little details like that that bring these characters to life. 

i mean. i don’t know how other people write characters. my characters are always alive to me. they have their own voice and knowing their reaction to things is second nature to me. but this can be attributed to the fact that i legit wrote fan fiction about actual characters (MCU, TVD, Teen Wolf, etc...) for 6 years and being able to step into those characters and do dialogue that seemed legit was the most important thing for me. so i have a FUCK TON of experience on characters. so once again, if its hard for you to step into your characters thats okay. maybe do those things where you have a fill in the blank sheet on whats their fav food, their fav colour, do they like summer or winter? etc....

i think there isnt one way to write. i think i’m blessed that i’ve ALWAYS been a writer. since i was like 4. you know in elementary when they made you write and they’d give you those little booklets and shit? other kids had like one or two at most but this whore was always on book number 6 or 7 like, im a writer. it’s what i am. it always has been what i am. 

im also a multitasker. so most of my writing is done while watching shows. which means its a double whammy for me. like. im learning about characters and plot WHILE writing so... as you can see, i’m hard core as fuck about this shit. 

my point is. my process is a process that i think is pretty particular to me. most people i know cant watch tv and write at the same time. most people don’t sit down and bust out 10k in one sitting. and thats fine. if you enjoy writing then do it. focus on what you can be doing better, this isnt a competition. at the end of the day, the only person you should be trying to be better than is the person you were yesterday, or last week, you know?

find people who are creatively inclined because holy shit it makes a huge difference. bouncing ideas off of supportive people is really important. without my friends, Birdie in Penumbra might be named Cherry, the Gang AU wouldn’t have an ending all planned out and ready to be written, and i would have missed out on so many hours of face time calls and back and fourth messages with two of the most important people in my life right now. 

so lets break down what the fuck i’m even saying

-find supportive people (but it’s important you support them as well. if they’re gonna let you throw ideas at them and help you out and pump you up, reciprocate hoe)

-focus on yourself 

-find what you’re good at. plots? characters? dialogue?

-find ways to strengthen the things you’re not so good at (character fill in sheets, plot planning, etc...)

-find what, at the end of the day, really works for you

-don’t put pressure on yourself. writing is for fun. it should be fun. and if it is fun, i think motivation will come easy? but i could be wrong, once again, i have an addictive personality and writing is a fix i need every day or i go insane. 

yeah. if ya’ll have any more writing questions let me know. i love answering these because i think it’s so interesting to really look at the process :) 

[yikes-strikes-again]

🖋️📑bnha fanfiction plug📑🖋️

bbbb!!!! i thought id make a little post to show off some stuff ive been doin on ao3 lol pretty much all of these are erasermic😎❤️😪 so dont bother readin if u no like

so, without further ado, here are all the current bnha fics posted to my ao3 (dysonQueer) 💖💖💖

Also looking at how long this is now im just gonna put a read more link here so i don’t look like an asshole. please at least look at these though!!!

Hizashi fails a perception check 🏳️‍🌈 (incomplete) Rating: Teen Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen, M/M Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic Characters: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic, Iida Tensei | Ingenium, Kayama Nemuri | Midnight Additional Tags: not quite my first fic but damn close, yeah they gay keep scrollin, present mic is a double dumbass, they're all trans sorry i don't make the rules, drop kick horikoshi into the sun, aizawa says fuck, Pining, Mutual Pining, Anime Tropes, Pre-Canon, High School, Light Angst, and last but not least fuck cops Summary: "Hizashi's back was turned to Shōta, and he failed to notice the sound of his initially loud, brisk footsteps or his now light, quiet footsteps. Here Shōta became aware of a semi-rare opportunity that was now available to him: instead of approaching Hizashi outright, he could sneak up behind him and startle him in revenge for disappearing so unexpectedly—he imagined Hizashi's mortified expression at that moment." Or, how one unusual lunch period ruined Aizawa Shōta's relationship with his best friend. Nemuri helps. Notes: this is the first one ive posted and im quite fond of it tbh. Every day i procrastinate on the last chapter adds to my guilt

if i fell 💚💗(incomplete) Rating: General Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply (yet) Categories: Gen, M/M Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Asui Tsuyu/Uraraka Ochako, Midoriya Izuku & Yagi Toshinori | All Might Characters: Midoriya Izuku, Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Todoroki Shouto, Uraraka Ochako, Asui Tsuyu Additional Tags: basically probably all of 1-a eventually, will add character and relationship tags as they become relevant, but these are the main ones, all might is a cringy dad, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, but like a gay one, Pining, oh you know i'm all about that, Mutual Pining, midoriya is badfeel about his man crush monday but you know what's even sadder? his fashion senseU, nrequited Love, canon-typical bullshit, Misunderstandings, Rating May Change, Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Abuse, oh i almost forgot, Alternate Universe - Mineta Minoru Doesn't Exist Summary: Midoriya Izuku, pressured student at U.A., ninth holder of One For All, target of the infamous League of Villains, has a problem. That problem takes the shape of one Todoroki Shōto, the only boy who could steal his attention away from his path to heroism. Izuku must make a choice between putting his heart on the line and shrinking away from the dazzling sparks. Or, in which Todoroki comes to understand that love is more than just holding hands. Notes: i almost feel bad for putting this one on here bc ive only written one chapter and its pretty low on my priorities list. i may update it one day though, i have a p good plot outline. 

you're not alone 💙🌸💮🌸💙(complete) Rating: General Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead & Asui Tsuyu Characters: Aizawa Shouta | EraserheadAsui Tsuyu Additional Tags: U.A. Dorms (My Hero Academia), Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Parental Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Trans Character, Gender Dysphoria, dadzawa strikes again, everyone is trans tsu, dont even worry about it, student: is sad or in danger, aizawa: It's Free Real Estate Summary: Tsuyu can't sleep, so she goes to get her favorite comforter. She comes back with something else, too. Notes: haha writing the trans perspective as a cis person! great. ive been told this one was cute tho

horny people don't have rights ❌📜 (complete) Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Relationships: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Yamada Hizashi | Present Mic Characters: Aizawa Shouta | EraserheadYamada Hizashi | Present Mic Additional Tags (only the sfw ones): well if you wanted another bnha sex pollen fic, This Is It Babey, and if i just so happen to love kurikuri's "don't hold back", then what a funny coincidence huh, I'm so sorry, I Was Influenced Okay, anyway don't expect a smidgen of canon compliance from this, this is total wish fulfillment, Sex Pollen, Mutual Pining, they do the fuck, present mic gets his rights revoked, technically eraser's rights must also be revoked, that's just the rules Summary:  It started with something as simple as Hizashi needing a ride from the station and escalated, albeit gradually, into—well, not that. Notes: ooookay i worked really hard on this but pls children, it's explicit. ❌❌❌ also i censored the tags 🚫 for your eyes 

and that’s abt it for now!!! At the mom ive literally got 12 wips (2 rarepairs, one momojirou, 7 erasermics, 1 tododeku, 1 (2?) shinson) so stay tuned! and pray for me. ill reblog this with new ones as they come

[itsallavengers]

21, 27, 29, 45

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?  

This got so long I had to put it under a fucking read more, im so sorry 

Shit. I’m going to embarrass myself here now lmao. But, as everyone who has read a single on of their fics agrees, I utterly adore everything that @wordsplat and @theappleppielifestyle produce. It’s gold standard, every single time. They were two of the first authors I read for in the Stevetony fandom, and they are probably the reason I got into writing stuff myself??? Because they were just so fucking amazing?? I’d always thought fanfic was kinda cringey before that, but then I think it was But Loving Him Is Red by theapplieppielifestyle that I read one night, and... god, it was just so so fucking beautiful, it changed my whole mindset on the sort of thing that fanfic was. AHH! They create absolutely stunning pieces, and there are so many! I !! Was so blessed when I first went through their ao3 page!! It is moving and emotional and I never really read shorter fics until visiting their ao3, and then I just binged all of them because they were FUCKING BRILLIANT AND I COULD NOT STOP. And of course, then there was the ridiculously good ‘captain america, sneak dater extraordinaire’ by Wordsplat that I just. Died reading. That lead me onto the rest of her stuff, and like.... man. The way she makes the words just flow so naturally, like it’s really the characters? It’s beautiful writing, and she makes tropes that really should be Ridiculous into masterpieces. I’ve read fics from her that I would have avoided in literally any other author. I would trust her to create a good fic from like, a hundred words. It’s mad.  Also @goodmorningbeloved , whom I stumbled upon on tumblr at some point a while back and wow, A VERY VERY GOOD THING I DID. She’s fucking brilliant, holy shit, like her tumblr fics were so great, and I think I asked her at one point whether she had an ao3, and she said she did and then I checked it out and!! She’d already written a fic on there that i had ADORED. Her style is just so cool and natural, and she’s funny and her plots are!! I’m literally hooked every time I read something she does, and I make stupid noises when I see she’s posted stuff because God, It’s The Good Shit. ALSO ALSO, (and I know this is getting long, but I just. Y’ALL GOTTA KNOW HOW GREAT U ARE) @musicalluna is FAB! Their fics always hit the mark, and I distinctly remember that there was one fic they did called ‘Light Under His Skin’ (? I think anyway) that I searched for for HOURS because I just loved it so much, and once I was like YES BITCH! I’VE BEEN BLESSED I GET TO READ THIS MASTERPIECE AGAIN! Their fics are usually short and yet??? So much emotion??? Such brilliant writing in such a short space??? I’m awed by their skills man. Like, these four authors are probably the first people who jump into my head when I’m reccing an author, because I can just trust all of them 100% with every fic they’ve done? THIS IS SO LONG IM SORRY I JUST GOT OVEREXCITED AND THERE ARE WAY MORE BUT LIKE I SAID THESE ARE THE GUYS THAT JUMP TO MIND, YOU ARE ALL FAB!!!

27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?

Depending on how complex or long the story is, yeah. For fics under 20k, I tend to just roll with it. If it’s longer, I’ll make a basic outline. 

29) Do you have a story that you feel doesn’t get as much love as you’d like?

Uhm, I mean, there are fics that I’d like to have more hits? I think a big thing that put me off finishing ‘swing’ for so long was the fact that it never really drew much attention, which was kind of disappointing. But I tend not to let it get me down too much!

45) What spurs you on during the writing process?

Usually the sense of gratification I know I will feel once it’s done, plus the need to produce content u know lmao.

[willgayers]

your wish is my command ;-) also this contains some domestic!reddie <3333333 how about i just… start writing these tattoo hcs and fics. nothing else.  ever. again. 

lmao just kidding half

it’s a little long but… you know me by now. i couldnt write these short even if i TRIED

(part 1 part 2)

so richie and eddie move together when they’re both 20 and it’s a cute lil condo

the day is february 12th when they do it

even tho richie has been basically living at the kaspbrak house for the past 12 months, it’s their ACTUAL own house now

so richie now has a full-hand sleeve on his left hand and it is so freaking hot

then there’s obvs the wolf tattoo and the heart on his chest and even a lil ice cream cone on his ankle. (*cough* 4th of july parade when eddie bought them ice cream *cough*)

eddie can’t handle all the hotness that richie is bc now he’s seeing him literally every day

and he can’t stop staring at his boyfriend’s beautiful ink covered body

like when they’re cuddled up watching a movie

“eddie my hand is not the screen”

“idc”

when richie is making them breakfast without a shirt on eddie is just admiring him from afar  

“wow im tapping that”

when richie falls asleep eddie is just tracing the outlines of the tattoos with his fingers and this is a fact™

one time richie got a scratch on one of them and eddie was freaking out … and it wasn’t over the germs first

“omG yOUR TATTOO IS GONNA GET RUINED”

and once a girl working in the movie theater said richie’s neck tattoo is really cool with a way too wide smile that triggered eddie

JEALOUS!EDDIE MODE ON

“IT IS ,,, ISN’T IT????” he calls from behind richie and immediately sneaks his hands around richie and the girl is a little weirded out (and disappointed probably) and just hands them their tickets

that’s right don’t look at my hot tattooed boyfriend he’s mine -eddie, all the time @ everyone who looks at richie a little too long probably

anyway one morning they’re sharing some lazy morning kisses in the bed and eddie is again completely heart eyes over his punk!boyfriend

then richie starts kissing eddie’s neck and eddie says something richie wasn’t expecting

“richie,,, i want a tattoo”

richie makes a weird slurpy sound mid- hickey sucking and lifts his face

“what???”

“yeah”

“you want a tattoo????”

eddie blushes a lil bc richie is so confused

“yeah” he nods

richie kinda just stares at him bc eddie???? his pure eddie wants a tattoo???

but then after a good five seconds (where eddie regrets saying his wish out loud) he’s like aw hell yES  

“well damn okay SURE”

eddie is a wide smile happy boi bc he has the cutest idea

they make an appointment for eddie and it’s to leah

they eat chinese food out of the cardboard takeaway boxes on their living room floor that night

“what’s it gonna be tho” asks richie

“you’ll see” eddie just says before munching some more spring rolls

it’s a small tat so leah had time for eds the next day!!

eddie is a little nervous bc it’s his first tattoo and he has no idea how much it’s going to hurt and taking from richie’s face that one time… well .. yeah

“r u nervous” leah asks as eddie sits down to the chair

WTF DO U THINK he wants to say

“a lil” he in reality says bc he’s a sweet boy

leah just smiles while she’s preparing the stuff

“dont worry im a good tattooer”

richie is a worried boyfriend™

“eddie r u sure you wanna do this. r u sure you’re not gonna pass out or anything. i mean it’s your first one.”

“richie im FINE”

“ok but i can hold ur hand”

eddie’s tummy fills with butterflies bc richie is the cutest

richie is sitting on the left side of eddie’s chair as the tattoo will be on his right arm (the outside bicep) and richie can’t see it this way

“ok im gonna start now” leah says

eddie mentally prepares himself

“just saying eddie u can still grab my hand”

and in goes the needle

eddie winces and immediately grabs richie’s hand

“its ok bby” -richie

(<33333: eddie, and me writing this and probably you, reading this)

halfway tru eddie lets go of richie’s hand

“why’d you’d let go are you pASSING OUT”

“no im fine richie your hand is just sweaty”

blushy richie but also upset richie bc >:( why wont eddie hold his hand thru this painful experience >:(

the tattoo hurts of course but it’s not as bad as eddie would have imagined. besides he did get his arm broken by a killer clown so

“oookay!!! it’s done!!!” leah then finally says and eddie whistles in relief

“BOUT TIME I WANNA SEE IT” says richie

eddie gets up and richie grabs his arm gently, staring at the tattoo on it but frowns

“what is it…”

it’s a odd pair of roman numerals

“it’s a date” eddie says

“what date” richie asks

wtf eddie he’s confused he thought you were gonna tattoo like. a squirrel on a skateboard or something

“don’t u know any of the numbers?” eddie asks, he’s waiting for richie to get it

“i know tha one means 1” richie says

eddie smiles

“and that means 2.”

“yes….” his bf is cute when he has his thinking face on

“2…12…” richie frowns

“and what date would that be” eddie asks, amused

“february 12th” richie says

he thinks about it for a moment

then his eyes widen and he moves his gaze up to stare at eddie who’s already staring back into his eyes and has a warm smile on his face

“you….. you… you tattooed the date we moved together….???” richie asks

eddie nods

richie wants to CRY

he can’t believe eddie would tattoo the date he moves together with someone like richie

because to richie it was obviously the best thing to ever happen to him because his childhood home was a hellhole and now he’s living together with his boyfriend who he adores and he couldn’t be happier

but eddie????

THAT EDDIE. would tattoo. a milestone. like that. on his skin. forever

A MILESTONE THAT INCLUDES RICHIE TOZIER

“holy shit” eddie blurts out

“what”

“are you CRYING”

oh how the TABLES, HAVE, TURNED, RICHARD

richie however doesn’t even try to hide it unlike eddie did when it came to the inhaler

“i can’t believe u tattooed that” he sniffs

“well obviously” eddie smiles and wipes a tear from under richie’s eye

“i love u” richie says

“i love u too bunny” eddie says

((bc he might just call richie bunny??? just decided))

then there’s a clear of throat so quickly they turn around and richie wipes some more of his tears away

“im sorry you guys are really cute and everything but i got another customer coming in five minutes so” leah says

“RIGHT. sorry” eddie says and hands the money

thank you’s are exchanged and then the cutest gay couple in town walks out of the shop

“know what richie???”

“what?” richie asks, still taken aback and a little absent because he’s still trying to process how does eddie kaspbrak love him so much

“i think im gonna get a new one next week”

richie stares at him wide eyed

“probably to my other arm or something” eddie casually shrugs

just imagine cute sweet eddie suddenly getting tattoos. imagine cute sweet now tattooed eddie wearing oversized sweaters and smoking cigarettes. and imagine him getting a nose ring. imagine his brown hair getting a lil longer and messier….

because richie did

and now he’s going to pass out

@nopetaking @xbell22 @donthateonk8 @stenbroughbros @reddiebrekmyheart @itsgreywaterrichie @donvex @blueeyespurpleskies @ageorgymi @oh-youre-the-worst@eddiekaaspbraak @whipashwhipash @rissyq @richietoaster @edskasqbrak @waterlouis @wyattghoulef @urtury @bukiminajimu @kcutieeesblog @stansmansuris@adorefack @reddieaddict @icyeyes102@denbroughbill @graveyardshipper @taletellingsir @anxiety-freak-yuuri @rheddie @queertrashmouth @tohzier @richiefreakingtozier 

[starsfadingbutilingeron]

wip meme

rules of the meme: list all the things you’re currently working on in as much or little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. this can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, whatever.

i was tagged by @ghoststrawberries thanks babe💕

okay im gonna put this under a read more b/c i feel it will get long and also. yeah. that’s just what i’m gonna do. 

i tag @thefireinthewire @celty-sturluson @mer-birdman and uhm anyone else who wants to do this!! if u want to be like. officially tagged just pm me and i’ll slap ya on here!!

p.s. if any of the fics sound interesting y’all should tell me/subscribe to my ao3  p.p.s if you like any of my writing (esp my original stuff) pls tell me it makes me feel good :^)

okay let’s see what i can dig up.

well, the first wip that came up in my docs is a bnha oneshot in which kirishima finally loses his patience w/ bakugou and it’s only in outline form rn so i’ll just leave u with this from the doc:

alrigh t next we have. my super self-indulgent pride and prejudice tododeku au and uh. haha. i have a few snippets written but i’ll just tantalize u guys with this little blurb from The Scene (p&p fans will know): 

“I love you,” Shouto said, hurried and all at once. It was the most unrefined delivery Izuku had ever heard slip from the imposing gentleman’s mouth, so much so that it gave Izuku cause to lift his gaze to Shouto’s.

 He found the other man’s face white as a sheet, as if Shouto could scarcely believe what he’d said himself. Izuku fumbled for something to say in reply, denoting that Shouto was waiting for him to speak next before continuing his own declaration.

 Izuku drummed his thumb in time against the hammering of his heart, wanting nothing more than to tear his eyes from Shouto’s, but finding the task impossible. “You...love me?”

then i’ve got another fic in-progress for the milk series which is. simply put. a mp100 au where mob gets a cat and names her milk. i would like to leave the plot a surprise, but here’s a snippet i have written:

As for Milk? Well, Milk was a cat. And if there was one thing she loved, it was running up to meet the new clients Reigen brought to the office in a selfishly motivated quest for a few pats on the way to Reigen’s desk and maybe a spot curled up on a new friend’s lap during the interview. Most customers were obliging, offering the small striped cat a brief scratch behind the ears before continuing with their meeting; a few even ended up wasting their entire session time playing with Milk, but still left saying they felt completely rid of their evil spirit problem and would be sure to come back if the problem resurfaced.

now let’s move into my grouptale au

the first wip is from the next chapter of Fallen Down which is a prequel to my original fic for the series. this chapter’s going to tell the story of how alex (the orange soul human) fell down. here’s an excerpt: 

Alex watched the pair of them go further down the sidewalk, staring after them until they turned a corner and were out of sight. Turning back around, Alex couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy at what that little kid had. The safety and security of someone else’s arms was something Alex had never known.

my next wip is for Birds Of A Feather which is abt robin reuniting with their three older biological siblings. i don’t have anything written for chapter 4 yet, but here’s something from the outline that sums the plot of the next chapter up pretty well:

i’ve also got a fic for bell planned. it’d be abt them reuniting with their family. more specifically reuniting with their twin brother, blue. it’ll be about two chapters long:

“You were such an idiot, Bell. It’s your fault you fell down,” Blue muttered after a moment, glaring out at the backyard as if he could set it on fire with an angry grimace. “You and your stupid bets.” 

 “I know,” Bell said, blushing and pushing their curls up off their forehead. “I know and I’m sorry.” 

 “You should have listened to me when I told you not to mess around on Mt. Ebott,” Blue continued. “But nooooo...There’s no way that the invincible Bell Beaumont could ever fall down that chasm,” he threw a glare over his shoulder. “Except that they did. And their twin brother had to tell their parents just exactly why they hadn’t come home with him that night.” 

a fic i’m excited about but probably won’t get around to really working on for a while is a fic about hop. and basically it’s about their birth mother reinstating custody after she finds out hop is alive and back on the surface. here’s a bit of the outline i think is funny (mel is hop’s birth mom’s name):

the last two things are gonna be completely original content so yeAH. know that. 

i’m bad and none of my stories have titles. but uh. first up is my clone story. which features my two ocs estrella and charlotte who were part of my first original story back when i was about twelve/thirteen years old. i scrapped that story a long time ago but i held onto those two b/c i loved them a lot but i just. never had any story for them so i would write little blurbs of them in different settings. and it started as a little joke that they were “dimension-hopping” but now that’s kind of canon? 

basically. they’re lab-created clones who have psychic powers and they’ve lived their whole lives in this lab building as part of their mother rhea’s experiment. and one day they bust out and try to adjust to living without the pressure of other people deciding their lives for them. all while the lab people badboy finger snap in the background. and here’s a summary of the two main characters:

last but not least is my main project that i’ve been working on for a little over six years now. and if i had to sum the plotline up with one screenshot it would be: 

and that’s the truth okay. so without giving too much away. the main character leah is adopted and. through some events i’m gonna leave vague. her older half-brother johann finds out about her and contacts her to come meet him and her other siblings (all of whom have different mothers from each other except hans and hinton). so she goes to meet all of these family members w/ her three main girls and the Drama ensues when their father franz shows up. 

it’s basically an ode to shitty parenting and those Family Secrets that you learn when you get older that just shine a light on everything fucked up in your family. here’s a blurb i wrote for when my personal fave character horatio is first introduced:

“You what?” Cyrano sputtered. “How did you lose your phone? You haven’t left the house since Andrew Jackson got elected!”

 “Actually, not since Nixon got elected, but whatever,” they rubbed the back of their neck. Leah caught a glimpse of their bare arm, it was battered and scarred like someone had gone at it with a dull knife.

 “Anyways,” Horatio groaned a little, sounding pained as they lowered their arm back down. “I didn’t lose my phone, per se. I threw it out the window.”

 “Why did you do that?” Cyrano sighed, crossing his arms as if he really didn’t want to know.

 “That fucking uhhh....That fucking alarm thing wouldn’t turn off,” they said, opening their eyes again. They seemed to notice Julienne this time, squinting up at her in confusion, but not saying anything. Leah flew under their radar completely. “I kept hitting the red circle with the phone in it, but just like every ten seconds it would start again.”

 “The red circle with the phone only pops up when you’re getting a phone call,” Cyrano said, furrowing his eyebrows and looking a bit insulted. “That was me trying to call you. And you threw your phone out the window.”

 “Ohhhh…” Horatio nodded, tapping their chin thoughtfully before giving a shrug. “Two birds with one stone, I guess.”

thanks for reading!! hopefully some of these actually get finished in the near future.