#i'd be happy to discuss it though just hmu!

[yingren]

" there are two different types of people. the haunted and the haunters. which one are you ? " / ryouta

“ can’t i be a little bit of both ? ” probably not, though the idea is somewhat appealing to ren who for the most time feels like he fits into the former. to be haunted, not by ghosts or wandering spirits but by something tangible and painfully raw, is a feeling he knows all too well. after all, how does one outrun their own shadow? yet, does it count as haunting if the ghost is yourself? he chooses not to voice the thought, letting it linger in the air unspoken. instead, he shrugs slowly, his hand slipping into his back pocket to retrieve a pack of cigarettes. flipping the lid open and shut, once, twice, then again, ren keeps his hands occupied, a small distraction as his mind scrambles to untangle the question and its weight.

a cigarette finds its way between his lips, the pack disappearing back into his pocket as his hand retrieves a lighter from somewhere else. ren’s movements are fluid, almost rehearsed, each action a familiar ritual. the sharp taste of smoke in his lungs becomes his sole anchor, drawing him into focus as he takes a slow, deliberate inhale. his eyes slip shut, and he leans back against the hood of the car behind him. it’s not his car, he doesn’t even know if it belongs to either of them and frankly, he doesn’t care.

“ if i am the thing that haunts but the only thing i haunt is myself, i believe the answer to your question is not so straightforward. ” a crooked grin tugs at his lips after he speaks, not because ren finds his answer especially witty, but because it’s the truth. honesty comes easily to him, one of the few things he can give without hesitation. his crimson eyes, weighed down by exhaustion, sweep slowly across the pavement, tracing an unhurried path from the ground upward until they settle on the other man’s face. “ were you wishing for a different answer ? ”

[hillerskalibrary]

Event poll results!

(summary version)

So last week I opened a poll to check what kind of YR fandom events you guys wanted to see and the respondents were... how shall I put it... "very excited" is most applicable I think? ;)

Because I'm a nerd who likes to analyze the results but also doesn't want to chase her entire following away, I'm going to make two result posts:

This post, where I will summarize the results as succint as I can, and address some of the remarks and suggestions that I received. I'll also make a conclusion on what I would suggest to do - feedback on that is certainly welcome!

A second post (which I'll link when I finish it, most likely tomorrow or even after cause I'm slow as fuck) with some more graphs, percentages, observations, cause I don't know shit about statistics but that won't stop me from having fun with it!

Fair warning - it's pretty long. I just find it easier to explain a little about the decisions I'm (not) taking, both to invite discussion and because I don't want this to be a black box blog that does whatever and you never know why. That being said...

Ready? Let's go!

RESULTS

I received 72 responses, 36 writers and 36 readers.

The top 3 most wanted events by READERS is: Big Bang (89%), Theme Week (86%), and Weekly Challenges (83%). The event they were least excited about is Author Interviews (56%).

The top 3 events writers most want to PARTICIPATE in is, in order: Author Interviews (69%), Theme Week (64%), and Fic Exchange (61%). The events they DO NOT want to participate in are Author Interviews (25%), very closely followed by Big Bang and Advent (both 22%).

READERS were (very) slightly more excited about a Wilmon theme week rather than a general YR week. WRITERS clearly preferred a general YR week. For both groups, a YR women week comes in third, and rarepair week is fourth.

All types of weekly writing challenges suggested scored similarly.

(I know some of these seem contradictory, which I why I'll make the second post explaining how I calculated these rankings and why -for example- Author Interviews are both the most AND the least popular event for writers ;) )

SUGGESTIONS

A lot of people wrote in suggestions, which I was SUPER happy about (I closed the form now but if you have any more, please just hit my inbox or DM me at @hilliska). A few people also offered to help, which I'm definitely gonna hold you to when decisions are starting to get made! ;)

Many people were excited about possible collabs between writers and artists.

"What about a "finish your draft/wip" or "write a new chapter on a wip". I have so many languishing WIPs…" I think this is an EXCELLENT idea tbh - though we could incorporate it in the big bang by allowing wips as well. Also, as an FYI, there is also a (non-fandom-specific) Finish Your Shit-Big Bang that takes place every year (though this year's round is close to posting already) ;).

"I’d also love to see more Podfic in this fandom, but I don’t know how that could be an event." I have zero experience with podfic but this does sound (ha!) like it could be fun. Maybe someone has experience with this from a different fandom? (honestly I'd love to experiment with this so hmu)

"Authors sign up to take one shot requests or readers get to write a prompt. Or if readers could submit or vote on prompts or something? Or readers submit a song and author writes a one shot based on a song. Something like that where readers can be involved too :)" We could also easily incoporate this in a big bang - do a prompt bang or a reverse bang (fic based on art) for example? Or maybe involve readers in the weekly challenges, by suggesting tropes/words/... ?

"Write a comment on a fic-week!" Yessss!!!! I am like... 95% sure there is a tumblr-wide event for this already but I can't for the life of me find it. So I could signal boost that or yeah, we could just pin a day ourselves :).

"Group chat/watch" I'm afraid I'm not the right person to organize this kind of thing, but if you've been thinking of doing this and you were afraid no one would be interested - this is your sign!! ;)

"live writing event" Same as above - though I do think there's some discords where this happens already?

"Some sort of collab, where authors get to write a fic together." This could definitely be fun! There is currently one that originated on Twitter called Unlabeled - I don't know all the writers but I recognize at least @yourdemiurge, @skydragon05, @1-life-to-give, and @in-amor-veritas. Which obviously doesn't help if you're a writer wanting to collab, but at least there's people with experience in this fandom ;).

"Maybe a poetry week?" I don't even write poetry but I'm obsessed with this suggestion. Could also be a writing challenge? Not sure about a whole week either, but there's World Poetry Day in March so maybe that can be a mini-event?

"Something not fic centered? Like fanart, edits, cosplay etc." This is one of those things that I'm throwing out there for other people to run with, maybe, because. Well, I'm a writer and I know fic, but I really don't know much about the rest... Which is not to say I don't want to (help) run anything like this because it definitely could be fun, but it's a little out of my wheelhouse. But maybe @youngroyalsfanartarchive can help or knows people who would?

And now what??

Consider the below not as a definitive list but as a stream-of-consciousness conversation starters, so don't hesitate to send me your thoughts.

I will definitely do a Big Bang. Prompt-based or art-based or wip-based or something else remains to be decided, but this will happen. It will not happen NOW, however, because we don't know when season 3 will air. Big Bangs are big events, they ask a lot from writers, and if the s3 premiers at any time between signups and publications, it's going to make everything more difficult. But there was sufficient interest by writers to participate, so once we got a s3 date I want to put a timeline on this.

I'm talking with people about a possible YR women's week. The general/Wilmon week scored higher in the polls, but since we already had that in spring I'd like to switch it up a little.

I would like to do *something* for the anniversary of s2. Don't want to go regular theme week for this because of the above possibility, but maybe the not-fic-centered event could be good for this - we could do favorite episode/favorite non-wilmon character/... which are things that non-content-creators can also participate in by writing a short paragraph, reblogging gifsets/art of that episode/character, ... "Finish your wip" would also be a good one for this though :)

The people behind the 2023 Secret Santa will not organize one this year, but I don't really want to jump in that, necessarily, because there's enough other possibilities and they might be back. But a Valentine fic exchange could maybe work?

The advent calendar idea drew mixed reactions (maybe because it's less well known?) and while I do think it could be fun, there's enough other things that people are excited about, so I'm putting it in the freezer for now.

The weekly challenges also drew mixed reactions - both readers and writers were excited to see them happen, but only a third of writers said they would definitely/probably participate. Then again, half of them said they would POSSIBLY participate. Maybe because it's an ongoing thing, so they don't want to promise they'd participate EACH WEEK but only sometimes? So I'm not sure about this (also because it would significantly up the time required to maintain the blog). So I'd love more feedback on this to see which shape or form you guys would like this to take.

Fic recs scored solidly in the middle of the possibilities for both reader and writers. I wanted to include it because I was curious, but I'm a little hesitant to really do something with it, mostly because it often ends up being a popularity contest and. Well. We already know how to sort by kudos/comments on AO3. So I'm curious to hear other people's experiences on how to maybe circumvent that.

The Author Interviews were the most contested event - even (or rather *especially* among writers (and I secretly think it's hilarious the most wanted event by writers is the one that doesn't require them to write at all :D). I do think it could be fun (though I admit this is a format mostly geared towards writers) to help other writers to find other people to collaborate with, find betas, learn about different writing processes, ... And a self-rec feature would allow for fic recs without the popularity factor. So I'll most likely run this as a (bi-)weekly feature alongside the other events.

[actuallysaiyan]

Oh hello 😌 I just saw your follower milestone, a very big WOOHOO for 7k followers, that's so satisfying 👌👌

I saw you're doing a little positivity event, and I agree the weird jealousy and vibes here have not been good lately.

I would love to nominate three people, all of whom stand out to me for outstanding writing quality:

@delirious-donna makes love feel real. The domestic truth to it all is the reality of love, and it's the sort of fluff and smut that actually integrated itself into my imaginings of me and my blorbos, because it's so fucking *real*. I adore it. There's a sense of humour, it's silly when you least expect it, and it flows so easily, before you know it you're at the end of a fic and you're upset there wasn't more to read. She's writing 'Your Best Friend's Brother Kento' right now, and there are two more chapters to go, and I'm excited for it to be done because then I can go back and binge read it from start to finish. She's also one of the rare and wonderful quality Higuruma writers in this place, so is a gem to be held in esteem!

@bunny584 writes the most ethereal beauty I've seen put to paper for years. I'd let her scalpel her stories onto my skin. Her words score themselves onto my soul anyway, so let's tattoo them there too. Her 'Obsessed' series has something for everyone, her ongoing Priest!Suguru series has me feeling all sorts of unwell, and I haven't started her HxH SatoSugu series yet because I haven't had a case of wine arrive that's big enough.

I also have a fat medical moot crush on her 🫦 hmu bunny babe, I'm tall and curvy and we can discuss suture techniques.

@catopoliscat has written smut that makes me Feel Things™️ and I've been left thinking about for days. I sit by her blog with a little bowl and a "feed me" face, even though her gracious neighbours have been feeding me plenty, and I'm just fat and greedy. Her virgin!Nanami piece was stunning, authentic, and had me clenching my legs together and praying (I'm atheist).

Love the opportunity to share my favourite writers 👏👏 Happy 7k, and WOOT WOOT vibes for moving forwards to 8k next.

Love,

-- Haitch xxx

Thank you so much Haitch! I love the commentary within the shout outs! It's very sweet and I really feel the love! This is the best part of the event too, is just being able to show our love for these creators and these wonderful people! Thank you so much for this <3