#crackinglamb

[anneapocalypse]

For the WIP guessing game, your word is 'topple'.

plz and thank

WIP Guessing Game

Clawlike branches whipped at her, slashing at her armor and stinging on her arms and tangling in her hair, but she paid them no mind, only stabbing and stabbing until the sylvan toppled dead to the forest floor, and Briala with it.

--from A Hero Sleeps in Gwaren

Thank you for the ask!

[lilbittymonster]

WIP guessing game, your word is 'slant'.

plz and thank

1 result from the yet to be named caster role quest rewrite.

The midday sun was giving way to afternoon, slanting in golden through the open arched windows. Kitali was looking out into the courtyard as they approached. The once vibrant blooms had withered with the season, so Artoirel was certain that was not what held her attention. Aymeric wrapped his arms around her from behind, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head.

Thanks for the ask @crackinglamb!

WIP Word Search

[ir0n-angel]

trick or treat!

[fiadhaisteach]

Hiii!!!🥰🥰🥰Send this to all your favourite moots and pass the pumpkin round! KEEP THE PUMPKIN TRAIN GOING 🎃🖤🎃🖤🎃

[astarions-autistic-caprisun]

I wish I could give people on AO3 multiple kudos because WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T TELL THIS AUTHOR THAT THEIR WRITING IS SO GOOD THAT I COME CRAWLING BACK LIKE A DEHYDRATED MAN THAT HAS NEVER KNOW WATER AND I AM FORSAKEN TO NEVER APPRECIATE THEM AGAIN?! THE BLASPHEMY!

[longer-than-i-should-admit]

REMARKS ON A MAJOR PROLOGUE SPOILER BELOW THE CUT! 🐺💜

I agree with the theory floating around that Solas [did what he did to Varric] for a reason, because the way he says his name? Need I harp further on the biggest shadow following this man around? That’s the sound of regret. Hope and worry all at once. This is a tactician backed into a corner who still cares for arguably one of his closest friends caught in the crossfire. He chose to do that to him, yes, but I think there’s a reason. Did he need to get the dagger to them knowing he’d be trapped in the Fade without tipping off Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain that he’s connected to Varric (and thus, indirectly, the others)? This is not a man who lashes out in anger, who hardly ever allows his temper to get the better of him. He’s playing chess. In seconds, he realized everything was going wrong and he had to put the pieces into play to do damage control, just like he did with his Orb.

Also. The emotion written into his face. He’s upset and frustrated and gauging Rook as a new player, an outlier, just as he did once with the Inquisitor. Can this person be trusted? Will this person be reasonable? Are they going to see reason? (How am I able to handle this situation for the best possible outcome?) He’s got his wolf face on, calculating, scrutinizing. But there, for the briefest of seconds, a crack in his facade—he blinks rapidly, eyes glistening. His voice falters. He steps away and to the side to recollect himself. When he next looks at Rook, he’s remorseful but resolute. Not denying the dubiety of his actions, but not pleased about them either.

I don’t know man. His expression when he first sees Varric, as well as this one, are the first glimpses I’ve really noticed of Solas, not the Dread Wolf. I am going insane. He’s caught between conflicting aspects of himself in more than one way. Now he’s having to help this complete stranger while he’s for the most part helpless to do anything. The world will fall apart around him once again and he is powerless to stop it unless he can win the trust of this stranger after hurting someone close who believed in him.

I’m fine. I’m okay I’m fine I’m all right. *chewing on the bars of my enclosure*

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

req'd by @crackinglamb

u know. caek :)

text: Better Crocky

[effelants]

Sanguine

is a loosely canonical chronicle of the events of Dragon Age: Origins featuring a canonically impossible Warden and a F!Amell/Alistair pairing, which results in some familiar situations resolved in unfamiliar ways.

It is fully pre-written (by myself, over the course of the past seven years) and fully illustrated (by the exceptional @vjatoch), and is being published in a serial format with weekly updates.

CHAPTER 4

in which the Grey Warden recruits complete their first mission and embark on the next: undertaking the Joining.

Read chapter 4 on AO3!

Start from the beginning!

Sign up for the tag list by commenting below to get tagged on weekly update posts on tumblr! Alternatively, you can follow the tag #ssfp sanguine!

Tag list:

❀ @warpedlegacy @rakshadow @rosella-writes @bluewren @breninarthur

❀ @ar-lath-ma-cully @dreadfutures @ir0n-angel @inquisimer @crackinglamb

❀ @theluckywizard @oxygenforthewicked @exalted-dawn-drabbles @melisusthewee @blarrghe

❀ @agentkatie @delicatefade @leggywillow @plisuu @hekaerges

❀ @skinwalkingxana

[gefionne]

WIP Wednesday Whenever

I was tagged by the lovely @crackinglamb and @luzial back on Wednesday, but had nothing to offer due to my insane work situation, but I am here with my humble offering on WIP Whenever.

To nobody's surprise, it's from the upcoming chapter of These Hands, If Not Gods.

Since it's Saturday, I'll just wait to tag people until actual Wednesday. <3

[pikapeppa]

Year-End Writer's Roundup: 2024 edition

It’s that time of year, writer friends: time to take stock of what we’ve been up to this year! Tagging to literally ANY AND ALL WRITERS who would like to participate — seriously, if you write and you see this, please take this as an invitation to fill it out! — but I’ll throw down some tags from the top of my head: @contrivedchaos @iamcayc @midnightacrobat @elveny @johaerys-writes @crackinglamb @alyssalenko @vorchagirl @auntie-coagulant @sweetorangepoptart @himluv @mwasaw @varric-tethras-editor and GENUINELY anyone else who wants to join in!

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!!): 882 674. A decrease compared to previous years, but there is a good reason for this (even though I need to keep reminding myself that it’s a good thing) — more details below.

Smut scenes: 44 — similar to the past few years.

New things I tried:

I wrote a fully-fledged poly ship for the first time with Halsin, Astarion and my Tav, complete with feelings and all! I’ve written sexual-only threesomes/moresomes before, but this is the first time I’ve had there be actual romance as well as sex. 

Significant M/M sexy time, including anal sex. I probably won’t write anal sex again for personal reasons, but I’m glad I dabbled at least.

I wrote something that I do not intend to post publicly, purely just for me. More on this later.

Fic I spent the most time on: 

My Astarion/Tav fic, just based on sheer number of words alone.

Fic I spent the least time on:

My Zoro/Reader fic, Relentless. These three chapters came together (HUEHUE) so quickly based on the sheer force of Zoro thirst. NOTHING LIKE THAT THREE-SWORD STYLE TO GET US WANTING HIS FOURTH SWORD 🤣

Favourite thing I wrote: 

This is tough this year aaaaaaaa. The Teia/Viago fic was one that I’d been wanting to write since 2020, and I’m grateful to the Veilguard hype for resparking that flame and making it happen. I LOVED writing all of my Halsin smut because Halsin just makes me SO CRAZY (I genuinely think he might be the one singular videogame boyfriend I’ve felt the most feral about). My Rolan/Tav fic felt like it was born from a very bright spark of inspiration, and I had a fun few weeks just blasting through writing that. 

But my #1 fave thing to write might have been the One Piece Sanji/OC fic that I am not planning to publish. Not publishing means there’s been no pressure to “make it good” or to figure out every detail of timelines/lore/OC backstory etc, so I can just do whatever I want. And that freedom to just make the fic mine, for me, has been really valuable this year. 

Favourite thing I read: 

Oh fuck, I read basically nothing this year HAHAHA. But I did read this one Sanji/Nico Robin smutfic that I REALLY loved. And I absolutely devoured a novel by one of my fave authors (Grown Ups by Marian Keyes) during our mini-vacay to Florida in February.

Writing goals for next year: 

My only goal for the coming year is this: to write only what I really WANT to write.

This probably sounds obvious, but it’s a whole thing that’s tied up with expectations of myself and self-worth and blah blah blah, so the rest of this post will be a bit of a personal essay that you can feel free to pass on HAHA.

I started therapy last year, and I’m in the part of my “therapy journey” now where one of the things I’m working through is the fact that I hold unhealthily high expectations of myself in basically every realm of my life. I force myself to suppress/compartmentalize/ignore my own feelings because I prioritize other people’s feelings over my own, and I spend a lot of my time focusing on things that I think I “should” be doing, at the expense of my own comfort levels/needs/physical or mental health etc. (ELDEST SISTER SYNDROME ANYONE?) And unfortunately, over the years, this way of operating has insidiously snuck its way into my writing.

When I first started writing fanfic in 2017, the writing was entirely born from an overwhelming desire to just get out this story in my head and make it a reality. I started writing for no other reason than because I wanted to. But as time went on and I gained a lovely following of readers, I started prioritizing my readers’ desires over my own. In particular, I’ve gotten too caught up by the idea of being That Writer™ who posts frequently and who finishes her fics: two qualities that I have often been praised for. This led to a habit of sticking to very strict schedules of always posting at least one chapter of something every single week — and if I was working on more than one fic, I would pressure myself to post a chapter of each fic every week. I would pressure myself to do this even when my back pain and migraines started flaring up in 2020, because I did not want to disappoint my readers.

To be clear: all of this was pressure coming from myself. Nobody was telling me I need to post every week or that I need to finish everything I write; I was the one holding myself to these insane standards. But for years, I’ve been able to meet these standards, and it hasn’t been a problem — or so I thought.

Then this year happened. Therapy stuff happened and health stuff got worse, and for the first time ever, I started having days where I just could not make myself write. I would sit at the computer for hours, unable to conjure any words. For some of my fics, this meant weeks or even months between updates. Sometimes when the words finally came, the writing felt like a struggle or a chore rather than an act of love, because I was doing something that I felt like I had to do rather than something I really wanted.

This has been absolute fucking torture for me. I felt so shitty about myself for not being able to do the one thing that I legitimately love doing the most in the world. This was especially distressing because I have given writing advice before stating that when you’re writing a long fic, you sometimes have to write shit you don’t want to write before you can get to the good stuff. And the fact that I’m struggling to do this now has left me feeling like a hypocrite and a failure for not being able to follow my own advice. 

To make things worse, some of the fandoms I’ve been writing for have been… unresponsive. The ratio of hits to actual comments has been pretty abysmal. The lack of engagement and encouragement just added onto the feelings of shittiness and inadequacy, as though I was failing to meet readers’ expectations somehow, and I can’t lie: it was part of why I stopped writing for one fandom this year, and I’ve never felt so bitter about finishing any fics as I did with a couple of the fics I wrapped up this year.

With time, a lot of tears and self-castigation, and ongoing therapy sessions, I’ve slowwwwwly realized that I am being unkind to myself by holding myself to such high expectations, and that I need to actively combat these expectations by refocusing on writing things that I want to write rather than worrying about disappointing my readers. I’m also working on writing only when I want to and when I feel good, i.e. not forcing myself to write when my head is throbbing or when I’m in too much pain to sit in my office chair. 

To this end, I have been writing some One Piece fic that I have no plans to post publicly: fic that is entirely self-indulgent fun. And it’s actually been the best exercise in returning to the hedonistic selfish joy of writing what I want, which is why I started doing this in the first place. Moving forward, I’m going to keep working on writing for myself first and foremost. I’ll strive to write what only what really sparks joy for me, and if that means my word count keep dropping year after year, I will try to remind myself that this is a good and healthy thing, since any words that I write should be a gift to myself first and foremost. 

[dreadfutures]

Rules: If you're tagged, MAKE A NEW POST and showcase one fanartist or fanfic you recommend (with links), and tag someone to give their recs next! Don't forget to reblog the rec you were tagged in!

Let's bring back rec posts, and share some love for the creative work we get to enjoy every day in our fandoms! For ANY fandom, highlight either a fanartist or a piece of fan writing (or both) you love and tag some friends!

FANARTIST: @yolebrat

Today I'm highlight @yolebrat - an amazing artist who I first found through painterly Dragon Age fanart. Since then I've enjoyed commissions, and cute little doodle replies that make me smile!

One of my favorite pieces is a commission yole made for Mel (below) Give it a reblog and follow yole for more art of all kinds. Or buy a commission and get an amazing painted piece of your own!

FANFIC: Cheating the Dread Wolf by cartadwarfwithaheartofgold

I read this story long ago all in one sitting. It absolutely gripped me, tugged at my heartstrings, and wouldn't let me go. A Cadash/Solas/Varric Tethras rare pair, you have to give this a try.

Rating: E Pairing: Female Cadash/Solas, Female Cadash/Varric, Varric/Solas Chapters: 13/13 Length: 42,657 words Summary: Maria Cadash hung up the Inquisitor's mantle for the Viscountess' crown, but she's unable to stop her desperate and impossible struggle to stop Fen'Harel from destroying the world both her husband and daughter inhabit. The fact Varric, Maria, and Solas are all madly in love with each other just means she may have enough of an edge to win this game.

Tags

I'm tagging a lot of people on this one because I want to get this KICKSTARTED. Dragon Age is coming BACK this summer, and I'm trying to get twitter refugees who don't know anyone on tumblr to realize that there's a thriving DA fandom that has been here the whole time. But feel free to recommend from other fandoms! I love finding new fics and new artists to follow.

Dragon Age FanFic server tag list: @warpedlegacy | @rakshadow | @rosella-writes | @effelants | @bluewren | @breninarthur | @ar-lath-ma-cully | @inquisimer | @crackinglamb | @theluckywizard | @nirikeehan | @oxygenforthewicked | @exalted-dawn | @melisusthewee | @blarrghe | @agentkatie | @delicatefade | @leggywillow | @about2dance | @plisuu

People I Love In My Notes: @fiadhaisteach | @shivunin | @greypetrel | @littlewitchbee | @wildbasil | @peforby | @sucrosesorcery | @layalu | @beebundt | @neonteeth | @galadae | @thiefbird | @mel-0n-earth | @alienturnip | @ndostairlyrium | @v-arbellanaris | @demandthedoodles | @wailing-willow | @the-rebel-archivist | @thedreadblog

(There is a tag limit of 50 people on posts so I'm pushing it lol)

[anneapocalypse]

32, 36 and 40 for the fic writers asks? Plz and thank.

Sorry I'm like days late with this one, oops. For this ask meme!

32. What’s your ideal fic length to read?

I don't know that I have one, really! I will read a pretty broad variety of fic lengths, from a true 100-word drabble to a novel-length fic. At any length, I am more likely to pick up a fic if it's complete, or at least has a planned chapter count. I know that feels unfair to a lot of people who want feedback along the way and I'm sorry, but my bad memory means that I am really going to struggle to keep up with a story dropping serially and remember what happened in between updates. I will certainly make exceptions sometimes! But I'm also just going to be a better reader and commenter when I'm reading a complete story.

36. Do you visualize what you read/write?

I do, but my visualizations tend to be rather vague, because I do not have a visual brain. When I'm reading I think my visualizations tend to be composites of things I have seen irl, and I appreciate vivid descriptions because they allow me to build better composites, if that makes sense. (Tamsyn Muir is an author whose descriptions I really love; I have some very clear pictures of Canaan House in my head despite how complex it is because her descriptions are just so good.) When writing, I draw a lot from visual references and memory for my descriptions.

40. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

I don't often re-read fics, and I wish I did! I hate to admit this but I am not as fast a reader as I was in my youth, and so with the time and focus I have to read, I do tend to prioritize getting in new works. Still, there are definitely old beloved fics that I have revisited.

[lilbittymonster]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @myreia and @thevikingwoman thank you both!

Tagging @crackinglamb @anneapocalypse @nidstiniens @allycryz

Have an excerpt from the YOTOT3 fic I have been staring down for three days now.

~

“Have you ever kissed anyone?” Aymeric asked suddenly.

“No.”

“Oh.”

Estinien looked up from his bowl.

“You sound surprised.”

“I, ah...it’s just. I’ve heard from others that you’ve had...relations...I had just assumed. Apologies.”

“Don’t need to kiss someone to swive ‘em.”

“Indeed.” Aymeric was deliberately not meeting his eyes, staring instead into the flames.

“And what of you?”

“Naught but a chaste kiss to the back of a hand on a couple occasions,” Aymeric said. “Hard to do much else whilst chaperons are present.”

[ir0n-angel]

💝☆ put this star into the inbox of your favourite blogs. it’s time to spread positivity!! ☆💝 ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡ 🐝💕

Thank you!! 🌼 *bonk bonk*

[fiadhaisteach]

🌄 - tell me something good about your day

I had a really good nap & a successful sewing test/experiment that I'm going to use larger scale, later. 💤🪡

[solavelyan]

I was tagged to do a fic author self rec with 5 of my personal favorites by @crackinglamb! I wrote rarepair stuff I really liked last year and feel like some other stuff aged well, so I'm gonna go for it. (And it's all Dragon Age, so I'm doing this on ye olde sideblog whee.)

Solas/F!Trevelyan is kind of what I hang my hat on around here a little bit, so I'll start with those. Most of the time the Trevelyan in question is my best girl, Thayet. She's not my most self-indulgent OC but she's definitely up there.

pull the moon to the waves (Explicit, Solas/F!Trevelyan, 10,640 words) - A canon divergent fic where Solas and Thayet admit their feelings for each other (kind of) during the journey from Haven to Skyhold, and that kicks off the romance instead of the Fade kiss in Skyhold.

This fic ruined my life a little bit because apparently if you write the Inquisitor getting fisted in a tent one time, three years later your friends are still telling "tentfic" and "fisting" jokes like they're getting a tax writeoff for it. It's also just the story that seems to keep coming back! It's actually a rewrite of an older fic called "the responsible thing" (objectively a horrible title but I'm not changing it now) from 2018 that I did as a kink meme fill, and it's getting a second rewrite as part of a longer fic that I'm working on right now but isn't getting posted yet.

Bittersweet & Strange (Mature, Solas/F!Trevelyan, 37,188 words) - A Beauty and the Beast retelling where Skyhold is the enchanted castle and Fen'Harel is the beast that haunts it.

I wrote this in less than 2 months for the @dacreateathon in 2022, and there's a part of me that would love to do a rewrite to let it be longer (...and smuttier), but I'm intensely proud of how it turned out given the time frame. I actually had Lamb and @ir0n-angel beta this one for me to help me stay on schedule, which was invaluable, I never, ever would have finished it without them being my accountability buddies and spellcheckers. I really really enjoyed writing it and think very fondly of it.

Hawke is Dead/Not Dead (Explicit, Fenris/F!Hawke, 3,224 words) - Fenris and Hawke both make for Skyhold after Adamant, Fenris because Hawke is dead, Hawke because Hawke is alive.

I wrote this for my very first exchange ever, @dasmutquisition, in 2022 (which currently has open sign-ups, btw!). I'm so fond of it and I honestly think the best parts of it are before any of the smut happens.

dying now a second time (Mature, F!Trevelyan/M!Lavellan, 17,058 words) - Taking place mostly pre-Inquisition during Thayet Trevelyan's time as a Templar, this one is mostly from the perspective of the First Enchanter of Ostwick Circle, who is a very, very canon divergent M!Lavellan, Aeryk. Told in four vignettes, it focuses on the requited but ultimately tragic love affair between them in the Circle and in the aftermath of its fall.

Aeryk is my wife's OC, so this is part creative endeavor, part personal love letter. We write together a lot, and over the last 10 years Aeryk and Thayet have gone from kind of a silly ship that we fell into during an RP game to something rather serious and dramatic that makes it into... pretty much everything we do together. They've both changed so much over the years, and DA!Aeryk has been a vague figure in Thayet's backstory for years before I really sat down to hammer out details. The wife gave me her endorsement and a lot of freedom to add details to him for this continuity.

Although it might say something about me that I got her permission to use Aeryk for fic and immediately used it to basically edge him for 17,000 words before metaphorically murdering him. So, uh. Sorry, buddy. I love u. It's a really good fic, though, I swear.

more and smaller ways of dying (Explicit, F!Trevelyan/M!Lavellan, 5,011 words) - An alternate version of chapter 3 of "dying now a second time", where Aeryk is cured of his Tranquility by the Breach and he and Thayet fuck on the floor of the Redcliffe Chantry after dispatching Alexius.

I felt bad about the other fic. Felt like they deserved it. And honestly this isn't even the only time I'm spinning off from "dying now...", I'm halfway through the first chapter of a fic that starts just after the end of the first chapter. I love them. Make them kiss. Mwuah.

I'm going to tag @volkoss, @queenaeducan, @dismalzelenka, @jellydishes, @sulky-valkyrie, and whomever else would like to do it :D