#if I re-write it’ll be like 100k words I can feel it and I have other projects I’m on my knees begging the demons to let me finish

[slytherizz]

The malevolent spirit that possesses my bones and tugs me around like a marionette not letting me finish any of my writing projects: ‘do a full re-write of your first fic’

[darlingpoppet]

i love wtdf so much!! how is the writing process and how far out have you planned the chapters?

Hi anon!! Aww thanks so much for your ask, you made my day! I’m really happy to hear you’re enjoying the story and also that you’re allowing me the opportunity to talk about the process :D

I’m normally kind of a pantser (or plantser?) when writing most of my oneshot fics—that is, at most I jot down only a vague concept that captures the vibe of what I want the story to be about, and then the rest of it comes together during the actual writing process.

Since WTDF is the very first time I’ve ever attempted a serialized longfic, I did not feel confident at all in my ability to completely go with the flow and find the story as I went along, especially with all the elements I’m attempting to juggle at once. In addition to the slowburn romance, I really wanted to include the sorts of tropes & techniques I love in stories, such as foreshadowing/chekov’s guns, unreliable narrators, uncovering a mystery, re-readability, stuff like that! (Chapter 1 especially is like, Foreshadowing: The Chapter and pretty much every detail about it has or is gonna become relevant in some shape or form later on lol!)

Admittedly idk how successful my execution will be so I don’t wanna oversell it too much, but if any of you out there enjoy looking for clues and theory crafting, fwiw that is absolutely something you can do with this fic ;D One of the reasons I was really excited about posting chapter 7 is because it was an opportunity to really start flexing those muscles and let a few planted things pay off… so if you liked that, there’s gonna be plenty more where that came from! ;3c

So anyway, all that to say I did a lot of planning for this story and in the broad strokes, I have the entire thing planned out all the way from start to finish. It’s not quite meticulous bullet points scene by scene though, that’s not my style—I’m still a bit of a plantser in that chapters & scenes are outlined at most with general vague summaries and maybe a few stated goals (there are some spots where I have to put stuff like “be sure to mention Thing A here which will be relevant to Scene B later on!”) and stuff keeps getting added and shuffled around (upcoming chapter 8 for example was a relatively late addition to the story and was split off from chapter 7 only a few months ago because I decided I really wanted to go whole hog with this particular episode lol.) I originally thought this story would be around 100k, which was already much longer than I envisioned, but now I’m certain that it’ll be at least twice that length, and I’m resigned now to the fact that this project is gonna continue be a big part of my life for at least the next year or two XD

That all said, I still wasn’t confident enough to start posting with just a roadmap, and I spent the last two NaNoWriMos in a row trying to lay down as much track ahead of the train as possible. As of right now, between published and unpublished bits over the span of the entire story, I think I have about half of the prose written.

On that note, my process for writing an individual chapter at this point seems to be: 1) write as much prose for the rough draft as I possibly can (or in other words, filling the box with as much sand as possible); then 2) I copy the individual scene documents on scrivener into a fresh single “second draft/editing” doc, where I 3) try to fashion it into something more refined, until I ???? and then 4) PROFIT/end up with the finished final draft.

This middle process takes A WHILE because I’m usually adding as much as prose as I’m taking away; and I’m often inspired to take more outline notes or skip ahead to write a bit of prose for something further down the line; I’m referencing my notes, referencing past & future chapters to make sure everything is staying consistent, doing new research; and I’m always trying really hard to be careful & particular about how I’m wording things… I often have several alternate wordings or sentences in every paragraph that I spend a long time swapping between and fussing over lol. And even then I often step away several times during the process to let the words marinate for a while. So if you’re wondering why it usually takes me about two months on average to complete a chapter, that’s why haha (even longer if god forbid I get blocked like I did with Chapter 4 oooughhhh). I’m sure many can relate! I still feel like I’m particularly slow though, and it’s only been getting harder as my story grows more intricate XD But I’m also having tons of fun with it!

I think the other thing that has helped me chill out a bit is keeping in mind that AO3 works are editable and so I can always just go back and fix stuff if, worst case scenario, I accidentally write myself into a corner or something like that haha. (Hopefully that won’t ever be necessary though!) I have already occasionally gone back to quietly tweak wordings or add a sentence or two that help keep the earlier published chapters consistent with the later ones (for example, I recently decided to stick with using the anachronistic term of “Greeks” rather than “Achaeans”, since it’s more consistent with Hadesgame naming conventions and ultimately this is a Hadesgame-verse fic.)

I think right now my biggest source of anxiety with this story is over how well I’m executing the pacing… whether or not I’m revealing things too soon/not soon enough, or whether or not the flashbacks are enhancing or undermining the momentum in the present story, especially the slowburn—it seems to me like the sort of thing where I can’t really anticipate at all how it’s gonna come across until I’m able to reread the complete story, haha. But I guess I also tell myself that I’m doing my best to order it in the most impactful way possible… and hopefully y’all are enjoying it too, so far :) I recently expressed this in an updated fic summary, but this story is now fully a three-in-one Hades fic: a canon divergence AU, a canon-compliant pre-canon story, and a mostly complete Iliad retelling with a Hadesverse spin… so the final word count is gonna reflect all that.

Thanks so much again for your ask! I’m delighted & eager to discuss my stories or Patrochilles or Hadesgame or the Iliad or anything else tangentially related to those topics any time, so my ask box is always open <3

[guildsarchitect]

BSD I MEANT BSD HSDJGKSHF

I FIGURED yeah i can give you some! note i’ve never done like a Recc List so forgive me if this is all over the place

☆ and all i loved, i loved alone by featherx [ranpoe, rated M, 121k words]

“An ability?”

— on the past, present, and future of one Edgar Allan Poe.

this is my top bsd fic recc Of All Time. a poe-centric fic that fleshes out his character and gives him a proper backstory and it’s so so good. to my knowledge it’s the only 100k word fic in the ranpoe tag. i remember reading it a couple years ago when i was first getting into bsd and since i re-entered the fandom i think i’ve read through all of it, like… 3 more times. if you like ranpoe or just poe in general and you haven’t read this, i truly cannot reccomend it enough. hell even if you aren’t particularly attached to these characters i’d say give it a shot and maybe it’ll put worms in your brain. featherx’s other ranpoe works are all Also good

☆ Safeguard by Miammey [suegiku, rated T, 1.5k words]

It is almost instinct to hold your loved ones close and keep them safe.

Or

Tecchou’s extra clingy after Jouno nearly died.

everyones best friend miammey. i have a weakness for tecchou being protective (especially after the DoA arc) Sue Me. this is just a shorter softer fic that takes place in the wake of the Everything and it’s a nice piece for the start of recovery, i think, and it makes me go :’) when i read it. miammey’s other works all also get a mention obvi bcos miammey is like the monarch of suegiku but this one is my favorite it’s special 2 me

☆ Suegiku Royalty AU by snknmda (lurhve) [14k words (incomplete)]

this is a collection and not a single fic but it’s easier to just put it here than link all of the fics. in it. i would reccomend all of snknmda’s suegiku fics (if you are an adult and looking for uhhhhh Adult Content. pre-spokes & pre-shows is . zoo wee mama) but the royalty au holds a certain place in my heart because i just love the whole aesthetic of it and snknmda’s characterizations are yum. delicious 

☆ we are alone (and all we need) by maidoutfitsandguns [fyolai, rated G, 2.7k words]

Nikolai gets sick. Fyodor realizes just how beautiful Nikolai is, feverish or not.

SPEAKING of characterizations. fyolai is obviously kind of a hard ship to write in a soft/comforting way and it can be hard to imagine characters like fyodor falling in love, but i truly think this fic does that perfectly. we all love this ship for the murder yes i know take this comfort sickfic tho im pushing it into your hands. i know i have said this forevery author on here but if you like fyolai i would also say look at their other works

☆ Find Something Worth Dying For (And Learn How to Live) by Kibasix [soukoku, rated E, 85k words]

The boy was scared.

This was nothing new. The boy cannot remember the last time he slept soundly without fear; the last time he felt love and affection; the last time he smelt clean air or felt the sun on his face.

But this...this was a different kind of fear. The kind of fear that had the boy's blood running cold. The kind of fear that had his breath wheezing from his lungs in panicked pants.

This was fear for his life.

His legs are aching, they feel like they are about to collapse with exertion and yet he pushes on, willing himself to be faster as he flees through the dirty alleyways, zig-zagging this way and that with no comprehension of where he's going. This city is entirely new to him and he is flying blind.

The footsteps behind him are drawing ever closer. The boy doesn't dare to look behind him, for fear of what he knows is looming in the darkness: the large hulking shapes, the glint of sharpened steel, the putrid scent of death.

THIS ONE also has smut in it SORRY but i honestly don’t even like. read it for the smut i kind of forgot it was even in there. back when i was First in this fandom and i of course, like everyone is when they first get into bsd, was a huge soukoku fan, this was The fic, i think. like everyone had read it or at least ever skk fan had read it. well it was written in 2016 and therefore. very outdated in terms of lore (especially about chuuya’s backstory) it’s still pretty high in the kudos sort but i don’t know if it’s as much of a phenomenon as it was but i still very much enjoy it. you know i love backstory epics i eat 75k+ word fics for fuel

☆ Urbane Shade by BottledUpWishes [tsujisano, rated T, 1.5k words]

Yosano has a unique way of testing smearproof lipstick.

BSDFemslash Week Day 3 - Lipstick

it’s. Um. they kiss. i don’t have a whole lot to say about this one they kiss and it rules and i’m always desperate for femslash content in this fandom i’m such a simple man

[schattengerissen]

Writing Tag Game

Thanks to @johaeryslavellan for the tag!

How many works do you have on AO3?

54! But 34 of those are a series of 100-word drabbles that are connected to my main series, so it’s not quite as impressive a number as it looks at first glance.

What's your total AO3 wordcount?

855,005 And I have two WIPs that will add well over 100k to that when they’re posted.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Moving In

TRAITOR

Departures

Between You and Me

Hidden

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Absolutely. If someone’s going to take the time and effort to comment, I’m going to let them know I appreciate it and enjoy their feedback. On one occasion correspondence that started with comments even evolved into a valuable friendship.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t really do angsty endings as a rule, but Torn would be the exception to that rule.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Hm. Most of my fics end well.

TRAITOR

Hidden

Between You and Me

Moving In

So Near and Yet So Far

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

I haven’t, though I’m not averse to the idea if a good enough plot comes along.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No. Had one reader who misinterpreted a bit of Kai’s history and Dorian’s motivations in one piece of a fic, and another who gave me the decidedly left-handed compliment (I am left-handed so I can say that 🧐) that they liked everything about the fic except Dorian’s dialogue which they re-wrote to suit their own tastes. o_O

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Things get occasionally erotic, but they stop short of explicit. My series is first person POV, and Kai doesn’t feel he owes the world a {ahem} blow by blow description of what he and Dorian get up to.

But if I do, it’ll be m/m.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes. You Want it Darker with Eureka234, who has written several fics featuring Samson.  We brought him into Kai’s Inquisition universe.

What's your all time favourite ship?

Has to be Dorian/Kai, which is why I’ve devoted so much time and effort to writing about them.

What's a WIP you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I intend to finish them all, but the one farthest down the to-do list is the sequel to A Night on the Town.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and character.  Weaving plot elements in novel-length fics. Been told I’m not too shabby at fight scenes.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Because my stories tend to be built around dialogue, I have to go back later to make sure I describe things as well. Or I overcompensate and put in too much description. This is one reason I don’t ever post without serious editing first.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

It can be effective in small doses, but large amounts of it will just become annoying to most readers.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Dating myself here, but The Legendary Journeys of Hercules/Xena: Warrior Princess.

What's your favourite fic you've written?

I don’t have a single favourite. I’d have to say: TRAITOR - the first novel-length fic, and I’m still beyond pleased with how well everything came together

Hidden - TRAITOR’s sequel, epic-length and both a challenge and great fun to write. Again, very happy with how it turned out.

An Autumn Tale - because I really love the bittersweet, gothic novel feel of it

So Near and Yet So Far - starting each chapter with a different style of poem was an interesting challenge, and got to explore some other facets of life at Skyhold

A Night on the Town - because it’s just fun…and because desire demons.

 Tagging  @dafan7711, @rachelleofalltrades, @shield-maiden-of-sherwood, @whenmysoulsings, @nightscrawl, @myrddinderwydd (should they wish to participate) and anyone who’d like to share

[vaguekiwi]

*reads violet rain ch27* *screams internally for 10mins straight* *wanders off in a daze to get a drink and some chocolate* fsck I need some fluffy comfort fics now

I’m gonna reply to all your asks right here I hope that’s okay ❤️ This was like 100% my fault for being offline but there’s a whole damn conversation under the cut 😂

FSCKING BECK WHEN WILL HE DIE!?!?! lol. Oh boy. My starker heart came to life when Peter thought that somehow Tony was there to save him, and then my starker heart shrivelled into a sad little lump when Peter was on the brink of letting Tony die. But I have to say it did feel painfully realistic, like yeah, if he just let Tony die maybe a lot of problems would be solved. Seems like their relationship has another 100k words to go in order to get anywhere good! Which I for one, welcome! Lol

YES GOD BECK IS INFURIATING IN THIS FIC. I was rereading 16 and 18 the other day (which are Beck’s chapters) and I was like ‘man, I even knew what was coming and these chapters are still SO unsettling on the reread 😂’

I think that the moment where Peter has the opportunity to let Tony die (ostensibly at no fault of his own, albeit he designed the poison sooo 👀🤷‍♀️) is a really important moment for the fic. It digs into that idea that gets brought up in 28 that this is more a reflection of Peter’s character and the concept of divine grace, rather than Tony. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tony. But Violet Rain I think is more of a Peter fic 😄 And… just in the directions things ended up going in, that climactic moment centres more on Peter’s character and concepts of forgiveness rather than revenge.

Their relationship probably does have another 100k words to go to get to a stable place… but umm… we can follow up on this after 29 and 30 are posted 😂

-yo yo just read ch28 of violet rain and like i think this is the first chapter in months that did NOT send my blood pressure through the roof so thank you for that lol. just absolutely incredible what a rollercoaster this has been you should do something fun to celebrate when you get to the end of this fic!

i loved Tony's coma visions of his family and his conversation with Ben. in my opinion it was absolutely spot on - peter didn't save tony because of who tony is, he saved Tony because of who he (peter) is. and that's true grace! nice! like everyone else, i ADORED the cuddling. i like to think that despite everything some part of tony and peter realises that there's this unacknowledged potential & burgeoning chemistry between them. if they had only met under different circumstances...*heart eyes*

also i find violet rain amazing because I feel I could be fine with an ending where Tony annuls the marriage & leaves, then Peter just happily rules Arachne, the end! and they're both like, ok, that was a crazy few months, guess i was kind of attracted to you, occasionally felt a weird connection with you, but never mind lol. meanwhile i, the starker-shipping reader, crumbles into a pile of ashes haha. but that ending would absolutely make sense and be fine! i need to ramble more about this

i'm just so invested in violet rain's ending because like I said, i think it could go either way & make perfect sense. i was just imagining an epilogue where Tony and Peter get word of each other's re-marriage/engagement, Tony to some nice noblewoman & Peter to some nice duke/soldier, & they're both like, oh,that's nice! congratulations & there's some weird unexpected wistfulness & mixed feelings but ultimately acceptance, so it's one of those bittersweet endings that haunts readers FOREVER lmao

I'm so sorry for the spam and ramblings from my imagination haha. I just can't remember the last time I was so invested in a fic! ch28 was such a welcome change of pace for me and my heart rate lol compared to the last i don't know how many chapters! i absolutely love peter refusing to leave Tony for even a second. is it just because he's the only one with the required medical expertise? or also for other, subconscious reasons he's left unexamined? regardless, it made my shipper heart happy!

Yeah, I was quite adamant that 28 not end on a big cliffhanger/scary moment. I didn’t even really want to mention the annulment again, I wanted the end of 28 to just be soft and sweet between the boys. But, part of Tony’s little moral shift involved mentioning the annulment. And I didn’t want it to be forgotten about when it comes up again, so my beta and I added a beat right at the end of 28 which mentions it.

I am so happy you liked Tony’s dreams/visions/whatever-they-actually-were lol 😅 Originally, Ben was kinda weirdly-nice to Tony and my betareader ended up pushing for a harsher tone, which I think ended up working out GREAT. Because, the dreams needed to read as EITHER an ethereal/paranormal experience for Tony OR as Tony’s subconscious speaking to himself, what would Tony think these people will say/do.

“If they had met under different circumstances” is really the kicker, isn’t it? I have an ex who I often think of as being ‘the right person at the wrong time’. He very well could have been the absolute-endgame-love-of-my-life. He was effortless for me: we had many of the same values, many of the same interests, we were compatible in many ways, etc. But I think that endgame would only have existed if we’d met differently and once we were older. Now, he and I never hurt one another as egregiously as Tony hurts Peter or anything like that. But it’s very hard to walk away from so much potential just because the timing or setting or external factors didn’t work out.

And honestly? You just being on board with a non-Starker ending? 🥺🥺 That makes me so soft. I’m glad the direction of the story fits and the thought of that tiny bit of heartbreak-wistful-but-still-satisfying-happyish-ending is actually exactly what I’m going for (though, spoiler alert, your proposal here isn’t how it ends 😅) It’s something bittersweet; acknowledging that a lot of pain and heartbreak has occurred but still finding a way to move forward. They have a lot of life left to live, after all!

I’m a big fan of the artist Sleeping at Last and his songs Three and Light have been on my mind a lot as I draft the end of the fic. Three has a whole thing about past regrets and doing enough to make up for them, even though humans are automatically worthy of love/grace/etc.

Please never ever apologise for talking to me about this fic. As you can tell from this reply (which I actually pared down, lmao) I have SO much to talk about regarding my own life, this fic, different scenes, the brainstorming/drafting/re-brainstorming/re-drafting/revising process, etc. I think once I’m done I’m gonna write up a really big reflection for myself and there’s no doubt in my mind it’ll be like ten thousand words lmao.

And as for Peter staying by Tony’s side: Peter Parker’s a control freak 😂 Part of it is that he has the most expertise, but he also mentions in Ch. 28 that if he did go sleep somewhere else then he wouldn’t be able to sleep because he’d be worried about Tony. So, there is indeed something subconscious keeping him by Tony’s side in addition to his perceived obligation as a doctor (he did the same thing with Rhodey in Chs. 7-8.)

I really really hope the end of the fic holds up my end of the bargain to you and other readers with this whole crazy adventure❤️❤️❤️ I’m not sure right now when 29 and 30 will be up, but I can’t wait for you to read them ❤️❤️❤️

[not-poignant]

tinyurl com gods-in-faetales Wow, thank you so much for all this info, you've put it into perspective for me. Zero plan I figured as well, but thanks for explaining zero likelihood. I was more curious about the scenario in which, if Gwyn lived long enough, would his power be /technically/ strong enough. Disregarding all the other requirements to become a demigod. So, now I got curious about a few more things, I'm sorry, I'll ask even more questions now, I hope I'm not annoying you. xD TBC

So about those questions I mentioned in my previous ask... xD

Why Nain Rouge and King of the Forest could, in theory, technically, get invs?

Because they’re both extremely powerful in ways that we’ve never seen in the canon. The Nain Rouge in particular sits on a lot of her powers, and doesn’t show them. She tends to just show the most destructive ones. They’re also both ancient in ways that are incomprehensible to most of the fae. But also, they both haven’t gotten one yet, so they’ll never get one.

And why gods discourage inviting those rare exceptions?

Because (and this is in the canon) fae don’t really belong in the upperworlds or underworlds. And, as we’ve seen in the case of Ash and Augus in the canon, re: underworlds, it tends to make them sick. In the case of Augus, he’s permanently poisoned because of his frankly limited exposure to the underworlds. It’s an indication that they do not belong. While having them become ‘gods’ somewhat changes that, the foundation remains that they never belonged in the first place.

Does it get too 'crowded' in some manner?

See above.

How old is Albion, acutally?

Over 100k as indicated in the previous ask/s. I leave the older fae ages vague on purpose.

Why is the idea repellent to you (you wrote it in the tags)?

I spend most of my time writing angst re: characters and then having them earn a happy ending. The idea of prolonging their lifespan unnaturally because I’m attached to them or just can’t let them go seems kind of cruel to me personally, because I’d rather just let them go to do their own thing and live their own lives at the end of what I’ve written. I’m just not...obsessed with grafting that level of immortality on any character I write. Even for Albion like, that’s not a happy ending for him. He’s not happy about it. He’s clearly not in a great place about the idea of it and has avoided it for many hundreds of years already, and even from the way he talks to Eran about it, you can tell the whole thing is something he regrets and that he’s not exactly looking forward to it, he just doesn’t know what else to do. Why would I wish more misery on the characters? Like, don’t get me wrong, I love angst, but once I finish a story, I also like leaving characters where they are, in relatively happier places and you know, not completely dead and in the afterlife, lol.

How does a god and demigod differ in Fae Tales universe?

Geeeeeenerally demigods are made, and gods are born as gods.

In a purely hypothetical scenario when more/all faes live long enough, would more of them be qualified to become demigods?

I really really really hope not. (For reasons explained above). And because it’s something I don’t want to see, it’s not something I’m going to entertain. Like if you’re that taken with the idea anon, you can headcanon it as much as you want, but you’re not going to make me find all the loopholes where it’ll work when I find the idea tragic and therefore largely unappealing in the first place.

And please forgive me about comparing Gwyn to Albion, but I just didn't know if it was just Gwyn talking that he could destroy an entire world with his light or if this is actually something that would happen if he'd let it completely loose. Also an idea of creating an ocean is just too big for my brain to comprehend how great of a thing it actually is I guess. xD So it was just Gwyn talking? His light isn't and won't ever be actually *that* powerful?

Gwyn’s light is powerful enough to destroy a planet. But as I pointed out in the previous response, people who have powers that just lead to death and destruction only, don’t get invitations. Period. Gwyn would need to develop other methods of using his light or developing other powers (just as I pointed out that Albion has other ways of using his powers that aren’t at all related to death/destruction) that aren’t just wanton destruction, death, or turning things into wastelands. If your scope of power is planet-destroying, but you still can’t really use your abilities for anything else other than teleportation, the gods are uninterested!

Ultimately anon, I feel like you’re intrigued by or excited by an idea or ideas you have, and I just don’t share that excitement, which is why a lot of this stuff isn’t fleshed out further in the Fae Tales realm in the first place (there is after all, room in all the words for the fae to have talked about it extensively by now if I thought it would ever matter to the story - which it’s not going to).

I love that you enjoy the idea of it! But it’s definitely not for me, which is why I’m not writing POV stories about fae ascending (or descending) to godhood. But I hope you enjoy your headcanon-ing! Your own version can be as happy (or as sad) as you want it to be, and in your own version you can have it happen for all of the characters you want it to happen for. :D