#i wrote a 75k word fic for you

[lovinggreeniehours]

taglist (feel free to tell me if you want in or out of the taglist!)

@ruththe-reckless @g8dess @summerpuppy @prismaticuniverses

on april 1st, 2019, a boy time traveled from the past and witnessed the aftermath of an apocalypse that wiped out the entire earth, reducing every human being to ash

every human being but one, whose corpse seemed eerily intact

on april 2nd, 2019, the corpse woke up

[theyoungeragrippina]

✨ 15 gentlebeard fic recs ✨

i have spent the last month trawling the pages of ao3 for you, dear reader, to find the best ofmd fics. all the works on this list:

are longer-form (generally 40k+)

have no steddyhands (simply not my thing)

are generally, all around brilliant (well-written, had me kicking my feet and giggling, laughing, or crying)

are complete!

part 2 and part 3

A Heart Unsated by roughwinds

48k, explicit

"Stede Bonnet has just moved into Orange Crescent. There’s a house on the corner, opposite Stede’s own, with a garden full of flowers and a gleaming motorbike on the driveway. He’s forgotten to buy sugar.

Edward Teach has his morning disturbed by his new neighbour. Enamoured at first sight, he invites Stede round for a chat, and then another, and then another.

This is the story of them."

man i normally avoid fics with lots of alma and louis in them because its just not for me, but literally every second of the family bonding in this was so wholesome i was forced to change my entire mind.

all you left me was a pearl by @sightofsea

88k, mature

"1717. The Golden Age of Piracy. Stede Bonnet sets about wooing the love of his life through any means necessary.

Things do not go as planned."

every day i wish for a precise memory erasing potion to be invented so i can read this again for the first time. i would devour like 2000k more words of this if it was offered to me. brilliant.

forgive & forget by @fool-for-luv

44k, mature

"It hits him then, like a wave breaking on sand, loud as thunder when it crashes, then trickling away into little rivulets flowing back home, murmuring one word over and over and over. Ed.

The problem is, Stede doesn’t recall ever having met anyone named Ed."

so sweet and wonderful, and i wish there was more.

#gentlebeard is trending! by regional_catastrophe

41k, teen

"In which Stede accidentally convinces the pirating world that Gentlebeard (or Blackbonnet or Stedward; there's a poll) is canon, reunites his crew, and gets his boyfriend back."

hilarious & silly & great, but also the most compelling notes of any fic i've ever read. a proper learning experience.

if music be the food of love (then darling, you're a feast) by @fool-for-luv

107k, unrated

"“Hey, so, those two, right, they get together in the end?” Ed asks.

“I would protest spoiling it, but I think it's rather obvious, isn't it?” Stede says. His nose wrinkles as he smiles. “The tension is certainly there from the beginning. It just takes them a while to get there.”

“Good. Would have been a shit story otherwise.""

i love sassy stede and i love ed who is a grump and i love that they share one single braincell at any given time.

If You Were Mine to Keep by @mysterybees

162k, explicit

"Caught between the gallows and the end of an English sword, Ed accepts the Act of Grace: marry into the aristocracy, leave the English ships alone, and live to sail another day. But who in their right mind would ever agree to marry the mad devil pirate Blackbeard?"

Worth every second of tiredness I felt after pulling an all nighter to finish reading.

It's Only Right by hexuponye

53k, explicit

"A modern AU based on Imagine Me & You, in which Edward is a florist who does the flowers for Stede's wedding."

mary gets to be a little silly sometimes too as a treat.

pliocene by unfortunatelyobsessed

75k, mature

""man, it's just ocean for miles.” Ed motions out to the waves, where there is no sign of any sort of ship, their small dinghy pulled far up on the sand. “I told you when the clouds look like seagulls you take fuckin' cover. Goddamn ocean mutinied me.”"

william golding wishes he did something this brilliant and significant when he wrote Lord of the Flies. the best deserted island story.

quite a career shift by @stedesparasol

157k, explicit

"Stede's been posting book reviews on Youtube for two months now. It's taken him that long to finally get a comment, and the person it comes from is rather unexpected."

rip stede you would've LOVED booktube. furious i can never really watch his content.

Semaphore by komodobits

124k, explicit

"Talking things through as a crew is easier said than done, and honest communication has never really been Stede’s strong suit. When it comes to Ed, he is willing to try."

so good that i was properly and truly laughing and gasping and 'oh no-ing' out loud while i read it.

Such Joie de Vivre by @louciferish

94k, explicit

"Professional thief Edward Teach is tired of hole in the wall apartments, shitty pub food, and skipping town every few months to keep the cops off their tail. He’s well past the age he meant to flee the country and retire, and all he needs is One Last Job to set him up for life. When he hears that some rich bastard outside of town has just the sort of treasure he’d trade his good knee for, Ed sets out in disguise to get the lay of the land."

i (so so foolishly) avoided reading this for a while because i simply didn't think i was one for nanny aus. i was so, terribly wrong. don't make the same mistakes i did. showstopping. incredible stuff.

The Chains of Flowers are Fragile Things by @grandmastattoo

62k, explicit

"Stede can't see the shop he's inherited from his late father as anything other than a burden, another insult added to a life that's going nowhere fast. Then he meets the charismatic man who owns the tattoo studio next door, and Stede finds himself forced to consider the idea of home."

maybe i love tattoo shop owner ed fics, sue me. i love this stede and i love his embarrassing mistake tattoo.

The Love Experiment by karawrites

65k, mature

a married at first sight (aus) au. i didn't know i needed it until i read it.

Water/line by @the-gentleman-mermaid

60k, teen

"During a raid on a smuggler ship, Ed finds a merman named Stede locked in the hold."

So good that I would actually pay the author real person money to do a similar story but where Ed is the mermaid.

Where the Daylight Begins by @xoxoemynn

116k words, explicit

"Modern day AU slow burn featuring a pining Ed, a clueless Stede, found family, roughly a million animals, and a very magical house."

This one sort of gave me House on the Cerulean Sea vibes; it was so much fun and genuinely necessitates a proper use of the word whimsical.

[starquestingfordrarry]

A very Drarry 2023

This year was my entry into fandom and fanfiction, and what a wonderful thing to have happened! I started reading drarry in March, never thinking I'd write it. Then, by July, I found myself signed up for two different fests and writing every day. I hadn't written like that since I was a kid. And I'm not sure I've ever experienced community like this. I've made dear friends and keep making more, and I'm making things again, and I'm so happy to have this little pocket of joy, and -- really, there aren't words for it. So, here are some stats and recs instead. Read: 5.4 mil words of Drarry Wrote: 150k new words Made: way more art than I have in a long time

My favorite thing I wrote this year is Half Sick of Shadows (E, 39k) (And something that hasn't been revealed yet)

The thing I had the most fun writing was Draco L Malfoy (the L stands for legs) (E, 1.8k)

The very first thing I wrote this year (and first fic I ever wrote, period), was Simulation Theory (E, 35k)

The last thing I wrote this year was Eyes All Aglow (G, 3.4k)

Here are 5 fics 10 fics I read and didn't stop thinking about:

Hugo Granger-Weasley, Junior Investigator by @porcelainheart3 | T | 1.5k

it's just so fucking cute

You're Horrible (and I love it) by @vukovich | E | 11k

Draco's voice is perfect. Also, corset

Wonderful Electric (cover me in you) by @lqtraintracks | E | 10k

This was one of those "idk if I like this thing but I trust this writer" and ho-boy, nothing you could have said to me would have convinced me I'd find watersports heartwarming before this

AITA for being "obsessed" with my childhood nemesis? by @rainstormradish | M | 4k

everything about this is brilliant, every formatting detail, every nod to reddit culture. BRILLIANT!

Playing for Keeps by @peachpety | G | 6k

I'm still not sure what makes me smile harder: Draco in his postman outfit, or Harry's obsession with his marbles. The whole thing is wholesome as fuck

Only for October by @dodgerkedavra | E | WIP

This is still a WIP, and I don't care, I'd be perfectly happy rereading what's already here forever. They're just, they're so in love, and so hot, and so troubled. climbs the walls

Would you still love me if I was a cloak? by @apricitydays-lazynights | E | 2k

It was a joke and then it wasn't and now it's a gorgeous piece of fic that I think only you could write, apri

Wake Up, Harry! by @arminaa8 | G | 200 words

it is so many things I love packed into 200 words

Rookie Moves by peu_a_peu | E | 75k

it is just so, so fucking funny. Unhinged Draco at his finest

Dating Draco by @itsphantasmagoria | M | visual novel

I still haven't gotten up off the floor from this. It's a whole fucking game. A WHOLE. FUCKING. GAME. AND, it's a whole fucking game with a fantastic story and gorgeous art. If you haven't played it yet, what are you evening doing?

Finally, artists who's work made me smile and drool this year:

@littlewinnow, @basiatlu, @itsphantasmagoria, @fictional, and @meemoop

Thank you, everyone, for creating and sharing your passion with this community. Happy New Year!!

[menlove]

i’m new to the whole beatles rpf (i am an rpf veteran though i wrote 75k words of michael jackson fanfiction in middle school and 15k of queen freshman year of hs 😐) so what are like the tenets of beatles rpf. what’s the need to know.

YELLS that's so fucking valid of you I can't even lie

and HMMMM okay I can only speak for mclennon bc I observe the other ships from a distance but don't chomp at the bit about it but here's some things that come up A Lot in fics

john & paul met on july 6, 1957 at a church garden party. john played "come go with me" & got the words wrong while paul watched from the audience and Fell In Love. after, they officially met. paul took john's guitar, tuned it, then flipped it upside down (he's left handed) and played 20 flight rock perfectly. john was smitten and the rest was history

oh shit edit I forgot! john used to climb the drainpipe into pauls room. VITAL info that comes up so often

they had group wanking sessions (beat the meatles lmfao) & they'd call out the names of various female celebrities during it (john would apparently call out male names as a joke to throw people off which 💀)

STUUUUUU. we love stu, paul hates stu. stuart sutcliffe was a boy john met at art college & he became His Boy Bestie instead of paul for a while which had paul FUMING. john & stuart lived together for a while & in mclennon lore john was in love with him (& I do also think that lmao). which brings us to

HAMBURG. in 1960 the beatles went to hamburg & stayed several months in the world's dingiest room. they shared bunk beds & stayed up all night playing music & took pills (prellies) to stay the fuck awake. stuart went with as their bassist & paul hated him soooo bad so bad. in part bc stu did not take the band very seriously & was not good at playing and paul is a notorious perfectionist. fun hamburg facts! here stuart met astrid, his future fiance. and she took them to a gay bar lmao. also, at one point, in the most heinous and toxic move, john walked in on paul fucking a girl and lost it. he cut up her clothes with a pair of scissors and then started stabbing the wardrobe 💀 normal behavior. the whole thing was just drugs and sex and music. great fic setting always.

eventually they got back. george was deported first bc he was underage & then paul and the drummer lit a fucking condom on fire where they were staying and got deported too. john stayed an extra bit & when he got back didn't tell anyone. in the meantime, stu stayed in germany w astrid and paul Got A Job at his dad's insistence bc they all thought the band was over when john didn't show back up. but eventually he did. and made paul pick between the job and the band...... or rather, his dad and john. and paul picked john.

Some Months Later john took paul to paris for his 21st birthday. 200000000000 fics about this. all legendary all gay.

stu died </3

there's barely any fics of the touring days which is tragic I think there should be 60000. I guess the only thing that comes up semi often from that era is that they played lovers in a play, pyramus & thisbe, and paul named two kittens pyramus & thisbe. and gave pyramus (the character he played) to john. not joking at all.

next biggest Canon McLennon Event everyone brings up is lsd. george & john got into lsd first & ringo tried it as well. paul was extremely reluctant to and this caused a bit of a rift between him and john. eventually though, they did trip together and the first night is McLennon Fic Lore. john accidentally dropped acid in the studio (smth he avoided) & was out of it. almost jumped off the roof. paul took him back to his home (cavendish) & took lsd with him. there's a lot to this trip I can't even summarize but it was gay and there's lots of fics abt this incident

was Not the first time paul took lsd though which brings us to the Next Big Tropey Players: tara browne and robert fraser. both are men paul hung around in 1967 and there's looots of fics where he was gay w them and john is Seething

india! I'm not an india truther so I don't really get into these but the fandom at large thinks Something Happened during the beatles' 1968 trip to india. this usually takes the form of john confessing to paul and them fucking and then paul turning him down. background lore for many many breakup fics

and that's the stuff that tends to come up Most Often. there's so much lore I could probably write an entire novel & a lot of it gets referenced but these are some of the biggest players lmao

[canon-in-too-deep]

End of a Series, and Deleted Dinner With Gortash Scene

After over 75k words, I closed out the last part of my Don't Forget You Love Me series on AO3 yesterday. It's a light hearted Baldur's Gate 3 fic starring Gortash x Tav that started out as a rom com and ended with family fluff. The final chapter was a small scene for the sequel The Fluffy Raccon (a fluffy one shot collection after the main story ends), and I just had so so much fun with these characters, I wanted to make a post here to mark a personal milestone. 🦝🦝🦝 The last year, I've gotten back into fandom, which led me back to writing, and writing has led me to typesetting...and it's been a helluva time! I'm having a blast sharing everything I've made in my hyper fixated frenzies, and have loved getting to focus my passion on all these projects. So thank you to everyone who's stopped by to smell the pixels! The first chapter of my Gortav fic can be found here. Below the break is a deleted scene from Don't Forget You Love Me that I wrote for Chapter 3 that I ended up scrapping and rewriting. I found it in my old notes folder, and decided to let it get some sunlight here. I have some more Gortav (Tavtash?) deleted scenes and snippets cluttering up my google docs. If I get time or if there's interest, I might post them here as well. Also if you're just here for free typesets I'm working on more of those too!

Scene: Tav has amnesia. Tav has forgotten that she is married to Gortash. Tav has dinner with Gortash. Tav glared at Gortash from across the dining table.  So what if all the healers and clerics in the city had come to the archduke’s residence and spent days fussing over her, before declaring that her memories of the last fourteen months were assuredly gone?  So what if all the politicians and lords of the Upper City bowed to her and sent her get well missives, all while bemoaning the poor health of their dear archduchess?  So what if even her friends—those that she could get a hold of, anyway—told her themselves that the Elder Brain had long ago been dealt with and her pact with Gortash had been expanded to involve marriage? She still wanted to kill him. “Dearest, at least eat something whilst you glower at me,” Gortash said, not even looking up as he sliced through a cut of meat with a silver blade. “Maybe it’s poisoned,” Tav suggested.  “Maybe that’s how you got me to marry you.  Maybe you doused my food with some kind of love potion, and—” “Enough.”  Gortash spoke sharply, and set down his utensils.  He cleared his throat, and braced both hands against the table.  “If you insinuate such things again, I may lose my patience.” “And what, you’ll show your true colors as a monster?” she said, crossing her arms. “And I just might take more drastic measures to jog your memory,” he said, lowering his voice. Tav’s brow furrowed.  “Like what?  What the fuck are you talking about—” Gortash got up, his chair scraping against the floor as he left his spot at the head of the table to stride over towards where she’d positioned herself farthest from him.

Tav gripped the arms of her chair, staring up with open irritation at the archduke now towering over her.  His dark gaze swept across her features, before settling on her own eyes.

“Perhaps you might remember something more…engaging of the senses,” he mused, his voice dangerously low to Tav’s ears.

“What are you—”

Her words caught in her throat, as a large hand came up to caress her cheek, stroking down with calloused fingers, to end with a delicate hold of her chin.

“The first time, we had dinner together, you refused to eat less there be poison in the food.  Of course, I offered to feed you by hand, but you were such a stubborn little thing…”  His thumb came up to trace her bottom lip.

Tav slapped him and snarled.  “Bastard!”  She got up and stormed off.

Gortash, unperturbed, nursed his reddening cheek, and said aloud to himself, “Ah…she did the same thing the first time, too…”

[lavenderstobins]

remember the time i wrote a 75k word fic in the space of a month where steve and nancy end up in 1983 and try to do things differently only to realise there’s consequences to their actions? and nancy figures out she’s a lesbian and also crushing on robin? while steve knows he’s bisexual but realises he’s crushing on eddie? good times. you can read it here!

alternatively: 

bonus testimonial:

[frostbitebakery]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

I got tagged by the lovely @thejediandthemandalorian thank you 💜💜💜

1.) How many works do you have on ao3

15

2.) What's your ao3 word count?

147,444 words

3.) What fandoms do you write for?

"Writing" is such a strong word. Codywan is the one that inspires me the most at the moment to the point I want to add little backstories.

4.) What are your top five fics by kudos?

I Got My Head Checked

Outtakes of IGMHC

Art for IGMHC

black

Codywan Art and Hubris

5.) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to!! When someone is kind enough to leave a reaction, I should thank them at the very least! Excuse Number 1: I get overwhelmed easily. Excuse Number 2: Especially with long or thoughtful comments, when I answer those I feel like that's the end of that interaction and I don't want that to end

6.) What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It's gotta be one of the Mood Color Panties that ended with an emotional cliffhanger...

7.) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Uhhhhh in terms of happy ending to fic setting ratio? Probably the MCU/Snowpiercer crossover that ends somewhat like the movie wherein they discover that not everything on the outside world is dead and gone.

8.) Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet? *crosses fingers*

9.) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I have written smut. With BDSM and lingerie. But I don't feel the smut groove anymore. Once in a while I do like to dabble in erotica when drawing though

10.) Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've officially written one (1) crossover of MCU/Snowpiercer. Unofficially, I've chucked words at friends about The Covenant/Fantastic Four where Johnny Storm and Chase Collins are roommates for whatever reason and Chase is trying to close a portal to Hell and fighting off demons while Johnny is oblivious to it all until his Lucky Charms are gone.

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of. Plenty of art got stolen though.

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yus! A smutty stucky one-shot got translated into Russian

13.) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Does The Unlucky Ones count??? I just wanted spoopy Cody but I can't not do backstory for AUs, so my mind is churning out the lore. Then @adiduck was like, “hey, I have some ideas for TUO, how about--“ and then I buried her in the sandbox. The only bits I wrote (with Adi's blessing) are the snippets on the artworks. She is writing the fic while we both excitedly yell at each other.

14.) What's your all time favorite ship?

Just one???? All of them have a special place

15.) What's a WIP you'd like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I don't have any fic WIPs atm

16.) What are your writing strengths?

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh quite a lot of people pointed out that my pacing is good, and some people like my humor! Thank you <3

17.) What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm too rushed. And like, a whole lot of technical stuff I don't know.

18.) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I like it. It can add a lot of things to the characters, plot, or setting. What I personally don't like if the words in another language are in italics.

19.) First fandom you wrote for?

Weiß Kreuz. It's in German and the forum it was posted on is long gone. There's an FMA fic on ff.net still. You won't find that one either.

20.) Favorite fic you've ever written?

I Got My Head Checked :D It started as a naive "lolol what would I want Sithywan to look like? just the once", grew to "But listen, Glimmer, it would be so funny if Sithywan is like "I need a week" as his estimation for how long he needs for Cody to spill every secret ever to him, and it ends with Sithywan just getting up in the cell like he's never been injured/tortured at all and going like "Thank you, that's all I need" like some method acting Black Widow type, but internally starting his journey of “omfg I want him carnally and emotionally””, and then it spiraled into 75k words with more catharsis for me as a person than should be possible. And a greenhouse. More IGMHC trivia!!

Oban Ouaine, Qui-Gon's Cody's Venator, is Gaelic for little green bay. I wanted a connection of Qui-Gon and his fandom plants. And I thought Oban Ouaine sounds a little bit like Obi-Wan

the original plan was that the whole Venator is like a jungle with plants everywhere. @elwenyere brought up "they have a greenhouse?" and I ran with that instead, not knowing it would turn into a central stage for hope and healing for the characters

TAG YOU'RE IT: @adiduck @elwenyere @ifonlyweknewwhatiwasdoing @meebles @merlyn-bane @wrennette @lttrsfrmlnrrgby and anyone who wants to bc this was fun!

[cardiac-agreste]

How has the MLB fandom personally affected your day-to-day life, and what were the major things you used to do, in the fandom in your first year, that you no longer do.

I have way less free time thanks to the MLB fandom! And I wrote a novel! Yes, it's unpublishable as it is fanfiction, but I WROTE A NOVEL! Something I'd decided I wanted to do before I turned 40. And people like it?? SPLENDIFEROUS.

The big thing I used to do my first year that I (almost) no longer do is participate on the MLB subreddit, which is extremely toxic IMO. Just an absolute shit experience if you like the show. It often felt like I was one of the few people there who didn't hate it. It was not a happy time and place to be a fan!

I am there way less now. I'm so busy writing my fanfiction (like A Small but Stubborn Fire) that I can barely keep up with reading the fics I like (shout out @uptoolateart @wehadabondingmoment @nemaliwrites @raspberrycatapult @wackus-bonkus-maximus @monpetitchattriste @pisoprano @wield-the-mighty-pen @sing-in-me-oh-muse AND SO MANY MORE(seriously see attached screenshot how HUGE my backlog of subscribed fic chapters I have to catch up on!), let alone go get flamed on Reddit for daring to suggest that Marinette is fundamentally a good person.

For your reading "enjoyment," my autobiography

No one actually cares, but I'm on roll.

I was a huge anime fan in the 90s and early 00s. But then I moved to Japan and realized most anime is crap (just like most of any country's TV output is crap). But subtitles often make things sound more profound than the original. Fortunately yet unfortunately, I stopped needing them. (Plus the novelty of it that went away once I was in-country.)

So for about 10–15 years, I didn't watch any anime. Maybe a Ghibli or Satoshi Kon movie now and then.

Then sometime around the pandemic, maybe a bit before, I gave Naruto a go on Netflix after I'd seen a gazillion memes of geeks running strangely in parks. NFLX only had the first half, not Shippuden, so there was no closure for me. I decided to go to the fanfiction world after DECADES of not reading fanfiction. Like, I left the fanfiction world when I was reading Ranma 1/2, so the late 90s?

Anyway, there weren't websites for fanfiction back then. We used USENET. RAAC (rec.arts.anime.creative), specifically.

So I had to legit google to see where you went for fanfiction these days since, as you might have noticed, USENET is nigh on dead now, right? Gen Z out here asking "what is a usenet"

I discovered FFN and eventually Ao3. I kinda wore myself out of Naruto and decided to check out MLB fanfiction since I'd been watching it with my kids and I think we were waiting for the second half of S3 to show up on Netflix.

FUCKING HOOKED. CUE THE HYPERFIXATION.

So my first year deep in the fandom I was reading fanfiction constantly. Just a ridiculous amount. I think I might get the silver medal for amount consumed.

Anyway I'm getting tired of writing about myself (kind of a shocker actually), which means NO ONE is reading this far into what I've written. Point is, I got persuaded through some conversations to submit for the @mlbigbang and I wrote around 75K words and here I am.

FYI this is not reflective of the quality of my writing seriously go read my story, I will give you a refund if you don't like it

EDIT I FORGOT THE SCREENSHOT

[bookish-bogwitch]

20 questions for fic writers!

Thank you @artsyunderstudy, @alleycat0306, @cutestkilla, and @ileadacharmedlife for tagging me in this game!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 22, but I think of only 16 of them as "real" fics. The others are podfics, the pornbot meta, random stuff I could've just left on tumblr, etc.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

108,039. If you subtract the words I didn't write (like 97% of Birthday Man and add words the AO3 didn't capture because they're in screen shots (like Impulse Shopping with Simon Snow), it's more like 75k.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Carry On exclusively. I did set out to write a Buddy Daddies fix-it fic right after the series finale but abandoned it because (1) I actually just wanted to read BD fic, not write it, and (2) omg, it is so much harder to write for a TV show where there's not an existing written author voice to imitate.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ready or Not (20,698 words) Kudos: 460

Missing (8,823 words) Kudos: 422 (co-written with @oxi-is-a-moron)

Impulse Shopping with Simon Snow (12 words that AO3 can count, more like 5k in the screenshots) Kudos: 328

Birthday Man (39,132 words, of which about 1k are mine) Kudos: 178

Size You Up (6,850 words) Kudos 133

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I love getting comment responses and engaging with writers that way.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

That has to be What Eats You, but it wasn't angsty for Snowbaz, only for Lamb. 😂 Ooh, and the ending of Missing was sort of angsty--though again, not really for Snowbaz--but I didn't write that part, @oxi-is-a-moron did. (So it's not boasting to say that it's beautiful 🥺.) I have a WIP idea that's still just a summary paragraph. It's extremely angsty with a bittersweet-at-best ending, and I will only ever write it if I decide it hurts more to keep it in my head than to let it out.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Everything's a Story. Because the ending is Baz pandering to ME.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet, but it's been less than a week since I posted the fandom's first bestiality fic, so we'll see.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes--about half my "real" fics are mature or explicit. I find it very very challenging to write, it takes a lot longer than other writing, I think because my discomfort makes me very self-critical. I've come to realize that the sex has to have emotional / narrative significance for me to want to write it--the one time I wrote a sex scene where the whole point of it was sex, I cringed afterward. (Tbf to baby me, it was my first explicit fic and second fic ever and unbetaed, so whatever.) I guess I can deal with writing smut a little better if it's super cracky but even then, I'd want to keep it brief.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Nope, probably wouldn't. I've thought about "what if Snowbaz time traveled and met Kim and Will from the Will Darling Adventures" but it would be pretty boring my only thought is "they're the same, huh?" (For the record I would read the hell out of that crossover.)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! I love collaborating. For WIPfest I finished @facewithoutheart's WIP, What Eats You?. And @oxi-is-a-moron finished my WIP, Missing. And there was Birthday Man, the Simon's b-day round robin with probably most of you reading this. AND @ic3-que3n and I wrote our bizarre tell-all confessional about the pornbots together. And this spring @ivelovedhimthroughworse and I spent a lovely spring day writing to prompts and thought we'd memorialize it. Honorable mention to @ic3-que3n's art in Behind the Magic. Technically I wrote the words (it was CORBB) but the concept was their idea and we did so much scheming and giggling that it felt like co-writing.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Malmage.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

None. I have a long google doc of ideas but don't really think of something as a WIP until it gets is own file and I start writing. I tend to only have 1-2 WIPs going at a time, and right now there's only one, Basil Pitch's Diary. (Of which ~ 200 words are posted but I have 20k+ and plan to start posting after COC.) So, none. If I ever start the aforementioned angst fest there's a good chance I'll bail partway through.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm funny. I'm told I am good at mixing humor and sex and angst. I have come up with some original concepts. I commit to the bit.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

While I might have original concept ideas, I'm weak on worldbuilding. I tend to stick squarely within the canon-verse. I've never written an AU. My only OC was a sentient mop. I've never even written a villain, I don't think. I struggle with making the MCs do things that I wouldn't do myself, for good or bad. (For instance, I've written almost zero love confessions and tend to write around them because I've never love-confessed to anyone I wasn't already dating and even imagining it makes me want to vanish in a puff of smoke.) I am a very slow writer--I'm in awe of people who can bang out thousands of words in a day, or go from idea to execution in hours. If I can manage a steady 200 words a day, not including editing, that's pretty fast. This pace makes it hard to picture writing a really long fic, ever.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've never really thought about it. It could be nice for scene-setting; I love all the Norwegian in @scone-lover's Northern Downpour, it really adds to the atmosphere, and the German in @spockzilla's Twelve Days of Christmas cracked me up. The lack of translations made it that much funnier when I finally looked it up myself, or when the meaning was obvious. (Guten Abend, meine kleinen Twinks!) So--maybe someday?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Carry On

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Ready or Not. It's the only thing I've written that I've also read for my own entertainment.

Tagging everyone mentioned above, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @skee3000, @thewholelemon, @facewithoutheart, @hushed-chorus, @captain-aralias, and @nightimedreamersworld.

[olderthannetfic]

Perhaps an odd question, but I was wondering what your thoughts would be on somebody posting a fic with no intention of ever finishing it?

I have an old wip that I wrote a good 75,000+ words for but abandoned before ever posting the first chapter. In addition to losing motivation for the overall premise, basically every detail in it got dispelled by canon eventually. There's literally no way I would ever finish it, since my interpretation of the lead character is completely different now, to say the least, but I am proud of what I had already written, and again, it's 75,000 words. Not an amount I want to just shake my head at and let rot away on my laptop.

So I've been contemplating if I should post it to AO3, since even incomplete there could well be somebody out there who enjoys it anyway. I'd want to make it clear from the start that it won't ever get finished, but I've had some mixed reactions from friends when I asked them about it.

Some encouraged me to do it (as a relic of common fanon tropes in this fandom before certain details were revealed in canon) while others said it would only disappoint any readers who did start it, even if they have advance notice. I'm a little torn on what to do.

So, to post or not to post?

--

That's quite a bit of writing! I'd post, but first, I'd devise a last "chapter" that's a summary of where you'd intended to go with it if you had finished. You probably have at least some idea. Nobody likes 75k that just ends abruptly with no closure, but lots of people will read it with an end note like that.

As for labeling it, there are various tags like 'discontinued', an opening author's note explaining the context in which it was written and how you're never going to finish now that it's so jossed works, and you can mark it x chapters out of ?? rather than complete.

[desertfangs]

My AO3 Wrapped 2023

I'm really amazed I managed to write so much this year. I wrote about 33 fics (plus the drabbles and ficlets for tumblr) and over 150k words, which is more than I expected. (Last year I was around 75K which also astounded me.)

A sincere, heartfelt thanks to everyone who read any of my fics, who left a comment, who reblogged with tags about what they loved, or sent me a message about a fic! I genuinely appreciate it every single time. And thanks to the people who host fandom events! Those are always so inspiring and fun! (Prompts really inspire me.)

The VC book fandom is tiny but it's amazing. I cannot tell you how inspired I am every day by the creativity and humor I see on my dashboard. I've had such a blast reading y'all's fics and seeing your fanart and dolls and shrinky dinks and all sorts of amazing stuff. I've been in and out of this fandom since the 90s when I was a too-young kid reading these books, and it's absolutely shaped my life in many ways. Which is a long way of saying thank you for being amazing, VC fandom!! 💖

If anyone ever wants to chat about writing craft or vampire headcanons or these ridiculous books we all love so much, please feel free to hit me up, on here or on Discord or whatever. I'm always excited to talk about this stuff!

Thanks for an awesome year! Here's to 2024 being very fun and vampiric and amazing! 🍾

[vanillahigh00]

Fic Writer Interview

Thank you for tagging me @hgejfmw-hgejhsf! and @stereopticons! 💜

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

27

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 

371,166 (I have a couple really long ones)

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I Want Candy [firstprince, 4.5k, T]

I'll Always Catch Your Glance [David/Patrick 13.5k, M]

You're So Hot That I Melted [David/Patrick 4k, G]

The Ocean Brought Me To You [David/Patrick 39k, M]

If You Asked Me To [David/Patrick 11k, E]

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

100%... may just take me a bit of time.

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

TBD.... No comment...

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

Hmm... subject to change this year if I can some of the contents of my WIP folder, but for now I will leave you with because D and P don't start off on friendly terms... I'd Do It All For You [David and Patrick 75k, E]

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not opposed, but an idea to do so hasn't crossed my mind.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I have not luckily.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I don't do it often. I find it very challenging to make sure body parts are doing what they should be doing and what I'm picturing in my head is translating on paper. I wouldn't say I have a kind of smut I've written? If someone has another thought on this, I'm interested in the answer.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that would be so cool!

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

Yes! The Purrrrrfect Gift with @edie4711

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

David/Patrick was my first love, but firstprince is trying to worm their way in.

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

Never say never. Until I'm 6 feet under there's always a chance... Gee that sounded dark.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I can put the ideas together... brainstorm ideas...

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Word choice and confidence.

I will sit there and debate about word choice. I tend to tell versus show I'm working on improving this, but I drive myself crazy reformulating sentences to show versus tell.

I will then sit there anxious once I hit the submit button.

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

Kind of terrifies me that I'll translate incorrectly.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Schitt's Creek

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

I haven't been inspired to write for a new ship.

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

Well... asking me to pick a fic is like asking me to pick my favorite child and as hard as my kiddos try to get me to claim them as my favorite, I tell them over and over that I will never do that. lol.

So...here's a variety of fics instead that I haven't already mentioned:

The Way He Looked Was Way Beyond Compare [David/Patrick 4k, G] High School Themed. One of my favorite tropes to write.

He's Already Family [David/Patrick 1800, G] D and P's relationship from Clint's POV. Never enough Clint and Marcy Brewer in fic.

Just To Be With You [David/Patrick 5k, T] David and Patrick just want to be alone, but Ray loves to chat.

Lucky To Linger In Your Life [David/Patrick 10k, M] Patrick takes David home for Marcy's birthday before they start dating.

Tagging the following who likely already did this and if you did, I'm sorry?

@hippolotamus @apothecarose @chelle-68 @dinnfameron @demora00 @designatedgrape @hullomoon @indestructibleheart @jettestar @jesuisici33 @leofdaeg-sand @lizzie-bennetdarcy @missgeevious @mudbloodpotter05 @ohhhelloyou @obsessedwithdavrick @statueinthestonetoo @themelancholyvegetable @thinkof-england @this-is-bwr @sspaz1000 @seadeepy @trueillusion82 @vamprayne @wi22iou

[nhasablogg]

2023 fic summary

46 fics, where 6 of them were commissioned

75k+ words

22 filled prompts (unless I've just not mentioned that a fic was prompted)

9 fandoms (Criminal Minds, Encanto, Harry Potter, Heartstopper, If We Were Villains, Marvel, Red White and Royal Blue, Stranger Things, The Raven Cycle)

4 new fandoms for this year (Criminal Minds, Encanto, IWWV, RWRB)

Longest fic: For love to replace your shame - 12k

Most notes: Alex's list - 195 notes

Personal faves: For love to replace your shame, I just want you to know who I am, The White House Letters, Stupid tickle fight

Stats for the amount of fics per fandom I wrote:

Criminal Minds: 16 Encanto: 1 Harry Potter: 1 Heartstopper: 3 If We Were Villains: 1 Marvel: 1 Red White and Royal Blue: 9 Stranger Things: 12 The Raven Cycle: 2

A pretty good fic writing year!

[joanthangroff]

1, 9, 28 :)

How many words have you written this year?

It's hard to because the ao3 statistics always count the whole fic if you add a chapter on a multichap. The two stand-alones I have published this year are about 25k, though.

I have written more, though. The fic I am writing rn counts 35k words rn and I know I've written a lot across several WIPs throughout the year so I think all in all it should be like 75k words?

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

Can I say St Smythe even though I haven't finished the story yet? :D If not, then the award goes out to Coldbar and Hartmon in the gcau reunion fic (nobody is surprised)

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

... The gcau reunion fic :D It wasn't planned at all, and certainly not to be that long, but it was so much fun to go back into that story and think about what everyone has been up to. And I know only like 5 people have read it but that's all that matters, really <3

[webbyghost]

I am begging you to be more publicly unwell about Doug (as someone who is also... unwell about Doug)

Oh man where do I even start with him

I just feel like he'd be such a total sweetheart if given the chance and godiwishthatwereme.jpg

Like my bestie gives me shit for my crush on him but he's got so many of the things i like in a guy so like.... what's a ghoul to do??? He's smart, he's funny, he's weird, he's adorable! He loves science, he's creative, he's just. Love of my life.

I made a couple posts about him before, about some of my headcanons and some stuff I observed like how badly he wants to be included and how he's an awkward anxious mess but when he's in his element he's able to be confident and assertive (Rebekkah! Please be quiet!) and I love that in a person tbh

I've. written like. Somewhere around 75k words worth of fic for him but it's self-insert and isn't posted anywhere lmao I wrote it just for me

IDK LMAO I love him very much he's a goofball and I want to smooch him

[fledglingdoodles]

22 and 23 for the fic writer ask?

22. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc) Tricky! There are certain tropes I loathe, but I’m keeping those to myself. They range on a scale from  ‘huh, I find that a bit weird’  to ‘this trope has dangerous real life implications or connections to personal traumatic memories so that’s definitely not on’. That being said, I will happily write just about any tropes for any genre as the need calls for it -  the writing challenge therein being, ‘Can I figure out a way to write about this subject that I vehemently dislike in a way that I find interesting and enjoyable or impactful and respectful to the people who do enjoy such things?’

Hell, a recent example of such that I’ve been sharing these past couple days: Writing my comic The Stranger for Dark Omens Zine was one such challenge. It is a fundamental fact of the universe that Crowley and Aziraphale love each other. To imagine otherwise distresses me deeply. So I challenged myself to write a Crowley who fundamentally could not love, who was willing to kill to serve his own purposes, but not be cartoonishly evil about it, and still (hopefully) have him be somewhat recognizable as himself. It’s probably one of the better things I’ve ever written, all because the challenge of the subject matter made me work harder and be more intentional with my writing choices!

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

a.) Find something, anything, about your story to get obsessed about. You’ll write more. Case and point: I spent last month’s Camp Nanowrimo working on an original graphic novel script with a humble goal of 20k words. I started right out the gate completely obsessed with the story and the characters. By the end of the month, I had written over 75k, and it’s still not done.

b.) You kneecap yourself by obsessing over how your audience is going to perceive your work while you are working on it. Anticipate it, sure, but when you’re writing, you are the only audience member who matters.

c.) Be the change you want to see in the world. If there’s something you want to read more of and you just can’t find it, give it a shot. Even if it comes out shit, at least you will have tried. And maybe there is someone else out there who is looking for the exact thing that you wrote.