#no but seriously I have fic ideas for at least three different fandoms and I'm making an attempt to write down my ideas today.

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

Everything that I want to read I must write myself? BUT IT'S SO MUCH EFFORT.

[pedroshotwifey]

20 Questions for Writers 📑

I was tagged by @nerdieforpedro. Ty bb I love you ♥ I feel like some others may have tagged me in this a while ago so I send my thanks to you as well 🥰

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Technically, I only have 32. I would personally count all of my collections and challenges as separate fics, but I'm honestly too lazy to format them that way. (mostly thinking ab wcc here)

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

I have a total of 200,985 words right now. Didn't realize I'd hit the 200,00 mark yet!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I think it's safe to say Pedro Pascal is my fandom. I have no objections to writing for any other characters though---in fact, I've actually featured some Oscar Isaac characters in my fics before. I also have an unpublished Marc Spector fic that's been sitting in my docs for a while 🤭

4. Top Five fics by kudos:

Joel Fucking Miller (ao3 link) has 377 kudos. Dom Joel Miller fucks you over a table in this age gap enemies to....lovers(?) one shot.

Favorite Bounty (ao3 link) has 144 kudos. In this series, you unexpectedly hitch a ride with the Mandalorian and begin to grow close to him until you find out his secret.

Beg for it (ao3 link) has 121 kudos. Subby virgin Din is completely at your mercy in this one shot.

Wifey's Christmas Countdown collection (ao3 link) has 96 kudos. Lots of different characters and plots! Some are fluffy, some angsty, some smutty. Some are all three! Love these and I think some of my best writing can be found here.

Cramped (ao3 link) has 78 kudos. Subby virgin Din sitting in a teeny tiny cockpit with you. What more can I say? (gn! reader)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Always! It may take me a bit sometimes, but I love interacting with people who care enough to leave comments for me!

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

Already published, I think I'm gonna have to go with Cuts. I personally love this fic and think it's a bit underrated. (dark!husband Jack Daniels x f!reader)

OOO actually I think Alone Always is gonna take the cake here. (Din Djarin x gn!reader)

7. What is the fic you wrote that has the happiest ending?

I honestly have a habit of making most endings happy 😂 I don't feel like digging right now so I'm just gonna say What Matters. (Age gap Joel Miller x f!reader) This is also my most popular one shot on Tumblr with over 1,000 notes.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not too much, but I have gotten some shit for little things on TTF. This rly sucks because I let it get to me too much and I end up getting into a slump.

9. Do you write smut?

Do I write anything else?

jkjk, I love writing it all, but smut is for sure one of my more dominant themes!

10. Craziest Crossover?

Probably One Condition. Ezra (prospect) and Marcus Pike x f!reader. Messy dubcon-ish sex pollen one shot. It's pretty fun and got a lot of good feedback!

11. Have you ever have a fic stolen?

As far as I know, I have not. And I'm really hoping it stays that way! I'm just hoping that since my writing isn't super great, most copycats will stay away 🤣

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Have not, but I wouldn't be opposed. I know my friend (@kewwrites) and I have talked about doing fics and eventually crossing over into each other's before.

14. All time favorite ship?

Me and Pedro, Duh!!

Lmao nah in all seriousness, pls don't hate me, but I'm a little obsessed with Dinluke 😂🫣

And I'll go ahead and take this opportunity to say that my absolute least favorite ship is Dinbo 👎

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

omg I don't know 😭 I have some that are very slow going but I don't want to admit defeat because then it's set in stone 😂 Hopefully everything will be finished at some point!

16. What are your writing strengths?

No idea. I honestly think that sometimes I kind of lock in and am able to write immaculate stories, but most of the time they're just meh. Great at description at these times.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

BURNOUT FUCK YOU BURNOUT FUCKK YOU FUCK YOU VERY MUCH

Currently going through an awful streak of it and I'm stressing out because I finally have time to write and am just not able to 🫠

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Fantastic if used right! I love little terms here and there depending on the ethnicity of the character and their first language since it definitely adds to the authenticity. I do like for the translation to be at the end of the phrase/excerpt though instead of at the end of the fic.

19. First Fandom you wrote in?

PPCU! Loml fr

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

This is so tough because I forget them all 😭 And then I'll read them again a few months later and fall in love and be like "this is the best thing I've ever written", and then forget again. 🫠 I genuinely have no idea.

I would love more than anything right now though if anybody would care to drop their favorite fic of mine in the comments of this post or even in my inbox ♥ I think it would help a lot to hear atm!

NPT: @kewwrites @notjustjavierpena @iamasaddie @strang3lov3 @freelancearsonist @janaispunk @beardedjoel @ghostofaboy

[voxofthevoid]

your thoughts on the other (popular) yuuji pairings? 👀

How many hours do you have 👀

I love too many Yuuji ships for my own good, honestly. But I'm not much of a multishipper, so everything else comes secondary to goyuu. Buuuut JJK is also the first fandom for which I've liked multiple ships enough to try and write more than just my OTP, so it's safe to say I like these Yuuji ships a hell of a lot.

Putting it under a cut because concision and I are arch-enemies. Also, I don't want to clog up the ship tags with my ramblings, so before you click through, know that this talks about nanayuu, chosoita, itafushi, and sukuita.

Caveat that I've read very, very few JJK fics, so I'll be talking mostly in relation to canon and my own writing.

Here goes, in order of adoration:

Nanami/Yuuji

Their canon dynamic is so good; I love how Yuuji's exuberance contrasts with Nanami's reticence, and more than that, I love how they're both intrinsically kind in a really similar way, even if Nanami's version has been tempered by the harsh realities of their world. Plus, it never gets old just how much Nanami lets Yuuji get away with—I mean, Nanamin, seriously. He protests once and then goes "well, guess I'm Nanamin now." Amazing. Predictably, Shibuya did unholy things to my poor heart. When the "You've got it from here" scene gets animated, I will lose my entire goddamn mind.

That said, I started out liking them platonically, but well, other than vertical incest, there's no relationship dynamic that's safe from my gremlin hands, so I wound up shipping them sooner than later. Specifically, I wrote a goyuu fic with a heavy focus on platonic Nanami&Yuuji and plummeted headfirst into shipping them, so now I've got like three different ideas that's a mix of nanayuu and goyuu. If I don't write at least one of them, someone should punch me.

Chōsō/Yuuji

Listen, brocon just comes very naturally when Chōsō is involved, and it doesn't help that sibling incest with fuckery potential has always lit up my brain (Sam/Dean from SPN, Vash/Knives from Trigun, etc.). What I like about their canon relationship is the...imbalance that's kind of there, especially at the beginning. Chōsō has family revelations after hallucinating one near-death-experience-induced (and Yuuji's NDE at that) picnic scene and is immediately ride or die, while Yuuji's just there going "???" He's treated complete strangers with more delicacy than he affords Chōsō when they're alone in Shibuya, which makes perfect sense given the circumstances and Yuuji's mental state at the time. And even once Yuuji seems to remember his "mum" and realize Chōsō is his brother, there's the distinct sense that Chōsō's attachment is a hell of a lot more intense and more explicitly connected to the blood relation, as opposed to Yuuji's usual warmth to an ally and friend. And that contrast of complete, immediate devotion and cautious, burgeoning affection makes me want to do unholy things to them both.

Which is why Chōsō is currently getting enthusiastically eaten and eaten out by Yuuji in my Word document. It's not even subtle as far as metaphors go.

Megumi/Yuuji

A friend described my thing for this as a "tiny, doting crush," and it's pretty accurate. Canon sells this pretty hard from the get-go, and something that struck me is that, a lot of the time when you have a shonen hero who's dragged into a new world, it's a female character, usually the future love interest/main heroine/first girl, that does it. In JJK, you have Megumi in that role—fun all over. Also, the narrative is highly consistent about highlighting both of their complicated feelings about their involvement in the other's current predicament. Their interactions are also interesting from the beginning, both the lighthearted moments and the heavier stuff. And the manga panel split between a freshly Sukunafied Megumi and a very horrified Yuuji remains one of my favorites.

Thing is, since canon feeds me pretty well in terms of this ship, I don't feel much of an urge to read or write it. I have one(1) idea that's a mix of goyuu+gofushi+itafushi+goitafushi (it's...complicated), but it's pretty low on the priority list.

Sukuna/Yuuji

I'll be frank: I want to like this ship a lot more than I actually do. And that's mostly because Sukuna is a bit hit-and-miss for me. There are parts in the story where I've loved him and parts where I wanted to step on his face—not in the fun way either. And ever since he took over Megumi, I've been in "step on his face" mode. Their canon relationship appeals to me mostly because Sukuna brings out a side of Yuuji that only Mahito has managed, and their scant interactions while sharing a mind and body were pretty interesting. The blend of hostility and humor was nice, and I kind of like that there's pretty much zero chance of it getting resolved like with, say, Kurama and Naruto.

Anyway, I do see a lot of potential in this ship for hate sex, except what I'd like to see is a very specific dynamic that I haven't been able to find—and one that's complicated enough that I'm not sure I could write it either. I might try some day, especially if inspiration strikes.

Thanks for asking, anon ❤

[mirdeli]

mmMIRAaaaA!! 17? i'm curious since we all struggle with such different aspects of writing, but! i'd also love to hear your perspective on some of the questions that focus on the rewarding parts of writing: 2 (why?), 9! <3

BUUGGGIIIEEE thank you for asking!! 🩷

17. What do you struggle with most when writing?

English vocabulary and grammar, e.g. I have no idea where to put commas in English because they are used differently in Finnish, but that's why I have wonderful betas to help me 🥰 Also there are some good sayings in Finnish that just don't work in English and that's so annoying when there's something SO PERFECT in my brain but it just cannot be translated into English.

2. What's your favourite fic you wrote?

Heart of the Ocean, definitely. It's a noncon fic from the assaulter's pov, but he doesn't see it as an assault. Getting into that kind of delusional and terrible mindset when writing was... thrilling? That sounds bad haha but really, writing something like that, something completely different than what I as a person can relate to, it's a very interesting experience. The power of fiction is crazy. I have read it multiple times after publishing and every time I feel so proud about it. Ironically it is my least liked work (based on kudos etc), though I know the theme is very controversial.

9. Share a favourite comment a reader has left you.

WELL my favourite comments are left by a certain beautiful buggie Unlabeled 🩷They are always so profound and insightful, making me see my own work in different perspectives, making me understand new things about my own text. It's just amazing. But they are way too long to share here XD So I'll share these three instead (I couldn't just pick one lol): I got these on my first English fic ever, I remember how fucking happy I was for each and every one. Publishing something for the first time is scary, and I'm so grateful how kindly I was received back then, before I knew anyone in this fandom. So people PLEASE, comment on the fics you read!! Especially new writers' fics. They can mean so much. "Absolute Masterpiece!!!! But seriously Sebastian getting turned on by everything Ominis does is such a teenager thing and the way you wrote their thoughts was also just so beautifully and realistically written."

"It was so good, even my fiancé read it with me. We both loved it."

"This is the best Sebastian and Ominis fanfic I've ever read. Thank you!"

[tenrousei-kuroi]

I did read Angel Sanctuary! I never finished it, though. I remember that what got me to start was the author’s art style. Her characters are so pretty!

I’m not familiar with A Cruel God Reigns, but by your description, it’s right up my alley (also, with a brief search, I see it has a very traditional style from the 90s/00s mangas that I find very nostalgic). I’ll definitely take a look into it.

As for the Black brothers, I think I discovered the ship around 2017-18, so there was a fairly good amount of work by then, but Blackcest has definitely grown a lot in the past couple of years. I’ve not read many James/Regulus works, mostly because many have a 'cleansed', fanon version of both – which also applies to the Marauders as a whole – and I have very picky views of Regulus’ characterization (my boy canonically had his own fan board of Voldemort 😭 and as far as we know, he never fully – or at all – quit his bigotry, yet in many works, his Slytherin friends and himself diverge completely from this).

But I do think Sirius/Regulus will remain somewhat popular for a long time. The Black family seems to have an appeal within the fandom that I don’t see as much with other families, such as the Lestranges, for example. Also, the idea of two good-looking, rich boys in a complicated family is intriguing (or at least I hope so; if not, you’ll see me signing up to your mailing list). On that note, I'm still hoping for the day Rodolphus/Rabastan gets popular lol

Anyway, thank you for the link, and I'm looking forward fest postings (ngl, I'm pretty confident in my abilities to recognize your writing style in anon fests. Sometimes I read a title and I think "this looks like a title ten would use". Is it a little stalker-ish of me? Maybe 😅).

Yeah Moto Hagio’s a bit more old school, she was most prolific in the seventies and eighties, and her art shows it. I could be misremembering but I believe her work “Sunroom” is typically credited as the first boy/boy manga kiss. And she’s one of the pioneers of the modern boy’s love genre. Real “culture award winning” sort of author.

Jegulus fics are hilarious to me and there’s a reason I call my stuff James/Regulus when I tag it, because that portmanteau has become its own thing. Whenever I read a Jegulus fic in my brain I’m thinking, “you know you can just write Timotheé Chalamet RPF, right? He’s not gonna’ come for you” 😂 And honestly that fanon “style” is bleeding over hard into the Sirius/Regulus section.

No shade, I’m glad people are having fun. Makes it harder for me to find the kinds of fics I like but I’ll survive lol. There’s just a larger selection now. And popular as it all is, I do truly feel people will move on. Because it’s less an attachment to the characters and more to these seriously altered fantasy versions of them, which can be easily grafted onto the next popular thing.

If you had told fifteen year-old me my weird incest and incest-adjacent pairings where two of the three characters aren’t even alive in canon would one day be as common as they are now I’d’ve thought you were high 😂 yet here we are.

I’ve dabbled a bit in Rodolphus/Rabastan but they always end up coming out so similar to my Sirius and Regulus that I don’t like it. I’ve kind of tabled the pairing until I can force myself to be a bit more creative with them. People already put up with all my Sirius/Regulus nonsense being basically the same, I don’t need to be grafting their dynamic onto other pairings 🤣🤣

When I pick prompts for fests I always try to ignore the promoter names until after I’ve chosen, but it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference, roughly 80% end up being yours anyway. Talk about wavelengths.

And let’s blame 2009 LiveJournal for my pretentious and easily-spotted titles, shall we? Specifically a Sirius/Regulus fic from forever ago called “A Thousand Years Good Wine” which basically flipped something in my brain and I haven’t been able to title anything like a normal human since.

That was a stellar fic, by the way. And if anyone ever ever ever finds it back for me I’ll…I don’t know…write them a 100k commission of their choice or engrave their name on my tombstone or something because that fic is LOST beyond belief and it causes me literal pain sometimes lol.

I’m feeling rather inspired today so I might spend my Saturday night plinking away at one of my fics. Odds are it probably won’t be the one that’s due in three weeks but we can always hope TT.TT

[prolestariwrites]

EOY Writing Wrap-up

I saw this post and loved the questions, so I'm going to answer them below! Looking forward to another year of writing and fandom!

favorite fic you wrote this year: For sure Unforgiven, it was my baby.

least favorite fic you wrote this year: Love Between Goddess and Demon ended up being kind of disappointing for me. It didn't develop how I wanted it to and I'll admit I abandoned it since it didn't have any readers.

favorite line/scene you wrote this year: Probably the first chapter of Unforgiven, I couldn't wait to get Leon and Jake together again ha ha.

total number of words you wrote this year: 131,491 published!

most popular fic this year: By hits and kudos it was Unforgiven. My oneshot Smoking got the most notes on Tumblr.

least popular fic this year: It was Three To One, which surprised me honestly.

longest completed fic you wrote this year: Love Stuck was my longest completed fic at 23,307 words.

shortest completed fic you wrote this year: Sparring Partners was a oneshot with 1,796 words.

longest wip of the year: Between Goddess and Demon was my longest unfinished fic. I wrote almost 40k words before I put it on pause.

shortest wip of the year: 365 is still a work in progress and has only 18,964 words so far.

fandom you enjoyed writing for the most this year: A toss between Resident Evil and LBFAD. I got to write some cool RE stuff and did a short story for a zine!

favorite character to write about this year: Gotta be my boy Leon Kennedy. He's just so easy to torture.

favorite writing song/artist/album of this year: I listened to a lot of Halsey while writing this year lol. I needed the angst.

a fic you didn’t expect to write: Smoking was definitely unexpected! I've never even liked One Piece and when I watched the live action I swore I wouldn't write for it. But then...

something you learned this year: To take my time. I've gotten a lot better at being okay at writing at my own pace instead of some imagined timeline.

fic(s) you completed this year: Altogether I wrote four completed fics!

fics you’ll continue next year: I'll be finishing The Fate That Binds and 365 in 2024. I'd also like to go back and try to finish The Wish since I didn't last year.

current number of wips: I'm actively working on four wips at the moment, two the most seriously.

any new fics to start next year: Yes! I'm going to try to write the last of the Dark Heart series, and I miiiiiight try more One Piece. Maybe.

number of comments you haven’t read: Zero! I read them all and respond to pretty much all of them.

most memorable comment/review: I really liked reading the thirsty reblog tags on Smoking lol

events you participated in this year: I wrote a fic for the LBFAD Mini-Bang! It was so fun to meet some new people and see all the different ideas.

fics you wanted to write but didn’t: I had another Resident Evil fic I wanted to get done but never actually started. Maybe this is the year for it?

favorite fic you read this year: River of Stardust by @yoshi-09

favorite fandom to read fic from this year: I still like reading DMC fic! Also got to read some good Reylo fic and RE fic!

[fountainpenguin]

34 & 38 for the fanfic meme? [Can skip 38 if you're uncomfy posting it ofc]

[Current Ask game]

34. Was there any fic that you wrote that really surprised you in the fandom reaction? Was it just by the numbers or did they take it an entirely different way?

The stories that are my favorites frequently go unloved, and the stories I don't care for are more likely to be popular, which I'm sure can be largely attributed to me liking obscure characters instead of popular characters, and my taste of liking long, raw emotion 'fics with relationship drama more than I like my surface-level one-shots.

My three most popular (in terms of kudos) stories for the 130 Prompts project are "Mama's Boy," "End of the World," and "Weakening" which are all near the top of my personal "'fics I don't like" list. I personally think they're poor examples of my writing abilities, but people like them, so to each their own. I'm glad people like them enough to leave kudos on those pieces so that if I choose to ignore their opinions and move forward with my own, at least I'm aware of what I'm doing /lh

(The love for "Sunk Too Deep" always surprises me too, but I'm happy for it and I do feel it's deserved even if I "don't get it," ha ha).

I was also very touched when I returned to writing 'fics again after an extended hiatus and discovered that my most popular 'fic on AO3 is "AlgoRhythm." I wrote it in 2018 and it got its first AO3 comment in November 2020, plus it received multiple comments in 2022. I was on hiatus at the time and not keeping up with my 'fic feedback, so that was a very cool thing to see when I came back and already had the urge to write WordGirl again.

It was just kind of a /pikagasp moment that was really cool to me, because I always loved this 'fic and it was so cool to realize it had become the fan favorite in my library without me knowing. I'm really sad that I missed the resurgence of WordGirl popularity in early 2022, but I'm glad my 2018 'fic was there for people to enjoy even if I wasn't around to be involved.

I wrote a 'fic once years ago - I won't say which one - and a reader commented on it saying that they loved it, it made them cry, etc. Excitedly, I explained that I didn't like the way the show writers had pulled off X scene and so this was my fix-it for that, and I loved my angsty scene and I was so happy they loved it too.

The reviewer pulled a 180 on me and completely changed their POV, saying that my story was ruined for them now because they found it disgusting that I had written such a middle finger against the show creators and their canon.

It was a big slap in the face to me that hurt a lot at the time, especially since my entire brand is canon compliancy, but it's not something that still hangs over me today. Just an interesting story to keep around as a reminder that not everyone's going to love your ideas. I'm glad I have other nice comments on that story I can enjoy because man... sometimes you just get comments that bite. One of the risks you take in posting writing online.

38. Have you ever purposefully written something you know your readers would find uncomfortable/would not enjoy? If yes, why?

I'm going to assume that people who choose to read things like angst desire the angst, so this isn't about that.

I do like to set expectations, especially in long 'fics. Case in point: Frayed Knots Chapter 2 is Chapter 2 for a reason. If you can't get through Infant Marsupial Rescue Mission, you're not gonna like the rest of the 'fic, so just drop off now.

Like... seriously. Frayed Knots GOES PLACES and delves into THEMES. We've got an evil villain of a protagonist who is gonna do some upsetting stuff like manipulate his S/O into dubious consent situations, willingly put HIMSELF into situations of dubious consent as he tries to flirt his way through politics, and also he's a chronic cheater whose entire backstory is built around the idea of betraying others in pursuit of science, so... chances are high that it is not your type of 'fic if the dead marsupial mom scene is too much for you.

That said, I still think that scene was objectively tame because it's blood-free, it's the death of a character we don't have a connection to, and the characters talk about what they're about to face before they arrive at the scene, giving the reader time to bail early if they start growing uncomfortable. I tried to make it as un-upsetting as I could while still setting up this idea of "Buckle up, because we're only in Chapter 2 and I want you to be aware that the content warnings are there for a reason and this story's okay with discussing dark topics and non-human biology."

As a fun parallel along the lines of setting expectations, the opening line of Origin of the Pixies seems absolutely wild: "On a daily basis, it still baffles me to remember how many people don't know that squids keep libraries."

Perhaps an odd move for a Fairly OddParents 'fic that explores the Head Pixie's backstory, but it's important to me. The Yugopotamian library holds a lot of meaning for H.P. because he's stationed there during the war with the Anti-Fairies. He's in the eye of the hurricane, the universe falling apart around him, and... this is his little safe space where he has his pixies around him, and the library keeps them safe. He reads, researches, and it becomes a meaningful place to him.

I like to think of this as an exercise in patience. Those who remember the opening line might be chomping at the bit for a while, wondering when we get to see the squids and the library, but reading the 'fic requires you to slow down and absorb the little moments, which is exactly how H.P. learns to live his life.

By the time you get to the Yugopotamian scenes, chances are that you've completely forgotten this was the opening line of the 'fic. But Origin is a 'fic that's full of secrets that you'll only catch upon a reread, and this is one of them. It's a secret little nod to the fact that H.P. values the library scenes even when it's not obvious... which is the overall theme of the story. Not sure if that counts as upsetting, but it counts as deliberate.

I have a lot of private opinions about my headcanons that I don't normally talk about unless asked directly, because I'm very aware that my opinions are unpopular. I've seen some widely accepted fandom headcanons that certain fandoms like to hold up as canon, and I don't agree with those headcanons, which is sometimes awkward. I often ship rarepairs, and some of my rarepairs are so rare that I've never seen anyone even discuss them in a fandom space, let alone actually draw or write for them.

A lot of my favorite characters are ignored, poorly treated, or outright bashed in 'fics. I've been nipped at over the years for enjoying X or Y part of someone's characterization - tbh I left one of my fandoms because a ring of people were talking behind my back about how they thought my character analyses were stupid - so a lot of the time I just sort of... surface skim past the things I want to delve into. One day I'd like to get into the stuff I really enjoy, but for now I'm just playing out some tamer storylines.

I'd really like to work more on writing emotions, especially angst. I consider myself as someone who writes very tame content that might tickle your brain "logically," but doesn't really touch emotions (as far as I know; as the writer, everything falls flat to me because I already know what's coming and don't get to be surprised, so I just have to go off what readers tell me to know if something is hitting right or not).

I'd love to write some hard-hitting angst one day and (separately) I'd also love to write some enthralling romance. Some people who follow my current work might find some of that upsetting, but someday I'd like to start a new project where I do this sort of thing.

[Current Ask game]

[abysskeeper]

🎖😈💻🍰

Heyo, thanks friendo.

🎖What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

I just recently finished a ~20k three-shot, that was supposed to be a one-shot, in about 2 months. I haven't written legitimate fanfic in about 2 years, it felt good to do again, and it felt good to be possessed with an idea I wanted to see finished and actually see it through to the end.

It's a damn good short fic too, if my self-indulgent ass does say so myself.

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

I have a tendency to be a gen-ficcer in a shipper world. That alone is a crime in a lot of fandoms lol.

Seriously though? Slow-burner to end all slow-burns, when I do write ships. You thought those two characters were finally going to kiss in chapter 15? No, sorry, they got interrupted and are now going to compartmentalize how it wasn't what they thought and it's gonna take another 4 chapters to address that, and then another 2 after that to get back there.

There's a reason I relegate myself to gen fic and character studies. It's for everyone else's own good.

💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done?

Generally no, if I'm writing fic it's in universe, and those universes are typically fantasy or sci-fi related so there's not a lot to look up besides a quick Google search of the name of something or a date or something like that. Quick and easy to look up. Before the aforementioned three-shot, I think the worst I did was look up episode transcripts for my ongoing Oscar character study.

This DGS three-shot though....I had a very, hyper-specific headcanon I wanted to execute. So for two months I was regularly consulting a Japanese translator, an article on the different forms of Japanese words for love, a Morse code chart, and a Wabun code chart. I was very normal about it.

🍰 Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn’t have to be your all time fave).

Hm...I'm gonna out myself here. I don't read a lot of fic, I haven't since high school. I just like to write it from time to time.

I'm going to out myself again here, and say the one set of fics I do keep coming back to is the series of dreams, those frigid things by user Griftings over on Ao3 (do they have a tumblr? Idk). It's three Critical Role/Vox Machina works, specifically Perc'ahlia, and I should clarify I am...absolutely not in that fandom in any way, shape, or form.

But I read it at least once a year and it is by and away still some of the best writing I've ever encountered.

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

Ayo anon! I am always down to talk about outlining if you need help in that regard, feel free to send me questions in my inbox or DM me directly if you wish.

My process is very detail oriented. Especially for my big fic, I personally can't move forwards until I know where every single sentence I write will connect in a later chapter, which will then connect to a later chapter and sentence, up until the conclusion of that specific sub plot or character arc. Sometimes it means I can get paralyzed with indecision because everything doesn't fit perfectly (funnily enough, people commenting on what they'd like to see in my fics helps with this, because a lot of the time they hit something I've actually written and then cut XD)--other times, it makes writing really easy because I know exactly what beat comes before, exactly what comes after, and I can easily figure out what to write in order to bridge those gaps.

The thing is, different writers have different processes, and you'll never know what works for you the best until you launch into it. Somer, as he's said, doesn't really outline, and definitely not to the level that I do XD. But we also have a very large experience difference when it comes to storytelling. I've been writing for about 6 years seriously, but I'm young enough that I'm not even sure I should count many of those tween years XD. I don't remember how many years Somer said he'd been writing in another post, but it was a lot more than me. What you're able to get away with not knowing when you begin, and what you're comfortable with not knowing before you jump into writing can depend a lot on that experience, at least in my opinion.

I second everything that Somer says, when it comes to his advice. Be kind to yourself, your writing is good even if you can't see it, and someone out there will love it. I would especially emphasize that getting better at story telling takes practice and putting out a lot of words. If you do end up writing for this fandom, you will probably get good at ensembles and complex character relationships, with the large number of characters we have XD.

You can message me specifically if you want more advice on plotting, but if you have nothing more than a central idea planned yet, I suggest looking at the three-arc story structure (longer stories) and the snowflake method (shorter stories) to get yourself started. I would also suggest taking a look at The Hero's Journey plot, as it does lend itself well to (long) LU fics and I am quite impartial to it XD.

We do all start somewhere! And please, tag me as well once you get started! I am excited to see what you do, dear anon!

hi! I really enjoy your stories, you're a really great author- just wondering how you outline/plan your fics and what the writing process is like? I'm a rather new author, so I'm pretty much just fishing for any tips you can give. :D have a nice day!

hi anon :D

thank you thank you <3 that makes my day :3

i do not actually plot/outline bc im chaos incarnate in most things i do. demise has an outline (which i would share except spoilers) in a very loose sense of the word bc im juggling 18 plot relevant characters at a minimum. not to mention the resistance and yiga and fairies and stuff.

so that outline came about by me writing a timeline of events and then breaking those general events into who is where doing what

my process is i have a concept and i word vomit the concept over and over until it gets to a place i like. basically just sit down and write and when it goes somewhere i dont like, i start over from the beginning.

@hotcheetohatredwastaken @wanderlustmagician

these two are much better at outlining than myself^^ cheeto is the fucking outline QUEEN and magi has lots of good note taking!!

if i had any advice its to be kind to yourself and your writing <3 i guarantee its never as bad as you think it is and that someone in the world will enjoy what you do! storytelling takes practice and over time you'll sharpen your ability to sequence events and foreshadow and all that

we all start from somewhere!

also if/when you post your work plz plz plz tag me :D i love cheerleading new authors and will absolutely offer my help if you want it <3

[invisibleraven]

One Year Fic-iversary!

So one year ago, I uploaded my first ever Julie and the Phantoms fanfic. I've already reblogged it if you wanted to give it a read.

When I wrote it, I really wasn't sure that I was going to write any more for this fandom, and present me is laughing at that so damn much. In that time I have written:

43 fanfics, including two ficlet collections (one for G-T rated ficlets, and one for E rated ficlets) equaling ~465k words. And if you saw my New Year's post, yes, that means I've written ~53k words since 2022 started. Told you I wasn't done!

Of course, this is the point where I get sappy, like every post like this before has done, so all of that is under the cut.

Thank you to @fandomdough and @reginaldpatterson for creating such beautiful artwork to go with my BigBang fics last year, and extra thanks to Geci for making the JatP Advent Event a thing!

Thank you to @reggiepetersbass and @catoptrific for being the best betas a girl could ask for when it came to my BB fics, and for honestly making me a better writer in the process.

To @tiriansjewel @psyduckappears and @floating-in-the-blue for always being so incredibly nice to me, even if we haven't talked as much, you three are so extremely kind.

@nuandia Vans, my fellow former Gleek, my introduction to the Regal Jewelry ship, and my dearest friend. Your heart and talent continue to blow me away, and I'm so grateful for you in my life. Love you hun. ❤

@daintyduck99 Ash, my sweetheart, thank you for always having an open ear and warm heart when I needed it most, for always flooding me with prompts, for being so kind and encouraging, for your talent and creativity as a writer and artist. You are truly a beautiful person, inside and out. I am so happy we started talking, and I count you as one of the sweetest friends I've ever made, love you lots. 💜

@merihn Alex, my Rulie muse... honestly the reason I even considered Rulie as a ship, so thanks for that! You have been an awesome sounding board, always there to listen or encourage me, and give me the best ideas for fics. Even with the stupid time difference, I know I can always count on you, and that means more than you know. Also you are so uber talented, and I am just so jealous of your ability to make me love all your stories, and even turning me around on pairings I was very nope about. Love you lots my dear. 💙

@where-you-go Jay... god Jay, you know how much you mean to me, how much your work means to me. How you tuned me into Rukebox and ruined my life as a result. 😅 You became one of my biggest cheerleaders over the past year, always making me smile and cry and scream with your gorgeous fics, your amazing comments, and your lovely personality. I just adore you, and I am so so thankful we stumbled across one another and that you let me run with so many of your headcanons. You're the reason for half that word count up there, at least. So much love sweetie. 💕

@bananakarenina Katie, I had to save the best for last. Katie... there are no words for how much I care about you. You constantly blow me away with your writing, but then, you turn around and have become probably my biggest fan which humbles me beyond measure. You have helped me through some of my darkest moments in this fandom, hell in this past year, and I don't think you even know how insanely grateful I am that you're always there to listen to me, support me, beta my work, and just chat about anything. I feel insanely blessed to have you in my life, and I seriously think you are one of the best friends I've ever had in fandom. When it's safe you and I are definitely going on an adventure involving snuggles, baked goods, and mutually thirsting over Jeremy Shada together. You're the Julie to my Reggie darlin', and I love you more than words can say. 💜❤

[stayarmytinyzenmoa-l]

hey crys!! i got the idea from my new friend and moot, @/trashlord-007 to ask you, what are your favorite works on your account? i don’t mind whatever fandom or anything, i just want to get around to reading your writing and asking you for recommendations seems like a good start. of course i want to read everything one day ^_^

Ooo good question! And ahhhh I've read a couple of works from them before and I think I even reblogged one here way back when, one of the Kun fics I'm sure haha but yeah! I'm happy to share! Of course, obviously I love all my fics but if we're talking favorites then...

Zemblanity [WayV x Reader, Space/Prison AU, Yandere(?) it's more of a Thriller] - Honestly, the girls who were here were here and the ones who weren't weren't. When I first dropped this series this blog surged like crazy. I never had so many anon asks every day! It's currently going through some heavy rewrites, but the original is still up on my archive of our own account (I knew it was popular because I had like two or three people straight up plagiarize it on wattpad LMAOOOOO)

Prominence [NCT x Reader, Park Seonghwa x Reader, Idol AU, Social Media AU] - This one should really go without saying considering it's my longest series to date! But it's also significantly different compared to a lot of the series on this list. I promise! It's a romantic comedy!

Covalence [Qian Kun x Reader, University AU] - Ooh this was the last big fic on my first blog before I moved here. Nearly 20K of me trauma dumping into a fic asking the big question "What if?" seriously though, it's one of my all time favorites! I can't say much more without spoiling though but if you have free time, make a coffee and read through it!

Infatuation [Jaemin/Jungwoo/Sungchan/Johnny x Reader (not all of them lmao), University AU, Yandere] - HOOOO boy everyone's waiting for Johnny's ending and if I'm being honest it's done but it's way too fucking long AHAHAHA but basically the premise is that you're being stalked and you don't know who but yeah! I know you're a yandere person so if you have time check it out! I think Jaemin's is the most popular but I'd have to check.

Lavenza [Lee Taeyong x Reader, Scientist AU, Yandere(?)] - Kind of one of my least popular fics, but I genuinely had a lot of fun writing it (so I may be a little disappointed lmao fsdhfkh) but if you're into suspense mixed with sci-fi give it a go!

Without a Trace [ATEEZ x Reader, Vigilante AU] - Another kind of unpopular one but that's most likely because I mainly write for NCT LMAOOOO but I really like the tone of this one! Plus, YN's a badass in it too.

Black Magic [NCT 127 x Witch!Reader, Magic AU] - Man it's actually kinda interesting because Black Magic isn't all too popular here on Tumblr but my readers on AO3 eat this concept up. So like??? If you like magic, read this one! I put a lot of time into the world building of it and I'm currently working on it's sequel Midnight Illusion.

And, ofc, honorable mentions:

How to Keep a Promise

Midnight Coffee

Fate's Gamble

Happy reading, love! And don't worry about it if they're not to your taste either, obviously, everyone has their preferred genres! Much love from me as always <3

[verycharismaticdragon]

Okay, err, a few points I wanna reply to, so I'm just tackling them in random order.

First, about Peak Lords' ages - yeah, there's a lot of support for making them not that old.

I'm p sure the bit about TLJ-sealing happening before YQY was Sect Leader is just straight-up canon. Then, when SY!SQQ sees SJ's memories of disciple selections, it mentions something about how the Peak Lords only ascended a couple years ago (I'm trying not to skip ahead in my reread so idr exact wording). Which would make the IAC Gone Wrong either 2nd or 3rd ever for their generation. (Fun fact: if IAC happens every 4 years, it means SY transmigrated a year or less after the previous one.) Also, when the System gives Airplane a deadline for becoming the head disciple, it's 3 years, and yeah the System is a bitch but: wouldn't it make sense for the deadline to be either the ascension itself, or at least the latest possible date the previous peak lords may choose a succeeding disciple? Putting SQH's ascension age at smth like 20-21.

I hope to collect a few more clues as I reread, but yeah. There's a lot of support for not-that-old peak lords.

Next point, I'm kinda not sure about the idea of the 20-days binge being a reread. Esp considering the context for SQQ mentioning it, which is that he had "clean forgotten" most of the beginning arc. I'd guess his memories would be fresher if he was re-reading and recently too. So far, it seems that the most likely case is that he binged the novel when he first joined the fandom (either during the abyss or post-abyss arc), and then followed it update to update.

As for Airplane dying while writing another chapter, see, here's the thing: Shen Yuan had clearly read the finale. The way he talks about holding out till the end, hoping the plot threads would be resolved after all, is one thing. Another is this paragraph:

ch.1, p.12 (eng.edition)

Which sounds exactly like a sort of thing that would be in the book's epilogue / ending. The sort of thing that would wrap up the story.

So, what's up with Airplane writing another chapter?

One possible explanation is that he was writing extras. Most cnovels have them, and considering PIDW is his money tree, I'd imagine he'd write some whenever his finances would look a little dry, even if he moved on to writing something else.

Another is, ofc, that he was writing something else, because I paged through his extra real quick and it doesn't seem to ever specify that it was a PIDW update he was working on.

If you wanna go slightly tinfoil hat unhinged, though, I would suggest "sv!Airplane and sv!Cucumber actually come from two parallel worlds" theory. That would explain who is writing the revised danmei version of PIDW (Airplane in the world where Shen Yuan died), how Shen Yuan read the finale even though Airplane died writing an update, and even why Shen Yuan says PIDW ran for 4 years while the beginning of the Airplane extras says he maintaned his insane productivity for three...

(Yeah, the last one can also be explained differently, if we consider that Airplane was writing PIDW seriously in the beginning, and only started banging out brainless smut later.)

(Tbh this was a crack explanation I came up with for possible binggeyuan fic so. yk. mostly joking about it. unless? 👀)

...actually you know what*, I'll check the canon myself tomorrow, but: do we actually know for sure that SY died immediately after finishing PIDW? because i remember he died cursing it with his last words, but not whether it was indicated that he died the same day as he finished reading.

Couldn't it happen at a later date? Because, like, just basing it on myself, there are some things that I finished 2 years ago and hated so much that I still have a rant pretty much lock'd and loaded, and I will start recounting it at the slightest provocation.** Couldn't it be the same case?

*inspired by a couple posts i saw before, about the discrepancy between SY following the novel for years (i didnt see this on my reread yet so idk source) and finishing it in 20 days (chap.1)

**yes, yes, the probability of transmigrating into woh/shl if i meet an unfortunate accident is something I have a healthy fear of

[bestworstcase]

I just wanted to say that despite my being a cassunzel shipper and not necessarily agreeing with all of your TTS takes, I do really appreciate your work within this fandom. Or at least the little space you've carved out for yourself. I believe it's okay to have differing opinons about ships or characters or plotlines in a fandom like TTS. It's okay to not vibe with a ship and folks shouldn't take criticisms of the way a ship is presented in canon as an affront to their personhood or a blanket statement to not ship it. You can do your own thing and be just as happy. At least that's what I've come to think after being in fandom for so long. It's just not worth it to get wrapped up in all that and let it make you upset. That's a quick way to let Tumblr or fandom culture in general ruin a thing for you. That being said, I think your analysis posts keep me on my toes, as you often have ideas I've never considered. Which I think is a good thing! Getting outside your comfort zone and trying something a little different than the norm, you know? Plus, I think it takes a lot of skill and work to expand a story like TTS in the way you have in Benighted Snow and I so super respect that story. I was originally quite intimidated by the idea of it and avoided it for a while cause I'm pretty firmly a cassunzel shipper but I'm really glad I read it when I did. Your writing is just really amazing and inspiring in ways I am continuously impressed by. Seriously, reading that story and Bitter Snow has honestly been such an eyeopener when it comes to understanding Cass' character and trying to engage with the lore of the show on a deeper level. There's so much I could say about how much I respect your work. It's got me wanting to understand the lore of the show better or wanting to write for the fandom in general. Your work is so engaging for and extremely detailed and thought through. And in general, I'm always curious about your thoughts about TTS plotlines or characters or whatever cause it always makes me think back on the show in different ways, consider things I hadn't before and want to re-analyze everything. Your ideas have about the show have opened my eyes in a lot of ways. You obviously care deeply about Cassandra and other a lot of other aspects of TTS and expanding and engaging with the lore of this universe! So thank you so much for all of your writing and your many interesting thoughts! I'm always coming back to your blog to see what you have to say (Sorry this is so long)!

my blog is like 95% long ass posts ya never need to apologize for rambling to me kjsjkd

but thank you!! yeah i don’t expect or need or even particularly want folks to agree with all of my thoughts™ and for sure like - i mean sometimes i’m making arguments or writing out analysis about the text and i do tend to have very strong opinions but i feel like just as often i’m talking about nebulous ideas and storycraft and how i would tune tts to suit my particular tastes, which is an exercise that is about me and what i like and only concerns the text in that i am talking about a hypothetical platonic ideal thereof. and i do try to make that distinction clear when i’m writing a post but also first and foremost this blog is for Me it is the junk bin where i keep my thoughts and i know what i’m talking about so sometimes a post starts off as analysis and flips into hypothetical platonic ideal talk halfway through without warning and you all just. get to deal with that LMAO

the past like week or so has been funny because i had that night of like adhd hyperfixation brainmelt a little while ago and ranted semi-coherently at three in the morning while answering some of the really old asks that have been collecting dust forever and then my inbox just EXPLODED ksjdfjk

anyways the point being. i’m preaching to the choir here obv but i am not the arbiter of what tangled opinions are Good and Correct, nor am i trying to be because that would be insane ajklsdfjk

also bitter snow has been such an undertaking and i’m very proud of it and i’m just !! always so grateful for the sheer amount of enthusiasm for it. like the combination of rarepair fic + protagonist is a polarizing character half the fandom despises + just literally the fact of eldritch fantasy civil war fic of a disney princess show kind of guarantees it’s always going to be sort of a niche fic and - i’ve said this before but when i started posting it i really did not anticipate the amount or the quality of engagement it got. but holy moly bitter snow has the best group of commenters in the entire tts fandom, i swear - the amount of you who are leaving like LONG comments on every chapter or almost every chapter with your thoughts / feelings / speculation / analysis is bonkers!! i appreciate it so so much!! i’m a very quality over quantity person in the kind of reader response i want to get and the quality of the reader response to bitter snow has been and continues to be just overwhelmingly high and i am continually amazed and thankful 💜💜💜 

[hazzabeeforlou]

Hi! Can I ask when/how you started writing and how you 'worked' it? I'm re-reading pits, and it's really damn well written, and it makes me feel so many things

Hi dear! You’re so sweet, I’m glad you’re coming back to my ‘story baby’ again, that makes me smile. This will be a bit of a long answer, but I hope it inspires anyone who’s had doubts to FORGOE the doubts and just start writing.

I’ve been making up stories as long as I can remember. I used to write little poems as a five year old, and then little picture books, and then come up with outrageous adventure dress-up games. I dreamed of writing fantasy novels in my pre-teen years, and had multiple journals stuffed with half articulated stories that I just didn’t think were ‘good enough.’ I was always great at coming up with plots and twists and endings, but the actual mechanics of sitting down and writing shit out really scared the hell out of my possible (probable) adhd/executive disfunction. I wrote some really sappy and SHORT Jaina Solo fanfic and some VERY Het but Not Het marauders fan fic in late high school/college, but mostly during those years I wrote tons of songs, and plotted a long-suffering fairy book (that I nagged @metal-eye about just this past week) but I had honestly never completed a full-ass “story” until I started writing for this fandom in 2018!!! Seriously. I MEAN THAT.

I started with a drabble, you can still find it, it’s the first thing I wrote on ao3. And then I was inspired by a tumblr post about a Selkie losing it’s skin and I thought up the plot for Until You Remember and wrote the whole fic out in like TWO DAYS. (Did I mention the probable adhd.) Around this time I was coming to terms with being gay and rehashing the trauma from religion and my family and what not, and I started writing PITS as little vignettes, chapter by chapter, each inspired by a different memory. There was no plot, no organization, just a jumble of scenes from my life. It’s sounds unbelievable, but all of a sudden I had nearly 100,000 words? And I was like WTF Toni. Because that had NOT been the plan. Anywho, I spent a good deal of time editing and stringing it all together, and by some twist of fate or premonition, the pieces all fit like a puzzle, and PITS was born. I honestly thought the subject matter too dark for this fandom, so I expected two or three people to read and comment.

But a little about the ‘working’ of writing, at least for me. I suppose there’s a smidge of natural intuition involved, as I’d always been told I could write well. I read a lot, and I am a VERY visual learner, and an even better copy cat, and I honestly think that’s why I’m so ‘good’ at music/art/writing, because I can mimic the teachers that have taught me. If someone tells me to phrase a phrase musically, I’ll be like, uh, okay ATTEMPT. But if they give me an example? I’ll play it back exactly that way. So it’s the same for writing with me, if I read an author with a certain style, I’ll be writing like that author for several days. My brain is a sponge of sentence structures, and I think that’s a really helpful quirk to have. Now in college, I did a TON of writing, and had some very patient people help me learn to structure essays and shit. At my grad school (which is. Very famous but not for writing.) a professor told me ‘we’ve had Harvard people that couldn’t write as well!’ WHICH I think is more an indictment of their criteria for admission than Harvard’s writing program but anyways my POINT is that I’ve carried a lot of what I learned and observed through 8 years in academia into fan fic writing, which for me is:

-“However” never starts a sentence

-use “was/is” like the HOTTEST pepper in your salsa. Sparingly, and with much debate over if you’ll regret it later

-scan your work for constantly used words (I’ll get in a rut and keep writing “deliberate” three times in the same page) and then THESAURUS THAT SHIT

-your fic is a soup, boil out the excess broth, or it will be all water and no substance. (Seriously, longer is NOT BETTER)

-don’t tell me in each separate paragraph what your character is thinking. Think up a way to SHOW what they’re thinking and let your reader figure it out for themselves. In other words, don’t mansplain to your reader. *(I just finished a fic—not in this fandom—that could have gone from 150k to 100k just by eliminating this RIP MY EYES)

-vary your sentence structure

-read what you’ve written out loud. If your brain stumbles at speaking it, it will be awkward for your reader too

-don’t obsess about your first draft. Just get ideas from your grey matter to your white paper and let it steep for a while, I swear all the silt will settle and you’ll be able to edit clearly

-google is your friend. I don’t remember every grammatical rule from high school either ;)

Okay. I’ve rambled enough. I hope that’s helpful nony, and good luck if you’re writing!! Much love, Toni <3

[fansplaining]

Hello! I'm curious to know your opinion. I've been working on this long fic for months. Ever since I started writing there has been a bunch of anon's under different names telling me how to write each chapter. Saying things like "make (A) do this", "(b) needs to do that." "I expect this to happen to (C)" Etc. On one hand I'm grateful for the feedback, after all what writer isn't, but of 10 comments, 9 are like this. I'm starting to feel my writing isn't good enough for my readers.

Hello anon! Elizabeth here. Hooooo boy let me tell you, as I was reading this I went on a **journey**. When I reached “9 out of 10,” I went, “WHAT.” I have a few thoughts, and without knowing the full context (what your story is like, what fandom it’s in, etc etc) some of this might apply and some might not. But I think it’s all generally useful for fic writers and readers to think about.

This actually got pretty long, so I’ll put my thoughts under a cut.

 1) The story vs reader expectations

This is something I think about—and talk about—a lot. Here’s a bit of what I said while discussing what “OOC” actually means a few episodes back: 

Humans act irrationally, and I think that you can write a character acting irrationally well. But to me, that’s not a character acting out of character. That’s a character acting against character, irrationally... I think when we say ���out of character” about characters we’re actually saying something different, which is: “Have you done the work to show why the character would respond to this situation X way or Y way?” And if he responds Z way, and you haven’t done any of the work to show why he might do that or any of the consequences if it is truly out of character the way we would say a real human acts out of character—then very often it is bad writing. It is people taking plot ideas and then imposing them over their characters without earning it.

These conversations are a huge part of our discussions about media in recent years—whether writing choices are good, whether they are earned, whether they are “in character,” whether they conform to what we expected. But the last one is where things get really murky—because there are *a lot* of readers and viewers these days who are kind of doing what I’m accusing bad writers of doing in that quote—imposing their expectations over the story without really grasping what’s been set up by the writer(s).

There are a lot of parts to this. We often pinpoint Lost as the place where the modern audience’s inclination to “solve” a show was born, and this has spread throughout viewing/reading cultures over the past two decades. The rise of “spoiler culture” is a huge factor here, too—as if knowing plot points is the only thing of value when viewing or reading a piece of entertainment. My least favorite thing in all of this is TV Tropes and the kind of rewiring of peoples’ brains to *only* look for those concepts (which are often weirdly narrow and reductive, unlike, say, the more categorical tropes of fic or the romance genre). 

Here’s an example: in 2017, Gav and I made our love of Black Sails the centerpiece of our fandom newsletter, The Rec Center, and in the process got a lot of people to watch it. And because we were the ones that inspired them, I had a fair number of people in my mentions/messaging me to give their real-time reactions as they went through the episodes.

While not every single writing choice on Black Sails is flawless, much of it is meticulously done, and so many of the plot points are carefully well-earned. But the things people were guessing would happen next in my mentions...were bonkers. Not everyone! But it was enough people (guessing different things) that I was kind of floored. I would think, If that’s what you think is going to happen next, I feel like you aren’t paying attention to the show? I should clarify that this happened with *a lot* of people, not trying to call anyone in particular out. But so many of the guesses felt like they came from expectations imposed by other media, especially stuff that’s signficantly more formulaic and tropey. 

This instinct—to predict, to vocally desire outcomes, to try and get ahead of the writers, to impose the structures of other media over the thing you’re watching—is *deep* in a lot of viewers’ and readers’ minds these days, and it comes out regardless of the quality of the writing. I think it’s not a great turn of events, to be honest—and it leads writers to make some really foolish choices in an attempt to “trick” viewers with something they never could’ve guessed. Which...generally makes for bad writing overall. 

2) Expectations within your fic

So this is the part where I falter a bit without context. Because some fic writers make it clear that they are posting as they write, and that they’re open to suggestions for plot choices. I assume you haven’t done this, or you wouldn’t be unhappy that people are trying to dictate what comes next. 

I’m curious if you are signalling that you’re...OK? with these kinds of comments by, say, writing nice replies that don’t make it clear that you know where you’re going with the story and you’ve already made choices about what happens next. There’s definitely a way to strike that balance, like a very polite evasion, something like, “Haha, thanks for the comment! I have the whole fic plotted out, so you’ll just have to wait and see!” If you start to signal that you’re in control of the plot, not the commenters, perhaps they’ll chill out a bit—because I gotta be honest, the fact that this is 90% of the comments...is wild to me. And I’m wondering if people are doing it because they see other people doing it. 

Again, total speculation without any actual context. I think that this sort of thing is likely more common in certain fandoms and with certain age groups. Even on AO3, fandom is not a monolith—I wonder if you’ve noticed this with other longfics in your fandom. It might be worth checking out how other writers have handled it, if they’re getting flooded with comments like these. 

I posted a longish fic recently, 75K over the course of three months, and let me tell you, no offense to any of my commenters, but a few of them reminded me of those Black Sails folks: What story are you actually reading?? I politely pushed back with one who asserted a whole bunch of stuff that was not in the story at all and tried to predict what would happen based on what was frankly bad reading comprehension. With others who expressed expectations about where things would go, I went the, “Haha you’ll have to wait and see!” route.

Talking to other people who’ve posted chapter-by-chapter longfics, I know that some of the bad predictions are par for the course: being absolutely certain the trouble in a section won’t be resolved, being convinced that any hint that the ship may not stay together will come to pass, even when, what, 95% of all shippy fic has the characters staying together? There’s a sort of performativity of immediate reactions in fic commenting, “OH NO, OH NO, ARE THEY BREAKING UP?” Like, duh, not forever. But commenting as real-time reaction is clearly the way a lot of readers engage with fic. Which is fine! That’s different from dictating the plot to you. 

3) The commenters vs your story

OK, so conceptually swinging back to the first bit, while my immediate response to, “I'm starting to feel my writing isn't good enough for my readers,” is NO NO NO JUST BECAUSE AN AUDIENCE IS SAYING SOMETHING DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE BAD AND THEY ARE CORRECT. But! I think it might be worth spending a liiiitttle bit of time with them to see what they are saying, and how you think that connects back to what you’ve written. 

When folks came at me with, “I think X will happen next in Black Sails,” I, as a person who’s watched it several times and also professionally deconstructs texts as a critic, can go through and be like, “Here’s why I think that’s a misreading of what you’ve seen so far” (though mostly I would just say things like, “Why try to predict the plot! Just enjoy it!” because I’m trying not to be a dick). Rewatching the show, I can see all the things the writers carefully laid out, and how they pay off eventually. Can I imagine alternate choices for the characters? Sure! But I can see why, with the specific context and stakes in which characters made decisions, the writers had them do what they did. If they made other choices, I’d want that similar sort of work-showing. 

Similarly, when I got the occasional comment like this on the aforementioned fic, I would take it seriously for a moment. Why are they predicting this? Is it possible I haven’t shown my work enough? As I was writing, I thought very carefully about the characters and their motivations and the way certain events shaped their choices, and how changing events would change those choices. Generally, those comments felt, well, unearned: they were more about the reader than about the actual story. 

It helped having a beta who is both smart and scary, and wouldn’t hesitate to tell me if something wasn’t working. A big issue with the “no feedback in fanfic” convo is decontextualized “feedback” from random readers is not really useful! You have people coming from all sorts of backgrounds, all levels of reading comprehension, all sorts of contexts. Everyone can give you their *reaction* to your work, of course, but without that context of critique—the thing you have with a beta/editor, or if you’re in a writing workshop or group—it’s rare that some rando can give you truly useful feedback. 

But! That brings me back to 9 out of 10. I think, with that many people weighing in, it’s worth doing a little bit of serious consideration. Just read back over the story. If you can see ways that you zigged when you were signalling that you were going to zag, then your commenters might have a point. If they’re guessing character X might do Y next, and you’ve planned to have him do Z but actually haven’t done the legwork to make Z seem like a sensible next step, then that might be a fair read. Especially when they say, “I expect X will do Y,” try to figure out to the root of that expectation. Is this about the story, or is it about them? 

Because no audience is some neutral set of readers, and fandom even less so. People might tell you to do something because they hate one character and love another. People might hate your ship and for some reason are choosing to read it anyway. People have a million different contexts they bring to reading a work and not infrequently, they are reading through sets of expectations formed by other pieces of media that have very little to do with your own. 

4) tl;dr

The ~wisdom~ of the crowd is not inherently greater than the wisdom of the writer. Many people in fandom are very thoughtful readers—probably some of the most thoughtful readers out there! But plenty...are not. And that’s fine! They’re obviously still free to comment. I’d love to say, “ignore them, write for yourself, you’re writing the story you wanna write,” but I know how frustrating this must be for you. So give them a little consideration, but not too much. And most importantly, if you have a beta, ask them their opinion of these comments—and if you don’t have a beta, get one! Because a reader you know and whose opinions you trust is so much more valuable than random anon comments, no matter the circumstances. 

[schweeeppess]

Hello! I was wondering if you have any tips on writing for the Batboys? I'm planning on writing fics for them but I don't completely have their personalities down/don't know exactly how to write them.

Alrighty, let's give some tips :D

Disclaimer: I am in no way an expert on these characters. This is my grasp on the characters and their behaviors, and I know more about certain characters than I do others. If I say something you don't like, die mad. If you think I'm wrong on something, I respectuflly and honestly say good for you but keep your opinion to yourself, please. Thanks.

Dick Grayson

Keep in mind for him the fact that he has anger management issues. It takes quite a bit to get him to snap, but when he does snap, it's a terrible day for all parties involved.

Dick isn't as happy-go-lucky as fandom likes to paint him. He is serious, he is grim, and he is realistic whenever the need for it arises. He's an optimist, yes, but he's beyond smart enough to discern a very serious situation and just how to go about dealing with it.

He is a detective. People tend to forget that, for some reason. He's just as capable as Bruce or Jason are at solving complex problems. He's not the best detective there is, no, but he's still definitely above average with observation skills and such.

He tries to be there for people, but he can get overwhelmed sometimes with all his commitments and might forget some things

Which brings up this point: He overworks himself and tends to agree to do more things than he can easily manage. Dick has an issue with that; overworking himself.

Dick is also a very emotional person. He thinks with his heart most of the time. The phrase "heart on his sleeve" was probably made specifically for him. Dick is open about certain emotions, but make no mistake about the fact that he can close off probably better than Tim whenever he wants to. He feels with everything in him.

He's smart, he's funny, he's genuine, he's protective, he's compassionate, he's dependable, and he's above all loyal and kind.

Dick trusts you until you give him a reason not to, to borrow a phrase.

I think a good song to capture his character would be "Human" by Rag'n'Bone Man.

Jason Todd

Ohhh boy. Here we go.

Say it with me: Jason. Does. Not. Enjoy. Killing.

Seriously, I don't really know where people get the idea that he does from? Jason kills, yes. But why does he do it? For the better. He kills out of mercy and justice for victims (yes that includes the Talon he killed; Talons are victims to the Court of Owls, and nothing more), not because he enjoys it. I am not justifying anything, I'm just explaining.

Jason is also a very emotional person, but he's more of a heart on his cheek kinda guy. He tries to trample them down, but they get the better of him sometimes. Take everything he did in Under the Red Hood as an example. He did what he did because he was hurt and in pain and he needed Bruce to feel the same way.

Jason is hesitant to trust people, very careful to make sure he can't let people close enough to hurt him the way he's been hurt so many times before.

Look, Jason's not a fundementally bad person. He's just been betrayed too many times for someone his age. His mom was a drug addict, and she died. His dad was an abusive father. Bruce was the first real parent Jason ever had, and Bruce replaced him when he died.

My point is, everyone Jason as ever trusted has either turned their backs on him or died. He has attatchment issues, trust issues, parental issues, and so many more I can't even list them all.

He's really fucking smart. (Keep in mind that he was top of all his classes in school.)

Jason is kind, compassionate, empathetic, and loyal. He can be aggressive, brash, and can make fucking stupidass decisions sometimes, but he's still good at heart. He does things with the best intentions (well, now, anyways. Pit Madness made him do some unfavorable things).

Everyone says Jason isn't patient or a planner, but excuse me this is the same Jason as the one who very carefully planned Bruce's death via bomb under the Batmobile, right? Or are you talking about a different Jason. He's careful and thinks things through, planning meticulously at certain points.

Hands down a good Jason song is "I'll Be Good" by Jaymes Young.

Tim Drake

HE'S NOT ADDICTED TO CAFFEINE!!! That's a fandom thing that I'm kinda getting sick of seeing everywhere!!!

Tim Drake, self-esteem issues, self-worth issues, and attatchment issues galore. He tends to think himself expendable and unimportant sometimes. He just generally thinks less of himself a percentage of the time.

He's fucking genius. Plans at least three steps ahead of everyone and anyone now, but... He's jaded at times. Very jaded.

Tim tries not to feel at all, sometimes. He closes himself off and distances himself from everyone ever since Kon, Bart, and Stephanie died. Of course, Kon and Bart came back, and Stephanie wasn't ever really dead, but that hardly means anything.

Tim is quiet and introverted, keeps to himself a lot, but that doesn't mean he's timid.

He's smart and he knows it, but he doesn't let that get to his head. He's cool but funny, he's wise but geeky, he's jaded but soft...

Tim is loose. He's still a teenager, albeit a teen who's gone through and seen a lot. He likes having fun.

He's not all shy and unnecessary apologies, he's not so jaded that he speaks down to everyone in clipped tones, he's not gonna go cry in a corner whenever his feelings get hurt, he's not going to have a fit when things go wrong.

Tim is complicated. He's a teenager.

He's serious but relaxed, strict but loose, calculating but calm, realistic but kind.

He's funny, smart, cunning, intellectual, realistic, caring, considerate, compassionate, empathetic, thoughtful...

Yeah uh let me just say there are so many layers to all of these characters it's so amazing and I really delight in them.

Damian Wayne

Damian isn't a stick-up-the-ass jerk, alright?

He's just a kid. A kid who's seen, experienced, and witnessed far too much for someone his age.

Keep that in mind.

He doesn't know what to do or how to behave. He went from the League, which was familiar and what he understood, to Gotham, somewhere unfamiliar and unknown. He had everything he knew stripped away and replaced with things he'd never even heard of, much less experienced.

He tries to hide it all behind a mask of bravado and superiority, but in reality he's lost and confused. He's struggling to adjust but is trying.

He's confused, uncertain, careful, and tentative, but he's also loyal, compassionate, funny, caring (in his own way), thoughtful, and actually charming (again in his own way).

He's struggling to adjust, but he's getting there.