#idk how exactly the year in review works like is it counting posts from this month? since the 2024 one came out on december 4th?

[riddlerosehearts]

gelphie and wicked constantly trending on this site is INSANE because that's exactly what i dreamed of ever since it was announced that we were getting a movie, which was so long ago that i wasn't even on tumblr yet (movie was announced in 2012 and i joined in 2013). back then i thought it probably wouldn't even be all that good but i just hoped that people who were unfamiliar with the stage musical would like the movie enough to make gelphie a bit more popular, and look where we are now!! i hope next we can make gelphie hit the top 10 ships in 2025's year in review. it probably won't happen but it's what they deserve.

[hyukascampfire]

greetings, my dear ashlynn. i, 🌰, am back in your inbox with the promised cruel prince review. (no spoilers, fear not hyukascampfire-ville.) i was making some goblincore doodles just now for my media journal when i remembered you both prompted me to pick up this series and make art again so i had to rush over here‼️ first of all, i’m obsessed !? which is embarrassing because my sister just had peak literature in her room all along and i wasn’t made aware of how peak it is exactly. but she was staring at the amount of tabs she put on the first book and went “huh? which pages did i mark? nothing really happens in the cruel prince” and i was like “???” idk if it’s because i’ve consumed too much cosy fiction this year but the stakes were high so it definitely seemed to me that things did, in fact, happen.

but, i digress. you asked me to guess who your fave character is omg… idk, cardan? or oak. everyone loves oak though so i wonder if it counts (^^;) it’s probably an unpopular opinion but so far i don’t really understand what makes cardan so attractive besides the fact that he’s handsome. and i do mind that he has a tail 💀 but we’ll see. love jude though! she’s so unhinged (positive.) vivi as well. taryn… i understand why she made those questionable choices but she’s on thin ice. i love how convoluted and nuanced the characters’ family ties are; there were very interesting relationship dynamics at play and the court politics were also very intriguing. i actually sort of expected the ending but that’s only because i have N in my mbti lmao. and you were right about how similar the ~feels~ are to tsfawc, while your work itself is original. either way, i’m happy to conclude the year with such amazing reads, especially since you announced your event— i can’t think of anything interesting to request so i’ll let the others work their magic!!

just my two cents… i’d love to know in advance which requests you got, like, just the members and the tropes (?), the suspense is killing me (> <) no pressure though, i know you’ve already got a lot on your plate. good luck with everything! and take care ♡ 🌰

YESS i was waiting for this!!

i think that, even though i absolutely agree that so much happened in the first book (i mean… let’s talk abt balekin and what he did to his family omfg), the second book is ABSOLUTELY my favorite. it’s SO fun. i absolutely need to see your reaction to the ending. jude has an incredible brain.

my fav character is axtually the ghost!! i effing love the ghost. he’s actually part of the inspiration for taehyun in TSFAWC 😣 i can’t say much because you still have so much to go, but i just love him.

the tail 😭😭 i totally understand u w not seeing cardan as all that yet, but omg from this point forward…. you just gotta come back here and tell me how you feel abt him with each. holly does a great job at throwing you around >.<

i absolutely love jude as a main character. n her sisters,, well, vivi especially. taryn…………. ahem. anyway, i am SO with you on the layered and murky family dynamics. i ESPECIALLY love jude and madoc. their relationship is my #1 favorite aspect of the series. the whole, ‘my father is the worst man in the world, and i am his daughter’ thing? ugh. yes.

also the ending omfg i wish i had seen that coming because when i read it, i was ten shades of shocked and anxious. i was so excited for jude and cardan and how things were going, and well… but i think this just made things SO much better, and of course makes sense for jude’s character. phew.

thank you so much for always coming by to talk, and for wishing me well on the event!! i’ll go post the members and tropes for the event rn, i’m so excited, i’ll do it just for you hehe

[princessfbi]

Tumblr Fandom: A Year in Review 2023

Tagged by @mistmarauder and @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels which is both thrilling and terrifying...

Top Five Blorbos: Evan Buckley, Eddie Diaz, Maddie Buckley, Clint Barton, and Carter Bennett

Top Five Fandoms: 9-1-1, RWRB, A Discovery of Witches, does hockey count? idk it's been a strike year, and Green Creek Series

Top Five OTPs: Buddie, WinterHawk, Matthew/Diana, Grantaire/Enjolras, FirstPrince

Shoutout to Some New Friends: @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels sorry you're stuck with me now. I'm going to shower you in so much love and support and affection and there's nothing you can do to stop me BROHAHAHAHAHA. @skyhighrollins911 you're so talented it's ridiculous. @mistmarauder I feel like we've past the new friends stage but I also feel like we've gotten so much closer this year and I'm forever grateful for it. You're brighten my day every time I hear from you even when you're bullying me. Also I hate to break it to you but you do so much for this fandom it's insane.

Shoutout to Some Old Friends: @homerforsure and @mellaithwen you guys have picked me up so many times. I don't know where I'd be without you. @buddie-buddie you are my ride or die. I'm sorry to say this but not even a divorce attorney could get rid of me now. @lovebuck you were one of my first friends in this whole crazy internet world I found and look at us! @bigfootsmom you are a beacon of joy every message I get from you. Thanks for letting me talk kinky with you 😜 @like-the-rest-of-la I'm obsessed with you. I'm sorry I don't make the rules. @djdangerlove you are the light of my life you ridiculous person. You bring so much joy and laughter to every corner you grace with your presence and I'm gonna move into your apartment one day when you're at work and you won't be able to get rid of me. Sorry not sorry.

Favorite Creation You Posted This Year: Ohhhhhh maybe my fic I wrote for @buddie-buddie's birthday. Also Kink Club AU because it's one of my most nuanced pieces and Traded for being a new type of fic for me with the multimedia parts.

Favorite Creation Posted by Someone Else This Year: @like-the-rest-of-la amazes me every day as does @mistmarauder and while I have your attention have you gotten a chance to see/listen to the podfic they collaborated together to bring you [Podfic] If I Risk It All (Could You Break My Fall?) because not a day goes by that I don't listen to it/look at the cover. Also @skyhighrollins911 destroys me with all their new edits. we will find a way (through the dark) by @buddie-buddie nearly drove me insane and had me running out to the yard to scream like a banshee.

People Who Brightened Your Year: @buddie-buddie and @homerforsure know exactly how to make me smile when I need it. I still fangirl about @mistmarauder but the fact that she picked my fic to podfic? With @like-the-rest-of-la who I still cannot believe just casually drew Spiderman!Eddie kissing Hawkeye!Buck? Fainted. I fainted. @djdangerlove you are ridiculous and I love you. @mandzuking17 and @thebestbooksaround and @fleurdebeton thank you for sending me so many wonderful asks. @firemedicdiaz thank you for getting me through that rough patch I had this spring and constantly being so supportive! @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels thank you for putting up with me being such a goof. @barbiediaz Thank you for agreeing with me that we have the most correct opinions.

Anyone Else You'd Like to Mention: Thank you to everyone who comes to my inbox with their love and enthusiasm! Thank you to all my readers! Thank you everyone who has welcomed me and embraced me and supported me as I work myself into knots while trying to do something I love (write).

Five of Your Favorite Authors This Year: @buddie-buddie @homerforsure @devirnis @bigfootsmom @letmetellyouaboutmyfeels @mellaithwen @barbiediaz

Five of Your Favorite Artists/Gifmakers/Podficcers/Etc. This Year: @mistmarauder @like-the-rest-of-la @bucksketch @djdangerlove @skyhighrollins911 @ronordmann @bilosan @housewifebuck @captain-hen @baneme-art @kaciart @iinryer @paxdracona @bigfootsmom @starbuckley @mellaithwen

Three Things You're Looking Forward to in 2024: Season 7 of 911!!!!! Jean's book from AFTG! Anddddd.... getting back in the querying trenches.

I'm going to tag everyone I've mentioned above who hasn't done it yet!

[freyafrida]

2024 Writing Review

tagged by: the very lovely @librarylexicon, thank you thank you!!! tagging: what's up fic writing mutuals you're all getting tagged again @jomiddlemarch @noneedtoamputate @cherryblossomsatsea @gogandmagog @batrachised and anyone else who wants to ofc <3

number of stories posted to ao3: uhhh...i only posted one new story lol (dancing in this world alone), although i did post several chapters of (and finally finish!!) how certain the journey! i posted 9 chapters in total across the two stories.

word counted posted for last year: ao3 does not seem to want to calculate this properly so...guesstimating 45k-ish? i posted 9 new chapters and my chapters usually run about 4-5k words now.

fandoms i wrote for: anne of green gables

pairings: my usual suspects, walter/una and rilla/carl <3

stories with the most kudos, bookmarks and comment threads: i think dancing in this world alone got more comments/kudos/bookmarks in the span of 2024, although how certain the journey still has more overall.

work i’m most proud of (and why): i am super happy to be working on dancing in this world alone!!! i'd been kicking it around for literal years (i found scraps of some rilla/carl stuff in my notebook from a decade ago send help) so i'm really proud that i finally started on it and so far it's been coming together.

work i’m least proud of (and why): i'm not not proud of it or anything, but i guess of the two, i'm a little less proud of how certain the journey. i just started it so long ago that like...idk i was hoping i'd feel more like, fireworks-victory-lap-triumph when it was done. i also ended up being in a difficult place when i wrote the last chapter and it kind of overshadowed any excitement i had for finishing :(

share or describe a favorite review you received: i love all the in-depth, thoughtful reviews i get, but it's always really special when comments indicate that the themes and atmosphere you're trying to capture have gotten through to the reader, or that they enjoyed the bits you personally are the most proud of. this review from missheliotrope thrilled me because she identified the vibe i was going for so exactly. this review from pointofviewwww was also really lovely; they singled out a particular paragraph that i really felt proud of and had built the chapter around and i was just so thrilled that it had jumped out and meant something to a reader, too, and not just me thinking it made sense because i'd been sitting with it for so long, lol.

gogandmagog and alinya alethia also left really thoughtful comments on dancing in this world alone and how certain the journey on FFN -- they're both the queens of reading closely and engaging with the story; i'm always so overwhelmed (in a good way) in how much they pick up in the writing and the connections they make.

on another note, like half of the reviews of the first chapter of dancing in this world alone were people calling ken ford boring, which absolutely killed me. insert "he's just ken" joke here.

a time when writing was really, really hard: ugh...i don't want to get too depressing but A Lot happened last year (lots of illness in the family, taking care of my parents, etc. my mom had surgery, i hit my car, work system broke during a major product launch, and i got called in for jury duty all in the same month 😩). there were pretty big chunks of time where i got zero writing done because i was, like, burying myself in baldur's gate 3 to distract myself.

a scene or character you wrote that surprised you: i didn't actually plan for ken to show up much (if at all) in dancing in this world alone, he was just supposed to kick off the plot and disappear, but he's sticking around way more than i meant him to. (i once got a comment that was like "go back to toronto ken!" and i agree!!! but somehow i can't make him leave lmao)

a favourite excerpt of your writing: calling it out again, but this was the overall theme and feeling i wanted to capture in how certain the journey, the loss of youth and loneliness of your place in the world changing, and i felt it came out well:

Is it up to them? Is the world still theirs? So often it feels as though it has passed them by — that they are only reenacting their ghosts here in this cove. The lads in the years behind them had arrived while they were gone, silently stepping into their empty places.

how did you grow as a writer last year: i definitely wrote more last year than in the past several years; i am def. pleased to have been a little more disciplined and self-aware about my ~process~ and how to stop myself from procrastinating.

how do you hope to grow this year: i'd really love to keep writing even more consistently and...haha, i don't know that i want to step out of my comfort zone as a writer -- i mostly write very low-plot, character-focused shippy stuff, and tbh that's what i like to read and write! but i do want to at least be decent at writing other stuff and one of the reasons i slowed down on clocks are black is because parts of the story were turning out to be more action-focused and i was struggling with that ngl. but i'd really love to finish it so i'm going to have to figure that out!

who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer, beta, cheerleader, etc.): oh this is hard, i'm such a hermit when i write. everyone that has ever interacted with me about my fic perhaps! that's what motivated me the most, so thank u all for being my cheerleaders even if you didn't realize it <3

anything from your real life show up in your writing last year: the epilogue of how certain the journey was directly inspired by cleaning up my grandmother's house earlier in the year! i had always planned for the epilogue to be set sometime in the future but hadn't settled on how exactly i wanted it to go. being nosy and going through my grandparents' photo albums and finding their old photos and yearbooks and other little pieces of their lives pretty much directly formed the basis of that chapter. (fun fact i kept coming across messages in my grandmother's yearbook calling her a flirt 💀 grandma pls)

any new wisdom you can share with other writers: idk if it's new wisdom because i stg i re-learn this every year, but actually writing is the most important thing you can do. sitting down and just writing literally anything is actually very helpful -- getting into the rhythm of the scene and characters often helps crack where the story is going next, even if you don't end up using all (or any) of what you write in the moment.

also inspired by librarylexicon's answer re: characterization, dialogue is so important. the way characters outwardly speak is just as important as their deepest inner voice and thoughts, and for fanfic, making them sound recognizable is a huge part of making their characterization believable. i think this is especially true for things like TV or video games (this was also mostly inspired by reading BG3 fanfic, haha). so i'm trying to be more conscious of this myself!

any projects you’re looking to starting (or finishing) this year: i put dancing in this world alone to the side near the end of the 2024 because i really wanted to finish how certain the journey on the same date as come back home, so i was on a deadline there. so, really looking forward to having rilla/carl be my main focus and mayyybe aiming to finish DITWA this year? would also like to work on my other fics (i do still think about the clocks are black daily!!!) but i don't want to over-commit lmao.

[kingsofeverything]

Annual* Writing Self-Evaluation

Last year, everyone was doing this as I was rushing to write one last fic before the new year. I’m not currently writing anything, so I figured I’d go ahead.

1. List of works published this year:

Ahead in the Count

Rode Hard and Put Away Wet

Truth or Drink

U-Pop Truck Stop

Ride My Sleigh Tonight

2. Work you are most proud of (and why):

Ride My Sleigh Tonight

Once I got past the feeling of omgggg this is terrible why did I ever think I could write anything, I felt like my normal writing self while working on it , and it was reassuring because writing has been nearly impossible this year

3. Work you are least proud of (and why):

Rode Hard and Put Away Wet

Idk why exactly but it’s definitely not my favorite. No offense if you love it 😘

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

I’m terrible at picking favorites of anything, but the last line here was the one I built U-Pop Truck Stop around:

“Harry, get a load of the sign in the shower,” Niall says with a loud chuckle that echoes off the tiled walls and floor. He pushes the shower room door open before it can shut all the way, and points at the black rectangle hanging on the shower wall, its white block letters spelling out:

ONLY ONE TRUCK DRIVER PER SHOWER

—MANAGEMENT

“See it?” Niall asks, still laughing.

“See it?” Harry grins, thinking back to that fateful night, and says, “I’m the reason they hung it up!”

5. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

Maggie @disgruntledkittenface and Molly @becomeawendybird both sent me voice messages about Ride My Sleigh Tonight and those are the top of the list for me 🩷

6. A time when writing was really, really hard:

Literally every single minute of 2023

7. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

All of Truth or Drink because I had the questions, but I didn’t have their backstory planned. It all just came out as I was writing and I really love that H and L

8. How did you grow as a writer this year:

I had to learn to let go of writing long fics and try to be satisfied with shorter stories. Idk if that’s growth though because tbh I’m not satisfied lol and I miss it so much

9. How do you hope to grow next year:

Next year I really hope to learn how to write in a way that satisfies my creative side, that produces longer works, but that takes more time. I need to figure out a way to write the length of fic I want to write, but spread it out and still keep that focus and inspiration going

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

It’s literally always Nic @louandhazaf because without him, I’d never have written a word, and without him, I still wouldn’t write. He’s the backbone of my writing and the best friend and beta I could ever hope for

11. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

I’m absolutely shocked to answer no to this because bits of my real life have always wormed their way into my fics, but I guess it’s because all my fics this year have been so short?

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Other than JUST WRITE and listen to @roseanddaggerpodcast I highly recommend titling your wip WORST VERSION OF whatever your title is because that helped me soooo much on Ride My Sleigh Tonight when I was struggling at the start. As soon as I put that in the doc title it was like magic. Every time I’d get in my head and think “oh this is horrible” or whatever or start thinking that my writing sucked or something, I’d see that title and think I CAN FIX IT LATER

13. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

I actually have a wip where L and H got married really young and divorced really young (no kids or anything) but I’ve sort of abandoned it. Idk if I’ll get back to it.

I did have an idea for a xmas fic lol and if I do write it, I’m thinking of posting it like an advent fic but in July. So like xmas in July 🎄

In reality, I’m going to be so busy idk if I’ll be able to write at all, but I really just want to be inspired by an idea that won’t let go

14. Tag three writers whose answers you’d like to read. ;)

@disgruntledkittenface @louandhazaf @allwaswell16

*All answers should be about works published in 2023

[likegemstone]

just me puzzling through some issues there have been re: posting HBM online

So, HBM is posted on 4 different sites: Royal Road, Inkitt, Tapas, and Webnovel.

Episode one has now been up for *checks calendar* 3 months and 10 days. According to the analytics from each of those sites, HBM has been viewed, across all sites: 1,893 times. Now, each new chapter counts as a new view, so it hasn't been 1,893 people, but only Inkitt shows me the views on each chapter (as far as I can tell) so idk exactly how many people just pulled up the first chapter or whatever and then bounced. Royal Road says the average views are 21 (out of the total views on that site of 494) but I don't know enough about math anymore to be able to properly interpret/estimate how many people actually finished all the chapters. Anyway, none of that really matters

What matters is: of all 1,893 views across all four sites, HBM has gotten exactly 7 comments.

6 are from the same person, the fiancee of one of my best friends who read the story as a favor to said best friend. The other comment is from me replying to one of her comments LMAO

Although all four sites allow and encourage reviews of stories, it has gotten no reviews, nor any ratings.

I'm going to assume, if only for my own sanity, that this is very normal. That readers in this day and age on these sites are not inherently inclined to comment/like/review/rate random stories they read, even if they did enjoy them enough to read all the way to the end of Episode One. That if there isn't some other factor (like being my bestie-in-law) to nudge them toward actually engaging with the story, they won't.

Part of it is also an issue of how I posted Ep 1 I think. I, for the most part, just dumped the whole thing on there at once when, from what I've seen, it would have been much smarter to update one chapter per day until the whole episode was out. However that's more factoring in to bringing in new readers, not necessarily getting readers to engage. I think.

(This is all completely new to me and I am just theorizing for like 99% of this)

So what do I do about this? Aside from just post more of the story (which I will be doing soon, hopefully!) and hoping that as people get to know the characters and the story more, they're more inclined to engage?

If I put myself in the mindset of a reader (who is not also a writer and therefore doesn't immediately then put myself in the mindset of the person who wrote what I am reading) then I think I would just not really. Think to interact with the story unless it like REALLY grabbed me and made me Feel a big Feel. I think it wouldn't even occur to me that the writer needs me. I would see myself as just a number to the writer, and I would think "oh they're just going to keep doing what they're doing no matter what I do or say, so why take the time?"

Also there's the fact that HBM is free, right? I want it to always be free if I can afford to do that because I want it to be as accessible as possible. No paywall, and if people want to and are able to support me financially then they can and hopefully will.

Some might think that readers would be like "wow this person is offering something they have sunk years of their life into for free I am so grateful for that, I should do what I can to show that appreciation and let them know I support what they're doing!" but in fact it's the Free element that emphasizes this kinda mentality that it's just. It's just content, right? It's just online content and I am just a number. I don't matter to the writer.

It's weird how that works. But I totally get it because I am totally that way with, for example, video content. Like there's that whole "like comment and subscribe if you like this video!" thing and that always felt so impersonal and like the youtuber or whatever was just saying it because other people always said it and they didn't even actually care about the comments/feedback they were just trying to play to the algorithm so it didn't actually matter if I did those things. I just always saw it as a creator trying to increase their numbers because "bigger number better person" and all that.

Okay so what do I do with all of this that I've just talked through?

Wait I'm going to reblog this with further commentary that is not under the cut and I don't know if it will show up like I think it will but let's give it a try

[calumsash]

2022 Writing Evaluation

thank you for my amazing friend taylor @jbhmalumm for tagging me in this!!! i totally forgot i wrote (even if it's been like half a year yikes) and can actually be tagged in those things so im excited <333

1. number of stories posted on ao3: a whole 3 fics!

2. word count posted for this year: 17,741 words!!

3. fandoms i wrote for: 5sos

4. pairings: romantic: cashton (2) & mashlum (1) / platonic: malum (1) & cake (1)

5. story with the most kudos/bookmarks/comments: all three of these categories go to three that's the magic number <3

6. work i’m most proud of (and why): im proud of all of them! just the fact that i actually sat down this year and wrote something AND posted it?!!?!!!! i think that's something to be proud of!

7. work i’m least proud of (and why): i love all my kids!

8. share or describe a favorite review you received: ok so there's this comment @ghost-of-you left on my mashlum fic that just said "I don't think I've ever laughed this much at a fic before. This awesome." and i remember smiling and thinking about that comment all day so thank you anna <3

9. a time when writing was really, really hard: idk a lot of times i found myself really frustrated that i couldn't just sit down and write 5k in a sitting, or i was feeling i wasn't getting the tone right and then tried to compare myself to others? but once i let that go, stopped looking at other fics and just setting myself smaller goals i think made the difference!!

10. a scene or character you wrote that surprised you: the ending scene of malum in the daylight fic!!!! when i started to write that scene i totally planned for it to go in a different direction, a much more funny way (michael finding out calum is a vampire because he found him drinking blood smoothies lol), but as i was writing it the words just flew into a more angsty approach and i liked it so!!! it stayed <3

11. a favorite excerpt of your writing: i still think the delivery of “I need to know, who came first? The chicken or the egg?" and the response after it was incredible on my part <3

12. how did you grow as a writer this year? actually finishing a fic and posting it!

13. how do you hope to grow next year? honestly just hoping to set little goals and maybe write some more, maybe try other fandoms and see how i do!

14. who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc)? just gonna go ahead and tag my wonderful friends @myfalsedevotion @jbhmalumm @lukemichaelcalumashton @daydadahlias @merry-the-cookie @calumthoodshands because you guys hyped me up when i started writing and when i sent you screenshots as i progressed and gave me encouraging words!!!! i probably wouldn't have had the guts to post without you <3

15. anything from your real life show up in your writing this year? oh yeah i totally thought capybaras were called chupacabras SORRY AJSHDHSJ (from the halloween fic)

16. any new wisdom you can share with other writers? literally just write for yourself! i can't even count the amount of times i reread my own fics because it's exactly to my taste!!

17. any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year? there's a song fic i wrote for cashton that is mostly done that i do wish to finish at some point!!!! also coach calum fic would be amazing if i ever finish it so hopefully that!!!! plus not 5sos but i have this idea for a buddie (911) fic that haven't left my mind since i thought of it and im hoping maybe start and finish before they come back from the hiatus!!!

18. tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read: probably everyone have been tagged already so if you haven't already and wanna do it, count this as your sign <3

[beyondxmeasure]

Annual Writing Review

Thank you to @littleroverlouis @allwaswell16 @brightgolden and @thinlinez for tagging me in this.

1. Number of stories posted on AO3 in 2021: 8

2. Word count posted for the year: 176,210 Total. 166,050 (One Direction) 10,160 (Schitt’s Creek)

Fandoms I wrote for: One Direction, Schitt’s Creek

Pairings: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson; David Rose/Patrick Brewer

Story with the most: Kudos: A Simple Twisted Fate Bookmarks: A Simple Twisted Fate Comments: Freedom Always Comes With a Price

Work I'm most proud of (and why): Freedom Always Comes With a Price because it took me so long to complete. I had so many various obstacles along the way, and it became such a hard story to finish with a really complicated plot line. It made me rethink writing something that size ever again, but I have to remind myself that I essentially wrote a novel in just under a year (and only my second work posted for the fandom), so no matter what, it’s a pretty big accomplishment.

Work I'm least proud of (and why): Longing Like a Searchlight. Although I am very proud of this work, it felt a bit thrown together at the last minute, and I wasn’t able to execute it exactly how I envisioned it in my head, nor put the final polish with editing on it like I usually do. But I’ve got a lot of positive feedback, so that makes me proud. Someday, I will go back and spruce it up a bit!

Share or describe a favorite review you received: “I’ve never seen anyone weave in real life quotes and references so seamlessly. It was honestly my favorite part, so thank you.” I love this because one of my favorite things to do is sneak in interview quotes, fandom jokes or references like Easter eggs and see who notices. It’s always nice to hear about it when they do!

A time when writing was really, really hard: IDK?? Writing is always hard! I have very little time to do it with how much I work and struggle to stay focused with my ADHD, so I can’t think of any specific time except ALL the time! Hahaha. But I have recently discovered deep focus/binaural music on YouTube and Spotify that has been a total game changer for me. I live in my noise-canceling headphones now.

A scene or character that you wrote that surprised you: Almost all of Twisted Fate, mostly because I had a completely different second half planned out and changed it the week before I posted it. Completely scrapped 8k words with 10k new ones in 4 days. Utter chaos! LOL.

A favorite excerpt of your writing: Taken from I Know You Rider (Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone) Louis squeezes his eyes shut. Just as they enter the last tunnel, a firm hand splays warm across his back, long fingers wrapping around his middle to pull him in close. Louis’ arms land easily around Harry’s shoulders. Another hand ghosts across Louis’ neck, thumbing along his cheekbone and closing the distance. Warm breath washes over his lips. His fingertips knead into the supple skin of the back of Harry’s neck, letting the short, blunt edges of his nails scratch gently at the nape, coaxing him on. Their lips press together, hot, wet, and urgent. They’re strangers in the dark, but they find each other with ease and fit into each other’s space as if they’re meant to be there, warming themselves with glowing embers that have grown from a single spark. Louis loses himself in the scent and taste and feel of this boy close against his skin. His head is swimming with desire. Everything in this moment is a blur, a rush to all his senses, but the one thing that breaks through the fog in his mind is that he needs more, more, more.

How did you grow as a writer for this year: Last year my brother got me a subscription to Masterclass, so I used some of what I learned in those lessons. I continued the subscription this year as a gift to myself, so I hope to binge a lot more this new year. I didn’t take enough time to use it, so that’s another goal of mine!

How do you hope to grow next year: See above (More Masterclass) but also, write less and write more. Use fewer words to write better work, but also write more stories… shorter, less involved fics. Conquer my fear of the drabbles and ficlets.

Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): So many! But off the top of my head, I would say @zanniscaramouche probably because she was such an amazing and patient beta. She gave me tons of great constructive criticism and advice that has really stuck with me and pointed out a lot of my challenges that I can easily spot and fix now. I have noticed my writing has improved a lot just by keeping her tips in mind anytime I write.

Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: Not that I can think of, but I rarely pull from my own experiences (for plot ideas anyway). But I did recently have an idea for a Christmas fic. I didn’t have time to write that has a lot of myself in the characterization of Louis. Planning on turning it into an advent fic! 🤞

Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Outlining is your friend! I used to be a ‘panster’ with everything I wrote, and would just start with the beginning of an idea and write. But now I outline everything, even if it’s just rough notes or a semblance of a brainstorm. I have to see my story arc from start to finish on paper before I write. I usually use the ‘beat sheet’ method/template and plot out each idea for that point in the storyline. The nice thing about this is that whenever I get stuck somewhere, it allows me to jump around to another section and always be writing, so I’m not waiting to get out of my writer’s block before I can move forward. At least I’m making progress somewhere. Then I just cobble all the pieces together later and fill in the gaps, if any.

Any projects you're looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: My Big Bang, Fitness Instructor Harry, maybe my Eroda Fest??, and an advent fic with an idea I had this past Christmas but didn’t have time for, and a few other ideas…

Tag some writers whose answer you'd like to read.

I’m sure I’m tagging people that have already done this or have been tagged. But here goes anyway! Love you all… play if you want, ignore if you don’t.

@twopoppies @chloehl10 @solvetheminourdreams @casuallyhl @soldouthaz @bottomlinsons @2tiedships2 @falsegoodnight @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed @canonlarry @outropeace @itjustkindahappened @softfonds @dehydratedpool @sadaveniren @afangirlfantasy @daggerandrose @herefortommo @queenbeeharry @gaycousinlarry

Happy New Year!

[idontblushsrry]

Itadori Yuuji Boyfriend Headcanons

A/N: Reader is from America and a black female. Idk why i decided to write this but I think that Yuuji would be a fun boyfriend lmao. I don’t entirely know what the reader’s cursed technique should be so lmk if you have any ideas. Until then enjoy Yuuji and reader being 2 idiots in love. Spoilers for all the eps of jujutsu kaisen up to about episode 11, nothing past that though as I want to finish the show first before reading the manga, so please be respectful of spoilers and label them (and tag if necessary) in the comments. Also srry if this cuts off abruptly bcus of the point the show is at. This is also like, all over the place but whatever.

(also sorry this was posted later than usual oops)

Word Count:  1943

This dork-

He is so sweet and kind and considerate 

But also a dumbass but also like he’s your dumbass

You and Yuuji are both equally stupid like bless yalls hearts

You and Yuuji met during his time at the Tokyo Academy when you transferred from America

The moment this man saw you walk up with Gojo-sensei he was smitten

Like your skin was glowing??? how???

And you had a slight accent but like he loved it too

And when you came up to greet him and shake hands you smelled so good and your skin was so soft

((He would later come to find out that the root of that was the shea cocoa butter lotion you used))

But yea mans was smitten and he is fully in love with you lmao

Will do literally anything you ask

You hungry? He’s prepared a 5 course, michelin star meal

Want new clothes? He’s been training for the day he could hold your bags for you

Ran out of hair products?? He’s already back with a special box of your products that he had imported from America

To this day you don’t know how he was able to get those products so quickly

He is loves when you tell him things about you from your day, to your times in america, to how your cursed energy works

Yall are the couple that does stupid shit together

Like one time you showed Yuuji one of those life hack videos and he was like 

“We should totally do that” 

And you were like “Bet”

Needless to say Fushiguro was very confused at the sight of bandaids on both of your fingers the next morning

“???What happened?”

“Well you see, I told Yuuji that I should use the glue gun because he didn’t even know where to put the glue stick. And he said nah, I got it and um yea so I fell and the glue gun was plugged in and then he tripped over me and so now we look like this.”

Gojo and Kugisaki thought that this was hilarious while Fushiguro decided that he’d store your guys’ glue gun in his shadows from now on

How yall manage to get through missions you go on together alive is a miracle

Speaking of missions, you eventually ask Yuuji what’s his deal because you feel a powerful aura coming from him but he never uses cursed energy, always cursed weapons

Cue Sukuna’s mouth popping up on the side of his face like “Hey mamas”

(You can’t tell me that Sukuna isn’t the type of guy to ask where his hug at)

“YUUJI WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”

“Oh, I guess you haven’t met Sukuna yet, huh?”

So he sits you down and explains how he ate Sukuna’s finger and you're sitting there like ‘mhm mhm mhm, sorry you what?’

For like 3 days after he told you that you couldn’t bring yourself to kiss him just because you were processing the fact that Yuuji ate someone’s nasty old ass finger and would have to eat 19 more

And the fact that he’s the vessel of like the worst curse known to man 

During those 3 days, Yuuji’s pouting because he’s like ‘I fucked up, now she doesn’t wanna kiss me let alone talk to me because of this monster inside of me :(’

Meanwhile you’re just like ‘why would anyone eat some random mummified finger?’

Eventually you get wind of Yuuji’s bad mood and immediately, you rush to smooth things over with him.

You knock on his door and hear blankets rustling before he goes, “I’m not in the mood to play fight right now Kugisaki’

“Can I come in baby?”

You immediately hear the most comical almost cartoonish amount of noise ranging from a cup falling over, sheets falling off the bed, and what sounds like Yuuji falling flat on his ass before he opens the door

When he does, you’re laughing and it’s like the sky is no longer grey and the world is filled with color

You smile at each other before your moment is interrupted with Sukuna going “Finally, full offense, his whining was getting annoying”

You step inside his room and apologize for ignoring him, explaining that you just needed time to process things, explaining that you should’ve told him that before dipping

He just grabbed you in a bear hug and lifted you of the ground and spinning you around laughing happily, after all he wasn’t even upset with you, he just missed you

And thus begins the honeymoon phase of your guys’ relationship

Fushiguro is actually really happy for you guys and is the most supportive of your relationship but if anyone asked him to admit that out loud he’d actually apparate to the nearest marooned ship

Nobura doesn’t hate you guys but she thinks all couples are disgusting, so while it’s nothing personal, she does gag when you and Yuuji do so much as make goo goo eyes at each other

Gojo is actually like the main cheerleader of your relationship. 

He is the teacher that changes the seating chart to put students he ships together

He was always pairing you and Yuuji up on missions and placing you as sparring partners like ur not slick

If Gojo is the cheerleader, Sukuna is an actual antagonist

Like the man goes out of his way to CHOOSE violence

Like on time you kissed Yuuji’s cheek on a date and when you pulled back, your lip was bleeding and Sukuna’s mouth was smirking at you

Another thing he likes to do is tell you all of Yuuji’s simp^tm thoughts

Like all of them

Now Yuuji isn’t ashamed of how much he loves you and is in fact very open with it, but he doesn’t need Sukuna telling you that the only reason he bought x mouthwash was because it made your breath smell like “sunshine” and he had to see if it would work on him

Speaking of dates, good luck

Now I stand by the fact that Yuuji would never half-ass a date and things with him are certainly never boring

But he’s also like a country boy in the city and his tourist tendencies tend to get the best of him

Like you’ll be trying to find a spot to eat and when you look back Yuuji’s gone

((Prolly to buy another I <3 Tokyo shirt so you can both match))

He always catches up with you ad you eventually learn that but like the first few times be havin you ready to put up a lost child signal on the loudspeaker

He’s very sweet and this is where his thoughtfulness shines through

You and Yuuji plan dates in the same way one plays bingo

Like because you never know where you’re going to be r when exactly you’ll both be free (especially with Gojo-sensei and his bare minimum ass information) you two tend to go ‘ok well if we’re here we’ll go here and if we’re here, we’ll go here’ and so on and so forth

But Yuuji always remembers such little one-off details about you that make your dates.

Like you mention wanting to try a sushi train and he’s already scrolled through multiple yelp reviews and watched every youtube restaurant review like 9 times

But every high has a low and Yuuji and your’s low comes suddenly and it brings you crashing to the ground with no warning and nothing to slow your descent

When your class of first years were sent to exorcise the special grade cursed womb

When Yuuji’s hand got blown off and he told you to run you froze, your mind racing faster than your legs could even start

“(Y/N) RUN!” Yuuji’s voice broke you out of your fear-based trance

“I- I...can’t...I can’t leave you!” you cried out all your rational senses screamed at you to go, run, he had Sukuna and you were barely a grade 2 sorcerer. But your intuition told you if you left him you wouldn’t see him alive again.

You were trapped in a paralysis of indecision but the choice was made for you when a sticky tongue wrapped around your midriff and you were gulped into the mouth of one of Fushiguro’s frogs

“Goddamn it Fushiguro! Let me go! I need to... save... him.” You were outside the building before you could even finish arguing.

You glared up at Fushiguro but your eyes softened some when you saw how beat up Kugisaki looked.

He gave you this look that said he did what he had to do and he didn’t care what you had to say about it 

You and him waited in the rain for Yuuji or Sukuna to exit the building

You tried to focus yourself and save your negative emotions for your cursed attack

When Sukuna inevitably appeared, one finger stronger, you were fully prepared to fight him

However, he didn’t seem interested in fighting you and more engaged in fighting with Megumi

You tried to urge Fushiguro to wait it out, eventually Sukuna would lose control, but when Sukuna took Yuuji’s heart hostage, you both knew you’d have to fight

You and Fushiguro gave it your all but when Yuuji came back he still died 

It took all your strength to not completely fall apart after his death and the support from the second years as well as Kugisaki and Fushiguro helped

You’d tried to visit him at the morgue but Shoko only told you that she didn’t think it’d be a good idea.

You still slept in his sweaters and the things that smelled like him from time to time, trying to make the idea of him last, but after a month, the smell of him had started to fade

Everything about Yuuji’s memory seemed to become leached away with time, from his smell, to the wear present on things he’d given to you

You couldn’t help but feel resentful towards yourself but also to Sukuna, he’d taken Yuuji from you with the same care that one would throw litter on the ground

The pain in your chest didn’t wane either, it only became ignorable to a degree as training for the exchange with the Kyoto students became more intense

Fushiguro is a comfort to you as well, aside from you, him and Yuuji were the closest to each other and so he gets a lot of what you’re going through and doesn’t push when you become more withdrawn

He also lets you pet his demon dog too but when you ask him why he’s letting you pet it he just says ‘because no one would believe you if you told them’ lies

The bastard really just does it because he knows you’re sad and he doesn’t want you to be sad

Speaking of the Kyoto students, Zenin Mai and Toudou Aoi are permanently on your shit list

You’re relieved that Panda, Maki, and Inumaki came to your guys’ aid but like if you had your way Mai wouldn’t even exist

Anyways Maki has Panda physically restrain you while she tries to calm you down 

“(Y/N), you can kick her ass at the exchange!”

When you calm down, Panda puts you down and even though Mai’s long gone with Todou to go get his handshake, you make a promise that carries through the wind

‘Zenin Mai, pray that the next time you run across me I’m feeling kind, because if not-’, the last word is lost as the wind picks up but Mai feels a shiver rack through her body that more than ensures your message.

[clumsyclifford]

2021 Writing Self-Evaluation

thank youuu @allsassnoclass​ i fucking LOVE this idea i am going to say SO many things rn i am so excited. 

prefacing this by saying i’m only counting the stuff i posted to bellawritess because i do have a different ao3 account where i post All My Other Fic Writing but (1) i don’t use it nearly as much now that i’m so focused on the rpf stuff and (2) don’t wanna doxx myself lol. so yeah! onward.

edit after finishing this: to absolutely no one’s surprise, i was about as long-winded as humanly possible on every single question i could. so i’ll put a cut and you can read my silly little musings underneath it if you like.

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 88 fics, apparently!! that’s everything i wrote in 2021, both prompt fics and... normal fics? idk what you would call those.

2. Word count posted for the year: clocking in at a whopping 351,552 words for the year. yeesh. get a life woman.

3. Fandoms I wrote for: 5sos, all time low, and one direction. 

4. Pairings: oh boy. from most to least according to ao3: jalex, malum, lashton, cake, merrikat, rilex, cashton, muke, mashton, 5sos ot4, and 1d ot5, plus also a handful of friendship fics.

5. Story with the most Kudos/Bookmarks/Comments: i really appreciate that these are all questions i can use ao3 features to find the answers for. thank you to whoever made this ask game. ANYWAY.

 for kudos, unsurprisingly, you seem so damn familiar takes top spot. that one also has the most comments (quelle surprise) and the 2nd most bookmarks. most bookmarks actually goes to and it all makes sense to me, the ot5 fic!! that’s so fun i love that. also, simply because it makes me happy, i’m sharing that the 2nd most comments/comment threads i guess goes to fever dream high in the quiet of the night, aka cruel summer fic. 

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): i mean, it’s hard not to say you seem so damn familiar. that’s the obvious answer, but i am hella proud of it. i mean, 40k in ten days, and look how fucking good it is!!!!!! also i did kind of forget about the ot5 fic but i’m proud of that one too because i wrote it for @mastasof-ravenkroft​ for his birthday but i did the stupid thing where i forgot to start writing it til like. the day before. or NIGHT before. and so i essentially just binge wrote the whole thing, but it was a fic i had wanted to write for a long time and i actually wrote it exactly how i wanted it to be, PLUS it’s a 5+1 which is maybe my favorite fic format, AND it’s an ot5 fic, which i’ve never done. and it turned out really really nice actually. so yes, very proud of that one. i don’t know if i should stop because this question only asks for one or if i should keep listing them because honestly i deserve it. 

i’m really proud of the friendship fics i wrote, but probably most proud of the first one, dearly depressed and brokenhearted (i’d like to let you know that boys cry too). that was a bit of a breakthrough moment for me and adri’s review of it lives rent free in my brain. so many songfics i finally managed to get out of my brain and into words, i’m proud of all of those. omg godlight fic? the good grace of that godlight, the weird ass luke hemmings time travel thing?? that was such a strange writing undertaking, and it ended up exactly how i wanted it. basically every time i finally got words down for an idea i’d been having and they were exactly the right words to make the exact fic i wanted, i count those as the biggest victories. ahhh the jewish cake kitchen fic i wrote for meg’s birthday, it’s so simple, was another example of that, plus i LOVED getting to write more jewish cake, and i feel like i absolutely captured my love of kitchens in that fic. also i NEED to include cruel summer fic here because. to date still one of the best fics ive ever written.

wait i thought of one more jesus christ im so sorry can you tell i love my own writing?? no but seriously, taylor @squishmichael asked me for a fic based on therapy and so i wrote keeping this up could be dangerous and i really AM proud of that one, because when they asked me for that fic i thought to myself jesus christ how am i going to capture the feeling of the song therapy. and then i started writing and like. i think i actually captured it so well. and some of the metaphors in that fic are just...mmmmmmmmmm. 

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): LMAO okay fine ill do this. but it’s not that i’m not proud of these just that i think if i wrote them now i would do a better job. the fic i wrote based on taxi, two punch-drunk souls all tangled in the wind, i would change a lot of that dialogue. i was really concerned with making it sound as close to what john the maine says in the song, but in retrospect that was a dumb thing to try and do, considering no one fuckin talks the way john the maine says people talk. also crazy is what i like, the one based on all my friends by tss, because...i don’t know it was just a very interesting choice of song to try and make a fic. like it has such a vivid story but i don’t think it was exactly the kind of story that should have been written by me. like i think for example anna could have probably done a more loyal job of it. and i don’t know. i sat on that fic for a while because i thought it was kind of strange. so yeah. i love both of those fics very much but yknow. asked and answered.

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received: the comment adri left me on dearly depressed and brokenhearted. i think about it all the fucking time. it drives me to write more friendship fics. genuinely. honestly this is an embarrassing thing to admit but i forget the majority of the comments i receive once i’ve replied to them. it’s nice to go through comments on my fics and reread them though, because i don’t remember getting them!! hmm team @4thbrighteststar has said several times on multiple fics of mine that she would sometimes read a scene that made her want to act it out, and that landed really well with me. that always makes me happy. also every time she’d comment PSYCHHH MAJORRRR on yssdf, because yes i am.

and taylor had a really cool response to the godlight fic which maybe i’m not allowed to exactly explain what it was, but it was awesome.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: SPRING FIC EXCHANGE. YEEEEEEEEEEEEESH. so first of all i was juggling first schoolwork and then working at camp, and second of all, noah i say this with love but your fic preferences form thing was VERY contradictory and made it so hard to settle on a fic plot. or even to come up with one. essentially i was trying to write a fic that had all of the tropes of a fluffy fic, but make it angst. and also, i was not in a headspace for writing angst, cos you know how that kinda thing comes and goes, so it was twice as hard!!! and when i got to camp i’d be exhausted and working all day and then be done at like. eleven or midnight and then. have to somehow find time to write fic exchange fic. it was. difficult. i did finish it a week late and i am still sorry about that but honestly i’m surprised it was only a week. that somehow feels like a win to me considering what that fic put me through lmao

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: oh hell i feel like this happens to me so often but for some reason now that you’ve asked i am blanking on every single instance. oh! well i wrote this fic, who knew we were lightning? (i saw a spark before we heard any sound), and it was supposed to be a jack-centric fic based on jack and his relationship with guitars throughout the years or whatever. but then out of absolutely nowhere it became a jalex fic, which i guess shouldn’t surprise me but did. i didn’t hate it but it did blindside me. also, godlight fic completely surprised me mostly because it was one of those times where i thought “hey, hypothetically this song would be such an interesting fic” and then thought “nah but i’ll never actually write that” and then i wrote it that same day. another time that happened was with i can’t focus when you’re with me (i can’t sleep when i’m alone), the one that happened as a result of me having the chorus of XO stuck in my head. AND last answer: give me the worst of you (worst of you songfic). fic about a very unhealthy relationship, featuring jack barakat the toxic boyfriend. very unexpected writing venture on my part. although i’m more surprised that i posted it, tbh, because it was supposed to just be an exercise to see if i could write something like that, and i didn’t plan to post it, and then now here we are.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: okay so realistically i would just paste all 88 fics i posted in 2021 here, but obviously im. not doing that. so i’m gonna go with a piece of and it feels like i’m losing you twice, the sex (with my ex) songfic, because i got distracted in the middle of answering these questions just to reread that fic and MAN it slaps. here:

If they’ve both misunderstood the assignment then maybe they got the wrong assignment. Maybe they were never supposed to be friends. Maybe Jack’s hand on Alex’s knee and Alex’s gaze caught on Jack’s mouth is a spark that lights fireworks rather than land mines. Something beautiful rather than something destructive.

If they’re gonna explode either way, they may as well make it art.

i’m just gonna say it: that land mine metaphor KICKED ASS. i don’t know when i got to be so good at metaphors i’m pretty sure it was a super intentional effort in this fic but it paid off.

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: oh man! well as previously mentioned i think i became a lot better at like...intentional metaphors and trying to vary the ones i make. also i learned the importance of a little bit of conflict in a plot and i did a lot of exploring different kinds of relationships between people, rather than just happy easy romance. that was really good for me to do. i think it helped me to write more realistic relationships than i had been. and maybe circling back to the plot thing but i sort of realized that there’s only so much you can do without conflict, cos then you just have a bunch of scenes, basically. and when there’s a driving thing in a story it means that the scenes are all leading up to something and that helps to guide the story and honestly makes writing easier a lot of the time. so those are some things!

13. How do you hope to grow next year: see #12! no actually i think i want to be better at showing and not telling. right now i’m kind of in the middle, i think i do a lot of showing AND telling, and i want to be able to trust my audience more. meghna is really good at this. i am still working on it. 

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): @tirednotflirting and @reveriesofawriter sam and meghna were easily my main audience for the majority of my fics. i don’t foresee that changing. i love you guys. also of course megs @igarbagecannoteven who had to literally put up with my melodramatic bitching and complaining about every single tiny problem i had with anything i ever wrote. megs you are my favorite rubber duck. yknow i was thinking earlier about how much i agonized over the title for, what was it. oh!! the title for situation overload (do it for baltimore)!!! and then in the end all the agonizing was worth it because it caused me to land on what i think is actually a perfect title for it. so thank you for dealing with my insanity so that the rest of the world can reap the benefits i guess. everyone who ever listens to me talk about my writing in any capacity, whether gushing about how good i am at it (which i do often) or complaining about how hard and annoying it is (which i also do often) has positively influenced my writing experience.

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: many things, no conceivable way i can list them all. speaking of situation overload (do it for baltimore), that fic has a lot of pieces of my relationship with megs in it, specifically involving me getting her into baseball as best i could. i think ive mentioned this before but this jalex prompt fic you need a pick-me-up? (i’ll be there in twenty-five) has jack in a situation that is directly taken from something that happened to me, and yes it was absolutely fucking terrifying then. i projected my homesickness onto cashton in this prompt fic i’m a little kid and so are you (don’t you go and grow up before i do), and also the thing about lauren’s gerbils from this lashton fic for jess, you should know i’ll be there for you, is based on what happened to my younger sister’s gerbils. luke’s insecurities about his friends liking his siblings better in maybe this is just as good as it gets is straight out of a younger bella’s headspace (fortunately not something i worry about anymore now that we, yknow, go to different schools and are super different people and both adults, but ya know). to name a few.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: i am going to be brief because i got asked for writing advice earlier this year and wrote an essay basically, but it boils down to this: like what you write. if you don’t like what you’re writing, write it differently! write something new! write something no one else will read, so you don’t feel like you have to cater to anyone else! but seriously, write something that you can enjoy, because if even you don’t like the art you’re creating, you can’t expect anyone else to. if you can’t stand in front of a council and say “you will enjoy reading this because [x]” (if you can’t even say “because i liked reading it”).......you’re losing your most reliable audience member. be proud of what you create! don’t compare your successes to the successes of other writers! everyone has different goals, writes at different rates, prioritizes differently, prefers different tropes and types of fics. actually yeah i feel strongly about this. don’t compare yourself to other writers. you are your own writer doing your own thing. ask for help, take inspiration, set goals for yourself that are valuable to you, but don’t compare. if you try to become a writer that already exists, no one wins. you know that cheesy but very true oscar wilde quote? if it is even him? be yourself, everyone else is already taken? yeah. write your own stories, everyone else is already writing theirs. or something. you know what i mean. it was funny when i said i was going to be brief here. okay getting off my soapbox now. thanks for having me on tedx.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: oh!! yes!!! many!!!!!! oh what a fun question!!!!! i am still working on summer camp au but i recently picked it back up and wrote an important section of it so i’m cautiously optimistic that i can finish that sometime soon-ish and then can start posting it which would be very nice because i already miss having a chapter fic to update, and i think people are going to really like it. also there is the [redacted] fic which is SO funny and which will be finished and posted soon and i literally cannot fucking wait, i have kept this silly crack pairing a secret for so long and the fic has some of my funniest most entertaining writing but i can’t SHARE any of it without SPOILING it so i’m really looking forward to putting that into the world at long last.

beyond that there’s a jalex 5+1 that i’m hoping to finish (it is currently about halfway done), and i’m planning to write the long awaited (by me) elevator fic at some point, once i...decide what i’m going to write for it. i’ve got one more installment of tshirt jalex in the works, involving middle school band teacher alex gaskarth, and i think that one is going to be really fun once i finish it. oh oh also! this one fic from a prompt fiancee sent me (do you have time to hold on with me), it’s a lashton fic but i wrote jalex into it for funsies and i made alex nonbinary and ever since then i have just been thinking about he/they alex gaskarth forever and ever. i want to write more of them so bad. so like. maybe we will see some nb alex content sooner or later, hopefully.

and i know paige and meghna want me to write ocallakarth and ill admit im letting it sit in the back of my mind but i make no promises considering the existence of the [redacted] fic and other various factors. but it could be a fun exercise.

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read. okay!! yes!! @tirednotflirting @reveriesofawriter @cringeycal @kaleidoscopeminds @igarbagecannoteven and also anyone else who sees this and wants to! if you read all the way to the bottom of this post then i feel like you deserve a tag so consider yourself tagged lmao. love you all, happy new year <3

[the-bjd-community-confess]

More Divaz confos

Mod: Round two of these, previously: link. There’s some interesting customer reviews in this batch (5 and 8) which may be useful to readers.

1.Vic3mage "the secret bjdivaz vip group is just pictures of boxes coming in and going out". Yeah, between the bitching about d0llshe, asking people to post on doa for them, dunking on ex-customers, posting pics of random doll parts that they can't identify which doll they're supposed to go with, whining about how little money they make, whining when ppl e-mail them, whining. Yeah, other than that it's just boxes, and alpacas u can buy off amazon anyway lol.

~Anonymous

2.The butthurt users crying and guilttripping under every Divaz confession who have never been seen before elsewhere on this blog are extremely unsuspicious and unproblematic and definitely unconnected to Divaz and unbiased in every possible way

/s

~Anonymous

3.idk shit abt bjd1vas but v1cemage i can absolutely tell you the shit about ch0o is 100% accurate, fucker's got a long, long history of being an awful little man that stretches well beyond his involvement in the doll community. between the two i'd still trust bjd1vas over ch00 ch00 the fool any day!

~Anonymous

4.The Z3st and Div4s thing is really silly and both entities were being shady but did they really have to take the DZ waiting room down with them? :( He had even made a separate thread about it......

~Anonymous 

5. RE: BJD Divaz

I’ve been a customer of BJD Divaz since they first started, when it was only run by Chart3rline. I even contacted other BJD companies trying to persuade them to work with Divaz as their US representative. Most declined because they didnt like D's commission fee, but I was able to persuade a few of them.

I asked them to purchase a doll off DOA because I couldnt afford the asking price, and while they did, I found out later that instead of agreeing to purchase the seller's price, they negotiated the price to be lower. This significantly cheaper price was not passed down to me. I paid the full price +the commission fee based on that full price. I am disappointed I was not told this. This is when I stopped viewing them as a "friend" and instead, as a business. I dont hold this against them, it’s context to what Im going to say later.

I’ve stopped purchasing from D after my recent order from them. This company usually takes 3 or less months to make a doll. I’ve ordered the doll from D and it took 11 months. They let me know it arrived to them in March and that it will be shipped soon, except it only shipped on July, and only after I sent them several "reminder" emails. Before people in the comments try to put the blame on me for not sending a reminder soon, please keep in mind that I acknowledged the email in March and confirmed everything and they keep stressing to not send them emails because they are busy, I’ve emailed once every month since. I’ve since switched to ACBJD and Ive been happy with communication and the dolls ordered. I imagine ACBJD gets the same amount of emails, but they dont berate their customers if they email more than once.

I regret when people wanted a D0llshe, but not deal with him, I always recommended D. I would warn people of ordering directly and instead go through D. They assured buyers they would be handling communication and all the efforts so they wouldnt worry, except they didn’t. A person that I’ve recommended D to, who surpassed 2 years, keeps messaging me for help because D wouldnt reply to their emails. She is respectful, sweet and a timid person, not a Karen. This person, emailed D without a reply so would email a week later, only to be told that their email would be pushed down to the bottom if emailed again. No response, so she goes to FB and IG, who both tell her to email because they arent the person running orders. Finally got a response that they would get their refund, after D0llshe sends D's payment, but minus the PP fees. 3 months later and theres no refund, only a promise of them getting it later. Why is the customer missing out on fees when they have no doll? Customer emails d0llshe and he says he cant offer refund, because they didn’t order through them, which is understandable, but when all options are out for a customer, do you blame them for chargebacks?

If anyone files a chargeback, D will be blacklisting them from every company they rep, as in blacklisting you from buying direct from those companies. I urge everyone who has negative experiences with D to email the companies they rep instead of venting on confession blogs, and writing your experiences on social media. Make it count and send letters to the companies they represent, and please provide proof because they will try to make you out to be a liar.

Speaking of, they made vague posts on cl0ver singing for charging paypal fees, and that they offer guarantees as an official dealer, except when offering refunds, to non delivered products I might add, they are keeping the fees, and offered no help with d0llshe, even before they ended their dealership with them. Someone on DOA was told to not email them unless the wait time surpassed 1.5 years. They are even so petty that they post screenshots with the full name and address (dox) of the customer on purpose and then delete it out a day later as if they just realized their "mistake".

Before you try to make excuses for them about the fires, keep in mind, I am dealing with a business. The lower price negotiation with the DOA sale, I am in no way obligated to give them a pass or treat them as a friend when they made it clear that our relationship is strictly business. Their issues, are not my issues. D0lk got dragged for not shipping in time, others, including artisans, got dragged for being so late with communication and sending back refunds for cancelled orders. Why does D get to be exempt?

The supporters are the worst part of this, because of instead of being honest so D can improve, they support them for being "real". For example, look how micemage words it, to make it seem like this criticism is from one person, when there are people on addicts who didn’t have good experience. Check the bjd dealers tag here, you will see the supporters in the comments going off on any and all criticism of D. Some have sane comments, but the majority are cult like and try to identify the person venting as if it’s one person. Addicts deletes threads with criticism asking people to instead direct it to their feedback group; which lets be honest, no one is going to do because its "not that bad", and most dont want to join a new group, which is mostly dead.

This is my first and last confession on D, I’ve emailed each company they rep and told them my experience as well as contacting the 3 month wait company, with screenshots of my order, how they handled it, and the excuse they used to put blame on the company for being so late (package arrived march to D, 4 months to be shipped is on D, not the company). I’m not using company or order details because I know they are petty enough to try to identify me and publicly shame me like they have to others. This and the threat of suing is why not many people like to go public with their experience. They just keep feedback neutral, move on and never deal with again.

~Anonymous

6. Listen, I can't take you seriously in regards to BJD!vas because you're posting on a confession blog. If you were serious, you would have posted in buyer beware groups, DoA reviews or the board to get things resolved, or you would have made a complaint to the BBB. And your language makes you come off more as someone with an agenda rather than someone who is trying to warn people. If shipping is the issue, stop buying with standard shipping and pay the extra price for express shipping. I saw one of you complain that it sat with them for 20 days; that's probably because you're not the only one and they more than likely have a queue to check and then ship out. Do mistakes happen? Yes, because we're human. I've been in this hobby for a few years now and it seems like most people know you're going to have to wait, sometimes even outside the expected wait time. And shipping something as big as a doll is a timely endeavor. I shouldn't have to say that.

My point is simply to stop complaining on an confession board and either take it to the places previously mentioned. Posting here behind the anonymous mask makes you sound like a petulant child who didn't get their way right away.

~Anonymous

7.My only issue with BJD Divaz is how I never get any updates. Every email, they tell me to join their facebook page for status updates. I dont have a FB and I dont want to create one. I bought my doll through their website, updates should be posted on their website, or they could send me an email. That isnt asking much.

~Anonymous

8. Since there seems to be a lot of either "completely negative everything sucks" or "everything was sunshine and rainbows" confessions about bjd!vaz I thought I'd chime in with a neutral review.

PROS

-They were always polite and professional in their emails, and gave me very detailed answers to my questions.

-I got exactly what I ordered, so no mix ups or missing parts or anything like that.

-I think them being forthcoming about personal issues (only one person on staff, illness, the flooding isue etc.) on social media is good, since it keeps customers updated as to why there might be delays.

-If you live in the US their shipping is very reasonable.

CONS

-Reply times were varied. Sometimes it could take over a week, sometimes a couple hours.

-My order took about 10mo which, when comparing to other people who ordered through the same company around the same time, was about 3x as long as if I bought it direct and 2x as long if I had gone through a different dealer. I get some of the waiting time is out of their control, but it was kind of ridiculous.

-They dont necessarily ship the same day they send you a tracking number. I wish they said something like, "Here's your tracking number, our pickup is Xday so it should start moving after that" just so I could be aware.

All in all no major complaints. I got my doll and all that. Their lone employee is clearly overwhelmed. I hope they hire another person, if only to give the one a break.

Truthfully, I most likely won't buy through them again. I'd rather pay the international shipping and go direct, than deal with the extensive wait time. I'd still recommend them to someone looking for a very long layaway, though. I paid in full, but if I had a 12mo layaway I would've never known they weren't ready to ship my doll until month 10.

~Anonymous

[sunflowerdigs]

So, I did a little sarcastic-y review from the salt mines for RNM 3x09. Warnings for excessive sodium content, Maribel mourning, a desire to recycle cardboard, and, of course, Malex opinions. Without further ado:

- Every time Michael smiles I forget for like 5 whole seconds how much I hate that Malex keeps me shackled to this show. Too cute that he brought Alex lunch (and probably hoped he could sneak a glimpse of him) and they're going on their first date (omg omg omg).❤❤❤❤❤

- Kyle should yell at people more. Starting with his garbage friends who left him in a barn without proper triage or jello cups while he was in a coma (why didn't they just keep him at DS if he's having appointments there anyway? Nevermind... ). Alas, he's starting his understandable rage tour with Uncle Edgelord, who, naturally, makes a dramatic statement and tries to leave. I am so glad Kyle called him on that.

- Delmanes would be cute if Greg didn't have the personality of cardboard. They've created a character who is actually only here to remind us of how special and amazing Maria is. Turns out that's not super interesting. And it's so painfully obvious that it's a pair-your-spares situation. I really wish they'd just give her Kyle, he has the patience of a saint. Anyway, Isobel's pigtails are cute af (rip my Isobel/Maria/Kyle heart - I would have taken Isobel interrupting Delmanes and Heather's post with pigtails today as signs if not for genetics).

- Anatsa and Isobel's development seems to have taken place completely off-screen, like everything else gay on this show, so I'm guessing it's gonna stick. Honestly...I guess this is controversial but Isobel and Maria have really good chemistry and a history. I know their bond is supposed to read "sibling" but it doesn't for me. And rather than waste time watching them flirt with these one-note (ah, Greg chimes in right on time with a convenient line any rando could have delivered) LIs, I'd much rather see them get closer. The whole related thing has thrown a wrench into it for me. That said, it's nice to watch a woman be encouraged to go after another woman. 🎉

- Alex the sci-fi/fantasy nerd figuring out immediately that the hallucination is his own subconscious is 100% legit. Much like Kyle not letting his uncle pull a classic tall-dark-and-broody exit, I appreciate Alex's 4th-wall break moment.

- Not Max and Liz proving that discussions about s2 drama can occur on Roswell New Mexico?! What? Must be a straight thing. Lucky them.

- Isobel is actually acting a lot like Sherlock Holmes when he's on a case, from the wardrobe to the focus, and it's hot. Also, totally believable that Isobel would be able to pull up that pod from under the ice because we know she's been training even if it didn't happen onscreen. Because she told us. Just a suggestion.

- I love the idea of Jim Valenti as a double-agent, but I don't see how Eduardo thought he could keep Kyle safe by never knowing him. It feels like there's a lot more here Eduardo isn't saying.

- It wasn't a sister-fight that Maria and Isobel had, but whatever (no one got physically shoved or brought up a horrifying memory from 100000 years ago to shove in someone's face in public - doesn't count).

- Also, why would you waste a glass by throwing it into the fireplace? Wouldn't it just explode back in your face? Man, the show is trying so hard with Maria and Greg, I want to give them some kind of romance-novel award for effort (but not success).

- Not Liz and Max showing us that it's possible to move forward by discussing your past mistakes like adults instead of pretending they didn't happen!? What? Must be a straight thing. Lucky them.

- Draw a line on the bottle? No way, Valenti, he obviously wants you to chuck that whole thing straight into the fire in a fit of passion to prove that his words had an emotional impact.

- Also, Kyle wins the prize for this episode for that speech to Uncle Edgelord. Everyone go home. When do I get a Kyle and Alex spin-off where they travel the world, defying sci-fi tropes and seducing beautiful men and women?

- Not Liz and Max talking loudly about aliens while breaking and entering! This one is actually very believable, I take it back.

- It was idiotic of Liz to trust Heath. And Echo keep having this same fight because MAX IS RIGHT BUT THE SHOW WON'T LET HIM BE. Which is so obnoxious. I would forgive Liz for almost any sin (like, idk, getting a better romantic storyline because she's straight) because she's gorgeous and smart and tough and I wanna go live with her and her mad scientist energy on a deserted island somewhere. But she's being real dumb rn.

- I love the t-shirt and if Vlambase doesn't sell one I will. But he couldn't have held up a radio and blasted some Barry White? I feel like that would have cleared everyone but Alex put of the building real fast. Also, what is time on Roswell NM? Was Alex just setting the alarm every so often for kicks? Does Eduardo really not check in on staff who are working with dangerous technology for days on end? Also, why is this entire plot happening over a single goddamn episode instead of two or more so that we can really feel Alex wasting away under the machine's influence? The reason this twist is at all surprising is also the entire plot's undoing - Alex's demeanor wasn't exactly one of a man obsessed (or an addict, tbh) in his last scene.

- Anyway, back to Rizzoli and Isles. I definitely am always super excited to hear the details of my sister's sex life. All the time. That is totally a sister thing except where it's really not. Do any of these writers actually have a sister? I feel like they must because the Michael/Max/Isobel sibling chemistry is always bang on but Maribel is just...flirty lady city. Oh, and look, the beard just showed up with coffee to cockblock - it really is R&I!

- Back to Alex's plot line, which, much like Isobel's coffee, is Express To-Go. He's become haggard and worn in the time it's taken Michael's mom to find a cute sweater in the void. Seriously, we wasted like 3 whole episodes where Alex was presumably sitting in DS twiddling his thumbs and now he's being worn down by the machine in a single episode? Why didn't this plot start back in episode 3 or 4? Like...look, I don't come on here to be an asshole. But I just really hope they're taking note of what worked this season and what didn't because HOLY PACING FIASCO BATMAN. Just because you're giving us Malex doesn't mean everything else can just be hot garbage (not the acting, Taylor's doing his best to sell this). Also, when did Alex put his leg back on? I have so many questions but they aren't the good kind, so Michael better ride in soon and save this mess.

- Regarding what Nora is saying, it's fine, it makes sense but the zero build up makes it completely ineffective. Alex is afraid he doesn't love enough - it would have been nice to see that over several episodes instead of just being told in a burst of sudden exposition but, you know. Nice straight things we can't have, I guess.

- If Michael and Alex want their relationship to "purr" they could, idk, talk through their past misunderstandings like people in relationships do. Or the show could keep throwing exposition bombs at them, idek.

- Are those empty toilet paper rolls inside the machine? I knew the CW was budget but come on...

- And we finally get the Heath connection and it's to our brand new trope-y character, Wise Old Black Man Dallas. It's surprising but only because the 4th alien didn't exist before this episode. So, good job.

Overall, not the worst episode of RNM ever. I only wondered why I watch this show maybe 3 times this episode. And Michael's enthusiasm for Alex was adorable.

[infinitecrime]

Spoiler-free TFATWS Ep. 1 review:

A strong and promising set-up episode to reintroduce us to these characters and where they’re at now, with plenty of (sometimes a little clunky...) world building, beautiful cinematography and action sequences, and some really likable new characters. Grounded in reality but it still felt big and like everything could kick off at any time. I have some reservations about Sam’s writing so far but got everything I wanted from Bucky’s. 8/10

Spoiler-heavy review:

Plot/Writing:

No big issues with the plot; it was a set up episode so I wasn’t expecting any huge revelations. Everything was very well done.

Sam’s scenes were meant to show the mundane and realistic aspects of being a superhero and the struggles of post-blip life, but at times they felt a little too mundane and repetitive, particularly the bank stuff. I feel like something more substantial could have been done with Sarah to make that plotline more tense and add real stakes - her car getting towed, an eviction notice, a bailiff coming round, for example? We hear that they’re struggling, but we don’t really see it.

There were a couple of moments of exposition that were so clunky and forced that it really made them stand out, because the rest of the script was so smooth and natural. Particularly Torres explaining who the flag smashers were to Sam, Yori suddenly being reminded of his son, and then some of the lines in the loan scene.

The audience isn’t dumb; we can figure these things out for ourselves. For example, the line from Yori about his son could have been cut entirely because it was already obvious. Bucky seeing the photo in the shrine at the end should have been the reveal for anyone who hadn’t figured it out.

In prior movies we’ve had plenty of backstory for Bucky, but no personality, and plenty of personality for Sam, but no backstory. They needed to fill in those gaps in a way that didn’t have us drowning in constant angst with Bucky, or drowning in constant exposition with Sam. I think we were successful with Bucky because he had some light moments, but Sam’s scenes were just a bit too exposition heavy to feel quite natural. I’m forgiving them because it’s a set up episode, but they need to balance this better in the future.

Sam:

Loved Sam’s action scenes, his relationship with Torres, his interactions with members of the public, all the stuff at the Smithsonian with Rhodey, and his banter with his family. Anthony killed the Smithsonian speech scene and his chemistry with Sarah and Torres is great. But most of the reservations I have about this series after the first episode are about Sam’s scenes, even though I liked them overall.

His writing started very strong but then kind of... fizzled out up until the last 2 minutes? Despite Sam being arguably the most charismatic and likeable and emphatic characters in the MCU, his characterisation just didn’t really come across in the latter half, because he seemed a little too out of touch with what Sarah was going through. Having so many scenes of people hero-worshipping him in one short episode definitely didn’t help with this - we put him in a down to earth, everyman setting but didn’t really see him being that everyman that we know he is, especially when we compare him to Bucky who’s living largely incognito. If I had been a first time MCU viewer I would not have been endeared to him or really gotten what his character was about because it seemed a bit all over the place.

I think this could have been fixed by having a darker scene with his family that would have humbled him to the audience and given Anthony an opportunity to flex his range. Like visiting his parents graves, or being unable to connect with his nephew’s because he’s been gone so long they don’t recognise him, or assuring Sarah that everything’s going to be fine with money then looking at an empty bank account and panicking when she was out of the room. Without that scene it just felt like he was brushing Sarah’s reality and struggles off with an “eh, it’ll be fine!” attitude. We got some range from his character at the Smithsonian, but even that felt like it was more about the shield and the symbol than about Sam and Steve, because we weren’t told whether Steve is alive or dead or still in Sam’s life, so we don’t really know what Sam is feeling.

I’m hoping now that the character set up is done and the fight for the shield gets going, this will get better.

Also, while Sam's opening sequence was awesome and really showed the capabilities of the wings and Red Wing and Sam himself, it felt ever so slightly too OP on the tech front. Unless Redwing has semi-sentient AI like Jarvis the way it works is just too unbelievable, and the wings also seemed to be semi-sentient or controlled by his brain somehow? I think they need to figure out exactly how his tech works because right now we’re leaning into ‘magic wings’ territory. 

Bucky:

I love that Sam has been trying to reach out to him as mentioned by the therapist. I wish Sam and Rhodey had paused at his exhibit in the Smithsonian or mentioned him to tie the two storylines together more tightly. 

This Bucky is my exact Bucky. This is the absolutely perfect characterisation for me. Snarky, funny, smart, kind of a dork, morally grey, riddled by guilt, trying to do the right thing, depths of sadness and rage and loss, barely holding it together, regaining his old sass and personality and memories but forever a changed man. He wasn’t a totally broken damsel in distress, he wasn’t a completely lawful good hero, he was an independent but traumatised man trying his best to heal.

I’m happy that they mentioned his family and the ‘man out of time’ thing was dealt with very well. He’s wasn’t totally lost, just bemused but adapting well. I was worried they were going to sweep it all under the rug because they felt all ground had been covered with Steve, but they didn’t.

It’s also great that they showed he was capable with technology. The Winter Soldier would absolutely have used all kinds of tech, Bucky was always a science nerd, and he lived in high-tech Wakanda for a few years. He’s likely fine with technology, it’s the people and culture he doesn’t understand.

I love him trying to date and being flirty. I will continue to fight the people who say he shouldn’t be dating because he has PTSD - it’s fucking ableist and patronising. Also, he’s been free from HYDRA for almost 5 years (10 if you count the blip). When is he allowed to start dating if not after 5 whole years?! 

Sam has previously been the funny one but I think Bucky had better one liners here. I can’t wait until we see both of them together, their chemistry is unmatched.

Seb does all these conflicting emotions and micro-expressions and feelings hidden in the eyes so, so well. You feel it all - the guilt and shame, the desperation to make amends, but also the rage and need for revenge and killer instinct bubbling under the surface that he’s constantly having to fight down. This is a character with a dark side, and no matter how fandom may characterise him, he always has been. Seb really bought the comedy here too. 

Bucky having P.W. Hauser in his book was hilarious. 

New Characters:

All the new characters felt very real and likeable. Loved the girl in the restaurant (did they actually say her name? I think from the credits she must be Leah), Sarah Wilson, the no-shit taking therapist, Yori, and particularly Torres, who I have a feeling will die but I really love.

I see from the IMDB that Leah is listed as appearing in all 6 episodes, so maybe there will be an actual relationship between her and Bucky? Or she’s a secret super hero or not who she seems?  We didn’t actually see Batroc die, meaning he will likely come back too. He’s listed as only having 1 ep on IMDB but so is the therapist and we know she comes back from the promos - maybe IMDB is just wrong, idk.

Other:

The cinematography was really great, some beautiful shots here, especially around Louisiana and the Tunisia stuff. 

It’s such a minor thing but I like when people actually get to speak the languages they would speak in that situation, instead of a room full of French people speaking English for the audiences benefit. It feels so much more real.

Even the end credits were beautiful!

[thisbibliomaniac]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) all of them except the too personal ones

1. What is you middle name? Classified ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

2. How old are you? 80

3. What is your birthday? Boring as heck

4. What is your zodiac sign? Whichever one means you hate LOTR fans

5. What is your favorite color? PINK

6. What’s your lucky number? 2

7. Do you have any pets? Not technically mine, but I live with some

8. Where are you from? Slightly west

9. How tall are you? Exactly average

10. What shoe size are you? Not average

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Like 10? I wear maybe 3 regularly

12. What was your last dream about? I'll definitely tell you when I remember....

13. What talents do you have? Pinterest fails

14. Are you psychic in any way? I almost always grab the correct number of earring backs from the box, no matter how many orders I'm filling. Does that count?

15. Favorite song? We Could Run Away by Needtobreathe

16. Favorite movie? Sabrina

17. Who would be your ideal partner? I'm in love with Henry Cavill rn, so

18. Do you want children? Yes

19. Do you want a church wedding? I don't really care

20. Are you religious? Very

21. Have you ever been to the hospital? Yes

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? I don't think so?

23. Have you ever met any celebrities? Yesterday I would've said no, but a picture of me and Mark Schultz showed up in my facebook memories today

24. Baths or showers? Shower

25. What color socks are you wearing? I JUST put on brand new knitted green and purple wool socks and I love them

26. Have you ever been famous? Does my post with 300,000 notes telling me to kill myself count?

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? Nooooo

28. What type of music do you like? Bits of all of it I think

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? Lol no

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? At least 3

31. What position do you usually sleep in? Side

32. How big is your house? Small

33. What do you typically have for breakfast? Nothing

34. Have you ever fired a gun? Yes!

35. Have you ever tried archery? Yes!

36. Favorite clean word? Nonetheless

37. Favorite swear word? Heckalump.

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? Probably 24 hours

39. Do you have any scars? Oh yes

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? Do anons count?

41. Are you a good liar? Yes

42. Are you a good judge of character? Usually

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? Lol yes

44. Do you have a strong accent? I have no accent. I speak correct English

45. What is your favorite accent? Correct English like we speak in Ohio

46. What is your personality type? Annoying as heck

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? I just paid $15 for a shirt that says Schrute Farms. It was on sale

48. Can you curl your tongue? Yes

49. Are you an innie or an outie? 👀

50. Left or right handed? Right

51. Are you scared of spiders? No

52. Favorite food? FETA CHICKEN

53. Favorite foreign food? Shish tawook

54. Are you a clean or messy person? Both

55. Most used phrased? Oh good heavens

56. Most used word? Bruh

57. How long does it take for you to get ready? Five to ten minutes

58. Do you have much of an ego? I don't think so

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? Neither

60. Do you talk to yourself? Oh yes

61. Do you sing to yourself? Definitely

62. Are you a good singer? I've been told so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

63. Biggest Fear? 👀👀👀

64. Are you a gossip? 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? Idk about best, but I just watched Warrior Queen of Jhansi on Sunday and it was fantastic

66. Do you like long or short hair? Oh?

67. Can you name all 50 states of America? Sure can

68. Favorite school subject? History

69. Extrovert or Introvert? Intro

70. Have you ever been scuba diving? No?

71. What makes you nervous? Getting reviews 👀

72. Are you scared of the dark? No

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? Depends on the person and the mistake

74. Are you ticklish? Nah

75. Have you ever started a rumor? I don't think so

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? I have had one (1) employee

77. Have you ever drank underage? Lol no

78. Have you ever done drugs? I have some CBD?

79. Who was your first real crush? Probably Errol Flynn

80. How many piercings do you have? Currently? 2

81. Can you roll your Rs?“ yis

82. How fast can you type? Fast. Correctly? Slightly less fast

83. How fast can you run? Not fast

84. What color is your hair? Red

85. What color is your eyes? Brown

86. What are you allergic to? Furries

87. Do you keep a journal? Only when I was reading the book of mormon

88. What do your parents do? Work

89. Do you like your age? Sure

90. What makes you angry? When sitcoms end with all the characters going their separate ways

91. Do you like your own name? Noooo

92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? Yes, but I don't remember what they are

93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? Yes

94. What are you strengths? Putting fear into my printer

95. What are your weaknesses? Hitting my printer

96. How did you get your name? Nobody else had it (and then it was the most popular baby name for like fifteen years)

97. Were your ancestors royalty? No

98. Do you have any scars? I thought we asked this already

99. Color of your bedspread? Pink

100. Color of your room? Purple

Just for u tur 😘

[martelldoran]

2020 Fic Year in Review

I was tagged by the beautiful @kalee60 in this lovely review of my year in fic! so let's just jump right into it!

Total number of completed stories:

15 on Ao3 plus a few rogue ficlets lurking on tumblr i haven't put up yet.

Total number of words:

131,942 published words! not counting everything in my wips which would probably put it up closer to 200,000

Fandoms written in:

MCU (stucky)

HP Marauders (jily and narlily)

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

oh hell yeah I did. i don't think i even wrote that much pre - pandemic but then it hit and i was furloughed. I cycled through stress knitting and animal crossing as hyperfixations but then i got the urge to start working on a certain fix-it i had let lie for months and it all went from there. I must have written solidly almost every day for about 4 or 5 months I think.

What’s your own favourite story of the year?

the fix-it. genuinely this will surprise exactly zero people. i worked so hard on i don't want to set the world on fire and have spoken about it so much my phone now knows to predict it when typing. 😂 i put my heart and soul into that fic trying to do the characters justice because i am smol and full of spite and have unending reserves of salt.

Did you take any writing risks this year?

oooh good question. okay so this is going to sound really cheesy but tbh the biggest risk i feel like i took was actually posting something I'd written. i mean I'd done it before but never with any kind of regularity. yes, yes, I'm a cheeseball. moving on.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year?

I have a historical epistolary identity porn fic to write for the lovely @allegedlyann since she won my Marvel Trumps Hate auction!

I'd like to get bingo on my stucky bingo card. maybe two if I'm really productive but I don't want to set myself up for too much disappointment lmao

more prompt challenges with incredible @kalee60 and @darter-blue

I just want to write meaningful and enjoyable stories about the characters I love even if they're only catering to a target audience of me and like 3 other people 😂

Most popular story of the year?

that would be i don't want to set the world on fire. but that ran weekly and just ticked along quite the thing for what? 4 months. most popular one shot was the ink slinger which really caught me off guard i won't lie. I didn't think it would do as well as it did at all.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

god I have no idea. i try not to dwell on why one thing does better than another. the fics will do what they do. i don't have much control over them once they're out in the world and what resonates with one person might not resonate with the next. idk am i actually answering this question? don't think i am? 🤔

Most fun story to write?

this is a toss up between The Coffee Cryptid which came from me and @kalee60 talking shite about Bucky and his coffee order, and a stitch in time which was pure self indulgence because you should put out into the world the content you want to see, i guess. and i wanted to see my faves in beautiful knitwear and being dumbasses.

Most unintentionally telling story:

I think it might actually be tis the damn season. I definitely leave bits of myself scattered through my fics, hazard of the job as a writer I think, but there's a lot of myself in there. I don't think it was necessarily intentional but reading it back was a bit 😳 lmao

Biggest disappointment.

I have no idea! I've been lucky enough to have a really positive experience in fandom thus far and have had such lovely responses to my writing so I can't think of anything rn.

Biggest surprise.

how lovely people have been. i think i was really worried that there wouldn't be a place for me. but I was proven wrong time and time again and if i hadn't mustered up the courage to post earlier in the year then i wouldn't have made so many wonderful friends and met so many lovely people as I have. my year would have been drastically different without some of the folks I've had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know.

***

right, i'm sure i'm about to double tag folks but if you fancy doing this then I'll tag @godfreysroman @captainjanegay @ixalit @howdoyousleep3 @darter-blue @darkalinas and @becassine

[musicboxmemories]

2020 Fanfic Year in Review

I was tagged by the awesome @ladytp-annex​ – thank you!!! 🥰

Total number of completed stories: Okay, so I have two pages (one for “serious” works, and another for hanky-panky), and naturally, the trash is going to have more completed works since those are just one(or two)-shots. For my smut page, I’ve completed 7 works this year, and for my regular page, I’ve completed 3 (though I’ve written 12 works overall).

Total number of words: Lmao, you’re really going to make me do math in the year of our Lord, 2021? *sighs* FIIIINE. *whips out calculator* For my smut page, I wrote 24,301 words, and my regular page 28,074 for a grand total of 52,375. Dang, I didn’t realize I wrote so much in my trash fics, haha.

Fandoms written in: Emma 2020 and Turn: Washington’s Spies. Over half of that prior word count has been written in November - December, LOL.

Top 5 by Word Count:

1. The World is Made Wrong  2. Starve This Sin 3. Secrets, Silent, Stony 4. Entwine Our Bodies on Common Ground 5. Grovel

^^^I don’t feel comfortable publicly linking my adult fics, because I don’t like to associate my two pages at all. The adult fics are for Emma 2020, so if anyone wants to read them, just DM me and I’ll give you the links! 😊

Top 5 by Kudos

1. Starve This Sin 2. Interruption 3. Be My Guide 4. Grovel 5. Entwine Our Bodies on Common Ground

^^^My trash page definitely won out here, haha. 😅

Top Fic Overall:

“Starve This Sin,” hands-down! I was floored by how many hits/comments/kudos it got, especially after being in the tiny Hannibal fandom since 2013. I guess Austen fans wanted more than a “repressed hand touch” for once, LOL. At first, I was genuinely worried about that, because Austen doesn’t seem to be a smut-driven fandom. But I guess this was further proof that there’s always a place for that lol.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected?

Much more! I took this year off to write two books (er, back in 2020), so I wasn’t expecting to take breaks here and there to dabble in fanfiction, especially since my interest in Hannibal had finally dwindled to pretty much nada. Before Emma 2020 came out, I didn’t have any other interests! I’ve written fanfiction every year since 2003, so I thought 2020 might be the year I finally lost my mojo! Thankfully, I was wrong. 😊

What’s your own favorite story of the year?

Idk lol, I like different stories for different reasons. I like “Starve This Sin” since it was fun to write, but I also got way more poetic than I usually do in “Secrets, Silent, Stony,” and it’s been a delight writing an old character of mine in “The World is Made Wrong.”

Did you take any writing risks this year?

I guess there’s always a risk in throwing yourself out there, especially if you’re like lil’ ol’ me who ships rarepairs. Thus far, people have (mostly) been polite. I would’ve been able to say “HAVE been polite” if it weren’t for last week, when I received a rude review for one of my ship choices. I’m old and set in my ways. If you don’t like what I write, KINDLY GET OFF MY LAWN. 

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the new year?

Nope! I’m back to focusing on querying my books. However, I am still going to write whatever plot bunnies strike my fancy. Idk what it is about TURN, but I’ve never had as much inspiration for a fandom as I have with this one. Six of the 12 fics I wrote in 2020 were for TURN, and as I mentioned earlier, I wrote them all in the past two months (especially December). I’ll be posting another new fic for it soon, so that’ll be my first fic of the new year!

Most popular story of the year?

Still “Starve This Sin,” lol.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:

Weeeeell, all of my TURN fics are going to be underappreciated, because I rolled up in here 3 years after the show’s cancellation lol. And couple that with the fact I ship rarepairs? Yeah. Nobody’s reading my stuff except for a very precious few (and I appreciate each and every one of them!). 💖🥰🤗

Most fun story to write?

Probably The World is Made Wrong. Back in 2017, I self-pubbed a book, and for whatever reason, I decided to resurrect one of the side characters (who was coincidentally my favorite character) and make her a main in the TURN universe. Her personality is exactly the same, but now instead of a gothic heroine, she’s from a rich Tory family in the 18th century. My chapter word counts used to average about 1-2k, but with this fic, I’m churning out chapters averaging 3-4k, sometimes even spilling into 5k territory. I’ve been pretty inspired since I wrote 23k (the additional 4k I’m speaking of hasn’t been published yet) in one month!

Most unintentionally telling story?

Like, symbolically? I never go into my writing with a plan, so happy accidents do occur...but I’m not so sure that’s happened this year.

Biggest disappointment?

How dead the TURN fandom is lol. I mean, the fanfiction tag is actually super active (it often has several updates per day), which I find amazing, but the actual interaction itself is reflective of a dead fandom.

Biggest surprise:

My inspiration! Just judging by my past fic writing behavior, if a fandom is dead/doesn’t seem receptive of my works, I tend to duck out pretty quickly since it doesn’t feel worth the energy. But for the TURN fandom, I honestly haven’t been bothered. More interaction would obviously be wonderful/welcome, but for once I’m doing this for ME, and I think that’s important. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!! 😛

I tag @niksnarration @missjewel @bundyshoes @i-find-the-beauty-in-chaos @fandomsbyladymelodrama @simplykayley @rey-of-luke @ohbillyboi and whoever else wants to do this! If any of you haven’t completed fics this year, don’t feel bad -- 2020 was rough. 😓