#i'll tag spoilers if I ever come to them but i mostly react to the silly small things. there are a couple ones int hese tags

[choctalksalot]

disco eliveblogging: part 1

got out of my seat and pointed at the screen as soon as he appeared

[mari--lace]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

Thank you for tagging me @h1myname1sv!

1.) How many works do you have on ao3?

104 (it's not all fics, a few are fanvids. I do have a lot more fics in Italian not posted on Ao3, though.)

2.) What’s your ao3 word count?

137,912

3.) What fandoms do you write for?

A lot, I'm very multifandom! My current obsession is Daredevil and it led me to write on many other marvel characters (Natasha and Clint, Peter), an historical fandom of mine is Detective Conan and I might write something for it soon—if I manage.

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

What am I looking at, Matt? A short piece I wrote for fun right after watching 1x08 of She-Hulk; I was hyped and so was half the fandom.

A marvelous october collects the stories I wrote for last year's writober (mixed up with flufftober prompts). It's mostly Daredevil and it has a few chapters I'm pretty happy with, but I branched a little with other marvel characters (Kate, Clint, Kamala, Peter, Layla).

Ideas live forever (let your voice be heard) I'm really happy this story is so high here. It's a one-shot for Barbie [spoilers ahead]. After the ending, it follows Barbara adapting to the changes brought by her new life and coming to terms with things that didn't change—namely, her lack of attraction to anyone. AroAce Barbie for the win!

Three times Daredevil isn't a lawyer plus one short and fun 3+1 fic with Matt being sassy as Daredevil and Frank deducing something about his lawyer. (Secret identity who? Matt doesn't know her)

Not my friend (who are you?) I wrote this one for the dde promptfest, it was fun! It's about Brett reaching some conclusions of his own during S3 about his favorite (?) vigilante.

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

I usually do! Don't often know how to answer so maybe it's just a 💜, but I appreciate the people who comment and I try to let them know.

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

That's a tough one. I'm all for angst, but I need happy endings. (Or, well, hopeful ones.) The angstiend ending (and fic) I've ever written was my OC's reaction to her best friend's death, I'm pretty sure (it doesn't exist on Ao3).

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

Now that's hard for the opposite reason, lol. I'll go with The joys and concerns of teaching magic bc it's more than slice of life/fluff for the sake of it, there is some trouble/action before the happy ending.

8.) Do you get hate on fics?

I don't think that's happened recently, no. I got hate for my ship back when I started, in 2013 in the Italian fandom, and it was awful, but I'm not 15 anymore and I think I'd react in a very different way now (I'd ignore them and keep writing whatever I want).

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

Nope. I don't believe I'm capable of it LOL <- same prev!

10.) Do you write cross overs? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've written a couple in the past. Craziest probably was Detective Conan/Yu-gi-oh!

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know.

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so.

13.) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Yes, I have, and it was super-fun!

14.) What’s your all time favourite ship?

Heeeh. I'm a multishipper girl, and often I'm perfectly happy with my favorite ships being platonic as well as romantic, so... I don't know. One of my oldest OTPs is Shinichi/Shiho from Detective Conan, I'll go with them.

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

My original fantasy novel. I haven't touched it in 3 years and right now it feels pretty impossible, but I do hope to get to plot and write it properly one day.

16.) What are your writing strengths?

Introspection, I think. And conveying emotions to the reader.

16.) What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes make me cry and descriptions are a work in progress ;_;

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

Absolutely, if it makes sense for the fic! Playing with languages is fun.

18.) First fandom you wrote for?

Naruto!

19.) Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

This question is so mean. They're my children! Okay, I do have favorites—plural. If I reeeally have to choose, probably What's in a soul? I'm really happy with how it came out, in Italian and English both.

No pressure tags: @usaigi @ceterisparibus116 @auofgoldandfantasies @folkloristico

[woodswolf]

Oh!!!! 9, 29, & 38 please!

fic writer ask game

9. Tell us your favorite thing to drink when you write

I'm gonna be real with you anon, I drink diet Mountain Dew like it's water. Something something self medicating for ADHD (NOT THAT IT FUCKING WORKS)

29. Which fic would you most like to have fan art done for?

TITLE DROP TIME: catch/cradle. This is the first entry in one of the "sequel" lines from DLD, but I might end up putting it in both series on AO3 because (1) they're all the same chronology, just with different contexts (let you think over that one for a little while with the riddle), and (2) some of its contents are specifically relevant to the main series between callbacks to DLD and calls forward to... WELL. We'll just leave it at that :)

I had intended to do this title drop in the upcoming spoiler post, but I still have to respond to comments and write chapter 5 and FUCK man I have had no fucking time for anything these past few weeks. Anyway.

There's a lot of really fun stuff that could have fanart in this one. A lot of Images. If the true form of the Pikmin's side of DLD is a wordless graphic novel and the true form of Olimar's side of DLD is a stream-of-consciousness As It Is, the true form of several specific scenes of catch/cradle would be a film, because there are a lot of framing tricks you can pull off in film that don't really work the same way in text mediums.

(Mostly that you can show-don't-tell without specifically "showing" and thereby "telling". There is one specific location where if I could avoid describing it in detail and leaving noticing specific elements as a purely visual thing — or, to put it another way, to leave the POV character on the level of context they would be on and allowing the audience to pick up the very specific references to previous events and how another character has chosen to contextualize them — would be better than having to say "okay so this thing is in the doorway and this thing is on the wall in a central position and this thing is over here and etc. etc." because there is SO much little reasoning behind some of these things and I would want viewers to react to it organically rather than for it to have ANY attention called to it.)

The dev title for this line of sequels would be the brave and sacred earth for a lot of reasons. As I broke it down to my partner in DMs:

"Sacred earth" as in a play on "sacred turf", because I don't intend to touch the primary topic of this sequel line in ANY fashion ANYWHERE else EVER again - it's too wholly holy to be messed with so trivially. There can be any number of stories set in this chronology, and I do in fact have some very low priority ideas that I would probably only get to years down the line if ever, but the way I see it, there's simply no point for me to ever touch this "kind" version of the base concept without treating the events of DLD chapter 4 as part of its canon. I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine why — but if you can't quite figure it out now, the tags that I'll be adding to chapter 5 will make it obvious. Probably. Technically this is a me thing because I have BEEF with another story for not handling a similar subject exactly how I would have.

"Brave" as in:

38. Pick three of your fics and share a song to go with each

I have a 3 hour long playlist of DLD series songs. So!

catch/cradle: The Weight of Us by Sanders Bohlke.

The time has come, let us be brave The time has come, let us be brave Shake off all of your shame The time has come, let us be brave The time has come, let us be brave Let us be brave Let us be brave

This just really sums up the emotional arc in a way? Sometimes things are a change for the better, but recognizing that they are better introduces impossible amounts of guilt that these things that are better are not what was before. I could elaborate further, but really that's what it comes down to.

Other contenders: The Trap by Tally Hall, On A Good Day (cover) by Spencer Pugh, Our Love Remains by rei brown

[TITLE REDACTED] (codename: DLDP3): Body to Flame by Lucy Dacus.

Believe me, I'm speaking plainly and painfully Trying to stay elegant, eloquent and delicate to you I see you holding your breath with your arms outstretched Waiting for someone to come rip open your chest

Lamellamar song of ALL TIME. There's an entire scene (not written, just an outline) that I posted in a more artsy Discord server like eight months ago that unfortunately got ignored. But! Holy shit this one is so real you have no idea.

Other contenders: The Calling by The Amazing Devil, Two Ravens by Hawthorn

dogs leading dogs: By My Side by Uzo Aduba and the Godspell ensemble cast.

It's a really hard choice, because I can't even say that there is a single song that encapsulates all of base DLD for me, but By My Side comes really, really close. I can't even pull out specific lyrics because it's just. All of it. Our two dogs are each all three of the follower and the pebble and the betrayed, and it keeps the same tender-yet-tragic tone of everything except chapter 6 (which is kind of its own thing, you'll see when we get there).

Other contenders are mostly songs that are INSANE fits for specific scenes without being Encapsulating, so here we go:

I'm Your Man by Mitski is a second overall pick for "THE DLD song". It's not quite the right tone, or at least not anymore, but it came out right when I was starting the initial drafts of this project so I can't not mention it.

Gravedigger (Acoustic version) by Dave Matthews. This one was actually intentionally referenced in-text but we haven't seen that yet (it's in chapter 5).

New Normal by Jack Stauber is a good summation of where we're going to be left off on one of our timelines.

Wanderer's Lullaby by Adriana Figueroa is one that I've regularly come back to for some of the more emotionally difficult scenes. The last ~300ish words of vi. love (as an absence) were written to it, as were a few portions of the Pikmin parts of chapter 5.

The Woods by San Fermin is more of a general chapter 1 song, but as a result it carries relevance with the entire rest of the fic.

How Did I Die? by Einstürzende Neubauten is also a more general song but it doesn't match as well as I'd like in some ways. It does, however, mirror the structure very nicely — there's a clear change between the "body" and "epilogue" of the song.

Thanks for the ask! :D

[empressxmachina]

Inquiries on WIPs, lore, and what to do with both

Hi!

I hope y'all are well! I didn't expect to make a journal today, but here I am! I do hope I get some answers because I do have some thoughts and questions.

word wall under the cut

First off, I've done a lot of proofreading and re-outlining lately.

How I keep coming up with ideas, I don't know. Why I can never sit down and write prose except for when I'm meant to be doing something else is even more unknown. But at least I'm thinking, I guess. I like what I'm pondering.  I have done some intensive writing, though.

I made a manip that's been done and in the queue for months, and I liked it so much that I've made a whole novella (novel?) idea for it. If I do it right, then I hope to get about twelve (12) parts from it - they're all now planned - of which I've completed seven. I'm closer to eight (8) than not, so that's good, right?

Since the pic is done and so is its relative part in the story, should I just release it/them, or should I wait until it's all done?

I've even made a Wattpad/book cover for it; that's how much I like what I'm doing.

Regarding Welcome Home, Sasha, specifically, it's been plotted for months, too. But I'm having some issues with writing an expository soliloquy, aka the explanation of what the fuck happened to Earth.

The actual information is cut-and-dry, but I don't know how to best frame it. I find Ki to be an analytical person - sensible for a scientist, I suppose - but with a flourish. Putting his brotherly, almost fatherly love of Sasha on top complicates things further since he wouldn't want to break his heart... and the answer will definitely bruise at the very least.

Luckily though, how he'll react and everything after that is as straightforward as an apocalypse can be. Will I ever write it, though?

I technically have three (3) or four (4) continuations to long fics, but I don't know why I'm not releasing them. I want to, yet I don't? Is this my mediocre perfectionism in action? Is this normal?

Syntrophy has changed in my head, like, four times, regarding the relationship between the two MCs. Their separate stories have maintained but not how they connect to each other.

I wish I was kidding. There's so much I've deleted.

I've been adding excerpts to my manips and making visuals to go with stories. Read more about that in the next section.

Secondly, I've been conceptualizing visuals like mad!

Ideas just keep coming, and they don't stop coming.

The queue is probably at peak fullness, which is cool. I was hoping I wouldn't have to widen time between posting stuff because as much as popularity doesn't affect whether I make something, I wouldn't want y'all to just forget about me. You know?

I know some people don't even have a schedule or set up expectations, so I might just say "Fuck it," and leave submission dates to RNG. It hasn't been a problem, but I don't want pressure from time restraints to become a problem. We'll see.

Like the unnamed, new fic way above, some of my ready works are images from tales not-yet-released. I've done that before numerous times, but one in particular literally happens in what would be the literal next part to post, and I'm not done with writing it, yet, at least to where I'd like it to be.

Should I post the pic anyway, despite context being right behind a corner? I kind of want to, but I've already been putting it off so much...

I just really need to get motivated and focus using Pomodoro or something. Maybe I'd knock everything out if I did.

My most recent completion from literally this morning might just be my favorite in all my years of manip-making.

Meanwhile, the one finished right before it might be the worst thing I've ever made, and its excerpt just makes it worse. I enjoyed it thoroughly, though, which makes me question myself as I'm seeing patterns...

I want to draw/paint again. I've done stuff for IRL projects but not size content.

I need inspiration to just sit down and pen for hours or days.

Would y'all mind me doing sketches again? That'd be quicker.

Lastly, the real reason why I chose to make a journal:

I'm really considering putting expanded, not-yet-seen lore for my stories on my blog site (on WordPress), and I feel like I've pondered this before.

As repeatedly mentioned, I have too many ideas but not even drive to collect them all into something worthwhile. But I'd like to get them out there somehow so others can indulge in my babies as much as I do. Some creators have blogs just for certain stories and their characters, settings, etc. that I adore, and I want to feel that in a way, too. However, most people don't have ten (10) or more stories at once that they equally love. Fuck, I need to edit my blog with more pages for more things I've conjured but isn't there, yet.

I feel that by doing so on my site,

People who do want to know how a plot of a tale will go, because I write as quickly as molasses runs yet have an outline for everything, can know.

It'll be organized as I see fit but my own control (unless WordPress does something drastic).

In addition, the data wouldn't be directly attached to the works on other sites like here, either, in case ideas change or people are averse to spoilers and want to stay away.

Reading all this over, couldn't I put the same data/lore in DA journals, Tumblr posts, etc., too, adding tags or titles to mark what's what? Couldn't I also put the works themselves that are here or even the damn music list on my site, too? Should I?

Am I overthinking this? I think I'm overthinking this.

That's it, I think.

Does any of this make sense? Please let me know your thoughts on anything but mostly the blog stuff if you can.

(I've also put this on DA if you'd prefer to respond there.)

Stay safe, and Happy Equinox! I'm glad I'll see flowers blooming again soon.

~J