#honestly i'm surprised i don't see more fics and stuff with this concept?

[takingasterix]

Queen Guinevere's guard dog (AKA the Court Sorcerer of Camelot)

quick little thing because i got bored and LOVE this concept

[reinedeslys-central]

when it's been so long since you've read a fic that you forget about it and you find it in the search tags and start reading it again

and it's great, if a little familiar, but you've read a lot of these sorts of fics bc you like this tag a lot, so you assume it's nothing

but then the deja vu starts adding up and you start to wonder

and then moments before the great big Plot Twist Reveal happens you're suddenly like ah hell this is the bloody sundial fic again isn't it

smh this has to be the fourth time yet

[mecachrome]

fic writer questions

haiii thank u @bright-and-burning for the tag :') nobody is online so i will Reflect and return with a worse image...

how many works do you have on AO3?

20 (16 on my main account, 4 on my sports account)... and then 15 more on dreamwidth 🥲

what's your total ao3 word count?

175.5k T__T

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

gurllll. no one needs to see my 11th grade k-pop fic like that

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i try my best but i have a difficult relationship with my writing so i often block out that i wrote a fic at all after some time and it hinders my ability to acknowledge commenters directly ;__; and then i always feel awkward responding like 6 months late to someone so i just let it go even though i know no one actually minds... i really do appreciate every comment i get though and deeply cherish everyone's kind words and generosity!!!

what's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

i don't really write angsty endings tbh i just write vaguely bittersweet ambiguous stuff... perhaps sharl character study i wrote for a friend's birthday would be up there because the whole thing is just inelegant whump LOL

what's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

for my own birthday a couple of years ago i wrote an extremely self-indulgent k-pop fic with all of my favorite tropes and also coded elaborate interactive html/css elements with multimedia messages and notifications you could tap on and the whole thing was just sweet secret relationship toothrutting fluff 💗 anyway extremely cringe but i enjoyed myself and thought it was mostly cute

do you write crossovers?

i haven't for any fictional fandoms... the concept is fun though!

have you ever received hate on a fic?

not directly 2 my face !!!

do you write smut? if so, what kind?

i'm an ambiguous fade 2 black kind of guy even if i do try my best at times... TT i'm just too repressed 4 this life unfortunately. pwp writers have my major respect it really is sooo difficult to write cohesive compelling comprehensible porn 

have you ever had a fic stolen?

idts but i have had oomfs/people adjacent my circles turn out to be plagiarizers which is always an unpleasant surprise!

have you ever had a fic translated?

yasss shoutout to anyone who has translated my random fics to russian or spanish 🧡

have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes ! i wrote a bnha au for a k-pop ship with my friend once lol she wrote most of it and i kind of just contributed a scene and the concept but it was still really fun, she's a much better writer than i could ever hope to be... also helped friend finish a fic for a fest once because it was overdue and she tapped out so i was up until 6am filling in scenes randomly for her. oh to be 18 again <3

what's your all-time favorite ship?

unfortunately in f1 it is simply landoscar... all-time i don't know!!! actually i do but i don't want to say it. nvm

what's a wip that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

arghhh... all of my 814 wips at the moment honestly. especially my kidfic verse that i'm deeply attached to but tragically incapable of working on TT and the jb81 that i totally gave up on!!!

what are your writing strengths?

this is an oxymoron.... i have never written anything good in my entire life. i love to beta read other people's fic for grammar though that's always fun

what are your writing weaknesses?

poor/stiff dialogue, horrible romantic development, inconsistent scene lengths, completely flat plot, no concept of good writing practices in general, a horrible tendency to purple prose, inability to write any actual conflict, i could go on

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

ehmmm i had a lot of strong opinions on this in k-pop fandom LOL and then it was funny to see the same thing happening in f1 but just with different languages (so much random french/german dialogue...) but i think there are untranslatable or commonly recognized words that can be sprinkled in verbatim, like in k-pop it makes sense to use certain honorifics that don't have english equivalents but i draw the line at not translating existing terms like "mom" lol... but i have a lot of thoughts on how languages are communicated in fic in general (perhaps too many), like i also overthink how to communicate grammatical structure - so if i'm writing a french character speaking french but presenting the dialogue in english or same with korean in k-pop fic i usually try to make it flow in a way that is as grammatically reasonable as possible, which goes beyond simple semantics but into the actual logic of syntax + verb order... ok i'll stop actually

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

i was writing crasy fanfiction in middle school 🧡 earliest i remember though is probably naruto circa 6th/7th grade... honestly hard to say because i purged a lot of my ffdotnet output out of shame in 8th grade lmfao

what's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I Forgor...

what's your favorite fic you've written?

for my sports fics i'm partial to my latest 814 fic because i feel like it's just generally inoffensive and not plainly awful 🤔 in general though i'm attached to some of my like most niche audience_of_2 dw fic that i've written for nugu boy groups with literally 0 fans. like a level of total nobodyness few can comprehend........... we were in the trenches

no pressure tagging @piastrisms @chelemlem @miamimaiden @liamlawsonlesbian if it would be of any interest ! 🥰

[sugaredrhubarb]

Reading with Ru: 2023 oct/nov/dec fic and book recs

Hello hello! Back again with some final recs from what I was reading towards the end of the year. Gonna start with cod because that's where most of my moots are, and then some from other fandoms and published romance I've been enjoying as well.

Just in case this goes outside my little circle, please check the tags of anything I rec; I'll try to mention if I think something is particularly dark, but don't read anything you won't like!

COD

landscape with honey by @ceilidho - (bear shifter!price x reader) starting with ceil because, at this rate, I can't write a list without including her. my friendship with ceil partially started from bugging her asks about bear price, so this one is always gonna be special, but I genuinely love it, ceil writes blatant dubcon really well (as we all know), but I think it's in fics like this—when the hero is just a little off, and the reader is caught between what seems too good to be true and a gut instinct that something isn't quite right—that her writing really thrives. Anyway, I'm okay with a big, burly man hibernating with me in a cozy cabin in the woods for a winter. (side note: we need to be talking about ghost x feral witch reader more)

Mind the Drop by @sprout-fics - (BDSM au, price x reader) more aftercare in fics!!! This wonderful one-shot is based in a universe where people are biologically designated as dominant or submissive. Reader is a sub who is feeling the effects of some missed aftercare, which Price takes notice of and offers his... assistance. Honestly, this is just some really well-written comfort and aftercare from a fun concept.

My daddy didn't love me, so I guess I've moved on to you by @makoodles - (price x reader) clearly, I was back in my Price era, and this fic hits on the central theme of my attraction to him in the first place: daddy issues :) So, if you may want to read 17k of Reader and Price succumbing to their attraction and mutual daddy kinks, this one is for you.

Light On by @peachesofteal - (ghost x singlemom!reader) I feel like everyone was reading it, but if you haven't checked out this lovely story yet, please do! It's nice to take a break from the darker fic, and this one is so lovely while still acknowledging Simon's trauma and obsession. Peaches is an excellent writer, and this sent me down a rabbit hole of single-parent fics and books! I could read so much of this.

Pornstar!ghost by @ghosts-cyphera - ( x reader) lo is on a little break right now, but this is another wonderful entry on the soft side of cod fic. I really enjoy Ghost's charisma and confidence on display here, and every update had me giggling and kicking my feet. (I found lo through her price wife x 141 post, which is also a must read)

okay, so @ohbo-ohno (hopefully) knows I love her, and she wrote a ton and is constantly throwing out mind-bogglingly yummy drabbles, so here are some of my favs from her kinktober and 1k celebration: price x reader breeding (surprise, surprise), soap x reader somno (drugged noncon), 141 x reader orgy, ghoap ft price deepthroating, 141 x free use reader (the dream), kingpin price x reader, ex husband price x reader, gaz x reader a/b/o, and my personal fav I think about all the time ghoap x brand new vampire reader. Maybe got a little carried away, but I adore Bo's work, and she has a unique ability to make everything hot.

And finally, @charliemwrites. When making this list, I was tempted to just rec everything Charlie has posted in the last few months, so if you aren't reading her stuff already, I'm jealous that you get to experience it for the first time. Obviously, it would be a mistake to not start with her current fics: charmed slasher simon (he's a serial killer, so violence warning) and woof woof johnny, which are both so fun and compelling, I get so excited whenever I see a new update. I almost daily think about this dark(ish) Price decides you're his wife post. Charlie also writes just wonderful fluff and lighter but emotional relationships too, and both childhood friend simon and bodyguard!gaz have a special place in my heart

other fandoms

casualties by little fools writing/tianawritesfic - (darklina) yet another person I could rec every single work by. This is a boyfriend's roommate cheating fic with the perfect amount of mean man.

You kept me like a secret (i kept you like an oath) by burninghoneyatdusk - (darklina) I genuinely think everyone should read this; it's modern setting, so no canon knowledge needed. Alina wakes up after an accident and discovers she's pregnant, but she doesn't remember the last year of her life, doesn't know who the father is, and most importantly, doesn't remember the affair that ended her relationship. I could talk about it for ages, but I'm just gonna share my comment on the last chapter: "every action, line of dialogue, description, and internal thought felt deliberate— not a single word felt wasted. you stripped both aleks and alina bare and it felt impossible to not take them in completely. i don't even know how to talk about the therapy sessions and alina's healing. the exploration of her guilt, her past, her anger, her confusion it all felt so earnest and raw. what a gift to read."

Bury Us Both by morriganmercy - (Lavinia Lucia/Nick Bruin) this is sibling incest! For the love of god, don't read it if it's not your thing. I know nothing about The Royals of Forsyth series (books?), but this was recd by someone, and I saw the tags codependency, slowburn, heavy angst, pining, and religious guilt, and now here we are.

bonus! published romance I enjoyed

links are to goodreads

Return to Monte Carlo by Cate C. Wells - set in 1982, fmc runs away from her stifling life with her rich italian husband and his snobby family before discovering that she's pregnant. fun, smutty, warning for miscommunication galore. i saw some comments about the fmc being immature but she's swept into this crazy life at like ~19 so idk enjoy your smut and stop thinking so much.

Between the Devil and Desire by Lorraine Heath - a widowed duchess must learn to get along with a notorious self made rogue when he is given guardianship of her beloved son. I'm a sucker for historical romances and for single parent stories but the combo is so hard to get right and this one did it for me! while sometimes a little ridiculous, i felt the characters actions had clear motivations. watching the mmc's relationship with the son grow was really nice and it actually made sense given his backstory rather than the sudden "guy who hates kids suddenly cares" trope other books do. (warning for discussions of childhood abuse and sa)

Luna and the Lie by Mariana Zapata - say what you will about MZ slow burns but no one else can get me to read 600 pages for one sex scene at 95% in. are most of her character's really similar? yeah. but they're never annoying and i love that they're always good people trying their best. i love all the small details and i love me an older man who is secretly down horrendously bad only to gets worse and worse at not showing it.

Icebreaker by Hanna Grace - people have things to say about this book. do the characters get together early on? yeah. do they hook up in the back of an uber filled with their friends? also yeah (i thought it was hot so). is their very little plot in a 400 page book? sure. i'm here for a good time not to be intellectually challenged. i actually enjoyed seeing their time together and really enjoyed that they just fucking communicated even if there were mistakes along the way. plus big nice hockey player who cares about consent? swoon my little canadian heart.

check the reading with ru tag for more!

[north-noire]

heyo Noire ! :D

thought i'd check in and ask how the Hidden Hands Au is going? its definitely been one of my biggest inspirations for my own writings;]

hope your week has been goingg well^^

Heya alex! :D How's it going? pleased to meet and talk with you again <3 It's been going well! I've gotten the outline down, just haven't decided on how it'll end. I've defined mostly the beginning and middle parts, but it gets very muddy around the time FNaF 1 takes place (and you guys might be surprised with how I'll handle it, haha). But I've been planning character sheets for mostly the Afton and Emily family (mostly just as a frame of reference so I don't have a hard time drawing the characters when I feel like it - plus you guys can finally get a general grasp of how my AU's characters are), writing some writing stubs for the AU (mostly Henry-centric, but ah, I can't help myself), and all that good stuff! There's a lot of concept artworks I've been making too, so stay tuned if I decide to post a few here and there. I'm just deciding where the story would actually begin, and it's quite tricky! So, for now, I'm writing the parts that I feel like writing for now and work my way around the outline with that. I'm quite rusty at writing, but I will try. I haven't written in years, so I'm currently trying to improve and read more so my writing can get much refined for the fic, heh. I want it to be something I'd be proud of! Thanks so much, btw! It means a lot that you see it as inspirations for your own writings! I would love to see your own works too <3 Honestly, I wish it could be a better week, and a lot of things have been going on in my irl, but thank you for checking in </3 I hope it gets better on my end. But I'm really excited to get back into the groove of things when it gets better. </3 Thank you so much for the ask! Hope things are going well at your end too.

[spacebuck]

Fic Writer Q & A!

tagged by @voxofthevoid, took me a while i'm sorry ;;;

How many wips do you have currently?

a surprising amount!! four actively on the go at the moment, including one collab piece, and a solid 8 more besides that i am going to be trying to crack out over the next couple of weeks even if they're short and sweet. on top of that i have another 7 things planned for my main ship and another 2 or 3 from others!!

aka i am busy and my wips list is huge r i p

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish?

there's something i keep writing and flittering away from then coming back then flittering away from, and it's frustrating because it's a concept i adore and i've put a lot of worldbuilding thought into it, but it's also not my main ship so my brain is tripping a little bit on it because the brainrot is r e a l

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you?

uh. sometimes it's a 2k fic in 2hrs. somethings it's 25k over 3 weeks and a 7 page planning doc. it really depends on what the inspo is jhgfghj

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different?

i honestly.... don't really write to music? there's been one exception really, but if i do need something on i will either play a specific soundtrack-only playlist i have, or a heavy phonk playlist. i'm not really a music person, if i'm honest!

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organized?

it genuinely depends on the fic. like i said above, i have wips that have absolutely nothing planned (like most f my argenthill week prep, i've literally just got the prompt name lmao) and then i have a fic that has a literal 7 page (and running) planning doc mapping relationships, roles, chapters, and a hit-list of unordered scenes that me n my collab partner are ordering as we go

i don't know who's super active anymore hhh so if you see this and you write consider this me tagging you and tell me about your stuff (feel free to link me to your answers to i'd love to read em!!!)

[grassbreads]

Writer Interview Game

I was tagged for this by @torterrachampion . Thank you!!

Since this is my fandom-specific account, I'm going to keep these answers mostly limited to fanfiction.

When did you start writing?

I have been writing my entire life. I was one of those kids that was convinced I was going to write a novel at age 10 (although I never got further than a couple of chapters). For fanfiction specifically, the first fic I ever wrote was a halloween story project for middle school that I turned into D.Gray-man fanfiction. I started writing and publishing fic for real the following summer, when I was 14. (Much like the novels in elementary school, I never actually finished one of the longfics I started in high school).

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

Big time lmao. A *lot* of the original fiction I read is horror, and although I've played around with the idea of writing a horror fic, I'm yet to find a good concept for one. I'm also a huge lover of long multi-chapter fics and elaborate AUs, but I publish mostly oneshots.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I honestly cannot remember ever having my work compared to specific other writers?

But as I said, I love elaborate longfic AUs yet really struggle to write them myself (long projects are my enemy), so I would sell my soul to be able to emulate the works of travelingneuritis or oxfordroulette, both of whom I really admire. I've written whole long posts before about how much oxfordroulette's Homestuck fics impressed and impacted me when I first read them like 6 years ago.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

My writing space is anywhere in my apartment :). Sometimes I write at my desk, but more often I'm curled up or crosslegged on my couch or futon. Gotta be cozy and comfy.

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Since fic is a pretty casual hobby for me these days, I mostly just kinda write when inspiration strikes (hence why I publish roughly one fic per year). That said, rereading canon scenes featuring the characters I'm writing always helps me get their voice into my head.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

I don't know if I write enough to have big recurring themes? I like writing about characters that aren't doing well mentally, but that's both broad and not always applicable.

I suppose it does always make me laugh when I see "Christmas" listed among my most-used tags on Ao3. I'm not even a christian, but I've written two fics set during christmas bc gift exchanges make for good fluff, and with my output, two times puts it in my top 10.

What is your reason for writing?

Sometimes a story worms its way into my brain so deeply that canon just isn't enough. I need to live in that world to a degree beyond what I can get from canon content alone. And when there isn't enough existing fic by others to scratch that itch, or when there isn't enough of the right *type* of existing fic, I simply have to sit down and make my own.

Also, writing fanfiction is fun :).

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

I'd like to think I'm good at characterization, at least most of the time. And I think I'm good at making sure things flow.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I really like a majority of the things I've written, or at least the stuff I've written as an adult. My really old writing makes me cringe a little sometimes, but I look back on it fondly, and I still reread newer stuff like An Act of Trust and Idle God, Idol Gossip for my own amusement.

The brief answer is that overall, I'm quite proud.

If either of you are interested in joining, I'll tag @cinammonelles and @azapofinspiration :)

[aristocraticelegance]

March reads. I'm surprised I even got through three this month. I also had my first DNF of the year, which I probably won't record any thoughts on, since I don't have anything intelligent to say about it.

The Closet, Danielle Bobker (Princeton University Press, 2020). I bought a bunch of books from the Princeton University press annual sale; this one turned out pretty good. It does suffer a bit from the problem of stitching together several loosely related research articles, but it was interesting as a history of 16th-17th century closets and their social role. I liked the sections on court favorites/court politics the most. The last chapter tries to link these early closets with the modern concept of coming out of the closet, which was a little half-baked even if it was heading in an interesting direction.

2. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, John Le Carré (1963/2005). The problem with reading old famous books is that if they're good I start going around like omg have your heard of this?? It's good?? Anyways, newsflash, John Le Carré is a good writer. It's also interesting to see elements that I first encountered in later writers. I would be very surprised if William Gibson isn't indebted to Le Carré in some way. I'll probably hunt down more of his books once I figure out what to read next.

3. Hel's Eight, Stark Holborn (Titan Books, 2023)

I bought this when it came out, and honestly I was kind of relieved to realize I was only a year late in reading it. It's the sequel to Ten Low, which I loved. I probably should have re-read it because I only vaguely remembered how it ended, but Hel's Eight was still great. The two books are a mix of Space Western/Mad Max in space with supernatural horror, or something like that. If you liked Mad Max: Fury Road, you should read these.

Short Fiction

I finally finished New Edge Sword & Sorcery vol. 1, which had some great pieces in it, including "The Pillars of Silence" by Prashanath Srivasta. I mostly read short stories during work breaks, so it can take me a while to get through anything, but I really enjoyed this volume and Vol. 0. It's nice to see a magazine with so much art too.

I also finished issue 143 of Apex Magazine. One of the reasons I don't read a ton of short fic is that my preferred sub genres are pretty underrepresented in contemporary SFF. Apex publishes some good stuff, but I've had a hard time with the last few issues, mostly because of the focus on contemporary-set stories. I did like "Chi Tam is Tired of Being Dead" by Natasha King and the reprints by Eden Royce and Christopher Caldwell.

Finally, I really liked "The Angel Azrael and the Dead Man's Hand" (Peter Darbyshire) in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #339. A Fantasy Western that gestures towards some complex setting/backstory.

[fandom-trash-xl]

Just for reference, who are all of your Frieza Race OCs (if you have multiple)?

I actually do have a decent handful of Frieza Race OCs (though I mainly refer to the species as a whole as Ice Demons or Arcosians in my fics, though I'll refer to them as Frieza's Race just as a general term because everyone has different headcanons for the name). Most of them are female Arcosians and whether or not females exist in the species is debated- personally, my headcanon is wavering a bit in terms of the biology and I may shuffle things but I often needed a defined biological divide for some narrative choices to work in some of my current fic canons.

Anyway, I digress... These are my present OCs in order of creation:

Note, I do consider Kuriza to be half an OC to me since a lot of his character is up to interpretation.

Perma is my oldest Ice Demon OC, dating back to when I still called them "Icejins", though you may see her mentioned in some of my older stuff as Subzero or Zero. She's my Xenoverse CaC and her concept started out as a Frit (Frost x Hit) kiddo! Her design, from what I recall off hand, featured a lot of purple, blue-gray, indigo, etc, basically a color hodge-podge of her two dads. She has the Cooler mask because there wasn't a mouth option I really vibed with, so I just headcanoned it as her allergy mask- she's allergic to dust and you bet there's going to be a lot of that on Time Patrol missions. Later on I may adjust some of her colors if I plan to draw her in full color. Her name's a pun on "permafrost".

As much as I don't want to include him, I have to for the sake of being thorough... Lord Shiver. Shiver sucks. Not saying he's a poorly done OC, he was literally written to be a terrible person. He's Frost's mafia boss father in "Shattered Ice" and he's not really depicted in a good light. He's got blue-gray colorations but I never really plotted out how it looks.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Frost's parentage, we have his mother, Realis. Her name's a pun on "aurora borealis", mainly because my original name concept for Frieza's mother in a fic that never got fully fleshed out was "Aurore" and I wanted the two to match. Essentially, she's part of Shiver's harem (again, reiterating, Shiver was not designed to be a good person), but she gets a bit more elevated privilege on account of being the one gal in the posse "lucky" (read: "unfortunate") enough to be the mother of his child. I think this was the first time I used the idea of little gem "freckles" on the cheeks in my female Arcosian designs (though it started as diamonds and switched to four-pointed stars). She was originally designed with gray scales and cyan gems, though design colorations can change I suppose...

Another one of my big fic OCs is Frigid. I gave Hit a little secretary for his business office and then just sort of ran with it; writing her into the fic was originally to tie into a certain plot point that I won't spoil if you're not caught up on "Shattered Ice", but I enjoy her and I'm surprised I haven't drawn her much. Plus, Hit shipping bonus!! Honestly, I would say more, but she's best experienced within the fic itself. Design-wise, she's got gray scales and turquoise gems.

And then there's also Algid, another one from "Shattered Ice" and another member of Shiver's little posse... She's a bit of a lovesick little yes-woman when it comes to her boss, but she's got some edge to her. Again, description probably isn't doing her much justice, so she's best read in fic. She's got more of a reddish color palette- reason why? I originally intended for her to have a pretty much identically designed Universe 7 parallel that would have been Kuriza's mentioned-only late mother, the red contributing to his maroon gems. I didn't want a good character name and color palette to be wasted completely on a briefly mentioned character- and here we are now, the original U7 Algid not even coming into fruition (totally not because I forgot that part in my notes while writing "Love Like You"...).

[nehswritesstuffs]

Ask game! 💋💥💞💫

Ooooh, yay! Thank you~

This got kind of long, so my answers are under the cut!

💋when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer?

Yes! It's rare for me to not want to hear back, but I know and understand that sometimes you got nothing else to say, since I've been on that end too.

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

That would be TTOU Big Finish Snippet: Workplace Security [AO3] with its all of THREE KUDOS! *paper confetti* I really enjoyed writing something for The Thick of UNIT that was Jamie, Sam, and Bismuth. One of the great things about both Doctor Who and The Thick of It is the side characters and what they can bring to the story. While Doctor Who is able to access all of time and space with its side characters and give us more Human voices to lean upon for anywhere from an episode to a whole series/season, the side characters in The Thick of It give us a sense of just how many cogs are in the system and how big and far-reaching everything is, especially what the ministers and aides are cocking up. It's a reminder of all the banal shit in a government or other large organization and how much of said shit happens and yet you have to carry on best you can. Here we're able to explore all of those concepts in a short audio script fic that has no shortage of Bismuth attempting to figure things out, Sam being a sort of grounding force, and Jamie being... well... Jamie. my next-least at five is the beginnings of a rewrite of an old One Piece fic i haven't touched in years and i really need to get back on that bc i haven't touched the rewrite in more than a few months lol i'm too many dozens of thousands of words into the conceptualization to just drop it at this point

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

I'm going to answer this in regards to fan fiction only, since it has factors that don't impact published original fiction and vice versa. A tough one, but I would have to honestly say it's a weird combination of factors that can vary if certain criteria are met. Sometimes I begin to go through a fic where something's not up to snuff and I'll go "I'll entertain this for now" and it's lead to some surprising things. Part of this I think comes from cutting my fandom teeth with varying anime as a teen back in the 2000s. One of the things that I think makes sense when you think about it but we're easily able to take for granted is that one can utilize fandom as experimentation and practicing and figuring shit out. For some people, that's learning how to write a story. Others might know how to make words do things (wording is hard!), but they need practice at worldbuilding and storycraft. Some are trying to figure out how to stay consistent with a character, while on the opposite end of that, there's shit so silly that it can't help but be funny. If there's the right balance, then there are definitely things I can look over, but too many infractions clashing with one another and whoops Nehs out. There's also people who use fandom to practice foreign language skills in general. We see it often with weebs learning Japanese, but it also goes with people writing in English-as-a-Second-Language too. I've seen some really questionably-crafted stories that were rife with spelling and technical errors, but the soul of the story is there, if that makes any sense. They KNOW the characters, they KNOW what they want to tell, they KNOW how to get everything across in every possible way, and probably write really well in their native language, but in English...? They're working on it. And that's great! Part of me wants to branch out into that sort of thing one day, but the problem is that the communities whose languages I'm trying to learn are already very bilingual in English. But yeah... because all of those things were so weird and fluid and just desperately wanted in Anglophone weeb spaces FFN that it made sense to take what we could and encourage others when it came to writing about our anime blorbos. I dunno about everyone else's experience, but I rarely was in the middle of flame wars, so most of my fandom experience tended to be pretty cool. Also, having ESL family helps. It's no joke that it's hard translating everything in your head before you say it--some stuff gets lost in translation... literally!

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

In lieu of a mini book report like was common in my teen years (lol), I really enjoy the ones that take something(s) that the reader liked about the story/chapter and picks it all apart. It could just be that they really liked a line or exchange of dialogue, or mentioning how events are going and how that messes with the story, or using context clues to try to parse out what's coming next. Knowing what clicks and whirs and gets into people's brain is so interesting to me and I love getting that information because then that's stuff for me to figure out as well about my writing and how it interacts with folks. Bonus points when someone does it on a by-chapter basis and/or on older stuff! I do also appreciate when someone legitimately corrects me, lol, 'cause Lord knows I'm not perfect.

Anyone else interested in having me answer some questions as I avoid writing actual fic? See what other prompts there are here.

[theology101]

Let me tell you a story. It's 2018, I'm fourteen years old with an ego untempered by mental illness and an unhealthy amount of validation when it came to me and ASOIAF on both here and Quora, and being accidentally exposed to a type of soft-core fetish when I was far, far too young. Basically, I was going hog fucking wild with little to no regard for anything, at all. I made a fanfiction called “She Wolf of the Rock” - me poorly attempting to understand my concept of gender (Because i was lowkey jealous of Cersei being Hot and a Woman because of weird family shit related to my own sister being super cool and me… lets not get into it)

I wrote a chapter or more, a day, for about two weeks. That got me about fifteen chapters of this fic, and six of the sequel (because oh yeah, my first-ever fic was going to be a trilogy) before I inevitably got burnt out. I stopped, sat down and really read my fic and thought "Man, this is dog shit."

So I deleted the entire second fic, ended the series and washed my hands of it. Since then, despite my best efforts, it remains my most popular fanfic ever by basically every metric I have. Seriously, I checked.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lJB4IgmLP6xvK6oQqwxTofI5mAstNZNrwb2iBSClyOI/edit?usp=sharing

And that used to make me really frustrated! In the five years since I started this, I think that I have drastically improved as both an author and, even more importantly, as a reader. And that can really be seen with the continuity, grammar, and character growth - and all of those can be boiled down to the fact that I was rushing. This was about 2-3k words a day - I didn't have time to stop and spell check that stuff, it was just GO! GO! GO!, you know? And I think it kind of suffered for it. I've tried to improve that - a lot of my newer fics have the same amount of dialogue as this fic, it's just I've learned to actually give the characters a bit more... nuance. This is surprising, I know, but having 200-300 words for a character before switching scenes is... not ideal. For Two There Must Be, the spiritual successor to this Fic, I don't even consider a POV finished until it crosses 2k words. Which is certainly... a change.

So, as I said, I was frustrated. But recently, I've turned around on it. Maybe because I'll hit half a decade of Fanfic soon, maybe because that bit of ego never went away, but I've come back and I kind of genuinely like this fic. Do I think it's... well written? No. Do I think it is entertaining, however? Yes.

And honestly? I think that's kind of the joy of fanfiction. It's silly, and dumb, and not very well written, but it WAS written with a lot of genuine enthusiasm and love. And I think that, despite its many flaws, me and many other readers can appreciate this silly little work for what it is. And I can appreciate as being the first real fanfic I ever wrote.

Maybe one day I'll come back to it, force her to undergo major structural rewrites, probably rerelease whole chapters. IE, chapter 16 will be Chapter 1, redux (Or remastered? Something like that, I'll workshop that when I have time a year or two from now, I think). When that does happen, eventually, each chapter will probably be... monstrous in size as I fully flesh out each POV. I'll probably move things around, probably cut things too if need be, and see how it goes.

write bad fanfic. write mediocre fanfic. write fanfic that a thousand people before you have already written. write niche fanfic. write fanfic that only a few people will read or understand. write fanfic just for you. write fanfic just for a friend. write ocs. write self-inserts. the fact that you’re taking the time and energy to put your ideas into the world is amazing and people who shame you for it need to find better ways to spend their time.

[whoseafraidofliloleme]

It kinda was but kinda wasn’t, ngl I expected Zoa but not really Jihan as she wasn’t mentioned much…lowkey was expecting it to be Lia 😂 but honestly the Peace fic has such a special place in my heart and I’m always re-reading it it’s just so good and a perfect mix of everything. I would also just like to preface I love all of your enhypen works not just the hogwarts ones heheh.

Ngl with Jin being my BTS bias I giggled seeing the flying kiss gif 🤭 I’m actually soooo glad you talked about the album cause now I can talk about it too. Honestly I love the album as a whole and I really love when artist can do different concepts and emotions in songs especially in an album as it makes it so much more complex and non repetitive…. Maybe that’s why I started stanning Enhypen when they debuted 🤔 plus I love me some songs with hidden meanings and stories with all the plots somehow correlating to each other.

Anywhoooo rn my go to song is another level it kinda gives me old school kpop vibes like Pray(I’ll be your man) by BTOB. It’s gonna sound a lil silly/unrelated but I do still love super tuna lmaooo something about that song is just so Jin and cute and fun and so unserious and I love that so much. Honestly makes my day brighter hearing it and imagining his windshield wiper laugh missed him so bad 😭 speaking of tangent I had bought tickets for the one time they were gonna be in FL and it got postponed then cancelled cause of covid so I’m really hoping I’ll be able to see them when they all come back inshallah 🤞🏼

Oooo make sure you stay warm and healthy babes 💕 but I definitely feel you on the liking colder weather part I moved out of state to live with my parents and younger brothers again and rn with the seasons changing all of the tree leaves are turning various shades of Orange, red, and brown and I’m loving it! Plus the below 10 degree weather(Celsius) is nice, well at least for myself and one of my brothers lol my mum and dad keep complaining the house is freezing 😂.

You’re soooo sweet omg 😭 thank you for wanting to read my Jake fic. I did end up tagging you in it as I finally finished and uploaded it (warning I got carried away and it’s 18.2k words), feel free to pm me your thoughts if/whenever you get around to reading it. I will babes, you as well make sure to take care of yourself well!! 💕

Lol, I definitely made it obvious that Zoa is one of the gossip girls. I liked twisting it by having Jihan a hufflepuff that was being a major bitch for no real reason other than she didn't like YN 😂. Peace was such fun to write, I definitely like that I tried something new to me and it wasn't a complete failure 😅😂. Aww thank you for loving all my enhypen works 🥹🥹. If I could ask which ones would be ur top? Obviously Peace but apart from that top 3 or 5? With reasons please🥹 Whichever is easier to pick. I'm fascinated by knowing this stuff.

Well knowing Jin is ur bias too, I'm adding a Jin gif at the end of every ask now 😂. Gotta spread his world wide handsome. Lol, let us fangirl about our bias. I agree, the album as a whole is just so good, if anything I want more from Jin 😫 only 6 songs ws too short.

Having Gary Barlow as a song writer was a surprise for me, I was maybe expecting Chris Martin to be involved somehow. Tbf I don't really know Gary Barlow all that much apart from when he was a judge on X Factor UK which I watched as a teenager. The Brit pop rock feeling of Running Wild is great for me but again my favourite song changes every listen.

Super Tuna never fails to bring a smile to my fave 😂. It's so silly and childish but so totally Jin at the same time. Like only this man can make an emotional song abt going to military and loving his fans but also have a silly ass tune abt catching Tuna. The versatility with this man is wild and I genuinely love everything he's putting out, I havent watched any of the stuff, I'm saving it all for a rainy day when I need my bias to pick me up.

Inshallah u get to see them live. I hope I can too one day. One of my best friends for my birthday in 2021/22 I think took me to see BTS in concert at the cinema, when they did the whole PTD in cinemas? It was a wonderful experience but it just made me want to see them live even more.

I am a winter baby through and through. Gimme the cold over summer any day 😂. The snow didn't stick, atleast not in my part of London but that was cause it was raining at the same time 😂. It did continue to be freezing for the next few days but it's gotten better. That cold spell was wild for the few days we had it 😂.

Girlie gimme that power to be able to write 18.2k words pls. I couldn't leave a comment as I read the fic on my way to work but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. I don't tend to read Jake fics but u just sucked me in and I couldn't stop reading.

Stay hydrated, take care and remember self care and to always love urself as much as our bias loves himself 💞.

[starfolk7]

Alright, Lies of P characters coming in: P himself, Romeo, Giangio and Sophia.

Ooh, I got some that I didn't expect! This should be fun! X3

P:

How I feel about this character

Such a sweet boy!! He deserves a loving family, found or otherwise! Give him all the friends, comfort, and sweets he wants! I'm not sure if he can even eat sweets but my point STILL STANDS sdkfshd

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Y'know, I don't really ship him with anyone! I'm sure I'd love to see him with an OC, but I haven't browsed the Lies of P fic tags in a little while, I should do that!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

P and Romeo! I know there's baggage about P related to Carlo and how they're def not the same person, but I really think if they were given the chance, they would grow to be best friends. I will eat up this concept forever skdhs

My unpopular opinion about this character

Not really sure I have one for him! I just kind of go with the flow with P.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

That his dad actually fucking cared about him, but you know why we couldn't have that sdkhsd. Oh and that he could take the broken puppet back to the hotel with him!! Another friend!!

Romeo:

How I feel about this character

MY BELOVED! I don't know what they put in him but I love him so so much. He's such a compelling character ;w;

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I'm a canon x OC girlie with him, not a surprise at this point lmao. Really need to get back to my stuff with him and my girl Adelaide, they're so good!!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Romeo and P! See above, I think they would be amazing friends! Also Romeo and Carlo, of course! I love to see stuff where Carlo survived in some capacity.

My unpopular opinion about this character

Once again, I'm not really sure I have any?

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

That he didn't die ;; He deserved to be free and help P take a stand against everything going on. I get why that didn't happen, but it's such a compelling idea!

Giangio

How I feel about this character

DECEIVER (affectionate). For real, he had us all played like fiddles and that was so cool!! Really excited to see if we get any more info on him in the future.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

No one, really, but I haven't looked too deeply into the tag for him lol.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Same as above!

My unpopular opinion about this character

Don't really have any, as I haven't thought about it too much.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Honestly, I think I'm pretty satisfied with how he was portrayed in canon! It was very well done.

Sophia:

How I feel about this character

She's so sweet! Honestly love her a lot <3

All the people I ship romantically with this character

None, really! I get why people pick some ships, but I'm not one of those people. Love that people are having fun with her, though!

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Sophia and P! If she got to stick around, I think they would be great friends!

My unpopular opinion about this character

Also not really a lot, as I haven't thought about this too much.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

That she got to stick around and bond more with P and the others. I understand why she didn't, given the circumstances, but I think it would have been lovely for her to have some comfort, especially after everything she went through ;w;

[kadoodles-on-ao3]

So uh... How do you feel about Nikol's existence?

I technically shouldn't know who that is yet but... I do. And. Well. You can probably guess by how you worded this ask hahaha.

Not surprised at all, if you like them as a couple then good for you and hope you're enjoying the DLC, you don't need me on your side because they're canon so that can satisfy you content-wise plus my opinions are silly and don't matter, etc etc, all I've said before applies here.

Honestly, if anything, the only unique thing I have to add here* is how his design really demonstrates how much Shulk and Fiora look like siblings lmao. There's even a (really cool!) fan mod to alter Fiora's hair and skin color to look more like her (actual) brother, so I'm not alone in seeing this haha.

So, Nikol. He sure does exist. Dude looks just like Shulk because his dad and mom both look like Shulk so what else could he look like. That's about all the thoughts I have haha (at least until I actually play more of 3 and see what he's like).

Non-ask-related ramblings under the cut because it's me, of course I rambled haha.

As I really don't like to nor want to rain on anyone's parade, as well as enjoy talking about the ship I like (because of course), I've made an effort to mentally retrack my train of thought (? idk how else to describe it lol) whenever my NOTP comes up by converting it into an opportunity to talk about my OTP instead of complaining. (See also my comment on What If We Kissed In The Weapons Development Lab where I mentioned going back into my fic and adding more details of Shulk being enamored by Melia whenever I came across Shiora while writing it lol.)

So, Shulkelia kids! I'm personally not one for creating OCs, in general or for media I like. Not that I dislike them or even the thought/process of making them! It just doesn't come to me as easily or interest me as much as digging into canon details and playing around with them. But I did come up with a couple rough concepts for what they might look like and how their parents might decide on their names... if they even would want to have kids in the first place, that is, I'm still unsure about that haha. But fanfiction can be whatever you want it to be and that's the fun of it, so maybe sometime I'll try developing those small ideas into something more (especially if it's something people are interested in reading)! If anything I'm most attached to my little blurbs I wrote about how they and their kids would interact with Reyn and Sharla and their kids, lots of cute potential there :)

(*Well, I can add something more, and I originally was going to do it! Not to contradict my whole don't-like-raining-on-anyone's-parade point, but again I want to stress, my intention with this is I just really enjoy analyzing details and understanding why I react to things in the way that I do. But I did mention to a previous ask that I have in-game writing reasons for why I dislike Shiora, it's not just personal experience from my life outside of the fandom or in observing it. In fact on my first playthrough of the game I was all for it and even saved a bunch of fanart of the two together on my phone, I see it when scrolling through my gallery all the time! It really fascinates me how drastically my perspective shifted after just one small moment at the very end of the game, and then on replaying it everything fell apart like a house of cards to me, wild stuff I can't compare the experience to anything else haha. Anyway if anyone's interested in seeing my take on that aspect of their writing, once again, feel free to send me an ask about it!)

[captain--sif]

3, 7, 23, and 34

Thank you for the ask! These questions were so interesting to think about and answer, I really liked your choices!

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

I've scrolled a little through my published fics to remind myself of what is up there and I'm surprised to find that the tropes I used are a little bit all over the place. I do have one details that I think is pretty characteristic tho: Most of my fics aren't set in a specific moment or timeframe in canon, but mostly in a vague not so far future of canon at the time of writing. And then I'd say two tropes that are very characteristic for my writing, despite my AO3 profile not accurately representing that, are 5+1 things and for romance mutually oblivious pining. You can find these two a lot in my wip folder, half finished, since this is what I default to when writing most of the time when I write casually. I guess the fics on my AO3 are mostly the ones where I was struck by sudden electric inspiration that made me finish them in one go or something close to it, and the more casual stuff is getting slowly written bit by bit in my wip folder.

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

I wouldn't necessarily say proud, but I guess I had a lot of fun with the worldbuilding for my crack fic Carefully Chosen Words. The initial basis was a group effort by spitballing after a typo turned "soulmates" into "soupmates", but I enjoyed doing what I did to the background of alphabet soup communicating with the Buckleys and how it incorporated into and influenced the 9-1-1 worldbuilding.

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

Despite most of my fics playing in some vague future of canon, I don't think I've ever written a real Future Fic with a big time gap. I'd like to set a fic 10, 15 or even 20 years in the future of canon, and come back to it and see how time (and possibly distance) have changed the lives and relationships of the characters, but also what stayed the same. It's not something that works for me for all fandoms tho, so I have yet to write it (I might finally have an inkling of an idea for this, but time only will tell if something comes out of it)

34. What aspects of your writing are inspired by/taken from your real life?

I try to not draw too much from my own life on purpose cause I'm very afraid of doxxing XD but I obviously know that nonetheless my life will still show on paper (special shoutouts go out to that one Wattpad commenter who clocked where I'm from just based on one line of I come home after 🤣). There is one fic where I specifically took something from my own life tho, and that is Lift Me Up, where Buck and Eddie from 9-1-1 get stuck in an elevator together. It's based on my own experience of getting stuck in an elevator. I obviously didn't have a romance with my neighbor or anything, but I used all the elevator stuff, especially the interactions with the call center employee. I think the worst part of the fic might actually be too much elevator stuff 😆 since it was so hard to decide what to include and when and at which point I'm just doing too much elevator-related exposition that isn't needed for the story to work.

Thank you for the ask! I had a lot of fun answering this (and honestly also thinking back to some of the fics I wrote) 😊

You can find the ask game these questions are from here

[gerrydelano]

Recently I've been thinking about writing a fic where a character is very suddenly injured and becomes disabled (something with the knee most likely), and I was wondering if you had any tips on how to write this respectfully. I have a cognitive disability and some minor physical stuff, but nothing to the same degree as what I want to write, and you always handle disability very well in your writing. (I'm thinking around the same injury severity as Jon's in tsp)

hey hey! first off, sorry this took a couple days, it's - surprise - the disabilities LOL. second, ahhh! i have a strangely warm feeling about this ask, so i'm happy to help however i can.

there's actually not too much to say! i've already written a big long meta about incorporating disability into writing, but i don't know how much of that one answers your questions, so i'll give an updated rundown on some more thoughts i know i've had pretty recently, too! you unlocked a really happy infodump, i actually love this topic so much and am very passionate about it so i'm excited to share!

the first question you should always ask yourself is "for whose sake are you telling this story?" ren talked about that concept in an ask about writing abuse dynamics, but the concept still stands. if you're telling the story of somebody else, you have to first ask yourself Why you think you should, what good is going to come of it, and be conscious of internal biases that may creep through it if you're not careful.

examine your work for trends or subconscious intention of writing disability for angst/whump purposes, so that someone else can cuddle the poor baby who got hurt and make them all better. one of the tag replies on this recent post talks about it some from the perspective of disabled people who see it in media, and how frustrating that can be! it's really painful sometimes, to see something that you live with and cannot take off at will be used as fuel to either get somebody off (really happens), or push the idea that love will cure you if you're lucky enough to find someone who doesn't mind that you're sick or hurt.

that is 100% bullshit! love and support are MASSIVELY important components to any healing process, yes, but it is Not a cure-all and should never be treated as the answer to any of this. someone approving of or loving you despite What You Lack is not romantic, it's not healthy, it's not okay to push. that's the top thing i'd warn you away from, personally.

also, don't get super graphic about the injury, necessarily? you say you were thinking maybe the severity of jon's knee injury in TSP, which is a pretty standard dislocation where most of the damage came from compression of nerves and tendons when it got stuck out of place. i honestly was scared of going too hard on that one even just by saying he could see the misalignment through his pants! that's my own nerves, but i can say looking back it wasn't actually that bad all things considered and you should be safe describing the most obvious sensory details if it comes up.

it's the grieving period after that matters most, i think. handling that with care is important, which means being honest without going too far, OR sanitizing it to a saintly degree.

when you get hurt like this, you DO grieve the things you used to be capable of that you might not be anymore. it's an adjustment! it's changing the way you live your life. even if you somehow managed to undo every ounce of internalized ableism you can and don't devalue yourself because of it, the limitations WILL be frustrating and at times painful. missing opportunities, needing accommodation that may or may not even be accessible, new hoops to jump through with doctors or transportation or seating at shows or events, all of that can weigh you down.

example: i had to bring my rollator to a wedding recently, which is a walker with wheels and a seat (which is very annoying to get on planes, might i add.) it wasn't my family! but i had to sit in the front row on the very edge, next to the bride's 86 year old grandfather who was Also sitting on his walker. being only 25 and already thinking that some people there might be looking at me sideways for needing the same accommodations as an 86 year old man, that i was making a "big deal" out of it just by being there, was something i had to work through in my head and get used to. it was a beautiful wedding! and not a single soul was unkind to me. but the little comparisons you make in your head when it's you, when you feel like you're being scrutinized, DO matter and exist.

so, consider what changes your character has to make to their life! what mobility aids might they use? cane, crutches, walker, rollator, wheelchair. how often? in what circumstances?

a lot of people who use mobility/stability aids are partial users! many of them can stand or walk or shuffle short distances, or even moderate ones, but keep their mobility aids nearby for emergency or precautionary purposes. i personally keep my rollator in my car for when i go to unfamiliar places when i'm not sure if i'll be able to sit down on short notice, but i don't need it around the house or on small errands to places i frequent enough to feel confident in. recently, i haven't even been taking it out at all! and i'm about to have spine surgery in two weeks. you have good days and bad days.

more examples: my latest chapter of PBR had a lot of focus on jon and adelard's respective disabilities and how strenuous activity pushed them to and past certain limits, which impacted the "action" scenes quite a bit!

that's something a lot of writers do feel worried about when they consider giving their characters a disability. some will even erase or lighten up the limitations they've previously established for convenience so that their character can get through an action scene that they technically shouldn't. of course you want your character to at least SURVIVE! so, find another way to get them through it that doesn't involve magically being healed for about an hour while shit is hitting the fan.

like i said in that older disability post, i was worried about this with gerry, too! and guess what? he's DEFINITELY going to be a partial wheelchair user by the 4th out of 7 fics, and more or less permanently by the very end of the story. i feel comfortable spoiling that because i'm not shy about the things he's dealing with and quite frankly, i'm excited to get to the point where he finally gets it because i just think he's EARNED it for christ's sake. it will make his life so much easier, even if running might not be feasible anymore.

in that last chapter, jon and adelard have to go down the stairs because there is no lift in the institute. elias not having a lift there has been a problem of the ableism variety since the first installment, that everyone is aware of and feels powerless to change. jon used to willingly have a routine where he'd go up to the library every day before work as a "substitute" for the PT he hasn't been doing in years, but since moving to the basement, that's like two extra flights, so he can't do it as often. and that's just everyday stuff!

with this? he's in a lot of pain by the end, he's going to need to be on bed rest for a while to just recuperate from the strain he put himself through by running up and down the stairs (counts) about 6 consecutive times in less than an hour. he's exhausted, and the only reason he pushed himself was because lives were literally on the line and adelard was even less equipped to handle the same work as him, being older and relatively new to functioning with a prosthetic leg.

so, sure! he DID it. but does that mean he could do it Every Day just because he did it Once? that he could do it without Consequence? hell no. not for a second!

the key word here IS "consequences." yes, disabled people often DO find themselves in situations where they have to push themselves past what they feel secure doing, and maybe they CAN get home in one piece, but that just means the aftermath is going to play an important role in what comes next. sometimes you'll need to be in bed for days on end to recover from something like that, or something even less severe than the above example. i know i have, before. depends on the injury, the disability, the strain.

the point is, if you need your disabled character to go beyond what they should be doing, make sure you take care of them afterwards; either by Literally having them physically recuperate, or by acknowledging the problems that come with not being able to, and making sure you respect that they cannot go on like that forever. eventually there WILL be a crash, and it can either be handled with awareness and intent in-story, or it will sneak up on them later and bite them in the patootie. eventually, your body forces you to rest.

the other thing is that this stuff doesn't just happen once. with a chronic disability, it's always a risk. be mindful of that as you plan out the situations they're going to get into! actually incorporating these things into the narrative will honestly make it feel more real than just brushing it aside so that things go "smoothly." people who experience these things themselves will appreciate it a lot more than wish fulfilment, in my experience.

now, you say you have minor physical stuff, and i'm not going to make assumptions about YOU when i say that often times, we downplay our own experiences because we think we can't possibly have it "as bad" as other people, so i'm pretty willing to give you even more express support.

writing about these things can often be an avenue towards realizing, "oh, wait. i DO actually feel this, and it's not really, uh. something i should sit on." i know that writing characters with EDS before i even realized i had it was a part of me eventually seeing a doctor, and i actually got it put on paper recently. shock of all shocks! it resonated with me for a reason.

if you're drawn to disability narratives in a way that feels far more personal than how some people are drawn to them for the torture porn (and you clearly know the difference, given that you're asking how to write it respectfully) then it's worth sitting with yourself and really assessing how you feel about your body and what things maybe shouldn't be so hard for you to do.

definitely refer back to the first meta i linked up there for some slightly more formal tips on how to frame things when you start tying them in, but i think you're already on the right track with being respectful! realism is respectful, and so is drawing lines between that realism and being overly graphic. listening to disabled people and taking them seriously is essential, and you're already doing that. giving disabled characters a support network is fabulous and you should do it, but don't infantilize them or Cure Them With Love.

and don't think TOO deep on it! you can psych yourself doing that, it's really easy to let the fear of messing up keep us from even trying. i think a knee injury like you describe is NOT a super inflammatory topic to be tackling, and you should be absolutely fine imo. a lot of people write characters getting brutally and supernaturally injured all the time and don't pay NEAR enough attention to the lasting effect some of those wounds might have in the long run, so the fact that you're taking so much care with something more ordinary and common is a good sign that you're going to navigate well going forward.

best of luck! thank you again for the patience, and for asking :'-)