#i don’t think I’ve ever just let a wip sit for that long tbh

[entropyvoid]

I don’t usually post my WIP pictures? But let’s try something new. (It’s not like it’s spoiling anyone’s enjoyment of my actual final thing, after all. I’ve always been a bit weird about it, but that’s. Kinda silly tbh.)

Do you think Wanderer ever gets confused about having two completely separate overlapping sets of memories of his own life?

[ragana62]

what fandoms are you currently writing fic for? and why? :)

First off, you are my first real proper ask for an ask game, so thank you for that! You get a nice long answer as a result, because I am very excited to talk to people on the internet, even anon asks!

That is a very good question, and one with an ever changing answer based on whatever I’m reading/watching tbh. Right now, I’ve got WIPs with actual words written instead of just existing in my head going for the below though:

Harry Potter: First off, FUCK TERFS. We don’t abide by JK’s bullshit here. My official take is, she doesn’t make a dime off me playing with her characters and giving them more to do than she did (especially for some of my beloved side characters), and this was my comfort series when I was a little kid and looking for an escape from my abusive home life, so I will always have a bit of an attachment to it. If she gains nothing from me declaring that actually, from one autistic queer human to another, I see you Tonks, I will keep writing/drawing for it. Besides, there were so many aspects that just never got explored, so many characters we never really met, and it’s admittedly a fun world to play with.

House of the Dragon: So, I have a lot of mixed feelings on this as well. I have a hard time watching the show, because I have a hard time getting into media that feels like it might be a little too into the suffering of the women in it, and it really front loads a lot of that. That said, the setting is interesting to me, there are a lot of characters I find interesting as well (book AND show canon tbh, though I will almost certainly never not do something that’s at least a little AU for it and fully understand a lot of complaints other people have about certain changes from the show), and I will always have a soft spot for the variety of fix it fic where we let our high fantasy women be happy and successful AND do cool political badassery with swords and dragons. Plus, if my blog hasn’t made it abundantly clear, Eve Best could release a 20 hour film of her sitting in an empty room watching paint dry, and I would be glued to my seat and take time off work to watch it the day it dropped.

Fate: The Winx Saga: Same deal as above, there is very little I would not watch and engage with featuring my current fave. I also think the show itself threw a lot of ideas at the wall but didn’t develop them all as much as they could have, and that’s a really ripe area for more exploration, particularly when there are so many interesting avenues left so open ended.

Marvel: This one I am slightly reluctant to name, because I am mostly writing it for the sake of a few specific characters. Looking at you Wanda, Agatha, and Natasha (there are other characters I like, but there’s something in their stories in particular that scratches my brain in just the right way). But I do like a lot of it, even if I don’t always like what is done with a lot of it all the time, and in the case of Wanda and Natasha in particular, there will always be room in my ex-soviet client state diaspora heart for all the ways their stories could have been told together or separately. Don’t even get me started on the way I had to turn the TV off and glare into the middle distance after that fight scene in Falcon and Winter Soldier started trashing a UNESCO World Heritage Site in my home country (not that it was even remotely the point of the show, but it pissed me off so badly that I couldn’t finish season 1 for months).

Doctor Odyssey: This one is entirely because I have a very good internet friend who is in love with Sean Teale (who found me ironically after I used him as a fancast for Harry Potter), and who has me watching the show with her. She wants smut scenes staring Tristan, I am happy to oblige, because I love it when people talk to me on here, and I wouldn’t have fancast with him if I didn’t enjoy his work.

Rosaline: What can I say, I love a good “historically inaccurate because the fem characters can call the local monarch/lord of whatever a fuckhead to his face and not be immediately executed or shipped off to a sanatorium/nunnery for being insane, period pieces with fantastic anachronistic soundtracks and gorgeous sets/costumes”. I’m maybe on my 8th rewatch, and I will inevitably go back.

My Lady Jane: This one I have no idea if I will ever actually publish anytime soon, because I love the series so much, but I am still in mourning for the lack of Season 2. But same deal as above, and also, who doesn’t love Tudor Animorphs as a concept.

Grishaverse: It may also never be published, but I find the setting interesting, and I love seeing anything even tangentially related to my culture (even if it’s mostly just our neighbors in this instance there are still familiar bits and bits that feel close enough) reflected in fantasy settings, so I will always have love for it and a little something cooking in the back of my head.

John Tucker Must Die: Full disclosure, this is exactly one fic, and it’s peak why choose, all the main four girls are queer and wind up getting with each other instead of John after bonding over trying to ruin his life, toxic yuri crack. Call it one too many late nights watching the movie back to back with Cruel Intentions and Jennifer’s Body back in high school, but it is what it is, and what it is is a perpetual WIP I should just bite the bullet and publish even if I feel like I’m the only one who wants it.

There are others, I’ve kicked around ideas for Buffy, for Addam’s Family (the 90’s/early 2000’s movies with Raul Julia as Gomez specifically), for Hacks, for Legends of Korra, for about half a million other shows/books/movies as well, that just don’t have words written for them yet, and a few fandoms I’m not sure there even is anyone to read whatever I write (anyone else read Kiki Strike as a kid? If you did, find me, I’m still obsessed with those books) so I haven’t gotten around to them. But that’s about where I’m at at the moment!

[kae-karo]

fic writer interview!

i saw @prince-liest do this and thus i will take ur 'tagging anyone who wants to do this' seriously lmaoooo (also hi btw hope ur well!!! 💜💜)

How many works do you have on AO3?

ahaha,,,,,159 lmao

What's your total AO3 word count?

fdsjkkjlsfdklj as of today, 2,089,769

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

only three fsdjkldslfkj the phandom (dan&phil), bnha, and genshin!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

chosen (x) - zhongchi (genshin)

to love (and be loved in return) (x) - kaeluc (genshin)

little bird (x) - dabihawks (bnha)

feet don't touch the ground (x) - xiaoven (genshin)

i knew you were fire (x) - dabihawks (bnha)

honestly none of that surprises me except that little bird is still up there, although i think i owe that to sif (@the-final-sif) for sharing it around the time it got posted since it was partly inspired by her raptor stress grip post!!

the rest are all chaptered fics, which is mostly what i expected to be in the top 5 lmao

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

yes!!! always!!!! no matter what u comment, i will respond!!! and if i don't, it's probably cause ao3 didn't notify me properly or i didn't see it in my inbox or something

as for why, it's mostly to do with like...i know how hard it can be for some people to comment, even just a bunch of heart emojis or a 'i loved this!' or something short and simple? and it means a lot to me that ppl are going out of their way to say something nice, no matter how small, and it's really really important to me to acknowledge that

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

hmm,,,,,this is a hard one, cause for a very long time, my policy was that my fic would always have a happy ending? and for a long time, that was true!! but the dabihawks interaction (during the raid) broke me, and from an emotional standpoint, i think freeing icarus (x) is probably the one that has the angstiest ending of the two or so that i wrote in that time?

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

u know i really haven't written any crossovers? it's normally not my thing cause my brain typically focuses on a single thing and doesn't really have the capacity to think about more than that, so i end up writing just au-style or fusion-style (shoutout to that one bnha but it was scooby doo fic i wrote - x)

i don't think i'd be opposed to writing a crossover but i'd have to be SUPER inspired by the idea and both fandoms lmao

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

aha yes, i have. the only straight up hate i've received was on a kaeluc fic (surprisingly not because it was kaeluc, but bc i was 'mistreating' kaeya in the fic) - to be entirely fair, the commenter pointed out something that i hadn't realized myself, and it led to a second piece of the story that helped me tie up some loose ends, but...let's just say they weren't very kind about their feelings lmao

other than that, i had someone very upset because i didn't tag which character was bottoming in a fic (valid if that bugs u!) and they read through most of it before getting to the smut (and said that they enjoyed everything up to that point) then said they were 'disgusted' by it. i have opinions on that and a few other comments they made, but i will keep them to myself lmao

and beyond that, just a few ppl on my xiaoven fic saying that they were unhappy about the background kaeluc (which is tagged lmao) - really no hate whatsoever til genshin, honestly, which is...very hmmmm :) lmao

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

yep!!! mostly vanilla or vanilla-adjacent lmao i'm not super into heavy kink, although i know if epi reads this she's gonna call me out for being a monsterfucker bc of my dragon!zhongli smut :) lmaoooo but really i tend to write pretty vanilla smut! i also prefer to avoid any noncon/dubcon or hate sex or anything particularly angsty, just not my jam to write!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

hmm i don't think so? although i don't heavily monitor ao3 (or wattpad/ffn), so i can't really say that for sure lmao

Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!!! i've had a few fics translated to russian (little bird is one of them!) which is very sweet and i hope that anyone who prefers to read in russian has been enjoying those fics!!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

alksdfjklsdf only once, and it's deadass how me and rose got together. we decided to co-write a podcast au fic for the phandom (x) and ended up flirting via google docs asldkfjkldsfj

What’s your all time favourite ship?

what a horrible question, making me choose between my children like this!!!! sdlfkjdskf tbh i'm not sure i have a real answer bc it changes as i go? and 'favorite' is so vague,,,,,favorite to read? to write about? to think about? asdklfjkjsdfk i really don't know if i have an answer, but i'll maybe say kaeluc for now lmao

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

well first and foremost, with only 2 exceptions, i never post a fic unless it's done. i tend to follow wherever my passion leads my brain, so i'm notorious for jumping around between stories and taking breaks from long fic and returning later on to finish them, and i know that i would not do well under the pressure of posting something unfinished and trying to finish it in a timely manner

that said, many wips sit in my google doc folder, but one is Well Known as the one that has followed me through both the phandom and bnha (rose keeps asking who i'm gonna switch the chars to in genshin, but i think it suits bakudeku too well to do that) - only the lonely survive. it sits at like 36k in my wip folder, and i adore the story dearly and i want very much to finish it, but it never makes it quite to the forefront of my motivation, and so it rarely if ever gets worked on...i hate the idea of 'never' finishing it, but it's unfortunately quite likely that i won't 😭😭😭

What are your writing strengths?

emotion!!! and immersion!!! it's my goal in a fic to make it as immersive as possible and saturated with emotion to help convey that feeling of being in the place of the pov character, and i think i do it pretty well. also just bc i feel a little obligated to say it - another strength is actually sitting down and putting words down. i know that's a struggle for a lot of writers and i often get,,,,lovingly bullied? i guess? lmao for being able to bash out a few k in a day most days

What are your writing weaknesses?

this isn't so much a weakness i guess but i am basically incapable of treating crack fic as crack. if i have a cracky idea, it will, without a doubt, end up turning into a Perfectly Serious fic somehow (notable 'crack treated so seriously that it's no longer crack' fics include: todoroki doing the freeze-the-ocean thing from frozen 2, 'shmigaraki', todo and denki get together bc of vine references, the league sells feet pics, shiggy and natsu own a nightclub/bakery, scooby doo but make it bnha, and dabi getting his ears pierced at claire's)

but in all seriousness, i think my main weakness is that i often get comfortable? and i'm not one to typically push myself forcefully out of my comfort zone when it comes to stories that i come up with on my own, which often means that ideas inspired by discussions with others are what prompt me to branch out and try new things?

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

i think, like anything, it has its place? there are certainly stories where it makes sense to do that and even adds depth to a story, although i personally am not exceptionally comfortable enough with other languages (except maybe asl) to do that in fic myself without the assistance of someone very comfortable with that language lmao

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

the phandom! not really my jam to write rpf anymore but it definitely got me started and i'm really grateful for my time writing there, as everyone was super supportive and kind, and it was really a perfect place for a beginner to get comfortable and practice

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

again, forcing me to choose between my children...i really don't know that i can pick one fic bc they all exist in such wildly different spaces? i poured my worldbuilding soul into the king of disaster series (mainly dabihawks - x), exile (dan and phil - x) was my first massively long fic, our hearts are heavy burdens we shouldn't have to bear alone (chayea - x) is probably my favorite character/character dynamic study, i'm exceptionally proud of the smut in chosen (zhongchi - x), the list goes on and on and on lmao like. i could probably list half my fics as favorites in some regard dsflkjdfsjkl

anyway, tyty bellamy for putting this on my dash so i could do it as well!!

tagging: literally anyone who wants to do this, i have so many writer friends slkdjfjklsdf but please please tag me if u do it so i can read urs!!! 💜💜����

[espoir-et-reves]

hi maria!!!

i LOVE your work and wanna pick your brain :)) for the writing asks:

1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 20, 32, 35, & 39

hope your day is going well!!!!! <3333

Yooo Nadia what’s up?? No, nope I LOVE YOURS and I’d let you pick my brain but I doubt you’d make much sense of the chaos in there. Even I don’t 😂😂 okay so on with the q&a

1. How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction? 

Hmm I think I started reading fanfiction when I was in middle school? I’m pretty sure the first few fanfics I ever read were Harry Potter and Supernatural fics. I was SO into those fandoms back then (still am tbh)

The first fics I wrote were in high school if I remember correctly. Harry Potter and k-pop, more precisely a few EXO x reader fics lmao

2. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

It depends on the day I think. On some days I have no motivation to write, so I just lose myself in reading fanfics. Other days I spend hours upon hours of writing and doing research for my fanfics, wips and YA stories. 

4. Link your three favorite fics right now.

Just three??? Blasphemous but okay...

Daughter of Fire by the amazing @justjstuff -- one of my TOP favorite KakaSaku fics and also Naruto fanfics in general. Always makes my day when I see an update^^

Deep Within the Trees; Under the Boughs & Blossoms by candy_floss_consumer (I’m sorry I don’t know if they’re on tumblr) The entire series of a Different Wave is just so magical and so well written but especially this one. Gave me chills on every single chapter.

Take your pick between The Shadows of Your Heart and Dying Embers by @riseoftheblossom-ff . Just amazing.

Also take a pick from your fics. I love them^^

(I only listed fics from the Naruto fandom, because I’ve been more invested in them for the past couple of years.)

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

I HATE a huge block of just words. Please, people, change paragraphs, use “ ” when someone’s talking and for the love of everything you find holy, do tell us who is thinking what and who is speaking when there are more than two characters in a scene. 

The lack of paragraphs especially drives me mad... like I don’t care if it’s the best story I may ever read, I’m not doing it, sorry.

Thank you, sincerely Maria❤

8. How often do you reblog/comment on fics that you like?

Not as often as I should tbh. Especially before I began uploading my fics, I was too shy to leave a review. Still am, but I’m trying to leave comments more often bc I understand how much they can lift the writer’s mood. 

10. What’s your favorite fandom, pairing, or character to read fic for?

Favorite fandoms: Naruto, Supernatural, Harry Potter, The Mortal Instruments

Favorite pairings: I’m a MultiSaku hoe so I read EVERYTHING, Dean/Castiel + Meg/Castiel, Draco/Hermione, Magnus/Alec!!

Favorite character: BAMF Sakura, Cas my little angel baby, Hermione bc we love BAMF witches and Magnus Bane the High Warlock of Brooklyn y’all✨

11. How do you come up with your fic titles?

Hahahhahahahha good question. It’s the hardest thing tbh. Sometimes I just google for a title generator, other times I sit down for a couple hours and beg for my brain to come up with something good...

13. Do you outline your fics? How much of a headache would someone get if they just looked at an outline of yours without reading the fic?

*snorts* not just a headache, it’ll be a damn explosion. I do have a rough outline for my fics, I even have the major scenes I want in a chapter written down and an ending and all that. Thing is... my mind hates me and I change everything at least three times, so I decided to just go with the flow. 

20. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

Honestly? just the fact that I’m writing. Especially when my brain wants to work with me and creativity just hits. I also enjoy doing research for my fics, but more often than not, it leads to distractions because I fall too into whatever I’m searching for😂

32. Copy and paste your top three favorite lines/jokes/sentences you’ve ever written. What fics do they come from?

“He didn’t smile back at me,” Sakura pouted and stabbed the rabbit meat on her plate with unnecessary force. --- A running joke in A Tale of Songs and Ashes is that Sakura has vowed to make Madara smile at her and she tries to get a reaction out of him every time they meet. This line started everything. 

Across from him Shikamaru was smoking a cigarette, lazily observing the people around him. The sharp look he received from said boy though had him taken aback. He followed the Nara’s eyes landing on Sakura and Sasuke, before turning back to him. Shikamaru shook his head, resigned and offered Neji a cigarette.

“I don’t smoke,” he replied.

Shikamaru shrugged, “It could help with the homicidal thoughts.” --- This interaction basically is one of my favorites from Nightstrolls because it kinda highlights Neji’s and Shika’s frienship in the fic and the fact that Shikamaru often makes fun of Neji’s crush on Sakura.

Gai’s laughter filled the air around them, “What a youthful child! Shisui-kun I didn’t know Uchiha came out in spring colours as well!” --- From Trials of Change I don’t think it needs an explanation. Gai just being Gai😂

35. How much has writing fic changed your life?

Oh so damn much! I think it’s the only thing that kept me from falling apart during quarantine and the COVID-19 crisis. Writing really helped my mental health when it comes to dealing with all the stress and even members of my family falling ill and dying. 

39. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

Uh, I don’t know? My readers usually tell me that I have an interesting way of writing -- whatever that means. So since they like it, I do as well? 

Also, I try to make the characters more realistic, give them backstories and emotions and hobbies etc. I like that😊

Thank you so much for your questions!! Sending you lots of love💕

[snickiebear]

yo nadia <3333 i'm bored in my online classes and u reblogged the questions thingy at the right time lmao, so get ready: 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 17, 23, 24, 28, 30!!!, 34, 38, 39, 40 (the intimacy of being understood) (imma stop here lol) (also i'm sorry u're not feeling well, ily and hope u'll feel better soon!! <33333)

ELE ILY. (and thank you, i’m stayin home today cause,,, yeah. i appreciate you sm.) you’re the literal best, i adore you. 

1. How long ago did you start reading fanfiction? Writing fanfiction?

The first fanfiction i read was for The Lunar Chronicles when I was like 11?? and it was 100% on accident and it scarred me because it was a hardcore porn one with a period kink and i was like WHAT IS THIS??? OH MY GOD???? LMAOOOOO i didn’t pick it back up until i was 13-14 and really got into the Fairy Tail fandom. I still reread my favorites on ff.net cause i love them. 

As for writing, I wrote a horrible, terrible x-men fanfiction when I was twelve. (my friend still brings it up and REFUSES to delete it so it still gets comments and views, that shit HAUNTS ME ELE.) then tried again for Fairy Tail, posted like two chapters before taking it down cause i wasn’t really feeling it. And then I posted The Intimacy Of Being Understood and here we are. 

4. Link your three favorite fics right now.

OMGG okok 

@murd3rm1ttens ‘s The Problem How Time Works IF YOU HAVENT READ THIS YOU GUYS NEED TO HOP ON IT ASAP. MITTEN’S WRITING SO SO SO SO GOOD. SAKURA AND INO ARE TOTAL BADASSES. KAKASHI IS A SIMPPPP. ITS SO FUCKING GOOD. 

@mouseymightymarvellous ‘s We Were Screaming In Color (Only A Possibility) yes, yes I KNOW. i always point into mousey’s direction but i WILL always advocate that everyone reads her fics, they’re literally so beautiful???? i just happen to be rereading WWSIN rn 

@safelycapricious ‘s Shaking Up And Breaking Down series. I found this like?? idfk but i’ve been raving about it ever since. ALSO CHECK OUT THEIR FICS IN GENERAL. 

fuck i have more than three but also check out @ambivalens999 ‘s Masks

i do wanna make a fic rec thing where i just rav about my favs,,, might do that later or sum

5. What are your fanfic pet peeves? Do they have a huge effect on whether or not you decide to read something?

Omniscient third person. I don’t like it. Like I can understand that it can be a little hard to stay in one person’s perspective but, in my opinion, if you can, it shows how disciplined you are as a writer. Plus, i just get so confused when I go from A’s thoughts to suddenly what B is thinking about A. 

When writers use ‘ ‘ instead of “ “. When writers put thoughts in ‘ ‘ instead of just italicizing them. It’s small things but like they just bother me sO MUCH. most of the time i can ignore it and try to enjoy but other times i just dip. 

9. Tag 3 fic writers you think are underrated/unknown in the fandom/fanfiction community.

@espoir-et-reves !!!!! THEIR SHISAKU FICS ARE SO SO SO SO SO GOOD. And they have a warring states one going on THAT I AM SO OBSESSED WITH. 

@writer168 idk if they’re really “underrated” but THEY HAVE SUCH GREAT FICS ON AO3. Like theres an AU with sakura, kiba, and shino that i reread constantly because it just. is. so. fucking. GOOD. and they posted a new one that i’m YELLING about. 

@eggtoasties okay they only have 2 in the naruto fandom (one shisaku which is still ongoing) BUT THEIR WRITING STYLE IS SO NICE?? I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. I still go back and reread their shikasaku one cause UGH i can’t get enough. I love it. 

10. What’s your favorite fandom, pairing, or character to read fic for?

Fandoms: Naruto, Soul Eater, The Old Guard, ATLA

Parings: KakaSaku/ShikaSaku/ShiSaku/MultiSaku, SoMa, Joe X Nicky, Zukka

Character: SAKURA. I will read anything with Sakura as the main character and her being a fuckin badass or becoming a badass. I love her.

17. How obsessively do you sit and stare at your fic after you’ve just posted and wait for feedback?

aha.. haha.. well. I check my email like three times an hour. its the first thing i check in the mornings too. I’m literally a whore for praise and literally eat up feedback like its going out of style. I also reread a lot of my stuff because i make so many mistakes and spelling errors, or the spacing is weird oR SOMETHING. plus, literally any and all comments make my day, i go back and reread them cause they just make me feel so tingly and warm like “wow. this person enjoyed the fic/my writing enough to tell me. thats HUGE!”

23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write?

Angry, feral, bloodied, morally gray women. They aren’t bad guys, they’re probably the good guy, but that doesn’t mean they cant be fucking raging at the world with raw knuckles and blood on their teeth. I just love an angry woman who struggles with her emotions and just has so much inner conflict but that doesn’t take away from her character or badassery, it adds to it. 

24. What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write?

The fake dating or miscommunication troupe. LIKE GUYS JUST TALK. AND TELL EACH OTHER OMFG. the entire like obliviousness of “nah they dont like me” while the They holds their hand and kisses their cheek. MOFO WHAT. it makes me so impatient and like mad HAAHHAHA. its probably because i’m a pretty confrontational person so seeing stuff like that just “cmon bro, USE YO HEAD.”

28. How do you deal with writing pressure (ie: pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc)?

I have yet to receive a negative comment! Which i was really surprised about tbh. As for deadlines or pressure to update, i just kind of do whatever. I do set goals, but i set them flexible enough that hey, if i can’t do it, that’s okay. 

I have a lot of mini goals, like “i want to write this chapter and get it done this week” and then the large goal is “FINISH BY END OF MAY” so i have time. 

Actually, now that I think on it, the entire pressure to update thing is probably why i’m waiting until I have all of OL&W written to post it weekly,, cause well. I wouldn’t wanna leave you guys waiting as I tried to write and work out the next chapters and stuff, you know?

30. Post a snippet from your current WIP without context - no more than 300 words.

AAAAAA YOU KNOW I LOVE THESE AHAHAHAH

Have you seen the way the dead dance, World Breaker? They roar, half mad and starving. Do you not wish, do you not hope to see them twist and bend and dance to your will?

Shikamaru snarls, looking behind his shoulders to where his Shadows lay. “Patience.” He spits. “Is of the essence, Things of Ancient. Know your place as the dark you are.”

34. How much of yourself and your life experiences do you put into your writing? What do you think your readers’ image of you is?

None of my experiences match up to anything I write tbh,,, probably the only thing that is me in my writing is maybe the emotional turmoil? I’m pretty emotionally and mentally mature because from a pretty young age i started forming my own opinions, started looking into the world around us and being like “dude what the fuck this is not what disney advertised”. Then i started talking (read: arguing and debating) with my dad about a lot of it. So, like emotions are kind of hard for me. Like i’m pretty good at controlling them or understanding them, but still. idk its hard to explain ig.

Like the weight of stress, the anger, the sadness. It’s kind of therapeutic to write. Cause i don’t know how to put those feelings to verbal words so writing them really helps. 

As for my readers’ image? Probably like some kind of hunched over figure typing away in the dark with a maniacal grin on their face. I honestly don’t know AHHAHAHA but it is fun to think about. I think they’d see me as someone with potential but a lot of room to grow and someone who is imperfect but in a charming way LMAOOOO

38. What does your writing process look like? How chaotic is it on a scale of 1 (very tame) to 10 (you can’t handle this kind of chaos)?

I’m gonna be real honest. Its probably like a 2. I’m a bit of a control freak so I almost always go in chronological order, my writing is pretty linear. Unless, i get bored and jump to one of my fav parts. It's pretty much i sit down, i open the doc, read over my notes and just start writing. 

It’s a little boring to explain AHAHAHA but once i get into the groove of things its really fucking great, I can like feel myself in the world, I can feel what i want the characters to, i love it. I catch myself mouthing the words as i type too, which i find hilarious.

39. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

I rather like how raw my writing is sometimes. Which might sound really vain, but i do like the way i word things or describe things. I love juxtaposition and repetition, or making a good ole circle back to some minute detail that wouldn’t stand out until i repeat it at the end and you’re like “omg” AHAHAHAHA.

Like those little poetic snippets or certain wording i just sit back and go “damn thats kinda good nadia! go you!’ HAHAHA�� 

40. How did you come up with the idea for The Intimacy Of Being Understood?

AAAAA this fic is like my first child, my pride and joy LMAO

so the idea initially came when i was reading some fic, idk if it was even naruto, but i was like “i don't like this, but i do like the rain symbolism.” And I knew i wanted to write something kind of slow paced, something a little sad and angsty, but would show KakaSaku slowly but surely falling in love.

Idk if you’ve noticed but a lot of my fics, the pairings don’t change each other dramatically. They accept each other as they are and then they grow with together. Like that acceptance is something i just love writing, its so subtle, it isn’t something you declare. Its simply “I am going to love you. I am going to love you despite your flaws and faults. I am going to love you unconditionally because I know you, I understand you, and there is nothing you could do to drive me away.” 

The fic kind of wrote itself after that first scene. I kept going back to the rain, go being ghosts, and resurrection, and the small epiphanies one gets. I wanted to focus on each character’s growth with each other. They didn’t find light in life because of each other, but with each other. And i think that’s my favorite thing about that fic. 

I wanted something raw and real and just something beautiful. I’m actually really proud of it tbh. Would i go back and rewrite/edit it? Oh of course! I’d do that with every single one of my fics, but i’m not gonna cause i think its in its rawest form right now. :))))

ask me shit plz

[falsegoodnight]

hiiiii <3 would you care to update your raging fanbase on your wips/current priorities/progress/future plans?

omg ruthie i hope you realize that i’m taking this as permission to RAMBLE (also raging fan base sjfjjfg what 😭) also quick note, i’m doing this on my phone so that’s a 99% increased chance of typos. just ignore them <3

i’m currently attempting to do what i call “slowing the fuck down” because i’m literally incapable of taking an actual break so i have to settle for lowering my posting rate (for the sake of my grades most of all, but also the sake of my deteriorating sanity ha). posting twice or thrice (august 2020 smh) a month is fun and all except that it isn’t sjdjkd

i say that and yet i’m still planning on posting twice in march... anyways.

i’ll do this in list format because i love lists.

1. assassin au

okay so this is based off prompt 80 from the blff which is hopefully saved somewhere in my notes because i don’t even remember—

okay it is!! the prompt: John Wick au (kinda?), in which Harry is a legendary assassin but hides this from his sweet boyfriend Louis the whole time. Cue lots of badass Harry action scenes while trying to juggle this with his normal life with his sweet boyfriend and their cute dog Clifford.

and so the thing about this prompt is that it was originally submitted to the fest by lovely chelsea @kittenlouis whose birthday just happens to be coming up in march hehe. it’s a prompt that stuck out to me from the beginning but i never really considered it because i didn’t think i’d ever be able to pull off “badass Harry action scenes” tbh i still don’t know if i can but i’m going to try!

i’m currently at 8.5k for this fic out of an estimated 48k (rip) but that’ll hopefully be 10k by the end of today. the whole story itself is already outlined and planned out and i’m so excited about it, i can’t even articulate how much. there’s lots of drama and action and twists and turns and everything i love!! also this harry, man... this harry is my favorite harry i’ve ever written 😔🤚 i adore him and he deserves the world. they both do :’)

it’s definitely not going to be for everyone since there’s going to be a lot of action and violence (not non-graphic violence) and it’s darker than anything i’ve ever written 😬 like don’t get me wrong, 100% going for action rom-com vibes for some scenes and there’ll be some fluff and soft, sappy moments (stoic hardened assassin that has no experience with love in any form until he meets sweet affectionate nurse, pls 😓) but the last part of the fic: *incoherent gesticulations*

also it’s mpreg!! lol it’s for chelsea, i had to.

anyways back to the violence— i can’t even tell you how many videos and articles i’ve read/watched in the past week on jiu jitsu and kali, tactical driving, knife fighting (sort of have a fascination with this one now) (and an extreme fear sjdjd), medical info about various injuries, escapology, poisons, the john wick verse (it’s not going to be as intense as john wick but i am thinking of setting it in an alternate reality new york where there’s a lot more government instability and free reign from the underground— not, like, a lot... but a bit), and more. i love getting deep into research and ending up with so much new knowledge and information that you don’t know if you’ll ever apply to real life (or really really hope you won’t have to 😳)

yeah so that’s been fun! i’m looking forward to getting deeper in the story!!

2. fake dating au

i’ve already talked so much, this is ridiculous. will try to be quick now!

fake dating au is my oldest wip! it’s circa december 2019 and honestly i’m annoyed with myself for letting it sit for so long. however!! i finally completed the full outline for this fic (after months of procrastination) sometime last week (i think... what is time?) and i feel really good about where the story has ended up so hopefully this will be my priority after assassin au! i don’t expect it to be longer than 35-38k so i may be able to finish and post it by the end of march (it’s currently at 5k!! deleted most of what i had before and then speed-wrote a few scenes the other day) but we’ll see!!

i mainly chose this as the next priority because it’s been too long since i’ve written abo :’( etblp was posted in november! over three months ago what the fuck!! but there’s going to be a lot of good abo stuff in this fic: touch depri, nesting, scenting, and... courting <3 it’s also been much too long since i’ve written any level of enemies to lovers hehe.

3. destruction fic!!

can’t explain how much i love this fic :’) it’s been mostly outlined since back in... september i believe? maybe even august— but i’ve been stuck at the 3k mark since october and that’s really frustrating. i realized it didn’t quite excite me as much as it used to so i decided i needed to change that in the way i know best:

add. drama.

i’m not even joking sjdjdj i came up with a plot point that’s going to add so much angst and i’m so excited about it 😭 i was talking to chelsea about it (is this my tactic to avoid spoiling her birthday fic for her because everyone knows i can’t shut up... perhaps) the other day and her encouragement and excitement also made me more excited.

this fic is a combination of a lot of things i love: superpower, supernatural elements in general, exes to lovers, hurt/comfort (so much hurt 💔 so much comfort ❤️), and other things that i will not reveal!! i sort of like being mysterious on occasion.

anyways those are the next three priorities and after that nothing is set in stone. however, i will say that mandalorian series and the (newly abo) flatshare au are looking pretty good to me rn... also, perhaps the sequel to just a flicker in the dark 👀 (i don’t think i’ve mentioned that on tumblr yet so... surprise!)

i definitely made good on that promise of rambling sjdjdj apologies in advance, ruthie, but thank you for your interest!! 💞 hope you have a wonderful day/night!

(wait omg i can’t even do “keep reading” because i’m on my phone... ripp sorry guys)

edit: back on my laptop so i added it shjsks

[brooksdavis]

author interview

tagged by: @redbelles (meg, my beloved)

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

55 on ao3 and we don’t talk about the stuff haunting me on ff.net that i refuse to take down and yet never acknowledge

2. what’s your total AO3 word count?

337, 942 jfc

3. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

a soul whose intentions are good / darklina

it’s my right to be hellish / darklina

to rise with stardust in my eyes / darklina

sweet (a little selfish) / darklina

a million people in a crowded room / darklina

they’re all in the same series, so i mean lol

4. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

comments give me the will to LIVE and to write, i eventually get to all of them but i tend to sit down and do it in bulk

5. what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

formal apologies to every fan of the caskett!college au because currently they’re on the outs and i have to fix them lol. worst part is i’ve known the ending for like half a year and still haven’t written it...my bad, besties.

6. what’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

god idk this is hard. when i get the wedding finale of the suits!au written...probably that one. special note to when you’re ready, you know where to find me because this tyrandy college au is just such a sweet work of mine, i think. best friends to lovers excellence, just like they.

7. do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

technically my tasm fics are all crossovers because i just plopped them in the mcu and said deuces. though to be fair, i wrote all of them before we got tom holland...whatever, so those. other than that, nada.

8. have you ever received hate on a fic?

creepy comments on a couple fics that i’ve deleted (why are they in the cloak & dagger fandom i’ll never know) and one really judgemental law school fact checker, like bro, i know i don’t know shit...but other than that, i’ve been pretty lucky.

9. do you write smut? if so what kind?

oh, bestie. 90% of my shit is smut, i’m sorry to say. i write all kinds, i think. referential, gentle, hard. fraught is my favorite kind tho, and i want them to all feel as hot and heavy but idk , pretty? as in my head. i am incapable of smut without emotions though i have written without plot before.

10. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

11. have you ever had a fic translated?

not to my knowledge

12. have you ever co-written a fic before?

nope! idk if i could, tbh - i’ve rped with people for years, but i see that more as original story creation with og characters than fanfic. i’m very protective about what i put out under my username.

13. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

i couldn’t have an answer here if i tried. my 2 or 3 of my top five tend to rotate, but if we’re doing ships via fanfic, peter/gwen, alina/aleksander, castle/beckett, nathan/haley, tandy/tyrone, zoe/wade.

14. what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

all too well, my tasm2 fix it fic where gwen turns into spider-woman. one of the first fics i’ve ever been proud of but i just don’t know where it was supposed to go anymore :(.

15. what are your writing strengths?

oh lord, i don’t know. i like to use big words sometimes. and i think i do a pretty bang up job at characterization because if there is one thing i cannot stand its ooc characters. pretty difficult for me because i either do entirely in canon or complete au’s, but i try my best.

16. what are your writing weaknesses?

how long a fic will be, and forcing myself from conceptualization to writing. i plot fanfic in my head through like storyboarding? with particular phrases, and it can be very difficult for me to get from scene to scene sometimes.

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

i always preface it with i can barely speak english and google translate is my best friend. especially with the russian (if you can call it that) in sab fic...i try, but like. 

18. what was the first fandom you wrote for?

technically speaking i learned how to type in 6th grade to write cardcaptor sakura fanfiction that will never ever see the light of day. published wise speaking, kickin’ it fanfiction. a disney xd show barely anyone remembers. no we will not speak of it.

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

charlie/gadi from the little drummer girl and damon/elena fron tvd. in the case of charlie/gadi, the dynamics in their show are just so nuanced and in depth i shy away from it because i wouldn’t even know where to START. also not one soul cares or wants to read but like, me. and for delena...i’ve been working my way through the tvd side of ao3 and have been shockingly disappointed with its offerings, and in that case i usually have to write what i want to see. cept i don’t know what i want to see yet. so hands kinda tied.

20. what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

right now i am so dumbly proud of the to get attention from a grown up series it’s incredible. writing for it helped me get through the depression of losing my last job. but other than that, stand out fics for me personally are:

let me breathe you in til gravity bends / cloak & dagger

something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around / one tree hill

this godforsaken mess that you’ve made me / shadow and bone

the wound’s still hot, so new, it’s still numb / hart of dixie

reset, restart, and then replay / castle

i know this guy, who knows this girl / hart of dixie

more to lose than to try and make it better / one tree hill

[be11atrixthestrange]

Not gonna lie but ever since I've read:

'Double Hazelnut Almond Milk Macchiato', I've been wanting to try it so bad but I don't have time to go to a cafe and get one. The way that Hermione was her typical know-it-all self and Ron being his laid back and never back down self made it so adorable. Hermione knew what Ron was purposely doing but she still came back for more of the Redhead ( I mean coffee ;) ). The revelation at the end was perfect. I can just imagine Ron's face and Hermione trying to bite back a smirk but failing miserably.

I loved reading that drabble it seems so real, almost as if I was magically transported to that small cafe. You have an amazing talent!!

Hope to read more of your writing, you are my favorite Romione fanfic writer. You always manage to make me laugh with your humor and surprise me time and time again with your scenery. I've read lots of your fics and I cant wait for future fics (that's whenever you want to of course).

Do you have a favorite Romione fic? Also when you write fics, does the scenes and dialogue come naturally or does it take 7-10 business days like it takes me to come up with a new paragraph for a wip? I got about three different romione fics (dabbles and one multi chapter) but its difficult to stay concentrated on one, when I just want to finish all of them.

I've been trying to write and post fics but it's hard to manage the time and hard to quit adding and re-adding different outcomes. Not sure if that happens to you but it happens to me way to much.

So, so very sorry for the long ask. Hope it's not making you uncomfortable.

Thanks again for writing fics and again I hope to read more or if one day I get over my nerves maybe you can give me advice in improving my writing? Unless your busy you can give me a recommendation on someone else, no hard feelings if your not able to.

Thanks for being you!

(P.s I love your sense of humor and the way you bring those two stubborn love birds together in different ways)

Hi. Wow. Okay. Where do I start?

You are my favorite anon ever. Like EVER. Also, little secret, I have never had a Double Hazelnut Almond Milk Macchiato before, I completely made that up, but it's totally a thing because someone told me they went and got one and it was pretty good! I'm so glad you liked that ficlet and I'm happy to tell you it's inspired a very weird and meta multi-chap that's holiday themed and tropey as fuck and I think you're gonna like it. It's called Do You Believe In Magic? and it's dropping November 2021 and I'm going to dedicate it to you.

Do I have a favorite Romione fic? UGH. I DON'T KNOW. I LOVE IT ALL. I feel like I can't name just one because I am so amazed by the romione writers and their talent. Every writer is so unique and I love reading because it's like getting a little peek into the inner workings of someone's brain. I'm sorry this is such a cop-out answer.

7-10 business days! YES. That is so accurate. You seem a lot like me, tbh. My brain is all over the place and writing fanfic is where I let my adhd go unchecked and sometimes that means I don't write for weeks and other times I churn out something magical and other times I write a heaping pile of shit. It's all part of the process. I can churn out a 5k chapter in one sitting if I'm totally lost in the story, but that's rare, and there's nothing more grueling that writing something you're not into. That reminds me of school and I hated school haha. Recently I've started a goal of writing 100 words a day, and it's been great because it's enough to know if I'm in the zone, or not feeling it. If I'm in the zone, 100 words turns into 1000, and if I'm not feeling it, there's no pressure to write more. I just want to finish my fics too, but what's the point? I'll know I'll just start another ;). Enjoy the process!

I truly hope you get over your nerves and reach out again! I'd love to help any way I can! I'm also low key DYING to know who you are (other than my new favorite person). Honestly though, my best advice right now is just to write and not worry about if it's "good" and read as much as you possibly can.

Again, you are so awesome. I love you. And no this didn't make me uncomfortable, it made me so happy.

[hyungieyoongi]

Content Tag Game

Tagged by my besties @moon-write and @dulce-pjm !! Sorry for taking so long on this I had to gear up for it lol. 

1. What fandoms have you written for (but do not currently)?

I wrote some terrible series for One Direction and The Wanted when I was a teenager. Clearly I am a boyband fan and always will be. 

2. What fandoms are you currently writing for?

BTS! I don’t see myself venturing into any other fandoms at the moment, but TXT has been creeping up on me lately, so never say never. 

3. How long have you been writing?

For as long as I can remember! I have been writing little stories and things since I was a kid. It wasn’t until I was older that I started publishing fanfic, and I came back to it this year because I needed a creative outlet outside of school. 

4. On which platforms do you post your stories?

I only post on Tumblr for now. 

5. What is your favorite genre to write?

I LOVE established relationship fluff aus. 

6. Are you a pantser or a planner?

I am 1000% a panster. I never really have WIPs because I like to write when inspo strikes to keep myself from being stressed. Writing my little Yoongi series was a huge challenge for me because I felt a lot of pressure to know what I was going to write next. I am a Type A planner in literally every other aspect of my life, so this is the one area where I just let myself be creative when I feel like it. 

7. One shot or multi-chapter?

Oneshot – seriously my masterlist is just full of stories I write in one night and then post lol. 

8. What is the perfect chapter length in your opinion?

As a reader, I like to read things that are usually 5K words or shorter. I usually write shorter works (between 1K-2K), but I have found myself getting a bit longer lately. 

9. What is your longest published story? Is it complete?

Run Away to You is seven parts and is about 14K words. It is complete! 

10. Which story did you enjoy working on the most?

That is definitely a toss up between two fics of mine: 

I really loved writing Surprise. I was scared to write Taehyung because I hadn’t before, but once I had the idea in my head, it just felt right. I’m really happy with how it came together. 

I am trash for dad!Yoongi stories, so I’ve really enjoyed writing those aus. Never Enough was the easiest story I’ve written – it was really comfortable to write and made me genuinely happy to sit down and knock out. 

11. Favorite request you've have written and why (if any?)

I have literally only ever received one request, so it is my default my favorite lol. It is a short little JK drabble called Caring, and it makes me soft every time I re-read it tbh. 

12. Are there reoccurring themes in your stories?

Oh ABSOLUTELY – domestic comfort. I love the idea of my characters just feeling soft and warm and happy. Even if my characters don’t start in an established relationship, they still end up fluffy and happy. 

13. Current number of wips?

Zero – like I said, I am a panster. 

14. Three things you have noticed about your own writing?

(1) I write things how I picture them in my head. Most of my stories start out with me imagining a scenario that I would like to be in and writing from there. 

(2) My OC usually ends up being a ~little~ too similar to me and my personality, even when I don’t mean them too oopsies. 

(3) Writing dialogue is the easiest part of the story for me. I tend to say it out loud to myself as I write it. 

15. A quote you like from a published story

I will literally never be over how soft I was writing Run Away to You Yoongi: 

“You’d think a year apart would be enough for me to fall out of love with you. I think I’d still love you even if we spent fifty years apart from each other,” Yoongi whispered, his voice thick with emotion.

16. A quote from an unpublished story

I’m sorry I don’t have any right now!!!

17. Space for you to say something to your readers

I have loved EVERY MINUTE I have spent writing and interacting with you all over the past few months. I never thought I would come so far so quickly on here, and it has been a wonderful outlet for me to be creative, vulnerable, and share my obsession of BTS with the world. I have met incredible friends that I talk to daily and have really grown as a writer. Thank you for going on this journey with me and for supporting me in ways both big and small. Love you all ❤️

NOW THAT I AM SO FREAKING SOFT, I am tagging @delacyrose224 because I always like to know what is going on in that genius writer brain of yours. 

[justlightlysedated]

For the WIP ask meme: Can I ask about all of them? It’s just I am very curious and bad at choosing between things so I can’t pick one. If that is too much then talk about the one you want to talk about most. Or any you pick at random. I am literally interested in any and all of f them. I really love your writing ❤️

thank you very much!! i enjoy writing so much, esp for malex, and i wanted to talk about all of them tbh, so here you go, some plot plus a few sneak peeks!!

1. i knew from the start, you'd be the one to set me free:

--this one a teen malex fic where jesse doesn't catch them in the toolshed, and they're just smitten as hell and alex makes plans to follow michael to unm

--this one i wanted to write because i miss teen malex and they were so cute and so in love and i just wanted more of that

--here's a small sneak peek:

“See you tomorrow?” Michael asks, and Alex nods his head rapidly.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’ll call you later?”

“Definitely,” Michael says nodding, making a note to go put minutes on his phone before he goes to see Max.

Alex smiles, and Michael smiles back at him, and Michael isn’t entirely sure how long they stand there, just staring at each other, smiling, but they don’t move until another car passes by, this one quieter, but almost as loud.

“Alright,” Alex says, and takes a step backwards, towards the path that will lead him to his front door. “Bye.”

“Bye,” Michael replies and waves his hand, and Alex lifts his own hand to wave back, and then he just shakes his head and turns around, walking rapidly.

Michael watches him as he goes, and he can’t stop himself from leaning back against his truck and smiling, especially when Alex turns back, not once, or twice, but three times.

The last one right before he rounds the corner of the house that hides him from view.

Michael looks up at the sky, his smile getting wider, and he laughs a little, shaking his head, feeling like this is the beginning of something amazing, and he’s going to do everything in his power to keep it for as long as he can.

2. #nickyandjoepiningintheforest

--this one is for my 2kcelebrationfics, just yusuf and nicolo staring at each other and thinking sappy thoughts, in the forest by a campfire, as you do

--kayla asked me for anything to do with their sun and moon imagery, and two scenes popped into my head, the first one was yusuf looking at nicolo and the moon is perfectly positioned to look like he’s wearing a halo and just feeling too much, and then nicolo staring at yusuf as the rays of the sun start to caress his skin and pining quietly

--tiny sneak peek:

Their swords he can see are on the ground right by his feet, and Nicolo is concentrating on tying the feather fletching to his arrow with a thin leather cord.

His bow and quiver are lying down right by Yusuf’s outstretched hand, close enough that he’d be able to grab an arrow easily.

But he doesn’t, Yusuf relaxes even more in Nicolo’s presence, and turns a little, pressing his back harder against the tree as he leans his head fully on his arm and just stares.

It’s not often that he gets to look his fill of Nicolo, moments like these were often stolen and brief and few and far between, so he takes what he can, watching the way the fire throws shadows across his face, how he furrows his brow and purses his mouth in concentration.

He finishes fixing the arrow and sets it aside, eyes darting up to Yusuf.

Nicolo inhales sharply, seemingly surprised to find him awake, eyes widening just slightly, but he smiles immediately after, small and private and reaches out with one hand, before he stops himself, fingers clenching into a fist as he pulls his hand back.

“Go back to sleep,” he says voice low. “You’re safe now.”

3. may nothing but death do us part

--i’ve been dying to talk about this one tbh

--i just thought, what if michael and alex decided to get married right before the end of the world, and then to be even MORE dramatic, what IF they were dating other people and just break up with them and get married that same day

--basically, there is an imminent alien invasion coming, and the world is on the verge of intergalactic war, and michael realizes that he doesn’t want to die without ever having been alex’s husband, and he decides that he’s going to marry him, he just has to break up with his girlfriend first, and propose to alex, and then convince him to break up with his boyfriend, which he should do in that order, but he doesn’t exactly

4. feeling like a villain, got a hunger inside

--vampire au where michael is a vampire

--i have no excuse, i just thought, michael is a vampire who is trying to be good, but alex manes exists

--here’s a small sneak peek of this one:

Michael had been trying to be good, trying to pretend that he was satisfied with the vile, but tolerable mixture of whiskey and bagged blood, trying to be as normal as possible when he couldn’t exactly go out into the sunlight.

But it was hard to pretend when Alex was around, giving him still and thoughtful looks, like he knew there was something off about Michael, but he couldn't figure out what.

And it was only because Alex knew and Alex was willing or had been willing, once upon a time. There was nothing better in Michael’s opinion than to drink blood from someone who knew exactly what you were, and willingly put their life in your hands.

Alex figures it out when Maria puts the thick silver mug in front of Michael, pushing it over to him with a slight frown on her face. Michael swallows hard and smiles in thanks, but she’s already walking away.

They still haven’t talked since she found out the truth, but Michael can feel that she’s sort of warming up to him.

Michael looks at his mug of unappetizing blood, and slides it closer, making a face, wrinkling his nose when he feels how cold the mug is.

Michael picks it up and inhales deeply and then drinks.

He almost gags at the feel of the blood in his mouth, too thin, but at the same time too thick, almost stale tasting, only made palatable by the bite coming from the whiskey.

The whiskey makes him feel warm and tricks his mind into thinking that he’s had fresh blood, at least usually it does.

Tonight for some reason it seems like his stomach is rebelling.

Michael sets the mug down only having gotten through half of it, and he wipes his mouth before anyone can notice anything, the blood staining the back of his hand a bit red.

He swallows thickly and looks around the room to make sure that no one had noticed anything when his eyes catch Alex’s and he goes still.

Alex is looking at him like he not only knows exactly what his problem is, but also knows exactly how to fix it.

6. #theghostofchristmaspast

--the one where michael turns thirty and his twenty year old self, and forty year old self appear during a lab accident, and the one thing they both seem to have in common is the way they stare at alex manes

--three michaels and one alex sounds like the beginning of a pwp tbh

--here’s a small sneak peek:

Michael opens his eyes and his head feels like it's about to split open.

He groans as he sits up, and only knows that he's in the lab because the chair that he tries to use to help him stand up, rolls.

He manages to get to his feet eventually, and he looks around the dark room, and he vaguely remembers the lights exploding.

He groans, rubbing a hand through his hair.

Alex was going to kill him.

"What the fuck?" He hears a familiar, and yet completely unexpected voice that has him whirling around in shock.

He sees the speaker standing on the other side of the room, and there is just enough light that he can recognize the enormous brown hoodie he barely took off during the coldest nights when he was twenty.

Michael scoffs and rolls his eyes at him, “So that definitely wasn’t a drug induced nightmare then.”

“Nope,” another voice says from behind him, and Michael doesn’t have to turn around to know that there’s going to be another version of himself standing behind him, with a fuller beard and grey streaks in his hair.

“But you may want to lay off the acetone consumption, just a little.”

7. #shadowhuntersau

--where alex is a warlock and michael is a shadowhunter, and the year is 1885

--i’m actually also planning a second part to this where michael finds himself in 2018 after a portal accident, and alex is still in love with him

--i was actually working on this one for the remix fest, but then stuff and things happened, and i put it away, and then i reread it and was like, who wrote this????

--small sneak peek:

Michael stumbles back into the night table rattling the candle holder and making the flame flicker, and sputter out, plunging the room into darkness, the only light coming through the open window not doing much to brighten up the room.

But Alex doesn’t really pay attention to that as he stares at Michael letting the glamour fall from his eyes which allows him to see much better in the dark, and he can see the way that Michael's chest expands in his surprise.

Alex's eyes shine and unearthly blue, almost white, and he takes a step closer, and isn't really surprised when Michael flinches backwards, almost climbing up on the small night table.

Alex closes his eyes, pushing down the part of himself that is slightly disappointed, and he makes to move backwards, but  before he can actually move however there are hands arresting his movements.

Alex’s eyes flutter open, and Michael is staring right at him, from too close to be considered anything short of intimate, eyes boring into Alex’s as he leans in closer.

He stops just shy of brushing Alex’s nose with his own, breaths hitching, eyes boring into Alex’s, something that seems to be childlike in wonder swirling in his eyes as he keeps looking at him.

Alex swallows hard, feeling like he’s frozen, and Michael moves his hands, fingers sliding across Alex’s cheeks, to brush lightly beneath his eyes.

Michael smiles, one corner of his mouth lifting higher than the other, and he breathes out, “Beautiful.”

8. the one where alex is a dreamer

--basically the only thing from trc that i took was the idea of dreamers

--an au where alex dreams up things that michael needs

--this one is for christi and christi only

--here’s a small sneak peek:

By the time the first semester is almost over, Michael Guerin is always lacking on school supplies. It's something that's become a constant to hear his voice hissing in the back of Calculus, asking to borrow a pencil.

Alex isn't very much surprised when he wakes up one morning and there is a shimmering pencil case sticking out from beneath his pillow.

Alex pushes it fully beneath the pillow and ignores it until he's getting his bag out of his closet to leave and debates whether or not to take it with him, but he already knows if he doesn't tomorrow night his subconscious won't be as subtle.

9. #projectfreelife

--this one is an au where alex gets hurt during his first tour, but instead of going to roswell, he’s recruited into project free life, a group whose main purpose is to integrate aliens into human society, he’s been working with them for a few years with his own team made up of, charlie, forrest, arizona, and steph, when they’re sent to roswell to deal with a black out they’re sure is alien in origin, since it’s the first time something that serious has happened since project shepherd was disbanded, their target, max evans

--small bonus: nora is most definitely integrated since caulfied was part of project shepherd and when it was disbanded it became a part of project free life, much to jesse’s chargrin

--small sneak peek:

"Okay," Charlie says, turning the laptop so that they both can look at it. "How do you want to do this?"

"Isobel is fully integrated, even married, and involved in various events in town," Alex starts. "So I think we should focus on Max and Michael."

Charlie nods her head along in agreement, so Alex continues hoping she agrees with that as well.

"You can take Michael and I'll-"

Charlie holds her hand up shaking her head, "No, I think I should take Max."

Her tone is serious, like she's thought this all out, and Alex frowns.

"Are you sure?" He asks, trying not to actually whine in protest.

She nods her head, "I know you went to highschool with them both, but I have a less conspicuous way to monitor him."

Alex raises an eyebrow in question.

"His partner," she says, voice tight with tension. "Jenna Cameron."

Alex gives her a look, "As in the sister you've been avoiding?"

Charlie just gives him a matching look back, "Yes. I think it's time for a little reunion, for both of us."

She presses a button, and the screen flashes to a picture that Alex has no idea how they got, of him and Michael, both holding guitars in their hands, Michael staring at Alex with a besotted expression.

"Fine," Alex says, pushing away from the bed. "We start first thing in the morning."

"Is he the reason why you haven't come back home?" Charlie asks, voice burning with curiosity, ignoring his obvious dismissal.

Alex just ignores her as he heads into the bathroom.

10. part one: the calm before the storm

--okay, i haven’t written anything but a few plot points for this one, but it’s an au where liz, kyle and alex all work for jesse (he blackmails liz by paying for her education after her scholarship falls through) as monitors integrated in the life of three suspected aliens, meaning that alex and michael are together, but they’re not living together, max and liz do live together and are engaged, and kyle and isobel are married

--think of an orphan black like situation, but with aliens instead of clones

11. #kinginwaitingmichael

--where michael is the king in waiting, but goes into a witness protection program after an assassination attempt, and he ends up falling in love with alex, who doesn’t realize that he is the king to be, until he foils another assassination attempt

--small sneak peek:

Isobel knows that they’re in trouble the first time that she sees Michael smiling at Alex.

Ever since they'd turn twelve and started their lessons on etiquette and how to act in public and with their subjects in a way that doesn't show preferences, Michael's smiles, while not unkind or fake, have always been brief or heavily sarcastic.

Michael smiles at Alex with his whole body, swaying towards him like he can't help himself, lips stretched too wide, showing all of his teeth, eyes sparkling and light..

And the most terrifying part for Isobel is that Alex doesn't act surprised or like the smile is something new.

He just blushes, a pink flush that works its way across his cheeks and down to his neck, and he smiles back at Michael, something sweet and vibrant, and places his hand over Michael's resting across the back of the booth they're sharing.

They keep talking, but mostly just stare at each other, almost like they're caught in their own little bubble, not paying attention to their surroundings or even the fact that they aren't alone.

Isobel tries to catch Michael's attention, but fails, so she reaches out with one hand, and tips over the half empty milkshake they'd been sharing.

The liquid spreads across the table and drips down the edge, landing on Alex's lap.

Alex jumps, and turns to look at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry," Isobel says without much sincerity, munching on the fry that she'd stolen from Michael's plate.

Alex just rolls his eyes and leans in to press a kiss to Michael's cheek.

Michael, who had been glaring at Isobel, turns a totally besotted look to Alex, all big lovesick eyes and wide grin.

"Be right back," Alex says as he slips out of the bench and away from Michael's grabby hands.

Isobel waits exactly five seconds, staring at Michael watching Alex walk away, and then she kicks him hard in the shin.

12. runaway until the last time, we're gonna lose forever

--well everyone knows this one is my sort of doctor who au that i’m writing for tove

--i just love space and time travel and malex, and just put all of that into a blender and this is what came out

--here’s a small sneak peek:

Maria takes a second to calculate in all of the ways that this Alex looks different than the one she had last seen on a cruise spaceship, and she sways, feeling lightheaded.

Alex steps forward immediately, and helps her sit back down.

“Hey, are you okay?” he starts asking. “What happened? Are you here by yourself-?”

He stops speaking as the ship’s alarm sounds, the soft purple light filling the room again.

“Emergency Protocol One, Revision Eighteen has been activated.”

Maria sees how the words affect Alex. His concerned and open expression closing down immediately, as he turns towards the console, pressing a few buttons and turning the alarm off, before he pulls up the ships video log, which Maria didn’t know existed, and she sees in reverse everything that happened.

Alex freezes the frame on Michael’s face right before he’s teleported away.

He frowns a little, and turns to Maria, “How long has it been for you? Since the Atlantis Cruise, I mean.”

Maria can see that he means the time that she’s marked in her calendar, which surprises her enough that she actually answers.

“Almost five months.”

Alex nods his head once, and then he turns back towards the console.

“Okay,” he says. “So I can trace back the signal that they used to get him, which could always lead to a dead end, but it’s early enough that they wouldn’t have moved him far. If these people are smart, they would create some type of temporal rift so that the COSMIC won’t be able to actually land at the same time that they took him. And if they know anything about him, about me, well, I’m sure they’re prepared to face an army. You know what that means?”

He says, turning to Maria who has been staring at him unblinkingly the entire time that he spoke.

“That it’s time that you meet your replacements,” he’s grinning as he says it, which takes the sting out of the words, and there is something about his eyes, that Maria can’t quite put her finger on. Something about the way that he looks at her, like to him she’s been gone for a really long time, something fond and nostalgic.

Which is kind of scary given the fact that he doesn’t look any older than thirty-five.

“You mean, the other traveling assistants?”

Alex's smile turns soft and fond, “Exactly.”

13. of guitars and hauntings

--this one is an au where michael moves into the old manes manor, that is ridiculously cheap because of rumors that it’s haunted, which turn out to be true when he gets woken up during the middle of the night by the sounds of a guitar being played in the attic, and that’s how he meets alex, who turns out to be perfect for him in every single way, except for the fact that he’s been dead for over fifty years

14. late dawns and early sunsets

--a zombie apocalypse au set to the song, early sunsets over monroeville by mcr, so v v angsty, without a happy ending, but that is par the course for zombie aus tbh

[stevethehairington]

Tagged by: the lovely @scimitar-and-longsword  💕💕

Name(s): my name is Mack, and if this also includes like usernames too then my ao3 is macksdramaticshenanigans and obviously yall can see my tumblr url lol. i have a fandom twitter but i hate twitter so i barely go on it lmao.

Fandom(s): oh boy haha this is a loooong list. as of right now, the main fandoms i’m involved in are The Old Guard and Trust FX, but in the past i’ve written for Skam, Marvel, Good Omens, Love Simon/Simon vs., Shameless, and IT. and ofc there are some fandoms i have not written for that i casually enjoy as well.

Where you post: all my fics are posted on ao3! or are sitting in my wips folder lol. i’ve ocsasionally posted some snippets of writing here to tumblr, but none of those are like full on, proper fics, mostly just me rambling off some thoughts i had about whatever characters in whatever scenarios

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos): Imagine Being Loved By Me (918 kudos) ((so close to 1k holy shit!!!! if it got to 1k i think i’d actually die of happiness omg)) this is my Good Omens smut fic lmfao, crowley is fantasizing and aziraphale makes it a reality skgjsd. i’m actually pretty damn pleased with how this one turned out, and i never expected it to get that many kudos so that makes me ridiculously happy sfjgfg. (and also podfixx made a podfic of this fic which made me INSANELY happy like that is the coolest thing ever)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos): I Have Hella Feelings For You (697 kudos) ahhh this one!! this one is actually my very first ever chaptered fic!! it’s a skam fic, and i have the most distinctive memory of me sititng in my dorm bed freshman year of college, furiously typing away at my laptop everyday for a week because i somehow managed to post a chapter every day until it was finished, which meant i was writing a new chapter everyday. like damn, i really peaked with that huh? lmao

Favorite story you’ve written so far: ahh okay not to like. toot my own horn kgfldg but this question is HARD bc i have a lot of favorites. i’m going to pick a favorite from each of my main fandoms i’ve written for because i’m an Indecisive Hoe okay fdjdf.

- From Marvel: Just Called To Say I Love You this one is my wrong number stucky fic and i actually adore this one so much, and also it actually ended up being WAY more popular than i expected it to? like i was lowkey shook by how many people liked it 

- From Skam: If You Love Me, If You Hate Me so. about this one. it’s probably my favorite skam fic that i’ve written. but. it also is the utter bane of my existence bc this is the one and only fic i have ever written and posted that i haven’t fnished gskgjfdlfs. it’s going on soon to be a little over 2 years of sitting on my account as an unfinished wip, but i REFUSE to mark it as abandoned bc i really genuienly DO want to finish it, i just havent written for this fandom in a while and inspiration/motivation is tricky yknow? but anyways. this fic is my soccer au!! it was a gift for a secret santa exchange i believe to a dear friend of mine and i still feel awful that i never finished it but. one day!!

- From Love Simon/Simon vs.: Where I Like You Best i am actually obsessed with this one. is that weird to say about your own fic? i enjoy reading a good soulmate au, but writing them has always been SO daunting to me bc i never feel like my ideas are original enough or like things that havent been done a lot for that trope. but for this one!!! omg i found the BEST prompt for it and it fit these characters SO well and i wrote it and i ended up absolutely loving how it turned out, and i was so proud of myself for writing a pretty successful soulmate au.

- From Shameless: Wooden Floors, Walls, and Window Sills so this one was my second ever gallavich fic, and it’s probably my favorite because i think it’s the best characterization i got of them in all of my fics, and good characterization is one of the most important things to me when i write fic. 

- From IT: To What We Might Do is my favorite reddie fic i’ve written! i definitely projected onto richie a teeny tiny bit in it for some parts lmfao, but yeah idk i just love how this one turned out a whole lot, and i enjoyed how i ended it too (esp since endings can be very difficult for me lol). ((BUT also a special shoutout to my fic Imagine Me and You, I Do bc that one is just pure fluff and i adore the concept of someone being just so absolutely in love with someone doing something so incredibly simple and it just rocks their world)

- From Good Omens: I Want To Know What Love Is (did i use the most cheesy title ever? absolutely. do i love it? absolutely.) anyways this fic is one where crowley the demon experiences love and promptly thinks he’s dying. 

Fic you were nervous to post: ooh, i mean i’m always pretty anxious about any fic i post because i never know if it’s going to be recepted well or if people are going to like it or hate it or if anyone is even going to read it or repsond to it. especially if the fic is a gift for someone, because i just really want that person to like it yknow? but yeah idk if theres one in particular i was more nervous to post than any others... i guess maybe any smut fic? just bc i never know if the smut is even any good lol

How do you choose your titles?: eaaaaasy, i usually pick song lyrics lol, ocassionally i’ve used lines from a poem, and a few times i’ve gone with a pun, but mostly it’s song lyrics. i usually find a song with lyrics that i think will fit, or if there’s a particular song that vibes well with the fic or that i listened to repeatedly while writing the fic i’ll try to pick the best lyric from that one.

Do you outline?: yes and no lol. it honestly depends. sometimes i outline extensively, but other times i just sit in front of a doc and let whatever happens happen.

Complete: on my ao3 account i have 80 works completed (will be 81 once i finally finish that one single unfinished wip i have posted gahhh). but i know in my wips folder i have a at least one finished fic that i have not and probably will not post. there are also some other things in my wips folder that like technically could be conisdered finished too, but it’s not up to my posting standards so until i fix it so it is it’ll just sit there lol.

In-Progress: honestly there are too many to count lol. i have a shiiiiiit ton of wips (as yall will know if you saw that one ‘tell us about ALL your wips’ tag game post that was going around that i did lol). 

Coming soon/not yet started: tbh see above answer bc it’s pretty much the same lol. 

Prompts?: so the thing about prompts is that i would LOVE to take them, but it’s very very tricky bc i’m a super specific kind of gal and if i don’t vibe with the prompt it’s very difficult for me to write anything for it. but then there’s also the fact that inspiration/motivation are fickle bitches and they come and go as they please and so taking prompts is hard bc i never know if the stars will align and all that jazz for me to be in the ~ right mood ~ to work on a prompt. this is the exact reason why i have SO MANY sitting in my inbox right now, and i feel so bad for just letting them sit there but ughhh brain function?? how?? lol

Upcoming work you’re most excited about: sooooo i don’t necessarily have any specific works in progress right now (i’ve been so busy lately that writing has been the last thing on my mind and so i haven’t touched anything in weeks) but. i guess if i can ever get my shit together and finish the primo fic i’m close to finishing i’m pretty excited to post that! or honestly if i can actually get myself to finish any of the tog wips i have i’d be suuuper excited to post any of those bc i have not yet posted any tog fics!!

anways!! if you made it to this point thanks for sticking w me and reading through my long winded rambly answers lmao

Tagging: @peachykoya @wandering-scholar-lad @raynertodd @cluelessheroes @pinesboi @thewolvesrunwild @1derspark 

[nlights37]

12, 18 and 20 please!

@aenarsnow gets FIRSTIES which means I answer with extra love, of course:)

Let’s GET IT

12.  How do you deal with self-doubts?

Well, I get ‘em a lot, just like everyone else, your standard, run-of-the-mill ‘”This is shit, why am I wasting my time on this, it’s crap, I’ve used the same adjective like 15 times now and also how many ways can I actually describe eyes I should be doing productive things instead of writing fanfic people are gonna hate it anyway, half the people that used to read my shit ghost me at this point ughhhhh this fandom suuuuuucccckkkkkkssss and so do I!!!”

Inevitably, at that point, I email whatever I’m working on to @noordinarylines, who has explicitly good taste, and who I KNOW will be honest with me if she doesn’t like something or doesn’t quite thinking something is working.

Then she reads it an emails me back and tells me I killed her in a good way and how dare I leave her hanging there, where is the rest, hurry the fuck up because it’s crazy mean to cliffhang her like that.

That usually gets my head right.  :)  There are a handful of people that I interact with that are some real, genuine, ride or die people (mostly because I am horrible at things like chatting regularly, etc - like I will genuinely completely fuck up my IRL day if I allow myself to get sucked into things like chats because I get tunnel vision and forget everything else, my full blown inattentive-type adult ADD in full effect).  But there are some real ones out here, and they know who they are, and if I think an idea is maybe worth a shot but I wanna bounce it off someone, or I want another set of eyes on something because I’ve stared at it so long I genuinely cannot tell if it’s any good, I reach out to them, and they set me straight.

Once I post something, tbh, I just let it ride, because it’s out there, and the people whose opinion I care about the most have already told me what they think, so I’m pretty satisfied with that.  If other people don’t like it they can suck my ass at that point, because I ain’t changing SHIT hahahahaha.

18.   What’s your revision or rewriting process like?

Well, here’s the thing about me.  I write it as it comes, and a lot of time I can feel when I’m writing it if it just isn’t fucking working.  I will backtrack then and there and start over.  For me, if I’m in the groove and it’s really rocking along I go with it.  There’s a flow to it, and then suddenly it’s been 5 hours and you’re like ‘IT’S GOLD, JERRY!  GOLD!”

If it’s like pulling teeth to write it I stop and come back to it later.  With a husband, three kids, ‘virtual learning’ and quarantine, my time to write is limited, so I try to make the most of it.  I run scenes for fics in my head a LOT, while I’m in the shower, or doing dishes, or folding clothes, so that by the time I get a chance to write I’ve made my mind up on exactly how it will go and I don’t have to sit there and look at a blinking cursor.

I don’t typically use a beta, not because I don’t think I need one (my frantic spotting of every damn mistake I made AFTER I post can attest to that) but more because once I’m done with something, I’m done, and I wanna post it.  I just get too excited to wait, you know, like a damn puppy who pees in excitement when someone knocks at the door.  I just wanna SHARE IT!

So, the tldr:  I do a lot of revision in my head before I sit down to write.  I don’t usually rewrite because the minute something stops flowing I scrap it :)

20.  Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.

Here’s a sneak peek of what @noordinarylines and I have been cooking up for the second story in the Remember the Time universe:

There was something soothing, Daenerys had found, about the line where the sea met the sky, the view afforded from her council chamber one that seemed the best suited for calming her ever-frazzled nerves.

It had been five days since she had taken her tumble on the far end of the island, five days full of the most piercing grief she’d ever experienced, which was truly remarkable.  Her losses, ‘til now, had been great and agonizing, but she could not shake the forlorn mood that had fallen over her since she’d found herself ripped away from what she was now classifying as a sweet, indulgent fantasy, borne of the trauma of her injury, nothing more.

And yet…

Tucked up the sleeve of her coat, always with her, was a rolled scrap of parchment, upon which she’d documented every single aspect of that lovely hallucination that she could remember.  She knew she ought to squirrel it away somewhere safer, hide it from view, leave it behind so she might stop dwelling on these imaginary losses, but she could not.

It had become a talisman, of sorts, something that gave her comfort, just the scrape of it against her skin when she moved her arm as she walked.

She would be mortified, of course, if it were discovered.  She was half-terrified it would slip free, and be found by another, her deepest longings read aloud.  But for now, it eased the walk from her chambers to whatever task lay ahead, and so she kept it.  “Your Grace?”

Daenerys turned from the wide, carved windows in her council chamber, to find Tyrion lingering, watching her with marked curiosity.

Quirking a brow, she did not answer, merely waited.  Her Hand came closer, his fingers trailing down the Riverlands on the painted table as he approached.  “Are you certain you are well?”

“I’m faring well, Tyrion.”  She managed a tight smile, coming to stand at the head of the table, her eyes travelling over the surface rather than meeting the scrutiny in his.  “A few lingering headaches, that’s all.”

“Hmmm.”  Tyrion took another drink, then plucked a carved piece from the table, turning it over in his hands.  When she peeked up, however, he was still staring at her.  “As you say.  Perhaps there is something else that troubles you?”

Dany smoothed her suddenly damp palms down the front of her coat, and kissed her teeth.  “I think we shall all rest easier once we receive word from Casterly Rock, that your plan has succeeded.”  It was enough to shift his focus, and there was a measure of truth in it; Missandei had been beside herself with worry over Grey Worm, and she reminded herself to ask her dear friend just what, precisely, had occurred between them.

Tyrion affected a confident air, and tucked away his wineskin, clasping his hands behind his pace and beginning to pace.  “Yes, a victory is just what we need right now.  And I have every confidence that we will prevail.”  He kept moving, rounding the table, stopping by the depiction of the Northern Kingdom and plucking the wolf from the surface.  His eyes met hers, and she froze.  “How are things with our openly-rebellious friend?  Have relations,” he paused, smirking, “thawed, perhaps, now that you have given him access to the mines?”

She wondered, at the keen tone of his voice, what it was he was truly asking beneath the rather mundane question.  In truth, she had been avoiding Jon Snow, these past few days, at least as much as she could.  The daytime hours were no issue; he was busy down in the mines, and she had seen several carts of the dragonglass he’d been so desperate for, so it seemed his search had been successful.

It was harder once the sun had departed, for they had taken to dining in the main hall, all of Dragonstone’s occupants, and though she tried desperately not to look at him, there were several times at every meal that she couldn’t quite resist.  One night, in particular, he’d been seated beside her, had asked in his low, rumbling voice if her wound pained her, had inquired with a gentleness that had broken her heart anew.

When she’d told him she was well, and not to worry, that she had survived far worse, he had frowned fiercely, as though such a notion troubled him greatly, and it had taken all her strength not to kiss him then and there.

She had resisted the urge, and made cordial, cool conversation with him as necessary, but by the time she’d returned to her chambers she had thrown herself onto her bed and wept.  She was tired of this, tired of weeping, of missing a life that hadn’t even existed, had not been hers to begin with.

Thank you for the ask, good sir!!!

[risthebrave]

⭐star⭐

okay bear with me because i’m typing this on my phone and that is an instant recipe for a mess 🥴

i’m typically super indecisive but there’s one fic i’ve been dying to talk about for months and it finally came out this week but i still want to talk about it—

so spoilers for feeling borrowed, always blue below

writing this fic was a roller coaster of emotions, much like the story itself. i don’t think i’ve ever cried this much writing anything— so yeah it is validating and reassuring when people tell me they cried too shsjks 

i also wrote it over the course of three months: july - october, which is the longest i’ve worked on a project since my first fic which was an ongoing wip which i wrote/posted over six months. and then after those three months, i had another almost three months to let it sit and even get the chance to self-edit it which i’ve never done before sghjkss. i think this was definitely a big project and having that extra time to tackle it really helped. 

the biggest struggle i faced was figuring out how to resolve everything - as you know if you’ve read it, louis was stuck in a seemingly impossible situation and for the longest time, i wasn’t quite sure how i was going to get him out of it. in the end, it was really rather simple. i remember talking to my dear friend who also beta-read this for me, chelsea, about how i was getting closer to the climax and still didn’t know what to do and we were talking about contracts and movies we’d seen with similar elements and i was thinking about how my original plan: dean cheating, isn’t necessarily enough for them to dissolve the entire contract... but then i got to thinking about what was most important to the cartiers. what made them put on this whole charade in the first place, and that’s, of course: reputation. after that, everything sort of fell into place. i kept thinking: what if there was something more hazardous to their reputation about louis marrying dean? what if louis and dean threatened to become public image nightmares? what if, what if, what if - 

writing that scene when louis went to dean’s was arguably the hardest scene to write from the entire fic but i literally could not stop writing it. i started in the evening and literally had to drag myself away from the laptop to eat dinner because i didn’t want to break the trance i had fallen into trying to figure out the best way to have the scene unfold. i was also conflicted on whether or not to show the scene where they went to the cartiers but in the end i chose to gloss over it because it’d just be a lot of reiterating or what louis already told dean and it was completely unnecessary. i also decided to add that small bit about louis talking about how he went into design and later used it as a distraction/clutch after harry broke up with him because having those two explosive scenes back to back was just *too* intense and i needed to diffuse some of the tension. i’m pretty satisfied with how the whole sequence played out, legal inaccuracies beside. 

other than that scene, this fic has two of my top five (and tbh, three) favorite scenes i’ve ever written: the scene where harry comes to louis’ flat confess and then the scene where louis goes to harry’s flat to break the news. writing both of those scenes involved a whole lot of tears and breaks in which i frantically paced my room and tried to get ahold of myself :’( but i’m so proud of how both of them turned out :’) evoking emotion in the reader was definitely the biggest goal for this fic and i really do think i accomplished it. 

also a note on the smut scene: pretty sure this is also the first time since my first fic that i didn’t have to tag “d/s undertones,” or something akin to it because this was genuinely the most romantic/sappiest smut i’ve ever written and yes i cried my way through writing it. there was really no other choice - both louis and harry were so relieved and happy to be where they were at that point and there was nothing else they could do but make sweet love. there was plenty of flowery paragraphs and metaphors and winded prose to help meet the atmosphere i was going for and i had a list of three words i wanted to exhibit which were: awe, bliss, and joy. i think that succeeded too :’) 

as for implementing those VOWS: aka the sappiest part!! i was just thinking about how harry knows how much louis wants to get married and have his dream wedding and how this whole fiasco completely turned the whole concept around - he wanted louis to know that the disaster wasn’t the real deal. that one day he really would get married to someone he loves and have the wedding of his dreams and that hopefully he’d be that someone. it was a promise, i suppose. 

okay epilogue time! there was really only one choice for the epilogue in my mind and that was obviously louis’ actual wedding to harry :’) i wanted to show that he truly did get what he wanted in the end and everything he deserved and obviously i had to introduce nora too! i wasn’t sure how much of the wedding i’d show but then i realized when i got to louis peeking out to where harry was standing at the altar that the best decision was not showing the actual ceremony. the whole concept of a “wedding” was the biggest theme of the story - the crux, if you will - and the whole story was about fighting for love and being strong and getting to that damn wedding (the real one, not the fake one <3) and in the end, the physical wedding itself didn’t matter because louis had reached the metaphorical wedding -- does that even make sense? anyways, the only way to end the fic for me was with that last line of him stepping into the first act. that whole running analogy of him acting in play was a big theme throughout the fic (especially in the second chapter) so it seemed fitting to bring it back one last time. 

and as harry from there’s nothing like it (nothing at all) would say: the end is just the beginning. louis’ story is far from over; he stepped into the first act of the next chapter/play/whatever of his life when he walked down that aisle and i was very proud <3

and now, here’s a few of my personal favorite lines because yes i have favorite lines from every fic and i never get to talk about them:

In a month he’ll be married, yet he’s still sleeping alone.

-

Harry’s eyes close and he exhales, head tipped back as if he’s been listening to the most beautiful symphony. “Say it again,” he says roughly. 

-

“I’m always a fool when it comes to you.” 

-

“You are my entire heart, Louis.”

-

The love singing through Louis’ body right now is the kind of feeling they write ballads about - the kind of feeling people would kill or die just to experience even once. He can feel it vibrating in every single cell, bleeding from his heart into his arteries and veins and overtaking his mind and soul. 

-

A garden filled with flowers, yes, but also filled with the most important people in both of their lives: a garden of love.*

-

Steady as flowers, steady as lavender, steady as a Tomlinson - or, a Tomlinson-Styles, he supposes. 

-

Louis steps forward and into the first act. 

* just want to quickly say that family was another big theme of this fic and not just family by definition but family as in those who care about you and love you unconditionally. family as in his friends, as in the baby in his stomach, as in Harry. family is what makes it all worth it in the end :’)

OKAY i’m definitely forgetting some but those are just some bits that make me feel happy even though i’m the one who wrote them. 

this is already rambling on so long but it was so much fun to do so thank you for whoever submitted! 

[cadantine]

i saw this on twitter and wanted to do it even though i don’t show anyone anything i write anymore

1. fav kind of fic to write: hurt/comfort sibling gen or queerplatonic friendship

2. hardest fic to write: i’ve spent the last 3? months trying to nail down a scene about navigating unrequited romantic feelings in a queerplatonic friendship and balancing fear of romance/hurting someone who loves you that you can’t love back in the same way while also desiring closeness that goes beyond traditional friendship and fear of abandonment/growing resentful despite how overwhelmingly positive a friendship has been in the past. it’s hard because i don’t know how to articulate it myself, so it’s gonna be a rough process. but i think i’m finally getting somewhere

3. easiest fic to write: when my pov character has motivation for a goal. that is. genuinely the best tbh

4. fav story i’ve written: uhhh i didn’t work on it this year but 60k legalpunk wip is still. really really good even in horrible first draft format. this year? prob the like 800 words in zeroworld au where the blue butcher is introduced. because that was all i wanted out of it, i realized after i wrote 8k leading up to it

5. do you write chronologically or jump around: usually chrono because the story grows as i go but i should try jumping round more if only to get down dialogue

6. have you deleted a published fic: sure tons of homestuck stuff. i should prob remove more but i sort of just. don’t actually remember most of what i wrote

7. best writing advice i’ve received: write. do it.

8. worst advice: i don’t really remember at this point. i’ve gone through a lot of phases over the years

9. have i collaborated: i did once but nothing came of it

10. how many wips i have currently: uhhhh i guess 2? legalpunk and the thing i’m writing now. well i’m actually about to start a new one but that shouldn’t take long

11. story i’m most proud of: legalpunk is just really good. it’s everything i’ve ever wanted to write and i’m glad i picked it up again. i will get back to it eventually. i was real close a few times this year but i don’t mind letting it sit a bit longer

12. fav story of another writer: oh idk man i don’t read a lot of fic and i very rarely reread

13. best review i’ve gotten: like comment? it’s been years since i shared anything man

14. worst review: i was young and they were right

15. sequel/prequel to someone else’s fic: i don’t read a lot of fic. i think the closest i can come to is the 7k of abandoned tpp napoleon fic i wrote based on oldenne’s half A press abe fic where alice contacts him across QPUs which. was mostly just that i loved that concept and also alice

16. do i reread my own fic: that’s literally why i write it. i will forget everything unless i write it down. it’s me desperately trying to give my life the feeling of continuity in the wake of memory loss

17. do i want to be published: eh i don’t really care. my grandest wish is to finish something large and then bind a hard copy for myself

18. fav char to write: gonna be honest, the aro one. if i’m writing a lot of a char i’m probably reading them as aro

19. least fav char to write: uhhhh i don’t really write chars i don’t like? i don’t have to. but every time i see this question i think of that vriska fic that was like pulling teeth but is still to this day very well received. sometimes when it’s really hard it just means it’s a complicated subject

20. do i set deadlines/goals: not really, i do tend to use tpp runs as artificial deadlines just as soft motivation but also to enforce breaks to let my mind rest

21. 3 fav fic writers: i genuinely do not read a lot of fic unless i’m procrastinating

22. a trope i want to try: idk i’m pretty comfy. i was working on a hanahaki earlier but got kinda squicked because i was leaning too hard into human lung parasites to compensate for the aro romance panic. i might go back to it after i can articulate things better. also i learned about some copepods that infest lizard lungs so that’s exciting

23. a trope i’ll never write: a lot of common fic tropes are kinda alienating to the aro experience so. several. not that i hate them i just don’t find them interesting in the slightest

24. how long have i been writing: idk man i barely remember how old i am at this point. just memory loss things

25. some influences on my writing: i need to read more books. i just read a lot of biology articles these days. but music is a big thing

26. hardest part of writing: writing

27. easiest part: rereading the good bits

28. best part: reading it a year later when i’ve forgotten everything about it and it’s brand new. also, the 50k build up finally leading to my two big reveals in legalpunk was an incredible feeling

29. plot of a wip: legalpunk is i guess three people in limbo cut every corner to win a legal case that will reclaim them their lives and spark revolution. also pov char painfully accepts that people care about him despite everything

30. something unique i bring: the aro experience babey. gen for the gen god

[graffitibible]

Do you have any advice for writing or creating regularly? That’s hard for me and I’d like to get better at it.

it boils down to what works best for you personally tbh. i’ve got a system to write semi-regularly (or i did......restricted movement hours have kinda forced me to restructure that lol) and it works for me but that’s just how my brainyot works. i’m a routine-based creature so working writing into my routine was how i got myself to write semi-regularly. 

ive also had significant Brain Junk for most of my life and was gradually able to navigate how best to create in spite of that but im also like, medicated for it and the like so self-care was a factor. i couldnt create shit while i was too busy lying in a pool of my own filth having fits of paranoia about the nature of reality so i was hardly about to make myself try and create stuff when that wasnt even on my radar. 

i can share some of the things i do to keep myself writing though! like again this isn’t something that’s for sure gonna work for everybody cause everybodys wired differently but i hope some of it helps!

1. daily wordcount - i’ve mentioned this before but i have a daily wordcount that i do for my original fiction. i don’t apply the same standard to fic-writing because that risks making it an arbitrary barrier that puts too many numbers on my internal list. that being said, it’s very small. i make myself do 200 words per day. if that gets me going and writing more than that, awesome. if not, i still got a little bit done. 200 words is small, and it’s not overwhelming to catch up on if i miss a day. no matter how shitty im feeling i try to get in 200 words.

2. routine - since i’m a routine-based person by nature i basically found ways to finagle creative processes into all that. it’s not hard and fast because that kind of rigid structure makes me balk and i’m not that disciplined lol, but it’s usually something like “i have an hour-long lunch break at work and literally nothing else to do during it so i’ll write in that time period” or “i have thirty minutes of sitting by the stove making dinner so i’ll write until it’s ready”

3. momentum - or what my housemate fondly calls “The Juice.” if i have The Juice of inspiration i keep that going for as long as i can. if something’s not working for me i don’t scrap it or toss it right away. if i’m having trouble with a scene i make a note to myself and move on to a different one. example of this from my latest wip, which is part iv of mayhem

i hadnt worked out what was gonna go there and nothing was coming to me easy in the moment so i stuck the note there and kept going. my works are full of this shit. if i can’t think of a name or if there’s a statistic or a character i haven’t worked out yet i don’t wanna break my focus and momentum so i slap a note in the first draft and keep going. at a first draft stage the important thing is getting the words Out so it doesnt matter if theyre perfect. ill go back and fix them later, revise all i need to. first drafts dont need to be good, they just need to be there so i can spruce them up later.

on the flip side do not be like me and commit to this momentum so bad that you forget that you are a human being who needs to eat and consume liquids. i do that sometimes because of who i am as a person and it is a serious flaw of mine, do not be like this. sometimes getting some food in you is what you need to get The Juice flowing again and that sounds kinda gross and i am sorry

4. planning and hangups - this ones dependent on how you create. i forget where this analogy came from, but i’ve heard it said that some writers are architects who need a blueprint of where they’re going before they end up there and some writers are gardeners, who don’t need a set plan so much as they need to keep going. i’m definitely an architect - a lot of my works start out as bulletpoints of what scenes i wanna cover, what topics i wanna explore, etc. - though i have on occasion simply Written without any set destination, usually to force myself out of a creative slump. me being a big planner used to be one of the biggest barriers for me creatively because i’d spend hours agonizing over minute universe details and never start the dang story. this still happens from time to time. like heres what my organizational folder looks like wrt “pray for disaster”

that is not even all the files in there. why do i have two dictionaries. jesus. like i make these giant ass fuckin....tomes of stuff i like to keep track of, which i like to call “bibles” lol. except i could tell that getting too organized was gonna be an uphill battle with very little payoff so by the end i just made a “MISCELLANEOUS BULLSHIT” doc and for now i throw everything in there if it doesn’t fit into something like a dictionary or timeline

shit like this is why i like to just sit down and write without a clear destination in mind if i’m having writer’s block. that’s one of those things that goes hand in hand with the way i take advantage of my own momentum - if i reach a certain point where i’m just picking at details and not doing any writing i just go “ok motherfucker sit down and write shit. we will work out the details later.”

5. motivation - the ways i tend to motivate myself are weird so idk how true this is for anybody else but i’ve been writing for a pretty large part of my life. i went to college for english/creative writing and got a whole dang degree cause i still wanna make this my vocation somehow. one thing i cannot ever turn off is the writer part of my brain that’s going “oooh huh that’s not how i would’ve written that” in literally every piece of art i consume - tv, movies, books, songs, etc. sometimes that’s enough to inspire me into doing something on my own time. most of the time though if i’m feeling stumped i tend to crack open some of my personal favorite works, like books or fics that have really resonated with me, to fall in love with the art all over again. seeing the way different authors and artists do their craft helps me get in the zone of wanting to write more cause i get this nice feeling of “damn, these people really did those things with those words.....that’s fuckin amazing.....i wanna do that.” 

you do risk falling into the trap of “ugh i can’t write like them though” but that’s the beauty of writing. nobody can write the way anybody else does. ofc i can’t write like terry pratchett, only terry pratchett can write like terry pratchett, and if i compare myself to terry pratchett i’m only gonna get sad and mopey. but i can write in a way thats totally unique to me so i should not try to write like terry pratchett because that’s just impeding my own creative energy in the interest of trying to cookie-cut myself into someone else’s zone. only terry pratchett can write like terry pratchett but only i can write like zero graffitibible.

i hope that was helpful? like this is all stuff that works for me so no guarantee it’ll work for everyone else.

oh right and idk how many of yall are minors because let it be known that i do not condone underage drinking; i am an adult who occasionally will get crunk because i like to write drunk and edit sober. if you too are an adult who can legally consume alcohol feel free to write while buzzed because that is a nice way to write with zero fuckin inhibitions. i dont get blackout drunk or nothing just a little buzzed and sometimes what i write makes no sense but i am at times at my most productive at 2am while mildly buzzed. its a thing.

like again i’m not really an authority on this by any means - this is just what works for me. but if it works for you too, great!! find your zone and all that

[accioscorp]

writer tag game

Thank you for the tag @xpectopatronerd

(Apologies for how long this got !!! I’m on the app and can’t add a “keep reading”)

write late at night or early in the morning

I usually prefer to write in the morning/late afternoon as I get tried sooo early but there has definitely been times where I’ve stayed up until 3am to write (literally happened the other night) but yeah I’d say early in the morning !

Prefer dialogue or description

100% description !!!! It’s truly my favorite write and I just love being able to hopefully give the read a vivid and clear image of what I’m attempting to describe. I also love writing fics that are solely description with zero dialogue, they have ended up being some of my favourite pieces I’ve written !! I’m not a fan of writing dialogue and it’s something I struggle a lot with to make it flow properly and not feel forced ...

Drink caffeine or I’ll stick to water

I do love myself an iced coffee buuuut usually I just drink water !!

Loves prompts or prefers to choose yourself

I don’t think I can decide here !! I do love that feeling of coming up with my own idea and jotting down plot points and all that buuuut there is nothing better than seeing an prompt and being able to develop your own story around that !! I do love both and my works are definitely a mixture of original ideas and prompt I’ve seen but changed up a little !!

Stickler for canon or preference for au

I do love a good canon fic but au’s are ones I truly love to read !!!! I loooove reading (and writing) a good muggle au and getting to explore what these characters may be like if they lived in the muggle world but there’s something about canon that I love to and seeing how other writers interpret that !! Also I’m a huge a huge sucker for a sports au soooo

One-shots or multi chapters

I’m definitely a one-shots type of person when it comes to reading and writing. I have very little patience so it’s always been hard for me to either have the patience to read or write a multi chapter or to find the time to read an entire multi !! I have to say though some of my favourite fics have been multis !! I just love being able to read a story that is fully thought out but it may only be like 3000 words, there’s just something I love about all that. With myself, I only have one multi and the rest are all one-shots. Even though writing my multi has been such a great experience, there’s nothing like sitting down and bashing out a new oneshot in one sitting !!

Won’t take on more than one project at once or constantly juggling several

Well when I started and for a long time after, I would always just focus on one and when that was finished I’d move on ..... but now ... I have so many random wips that either will be sitting there for months or I’ll get around to finishing eventually !! It’s so bad

Abandoned fics or completionist

I’m definitely a completionist !!! There’s been very little fics I have ever just abandoned and usually I come back to ones that have been there for a while and finish them eventually!! I don’t think I’d be able to function if I knew a fic was just abandoned completely

Gen fics or ship first fics

Definitely ship !! I always look through the ships when deciding what to read and then have a look at the summaries etc

Pwp or plot heavy

Plot heavy ! Personally I am not a fan at all of pwp so I stay as far away from it as possible !! I’d much rather read a fic that is plot heavy with lots of plot points and twist and classics tropes we all love thrown in everywhere !!

First person or third person

Always third person ! I find fics written in first person to be very hard to read and I struggle to relate and connect with the characters or to the story !!

Angst or happy endings

Can I choose angst with a happy ending ??? I’m huge sucker for angst and possibly it’s my favourite to write !! I love a good fix that can jerk on the tear ducts and cause a little tear to escape !!! But happy endings are always just so so lovely to read, I’m not the biggest fan of sad endings but I’m not against them !!!

Ff.net or Ao3

Ao3 100% !!! I’ve never actually used ff.net and tbh the website confuses me sooooo

Crossovers or one fandom only

I’d have to say one fandom only !!! I’ve never really read any crossovers but I feel I would get very confused and just probably wouldn’t enjoy the reading experience???? But then again maybe I would like it, I’d definitely be open to reading one if the write one appeared but I prefer to stay to one fandom only, just for the lack of confusion !!

Friends to lover or enemies to lovers

Friends to lovers !!!! It’s possibly one of my favourite tropes *cough* scorbus *cough* .... I love it so much buuuuut I do love me a good enemies to lovers fic as well

Slow burn or they’re together from the start

Writing wise, they’re together form the start. Reading wise, slow burn. I myself would not have the patience to do a full on slow burn fic because I want them to be together !!! The slowest burn I’ve probably written is “I Never Planned On Someone Like You” and lets be honest, it’s not subtle their feelings ..... but I truly love to read them, there just something about getting THAT moment in the final chapters of a multi or after 8000 words of a oneshot and they finally get together *chefs kiss*

I’d like to tag @sunshinescorpiusmalfoy @hyperiius @sapphicfangirll and anyone else who’d like to do this !!!