#havingbeenbreathedout

[sapphoshands]

For the excellent fic-writing meme (and apologies if some of these are repeats):

44 (modified): What mistakes do you keep making no matter how many times [you or a beta identify it as an issue]?

26. Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

44 (modified): What mistakes do you keep making no matter how many times [you or a beta identify it as an issue]?

hahaha wellllll i'm sure my betas would love it if i dialled down my predilection for exuberant punctuation! i like to think that i fall into the category of 'those who know the rules well enough can break them' and it is generally a conscious choice (when appropriate for the fandom), but certainly i do get called up on it regularly and usually my beta is correct to do so. i can tend to forget that my audience isn't in my head and it's useful to prioritise function over form.

i also tend to get quite lazy about clichés in the first draft, but mostly that's because i get stuck in the writing and trust they'll get pulled up at the beta stage so i can work out what i actually wanted to say.

26: Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

i went and skimmed back a couple of pages on my ao3 and i don't know that a lot of my fics are really what i would call wild rides? idk, maybe they are! the one i think probably most closely fits that description is Wagatha Christie, a Ted Lasso fic from a couple years ago, because it's at least got a bit of a mystery to it, some redirects, etc. i'm still pleased with it (although i chose a random player for a minor role and his suitableness was quite thoroughly jossed in the subsequent seasons, alas - i think sometimes i ought ot go back and re-write that bit) and i enjoyed getting comments from people who said they got caught up in the mystery!

13: What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow?

one that i always try to follow is the advice to start in the middle. i think especially because i'm writing fic in order to spend more time with the characters i love, i have a tendency to put in way more detail than necessary and to start earlier than necessary. and again, you know, that's part of why people read fic, too, so it's not exactly the worst offense i could commit. but i am trying to be more deliberate about choosing where to begin my stories and what details are actually going to contribute to the narrative i want to tell.

thanks for the asks! ask me more from get to know your fic writer!

[purereflectionsworld]

2024: 100k words of FAM fic (!!!) 2025 plans: no clue. Send me prompts/requests!

Thank you to @havingbeenbreathedout for inspiring me to reflect on my writing in 2024 and share plans for 2025! (Also, special thank you to both @sparkleplatypuswriter and @tiltedsyllogism for bringing me into the For All Mankind community this year so I didn’t have to write, read, and geek out about the show alone ❤️).

I can’t believe I am typing this, but I literally wrote 100k words of For All Mankind fic in 2024 (!), 94.5k of which I’ve published on my AO3 page here. I wrote 7 fics (6 of them complete, 1 of them 80% complete). The one I’m most proud of is my monster post-S3 Aleida fic This hunger, it isn’t you, but I loved writing them all! Thank you to everyone who has ever left a comment on one of my fics or might be inclined to do so in the future - they truly mean everything to me as a writer.

For 2025…I actually have zero plans or WIPs except for Turns within me, turns without me - my Aleida (and Margo) fic set during the S2 to S3 gap. I’m pretty close to finishing that fic and have already written 5.5k words of the final two chapters. After that…I honestly don’t know! I LOVE writing Aleida (and her family), and would write more if anyone was interested in reading it - I’m just not sure if I’m boring the FAM community with my stories at this point 😂 I could also write about other characters - some of you may know that I wrote a Karen fic in a fic exchange for @havingbeenbreathedout, and it was a really lovely experience!

So my ask is, if you are someone who likes reading my work and might be interested in reading more of it, are there any characters or prompts that you would love to read or would enjoy seeing me tackle? Comment here or send me an ask ❤️

[sparkleplatypuswriter]

Fic Writing 2025

thank you to the wonderful @havingbeenbreathedout for tagging me at the beginning of the year to identify three works that have been on the back burner that *might* come to fruition in 2025. It's a lovely little prompt and reflection. here are my top ones, in order of likelihood of completion:

Molly/Margo 90s Road Trip University Riot Grrrl AU: this is exactly what the label says it is. Molly, junior, puts out an ad in the campus newspaper looking for a cross-country driving partner, trying to get to a Bikini Kill concert in Portland. Margo, uptight freshman, is going to "some nerd conference" and responds to the ad. Cue long drives, fights over the tape deck, horror movie nights in dive motels, Margo changing a spare tire, and Molly being very confused about and continuously surprised by "this chick." Honestly, it's about 40 percent of the way there, and if I focused, it could be done pretty quick.

Margo and Aleida Bodyswap: also pretty much what the label says it is - Margo and Aleida, due to a repetitive cosmic force, have their consciousnesses swapped once a season. The first one (just post season 1) terrifies them both (and reunites them), with Margo (as Aleida) scrambling to figure out what the hell is going on through neurophysics, and Aleida (as Margo) freaking out and nearly blowing their cover. Afterwards, they come to expect it, once a decade. This one is going to be *so* tricky and I am still struggling with the changes to the narrative and what it all means for the characters ultimately. But gosh it is fun to write.

For All Mankind/Star Trek Voyager Crossover: This is a re-telling of Future's End, where the Voyager crew winds up in the 91 FAM-verse. Janeway and Chakotay find themselves suddenly having to pair up with Margo and Sergei, respectively (gee - I wonder what watching two intellectual equals from warring factions struggling with feelings for one another might unearth for JC?! hmmmm). B'Elana and Aleida are besties. Harry and Tom get high with Wayne. I dunno. This is all over the place and will be like 200k but I want to write it so badly. @midnight-els is helping me brainstorm.

I am also happy to take any and all Brazilverse prompts. I have a long, sad chapter that I kinda needed to let breathe, but it might see the light of day eventually. I'd also love to write a Rosales-Diaz family visit. Tagging: @youreorangeyoumoron and @gabolange (though no pressure!).

[tiltedsyllogism]

New Year's Resolution: three WsIP I am absolutely definitely going to think about maybe finishing in 2025 (And You Can, Too)

so, like: who can plan for anything these days, right? and especially, who can try to dictate in advance which hibernating projects will wake back up again, and on what schedule?

That being said, if one wants to finish a given WiP, it helps to a) remember that it exists and b) at least try to re-engage it as a live project. In my experience, you can't flip that switch through force of will, but you can look for openings.

So that is what I am resolving to do, and what I am challenging you to do as well, writing friends! Also I am telling you about it in hopes that this functions as some kind of accountability. And I hope you will do the same.

(NB. I'm still working on some FTH fic, as well as the final chapter of The War at Home, but none of that is on this list because I know those are going to happen and I have other accountability structures in place already. I'm using this exercise for stories that might otherwise continue to go neglected.)

Three WsIP I am going to commit to at least sort of trying to finish in 2025 (all of these are For All Mankind):

Ground Crew: This is the first FAM story I ever started writing! Look, it even has a title! So, uh, maybe I should finish it at some point. It's close Karen PoV, and the timeframe is roughly a year pre-canon until about year after the end of S1. Karen &|/ Tracy, which is basically also the plot haha. (Currently 6.8k)

"Wayne is jealous:" This is going to be a Wayne PoV story that follows his interior struggles as he makes room for Molly to live her best life. It's a Molly/Margo story set around 1986, when Margo starts getting close to Sergei and Molly gets jealous. Well, guess who else gets jealous? Not Wayne! Wayne's too evolved for jealousy. There are absolutely no problems here, honestly why would i even need to write this story (currently 4.8k)

"1993 hookup:" Margo/Sergei smut. It's canon-compatible, so obviously it's kind of emotionally torturous, but also I'm the one writing it so we knew this already. Anyway, I have this whole thing sketched! Most of the non-smut parts are almost completely developed! Also I have an intuition that this one will find readers. (currently 3k)

I am tagging a bunch of friends whom I know or suspect have fairly deep WiP folders, but please know that I would love to hear from everyone on this! If I haven't tagged you, yes I have actually

@doctornerdington @sapphoshands @midnight-els @orciny @destinationtoast @nicehatgeorgia @lavinia-pfigg @unreconstructedfangirl @greywash @havingbeenbreathedout @a-still-small-vox @allatariel

[dadvans]

5 boring things!

I was tagged by @havingbeenbreathedout to say Five Boring Things about myself. Thank you!

My most recent prized possession is a pair of MH40 wireless headphones in brown leather. I've been coveting them for years and finally bit the bullet and they're absolutely life-changing for office life + 3 hour commutes

I enjoy World War 2 history in a straight boomer dad kind of way

My dream job would be working at McMurdo doing literally anything during Antarctic winters

I am genuinely terrified of starfish

I collect airline safety manuals

Tagging: @thekookster (who has supplied me with so many wonderful airline safety manuals), @rcmclachlan, @newtkelly, @pnyng, @screamlet, @alchemistc, @door and anyone else who would like to :)

[beyoncesfiancee]

ATTN @havingbeenbreathedout I FOUND A FIC THAT WAS MADE IN A LAB FOR YOU

10k, F/F, tags: amnesia-porn, also porn-porn, grief/mourning, dubious consent due to identity issues, menstruation kink, the muscle memory of love

everyone else: run don't walk!!!!

[unreconstructedfangirl]

Tagged by @kvothes. Thank youuu! Everyone go read their excellent Star Trek fics!

last song: Hummingbird Rework by Felix Rösch

last book: A Body Made of Glass by Caroline Crampton - it's a cultural history of hypochondria, and it's so interesting and beautifully written.

last movie: Star Trek Section 31, which was not good, and contained none of the elements that make Star Trek Star Trek.

last tv show: This is Going to Hurt, which was great because Ben Whishaw was in it, and that's all it takes.

favorite color: green, especially the colour of sunlight through new leaves in spring. But, also blue. And the colours between green and blue, especially that bright turquoise on the undersides and submerged parts of icebergs.

sweet/savory/spicy: all three plz.

last thing i googled: Nigel Slater toast recipes. I want to eat toast for dinner so I was looking for some suggestions.

relationship status: married.

looking forward to: going to Cyprus at the end of the month to see my best girl.

current obsession: this ongoing Supernatural issue I have shows no signs of abating.

Tagging @starrla89, @havingbeenbreathedout, @saltwaterandstars and @qaftsiel and anyone else who sees this and wants to be tagged.

[jhscdood]

@havingbeenbreathedout posted about writing plans for 2025 and I -- who have been just running running running all 2024 -- was like, <You guys make plans? dot gif>

But actually that sounds like a good thing to start thinking about. Which I have not done. At all. So all of this may change, but here are my immediate thoughts on what I'd like to work on:

- Finish the latest fic in my Code of Silence series (Batman/UTRH) that I got distracted from due to all the seizures and depression

- Update the @adhdanalogbrain website (maybe make headway on the app??)

- Maybe actually do a writeup of all the seizure shenanigans and therapy progress I've made over the last 2-ish years. Probably not to share. But might be good to look at it and go "OOF"

- MORE FANFICTION! Keep spinning Jason Todd like a doner kebab in my brain

- Read more books, because nothing inspires me more than reading something completely out of my wheelhouse and having it reboot my entire concept of what a story can be

[violsva]

What I want is an extremely Wodehousian series of short stories about a young lady who used to be Incredibly Efficient and Go-Getting and Businesslike and Problem-Solving at work and in her personal life and for all her friends and was also deeply deeply anxious … and then realized that she wasn’t actually getting anything out of that for herself (except perhaps a sizable nest egg in stocks) and decided to just Stop.

So she quit her job and shocked all her friends and family and now she spends her days sitting in coffee shops people-watching and never worries about anything.

Except that occasionally her friends still show up and tell her their problems, and she says, “Why don’t you break up with him?” and they say, “I can’t, I’m in love!” so she says, “Well, why don’t you do x, then?” and they say, “I can’t do x!” so she says, “Well, then don’t come crying to me when consequences happen.”

And they sniff and say, “You’ve become very cold, Isabel,” and go off in a huff, and she orders another croissant.

And then a week later they come crying to her because consequences have happened, and she sighs and pats their hand and then writes a brief letter to the young man’s mother and Everything Is Resolved.

I feel like that formula would take a long time to get old.

Who are my local Wodehousians? @havingbeenbreathedout, @unrealthings, @sanguinarysanguinity, @theodoradove, @neverwhere

[morallygreywarden]

tagged by @whoscallingwhoafraud to shuffle my on repeat playlist for 10 songs and tag 10 people - thank you!

1. The Phoenix - Fall Out Boy

2. A Good Song Never Dies - Saint Motel

3. Tunglið - Olafur Arnalds

4. Worms - Pile

5. Nangs - Tame Impala

6. The Swan Song - Within Temptation

7. Father father - Susanne Sundfør

8. I Wanted to Leave - SYML

9. Civilian - Wye Oak

10. Bloom - The Paper Kites

Tagging @resonantnature @badscientist @havingbeenbreathedout @considerad @zevrans-earring @mercars-musings @thetrainticket @izaori @flishlish @becauseanders

If you see this and wanna do it, go ahead and just say I tagged you ^^

[sarahthecoat]

@havingbeenbreathedout possibly relevant to your interests.

[sapphoshands]

Perhaps the heart is constant after all. Perhaps it makes no difference who we love, what voice lures us, what name we call. It’s always the same love is it not? [...]

yuletide fic #1! fun fact, i absolutely requested antoinette fic in yuletide back whenever her book came out, but i'd never thought of pairing her with sophie until @havingbeenbreathedout wrote the pairing last yuletide. and then i saw her request this year and thought, hmmmm. and boy, it was fun getting into antoinette voice and tana french voice. so thanks, hbbo! bet you didn't guess this was me! :D

thanks also go to heroic dublin-picker @readingtheentrails and of course @gabolange for beta duties.

[doctornerdington]

I was tagged by @oldshrewsburyian to list current, recent, and future reads. Thank you!

Current: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (it’s very fun) and Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison (I’m taking it slow).

Recent: of course now my mind goes blank. Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue was recent, and it was lovely. The Casey Plett book On Community was very good. I dipped into it over Christmas.

Future: I just put Burial Rites by Hannah Kent on my list and it might be next. I bought Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice last month and immediately LOST it, so annoying. I feel stupid buying it again but I reallllly want to read it so I probably will.

I tag @unreconstructedfangirl @sassy1121 @hubblegleeflower @havingbeenbreathedout @pennypaperbrain @tiltedsyllogism @drgrlfriend @semiprofessionalmom @hedwig-dordt

[destinationtoast]

get to know me meme?

tagged by @multishipperpirateking

last song: "Past The Mission" by Tori Amos (I'm going to see her in concert in a few months! which I think I last did in ~2003... if anyone wants to rec me their fave songs of hers from the past 20 years, feel free XD)

last show: Just finished Yellowjackets S1 with HAMTACO (which we liked many aspects of but were overall disappointed by; not sure we'll keep watching)

currently watching: The Last of Us (love it; have cried so very much); Shrinking (liking it more with every episode, but don't fully adore it except Harrison Ford); ST:VOY; rewatching BtVS and ST:LD

currently reading: Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice -- the show got me on a reread kick! :D Last time I read the series, there were only 4 or 5 books, so I'm looking forward to reading some new-to-me Vampire Chronicles soon, too. (I'm also 5-25% into about seven other books, and I think I'll abandon most of them. Having a lot of trouble getting hooked by new stuff at the moment.) A fanfic I am currently enjoying is "to put the world between us" (a cherik actor AU) by @x-populuxe .

current obsession: Ted Lasso, still. :) I'm tbh a bit terrified of S3, because the last time a show I was this into came out with a new season, it was Sherlock, and that was a massive disappointment for me (both in terms of canon and in terms of resulting fandom drama). But I'm nonetheless also excited for the new episodes and the new fanworks they'll hopefully inspire -- and I'm happy to be writing fic again, thanks to two seconds of inspiration from the trailer, lol. (Edit: also still obsessed about the differences between F/F, F/M, and M/M, and looking forward to posting a new chapter about dark fic & related tropes in the not too distant future.)

no pressure tags: @anonsally , @shinysherlock , @wildwren , @havingbeenbreathedout , @rythyme , @bakerstmel , @nottonyharrison , @unreconstructedfangirl , @solrosan , @elizabethminkel , @b-a-n-d-e-r , @milarca , anyone else who wants to do it!

[fffinnagain]

Thank you @havingbeenbreathedout for coincidentally finally identifying the incredible image on my wallet. what an image.

[unreconstructedfangirl]

For the WIP meme: I would like to hear more about "endless distances"!

The title is from this beautiful poem by Robert Haas, called Meditation at Lagunitas:

It's a small collection of poems about some friends I love in ways that I don't have good words for, and don't fit any of the relationship/love templates.

Thank you for asking @havingbeenbreathedout ! ❤️