#fanfic writers: director's commentary

[gerec]

Last question, this time for director's cut of The Hideaway and specifically chapters 42 and 43. Usually vampire stories aren't my cup of tea but I like that dark!Charles too much.

For The Hideaway:

I love vampire stories, and I especially love writing Charles and Raven as monster siblings who enable each other's bad behaviour. I'm generally neutral to uninterested in Raven as a character, except in this one type of situation where she's almost always his co-conspirator lol. And I think an unhinged and unleashed Charles is much more frightening than a similarly inclined Erik if only for how his power can be twisted to take free will away from his victims completely.

In this verse, I imagine Erik has lasted longest out of all the 'victims' the siblings have become obsessed with, because of his resilience, his smarts and his strength of will. So they play a game with him, letting him 'get away' until he starts to think he's finally free and then they swoop in and claim him again for a while before the cycle continues. I imagine they've been dragging this game on for decades at this point and will do so until they finally turn him against his will...

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut

[anna-pineappel]

directors cut for Walk Through Fire? I’m especially interested in how it developed into a plot and evolved over time, what scenes you thought of first, and anything else that comes to mind!

Thanks for the ask, @meatsouuuuup!!! Just getting around replying to this now. How much time do you have? lol

(Note: at the time of this reply (July 4, 2024) I still have 2 Chapters to post, so I'll answer this without giving away the end, but I can circle back once the whole fic is posted).

Warning: this is a bit long, sorry not sorry!

Plot Origins:

So, I have 2 headcanons for Klogan and how they get together:

They are playing chess in Klink's quarters, they're drinking, and things happen - This is my fic Letting the Liquor Talk

They Banter/Argue in Klink's office and sexual tension... snaps - Which is what inspired Walk Through Fire

Walk Through Fire was supposed to be a one-shot, Chapter 1 - Unravel, like Letting the Liquor Talk. But then I decided it needed to be a two-parter because... I just kept writing lol. I wrote Chapter 1 kinda from Klink's perspective and Chapter 2 - Surrender to the Darkness, is more from Hogan's perspective.

However, it didn't stay a two-parter and before I knew it, I had a whole +40k fic on my hands! 😅 Let's get into it!

Evolution/First Scene(s):

I had Chapter 1, then 2, and Chapter 10 thought of first. After writing those chapters, I had a vague outline about scenes/plot points I wanted to include:

Schultz walking in on them - Chapter 3

The gang confronting Hogan in his office - Chapter 4

The Paris trip - Chapter 5

Hogan's disguise on New Year's Eve - Chapter 7

The gang listening on the coffee maker at the wrong time - Chapter 8

I wrote the main ideas for those chapters and then... I had to connect everything with a Plot™️. Luckily, once I wrote Schultz walking in and Chapter 3, it was a bit of a catalyst to other plot points, like the Paris trip.

I also decided that I needed something between Chapter 5 and 7, and then I got the idea for Klink to tell Hogan that he is Nimrod and then Hogan shows him the operation. It was with that chapter that the fic felt like an actual fic, since the relationship deepens.

Then, I was able to write the last half of Chapter 8, all of Chapter 9 (latest update), and changed some things around in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 was the last chapter I wrote, and the fic was almost only 10 chapters. But then I had an Idea™️.

Anything Else?

I wrote Chapter 4 - Secret Affair, while at the mechanic. There was something wrong with my vehicle and I waited 3-4 hours. At the time, the mechanic was an hour away, I couldn't get a shuttle, and my partner was at work so I brought my laptop and wrote some smut while I waited, like a Normal Adult.

I was going Through It™️ when I wrote Chapter 8 - Betrayal, and it got angsty very quickly. It was quite cathartic to write Hogan being angry and having a nightmare! And it inspired a whole other Whump WIP.

I wrote Walk Through Fire before any other fic. And my other fics served as a procrastination strategy when I didn't want to work on Walk Through Fire. Nothing like procrastinating on a WIP with other WIPs/Fics!

Hope you enjoy all that! 😊

[icedteaandoldlace]

⭐️

Oh, thank you so much! This is going to be fun! Gonna dig a little into my favorite moment from Reversing the Damage (chapter 1 of Nights That Never End). I have the snippet here, for context. I think it probably speaks for itself, but I'm gonna elaborate on it, anyway.

So what's happening here—and throughout most of the chapter—is that Cisco is trying to explain his Reverse Flash trauma to Kamilla without oversharing and making her uncomfortable. And when she has an emotional reaction to learning about both what happened and how it still affects him, he tries to play it off like it isn't as bad as it sounds. He doesn't want her to be upset, or to feel obligated to listen and be supportive every time something bad from his past crops up again.

My semi-canon headcanon is that Cisco knows exactly the kind of relationship he wants, but doesn't feel entitled to expect or to ask for the amount of effort it would require from his partner to achieve the level of closeness that he wants. So he's in this place where he feels like giving 70% and receiving 30% is a reasonable exchange, because that's what he's used to (see: asking Cynthia if they could work out a better arrangement than the one they had, instead of asking her to leave the collectors and move in with him, which is what he really wanted). He doesn't really know how to have a girlfriend who is truly a partner. So he tries to convey to Kamilla that he's fine, and she doesn't have to take on all his emotional baggage, and he makes the joke that he doesn't expect her to hold his hand every time he has a nightmare, both in an attempt to lighten the mood, and as a subconscious deflection; he's basically offering to shut up and not bother Kamilla with his problems if she'd be more comfortable not knowing about them, before she has the chance to make the suggestion first, that way her setting that boundary would feel less like a rejection.

But of course, that's not what Kamilla wants. And she knows exactly what he's doing, even if he doesn't fully realize it himself. And she kinda wants to argue with him about it, but she doesn't know how to reassure him that she wants to be emotionally available for him, without sounding like she's just saying that to be polite. So instead of saying anything, she just holds his hand—literally—because that was the thing he said he didn't expect her to do. Without saying it outright, she's telling him that he should expect support and comfort from her when he needs it, because that's what loving someone means.

And Kamilla doesn't even consciously realize she's in love with him yet, but she's about to. Yeah, I know, canon says she knew he was the love of her life the moment she met him, but I see that more as her being instantly attracted to his personality, and recognizing that he was different/better than the guys she'd dated before, and someone who had the potential for her to be truly happy with. But actually falling in love with him was a process that required spending time with him and getting to know him. And my intent with the last line of this chapter is that this is the night Kamilla realizes she's in love with him. Because this isn't easy for her. Secondhand trauma is a very real and very not-fun thing, and the chapter ends with her lying awake, still thinking about the fact that Cisco's life almost ended before she even got the chance to meet him, and about the danger that the Reverse Flash still poses. Knowing what Cisco has been through and knowing that he isn't safe from it ever happening again is going to haunt her for a while, and that's gonna take her some time to emotionally recover from. But she is actively choosing to be Cisco's confidant and to go through all this with him, because to her it's worth it if it helps him heal. That's the thing that causes her to realize that she loves him, because she wouldn't be choosing this if she didn't.

As a final note, when I wrote Kamilla holding Cisco's hand as a way of telling him that she would be there for him whenever he needed her, it was 100% meant to be a precursor to this moment:

Because I LOVE this little moment so much and I wanted to give it some layers, and expanding on where Cisco's head is at the beginning of their relationship, and connecting that to where it is when their relationship is more developed shows just how good having Kamilla in his life has been for him.

[writer-and-artist27]

⭐

Thankie for the star, Carim <3 What to comment on...

In Morgan's chapter of Passing Days, Day 65, the "Tonelico" name she used for disguise was actually written in on purpose. I was really surprised when playing through the NA translation of Lostbelt 6 to find her past self's name had been changed to Aesc, but since Morgan chose to come to my Chaldea on NP3 in the name of violence, it felt like she would also choose the name mainly to throw off any remaining Fairy Knights/Tam Lin and Oberon when trying to guide Chaldea.

"Tonelico" was the original name JP used for Morgan's past self as an Avalon Le Fae in saving Britain, so why not honor that when trying to play herself off as Arturia Caster's predecessor faerie? It works out. :)

[teddywesworl]

ok y'all said you want director's commentary so I'm gonna start by saying a couple things about 🪑 since it recently celebrated 2k kudos

🪑DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY LET'S GO

1.

A fun fact about the poems at the beginning of each chapter is that I took two of the poet's classes in college, and she might be solely responsible for convincing me I was a good writer and should pursue the skill. I don't know how she'd feel about me using her poetry to thematically frame an explicit fanfic, but that's neither here nor there.

As a poet, she (I'm not naming her here in case she might possibly name search on tumblr, lol) is obsessed with transformation and with the discord between the material and spiritual self. Blackberries, Brambles in its entirety goes as follows:

Akhmatova wrote, "O look!—that fresh dark elderberry branch is like a letter from Marina…" And she was right, branches criss- cross, words sharpen. We lop them down, fit them into envelopes. But I forget: you don't do letters: Too much tangled in thickets and desperation. Did I say envelopes? I meant elevators. See, I've snagged favourite sweaters in high rises, snarled hair in hedges, given up skin scrapings for blackberries, tongueburst, the sweet stain, explosion under light canine pressure. Don't you just wish you were a dog sometimes? No panic. Romping through brambles. Even in delirium, near death, Akhmatova remembered. Her bitter friend had been dead a long time. Love. Don't think I'm thinking about you. Anything but you.

Akhmatova here being Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, and the Marina in question is Marina Tsvetaeva. You can go on as much or as little of a research spiral about them as you like; many of the layers of this poem are in the reference to Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva, but I was mostly interested in the commentary on the cost of pleasure. I've snagged favourite sweaters in high rises, snarled hair in hedges, given up skin scrapings for blackberries. What are you willing to pay for happiness? Wouldn't it be nice not to think about it? Wouldn't it be nice not to be afraid to pay?

2.

Obviously the other major literary framing device is A Room With A View. The movie, specifically, but obviously the Forster novel as well. A Room With A View is about the clash between tradition and modernity, familial duty vs. adventure and romance, etc. etc. etc. And like, listen, the Duffers have not put this much thought into Steve Harrington, but his arc, despite them, is that of the ultimate privileged 80s all-American masculine symbol taking a slow, deliberate turn toward Otherness. He was supposed to die a static character. He did not, and now we're all writing fic about it.

I probably didn't need to have Eddie literally whack the point home with a hammer with the you're Lucy line in chapter 2, but here we are.

3.

The other bits of ~Art~ in the Steve chapter are Elton John's The Fox and Bruce Springsteen's The River. As follows:

But if you’re wily, you will leave them lying, snared up in the traps that they set for you, Elton sings. And it’s an evergreen affair— Steve lifts the record out and replaces it with The River. Springsteen sings, you're walkin' tough, baby, but you're walkin' blind and that’s not really better.

The Elton John record, you may recall, was a compromise between Eddie and Nancy. The inclusion of these lines in particular was very vibes-based, but hopefully the vibes are semi-coherent. Snares. Traps. The hunter, the fox. Btw the next lines after these are:

As temptation taunts the fox Into the hunter's waiting lair

Which, okay. Teasing out the vibes just a little. Argyle interprets Nancy as Lucy (and implies, without meaning to, that Steve is Cecil--a character that represents old money and tradition and duty and, like. Being trapped). Nancy would probably also view herself as the titular Fox. And Steve has bought into this line of thinking! He sees himself as the snare! He has internalized the idea of life with him being a trap! He is Bullshit, etc.

Eddie complicates this self-concept. Through him, Steve becomes the Fox and Lucy. Temptation taunts the fox into the hunter's waiting lair, after all. And, you know: 🪑🪢

(The Springsteen lines are just. All Steve.)

Ok I have to go feed some horses. More.... later. eventually.

[adolin]

ao3 directors commentary for the eddie kaspbrak reddit one bc holy shit i didn’t realize that was you

WHAT A BLAST FROM THE PAST THANK YOU

I killed a clown. AMA! (IT Movies — Eddie/Richie; Outsider POV / social media fic)

I (39M) got stabbed twice today and now I want a divorce. Help? Or: the one where Eddie is on Reddit.

Like I said in the fic endnotes, this one owes a lot to anons over at FFA (anon comm on dreamwidth) where some beautiful-brained anon came up with the idea of "What if reddit’s response to a Reddie fixit fic plot?" with a lot of interesting conversations about how Eddie would totally be a redditor and he would type out long winded screeds about his emotional state and family and childhood trauma and how absolutely nut it would look from the outside. So that was the original idea, and I casually started coming up with thread names and ideas about what Eddie could possibly get up to on reddit

I (37M) accidentally called my wife (38F) ‘mommy’. Now she’s mad at me

I think this was the one that made me go, "Wait, there's a funny fic here." I had a blast trying to come up with a plausible reddit user history for Eddie (he's into cars and haunts r/personalfinance and offers terribly backhanded advice!) and Myra (she likes the bachelor and has a messy family of her own). I love writing outsider POV fics because you get to pick and choose how much should be revealed and when for maximum effect; this was one of those fics where I knew 100% where I was going from the start and it was all about crafting it and it felt SO satisfying.

Formatting it was hell. In the years since I wrote this fic someone has come up with a CSS skin that makes everything look like a reddit thread and it looks so much better and I keep telling myself I will edit the fic and update to the skin but. The idea of formatting it again is daunting. ONE DAY.

Thank you so much for asking me about this fic it was such a great blast from the past <3

[fanfic writers director's cut meme!]

[herefortayloronly]

Since the very beginning, I said it was a mistake to make Colin a "rake" because that's not his character and it's a complete misunderstanding of his character.

Colin is never meant to be the sexy flirty ladies man. He's a little awkward, silly and mild-mannered, if you can recall that's what he was like in season 1 and 2. He's a soft cinnamon roll but we never got to see him be a soft cinnamon roll. People tried to convince others who criticize this choice by saying it was done on purpose, you are supposed to get "the ick", you are suppose to not like Colin's new personality because it's fake!! That people lack media literacy!!! The point is to show that he's pressured to be a rake because society pressures men to be a MAN™ and Colin will eventually learn that he doesn't have to conform to society dont worry!!! It's a commentary on toxic masculinity!!!!!!!!!!

I disagree lol

Actually the thing is I usually would agree with this except there are many glaring errors and inconsistency that suggest that's not what the writers went for. That's not the message and theme they were going for. They definitely did not intend to make Colin's rakish behaviors cringe and icky. They seriously wanted him to come off like he's this suave hot playboy. They wanted us to believe he is a catch and that he is hot and sexy.

1) No one in the Bridgerton world found him cringey.

Now people are gonna say the writers are going for a dramatic irony where we, the audience, are meant to find it cringe but the characters don't. But when has Bridgerton done any sorts of irony ever?? It's not that kind of show and it's not that kind of story. We are meant to find him sexy and hot because the characters, the young debutantes of the ton, find him sexy. What is the purpose of having the people in-world find him sexy if not to signal to us that we are suppose to find him sexy too? Why would a romance show want their predominantly female fanbase to find the male lead unsexy and cringe? When in the history of good rom-coms have you gotten "the ick" from our lead hero?

2) If he was faking being a rake then why do we never see him be..... himself?? LOL

Let's say he was faking it. If he was putting up an act then why do we never see him break from that act? The way he was behaving at that brothel with those prostitutes is exactly the same way he behaved with his friends and family. No difference!

This is probably the most glaring issue with the writing because they spent way too much time dealing with the LW situation and all the subplots that they forgot to really lay the groundwork for Colin. If they truly had the intent to show us that he is just faking being a rake then we should see him when he's not faking it. We need to see him when he's just being himself. We need to see him when he has his guard down but for all 8 episodes I never see that. The only time he really let his guard down was to admit he was jealous of Penelope's writing but that doesn't explain why he started having threesomes. What about his insecurities for his writing all of a sudden made him horny? We just didn't get to spend enough time with Colin to really understand him. Sure we can infer and read between the lines but we're veering into fanfic territory for me. We shouldn't have to headcanon who Colin is because the writers are too lazy to flesh him out. I don't need to be spoonfed but I was definitely not fed at all lol.

I don't want this post to be too long but I'm just gonna add this. Even the Luke Newton was surprised people found Colin icky!!! And he knew it was a wrong choice for the character but the director and writers have other interpretations clearly.

Now how could they had done Colin differently? Of course I can't make a critical post without actually giving some constructive criticism. First, if they really did mean to make him cringe and icky then we need to see him get rejected. We need to see the ladies turn him away because he is so bad at flirting that they can't take him serious. We need to understand clearly that the people of the Bridgerton world also find him cringe and weird. I personally would love to see him fumbled during sex with the prostitutes. It would be funny to see him try to force himself to make the act work and realize he is completely out of his depth. If he's faking it then we need some scenes where we see his real personality. It would be nice to see scenes where he's flirting and hamming it up at balls and then later at night he goes home alone and work on his writing.

Second, his character would improve so much if we see him have some sort of direction. We know he writes. I kinda hate that they made his love for travel into him having sex across the continent of Europe. Would be great to see Colin's love for writing be about his fascination for linguistics and literature and that's why he travels because he wants to learn about other languages and culture. He could've come back from traveling with a new found love for knowledge and learning instead he came back as a manwhore.

Finally, I said I rewatched Emma (2020) the other day and I had an epiphany. I realized that Colin has "Jane austen's male lead" energy. Now I'm not saying Julia Quinn/Brigderton and Jane Austen are even remotely comparable. They are not even in the same stratosphere. However, Colin has that sweet, mild-mannered, calm and subtle humor personality that a lot of Jane Austen's male leads have, at least the Colin in season 1 and 2 did. They could've played into this in season 3. I need to see Colin chasing after Penelope the same way Mr Knightley chased after Emma all the way to her house after dancing with her. I need to see Colin be all disheveled and distraught when he realizes he's in love with Penelope. I can't believe there is a scene right before the fingerbanging scene where Colin does chase after Penelope's carriage but we don't actually see it happen. We don't actually see him running. Like that's actually a great moment to see Colin fully realize his love for Penelope. Mr Knightley getting all flustered running after Emma's carriage and then missing his chance to tell her he loves her is hotter than Polin's fingerbanging scene! In fact now that I'm writing this there is a lot of what Emma (2020) did with Mr Knightley that the writers of Bridgerton could've done similarly for Colin that would've helped his character a lot more especially with the LW situation. But that's another post I think!

Ultimately, the writing failed Colin. This has nothing to do with the lack of media literacy or people not finding Luke Newton attractive and hot. It's just the writing did Colin and Luke a huge disservice.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

I was gonna include some quotes from some of my favorite reviews of the season about Colin but I just really wanted to put it all in my own words but here are the videos that made me finally put my issue with Colin into words. Video 1. Video 2. Video 3.

[impala124]

We Are : A show about friendship

One thing about me is that I'm a sucker for any media regarding friendship, add in a high school or university setting and then it becomes my own personal human catnip. So, it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this show. All the characters were likeable and the group dynamic was very fun.

Initially, I was expecting there to be a social commentary about how, even dreaming of making a career in the arts is for the priveleged few and the rest are forced to be cogs in the machine just for survival under the existing systems in place.

However, once I let go of that expectation, I began to appreciate the series for what it is. I just want to mention some relationship dynamics that stood out to me -

Peem and Q

Their relationship is the backbone of this series. Peem's conversation with his teacher about how he feels that his art is too simple when compared to Q's felt very honest.

Their conversation after Q finds out about Milkshake boy really tugged at my heart strings 😭 - Peem called out Q for acting out but he understood where Q was coming from.

Q and Toey

I really like how they included the backstory about Milkshake boy and Pencil Senior. It could've easily fallen flat like some junior being attracted to the talented senior who is mean to him. Also, sharpening his pencils - top-tier love language, Sir!!!

Tan and Fang

This couple is written for me. Let me simp in peace. Can we talk about how they met? Tan being a high school football player and Fang being the head of cheer for the opposite team - straight out of a Wattpad story and I ate it all up with a 🥄. Tan orchestrating a meeting with Fang and then not even trying to play it cool - he wanted everyone to know how whipped he is, and honestly, I love it.

I've heard some whispers about people thinking that Fang doesn't love Tan, and all I've gotta say is that those people better stay away from me!!

Notice how both Phum and Fang met their respective boyfriends by hitting them on their first meeting. They really said 'Fists at first sight!!!'😂

Chain and Pun

I legit thought that they were an established couple in the initial episodes. I love Pun, but, Sir, this is not how you snuggle with a friend!!!

And what is this?? You are sharing the space with your other friends!!! Control yourself.

My man Chain was very clear from the start - he was even ready to play Toey's pretend boyfriend without a moment of hesitation, just because Pun asked. If that doesn't tell you how down that man is, I don't know what will🤷‍♀️. Also Guin😍.

Pun, my beloved, also feels very strongly about Chain.

Let this look be the confirmation you've needed to believe that Pun wanted to be more than friends with Chain.

I wanted more of them. I wanted angst, suffering and resolution. Honestly, I wanted what WanBeer from Monster next door is giving me right now. Well, we can't have nice things now, can we? 😔

Random notes -

Beer is the only reason Phum and Peem are together. I wanted to know more about him. He is such a good friend to Phum and apparently he plays the drums too!! Hope that the fanfic writers have something for me here.

Kluen did nothing wrong. He just thought he had a meet-cute with Peem and wanted to see if it could become a full-blown romance. If anyone wants to spread hate against him, don't take it up with me.

The director definitely watched the dinner scene from Lady and the tramp one too many times and it shows😂.

Overall, I did feel like the show could've been edited down to 14 episodes to be more concise. It could just be me feeling that way because of the binging that I did lol.

[merakiui]

For the fanfic writers directors cut:

Could you give some commentary on sea glass? Particularly, why azul and the tweels had such an obsession with the main character and not her brother as well?

Thank you for asking!!! I will gladly give Sea Glass commentary.

(ask game)

To begin, the man who was keeping Reader captive is not their brother. The two figures from the man's diary are himself and his (presently deceased) sister; they aren't blood-related to Reader. Reader is just the unfortunate soul who happened to become entangled in this years-long scheme.

In the story, this is noted:

And that was how it began. Grand wishes were to be granted with grand payment. It was decided that every two years the house would provide the trio with a human and in return they would grant the boy’s wish regardless of how outlandish it might have been. He could have anything he wanted—riches, health, or power—and all it took was one person’s sacrifice.

The deal Azul arranged with the man is, essentially, one in which the man benefits at the cost of a human life. Azul needs humans because he's experimenting [redacted for Moonbroch spoilers] (which he cryptically touches upon in the fic when he says his research has concluded), and the most feasible way to attain humans is to get them from another human (i.e. the man). The man keeps one human within his home for two years, caring for and conditioning them according to what Azul instructs, and by the end of the two year period he must relinquish them to Azul and the twins no matter what, as per the terms of the contract. In exchange, Azul grants the man's wish.

Normally, the exchange is emotionless, but this time the trio took special interest in Reader. Most of the reasoning for this will be explained in Moonbroch (the sequel), but I will note that they have all grown obsessively fond of Reader after a few very important events in the story's plot prior to the murder and what follows in Sea Glass. The trio have something of a business partnership with the man; they never cared much for him (or his sister) to begin with, but they do care a lot for Reader. >:)

Additionally, for further context, the story (and hints of the deal) are told from Jade's pov in these tiny snippets, which may just provide more background into the situation from an objective perspective:

i. the house on the hilltop is curious. two bipedal creatures enter, but only one ever leaves. as for us, we are confined to the shadowy depths of the sea, bearing silent witness to the tale of unwilling coexistence.  ii. every other year we receive a gift from that peculiar house on the hilltop. when the debt collector makes his biennial trip to the surface and collects what’s owed, we are permitted to relish in the scraps of what’s left behind. as per the agreement, we grant a single wish to those who can pay the steep price. iii. humans often throw coins into wells and fountains, but such beliefs are rooted in false hope. the house on the hilltop is devoid of such hope, yet its human comes to us with materialistic wishes every two years. perhaps his own fruitless ‘hope’ began when the price for a single wish became the life of his kin. iv. the house on the hilltop is blood-stained. a caged angel exists within, hiding claws and fangs. we are not strangers to the food chain, but the carnivorous nature of a once domesticated angel is certainly a curiosity to behold.  v. the house on the hilltop sits serene and abandoned. there is no business to be found inside and we no longer watch from a distance. having freed the angelfish from devious clutches, there is no reason to regard an empty, hopeless place.

[fractualized]

For the fanfic writer's director's cut thing. I'm obsessed with this exchange from Line in the sand:

Any thoughts about it are welcome, I pretty much just want you to know it lives in my brain rent free (and that I'd still give you my firstborn for a sequel).

Oh god, what do you say about the conversation that you knew the whole fic hinged on and knew you would revise fifty thousand times so it sounded like thoughts Bruce would brood over instead of… too writerly and whatnot? Case in point, the fourth paragraph in that excerpt was originally going to be somewhat longer, with at least one more version of "you ______, but ______" until I realized, duh, shorter works fine. The rule of threes is not obligatory.

But yeah, I wanted this bit to be Bruce's l'esprit d'escalier of sorts. Just stuff he's wanted to yell at Joker but hasn't because it didn't come to him at the time or previous moments didn't allow it or it seemed pointless. Including letting Joker know that he doesn't think it's foolish to reach out even if Joker will only bite back.

In this story's infancy, the final line of Bruce's speech was meant to really disarm Joker, and his kiss would be in earnest, which would disarm Bruce and result in them sleeping together. But that's the kind of idea that you realize does not work while writing it. 😂 So then the kiss turned into its own form of pushback.

It was also while writing this that I started thinking I've gone to the well of The Killing Joke too much? LOL That seems stupid to say because it's such a key moment in Bruce and Joker's relationship. There's often no avoiding it, especially in a fic that finally pulls them together. But writing about TKJ enough can start to feel like you're rehashing instead of making a point. Of course it was key for this story, so it's all still in, and I did reference TKJ again for "No Apologies." But it is a minor reason I want to focus on the mpreg comedy, so the story pivots on something else.

(ask game- fanfic director's commentary)

[nicegaai]

im attempting my fic reread today. im announcing this bc i will be liveblogging to keep my morale up, NOT THAT anyone cares but i personally need this, like ill only commit to do the thing if theres an imaginary audience holding me accountable. & i like to have fun :3

anyway. captains log, its a beautiful sunny july weekend. i just finished my morning coffee, and, i am dreading this so much. i dont like rereading my own writing but i shall get over it. ok here we go.

Þetta Reddast vagueblogged directors commentary edition

Ch 1:

*opens fic and starts convulsing immediately* god i wish i smoked weed rn. i cannot chill out ever for the life of me

My Mission For Today Is: to remember what plot threads I’ve left hanging so I can resolve this story properly. And also try n remember where the flow is going. I have the end plotted out, I just am a little lost … it’s been a while :-(

------------

Abrupt beginning!!!! I��m not mad because I have . I HAD. Almost no writing experience when I started this. it isn’t ideal but I refuse to be one of those fanfic writers that starts rewriting early chapters without finishing the last ones. Ive never seen one of those types actually finish a longfic. …I’d already rather yap than actually read LMAO AHH

Oh this is worse than I remember. thats cool that s great ok alright *coughs up blood*

"20 somethings" WOW I really did not know where I was going with this when I started huh

LKJSDLKSJDLGKGDJSLDGJK ??? Who authorized this. Who let me cook. What the hell

I could write this better now. I could edit this into something beautiful. <- devil on my shoulder

FORGOT I WAS MAKING RICE BRB

"generously offered nothing to the exchange." wait STOPPPP. I’m so funny

GRAMMAR ERROR DETECTED why is there two periods. I’ll be coming back to fix that …………………. :-(((

Fuck. This is a lot. Marge Simpson Hiding Her Face dot Png

Oh this is stupid this is gayyy this is fukcinnn . Who fucking did t his. What was wrong with me,. This is so good actually. what was i ONNNN. 

Im gonna throw up and I don’t know if thats like/. A complimentary thing or if im just cringing that hard . Im feeling emotions. I love my OTPs..OT3~5? I love them so so much

Ok as much as im like “eww bad writing” this is .. dare I say, rly good in places. Not to suck my own dick but maybe all hope isnt lost and imposter syndrome is an illusion

Grammar mistake #2. Goddddddd. they should ban me from the archive for this

EMILLLLL EMIL EMIL EMIL HIIIIII BABYYYY EMILLL I LOVE UUUU AWWHUUGHH everyone clap for my bewoved baby bruvver right FUCKING now

Urghhh gritting my teeth… Im fully expecting the flow of events to start not making any gd sense. There’s no way this came together the way I hoped in my head and .... For real I was never able to read this all the way thru. this is my first time, lol. and it was all disjointed on the authorial end to say the least. Im scared T-T

Jlxjvklsdkjfsjlkdkjlsjklkljzsdkjlgaskljdgjklasljkgdljkasljkdgjklasjlkdgljkaskljdgjakl?????????? 

Im not liking the ratio of dialogue to whatever the other stuff is. scene-setting I guess. prose maybe. i could have dragged this out way longer... By which I mean made it a more satisfying read. But WHATEVER !!!! 

TIMO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TIMOOOOOOOOOO NUMERO UNOOOO DO MUNDOOOOOO I really need to utilize him more. As soon as I finish this fic I need to write a Timo POV spinoff where he gets cancelled on furry twitter for proshipping in real life

Hmmmm chapter ending didn’t hit as hard in practice as it did in drafts. Oh well. God damn that was a lot to happen in one chapter LMAOO???

OH SHIT MY RICE IS STILL COOKING —— 

[uncleasad]

for the fanfic writers director's cut ⭐star⭐

So…it’s taken me forever to get to this 😢 So Sorry, and thanks so much for your patience, Rika! 🙏

Since you gave me ⭐star⭐ for writer’s choice, I have selected this summer/fall’s The One with Hope’s Wedding, so without further ado, some Director’s Cut fun facts and commentary!

(If you are someone who hasn’t read that fic yet and thinks you might want to…BEWARE, MAJOR SPOILERS below!)

. . . . .

With that out of the way…

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut

The One with Hope’s Wedding

This was the fic that broke me out of an 18-or-24-month writing slump! (I had pushed out a few one-shots, and made minuscule progress on some of my long-suffering WIPs, during that period, but I couldn’t write consistently.)

This past summer, Nick at Nite had a Friends block in the evening, which happened to coincide with the hours I’d be making and eating (and cleaning up after) dinner, and there was nothing else on, and I’d only seen a few episodes of the show here and there (the finale, but never the pilot, for starters), so why not?

After watching for a few months, I got an idea on July 4 and started writing the next day. (How naïve, thinking it’d only be 5-6 more scenes and another 2400 words [for 4800 total] 😂 It ended up being more than 16K words!)

This was one of those fics where I had one scene in mind and had to write the whole rest of the fic to get to it…literally the last scene. (See these reblogs about this writer’s meme.) If you know anything about Friends, I imagine you can figure out where this is going…there are a few iconic scenes, including the two-part fourth-season finale where Ross gets married (his second attempt at marriage…which, too, is doomed to fail).

I remember standing in the kitchen and my brain suddenly said, “Wouldn’t it be fun to write the wedding scene where Hope says Josie’s name?” Yes, brain, indeed it would be fun to write that scene! Unfortunately, doing so requires writing a ton of scaffolding to get to it.

Most of this two-part episode of Friends was set (and shot!) in London, as Ross’s fiancée is British (they met because her uncle was Rachel’s new boss, a butler-esque head of personal shopping at Bloomingdale’s). In at least one of my long-suffering WIPs, I have spun Malivore (Landon’s father) into Sir Malcolm “Mal” Ivor Kirby, a minor British aristocrat, so I took that route here, too, and started filling in characters, backstories, and actual words on my fic’s scaffolding.

In addition to the actual wedding/name screwup scene, there’s another iconic scene for the series in this pair of episodes, the one where Ross’s younger sister Monica and his best friend/college roommate Chandler semi-drunkenly and shockingly sleep together—and then become the series’s other major couple. Hope, of course, doesn’t have a true sibling, but she could have a BFF Lizzie and a college friend/BFF Penelope, which let me keep that important subplot and have a chance to write my second(?)-favorite Legacies pairing, enemies/frenemies-to-lovers Penelope Park x Lizzie Saltzman!

One of the things you realize after watching 10 20-24-episode (only 30 minutes each, thankfully!) seasons of Friends back to back in couple-hour blocks is that the eponymous friends spend a lot of the time actively poking fun—and, worse, being actively cruel—at each other. In 30 minutes a week for half the year, it’s not so apparent, but in any sort of binging…they become tedious. So I tried to tone some of that down to keep the characters more likable, make Josie-as-Rachel a little less selfish, and so on.

The other fun thing is that the Friends showrunners stuffed that pair of episodes chock full of British cameos, everyone from Richard Branson to Sarah, Duchess of York, to Olivia Williams and noted comic actors such as Hugh Laurie and Ab Fab’s Jennifer Saunders and June Whitfield. While members of Landon’s family were already mapped to Legacies characters, I wanted to keep a few cameos, especially Hugh Laurie’s man on the plane whom Rachel annoys by incessantly relating her and Ross’s entire relationship history. I finally settled on Tom Felton for this, someone younger and still well-known who could pull off a grumpy man successfully (not just Draco Malfoy, but also Julian Albert / Alchemy from The Flash).

The other cameo I kept was the airline ticket agent Rachel/Josie encounters trying to get to London. Since I had toned down Rachel’s selfishness for Josie, I could make this scene play differently, too. I eventually landed on Sister Beatrice from Warrior Nun, since there’s a lot of overlap between the Hosie and Avatrice fandoms. I also thought “Beatrice” was appropriate as a name, since in Dante’s The Divine Comedy, Beatrice is Dante’s guide out of Purgatory and into Paradise. So unlike the ticket agent in Friends, Beatrice is fully supportive of Josie’s quest to get to the love of her life in time.

Sadly, I don’t think very many people recognized either of these cameos 😭 But I still had fun writing them. (And such difficult research that was, staring at pictures of Kristina Tonteri-Young in costume in order to describe her recognizably 😏)

@persevereforahappyending has convinced me to make this a whole series of episodes. I don’t know how many I will ever write—too many fic ideas, not enough time, but I do I have a whole document full of ideas and additional character mappings for this series—but The One with Hope’s Wedding ended on that cliffhanger, so everyone is waiting impatiently for the resolution! 😂 I was making good progress on the sequel until it came time for Hosietober, and I’ve been pulled in too many different directions since then, but it is 60-70% complete, so hopefully sometime this winter 🤞

And there you have it, my rambling Director’s Cut!

Thanks so much for the ask, Rika, and for your patience until I could find time and space for this to all gel in my head and then write it down 🙏 I slipped it in in just under 2 months 😂

( @unsiredtribrid, now I have to start thinking of my next Director’s Cut for your ⭐star⭐ Ask! 😂)

[coffeebanana]

Could we be blessed with some director’s commentary for mtl 🥺⭐️?

jkjfsfkdjb i feel like. a lot of things i'd want to give the most commentary on is actually stuff from later chapters that haven't been written/posted yet... BUT OKAY. gonna focus on the opening paragraphs

The walls of Adrien’s shower were lined with vintage pink tiles, but rose-tinted vision only went so far. Even if he stared long enough for the lines of caulking to disappear, for the world to become a blush-coloured blur, he couldn’t rid his sight of the long, jagged crack that ran down the middle. A slash of darkness that always remained. Those tiles were one of the reasons he’d chosen this apartment, or so he liked to tell himself. It wasn’t that he’d only made it halfway down the first page of rental listings, but instead that he’d felt a kinship with these walls—with that which had once been a pretty, polished thing, now so obviously broken. And on touring the place, he’d liked how the edge felt rough beneath the pads of his fingers. How it made him, just for a moment, feel real.

(my thoughts under the cut)

adrien could, one would think, afford a nicer apartment than the one i'm envisioning for him in this fic. i mean i haven't described it all that much yet but... even from this bit i think you can tell it's not like a modern place. and my in universe explanation for that is two-prong. 1) he probably actually doesn't have as much money as he WOULD have had because the whole gabriel being publically outed as a villain came with some financial consequences, and, 2) i think adrien would want to choose for his first apartment a place with more... character than the crisp, cold mansion

so. his apartment is somewhat inspired by one of my friend's old apartments--just because that's the sort of area in Montreal (the Plateau) where I imagined his apartment. it's a little ways from downtown, and the streets are lined with big trees. the insides of the apartments are sort of... very long a lot of the time

BUT his bathroom in particular is inspired by the bathroom in my last apartment, except my tiles were yellow (i would post a picture of those too but all my bathroom pics are selfies and i feel weird about posting those on tumblr 😂). i was really NOT a fan of that colour honestly, so i didn't want to write that into this fic. so i had googled pink vintage tiles very early in the writing process for this fic because i wanted a clear image. and i can't remember exactly how the crack part came to be--if i specifically searched pictures of cracks or if i saw the picture and needed to work that in--but i do know that... for years i've sort of had this thing about imperfections in older homes. how they can be oddly beautiful. oddly mesmerizing. how they tell a story

and the way i love starting chapters is to take some aspect of the setting and connect it to the character's emotions. it's my favourite favourite way to write description. so this lent really well to that...

Thanks for the ask!! 🩷🩷🩷

Fanfic Writers: Director's Cut ask game

[writer-and-artist27]

⭐star⭐ writer's choice. have fun talking vy vy :)

Thankie, Osie ⭐ Now, what to comment on...

Actually, that reminds me. The first chapter of The Sea and Stars - I remember the final lines of dialogue were really important to me because it was when I was just starting to get to know you and Lang, Osie. You both knew Kingdom Hearts in a way, and for Tomoko and Kei to really know each other as "reincarnation buddies", it felt right referencing the opening dialogue from Kingdom Hearts 2. Especially when I still have fond memories of the game.

“Tomoko, I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately. Like, is any of this for real? Or not?” “It’s real to me.”

That exchange still reads so well a few years later.

[cha-melodius]

hii!! for the director's commentary asks, i'd love to hear bout the celebrities' bakeoff au 'All The Old Showstoppers', the cheese shop worker!Henry AU 'Will You Brie Mine?; and lastly, 'Please Don't Let Me Be So Understood'!! ⭐Feel free to talk about any sections you'd like!⭐

Ooh ok tidbits for each:

All the Old Showstoppers: I’d always wanted to write a Bake Off AU but a FULL Bake Off season was gonna really require a long multichap to do it justice. I realized that I could do a Celebrity Bake Off AU and that’d be only two days of actual Bake Off. Of course it still took me 20k but that was a lot more manageable when I was just coming off a 66k fic. I loved the idea of Alex and Henry coming together a little later, having had a few more years to mellow out. A lot of people assume Alex has already had his bi awakening in this fic based on how he flirts with Henry, but I’m honestly agnostic on that front; tbh I feel like he might have started having thoughts but never really completed that journey until Henry (kinda like movie Alex I guess, though this was written before!). Also keep an eye out for more ATOS trivia later lol, I have another ask for this one.

Will You Brie Mine?: written for a prompt for ‘Harrods food hall’ by @tintagel-or-cockleshells, I considered Henry at a few different counters (pastry, chocolate), but ultimately decided cheese because of Henry’s canonical cheese recs in Paris. I did a bunch of research like “most unusual cheeses” to find ones that’d be lots of fun and also romantic. I took a while picking out the right fancy Mexican cheese, but my faves are probably the tete de moine and the story behind the Neufchâtel, because I got to have Alex call it ‘occupier cheese’.

And oh goodness, Please Don’t Let Me Be So Understood: god I was terrified to post this fic because it was SO difficult to write all those therapy sessions and I wasn’t sure people were gonna want to read 20k of therapy?? And it performed beyond my wildest dreams tbh. I wrote the initial setup for this and then almost abandoned it when I started doing research about couple’s therapy because I was convinced I couldn’t pull it off. I didn’t want it to be a caricature of therapy, I wanted it to be real. But I posted a snippet of it and @celeritas2997 came into my dms to yell at me about it and also to offer her professional assistance, which made me feel a lot better. She’s the entire reason it got written, so everyone say “thank you, Cee!”

My favorite therapy session to write was the ‘sex talk’ one for obvious reasons lol, but also because it features Alex ‘coming out’ in therapy before he’s fully realized that he’s bisexual, and I just loved that moment so much. Another fun fact is that this is the second time I’ve written a Coney Island date into a fic (the other is a different fandom). I guess I just love a Coney Island date. 😂

(Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut)

[ape-apocalypse]

Road To The Kingdom - Prelude and Contagion Comics

This post will focus on two short comics that were published around the first reboot film, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

The first is a prelude comic with a story that the writers (Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) and director (Rupert Wyatt) always had in their minds for the film but had to be cut for time (they mention this in the DVD commentary and in interviews). Knowing how passionate they were about this piece of backstory for Caesar's origin, I'm very glad it was given life in this comic. It expands on the capture of Caesar's mother and her time in the GEN-SYS labs, scenes that are featured briefly in the opening of the film. 

Director Wyatt and the writers have all said they thought it was important to show this backstory of Caesar's parents to demonstrate that, even prior to the drug that enhanced him as an unborn baby, his parents were above average apes. The comic shows a group of poachers following a troop of chimps, intent on capturing them to sell to laboratories for testing. Alpha, Caesar's father, is more intelligent than a regular chimpanzee, demonstrated in how he outsmarts the humans to keep his apes safe. He even lures them into a trap in order to kill several of them. 

Likewise Caesar's mother, Bright Eyes... who is named Bright Eyes in the comic for her rare blue eyes which doesn't make sense since she was named that in the lab for the changed eyes Will's drug gives her and also she doesn't even have blue eyes in the opening scene of the movie but that's just bad continuity, I guess... Anyway, Bright Eyes is shown to be exceedingly compassionate to her troop, ensuring no one gets left behind as they flee the poachers and fiercely defending Alpha. Though it is very brief, it is nice to see the united front of Alpha and Bright Eyes that make up Caesar. Human drugs may have given him true intelligence, but Caesar's determination, loyalty, and compassion all came from his parents.

The rest of the comic arc shows Bright Eyes' time in the lab prior to giving birth. We see her intelligence grow to the point that she is able to escape from the lab on her own and return when she realizes she's far from her jungle home. There's a story of another lab ape named Burke who gets smart but decides to hide it, so he's retired to a sanctuary as a failed experiment and starts to plan his own escape. It's interesting to see the progression of the drug and its effect on the apes but the best part is getting to know Bright Eyes a bit better than her brief time in the film. 

Shifting to Contagion, it is even shorter than the prelude comic as it was a one-shot set between Rise and Dawn. The focus of the comic is Ellie, the human in Dawn who is the love interest of Malcolm and the nurse who heals Cornelia. Her backstory is briefly mentioned in the movie but it is fleshed out here. We're shown the death of her daughter, Sarah, during the Simian Flu outbreak and her time with the CDC trying to find a vaccine. She ends up escaping the destruction of her lab with the help of a test chimp and the two go their separate ways (which makes me think an interesting story in this universe would be a human and an intelligent ape who actually successfully survive together but I guess that's what fanfics are for). Though very fast paced, that is the nature of a short one-shot comic. It does probably set the feeling of losing your daughter as the world falls apart around you, all happening in a very quick blur. Her time spent with the test apes and her rescue by the chimp Betty show her gentle nature that will have her seeking peace with Caesar's apes in the coming film. 

Though these comics are short compared to the longer arcs that will be featured later, I like these stories for their background on two female characters, Bright Eyes and Ellie. While the original films had Zira as a main lead character, the female characters in the reboot series definitely suffer from being primarily love interests to the lead characters and not having much to do in the films. So it is nice to let Ellie and Bright Eyes have comic book expansions of their characters. Both of these stories have been hard to find in the past, as the prelude was online promotion for Rise that seems to be gone from the Net and Contagion was a San Diego Comic Con 2014 exclusive. However, they can now be found in the Planet of the Apes comic omnibus entitled After The Fall.

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