#anyway i'm going to switch from fanfics to an actual original story

[intakeofbreath]

not brandon sanderson saying on his lecture that one of the worst jobs to have if you plan to write is the one i have 💀

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

I woke up this morning and saw I had a message in my inbox on AO3, presumably about by new fic, and was excited to see the feedback.

When I read what they wrote it was a small comment that said "stop using sudowrite".

Had no idea what that even means, so I had to look it up and found out it's some form of a writing AI.

Absolutely fuming.

I want to make something abundantly clear right now:

I have not been hand writing and editing all of my own stories, hundreds of pages worth of personally hand written or hand typed content for the past 16 years, only to get accused of using any form of lazy ass writing AI now.

This is what I love to do. For fun.

I put in a lot of unpaid time, creativity and energy into my writing and editing. The only thing I ask for in return is participation from the fandoms I love, be it via thoughtful feedback or valid criticisms.

But this is neither of those things. This is just an outright, baseless lie against the art that I have worked so hard to make myself, and I won't be undermined or discredited.

There's anger, and then there's whatever space I am occupying well past it right now.

It's infuriating to pour hours of my love, thought and creativity into original content only to have someone come out of nowhere and try to tell me I've been having an AI do it, especially 16 years deep.

Bitch please.

I also found out that app came out in 2020 . . . As I mentioned, I published my first K/S story in 2008 as Ruby JW on the K/S archives, and my first fanfic on fanfic.net was published in 2007 as luigi_is_stellar.

I invite anyone to peruse my decades-long collection of independent content that I have single-handedly accomplished well before such an app even existed, then come back to me and try to tell me that what I do here isn't authentic.

I don't usually get spicy, but when it comes to the art I spend hours writing and drawing independently with my own blood sweat and tears, yeah. I'm going to get spicy.

I do far too much unpaid work out of passion and love for this fandom to have such a serious accusation flung my way out of nowhere.

It's the first time in my 16 years of writing for this fandom that I've ever been accused of plagiarism, and you best trust and believe that I don't take that accusation lightly. I work too damn hard to let someone discredit the work I do personally in such a baseless manner.

Anyway, that was discouraging AF. I am boggled to learn that AI writing is even a thing, no less someone coming out of the woodwork to try to accuse me of using it 16 years into story publishing when I literally teach academic honesty and writing ethics in my line of paid work as an English professional.

Genuinely: Do you know who you're talking to?

A bit of background on me:

I come from a not-so-wealthy family who could not afford to pay to put me through school -- I paid for that all on my own. I had to earn my University English degree, one of four University degrees I hold on my own work and pay alone, without so much as a tutoring session or handout from home.

Not once would I have jeopardized everything I worked so hard and paid for out of my own pocket as a poor ass uni student working two jobs and doing night classes just to phone it in plagiarizing, not on one ounce of my work.

That was all me.

I've handwritten 3 MLA essays in under three hour exams BACK TO BACK, immediately followed by back-to-back Biology exams & a final lab where I ALSO had to write multiple essays and switch from MLA to APA mode within the span of 6 hours.

Those were all bound in handwritten yellow booklets well before we ever had Google Docs, Grammarly, formatting suggestions, or even regularly brought/had access to laptops in UNI. I did my work by hand.

I earned my degrees in English and Biology AT THE SAME TIME before I even turned 24. I earned a double major handwriting my own work papers like my life depended on it, and you actually think I'm about to phone it in now?

Step to me like that again, young blood. I ain't the one.😂

Anyway, I digress.

Ya girl ain't here to fight BC y'all know I tend to be very easygoing, full of humour, and I love to joke around in the fandom. I'm pretty wide open to opposing opinions or even criticisms. But this is unfounded slander, and I won't be taking that on the chin.

When it comes to my work, I take that very seriously, and I don't play around. My late father once told me that "The work you do and the degrees you earn are yours and yours alone, they can never take that education from you." I live by that sentiment, and have done so by putting forth honest work.

Be it paid or unpaid work, it's my work. Periodt.

It is an unfathomably disheartening and insulting message to receive as someone who writes all their own stuff themselves, draws all their own fanart themselves, does their own photo edits themselves, edits their writing themselves, and has never even used so much as a single outside beta reader/editor for my work. Not once. The art, the writing, the editing -- It's all me.

Bottom line:

Say you do or don't like my work, that's cash money and we good, whether it's your cup of tea or not.

Butt know that it is my work.

I will not put all of this free time, effort and love into my work only to be accused of lazily ripping the content that I have spent hours writing and personally editing from somewhere else.

And on that note, consider my PSA rant ended.

[mania-sama]

Can I ask your top 10 fav fics ever (from any fandom, if you don't mind)?

Also, just curious, is there a story behind your name "mania-sama "?

Hi!! Thank you so much for sending me an ask!! I will answer the story behind my name first, and then I'll get into the fics!

mania.sama comes from a couple years back when I was making my first online persona account. I had my regular Instagram account with my real name, but I didn't feel comfortable with people I knew in real life knowing the content I engage with and want to post (fandom-related and gaming clips). At the time, a couple of my beloved friends had these Instagram accounts all starting with a mental disorder and ending with a Japanese honorific. Weird combo, I know, I don't know how the trend started, I don't ask questions around here. Anyway, we brainstormed and decided on the mania, as in the manic disorder, and sama, a Japanese honorific of high respect. I would change it since I'm well aware it's kinda cringe since I have absolutely no Japanese heritage whatsoever, but it's too iconic to change now. All of my online persona accounts have this name, and people have called me "Mania" for far too long on Ao3. I'd hate to switch it up on people. And besides, I think it's grown on me after all this time.

Now for the fic!! So, I'm going to be so, so for real right now. I only have three fics I have bookmarked publically on Ao3, and they are my only favorite fics. Three. This comes from the fact that I read mainly one-shots that I forget as soon as I read them. I don't really have the attention span nor want to read long-form works most of the time. So, I did a lot of digging to come up with the rest of the seven, but I want to list favorite three first because they are actually my favorite. They aren't ranked in any particular order, they are just above the rest of the seven (which are also in no particular order).

These following three fics are also the only fanfics to ever make me cry. I've come close to a few of them, but these, of all my years reading and writing fanfic, are the only three to manage to bring tears down my face thus far:

Come Morning Light by SharkbaitSekki -> Haikyuu | 354,105 words | 15 chapters -> Teen and Up | Completed | Locked Work -> Summary: All in life will come and go. People and places will ebb and flow. Fate's dealt cards can't be foreseen. Safety is obsolete. When a nuclear blast on the island of Japan destroys all of the families and dreams within its radius, all that is left in the aftermath is to rebuild something -anything- out of the debris. Back to back, heart to heart, it's a long way up for the kids who have seen their lives go down in flames. But once at the top, for those who have made it, there is nothing left to do but admire the view. In which all of the aspects of their future are uncertain, except for the fact that unity will always lead them home. -> Thoughts: This was the only fic I had as my favorite fic for a long time, and the only one of the three to have an objectively sad ending, though it's listed as ambiguous. There isn't a dead dove tag on here, but there should be because this fic is gruesome, horrific, and downright traumatizing. And you know what? It's amazing, every single 350k words of it. The way some of these characters died, the trauma they experienced, and the ways they didn't or did move forward. It's all so impactful, and each character has a special focus. Not a single one goes without a spotlight. It also says it has ships, but none of them are actually canon, just vaguely implied. I don't really know how to explain this, but everything they go through, all of the places they go to, and the events that occur because of the nuclear bomb itself (such as acid rain and food poisoning) are all so well done, original, and thought-out. A town where all crime is legal at night but you must remain perfectly civil in daytime (as well as not talk about said crimes committed the previous night), radio broadcasts, refugee camps, trafficking, and more. There are just so many stand-out concepts and scenes that will stick with me forever.

one hundred miles by No_one_you_know -> Dream SMP | 126,898 words | 3 work series -> Teen and Up | Completed* -> that's, like, a hundred miles | 60,444 words | 12 chapters | Completed -> he's my brother, i just raise him | 7,034 words | 1 chapter | Completed -> as long as i'm here | 59,420 words | 14 chapters | Completed -> Summary (using the first fic): Dream would kill him. Dream was going to kill him- he was going to- no, he wouldn’t. Dream was his friend- friends don’t hit each other- Dream was supposed to take care of him- Dream /was/ taking care of him. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. He couldn’t clear his thoughts as he stumbled to the family computer, pulling up a tab on google and frantically typing the name into the search bar. The words Technoblade Watson stared back at him, the little black bar at the end of the letters blinking slowly, mocking him. Why, of all people, did it have to be Technoblade? in short: the one where dream sucks as a parental figure, tommy runs away, and visits his least favorite family member technoblade -> Thoughts: I KNOW. I know what you're thinking. Dream SMP? Really? Listen. It was a different time, lads, and I, for one, refuse to be ashamed of my history with Dream SMP. I read and wrote fics and enjoyed it. What gives? Anyway. I chose the entire series instead of one fic because all of these fics are so good, and I feel that if you read the first one, you should read the others. This is the ultimate series of "Healing is not linear." It's a work on the failures of society, of the justice system, how life can be repeatedly cruel over and over again. All of the doubling back, the mental fight, the complex relationships, morally gray actions, and the brilliant display of the way trauma can effect children, and the way that adults can get away with so much abuse. I think about how he walked a hundred miles only to wind back in the same place again. Obviously, it ends positively (relatively positively), but it takes just as long to get there. Secretely, though, adoption fics are a guilty pleasure of mine and you can't take that away from me. EXTREMELY well written. * the series says it's not completed, but it sure feels like it is. Very conclusive ending, I don't think the author intends on ever updating again, so I think the "Not Completed" status is simply a mistake on their part.

When I Awake by wildflowertea -> Bungou Stray Dogs | 235,960 words | 23 chapters -> Mature | Completed -> Summary: Dazai Osamu has been in a coma for exactly one year, seven months, and twenty-two days. But Death still refuses to take him. Trapped in the space between worlds, and unable to die, Dazai waits, killing what precious time he may have left and hoping—praying—that his family will pull the plug and move on. He doesn't expect someone to move into his old apartment instead. Nakahara Chuuya, two-time Grammy awards winner, and freshly unemployed pessimist, has never believed in fate—much less the supernatural. But the lively—if a bit annoying—ghost of his apartment's previous tenant, might just change everything. -> Thoughts: What isn't there to say about this? I have written many comments under this fic, so if you want to hear my full thoughts, they are all there in the last chapter. I also added another comment months later, and will probably add another one in the future. This fic single-handedly changed the romance genre for me, set the bar too high, and I can't tell whether I should love or hate it for that. I'd go as far as to say this fic isn't really about romance, either; it's been every kind of relationship there is under the sun. It's about death, it's about hope, it's about tragedy, addiction, failures, and family. It's everything. I love, love the idea of the soul separating itself from the body being used as a symbol of a person at the ultimate crossroads: Should I live, or should I die? And death giving that person a second chance to make their final decision. I love this fic. Everyone and their mom needs to read it because it's truly life changing. I cried three times reading this. THREE. Not a single word is wasted here.

Here are the rest of the seven. These are all fics I enjoyed immensely and love dearly:

Running on Air by eleventy7 -> Harry Potter | 74,880 words | 17 chapters ->Teen and Up | Completed -> Summary: Draco Malfoy has been missing for three years. Harry is assigned the cold case and finds himself slowly falling in love with the memories he collects. -> Thoughts: Genuinely, this fic ALMOST made joined the other three in my favorites. The only reason it didn't is because it didn't leave the same impact that the others did. But the writing, the plot, the romance, the characterizations, are all amazing, and the fact that it could've been a fourth edition to my favorites without the additional impact should be a testament to how good everything else is. I love a good investigation fic where I have no idea what's going on, but eager to learn more. I love the way they handled Ginny and Harry's relationship, how they were both never really good for each other as lovers, but humanizing them both. Ginny isn't a villain in the way of the gay relationship (I hate that trope, as we all do). Harry was just as bad in their relationship. And there are just so many good quotes, and every time I'm in the car for too long, staring at the road, I think to myself, "What if I just kept driving? What if I didn't go where I needed to go, but instead left everything behind and kept going?" And I really think this fic is in part to blame for that. Phenomenal work.

Oyasumi by monozayn -> Identity V | 6,210 words | 1 chapter -> Mature | Completed -> Summary: Oyasumi, Oyasumi Close your eyes and you'll leave this dream. . . . Eli Clark was something. But at the end of the day, Eli Clark wasn’t Naib’s something. A short story about giving too little, too late -> Thoughts: I had a VISCERAL reaction to this fic when I read two and a half years ago. I think I can contribute most of my feelings to the fact that I myself wasn't in the best mental state at the time, so it just hurt more than it should've. I think if I were to read this today, it wouldn't make it onto this list at all, but because of the strong memories I have tied to it, it's keeping its place here. I do remember really liking the characterization of Naib, who, despite being the MC, is entirely blameless and often really comes off as creepy, especially in the beginning. It was really interesting.

Food for the Heart by SharkbaitSekki -> Haikyuu | 28,486 words | 1 chapter -> Teen and Up | Completed | Locked Work ->Summary: Enter Oikawa Tooru, the middle-class citizen who has everything he needs, but who does not eat. Enter Iwaizumi Hajime, the homeless young man who barely scrapes enough to eat every single day. One chance encounter is all they need to start turning things around. That is, if they actually do want to bring change to their comfortable, destructive routines. -> Thoughts: If I'm gonna be honest, this fic is kinda like a fever dream to me. It's actually the only fic on this list that I've read twice, that being I really don't reread or rewatch media in general outside of gently skimming or rewatching certain episodes/scenes. I always lose this fic, and it came as a surprise to me to see that it was written by the same person that wrote Come Morning Light because I did NOT know this until I found it again for this fic. Thrice I have found this fic and thrice did it escape my attention. Now about the actual fic and not the mythical legend that it truly is, it's just such an interesting take on the characters. Less so that it's a perfect characterization but a wonderful insight to homelessness and privilege, into complex relationships and eating disorders. It shows that all people are different, they can be selfish when trying not to be, that life sometimes just really rocks our shit. I've struggled in on and off periods with eating myself, so this fic really drives home a nail into face that it might not for other people.

the path to paradise by roadtripwithlucifer -> Bungou Stray Dogs | (currently) 73,250 words | (currently) 11 chapters -> Explicit | Work in Progress -> Summary:

To think that there’s a gifted in this world who can transport others to a ‘Hell.’ Not even a particularly hellish hell. For all Akutagawa had experienced in his life, this is obnoxiously tame. Pleasant, even, if he was to ignore the centaurs hunting him for sport and the fact that he’s kneeling in an open grave.Still - if Akutagawa was given such an ability, he’d have no shortage of significantly more creative punishments for creatures as loathsome as himself.

Akutagawa goes to Hell. Atsushi follows. Neither return the same. -> Thoughts: This is one that is being updated quite regularly, so I have complete faith it will be saw through to the end (as the author has seen their other longfics to the end, too). This has some of the best BSD characterizations I've ever seen, especially Akutagawa. This fic scratches a very specific itch, since it's literally a Dante's Inferno AU, and where else are you gonna find one? One that's actually well-written, no less? It satisfies my constant hunger for tragic, painful things to happen to my favorite characters without ending poorly. They find comfort in each other. I love that. I love this fic. I can't wait to see how it ends. I like the use of their Dante and Virgil as "OC's", too. I don't mind OC's in most fics, but this is one the first to truly make me like their OC's. The author also puts in a whole lot of research, and they use this cool system of endnotes (that I WILL be stealing for any future long-form projects) to express their research. I just love reading their thoughts, and you can clearly see how much passion there is here.

Tommyinnit's unbeatable method of avoiding sudden death by eneliii -> Dream SMP | 79,922 words | 30 chapters -> Teen and Up | Completed -> Summary: “I uh,” Tommy starts, not knowing how to break this to the hero lightly. He hates to be the bearer of bad news. “I think your powers are broken? It’s not a bad thing of course, but like, I swear you tried to mind control me and it like, totally failed. Which is fine, honestly, don’t feel insecure. Everyone’s power stop working sometimes… I think.”  Sheesh, this is very awkward. Why is no one else talking? Why is Philza looking at him like he grew three heads? Why is the Blade staring at him so intensely? Why is Willow still frozen? “Did I, did I hit a nerve? Yikes,” Tommy hisses, “Well um,” He steps back, bracing his legs and bending his knees, “This was like super fun, but I’m - I’mma head out.” or, in which Tommy manages to annoy the hell out of Phil, Techno and Wilbur by being both impossible to catch and irritatingly endearing. or or, a crack fic where Tommy is a vigilante and Phil, Techno and Wilbur are the heroes hunting him down. -> Thoughts: I read this fic while it was coming out. I was also in therapy, so imagine my surprise and utter devastation when those chapters started coming out (if you know, you know), because I was, indeed, reading it to make myself feel better and not be sad all the time. I haven't read it in a hot minute, so I'm not sure if the humor would match up to mine today of if it would just be really cringe but I remember always finding it very funny. If it had just been funny and random, it may not have made it on here, but the overarching plot makes it a work of art. I won't spoil, because I do think you should read it, but it's a very good plot twist that I didn't see coming because I hadn't read any of the other works. Everything in that fic has a meaning, and everything is beautiful, and everything hurts. The concept itself is something that I think about often, too, even before I'd read it. Great execution.

Spiderwebs and Secrets by fi_niamh -> Genshin Impact | (currently) 89,103 words | (currently) 14 chapters -> Teen and Up | Work in Progress -> Summary:

Albedo, usually one for blunt and quick actions, was struggling to determine how he should continue. On one hand, marking the death as suicide, as it very much appeared to be, would immediately close the case and give the bereaved family some much needed closure. But could Albedo really do that when so many things didn't line up? Sitting back in his chair Albedo let out a deep breath. He scanned down the page reading the provided boxes. ... He was really going to do this wasn't he? Picking up quill with a steady hand, Albedo marked the fourth and final box with a neat cross mark. Death under suspicious circumstances. Albedo stood, waiting for the ink to dry before gently picking the piece of paper up. Albedo had a new assignment. As head of the Knights of Favonius Investigation Unit, Albedo was not going to let the cause of Diluc Ragnvindr's death go unknown.

When Diluc is reported dead as what appears to be a suicide, Jean struggles to keep it together, Kaeya is left in shambles, and Albedo begins to uncover the web of secrets and lies that Diluc left behind. -> Thoughts: While this fic hasn't been updated in a long time (and admittedly I haven't even caught up to the latest chapters, but that's not because the updates were bad, I just have this mental block that occurs with every multi-chaptered fic I read that I always have a really hard time breaking through). Anyway, this fic has the best characterization I have ever seen of any of the title characters: Kaeya, Diluc, Albedo, and Jean. It hurts so bad and so good, and I love me a well-written investigation fic that keeps me on my toes. So, so good. Did I mention that this hurts? Because it hurts. Hurts like a knife digging into your stomach and being twisted, but you keep pushing it in because the pain is addicting.

Butterflies and Storms by Chalily -> Bungou Stray Dogs | 36,524 words | 14 chapters -> Teen and Up | Completed -> Summary: “That girl in the back! She’s getting away!” Chuuya whipped around to see that his men were right — one of their assailants was an ability user, and she was using her power to escape. Shit. Mori had been painfully clear when he’d assigned this mission. He expected no survivors. Chuuya dropped his ability’s hold on the six or seven people around him, then kicked off of a nearby wall to propel himself at the girl. She was slowly dissipating into light, vanishing upwards into the ceiling, but before the edge of her coat could vanish Chuuya shot by like a dark bullet, reached out, and just barely grabbed it. // Chuuya gets transported to the past! Watch him struggle to figure out what the hell’s happening, then enlist the help of a young Oda to get back. But with the past altered, will he return to the same future he left behind? -> Thoughts: This fic has the perfect blend of good plot, characterization, and humor. Mainly the humor part, because it's always so effortless and it astounds me how easily they were able to write it. It's so natural, and I only wish I was half as funny as they are. This fic also reminds a lot of BEAST, and I am under the personal opinion that BEAST is better than the actual manga. Because it is and I'm correct. The OC they used for this and her ability is actually a book I'd read before, so that was also an added bonus for me. Very, very enjoyable fic and criminally underrated.

Honorable Mention: I KNOW you said only 10, but I have to mention this one fic that I can't for the love of me find, but I think about nearly every time I'm writing. It's a Dream SMP one-shot. If I remember correctly, it was somewhere between 1-3k words, and it was an absolutely masterpiece. I would've booted one of the fics I have listed to fit this one, but alas, I cannot find the fic. It's about the SBI, but all of the brothers get drafted to World War I or II, I can't remember, leaving Phil alone in their shared house. It's so. Good. Whenever I write, I try to emulate the emotion that author put into their fic, the way they were able to convey the lived-in, homely feel of the family as each one of them were ripped away, as they died. They described things in such a simplistic manner, and instead of focusing on faces or words, they talked about how the knob to the cabinet door was broken, the scratch marks on the table, the squeaky tiles on the floor. Amazing. I wish I could find it again.

Again, thank you so much for asking me!!!

[qqueenofhades]

On the topic of unreliable narrators and nonlinear timelines- would you be able to play around with both to a greater extent in fanfiction than you would otherwise because your readers are more familiar with the reality of events and probably can grasp onto what they can trust the narrator about and what they can’t better? Like you were saying with some of your Sandman fics, even when everything is very different from canon like in UASS, we as readers can still specifically pick up on what happened to Robyn more so than we might in a regular book because we know Robyn’s fate in canon and how it differs from Hob’s supposed memories of it, giving us almost a touchstone for his unreliability? Same thing with an inconsistent timeline, if it still follows a similar plotline to canon but in a different order, would you be able to mess with it more since your audience would already know the order of the canon plotline? Sorry if this is a bit rambling, I had some late night thoughts and wanted to ask you to see what you might think or be able to clarify. Thanks!!

It depends on what you're doing and how. Obviously, fanfic does allow more room to play around with your readers' pre-existing knowledge of the story; they're coming to your work for a transformation or rework of an existing canon, rather than an entirely new one. So you have a lot of latitude in fic to play with the form/premise/plot, without having to do the work of introducing characters, world, and conflicts. Your reader will already know this, so you can skip past it and get to the good stuff.

With original fiction, however, you have to do that work in establishing the "baseline" reality and how the narrator is adhering to or deviating from it. For example in one of my original novels, which I really should get off my ass and publish one of these days because it's complete and ready to go and I'm just procrastinating, I have a first-person narrator who is fully aware that you just have to take her word for what's going on, and that plays into the larger themes of the book (a dark reworking of the #MeToo movement with an EXTREMELY feral female protagonist who does a little murder as a treat), and thus highlighting how women's claims alone are rarely taken as an acceptable standard of "proof." She also becomes increasingly gleeful in pointing out her unreliability as the story progresses, but where and how that happens, or if she's lying about her unreliability and is actually telling the truth all along, becomes a crucial part of the narrative.

(Anyway, yes. Somebody should give me a kick in the ass to do it. Trigger warnings out the wazoo, but still.)

Likewise, in one of the most famous original-fiction unreliable narrators in recent pop culture, Gone Girl, you spend the first half of the book learning one set of beliefs through the narrator's voice, and then the second half of the book pulls a COMPLETE bait-and-switch on you. You find out the reason for the first half of the book being written as it was (i.e. a total and deliberate lie), and that the narrator, Amy Dunne, is up to something totally different than what she first told you. So while in fanfiction you can come in with some of the premise ready-made and then play around with it, you can certainly think of different ways to do it in original fiction. It will require more legwork on your part and thinking how you want to structure the story and the reveals, and who's to be trusted and who shouldn't be, but that's part of the fun in figuring it out.

[pixiestickers]

I was tagged by @theangrypomeranian Thanks!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3: 52

2. What's your total word count? 813,389

3. What fandoms do you write for?

atm it's Hunter x Hunter with wips in Over the Garden Wall, Futurama, and Lord of the Rings. I got my start writing Twilight fanfic on fanfiction.net and occasionally write for Star Wars when the mood is right. There are past fandoms, but I don't feel like naming them all.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos:

Okay, there is a problem. Two of my fics that are in my top 5 are also like ptsd for me from a bad fandom, so I am leaving them off this list despite their high kudo count. Right now I have them viewable only to AO3 users and you can't comment on them bc I just don't want to be reminded of them, but also am not strong enough to take them down. So anyway ... here's my edited top 5.

Blame it on the Nargles (Harry Potter)

If You're Lonely, Press Play (Over the Garden Wall)

The One With The Slaps (Friends)

Change Heartache Into Courage (Twilight)

The L Word (Twilight)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to unless the comment is kinda unhinged. I once had a really nice comment that switched gears midway thru to start in on a campaign to save the show my fic was based on getting nasty abt the network that canceled it and it just went off the rails, so in my head I was like thank u for that nice beginning but I'm just gonna walk slowly backwards away from this.

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

Even my saddest fics have some sort of silver lining. I don't like leaving my characters suffering w/o any hope. So probably the AU I wrote to my own otgw canon where I kill Beatrice off (Not) A Happy Story is the angstiest, but there's some hope by the end.

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

idk I'm kind of partial to the ending of my iasip fic My Fair Charlie bc these are two characters who have been thru a lot in their lives and the scene in Charlie's room where he shows Dee his memory box is just sorta cute and innocent and gives me feelings.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

In the fandom that shall not be named, I got some. I never got any hate when I originally wrote for Twilight on ff.net but when I updated my fic from there to AO3 I got some.

9. Do you write smut?

Not really no. A handful of times and it's just sorta okay. I'm more of a write an intense lead-up and then fade to black writer. I'll leave the smut to ppl who can actually write it well (ie not me).

10. Do you write crossovers?

No

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes! It was so weird. There was another Twilight fic that I was writing that I had let sit for a few years and then someone messaged me that it had been stolen, the names changed and put on some anime fanfic website. The person knew bc the name Jasper kept popping up in that person's fic when there was no character named Jasper. They thought that was weird so they googled a portion of the fic and mine came up. Anways, I messaged the site, but who knows if they did anything abt it and anyway, I took that particular fic down since I'm not in the fandom anymore and won't ever finish it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

My Twilight fic 'Change Heartache Into Courage' has been translated a few times.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No. I'm a lone wolf.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

I mean it changes all the time, but I suppose if you want to know the couple that has the highest word count from me since this is a fanfic meme then that would be Wirt and Beatrice.

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

I have a 38k 'Dragon Prince' fic that's been sitting since 2021. I'm not in the fandom anymore and got rid of Netflix, so even if I wanted to write my ability to watch the show is hindered. Still, I like the character development I wrote and maybe one day in the future I'll work on it again, but as of now, it's probably going to sit collecting dust for a v long time.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Long inner monologues and flirty, fluffy banter

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action, smut, and moving plot forward. I just want these characters to talk, not actually get anything done.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

Haven't done it

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Created a gender-swapped Aladdin AU when I was 13. Wrote 'Hey Arnold' fic in a HA forum in my teens. Posted my first "official" fanfic (Twilight) to livejournal when I was 28 then moved it over the ff.net midway thru the year and a half it took me to write it.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

A Perfect Sonnet bc even tho it's like 8 fics deep into my iylpp universe, I worked really hard to world-build and make it more high fantasy than fluffy slice-of-life stuff like I usually did for them. I'm not sure if I succeeded but I am proud of the effort I made.

I am trying to remember my mutuals who also write fic. Most are barely on tumblr anymore, but I'll tag who I can remember: @justme--emily @trashangel-dee @221bdisneystreet @america-oreosandkitkats @spectraling

[jonathanbiers]

🤡😈🦅

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

i've wracked my brain and i don't think i've ever made myself laugh with my writing? i've definitely laughed while talking about my writing (or things i'm going to write) but. huh. i guess most of my stuff falls into the categories of soft, angsty or horny as opposed to funny anyway hfjdkf

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

oh ABSOLUTELY. in from the tone of your voice, when jonathan stumbles in right as argyle and steve are about to make out. jonathan marie byers the lovable dumbass that u are

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

i sometimes outline them a little bit if i'm feeling stuck, but i usually just have a rough idea of what i want to happen in my head. i've found that generally, making outlines is a waste of time for me, because i always change my mind multiple times between the original idea and actually posting the thing. i can't think of a single time where i was like "wait, that's an idea" and then wrote that exact thing without switching things up.

fanfic writer emoji asks!

[rockinlibrarian]

💞🎀🎈

If I can be greedy like that!

Yay, more Asks! I really like the questions in this one (the ((REAL)) Asks for Writers or whatever it was called-- I just remember the "((REAL))"), so the more the merrier!

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

The characters. I really enjoy good plotting-- whodunits are my original favorite genre (to read-- I barely know where to start in writing them!), but it's the characters that make you CARE what happens in the plot. ESPECIALLY in fanfic, because in that case, you ARE most likely there for the characters, and if you get the characters wrong, what's the point? Oh, and WHY are you in fanfic for the characters? Because it's the characters that got you hooked on the source material, too. So it's a cycle!

That said, once you've got that, if you've got "the technical stuff" wrong, it's really distracting and ruins the moment! I have mourned opening a nice sweet non-smut-Fiktor-shipping fic only to find it practically unreadable through funky grammar! There aren't ENOUGH nice sweet non-smut-Fiktor-shipping fics to waste them like that!

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

Well. My own writing definitely succeeds in entertaining ME!

Also, I care about getting the characters right.

Also, I'm pretty good at dialogue. I write snappy dialogue.

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

This is an interesting question. Well, when left to my own devices, I tend to ramble in writing. It's like all the words that have trouble coming out of my mouth just erupt onto the page or screen. I am the MASTER of the run-on sentence! There are too many thoughts and they must all come out!

That is, of course, why REVISION exists. As my original writing goal had been to be a middle grade fiction writer (and that's still my goal if I ever get up the nerve to write original fiction again) (and to be honest, if you go through my fanfics you'll find more than a few stories that can pass as middle grade, too, even if the source material was anything but-- looking at YOU, Loudermilk Chronicles*), I studied How-to-Write-for-Children texts and even took two separate correspondence courses from the Institute for Children's Literature, and the key thing I learned from them was how to be CONCISE. Ironically. So I learned to make my stories MOVE. I will have you know, I once had a critique from Bruce "My Teacher Is An Alien!" Coville himself at an SCBWI event and he specifically complimented my concise storytelling! (Also, he loved Billy 'Arrison, and that is the most important thing of all!)

So my voice, and style, tend to feel middle grade (in fiction at least), and they tend to be past tense limited-third-person, which is also very middle grade. But every so often I DO switch things up, by, like, attempting to write a ballad canonically written by the actual God of Poetry; I have some first person pieces (most of which are still in process come to think), mostly because the source material is first person, or, in the case of the Pipeweed Mafia epic, actually IS me-- that one also spends most of its time in present tense, which is rare for me, and I'm not even sure what inspired me to do it that way.

*(Or, the "Childhood Friends AU" version, "Two (or Three) Mutant Freaks Against the Fourth Grade," WHICH, by the way, is my answer to the FIRST question on that Ask List, "What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)", if any of you were going to ask that, so HAH, I ANSWERED IT ANYWAY, because it's just a sweet little story about nerds making friends that anyone can enjoy even without knowing the source material and I LOVE it and somehow it has gotten the least hits of anything except the Pipeweed Mafia, which is just crack I just threw up there recently and was not expecting to get much in the way of hits, anyway)

[brigdh]

2 & 14?

2) What is your favorite fic of yours?

Oh my god how could I choose only one of my babies????

I'm always very fond of So Many Are the Crossings and the Roads (BenJan Medieval AU), because at the time it was the longest thing I'd ever written (it's only 9k, but at the time that was very impressive to me), and I wrote it in a crazed rush over a single weekend after getting hit with a burst of inspiration, which is not at all how I usually write.

I'm also kind of fond of What Power (Saiyuki reincarnation cyberpunk) which has never really gotten that much feedback, probably because there's way too little of the story on the page and way too much of it left in my head. But I think it's a fun idea and fun characters, even if it probably should have been an original novel rather than a short fanfic.

I think Marks (Swordspoint, Alec fails to teach Richard how to read) is one of the best things I've ever written, craft-wise, though uh I haven't reread it in a long time so my opinion might change if I did.

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?

In chapter 7 of lay me down in the bed that I made (which I SWEAR TO GOD I haven't abandoned!!!), I spent so much time debating what story to have Stede tell Ed. I was looking up all sorts of myths, googling stuff to see what was around in the early 1700s; I wanted something that had resonances with the fic's plot without being too on-the-nose. I went with Mr Fox (aka The Robber Bridegroom), which is of course about a girl who (almost) marries a man she knows nothing about, only to discover that he has a deadly past. And also he's probably planning to murder her and eat her, but that part's less relevant to 'lay me down'. The other one I came close to using was Cupid and Psyche (marrying someone you don't know, going through trials to prove your love).

Anyway, I spent a ton of time thinking about this and then not one single person mentioned it, hahaha.

I also haven't learned my lesson, because I have a scene planned for a few chapters from now where Ed and Stede discuss a Shakespeare play, and I've been wasting too much time looking up quotes and deciding between Othello (Desdemona falls in love with Othello when he shares his stories of victory in battle; their love is sabotaged by Othello's right hand man; Ed has strong feelings about turning a husband murdering his wife into a performance), Antony & Cleopatra (choosing between love and duty; a man destined for greatness who just wants a happy private life instead; also a lot of performances have a scene with Antony and Cleopatra switch clothes) or maybe The Tempest (the closest thing Shakespeare has to actually writing about the Caribbean; about colonialism; also it's not even that relevant but I'm obsessed with putting the line "You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is, I know how to curse" into everything). I'm sure no one else will care about this discussion between them except for me, but I'm very excited to get to it.

Thank you for the asks! :D

[detectivegumshoepals]

Some Behind-the-Scenes Turnabout Dishwasher stuff if anyone is interested

Now that I've had a semi-okay night's rest, I can finally talk about some Turnabout Dishwasher things. First of all, I'm in absolute awe from all the kind things people have said in their tags while reblogging my promo post. I was a little stressed last night after I posted the final chapter, so that's really made me feel better.

In any case, some background stuff on the story:

When the Trilogy came out on Switch in spring of 2019, I decided to replay all of the games again in chronological order, finishing with my first ever playthrough of SoJ. While I was going through them (especially while replaying Investigations 2), I decided to start recording my headcanons and fic ideas into voice memos after work every day. Eventually that turned into transcribing them all and trying to organize all of those notes into a timeline. I ended up with 3 different fic ideas: a Narumitsu fic, a Raymond Shields fic, and a joint Klapollo/Blackmadhi fic. To this day I have no idea why I decided to combine all of those things. But it happened. I fuckin combined them. Also as a side note, by Chapter 32, I had transcribed over 400 voice memos.

Ever since I was 11 and wrote shitty Pokemon fanfic, I've always written in "script" format, with piles and PILES of dialogue. I'm not a trained writer (and the only fiction I read is fanfic lmao), so that format is really the only comfortable way I know how to write. When I first started turning my transcribed audio notes into anything resembling a "story", it originally looked like this:

As you can imagine, that's not a very easy thing to turn into a publishable fanfic. I actually never intended to publish it at first, because I hadn't published (or written) any fanfic since 2008 when I wrote terrible Wolfstar stories on livejournal.

THEN in March of 2020 I finally finished my first playthrough of SoJ, ending with Turnabout Time Traveler. It's not a particularly great case by any means, but the fact that Miles and Phoenix talk about weddings had me like "shit I need them to talk about weddings A LOT more". So I wrote "Thought Provoking". It of course was completely in script format, but I still really wanted to publish it. So I tried out the "text box" thing using Photoshop. It allowed me to cut corners a bit by not having to write out any "she said" or "he thought", which is something I never learned how to do well because, like I said, I've only every written in "script" format.

So yeah, chapter 1 of Turnabout Dishwasher eventually started to look like this:

which is a lot easier to turn into "text boxes". The text boxes themselves take about 7 hours per chapter to make, and then another 2 hours to link them to AO3.

The absolute bane of my existence is that AO3 isn't able to detect the images as text, so my AO3 word count is always cut in half. I know there are ways to code it, but with the amount of dialogue I have, that wasn't really feasible. By the end of my story, I had amassed 14,500 dialogue box image files for Turnabout Dishwasher alone.

So anyway, when I posted chapter 1, I accidentally published it in the middle of Narumitsu week 2020, and my draft was also accidentally backdated. So it didn't really get a lot of visibility. But I kept plugging away at it and I'm really glad I did.

Also, I originally planned on combining the Klapollo and Blackmadhi parts, thinking they would be small, occasional additions to the story. SOMEHOW it turned into Klapollo and Blackmadhi having completely separate chapters. I'm glad I made that decision though, because I was able to tell full stories about all four of those characters.

I don't really know what else to say about this story right now, other than that I've been so grateful to everyone who has read it. I'm probably going to take a long break from writing AA fic for now. But I do have plans for some Turnabout Dishwasher "bonus content" in the future.

If there's anything else you want to know about my story, please feel free to ask!

[kintatsujo]

LOZ AU- The Courage of Running Away PART ONE

warnings: Parental abuse, fantasy religion, fantasy religious abuse

So the original grain of this concept was actually a dream I had once but we'll get to that.

A major aspect of this idea that makes it an "AU" as opposed to "just" a "game pitch as fanfic" concept is that it has a worldmap that looks something like this: 

[Image Description: A map of a continent.  In the center is Gerudo Desert, ringed by mountains that extend from the bottom to top of the continent.  On the west side of Gerudo Desert, from north to south, are countries labeled "Termina," "Holodrum," and "Labrynna," while on the east side are countries labeled "Hytopia," "Hyrule" and "Lorule."  Hytopia is indicated to be a sky island above a territory labeled "Drablands."  Hyrule and Termina are more directly east and west of one another, as the Drablands are the northernmost country of the continent and Labrynna is the southernmost country.  There is an indication of another continent to the east, and off the eastern shore is a sky island labeled "Sky Temple."  To the south of Labrynna is a proper island labeled "Windfish Isle."  There is a legend in the upper left corner that reads "Really generalized AU map.  Proportions not to be taken too seriously and most of the sky islands besides Hytopia just aren't there because it would get too busy."  End Description.]

Lorule as a physical country to the south of Hyrule rather than a mirror version of Hyrule is because I am weak for dumb puns.  Also in general you can describe this as "this is my AU and I do what I want."  

Also the map of Hyrule itself in this AU should be considered to be heavily similar to the Breath of the Wild map because that's what I want shh.  Does this mean the other countries are similar in scope despite being based on countries from earlier and smaller games?  Well, yeah.  

I actually tried out making this worldmap in RPGMaker btw but to get something I was happy with I'd at LEAST need a nicer worldmap tileset for MZ.  Do I have the skills to make that?  Yep.  Have I got the time to make that?  Nope.

Anyway so as noted there's actually a NUMBER of floating sky islands in this version of the setting, and its version of Link was raised here, in the sky temple monastery/commune/abbey don't look at me:

[Image description: A floating island with a round temple, some sort of pillars arranged in a circle, and a few other buildings, one of which might be a dormitory.  The temple has a statue of the Triforce nested in Hylia's wings on the roof.  End description.]

A couple notes here since it's the only good place: In this Hyrule there are Loftwings because I said so.  There is also a Rito run mail service and there are also balloon-based airships.  Again, because I said so.  The Rito are the main people who run supplies to the Sky Temple, but there's also a number of hylians with bonded Loftwings living there.  The Loftwings are a little less mysterious in that they clearly roost nearby riders they've bonded with; note the large archways kind of indicated on the side of the dorm building.  Link, at this point in the story, does not have a Loftwing, which is important for reasons that will become clear by the end of this post.  Also, I'm not sure how obvious it is but I do intend that there's a cucoo/chicken coop set up near the dorm; this is for the eggs but the monk or whatever in charge of them is definitely a crazy bird person and probably also keeps messenger pigeons.  There would also be a garden somewhere and as one can possibly tell there's a graveyard.  Basically this Sky Temple is what I thought Skyloft was going to be a little more like until I found out it was literally a Boarding School Town.  Anyway.

The thing is that this Link was discovered to be the Hero of the age sometime in his infancy.

And this is the person who discovered him:

[Image description: On one half of the page is an establishing shot of a hylian man in blue and white (light gray) robes and a hat, with long hair in a braid and graying at the temples.  He's approximately middle aged by the lines in his face, tall and slender and moderately attractive.  He is wearing heavy gold diamond shaped earrings to match the symbols of Hylia and the Triforce on his clothing.  He is frowning, and he is labeled "Astramorus."  On the other half of the page are a series of comic panels: In the first, a young Link is hiding from a Rito behind Astramorus's cloak.  Astramorus asks, apparently fondly, "Come now boy, where's your courage?" while the Rito sheepishly assures him "Th-that's quite all right, Lordship."  In the second panel, a very small Link dressed in the Hero of Hylia's traditional green outfit is wiping his eyes while holding a sword too large for him.  There is blood on Link's clothes.  Astramorus, standing so that only the hem of his robes are in shot, asks "Come now boy, where's your courage?"  And in the last panel, lit as though by fire, Astramorus now has a much older Link by the back of the neck in a controlling manner, once again asking, "Come now boy, where's your COURAGE?"  End description.]

By the way the manner in which Astramorus is holding the back of Link's neck in the final panel is a sneaky thing my dad used to pull sometimes; basically if you squeeze just hard enough to hurt nobody but the person you're doing it to can actually tell so you can even do it in public without people necessarily noticing.  It took me ages to go "wait that was actually really fucked up that he used to do that."  Shoulder touch is good, neck touch bad.

A note on Astramorus's costume: It's basically an evil version of the costume worn by the priestly guy from the Sanctuary in alttp.  Astramorus himself, well, I had the idea for him well before Age of Calamity came out but yes he is basically named after Aster, so you can guess that he's more than just a terrible father.

Astramorus has been training Link since he could lift his sword, including trials he should have been too small for and acquiring things for him to fight-- and kill.    Link isn't allowed to speak to anyone unless asked questions or told to by Astramorus, not even the other members of the monastery (although perhaps many of the people there have taken their own vows of silence.)  

And he's not allowed to have opinions, and he's not allowed to back down in a fight or say that he's too tired to keep training, and this has been going on since Link was six.  Astramorus tells him this is the ideal.  That never backing down and never stopping is what courage means and what being the hero means.  That starting from a young age is only proof of the hero's purity of heart.

And when Link is nearing seventeen, Astramorus tells him that he's going to present him to the royal family of Hyrule, and that at last the HARD part will truly begin.  (Keeping in mind that he was putting a six year old through trials MEANT for a seventeen year old.)  And Link breaks: 

[Image Description: A comic.  Link is putting together a paraglider not dissimilar to the one from BotW.

He narrates: Tomorrow we're supposed to set out so that I can meet the king of Hyrule.  Which means that this is my last chance to run away.

Link grinds his classic hat into the ground with one boot, and leaves his sword stabbed into the earth behind him.  He leaps off the sky island and toward the sun on the horizon.

Link narrates: I don't care if this is cowardly anymore.

End description.]

And THAT one page is what the dream that started the concept was about; some people might remember me talking about it as long as three years ago and it's just been stuck in my head ever since!  (Also: I love the idea of there being a Link who starts out wearing the classic outfit and THEN switches to other costumes.)

This is obviously not the end of this AU, lol, stay tuned for where Link finally crash lands (spoiler: He makes it pretty far and you might be able to guess from the map >:3c)

#AU August

#LoZ AU: The Courage of Running Away

Bonus: 

[Image description: A headshot flat color sketch of this Link, who has short fluffy light blonde hair and green eyes.  He is yelling, with tears in his eyes: "I am NEVER wearing that STUPID hat again!"  End description!]

[sergeantsporks]

Hey! How are you? For the writing asks: 1, 2, 4, 16, 19, 25, 34, and 37! (I'm just hitting up all the questions.)

Whoa, you certainly are! I'm doing pretty good, actually, all of the classes have wound down to a couple of projects, so! Feeling good.

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Calibri. I don't really care, it's just the default

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

I'd hate it. I'd loathe it. Updates would be incredibly slow because 1) the amount of time it takes me to write something somewhat legibly is insane and 2) My hand hurts after like. A paragraph. But I could and probably would. I used to write everything by hand, I still have the folders with my original story on notebook paper that I wrote when I was 12 and didn't have a computer, it's something like fifty pages?

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

Infinitesimal. I don't know why. I just think it's neat. And the characters who use it are funny. U could've said "small" but no.

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark?

I usually wouldn't use a bookmark, I'd just remember where I was in the book and then flip to it, but probably my pillow (I was coming back in a few moments)

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

When I was twelve, I decided I was going to write a 4 novel series about a sixteen (maybe fourteen, I don't remember) year old girl who had a bracelet that was meant to destroy the world (magic), and she and her friends were trying to destroy it first. It got a bit into the first book, but then I was always jumping from story idea to story idea because I was. You know. Twelve. Anyway, when I got to about fifteen, I got introduced to fanfiction by my near and dear friend who now makes fun of me for killing off Hunter all the time, and was like ":O! I can do that! I do that in my head all the time with Star Wars! And books! It's the 'what if I were in this story' game!" So I started writing fanfiction, and lemme tell you, it was awful. But I bugged bigger, better fanfic writers to pretty please read my thing and tell me what I could do better and THANK GOD they were nice people and DID, and I followed their advice, and I got a LOT better at writing fanfic. Then I wrote a fantasy trilogy that started off as fanfiction (the characters were playing a dnd game) and just kind of devolved so far from the original characters/plot that I said "Okay then!" renamed some characters, switched up some plot, and went from there! Anyway, I've done more writing for original stuff since, but it's mostly been fanfiction, and given that I can look at stuff I wrote only a year ago and go "Hrm, that could have been better" I think I'm still growing as a writer! I want to write one of my original stories, but my brain's pretty firmly full of owls at the moment, so that'll have to wait. For now, fanfiction ho!

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Kore HATES fluorescent lighting. Any electric lighting in general, actually, she uses daylight mostly and then candles and lanterns when she has to. Fluorescent lighting makes a buzzing she hates, and she doesn't like the color of the light.

34. Thoughts on the Oxford comma, Go:

If you don't use the Oxford comma you're an uncivilized heathen, and your writing implements should be taken away.

37. If you were to be remembered only by the words you’ve put on the page, what would future historians think of you?

"That was one sadistic person. Probably hated people."

[sometimesrosy]

Speaking of writing, I've asked you before about a story I've had in my head for almost 15 years. So now the problem is, everytime I try to write it, I stop around the same part. I was watching a videoclips and had an idea for a fanfiction of my own story, inspired by Medusa's story. I just had this crazy idea of writing that instead. I feel like, since I've tried to write this story so many times before, I need some sort of break from it, and this might give me what I'm looking for. +

+ If I always get stuck around the same part, maybe that isn't working. Of course, I could just change that part. But what if rewriting the whole story, still with the same main characters, is what I'm missing? What if I could finish it this time, for a change? What if that's the push that I'm needing, and it'll actually become much better than the original? I can always, after all, write the original later if I want!

PS. I'm actually thinking of giving it a good, happy ending, when the original had a really bad one and was full of angst. I'll forever be in love with the idea of the original story, but with what's going in the world and my own state of mind, I just need to feel excited for this story again and an happy ending seems fitting. We need happy, hopeful things!

+++

This is a tricky question because there are a number of things you need to consider.

Are you simply AFRAID of finishing. Totally valid. Finishing is scary. Is your fear what’s stopping you from getting this done?? If it’s fear then you have to practice facing your fear, listening to it, and then thanking it for it’s contribution meant to keep you safe, but you have a story to write and you’re going to keep going. But because you keep stopping in the same place, chances are it’s not actually your fear, but something to do with the story. so.

Is there something wrong with the story in that particular spot that your subconscious refuses to budge on and has you just sitting down and refusing to move forward on? That’s my guess. When I get a writer’s block, it’s usually a sign to me that I went off track in the story and I have to go back and find out where the swerve happened, then get it back on track. The block doesn’t usually hit until I’m a fair way down that wrong track, so the problem is usually pages, even chapters before the block. You COULD read over what you’ve written and see if and where you went off track and start over from there.

Is the problem actually that your story is MISSING something? As a whole? What if your current story just doesn’t have the WEIGHT to carry you through all the way to the end and you just run out of gas. If this is the problem, then your idea of using Medusa’s story to add complexity and a frisson might just be what you need.

Okay, so story time, because I had a similar experience. My first nanowrimo novel (15 years ago! yipes!) was a meandering epic science fiction about a generational colony spaceship with very constrained social rules inspired, oddly, by a commercial for colonial furniture. I always think, “what if that... but in space!” about everything. So the concept was vaguely how a colonialist society like the british empire but not might translate into space. I had three sisters, something called “stasis madness” which made the original colonists turn on the empire that was trying to steal the first known habitable planet from the rest of humanity, and a bit of gaia theory, because you see, the colonists switched their *soul* allegiance to the new planet. ANYWAY, I did finish that first draft and I wrote a sequel which I didn’t finish, but when I went back to revise that first draft, I just couldn’t get through it. It was too large, too unwieldy.  Maybe I just wasn’t up to the task, I don’t know. 

BUT about five years later, after I’d moved on to a different series in a different genre (urban fantasy), I started watching The 100, and really was jonesing for the science fiction fix again. And there was an intersection with my original Gaia theory story. See they’re both set in a nearish future, before humanity has found the key to travellng the great distances of space. So, I decided to do a Bellarke fic of my own story, but I’d make it a PREQUEL. So as it developed, that colonial empire turned out to be the deciding factor in the destruction of the earth, leaving humanity behind in a solar system without the ability to find a habitable planet. It became a post apocalypse story like The 100. And I gave our heroes a little weird ship that was biomechanically engineered with slime/sludge life form found in the Kuiper asteroid belt. BOOM. My story came together. Something about the more intimate setting of a space freighter, the race to save the ship, and the fanfic romance combined with the setting of my previous book made it all happen.

I still actually have the original story waiting to be revised. Now it turns out that the colonial empire sent out A DOZEN colony ships with new damaging technology, and it was the mass launching that poisoned the earth. They killed the earth and then tried to steal with accessible planets. Mythos (the original story) is ONE of the planets they landed on. Each colony ship will have developed it’s own culture based on the guiding colonial beliefs, so when they land on their planets, they will all have completely different stories.

So taking that original, stalled story, and considering a new direction, has set me off on enough stories probably to last me for decades. Well. Look at that.

All in all, I say go ahead. Try the medusa angle. Maybe that’s what this story needs to move forward. And if it turns into something completely different, that’s okay. You’ll learn from writing the new story and may be able to go back to the old one afterwards and fix what was wrong with it.

Good luck and happy writing.

[gzdacz-writes-fic]

#2 - are you planning on participating in hannigramtropefest, hannibal fanfic writing event? #4 - how much outlining did you have to do, and thought process put behind juggling the switching POVs for 'storyteller' #30 - do you plan on writing more hannibal fanfics in the future now that leviathan is finished?

Thank you for the ask!

#2 - I am considering it! I'm working on an HP story at the moment and I'm worried I won't have enough time to write something I'm happy with in time for the event... But then again it sounds like a lot of fun, so I might persuade myself to do it anyway before I miss the deadline ;)

#30 - I would like to, though I don't have any currently in the works. It's nice to mix it up a little, and I was actually going to take a break from Hannibal after Storyteller, but then Leviathan just sort of happened. Once I'm done-ish with the story I'm working on now, I'll probably come back with another Hannibal fic - I have a couple ideas floating around already!

#4 - under the cut for spoilers for The Storyteller, obviously.

You can probably imagine that the answer to how much outlining is A LOT. I have two notebooks' worth of notes for this one, which is certainly my personal record.

From what I recall, the whole thing actually started from the little stories Hannibal and Will tell each other - the bear and the hunter, the sharks, the deals with forest creatures, the lighthouse etc. - and I had the idea of these being Will's fever-induced delusions that start spilling out into Hannibal's world as season one progresses. It was originally meant to be entirely episodic, with every chapter focused on another story. But I liked the little story about the Other Will so much that I soon realised it needed to be the crux of the fic.

I deliberated over the answer to the question "is the Other Will real or is it Will being an asshole?" then decided I wanted to supply enough evidence for it being kind of both, and then it became obvious I needed what I referred to as the "Fingersmith structure" (not the only book that follows this model, but that's the one I thought of because it's so much fun), where we swap POVs halfway through the story to show an entirely different and more complete perspective on what the hell has been going on. When I realised this, I became a little angry honeslty because it meant the whole thing would have to be twice as long.

And then Abigail's POV was entirely unplanned. I just realised while writing that we needed to see some sort of conclusion to her story, and while I'm sure she's better off, it was a bit of a downer for her to just disappear from Hannibal's life. This way, at least we got to see the way that Hannibal's influence is reflected in her life in Florence.

[rongasm]

hiiii idk why i'm so nervous but i really really wanna start writing fanfiction. ljke full out "woah this makes me feel stuff" fanfiction and i thought you'd be the best place to come for pointers because you're literally amazing but anyways do ylu have any suggestions as to 1. where to write it 2. starting tips 3. what not to do?? thanks!! i really really want to but i'm little scared to

OOOH, I WAS RECENTLY GIVING THE SAME ADVICE TO MEG BONNEY ON TWITTER. Okay, here we go. Let’s do this. 

How To Start Writing Fanfic for Beginners: 

Okay, so, the first thing we usually do is have a beta reader-- someone who looks over stories and checks for writing flow, typos, and, most importantly in the case of fanfiction, characterization. You find one before you start writing so that you have a cheerleader who can talk about ideas with you and push you through when you feel like you wanna quit. This is a formality, though, and can be skipped. My one-shots usually are in the 20k+ range so I like to have three or four people look over them, but if I'm writing a 6k one shot, for example, I only have one beta reader.

I’m actually pretty sure that the origination of this practice actually came from everyone trying to figure out how to make friends in fandom. If you're the beta reader on someone's story, you're automatically buddies. Google docs has made this way easier, though-- it used to be long email chains. *shudders*

Step two, decide which host sites you're going to post your fic on. Different fandoms are more popular on different fic sites. The most popular fanfic sites are http://fanfiction.net , http://archiveofourown.org (AO3, we call it), and sometimes tumblr, depending on the length of the fic! 

So, for example, the Percy Jackson fandom is really really into http://fanfiction.net (or at least was when I was writing for it?) That's where you get the most reviews/comments and the most hits for that fandom. In the case of Teen Wolf/Stydia the most popular site is AO3, easily. But if the piece you wrote is a drabble (in the 1k range), you can also plop it on tumblr. If it's in the 2k range, it's acceptable to put it on tumblr under a "read more."

For all these sites, you need an account, but AO3 is technically in beta mode (idk why; it's been like that for multiple years?) and therefore you sign up and then have to wait for an invite. But it's worth it because once you have an account, you can view the history of the fics you've read, bookmark faves, leave comments, and, of course, publish fics.

Unlike ffnet, AO3 also categorizes fics into fandoms, which is really really helpful if you write for multiple fandoms. Their sorting system is really good and really specific, which is why people use it. I think that, at this point, AO3 is undoubtedly the most diversely enjoyed site.

Here's some things you definitely need to know about posting on AO3: 

(This is SUPER important), it's considered REAL bad manners to tag characters/ships that aren't the centric pairing. So, the fic is gonna ask you for characters and the ship. If you're writing a fic where Stiles and Lydia are the centric pairing, you're gonna fill in Lydia Martin, Stiles Stilinski, and then Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski. But say your story also has a few scenes with Scott? Either don't mention Scott, or do "Scott McCall- Side.”

The reader should be able to clearly tell what type of fic it is by your tags. (Unless you don’t want them to know). You can create your own tags or you can use the site's already established ones. AO3 tags can get slightly obnoxious but nobody’s going to call you out for that so enjoy. 

If your fic takes place within the bounds of the series, you tag it "Canon Compliant." If it not only fits with the plot of the series but also takes place literally during the series, tag it "Missing Moments." If it diverges from the plot line of the series, you tag it "Canon Divergent." If it is after the series is over, tag it "Post-Canon." 

If it’s AU, tag the kind of AU it is. “Coffee Shop AU” “AU-- The Hunger Games” “AU-- Everyone Lives” “AU-- Stiles is Olaf from Frozen and gets it on with Anna who is Lydia.” (Spoilers for my next fic.) (Just kidding.) 

ALSO when you're posting, it's a huge struggle because AO3 either requires HTML coded stuff (for italics, etc) or rich text. My suggestion would be either putting your fic on tumblr and copy and pasting the rich text from the finished post, or getting an account on ffnet and using their document uploader to c+p your fic into, then save it and copy and paste it into the rich text part of the fic loader on AO3

So now, ratings. 

Here's what you've got: G,T, M, E. 

 G is like... no swearing, no mention of sex, you could read it as a bed time story to a 6 year old.

T is swearing, acknowledgment that sex exists, maybe some kissing (but you're getting to shaky territory as soon as you venture anywhere remotely past second base) light, non-descriptive violence (there's also a tag for violence under "archive warnings" because some people get triggered by it.)

M is lighter sex scenes (I would say anything that doesn't describe genitalia? Idk, this is a real fine line. I think you’ll feel it in your bones. Or, bone, in the case of smut. 

Nailed that joke. 

HA GEDDIT. I did it again.

E is like, you're going to hell for writing this, enjoy hanging out with satan in the fiery pits, I hope it's worth it.

If you post on tumblr, tag appropriately. Tumblr tagging is different from ao3-- you just tag to sort things, and so that the right people see your work. So, like, if you wrote a Stydia fic, obviously don't tag it Sterek or Sciles because you'll get hate, lmao. You can tag character names, but I would suggest you don't tag "Stiles Stilinski" or "Lydia Martin" because the Sterk/Mrrish/Stlia shippers tend to attack you. Also, only the first five tags count.

And now, the Don’ts of fanfiction***

Make sure your spacing doesn’t look awful. 

It makes people not wanna read it 

You should know what regular spacing looks like. If you’re able to correct it so that there’s not eons of space between paragraphs, I would do that. 

Don’t say “Sorry for the bad summary I promise it’s better than it sounds” in your summary. 

“Their tongues battle for dominance” or other equally cliche dialogue

Original characters as main characters

Fandom crossovers are almost always rolled their eyes at in the fic community. Like, you can thrust your characters into a different universe, but normally, you can’t use the original characters. So by all means, write a Percy Jackson AU, but don’t make Fitzwilliam Darcy best friends with Annabeth Chase. 

POV SWITCHING IN YOUR FIC

Okay this is really delicate because some people can do it really well and some people can’t

Switching back and forth between character point of view within one section of your fic is really hard for the reader to keep up with and it tends to look clumsy. It’s a no-no. 

If you have divides between sections, that’s where you can switch POV. 

However, I tend to write almost all of my fics with just one POV. I pick Character 1 or Character 2 no matter how long it is. It’s cleaner that way. 

NEVER USE FIRST PERSON IN FANFICTION, IT IS UNIVERSALLY LOATHED. 

I need to remember this one-- don’t describe clothes too much. You’ll sound like a cheesy YA novel. (I’m a hypocrite, okay?) 

Titles matter. Work hard on picking a title. I s2g it actually makes a big difference. Idk why. Titles. 

***Side note: All writing rules are all allowed to be broken. There is truly no such thing as a steadfast writing rule. The more comfortable you get with writing, the more comfortable you could be with breaking these rules. Does that make sense?

[pathopharmacology]

Eyy, so I've just finished reading one of your stories on A03 and I was wondering, how on earth do you write dialogue so well? I've always struggled with it a bit, is there some kind of secret I'm missing here lol?

Aw, thank you! I feel like dialogue is one of the things I do consistently well, so it’s nice to know other people think so too.

So I’m not entirely sure how to go about telling someone else how to improve their dialogue skills, but I can tell you the kinds of things I keep in mind whenever I’m writing a story? All of it applies to original work as well as fanfic, but if you’re writing fanfic I strongly recommend going back to the source material and examining how the characters talk. Write down some of the dialogue, just to get a feel for the words and rhythm. When you’re really struggling to capture a particular character’s voice, this can be super helpful.

word choice

This is one of the best and easiest places to start when it comes to tinkering with dialogue: what language choices do these characters make? Some people litter their conversations with profanity, to the point where it becomes a notable thing if they’re making an effort NOT to. Some have a tendency to use five dollar words at the drop of a hat, and it becomes a point of characterization as to whether that’s because they’re a pretentious asshat or genuinely quite intelligent or if they’re desperately insecure and just want to sound smart. Some use words like “ain’t” and “gonna” and “woulda”, while other stick with “isn’t” and “going to” and “would’ve”. Others leave off contractions altogether: “is not”, “would have”. All of these have a very different feel, and if a character who normally says “ain’t” suddenly switches to “is not,” then it’s a signal to the reader that something is going on. Does the character speak more than one language? When might they switch between languages and why? What words do they use?

The nice thing about focusing on word choice in dialogue is that it’s relatively easy to do, and making changes on that level can have a HUGE impact on how your dialogue reads.  

sentence structure and rhythm

I lumped these together because I feel like they’re related. When I think about sentence structure, I’m looking at how the sentences themselves are put together, while rhythm refers more to how those sentences sound and feel. Does this person speak in long, complicated sentences that flow beautifully into one another with plenty of pauses for breathing and gathering one’s thoughts? Or do they speak in rapid fire short sentences that quickly bounce from topic to topic and interrupt with no space in between? The physical structure of a sentence on the page strongly affects its overall rhythm, as do the word choices you use – dialogue that doesn’t contain contractions, for example, tends to come off as stilted or excessively formal. Long sentences that don’t contain much in the way of commas, semicolons, or periods feel breathless and anxious. If that’s what you’re going for, cool! If not, you’ve probably got some tinkering to do. 

interior vs exterior voice

Okay, this one is fun. Basically, it’s how the character’s internal monologue sounds vs. what they say out loud. I tend to write in very tight third-person limited POV, which means everything in the story is filtered through that character’s perception and they’re essentially functioning as the story’s narrator. Where this becomes useful in dialogue is that, depending on the character involved, what they’re thinking and what they’re saying can be VASTLY different. The other characters don’t have access to the internal monologue, so they can only react to what’s being said out loud, but your narrator can react internally and externally to what the other person’s just said. The same considerations about word choice, sentences structure, and sentence rhythm apply to internal dialogue as well as external, but you can definitely play up the contrast a bit more to give some added depth to the characterization.  

how it sounds out loud

Reading your own work aloud is a good idea anyway, but it’s immeasurably helpful when it comes to tweaking your dialogue. You’ll notice when something is off with the rhythm or the language, and you’ll be able to hear when the two parts of a conversation don’t QUITE match up. Do the voices, if you need to. You might feel extremely silly doing it (the more adult stories I write become an exercise in acute CRINGE, let me tell you), but it’ll help. Trust me.

-

The big thing to remember with dialogue of any sort is that it doesn’t sound the way actual people actually talk in the real world. Dialogue always always ALWAYS needs to serve a function within the story: whenever you have two (or more) characters talking with one another, you should always be asking yourself what purpose the conversation is serving within the larger story. What does it reveal about the plot or the characters? What is being driven forward as a result of the conversation? What do the characters want to be telling one another, and how is that different from what they’re actually telling one another? What do they want to share? What do they want to keep hidden? Are they coming to the conversation as equals, or does one of them have power over the other? Dialogue never happens in a vacuum, and the context surrounding a particular conversation can be just as important as the words themselves.

Anyway, I hope this was helpful in at least some way. I wish you all the luck in the world in your dialogue-writing endeavors :D