#because of writing for FTH and whumptober

[meetinginsamarra]

Fanfics I really liked in August 2024

So. Since I keep a list of what I´ve read anyway (there´s always a list), I will rec all the fics I´ve wholly enjoyed on a monthly basis. Old and new, canon or AU, big or small authors, long or short but nearly always Johnlock (-ish).

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Lost Boy Found by suitesamba @suitesamba

10 Years after Sherlock's "suicide," he returns to 221B to find that life - and John - have moved on but finds that there is always room for one more in a family.

Great reunion fic and John has a lovely son.

Thankless (a 5 + 1) by Silvergirl @totallysilvergirl

Five times that helping Sherlock Holmes was a thankless task, and one time that it wasn't.

Snippets of Sherlock's past and awesome Greg Lestrade.

A Study in Strays by philalethia

John Watson moves to 221B Baker Street. Unfortunately, the flat's already occupied.

Catlock. Need I say more?

Leveling Up by philalethia

John plays video games, Sherlock writes a guide on GameFAQs, and they get on quite well together... eventually. Told entirely through emails, text messages, and voice chats.

Enemies to lovers, one of my fave tropes. Sherlock is a delightful arse but John gets to like him...

Becoming Us (A reunion in three parts) by addicted2hugh @addicted2hugh

After watching Mary's last message, Sherlock and John try to be the "Baker Street Boys" again. Rebuilding the destroyed flat is the easy part. Will they manage to rebuild their friendship as well? And what did Mary mean when she said: "And if I'm gone, I know what you could become."?

S4 fix-it with hurt/comfort and friends to lovers. Addictive to read.

What It Is by addicted2hugh 

How I wish TLD had ended. John regrets bringing up The Woman. Sherlock is confused. Instead of birthday cake, there is birthday sex (with obstacles). Everything's alright in the end. I'm really bad at summaries.

TLD fix-it with hurt/comfort and friends to lovers. Very wholesome fix-it, no TFP.

[astriiformes]

WIP Meme: List the titles/filenames/descriptions of your WIPs and tell us a little bit about them/wail about them/beg for inspiration/whatever you want! Then tag some people for a no-obligation mutual wailing/cheering/complaining session!

Was tagged by @marypsue to participate in this one. I am being restrained with my definition of WIP here because especially with all my Critical Role thoughts as of late I have been opening up some truly ancient drafts and contemplating acts of hubris, but these ones are all “Yes, I am definitely working on this one for real” projects. (Ones that are at least partially on Ao3 include links!)

Aurum Horizontale - or, as the draft is actually called in my google docs “vampire times (advanced);” my 2021 FTH gift for @twitcherpated which I am going to finish VERY VERY SOON because even the gracious extension I got from the event organizers after I busted up my hand is running out on me (rip). That said it has been an absolute delight to work on -- a chance to play around with one of my very favorite Critical Role fic tropes, “What if Percy wasn’t able to escape Whitestone when the Briarwoods attacked?” with a very fun twist. I have loved it ever since getting the prompt idea, partially just because it’s been a great excuse to indulge in my love of writing gothic horror and whump, as well asto go absolutely overboard with including all sorts of references to the history of science (particularly alchemy). Also, officially my longest story... ever?

Make A Little Birdhouse In Your Soul - one of my TOH Whumptober fills from last year all grown-up into a proper fic. (And, my first longfic for The Owl House). People kept saying they were interested in seeing it expanded and I was too! My personal attempt at writing a “Hunter gets taken in by the Owl House crew” stories with some distinct deviations from the fic norm, in part because I want to highlight some of the (fairly major!) characters the fandom tends to ignore a lot more -- but with some other twists too. On a break while I finish up other projects but Ch3 is coming along pretty decently all the same

marty mcfly trans - what it says on the tin, really. Marty is one of my favorite trans headcanons, and after realizing one particular way that would seriously complicate the narrative of the movies, I decided I wanted to dig into that in fic form. It has spiraled since then, to say the least, in part because I realized I was really invested in doing historical research for it -- most of the time, I feel like trans Marty headcanons don’t ground themselves in the 70s-80s very much, but I am full of hubris and also have a deep emotional connection to learning trans history. A librarian friend of mine, @suzirya, has provided excellent research help for this story and it’s one of the most personal things I’ve ever explored writing. I am absolutely committed to trying to get it posted sometime this year.

marty mcfly trans: TWO!! - ....yes, another one. It’s a duology, one taking place before the movies and one taking place after, essentially (yes I am very intentionally channeling some past/present/future elements here). The first one is from Doc’s perspective and while I love elements of the outsider POV on it, I decided it was also important to me to do a Marty-POV story, whcih is full of... extremely personal metaphors, to say the least. Ultimately I think it’s going to be the perfect way to explore what I want to do with these but it DOES means writing two different extremely long oneshots.

I Breathed a Song Into the Air - I had forgotton. That my actual google doc for this one is called “ELF DEPRESSION.” Anyways. My love letter (ironically) to the other half of my queer identity, this one is a post-canon LotR story dealing with Legolas and Gimli’s relationship and the former’s coming to terms with being aromantic and asexual. I love this on dearly and even though it’s been on hiatus since late 2020 (....yes, I know) I have every intention of still finishing it. The deeply aromantic version of a shipping fic in which I go “But what if this relationship were extremely complicated and hard to confine to either romantic or non-romantic?”

I am literally always down to talk about any of these stories, so please, if your interest is piqued or you have anything you’d like to say, hit me up

Going to tag a handful of people if they’re interested (including Twitch and Sarah, who have already been tagged in a round-about way), so @animatedamerican, @sidewalk-scrawls, @lafseanchai, and @shadowen also feel free to join if you’re at all interested.

[meetinginsamarra]

Writing Plans/Ideas for 2025

@calaisreno asked me what my plans are for 2025, writing-wise.

Starting with @chriscalledmesweetie 's Johnlock January, there will be 31 limericks for the prompts. These are all done.

Fluffbruary will post the prompts tomorrow and I'm toying with the idea to build a fluffy retirement!lock fic around them if they fit. Not 100% sure, I don't want to put myself under stress. Depends on how much I will get done in January.

Maybe I'll participate again in FTH with a 5-10k fic. Undicided, so far.

I'm definitely going to do calaisreno's May Prompts because they are a special challenge as in I have to come up with something that fits the prompt within 24 hours. This year has been such a surprise to myself and I want to have this again!

Most likely, I guess I won't be able to resist doing Whumptober for the 4th time in a row. It will get me to edge of exhaustion for weeks again but on the other hand it's such an awesome experience, I won't miss it. Two of my (what I personally think) best fics have been created during whumptober. I had an idea for the start of a whumpy fic some days ago.

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There are several not very much developed WIPs, mostly in my head.

Like the retirement fic (see above), a funny different first meeting, another more action-y different first meeting, sequels to two of my series, a Sandman XO, the fairy-tale AU that seemigly cannot get finished and the whumptober idea.

I have a very vague Cyberpunk XO idea and a pseudo-historic heist sort-of idea dancing around in my head for a long time.

Likely, I'll write something completely different. 🙂

[meetinginsamarra]

I started my FTH fic!

Monday I finally started writing my FTH fic and have worked on it every day since.

My high bidder prompted they liked soft stories, getting together, and fake boyfriends. Humour would be enjoyable, too.

So, that's exactly what they'll get. LOL

Currently plotted and at about 4k words.

I hope to finish it until September because I'll most likely do the whumptober prompts again and after that I'll probably need a respite from writing.

[astriiformes]

New Year’s Resolutions are always dubiously helpful for me, but it is a good time for reflection, so here is an organization of things that are not quite “resolutions,” but possible goals for me nonetheless:

Writing:

Last year I made a post expressing how excited I was that I had started working on fic again in earnest, and modestly expressed the hope that I could match it and write at least 25k of fic in 2021. Turns out that I instead managed to publish 84,582 words of fic, marking my most productive writing year.... ever. 

What I am taking away from that: Fandom challenges & events are great motivators for me. The bulk of that published fic is from Whumptober and my Fandom Trumps Hate piece, and Whumptober in particular was a fantastic test of my skills & gave me some ideas for larger stories

What I would like to do in 2022: Keep that momentum! I love writing and posting fic so much and even though it’s hard it’s been great for me! That said, 2021 was also the year of not working on existing projects and instead posting new ones. Part of that was a new special interest developing in August, but in 2022 I want to return to my LotR longfic and BttF stories I’ve had percolating for ages, alongside new TOH stuff and finishing my FTH story/hopefully taking on a new one

(Additionally: I want to look more at non-fanfic writing projects. Thinking more seriously about original fiction or academic/freelance publishing seems like something worth doing if my writing ability is really returning so strongly, after struggling with it for so long)

Cosplay:

I only finished one cosplay in 2021, but Hunter’s Golden Guard outfit is far and away the most complicated one I’ve ever made and proof that I really have launched into a new sort of... echelon of ability

What I am taking away from that: I can in fact learn new skills without too much angst, and I do have some really solid problem-solving creating abilities (throwing together a mask to go with my Percy cosplay at 3am the night before wearing it again also proved this). It is absolutely worth tackling the projects I have been putting off because I think my abilities aren’t good enough. (Also, I really love the hobby and should invest in it)

What I would like to do in 2022: Finish at least one new cosplay from scratch. I also might like to fix up or remake parts of some others, but I want to tackle something completely new and finish it before the end of the year. Raine, most likely, but I also kind of want to look seriously at starting Fjord or Caduceus finally after worrying that they’d be “too hard” for me for a while now. Also, maybe look into doing a real photoshoot at some point because my costume(s) actually look good!

Music:

I struggled with this one this year and got very imposter syndrome-y about my abilities as a musician. Not so many successes. But I did write multiple original songs, which is a new one for me, and play one concert at the local con this summer, and at the very end of the year, before I injured my hand, was actually trying to regularly practice again!

What I am taking away from that: I know what I am insecure about and should tackle that as well as try to actually keep that practicing momentum. Also, I am a better lyricist/songwriter than I think probably

What I would like to do in 2022: Figure out regular practicing methods that work for me. Write at least a few more songs. There is a very decent chance that 2022 might end up being our album year -- work towards that. I think I need to share my music more to feel better about it, because I am my own worst critic so.... do that. On tumblr or on streams or even at more concerts if they’re possible. Also, if it’s possible, I really want to play in an ensemble by the end of the year. That probably means thinking about an audition, which terrifies me, but... I should try to bite that bullet. Maybe.

Of course there are other things I want to work on, but I think my school/mental health/interpersonal goals are a very different beast, to be handled differently. Mostly I wanted to look at three of the hobbies I invested in most this year in various ways & that made me happy (or sometimes did, at least), beacause oh boy were they one of the things that carried me through this last year, and I’d like for them to keep doing that. Creating is really important to me. I want to keep and get even better at creating.