#my fanfic year review

[mxmia]

2022 FANFIC YEAR REVIEW

Because it's always great to see your progress. If future me reads this: go and write something. Total Completed Works: 15 out of 16 works posted in AO3 LMAO.

Word Count: 29,657. It's not a lot but it is, and that is all that matters. Fandoms I’ve Written for: Encanto, The Hobbit, The Lord Of the Rings, The Silmarillion. I hope to branch out a little more while still writing for my favourites in 2023, let's see!

Looking Back, Did You Write More Fic Than You Thought You Would This Year, Less, Or About What You’d Expected? I wrote way more. I started 2022 with practically 0 hopes of writing anything because I just wasn't in the place mentally and I'm really pleased to see I've managed to overcome all of that and more or less write quite a bit. What’s Your Own Favorite Story Of The Year? The series Finwëohíni itself is something I'm proud of and hope to keep writing; but if I had to choose I'd choose he was a fire burning down a forest, my dear Findis & Fëanor fic because it was something that I hadn't written at all before and it turned out quite well, I'd say! Any Plans for 2023? I'd quite like to write more for the series Finwëohíni, and I'd like to try and write for more fandoms as I get into them instead of feeling scared about posting those. I have a longfic/adaptation of a videogame (Hogwarts Mystery, which is probably not the best choice but I still really want to do it) that I'm working on to improve my writing, even if I don't know if I'll finish and or post it. :D I also have a Silm longfic(ish) that is just retelling the Silmarillion from an OC's point of view, but I'm not sure if I'll ever finish that either, haha. Happy new year, everyone. For the last time in 2022 -mxmia

[rapha-reads]

To those of you wondering (aka no one), I finished both The Vampire Armand and Merrick and I have a lot of thoughts and feels. I'm skipping Blood and Gold for now to go directly to Blackwood Farm (I'll read B&G later), but first I'm going to read something else, just to take a break.

TVA thoughts: man, Armand is messed up. And extremely compelling. But so messed up. As always, the theme of faith crisis, which seriously reaches new heights with these bitchy vampires, is not something I can fully immerse myself in, but it was fascinating to see his numerous metamorphosis. I liked how he bridges Western and Eastern Christianisme, especially through art. Now I'm thinking that if Rolin Jones makes him originally Muslim in the show, that could expand even more the conversation on how faith, and especially Abrahamic faith, has been in conversation for thousands of years and could be such a rich, diverse and spiritual, intellectual and artistic theme. I can already imagine some fascinating discussions comparing (not in a superior way but in a complementary way) coming from Muslim faith to Roman Catholic faith, the way book!Armand talks about the richness of his life in Kiev Rus despite the poverty and ascetism, and the richness of his life in Venecia despite the luxury and abundance.

As for Benamin and Sybille... I don't have much thoughts about them. Sybille is one of those female characters AR seemingly favors, not so much human as a nymph or a dryad, "perfectly splendid". And Benji is a caricature of an Arab child. Nuance? 401 not found.

Merrick thoughts: David for the love if everything, shut. The. Fuck. Up. Holy moly. I like David, I do, but damn the entire recollection of his history with Merrick was looooooong. I'm here to see Louis haunted by Claudia and haunting Lestat's coma, not how hard you're pining for the kid you practically raised! Also. ALSO. You're just going to leave that whole thing with the Olmec or possibly another more ancient Mesoamerican civilisation without ever giving us more? That was the most interesting part of it all! The vodoo history, the connection between Louisiana and Caribbean vodoo and old Native South-American religions! More about this, less about Merrick's perfect breasts, I am begging you. (It is at this point that the reader of this post realises OP is 100% definitely ace and more interested in books and witchcraft than breasts and whether a 70yo man can still get it up - also, hey, Anne Rice's vampires are practically asexual and their lust and pleasure is mostly derivated from blood, with some notable exceptions like Armand and Marius, and a love relationship between two vampires is then based on romantic love and blood sharing, so can I hear a hell yeah for some ace representation or are we still conflating eroticism with sex)

Another thing I kept thinking about throughout the book is how Louis is perceived by his fellow vampires. Since basically the second book, since we've lost his own POV, everybody who's ever said anything about him (so Lestat, Armand and David) have insisted on two points: how very weak and meek Louis is, and also how irresistible, beautiful and charming. Granted, I've known Louis first through his portrayal on the show (hi Jacob you're so fiiiiiiine), and then through his own narration in the first book, but I've never had the impression that he was weak. Beautiful and seductive, yes. Weak? I see a human man going through tragedies and still enduring, going through vampiric transformation and then suffering for decades the loss of his humanity, struggling with reconciliating both sides of himself, but mostly I see a vampire who rebuilt himself after losing everything without sacrificing his sense of self. I see Louis as very strong actually (up to the point where resilience breaks, because resilience cannot be sustained on a long term, but that's another debate). He knows who he is, and don't you know how hard that is? He doesn't cling to faith or pride. He knows he's doomed, he knows he's monstrous, he knows there's nothing he can do to change that, and instead of railing against his fate, he goes on about his undead life. He gets his books and he reads them, he surrounds himself with literature and what little comforts he thinks in his shattered self-esteem he deserves (his ragged sweaters and soft trousers); let's not lie to ourselves tho, Louis doesn't like himself, or more exactly he doesn't care about his corporeal body - what matters to him is his mind, and once again, this author is extremely ace and also very aro and very nonbinary, so Louis to me is very much ace and agender coded, though really not aro, because his love for Lestat (and sometimes his fondness, shall we say, for Armand) is the only thing that can rouse him up from his literary slumber.

...

Oh, man, I have a lot to say about Louis, for how little he appears in the books so far. Still have BF, BC and the PL trilogy to devour. So I guess you can say, for as much as Lestat is occupying my entire brain, very much like him, my favorite is Louis? Yeah, that tracks. Melancholy, quiet, dark-haired green-eyed monster with more humanity than humans, preferring his solitude and the company of books to anyone else, hopelessly and helplessly devoted to one person, expert in brooding and grieving, literature specialist, not very attached to his physical self. Yeah. I'm not surprised.

[fiveredlights]

helmut marko could tell me 1+1=2 and i still wouldn’t believe him okay he’s as useful to me as a man’s dick… which is to say not useful at all given that i am a lesbian ❤️‍🔥

[meetinginsamarra]

My Year in Review

I have not written a lot this year. 2 fics and 15 ficlets. I started with plotting and writing a real casefic last December and managed about 5 chapters. Then there was a very long general writing hiatus starting June 2023 due to - let's say - challenging IRL events that ended only in October. October was great with the whumptober prompts and I completed the challenge for the second time.

I restarted writing on the casefic in November highly motivated and because I broke my ankle and have been on sick-leave since then there was a lot of writing time. I finished chapter 12 today, 43k words in and there will be "only" two more chapters to write. Depending on my beta I hope to be able to post on AO3 soon in early 2024.

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Oyster and Mushroom Soup in February 2023, part 2 of the crackfic series "Sherlock's Secret Laboratory Journal"

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15 ficlets (parts 6 to 20) in my Sherlock Ficlets for Writing Challenges collection for the May writing prompts by @notjustamumj

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Slowly Suffocating a fic following the 31 prompts for whumptober

[hbyrde36]

✨ Fic Writing Review 2023 ✨

not tagged by anyone but i'm gonna take a page out of @rocknrollsalad 's book and go for it anyway! 💜 I think it'll be nice to have a record to look back on and see exactly where I was at the end of this year. Happy almost 2024!

Words and Fics

313,118 words published on ao3 😱

23 total works published

3 multi-chapter fics -completed

3 multi-chapter fics - wip's

2 one-shots (technically two-shots)

1 seven part series of Steddie week ficlets

8 drabbles and microfics

Top 5 Fics by Kudos

Shelter in Place

Times Like These

Life is a Game (and True Love is a Trophy)

Caught in the Undertow

Steve Harrington: Vampire Hunter

My fandom fic events in 2023

@steddiemicrofic

@thefreakandthehair's Spicy Six Summer & Winter Challenges

Upcoming Events and Projects for 2024

@strangerthingsreversebigbang

STWG Hozier Discography Project

Unnamed/unpublished summer camp fic

Finishing up all existing wips and probably starting a few more if i'm honest!

Rules & Tags below the cut!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.

Tags: (i'm late to this party so you may have all been tagged already but i'll tag some friends i don't remember seeing a year in review from💜) @penny00dreadful @pearynice @sourw0lfs @hairstevington @soaringornithopter @hitlikehammers @dreamwatch and anyone else who wants to do it and hasn't yet!

[penny00dreadful]

✨ Fic Writing Review 2023 ✨

Big, big thanks, hugs and kisses to @thefreakandthehair, @just-my-latest-hyperfixation and @hbyrde36 for tagging me in this! 😘

Words and Fics

296,897 words published on my AO3, plus about 47k of unpublished WIPs 👀

15 total works published

1 WIP currently publishing

4 unpublished WIPs 👀

7 multi-chapter fics complete

7 one-shots

3 tumblr only oneshots

10 drabbles and ficlets

Top 5 Fics by Kudos

Safety

Somebody To Love

Return of The King

Before He Cheats

37 Years To The Day

My fandom fic events in 2023

@steddievember

Is that it?

Did I really do only one?

Damn

I gotta do more fandom fic events

Upcoming Events and Projects for 2024

Completing Cat and Mouse! I am a few chapters ahead and I just finished my big climactic chapter and I am SO FUCKING EXCITED

STWG Hozier Discography Project 🤫

Finishing out my 1 year anniversary fic event thingy, including:

Post-Apocalypse AU

Enemies to Lovers Roommates

Dungeons and Dragons AU

I can't WAIT to see what lies ahead in 2024! Bring it on, bitch!

Rules & Tags below the cut!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either.

Taggy tags! Sorry if you've been tagged already! @klausinamarink, @shares-a-vest, @pearynice, @starryeyedjanai, @cranberrymoons, @thisapplepielife, @xenon-demon, @mentallyundone, @imfinereallyy, @estrellami-1, @artaxlivs and anyone else who wants to do it and hasn't yet!

[agaypanic]

My Fanfic Writing Wrapped 2023

Tumblr didn't do personal 2023 year in reviews, so I did it myself. Not sure if this is completely accurate bc I'm only human, but I tried lol

In 2023, I posted 119 fanfictions! 25 posts were headcanons, while the other 94 were fully written fics. I posted the most in November, with 20 fics and 5 headcanons.

My third most requested character was Malcolm Wilkerson (Malcolm in the Middle), with 10 fanfics and 2 headcanons. Second place is Benny Weir (My Babysitter's a Vampire), with 21 fanfics and 9 headcanons. First place (not surprised at all lol) is Reese Wilkerson (Malcolm in the Middle), with a whopping 24 fanfics and 8 headcanons!

My Top 5 Fanfictions of 2023

5. Summer Love (Benny Weir X Reader)

Summary: Benny’s friends don’t believe him when he tells them he has a girlfriend.

289 likes, 11 reblogs, 2 comments

4. Give You My Shoulder (Mike Schmidt X Reader)

Summary: It’s not uncommon for Mike to have a nightmare, mainly from reliving the trauma of his brother being taken. Luckily, he doesn’t sleep alone anymore.

296 likes, 7 reblogs

3. A Nudge (Benny Weir X Cupid!Reader)

Summary: As a descendant of Cupid, Y/n moved to Whitechapel to help people find and connect with their soulmates. The supernatural gang gets suspicious of the new girl. What happens when they catch her about to shoot a love arrow and Benny gets hit?

317 likes, 19 reblogs, 1 comment

2. Girl of My Dreams (Rory Keaner X Reader)

Summary: Rory Keaner was already heavily infatuated with Whitechapel’s pride and joy, Y/n L/n. But when he finds out she’s a nerd, he falls even harder for her.

379 likes, 17 reblogs, 2 comments

1. My Babysitter's a Vampire Simp Headcanons

Summary: Individual headcanons and scenarios of Benny Weir, Rory Keaner, and Ethan Morgan being a simp for you

439 likes, 11 reblogs, 2 comments

I hope that in 2024 I write more things (both fanfiction and original works) and I'm so grateful to all of you have been along for the ride! I love writing, no matter how bad the writer's block gets, and it means a lot that there are people out there who support what I do. And although it was a bit time consuming, this was really fun to make lol maybe I'll do it again next year :)

[ladyaj-13]

LadyAJ’s 2023 Fics

This year I wrote 16 new stories (and one new chapter on an old one!) across five fandoms - One Direction, Endeavour, Kingsman, The Eagle and new-to-me Ted Lasso. Details below, I hope you’ll check some out - I like to think there’s a bit of something for everyone. 

One Direction

Bloom - T, 28k, Louis/Liam

Do you like historical AUs? Do you like awesome art by @whatagreatproblemtohave? Then you’ll like this, written for the One Direction Big Bang.

In early 1970s Oxford, Detective Sergeant Louis Tomlinson has to deal with the dual pressures of a case that hits too close to home, and the arrival of new colleague Liam Payne. Payne is both the bane of his existence and, uh... dangerous. Very dangerous. His eyes, that is. His lips. The way he stands.

A story of rain and cobblestones, cigarettes, and repression. And the sunshine after the storm.

In Shining Armour of Trackie and Trainers - T, 9k, Louis/Harry

Because who wouldn’t love white knight Louis coming to their rescue?

Online dating isn't exactly working for Harry. In fact, it couldn't really be going much worse. But then the door of the bar opens, and the pack of friends walking in parts and - that’s Louis Tomlinson.

Louis fucking Tomlinson.

Pageant Material - G, 6k, Louis/Zayn

Watch me throw Miss Congeniality and Kacey Musgraves together, shake it up, and give it a Zouis twist. Written for the Zouis fest.

Louis flicks a nearby switch, lighting the bulbs around his mirror in a soft glow. The buttery yellow catches on the edges of his cheekbones, sharpening the dip. He looks more grown up this year. Some of his baby fat has melted away, and he sucks in his cheeks to see what he might look like by twenty five if this pattern continues. Then he crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue.

Or, the Zouis teen beauty pageant AU.

The Way to My Heart - T, 6k, Louis/Harry

Fluffy, funny AU Larry with lots of Nouis friendship on the side. Written for the a/b/o fest.

Louis' having a bit of a dry spell, until he bumps into an attractive alpha in the supermarket and leaves with his number. It was a hard bump. Very... muscular.

The only problem is, said alpha asks Louis to cook for him - which is not exactly his skill set.

Feeling Feline - T, 4k, Louis/Niall

Nouis, my beloved, with shelter-worker!Niall and magical cat transformations. Written for the Louis rare pair fest.

“I’m telling you,” drifts through the cracked door, and Louis’ ears prick, twitching with interest. “There’s something wrong with that cat.”

“Have you talked to Liam?” asks another voice, worried. Louis thinks it’s the tall one with curly hair. Taller one. They’re all tall when you’re ten inches high.

“Not medically wrong,” the blond one says. “But I swear, and I know this sounds nuts, but I don’t think he’s a cat?”

Fine Line - G, 1k, Louis/Nick Grimshaw

It’s present day, it’s canon compliant, it’s just long enough to read while waiting for the bus assuming it’s not got stuck in traffic.

Telling his family was always going to be a big deal, but doing it alone was a sacrifice he could make.

He never thought they’d fall about laughing.

In The Dark - T, 666, Gen

Choose your own character in this spooky snippet written for the trick or treat fest.

It’s the dreams.

He’d be fine without the dreams… suggesting things. If he could face all this - whatever this is - with a clear, rested mind.

Bound - G, 619, Liam/Zayn

Vampire AU? Check. 

Months should pass like hours for a vampire, but to Zayn they’ve felt endless. Now, finally, it has come. The day he takes his consort.

Endeavour

Tread Carefully into my Life - T, 29k, WIP, Morse/Jakes

See? I told you it’s not abandoned. Maybe 2024 is the year I finally finish this canon rewrite where Jakes stayed - in the meantime, enjoy nearly thirty thousand words of their on/off up/down shenanigans!

He can't help the way his eyes drift across the room, to Morse in his shirtsleeves, arms crossed across his body. It’s a defensive posture, which is no surprise, but otherwise he looks collected. Calm. Like facing down man eating beasts is all part of the job, and despite the evidence of today, it most certainly is not part of the job.

Tigers. For the love of God, give him an axe murderer any day.

Stepping Out - G, 9k, Morse/Jakes/Joan

Established polyamory with the Oxford disaster trio. Jakes didn’t leave.

“You know what I haven't done in ages?” Joan asks, punctuating her question by flinging her legs up and leaning dramatically backwards against the sofa arm. Peter almost spills his tea. “Gone dancing. We should go.”

Kindred - G, 2k, Gen

Ohhh series nine. Pre-slash Morse/Sam if you really squint.

Sam Thursday, Morse, and the power of orange juice.

Offcuts - G, 2k, Morse/Jakes/Joan

With this final instalment, the series is complete. As a whole it's almost 32k, so if you like Endeavour and polyamorous relationships, set aside a Saturday and dive in.

Snapshot scenes of life with the trio.

Adding it Up - G, 887, Morse/Jakes

Let’s return to series three, because Jakes.

Fred’s been a copper for a long time. It’s in his bones at this point, a habit so engrained he can’t turn it off. Like Morse with his beer and Jakes with his cigarettes, Fred’s addiction is piecing things together. Even when he’d rather not.

Ted Lasso

Would You Rather - G, 1k - Colin & Jamie, Roy/Jamie

It had to happen! Diving into a new fandom is always a pleasure.

"I’m talking about percentages. Like, yeah, you’re gay. So maybe you’re at like, eighty, ninety per cent. But if I say who’d you rather fuck out of Ms Welton, Keeley and Maisie from the canteen, you know what you’d say, right?”

Colin is beginning to think Jamie doesn’t know what gay is. "Erm, no."

Squeegee - M, 525 - Roy/Jamie

Short and snappy ;)

Jamie’s beautifully vocal in bed, but long, pitchy squeaking is new.

Kingsman

The Honeypots - T, 5k - Eggsy/Harry

Partial AU with undercover, honeypot spy shenanigans and obliviousness? I wrote it for a reason. I mean, it’s right up my street.

Eggsy is MI6. Harry is Kingsman. They have each been tasked to seduce a suspected rival intelligence agent.

The intelligence part may be overselling it.

The Eagle of the Ninth

Winter Sunlight - G, 1k, Marcus/Esca

I think writing a fluffy, happy gay farmers fic is actually a requirement of this fandom. Here’s my offering.

“How is it,” a familiar voice mutters drowsily, muffled by the drape of skins and fur, “that after all these years, you still can’t manage a proper lie in?”

[hgejfmw-hgejhsf]

Year In Review: Favorite Lines/Snippets!

Hello, my lovelies! Many thanks to @anincompletelist for not only creating this tag game, but for including me in it! I have ALWAYS loved a good quote that can hit someone right in the heart, and this year, I've been incredibly lucky to write a few such segments myself (that hit ME in my own heart!). Words that I stepped back from the keyboard after writing and thought "did I actually write this?"

Additional thanks to @kiwiana-writes and @firenati0n for the tags on their years in review as well!

What If I Do?

“Fuck,” is all that he can say, but even that tastes of Alex, of top shelf whiskey and the cinnamon he always adds to his coffee. Alex had spoken the word into Henry’s mouth on countless occasions, so he was all-too-familiar with the way it slipped off of his tongue so smoothly, as if the letters themselves were forged together just for him by some foul-mouthed god who knew the damage such a word might wreak in the possession of someone as fearless as Alexander Claremont-Diaz.

Gravity

But though fire may burn through carefully worded commands parading as suggestions on a pretty page, it stands no chance against the might of a golden crown. He only wishes he could fan the flames high enough to reach that blessed melting point. Watch it all soften and liquefy until it’s no longer a gilded cage but a puddle at his feet. He thinks, bitterly, that even then he wouldn’t have the time to escape before it would congeal and stiffen and trap him once more, forever frozen as a statue rather than a prisoner. And perhaps they’d prefer it that way. Statues can’t fight back.

The Rope

This is not supposed to be his life. He was always supposed to love Alex from the other side of a wall, never daring to climb over. So instead, he’d punched a hole in that fragile wall under the winter moonlight in the White House Garden, the taste of Alex on his tongue. And again and again he’d punched new holes in the weakening structure, reaching through and grabbing and clawing at whatever pieces of Alex he could grip, knowing that he’d never be able to grasp his heart. Except when, somewhere along the bloody way, he had. But Alex was never supposed to let him.

Ghosts

His first attempts to contact Henry are a flood. Incessant, desperate, confused. All paragraphs and punctuation. And then a storm. Intense in the moment but eventually losing its power. Streams of single sentences sent in quick succession. Then a trickle. Droplets of isolated words over the course of agonizing days. Until finally, they dry up completely, and Henry’s thread of communication falls lower and lower down his inbox. Alex tries not to actively seek it out.

The Maldives

“I love you. I don’t have your extensive vocabulary to say it, but the truth is that I’m absolutely crazy, head-over-heels, desperately in love with you, and I’ve spent so much time not saying it that I want to spend the rest of my life saying it as much as I can. I want to wake up beside you each morning and say it before we start the day. I want to text it to you from across any distance between us, whether it’s an ocean or the couch. I want to gasp it at the ceiling when you do that thing with your tongue. And I want it to be the last thing you hear before you fall asleep each night. I love you, and I want you to hear it so many times that it heals the pain of thinking you’d never hear it in the way you always dreamt.”

You can’t escape this drying ink

He knows, as they approach the door just down the hall from the main ballroom, what awaits him on the other side. He knows it as certainly as he knows what a terrible mistake he made on these very grounds to start the new year. A blank page already gushing bright red ink before he’d ever had the chance to write a single word other than “Alex.” He’d dripped his bleeding pen across the map as he fled, red ink footsteps trailing behind him in the snow, a smear across the map over the 3,700 miles separating them. He’d trailed it from the plane to the car, from the car through the palace, staining the perfect ancient path walked by kings and queens as he retreated back into the cage of his own making, a cage he never should have left, for now he knows what damage he wreaks when he allows his heart to guide him.

Save a horse Alex is a book that Henry has read countless times. He knows the placement of every punctuation mark, from the freckle above his hip to the smallest of scars on his knee, sustained while thoughts of Henry plagued his every waking moment, Alex admitted to him once. He’s familiar with every piece of dialogue from “motherfucker” to “sweetheart” and his personal favorite, “baby.” He’s bookmarked all of his favorite pages and even added his own annotations, like the way Alex always wants to look Henry in the eyes after they make love, regardless of what positions they may have ended up in, or the soft snores that come only when Alex is completely and utterly spent, nothing left to give but the sound of his breathing that never fails in lulling Henry to a deep sleep after him. But in the constant reading of the book of Alex, Henry is never bored. There is always something new to parse from between the lines. Words that aren’t explicitly stated. Details that can only be found by diving deeper than the surface. And Henry is happy to spend the rest of his life sinking to the depths of it, turning the pages again and again.

Heart enough

“Well, normally with a royal guest staying here, I’d roam the halls in a white sheet moaning about taxation without representation, but the joke would be wasted on someone as dull as Henry, so here I am…”

Alex has never seen Henry like this. So raw and vulnerable. Someone who needs. Frankly, he didn’t think it was even possible for a prince as polished as Henry to ever falter. Never thought a spine as rigid and straight could ever hunch, that a heart as walled off and locked away could ever break. How very wrong he was.

The taste of the whiskey from Alex’s flask and the champagne Henry drank earlier in the evening mixes with the rainwater that continues to pelt them from above, falling in their mouths and baptizing their tongues in the memories of this night that Alex knows he will never, could never, forget.

Wind me up, fill your cup like a river, drunk on watching me drown

He’d almost be impressed that a statue sculpted out of unforgiving, unchanging marble could affect anything but a strong-jawed, tight-lipped expression of utter disdain, were it not for that very first meeting of the prince and the president’s son. But nothing Henry could ever hope to do in his meticulously scheduled life of cutting ceremonial ribbons and haunting the corners of ballrooms is capable of wrenching and scraping the clock hands backwards, turning back the years of disappointment Alex has felt for ever pressing his fingers to a photo in a magazine and allowing himself to dream of someone just like him. Someone who understood.

Alex quickly realizes, though, that he’s never stood this close to the prince before. Never made out the freckles hiding beneath the carefully applied makeup. To the dungeons with a blemish on a royal face! Never noticed the halo of hazel around his pupils, a tiny island in eyes as blue as the ocean. He wonders, briefly, if Henry would choose to embrace these perceived imperfections if given the chance. Would the open, grinning young man from the magazine sign his looping script on an agreement of a royal portrait painter dotting a canvas with physical proof of being kissed by the sun, or mix up a bit of color other than the most stunning cerulean for his eyes? Or does he relish in the mask that he wears, locked as perfectly into place as every strand of his golden hair?

The injury of finally knowing you

He listens to the quiet sound of snow drifting to the ground around him and thickening the blanket of white. He listens to the distant thump of music and the explosion of fireworks across the city, of liquor-soaked laughter and raucous cheers. He listens and listens, his ears straining as if some part of him hopes to hear his father’s voice break through the clouds as brightly and certainly as he knows Orion shines somewhere above the earth upon which he stands on trembling limbs. What he doesn’t expect when he listens is the lilt of another voice from behind him, an all-too-familiar sound that never fails to color his dreams in flashes of vivid molten gold, fiery scarlet, and radiant orange, lighting his very imagination aflame. Every word spoken by that voice now grows a fraction louder with each soft, crunching step through the snow.

Unsure who's done this so far, but wanting to throw out some tags for @indestructibleheart @thinkof-england @whimsymanaged @sparklepocalypse @duchessdepolignaca03 @ships-to-sail @magicandarchery @suseagull04 @rockyroadkylers @inexplicablymine @littlemisskittentoes @ssmtskw @affectionatelyrs @lizzie-bennetdarcy @songliili @priincebutt @daisymae-12 @happiness-of-the-pursuit @leaves-of-laurelin @roseharpermaxwell @adreamareads @indomitable-love @cricketnationrise @clottedcreamfudge @ninzied

[recurring-polynya]

My Tumblr Year in Review 2023 (homebrew edition)

Per this post, I guess they aren't doing the personal Tumblr Year in Review this year, which made me very sad, so I decided to DIY as much as I could using JetBlackCode's Tumblr statistics tools.

I had 313 original posts this year, and got 12,405 notes. (JetBlack's numbers don't exactly match up to previous years' Year in Review, but it's close enough). This is a little lower in posts than last year, but a little higher in notes.

Top 5 Posts:

5. Mid-Century Menos

4. some shinigami and their hobbies

3. Sowing/reaping, but make it fanfic

2. Do shinigami have blood transfusions?

Some Oddly Specific Comparisons Between Renji and Ken Barbie Movie

Big year for posts for me! #1 and #2 both blew up because other people added stuff to them (and then #2 got reblogged by a Tumblr-famous person), but that's how Tumblr works, so thanks, friends, for inflating my notes for me! #3 was really strange because it has accumulated notes very slowly, but steadily. Every day, I get notes on that post. Also, every day I think about the person who reblogged it with the tags "I would simply write my fanfic from start to finish and not have this problem." Imagine, having a brain so functional (couldn't be me).

I am very happy that I had two fanarts in my top 5 again this year, especially considering that I didn't draw all that much this year. I guess that makes the shinigami hobbies post my all-time #1 fanart. Not bad, considering I didn't even color it!

[reliablejoukido]

Zuzu's Year End Fanfiction Wrap-up Template - free to use

Hi pals! I've been looking for something like this for a while. I always see end of year art summaries and wish I could make something for fanfiction. So i did! Feel free to download the blank and sample images from tumblr, but they are also available in the Google Drive.

Google Drive link contains:

Blank PNG that you can edit in an image editor

Example text PNG that you see above, in case you want guidance on what it can look like

Editable PSD file for those who have Photoshop

An editable PDF form for those who don't have image editors or Photoshop (PLEASE see directions file on how to use the PDF)

Directions file

To save space and make it easier for tumblr, the image I made only has 3 months. Feel free to duplicate in order to make more months.

(Note on the "status" category: you can put anything you want here. Whether you edited, completed something, drafted half a chapter, published a chapter... this is left vague so you can put whatever you want here.)

You can find a more robust example here.

Credit is appreciated so that others can find and use this.

[praetorqueenreyna]

2023 AO3 Year-End Fic Review

I found the AO3 review I had made last year and decided to fill it out for 2023! Answer all the questions yourself, then tag some friends!

What is your AO3 account?

I'm at LittleQueenTrashMouth on AO3!

2. How many words did you write total in 2023?

I wrote 69, 299 words in 2023 for 4 different fandoms! Well 3-4, since one fic was a crossover fic. Most of that was for ACOTAR, which is HILARIOUS considering last year I was so convinced that I was done with ACOTAR. I played myself. It's also way more words than I wrote the past few years, which is cool!

3. How many fics did you publish in 2023? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

I published 17 fics in 2023, 15 of which were for ACOTAR. 3 of those are multichapter, and the other 14 were oneshots.

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

The longest fic CONTINUES to be my multichapter Tamlin/Lucien fic, lovely and lonely, which is now at 27,528 words and is ALMOST DONE. My longest oneshot is the Nesta/Eris fic, counterintelligence, which is at 4,446 words. The shortest fic I wrote last year was you up?, which is a modern AU Tamlin/Rhysand fic.

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

My most popular fic was lovely and lonely, which is now at 2,044 hits and 107 kudos!! My least popular fic was the Tamlin/Briar fic Come, my drifting flower, which is at 29 hits and 5 kudos. But TO BE FAIR all the fics I wrote for my gift exchanges are at the bottom of the list for hits/kudos, because they were only published like a week ago!! So the least popular fic that has been online for over a month is my Eris Week fic Concession Strategy, which is at 168 hits and 11 kudos. BUT ACTUALLY I'm realizing now that somebody put the fic in a secret collection so nobody has been able to read it in months lmao. So my REAL ACTUAL least popular fic is the Tamlin/Amarantha fic obsessed with you, at 226 hits and 17 kudos.

6. What fic didn't perform as well as you thought it would?

I feel like I've answered this before lmao but ANYWAY I thought a knife for every heart would perform a little better. It's been up since March and has 143 hits. I guess people don't want to read about Lestat and the Corinthian fucking nasty.

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

ALREADY my Nesta/Eris ACOTAR secret santa fic soare cu dinți is performing way better than expected! It was posted just a couple weeks ago and already has 262 hits, which is PRETTY GOOD for an ACOTAR rarepair! In general I've found that Neris fandom fucking SHOWS UP when you write them fic, which is awesome!!!

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote in 2023?

LMAO my favorite fic this year continues to be my Yellowjackets fic, Lagomorpha. idk I just love writing body horror and psychosexual tension and learning about how fucked up rabbits are. I also just LOVE Shauna, I'd really like to write more from her POV in the future!!!

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2023?

OKAY LISTEN!!!! yall are very talented but really stood no chance against @goforth-ladymidnight's Tamcien fic A Second Chance. Seriously, if you haven't read this fic, GO READ IT RIGHT NOW!!! IT'S AMAZING!!! LIFE CHANGING!!!! EARTH SHATTERING!!!

10. Tag your friends to have them do this year-end fic review as well!!

OKIE I TAG PEOPLE!!! if you see this and I don't tag you, please fill it out!!

@queercontrarian @northern-star-polaris @riote @thevanserrras @foxcort @goforth-ladymidnight @andrigyn @looseleaflettuce @isterofimias @drowning-in-cacophony

[vashti-lives]

I have finally conceded that gremlins have eaten my kindle voyage and I do, in fact, need to replace it. It's been more than year of waiting for it to "turn up" interspersed with frantic episodes of looking. It's not happening! It's in the negaverse now.

WHY IS THE EREADER MARKET SO FUCKING TERRIBLE??? ALL I WANT IS A REASONABLY PRICED SMALL-ISH EREADER WITH DEDICATED PAGE TURN BUTTONS.

That's all! I don't need to be able to write on it! I don't need it to play videos! I don't need a big screen! I don't want to pay $200+ dollars. I just want to be able to read long fanfic on an e-ink screen again.

[meetinginsamarra]

My Year in Review

I have not written a lot this year. 2 fics and 15 ficlets. I started with plotting and writing a real casefic last December and managed about 5 chapters. Then there was a very long general writing hiatus starting June 2023 due to - let's say - challenging IRL events that ended only in October. October was great with the whumptober prompts and I completed the challenge for the second time.

I restarted writing on the casefic in November highly motivated and because I broke my ankle and have been on sick-leave since then there was a lot of writing time. I finished chapter 12 today, 43k words in and there will be "only" two more chapters to write. Depending on my beta I hope to be able to post on AO3 soon in early 2024.

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Oyster and Mushroom Soup in February 2023, part 2 of the crackfic series "Sherlock's Secret Laboratory Journal"

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15 ficlets (parts 6 to 20) in my Sherlock Ficlets for Writing Challenges collection for the May writing prompts by @notjustamumj

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Slowly Suffocating a fic following the 31 prompts for whumptober

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I could not reblog my own post (it's been deactivated??) so I'll just repost it.

I wanted to thank all the lovely people who have reblogged and commented on the original.

Thanks for the "congrats" @thetimemoves

Thanks for "every finished fic is a victory" @raina-at

Thanks for "Sending happy writing thoughts your way for 2024" and "That's a lot accomplished" @helloliriels

@lololollywrites said "I think our perception of “a lot” is skewed compared to those who do not write at all" and "this is significant and you should be proud!"

You are def right! The "not a lot" I referred to is biased because I wanted to write much more and am a bit unsatisfied with this. But apart from me no one knows this and sees the result objectively as it is.

@totallysilvergirl said "Sometimes we gallop, sometimes we canter, sometimes we walk for a bit. Happy new year's eve, and hope RL is gentler with you in 2024 🤍"

Thanks for the wishes and your wise words, I like them very much.

[firawren]

2023 Beauty and the Beast fics

Can I celebrate me and my friends for a sec?

My friend @thefamilybruno's fic "Once Upon a Dream" was the 5th most kudos-ed fic of 2023 for the Beauty and the Beast 1991 fandom! (And frankly, 3 out of the 4 fics that exceeded hers in kudos aren't even about BatB, just tagged in the fandom, so I consider hers to be the 2nd most popular BatB fic of the year.)

My friend @annaofthenorthernlights's fic "Instincts - or the beast inside" was the 15th most kudos-ed!

And amongst my fics, "Beauty and the Brute" was the 6th most kudos-ed, "Transformation" was the 9th, and "Scent doesn't lie" was the 13th.

I know fic is not a popularity contest, but it still feels good to receive acknowledgment and to celebrate each other as members of the same small BatB fandom community. I'm really proud of the fantastic stories we've created and shared this year!

Thanks so much to everyone who read these and gave us kudos! You help us stay motivated to keep sharing our writing with y'all.

[thetimemoves]

2022 in Review

I wrote two fics this year. I had hoped to finish more, but I can’t be too disappointed. Two fics! I wrote none for many, many years. Plus, this year was Not Great, so I will take all the wins I can get. That said, my drafts folder is bursting; I am optimistic for 2023!

Resetting the Break

When Mycroft Holmes finds himself on John Watson’s doorstep after Sherlock’s (miraculous, melodramatic) return, he wonders at himself. He doesn’t do this, groundwork.

This is Sherlock’s mess, not his (lies), but he feels inexplicably compelled to defend his blasted brother. To John Watson, of all people.

Metamorphosis

Their poolside confrontation with Moriarty casts John and Sherlock adrift and leaves them struggling to reconnect.

Enter Maya Sutherland, whose case of love and deception brings a familiar face back into their lives and shocks them into action.

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What have you created this year? Tagging @discordantwords​ @calaisreno​ @educatedinyellow​​ @helloliriels​ @clevermanka​ and any of you who’d like to share! Please tag me if you do!