#fanfic writers pls steal this idea I need to read this

[ivysos2001]

I was rewatching some of the og iCarly on Netflix recently and just got to iOMG- and I still think the Sam/Freddie kiss at the end was so out of nowhere and unnecessary (so was that whole arch but I digress)

Like the whole episode prior to that end scene is Carly and Freddie flirting and running around together scheming to set her up with another guy they think she’s into- and then we’re supposed to think Freddie’s into sam all of the sudden?? (Like he doesn’t even kiss her back smh)

I mean I have to admit a+ on the shock factor/cliff hanger of it all but the fact that it didn’t make any sense for the characters still outweighs that for me

Like imagine if they’d used that episode to actually give Sam a functional relationship and keep brad around for a little longer- they could’ve even made it into a creddie thing (maybe Carly and Freddie are scheming to get Sam and brad together and somehow end up alone together/something happens between them idk something cute like that) like let’s be real that episode would’ve worked way better as a lead up to a creddie kiss or something happening than a random seddie kiss lol

Anyway end of my little rant (btw fanfic writers feel free to jump onto my little train of thought here lol)

[laur-rants]

Schrodinger’s Game Theory: The Fate of Daud

Ever come up with a theory, and then halfway through creating it, the evidence changes and so you’re stuck with a lot of well-put-together ideas but nowhere to go with it?

Anyway, I did that with Daud. Lol.

I just rediscovered a whole ass rant in my drafts (which is now in the link above for private viewing and judgement PLS read it, if you’re missing some context to this post) that I clearly spent a lot of time and energy on, where I came to the conclusion that Daud in Death of the Outsider is actually a imposter/doppelganger, and it was because of the writing from the book contrasted the writing in DotO so poorly, that I came to believe this. I was like, VERY convinced prior to Billie’s book coming out that this was, in fact, a viable game theory. !00%. There was a chance that out there, somewhere, Daud was still stuck in his mind, and needed someone to come rescue him. Stranger things have happened to explain characters coming back from the dead in a video game, okay?

Somewhere along the line, though, it stopped being game theory and was more like, a fan idea. I had collected enough evidence to come to the conclusion that my theory wasn’t sound. That, and Billie’s book released, and there’s no way I could argue that. Instead, imposter!Daud moved to Fan Theory, something I could fictionally, write about, put into an AU.

But... Just because it’s probably not true in the scheme of the game doesn’t stop me from thinking about it, from wanting to talk and share those ideas with others. Even if, at the end of the day, they hold no water and it wouldn't matter because, well. If Billie’s book is to be considered post-DotO canon, then there’s no reason to believe my theory would hold weight. It wouldnt matter, because Daud well, he was left for dead either way. Nobody was coming to rescue him. I’m sure there’s plenty of questions people have in response to this, the most chief one being

“If its not Daud how is he in the Void talking to the Outsider and Billie at the end of DotO??”

And my usual response is: the end of Return of Daud saw Daud becoming trapped within his own mind, through a trap laid by witches from the very beginning of the book. That meant, even if his physical body was still, well, physical, he was trapped inside his mind.

I proposed that out of survival, well, a sliver of his mind would hole itself up in the Void, maybe even be stuck there (this is not so uncommon as it appears; think of what happened to Jessamine in the Heart). Once the spell on his mind and the Outsider were gone, the sliver could return back to his mind. And he’d still be alive.

From a gamer perspective, looking at the mechanics of the game, and everything else, it makes sense. I’m sure some people would say this theory would ‘cheapen Daud’s death’ and I would refute that by simply saying ‘all of DotO cheapened Daud’s death, and despite being a playable character in the franchise he dies unceremoniously off screen and we just take Billie’s word for his death to heart.’ Nothing cheapens a death faster in my head than ‘time to renege on this character’s entire past arch and have him die off-screen.’ His death was ruined far before they went into the Void. If anything, this would give Daud a change to explain himself. 

But I digress. I actually did do a stupid amount of research on this. And what it all really boils down to is that there was bad writing involved in DotO when it came to timeline consistency and quality checkers not checking for that, + the book having been rewritten like, twice, to keep up with what Arkane was changing in DotO in real time.

That’s post marked 9/25/18. I’ve had this theory sitting around for a long time. I enjoyed it. I find it compelling. But ultimately, it was me trying to save Daud, in my mind. Would it be cool for the witches to have stolen Daud, replaced him with a dummy body Eyeless/Envisioned, given that dummy body his memories, and then, when it had outlived it’s usefulness of sending Billie astray, the magic broke and it perished? Hell yeah it would have been cool. and honestly, according to the books, it was a viable option! They could do all those things. You can’t tell me that

Billie can steal faces,

Emily can create copies and

They witches had access to a gemstone that can make prisoners of their own mind/see the thoughts of others,

and NOT immediately think that they’d try and replicate one of the strongest Marked to ever live. The one that TRAPPED DELILAH, no less. And because the witches messed with Daud’s dreams at the beginning of the book (it’s subtle, but its there, its like, you see it on the reread sort of thing), that’s the whole reason he thinks the Outsider is supposed to die, so of course the double would fervently believe the singular obsession that brought Daud into a trap in the first place...

I’m digressing again. Anyway.

What does this mean for Dear old Daud?

It means Daud canonically died, and it was shitty and poorly written and I’ll be salty about that until the day I die because some schmuck on twitter wrote one singular essay and Harvey Smith decided ‘you. you’re the one who needs to write this story’ and then we got Corvosider fanfic in a Dishonored game and I wanted to die. It doesn’t help that this writer was notoriously pretentious and shit-stirring in the fandom at-large BEFORE their hiring-- anyway, this isn’t a salt piece on that. I AM SALTY ABOUT IT, but I’m not the person to discuss it at length. Just know that that’s why some of the narrative decisions in DotO are so out of fucking whack, and we all have to deal with it.

MOVING ON....

There is still... a very slim chance. To save Daud.

Realistically speaking, this chance will never occur. It’s clear and obvious that Arkane has no plans on returning to the Dishonored universe, so despite all these loose ends that Arkane left and all these pieces that need to be picked up and all this lore that’s been reneged on, there’s really not much of a chance that we’ll see, say, Billie, return in a game that is specifically designed to save the timelines. Which, honestly, would be fucking baller. I want a game where I play as Billie, where the shattered timespace of Dunwall is saved by her capable hand, and Emily is free to rule for decades without having to fear that the Isles will fall into the Void like it’s Deimos falling into Hell in DOOM. We KNOW the timelines are saved because we KNOW that Emily has a long and Just (or unjust, if you went high chaos lol) Rule over the kingdom. That can’t happen if, just three years down the line, Billy is running all over the place trying to make sure time doesn’t break at the seams.

But that’s the thing, isn’t it? Because of how Daud meets Billie in RoD, we know that a Billie three years into the future (’YOUR future,’ she tells him) is trying to save his life. There are other timelines she’s saved already, for sure. Including saving Daud in the past, saving Corvo and Emily in the past, saving Granny Rags in the past -- basically, saving all the Marked from coming to an untimely end. And then, after all that, she goes back in time and tries to save Daud, tries to save him from being poisoned by witch magic and falling into a trap that is triggered when he touches her Future version of the Twin-bladed Knife. She goes through a sort of Groundhog Day scenario, where she confesses that she’s tried hundreds of times to save him, and she couldn’t save that Daud.

But why show us Billie failing to save Daud, if she was destined for failure? Because, eventually, she must succeed.

And therein lies Daud’s (potential) salvation. Is it realizing the other Daud is an imposter? Well... let’s think of it this way. Is the Billie who regained her arm and eye an ‘imposter’ where the ‘real’ Billie is in a timeline where she lost those body parts? Is the Aramis Stilton who went mad in the basement of his mansion the imposter? Or is it the one that Emily saved and was able to keep lucid? These people aren’t ‘imposters’ to their timelines, but they kind of are to the timelines that are saved. Which means DotO could be an entirely separate ‘timeline’, one that we manage to play through and see the ending of. But the ‘true timeline’ may never be known. But at least, we know it happens, and we have Billie to thank for that.

FIN.

[nny11writes]

13, 16, 18, 43 and 50 for tha ask game please and thank you :P Just, many many numbers lol

13. What is your planning process?

My first reaction was to squint and go “Do I have a process?” which is probably an answer on its own lol!

It depends is the actual answer.

Like most writers I start a fic because of one scene or dialogue or description that I really, really, really wanted to write and then I have to figure out where it belongs.

I almost always start by just...writing. I used to be 100% stream of consciousness writer. I’d sit down at least once a day with a blank document and without ANY forethought or direction I’d start writing a fic. It was always as much fun for me as my readers to see where a story would go because I literally had no clue.

These days, as I’m putting THE THING down on the page my brain is shrieking ideas at me so I start slapping them down too, but I’ve got a better filter so not everything goes down. There’s a lot of [WHAT IS THIS THING PLS PLS FIGURE IT OUT] and [PAST OR PRESENT TENSE MF MAKE UP YO MIND] at this stage.

This is where I actually start planning. I’ve got a bunch of stuff down, a vague direction, and a lot of ideas so this is usually where I sit down to do some planning. Am I aiming to write a short fic or long fic, one shot or multi-chapter, where are we, how many characters, etc. I leave things pretty wide open, while sometimes it’s fun to challenge myself to meet very specific goals it’s usually frustrating to me so nothing is set in stone. Literally. Even when I’ve posted if someone leaves a comment that’s amazing or enough people liked it I’ll usually try to write more in that fic or another fic with those ideas.

How To Quit You is a great example of how my loosey goosey planning works. I don’t know if people realize but that fic was originally supposed to be ONLY that first chapter. I wrote it in an hour tops for 2019 glitra week and all I knew at that point was I wanted to do a western with some romance tropes to it (hence the exes who still love each other thing).

Once I realized how many people seemed to love it and wanted to see more I sat down and planned it out. I first decided how I wanted to write the story (hence going back in time ~15 years) and then I created chapter titles and had vague descriptions for them.  Once it was all down I went through it again and made adjustments, then created a timeline (Micah died in 1868, they meet in 1870, Catra works BMR rails 1870-1880 min, etc etc). And that’s it.  I made an outline and used it as my idea bouncing ground and map and huge parts of it have changed as we’ve gone along. Catra was going to become a drunkard out in [REDACTED] after the timeline met up with chapter one. I scrapped that because it didn’t fit with other details and changes I’d made. I re-wrote the chapter and now I gotta scrap that and re-write it again do to reasons that would spoilers.

Let’s Try This Again is another hilarious example, because chapters 1-6 were meticulously planned and I charted out a whole story around them that I was going to stick to damn it all! And then Palpatine hip checked me and changed the course of the story. I still included a lot from my original VERY detailed outline, but some chapters were nixed completely and others added in too sooooo...

I’m not a true pantser because I do some planning, but I’m not a planner because I leave huge chucks practically up to the whims of fate. I’m a plantser.

16. Do you use sentence starters, writing prompts and/or fandom headcanons for your fanfics?

Sometimes! 

I think some of my best works are from prompts (WHICH ARE ALWAYS OPEN, HINT HINT, NUDGE NUDGE, KNOW WHAT I MEAN KNOW WHAT I MEAN) specifically.

I rarely use sentence starters but I think I’ve done okay when I did.

But fandom headcanons? Oh hell yeah baby now we’re talking!

Can Anakin cook but Padme can’t? Hell yeah!

Togruta have some cat like features so Ahsoka is obligate carnivore and color blind? WOOOOOOOO BOYYYYYYYYYYYY!

"This is not because I like you.” is 100% something that everyone in the Horde says when trying to cover their asses, Catra’s just a useless lesbian and has to use it A Lot More Than Most. Awwwwww yeah, that’s the good stuff!

Glimmer and Catra talk to one another but only have serious conversations sitting back to back post canon. I DON’T MAKE THE RULES!

Like, god, fandom headcanon is practically what my fics live on lol! I’m not great at writing things in canon or sticking to canon, and people are amazing and smart so of course I’m going to steal their cool ideas and then mess with them until they’re my own.

18. What is your favorite writing prompt?

...I gotta be honest I have no clue lol. I’ve liked basically every prompt I’ve ever gotten (there’s literally only been 2 that I got and went “...oh.” and of those two I was able to bend the prompt into things I liked a lot! One of them is actually posted and people like it, and then other is currently sitting in the naughty prompt corner for crimes of FIGHTING ME TO A STANDSTILL every time I write a few sentences for it, but I do actually like it now lol).

I think my favorite style of prompt are ones that are open for some interpretation. You know that joke about you know a writer based on how they respond to a one word prompt like “fall” or “cold” or even “love”? I love that kind of stuff! Heck, even things with a more narrow focus are fun to play with. For one of my prompt fics I was able to flip the script and have the character everyone expects the unrequited pining from to instead be the unattainable beloved instead.

*Marge potato meme* I just think they’re neat!

43. Guilty pleasure tropes and scenarios?

None, because I am very loud about what I enjoy and refuse to have things I enjoy ripped away by strangers on the interwebs.

Okay, more seriously, as far as things that others might think are guilty pleasure tropes and scenarios?

I love a good “morons to repressed idiots to lovers” slow burn. Yes, yesssss, let them be absolute fools and make MASSIVE mistakes that they have no reason to make. There was a miscommunication? Delightful! Oh look, they’re both flirting with one another but think the other one is just joking around with them. I WILL TAKE ANOTHER 200K OF THEM SUFFERING THANK YOU!

I love AUs man, every time I see someone who really hates coffee shop AUs or highschool AUs or modern AUs I end up getting grumpy and I go find some of those AUs to read because I love them. The AUs I love the most change fandom to fandom. Not a huge fan of modern AU for star wars, but an absolute slut for them in She Ra. Palpatine chokes on a bagel and I live, but if that happened to Horde Prime I’d be pissed. *shrug* I just know that some people really don’t like or even outright hate AUs, and I do not understand them at all. Like, good for them and I hope they find the fics they do enjoy! But also, why???????

I think my “cringiest” one is that I actually really like A/B/O as long as they flip the script somehow or delve into how something like that would actually effect the world it exists in. Is sex in public a common and acceptable thing b/c they can’t control themselves? Do jobs and schools give people time off for heats and ruts? Is it considered antiquated and anyone who struggles with their biology is considered lazy or stupid? Do celebrities sometimes get in trouble with fans or even lose their jobs/prestige after showing off their new mating mark? GIVE ME THE WORLD BUILDING I WANT TO KNOW! But if it’s a really boring traditional A/B/O...like, what’s the point there? 

Please don’t misunderstand me here. These three examples are all things that are WILDLY stupid in their own rights, and I love them dearly both because of and regardless of that!

50. Can we get a teaser for an upcoming chapter?

It’s All Fun and Games Until...Stop! Stop! We’re Already Gay!

AKA the one where they all go to Mystacor to relax in the steam grotto and have to deal with seeing one another in tight fitting and wet underwear. The thirst is high.

“So…” Bow started conversationally as Sea Hawk put the finishing touches on Bow’s freshly painted nails. “How doomed are they? Are we making bets?”

Mermista and Sea Hawk made significant eye contact before looking at him pitifully. 

“What?” Bow asked, starting to sweat nervously. “What!?”

“Nothing, just-” Sea Hawk didn’t even get to finish.

“You need to get your girlfriend to get her girlfriends under control, and like, I knooooow that’s a tall order or whatever. But uuuuuuuuugggggghhh, we are going to die.”

“Girlfriend!?” Bow’s voice cracked painfully. “Ha! A-ha! Ha! W-who? I don’t, I don’t have a girlfriend, what are you even talking about?”

“Uuuuuggggggghh!”

“There, there my dear. We have survived worse.”

[eatingfireflies]

11 Questions WIP tag meme:

Tagged by @chessanator​! Thanks for tagging!! :D

Tagging @greaseonmymouth​, @hardcoreprince​, @amberlyinviolet​ (i missed you!! ;;;), @billyweird​, @zossie​. But you guys don’t have to ofc!

1. How long have you been writing?

Me and my cousins used to make little illustrated booklets when we were kids. I was around 6-7 years old (probably) because I remember making Sailor Moon comics as well and I was that age when Sailor Moon showed in my country. When I was a kid what I really wanted to do was do comics, but things happened. :”D

2. What are the major themes of your current wip(s)?

I’m trying to think back and most of my WIPs seem to be about life getting pear-shaped and the characters having to deal with that. Two of them will need the ‘Major Character Death’ warning at AO3 if I ever post them. 

3. What do you want people to take away from your story once they’ve read it?

Depends on what fic they read. :”D But if a person got something from my fics that I did not intend, then all the power to them. So long as it’s not ‘that writer sucks’ lol!

4. Would you be excited if people write fanfiction about your wip(s)?

I’m torn because I love sharing headcanons and trends, and I’d be SUPER flattered if anyone wrote fic based on any of mine but there’s also the worry re: accusations of plagiarising and stealing someone else’s ideas. So personally, I’d be excited. But in a more general level it’s a bit of a thornier issue. 

And I know this is an issue with trad pub/canon vs fanfic on a bigger scale (like how some traditionally published writers won’t read fics based on their own work no matter how supportive they are of transformative work because of the whole plagiarism issue (accidental or otherwise)) but yeah.    

5. What’s your go-to writing beverage?

Water lol. I don’t need to drink anything to get going, but I do need cigarettes to function properly. Pls don’t start smoking. 

6. Who is your favorite oc? Tell me about them!

I’m going to talk about an OC from Travelling in company--a Junpei + Phi detective bros fic. So there will be spoilers.

But yeah I really like Hirata Ichirou. He’s the Mr Body in this fic: the character who was written to die so we can investigate what happened. At first I didn’t really know exactly what happened to him (lmao I knew it was cult-related but also personal but I didn’t decide until I was halfway done with the fic) and he was simply a nameless chinpira, but as the fic went on I realised I knew exactly what Hirata died of and why. I grew really fond of the guy. 

He likes to eat parfaits with his childhood friend, I mean. Come on.  

In actual WIPs uuuh. I don’t generally write OCs? Sorry folks. :”D

7. Do you feel that mistakes are important learning tools in the writing journey?

Not if I don’t catch the mistakes and correct them. One of the most important learning tools imo is reading books. Not fics by other people (which btw are really good and writers like franticbabbles taught me a lot about writing) but traditionally published novels. See how its done by someone who (hopefully) has a professional editor to ‘curb their spur’, decide what works for you and what doesn’t. I find that aside from having a beta, it helps you catch mistakes and decide whether you want to correct them or not. 

As Neil Gaiman said--and I paraphrase--your style are the things that you get ‘wrong’. But it defo helps to know the rules before you break them.

8. Rank your ocs by their capability in a footchase (either running after or from smth, your choice)

Here’s a bunch from Travelling in company because that fic has yakuza in it.

1, Honda Mitsuo/Wakaisha #1: very competent man. Can probably kill you with a paperclip

2, Mishima: not incredibly physically active but he has the brains and the resources to make it so he doesn’t have to run very far if he has absolutely no choice in the matter

3, Hirata Ichirou: okay dude. A chinpira and has probably run away from the police/other yakuza members before. Knows shortcuts and dead ends.

4, Satou Keiichi: more buff than fast on his feet. You can trust him to protect you, but not so much when it comes to running after escaping attackers.

Bonus from Kentucky for Christmas:

5, Hugh Grant (not the actor but a detective who insisted he looked like the actor): not very useful. Fell down a building while on the run from gangsters. 1/10 won’t recommend.  

9. Does your wip have romance? tell me about it!! if not tell me about a friendship/important relationship in your wip!!

Oh all the romance. I only write romance fics, didn’t you know? :”D All those mysteries and crimes are just frills for the romance and bonding. 

Right now I’m in the middle of writing a scene where Aoi and Junpei bond over Gunplas. 

10. Do you believe in the advice kill your darlings?

Yes. I have a ‘rags box’ which is a gdocs file where I throw all the lines of dialogue and narrative I had to cut from fics. Hoping that someday, somewhere, I can recycle them in some form. Don’t let them go entirely, they might still be useful for another piece if not the one you’re working on. 

Another thing I learned from this guy who taught Creative Writing in my first language was be mindful of your POV. In an exercise, he made us write about the emotions of an old woman going to a shopping mall right after the death of her husband. I was raring to go. I wrote about this old woman grabbing her daughter’s elbow tightly because she felt she was going to float all the way to the domed ceiling of the mall--that’s how light she felt. 

Teacher: Is that the old woman talking, or you?

Me: How do you mean?

Teacher: That literary~ language, is that her or you? 

Me: It was me.

Teacher: Great, rewrite that. 

Yeah, sometimes we have to kill our darlings, our floating into the ceiling moment, to present the experiences of a certain character fully. And that’s fine. 

(It’s also fine if you don’t want to. It’s just something that works for me.) 

11. Do you prefer plotting or worldbuilding? Why?

Worldbuilding. I’m so bad at coming up with events is why :”D I literally need prompts. But once I have a firm grasp on the world the characters are inhabiting I get more ideas on what they could do and what could happen around them.