#i have around 4 lined up after i finish taking care of zine stuff though

[axoqiii]

☕️🥞 sketch dump

[hailqiqi]

2019 Fic Round-Up

Writer buddies, let’s do this (as in, if you haven’t yet, do yours too!)

Stats:

(I’m going with a random quote from each one because I’m a fan of long summaries.)

Fics Posted (Gen): 3

A Little Taste of What Should Have Been

And that was how Pidge found herself kneeling sideways on the couch, face inches away from Lance’s shoulder as he disinfected first two sewing needles and then the earrings with a professional air.

Wriggle, Jiggle, Bake!

“Okay, so you’ve been magically de-aged — because apparently that’s a thing. Why is that a thing? Whatever. Of course it’s a thing out here."

Here

“Don’t make it weird, Lance,” she huffed, already tugging him into the room and closing the door behind them. “C���mon. I’ll help you wash all that off.”

Fics Posted (Plance Oneshots): 7

2 x 100 word drabbles

(Domestic Fantasy & Kabedon)

The Advantages of Being Small

“I couldn’t help it! It was just too tempting!”

Untangle to Wait, Unravel to See

Of course a fortune teller would appear as soon as he started talking about one. They were on a magical world with magical aliens and Lance was like, the hero of the story, so it made sense that events would be tied to his dialogue. Most importantly, it was not creepy at all, and anyone who said Lance was creeped out could go suck it.

the world is out there, my dear, but we're in here

Pidge froze. The reaction was so subtle that Lance would have missed it if he hadn't been watching for it -- she relaxed herself almost immediately, eyebrows raised in casual challenge -- but she'd reacted, all the same.

so it turns out I kinda missed you

Grumbling, Lance crossed his arms and sunk back into his seat. “I could’ve come to get her on my own, you know.” “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t be able to make out in the back seat on the way home.”

The Stars Aren't the Same for You and I

Dancing with Pidge was fun.

Fics Posted (Plance Chaptered): 2 (1.5?)

Skirting Katabasis

"So... Do you think you could put it back together?" Pidge tilted the tablet towards her and looked at him hard. His expression was hesitant, but his eyes were soft...almost pleading. She smirked. "Who do you think I am, Keith?”

The Future in Snippets (Chapters 3-5)

In truth, she had no idea what was fine. Her brain had switched off several heartbeats ago, but she couldn’t really find it in herself to care.

Fics Posted (Plance Collabs): 2

Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love (even chapters)

The prince doesn’t ignore the princess for the nerdy sidekick. Even if that sidekick was a badass fighter who’d saved his life countless times. Or a genius who constantly left his head spinning. Or totally into the same video games that defined Lance’s childhood, and the owner of a smile so blinding it made the stars look dim.

(shoutout to @sp4c3-0ddity​, my co-conspirator who made Pidge’s star so bright!)

It's Beginning to Look a Lot like A Christmas Carol  (Prologue & Chap 1)

“An intervention?” “Sure. Have you ever seen A Christmas Carol?” His mind freezes. “You mean the Dickens book?” “Uh…” Keith’s dad trails off, blinking. “No, the movie. With the little green man? I think they made a version with the grouchy duck, too.”

(shoutout to the awesome @rueitae​ and @sp4c3-0ddity​ who brought both the crack and the tears essential items for any Christmas party all we’re missing is the food fight and divorce)

Total Fics Posted: 14

Oooh wow. That’s more than one a month!

 Ship/Character Breakdown:

Ship Breakdown: Plance, with over 75%

[colleen image]

Character Breakdown: Pidge and Lance are in 100% of my fics. Hunk is next in 5 (with 1 POV!), then Keith and Allura both get 3 (both even get POV parts and Keith’s a major focus in Skirting Katabasis), then Shiro, Coran and Lance/Pidge’s families are more bit players.

I only just realized that the chapter in Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love is the only time I’ve really written Shiro. And now I’m horrified because Shiro was my first love.

Characters that had the Main Focus: 6 +1 Lance POV, 4+2 Pidge POV, 2 Switching POV fics and then the drabbles don’t count.  I actually started out the year tearing my hair out because I related to Pidge so much more, but now I really enjoy writing Lance. It’s actually a little tricky to get into Pidge’s headspace to work on my chaptereds sometimes.

Specifics

 Best/Worst Title?

Best Skirting Katabasis. C’mon. That’s like, literary (Katabasis being hell or destruction in Greek mythos). Worst Untangle to Wait, Unravel to See. I had help with it but this fic was just so hard to name.

Best/worst last line?

Best I tend to structure my chapters/one-shots around the last line so…this is hard.

"What took you so long? I've been waiting for you."

(Untangle to Wait, Unravel to See)

My personal favourite, though, is from so it turns out I kinda missed you:

Luis laughed. “Hi, Not-My-Girlfriend. I’m Not-His-Brother, Luis.”

Worst

Hunk just laughed. “You can’t fix that right now, so you might as well have some fun!”

(Wriggle, Jiggle, Bake!) So cheesey.

The last line that gives me personal arghs is from Here:

He buried his face in her sodden hair and cried.

...because a day after posting I realised that I should’ve written wept, dammit, and now it annoys me every time I see it.

Honourable mention to The Advantages of Being Small for winning the no-context award:

“Reckon I could fit three fingers up there?”

 General Questions

 Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Way more than I thought!  I think I had planned out about 8? Of those I wrote two (zine fics), started but haven’t finished 2, and the other 4 are still pending.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

None, my obsessions are long-lasting and constant.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Skirting Katabasis or It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like A Christmas Carol. Though TBH I enjoy re-reading most of the stuff I posted in the last 6 months.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

In every single metric on AO3 it’s The Future in Snippets. Y’all like your porn (even if there’s not much of it).

On tumblr it’s Wriggle, Jiggle, Bake! by like 100 notes.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

If this is a roundabout way of saying ‘What’s your LEAST popular story?’ it’s The Advantages of Being Small, but TBH that’s a very short crack-ficlet so it doesn’t bother me (same with the drabbles).

If the question is “What fic do you think people should like MORE?” the answer is Skirting Katabasis. It’s fifth on the list for bookmarks and 9th for Kudos, and I’m not sure why?? Does it sound too gen? Do you not like Platonic Adventure Kidge? Honestly y’all are missing out it’s like the best thing I’ve ever written. Hands down.

Story that could have been better?

The Future in Snippets. Hands down. It was started on a whim, as a practice fic for another idea I’ve been nurturing for even longer, and back when I was newer at this writing thing. It wasn’t very tightly plotted – in fact the plot was expanded upon and changed multiple times before I settled on what I have now, several chapters in – and certain things that should have been seeded were left out of earlier chapters because I wasn’t experienced enough to figure out how to work them in and foolishly thought ‘oh, it won’t matter! Such a small detail!’, so now I’m scratching my head trying to figure out how to compensate.

I tend to work off very tight outlines, but Snippets was missing that for a large part of the process and I think it shows. I do think I’ve done a good job nailing the emotion in it, though, and that’s like 95% of the fic so as long as I keep that up it’ll all be fine.

Sexiest story?

The Future in Snippets is smut so… First place for SFW sexy goes to the world is out there, my dear, but we’re in here.

Saddest story?

I think The Stars Aren’t the Same for You and I wins because it’s a heartbreaking situation with no good resolution. There’s no comfort to be found there.

Most fun?

A Little Taste of What Should Have Been. It’s just…fun!

The most fun I had writing was Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love, because it was challenging, and I’d wake up every day excited to find out what had happened in the last chapter overnight.

Story with single sweetest moment?

The Future in Snippets (Chapter 4) 

“Um…” She turned the brush in her hands over again before holding it up sheepishly. “Do you remember how you said you’d braid my hair?”

Lance’s whole face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Really?!”

A giggle escaped her lips and she smiled, nodding. “Really.”

Hardest story to write?

The Future in Snippets. The emotions in this fic have become a convoluted mess and it is growing exponentially harder to write as I continue. I simply don’t have the level of skill required, but by God I will find it so that I can finish it properly.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

Skirting Katabasis!  The outline for this fic is tight, and I freaking love writing this fic. Like I just feel like smiling the whole process. I don’t know why. It feels like the wrong answer because it’s a fairly involved fic, but I just enjoy everything about it.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

Smack, Kiss, Fall in Love actually gave me a much better understanding of Lance. Skirting Katabasis made me really look at Keith and realise that hey – the dude is actually very emotional, very chatty, and very soft (he’s so often typecast as the ‘moody loner’ because that’s what they call him in the show but he really doesn’t act like that).

Most overdue story?

Uh. The Future in Snippets was originally scheduled to be finished in January 2018, so… I also have a soulmate WIP which was meant to be for V-Day 2018.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I started to play about with other POVs, and discovered that I can write other POVs? I also did two collabs!  The first one I discovered that Reem really is a sweetheart, and with the second I discovered that either I’m really bossy or really persuasive or both maybe I should go into politics.

I also did a couple of events and zines and exchanges. I discovered that piece-writing – like writing with a target/deadline/outside expectation – does not agree with me, and I will no longer sign up for events/zines/exchanges.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

1.     Finish my WIPs.

2.     Write my Pidge Makes Bad Decisions fic!

3.     That’s about it really. Can you take over the world by writing fic? If so, that’s going on the list.

[hailqiqi]

End of Year Fic Meme

I wasn’t tagged, unless you count those ‘and anybody who wants to do it!’ tags. But I saw this and wanted to do it and I want to see what the people I tag reply with so god-damn-it I am doing it.

Under the cut ‘cause it’s long as heck.

Stats:

List of Fics Posted:

Smile

Shallura Drabble

The Good Type of Snitch

The Choices We Make, The Lives We Lead

Quiet Shimmers in the Snow

The Future in Snippets

 Total number: 6 Total word count: 17,114

Ship/character breakdown: Smile – Kataang - Katara POV

Shallura – Allura POV

Snitch – Pidgance – Pidge POV

Choices – Pidgance – Lance POV

Shimmers – Pidgance – Lance/Pidge/Lance POV

Snippets – Pidgance – Pidge POV

Characters that had the main focus:

I think Pidge edges Lance out for POVs, but not by much.

Specifics:

Best/worst title? Best title:  The Good Type of Snitch. Worst title:  The Future in Snippets (by far. What was I thinking.)

Best/worst first line?

Best: “The market was beside one of the most spectacular ice rinks Lance had ever seen.”

Worst:  Oooh, a toss up between “The ruckus of a hundred students finding and settling into seats reverberates throughout the hall and hits Katara like a shockwave, making her stop just inside the door.” (wordy much?) and “Pidge grumbled under her breath as she shuffled down the hall to her hanger.” (omg how did I miss a misspelling in the first line)

Best/worst last line?

Best:  “The warmth in her chest had nothing to do with the jacket.”  But I feel like “And the Ambassador certainly won’t notice they’re missing - at least not while he’s passed out underneath the canape table.” should come in second here.

Worst: So 4/6 fics end with some version of ‘he/she said ‘Okay’.’  Worst line goes to “C’mon then. Let’s go on a date!” which was written in purely to avoid him saying ‘Okay’.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? Well, I intended to do 6 for Kataang Week and I did …only 1… but 5 others. So hmm.  I definitely wasn’t expecting to write for anything else, I haven’t written fic for fun in about 15 years so it was a nice change!!!  Big thanks to Morie @octaviainthewasteland for getting me back into this.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? Pairing: Pidgance Genre: NSFW Fandom: Voltron, I suppose? What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. The Choices We Make, The Lives We Lead. Which is ironically my least popular pidgance story by miles.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

By Comments: The Future in Snippets By kudos: The Good Type of Snitch By hits: Quiet Shimmers in the Snow

(See? Choices gets no love!) Story most underappreciated by the universe? Choices! I dunno why, I really like the atmosphere of it. It draws me in every time I read it. Story that could have been better? Smile, definitely. That was the first thing I wrote this year after a year of writing nothing (I participated a bit in Kataang Week last year just because there needs to be more people in it) and you can definitely tell my writing needed polishing.

Quiet Shimmers in the Snow annoys me, tbh. When I sat down to write it I thought ‘fuck logic, let’s just have fun and be happy’ and created this big romantic world but the thought that ‘there isn’t really a story here to tell’ always niggles at me. It’s probably what makes it so hard to write. Sexiest story? Snippets. Though there’s really not enough sex considering it was meant to be NSFW practice. Saddest story? I don’t really do sad. Choices, maybe? Most fun? Shimmers.  It’s a first date with alien ice skating, fairies and Christmas markets. C’mon. Story with single sweetest moment? Smile

“That means the pretty girl must be looking at him again.

He looks around, a grin already forming on his lips, expecting her to jump and duck her head like she always does. But this time bright blue eyes meet his gaze head-on and he feels the breath leave his lungs in a sudden woosh. Her hair tumbles over her shoulders and a deep red blush spreads over her dark complexion. How did he ever look away from her before?

He feels light-headed. The pretty girl isn’t pretty. She’s beautiful.

She lifts a hand and waves, a small smile spreading shyly across her lips. He smiles back, warmth filling his chest, and then the lecturer calls for everyone to pay attention and the moment is gone.”

Writing about The Sweeties means sweetness is always coming. I love it.

 Hardest story to write? Both Smile and the Shallura drabble, I think. I was doing both more out of obligation than a real inspiration to write (unfortunately I only seem to obsess about one thing at a time). Quiet Shimmers in the Snow has been giving me a heap of trouble past the first chapter, too (really it was meant to be a one-shot, but Misty insisted that I needed to have them actually ice-skate so I thought I’d shoe-horn a few other tumblr prompts into it).

What I’m getting from this question is that anything I’m not writing specifically and solely because I want to write it is hard to write.

Easiest/most fun story to write? The Good Type of Snitch. That was a hell of a lot of fun.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters? Nah, none of my writing’s that deep, fam.  It’s all fluff and funsies.

Most overdue story? Uh, probably Quiet Shimmers in the Snow since it’s made up of tumblr prompts from like… 3 months ago??

Smile is also part 1 of 5? 6?.  Part 2 is sitting finished, Part 3 is like half-way done. Kataang Week was back in July!  ( @chel-burr do you still wanna tackle the rest of them?)

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? Starting writing again, just in general! Snitch was a huge risk because it was my first foray into writing again and also written as a birthday surprise for someone who’s writing I admire immensely ( @octaviainthewasteland , looking at you here!). I was actually a little nervous about that because Morie’s stuff is always so well-thought-out with expansive settings and twists and emotions and mine is like...fluff with two people talking.  I suppose I learnt that I enjoy writing, people enjoy reading my rubbish, and that people always enjoy surprise birthday fics?

Snippets is another big risk – it wasn’t planned when I started, and I just kind of randomly decided that I needed to learn to write NSFW so…there we go. The plot came after the first chapter. I learnt that emotional context is what really makes a smut scene go, that people really like NSFW stuff and interact with it more (this is the only one of my fics that people interact with me on tumblr about), that I actually need to learn to write group dialogue, and that I really can’t stick to angst to save my fucking life because despite my careful planning my head keeps going YOU CAN MAKE THEM HAPPY NOW JUST DO THIS!!!! (I’m writing fanfictions of my own damn fanfiction in my mind because I want to them to just smile already jfc)

What are your fic writing goals for next year? So I’m in the Plance Zine and the Tiny Adventures Zine, the Pidge Big Bang and the Voltron Kink Bang …. So to complete all of those on time!!

I also want to work through that list of prompts from months ago, and my piece for the Voltron Kink Bang is going to be the first part to a gigantic soap opera epic that I’ve had planned in my head for months and never intended to write – I want to have at least half of that written and posted by December 2018. And hopefully that goal will stop me from chickening out of the Voltron Kink Bang because there’s still a part of me that wants to accidentally miss the check-in.

And, for funsies, I wanna have two completely new fics that aren’t planned at all right now done and dusted in these 12 months.  What will they be? Who knows! Finding out is half the fun!

Tagging everyone who’s writing I want to know more about... Okay there’s a lot of you.  @octaviainthewasteland @mistyhollowpro (pleeeeease tell me you’re actually writing that soulmates au) @sp4c3-0ddity @mindatworkk @dupreerose @purpleplatypusbear21 @s-n-arly @fanwright @fanart-rainbox （妳的同人文也算哦！） @bel-ina @polarishpd (I am still not over that last chapter of Robots and Love) @thisiswhereifall @amillionsmiles @radiantcerulean and I know there’s more but I’m meant to actually be working so...