#i’m talking specifically of the dirty smut scene that i wrote last week but i’ve been thinking about for the past few months

[cojelly23]

writing fanfic is fun until you realize you can’t just write the fun little scene in your head and actually have to write words leading up to it

and then the characters decide to start doing crap on their own without consulting you, THE WRITER

[illfoandillfie]

.......don’t be shy........ show us the comment 👀👀

lmao i will show you but only because i’ve already responded to it. I don’t want anyone to be mean to the commenter or make their own responses or anything like that. I’ve got no problems with people critiquing my work or offering suggestions on how to improve and she was very polite about it. It’s just that I didn’t agree with some of what she said lmao

okay so this comment was left on the prequel to Interloper (Snapshots From Before)

I usually don’t comment a lot in here (tho i do give lots of kudos) and the first part of this was so awesome that i’ve read it many times! However, this second part felt kinda... sexist? I think you gave this the wrong approach and ended up with the boys being a little mysoginistic, specially Roger telling y/n “if you are that hungry for dick you can ride me” (i’m not actually quoting the exact line but it was like that). I would’ve love to see at least one scene where you show some after care and the boys actually caring about y/n so we could see that their relationship is a healthy one. Without this, it just seems like she’s bassically a human sex toy. I get it, it’s the whole “she’s just holes to fill” and that’s great, i respect people who are into that, but even then there has to be some caring and empathy from both parties. Also, orgasm denial is hot but regardless, having sex has to be rewarding for both participants and Roger just sorta fucked her and asked her to leave? In a very non polite way? Sex is about both parties reaching to climax and equality for both lmao.😅 I know it’s a one shot but i would’ve like to see the non sexual part of y/n’s relationship with the boys other than post coital conversations. Again, i loved the first and third part, i think you have so much writing potencial within you and you should embrace it. These are all constructive critics and i do not wish to make you feel bad or offend you. I actually enjoy the whole mecanics of these raw, awesome, hot, sexy sex scenes but even though its fiction (which i know) and this whole slut kink is actually something people like let’s not forget to narrate healthy, caring relationships. Again, this seems like some eassay for a thesis but im just expressing MY point of view and i do not intend harm towards you as a writer or someone else as a reader. And yes, probably i need to “chill the F out” cause it’s just an ao3 bloody fic but still. Expressing an opinion that can help the writer improve is good! I think. Better than spreading hate. Hope you can see this note as friendly and respectul advice. Thank you so much for writing this. Have a great day! Stay safe xxx

and this was my response

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to comment, it really means a lot!

I will definitely keep in mind some of your criticisms as I continue writing, however there are a couple of places where our opinions differ, so I’d like to offer an explanation or two as to why I wrote it the way I did.

Firstly, I have to disagree with your statement that sex is about both parties reaching climax. It’s not. Not always anyway. Taking aside any kink related aspects like orgasm denial, sometimes sex just isn’t about finishing. It can be super rewarding and fun even without the orgasm. So much of an orgasm is related to a person’s mental state that little things like their mood or stress level or if they feel pressure to cum can have a huge impact on how easy it is to orgasm. And women especially can have trouble reaching climax. For some people, mostly women though it can affect men too, the sexual disorder anorgasmia makes orgasm physically impossible no matter how much stimulation they receive. So to say sex is about everyone getting to that end point isn’t totally correct. A lot of the time it’s less about the orgasm and more about feeling good during the rest of the act and/or strengthening a connection with a partner. Expecting everyone to orgasm every time is unrealistic and can in fact make it harder. Of course, that’s ignoring people who enjoy the kink side of it, intentionally stopping orgasms. A lot of people take tease and denial beyond just the length of a single sexual encounter, instead stretching it to days or weeks or months or even years of not being able to cum (fully).

Now, in regards to the fic itself. This chapter came about because I’d asked people to request concepts theyd like to see me write as a blurb or short one shot. I neglected to include the actual request in the summary or author note but the request was for a smutty prequel to interloper flashing back to when Reader was a groupie. At the time of writing I had a lot of requests I was trying to get done within a short amount of time so I was trying to keep things as brief as I could while still giving an entire story. The non-sexual aspects of the relationships didn’t feel important to include in this chapter because that wasn’t what was asked for. On top of that, the entire concept of the story hangs on how the sexual relationship dynamics change when the non-sexual relationship dynamics change and I wanted to make sure that wasn’t affected by the prequel. My goal was to establish a connection between the reader character and each of the guys and to make it feel as if there was history there, so I focused on flirty banter that led into sex scenes. And then, at the end of each scene, implied more would happen between the characters “off page”. I added in the Freddie section at the end as a way to solidify this chapter as a prequel and give a little explanation for how the main part starts (of course, at that time there was no third chapter). Plus, as Freddie doesn’t have a sexual relationship with Reader, his non-sexual relationship with her is very different to her relationships with the others, much closer to a friendship. (Which of course paves the way for how he’s on better terms with her at the beginning of the first chapter.)

One thing you imply in your comment is that as an author I should be writing healthy, caring relationships. I love writing those sorts of stories and relationships but I don’t believe I /have/ to write just healthy, caring relationships. I have a total of 38 fics posted on AO3 and I think most of them deal with “healthy” relationships. I make it a point to write aftercare scenes and to establish trust and safe words between my characters in most of my smut writing. And even if I’m exploring heavier kinks like extreme bdsm or hypnosis and bimbofication I do my best to stick to the rules of “safe, sane and consensual”. But, it is not my job as a writer to create morally perfect or role model relationships. I am well within my rights to explore relationships that don’t adhere to what is traditionally considered healthy, be that through ignoring safe words or foregoing aftercare or just having two characters be manipulative and mean to each other. If you want aftercare and “healthy” I have 37 other fics for you to look at. But this chapter doesn’t have to be that for it to be publishable.

And finally, I feel I have to defend Roger a little bit. I can definitely see how he could be read as sexist and I think part of the problem was just me trying to keep it short which meant I didn’t give enough space for Reader’s reactions or enough descriptions of emotion. But to me, as I was writing it, nothing Roger said was intended to be misogynistic or rude. I was playing around with one of my personal favourite kinks, degradation in conjunction with the orgasm denial (another favourite lmao). Everything he said was specifically to humiliate and degrade her, just because that’s what I find hot. Calling her desperate, telling her she sounds pretty begging, talking down to her, implying he’d /use/ her again later, all of that is part of the degradation kink and I intended for it to be a form of dirty talk. Similarly, the part where he says she can leave wasn’t meant to come across as rude. He calls her a good girl and brushes her hair back from her face first (a softer moment, contrasting everything else that happens between them) and then says she can leave, which plays into the denial kink and the idea that it could last longer than the time they were in bed together. Personally, I’m very very into extended denial, especially if it’s treated as a threat of punishment or something like that, and that was the inspiration behind Roger’s section of this chapter.

Thank you again for the comment, it really did make me think about how I’d written this particular chapter and my intentions behind it. And I fully agree that comments like yours can help writers improve! I’ll definitely keep in mind what you’ve said as I work on my next fic and hopefully avoid some of the unintended sexist overtones in future. Have a great day!

[demenior]

End of the Year Fic Review

Stats:

List of Fics Posted:

Castle of Glass (17823 words) [Gen, non-main character relationships]

Royally Screwed (44222 words) [NSFW, Shiro/Prince Rahjim]

Killer Queen (8994 words) [NSFW, Allura/Shiro/Coran]

Paint a Smile on and Colour Me In (13865 words) [NSFW, Shiro/Prince Rahjim]

The Dog Days (Have Just Begun) (14995 words) [Gen, Shiro/Ulaz]

In Need (2629 words) [NSFW, Shiro/Ulaz]

In Loving Memory (1680 words) [Gen, Shiro/Ulaz]

Endlessly (10128 words) [Gen, Shiro/Ulaz]

A Crisis in Your Eyes (6401 words) [Gen, Shiro/Ulaz]

I'll Find You (11583 words) [Gen, no pairings]

New Born (7084 words) [Gen, no pairings]

Lay To Waste (41303 words) [Gen, no pairings]

Keep Them Galra Rollin (Rawhide) (1377 words) [Gen, no pairings]

Dirty Talk (4596 words) [NSFW, Shiro/Prince Rahjim]

as the lion loves the lamb (3986 words) [Gen, no pairings]

Satisfied (6350 words) [NSFW, Shiro/Ulaz]

Sunset in Reverse (41544 words) [Gen, no pairings]

My Body's Got You Pleading (49007 words) [NSFW, Shiro/Ulaz, Shiro/the entire BoM]

Total number: 18 Total word count: 287567

Ship/character breakdown: Ship breakdown:

Uliro - 7 Fics Shiro/OC - 4 Fics No Ship - 7 Fics Rahjiro - 4 Fics (I’m counting KQ)

Gen vs NSFW Breakdown (for my own curiosity):

Gen - 11 fics NSFW - 7 fics

While I wrote a huge amount of NSFW this year... general/not NSFW won out!

Characters that had the main focus:

is this really a question we need to ask

SPECIFICS:

Best/worst title? Best title:  Lay to Waste or Sunset in Reverse.  L2W is from the Linkin Park song ‘In Pieces’. 

‘there’s truth in your lies / doubt in your faith / what you build you lay to waste’ 

and it’s just such a haunting, mournful and foreboding sentence that it gives me chills. It’s powerful and I love it. Plus, paired with the tagline that was added to Shiro’s character profile (’when you have skeletons in your closet, you hope they stay dead’) it fits the theme of the story, in that everything Shiro knows and believes about himself is beginning to crumble as his past catches up to him. SiR does exactly what the fic intends to do: take something dark and turn it around. It evokes hope. The title is the same as the song by Crash Parallel (a super unknown Canadian band), though the song and the fic aren’t quite thematically similar.

(Special shoutout to Royally Screwed because I was having the time of my life and it’s hilarious)

Worst title:  In Loving Memory or Dirty Talk. They’re boring.

Best/worst first line?

I’m not a big believer in ‘Incredible First Lines’ as I believe you should always start as close to the action as possible, so a lot of my beginnings feel abrupt. That being said, there’s this gem that no one noticed the HUGE joke.

Lay to Waste:  

Hidden away in the recesses of the Kaskada System, deep in the thick jungles of an unoccupied moon, is a glimmer of hope.

[Kaskada...... as in.... Cascada.... as in.... every time we touch]

Best/worst last line?

I’m a firm believer in wham lines to end stories, so I have a lot that were good contenders, but as the lion loves the lamb takes the cake:

The Black Lion calls at his heels, I love you.

Keith wonders how long it will be until it loves him enough to consume him.

I love you for being mine.

GENERAL QUESTIONS:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted? Holy shit I’ve never written this much in my LIFE.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year? Voltron. Uliro didn’t exist until this year, really. Not to mention the whole Shiro/OC thing. I’ve always purposefully avoided OC’s, and then I went and hooked them up with the main character!! For 100k!!!!!!!! What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest. Lay to Waste is me finally continuing the Switch the Beat series, which is my favorite concept I’ve ever created for fandom. I got to expand the world of the series, I got to work with an AMAZING artist (shoutout to @gitwrecked ) and I got to set the series in motion. Lots of scenes in L2W are scenes I’ve been dreaming about writing for months leading up to actually putting them to paper.

as the lion loves the lamb was a WILD ride in playing with a completely different style. I like everything linear, sufficiently explained (almost to the point of beating the dead horse) and as the lion is the exact opposite of that. While most of my ‘horror’ writing is blatant, this fic was an experiment in creating a mood, and I think I did really well by that.

Okay, NOW your most popular story. By kudos: Royally Screwed By comments: My Body’s Got You Pleading Story most underappreciated by the universe? Crisis in Your Eyes for the content- the whole idea of Shiro realizing Ulaz is someone morally repulsive to him, but still being in love with him??? Ahhh, i love it.

or, Endlessly. It’s my only fic outside of the Switch series that features my Galra redesign, and so it’s really grossly self-indulgent. But the redesign is close to my heart, and I think it adds a really interesting angle to Shiro and Ulaz’s relationship to be such starkly different species.  Story that could have been better? New Born. I hammered it out so fast I barely thought, but I think I could have made things a little tighter to be more ambiguous for [the surviving] Shiro AND the reader. Sexiest story? it’s a toss-up between Royally Screwed and My Body’s Got You Pleading. 40k of Shiro getting wrecked by 1 alien with 4 arms, or 40k of Shiro getting wrecked by 15 different Galra?? It’s up to you. Saddest story? I think a lot of my fics are inherently tragic, even if they’re not sad sad. One tearjerker is In Loving Memory, so there’s that. 

I think New Born or A Crisis in Your Eyes are HUGE tragedies on the big scale. One is about a person losing all sense of their place in the world, the other is about being in love with someone you can’t accept, and the story leaves right as Shiro’s entering that moral debate with himself.

Sunset in Reverse isn’t finished yet, but it’s SUPER sad if only because we’re seeing the outcome of a Shiro who wasn’t saved and instead had to endure years of torture and pain. I think it’s empathetic-ly sad, because we feel sad based on how Shiro in this story cannot react to anything in a healthy, ‘normal’ kind of way, and we hurt just imagining how he got that way.

Most fun? ROYALLY SCREWED. Rahjim is such a delight, and the response and feedback were so much fun!!! I’ve never enjoyed writing a fic so much in my LIFE.

To be fair My Body is also a really fun story. Story with single sweetest moment? oh my gooodddd, um, there’s A Lot.

Royally Screwed - The intimate emotional moments between Rahjim and Shiro kill me. Especially at the end, the morning after, when they’re walking around holding hands and enjoying being physically close because it’s contrasted sharply with how just a few hours ago they were complete strangers. That moment when Shiro says ‘i love you’ back to Rahjim :’)

My Body’s Got You Pleading - Ulaz’s Proposal at the end of the fic.

Sunset in Reverse - Chapter 1 where Champion discovers his soft blanket and cries over seeing stars again. It’s kind of bittersweet because he was abused so long that this sort of thing brings him to tears, but he’s just so happily overwhelmed by how soft the blanket is that it’s an image that stays with me.

Dog Days (Have Just Begun) - This exchange:

“Khazav, then,” Ulaz says.

Shiro mumbles the name. It sounds nice.

“Is that a boy or girl name?” he asks, keeping his eyes closed.

“Why do humans gender everything?” Ulaz responds, and Shiro shrugs weakly.

“It’s neither,” Ulaz offers, after a moment.

“Then it’s a girl's name,” Shiro decides, and he’s practically asleep so he’s beyond incoherent when he mumbles, “looks like we have a baby girl.”

Hardest story to write? as the lion, is only because it was different. but it came out pretty smoothly. i keep hitting motivation blocks for Killer Queen. Sunset in Reverse is one I find difficult to write, only because it requires so many rewrites and edits to make sure each chapter is up to standard.

Easiest/most fun story to write? Royally Screwed. It flowed out of me. Rahjim and Shiro’s journey was a delight to the point it almost felt obsessive. I just loved having the two of them joking around, laughing and then feeling good too. It was absolute indulgence for me and I just wrote exactly what I wanted Shiro to go through in order to eventually open up and trust someone, and I got to have fun creating a guy like Rahjim who could encourage that openness in Shiro.

[My Body was fun for similar reasons. I love Shiro sleeping w Lorge Aliens, so it was all pure self indulgence]

Lay to Waste was incredibly easy too, as I had 80% of the fic outlined and written in my head by the time I started writing. L2W was written in just under 2 weeks. 

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters? A Crisis In Your Eyes was really fun to explore Ulaz as a character.

I’ll Find You was the first time I’ve really gotten into Pidge’s head, which was an experience after spending so long writing Shiro. 

Most overdue story? Killer Queen.... it’s a smut story and they haven’t even had sex yet.....

Also Paint a Smile On, as it’s a prompt fic from when I hit 700. I’ve only filled one.... and I’m so embarrassed... 

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I started writing NSFW fics this year!!! As in, nsfw for sex. As a reader, I’ve always enjoyed my smut fics, but never thought I’d write them cause I thought I had nothing to add to the collection of smut fics. Apparently I was wrong, haha.

Not to mention I wrote several OC-heavy stories this year. I came into fandom during the Mary Sue Witch Hunts, and defs internalized that main-character-OC’s Are Bad, and that you NEVER, EVER pair an OC w a main character. I broke both of those rules this year, and I’ve never had such amazing responses!

Rahjim is by and above a breakout character for my writing. He has fans, fanart, and may possibly start showing up in fics that I myself am not writing!!!

Stylistically: like I said before, as the lion loves the lamb was a big style experiment. Sunset in Reverse is also very different because it’s very much NOT action focused, as most of my stories are. It’s what’s happening after the action.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

Less 50k monsters. More short fics. Catch up on all the prompts I said I’d do.

Overall I’d be happy writing the same amount, but I want to clip through my stories faster. I feel like I drag out a lot of my ideas, which is how I plan a 5k story and end up with 50k. I’m still working on finding the happy medium so I can tell all the stories I want to tell, with less strain on me. Half of my fics this year were over 10k, which has resulted in a LOT of wips on the go. I don’t like that.

I’ve got a few deadline events right off the bat at the end of february, and then I want to get another Switch series story out. Or maybe 2. 

Tagging:

@queenvallkyrie @krakendra @sassafrassrex uuuhhhhhh any other fic writers out there who wanna do this!!!!