#i want to start writing my fic for this summer exchange but my recipient has not gotten back to me about my clarifying questions

[noneedtoamputate]

💖💘💞 some hearts for the ask game!

Thanks, Sam.

💖 A drabble that made you want 100 more words.

I don't read a lot of drabbles, mostly because if I do like them, I want more! However, a late online friend of mine held a Twelvetide Drabbles ficfest each winter, giving prompts for 12 days and people donating money to charity. It's where I tried my hand at fan fiction for the first time, and there is a lot of good stuff in the collection. It crosses all fandoms, so there was always something for everyone. Check it out.

💘 A fic you couldn't stop reading once you started.

I tried my hand at M/M fic for the first time this Christmas for an exchange. (The recipient said they liked it, and that was very kind of them.) I did a lot of Spierton research before writing and read The Desolate House by Howling_Harpy in one sitting.

💞A fic that led you to being friends with the author.

Sam, I hope it's not too presumptuous to include you as an online friend. (I read Sam's Where the Pieces Go after my BoB rewatch last summer. She graciously let me build on her fic.) Thanks for letting me message you random things that pop in my head every so often and for leaving me thoughtful comments on my fic and for creating emotional works of fiction.

Someone else who I hope is a friend is @shoshiwrites, I don't know how I stumbled onto her blog, but I'm so glad I did. Her Jo Brandt is one of my favorite OFCs in the BoB fandom. One thing I've learned from Sho is I don't just have to keep writing chapter after chapter on my main fic, especially if it's not feeling right. She uses Jo in AUs and has moved her over to Masters of the Air, too. If I create a character, I can do with her what I want, so thanks for showing me that, Sho! She's also someone else who puts up with my random thoughts and questions and is helping Chuck and me pick out an important piece of jewelry in an upcoming chapter.

Fic Recs

[shortmage]

2022 End of Year Revue REVIEW

So, I used the wrong word last year, but hey just another sign that I've lived and learned and grown since then, lol. But no really, I can't help but really proud of myself and what I've managed to write and publish this last year, despite having a pretty rough time this year, especially these last few months. Every like, comment, and kudos and every kind word from someone in the servers I'm in has helped bolster me through to the end of this year and I cannot thank you all enough. Since I published my first fic in like seven years last year, I've published a total of 16 works! That's wild to me!

Just this year, I published 48,061 words but my word count tracker says that I've written 65,773 in total. So, many more things in the works (26 wips in total, I have to say)! I hit over 1,000 kudos on my works this year and I'm almost at 10,000 hits! Those numbers might seem small to anyone else but I'm really proud of what I've been able to do!

So, under the cut, a quick look at all the fics and chapters I published this year! And again, thank you everyone for reading, for commenting, for brainstorming ideas, and generally yelling about our fandom! Here's to next year!

may death find you alive

The Book of Boba Fett. General. Words: 2.074. Boba/Din.

Basically an ask here on Tumblr got me thinking about Boba's relationship with his armor and this emerged from that. Because I have a LOT of thoughts about Boba and his armor.

Relief in Sharp Lines: Chapter Two

Teen. Words: 5,409. Boba/Din.

This was written for the From BobaDin With Love event for the Commitment, Marriage day but that just worked out so well because it was a chapter I'd already been wanting to write. There's a third chapter that will finish this fic up sometime in the future!

On Honeyed Wings

General. Words: 11,856. Boba/Din.

The first chapter was published for BobaDin With Love event and it was originally just going to be that single chapter. But then the AU Bingo cards went out and it gave me another idea and so the next two chapters/the Summer section was written. And I have large chunks of the Autumn and Winter sections written, we just gotta wait and see when I'll get them done!

This Is Just To Say

General. Words: 3,923. Boba/Din.

A follow-up to last year's Father Day fic, I Want Us To Eat Well. I pretty much had wanted to write this one since I wrote the original. It was hard to recapture the lightning in the bottle that was Eat Well but I just wanted to write this fic so bad and let Din reciprocate.

Who We Belong To

Explicit. Words: 6,446. Boba/Din.

And with this fic I continued the tradition I somehow started with Of Good Use of being the "Public Acts of Fucking" writer. I apologize, I don't know how this fic happened (I do it was the BobaDin server's fault) but fuck, if I didn't have fun writing it.

Upon Silent Tethers

Explicit. Words: 3,868. Din/Cobb.

Not my first foray with Cobb, but first with writing explicit DinCobb, which I was nervous about for so long for some reason? Written for the DinCobb server's Fic Challenge/Exchange Event. It was a new experience writing from someone else's suggestion but I like how it turned out, I just hope the recipient and other readers did as well!

Meandros

Explicit. Words: 7,109. Boba/Din/Cobb.

Someone in the BobaDinCobb server said "Boba gets his thighs bitten by the other two" one day and well, my brain latched onto that SO fucking hard. And this was born. As well, oddly enough, a bit of an exploration of gender for myself. You know, as one does.

duty or privilege and but you care

General. Words: 1,436/816. Din/Cobb.

Two short ficlets that were previously published here on Tumblr. I always meant to go back and rewrite them or expand but I thought this would be a good challenge in just letting my writing exist so I went ahead and published them a bit ago to a nice reception. Helped give me more confidence in doing and publishing some flash fic in the future so I don't get bogged down in making sure my fic are "perfect".

And like last year, a few works in progress to look forward to. A few may be familiar from last year's WIP list 😬:

Honeyed Wings, Part Three and Four

Boba/Din Knights AU

Haunted (Darksaber) Din

Sarlacc Boba

Plo Koon Teacher AU

Sharp Lines Part Three

Who We Belong To Follow-Up

Boba/Din/Cobb Ailyn Vel fic (POSSIBLY)

Jedi School Visit (following some reworking post-TBoBF)

Baatir Part Two

Boba/Din/Cobb Western AU

Hannibal AU

and as always assorted NSFW fics

[whentherewerebicycles]

+

[worldsentwined]

Tagged by @shoreslip

Name(s): Kira, Kiraly (on AO3, Dreamwidth, Discord) worldsentwined (Tumblr, Twitter)

Fandom(s): So if we go by “has created fanwork for at some point” I have at least twelve under my belt, maybe more if I’ve made some fanart that isn’t on AO3. Currently my brain is pointing at The Queen’s Thief and The Murderbot Diaries, with a side order of DnD, but I can’t quite give up on my unfinished SSSS works. 

Where you post: Fic? AO3, with a rare ficlet on Tumblr. Fanart mainly goes here, when it happens. DnD character backstory is mostly just on Discord for now, I don’t know if it would be worth it to cross-post.

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos) this year: Contingency Plan 6186 words, 135 kudos

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos) Overall: Borrowed (The YOI fandom was SO good for my self-esteem, this one got like five comments within an hour of posting). 6106 words, 482 kudos

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos) this year: Oh hey, I actually did post a chapter of Every Little Thing He Does Is Magic this year! Time is totally fake. 31906 words, 40 kudos, I swear I will not leave you all hanging with the current chapter forever. 

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos) Overall: If we’re counting ficlet collections, it’s Vignettes with 8437 words and 145 kudos (technically unfinished, as I will keep dumping Emil/Lalli ficlets here if I have them). If we aren’t, it’s still Before It Was Cool even after all this time - 31899 words, 118 kudos, unfinished and increasingly likely to stay that way I’m so sorry y’all. 

Favorite story you’ve written so far: Oh gosh, I don’t know how to choose! Picking some from this year that aren’t already on the list, I’m so proud of how Seven Summers Ago turned out, Soldier, Poet gives me SO many feels, and it was so much fun writing Dear Mx. Machine Manners with Anrea and KalynaAnne!

Fic you were nervous to post: Ehhh I can’t remember any in particular...I think in general I get nervous posting my first fic for a new fandom, and anything for an exchange because I’m worried my recipient won’t like it. 

How do you choose your titles?: Sometimes I pick a silly title for the draft document and it ends up becoming permanent (looking at you, Every Little Thing etc.) Other times I get to the end and need a title, so I either 1) look through the fic for some good line I can steal from myself, 2) look through the source material or song lyrics to find a good line I can steal from someone else, or 3) whine at my friends until someone suggests something brilliant. Once in a while I come up with a random title out of nowhere, or figure out what I want the permanent title to be before I’ve even started writing...that’s what happened with Contingency Plan, I wanted something that resembled the book titles.

Do you outline?: Not usually? Sometimes for multichapter fic I write down ideas for what will happen in future chapters (I did this for Every Little Thing etc and it helped a LOT) but usually I just wing it.

Complete: 140 on AO3...if we’re counting the ficlet collections as single, complete works, which I am because I am too lazy to count chapters right now.

In-Progress: Uhhh...let’s say three incomplete on AO3, two of which have already been mentioned I’m so sorry and an absolute mountain of WIPs that haven’t been posted yet. The other partially-posted one is Piecing Together An Imperfect Archive, which I wrote for a writing challenge in 2019 and decided to continue. I actually worked on it some this summer, maybe one day I will pick it up again. It is original work and has like NO engagement on AO3 though, so external motivation is not high.

Coming soon/not yet started: Listen I do NOT need more WIPs...the QT Bakery AU has been progressing though, slightly morphed into a cross-town road trip AU. And I was working on a sequel for Waking Up during NaNo but lack of planning got me very lost, haha. There are also some ideas lurking from the Murderbot discord, we’ll see what comes of those.

Prompts?: I will never say no to prompts, but fair warning they might languish in my inbox forever.

Upcoming work you’re most excited about: I am excited for the Bakery/Road Trip AU to be done. Does that mean I’m actually working on it?? Debatable.

Tagging: anyone who wants to do this, I never know who has or hasn’t done these already. ^_^;

[caixxa]

📚

I don’t blame anybody for not sending me asks because this has been sitting in my inbox for days. It’s for this ask meme:

Send me a name of a fanfic I wrote And i’ll give you five facts/headcanons about it! Or send me 📚 and I’ll pic a random fic I have to give five facts/headcanons about!

I have had a problem trying to decide what work to talk about. I wanted to choose a football fic but I don’t seem to be able to drag any memories from the time I was writing them so I’ll talk about a hockey rpf fic Russian Techno. It’s a T-rated canon divergence story where Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Bäckström have met briefly a year prior to Nicke’s draft and the story is mostly told in a flashback to that meeting in summer 2005.

The story is partly and very loosely based on my own experience. In the story Alexander persuades Nick to sneak out on the last night of a mini tournament/training camp to go to an illegal warehouse party (he says “old school” because I felt it might be an anachronism!) and they pass the time before it starts on a bar crawl. I had that kind of nights in my late teens. Yes, I’m old enough to have been to raves in abandoned industrial buildings, and I used to do a lot of bar hopping with a friend. And I have danced my way to the fringes of the crowd to make out with a guy. And one of the raves was stopped by the police. So it combines a lot of different party nights to one story.

I chose Sochi as a place because it made sense to me that the camp/tournament would be held in Russia and I thought that a resort town with high sports profile would be a good setting.

I didn’t remember anything about Backstrom’s doping trouble when I started the fic but the research brought it to me and it provided a good dialogue point.  (From USA Today: Sweden's Nicklas Backstrom fails doping test in Sochi Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom was pulled from the Swedish lineup just before the gold medal game against Canada because he failed a doping test for taking the medicine Zyrtec-D to treat his sinusitis.Swedish officials confirmed this at a news conference after Canada defeated Sweden 3-0 in the championship game. "Our opinion is that the IOC destroyed one of the greatest hockey days in Swedish history," said Team Sweden general manager Tommy Boustedt.Team doctor Bjorn Waldeback said Zyrtec-D, which contains pseudoephedrine, is a permitted drug at a certain level, and Backstrom has taken the medication for "several years." Levels are allowed at 150 micrograms per milliliter and Backstrom tested at 190. Allergy medicines. Sure. *cough cough*

I wrote my fic for an exchange and I was paired with my recipient for this pairing only, so it was the only one of their requested pairings I had offered. It was also the one in my offer I had the least ideas for. Basically this one was the only one I could use.

I don’t think I will write an Ovechkin fic any more because I have a HUGE problem with his friendship with Vladimir Putin. Even more now that the Russian president is taking steps to even more dictatorial position as a leader of his country. The news about his government resigning (de facto him firing them, as PM Dmitri Medvedev said this happened on Putin’s request) as he proposes changes to the constitution are very alarming. ABC News story here.

Thank you for the ask!

[scandalsavagefanfic]

Hi! Can you tell us a little about the next update? I’m literally checking everyday to see if you posted.

Hey there! 

I suppose, since you didn’t specify a fic, that you mean in general? I posted that fluffy BruJay thing Tuesday night I’ll be posting a one-shot I’ve written as a birthday gift later today. 

I know I’ve been bad about the Thursday/Sunday posting schedule but I am still trying to post twice a week.

As for updates on current fics...

The next chapter of Therapy is mostly done and will go up sometime this upcoming week.

The next chapter of WAtGP is also pretty much complete but I’m holding off until I post a couple more one-shots that give insight into Nightwing’s and Deathstroke’s feelings about things. One of those one-shots is half done and will probably go up this week too (depending on work and my DCU Bang fic).

As for all my other stories, Therapy and WAtGP are so close to being finished, and I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed by all my wips, so I’m trying a new policy. Therapy and WAtGP are the priority, they each have two chapters left and I know exactly where they’re going. Opportunity Knocks also only has one chapter left and the ask that inspired it has been gathering dust in my drafts for months so I’m hoping to finish that before the month is over.

Once those are finished, I’ll be able to focus on completing some of the smaller ones (and on figuring out what the hell I want to do with Nightmares). 

When I’ve finished up a couple of the smaller ones, I’ll start on the Laid Bare verse, the sequel to Beautiful and Good, and the the next part of the Mutually Beneficial story (if my self control holds, that is... I’m itching to write this one so it may come sooner).

But when all this happens is kind of up in the air. I’m still writing one-shots for ideas that I love, my DCU Mini Bang fic is way bigger than I intended and the draft is due in the next few days so I’m rushing to get it done. I have a lot of work to do on the worst omegaverse to get ready for Omega Jason Week. JayTim MONTH is coming up and, while I’ve already accepted that I won’t be able to take the ambitious track and do something everyday, I still want to do a big chunk of it (I’m hoping it can help me get past this weird self-consciousness I have about writing Tim). I hit 400 followers recently and I’ve been putting off another celebratory prompt thing even though you guys deserve something (especially since I skipped 300) because I know it’s going to take up so much time that I don’t really have at the moment.

On top of all that, while I’m not worried about the JayDick Summer Exchange fic at all because I feel like my recipient wrote their prompts with me in mind, I still have to take time to write it out :D

And that’s my biggest problem really, is time. Because it’s not just my fics that take time and energy. It’s hard for me to just bang out headcanons. For every ask in my inbox that’s more complex than “what’s your favorite cereal” I have to mentally prep to answer, work out an answer, write the answer. I hit 300 followers right after I finished the last of the 200 followers prompt-a-thon and was too exhausted to do anything for it.

I feel bad when it takes forever but, as much as I wish this was my full time job, it isn’t and between asks, fics, responding to comments, events, work, my worryingly codependent family, and the little bit of a social life I have irl... I just occasionally have to take a day or two to veg with my dogs, you know?

My point is, I know I’ve been frustrating the last couple of months (I really missed my word count goal in May... by a lot, which means you got a lot less content than usual) and I’m so sorry. But I AM working on everything, trying to sort out solutions to the way my brain reacts to all these uncompleted works/unanswered asks, and trying to figure out a system of time management that works for me (which has absolutely never been a strength of mine).

Right now it’s the DCU Bang thing that’s stressing me out... I’m good with deadlines but not check in’s. I’m hoping after I’ve got the draft submitted (probably last minute on the 26th) that it will take a lot of the pressure off.

So I’m sorry and please bare with me <3

[runicmagitek]

Writing Progress

Welp, last week was an emotional and physical roller coaster for me, so this is a late writing progress update for last week, but hey, better late than never.

So Press Start assignments were revealed today! I um... wrote four (4) fics. Yup. Like remember how I said I'd maybe write a treat if I had time last week? Yeah, Sunday happened and I saw two pinch hits for fandoms I knew I could write for and guess what I decided to do. I wish I had like, an extra day to work on both and also, you know, not have an emergency procedure putting me out of commission for a whole day, but here we are, but I'm happy with how they both came out. And so far, the recipients liked what I did for them! Well, I haven't heard back from one of them... the super smutty one. I'm just going to sit anxiously in a corner and stare at my email until I get a comment.

Once authors are revealed, I'll share them here alone with cross-posting them to FFN. Good times.

I'm also happy to see some of the kiss prompts pop up in my inbox! I already have ideas for them and will work on them this week... hopefully. You know, health permitting. If you haven't sent a prompt and would like to, totally check out the post and send me an ask! I love doing this kind of thing :)

Phew, now that Press Start is over, I can work on editing my Rinoa fic and get to posting that. Which... I originally wanted to post it by the end of summer, but Press Start was kind of A Thing™, plus with my health nonsense relapsing out of remission... yeah, if I can post it before NaNo, I'll be happy.

I'm also tempted to sign up for Yuletide. That's been one of those exchanges I've eyed from a distance and really wanted to sign up for, but wow, it's kind of intimidating. Plus the timing is a bit bleh with NaNo going on, but I could try to make it work if assignments go out before November. Like bang it out in October and edit in December before posting. I really love how it focuses on small fandoms, because that's 100% my jam and I'm all about writing for more small fandoms. It's something to think about, anyways.

I'm excited about NaNo. I'm also nervous, because I'm writing something that is a bit outside of my box in terms of what I usually write, but maybe that's what I need right now. Maybe I need to write about two teenager girls being silly and fluffy while juggling senior year of high school. It might not be super deep or whatever, but it'll be like comfort food after a rough day. I hope others feel the same way when I eventually get around to posting it hahaaaaa knowing my track record it will be three years after the fact and the fandom/ship will no longer be relevant, but whatever, I’m still writing it.

Also, for any of you doing NaNo, feel free to add me as a buddy! I'm also runicmagitek over there :)

[coaldustcanary]

2016 Fanfic Masterpost

I’ve seen some posts from folks I follow in a number of different fandoms doing a bit of an end-of-the-year writing roundup, and I really like that idea, so here we are. 

I’ve been fannish for a long time now - over 20 years at this point, which is more than a little terrifying to consider, let me tell you. But my fannish writing has been very intermittent over those years for the most part, and my participation in fandom was relatively narrow, particularly when I was working on my PhD. Through 2014 I wrote, on average, one fanwork a year for the previous 5 years, as usually I could be counted upon to participate in at least one A Song of Ice and Fire and/or Game of Thrones fanfic exchange, but not much beyond that. I also wrote a smattering of fic prior to 2009, much of it lost to the ages besides some random pieces I managed to get up on AO3. (I really need to take some time to go back and properly back-date those older works, oof. And dig up a few more on LJ communities that I couldn’t find when I did my original looking, if I can.)

But in the past year and a half or so I’ve come back to fandom in a much more enthusiastic way than I have since I was a teenager, thanks to falling hard for the Dragon Age games and then faceplanting into Once Upon a Time fandom. And in the past seven months I’ve written if not a lot of fic, definitely more than I have in a long, long time. It’s been a trip, in both good and bad ways, but I’m glad to be doing it.

The master list in chronological order with brief commentary:

Always Already (Dragon Age: Inquisition) Incomplete Planned eventual M rating, nothing above T in the current chapter tumblr link, AO3 link, 6025 words The Academic Conference AU that started it all this summer. I just could not let this headcanon go until I wrote this first chapter. I haven’t touched it since then for a variety of reasons, but even if I never get back to it I’m pleased with the chapter that exists and it got me back writing. It’s meant to be a massive DA:I ensemble AU, with this particular multi-chapter story involving some eventual Female Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford, but mostly I just want to finish this particular arc so I can just write snippets in the AU every time I need to say something cathartic about working at a university.

Hunger (Dragon Age: Origins) Rated G, Gen, Alistair & Female Brosca friendship tumblr link, AO3 link, 1835 words A short, introspective piece about one of my Dragon Age OCs. When you grow up without enough food, hungry all the time, what happens when the effects of blood magic make you even hungrier? Natia thinks about her life and her choices and finds common ground with her fellow Grey Warden.

Before a Fall (Game of Thrones) Mature, Yara Greyjoy/Daenerys Targaryen, GoT 6x09 post-ep scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 2698 words Written for the Game of Ships Seven Hells Challenge based off of the prompt “Pride”. I watched 6x09 on the Sunday night when it aired and swooned over Yara and Dany’s interaction. I wrote this intimate encounter the following Monday evening in one sitting. I ship Iron Dragon so very, very much. This fic took only about a month to become my most commented and kudosed fic ever on AO3, and I’m pretty happy with it.

Savior Fair - Princess (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Captain Swan tumblr link, AO3 link, 2501 words My first OUAT fic, based on the August 2016 OUAT positivity challenge that tlynnwords put together. (I put all my pieces for this in a single work on AO3 called Savior Fair, since they’re Emma-centric.) Fluffy CS pillow talk set post-S5 before I’d much looked at S6 spoilers. I like this fic’s premise and flow, but I totally missed the mark with Emma’s voice in it. Her voice is tough for me, but I think I’m getting better.

Savior Fair - Smile (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, SwanFire tumblr link, AO3 link, 938 words My goal with the OUAT positivity fics was to focus on the best parts of Emma’s relationships with other characters. I think Neal is a fascinating character (and though I don’t ship SF, I’ve been a fan of Michael Raymond-James for a long time and I think he brings a lot of interesting nuance to the guy) and I think a lot about the time they spent together and what it would have meant to 17 year old Emma to have someone smile at her and mean it.

Savior Fair - Heart (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Captain Swan, 4x12 missing scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 1274 words I needed a scene to bridge the gap between the conclusion to the showdown in the clock tower and Emma replacing Killian’s heart in his chest. Just a little feels-laden ficlet. (Apparently the original script had a line in the latter scene with Emma saying she felt strange holding his heart, and Killian replying that she’s already held it for ages, though I didn’t know that until after I wrote this bit, and it tends in a similar direction.)

Savior Fair - Trust (Once Upon a Time) Rated T, Emma & Milah, 5x14 missing scene tumblr link, AO3 link, 1647 words The last of the positivity prompts I got to (August is a tough time with the semester beginning, so much for my ambitions) and the one of which I’m the most proud. I have A Lot of Feelings about Milah and the way she’s treated in a many corners of OUAT fandom, and I’m still really mad about 5x14. Emma and Milah needed more time to talk. So they mostly talk about what they have in common. (And, honestly, Killian is only a small part of their similarities.) I am certain they would be friends, given the chance.

Steadfast (A Song of Ice and Fire) Rated T, Stannis Baratheon/Davos Seaworth, canon divergence/future fic AO3 link, 4071 words I did three fanfiction exchanges due in September this year, and I wrote this fic for thedevilchicken for the Game of Thrones exchange. Despite the name, this one is open to both book-verse and show-verse fics, and this one is an AU of the former. For some reason I seem to really like writing Stannis-as-king future AUs with a Davos POV, and nothing says Stannis/Davos loyalty than a retelling of a shockingly sad Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale about a broken toy that is loyal to his distant and unattainable love until he’s melted into scrap. (Spoiler alert: This version has a happier ending.)

Distracted (Dragon Age) Explicit, Anders/Karl Thekla AO3 link, 3094 words Smutty roleplaying with spanking written for green_sphynx for The Black Emporium, a Dragon Age rarepair exchange. Playful and porny PWP set sometime well before everything was terrible in Dragon Age 2.

Starstruck (Agent Carter/Doctor Who) Rated G, Gen, Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble, Peggy Carter & Angie Martinelli tumblr link, AO3 link,  3425 words Written for Grey_Cardinal for the Crossovering exchange. Ten and Donna cause a bit of a scene at the restaurant where Angie works. I quite like the premise of this fic and it was fun to write, though I really ought to have come up with more for Peggy to do in it.

Spectator Sport (Once Upon a Time) Rated G, Gen, Hooked Queen friendship, future fic tumblr link, AO3 link, 1063 words After having a really crummy day a few months back, I asked for some fic prompts (pairings and a word/idea) to take my mind off it and my lovely friends delivered. This is just a little vague future fic based on mryddinwilt’s prompt for Hooked Queen + parenting. However much they viciously snark at one another, I think they understand one another pretty well, too. And the mental image of them enduring discomfort to watch Henry’s high school soccer game was too good to pass up.

Wrapping (Game of Thrones) Rated T,  Yara Greyjoy/Daenerys Targaryen, University AU tumblr link, AO3 link, 1379 words Written for the Game of Ships “Until Hell Freezes Over” holiday/winter-themed event. I’m actually the advisor for a service learning club at my university, and those valiant students get run ragged as they try to finish up the term and also do good for their communities. Somehow I imagine that Dany would be that kind of overachiever, and Yara would just as clearly be her dubious but devoted girlfriend. I’ve been leery before of writing student AUs because I’m a teacher and it feels a bit odd, but I liked this AU a lot and might come back to it for writing more Iron Dragon because I’m sure canon is going to be a shit-show next season.

Clarity (Lucifer) Rated T, Gen, Linda Martin & Mazikeen friendship, 2x07 missing scene AO3 link, 2785 words I participated in Yuletide for the first time this year (yes, I know, I’ve somehow been in fandom for-freaking-ever and never done it before) and I matched on one of my newish fandom delights, Lucifer. Though this fandom is growing and probably won’t be eligible next year, sign-ups were before most of the season had aired, and my recipient, Lenore, requested Linda and Maze having a conversation about Heaven and Hell. Well, without getting too deep in to spoiler territory, canon pretty definitively implied that such a conversation occurred sometime between 2x07 and 2x08, so I decided it needed writing. Linda is my favorite character on Lucifer, and Maze is an utter gift. Writing this was a bit stressful (I was making last-minute edits the night before reveals from a hotel room) but I’m happy to have written it and received some lovely comments from folks, including the recipient.

So, all told, per my AO3 stats page I wrote 32,736 words of fanfic this year, which is far more than I’ve ever written in a year before. I also am starting to get a grip on what my strengths and weaknesses are as a writer, which is pretty wild but also motivating. My general approach to writing has long been “use deadlines as motivation, panic at the last minute, write frantically, throw it at the world like a grenade and take cover” and while I’m a good enough writer for that not to be as terrible as it sounds, I know I could be a lot better if I continue to change my approach to writing and write more frequently and steadily. Honestly, because I’m an academic by trade, this applies to my professional writing as well, and fanfic is good practice for me to refine my writing habits, which have vastly improved this year, even if they’re still not where I want them to be in the end. Here’s hoping I can keep it up in 2017.

[velcroboyfriends]

2016 Year in Fic

I really enjoyed doing this write-up last year, and damn, a lot has changed! So I thought I’d do this again and take stock of my writing this past year.

I was ridiculously prolific last year, but due to a variety of factors I really didn’t keep up that volume this year. As someone who doesn’t often feel the spark to write, what kept me going this year were fic exchanges and prompt memes. I feel fortunate to have communities like AO3 and DW to keep me writing even when I’m drained and anxious and feel incapable of it. 

So here are the results:

Fic List

1. Miles High - 1853 words. It’s quite telling about my early-2016 experience that I didn’t write a single word of fic between January and April. Disaster had struck in my work life, but I made the decision to sign up for Smut Swap 2016 anyway, and I was glad for it. This was my first Poe/Finn/Rey fic; we’ll see if I have another in me when Episode VIII rolls around. I just really wanted to write the three of them fucking in a spaceship, okay?

2. Slash: Romance Without Boundaries - 2516 words. I have only the AO3 volunteer community to thank/blame for this pile of trash. They play a game called Slash, in which competitors are challenged to write cracky pairings in weird situations. This led to me writing such pairings as Batman/Grantaire, James Bond/Remus Lupin and Will Graham & Tigger, as well as a very bizarre song parody about Aaron Burr’s encounters with a Drumpf-shaped sex doll. idk you guys. I’m sorry.

3. Bluebeard’s Wives - 1661 painstaking words. I wrote this for Not Prime Time 2016, and I’m really glad the exchange forced me to, because otherwise I would never have written the work I’m most proud of. I wanted to write something dark and twisted and beautiful, and to capture Hannibal’s inner monologue with all its vivid imagery, and somehow I halfway managed it. This was the first fic that ever earned me a place in a fandom spotlight post, and I’m very proud of that. It was my first Hannibal work and will probably be my last, but I enjoyed it.

4. On Not Being Alone - 4103 words. It took me til August this year to write something born purely of the desire to write, not a deadline. I’d been binge-watching Critical Role all summer, and after I reached the scene that precedes this fic in canon, I found myself in a whirlwind of writing. I wrote this near-obsessively over the course of 24-ish hours, and it was incredibly exciting to want to write again. It’s just a PWP, but it was so refreshing.

5. In the Middle of Summer - 2344 words. This was the only Richlee fic I wrote all year, and I’m sad to say it’ll probably be my last. There’s a chance I might pick up interest in participating in the fandom again - and I still get stupid hearteyes over the both of them - but the spark has just waned. I wrote this for a challenge for Richard’s birthday, and without that event I probably wouldn’t have written it. However, I did have fun with one last hurrah.

6. Between the Two of Us - 4584 words. Aand this is where I embraced my trash-goblin self and started writing Critical Role RPF. Even while I was gorging on CR all spring and summer, it never occurred to me that people would write RPF about the cast until I stumbled upon the awesome Five Minute Break. At first I was like ‘ew no’ but then I read it and was hooked. My giant crush on Liam melded with my new-found fascination with sub!Matt and a new fandom obsession was born. This was also my first seriously kinky fic!

7. Girls’ Night - 3218 words. This was partially written because of the criticalkink kink meme, but also because I felt bad leaving Marisha out of the fun in my Liam/Matt fic. It was my first time writing any sort of femslash, and I loved it.

8. I’ll Pencil You In - 3107 words. I entirely wrote this because of criticalkink and the little Liam/anyone reverse-prompt I set up in there. Normally I would never have thought to write Liam/Sam, but I ended up enjoying it a lot, primarily because of how the power dynamic shifted their characters. It was also my first time writing kink negotiation, which was really fun.

9. Break Time - 996 words. Again, this was written for criticalkink. The prompt got into my head and wouldn’t go away. I tend to struggle with writing kissing, so this was a fun little challenge to write a fic that simply consisted of the build-up and the kiss.

10. Like the Bright Morning Stars - 3855 words. This was written for Yuletide. I was scared of this fic for the longest time, because smut is (obviously) my favored terrain and my recipient specifically said they did not want any sexual content. So for once I had to focus on plot and emotions and world-building, and that is HARD, Y’ALL. It’s very easy to churn out some sex; not so much to craft love. But it really paid off, because I loved this and it seems like a lot of other people did as well!

11. Into My Arms - 1843 words. Another prompt-fill from criticalkink. I had a lot of fun writing something simple and sweet and in a position/circumstance I had never written before. I also enjoy a good text convo in fic, so that was fun as an opener.

Total Word Count: (so far) 30,080 words. 

Overall Thoughts: Word-count-wise, I wrote less than half of what I wrote last year, but just as many individual works, which is pretty good. And it’s far, far better than 0, which had been my usual word-count for the past five years before last year. If last year was an exercise in writing for fun, this year was an exercise in pushing myself to write even when I was tired or sad or anxious, and I learned that I’m capable of a lot more than I thought.

Personal Best Story: 100% Bluebeard’s Wives. The vignette style, the imagery, the spare narration, the nuance - I’m proud of every word. If I ever write something better than this, that will be an enormous victory.

Personal Favorite Story: I really like I’ll Pencil You In. It was the first CR RPF story where I really felt like I knew what I was doing, and I really like that even in a scene of bondage and domination, there’s palpable softness, intimacy and sweetness between two friends.

Most Underappreciated Story: I was expecting a lot more traffic on Miles High, because I was writing a really popular pairing in a very popular fandom - but I suppose that when there are a lot of works going up in a fandom at once, it can be even harder to get recognition than it is when you’re writing for a very small fandom. And I don’t think my heart was really in it, which probably showed in the writing.

Most Popular Story: By hits alone, it’s On Not Being Alone, which makes sense, as it’s a simple PWP about a popular pairing in a small-but-growing fandom. By kudos, it’s Like the Bright Morning Stars, which is nice, given that I really didn’t think it was that good until it got such a fervent response. It also wins for kudos-per-hit, with ~19% of viewers giving kudos.

Story with the Sexiest Moment: Girls’ Night, man. Every inch of that is ridiculously sexy to me. The face-sitting, the manhandling, the dualingus... yes. Last year in my response to this question I mentioned that I felt my sex writing was getting a bit stale, and in the latter half of this year I feel I rose to the challenge and really mixed things up.

Most “Holy Crap That’s Wrong Even for Me” Moment: Basically all of Bluebeard’s Wives. There’s gore, there’s murder, there’s twisted relationship dynamics... yeahh. I also felt very wrong writing CR RPF, and continue to feel a bit weird about it - but I love it too much to give it up.

Story That Shifted My Perceptions of a Character: I felt like I really got to know Hannibal through writing Bluebeard’s Wives. I began to understand his way of thinking. I also really changed my perceptions of Sam through I’ll Pencil You In, by exploring him in a completely unfamiliar situation and entering subspace for the first time.

Most Fun to Write: Writing those crackfics for the Slash games was really fun, but also nerve-wracking. It’s hard to say if anything I wrote was purely fun with no worry involved, but I probably enjoyed myself the most writing my two Liam/Sam works, because they’re so good for one another and Sam is just a ball of joy.

Hardest Story to Write: Bluebeard’s Wives was a slog through hell as far as the writing process went. When I was done I was happy, but up until that point I had no clue what I was doing and nothing felt good enough. I considered every single word to within an inch of its life. But it all paid off, I think.

Favorite OC: The only OC I wrote this year was the nameless girl from Bluebeard’s Wives. I liked her, though - she was defiant until the end. She didn’t buy into Hannibal’s shit.

Biggest Surprise: Every moment of my Slash game fics was a surprise. Buffy almost getting the Half-Blood Prince’s book, Batman rescuing Grantaire, Hannibal eating Voldy, “The World Was Wide Enough” being rewritten about a Drumpf sex doll, AVPM!Ron seducing Voldemort with Red Vines, Will Graham shooting Tigger, James Bond kissing Remus, Jack Sparrow rescuing Enjolras... it’s all fucking weird and surprising, and that’s the beauty of the game.

Most Unintentionally Personal Story: I really can’t say any of my works this year ended up very personal. Perhaps what’s personal is how many of my kinks and trash-goblin shipping tendencies I revealed.

Favorite Lines/Scenes:

The morning-after scene in Between the Two of Us feels very true to Matt and Liam’s dynamic, and very tender.

I loved writing kink negotiation in I’ll Pencil You In.

From my Slash fics: “There were many reasons why Buffy always avoided the Hogwarts library. One was that studying was, like, so 1996, and that any sixth-year worth her salt (liberally sprinkled in a circle to ward off whatever) did not bother with books. The other was that creepy librarian who kept telling her it was her destiny to save the world from vampires or whatever. That was super species-ist, for one thing - didn't Professor Giles know that anti-vampire bias was waaay 15th-century? Buffy had hoped the world had come further than that. It was sad enough when that werewolf professor had to quit without her adding to the whole problem. As if.”

From Bluebeard’s Wives: “He cooks a wonderful meal for the three of them. He offers to give up his portion. He washes their hair in the bath. He washes their feet. He sketches Abigail into a copy of Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes, Bedelia by her side, holding the figure of Holofernes - Hannibal himself, in this copy, although he has never been a self-portraitist - as Abigail slices at his neck. Blood sprays forth in a fountain. Will hangs it upon the wall unsmiling. He brings home a scrappy little spinone, the lovely thing's ears drooping with long fur. Will says the city is no place for a dog. And none of it is enough.“

All of Girls’ Night. Just all of it.

Lines/Scenes I’d Like to Change:

Basically all of Like the Bright Morning Stars. But it seemed to work for readers, so what do I know?

I’d like to let Finn shine more in Miles High; ditto for Laura in Girls’ Night.

The pacing in Break Time could have been a little more leisurely; same for Into My Arms.

Top Five Scenes I Wish Could Be Illustrated:

Vox Machina taking the stage in Like the Bright Morning Stars

Hannibal’s copy of Judith Slaying Holofernes in Bluebeard’s Wives

Basically all of Girls’ Night

James Bond kissing Remus and then being decked by Sirius

The kiss from Break Time

2017 Writing Ambitions:

I just want to keep writing, be it fic or RP or the possibility of non-fannish fiction. I’m not going to set an ideal wordcount, because I’ll end up disappointed, but I just want to write more than 0 words. And I want to write at least one thing I’m truly proud of.

Fic ideas for this year:

Sequel to Like the Bright Morning Stars - titled Like the Rolling Waters and in the works for SFBB 2017!

The last two reverse-prompts from criticalkink: Liam/Matt playful jokeyness and Liam/Laura/Travis threesome (!!!!)

MOAR POLYMACHINA

And whatever the hell I think of next!