#i’’ absolutely in love with this bookmark

[newttxt]

20 questions for fic writers

thank you @strawhattery for @ing me, even though i do feel like it's a not-so-subtle urge to finish my current wips... (i need the kick)

for reference/those who only see my art, i used to be a fic writer who occasionally drew. that's obviously changed, but i am trying to write more, so you can find me at pseudoanalytics on ao3.

1) how many works do you have on ao3?

44, but only 35 are linked to me (9 are anonymous...)

2) what's your total ao3 word count?

347,773 😰

3) what are your top five fics by kudos?

while i nodded, nearly napping (suddenly there came a tapping) [haikyuu, ushiten]

redacted :/

the inherent romance of classical conditioning (or, the fine art of emotional recognition) [haikyuu, sakuatsu]

you're really pushing it (but you're going much too slowly) [haikyuu, ushiten]

redacted :/ (sequel to the first redacted...)

4) what fandoms do you write for?

most of my fics are so old i can't bear to look at them, but i'm trying to write more for one piece. then i've written a decent amount of haikyuu, pacific rim, and star wars.

5) do you respond to comments? why or why not?

initially? i absolutely do! but as any of my friends will tell you, i struggle to even reply to dms or texts. so alas. i drop off pretty quickly

i LOVE comments though, and i eagerly read and reread them frequently ;__;

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

oh sheesh. you may only ask once (so be prepared for the reply) which is a bad end for pacific rim 2. or i guess... a worse end. it's also a bit of a role swap au, if i remember correctly.

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

i... honestly don't know. i typically write happy endings. i like to write "missing scenes" and post-canon, so things tend to be rather open-ended or to just lead into the next part of canon. my memory is also not my prize-winning quality, so i can't really remember how my fics ended pre-2018ish.

8) do you get hate on fics?

i know i've gotten some ruder bookmarks, but not typically, no. i get more hate on art or in my ask box, but i honestly just delete it all, so it never sticks.

9) do you write smut?

yes, though its debatable if it's "smut" so much as "sex in such an irreverent context that it becomes humor." i cannot take sex seriously, so alas, i rarely write it seriously. i use it more as comedy and a tool for character studies. i do enjoy a stoic character's facade getting cracked open.

10) do you write crossovers?

i don't write legitimate crossovers, with characters from different medias intermingling, and frankly, i rarely do au's either.

but if i have one weakness, it's that i am ALWAYS a sucker for a pacific rim au. yes, i am rotating a one piece version in my head.

11) have you ever had a fic stolen?

i had a sakuatsu one reuploaded to wattpad under someone else's username. they deleted my author's notes and added their own, as if they'd written the fic, too. hilariously they even used my art for the cover.

it got taken down, but idk why. i never reached out about it.

12) have you ever had a fic translated?

yeah! i've had 5 translated, and i've had 2 turned into podfics, which is cool.

13) have you ever cowritten a fic before?

nope. i'd be terrible to work with, tbh. my writing process is a holdover from my journalism days, and the steps are a mystery even to me. i think i'll stick to drawing art for other ppl and their fics.

14) what's your all time favorite ship?

i will hold to the fact that it's asanoya from ao3. they were the first ship i got really invested in, and i see their impact on everything i ship to this day. they were my "blueprint," if you will. i still get smiley when i see art for them!

on the flip side... terezi/vriska was also a formative ship for me. but i won't discuss that.

15) what's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

rip go ahead and start talking (i'll pick up the slack). it's my 1-of-2-chapters ushiten fic that i should just mark as complete, since the first chapter can stand alone.

16) what are your writing strengths?

hard to determine your own strengths, but i think my dialogue/characterization are pretty strong, especially since i still regularly flex those muscles when writing comics. i also think i'm funny.

17) what are your writing weaknesses?

writing.

but seriously, i am so bad at sitting down and just hammering out a fic. don't get me started on outlines or longform works. i'd rather grab my pencil and start drawing, i'm afraid.

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

i think there are ways to interweave words or terms in other languages, but overall, i'm a fan of just standardizing everything into one language. if your character understands it, i think all readers should be able to understand it. and i'm not a fan of when you're expected to scroll to the end for a translation; i think it interrupts the reading flow.

this is a generalized opinion though. i think there are ALWAYS storytelling exceptions, so if the other language usage is really important to your theme/intent, i can see why you would do this!

19) first fandom you wrote for?

please don't do this to me. it was maximum ride. yes, the james patterson books about the kids with bird wings. i wrote 4-5 fics, i was in middle school, and — as far as i know — they are still up on ff dot net. no, i won't elaborate.

20) favourite fic you've ever written?

hands down, it's the sakuatsu domesticity simulator. it's not necessarily my best work in terms of writing skill, but i also drew over 50 images for it and html coded it into an interactive story. i'm just proud that i started a big project by myself and i actually finished it!

it's my dream to someday make a whole visual fan novel. i feel like the domesticity sim was the first step.

oh boy i'm bad at tagging but if @syrupfog, @lawsbbygirl, @macabrekawaii , @bmouse, or @cooknumber3 want to go for it... :))

[mychlapci]

help I’m trying to find a fic that I think may have been deleted I’m absolutely devastated rn. It’s a Megatron/roddy fic where Roddy has become a free use public toilet and Megatron is kinda disgusted by it before using Roddy and degrading him, I’m pretty sure it was on ao3 but could have been on tumblr.

i love that people come to me, a guy who doesn't even bookmark fics, begging to help them find a fic. well fuck anon now we're both looking for this.

[chriscalledmesweetie]

Seriously, fellow writers, if you ever need a confidence boost check out the bookmark tags. Here are some newer favorites:

Sherlock's Not-So-Crap Telly series this whole series is genuinely one of the best things i've ever read-- author is so fucking talented it's insane ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️‼️

Sherlock of Green Gables OMG I REMEMBER READING THIS AND LOVING IT WITH SUCH FEROCITY. I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT

Divinest Senses series by far one of the most ingenious, comical, bizarre, absurd and simultaneously plausible works I have ever read; seldom did I have such absolute and unadulterated *fun* while reading fan fiction

Want me to write something special for you? FTH bidding is open for another 96 minutes!

221B Bookmarks

If you read the 6 as a fancy b, I have 221b total bookmarks on my AO3 works!

Using the fandomstats.org/ao3-bookmark-viewer, I found these delightful notes left by the lovely folks who’ve bookmarked my fics: 

If You Give Sherlock a Biscuit  You guys. YOU GUYS! Mouse cookie! *dies and is ded*

Sherlock of Green Gables  Lovely! Like a soft angora rabbit!

Seusslock  Sooooooo funny!! CrissCalledMeSweetie has hella talent & sense of humor :-)))))  (If you like this check out her “Johnlock Comes A-Wassailing” series too)

The Bed Sheet Prince  Did Sherlock ghost write this? Sherlock definitely ghost wrote this.

Divinest Sense  REALLY intriguing and clever!

The Wake-Up Fairy  This is SO AWESOME I had to read it OUT LOUD!!!

The Ballads of John and Sherlock  A fantastic collection of Johnlock filks!

The CRUEL of Baskerville  veeery thorough tentacles, there… for science!

Not Entirely Clueless  Casefic! Slow burn! I love Jane Austen!!

Mycroft, Mycroft, Go Away  so forking hilarious

The High-Functioning Sociopath Who Walked by Himself  An Ode to the Wild Ones, those who will not be Tamed!

Seven Days of Ugly Christmas Apparel  Bookmarked for the besmutifying of one of my favorite Christmas songs! ;-D

John is NOT the Little Red Hen  John is the bestest and most patient of boyfriends! And NOT a little red hen at all!

If Equal Affection Cannot Be  All the ways in which Sherlock is loved. :-) And that he learns he can love in return.

In the Dark, Dark City  delightfully dark, dark, and wicked clever!

You May Say I’m a Dreamer  This should be the Johnlock Anthem! :-)

Figuring It Out Together  Good. It’s late and I’m not as eloquent as I would like to be. This fic is good. Really good. And I’ve read some of the author’s other work, and it’s all really good. I feel confused that I hadn’t found this author before now, but also excited because, hey, New author!

I encourage fellow writers to use the fandomstats.org/ao3-bookmark-viewer, which allows you to search by recommendations and/or bookmarks with notes only. Please share your favorites!

[queerofthedagger]

thank fuck we have fanfiction. like truly where would we even be

[hopecomesbacktolife]

recently read the time magazine special edition “Star Trek: inside the most influential science fiction series ever” a good portion of it is stuff a lot of fans probably already know, but there was some info in there that was still new to me, and lots of gorgeous photos that were amazing to see in print, too, so still definitely an enjoyable read! (apart from a couple instances of weirdly superiority, bro-esque writing, but that only occurred in one of the articles, thankfully)

one thing I really enjoyed about the visual aspect of the magazine though was some of the costuming visuals! For example, these crisp shots show not only the tailoring and seams but literally the construction and stitching on the TMP era uniforms 😍😍 (check out the stitching on the sleeve ranks in particular!!!)

next up, some extremely cool science things I didn’t know about and love that they exist:

this shot is excellent both for De fans (me) and also for seamstresses and costumers (also me!) because of that excellent, and rare, shot of the back of a TOS women’s uniform with seams and construction visible… positively a seamstress dream!! such a good garment structuring reference 👏🏻

also, an up close on one of Quark’s outfits that shows definitively that this outerwear jacket is, in fact, rainbowy tweed!!, a fashion statement I vote we bring back:

(it reminds me of this couch and blanket from my childhood, it was extremely 1970s and I loved it)

this little Kirk & Spock character comparison panel appeared next to an excerpt of Shatner’s writing, and to me it would fit in perfectly with those “who’s dating who” activity panels etc in magazines like seventeen, which, excellent execution, that’s such a good vibe to have considering The Premise 👏🏻

speaking of— I wish they’d mentioned slash fic, The Premise, early fanfic mail chains etc waaay more than they did (and for that matter, highlight way more just how important and vital the women Trekkies were!) but hey, at least they mentioned Spirk shippers, along with other parts of the magazine mentioning queer and nonbinary+trans rep in trek. could’ve/should’ve been more, but—

anyways! It’s still a fun magazine to read through and has lots of fun images even if you’re already familiar with the stories. (did you know there used to be an Enterprise shaped landline phone you could buy? I didn’t, and now I very much want one lol) it also highly benefits from having article writers of multiple genders, so there’s that, too. 🖖🏻

[elleldoe]

I don't mind at all! I love a good discussion and you made some really good points 💛​

Absolutely, a fic doesn't have to meet all those criteria to be enjoyable, obviously nuance is important here, everyone has preferences, but imo the beauty of fanfiction lies in the creative freedom that comes with it, compared to, for example, traditional publishing that has to follow strict rules. I can't for the life of me remember what the fic was called or who the author was, but I remember reading a oneshot years ago that was part of a writing challenge that didn't allow spell-check or rewriting, so it was riddled with typos, etc. Now, was it good by traditional standards? No. Was it a brilliant piece of art that made my day? Yes!

Tags and summary are the two main factors in my decision-making process. Usually the tags leave me with only a handful of works anyway, or I don't even get as far as narrowing it down because there's only a handful to begin with. Here it might be worth noting that both the things I write, and the things I actively seek out to read, are niche (fandom and/or themes). I have reread my own work countless times simply because I filtered and lo and behold I'm in the only one in the tags (or close to). The other thing would be recommendations, as you've mentioned, people with similar tastes actively recommending works, or passive recommendations by means of bookmarks, reading other works by the same writer, etc.

I definitely see your point on how additionally filtering by kudos/bookmarks/etc., helps when there are lots of works to chose from, tho.

Overall, the idea that things need to be popular to be good, or, on the flipside, that things have to be a certain level of good simply because they reach a certain level of popularity, isn't new, but I feel like there has been an increase in that mentality in fandom spaces over the last years.

This might be a controversial take, but as much as I love Ao3 and consider it superior to other fanfiction sites out there, there is one thing that FFnet did better. Public vs. private stats. I love how the hit count isn't public, only comments, favs, and follows are. And, I love kudos on Ao3, but imo they shouldn't be public either.

[feral-aether]

Made a few bookmarks for Fell and Sabre from the Stormbite universe because they've been living in my head for a week lol. I had the time today and got these done!

They're very fun, I adore them.

Fell's definitely my favourite, both design wise and character wise. I'd love to see more of him, possibly with a book from his or Sabre's pov like we had with Roanoke in Broken Arrow.

Gonna press these bookmarks overnight and bring them with on my weekend trip with mom. Trying to get through Silverbird finally :3

[ffxivlilmeowmeow]

Drawn to each other like magnets, should we ever be separated, we'll find each other again ~ 🎶

[winepresswrath]

we were talking about rarepairs in my slack the other day & my take on xicheng is that if you include only the fics where they are actually in character and not simply purple & blue trope vessels, it actually is a very rare pair indeed. i would genuinely love to read a xicheng fic that takes place in or around sunshot when they're both like "oh fuck oh no this is the worst possible time to suddenly be a sect leader" but alas i have yet to encounter one that fits my exacting standards

I think it is SO reasonable that the Xicheng crowd are uninterested in my yearnings for fics that are not so secretly mostly about yunmeng bros and Wangji, and also very aware I should cook my own food if I'm hungry, but if someone wrote them as a wildly toxic disaster that frustrates and confounds all of their friends and relations it would legit make me ship it and cheer for them to work it out in the end. I just want them to be bad (for Wangxian & initially each other) before they're good. Also for Jin Ling to be like "I have already lost one uncle to Xichen mediated conflict please no more" while Sizhui argues that there wouldn't be any conflict to mediate if certain sandu shengshous would get it together.

[gentil-minou]

Back when I had no followers and didn't understand the tagging system I did this thing called Fic Recs Friday's that no one saw where I shared a fic from my bookmarks and just gushed abpit a fic i loved (the first one was Penumbra by @/heartfulselkie BTW. Every ML fan should read Penumbra by @/heartfulselkie thnx)

I've been thinking about doing it again cause there's sooooo many great fics and I just want to scream about them so would folks be interested? Right now would mostly be mdzs and mxtx cause that's just what I'm reading right now also I might not make every Friday adfghjkll

[essektheylyss]

Also the bookmark poll just reminded me that I got my spouse two books for Christmas but I bought them while out shopping with the friend we were staying with in New England, and the only reasonable bookstore to get to was Barnes and Noble, and I forgot to take out the little "Join our rewards club!" slip from the receipt they'd tucked into the book, so he opens it up to read it and went, "GASP. You went to Barnes and Noble? BETRAYAL."

This is how genuinely ride or die my household is for indie bookstores.

[coridallasmultipass]

I hate when my phone won't let me have 2 audio sources running at the same time (depending on the app). I know what I'm doing, let me hear the discordant noises. My brain has built-in audio separation for music. It came as compensation for auditory processing issues. Don't make me pause the music.

[un-pearable]

made a mistake

[loucifersbitch]

My most popular fic on ao3 just hit 700 kudos BYE I'm gonna cry 😭

[drasnianfrank]

Tagged by @thatoldstandby to answer questions about.... bo-ooks? Books? What are books. The world may never know.

hardcover or paperback // bookstore or library // bookmark or receipt // stand alone or series // nonfiction or fiction // thriller or fantasy // under 300 pages or over 300 pages // children's or ya // friends to lovers or enemies to lovers // read in bed or read on the couch // read at night or read in the morning // keep pristine or markup // cracked spine or dog ear

Tag anyone but specifically @lesbrarian @theneptuneviolin @timemachineyeah

[blorboresidue]

I'd like to give a special shoutout to the pple who very clearly read my fics solely for the kinks and not for the fandom. those fics must be VERY confusing to y'all but you have a special place in my heart