#it's the second fic i wrote for the zine actually

[ragnarlothcat]

YOure giving us an amnesia fic!!!??? Oh rag, you sly dog, you temptress!!! Very excited!!!

Perhaps I am 👀👀👀 I shan't say more but I am pleased to be both sly and a temptress! The zine is a very unusual situation for me because I've been done for a while now and whenever I write a fic normally I just fling onto AO3 within minutes of finishing so it's very fresh in my mind when people start reading it. When I get my copy of the zine I'll be experiencing everyone else's incredible writing and art for the first time (which is exciting enough) but I will also experience my own because the advantage of a goldfish brain is that I will have no idea what's coming.

[theminecraftbee]

so, first, accountability statement: I plan on trying to finish the “zedaph steals a baby” fic by the end of the month and god is that one-line summary no longer accurate but we’re sticking to it, said here publicly so now I have to do it. obviously I also have recursive exchange and the writing I have for hotguy comics zine, but I am not SUPER worried about either of those time/inspiration-wise at the moment and also for Reasons I know it won’t be long until I have more free writing time after that, SO.

various items that are on my potential writing docket, I am curious which of these appeal most:

I dust off the supervillain support group au. two ways this could go: I chip away at the second arc of my original outline and acknowledge this will be like a 300k fic I’m not ready to feel “done” with or “ready to post” with for ages, or I re-work it into something a little more doable and less ambitious keeping the same premise (ren runs a support group for supervillains, doc pov as he starts to heal and redeem himself). this MAY honestly be a target for “if I don’t hate the first 50k on re-reading it and I can actually make my brain write the second arc, do a slower release schedule and then start releasing chapters before I’m done writing”? but this ALSO runs the risk of “I stopped writing it, which is often a sign I was having trouble writing it”.

pearl monster au, which has been cooking in my head for a long while. the basic premise is “one day, pearl, with no memory of how or why this happened, wakes up in a facility as a monster and must try to figure out how she got there, escape, and find her way home, even knowing she may be irrevocably changed”. now with bonus season 10 fish flavor to add to this creature design I’ve been iterating on in my head for forever! this one is ALSO an experiment for me in “can I write a fic where I can’t write dialogue for basically the entire first act”, which would be interesting to see from me, you know?

the related “bigb folklore au”, where after secret life bigb is woken up by Cat and Dog by the tracks of the King Snake, which bigb can recognize as the railroad track, and decides to journey down the railroad to see if he can figure out what the fuck is going on. I need to do video review of life series bigb for this one. this is my excuse to get Weird and Metaphorical and also assign everyone to various animals for no reason, along with using some very specific aesthetic I have wanted to use for some worldbuilding but hadn’t gotten around to yet in any of my stuff. man walks through the desert with animal, confronts train that might be the watchers, might be death, and might just be a train. also, realizes that “confront” is the operative word there and has to deal with that. you know how it is.

““office au””, in air quotes because it’s not REALLY what anyone going to an office au is looking for so much as an excuse to write weird horror. iskall, normal-ish software developer man in a boring office job who does game jams in his free time, goes to work one day to work in his boring downtown office on a payment system for a client. and then things, uh, Take A Turn. this would be a LITTLE me going ���what if I wrote an au with a guy who works in tech but like, the boring side of tech I’m in. like, banks and consulting and manufacturing and shit. where you sit in meetings all day and tweak java 8 code even though that language is ten years out of date. but THEN. something exciting happens in the worst way possible.” I’m doing to iskall what I did to mumbo stuffed bird is what I’m saying. it’d be fun.

DO ANY OF THESE PARTICULARLY INTEREST ANYONE. your input will be valued. like 50% chance i get hit with a strong bolt of inspiration then IGNORE that input but it’ll be valued all the same,

[dragonflylady77]

you got it

Paring: Harringrove | Rating: G | 2333 words | Getting back together, song fic

This is the fic I wrote for @harringrovezine over a year ago. Well, this is the slightly longer version of the fic that went in the zine. I was trying to come up with an idea and I got to thinking about the song You Got It by Roy Orbison (or, more specifically, the version Whoopie Goldberg sings in the movie Boys on the Side). Its a song that makes me cry in 10 seconds flat... And I thought, ooh what if Billy was in a band, and he sang that song to try and get Steve back... so I went looking for a cover with lots of drums and I found this song:

I have plans to expand, both before and after what happens in this fic, even started a playlist for the band. I hope you enjoy it.

Summary:

Billy is the lead singer of the band Renegade Sunshine in San Diego. He left Hawkins with a broken heart the day after graduation. Max got the band hired to provide the music at the Hawkins High 10 year reunion, in a last ditch matchmaking attempt to get Billy back with Steve.

“Billy, you have to go.” 

Max shook the invite in his face and Billy was two seconds away from biting her hand if she didn’t cut it out.

“No, actually, I don’t have to do anything.” He focused on his breathing like he’d learned in therapy, and it was vaguely working.

“Come on!” The whine in her voice took him back to their teenage years. He rolled his eyes and counted to ten. She kept shoving the shiny piece of paper in his face and he had enough. He snatched it out of her grasp, folded it and put it in his back pocket.

“Give it up, Maxine.”

“You know I won’t, William . This is your chance to get him back.”

Billy felt everything inside him turn to stone. He should have expected Max to hit below the belt, yet it still hurt. “Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Billy, please!”

Billy turned away from her and walked to his room, closing the door carefully behind him instead of slamming it like he really wanted. The lock clicked really loudly into place. He lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. 

Fuck!

The last thing he needed right now was to think about Steve. The invite for the Hawkins High Class of ‘85 ten year reunion was burning a hole in his pocket. The way Max inferred it was his fault that the thing between him and Steve had ended was burning a hole in his gut. 

Read more on Ao3

[wistfulcynic]

matelotage me

for @gbweddingweek a short fic i originally wrote for a zine that never got off the ground. It was written before S2 and actually i think holds up pretty well to what happened in that season.

vaguely, it responds to the prompt "proposals"

a brisk 1.5k rated G | AO3

Stede and the crew in the dinghy rowing away from where they were marooned, towards the Republic of Pirates. Stede muses on how badly he's hurt Ed, Black Pete offers an idea.

-

At first, there was only silence. 

The silence of the sea, that is, not truly silence at all. Waves lapped against the side of the dinghy; oars splashed as they hit the water then sliced through it with a gentle swishing sound. The wind whistled, seagulls cawed, Stede grunted as he rowed, but within the dinghy the noiselessness was oppressive. It sat heavily on the sunburnt shoulders of Black Pete, Wee John, Oluwande, Roach, Buttons, and the Swede, as well as Stede’s own aching ones. 

None of them could say what might be the outcome of this plan of theirs, to head for the Republic of Pirates instead of back to the Revenge after Ed had—and Stede still couldn’t fully process the implications of this—left them marooned them on that spit of sand, presumably to die. None of them wanted to talk about it either, except, predictably, Pete, who broke the silence about an hour into their journey.

“I still think we should just go back to the ship, rescue our guys, and get the fuck out,” he declared, then raised his hands defensively in response to the chorus of groans. “What? We can’t trust Blackbeard anymore, he left us out there—” 

“We talked about this, Pete,” said Oluwande wearily. “This dinghy barely holds us, it’s not gonna manage with Jim and Frenchie and Lucius too.” 

“Well then maybe we steal another dinghy.” 

“That’s too complicated.”

“But Blackbeard—” 

“He must really be hurting.” 

Stede’s quiet statement ended the argument. As one, the crew turned to where he sat at the centre of their huddle, rowing steadily and with surprising endurance. Stede hadn’t said much since he’d found them, just listened to their tale with an open mind but an increasingly heavy heart. 

“He’s pushing away people who care about him,” Stede continued. “Isolating himself. He must be in a really bad way or he wouldn’t—he couldn’t—”

Wouldn’t what? Betray Stede? As he, Ed, must have felt betrayed? Couldn’t abandon the crew as he must believe Stede had abandoned him? 

“He just wouldn’t,” Stede finished, lamely. “Not without a reason.” 

“Except… he totally did,” said Pete, oblivious to or choosing to ignore Olu’s attempts to shush him. “Out of nowhere, too, like one day he’s fine and the next—we’re marooned. What ‘reason’ could he have had for that?”

Oluwande glanced at Stede, just briefly but it was enough. Olu knew. Stede sighed. “It was because of me,” he said. “I hurt him.” His face crumpled as he remembered Ed’s joy at their planned escape to China. How must he have felt that night when Stede didn’t show up? How long had he waited? “I broke a promise to him. I didn’t think he would—at the time I thought he couldn’t actually want to… not with me… after the way I ruined things. I thought his life would be better if I weren’t in it. I thought he wouldn’t miss me.”  

“He did though,” said Olu quietly. “He missed you a lot.” 

“I broke his heart,” Stede whispered, “didn’t I?” 

“Yeah.” Olu’s voice held a wealth of sympathy. “I think you did.” 

“Broke his heart?” Pete’s expression progressed from confusion to disbelief to dawning comprehension, all within the space of an uncomfortable twenty seconds. “Wait… you mean… you and Blackbeard?” 

“Come on, man,” said Olu as the rest of the crew groaned. 

“Where’ve you been?” demanded Wee John. 

“It wasn’t exactly subtle,” Roach observed. 

“Well maybe I just had other things to think about,” grumbled Pete. “Some of us have personal lives, you know.” 

“All of us have personal lives, Pete!” snapped Oluwande. “We can still pay attention to what’s going on around us!” 

“All right, okay! Fine!” Pete held up his hands again. “Let’s just drop the entire subject.” He turned to Stede. “Listen, Captain, if it really is like that with you and Blackbeard then you shouldn’t have any trouble getting him to give us our guys back. You just have to, you know. Woo him a bit.” 

“Woo him,” repeated Stede. 

“Yeah,” said Pete. “Woo. Bring him a present or something. Tell him his hair looks nice.”

“Tell him ye appreciate his beard,” piped up Buttons. “Advise him tae grow it back.” 

“Compliment him on his fashion sense,” said the Swede. 

“Or his sword skills!” chimed in Roach. 

“All excellent suggestions, but if I’ve hurt Ed as badly as I think I have I doubt they’ll be enough,” said Stede. “I need some way to show him that I’m serious about wanting to mend things between us. That I’m not afraid of the future he wanted for us and that I want it too.” He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. “I need to show him that I love him as Ed, with or without the beard or the leather or any of the rest of it. Just as Ed.” 

“Well, if you feel that way about him, why don’t you offer him matelotage?” inquired Pete, in a tone that suggested this was the most obvious solution in the world. 

“Ooh, there’s a thought,” said Olu. 

“Matelotage means business,” Wee John agreed. 

“Matelotage?” Stede frowned. It seemed to him he’d heard that word before or possibly read it, but he couldn’t recall what it meant. “What’s that?” 

“Well,” said Pete, puffed up and very pleased to be the one to deliver this explanation. “Matelotage is when two pirates decide that they want to pledge their lives to each other. They have a ceremony, usually performed by the captain but I guess Buttons could do it for you—” 

“Aye, so I could and it’d be my pleasure, Cap’n!” 

“—where they promise to share their incomes and property, protect each other in battle, and be each other’s companion and support for the rest of their lives.”

Stede stopped rowing and laid down the oars. “So… it’s like marriage,” he ventured.  

“Er—yeah.” Pete nodded. “I never really thought about it that way but I guess it is.” 

“Ed and I could get married.” Stede turned this idea over in his mind and found that it enthralled him. If he and Ed were married then they could kiss each other again. They could kiss any time they wished! And more than just kissing! They could live together, adventure together, share everything with each other. They could share a bed. A bed where they could—well. They could do all the things that Stede’s eager imagination had been tormenting him with in fantasies both waking and asleep, from the moment he realised that what he felt for Ed was love. Stede felt his cheeks flush and immediately turned his thoughts elsewhere. A small dinghy in the middle of the ocean and surrounded by his crew was certainly neither the time nor the place. 

He and Ed could wake up together every morning, yes, that was the thing to think about. Thoughts of a bare-chested Ed with soft and sleepy eyes, morning sunlight in his hair, were quite stimulating enough actually, given the circumstances. 

Sleep together, wake together, live together. It sounded like heaven. Everything that had ever troubled him in his marriage to Mary—all that made him so uncomfortable in a married state—when he thought about those same things with Ed, they took on an entirely new and monumentally more appealing aspect. 

“We could get married,” he said again. 

He pictured Ed in a veil like the one Mary had worn, and—was that a thing in matelotage? It might not be a thing. Stede really had no context or sense of etiquette for any of this. But the idea of Ed in flowing lace sparked a coiling sensation in his lower belly, made his insides go all tight and twisty and his skin feel hot. 

That was probably just too much time in the sun. 

He could see it though, so clearly in his mind’s eye. Ed with his hair up as it had been on the night of their excursion to the French ship, all woven through with jewels and flowers, framed by a spill of white lace… faint strains of music in the air as Ed crossed the deck of the Revenge to where Stede stood waiting for him, framed by a glorious sunset… an elegant floral arrangement in Ed’s hands… eager warmth in his eyes… the two of them, hands entwined, pledging their eternal troth together… the vows… the kiss… and then—

The rest of his life to spend with the man he loved. 

Stede’s throat drew tight as tears gathered in his eyes. “Yes,” he whispered, roughly, softly, but in the oddly liminal space of the dinghy they all could hear. “Yes. I’ll ask him to matelotage me.” 

“I don’t think that’s how you say it—” 

“Shhh!” Olu dug his elbow into Pete’s side. “Would you shut up for once and just let him have this.” 

Stede took up the oars again and resumed rowing with renewed vigour, now with a dazed and blissful smile on his face and his eyes bright with dreams. Oluwande watched him for a moment with a troubled frown, then repeated, “Let him have this. Let him do it his way. I have a feeling that if we want to survive this and get our friends back we’re going to need for him to be exactly himself.” 

“Aye,” agreed the crew, even Pete, then silence fell again. 

[ofstormsandfire]

if you've been looking at my ao3 recently (which I do recommend, it's the most reliable way to keep track of what the hope doing at any given time considering how often I post things and then forget to tell anyone about it) you may have noticed quite a few oneshots marked with the "Originally Posted Elsewhere" tag. in most cases, this means a fic I wrote for a zine.

Familiar Faces, Unfamiliar Names is not an exception. I wrote this one for @themummyzine, which just released recently for free and can be downloaded from their pinned post if you want to see a whole bunch of cool stuff about The Mummy (1999). yes, that mummy movie, the one that just had its 25th anniversary. the recent release was not a coincidence.

this piece was born out of me realizing, after rewatching the movie, that Ardeth's name is never actually said in the first movie. but it's said by Evy near the beginning of the second, she clearly recognizes him, so... when did that change? when did she actually figure out his name?

thus. comedy of errors.

(this may have also been partially inspired by how easily I forget people's names. or never get them to begin with. lol)

also, if you happen to like that movie and/or Ardeth Bay, keep an eye out! I've got one more oneshot that's already written, that I actually entirely wrote to apply to that zine in the first place, and... really the only thing keeping it off ao3 at this point is the difficulty of figuring out a title I like. y'know how it is with titles.

(re: the above, I did actually figure out a title, it's already up but it'll get its own post later)

[chromatic-lamina]

Hi! You seem quite knowledgeable in this, so I though you might be the right person to ask: I'm trying to find some nice heart pirates fics with them as family doing shenanigans/general stuff. Most of the fics I've found in the Heart Pirates tag in ao3 revolve around a ship involving law and the hearts are just background characters who barely do anything, which isn't what I'm looking for. Do you have any recommendations? (I've already read some of your works, but if you want to recommend those that's good too!)

Platonic Heart Pirates Fics Rec List

Wow! huge compliment.

Yeah, I wouldn't classify myself as a Hearts Pirates writer, but I do write them. I think my best characterisations of them are in my multi-chaptered works, but they're super dark, and the Hearts aren't the focus (but boy do they shine when they get the chance!).

You've probably come across my Bepo's one shots and drabble collection. There's a few shippy pieces in there, but they're clearly marked. Most are just the crew, although focus on the main four. This was also done for the Hearts' Pirates Week, so covers all named crew members (up to that point). This one shot is surprisingly popular: Dark like the North Blue Sea (aka The Sea-Hill you Die On), and you might have come across the Straw Hat and Heart Pirates crews intermingling in this fic featuring Bepo and Chopper. I'm also guessing that you probably saw the piece I wrote for the op summer festival zine: Sun Path Ozoni. An earlier version of that is in Bepo's collection! There's also Bepo's Beptober, which features everyone, but I wouldn't really say explores them in depth!

Okay, RECS!

Any of the fics with the Hearts Pirate tag by @op-sheepy Here's a link to their AO3 dash. There are quite a few Heart Pirate drabbles on their tumblr page too.

@itsxandy 's work, stormy weather, is criminally under-read. That's 22,2221 amazing words on Law's dynamic with the crew in the polar tang in close quarters. Not necessarily happy families, but, oof, it's good. Even a very plausible theory put forward for the recruitment of Clione, I think! Or maybe Uni.

Dragon_in_a_Cypress_swamp has 6 amazing Hearts & Trafalgar Law fics too. Really good (I haven't read all, but what I have read just blows me away).

This is not a place of honor by Hyperbolic Reverie (I'm not guaranteeing that all the fics are sweet). And you've probably come across

the devil knows how to row by fab_ia, is set in Law Novel land, but with flashbacks to Law's time with the Donquixote Family. It's a work in progress. But very good. The author is keats on twitter, and I think one of the guest writers for the up coming Hearts zine. Their AO3 actually has a few Hearts' fics I want to pick through.

Dunno if this counts, but the Scrubs AU with Penguin and Shachi as Law's interns, and Bepo as a trusty nurse is both hilarious and poignant. @thegrimshapeofyoursmile

Cal14's recently been uploading some of their tumblr pieces.

@slashseeker (not getting their blog come up) has some platonic stuff on their AO3 page (their slash is pretty good too though!).

And that's about all I know for now. I'm sure you've read / been pointed towards the big collection: Tales from the Heart.

Almost forgot! If you go through @purplehairedwonder 's page, towards the start of beginning to write OP (so second page), there are about 5 fics that I'd classify as Heart centric, or the Hearts seen through Law's eyes. Not necessarily shenanigans though.

It is a ship fic, and it started before a lot of the Heart Pirates were named, but razbliuto's Methyl Nitrate Pirates really builds character and crew (and it's funny). @fablecore

Hope it helps! Sorry to anyone I've forgotten. Thanks for the ask! Let me know how they go.

Remember all, drop a kudos and comment if the fics strike your fancy❤️ Makes a Heart Pirates Heart loving Heart beat heartier.

[vinelark]

sorry if this sounds stupid but since i remembered starting to read bbts in late 2022 as it was first posted + how active you are in general in the fandom/on tumblr I was kind of convinced you'd written so many other fics in addition to bbts and i was so surprised to find out that no. but this is not meant to bad, your blog just feels like such an integral part of fandom to me!! do you know yet if you'll eventually write more for the batfam? thank you for your hard work~

not at all! i mean i ended up posting long semi-standalone chapters every few months since 2022 so i can see how that could feel like multiple fics. i’ve also shared occasional concepts/postfics on here as well so maybe that was part of it.

i actually have written another (shorter) batfam au already! last year i wrote a oneshot for the tim drake flip zine (which is launching its leftovers sale on friday!) and then in the meanwhile wrote a whole second and third part as well. i had a lot of fun and i’m excited to share that at some point.

[cnnmonbimee]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @milkteamoon thanks for the tag milk <33

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 28! Which isn't that much but I never thought I would write that much to begin with :D!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 115,038 I wish to write more this year since I was in a slump last year 😤

3. What fandoms do you write for? Most of my fics are JSHK, but I've written a Hyouka fic for a zine and an (unexpectedly) x reader fic for The Ssum. I have two original works there too though!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

..Everything? (地縛少年花子くん | Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun | Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Manga)) (1,695 words) kudos: 113

Two Lips, with hues of cherry and honey. (地縛少年花子くん | Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun | Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Manga)) (4,936 words) kudos: 102

Reason For Another Tomorrow (地縛少年花子くん | Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun | Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Manga)) (14,236 words) kudos: 89

Just Like Us (地縛少年花子くん | Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun | Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Manga)) (3,797 words) kudos: 79

Bright as helios, Beautiful as anthos, a True Helianthus (地縛少年花子くん | Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun | Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Manga)) (10,055 words) kudos: 67

Honestly speaking, '...Everything' isn't my favourite and isn't my best either, so I have no idea why it's there 😂 The others are probably because they're long enough to be there, but I do like seeing Tulips, Just Like Us, and the Bridge fic being there.

5. Do you respond to comments? I usually do! and I, myself love to leave comments! Most of my inbox are filled with replies to the comments that I wrote instead! I like interacting with both my readers and other writers :>

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? The only thing that came to mind is Tulips. The first chapter ended hopeful and the second was sad xd Though, I wouldn't really say it's angsty! It's more to bittersweet I think. I have another lesser-known fic that has, not really angsty, but the ending was a little messed-up xD

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of my fics have happy endings since I usually write fluff.... I think...

8. Do you get hate on fics? Never yet! I was a bit scared when I posted tsunene fics and even moderated the comments xD but no one ever left anything mean there!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Very very mildddddd in my opinion. And I rarely write smut because I'm shy (pfftt) The only ones I have was for tsunene and they were only making out;; another one is something that I just posted yesterday as a ficlet. If I ever want to seriously write one day though, maybe something sweet like vanilla. I'm a simple person u_u . And I like it when it involves feelings <3

10. Do you write crossovers? I never thought of writing crossovers :0 they aren't really my thing. But I do think they're fun for crack though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No, i think?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nopee I don't think my fics are widely known to have them translated Xd but who knows, maybe one day!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Noooooo someone co-write with me someday :);;;;

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? Hananene, of course!!! You won't really get any other answer from me u-u I do wish to be more diverse in the future though! And I did entertain in the idea of writing threesome like hananenetsuka or hananenekou but never actually did it ;;;

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Everything in my never-ending wip list u_u Some of them are big fics that I'm itching to write but never have the time.

16. What are your writing strengths? I'm good at writing feelings, I think? I haven't done any self-evaluation lately. Oh but I really love metaphors!

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I usually have a hard time to make my writing more descriptive. Sometimes they feel too bland u_u and since English isn't my first language, some of the dialogues don't sound natural and casual like I wanted it to be.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I never thought of this before and don't know if the fics I'll ever write have the settings for this xd

19. First fandom you wrote for? JSHK is what really got me into fanfiction. Before that I always have this impression that fanfics are usually /reader only, which I'm not really fond of (Should have discovered more!!) I started as an avid jshk fics reader, and never thought of writing my own to be honest! Love the fact that I tried <3 it's why I'm here.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? Wahhh I think my most recent favourite is A beautiful heart like yours (is mine to hold), which is a fic I wrote for Tsunene Week 2023. I think it's my most well-written piece :') it's the only one that I don't get icky feelings when rereading it. Others are 'The Reason for Another Tomorrow', also known as codename: Bridge fic, and the first ever fic I've written for the fandom, If I Were The Moon, Would You Be My Sun?, which isn't my best writing but has a really special place in my heart <3

Thanks for the tag Milk <3 I'm just tagging whoever I have in mind so don't feel obligated to do it! This is just for fun <3 @voidjelli @insipidenvy @miss-sternennacht @thatsrightdollface @doughnutboii @krispyt @wingsonghalo @etheralisi @kawff33 @kinkymoonaf

[amazing-spiderling]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love ❤

HECK. Ummmm okay okay... I'll do my best.

Surface Tension

I'm taking this opportunity to highlight a fic that I wrote for an anthology I put together with a team of *very* talented writers and artists, Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years. I had wanted to tell a story about Hal's isolation and vulnerability in his youth, the aspects of his past that made him an easy target for predatory behavior- and even though this story isn't particularly long, I think it's the one I spent the longest working on (in a words per day sense). Writing this story made me dead sure that Kojima was referencing the movie "The Graduate" when it came to the Emmerichs, and I tried to channel that sort of listlessness into this story. Because it was for a zine, I don't think it got many hits or comments, so I'm putting it here now.

The Man in the Mask

My own little "hit in the face by Apollo's red playground ball" of a fic- I actually wrote this Spideypool AU to deal with my frustrations regarding the handling of asylum seekers at the border- but the pandemic aspects of the story ended up hitting very close to home for everyone just a few years later. Fun! This is one of those stories I thought of as a "weird one that nobody read" but when I looked at my actual hit counter, I saw it had proven more popular than I realized, so that's good for me? It's a bit of a bottle episode that is more about Wade and Peter than Deadpool and Spider-Man and has a more sedate tone for most of it, but I'm partial to the way the story unfolds.

Pictures of You

Another Metal Gear story, this was for the Otasune Zine "Let the World Be". I got to team up with the incredible Harshai who did the illustrations for this story in the zine. It's a collection of moments during Dave and Hal's Philanthropy days, each one with an accompanying photograph. It's a pretty soft one, but one that comes to mind a lot, especially when I'm in the car and staring out the window at the landscape, thinking about these two on the open road. It also comes to mind every time I see a ridiculous food challenge posted on a restaurant wall. I need to see about getting permission to share the art in the posted fic, because I think it really adds something, especially the last image which was a polaroid of Sunny besting Hal's time eating the enourmous burger.

Five Years Later

Yeah, it's a WIP. What are you gonna do about it? Back from hiatus, it's the second installment of a "mostly MCU compliant" Spideypool "met as childhood friends" AU that my friend @343enderspark and I have been working on for years. In this portion of the story, Wade is dealing with life in a world without Peter (oh, and half the population, I guess) and slowly starting his journey of training and eventually becoming the person he was meant to be. (And the Defenders show up because I literally could not resist.) I got to try my hand at writing a lot of different characters in this fic, so it's been fun to flex those muscles. We had a long break between the first and second chapter, but we're back on track and CH 3 is drafted and waiting on edits, so that should be out soon. :3

Home's Around the Corner (It's a Long Way There)

More WIPs? Yeah. More AU's? Double yeah, because this one is more or less an AU or an AU. XD This is a new project I'm working on with @blissful-thinker that's Earth-65 but a step to the left, where Matt wasn't adopted by the Hand, but ended up staying with the Chaste, and returns to New York City years later only to find out he doesn't really have a place in his old home anymore. (Or does he?) This one has been a lot of fun and allows me to write one of my favorite things- tired DA Nelson, and also too-big-for-her-britches Gwen, haha. It may be niche, but it's *my* niche.

[thechaoscryptid]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. spread the self-love ❤

Thanks for thinking of me, nonnie 🥰 This was actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, picking 5?? It was a good excercise in remembering I actually do like a lot of my past catalogue lmfao

The summaries got kinda long and I also wanted to do a little commentary on each so I'm gonna put the full post under a cut but the short list is:

Singularity (Shigadabi)

i've looked for love in every stranger (to get to you) (Sylvix)

Hello, My Name Is Human (Odazai)

Divinity (Matchablossom)

Blur (Sheith)

Singularity | ShigaDabi | General

Alpha Arietis dies in a brilliant storm, spraying billions of years’ worth of accumulated gas and matter through the cosmos as it collapses in on itself. Great fingers of dust reach toward the endless abyss, and cradled in the palm of the cooling nebula, a godling sleeps. His heart is white-hot and aching, all the pain of his progenitor’s end pulsing through him as he curls in on himself. The gazes of the other gods weigh heavily on him as the universe swims into focus. Their whispers ripple across galaxies to wash over his still-tender form, awakening in him an anger that beams into the darkness as his eyes open, twin crimson spheres cutting through the endless night.

This was such a fun style experiment!! I wrote it for a zine and it was by far the shortest fic bc I decided to go with the dialogue-less option; it felt better suited to the space vibe.

I looked up so many astronomy facts for this too, which was fun bc I'm a bit of a space bitch (even though I probably fucked it all up for the ~narrative~ lmao). Did you know! Beta Capricorni, one of the stars in Capricorn (Dabi's sign and mine - we share a birthday, and it is my favorite BNHA factoid), is commonly known as Dabih, derived from an Arabic legend saying Beta Capricorni and Alpha Capricorni, aka Algedi, were "the lucky stars of a slaughterer."

I really really want to dive further into the concept of gods being birthed from dying stars at some point - there's so much I didn't get to in this fic just bc of limits and themes and such, but I think it's fucking cool even if it's not popular.

i've looked for love in every stranger (to get to you) | Sylvix | Explicit

“Yeah. Listen, Fe, I’m sor—” “Don’t,” Felix says. When Sylvain opens his mouth to protest, Felix cuts him off. “Seriously, don’t. I don’t want your apologies.” Sylvain arches a brow. “I just want you—” (And oh, those words on their own are nearly enough to unwind that barbed wire, but somehow it hurts worse knowing it’s not what Felix really means.) “—to be better.” Felix takes a deep breath, turns to the kitchen counter, and fiddles for a second too long with the tabs on the pizza boxes. “I hate watching you hurt yourself.”

Man, where do I start with this one. I picked at this fic for over a year and a half before deciding to finish it for a bang, and I'm so happy about how it turned out. One theme that shows up a lot in my writing is "love is an action and a choice," and I think this fic showcases that beautifully.

Sylvain's so fucked up here and I love him so much. This timestamp from the middle of a breakdown and subsequent guilt about said breakdown just...really hits home. And Felix being there - CHOOSING to remain there - through that one and all previous ones? clenches fist They're in love, your honor.

I just think it's important to show that being kind of a shitty person doesn't preclude you from being loved, nor should it.

Hello, My Name Is Human | Odazai | Mature

“No need for sorry,” Oda says, the words automatic. “That’s not your place.” It’s the wrong thing to say, comes out nothing like he’d intended. Dazai flinches as though he’s been shot, curling up into himself and away from Oda before scrambling to his feet. There’s no easy grace in his movements today, only a quick, jerky retreat before Oda comes to his senses and darts after him. He wraps a hand around Dazai’s forearm to tug him back, and there’s nothing but rawness in Dazai’s eye when he turns around. “Let me go,” he says icily. “It’s not your place.”  “Dazai.” “Fuck off,” Dazai mutters, shrugging Oda’s hand away. “I’ll go die alone, then. In my place.” “Hey,” Oda says, soft as anything as Dazai’s turned half away. He holds his palms out, the same way he would for a stray or lost child. Dazai takes a shuddering breath. “I’m sorry,” he continues. “Your place-” “An executive doesn’t have a place,” Dazai says. “A weapon doesn’t need one.”

This was the spiritual precursor to in the morning i'll be with you, and upon rereading, I realized I wrote pretty much the same fic twice 😅 There's just something that hits EVERY time about softness in the face of bluntness about doing and wanting terrible things. I chose this one instead of in the morning because of one of the places the two fics diverge, actually.

In this fic, Oda actually says "I love you" to Dazai and Dazai does not take it well, and it feels important to me that not every I love you is received with an equally passionate "omg I love you too." But like I said for the Sylvix above, it's also important that it's expressed, even if it hurts or isn't received or reciprocated.

Divinity | MatchaBlossom | Explicit

“I don’t need anyone,” Kaoru whispers. He’s always been good at making bad decisions when it comes to Kojiro; this is another in a long line of failures and he’s not willing to admit yet that maybe Adam fucked him up past the point of no return. “It’s fine,” he mumbles when he hears Kojiro shifting. He’s too afraid to watch him walk away. “You can just go.” And instead of leaving, Kojiro shuffles forward and hugs him. Kaoru is surrounded by impossibly gentle arms and the scent of pine, and though he’s used to the latter, he hasn’t been touched like this in a long, long time. “I’m not going to go,” Kojiro says softly. His face is buried in Kaoru’s shoulder, lips warm where they brush across his skin. “I’d say sorry, but I’m not, Kaoru. I don’t want to.”

God this fic actually kickstarted my writing motor after being really burnt out and plateaued on skill for a while. While it's not my most technically skilled fic (I don't think any on this list are, tbh?), it was fun to write and it's still fun to read.

I loved being able to take a softer turn with Kaoru's anxiety as opposed to some of the harder mental health issues I'm used to expressing in my writing. And Matchablossom were really just out there on screen being Like That at all moments, huh? Their dynamic is just such a joy to play with, whether it's softer like this or harder like some of my other SK8 fics.

Blur | Sheith | Mature

“Everything I’ve done, everything I’ve made of myself, and it still isn’t enough. You know they always said shoot for the stars? I didn’t just shoot, Shiro, I helped save those stars. Where is there to go from there? There’s no coming back down to Earth after you’ve seen realities collapse around you. There’s no normal.” “It doesn’t need to be normal,” Shiro says. “I WANT normal!” Keith’s chest heaves, throat raw with the force of his insistence as his truth is birthed into the world. Twenty-five years’ worth of longing shake themselves loose from inside him and when they bleed out, so does his energy. He sinks to his knees, shaking as he repeats the words again and again. “I want normal. I want to be normal, Shiro, why can’t I be normal?”

This fic is just 9k of me bleeding my truth onto the screen, I'll be real (it should also be stated my self-destructive behaviors aren't physically harmful, that's artistic license). It hurt to write and it hurts to reread bc not much has changed in the years since I wrote it, but it's good, and I stand by the rawness of the narration. Dealing with a personality disorder and suicidal ideation (especially unmedicated and without therapy - bitches be rawdogging reality and I'm bitches) fucking blows. It's exhausting, and it makes you feel inhuman.

This scene especially knocked a few realizations loose for me, bc I don't remember writing it; my head just shut off, and then I looked at the page and went "ah. Oh dear. This feels like something I need to unpack, huh." And here we are, several years later, still unpacking lmao

[farfromdaylight]

2023 writing meme

i don't usually do the fic writer meme because i don't usually write a lot of fic other than longfic. but this year was an outlier, so, here we are!

Number of fics written (posted) in 2023: 23. seriously, who am i? plus 3 finished and 2 unfinished, both unposted.

Total word count of posted fic: 57,515

Total word count of unposted fic: 66,701

Total word count overall: 124,216

Worth noting that some of my posted fic this year was written during Nanowrimo last year, so the numbers are a bit skewed.

Fandoms: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIV. I did write one FFXIV/Pacific Rim crossover.

all of my fic is on AO3.

Best title: I'm really biased towards heaven can wait (WoL/Exarch), my big bang fic. I also quite like before you're burned, become the sun (Alisaie) but that's just because I've always liked that lyric.

Worst title: to believe in you (i'll try) (Cloud/Tifa). I was going for a theme across all of my Cloti week fics but I don't like that title at all...

Best first line: From before you're burned, become the sun:

The sun never sets, because there is no sun.

Worst first line: From to believe in you (i'll try):

Cloud is so different.

Best last line: From heaven can wait:

"Welcome to the First, Warrior of Darkness," he says, lifting up his brother. "Let's get you inside. We've got a world to save."

Worst last line: From to believe in you (i'll try) (seriously, I am not happy with this fic LOL):

For now, they have a reactor to take down.

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Less than I was supposed to, yet more than I expected. I had various health issues throughout the year that prevented me from writing a lot (have you ever tried to write when you can't sleep more than 3 hours at a time? Yeah) but also I managed to write for two fandom weeks and completed Nanowrimo. So, not bad!

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I didn't think I'd write so many Cloti fics! I've loved the pairing for a long time but I really didn't think I would write so much. Really glad I did though. Also, I had no plans to write the Alisaie or Ashe fics and I'm glad I stretched myself and wrote them.

What’s your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

heaven can wait, no contest. I still go back and reread it sometimes and just have a blast. It's a story I very much wrote for myself, and I'm really glad it's gotten a good reception.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

By kudos: amber embrace (WoL/G'raha)

By hits: love grows (WoL/G'raha)

By comments and bookmarks: heaven can wait

Deeply funny to me that the NSFW fic is the most popular. The people want what they want.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

If we ignore the fic I posted an hour ago that has literally 1 hit so far: for you, i walk on (Tifa), which I wrote for the second volume of the Tifa zine. But that's only by hits and kudos; it got very lovely comments and I had a great time with the zine.

By comments, I have 5 fics without comments at all. :( One of them has 30 kudos! Please comment on fics, folks.

Story that could have been better?

Not to beat the dead horse, but to believe in you (i'll try). It's meant to be a Remake fic, but I haven't finished replaying Remake and I only half-remember the Cloti scenes. I'm working on replaying it now, so hopefully I can add to it soon.

Sexiest story?

I mean, according to the numbers, it's either amber embrace or love grows. But actually it's one of the fics I didn't post this year. I wrote a 16,000-word fic about my WoL's honeymoon with G'raha. It is very spicy and it will not be seeing the light of day because it belongs to a non-canon AU.

Saddest story?

I don't know that I have a good answer to this one. I mean, heaven can wait is angsty, but that's different.

Most fun?

Most silly is definitely shuffle or boogie (WoL/G'raha), which was just an excuse to write a fic about Triple Triad.

Story with single sweetest moment?

PROBABLY THE WEDDING FIC, LOL. Or the denouement of heaven can wait. Or the holiday fic I just posted.

Most fucked-up story?

I wrote some vanilla-ass fic this year, I ain't got nothing for this.

Hardest story to write?

Honestly, a lot of the Cloti fics were tough. I'm not really rusty on the canon (FFVII lives rent free in my brain) but I hadn't written the characters in a pairing for some years. The Ashe fic was also tough for similar reasons: I've never written FFXII fic before. The Endwalker fic (WIP) has been really hard because it's some tough content and I've been struggling with how much of the canon to cover and how much to make up whole cloth.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

heaven can wait, which I really just had a blast with. This was last year's Nanowrimo, though, so... Maybe the holiday fic? I wrote it in a couple hours last weekend.

Did any stories shift your perception of the characters?

Not really. I don't tend to write fics about characters I don't have a firm grasp of.

Most overdue story?

Beyond the Vault, the eternal albatross around my neck. Also the Endwalker fic, because it's taken me two years to even have a WIP...

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

This year was good at helping me fight off the perfectionist tendency! I posted a lot of the fandom week fics within a week (or shorter) of writing them, and it let me chill out considerably about polish. Sometimes you can just write a fic and you don't have to go over it with a fine-tooth comb, you can just post it.

[likesunsetorange]

I’m sorry but I’m a little confused ab the timeline😭 so mikasa goes to his ranch for a shoot they have a fun little night together and then she leaves? Or does she extend her stay by like a week bc u mention her watching him work when they are quite together yet😭

OOOO OKAY SORRY FOR YALL THAT ARE NEW HERE TO THIS AU!!!!

okay so basically when we started this au we established that when i wrote the fic we’d just make it some happily ever after shit and it’s very much them on some hallmark level corny lol so they kinda get together pretty fast lol and then they start dating on some love at first sight shit

so in order of events!!!!

mikasa goes to eren’s ranch for the shoot she kinda sees him there, they both note each other as attractive but nothing happens cuz obvi they’re both busy

there’s an event the brand hosts, eren goes and obvi mikasa goes too, that’s their first meeting!! they get along really well but neither of them wanna be there so eren kinda whisks her away to his ranch (remember y’all this is extremely fucking corny lol)

they have a cute night under the stars and all that but mikasa ends up having to leave, eren never gets her number or kisses her, they both think they’ll never see each other again

mikasa comes up w the genius idea to show up to eren’s house (drabble #1) and that’s their second encounter!! eren lets her inside and they talk about them wanting to see each other again and wanting to reach out but they never did and mikasa’s like well you should’ve asked for my number lol (drabble #2)

mikasa stays for like a week ish but then eventually has to leave, but they’re idiots and never get each other’s numbers again lol, so eren ends up showing up at her house (s/o whoever’s idea that was genius btw)

they start dating basically and do the long distance thing!!!

so basically the actual fic will be three parts!! the first part will be all of what’s above in greater detail, and the other two parts will be mikasa in texas (again) and then eren in new york! so an example of eren in new york will be drabble #3

and if yall have seen the stuff for the mikasa zine that im hosting, i plan on doing another lil fic in this cowboy x model universe for the zine as well!!! :)

[clovariia]

thank you for all the support on my art and writing this year, everyone! here's my art summary for 2023!!! 🥳💕 happy new year!!!!!

i've rambled a bit about this year under the cut.

this was the best year ever for me on a personal level, even though my art didn't change very much. i got into south park thanks to my wonderful girlfriend that i started dating this year, and it transformed my art and writing. here's a list of some things i made this year!

i made one animatic!

the toh grimoire zine hasn't been completed yet due to some complications with paypal so i haven't been able to share my fic for it yet, but i'm so excited for it to come out!!

the amphibia tribute zine that i participated in last year came out and matt braly retweeted it, which was super awesome! here's my drawing for it!

the our duet: raeda fanzine came out! it was so thrilling to receive my first physical zine with my own writing in it. i also made merch for the first time because i contributed art for the polaroid keychain charm a few people collaborated on. avi roque also got a copy of the zine. i'm really proud of myself for this zine!!! you can see my pieces for it here.

i participated in the oops! all autistic! zine!!! you can find the amphibia fic i wrote for it here!

i'm participating in the k2 fanzine! it won't be released until 2024, but i wrote two fics for it and did a little bonus drawing for it that you might see in my art summary 👀

i'm the beta reader mod for the second huntlow zine, golden garden! i also wrote a fic for it. i'm really excited for everyone to see the work we've been putting into this project!!! i hold it so close to my heart.

besides zine stuff, i wrote fics for the huntlow hearts exchange and tweek week 2023!

since i shared my ao3 statistics last year, here are the updated ones from 2023 and overall.

these numbers aren't totally accurate because there are things i wrote this year that i haven't posted yet (shoutout to my big multichapter south park fic wip...) and things that i never finished, but they're interesting to look at anyways. although less people read my south park stuff than my toh stuff, i'm having so much fun with this show and i intend to write a ton more for it. south park gives me so much creative inspiration and i'm really glad that i got into it. thank you so much to everyone who's supported me through this transition period of my art and writing. ❤

i also wrote some goals for 2024 in my art summary post from last year. i didn't accomplish some of them, but i'm proud of myself for the stuff i did achieve. here are a few more resolutions for 2024:

write more multichapter stuff

write for a wider variety of fandoms

make at least one south park animatic

get more relaxed about my art style and stop being such a perfectionist. i want my art to get messier and cartoonier. i'm hoping to change my art style a lot, and you might be able to notice that in some of my recent drawings.

do at least one piece of colored digital art a month (i have to list this as a resolution every year so i actually do it...)

do more large and detailed pieces

experiment more with procreate (i've finally figured out how to use it, but i want to make use of more of its features and brushes)

write more consistently...i kept going weeks without writing at all in 2023 and it sucked so much. i want to do it at least a little bit every week.

participate more in the south park fandom. i'd love to join in on more fandom events like the k2 zine and tweek week.

thank you so much to everyone for supporting me again this year!!! i'm excited to see where 2024 goes!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉

[polkadotpatterson]

8, 11, 23! (Hope you had a safe flight!!)

8. Is there a skill you think you’ve improved the most on?

Ok I know I said worldbuilding is the thing I most need to work on but I think I've still improved on it lately! Also, less in terms of An Actual Writing Skill, but I've gotten better at writing things bc I want to write them and not giving a fuck if other people don't like them, which is super important imo

11. What’s the shortest fic you wrote this year?

At least in terms of posted fics, it's this 900 word warrior cats fic which is actually my second shortest fic on ao3 overall lol it's rare for me to not get Wordy

23. Did you write for any fandom events? What were they?

No 😔 but I hope to do more next year! At the very least, this one, and the Talkers exchange that I swear is going to happen

OH WAIT actually the zine jam counts! I contributed some pieces to various zines and that was a fun time :)

[ipreferfiction]

20 questions for fic writers

@spyscrapper tagged me (shocking for everyone, i'm sure). thanks beloved

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

26!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

337,006 (a chunk of which is cowritten)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

posted, i have star wars (totj, kotor, swtor, prequels, and tcw), lockwood & co., and asoiaf. i've also written hotd-era asoiaf fics, a couple of unfinished mdzs fics, and something for grimm floating around.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Bond Between: fic i wrote for a tcw zine, Ahsoka & Obi-Wan. 137 kudos.

(note: technically the second fic is one that got hit by the kudos bot, so i am taking it out of the ranking because i cannot trust its numbers)

How Far We've Come: Lockwood & Co., written and set right after TCS. Kipps and the crew. 62 kudos.

Wasteland: prequels/tcw/original trilogy, Obi-Wan on Tatooine having a truly questionable time. 60 kudos.

Dragon's Rise: asoiaf, post-series. Dany, Jon, Tyrion, and Arya go to Old Valyria so Dany can break the Doom and rebuild the Valyrian Freehold. i hate several things i did with characters here, truly, and i am never going to finish it; i'm keeping it up so i can see comments and kudos, because it got a lot of engagement (posted right after the show ended), but i would change so many things now. 54 kudos.

tremble for yourself, my man (you know that you have seen this all before): kotor - Cassus Fett dies on Malachor and wakes up six years in the past, with the knowledge that something is manipulating the war. he kidnaps Revan and Alek right off Dantooine at one point to help him. extremely full of torture! also the cousin of found family, sibling acquisition via kidnapping. 50 kudos.

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

i try to, but i haven't been great at it for a while. so occasionally it takes me a few months, lol

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

posted? probably my mando wars novelization. none of the really angsty stuff is finished, and i also tend to shy away from bitter endings because they make me depressed. and i do mean depressed, i have depression and i tend to get a little too into my characters' heads, which is not great when they're having bad times.

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

uh. um. the... ahsoka and obi-wan one maybe??

8. Do you get hate on fic?

the only ones that actually hurt me were on a years-old asoiaf fic. i've gotten two or three in recent years when i've been writing star wars stuff, but they're so out of pocket they're absolutely hilarious to me. i make fun of them with my friends. shoutout to the person who told me not to use bitch because it was a slur against women when the context was literally a man calling his long hair a bitch to deal with. i am NEVER getting over that, it's so funny.

9. Do you write smut?

periodically, yeah. it's fun, i just am also horribly embarrassed trying to write it lol. i have very little posted, but i've got a handful of half-finished ones in docs.

10. Do you write crossovers?

nnnnnnot really? i toss them around for some of my OCs and original works (between each other), but i don't really write them or post them. now, fusions? yeah, i write those. the hp au is the only one i've posted, and also is my favorite. read the main fic before you read the oneshot, though, because besides being utterly awful (affectionate) it also makes no sense without context. not that the series has given basically any of that context yet, but, yk. it's coming. eventually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as i know. there's less theft in really niche communities like the stuff i tend to write.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

yes!! @spyscrapper (i keep typing revanchxst as your url beloved when will you change it back) is my coauthor for the hp au and for our big swtor novelization, plus a couple of totj fics.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

frankly, a couple of my ocs who live rent-free in my head at all times, from one of my original works. 1920s monster hunters, secret government organization, repressed queer people (person. the others are not at all repressed he's just a dumbass about emotions), constant threats of violence, morally grey pov characters, murder. i am literally insane about them. also a different set of ocs from fic that developed their own original work as well: magic university, depressed gay people, Plots, the usual. i am constantly chewing on them. in fandom, knight/scourge and cassus/ultimate, probably.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably won't?

most of my asoiaf stuff, tbh

16. What are your writing strengths?

prose. give me a good several paragraphs and i will give you gorgeous prose. flowing, poetic, great imagery, the works. i am not afraid to say that's what i'm good at

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

FUCKING dialogue. i hate dialogue so much. no more talking society has progressed past the need for talking. i can do a sentence or two, but full conversations? evil.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I'll throw in a word or two without translating, because single words are easy to remember and write a glossary for at the end of the chapter. full sentences, though? They're either in italics (if the fic is generally speaking one language and this is another), or unmarked except by dialogue tags (much rarer, generally only do it if the pov character would mostly be speaking another language and so marking it as unusual doesn't make sense. e.g., Cassus talking to other Mandalorians isn't gonna be italicized because it being in Mando'a is expected.)

19. First fandom that you wrote for?

sherlock, i think? i wrote an OC fic that has now evolved into its own original universe because i ended up hating sherlock after season 4, and also the fandom was so fucking annoying. i was writing doctor who and supernatural OC fics around the same time, but i'm pretty sure sherlock was first.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

tremble for yourself, my man (linked above) or start a war, for posted fics. for unposted stuff, a cassus wip i will eventually. eventually finish

tags: @zaolat, @hermitmoss, yeah that's all i've got lee got all the other people i know lol

[thelocalmuffin]

Hey everyone! I saw that everyone was doing their art summaries and thought it would be fun to do my own writing summary. I put all my thoughts in the read below.

This year was a lot of experimentation with genres and branching out to new things I haven’t written before. Though I mostly stayed in the Ace Attorney fandom, I did post some things for Zero Escape and Fire Emblem throughout the year.

I’ll be linking a fic from each month I'd like to highlight. I did write more than this, but once again, this is a summary. Please feel free to check some of these out.

January: One Sweet Bullet, A Second Chance- The first take on a mafia/yakuza au. Though it ultimately worked better as a short story, this AU was fun and I’d like to explore it again one day.

February: Healing Melody- My first Zero Escape story. Everyone was really kind about my effort and it was really encouraging.

March: Arusutoromeria- The first minibang I completed along with finding a passion for hanakotoba. It was a fun siblings story and I learned a ton about Japan’s festival culture.

April: Tension- I actually meant to do this story in 2021, but I got to it this year. It was still incredibly fun to do and one of the first times I wrote something based on an animation.

May: Layers Upon Layers- This one was hard to choose since this month had a lot of really ambitious concepts including a bad ending fic, a snippet of a scene based on someone else’s au, but this one was based on a headcanon I grew really attached to so I wanted to highlight this one.

June: The Shape of Water- A folklore AU that was really fun to write. It was actually my first susahao fic, too.

July: Flow- This story was actually one of my favorites I wrote this year. It had a lot of the tropes I loved. I actually expanded on this world quite a bit. I would love to do more with this one in the future too.

August: Five Chances, One Reciprocation- One of the first stories I used a staple trope for (5+1), It was a fun exploration of one of the tropes I do actually like a lot.

September: Kiss Challenge- This was the first time I did a challenge and will probably be the last. Though it was good to get some extra experience for kissing and it’s a lot more natural to write now, I figured it out by day ten. It was still fun to explore new ships I hadn’t written before and those I hadn’t written in a long time.

October: Resentment- This story was a trade that was in progress the entire year. It had changed a lot from the basic plot and ended up evolving into this really neat story. I’m proud of it.

November: Five Excuses, One Confession- My first Narumitsu fic in years. It was a fun take on the no DL-6 AU.

December: For Comfort- This was for the Throughout the Year Winter Exchange and as I worked on it, the idea really grew on me. It was a writing style to help expand on world building.

There was more I wrote, but I just wanted to highlight what was completed. I ran a winter exchange, got into a zine, and am also running my own zine. If you want to follow my zine, check out @blossominglovezine​!

I’m going to be honest. A lot of really bad things happened this year in my real life. Writing is one of the things I feel actually went well. I wanted to thank you for all the support. It really kept my head above water.

I have big things planned for 2023. Hope to see you all there! Take care.