#but it’s a niche post canon fic in a small fandom so naturally there’s not a ton of interest which is literally understandable

[ladyofpembroke]

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[queenpolyweek]

QUEEN POLYWEEK 2023: COMING TO YOUR CITY!

Welcome to the annual event of poly!Queen featuring our favourite Brits as special guests. No entry fee, no small print. Just a celebration of your creative outpour!

WHEN AND WHERE?

From 5th through 8th May! (Fri-Mon)

Post your fanfic to our Ao3 collection Queen Poly!Week 2023 and @ us on tumblr on any of your creations so we can reblog and share! Additionally, you can use the tag #QueenPolyWeek2023.

WHO IS WELCOME?

Anyone! We applaud any form of artistic creation and will take a good look at all of the entries. Fanfic, art, mood boards, edits, playlists, you name it. You have an old sketch you’d like to include? Do! A fic idea miraculously fitting one of the prompts? Share! Write an epic or a haiku, we’ll love both! As long as it focuses around polyamorous Queen, it’s welcome here.

Note: if you would like to stay anonymous during the event, worry not. We’re here to answer any (further) questions in our inbox, respecting your boundaries. Ao3 and tumblr Asks both have an anonymous function, easy to be utilised. Discreetness is a given.

Find this quick guide on how to post anonymously on Ao3. If you prefer tumblr, you can always DM us and we will share your creations on your behalf, top secret.

WHAT IS POLY?

We want the event to be respectful towards all, which means being mindful of the nature of polyamorous relationships. That being said, any pairing that includes three or more partners is more than welcome. See more information and guidance, kindly provided by last year’s organisers.

Our rule: your work must circle around a minimum of one of the Queen boys.

OT4 is a classic. But it’s not a must.  Feeling ambitious and you’re good at juggling multiple characters at the same time? Throw in the roadies and maybe even canon lovers and see where that wild road leads you. Or maybe you’re more of a OT3 person. If you want to write a Dom/Debbie/Roger, you totally can. Draw that Brian/Tim/Crystal you've been thinking about for ages now. It’s called niche for a reason.

However, be mindful of your audience. Focus lies on Queen and the entourage.

Note: platonic or friendly themes are naturally as strongly encouraged as romantic ones. Give us a solid poly narrative to feast on and we’re sold.

PROMPTS?

You bet. We have fashioned a few amazing categories into prompts for each day, there to inspire or give direction if you're lost for ideas. Follow them, don’t follow them, combine different days or all six at once — the world lies at your feet.

Day 1: Fri, 5th May

London/Trident Studios

When you’re young and you’re poor and you’re crazy

Style: Urban fantasy

Poly prompt: Last one to join

Hanahaki disease*¹ AU

Moving a piano

*¹ need a crash course in Hanahaki disease to refresh your memory?

Day 2: Sat, 6th May

Countryside/Ridge Farm Studio

Couldn’t sleep at night ‘til you were mine

Style: Magical realism

Poly prompt: Polyamory negotiations

Bakery AU

Getting sunburnt

Day 3: Sun, 7th May

Munich/Musicland Studios

We’ll give you grounds for divorce

Style: Cyberpunk

Poly prompt: Feeling left out

Zombie/(Post-)Apocalypse AU

Receiving flowers

Day 4: Mon, 8th May

Montreux/Mountain Studios

We went to Bali, saw God and Dali

Style: Noir/Mystery

Poly prompt: Confusing people with unorthodoxy

Art dealers AU

Feeling old

ADDITIONAL RULES?

To ensure a fun environment surrounding this event, we kindly ask you to mind the following set of rules:

Support creators! They provide you with their lovely skills and do it for free. Make an effort to leave kudos, comment, like, reblog — play your part in keeping fandom alive.

Tag your work appropriately! If necessary, include trigger and NSFW/18+ warnings. Ao3 provides you with their information and tagging system upon creating a new draft. Find this helpful guide for more detailed explanation.

The same applies to tumblr posts! By manually adding a :readmore: cut on mobile or clicking the "Add read-more link" symbol that appears on the far right of an empty paragraph on desktop, you make sure readers can evade any triggers or NSWF/18+ content. Please also use this function if you post a longer fanfic.

Do not engage with hateful feedback! You don't owe them a minute of your life. If you find ugly comments under your work, delete them. If you feel you want to inform us about it, please do and we'll support you through it. For prevention, Ao3 has options for comment moderation and visibility to users under "Edit My Works"/"Post New" > "Privacy". You can always choose to moderate your comments. 

As the audience, do not supply negativity of any sort! We do not tolerate hateful feedback or comments about anyone involved in the event (i.e. creators, Queen and associates, specific pairings/tokens). Do yourself a favour and read tags and warnings before opening any work. If necessary, click away. Don’t Like, Don’t Read is an easy way to coexist in fandom. Self-govern your consumer experience on any such platform and your life will be less stressful, promise.

Do not interact with NSFW/18+ content if you're a minor! If you want to consume it regardless, we can’t stop you. However, please do not leave any comments or feedback, or otherwise announce your presence to the creators as it might make them feel uncomfortable.

We encourage all of you to participate. No need to feel shy to share, after all, it’s a judgement free zone! Don't worry if you don't manage to finish your contribution in time, we also accept late entries. The Ao3 collection will stay open for a while and you can always find us here. Just don’t forget to @ us!

If you don’t have time to create, you can still participate in the event as a patron of fine arts. Trust us, your feedback is as important part of the successful event as are all the creations. 

We wish you all the motivation and inspiration! Have fun and be active!

If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us!

Hosted by @carrrothead-vol2 and @of-streetlightfancy

[fancifulflora]

F.A.Q

What exactly is this blog?

I have a lot of niche interests and am a part of a lot of “fandoms” I suppose, so I wanted an outlet to feel productive and make content again. It’s been a long time since I’ve been back on tumblr and even longer since I’ve written anything so I’m hoping I won’t get discourged or burnt out this time.

How do you write?

Normally I opt for third person in order to get as much information and perspectives in at once, but I can also write in second person with more ‘you’s in there if requested. Honestly I shift between the two a little too often lol. Headcanons for the most part will feature a lot more you’s than drabbles by default though. I try to keep things gender neutral unless specified so if you want a M or F reader be sure to include it! Unless specified, my ‘nsfw’ pieces will be vague and fade-to-black on top of that.

When are requests open?

Requests are pretty much open 24/7, but whether I answer the asks or not is dependant on a myriad of factors. (How many requests there are, mood, energy level, the ask, ect.)

What fandoms do you write for?

Too many. I’ll have a list of them linked here for people to go through. Everything should be organized by the particular fandom and then if there are characters underneath that would mean I can only write for that particular group of characters. In bigger IPs, I narrow it down to continuities that I’m familar with.

How do you answer requests?

It depends on what is being requested. For example, if someone wants headcanons I will type up everything in a bullet format with small pieces of dialogue if I’m feeling spicy. If someone wants a drabble then I’ll type up a couple paragraphs- maybe more if I’m feeling especially creative. I won’t really make fics of any kind since writing long form content isn’t specialty. There’s also no set order I’ll answer things in so it could take a long while for your request to be answered. 

On top of that, I’ll also answer most things people ask me about myself. Whether it’s my own analysis of a character, writing tips, general opinions. So long as I don’t find the questions controversial or invasive in nature I don’t mind.

What don’t you write?

I won’t go anywhere near pedophilia, incest, snuff, scat/piss, beastiality. Honestly, anything illegal or kinks that gross me out are a no-go. I also don’t do OC x Canon, but I do have my own OCs that I may or may not introduce in the future. If one of my friends have an OC I especially like, then I’ll probably write for them too. Idk, it’s up to my mood.

Since this is just a hobby for me, I’ll just be doing requests that pique my interest anyway.

Do you do AUs?

Sure, if the au is straightforward enough or is already well established within the fandom itself I have no problem with doing AUs. Certain AUs may require more research or thought than others but it’s not off the table.

Can you tag your posts with __?

Sure, if you need a particular tw or genre/topic (?) tagged then I’ll do my best to accomodate. If the blog ever gets to a certain size it may be difficult for me to go back to all my posts, but I’ll do my best. If you ever see a post of mine that hasn’t been tagged please let me know- old or new. Just please be patient if I don’t get to it immediately.

PSA

This is less of a question I get and more of a small list of things I want to make clear. This is a blog for 18+ adults. All minors will be blocked. Everything I write is based upon my interpretation of the character. I do my best to study their words, actions, and any canon piece of information I can get my hands on. If the resulting works do not line up with your own interpretation or vision of the character then I simply ask you to read someone else’s writing.

[logicheartsoul]

how to deal with poor fic reception? i have an ocxcanon series that i put a LOT of my heart/soul into. i just started posting the first few chs. bc it’s oc/canon + a smol fandom, i have no delusions abt how much attention it will get. it has gotten a nice number of kudos so far….but no comments. i’m trying to tell myself it’s OK but it’s kinda hard to feel OK…i’m not sure how to deal with this so i can still keep writing the whole series since i do love the story very very much

I guess it depends on the definition on what you mean by 'poor fic reception' because depending on the fandom and depending on how many fans are in it and how active it is, something that may have low numbers in a bigger, more active fandom, may actually be doing pretty well. I've been in a variety of very rare, small, niche fandoms and some extremely big, active ones. Something like 15 kudos in a small af fandom is pretty significant, coz the smaller the pool of people, the more likely most of the fans have seen it, you know? Even in a big fandom, 15 isn't bad either -- in all the content they had to choose from, those 15 decided to look at your work? That's pretty damn good I feel.

Just by the general nature of things, any fics that are primarily only oc/canon fic is gonna be harder to get more reception than if a fic has canon/canon only ship or if it's a fic with canon/canon and oc/canon. I could probably get into it, and there's lot of meta essays discussing the why's about it, but the fact is, it's just naturally harder to get more readers into it. Since you've mentioned about having no delusions about the attention, I'm sure you know the reasons that I do too.

It's good you got a lot of kudos so far! I dunno if you've seen the Meaning of Kudos post (which is a survey done by readers of ao3 on what they actually mean when they kudos a fic) but all those kudos do mean something, and it's all positive.

I totally understand though, wanting to hear what people think about the work and effort you've put into a story, and how it may seem like silence. A good thing to keep in mind is that [x] amount of people read your work and liked it. Sometimes it's hard to lose sight of it because it's numbers on a screen, but a good trick I've learned from someone is picture being in a room. Imagine the number of people you got for those kudos or hits. If it's 26, holy shit, that's 26 people, that's almost the start of a big party! If it's 100 or more, that's the size of a big college lecture class.

Another thing I know from reading fic for a long time and writing fic and being friends with fic writers for years, is that many people might enjoy the premise/idea of an on-going story but will wait for it to be completed before reading it. Some of them they got burned by amazing WIPs and then the authors abandoned the stories or it doesn't update for years or they have limited time to read fic and wanna read it all in one go. And even if people are reading your on-going fic, they sometimes don't comment for the same reason -- they want to save all their thoughts and opinions til the very end.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with asking in the author's notes about leaving a comment. Of course, not in a rude way, but something like 'oh I spent a lot of time working on this chapter this week because...[insert reason], I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments!' or something along those lines. Sometimes readers just need some nice encouragement to leave a comment, even if it's just an emoji reaction.

If the story is one you love writing, I hope you keep going at it! I hope these things might help make it easier, coz it can really get tough. But I hope it won't discourage you to keep going.

Now, if you want to potentially get more eyes to look at your work -- and therefore increase the chances of a reader who does comment to show up -- there are ways to do that. They're not all guaranteed, of course, and I've known MANY an amazing fic writer whose works can get overlooked for lots of reasons and the most popular work can be someone who's just managing to be striking it hot while the timing is right with the most popularly sought out tropes with decent enough execution on the ideas. Popularity does not equal skill and does NOT indicate people who are not popular enough are bad writers.

This response is getting kinda lengthy, so I'll leave it under the cut.

Some of that is of course making sure you're not posting in the AO3 dead zone hours (which I recently found out is a thing, wtf) (check this post out for more info ) so that it allows your chapter updates to show up on the front page of your pairing's tag and a better chance at new readers to see it.

There's also promoting the fic on a tumblr account (either a personal tumblr, a writing only tumblr, or a fandom only tumblr, whatever you want to choose) and using the right tags to get eyes on it (first 5 for it to show up on tagged pages and first 10 for in search results). Please don't use tags that have nothing to do with the fic --characters or pairings that aren't relevant -- because the fans of those tags will most likely just block you, but also it's easier to maintain tagging to relevant stuff as well. Also, it just makes fans of those characters or pairings annoyed, to the point of possibly writing posts about that very thing. And annoyed/mad fans will spread the knowledge of who is doing that kind of thing if they're mean/petty enough. Just better for everyone around to stick with fandoms, characters, and pairing tags that are relevant.

And don't be afraid to reblog your own work to promote it -- people have busy lives and also live in different timezones and countries and so whoever might be seeing might be like, 'oh! This fic updated!'

Another good tip is to regularly update but not post like 5 chapters at once. Max 2 chapters in one go is ok, but space out the chapter updates if you aren't already doing so. That allows people time to read each part through. The only exception I can think of for more than 2 chapters if it's like... the very end of the story, then people can be like 'oh this 20 chaptered fic is complete! I can start reading it now!'

Also, people love following authors they like on other platforms, so if you're comfortable with it, you can also leave in the author's notes the tumblr account you'd want them to interact with.

There's too making friends in the fandom you're in -- people who can understand and share your enthusiasm for why you wanna write this. Sometimes what we're searching for when wanting comments for our fics, other than validation, is just someone to connect to and seeing how what we created connected with them. Sometimes just getting a friend's comment can be better than a random person's.

And, while not all fandoms do this, some do, and that's to find a person or a fandom blog that helps promote other writers for their works and getting someone's eyes on it. Like a pairing/reading library or someone who routinely recs works and encourages others to send their fics in so they can check it out. That could also help! Of course, that's no guarantee the person or people running it WILL read it but sometimes you just gotta put yourself out there. You won't always strike but you never know.

Anyways, I hope all of this was helpful, anon! I do hope you get more good feedback on your fic, that someone will comment, and that you continue enjoying writing this story you love.

And of course, if none of this helps, sometimes it IS ok to step back and take a break. Take a break from the writing or in fandom, whether that's a day or a week or longer. No comments is not an indicator of your worth as a person or as a writer. Sometimes, stepping back to distract ourselves or to not think about it for awhile helps refocus it all.

[phoenixtakaramono]

Does Bing gē Have Descendants in ‘The Untold Tale?’

This topic has come up a few times since The Untold Tale takes place in the PIDW universe (post-Bingge vs Bingmei extra), I figured I might as well compile and archive my official answer here for me to refer my AO3 readers to in the future for convenience’s sake. I hope everyone doesn’t mind. :) I’m always happy to answer questions!

TL;DR

Q: Will we see Bing gē having fathered children with his harem of 600 or so wives in TUT?

A: For TUT, the answer is a definite “no.” There were a lot of factors which’d contributed to my decision. I’ll try to explain my reasoning down below.

Context

In PIDW, it is canon that Luo Binghe has a bountiful number of descendants with his harem of 600-or-so wives. It is a detail that has been mentioned even in ch1 of SVSSS and in ep1 of the donghua.

(SVSSS Excerpt - ch1)

(SVSSS donghua - ep1)

I like to plan things ahead of time. So from very early on, I knew this would be something I would have to decide on whether or not to address when I’d finally decided to expand TUT from just a prologue into a full-blown story. And after contemplating it, I decided against adding children into the story. It is because 1) it would make the situation more complicated, and 2) it would take TUT in a different direction that wouldn’t be fun for me to write.

I’m a very decisive writer, meaning when I make my mind up about something, chances are I won’t change my mind. This is because I would have already planned it into my plot outline, which means changing a decision would require me to change other details in the other chapters I have planned for that story. (I’m typically not a spontaneous writer; I try not to write spontaneously because when you’re a writer who rotates through multiple WIPs with different characters across different genres or writing styles, you inevitably have writer’s block because you probably won’t remember all the ideas or the direction you had whenever you return back to a different WIP. To reduce this shortcoming, it helps me personally to have a plot outline. This way I can return to any WIP, read my notes and then transcribe them into legible paragraphs, find a way to transition between the story beats I have to hit for that chapter, and then eventually post the final draft to AO3 when I feel it’s ready.)

Having made a decision, I knew I had to set it up in TUT and give a “reasonable explanation in-story.” Hence, in ch2, we see:

(Excerpt I - ch2)

Basically the set-up is TUT takes place post-Bingge vs Bingmei, but between “the third or fourth book” of the hypothetical PIDW webnovel series aka before Airplane wrote the fanservicey chapters where the luckier of LBH’s wives give birth to children during the harem drama plots and the children are probably rarely, if ever, mentioned again in the story as a lot of stallion novels tend to do.

(Excerpt II - ch2)

(Excerpt III - ch2)

Contrarian Tendencies

You know the saying: Monkey see, monkey do? In my case, it’s monkey see, monkey do not do.

A little fun fact about me as a writer: if I have already seen a fanfic where someone has already written a concept or idea into their story, chances are I will just avoid it entirely in my own stories. I don’t know why this aversion exists, but I’m assuming it’s because of my counterculture hipster inclinations and an intrinsic fear of plagiarism which has been beaten into all of our skulls since adolescence. There’s nothing wrong with being inspired by other people’s works. Technically everything’s been done before in writing so, as a writer, a good rule of thumb is to always try to give it your own unique spin on things. So for me, my brain somehow interpreted this a step further. This is a reason why I try to avoid reading stories from whichever fandom my WIP is from during the writing process of updating a fic, because this is how I get influenced. Once I see an idea or interpretation from another fanfiction, it influences me to not want to write it into my own. This is a very strong unconscious impulse for me. I guess this is just the neurons in my brain’s thinking that this way, it won’t be something my readers will have read before and the story idea will come across as different or fresh, and mine. In a way this is also how I show respect for fanfiction writers in the same fandom—by being inspired to not be inspired, ha. I like to think every story in the world serves a niche audience, so seeing a diverse range of originality and interpretations in a fandom is a good thing. This is also how I feel when I am able to identify certain popular tropes or depictions or patterns in a fandom; 99% of the time, it makes me feel a compulsion to “go against the grain” or write the opposite. For example, you have no idea how long it took me to come around the idea of incorporating the fanon “A-Yuan” into TUT. However cute it is, the moment it dominated the fandom (well, “dominated” is an exaggeration; it’s more like I’ve seen enough, especially in the Original LBH/ SY | SQQ tag), my gut reaction was to nope out of using it. But after seeing a lot of comments in my inbox with readers affectionately calling SY “A-Yuan,” I’d contemplated it for a long time and it wasn’t until ch4 that I decisively decided that yes, I can have Bing gē calling SY “A-Yuan” in TUT—but it has to be at the right moment for maximum dramatic and emotional impact. (See this thread that started it all. And this is the small sneak peek I wrote where LBH will call SY that for the first time.) <- This is the rare 1% where I actually conformed to what’s popular.

In this case, when I finally decided to expand the prologue into a full-blown story, coincidentally I had just recently read a good Binggeyuan (Bingyuan) fanfic which featured a kidnapped Shen Yuan interacting with Bing gē’s harem and LBH’s children/descendants. I’d liked their portrayal and even thought the children were cute. <- However, with me having reading this, the problem came up: I felt the familiar stubbornness in me rearing its head. So knowing myself, if I had included children, it is very likely the direction that I would have gone down for TUT would have been the opposite. To further complicate matters, you have to keep in mind the kind of writer I am. I tend to like grounding stories with a semblance of realism, no matter if the genre is pseudohistorical fantasy, romance, sci-fi, etc. And this writer has seen and read quite a few harem and palace intrigue Chinese dramas/ premises.

For further context, in those types of “historical” C-dramas^, in that sort of environment which fosters scheming, competition, jealousy, etc, it is almost expected to see heirs aka children aka descendants harmed along with the women. Innocent parties are often victims in these sorts of cutthroat premises, to underscore the underlying message the show or novel wishes to present. (See Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace. See Yanxi Palace. See The Legend of Haolan. See Nirvana in Fire. See The Rebirth of the Malicious Empress of Military Lineage. Etc.) And me being me, this would be the direction I would take. Remember, while TUT is meant to emulate a legitimate danmei C-novel reading experience in a fantasy world, I do drop pseudohistorical and cultural Easter eggs into the story. So trust me when I say you would not like the direction TUT would have gone down in, had I made LBH have children with his harem. I mean, theoretically yes, we could’ve seen endearing children characters from me, but you would have also seen me addressing a lot of the baggage that comes with (see Comment III Excerpt down below).

The situation with dissolving Bing gē’s harem is already complicated enough. As his romance with Shen Yuan develops, I didn’t want to have an additional headache thinking about how to address the issue of LBH having children already. Divorces in a pseudohistorical context is already a heavy topic—even more so when it’s divorces with children in the mix. Naturally I will still have SY and LBH eventually discuss the matter of legitimate heirs since LBH will essentially become the Sacred Ruler of all Three Realms and it’s a traditional precedent for an emperor to bed his empress, noble consort, and imperial concubines until he has his heirs (plural, because the rate of mortality was high in ancient China). In TUT’s case, at that point in the story SY will remind LBH that he’s essentially an immortal sovereign so there isn’t any need for an heir unless he wishes to retire. Furthermore, he will inform LBH that he could set a new precedent since he’s already different from the other emperors from history (with him being of half-Heavenly Demon and half-human cultivator lineage); as long as LBH is fully aware of all perspectives of the situation, he doesn’t necessarily need to conform to all traditions if this is something he really feels strongly about. But this future conversation(s) is likely the extent of it.

But wait, you say, what about a certain someone who’s going to be transmigrated as an imperial crown prince? Isn’t he going to be in that sort of vicious upbringing? <- Yes. But that’s an entirely seperate matter. In a way, since I’ve decided Bing gē will not have had any children or descendants in TUT, with Airplane, this now presents an opportunity for me to show the consequences of being one of the many children of an emperor with a harem of women vying for one man’s attention—and the power struggle that’d ensue in this kind of environment. It’s an interesting What-If parallel, if you think about it.

AO3 Comments

Although these are just small excerpts from replies I’ve written before, it’s nice and orderly to just compile them here for everyone since these will be buried underneath all the comments as TUT updates:

(Comment I- ch3)

(Comment II- ch4)

(Comment III- ch4)

Because of seeing comments that have asked me for my thoughts on whether or not I will include LBH’s children, I’ve had so much fun seeing theories thrown around: from LBH’s blood parasites being able to control conception, to someone’s headcanon about LBH being a hybrid and all that entails scientifically (think: mules). I will say in TUT, it’s more the former since in PIDW he’s supposed to have descendants; we’re pretending Bing gē doesn’t have any yet (and now definitely won’t, especially after having heard SY’s “prophecy”) because he subconsciously does not want children due to certain fears, trauma, etc. And his Heavenly Demon’s “blood parasites” (blood manipulation) is a convenient story device to explain why no wife has gotten pregnant yet.

I hope this explanation makes sense! Mainly I just wanted to have this archived on tumblr so that I have this post to refer to moving forward.

On a side note: especially since ch4 had been posted, quite a few people have actually mentioned they’ve read my replies to other comments and/or I have seen different people having hopped onto other readers’ comment threads (for example, imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw a reader you lovely person, you helpfully jumping in to respond to another reader’s questions about TUT, and their answers were actually aligned with what I would’ve answered!), so it’s always such a thrill whenever I see this level of engagement happening. I can’t explain why, but seeing this happening is just so cute to me. It really makes this writer feel so warm and fuzzy inside!

[the--highlanders]

tagged by @penny-anna, thank you!!

How many works do you have on AO3?

142!

What’s your total AO3 word count?

473,453... hopefully I’m on track to hit 500,000 by the end of the year! like obvs it’s not really about the word count & when I’m writing I��m not thinking that I have to make things longer (tho I think my fics have been getting naturally longer lately? I think I’m spending more time on descriptions and scene-setting. which I like but which def hasn’t been a conscious choice) BUT I am using word count goals to stave off the temptation to count kudos and notes & then get anxious about that. sir that is my emotional support ao3 word count.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

the only fandom I’ve properly posted stuff for is dr who... if you go back far enough in my main blog there might be like, 2 sh*rlock fics on my main blog. wouldn’t recommend it tho I was still in high school when I wrote them GFDJHS

I did write for both sh*rlock and torchwood tho. also warrior cats when I was quite a bit younger. & teeechnically my first fanfic was for the saddle club. but I was like, 3. so I didn’t know what a fanfic was. I was just writing a ‘book’ about the horses.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

(excluding timetracks because it’s not a fic to me, it’s a collection, I only put it in one ‘fic’ so I wouldn’t have to come up with individual titles for everything in it gjdhfks)

- stones

- tenth time lucky

- coincidences

- lucky guess

- amber

which is. an interesting selection gdfjkg

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to! I don’t get that many so it’s doable. I do need to get better at answering them quickly though jkdf I am very small and a little bit shy and people are very nice

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oo idk maybe longing for a time that never came? (no idea why I called it that ghdfk. it’s kind of pretentious for something that never had any rhyme or reason to it). because like. are they going to survive? idk!!!

(would also like to plug this art @ettelwenailinon made for that fic because I love it and also can’t believe it’s four years old??? hello????)

more recently I think it’s the kirkyard (which is a title I actually like!! I really like this fic actually) because two can’t do any more than get jamie out of the church but jamie doesn’t KNOW and he doesn’t understand why two doesn’t even stop to talk to him & it’s painful imo

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

not really! I’ve nothing against them, I just don’t tend to write them.

I wouldn’t really class my daemon au as a crossover because like. it’s not really set in the hdm universe, just uses the concept of daemons.

on the other hand I feel like the only crossover I have /is/ pretty niche and a bit wild. lifeboat is a crossover with ark: survival evolved which is very dear to my heart & in my head sits quite nicely with the dr who universe. that fic was SO self-indulgent to write but I loved it. plus the idea of victoria’s dad having THREE scientist friends who went mad in pursuit of godhood is so incredibly funny to me that I forget it isn’t canon

(also the character being referenced in that fic is now voiced by david tennant in-game/will be in the animated series so. gift of prophecy. dfjkhsglfk)

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

nope! like I said everyone has been very nice. the only hate has been from myself gdfhlk

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

don’t read it & don’t write it. just not my thing!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as I know o:

Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I mean it’s two/jamie. I’ve been here for like 6 years. still digging my hole.

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

talked about it in more detail in this ask but in terms of two-era stuff I’ve only got one that’s definitely never being finished and another that’s not got a great chance of being finished. & stuff I’ve written for other fandoms is just. look it’s gone gdjksdfdg. I don’t care about my dead sh*rlock wips it isn’t 2014 anymore

What are your writing strengths?

I honestly have no idea??? like I’m not being modest or anything, I genuinely don’t know. I think I can write some funny dialogue sometimes.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I’d really like to be better at plotting out longer fics tbh. having coherent plots and carrying through themes and details. people who can introduce an apparently inconsequential detail early in a fic and have it become relevant later in a way that makes you gasp are like, gods to me

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’m too nervous about getting stuff wrong so I wouldn’t do it unless I felt like I had enough of a grasp of the language to know what I was doing. but I am at a stage where I feel confident having some simple gàidhlig in my fics!! which is nice. I’d really like to be able to write more, and also to be able to write jamie’s dialogue with like. a sense of english as his second language/gàidhlig as his first? like in the occasional turn of phrase or way of putting something. outside of fic I’m super interested in what someone from that period who had gàidhlig as their first language and english as their second language would have sounded like and how they would have spoken.

my absolute dream would be to be able to translate all my fics completely into gàidhlig, but I’m probably years off from that, if I’ll ever be able to do it. I would really love to be able to write fiction in it, that would be a mark of proficiency in the language for me.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

kind of answered above!

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

oougkj idk!! I have so many now and honestly I forget about a lot of them.

the selkie au always has a special place in my heart, and I do love doing more historical-based ones, so I’ll say the kirkyard because I was already talking about it. if I can be a know-it-all while writing something I’m usually happy gjhklkh.

tagging @galacticlamps and anyone else who wants to do it!!

[twixtandshout]

Tagged by @pidgeonpostal! And not tagging anyone else because I have SOILED the original template (soiled it!!) in deference to my [brushes off skirt] mostly clean public-facing appearance.

...I’ve been making a lot of Spongebob memes lately for someone who has not seen Spongebob.

How many works do you have on AO3?

71!

What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

...306,834. Jesus.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Uh. Many! I do a lot of one-offs (and/or start long things I never finish) in many different places. My top three fandoms by fics written are RWBY (29), Undertale (25), Gravity Falls/Transcendence AU (4).

Bet you can’t tell where my hyperfixations have fallen. 

I’ve also got some Pokémon and Sonic the Hedgehog fics back on my ff.net account, or I think I still do, anyway, but let’s never go back there pls

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Sweeter Than Honey (Undertale): Taking a Completely unsurprising first place, with over 600 more kudos than the runner-up, the haphazard Underswap fic featuring a post-college self-insert I wrote just after high school! I shake my head some at how overblown and ridiculous the gap between this and all my other stuff is (c’mon, guys, I’ve written way better fics), but this is also the fic which prompted me (and at least one other person!) to start using they/them pronouns. I’ve gotten a lot of really sweet comments about how seen and appreciated it’s made people feel, so I can’t get down too far about it.

2. To Be A Hero (BNHA): I don’t count myself as part of the BNHA fandom, for a number of reasons, but for something that’s arguably the main motivation for the entire plot, Midoriya’s quirklessness is something I’ve never thought has been handled well. This fic marked the first time I (somewhat tentatively) claimed the disability label (thanks again to Sweeter Than for prompting that realization) to hold that lens over canon. It also really shot up my chart, dang! It’s the only thing here I’d consider “recent.”

3. Three-Sentence Shipping (Undertale): Self-explanatory.

4. Brothers Beyond Bonedaries (Undertale): Ah, the way-overcomplicated AU³ I got nowhere close to finishing. One of the things I really like about Undertale is the interface screw, how Toby Fox uses the medium of the video game to pull off crazy things and enhance his game, but most of the fic written for the fandom seems dedicated to explaining it away, grounding it, rather than taking it to the next step and messing with the medium of fanfiction when you keep the story going. I tried to do something cool like that here, playing with questions like narrator and authorship and breaking the fourth wall, even taking the “final boss” fight to a “totally separate” fic reached through the first by link – but, well, then I never finished it, which probably didn’t make anything less confusing for the poor folks who missed the intent.

5. Spirit and Such (Gravity Falls: Transcendence AU): A whole fic written to line out a particular image I had, which, naturally, never made it to the page. I consider it a bit of a cautionary tale for myself when it comes to writing (near-)original content; there’s a lot I look back on and cringe. I still love the characters, though – well, the important ones – and I think just stepping away from the tried-and-true Mizar formula nets it a star sticker here.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

>w>; I try, but a lot of the time I just don’t have anything to say? Like, oh, you liked it? Neat. There’s not much to respond to in comments like that, and then I’m weighing falling down on an ~obligation~ to respond to every message in my inbox vs annoying people with copy-paste fluff responses all down the page. Plus I know I make more of an effort to comment on things that didn’t get the attention I feel they deserve, so if I’m driving up my own comment count with nonsense, am I preventing myself from being in a position to receive more comments later? And then if I do comment, am I being too effusive or running people’s ears off explaining things they don’t actually need to know? Sometimes people just want to express interest or admiration and don’t necessarily want a whole peek and guided tour behind the curtain.

Can you tell I have anxiety? x3;

Anyway, I do respond when I can. And I keep most of the comments I’ve gotten to go back and reread. 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hm, hmm. Lots of stuff in the TQ Nonsense series would probably qualify! I’m thinking of Unfixable, Wolfsong, and Ethanol. And there’s Bursting Through A Blood-Red Sky (I Can Live, I Can Breathe), of course, but that was always intended to have a fix-it epilogue. It’s just that I wrote it in a couple of hours day-of, stared at it, and decided I didn’t wanna just then. But now that’s As Long As You’re Still Burning Bright (I’m Still Awake), and that’s probably the best romance I’ve written, so that one worked out.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Now and then! When the urge strikes. Uhhh, I’ve got a series of Doctor Who x Undertale crossovers I actually made a whole dang verse for that never made it to print. Get a couple great comments on that every few months or so. I think the World Trigger x Undertale crossover is probably weirder, though, by virtue of WT being a very small fandom. My enthusiasm kinda sputtered out on that one.

Mostly I just daydream crossovers with whatever happens to catch my eye at any given moment. I have a lot!!!! Though odds are out on whether I manage to remember any of them once the initial thought’s passed, lol.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Gotten a couple eyebrow-raising comments, but I think mostly I’m just too small a writer to draw that kind of attention.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t? think so? Think my tastes are a little niche for most people to bother ^^;

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had someone apologize once for any language mistakes in their comment cause they had to run it through a translator! That’s not what you asked (the answer is no), but it’s very flattering to think that someone liked my fic enough to read and comment despite the language barrier.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! :D @pidgeonpostal was gracious enough to agree to co-write Five Nights at Denny’s with me off an idea about shoes. This has fulfilled a long-held dream of mine (collabing with someone, not the shoes) and also introduced me to some lovely people.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Who has time for just one? ;3c Honestly, I care more about the characters and how the relationship – any relationship – between them changes them than I do about ~A Ship~ as a solid, bounded noun-object. I’ve got characters I like more and less and feelings about who does and doesn’t have chemistry in which directions with whom, but finding anything that agrees with those preferences is hard, harder when you take alloromanticism into account. I’ll play in any sandbox with cool toys, especially if other folks have already built sick sandcastles there.

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

[kicks every single unfinished fic further under the bed] What nooo no WIPs here, everything on my account is either finished or does not exist

I’ve got a couple extra chapters of Sweeter Than floating around unposted, but 1. that fic’s a mess 2. high school Twixt and post-college Twixt are different people and trying to contort myself into three other me-shapes just cause people Like this fic is not something I’m super interested in 3. it’s headed for an emotional dip and I’d rather leave it where it is than post two chapters, stall out again, and leave folks with a bad end.

As for other fics... it’s looking more and more likely that v7 of my Yellow Brick Road AU will never actually make it out. >w>; I’ve got some really great ideas, but not enough to make me feel like I know what I’m doing, and that’s a big roadblock. Plus trying to engage with RT’s Atlas-Mantle worldbuilding in any serious capacity is... a headache. I can’t recommend the Happy Huntress Cinematic Universe enough, but it leaves some pretty big shoes to follow! And I’ve got small feet. <w<;

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue’s fun, probably as an extension of characterization. I love tearing into what makes people tick, especially against the backdrop of their environment, the story they’re in, and the people they’re up against. Voice is a double-edged sword; I’ve been told my writing is really recognizable and individual, but on the other hand, I’ve been growing frustrated with with the limits of my narrative ability. There’s a strong rhythm I keep when I write (you might notice it here, even) but that leaves me feeling predictable and stale. I’m not sure I’m great at setting as a matter of course, but I’m pretty good at describing setpieces where the need comes up; that comes from my background in poetry, as does the fun I have with sublimating and abstracting complex imagery. And I think I bring some needed nuance to the universal. For good or ill, I don’t do what “everyone else” is doing.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Well, writing, for one thing. If I don’t know how something’s going to go and don’t have the urge to write it, it isn’t getting done, which means there’s a billion things that will never see the page and a few hundred more that are never getting finished. I lose momentum easily and have a hard time getting started, and I put way too much standing on finding a foothold with other people; as critical as I am of my work, I have high expectations for the stuff that passes muster, and it never seems to measure up. I’m also really uncreative. Yeah, I can mix up elements and extrapolate events, but coming up with things wholesale is really hard, which is why I avoid it wherever possible and steal/reskin stuff from other places instead.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Something along the lines of “Hoo boy, I am Not qualified for this but hopefully it’s decent anyway.” Maria’s Spanish lines haven’t been a big deal – I’ve used it sparingly and, as a Latin language, it should be easy for English-speaking audiences to pick up on the gist – but I’ve had a harder time with Tai’s Chinese, both because I have Even Less background there and because it is, of course, an entirely different language system. If I write it out in English or Romanized italics, am I colonizing it or changing the meaning? If I write it out in the presumed-original characters (presumed because it’s Google Translate and who knows if I’m even barking in the right forest), am I confusing or alienating my presumed-majority-English-speaking audience? Where should I put the translations? Should I put the translations? And for Frisk’s sign language, thinking back, are the brackets I used instead of quotes alienating/infantilizing? I like that different characters give the text between a different feel, but I’m not an ASL speaker – and I’m pretty sure the word is “speaker,” which would only reinforce that that demographic would rather I didn’t do that. It’s important for all these characters, I think, that they use non-English language where it makes sense; it’s part of who they are. But as a white monolingual English-speaker, I don’t think I can really weigh in.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Thaaaat’d be Pokémon, followed closely with Sonic the Hedgehog. Whether those fics are still on my ff.net account or not (pretty sure I’ve purged them, but you never know) I’ve still got a couple saved to a folder on my current laptop, ostensibly so I can look back and see how far I’ve come and more practically to allow for the possibility of furthering group cohesion through public shaming.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I still like the idea behind The Man Who Is Atlas, and Burning Bright (Still Awake) gets props for being my current fic, though it’s currently in that spot where I’m excited to get new chapters posted but also quietly marking everything up in red pen. I think Harbinger gets the crown here, at least for now.

[raayllum]

Hey, not rayllum related but I was wondering if you could help me since I've been seeing you giving some advice to some anons: is it weird to crave validation when writing something? If so, how do you cope with it? I really want to write something, but I know not many people will read it and the lack of validation will demotivate me from finishing it. Thanks for the the answer in advance, love your blog and I hope you stay well during these trying times

of course and thank you for reaching out!! i’m glad you enjoy what i do <33 

i’d just like to say, first off, that there’s a difference between wanting validation and doing something for validation. part of art and existing as an artist is having an audience, so it is natural to want that. one of the things we talked about in my narrative theory classes this past year was how a story does not flat out exist without a reader as much as it needs an author. so wanting readers?? and reviews?? that’s totally normal. 

there have also been fics i’ve written, mostly in past fandoms, where they didn’t get much of a response and that’s part of the reason my inspiration for a fic has waned. however, i’ve also had fics get big responses and my inspiration still waned. or something i thought would be very niche — like my tdp fanfic “if time is money” which is the 3rd fic in the fandom hits wise, comments wise, kudos wise, and 2nd for bookmarks (like that’s insane) just flat out, not even ship wise — got very popular very quickly. 

i have also been in some puny fandoms (like literally me and three other people) so yeah, my work would never garner a lot of attention or help me build any sort of online platform. but the few readers i did have enthusiastically engaged with the text and my projects and that made a difference. so you really never know.

but i do know how you feel. in fandom, ship centric fics are just more popular! that’s how it is in 90% of fandoms. rayllum/tdp is the first fandom i’ve ever been in where it’s a decently sized (aka not small) fandom and my ship is the top fanon and canon one. i’ve been in fandom for 9+ years in over 8/9ish fandoms and that’s never happened before. this is a New experience for me. so i just got very used to writing for myself and the people who like it will like (or even love) it. validation is awesome and amazing and yes, i like it — hence my self reblogging and fic promotion — but that’s never what i’m writing for.

i’m writing bc i need to and i have an idea that won’t leave me alone. like, i knew my corvus&ezran brotp fic wouldn’t get a lot of attention. i didn’t expect my ellis&lujanne one to get any (and it got some). but those ideas and relationships meant something to me and i wanted to get it out of my system and share it with the people who also wanted something like that to read, even if that motivation maybe wouldn’t carry me for a longer piece — but every idea and piece of inspiration is different.

some of the best pieces of writing i’ve ever done over the years, as i’ve constantly evolved as a writer over the past almost 12 years, hasn’t gotten attention and some of it has. and i guess the main way i’ve coped with validation and that sort of weird writer space is 

1) i always write first and foremost for myself and don’t guilt myself if i don’t have inspiration to finish something. any writing i do is stuff i do in my free time for fun (and for free). as a reader, i’m always grateful i get 10 chapters out of the original 100 chapters planned. we’re just vibing. it is okay to post something and not finish it for any array of reasons. don’t let the fear of not finishing something keep you from attempting it in the first place.

2) everyone’s experience as a writer is different. some people write fanfiction and that’s all they want to do. other people, like me, also want to be a professional novelist one day. no matter which way the cards fall, writing fanfiction is a great way to get feedback of what works and what doesn’t. it’s not wrong to want that whatsoever. having a writing community, even if it’s just of readers, can be a wonderful and amazing thing. when i was younger finding out other fic authors i really loved also thought my work was great was an amazing experience, led to a lot of long lasting friendships/relationships, and a great confidence booster. all of that is more than natural to want! but also trust that other people are going to enjoy what you do too, alright? humans are freaky lil beans. we travel in packs, even in terms of fictional tastes.

3) it is okay to do something for validation. the example i think of most is telling a friend about your feelings for the purpose of having a conversation about it, or posting a picture on something like instagram. or, if you have enough motivation from it, writing a fic, long or short! for a creative pursuit like a fic, there’s probably a bit of internal wanting to do so as well beyond validation as well. however, it is important to make sure that doing things for validation stays in moderation and it doesn’t become all that you do things for, because that will lead to a long and empty road.

4) like i said above, everyone’s fandom and writing experience is different. one of the main reasons why i don’t crave validation is because i’m really good at internally validating myself, and the main way i’ve built that muscle and habit is through my original projects over the past 8ish years. i work on a 100k+ draft on my own every year for the past five years. maybe two other people read it?? 1.5? while the first two are up on wattpad under infrans, basically no one left a comment and the few notable numbers it got doesn’t actually translate to much. especially when i’m on draft five — that’s 3+ years, three plus books, based on nothing than my own self satisfaction of starting and completing a project that’s just what i want it to be. and i didn’t post any of the earlier drafts until those books were already ‘done’, either, so it was more or less the same writing situation there, even if the aftermath was different. and that works for me, because i want to be a professional novelist! i’m gonna do a lot of work in my life that no one ever really sees or bothers with — i’m gonna need a lot of internal validation to get a novel fully written and published. i want to build that muscle. but not everyone wants that and that’s okay!

long story short: craving validation in response to creative pursuits is absolutely normal and healthy. you can start a fic and not finish it and that’s okay — fandom is for fun and for practice. internal validation, especially for original or solo projects, can be important to build, but that doesn’t mean fandom stops being a fun community.

have fun, and happy writing!!

[whtaft]

Honestly??? I’ve been doing small creative writing exercises, and I wanted to try and start writing an actual story, but I keep getting discouraged? Like, I see all the amazing writers and I’m automatically like “I can’t do this??” Because I’m shit in comparison?? Pls, any advice? (Also ily thanks in advance❤️💞💓)

So, you came to the right person when it comes to combatingself-doubt in writing, because I am just about the least-confident person Iknow, and I am incredibly self-conscious about my writing! To be honest, I’msuper glad that I started writing before I became part of a fandom because Ithink that it is probably really intimidating to dive in now, when there’s alot of really great stuff already out there. But the fact is that there’salways room for more: more voices, more interpretations, more stories. Thatincludes yours.

So this got kind of long, but basically this is mambo’sunpatented advice on how to write despite crippling self-doubt. These arethings I try to practice myself (to varying degrees of success).

Make writing habitual

Practice

Try writing every day, even when you don’t wantto, even when it’s hard, even when you don’t have time. Don’t make unreasonabledemands on yourself (because we all need a break sometimes) but if you make writinga habit then you’ll improve. It’s as simple as that. (Though, don’t expect towrite 3000 words and you’re suddenly Tolstoy. You need to write a lot. A LOT.)

Set goals that are in your control

Setting goals is a great way to get yourself to dosomething. For me, I try to write 1000 or 500 or 300 words a day, depending onmy life/schedule. I track the numbers so I can see my progress over time, whichI find to be really motivating. If word count isn’t your thing, find somethingthat is. You wanna post one chapter a week, or you want to finish one scene aday… Just find the thing that’ll keep you chugging out your writing.

That being said, make sure that your goals aresomething you control. Don’t make things like number of hits or comments ornotes or kudos a goal, because you can’t control what other people do. Don’tput your motivation in the hands of strangers. That’ll only discourage you fromwriting when you don’t hit those goals.

Process

These are things that help me through difficulttimes in my writing process, so they may or may not work for you, but I’vefound them helpful.

Get a hype person

I have a friend (s/o @hakunahistata) who I go towhen I’m feeling discouraged about my writing or confused or whatever. Shereads my stuff, gives me some opinions, and usually tells me that what I’mwriting is much better than I think it is and that I need to chill. I’m someonewho naturally doesn’t want to share unfinished things with people, so it’s veryvulnerable to give an unfinished product to someone else. But I’ve found thatit’s really affirming and nice to have someone you trust who will work thingsout with you when you’re feeling down!

Don’t edit as you go

Nothing bogs me down as much as editing as I gowhen I’m writing something. I try my best to just plug along, get as much as Ican onto the page, and save editing (whether that’s for spelling or plotreasons) until after I have a completed work. Then you go back having alreadyaccomplished a complete draft and you can edit knowing ‘oh I want to add someforeshadowing in here’ or ‘this doesn’t really work with what I did later’. Itjust gives you an overall better sense of what the fic is and where you want togo and doesn’t leave as much room for self-doubt as you go along.

When in doubt, just write dialog                

I don’t know about other people, but I findwriting dialog far more enjoyable than any other part of the writing process.So when I’m stuck in a scene and don’t know where I want it to go, I just writedialog and ignore everything else. Then I can go back later and add in movementand commentary, etc.

Have multiple things going on

At any given time, I have between two and seven “long”WIPs that I’m working on. I get frustrated with one? I work on another. I getfrustrated with two? I work on a third. It makes me slow down on all of my works,and allows me to return to them with fresh eyes and ideas. It also means that Idon’t pressure myself to work on things I don’t want to work on (unless it’sfor a fandom event). If something stops being fun, I move on. No harm, no foul.

I also do the short Tumblr prompts for the samereason. They’re little writing exercises (like you do!) that let me explorethings in a low-pressure, short-term way. They’re also just fun to write!

Fandom

So, this is less ‘advice from someone who knowswhat they’re doing��� and more ‘stuff that I, personally, struggle with but tryto practice but not always’. Just know that you’re not alone in feelingself-doubt when it comes to fandom and comparison. It’s something that a lot ofpeople struggle with, myself included.

There is a place for your work

As I said before, there is room for everyone.Don’t sell yourself short by thinking that since there are already many storiesout there, you can’t include yours. You have a unique perspective, stories totell, and a desire to share. That in of itself is important and get you far!

Try, try, try, try, try, try, try not to compareyourself to others

This is the big one and the hardest one. It’seasy to compare yourself to others when there are so many talented people whoparticipate in fandom. Try not to. Enjoy the work of people you appreciate, butunderstand that they have their own voice and that doesn’t take away fromyours. Just try to appreciate that they’re putting themselves out there and arejust hoping for the best in the same way you are. Learn from them, but don’tcompare yourself. This’ll just put undue pressure on yourself in an alreadyvulnerable position.

Don’t talk shit about yourself

I’m so guilty of this, but try not to talk shitabout yourself. Even if you’re joking, every time you say “I’m such a badwriter” it reinforces that notion just a little bit more in your mind. Try yourbest to turn things around from “I’m not as good as they are” to “I writethings differently than they do, and that’s okay”; or, “this fic sucks” to “thisfic is a first draft and there are a lot of good ideas there, but I need topolish up some of the writing and clean up some plot holes”.

Play to your strengths

I know I have a niche in fandom. I write fluffy,cute AUs that will (hopefully) make people happy. Would I like to write 250,000word long epic alternative-canon fics that fix everything wrong with canon andinclude large-scale fights and medical scenes? Yes. Of course I would! Thosestories are awesome. But will I? Probably not. Don’t not challenge yourself,but also… just understand who you are, what you want to write, and understandthe importance of having your story out there. It’ll find an audience. Don’t beatyourself up for writing the ‘wrong’ kind of fic, or for writing fic that’s too ‘insert-adjective-here’.Your story will find its audience and mean something to them. What’s mostimportant is that you enjoyed writing it and the story means something to you.

Don’t put your happiness in other people’s hands

This goes back to numbers again. It’s easy toquantify success in fandom based on hits, kudos, notes, and comments. There areso many factors that are out of your control here and it can drive you crazy.This is why I’ve wanted to stop writing fics several times and it’s probablywhat I (a person cursed with being both incredibly sensitive and naturallycompetitive) struggle with the most here. I don’t have great advice for notdoing it, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that it’s not healthy. Tryyour best to ignore the numbers and to appreciate every good thing that comesyour way.

Celebrate your victories

When you reach a goal, celebrate. When you getover a hurdle that you’ve been struggling with, celebrate. When someone tellsyou that your writing touched them, celebrate. Writing can be really tough,isolating, and discouraging. Make sure that you take time to be proud of whatyou’re doing. Even if you don’t share it, even if you don’t reach your goals,know that what you’re doing is making you a stronger writer and that, at theend of the day, you’re doing it for yourself.

To write and to share work with people puts you in a reallyvulnerable position. I’m proud of you for starting and I’m proud of you fortrying. And I’m sorry I wrote 1,500 words about this. I’m just sensitive andhave a lot of feelings on this topic. This is actually a trimmed-down versionof this essay. You’re welcome for not including the rest.

[ferryboatpeak]

good things by good people: the best fic i read in 2017

The community aspect of writing fic is easily my favorite part of fandom. I was so lucky this year to get to know so many talented writers who brainstormed with me and encouraged me and allowed me to beta for them and left me nice comments and tolerated me screaming into their inboxes. So I’m going to close out the year by gushing about all of them and my favorite things they wrote in 2017.

queerlyalex: I learned multishipping at @queerlyalex’s feet, and I continue to admire their versatility, enthusiasm, and prolific production. Also I am eternally grateful to them for reblogging me early on; it’s only thanks to Alex that I have any pals around here. Alex absolutely slayed me with a few well-crafted sentences this year (e.g., ”Louis stares at Niall like he’s a map without a legend.”) and I also adored their hiatus nouis and creepy robot nouis and… okay, I just realized Alex is my favorite nouis writer.

Mildly_Maddy: @mildlymaddy writes with such heart and tenderness, and I particularly admire the physicality of her writing. Cold noses, headaches, fingernail scratches… she always makes me feel the characters’ physical sensations. Maddy’s also the most genius editor in all the wide world; every single thing I’ve written this year has benefited from her keen eye and unerring ability to not only diagnose the problem but to come up with the solution. Finally, Maddy makes brevity her bitch. Nobody writes tagfic like she does, and her hamille drabble might be my favorite thing I’ve read this year, 100 words densely packed with so many things I love (a clever joke on current canon, positive treatment of female side characters, harry in a collar). In 2017 I also particularly loved her hedgehog fairy louis, lilo bad wardrobe phone sex (a brilliant concept well-executed), and of course her nouis post-louelle breakup porn.

dramaturgicallycorrect: I am in awe of @wickershire​’s skills at worldbuilding. She writes an amazing diversity of settings and eras, and every single one of them feels completely realized. She also has this way of centering her characterizations on lesser-emphasized canon details, which is a brilliant trick that makes her characters feel simultaneously familiar and fresh. Her wolvesfest fic leaned into Niall’s fearlessness, Harry’s need to feel useful, and Louis’s protectiveness. Her Wimbledon fic took Harry’s treatment by the media and somehow used it to make this clumsy deer-legged menace into a believable professional athlete, alchemy of the highest order. (The sentence that laid me flat: "He stretches his long limbs as far as they can go and just like that, everything that’s Liam’s belongs to him.") Her narry road trip fic turned Harry’s aggressive image curation into obsessive travel experience planning (ohhhhh goddddddd, “’You’re an act of god,’ Niall tells him, but he means Harry’s a natural fucking disaster.”) AND AS IF THIS WASN’T ENOUGH, Kate also wrote the alex/peter fic the world needed.

saysthemagpie: You’re all aware that @saysthemagpie​ is the total package: brilliant plotting, achingly beautiful character development, gorgeous imagery, hilarious crack, and smoking hot sex scenes. I love Jes’s writing so much that it’s hard to narrow down my 2017 favorites, except that her dunkirk sex pest crackfic is unquestionably at the top of the list. 50 shades fionrry was also an instant classic, and I think the very first appearance of the barry characterization we didn’t know we needed but now can never live without. I also loved every scrap we got of small town divorce fic and sexswap narry and dog park lilo/fionrry and hazoff mpreg, and she finished always be your boy with some grade-A Harry Styles suffering. Also, these particular sentences: “He feels light and sort of airy, like someone’s flung open all the windows inside of him, sunlight spilling in.” and  “When his gaze drops to Mitch’s mouth, Mitch feels the tug of it in his chest, a pull like the tide: moon-drawn, inexorable.” and  “when he can’t stop himself testing his thumb against the bright keen edge of his loss”

countthestars: @moondoggiestyle is a plotting genius who somehow manages to make the tropiest of tropes suspenseful. She can turn any scrap of canon into angst, usually in a way that’s also hilarious, and I really admire the way she interacts with prompts and cultivates readership. Here’s how much I have reread her fic: I was beta’ing something of hers and recognized a turn of phrase repeated from something else she wrote like two years ago, and I almost didn’t say anything because I was super embarrassed to admit that I am like the foremost scholar of her work. I am forever grateful that she’s put up with me chattering away in her inbox all year long about hitch and werewolves and the midwest, and allowed me to deluge her with my thoughts on the excellent when the wolves come out under the guise of beta’ing it. Other 2017 favorites: hitch, and more hitch, harry vs. shapeshifting demon (SO MANY LAUGHS IN SO FEW WORDS), pop punk nouis (my number one dream in life is 50K of this), the small town little league au, and oh my god this sentence: “His touch is soft, almost tentative, like Niall’s something breakable. Like Niall’s not something he’s already broken.” ALSO she has written the very best part of dark werewolf hitch and if I have to construct a 40k ark to bear her 1K forth to the world in 2018 I will happily do so.

fliptomybside: uni fionrry is maybe my favorite verse going right now. It’s soft and hot and tentative and happy and I love every new installment. I also love @polaroidgirlfriend‘s queer kendall and how effectively she’s characterized through the many ways she tries to physically erase herself.(”She spreads her arms and her legs out so they’re not touching. It’s easier to feel weightless, this way. Takes away her awareness of her own limbs and the way she takes up space.”)

sunsetmog: I am in awe of how @magicalrocketships makes every single sentence, every single word, contribute to character development (this 26-line story is a perfect example.) In 2017, she upended the famous/not-famous trope with Harry Styles Cooks.... I love, love, love that Louis’s reaction to Harry appearing on his doorstep is to be mad at him for materializing instead of remaining a safely abstract celebrity crush. She also blessed us all with You’re a Naughty Rabbit, Louis; a long-awaited installment of I Had Rather; and the gryles Mallorca fic we all desperately needed.

rilla: The greatest zarry author of all time posted little writing this year but every bit of it was exceptional. Her hogwarts zarry has all the beauty and wonder the source material is missing, her similes make me want to cry (”He’s lit around the edges like someone’s taken a cigarette lighter to a sheet of paper”), and even this plot outline was exquisite. (@flomps, we don’t talk enough? I’m so grateful you hung on in this fandom long enough for me to know you even a little, though.)

yeahloads: Attempting to praise @harryshippudge by praising her fic is a misleading exercise because it completely misses a major area of her genius, namely her brilliance at generating plots and prompting others to do the same. I have written thousands upon thousands of words because Liz asked the right question or came up with the right twist on a trope, and I hope that someday she will bring her abandoned wolvesfest concept to life either as gryles or as original fiction, because it’s an absolutely brilliant idea. The single snippet she posted is maybe my favorite thing she wrote this year. (Although I am also delighted she got on board the hitch train, and her hazoff abo mpreg verse is weird and wonderful communication porn.)

1000-directions: I love @1000-directions’s quick wit, grace under fire, and willingness to go as niche as it gets (ESPECIALLY breaking the seal on loufro, a ship that I have high hopes for in 2018). Her pig dog POV was one of the most clever, original things I read this year -- the voice sounds just like a dog wagging its tail. I also deeply appreciate her Camille blogging and the associated fic.

[riseagainphoenix]

Yuletide letter 2018

Dear Yuletide writer,

Thank you so much for participating this year and making my small fandom dreams come true. I’m very excited that you’ve been matched with me, and whatever fandom you choose to write from my list will make me happy, so go hog wild! If you would like some more guidance than “go hog wild,” I’ve compiled some thoughts as to what I like and dislike in fics.

In general: - I’m very much into banter and friendly antagonism - I’m not particularly interested in reading porn, especially pwp. I’m not against it, but it doesn’t tickle my fancy in particular. - I really like polyamory - I love gen and friendship fic - I love love love old friends and found families, so you can never go wrong with those themes. - I prefer non-holiday-themed fic - I also strongly prefer non-AUs if that’s at all possible with what you have in mind, since I like these canons a lot

Specifically for Red (Movies): My requested characters were Frank Moses, Sarah Ross, and Han Cho Bai. In my perfect ideal fantasy world, I’d love a zany action adventure fic that features in the background Moses/Han and Moses/Sarah in a happily dysfunctional polyamory V family, maybe even just implied as an established thing instead of outright stated. Of course, I understand that’s very niche and very complicated, so I also wouldn’t mind a canon Frank/Sarah relationship with Han being their bff, or a more traditional OT3, or just a gen fic with friendships. In general, what I enjoy about all these characters is their sheer exasperation with each other despite the fact that they like each other very much. I like how they’re individually extremely competent and show-offy. I find Sarah’s thrillseeking ways genuinely hilarious. I like seeing them roast each other while also flirting with each other. 

Specifically for Not Another DnD Podcast: Beverlin foreverlin! Okay, with that out of the way, what I generally enjoy about NaddPod is obviously the found family aspect, if you can’t already tell by my list of interests above. Within the main group, I don’t really ship any of them with each other, because the platonic nature of their close-knit relationship is really appealing to me. One of my favourite things about them is that they are so tight despite not having more traditional bonds like romance or blood relation or even shared interests, really. I do love me some tongue-in-cheek action adventure comedy, so a side quest would lend itself well to a plot. I do ship Beverlin, the sweetest of good boys. I kind of weirdly am really into how hung up Hardwon was on Gemma, and in general how attracted to dwarves Hardwon is? Like...it kind of ties into the whole nurture over nature thing I’m into, since Hardwon was raised dwarven I like him having dwarf affinities despite him being human. I am very, very, very into Moonshine’s aversion to motherhood, so avoiding putting her in a maternal role would be great. If you want to put any other side characters in there, I honestly think I like every single one in its own way, so you can’t go wrong. Any references to running gags will amuse me, and I trust that if you think NaddPod is funny we probably have similar senses of humour. WE ARE WE AAAAAAAAAAAARE, YOUTH OF THE NATION

Specifically for The Eagle: I would love something set post-movie in the canon time period, but I am not particularly knowledgeable about Roman history and you do not at all have to feel pressured about historical accuracy. I’m just not interested in modern or otherwise future AUs in this fandom, is all. I love the dynamics between Marcus and Esca. I do ship them, but would also be happy with ‘devoted platonic best friends’ gen if you don’t. My favourite subcategory of fics is Marcus being a proud prude and having all kinds of Roman hangups about things he doesn’t want to admit he likes, and Esca making him admit it (gently, roughly, teasingly, seriously, whatever your jam). Again, this can be sexual things, romantic things, platonic things, completely ordinary things, even just a food or a turn of phrase. I also have kinky feelings about Marcus being subby and enjoying being ordered about and maybe even a wee bit of consensual violence against his person, but that doesn’t have to be the focus or have to happen at all, really. Pretty much anything where he likes making Esca happy in any sense of the word will make me happy. 

[shesailsships]

2016 in review

Tagged by @frenchcirce <3

total number of stories (completed/WIPs):

7 completed (they are one-shot fics) || 3 WIP...one fanfic and two original works

total word count:

I’m just going to tally my fanfic word counts here (my original works are always in flux, I’m constantly adding and cutting)...9,985 published without counting Ghost Hunters, Lies, & Money...with counting Ghost Hunters, Lies, & Money-- are you ready for this? A whopping 236,716 words. GLM had become monster sized, it’s hundreds of pages long at this point...and still going lol! 

fandoms written in:

Oh gosh, I’ve written for quite a few. My very first fandom was JAG and it was what introduced me to what fanfiction was. I wrote many many fics for JAG, eons ago. They were my first writings. They’re still out there somewhere, lost in the internet. So yes, JAG for one. Later I wrote for Primeval. I’ve written a short piece for The Pretender. I tossed my hat in the ring and was moved to write a one-shot for Clintasha. Ghost Hunt though, has been a long beloved muse of mine, and the only fandom I’m currently writing for with any regularity. There are so many fandoms I follow-- I have a whole folder on my computer full of half-finished fic...I can say that I’ve attempted writing for just about every ship that I love <3 

looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

I always seem to write less than I want, so sad! At the beginning of each year I have these grand plans of making more time for my writing, goals of writing for more fandoms that I love, publishing more one-shots, ect. Unfortunately, I rarely seem to be able to follow through with these plans. It’s 2017 now, and once again I’m back on the grand dreams train. I desperately want to write more this year, especially on GLM. I’d love to get four solid chapters out this year...maybe even finish it? We’ll see :)

what’s your own favorite story of the year?

We’ll since we’ve gone over the fact that I haven’t been very prolific lately, it would have to be my WIP, Ghost Hunter, Lies, & Money. That being said, I would choose GLM as my favorite anyways. I’ve been writing it for 10 years now. It’s apart of my heart, I am so tremendously proud of it <33

Original works wise, the novel idea I started revisiting in 2016 has got me so excited. I can’t wait to grow this idea more and develop it into something. 

did you take any writing risks this year?

Does not writing count as a risk? lol! It sure feels risky to me...[glances at readers nervously] Not to mention I go slowly crazy without a creative outlet. I NEED TO WRITE. In all seriousness though, I feel like every time I open Word I take new risks. Approaching my original works is both a exciting and terrifying experience. I am writing out of my comfort zone, about characters I don’t know very well yet, in a setting I’m not quite knowledgeable about yet. Very different from Ghost Hunt.

do you have any fanfic or profit goals for the new year?

Like I said I’m in it’s-a-new-year-imma-write-lots mode, so I have lots of plans for 2017...but at the very top of my priority list is publishing new chapters for GLM. I am dying to share this final arc with my readers <3

best story of the year?

GLM...because that’s the one I feel most proud of? I feel it’s the best of my works anyways! That, and I didn’t write anything other than GLM this year. Aside from starting my original novel that is...and that’s still shaping up! 

most popular story of the year?

Why, Ghost Hunters, Lies, & Money of course! I’ve had 10 years to build a following of the most lovely readers in the entire world. To know there are people out there who actually want to know ‘what happens next?!’ amazes and honors me. I am truly blessed. 

story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Kindred Spirits, my only Pretender fic-- as well as my Memily one-shots. The Pretender is a small fandom, so I know there’s not much traffic, but I really feel I captured ‘a moment’ in that piece, and I think other fans would enjoy it if they knew it was out there :) As for my Memily one-shots, that’s just me waving my shippy flag proudly, and wishing someone else out there would join in with me. Memily is a small niche ship inside the Primeval fandom, I’m a passionate shipper, but I’m one of the few [sigh]

most fun story to write:

GLM! I get so excited about different plot points, revealing twists, badgering my characters with embarrassing hijinks, setting up inside jokes. I often laugh to myself while writing it, much to the alarm of my cat lol!

story with the single sexiest moment:

Hee, hee, hee-- I guess it depends on your perception of sexy? Sorry kids, I don’t do NC-17. I come from the Jane Austen school of romance. A brush of the hand. A low whisper. Locked eyes. Surprise gestures, which reveal hidden feelings. Subtly. I am a huge fan of the ‘slow-burn’, building tension. Passion is an aspect of romance that is fascinating to me. I feel you can have passionate characters, involved in a passionate romance...and not have to hit the sheets in the first chapter. I really enjoy writing passionate characters... characters who are passionate about each other...and how that passion comes out. But anyways, back to the question! 

Sexiest moment I’ve ever written? In my style, I guess you could look to my reviewers for an answer to this one, I’ve scattered some special moments between Mai and Naru through out my fic that I know have gotten quite a reaction ;) I personally change my mind on this all of the time, but right now I’d say the most passionate scene I’ve written, would be the final scenes of Chapter 23. Mai and Naru alone at base after the blood rain in the theater. There’s a certain intensity there, so much tension has built up between them, there are things she wants to tell him, but can’t-- and he knows it. He’s worried for her, and she’s worried for him, and through that their passion for each other shows. The whole scene has that oooh-something-might-happen feeling, you just kind of hold your breath...it’s enough to make my heart race, and I’m the one who wrote it! Yes, I know I’m a dork ^__^

most sweet story:

Bedside Manner, hands down. It’s the first piece I wrote for the Ghost Hunt fandom and it features a really sweet ‘what-if’ scenario between John and Masako, where he takes care of her at the hospital after she’s hurt on their first case. Say it with me, awwww! <3 

”holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you!” story:

According to my sister, who pre-reads my GLM chapters before I post them: the Mr. Sachi x Miss Miyuki twist. Sorry? [evil cackle]

story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters & most unintentionally telling story:

No exact example of this really, except that after writing GLM for so long I feel even closer to the characters, that I know them better. Also, I’m having a harder time distinguishing between canon, and the canon of my fic...oops? lol!

Writing Kindred Spirits really put me in Catherine and Sydney’s frame of mind...which was really interesting. Writing out that piece between them really helped me build better theories on who they were as characters during the events of that time, which the show kept mostly hidden from us.

hardest story to write:

I sound like a broken record, but GLM. Naturally, right? It’s my longest running work and it has a mystery plot that, believe it or not, is not my greatest strength. Then there’s the added pressure of wanting to meet not only my expectations, but the expectations of my readers. I’m a perfectionist and I end up revising so much of what I write. Takes me forever. 

Also, my original novel. Every aspect of my novel is in the developing phase, nothing is certain or concrete, there’s just this vague sense of what I want the story to be and the excitement that goes with it. Every sentence I write is experimental. It has been a real challenge getting off the ground and out of my comfort zone. I have my good days and bad days. Still, I’m learning and looking forward to what these fingers will type next! 

biggest disappointment:

So many things. I think that’s apart of the yin/yang of writing. I’ve written and lost pieces of original work due to computer errors. That has to be the most disappointing, down right painful actually :( I back up my work obsessively now. 

Also, actually being able to write when I do have the time. It’s so funny that way. There will be plenty of times where I make the time, sit down all ready...and can’t seem to put out anything? Ah, the woes of being a writer ;)

biggest surprise:

How well received my work has been, the reviews my readers leave for me. Being a writer, putting yourself out there-- it’s nerve wrecking. Self-doubt is my friend. To get the kind of response I’ve gotten over the years, I am so grateful for it. When I say reviews fuel my writing, I truly mean it. Nothing motivates me like hearing that someone just can’t wait for more! Or that my writing has touched someone, made them laugh, ect...oh goodess! <3

taggity tags: @sy5starplaty (because I know you write :D) AND anyone else who writes that follows me, really-- I tag you! Do this, I want to hear about your writing :)