#i think if you WRITE fanfic without having seen/read the original you should experience a promethean/sisyphean punishment

[utilitycaster]

re the poll about interacting with fandoms you don't belong to...I fear we may have spent too much time arguing that fanfiction is a valid art form (it is) and not enough pointing out that it must be in conversation with the text on which it is based.

[eff-plays]

A personal rant about BG3, Larian, and writing fanfic

So let me preface this by saying that I'm weird. I'm a weirdo. I don't fit in. Have you ever seen me without this stupid hat on?

I am not really a fanfiction writer, which is ironic considering some of my first writing was fanfiction. Since then, it's been nothing but original fiction. The Wayhaven Chronicles was the game I started writing actual fanfic for, and that was only a couple of years ago (nobody look at me I haven't updated in forty years). I'm very new to the genre, basically. I barely even read fanfic, as for most of my life I've just been like "Well it's not canon anyway so what's the point of it?" and it's only recently that I've gotten more into it and understood the "point".

That is all to say that when I started writing my BG3 Tavstarion (I know, so new and never seen before) fic, I wanted it to be based as closely on the game as possible. To the point where I would boot up the game to get the smallest details right; which boxes were where and had what in them, the inflection of a character's voice, the movements, the animations. I could look it up on Youtube, but it felt like cheating -- I had to be there, as my OC, and filter it all first-hand through their thoughts. That way, my fic would have a solid foundation of canon on which I would build their story.

I admit, that's the main reason I've kept the game installed despite burning out of actually playing it months ago. Because of my stupid OC that I love. Here's what I even made the Steam banner look like.

It might be silly -- I would never hold a fic I read to these dumbfuck standards, anyway -- but it felt right. I'm writing a canon-compliant fic, so of course I need canon to support it. Maybe not to the extent I was doing it, but the fundamental idea made sense to me. I wanted my deviations from canon to be minimal and well-informed. Because I loved the canon and that's what made me love the game, and in turn my OC. It was all connected, you see?

Which brings me to the patches. The updates. The scene changes. All of it. I wanted to stay true to the game, so I hung onto it for dear life, letting it clog up my PC's storage just in case I needed it for fic purposes. But now ... what's the point? Larian won't leave well enough alone, so to which version am I staying true? Why should I respect canon when Larian can change it at any moment if a vocal minority has issues with something I personally enjoy and want to include in a fic? At this point, my personal experience doesn't matter -- my Tav's version of the game doesn't exist anymore. So looking up stuff on Youtube feels right. In fact, it might be my only choice, if I want to see the version of the game where they first and best existed.

And you might think "Wow Eff, that's a long-winded and melodramatic way of saying you're uninstalling the game!" Well, yeah. This is my personal gaming blog, so of course I will put my big gamer feels on here. That's just what I do. But this is the first time this has happened to me, where I feel like there's just no point in respecting canon at all, and I want to document that feeling. I was trying desperately to stay true to Larian's vision, playing the game when it brought me no joy just so I could then write fic which does bring me joy. But why do that? Larian does not respect me, and more importantly, they don't respect their own stories. So why should I?

Anyway, yeah. I'm uh. Uninstalling the game, finally. I will keep writing my fic, as that still brings me joy, and apologies for getting shit wrong, but at this point the game I remember doesn't exist anyway, so what's the point in getting the current game right?

The only thing I'll miss is being able to take screenshots of my Tav, and making gifs of them. I modded in a unique face for them (and long-time followers will know how much I struggled with that) and now that won't be as easily accessible anymore. I don't think it's a waste, though, not with how much joy it brought me, and I'll still have the files. Maybe I'll come back in a few months and gaze upon them again.

Goodbye for now, my blorbo. You will always be loved. The game you're from? Not so much.

[c0rpseductor]

struggling to stay awake but i watched the sarah z video about fanfic as an art form (very good) and then in the related videos saw several from a youtube account that gives fanfic writing tips. i was curious so i watched the one that’s like, “tips for writing fanfic that can’t work in original fiction” and have thots

i guess i kind of feel ambivalent about it bc like. on one hand i agree fic as a medium encourages and can sometimes greatly benefit from a lot of stuff that doesn’t fly in original fiction, like cutting out canon events we’ve already seen or descriptions we should already know. a fic doesn’t have to be a totally standalone work given it already depends heavily on the context of the canon it’s derived from.

on the other hand i kind of struggle to see how some of these tips benefit _any_ form of writing? like “the pace can be very choppy or glacial if you want! pacing doesn’t matter!” feels like poor advice to me if you’re trying to make your fic read well. canon can prop up a lack of exposition but cannot change the way your fic reads as its own work. i think pacing very much still matters, and “good pacing” can be somewhat subjective, but the actual wording of the advice was along the lines of like, pacing straight up doesn’t matter, which i don’t agree with at all. i think a featured comment along these lines (bc the video maker showed some other writers’ opinions that they liked) was essentially like, “you can have really incredibly slow pacing and it be fine if the story is just a relationship study and there’s no plot or themes or meaning.” EVERY STORY HAS FUCKING THEMES AND MEANING IT COMES FREE WITH YOUR FUCKING XBOX. don’t fucking encourage people to be uncritical writers oh my god

i also like. i understand that i have different aims when i write fic than other people. with the longfic i’m working on right now, i want it to retell shadowbringers (hopefully on to endwalker) with my wol and highlight things FFXIV made me feel that were meaningful to me, and i’m choosing to have a slow pace so that readers can both have that experience again through my WoL’s eyes and figure out who the fuck he is without it feeling like a hasty exposition dump. i also personally don’t like how a lot of ffxiv fics in a similar vein read, bc they skip big important canon developments and emotional moments, so i chose to like…not do that. i also know i have at least one buddy (hi faiya) if not a couple buddies who are reading it fandom-blind, so i wanna add descriptions of locations and people. (plus, again, having a biased POV character means every description is Free Characterization, Baby!) i also think having descriptions immerses a reader more even if they reiterate canon, and it can be a helpful convention to establish so that describing new locations and so on doesn’t necessarily feel so, like, jarring. with shorter pieces i skip unimportant stuff but still like having the opportunity to set a scene and work in some inventive prose.

which, like, tooting my own horn i guess. obviously i like how i write or i wouldn’t do it like that. i try to have reasons for everything i do and think about my goals for what i want my writing to evoke and the experience i’m trying to create. however i am increasingly beginning to think the experience i’m trying to create is one that just really doesn’t read like fanfiction. on one hand, i don’t always like how fanfiction reads, so to me that’s good. on the other, though, if i don’t always like how fanfiction reads, idk if i’m the best judge of these kinds of intentional stylistic breaks in fanfiction as opposed to original fiction and how well they work. i don’t like choppy pacing, i don’t like fics that dwell or feel circular vis a vis pacing, i don’t like fics that just leave shit out that would potentially strengthen the story they’re trying to tell (100% bitching about emetwol shb retellings that skip and summarize every cutscene even when it would be a big relationship moment for emet and wol. like come on it’s free development they give it to you), and i’m okay with fics that don’t have much sensory description of established stuff bc i can fill in but they’re that much less engaging for it. some of these pieces of advice strike me less as useful shortcuts in a transformative work and more as shortcuts that actually weaken a transformative work. fic has to exist in conversation with canon, but a fic i think also has to have an existence as its “own story,” if that makes sense.

i know to some degree it depends a lot on the individual fic, too. for a short fic or a oneshot i feel way more like i’d agree and say “yes, by all means, skip the exposition and unnecessary description and get to the part we’re meant to care about, we have limited real estate here, devote it to the details of import!”, like i certainly don’t sit describing the layout of the crystarium room every time i write a ficlet about it. but i’m more reticent to say that about longer pieces where you have more time to explore and recontextualize and reiterate shit that might still be relevant to your work as a whole.

definitely a thing where like. i don’t want to get super egotistical or on my high horse about it bc despite feeling more confident as of late i do know i have a lot of room to grow as a writer and even just in terms of utilizing fic as a medium efficiently. but i wouldn’t be giving these out as blanket pieces of advice, which i felt the video was doing. the only blanket advice i would give out is “read and dissect published works to see how they construct prose and do other technical stuff,” because those are transferable skills and i think knowing how a story is constructed on the page is crucial to making informed decisions about how to take one apart and put it back together. but i’m also the guy who is saying this to you while very much aiming to apply it to unmonetizable age gap gay catboy porn a maximum of 15 people will read so you can take my words with a grain of salt approximately the size of your forearm

[mitziholder]

apologies for being weird and hogging your inbox like this but i LOVE your thoughts on fandom and i think very few people talk about it in a critical way without completely condemning the entire occupation. in my experience people (not just on this website but in general) tend to take a very black and white view of fandom/fic, probably because it can feel like a very personal thing for many; either they're 'normies' who think all fanworks are 'cringe' or they're the anything goes kind of person. radfems seem to me to be the only ppl who aren't overly defensive of the enterprise but can still enjoy fanworks critically. its nice to see women who aren't like. Fandom Moms talking about these things at length. i think you're one of the few people i've agreed with regarding this subject so far :/ your analyses are very much appreciated and i'd love to read more of what you think (especially regarding the point about navigating trauma). have a good day!

oh and also regarding the whole 'i want women to read better thing' ive always felt this idea that fandom culture is above criticism (or criticising it is inherently misogynistic) is in some ways an extension or at least related to the societal notion that women should be confined to the fluffy feeling aspects of writing and art and aren't as capable of intellectually engaging with things (and of course some 'criticisms' of fan culture ARE misogynistic but i'm not referring to those atm). and obviously there isn't anything inherently WRONG with silly fluff novels or romance (especially romance of course as one can certainly explore that subject in depth and i actually think there's a lack of well written romance out there) but it still feels like a limitation on female growth to normalise women ONLY reading fanfiction or even only certain brands of genre fiction i guess? and i find it sad that so many women seem to almost buy into that idea nowadays or shoot down any sort of criticism with the 'stop shaming female desire' catchphrase. and considering that there is still a dearth of well made original female work for women in pop culture (that act as cultural touchstones in the same way a lot of male works do) it's even more depressing that a lot of fanwork centers men. sorry if this comes off as insufferably pretentious lmao! i'm not even against fanwork i mean this is tumblr i still enjoy things but hopefully you know what i mean lol

like i mean. there's a reason why fanfiction is seen as primarily a female affair (even though a lot of the highly regarded published fanfics are by men. u know the neil gaiman stuff or whatever). its sort of a reassurance that women are 'limited' to writing fanworks. idk. i guess i want women to do better idk if im making any sense

ok, mandatory disclaimer that what I’m describing here is a series of trends, trends I’ve observed within fandom at large including both fanfiction readers/writers and fujos more broadly. obviously, not everyone who reads fanfic or yaoi is a woman (though the vast majority are). obviously, not every woman who reads fanfic or yaoi is a stunted teenager who refuses to engage with any other media. I will also admit that not every fanfic is jimin ABO. I don’t think that fanfic is inherently cringe or low-quality, and there are certainly a lot of respectable published works that have been created with other people’s characters or settings. but, as I’ve said, the vast majority of fanworks in the modern day are essentially pornographic mad libs. I find that disappointing. and there’s no reason it has to be this way… except for all the reasons I’ve outlined in my other posts.

things that are lazy and thoughtless and easy, that provide instant gratification, are generally more popular than things that are difficult or uncomfortable. clearly. but people who denounce all fanfic/fanfic writers and pigeonhole it as low-effort slop are not actually interested in helping the women who write it achieve their fullest potential, because they do not believe those women have any potential. it’s true that some criticisms of fan culture and fanworks are purely misogynistic… but I care about women’s voices, and I do want women to be able to express themselves. I’m not on a quest to stop women from writing or reading fanfic. I’ve been slightly flip about the subject, but truthfully, not everything that is “derivative” is bad, and there’s no reason that fanworks couldn’t be good. it’s just that the culture around them is so intensely sensitive - anti-“shaming” - that women are terrified of saying anything about the level of quality or the potentially harmful nature of most fanfiction because they don’t want to devalue media created by and for other women.

I think that’s a disservice to women as a whole. not everything we write is valuable. I’ve written plenty of crap in the pursuit of getting better - plenty of crap I currently disagree with. and if our work can’t withstand criticism - if we shut down immediately at any hint of a deeper, more unflattering analysis of what’s really going on… then what’s the point? what are we communicating? that female fantasies exist in a compartmentalized bubble far and away from our politics and intellectual pursuits? that we should be able to j/o to rape fantasies without question because it’s not that serious? that the personal is political, except for when it isn’t… and we should all be quiet and let women write whatever they want free of criticism lest we shame them so hard they go into hiding? my standards might be a tad high, but that is setting the bar… dangerously low. it’s also patronizing. since when has “just let women enjoy things!!” ever gotten us anywhere? since when has that been a cornerstone of feminist thought? is that really the best we can do? are we really so fragile?

I’ve seen a glut of posts about how useless and harmful constructive criticism supposedly is. the reasoning is always basically the same:

criticism is mean/toxic/discouraging

maybe I’m too hardened by countless death wishes I got on my old blog, but, in my experience, whenever I have something I want to say or a point I want to make, very little can keep me from doing so. I can’t imagine being so bothered by what random Internet people think. it’s important to remember that being able to determine what criticism is valuable is a skill in itself. disavowing criticism as a whole because some of it is “toxic”/discouraging is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

criticism is pointless; perfection is unattainable

of course nothing is ever going to be perfect. but if that’s your attitude, why bother editing? (rhetorical question. some fanfic authors do post unedited works… just because they can.) hell, why write? why get up in the morning? why make your bed? why try anything new at all? it’s a completely absurd, defeatist attitude. like the first point, it also reeks of intellectual laziness and self-satisfaction.

you could just be nice and say what you liked instead because that’s helpful too

please don’t blow smoke up my ass. in editing, I want to fix things that don’t work and to trim the fat. is it “kind” or “helpful” to let me do something completely stupid because you’re too afraid of embarrassing or offending me to say as much? also, knowing what people like is useful in producing more of what people like - it doesn’t help me do anything new or different. there is nothing less helpful to me than saying “good job!” when I ask you to read my work. it’s certainly nice (as long as you actually read it), but it’s not helpful.

it’s published, the author is through with it, and they don’t want to touch it anymore

I plan to do everything I can to edit and improve my writing before the thing is drawn and published, but I’m sure some flaws will inevitably slip through the cracks. currently, I’m rewriting entire chapters from the beginning because they became incompatible with what I wanted out of the series as it progressed. considering that a lot of people write fanfic on a chapter-by-chapter basis with only a very vague trope-strung outline, I have to wonder why they’re so averse to major overhauls. sure, it’s not pleasant, but don’t you want your writing to be the best that it can be? what is the purpose of uploading it if you don’t want the thing to be responded to as it is, warts and all?

also, not all criticism is limited to the specific work it’s derived from; many things can be extrapolated to future works as well. how are we supposed to correct trends that could lead to a decrease in the quality of future works if we can’t even point them out?

fanfiction is a hobby, and hobbies should be fun

I’m not under the impression that I’ll ever be able to make a living from my writing. I do it as a “hobby” in my spare time simply for the fact that I need an outlet for my thoughts - I need to organize them in some way. writing is an art form that we use to communicate meaning and to make sense of the world around us. your goal as a writer may be to have fun, but it isn’t mine. overgeneralizing and building an entire subculture around the pursuit of mindless fun limits what fanfiction and amateur writing have the potential to be.

you could just go read something else that you like more

actually, no. I don’t like any of it. I’m sorry if saying that is offensive to the 38-year-old she/they whose blog post I grabbed this from. most fanfic is bad. I yearn for the exploration of topics that are categorically not explored in fanfic - because the scope of what fanfic is interested in is constantly narrowing, feeding on itself, like an ouroboros. this problem is only going to get worse over time. why wouldn’t I be bothered? why can’t I say it’s a shame?

mass media and tiktok are worse!

maybe, but so what? at least the majority of people who spend their time watching tiktok videos and bad TV don’t act like it’s a suitable replacement for real literature. and at least there aren’t tiktok compilations being listed on goodreads(?)

anyway, more to the point, fandom is full of technically competent writers. but if they continue to insulate themselves within fandom or fandom-adjacent offshoots, they will never be great writers, because great writing requires tight editing (the elimination of things that are pointless and redundant), syntactic fluency, organizational skills, and, most importantly, an individual voice - an artistic vision - interpreting individual ideas… things that are born of criticism and a diversity of influences that are not present or valued within fandom in its current state. great writing cannot be made in a vacuum. great writers don’t allow themselves to be broken or stifled by criticism they disagree with.

sure, no one has a responsibility to be a great writer, and mediocre writing isn’t a moral failure… but I’m certainly not going to be happy about it, especially when the prevailing attitude is “fanfic is art… but I make what I want for myself and sharing it with you is a privilege and therefore you can’t criticize it!” how boring! how utterly conceited! my god. throwing a temper tantrum because you’re not 100% in control of how others perceive or respond to your creation. put it in a diary and not on a public forum if that bothers you so much… (but then, of course, you couldn’t count kudos.)

I do have a plan to touch on some of my other gripes since you asked so nicely. but this response is, once again, getting too long, and those things have little to do with what I was complaining about here. I’ve got an outline for a post I’ll develop and publish later as a final note on this convo, since at that point I really will have said all that I have to say… thanks again for writing in :-)

[triflesandparsnips]

Is there a database, or maybe a wiki, of written descriptions of physical actions? Because-- because gosh, if only as a resource for writers, there should be.

To clarify: Every time I come across a novel way to describe a physical action I'm always fucking delighted, because describing common actions in such a way as to be immediately obvious and not interrupt the flow of the text/reading is my (and, I imagine, other writers') bête noire. I therefore collect really good ones as I come across them, and I bet I'm not the only one-- case in point?

She toed off her shoes.

That's a very (very) popular -- and fanfic-originated, I think, based purely on usage history -- description for an action that regular shoe-wearers are absolutely familiar with: Using the toe portion of one foot to hold down the heel of the other, allowing the wearer to pull their foot out of the held-down shoe without needing to sit or use their hands.

A huge, annoying, and still kinda unclear paragraph reduced to a beautifully economic five words -- two words, even, if you just count "toed off".

One of my favorite descriptions-- that I saw for the first time in a Marvel fic (Good Boy, by triedunture) and have kept on my mental mantlepiece for the day I get to finally use it-- is:

his hands laced on top of his head

This one requires a little more context, but not by much-- the full quote is:

"Get it together, Rogers," he whispers to himself, pacing the floor with his hands laced on top of his head.

And look at that, right? In my mind, the most obvious visual accompanying that action would actually be Steve's arms raised, elbows winging out. The fingers laced together on his crown are incidental to the intended visual of those arms/elbows-- but the economical description of the single action ("hands laced on top of his head") implies all the rest of it, letting the reader's kinesthetic imagination do the actual heavy lifting. Amazing.

Anyway, I've seen body-language cheat sheets for writers, but I think what I'm asking for falls into a sliiightly different category-- those cheat sheets are more about, like, "emotion as motion" objective correlatives.

No, what I want is just a database, or a wiki, or even just a list outside my own, of damn good descriptions of actions-- highlighting the craft of writing economically (to give me more space for Other Nonsense) and collaboratively (to provide the audience all they need to fill in the blank with their own experiences and not get distracted by my authorial presence).

[blnk338]

I read Ghost's backstory just now. I knew it was f-ed up but damn... He should really have a lot more problems than just being emotionally unavailable. I'm kind of surprised he's opening up to Reaper or anyone at all (it's great he is though). What's your view on his mentality in general, based on his past trauma? What are his habits caused by it? And is his original backstory even a part of your fanfic? Sorry if you already answered this previously.

anon i am so glad you brought this up bc i could talk about this for eons <33333 mwah mwah -- yes, simon's backstory is canon is RWYS!

i am so sorry i wrote this much on this LMAO

cw for heavy trauma, sa mentions, abuse mentions, eating disorders, discussion of mental illness

I think more people need to put more effort into their fics or stories when writing trauma because I often see characters be one of two things:

They're tiny, sweet, pitiful babies who don't know anything and they're so little and small and they're not even adults or people anymore

They end up being their abuser.

Both are terrible options and unfortunately, as I said, they're shown way too often and really do not illustrate a lot of trauma reactions (of course there are examples of them, but I have not seen them as commonly). I take the writing of traumatized characters from my own experiences and from my own research (and literal human empathy, which appears to be void in half of the Ghost fics I read).

I think the idea of making Ghost quieter, closed off, a wall of a man is an accurate reaction to the shit that he has been through. He has a mountain of baggage and I think it's nearly impossible to write him without considering that. There's a clear idea that he limits who he trusts, and allows even fewer people to look under the layers that he's built up; but it makes complete sense that he has a conscious amount that he "lets people see" (even those he holds dear), until he breaks down.

A few of the responses that I think he has are avoidance and isolation, and the development of depression and anxiety disorders.

Simon blocks out a lot of the memories that he has and largely tries to avoid any conversations or thoughts on the subject of his sexual assault. Obviously, as an SAS soldier, it's hard to avoid certain topics, but I feel like he separates Ghost and Simon as two different people. It's common to find that people will put up different "faces" when it comes to responses to certain traumatic experiences, and I think it makes sense that Ghost would be willing to handle anything; he could be beaten, screamed at, watch and do terrifying things, handle himself well in the battlefield, but Simon can't.

Simon is scared. Simon is nervous, anxious, he overthinks things. He bites his nails and paces around his house, he has three locks on his door, he triple-checks the windows before he leaves for the day-- Simon isn't the stone-cold person that Ghost is, Simon is trying to relearn how to be a person who doesn't hide knives under every chair in his home. (Please also keep in mind that Simon's psychiatrist was also killed, I believe, in the midst of the murder of his family, so he would also limit the mental help he gets because of a fear that it might happen again)

Isolation makes complete sense because, as I mentioned before, he might see him and Ghost as different people. Simon doesn't go out of his way to ask for help, there's an incapability to do so. With that comes helplessness because he might not see the change he wants to see in himself. He's gotten back up from getting shot, he's taken hours of beating and torture, why can't he just get past this? All of these different sides of him build into depression and mass depressive episodes, paranoia and anxiety disorders, insomnia, etc.

Eating disorders may come with that; forgetting to eat or not going out enough to get groceries often. Restless, sleepless nights. Panic attacks that rise out of nowhere, he manages to push them down into staring off into space and clenching his fist, masking it on the job or in public. Hearing people's words but not listening, spending hours in his room on base, letting his anger out in the gym, sobbing into his pillow into the wee hours of the morning.

On top of that, he also refuses to let his anger out in any way that would hurt people like his father hurt them. Simon is careful about touching people, but is especially considerate of his anger. All he does is think, think, think, about how not to turn out like his dad. That's another thing I see people headcanon, that he would be physically abusive, and I don't see that at all. Ghost and Simon don't touch people because the last thing they want to do is end up like his father.

Tl;dr: Simon is very, very fucked up from his past and is still working through it.

[courtney-deserved-better]

Hello, TD fanfic anon here! I just wanted some general competiton and ship fic advice

hi td fic anon i am so sorry it took me this long to respond 😭 but anyways here's my advice (under the cut bc it got long)

competition advice:

it really helps to plan out your elimination order before you jump into writing. you don't have to have every elimination planned but ones that are plot significant/necessary should have timing/a solid reason for elimination to make sense within the story. but don't be afraid to deviate from your plan or improvise! i was originally gonna eliminate courtney in the china chapter of slippery slopes and decided as i was writing it to finally deviate from the canon elimination order and boot duncan instead. and that totally changed the story for the better! i think the biggest thing to watch out for is having a character get eliminated with very flimsy reasoning. the reasons don't have to be dramatic, they can literally be "yeah everyone thought this one team member was annoying so bye", but as long as they're believable it helps strengthen the logic/structure of your story.

speaking of logic/structure, it's a good idea to have a concept of the tone you want to take when it comes to the competition. this is especially important for total drama fics, because there's a lot of frankly fucked up shit happening in canon that's played off for laughs or not fully delved into. and maybe you want the sharks and deadly challenges to be silly or brushed off while you explore the character dynamics/relationships as serious. or maybe you want the challenges to be scary and dark and threatening to the characters. or maybe everything, including the character relationships, is slapstick! the key is consistency. consistency doesn't mean there can't be tone shifts—maybe you start off the fic with the challenges being seen as goofy, but then as they keep going, the characters experience more and more danger and become traumatized by these challenges now seen as horrific. or maybe it's the opposite, the challenges start off as scary but over time the contestants get used to them and they fade into the background. the one thing that puts me off in fics is where the challenges are regarded as commonplace until one event needs to be emotionally heavy for the sake of plot and then that challenge is portrayed as Extremely Dangerous And Traumatizing when it hasn’t been any different than the rest of the challenges. not sure if that makes sense so i’ll just reiterate that consistency and confidence of tone is important.

when it comes to the content of the challenges: if you’re doing a rewrite and anyone who’s reading your fic has most likely seen the challenge and episode it’s based upon, err on the side of less detail. if you’re writing about the obstacle course from all stars, we don’t need an explanation on how every obstacle works if it’s not relevant to what your main character(s) is experiencing in the moment. on the flip side, if you’re making up a new challenge, be specific in how it works since it will be new to people and they will be imagining it without a reference point in canon. also, don’t be afraid to not explain things if it’s not super relevant to the main character. if a minor character beats your main character to the finish line, but your character was too focused on a conversation with another main character to care about competing, you don’t necessarily have to talk about the minor character running ahead of your character throughout the whole conversation/challenge. you can just write something like “when [main character] finally crossed the finish line, there was [minor character] panting and looking rather smug with themself” and leave it at that. if it’s not super relative to the main character’s pov, and isn’t necessarily a funny bit or enriching detail, you don’t have to write more than a single sentence about it, especially if it distracts from the main pov. it’s something that can get tricky with total drama’s ensemble cast, so you have to find the right balance for yourself.

ship advice:

when it comes to the (main) couples you’re writing about, it’s good to keep the arc you want their relationship to take throughout the fic in mind while writing, possibly tying it to specific plot points in your planning if you’re the type of person who likes to get meticulous (like myself lol). if you’re writing friends to lovers, explore their friendship and platonic dynamic before one character realizes they’re in love with the other, it gives the readers a sense of how these characters care for one another and work well together, and gives more stakes to the classic “if i tell them how i feel it’ll ruin our friendship” dilemma. if it’s enemies to lovers, explore why they dislike one another and how they push one another’s buttons and the transition from hating someone to having feelings for them. while the names for these tropes are simple, the content within the trope doesn’t have to be boiled down. using slippery slopes as an example again, alenoah in that fits into the “enemies/rivals to lovers” box. but what makes their dynamic compelling is how within their rivalry they had moments of friendship and attraction. heck, they were getting along really well in chapter 6 which made the inevitable blowup that deepens their rivalry that more impactful. so in a nutshell: have a clear idea of the arc but don’t be afraid to delve into or subvert/complicate the dynamic. the line from point a to point b doesn’t have to be a straight line.

i already talked about consistency when it comes to challenges but it’s important when it comes to ships too. if character a is mad at character b in chapter 3, but is suddenly fine with them with zero explanation in chapter 4, that’s jarring for the readers and diminishes the emotional impact of whatever happened to make character a mad in chapter 3. therefore diminishing emotional impact in future chapters if the readers know [important thing] that happened in chapter 8 could totally be glossed over when they get to chapter 9. don’t be afraid to take your time with the characters’ emotions and feelings toward one another, it doesn’t really read as natural for someone’s opinions toward another person to turn on a dime without something significant happening to cause that.

lastly, think about why these two characters work as a couple (or don’t work, if that’s the direction you want to take). what does character a admire about character b and vice versa? in what ways are they similar and in what ways are they different and how do those affect their relationship? what makes them a good couple? why are they attracted to one another? it’s harder to get invested in a fic that goes “character a and character b like each other” without elaborating on that than a fic that goes “character a likes character b because b brings stability and a soothing presence to a’s anxiety-inducing chaotic life and character b likes character a because a’s impulsivity pushes them out of their comfort zone and challenges them to be their best self when b is finding themself bored with their own life’s stasis”. this is obviously A Lot to work with if you’re writing a fluffy oneshot or something but if you’re working on a roughly season-long multichapter fic it’s good to really dive into what makes your main couple(s) click & tick.

not really related to ship or competition but: do NOT be afraid to write extremely niche stuff that you think only you have an interest in. it’s probably not gonna get written if you don’t write it, and if you do write it and put it out there, you might find other people who like that same niche stuff or didn’t like it before but like it after reading your fic. write what you wanna see!! don’t worry about who might read it, write for yourself. if you’re putting all the effort/work in to create a fic you deserve to be that fic’s number 1 fan.

i hope this was helpful, please keep in mind that i’m not trying to be a definitive authority on how to write well, i’m just “verbalizing” what helps me write fics i can be proud of and enjoy. again, im so sorry it took this long to respond! if you have any more questions feel free to send them in and i promise it won’t take me another month and half to get to them lol

[salvatorelizzie]

idk why this fandom in particular, i’ve never noticed this before, but i think it is cause it’s a lot of peoples first ever experience in fandom culture? or it’s because the whole fandom is built on fanfics with loose strings attached to the source material? but people here treat fandom content like it’s something they have a right to. that they can treat like any other media, and they can demand. because normally fanfics and fanart and such are complementary to whatever media the source material is, but here it is the whole fandom you know. i have never seen or experienced such disrespect towards writers, artists, editors etc. it’s wild. being upset that a fanfic isn’t regularly updated or the author takes time with their writing, the way an artist depicts a character in their art, feeling as if you have a fundamental right to anything that’s created (for free, without any additional benefits other then that the person enjoys making it) in a fandom. i am very sad that that is what it’s become. so many wonderful people have been affected by it when fandom isn’t anything other then people with a shared interest who want to talk about and expand the original common interest together. no one owes you anything. no author owes you a fic, and no author has to in any way make their fic palatable to you. there’s nearly endless fics out there. you don’t like the content in a specific one? don’t fucking read it then. close the tab. go use ao3s amazing search filter to find one you like. don’t leave hate to the author. don’t leave hate to the artists. find what you like, leave the rest. entitlement and rudeness are not traits that should exist when willingly entering a space where nobody is forcing you to be. nobody is forcing you like agree with their hc, nobody is forcing you to read their fic. you choose what you engage with. leave the rest alone.

[sergeantsporks]

how do u write fanfic? Every time I try I just get thoughts about how people may find it and link it back to me. It's a nightmare because I want to go into the professional art world (Become a animator/writer) and Im so nervous about someone judging me for it. So, how do you do it?

(This is kinda personal, so if u dont wanna answer this thats fine :D)

In my experience, worst case scenario already happened when my "friend" leaned over my shoulder and read some of my fanfiction out loud in the middle of our high school classroom, so I'm immune to that kind of embarrassment.

Honestly, it helps to remember that more people who write also have read/written fanfiction than you think. In my creative writing circle alone, most of us have stated that we read or wrote fanfiction at some point. Heck, one of the pieces we were workshopping? An original work inspired by a MCYT fanfiction. Even in my creative writing class, it's been mentioned and ppl around me have been like "oh, yeah, fanfiction, sure, there's a lot of good stuff out there, I've read some really good fics, it's not all weird and bad" Like, there's a bit of caginess around the whole thing, most ppl say it in past tense and laugh a little embarrassedly, but on the whole, they're a lot more chill with it than you think.

Another thing that helps is that you're writing with a pseudonym with the anonymity of the internet, and while that doesn't necessarily guarantee that no one will find it, it's a pretty good help to know that it's unlikely that ppl will trace it back to you. If they do, then that's mildly stalkerish of them, and is going to be hard to confront/attack you with without admitting that they're being a little weird and/or have read your fanfiction

Finally: "I am cringe and free" mentality. Own that side. Yeah, you write fanfiction, what of it? It's fun. It builds a little community. Why SHOULD you be embarrassed? I've seen Dr. Who and Star Wars fanfiction published IN my local library. Some of my favorite books in elementary school were published Star Wars fanfiction! Any "movie adaptation" of a book that doesn't have the original author on set is just fanfiction! Fr, just embracing that you write fanfiction and being open about it makes the whole thing less embarrassing. Every time someone in CWC goes "Yeah... I used to write... fanfiction... oof" I say "Hey, I STILL do, you be PROUD of your fanfic writing roots." Nothing to get "gotcha"d with if you're open and don't hide it (that's a huge step, tho, obviously you don't have to go around being like "YEAH I write FANFICTION and I am PROUD of it" the point is just the "I am cringe and free" mentality really helps here)

[aelaer]

Hey, there! For the ask game: 😎, 🎬, 📗, 🌻, 🎁?

PS, I've been a fan of your works since forever <3

Ugh I was mid-writing this and tumblr ate it :( I want to say "thank you so much!" and also ask how long forever is, because I'm definitely in the fandom-old category these days with my 20 year fanfic anniversary coming next year :B But seriously, whether it's 10 days or 10 years, it is super appreciated <3

Now let's try this again. From this post:

🌻 How often do you read your own fics? Pretty often! If I'm in the middle of fanfic-reading nights (which come on-and-off throughout the year) and I don't see anything new interesting, or don't feel like reading an old favorite, I'll go to one of mine that scratches the itch I want itched. I definitely write what I want to read, for the most part. There's only a couple fics that are exceptions for exchanges as experiments and pushing my own boundaries.

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about? I may be in the minority of writers that have been writing for several years (at least I think I am), but the answer is actually no. Lord knows my dad has asked me several times over the years why I don't, and the answer simply is that I enjoy playing in other worlds that happen to be currently under copyright. I enjoy expanding on worlds that already exist rather than creating one fully from scratch.

I mean if I really enjoyed Wizard of Oz or the original Sherlock Holmes it might be different, but dealing with the publishing world is also a serious pain in the ass and I'd rather just keep writing as a fun hobby as opposed to something I depend on income for. My creative side definitely burns out, so I find having my creative stuff such as art and writing as hobbies rather than job-dependent good for my artistic health in the long run. Any aspiring writers/artists here should keep that in consideration as they go into school and then the job world; it's not always a bad thing to keep your passion as a hobby. Depends on your personality!

(I definitely prefer the stability of my current job!)

🎬 If a movie or show were based on your fic, which fic would you choose and who would you fancast? Oh this is a cool question. Uhhhh. Yeah, the Earth-197320 series, which is basically one long fic split into sections as I find time in my life to write it (the final part has like over 40k written or something like that, so it's coming along!) Everyone in the MCU is still cast as they were. I don't have too many OCs in the fic and I'm terrible at fancasting - for OCs in the past I usually start Googling lists of actors and actresses of the right heritage and/or age range and go from there.

There are a couple though, most of which are seen the most in the still-unpublished last part, but they all make at least one appearance earlier in the series. So I'd need an eastern Asian woman around 40-60, a Hispanic or Hispanic-passing man from 35-50 (Latinx appearances vary quite a bit!), and a black woman probably 30-50. But I don't know actors/actresses well enough without really doing deep dives into these profiles, which I've only done for one fic that basically co-starred the OCs xD

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original? Varies for each fandom. For the ones I read most in:

LOTR: Canon compliant/canon gap-fillers. There's a lot of years to fill in. The occasional canon divergence works for the really, really, really good authors. Minor canon divergences like "dead Gilraen early on" for Aragorn is fine. The one exception to this rule is modern AUs where the characters slowly relearn their past selves or have to act like, the heroes their past selves are. I wonder if those fics are still around... it popped up here and there in the mid-late 2000s. If they are, I should download them from ff.net before the site is wiped off the face of the earth.

BBC Sherlock: Really went with "anything goes" in this fandom. I found myself enjoying wild AUs the most than any other fandom here. That said, the top of the top list still tend to be canon gap-fillers or canon divergences, even though the AUs were quite a lot of fun.

MCU: Canon-compliant or canon divergence (especially after Endgame haha). I do not tend to prefer huge world AUs (like no superpowers) or fusions (like they're students at Hogwarts). I find that a fic can still be wildly original while still being canon compliant/canon divergence. A great example of this is Signature Move, my favorite MCU fic. It's canon until after Endgame then goes into a fully original story that turns canon divergent, but still feels more original than most "high school" or "high fantasy" fics. If I cannot recognize the character anymore from his core personality, I grow less interested in the character. I can go on this topic for *ages* though, aha.

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share? Here's another one. I literally wrote this snippet in the wee hours to scratch an itch that like, there's no other fics that exist out there to scratch it. It's another one of those "this probably won't ever get completed/published properly" fics.

Also, the snippet's called "yet another kidnapping" because I've written this trope a stupid amount of times. It's not my fault it's such a fun way to make characters meet.

----

When Tony woke up again, there was another man in his cell.

Under the single dismal light bulb he couldn't make out much of his features. He sat in the corner, slouched, a head of dark, tangled hair shot with strands of grey obscuring his facial features. His clothing was dirty and, in a word, weird. It looked like he was wearing some sort of long Ye Olde Tunic that went to his thighs. All blue, too. One leg lay out in front of him while his head and arm rested on the knee of the other. Interestingly, there were metal bands on his wrist, slightly lit by a small green light on each of them. He wondered what those were for.

The man didn't acknowledge him as he pulled himself into a sitting position. Maybe he didn't hear him and realize he was awake. "Hey."

The man didn't lift his head. "Don't talk to me."

What the hell. Of all things he was expecting his cell buddy to say. "Well, that's rude."

The man didn't reply and, fine, if he wanted to play that game Tony was happy to oblige. He didn't need this asshole to figure a way out of there.

…..scene break cuz i didn't write the filler...

When he looked back at the man, disbelief was written all over his features. "You're real?" he whispered. 

Tony snorted in disbelief. "Seriously? Of course I'm real."

The man pulled himself to his feet, slow and unsteadily, and walked closer. As he came into the light, Tony could see that his pupils were blown wide. 

"Jesus, what're they giving you?" he asked.

"I don't know," he said. He swayed, then lowered himself to the ground again, now just a few feet from him. "I keep seeing things. I thought—I  thought you were just another hallucination."

"Nope. Tony Stark in the flesh," he said. In the light, he could see the cuffs even better—and the man's hands, which were heavily scarred and slightly shaking. They were older wounds, though, that was clear. "What's your name?"

"Stephen. Stephen Strange."

What a name. But he wasn't a completely heartless bastard and he wasn't going to mock his drugged out cellmate, who was looking at the wall as if there was something worth looking at there. "What're you in for?"

Stephen blinked and tore his gaze from the wall. "What?"

Drugged out of his mind, right. "What do they want with you?"

"Ah. My ah, my powers."

An enhanced human; he figured it was something along those lines with those cuffs. "And what are those?"

Stephen muttered, "Go away," swatting at something only he could see, then said, "Magic."

Tony waited for his answer for another three seconds before realizing that *was* the answer. "Magic? Like 'You're a wizard, Harry' magic?"

"Sorcerer," he said as he swatted the air again.

Was there a difference? He didn't think he'd get a clear answer currently. "Right," he said instead. "And what exactly does that entail?"

"Uh, lots of things."

He waited. Nothing. "...like?"

-----

And that is all that may ever exist of that. For whatever reason, I really, really enjoy Stephen Strange meeting various Avengers AUs. Especially if it's mid fight or in less-than-perfect circumstances for one side. I tend to make that side Stephen because I'm biased and I find the idea of this super powerful guy appearing harmless at first until a Big Reveal absolutely hilarious. I will read seemingly-harmless-until-provoked Stephen + anyone until the end of time. Sadly it's not a genre heavily explored.

[admirableadmiranda]

Kinda on the subject of people not liking wangxian in fanfics. Every once in a while I'm scrolling through trying to find something and I see a description saying "LWJ cheated on WWX!!!" and I'm just like what??? Did they not understand his character or do they just want to write some form of relationship drama and that's all they can come up with??? But what gets me is that it always seems to be LWJ who is the cheater.

Sometimes some fics have a plot where there was a previous arranged marriage or something so WWX should be off the market but he falls in love with LWJ anyway, and I guess that's technically cheating, but it is usually an arranged political marriage and not a love match. Then LWJ comes along, the drama of the fic happens, and true love wins in the end. Definitely an AU but it's at least a bit believable of their characters.

But whenever it's pre established relationship wangxian and someone cheats it's LWJ. Or if they "fall out of love" it's because of how cold LWJ turns toward WWX after a while and then WWX finds someone who actually loves him. And I just don't understand if these people are talking about the same characters I read about. The LWJ I know indulges and loves WWX so much I just don't get it.

(and semi on the topic of "WWX should experiment" because they just want him to find a girl because they are homophobic. My pet peeve is when only one of the characters gets gender swapped.)

So some of it is just people not understanding that relationships don’t need drama to be romantic and fulfilling to read about. Some of it is that people want to tell tropey stories without considering whether or not it fits the characters. Some of it is because people refuse to get to know poor LWJ and decide to do the time honored tradition across thousands of fandoms and lead couples that have more or less chemistry than wangxian, usually less, and demonize the less liked member of the relationship so as to make their preferred ship look better by comparison.

I think the reason why LWJ tends to get more of it than WWX is that he is a bit harder to read at the start and people can more easily take WWX at face value in any of the works and miss the ways in which LWJ is easier to read with time and how WWX deflects and lies to the reader at points too. I notice that most all of these fics tend to consider WWX very differently than the book presents to us too.

They probably aren’t interacting with the characters! At least not anymore. Do any of those fics look in character in the slightest? MDZS is a popular, active fandom and this is often the double edged sword of that fact. Fics like this that are written are sometimes written by people who have never even touched the original works. They see some gif sets, read the wiki and they’re off from there. I figure it’s the price of entry into a big fandom like this and automatically ignore any fic that does that because it will never, ever be in character.

(I have seen it done well, but rarely and I agree that it’s almost always homophobic. Definitely the way it’s presented has always been off putting to me. Especially the stories that do nothing but change the sex and character of just one of a queer couple and refuse to do any other examination of what that changes, same with the insistence on experimentation, a relationship isn’t a hobby and if you find one that makes you happy on your first try, what’s wrong with that?)

[avayarising]

So I’ve seen quite a few mentions of Embers by Vathara on my dash recently. I don’t know quite why this is blowing up now, but some of the takes going around are awfully obtuse, so I’d just like to say a few things of my own.

If it’s a surprise to you that Vathara is politically conservative, then you weren’t paying attention to the story of Embers, and certainly not to its footnotes. It’s very clear from the values and ideas espoused in that story where Vathara stands, or, at least, stood at the time of writing.

That doesn’t mean it’s not a good story. Just because you disagree with someone politically or they do bad things doesn’t mean they can’t write well. You may choose to boycott or protest someone’s work because of what they have said or done, but that’s independent of whether or not the work itself is bad.

Embers truly is a good story. It’s very well written, with strong visualisable descriptions, an intriguing plot, interesting OCs, and some very imaginative and internally self-consistent worldbuilding – the whole theme of the story is about finding out what happened in the past so you can heal the problems it left behind. And there are some wonderfully exciting action scenes and moments of badassery: Zuko’s experiments in waterbending, the train escape, the retreat from Chameleon Bay, Aang’s final confrontation with Koh, and pretty much every spirit battle.

Which is not to say that it’s the Best Story Ever. Structurally it really sags in the middle, and I think it would have been better split into two books. Langxue is an important character who is introduced far too late and insufficiently developed, so never really feels real. There's a notable lack of gender and sexuality diversity. And there’s something more than a little dehumanising in the way a lot of the characters' motivations and personalities are stripped down to which element they belong to, and the idea that the elements somehow bind people to certain behaviours (angst comas for everyone).

But you have to read it with this in mind: this is not the canon ATLA world and these are not the canon ATLA characters. (There’s a reason I said ‘internally self-consistent’ above.) They’re folks with the same names and some superficial similarities who happen to have done and experienced the same things as the canon folks in the period immediately before the start of the story (i.e. up to mid-Book 2). But they have different histories, different motivations, and different personalities. This Aang thinks and behaves like he's nearer 8 than 12. This Katara is a lot more aggressive and antipathic to anyone outside what she defines as her group. This Zuko is far wiser (not to mention draconic). But it's not like there's not a pile of other fanfic that recharacterises canon characters – in fact, most of it does, in one way or another. If you can't cope with these particular characterisations, find another fic. Embers is not, and does not claim to be, a canon fic or a ‘what I think should have happened’ story. It’s not a fix-it fic. It’s using the scenarios of the show as a springboard to tell a new, different story. (Vathara could fairly easily have changed the names of characters, places, and concepts, and published this as an original work with only minimal other changes.)

If you try to limit your consumption of art to only that created by people you agree with – especially if you do that according to demands from other people without checking for yourself – then you are going to limit your own capacity for critical thinking. Read Embers, spot where Vathara’s own stance comes through in it, and decide whether or not you agree with that for yourself.

[vanishedangels]

My take after all that we said these past days regarding the way we -as a fandom- portrait Din and Luke in our creations is that if we start telling ppl that canon Luke would never be this or that, we're forgetting that we're pairing him with another character from the SW universe. In canon Luke is a single man, he had never been in a relationship as far as the story shows (I'm only taking the movies), he could easily be an aro ace character, which is so good, since representation matters.

Since I do interpret canon Luke as an ace man, that doesn't stop me from shipping dinluke where Luke experiments sexual attraction, I know my headcanons are not canon, the minute we assigned him a partner we're far from canon.

Ppl should write and draw whatever they want, still, and this is personal, I find really upsetting when Luke is forced to be a helpless little bird turned into a piece of meat who's only there to satisfy brutal men's appetite, and it hurts more when that man is Anakin or Din. In my case, it's not about purity culture, I do read dark content and I write Dark Luke, my problem is that for a year I've seen posts about these machos abusing Luke while I was scrolling the tag, this is not about fanfics, but about posts tagged as dinluke without any bloody TW at all. So, I don't read fics that explore Din as an aggressor, or Boba Fett, because I don't enjoy that at all, the poc being treated as predators is really hurtful. Tagging is important, I know how to use tags to avoid triggering content, still, Tumblr dinluke tag was full of that said content (out in the open) and we witnessed how those tropes grew until it became unbearable for some of us.

The good, refreshing, appealing thing about the original Star Wars trilogy is that Luke is not the typical toxic male hero from westerns, imagine being a girl or a boy back in 1977, you go to the theater and see this boy next door, watching the binary sunset, feeling that it could be you, it's not John Wayne, it's Mark Hamill, an average boy who craves for adventure, he's not in love, he's not there to save the day but in the end he saves it, he's not the man that turns every head when he walks into a room, he's awkward, hot-headed, stubborn, inexpert, he's starting his hero's journey and he could be YOU.

Star Wars subverted those toxic stereotypes, Leia is a princess, but in the story she's the one blasting their way out the imperial cruiser, she's not a damsel in distress, she's the rebellion leader, she's the one comforting Luke when they were mourning their people not the other way around.

What we do with these characters it's up to us, but I think we have a very good, wholesome ground to start creating positive content.

Expressions like "Fandom designated top", "Pedro Pascal is Latino but he's not a poc because he's white", "Din cut a man in half in that episode so he's aggressive enough to be an aggressor", "Dark dinluke is vanilla compared to jangobi or bobaluke" are only reinforcing the sexism, xenophobia, misogyny and heteronormativity in this fandom. So please, listen to each other, I'm evaluating my bias all the time when I read other people's concerns and I'm learning a lot, so thank you guys for expressing yourselves, it's been very helpful.

[iwishicanbeagoodpianist]

the Wifilcon and the Winter Router

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x OC/Reader Summary: When Bucky learns that his neighbor has been stealing his wifi for months. Warnings: None A/N: I'm not a fanfic writer at all, this, like all my stories, are adaptations to fanfics. My original stories are not written in english, so this is also a translation. please do not repost my work

For an instant, Bucky thought that the knocking he was hearing was coming directly from his head, I mean, it wouldn't be the first time his mind played tricks on him, but he realized that the sound was actually coming, unluckily for him, from his apartment door. Oh no no no no no no no, I just got back from putting up with Sam for almost 6 full weeks, I don't need interaction with more people for now.

Bucky thought for a minute to ignore the sound, to wait for the person to give up and leave, anyway he didn't spend many days on this apartment, almost no one had seen him leave or enter the building and he had no contact with the neighbors, only with the lady on the 7th floor who once lost one of her cats, which ended up in Bucky's apartment, accidentally. Not that I found the cat in the alley and actually brought him to my apartment, it doesn't mean that I stole the cat, he was in the street by himself, I rescued him.

When the banging on the door stopped and Bucky thought he could breathe calmly again, a voice between altered and annoyed was heard all the way to the living room where he was sitting trying to overcome his third panic attack and fourth existential crisis of the day .

-"I know you're in there! I saw you coming in a few hours ago! I've been waiting for days for you to come back!"-

More out of instinct than anything else, Bucky pulled out the knife hidden in his right boot as he slowly backed away from the door. Do I really have a spy as a neighbor? Should I call Sam? Is he in danger too? Never mind now, you need an escape route Bucky, concentrate, third floor, window to the alley, 2 minutes max, the bike is parked far away, I'll have to run, but to where, rendezvous point, safe place, think....

- "for God's sake, open the door, I need you to pay for your fucking internet plan, I'm in the last season of my series and I need to know if Carolina died or not!"-

- "The internet?"- Between the andrenaline from escaping and the shock of not understanding what was happening Bucky spoke louder than an assassin, with over 60 years of experience, should have spoken. Oh, shoot.

-"Yes! Your wifi, I need it to finish watching my series"-

Whispering "wifi" to himself, Bucky tries to remember where he has heard that word before, this is what I get for never listening to Sam when he talks to me. But before he can continue his mental analysis of all the conversations with Sam about such stupid things as his favorite American Football team, the New Orleans Saints, that I remember, to how Antonio could possibly leave María on the last episode of the 6 o'clock telenovela of which Sam is a fan, his apparent "neighbor" spoke up again:

-"Jesus Christ, can you open the door? So we can resolve this like adults"-

Bucky resigned to the fact that he has given his position to the "enemy", walks to the door and opens it waiting for his death. Well at least if I die I won't have to listen to Sam again talking about Antonio and María. But on the other side of the door, there was a woman, who in her pajamas, very unthreatening but cute, was watching him as if he were a ghost but still with defiance in her eyes, in one breath she introduced herself and continued her speech about her complaint to Bucky:

-"As I was saying, I need you to pay for your internet"-

-"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean"- mumbled Bucky.

- "Good Lord"- To Bucky's surprise his neighbor, pushes him and enters his home, well not so much a home home, more like the headquarters of his secret club, of which he is the president, vice president and only member, the point is that it is his place, where he can (and wants to be alone), as she lives here. This must be a dream, maybe I hit my head too hard in the last mission and I am unconscious in the hospital.

Crossing the room, Bucky's unwanted visitor looks around searching for something while whispering the words "I see you are quite minimalist, but maybe this is too much, someone urgently needs to look for some inspiration on Pinterest". She stops abruptly in front of the shelf where, in theory, a TV should go, while shouting: "EUREKA", she bends down and picks up a white device which has two antennas and like a million little blinking lights, damn, that looks like something out of a spaceship, I'm being watched by aliens? I'm being spied on by Kree?

-"This is your router, this is where the internet signal comes from, which I need you to pay for so I can finish watching my series"-.

Bucky, still in shock for the third time in less than 15 minutes, as he processes the idea that perhaps Thanos' unknowing twin is spying on him for a second invasion of earth and revenge for his brother's death. He can only nod to his now more relaxed and happy neighbor.

-"Perfect, thanks! I need to check the food I left in the oven, I'll talk to you later"- and as quickly as she came she left through the same door, leaving Bucky with more doubts than answers, peeking down the hallway, he realizes that she is the neighbor who lives next door, to his right. When Bucky comes out of his initial stupor, still not fully understanding what is going on, he decides to take his cell phone out of his pocket and call his own personal Google to solve his doubts about this century: Sam Wilson.

-"Hey Buck! What's up?"-how does he always manage to sound so happy? focus Buck.

-"What the hell is a router and why do I have one in my house?"- somehow Bucky manages to formulate, although maybe his voice cracked a little on the last words.

-"That thing's been there for at least two months and you didn't even notice it? Have you even paid the bill?"-

-"You put this in here? Without telling me????"- maybe Sam is also a Kree? Who can I trust now? It's all a trap?

Listening to Bucky's accelerated breathing, Sam tries to explain to him slowly, that in this century life without internet is not life, but obviously as Bucky does not even know how to set the alarm on his own cell phone, he was in charge of buying the router and creating the contract with the company so that, the 106 year old man could have his personal network at home. He had given it the name but he had not given it a password so that Bucky himself could set it up later. "I am an excellent friend, I mean co-worker, if I may say so"

-"Sorry man, after all that happened, we got called for a mission and I forgot to tell you, do you have your laptop over there? I'll help you set up a password, so your neighbors won't steal your internet anymore"- and with that comment everything started to make sense in Bucky's slightly screwed up but functional mind about the events with his seemingly non-spy and harmless neighbor.

Meanwhile Bucky was trying to remember his own password to unlock the laptop in front of him, also courtesy of Sam. "Bucky, when you learn about online banking and that you can pay your rent, electricity, phone and everything with a click of your computer, you will thank me". It should be noted that Bucky hasn't used that laptop once, like a good 100 year old grandpa he goes to the bank to make his deposits and pay his debts, which obviously consisted only of electricity, water, gas and phone because the man had no idea that there was a device in his house that spit out internet, apparently only his next door neighbor knew this. Buck tells Sam how he thought his router was an alien device and how he thought his neighbor was a KGB agent coming to kill him. "Relax Buck we all have undesirable neighbors that steal our internet signal sometimes", well undesirable is not the word I would use to describe her but ok.

When Sam finally explains to him how to connect his computer to the internet, Bucky can finally see the name that his wonderful co-worker, not friend, because he could never be friends with someone so stupid as to think that the name "THE WIFILCON AND THE WINTER ROUTER" was a good name.

- "my god Sam, you're such an asshole!"-

-"HEY! That's a great name!"- Sam responds with as much indignation as possible, he's the best at naming everything from dogs to wifis.

- "I can't believe you're Captain America, I can't believe we're even friends"- Bucky really can't understand his luck to have friends, well, co-workers whatever.

- "Well excuse me but we're co-workers..."-

- "Well, take this call as my formal resignation, bye"-

-"Wait a minute Buck..."- Bucky ended the call, to finish -his self-imposed- punishment of listening to Sam Wilson talk for over an hour. At least I asked him how to use the bank's website to pay for the internet. Suddenly, without warning and without explanation, the memory of his neighbor is lodged in his head, her hair in a ponytail, her reading glasses, pink shorts, her sweater from some university of which he can't even remember the name because he was watching out for other things... that she wouldn't kill me obviously, he was watching out that she wouldn't pull a knife out of her back and kill me right there. The message on his laptop indicating that he can now set a new name and password to his wifi distracts him enough to stop thinking about his sweet and cute non-spy neighbor and how she would look with her hair down and her glasses off.

Still with the sweet feeling in his chest and the desire to see her again he writes as the new name of the wifi, while laughing:

"If you want free internet, you owe me at least one free dinner"

After paying the internet debt and closing the laptop, Bucky gets up hoping to find something edible in the kitchen, while leaning over to look inside his fridge and analyzing how bad it would be to eat a fried egg with pasta and sriracha, he hears again a knock on the door, but this time it does not cause Bucky the anguish and anxiety that caused him the first time, but quite the opposite.

-"Open the door Winter Router! I prepared chicken pot pie for dinner"-.

[sendme-2hell]

Rating the Books I read after Gideon the Ninth (in order) by how well they made me forget my Gideon the Ninth angst

I starred the ones that I actually recommend if you want something similar to gtn.

I was bored so I made this. Mostly just so I can look back at this and laugh at myself in a few months and remember what I’ve read. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -

**Harrow the Ninth -Tamsyn Muir 

Summary: A depressed girl has to navigate murder attempts by both the mom and the dad of her dead ex-girlfriend who she can’t remember. She tries to make soup and writes fanfic to cope. 

How well it helped me forget: -100/10 but also 10/10 

Rating explanation: This one gets a 10/10 because it did make me feel better about a *particular* GTN plotpoint which I was very angsty about, but tragically it did make me more feral. After reading it I reread both books so I don’t think it helped me forget my angst. 

Similar themes to GTN: all of it, plus more memes 

I Want to Be Where The Normal People Are - Rachel Bloom 

Summary: Rachel Bloom who wrote the world’s most relatable song: “You Stupid Bitch,” and starred/created in Crazy Ex Girlfriend, writes about having anxiety, feeling like she’s not normal, and Harry Potter fanfic.

How well it helped me forget: 8/10

Rating explanation: For a few minutes I actually did forget about my griddlehark angst while I learned more about Bloom’s life and laughed at the painful relatability of it all. 

Similar themes to TLT: ummm depression, feeling very out of place, memes

Fingersmith - Sarah Waters

Summary: The book The Handmaiden was based on. A girl is sent to become a Lady’s handmaiden to con her out of some money. She falls in love. Many plot twists. 

How well it helped me forget: 5/10

Rating explanation: I was sadly still thinking about TLT the whole time I read this. I liked it but I actually like the Handmaiden better because the women spend more time together. Like in this book, I wish that Harrow and Gideon could spend more time together. 

Similar themes: wlw enemies to lovers, at some point you realize the main character’s love interest understands what’s going on way more than the main character

Kindred - Octavia Butler 

Summary: Very dark book about slave narratives. I cannot make a joke here, but this book is excellent. 

How well it helped me forget: 10/10 

Rating explanation: Again, I can’t make a joke. But Octavia Butler is amazing. 

Ash - Malinda Lo 

Summary: A wlw retelling of Cinderella with fairies and an emphasis on stories 

How well it helped me forget:7/10

Rating explanation: This was really quick and fun and I definitely was rooting for the lesbians. Also it was nice it had a happy ending! If you liked Crier’s War (which I did), this was clearly an influence for Nina Varela. 

Similar themes: wlw, the magic one + the fighting one dynamic

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel

Summary: A deadly pandemic wipes out so many people that the world spins into chaos and no one can figure out how to use electricity apparently? But the book is really about fame and wanting to be remembered. Go figure.

How well it helped me forget: -10/10 

Rating explanation: Ok that’s not fair. It helped me forget about Gideon and Harrow but it did NOT help me forget about Corona. It was technically good and a lot of people I respect love it, but either because I was still thinking about TLT or because it was about a pandemic, I couldn’t really enjoy it. 

Similar themes: post-apocalyptic 

Red, White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston 

Summary: The Prince of England and The son of the president of the US are enemies. They are definitely enemies.

How well it helped me forget: 6/10

Rating explanation: This was such a fun read that it almost distracted me! Tragically I was in such TLT headspace that I kept pausing to read fanfics where Gideon and Harrow switch eyes. 

Similar themes: Enemies to lovers, queer

Troubling Love - Elena Ferrante 

Summary: In true Elena Ferrante fashion, an event spurs an Italian woman to do a lot of internal processing and have some flashbacks. 

How well it helped me forget: 7/10

Rating explanation: This book was a bit disturbing so it distracted me in that way. Plus I love Elena Ferrante’s writing so much that it felt like coming home to an old friend. Unfortunately for me, this is Elena Ferrante’s least queer book. I know because I have now read them all. Her most queer book, The Lying Life of Adults, would have distracted me better. Also just using this space to tell anyone who’s still reading this (probably no one) to go read My Brilliant Friend (and the corresponding Neopolitan Novels). They are not similar to TLT except they are vaguely queer and about competitive friendships where the girls are obsessed with each other in maybe an unhealthy way. Ok so a bit similar. Genuinely my favorite books ever. 

Similar themes: mommy issues, daddy issues, childhood trauma

On This Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous -Ocean Vuong

Summary: A Vietnamese immigrant reflects on his mother, grandmother, and his own life experience in the US. It is poetic and beautiful and will make you cry. 

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: This book is beautiful. It really changes how you think about the US. Plus really interesting stuff about the western way of telling stories. Cannot recommend it enough, though very little to do with TLT. 

Similar themes: queer, stuff about language, childhood trauma, you will cry

**The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon 

Summary: OK sorry none of those were good suggestions for what to read after GTN. THIS is what you should read after GTN. It is an incredibly slow burn wlw enemies to lovers. There are dragons, there is magic, there are very cool female characters who I am in love with. This is like Game of Thrones but if it was good, queer, and only one 800 page book. 

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: Enemies to lovers!!!! What more do I have to say? Also very cool world-building, interesting religious themes. 

Similar themes: wlw enemies to lovers, religious themes, magic, very old wizard milfs, also mlm

*The Traitor Baru Cormorant 

Summary: Baru is a very smart girl in a colonized island. She decides she will play the game of the colonizers, rise up in their society, and destroy them from within. How is that going, Baru? 

How well it helped me forget: 100/10

Rating explanation: This DID make me forget TLT. The only book to truly make me. It made me forget so badly that I wanted my Griddlehark angst BACK. GIVE ME IT BACK I don’t wanna feel sad about Baru anymore. I cannot recommend it more, it is so good, but it did make me ugly cry. It also made me majorly depressed about colonization and the state of the world. 

Similar themes: wlw enemies to lovers, ending will make you cry

*The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson 

Summary: Baru is depressed, has brain damage, throws up a lot, is sad about (redacted), does some things without remembering them because there’s something going on in her brain. Sound familiar? It’s kinda like Harrow the Ninth but more depressing. Oh also a lot of new characters are introduced, old characters come back, a lot of setup for the next book. Euler’s identity shows up out of nowhere?! 

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: Again, it made me forget but only because I was so engrossed in this story. Also kinda depressed. This book is kinda depressing. But Baru is very fun to be around, and there are some other great characters. Marry me, Yawa. 

Similar themes: again, this is just harrow the ninth on steroids, I am in love with every single woman in this series

*The Tyrant Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson 

Summary: Baru makes a new bestie, reunites with an old bestie, and discovers a dead bestie in her brain!

How well it helped me forget: 1000/10

Rating explanation: I loved this book. There were a few scenes I reread >four times. This book makes the other books in the series worth it. 

Similar themes: please see my venn diagram comparing tlt, baru, and A memory called empire for more information

*The Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo 

Summary: A girl has seen ghosts her whole life and because of that, gets accepted at Yale even though she didn’t finish high school. Yale is like a hotspot for ghosts I guess. It’s dark academia, the girl has a secret, the narrator is pretty funny.

How well it helped me forget: 6/10

Rating explanation: I was trying to get distracted from TLT (and Baru at this point), but it’s hard to forget about Harrow and Gideon in a book called The Ninth House (hello?). It was enjoyable and there was some good humor. I’m curious about the next book in the series when it comes out. It is not wlw unless you squint (which I do). 

Similar themes: debatably wlw body posession, nine houses, the ninth one being important, nerd boy who reminds me of pal, woman is revealed to be MUCH older than I originally thought, soul eating, revenants, tombs, necromancy, character named Mercy

The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon 

Summary: It’s the future and London is a hotspot for clairvoyants. Paige is a woman who has a special gift and can jump into people’s bodies and possess them briefly (among other things, this is a terrible explanation). Because of this, she is sent to a secret part of the city where clairvoyants are trained to be monster fighters (but also like, kept there in captivity against their will). Unlike every other book on this list I honestly wouldn’t recommend. I know there are other books in the series. If you’ve read on and it gets better let me know. (I know no one has gotten this far reading this but still)

How well it helped me forget: 4/10

Rating explanation: This one was disappointing because I loved Priory of the Orange Tree so much. This book did not distract me from my griddlehark or barhu feels. There’s also a character named Warden so I thought about SexPal a lot. 

Similar themes: enemies to lovers, ghosts, possession, queer but only background characters 

****The Unspoken Name - A.K. Larkwood 

Summary: A girl is in an isolated cult that wants her to die as a sacrifice (sound familiar?). A definitely not evil wizard helps her escape. She meets a cute necromancer who’s also kinda from a cult. She goes on some gay adventures, gets the help of a morally grey older necromancer (who I’m in love with), and fights with her frenemy. 

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: This is the most similar to TLT on this list. Gideon and Csorwe would be friends. Seriously I recommend this! And the second book comes out soon! And it’s not sad like TLT or Baru! 

Similar themes: sword lesbian + necromancer dynamic, wlw enemies to lovers, cults, tombs, necromancy, character named “the sleeper”, also mlm

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue - V. E. Schwab 

Summary: Adeline Larue made a deal with a demon in 1714 France, because she wanted to see the world and stuff. It backfires of course. She is immortal but no one remembers her. This causes all sorts of problems and makes her very angsty. The narrative flashes between her going through the years, and her falling in love with the only person who will remember her. 

How well it helped me forget: 2/10

Rating explanation: I know people loved this book but I did not. I liked the last 50 pages, I’ll give it that. I wish it was more queer (it was a little queer). 

Similar themes: as I said, a little wlw, immortality, demons, I guess falling in love with someone and them not remembering you now that I think about it 

Sula - Toni Morrison 

Summary: A story about two black women in the 1920’s-1960’s in an Ohio town. It is really great and interesting. It is a book about complicated female friendships (among so many other things that better writers not writing a list no one will read about their TLT feels have outlined) which I love. I was told I should read this after the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante and it did not disappoint. Same vibes. 

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: This was just a great book. Has really nothing to do with TLT

Similar themes: debatably queer 

*Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect,  - Martha Wells

Summary: Muderbot is an artificial construct who just wants to be left alone to watch tv, damnit! It doesn’t want to interact with humans, and it definitely does not want to talk about feelings. Too bad some humans want to become friends with it.

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: These books were so good. They did help me forget! The books are really about having anxiety, making friends, and letting yourself have feelings. Also they are SO FUNNY. Highly recommend. In the way that I love Gideon’s POV, I love Murderbot’s POV

Similar themes: funny narrator, queer characters, space, people who don’t want to deal with their feelings being forced to deal with their feelings

*A Memory Called Empire - Arkady Martine 

Summary: Mahit is sent a dangerous, evil empire to be an ambassador. Lots of beautiful writing about colonialism, assimilation, language, and culture.There is gay angst and funny characters. I am once again in love with a morally grey older woman character. 

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: Yes this book is great and did distract me from gtn (mostly. I did end up reading a great fanfic about wake, g1deon, and pyrrah in the middle but otherwise...). It is part of my holy trilogy of wlw books (this, baru, tlt) that I just read recently. The next book comes out on March 2nd so it will be a good distraction from waiting for Alecto. Like Baru, it made me feel like shit about colonialism but unlike the other two books in my trilogy (redacted but if you’ve read those books you know) didn’t happen. It had a not too sad ending. 

Similar themes: see my venn diagram, but seriously what is going on with brain surgery in these books...

*The Luminous Dead - Cailtin Starling 9/10

Summary: A woman needs money and to get the money she goes on a risky cave dive. It turns out the only contact she has with the rest of the world is a woman who’s kinda a dick. It’s 400 pages of creepy cave diving and these two women talking to each other. It’s creepy and uncomfortable and I loved it. I did spend the whole book thinking it would be such a good story podcast.

How well it helped me forget: 10/10

Rating explanation: It did make me forget about tlt! There are some kinda boring parts but it pays off. The relationship between the two main characters is very interesting (though a bit fucked up). 

Similar themes: wlw enemies to lovers, traumatised characters, shitty moms

[ceridwyn2]

This may seem like a stupid (and unpopular with some) question, with AO3, is there a way to filter out some writers in search results? I’m doing a search through a particular fandom (no, not stating which one, as I’ve seen it across more than just one fandom) at the moment, and there is a lot of crap there amongst the good gems. I’m picky when I read fanfic 😅 , and a lot of times I don’t have time to wade through hundreds/thousands of stories to look for the good ones.

By the way, this ended up being a lot longer than I originally intended 😂 as I was thinking it through. What I like in the stories I read as follows:

A) Be grammatically correct

B) Spelling correct

C) Sentence & paragraph structure correct. Dialogue for each character in separate paragraphs.

D) Point of View: maintain one person’s point of view either for the whole scene or whole story. Especially important if stories are written in first person (I/My/Me) or second person (You/Them/They). These stories are often harder to write and maintain throughout well. If it’s first person, you’re only writing from one character’s point of view: on how *I* see/hear/experience the things around *me*. *I* don’t/can’t know what the other characters are thinking/feeling other than what *I* see/observe in their behaviour, unless they tell *me* what they think/feel. Writing in second person is equally difficult to maintain unless you’re very skilled at it. You’re writing as though your addressing the reader/person directly, as if you know them personally, intimately (does not need to be sexually) by using *you*. / Example: You love to write; you should do it more often. / If you’re of a certain age and remember the ‘choose your own adventure’ child/young adult books of the 70s-90s, they were in a person point of view.

Majority of fanfiction, and fiction in general is written in third person. Third person is like you’re the audience watching a tv show/film/play/book. You’re a non-active participant of what is happening and cannot affect the direction or outcome of the story. The primary subject of the scene is referred to by their name or rank and their pronoun(s), and is often the first character mentioned at/near beginning of the scene / Example: DCI Cassie Stewart walked into the incident room of her Historic Cases Unit, with a quick glance at her officers before heading into her office. It wasn’t long before her second in command, DS Sunil Khan, or Sunny, as he preferred, wrapped on the glass window pane of her office door. / That scene is dictated from her point of view, how she directs those around her and how those around her interact with her. Had it been slightly different, but same scenario: /DS Sunil Khan looked up as the door to the Historic Cases Unit opened and saw his boss, DCI Stewart, make her way to her office, glancing at the team as she did. Having got some new leads on their current case overnight, Sunny headed towards her office to notify her ahead of the day’s briefing. / This obviously changes whose point of view is the primary for that scene to Sunil.

Third person It allows the writer to explore different perspectives and viewpoints of different characters to move the story forward. However, that being said, to avoid reader confusion, pick one character - a main character, supporting character, or a villain - as the primary character of that scene and stick with their focus/perspective for the duration of a scene/chapter. If you want to express multiple character’s reactions or points of view to a specific same scene (like say a team of detectives coming onto a murder scene) and if it makes sense to do so, you can write the scenes same but different as each character will have their own take on what they saw/perceived/when they entered/exited the scene - but each character that you’re writing about will have a separate section, separated by punctuation marks, above and below the change of perspective. However, that can easily come across as too repetitive for the reader. Might be best to put that in a notes page each scene of how each sees the same scene - because you as the audience can visualise the characters as being there, when they arrived and what they observed. When you write the scene, write it from one character’s point of view, but as you have the other characters interacting with them, they can comment on what they saw observed, contributing to the overall pieces of information, without repetition, unless it contradicts or adds to a specific point being made.

E) Age correlateable. By which I mean, if someone’s going to write about established characters that are in their 40s, 50s, etc., their life experiences, maturity, have them act/respond to each other as such. I have read stories - or rather attempted to - but the mental maturity of the author was showing through characters in their 40s, 50s, and it was obvious the writer hasn’t grasped that maturity of the characters. Listen to the character’s voices (what they’re saying, how they’re saying, even what they’re not saying but expressing visually) you’re writing about. This really comes out when writing arguments and sex scenes, btw.

F) Physical/mental characteristics: If a character has an illness or physical disability, or like affecting joints or paralysed limbs, amputations, or anything that affects movement, be aware of that, esp if writing a sex scene (a whole other rabbit hole of bad writing exists there, see next item). If in an argument, you’re trying to express the character throwing something in anger, like a mug/glass, etc., for example, and the character has an injured/disabled arm, their strength to throw is going to be limited. Show the character’s frustration that the action they wanted had less effect at releasing that anger/frustration. If the character has a visual (partial or full blindness) or auditory disability (eg. hard of hearing, deafness in one or both ears, over-sensitive to sound/volume), take that into account. Esp in arguments, if one of the people in the scene has a tendency to mumble, they may not be understood as words run together are not easily decipherable either by sound or lip reading. Mental health /illness (eg PTSD /complex PTSD [cPTSD], depression, anxiety affects physical health responses. If the characters have mental health disorders, be aware and maintain that continuity through the story. Don’t need to mention it all the time but be aware it can affect movement/physical responses, behaviour. And unless you’re House, you don’t need to include every odd, weird, very rare symptom he seems to need to diagnose something for the character 😂 .

G) Sex scenes: some are done so well that it’s seamless and flows well with the other parts of the story, where the intimacy blends well. Others, very much no so. Unless it’s a specifically written PWP (plot, what plot) story, and those can work when written well. Trust me, I’ve read otherwise well-written stories ruined by a sex scene that reads like a bad porn with characters that otherwise had physical limitation(s) in the rest of the story but were suddenly able to pull off manoeuvres of someone 20 years younger and fully able-bodied. Like someone just tacked on an explicit sex scene on that didn’t mesh with the story as if they were two completely different people that happened to have the same names as the ones in the rest of the story.

H) Continuity. Whether your story is short or long, be aware of where your characters are/what they’re doing. Having a sense of timing. Helpful to have a notepad (digital or paper) sometimes to keep track of movement. They can’t be in two concurrent scenes at the same time. Passing off information between the characters; don’t assume one character (or group of characters) knows what the other(s) are doing, unless they are in contact with each other (visual/audio/both/text). Cause/effect. Action/reaction. There may be delayed effects or reactions (over scenes/chapters), but reference them back to the original cause or action and why there was a delay. For example, somebody witnesses or experiences a tragedy, war, fire, sexual assault, accident, or other traumatic experience, and it triggers a delayed emotional or physical response hours, days, months, years later. The character may or may not be able to explain to their partner, colleague, friend what it was that caused effect/reaction. Similarly, following onto earlier example of a thrown glass/mug/vase, if it smashes there could be subsequent injury from ceramic/glass/etc. like a cut finger/palm of hand if picking up the pieces/cleaning the mess. So maybe it requires a bandage or wrap. Continuity would include making further grasping of things discomforting or painful, maybe a comment from another person inquiring what happened later on if they’re noticing a bandage that wasn’t there the last time they saw them.

I) Alternate Universe stories. I don’t mind AUs when done right - so that even if the characters are placed in a different setting, their general personality traits are very recognizable. I’ve read quite a few that nail this perfectly. Others, not so much. When it works, it works. Otherwise it’s just slapping familiar names onto original fic just to get more eyes on a story.