#but yeah all these multiple drafts and i'm not entirely happy with any of them

[bettsfic]

hi beth! i've got a fic that i've been struggling with for some time, and i think i could feasibly it scrap for parts and come out with a few smaller and (more likely to be finished) oneshots. i loved your advice that nothing is wasted when writing and not to be precious about ideas/words, so do you have any advice on whether it's the right idea to scrap a fic, and if so, how to do it?

i think if you're considering scrapping a fic for parts, it's worth it to try, just to see if you like the result better than what you already have. you really have nothing to lose, you know? either you'll get some good one-shots out of it or you'll get some new insight into the form you've already chosen.

one of the hardest skills to develop in writing is being able to feel and acknowledge when a story is working and when it's not. it's so amorphous and clouded by either doubt or enthusiasm, and you never know for sure until you get to the end.

going back to my knitting analogy, it's the point at which you realize the sweater you're knitting is not going to fit its recipient. so do you undo the whole thing and start over? use the yarn for socks to give to multiple people? or do you find someone slightly smaller to give it to, knowing you'll be a little disappointed in yourself for not doing what you set out to do?

i think the activity i'm about to lay out is good to do not just in this situation but also any time you feel very lost about a big project that you've been working on for a while. i've done it many times and i hope it helps you as much as it has me.

step one: go through the piece and highlight all the parts you like. this can be anything from entire chapters to maybe just a single sentence. these are parts that make you go "yeah this is working" or that you're particularly proud of. your darlings, if you will.

optional: in a different color, you can do this also for the parts you really don't like, that you'd be embarrassed to show someone else. what's left un-highlighted is what you feel neutral about.

step two: either zoom very far out on the document or do a multi-page view, however you can to see as much of the work as possible at once. notice the ratio of highlighted to un-highlighted text.

step three: brainstorm. i have to do this part with pen and paper, but however you get your big-picture ideas down is fine. at this point you haven't made any major decisions yet. it's just an experiment. IF you were to scrap a story for parts, what would it look like? and so you can start writing down your one-shot ideas.

at this point, you should have a better idea about how you want to proceed. maybe the highlighting activity brought to light the fact that there are really only a few spots you don't like and maybe you can rewrite or cut those; or maybe you have an idea for some restructuring. or you really like the one-shot ideas you've written and want to start the first one.

it's important to remember that there's really no loss here. you can write the one-shots, post them, and then come back to the longer version of the fic maybe years later and finish it. it's fanfiction; your audience will not complain about overlapping parts of stories. they'll just be happy to have more to read.

so if you've decided to play around with the one-shots, here's how i've done it in the past.

step four: open a new document. i call this document the stitch draft. the stitch draft is used for situations like this, but also for major structural edits. you need a bridge between the old draft and the new one. the sole purpose of this draft is to copy and paste over the parts you've already written that you want to keep for your first one-shot, in roughly the order you want them in.

step five: open another new document. put it side by side with the stitch draft. start writing the one-shot by bringing in the work from the stitch draft while also writing the connective tissue of the new context of the story. this may involve editing the stitch draft elements at the same time to make them relevant to your new story.

the stitch draft method has never really steered me wrong. in fact when you're very stuck i think highlighting and moving stuff to a new document is a way to help inspire new ideas, simply because you're fiddling with the text and getting out of your own head about it.

[inessencedevided]

(You can find the set that this gif belongs to here 💙)

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours

I was tagged by @aheartfullofjolllly. thank you so much Pat! it was really fun to reflect about my own process 💗 You can find her post here and @lan-xichens' post that started it all here :)

Also thank you @huigusu 🥰 (who tagged me for my nie brothers set) I'll get to that one in a few days!

Now Pat gave me two sets to chose from to show my process, so obviously I chose the more complicated one :P

I only work in Photoshop CC 2018. I know that there are programs out there for easier cutting and sharpening but I have only just figured out how to do that in PS and I am too lazy to figure out any other programs right now xD

1. Idea and Planning

This set, like most of my sets with lyrics started with me reading the poem, clutching my heart and going "oh shit this fits my favourite characters!!". The idea actually started with me thinking that the first stanza of the poem would go really well with wwx during the burial mounds arc. Then I realized that the last stanza fits lwj better than him and from there came the idea to contrast the both of them next to each other. This is when I realized I wanted to do a dark-light contrast set, though I did not know that I would go with red and blue at that time. My idea in the beginning was just to do a black and white set

I was really impressed by how Pat said that she plans her sets around exact timestamps. Because I don't do that at all ^^ I just get ideas for which scenes would fit (in this case the wwx burial mounds scenes and lwj's kneeling and punishments scene) and then I watch the scenes to narrow them down.

Back when I made this set, I still used a screenrecorder (AceThinker Screen Grabber Pro to be precise. They have a test version that allows you to record up to 3 minutes) and recorded the scenes I needed from Netflix. This worked well enough but now I have the entire show saved on an external drive and it makes a world of difference when it comes to gif sharpness

Now, in this case I had to repeat this step once because when I was almost finished, I realized that I wanted a gif for the lwj corner but let's pretend I didn't do that and that's the way this gif was always going to look because otherwise this post will be way too long ^^

2. Creation

Short disclaimer: The creation process for this gifset was anything but linear. Multiple effects I used here were things I had never tried before. I just had a vague idea and tried to realize it through trial and error. So whenever I say "then I did xyz", it is implied that I ultimately went back to that step several times and changed stuff ^^

I started with the Wei Wuxian part of the gif. I usually use a frame rate of 0,06 (with some variation depending on gif length and size). I work in timeline so I converted all the layers to a smart layer. Then I resized the gif into a square, leaving big chunks of the gif empty (as can be seen below.) I flipped the gif horizontally, so he is looking inwards. This was simple because I felt it fitted the composition better. Then I imported the Lan Wangji part of the gif, again with a frame rate of 0,06. (Image 2)

After that I created a layer for masking in a separate PS document by rotating a square until it was point down (is that a rhombus?). I sized it to match my gif (540x540 pxl) and copied it over. (Image 3) a bit of masking magic and ta da! There's the basic layout (Image 4)

I put a layer of solid black behind wwx to get rid of the transparent bits (Image 5) and then started adding more white and black to both sides by adding solid whit and black layers that i put masks on and changed the opacity as i needed (Image 6)

("reading" direction: from the upper left to the lower right corner)

Then I fiddled with the colours a bit. The first thing I always do is using the curves layer to get more contrast. Then I use the colour balance tool and the selective colouring tool to get rid of that cql-typical cyan tint after that it's just trying to have it look "natural" while the colours still fit the overall scheme. This was difficult here because wei Wuxian’s side of the gif was very dark and when i turned up the saturation to see which colour dominated it was a very weird mixture of multiple colours. That's when i decided that I'd just go with red on his side, since lwj's side was already so blue and those to look great as contrasts.

After that just came a lot of fiddling with selective colour layers and brightness and contrast unti I has happy. There really wasn't much to it ^^. (Image 1)

After that I added the text. I knew I wanted the two lines to for a square of some kind. So I tried different fonds until I arrived at the one below. The two lines are in seperate layers so I could move them around and change the spacing between the letters until I was happy with the layout. I also changed the layer mode for the text to "difference" (is that what it's called in english? my PS is set to german sorry ^^), keeping their colour white. (Image 2)

I originally hadn't planned adding anything else but I felt like the gifs (plural because I switched between the gifs of this set) was still kind of empty and lacking, so I added the tear down the middle (a tutorial for that is either coming up later or already posted. I recently got an ask for this :)) (Image 3)

It still felt empty after that, so I tried different overlays. Okay no, first I wasted a lot of time on different free image sides but then I tried out different ones until I chose the one you can see in the finished gif. I liked that one because a) I felt the round shape was a nice contrast to all the straight lines already there and b) because once I applied a black and white filter to it and switched the layer setting to "difference" (again, i hope this is the correct translation) it looked a bit like a moon. (Gif at the top)

("reading" direction: from left to right)

And that's it! :)

Although in general, these gifs took so much fiddling! I went back and forth between them a lot and sometimes almost redid the entire thing because I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning and by the time I noticed an error, the only way to fix it was ti redo everything. So yeah, this set definitely is the the one that took me the longest out of all the ones I've posted so far.

3. Posting

I save all my gifs to my drafts first to see what they look like put together and to check if they look any different on mobile. Usually i do this several times and change stuff until I'm happd enough with it to hit post. Once i am happy enough, i can't hold back. Doesn't matter if it's at a time when nobody is online, i hit post 😅

And that's it!

Tagging:

@lanwuxiann for this gifset (I adore it so much. I've looked at it and read it severat times since you posted it and the poem just kills me every time!)

@suibianjie for this gifset (The combination of static images and gifs in your gifs is always absolutely perfect! This one is only my favourite of yours because the light coming from behind wwx is just so pretty!!! ^^)

@sweetlittlevampire for this piece (It was soooo hard to pick a piece of yours because I have so many favourites! But this one is just so out if this world, I want to know how you worked that magic :D)

@wei-gege for this set (sparkling shijie! 😭 that set is so incredibly beautiful! I love how you matched the colour of the overlay with her dress!)

@purplexedhuman for this set (your gifs are always incredible! I chise this one because it showcases both your colouring skills and some really intricate effects)

If any of you have already been tagged or don't have the time or energy for this, obviously no pressure to do this at all! 🥰

(btw, I originally tried to place the actual text of this under a "read more" cut but somehow it always messed with the order of the images, so this ended up as a rather long post. sorry!)

[touchmycoat]

Mmmmmmmm delicious mmf dp overstim! Would laugh at Airplane's chapter summary except it's perfectly succinct and exactly what I wanted. 10/10 would recommend. So HOT! LBH and LQG on a competitive mission to give SY orgasms over and over? *chef's kiss* Also love that SY transmigrated into a body that matched her identity and am absolutely psyched that you have a ton of backstory you might share later!

oh ff i almost missed this, THANK YOU DARLING i'm so glad you liked it!!!!! the prompt was SO good ;; multiple orgasms + overstim is a lifestyle and it is one i pursue and one i highly recommendlj nldkjfnlaksjdnf

and yeah i got a little obsessed with the idea of trans woman!SY and trans man!SJ!!! I love the idea of them flip-flopping into bodies they prefer and having a sense of solidarity with each other bc of that lolol, at least from SY to SJ....SJ's a grumpy pants

so these are discarded drafts, not really backstories TTTT The original plan was to set this in the water prison, but that turned out to necessitate a little too much backstory. Then I tried to make it a bingge vs. bingmei thing but stopped when the logistics got too much. Second-to-last attempt was a "inviting LQG in for the first time" post-canon concept but then the fucking FEELINGS took over so i just figured Nope, stop writing plot & backstory, it's Pussy Hours Only.

Anyways, here are the scrapped drafts. There's some stuff I really do like in there:

(also the fic in question)

The Water Prison Ver.

Getting wife-plot’d into abject horniness only satiable by upwards of two men was a pain and embarrassing, yes, but if Shen Qingqiu really stepped back and thought about it, it was a fairly minor price to pay for this body. How wild it had been at first to think she’d woken up in yet another man’s body, only to discover small soft tits and an honest-to-god cunt and feeling like all her dreams had come true, that the ancestors were smiling down upon her as if to say okay yes, we did fuck up on the body assignment upon your reincarnation, so here’s the body you were always meant for twenty-something years late haha happy birthday!

Then the elation had quickly taken a backseat to having to deal with PIDW’s “plot.�� Worst of all were the OOC restrictions, which had Shen Qingqiu binding her breasts every morning because the original goods was a man—argh, goddamn System! Of course Shen Qingqiu wanted to support her trans brother but wasn’t this her body now? Perhaps the original goods was enjoying her old body in the modern day somewhere and yeah, it may come with several incurable and chronically painful conditions, but it also came with a dick! Surely if the original goods was allowed to enjoy Shen Qingqiu’s old penis then Shen Qingqiu was allowed to enjoy hisold breasts?!

Fast-forward now to post-OOC restriction unlocking, when she very well could have come out to Luo Binghe—to anybody, really. She didn’t, however, for several reasons, the primary of which was the simple fact that no opportunity really came up. Look, Shen Qingqiu just hated making a fuss, okay? She really wasn’t the type to call for a gathering, either solemn or celebratory, to tell people capital-N-News, nor was she so eager to unbalance the logic of the entire PIDW world (insofar as a mess of cheap tropes and shitty characterization restrictions could be called a literary “world”) with a sudden gender reveal. Or maybe it would actually help her?? The original goods had been portrayed as a man up until the moment of his awful death, but maybe, by stallion novel rules, Shen Qingqiu’s life could be saved if Luo Binghe should get his revenge by BEEP BEEP and then getting her to BEEEEEEP—?

…Well she wanted that even less!! What kind of crapsack universe where women only existed for every flavor of papapa with the protag!! There was also the fact that Luo Binghe was just her student right now. She refused to think about having sex with him in any way—and so the question of coming out to her little white lotus got completely backshelved just like that. Forget it! Shen Qingqiu would just play the immortals-are-immortals-gender-roles-aren’t-important card for now and worry about it when the time came.

(Besides, after a few Shizun is my ideal man! comments and a few why do you say man? Are behaviors you wish to emulate strictly delineated by gender?lectures, Luo Binghe seemed to get the idea. Her bright little Bing stopped calling her a man completely, so everyone was the winner!)

The only person Shen Qingqiu did end up coming out to was Liu Qingge, and that was more a product of circumstance. Having anticipated that Madam Meiyin would be a solo mission, Shen Qingqiu had left her binder off in the inn that morning, which meant that the subsequent plunge into the pool of icy water…

She had not anticipated Liu Qingge passing out from the shock of it all. Really, Qin-gege, after cutting your way through the veritable orgy of much bigger, rounder, and symmetrical tits, thesewere going to knock you out? That spoke more to the nature of the shock than anything else, she supposed, and forced down some amount of wariness when he woke up. How would he react? It wouldn’t really do any harm if he were to force the issue, she supposed, since she was perfectly fine with telling the rest of Cang Qiong that she was actually a woman, but had it not been her here, instead the original goods—? Then she would really have to reassess her opinion of Liu Qingge??

But turned out, she’d worried for nothing. Liu Qingge did not accuse her of being a liar, nor did he demand she fix this deception right away. Instead, he just kind of sprang to his feet, walked into a tree, and then came and sat back down. He asked why, of course, which necessitated a quick little non-lie (growing up, presenting male was always safer, and I suppose I’ve never gotten around to switching back). Then Liu Qingge’s expression was blazing with a sudden intensity Shen Qingqiu didn’t quite understand, but after that it was all over. Liu Qingge declared he’d keep her secret (which was not necessary, but thank you, Shidi), and that was that.

…Until a year or so later, during the whole Luo Binghe-was-back-for-revenge leg of things.

Apparently Liu Qingge vowing to keep Shen Qingqiu’s secret was directly correlated to him kicking up the hugest fuss at Jinlan City until Huan Hua was forced to tie him up too and escort him to the water prison alongside Shen Qingqiu. Ah, how kind and chivalrous of Liu-dage to keep such a close eye on her and her honor! Even though she thought there was little chance her “secret” would be exposed (and ignoring the fact that it didn’t even need to be a secret at all), it was still nice to have the company and backup in case of any emergencies. So despite Luo Binghe’s increasingly stormy expression (had Liu Qingge thrown a spanner into a plan of his?), Shen Qingqiu offered Liu Qingge a little nod of gratitude as they were packed away in the transport.

Then the Little Palace Mistress visited, and things got a little more…wack. Okay first of all, why would the ingredients to a wife plot show up here and now?! The thorny steel whip was excessive and aesthetically incoherent, but surely the little packet of exploding fuck-or-die powder “that only affected women” was beyond contrived?! Why had Shen Qingqiu been so thoroughly profiled and why was Big Data feeding him such obnoxiously specific “small scenarios”—?!

Credit where credit was due, Liu Qingge actually reacted faster to the threat than Shen Qingqiu herself did, blocking Shen Qingqiu from Luo Binghe’s sight and muttering a terse, don’t let him see! before launching himself forward to drive Luo Binghe away. He was talking about the thrumming discomfort building under her skin, Shen Qingqiu realized. And he had immediately warned her to keep this from Luo Binghe because—

“Shizun?”

—dammit, sorry Liu Qingge, this shit was just too painful! Was this what an honest-to-god period felt like?! Holy shit Shen Qingqiu might honestly contemplate taking her dick back if having ovaries meant dealing with this every month!

“Leave,” Liu Qingge snarled at Luo Binghe, but it was too late now. The papapa-poison (that the Little Palace Mistress had been planning on coercing Luo Binghe into bed with?? Holy shit, Shen Qingqiu was actually kind of glad she took the dose now) was making itself known and Shen Qingqiu kind of had a choice to make.

And when she called for Liu Qingge, Luo Binghe went as white as a sheet before he blew up an entire stone wall.

“I. I.” As furious as Luo Binghe sounded, Shen Qingqiu could just see past the spray of dust and mist how hurt his body language was, how small. It made an altogether different kind of pain squeeze inside Shen Qingqiu’s chest. “I thought that there used to be a time when Shizun entrusted me with everything, and that it was my blood that changed things. Turns out, even back then Shizun had her secrets.”

That was too much. That was way too much.

“Binghe!” That was her I-am-your-Shizun-and-I-am-angry tone, and it was somewhat gratifying to see Luo Binghe instinctively straighten to hear her lecture. “This was not a secret I needed to tell, much less owed anyone!”

Luo Binghe pressed his lips together until they went pale, but he said nothing in response. Breathing through the drumming pain, Shen Qingqiu forced herself to calm a bit before continuing.

“But I did think of telling you, for what it’s worth. I did tell you.”

That last bit slipped out thanks to a combination of the poison and feeling kind of wronged. Fine, so she’d never outright uttered the words hello Luo Skywalker, I am a woman, but Binghe had seemed to get her hints just fine! How could Binghe pretend that she’d, she’d proudly masqueraded as a man in front of him or something, how could Binghe act like he never had any idea?

Feeling even more petulant as a result, Shen Qingqiu added, “I didn’t even tell Liu-shidi. He found out on accident.”

“Shen Qingqiu!” Liu Qingge sounded offended for some reason. Luo Binghe’s eyes flashed.

“Then is Shizun and Liu-shibo not—?”

“Not what?” The pain was getting so uncomfortable now that Shen Qingqiu was having a hard time staying upright, much less concentrate. She had to lean heavily on Liu Qingge’s torso behind her to not slump onto the floor, and the body warmth there was…tempting. So tempting.

“Not cultivation partners.”

“What? No—!”

Before Shen Qingqiu could even work up the wherewithal to be properly shocked by the accusation, Luo Binghe had already blasted Liu Qingge about six feet away, holding Shen Qingqiu upright in his own arms.

“Then Liu-shibo takes too many liberties, touching Shizun like that,” Luo Binghe said coldly. Liu Qingge got up across the stone platform, thankfully acid-free and still in possession of all his limbs, looking furious. “Shouldn’t Liu-shibo know better about respecting women?”

Respecting—hold on, Binghe?! Don’t make this into some fake feminism discourse when Liu Qingge was only trying to help! When Shen Qingqiu had been the one nuzzling up against that firm, firm chest!

“Then you should know better about respect for your Shizun!” Liu Qingge shot back, managing to strike no less an imposing figure despite having his upper body bound up in ropes and his spiritual energy sealed away. This was probably somebody’s peak sexual fantasy, Shen Qingqiu thought, a beautiful man, tied up and vaguely damp, but staunchly unwilling to bow to his captor. Wow, it was hard to believe Airplane wasted a perfectly good character like Liu Qingge, killing him offscreen nonetheless. “Disciples shouldn’t foster inappropriate desires for their teachers. Put her down.”

Inappropriate—what. What. What in the world was all of this, some symptom of Airplane’s inconsistent writing and wilted plot developments? Why was the conversation jumping to so many inexplicable places? Was Shen Qingqiu really meant to believe that A) Luo Binghe’s hatred and grudge towards her dissipated and morphed into sexual attraction just like that simply because she was a woman, and that B) Liu Qingge was the first person to recognize and accept that? Neither of those statements made scientific sense! Please, call the System and straighten out this bullshit!

[Bling bling! The System is at your service 24 hours a day! How can we—]

Before the System’s awful, trauma-triggering voice could continue any further and before Liu Qingge and Luo Binghe could kick each other’s lights out, Shen Qingqiu tossed her head back with a yell of pain. Then, she cut herself out by biting down on the closest thing within reach—Luo Binghe’s bicep.

[—happy to provide dialogue options. Please select from A, I would rather die than be disgraced by demon scum, Luo Binghe, B, as if your frigid Liu-shibo could have helped me in the first place, or C—]

No, no, no, cancel! What the fuck were these awful options, was she just fated to die by this stupid loin-boiling poison right here right now after pissing off one or both of the men who could help? Why in the world would she risk angering either of them when Luo Binghe could go look for a cure outside and when Liu Qingge could, could pass her spiritual energy to ease the pain?!

[Because there is no cure except BEEP! Please select from A, I would rather die than—]

Shitty story, shitty system! You know what? Shen Qingqiu refused to choose, she simply refused. The dialogue options gave away one crucial detail, which seemed to be that if she chose one of either Luo Binghe or Liu Qingge, the other was to be alienated beyond reasonable reparations, and hadn’t she already done this song and dance with the Abyss? Considering how uncomfortably terrified she was of her once-white lotus now, had it been worth it?

[User Warning: failure to select from dialogue options will result in a Grade D punishment phase—]

“I don’t care,” Shen Qingqiu declared out loud, “I don’t care! I’m not choosing!”

Both Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge froze where they stood before turning to look at her.

The Bingge vs. Bingmei ver.

As Shen Qingqiu fled her little cottage home to protect her life, honor, and probably continence, she decided to have words with Airplane-bro. Several of them, in this order:

Fuck you and your absurd, unscientific, bullshit wife plots that pop up everywhere like goddamn mushrooms! Like mold spores! Like maggots!

Actually, fuck words. She was just going to throw hands, because what in actual hell was this situation—

“Liu Qingge!” she howled at the sky. No, it wasn’t because she thought her Binghe needed help beating off that menacing Bingge asshole, but since her good Shidi happened to be in the area after visiting yesterday, what was the harm in getting Binghe some backup? The faster they got rid of Bingge this time around, the better.

The battle dogging her heels arrived at about the same time as Liu Qingge, who descended from the sky in all his war god glory. Shen Qingqiu drew Xiu Ya to intercept him at once, because as pretty much expected, he barely spared the situation a furrowed brow before indiscriminately attacking both Luo Binghes. Catching Cheng Luan in a parry, Shen Qingqiu quickly hissed for Shidi to focus, please, do not attack my husband before you drive off the intruder.

Except, as Liu Qingge and Shen Qingqiu’s Luo Binghe ganged up on the original goods-Luo Binghe, Bingge smiled menacingly across the clearing at Shen Qingqiu.

“I’d think twice before banishing me,” he declared, spitting aside a mouthful of blood. “Not if you want Shen Qingqiu to survive.”

Right on cue, a stabbing pain in the base of Shen Qingqiu’s stomach sent her to her knees.

“Shizun!”

“Shen Qingqiu!”

“What,” Bingmei asked through gritted teeth, “did you do to her?”

“Banish him,” Shen Qingqiu gasped, clutching at her abdomen. Ouch, ouch, ouch, was this what an honest-to-god period felt like? She really thought she’d been freed from chronic pain and her dick when she got dumped in the original goods’ body, but turned out she was just forfeiting to a lifetime of torment from this bloody Great Auntie?? “Do it, Binghe. Don’t worry, I know the cure.”

“You do not,” Bingge said sharply. “That is a custom poison mixed—”

“—by the Glacier Fox Demon Liu Chuan in the Great Western Tundra?” Shen Qingqiu scoffed. Despite the cold sweat beading her forehead, she still found the wherewithal to smirk. “Like I said, I know.”

“What’s the cure?” Liu Qingge barked, impatient as always. Shen Qingqiu flapped a weak hand at him.

“I’ll tell you later. Just banish him al—”

The poison chose that moment to ball up all her insides in a steely grip and twisting. She choked down blood and a scream both, and Luo Binghe jumped into action.

“Yes, Shizun,” he gritted out, Xin Mo unsealed in his hands. In front of him, Bingge’s identical face twisted up into a snarl.

“No, even if you know the cure, it’s too late now. Look at you. Shizun, you can’t even talk anymore, can you?”

“Shut your mouth,” Luo Binghe demanded. Shen Qingqiu could hear Xin Mo swinging into the offensive, and she wanted very badly to tell Binghe to stop, to keep her husband from needing to take such risks with his psyche anymore.“Shizun says she’s fine! So—”

“Luo Binghe!”

That was Liu Qingge, and there was all of a sudden body heat and a firm chest right beside Shen Qingqiu’s head. Through the cloud of excruciating pain, something was telling Shen Qingqiu to get closer, closer, that was it, that was it.

“What is the cure?” Liu Qingge demanded to know. At the same time, he sat Shen Qingqiu up in his arms, and Shen Qingqiu whined. The single sound, soft and needy, cut across the whole forest clearing and brought with it silence.

“The cure,” Bingge said, voice dangerous and silken, “is intensive dual cultivation. Only, since she’s already at the state where a single partner won’t be enough. Delay any longer and she’ll die.”

The last thing Shen Qingqiu consciously saw was Liu Qingge and her Binghe trading a single glance across the clearing, before Luo Binghe knocked his evil counterpart out and hoisting Bingge into his arms.

//

Th next time Shen Qingqiu woke, she felt significantly better, and there were two cocks inside of her. The first thing she saw upon waking was Liu Qingge’s eyes widening before his whole face went violently red and he flung himself away.

The by-now-familiar sensation of dick inside her cunt went with him, so Shen Qingqiu felt fairly certain in the deduction that it had been Liu Qingge’s dick inside of her, placed there while she was passed out, presumably to save her life.

“Shizun!” came Luo Binghe’s familiar voice behind her, tense with anxiety, and that was, oh, mhm, that was Luo Binghe’s heavenly pillar inside her ass alright. She too knew this sensation from indulging her needy husband’s perversions far too many times. “Shizun, I’m so, so sorry, but—”

“Binghe doesn’t have to apologize,” Shen Qingqiu cut him off immediately. Oh gods, her voice sounded so rough from strain, that couldn’t possibly be pleasant to listen to. Still though, when Luo Binghe shifted inside her, all she could seem to do was roll her hips and moan some more in that gravelly timbre. “Neither does Liu-shidi. Where’s…?”

“Right here, Shizun. Ready to be at your service.”

Her Luo Binghe’s grip tightened around her hip, and Shen Qingqiu petted blindly behind her for his head.

“Binghe didn’t banish him like Shizun ordered, this disciple is useless,” Luo Binghe mumbled. What else could Shen Qingqiu do but drag his head over her shoulder for a sloppy kiss on the cheek?

The "Help LQG is Pining" ver.

Liu Qingge had never, ever imagined the feeling of Shen Qingqiu’s cunt around him, and that was the absolute truth. This wasn’t a topic that came up often in his personal life—he didn’t really let it, actively dissuading any and all improper and vulgar conversation about Shen Qingqiu with a drawn sword or ready fist, especially after Shen Qingqiu’s newly revealed status as a woman—but on the rare occasions that it did (thanks mostly to shameless martial siblings and family members), nobody seemed to really believe him.

Not that it mattered now, because he no longer had to imagine it. He knew for a fact how tight Shen Qingqiu could squeeze around him, yet how vulnerably she could open up. First around his head, then down his shaft, lips fluttering as she kept herself from jerking back up and off. He also knew how red Shen Qingqiu’s face got and how desperately Shen Qingqiu avoided eye contact when she worked to sit down on a cock. He knew where she placed her slim fingers to brace herself (one on the bed and one shakily over his abs) and how her thigh muscles looked flexed on either side of his pelvis.

Liu Qingge also had the distinct displeasure of knowing what Luo Binghe would have to say about all this.

“Do not come.”

“Binghe,” Shen Qingqiu immediately scolded. She’d been more than accommodating toward Liu Qingge during this entire process because, for some reason, she believed this was himdoing her a favor. If Liu Qingge were less busy mentally punching himself for taking advantage of her dire situation, he’d tell her that being asked to save her life was his distinct privilege. (But maybe not. He was no good with words.) “Don’t talk to your Shibo like that.”

“I’m only reminding him to control himself,” Luo Binghe protested, shooting Liu Qingge a glare over Shen Qingqiu’s shoulder which Liu Qingge returned. “This will all be for nothing if he climaxes too early, and I don’t believe he’s ever done this before!”

“It won’t,” Liu Qingge said through gritted teeth, “be a problem.” His fingers were embedded stony and white-knuckled in the bedding beneath him and right above them were Shen Qingqiu’s hips. Still, despite the point of most intimate contact between them, every muscle in Liu Qingge’s body was flexed to keep himself at some semblance of a polite distance. This was because Shen Qingqiu was doing the same thing, braced like a bridge on top of him. “Will you get on with it already?”

“See? He’s rushing me,” Luo Binghe complained darkly. Liu Qingge did his best to keep his entire attention on the half-demon’s sour expression and not on his hand, pumping in and out of Shen Qingqiu’s back passage. “I have no confidence in him, Shizun. We should just try again on our own. I’ll try circling more yang qi this ti—”

“We,” Shen Qingqiu cut him off, “have tried everything, Binghe, and so far no alternative method’s worked. This is the only surefire cure we knowand lucky for us, Liu-shidi was gracious enough to help, so won’t Binghe please hurry up and put it inside already.”

Liu Qingge’s eyes went wide, and Luo Binghe’s face too was the strangest blend of chastised and aroused as he snapped to attention.

“Yes, Shizun.”

And before Shen Qingqiu was even done huffing, everything suddenly squeezed blindinglytight around Liu Qingge—Liu Qingge’s cock and Liu Qingge’s hair, into which one of Shen Qingqiu’s hands had apparently wandered and was now holding on for dear life.

Because Luo Binghe was pushing into her. Liu Qingge couldn’t see it but he sure could feel it, first through the spasms of Shen Qingqiu’s walls, then throughShen Qingqiu’s walls; apparently, Luo Binghe’s cock was just so damn huge that Liu Qingge thought he could feel the head of it skim up his own length in a strangely intimate caress.

When Luo Binghe stopped moving, Shen Qingqiu collapsed gasping into Liu Qingge’s arms. Liu Qingge braced but didn’t hold her, steadily facing down Luo Binghe’s glower.

As much as Liu Qingge resolutely did not hate the position he was in, he’d also come in with a clear understanding aboutthe stakes. Shen Qingqiu was suffering a poisoning, he’d been told, one that required more than one cultivator and more than a few orgasms to properly cure. She’d been in discomfort for weeks, and they’d exhausted every dual cultivation option at their disposal before bringing him in.

Liu Qingge was here to ease her pain, pure and simple, the same way he had done once a month every month for Without a Cure. As much as he hated the isolation that Luo Binghe was imposing upon her with their marriage, he wasn’t here to break them up.

He’d try tokeep his hands to himself.

“Shizun,” Luo Binghe was murmuring. At least when he wasn’t busy glaring at Liu Qingge, he did seem very attentive to his wife. “Is this okay? There’s still a little more to go, shall I use more oil?”

Shen Qingqiu made a weak noise of assent into Liu Qingge’s collar, and Liu Qingge looked away when Luo Binghe began combing her hair to one side and kissing the back of her neck. In the corner of his vision he saw Luo Binghe blindly patting for the bottle of oil, and silently nudged it into his hold.

Between his stomach and Shen Qingqiu’s, Liu Qingge could feel heat begin to build as Luo Binghe resumed his work of burying himself entirely inside his wife’s back passage. Liu Qingge’s muscles twitched, but he did not move. He didn’t move because Shen Qingqiu didn’t move, and even if Shen Qingqiu did decide to move, things might still just be a dance between her and Luo Binghe anyways. Liu Qingge might just keep lying here, stiff in every way and cycling his spiritual energy until Shen Qingqiu got off enough and was cured.

[summonerscenarios]

I'm not sure if requests are open (If not just ignore this), but I was wondering if you can do some headcanons on this scenario. How would Kurogane, Takemaru, and Hephaestus react to MC finding a cat and nameing it after them like KurogaNYA, TakeMEOW, and HephaesPUSS. Anyway, have a nice day and drink plenty of water!

Man I am absolutely WEAK for the Crafters and this scenario just melted my damn heart it’s such a cute idea!! Thank you so much for requesting and don’t worry I’m chugging enough hot chocolate to keep the writing train going~! ♡\(◕ᗜ◕✿)/

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Kurogane

You visit the Crafters so often after school that Kurogane doesn’t think too much when you come sliding into the workshop, loudly announcing your presence as you make your way over to where he’s working on his latest project. He takes a couple moments to finish up what he’s doing and put his tools down before he properly turns around to greet you only to come face to face with the curious stare of the grey and white tabby you’ve got bundled up in your arms. 

For a moment it catches him off guard and he makes a noise of startled surprise, but he quickly recovers and distracts himself fussing over the little cat as explain how you found it and all about how you ended up getting attached and taking it in. You’ve already brought food, bedding and toys to keep it entertained on top of the plans of taking it back (i.e sneaking it in) to the school dorms when you head back - beaming down at your newly adopted cat the whole time .

Then you get to the topic of the name. 

Kurogane can’t help but burst into laughter when he hears it. The play on his name was honestly just too good to pass up but he’s also low-key kinda flattered that you named it after him, making a light hearted joke about teasing your seniors all the while chuckling as the feline purrs and rubs its cheek against his hand. He really doesn’t mind having the cat around, though he quickly learns to keep an eye on any loose tools lying around so they don’t end up knocked off 

He ends up shortening the name down to Kuro whenever the two of you come over to visit for simplicity’s sake, though the kit only answers to the original name when the others try to get its attention. The workshop can get crazy at times and may not always be the greatest place for Kuroga-Nya to be when all of the crafters get engrossed into their work but you can bet Kurogane will make some time for the little one each time you come over. He’ll start drafting ideas for cat toys for it to try out each time you bring it over - you honestly won’t ever need to worry about getting toys for the little one because of how enthusiastic Kurogane can be about making them (not that all of them have survived the onslaught of troublesome claws feline claws during the first few prototypes but that’s another story). 

Takemaru

Takemaru had just got back from a job and was passing by the workshop on his way through when he hears your voice coming from inside. He only peeks his head in for a moment and spots you sat on one of the counters, cooing over the dark Maine coon draped across your lap. Thinking that maybe you’d dropped by to talk to the guild master and gotten distracted he makes a move to duck back out of the room to find them when he hears you call out Take-Meow’s name and he all but backtracks right into the door with a shocked yelp.

When you greet him as though nothing happened he admittedly gets a little flustered at his reaction though the confusion over what you’d just said inevitably wins out when he asks what you’re doing. When you tell him you’d taken the cat in and decided to name it he thinks it’s a joke at first. Surely you didn’t actually name the cat Take-Meow? (Yeah try say that when the personalized name tag gets there Take) but once he realizes your serious he’s pretty much at a loss for words on how to feel - confused?, complemented? Flustered?

He has gotta admit that the little guy is cute however, though the fact that the other crafters have picked up on the name even when the fur ball isn’t around exasperates him the entire time you’re over with the cat it isn’t afraid to come up to him and roll all over his hand when he squats down to pet it, not to mention those adorable twitching ears and big yellow eyes, and the way that it purrs when you scratch under the chin...okay he gets attached, and admits as much when you tell him you can bring it over more often. 

What you don’t expect is for Take-Meow to get just if not more attached to him than to you. 

Every time you bring that cat over to the Crafters for a visit the feline wastes no time seeking the oni out and proceeding to lounge and mew all over him in a happy purring ball of fluff. Not to mention on more than one occasion you’ve found Takemaru’s catty counterpart curled up across his shoulders while Takemaru’s trying to work, playfully batting at his horn and nose whenever the cat wants more head scritches. Honestly you think your heart melted watching the two of them fight for his glasses one time. 

Hephaestus

Heph initially thinks that you’re calling out to him since the names are pronounced so similarly, so when he hears your voice he eagerly comes in to greet you only to pause as you spin around holding the small doe-eyed calico up to his face with a proud grin. He just about jumps out of his skin at the sudden action, and is even more shaken when the cat begins padding his cheek with a paw mewling for attention from the crafter. 

He can’t get over the name because on multiple occasions you’ve called one and both of them turn to you in response, which honestly is more cute than anything, and that on top of the fact that the cat follows him and you around everywhere means that he’s never gonna know peace now that the fluffy child is coming around all the time.

Not gonna lie, Hephaestus is going to get a bit jealous. He’s fully aware that he shouldn’t feel such a way but watching you fawn over the newest addition to the family, smothering it in head kisses and cuddles and compliments has him simmering silently hoping that you’ll decide to turn that kind of affection and attention his way. Imagine a part of him would also be worried that he’s going to be replaced, not that he’ll actually say those thoughts out loud seeing just how happy the cat’s presence brings you but it isn’t hard to tell. So long as you quell his fears about it Heph will get used to having the little cat around (plus the fact that Hephaes-Puss is equally clingy to him?  There’s no way not to get at least somewhat attached)

Talos on the other hand? Is absolutely smitten by Hephaes-Puss from the get-go.

 Once you introduce the cat to him (much to Hephaestus’ chagrin) he happily joins in on coddling it with you, and enjoys the times where you bring it over immensely. And Hephaes-Puss is just as happy with the attention as given his size means that the kit has an absolute ball using Talos as a human-shaped climbing frame when you and Heph aren’t around to give it attention. Not to mention both Heph and Talos are incredibly warm to the touch (essentially making them living heaters) so don’t be surprised to find your cat constantly trying to lounge all over its namesake (especially while Hephaestus is working as cats do)

[galadrieljones]

Hello. As I've told u, I'm currently struggling a lot with my ongoing chapter. (Context : It's my first fic !) I was wondering whether you had some chapters of the dead season that you absolutely hated, and did you manage to come to terms with it eventually ? Luv u, xo

Hey Amburu!! (*^_^*) xoxo

First of all: Yes, yes, yes. Writing can feel like a struggle sometimes, especially when  just starting out. Part of this is because we just don’t always know what to expect out of our writing process yet, and so we’re often left wondering, “At what point will this start to feel right or finished?” It’s hard to trust ourselves, as writers, and this can be discouraging, but just like with any skill, we can’t get better unless we persevere. I like to think that writing improvement exists like a series of plateaus. It is not incremental. It’s like, you are on one plateau for a really long time, and then one day, you sort of hit critical mass. You’ve written so much, a pattern has struck. You’ve figured something out, even if it is not conscious, and suddenly, you’re just better. This process never ends.

Now, to your question: In terms of the writing process, it can take a long time and a lot of words to hit the point where you feel like you can actually trust your instincts. Or, at least it did for me. In fact, The Dead Season is my first project in which I feel like I’ve actually honed a writing process that works, and I have been writing fiction for a long, long time. Part of my writing process is experiencing a great deal of doubt, at some point in the week, as to whether or not the chapter is going to come together at all. This makes me anxious, as it would many of us, and certain chapters have made me more anxious than others. I wouldn’t say that I’ve ever hated any of my chapters themselves, but there are certainly chapters that have given me a lot of stress and self-doubt, and this is a feeling that I very much dislike.

For example, my early chapters, ie: about 1-7, feel super experimental and are very small. I’m not terribly happy with them by any stretch. But I have, over time, found small things that are working, and things that, in the long run, I actually like very much and would not change. For example, there are some rare, very strange and dark moments in the Fade, and we don’t actually go to the Fade all that often in TDS, so this is good. This is important. There are also some early seeds planted per Solas’s complex friendships with both Sera and Dorian, and Sene and Sera as well, plus Sene and Cole. These are big relationships that I was already investigating early on, and so while those chapters certainly aren’t perfect, I feel good about the fact that this has ALWAYS been a story about friendship, first and foremost, and that’s something I have not forgotten.

I’ve also accepted the fact that I was still new to the story back then and still feeling my way through and figuring out what was to come. So of course my early chapters weren’t going to be as careful and multi-layered as chapters that would come much later. This is a serial piece, which makes it feel, to me, a little like writing for TV, in terms of methodology. It took me a minute to figure out my formula, my process, my characters, but once I did, things started to take shape much more quickly and reliably.

Writing is hard, and it can be a struggle, but that is normal. The most important thing to remember, especially when writing more or less publicly, like for a fandom, is to not compare yourself and your writing to others and their writing. That is a toxic beast that we all fall prey to from time to time, but it will hamper your creativity more than anything. Also, and more practically, a lot of the time, when a chapter is causing problems, it might just be that you need to step back, locate the problem, and solve it in the quickest way possible so that you can move forward. Can’t get a transition to work? Then fuck it. Take the transition out and just put in a page break instead. Writing is sometimes just grunt work. It’s just problem-solving. Getting from point A to point B. The art we read on any brilliant page of any piece of writing we love takes many gruelling drafts to complete. It is a process. No writing comes out perfectly on the first try.

UNDER THE CUT: I go through some specific chapters in TDS that I really struggled with, mostly to give you some concrete perspective on the fact that YOU ARE NOT ALONE in your struggle to bring a chapter together. This is for anyone who’s interested!! (It was no bother and actually very productive!

Chapter 10: Hallelujah

I wrote that entire chapter while sitting on a bar stool at a cafe in my hometown in Wisconsin. I pulled a Patrick Weekes on this chapter, and it was hard, ie:  For all the Fade stuff with Sene and then Sene and Cole, I adapted the meter of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, hence the title. Looking back, it’s a little precious, per my aesthetic, but I’m glad I gave it a try and somehow made it work. It was just a blatant nod to Weekes and his brilliant writing in DA:I.

Chapter 21: It’s Raining in Val Royeaux, Chapter 22 & 23: Man of Faith, Pt. 1 & 2

These chapters were logistical nightmares. This was also my first go at using the stakes and politics of the world, plus a quest in the game, to really propel the plot AND Solas’s character forward. At first, what was so difficult, was navigating Josephine’s plan and introducing the “game” in a way that felt like it was informed by Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts without piggy-backing it completely. This would be an innocent affair. No murder, only sly quips and earning the favor of the Comte and Comtess Berrande. Plus, romance. Also, this whole thing was me building toward Solas’s diplomatic charm, which is HUGE per his history with Mythal, and then I just had to get to that scene with Blackwall like…I had been working toward that scene for weeks. So a lot was at stake. All told this was a LOT of writing, and I had a really bad head cold when I did it, and I was very very worried about these chapters for a LONG time. I still have not gone back to read them. I assume they’re okay?? Lol.

Chapter 25: The Mother We Share

This is the purple chapter, and I still think there is probably TOO MUCH purple and TOO MUCH mother imagery dumped in. This chapter took me FOREVER and was the moment I realized Solas had become too soft, and that he needed a shove in the other direction. So I had to introduce Abelas, and also, at this point, my stuff with Mythal/Flemeth disassociating began to take shape. Bleh. Thinking about this chapter feels like wading in molasses sometimes.

Chapter 30: Dust of My Dust

This chapter was hard, because it was transitional. I had to get us OUT of Crestwood, and Sene and Solas were in two different places, which had never happened before. Sometimes it is SO HARD to just get from one scene to the next. And so in the end, to save myself more pain, I ended up just splitting the chapter up into a couple separate sections and skipping the transition altogether. This was so useful that I ended up using the section format in multiple future chapters and will most certainly do it again. Half of writing is just problem-solving, it turns out.

Chapter 34: The Elves are Asleep

This is the chapter that comes after Sene learns the truth about Solas as an ancient elf, which comes right after he finally tells her about the miscarriage. This chapter was VERY hard, as it starts in the Fade, and then they come back hard to reality. Huge tone shift. Dorian is there, etc. I’m still a little unhappy with this chapter, especially the ending. It was difficult to find the thesis, ie: what is the ultimate goal? I knew it had to be something with Sene’s character, as this is when her flaws and fears truly start to take shape, but I just couldn’t get a grip on the ending. I probably wrote 14 different endings until I finally figured out what her state of mind needed to be and even still, I’m a little unsure, because I just couldn’t mess around with it anymore. I was going nuts. So I just published it and moved on. Moveon.org. Sometimes you just gotta. Bleh. Oh well.

Chapter 36: Hey, Morrigan. Spin me a tale.

THIS CHAPTER KILLED ME. Lol. Looking back, I am actually very pleased with it, but at the time, it was so much that I had to delay publishing, because I just could not get it right. In the end, it just ended up being a series of impressionistic, almost paratactic scenes, all with very oblique titles. Again, problem-solving. Though I love writing like this. It’s totally my wheelhouse. But to earn this kind of thing, I knew I needed to establish a really strong thematic drawstring to unite all the pieces. I had like thirty metaphors going at once with the knitting and the gloves and the hands, and then creating that sense of confusion in the end, between what Solas is experiencing NOW and what he is remembering–that was really fucking hard. This chapter took me two weeks to draft, and I remember publishing it at 2am and then dragging myself to bed like TIS FINALLY COMPLETE.

Chapter 38: Assassins

This chapter was another logistical nightmare. I don’t typically write a ton of consecutive, immediately chronological scenes, or scenes where the tension completely shifts based on real-time action. But in this chapter, I had to locate Sene’s state of mind with Mythal, coordinate the accidental reveal of Solas’s identity, then cue the assassins, trigger Sene’s response, locate Mythal’s state of mind, and then get everyone down to the brig. FFFFFF. Like this is NOT my strength as a writer, and so this chapter was a huge challenge and I feel like I actually learned a lot. Also, I remember I initially wrote past the ending of this chapter by like 2500 words, only later to realize I needed to save all that for later. So yeah. :deep breath: This chapter, in my mind, feels full of sharp knives.

@thevikingwoman, per your interests.