#i copied this out of ao3 and the formatting is all funky but i don't care enough to open my copy

[distractionpie]

As 2023 draws to a close, it's time to look back at new years resolutions and since mine was fandom related I figure it could almost make for a fun post.

Resolution: Leave 365 comments on fics

Result: I'm writing this post with a few days to go, but at approx 2/3rds of that goal I think I can be fairly confident that even a last minute reading burst won't close the gap

Reflection: Not bad. I feel like I could have done better, but also the figure was picked pretty much at random based on aiming for one comment per day, figuring that days where I don't read fic or am reading a longfic over several days would roughly balance out with days I read a bunch of shortfic. And of course at the time of setting the goal I had no way of predicting what else would be going on with my life in 2023. I'm quite neutral about the extent that I achieved my goal, because the real exciting thing is that I now have a year of data which lends itself to fun analysis, so...

2023 comments roundup

Total fandoms commented on: 21 (I've counted any crossovers as a general 'crossover' fandom)

Most commented fandom: Batman (no suprise, as this was my main reading fandom at the start of the year and...)

Month with most comments: January, 44 (aka that initial rush of setting a resolution)

Month with least comments: October, 1 (I probably could have done better than this but I also genuinely wasn't reading much fic in October)

Longest comment: 550 words

Average comment length: the middle 50% of my comments fell between 25 and 90 words.

Emojis used (in order of frequency): 💖 😂 🥺 ❤ 🤣 😁 ❤️ 😭 💔 👏 👌 🙂 💯 😍 😅 😲 😱 🔥 🤯 ⭐ (this is interesting because mentally I would class 💖 as reserved for best stuff, but when I do use it I use it generously)

Most comments left on a single fic: 14

I also did some analysis by day of week and fandom (but I think that was pretty heavily skewed by a couple of wips and their update schedules) and made a fun wordcloud and some funky charts that I'm not going to post because y'all don't need my commenting history in that level of detail 😂.

And just in case anybody is interesting in doing some similar analysis for themselves, my method was to turn on 'send me copies of my own comments' in Ao3 settings and then create an email rule to route them to their own subfolder, the contents of which I then exported to csv (this was using outlook but I assume other email providers offer similar), then added that data to an excel file so I could clean out all the email formatting, append fandoms, and generally play with the data.

[sarah-sandwich]

Oh? Ohh? A snippet from "WORST IDEA" mayhaps?!

Lol okay so idk if you’ve read my freak out verse but the worst idea comes from that. Peter and Harley have a youtube channel and canonically there are a total of 203 episodes by the final scene in the epilogue, but only 4 are actually written out in the series.

The WORST IDEA would be creating a new work in that series and it’s just the youtube videos...all 203 of them. Undertaking this thing that literally no one asked for may actually kill me but if I could convince my brain to let it be a fun thing that I just casually update whenever the mood strikes then it would be a really cool addition to the universe.

OKAY all that said, here's the beginning of their first video since you asked for a snippet. This is from chapter 7 of Don’t Freak Out:

The Iron Interns Vlog

Ep. 1: Q&A

 Harley and Peter are sitting at a small table. The wood is dark in contrast to the light green wall behind them. The lighting is good. They both look a little tired, a bit worn. Harley’s hair is flattened like he’s been wearing a hat while Peter’s is a wild tangle of curls upon his head. Peter is sitting up straight and smiling brightly looking at the camera and Harley is slouched back watching Peter attentively.

 “Hi everybody! I’m Peter Parker and this is Harley Keener. Welcome to our first video!” Peter greets the camera with a grin. “This’ll be kind of sloppy because we didn’t really plan it out, but I’m hoping in the future we’ll have more of a structure.”

 Harley looks at the camera. “We had a crap day,” he says bluntly. “Couldn’t go anywhere without being stalked by reporters so we decided to make a Q&A video to answer some of your more pressing questions so we can get on with our lives. Also, if you're one of those reporters who gave us hell just for trying to go to the post office, go BLEEP yourself.”

 Peter startles. “Harley! No swearing!”

 Harley looks at him, incredulous. “What? It's YouTube. People swear in YouTube videos all the time… Right?”

 Peter frowns down at the table, forehead creased with stress. “I… I don't remember. Maybe? Oh god, we're so unprepared for this.”

 “It'll be fine.” Harley rolls his eyes and the two boys jostle as Harley bumps him with his knee. “I'm like 70% sure you're allowed to swear on YouTube.”

 “I'm gonna go check." Peter gets up from the table and scurries out of frame while Harley sighs and slouches further in his chair.

  There’s a cut in the video where an untold amount of time has passed and Harley is now leaned forward with one elbow propped on the table, chin in his hand, while he drums the fingers of his other hand against the wood. Peter’s chair remains empty. Suddenly, Harley sits up straight, looking beyond the camera.

 "Are you watching Vine compilations?"

 "Listening for swears!" Peter’s voice is distant.

 "Oh my God, Parker. I thought you were going to read the terms of use or BLEEP-ing Google it or something."

 "Oh, that's a good idea!"

 Harley stares into the camera like he's on The Office.

 Another jump cut and Harley’s slouched again, looking annoyed as his eyes follow something just beyond the frame. Peter shuffles into view and retakes his seat at the table.

 "What took you so long?" Harley grumbles.

 "It was a really good compilation, okay?" Peter says without looking at him.

 "Are you-,” Harley rubs a hand over his mouth. “You're killing me. Just… what’s the verdict?"

 "Depends.” Peter looks at him. “Do we care about making money?"

 Harley blinks. "I actually forgot you could."

 "Then swears are a go!"

 "That's what I wanted to BLEEP-ing hear."

 Peter hesitates. "…Maybe you should hold back a little though. So we don't alienate any listeners."

 Harley sets his jaw and stares dead-eyed into the camera.

 “We’ll edit all that out,” Peter says, folding his hands together on top of the table.

 “Don’t you dare.” Harley points a stern finger at his face. “The world deserves to see how you make me suffer.”

 Peter rolls his eyes. “Fine, but I’m bleeping out the bad swears.”

 “That’s 15 minutes of my life I’ll never get back,” Harley complains.

 Peter grins at him, crinkling his nose and Harley pulls a face in response before turning away so Peter can’t see the way his lips begin to curl.

Ask me about the WIPs on this list

[otaku6337]

so i know its more than three but i got sorta carried away

✍ 🛠🎶👀🤲⌛💔💞(i feel like it must be eraserhead but maybe it's not????)

i really enjoy your writing, please keep it up!!!!!

It's absolutely fine!! I'm definitely not complaining (honestly I'm just pleased I got an ask ^^; )

but anyway-

✍ 🛠🎶👀🤲⌛💔💞

(excuse me whilst I open yet another tab so that I can check the questions-)

Right! So!

Nope, no beta reader here - I'm personally very stubborn about the way certain things Vibe, I don't really have the time, and I like to post immediately after I write. Plus I write straight into ao3 so sharing it with someone would be a pain, honestly.

I write straight into ao3!! I have been called cursed for this before, but apparently I'm defiant. Honestly it's mostly just for the formatting - and I only *sometimes* lose things so it's fine, right?

In all seriousness though, I do also use WordCounter to copy-past my OSs/chapters into for wcs on the go, and I update my Google Sheets spreadsheets multiple times a day :D

I absolutely listen to music whilst I write!! I also watch YouTube, admittedly (split screen is my life yall) but I listen to music a lot. More than a specific song, I'd say that the channel Valiant has an awful lot of the things in my main playlist. Oh, and for like six weeks straight last year, when I was binge-writing, I listened to Unlike Pluto's Technicolour Daydream album on repeat. For six weeks straight. I can't think of anything *but* writing if/when I listen to it now ^^;

An up and coming wip... Not sure if it counts, but I'm just beginning to really get into the Big War Arc for Kidilante, was literally writing up some of the next chapter before I came to reply to this, and I'm super excited!! There's going to be some plotting and angst and a bit of fluff too - oh, and some cliffhangers that may or may not turn out how people will hope :D

In case that *doesn't* count, I am planning to write a follow-up to my "macabre fic" as I labelled it, a prequel OS where we find out more about how Izu got his funky vaguely-demonic powers from, with some hints as to whether it's actually a Quirk or not ;)

A snippet... Let's see, I'll dig something cool up :D

Okay so I went with one for kidilante and one for macabre as I listed them both for the previous Q (and vague cw for some bloody imagery in both of these, just skip the next two paragraphs if you're worried!):

Kidilante:

He whips around, and his Dad is on the ground, crumpled, bloody, and no, no, this isn't right.

Izuku doesn't see red (he doesn't need to, when there is already so, so much fucking blood-) because he's busy moving, a blur of grey and white and black and red, knives in hand and capture weapon rising and his throat burning with panic or a scream or something because there are villains standing over his hero and they had smiles and reaching hands except now they have bloody wounds, thrown to the side, kicked in the throat, whatever it takes to get them away, get them gone. He needs his Dad. He needs to protect his hero.

Macabre:

His skin itches, right along the bottom of his rib cage, where if he presses it feels like his ribs will push right through his skin in a way that would be a relief, not a terror. (When Izuku truly lets himself dwell upon it, he can feel how it is like claws curling around the bottom of his ribs, digging in, trying to get out-gone-free, no matter what happens to him in the process-)

I feel the need to say that I actually write quite a bit of fluff too? And the comfort part of hurt ^^; These bits are just particularly cool and I already have them!

Anyways-

I don't know if I necessarily have a comfort character but, yep, Zawa's my favourite! His pov is always great to write, and I just really enjoy him as a character, particularly in his dynamics with others. He's also a bit more relatable than a lot of bnha are for me, so, you know :D

Timeframe varies a *lot*. I would say that one good weekend day of writing I could do a chapter or short-ish OS (so like 3-ish k) but most days aren't that productive, and on a workday I might only write 1/4 of a chapter or shorter OS. So call it a few days for most things? If you're talking longfics though, I've been writing the Kidilante universe (main fic is like 450k or something off the top of my head?) for like 2.5yrs, or I wrote a 65k-ish fic in three months, around OSs and stuff!!

Perspectives broke my heart. It really, really did. I spent a few months thinking about those boys, then three months writing them, and I had a very specific song that I most associated with them that is on one of my main commuting CDs. I couldn't listen to that song without getting emotional for another four or so months after I finished the fic.

But, hey, I think I've got through most of my grieving now. I was able to write one of the alternate endings for them (a far less sad one!) earlier this month, which was lovely to do.

Right that ended up very long and rambled, sorry!! But I hope that was interesting for yall, I really enjoyed doing it ^.^/