#originally i tried to post a snippet from the next chapter of fake dating

[plusultraetc]

the struggle to get this snippet to post was real, but you told the drunks I knew karate fic for wip wednesday 😭 they're in their first year at UA here <3

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

Writer’s Review Tag

tagged by @muse-of-nightmares to do a tag she came up with, which is pretty awesome. Honestly I’ve been toying with doing something similar. 

Rules: Post two snippets of your writing. The first should be one of the oldest examples of your work that you can find (the older the better!), and the other has to be an excerpt from something more recent. Compare the two side by side to see the difference between what your writing looks like now and how it did then.

tagging @galadrieljones @lechatrouge673 @idrelle-miocovani @thevikingwoman @ma-sulevin  

onto exposing myself 

Originally I was just going to share the first chapter of my first fic in fandom, but I can offer you even older original fiction.I thought most of this story got lost in my last computer (RIP) but I found some pieces on my flash drive. A lot of it is horrifying but some of it is just mediocre. Here’s a snippet from what 18 year old me thought was going to be a part of the next great American novel (featuring 2 characters from England. Rowan is an actor and Ophelie is a writer who wrote a play Rowan starred in. though at this point Ophelie is still writing it. Also they were childhood lovers till he packed up and left for America, how Wuthering Heights of Rowan. Also, this takes place during WWII.)

           And then, she thought she could take it no longer. “Why did you leave me?” She asked in a breathless murmur. “Why did you ever want to leave me?”

           “What?” He said, but he heard her. Oh, he heard her, he was only stalling so he could think of a response.              

           “Why did you leave me? I loved you Rowan Hartley. I would have given everything for you. And you left me. I can still feel the pain after these years. I can still remember waking up and trying to find you, then realizing you weren’t there.”

           “Ophelie, I didn’t do it to hurt you. I didn’t do it because I didn’t love you. I wish you knew how much I did.”

“All evidence is toward the contrary.”

“I did it because I wasn’t worthy for you!”

           She could feel the fresh tears. “No. You were afraid of what you were feeling. That’s why you left. You didn’t know what would happen if you would have stayed, so you left me.

           “Maybe I left you because I started to wonder what would happen if I stayed. Maybe you would have changed your mind again and decided you didn’t really love me.”

           She bit the inside of her mouth so hard she tasted blood. “I wouldn’t have changed my mind again. Ever. I wrote you a letter Rowan, you never got it, but I wrote a letter. For all intents and purposes I was pledging myself to you, and asking for you to have me again. But you never got it.”  

           “That’s your answer to everything is it? To write it out? And if you loved me so much, then why didn’t you find me?” He demanded. “You knew where I was going. You could have tried to find me if you loved me so much.” 

(cut plot related dialogue for brevity)

“Let’s forget about the past. Let’s just work together to make something wonderful. And when it is I promise I will bring you from backstage and tell everyone in the audience, and all of the critics how you were the one that wrote this,” Rowan said.

           She nodded, after a while. “Alright.” She murmured. “I’m sorry I brought…that up.”

           “It’s alright.” He said, his hands still on her. “Do you think we can forget this ever happened, and forget about the past?”

           “I don’t think I can forget the past.” She admitted.

           In her eyes, there were tears. He wanted to wipe them away.

           “I don’t think I can either.” He admitted as well. “I don’t think there has ever been a day that passed were I didn’t think of you.” And then he kissed her on the cheek.

           It was only supposed to be a gentle sign of friendship, it was only to set them at ease again, so they could work. But Rowan was lying to himself. As soon as his lips touched her cheek she could hold it no longer. She threw her arms around his neck and sobbed.  

And here’s something from this August, my DA modern AU. Light spoilers but after fake dating for a bit so Cullen could have a plus one for his family reunion, he asked her to marry him so he could protect her under the Inquisition. (long story, it’s just relevant she said yes and now they’re talking about their wedding and their plans after.)

“Would you like to indulge in… after wedding activities?”

She looked at him with a mixture of bemusement and pure joy, if that was even possible. Then she laughed and laughed, grabbing and linking their arms together.

“I thought my sexual attraction was obvious.,” she said, still chuckling.

“It is?”

She laughed again and reminded him about the two times they danced, and every little touch she initiated with him. He put the pieces together, along with the fact that she did say yes to his question of marriage, along with the fact that yes, she wasn’t afraid of touching him, and then je supposed he was one of the stupidest men in Thedas.

“I like verbal confirmation,” he defended.

“Do you want me?”

The question burned. He had been so concerned with her, caught up in the “standard” of what wedding nights and honeymoons usual entailed that he didn’t think of what he wanted.

But he realized it was never a question. She unlocked something in him, set a spark that was now a fire. He wanted.

“Every time I see you, every time we touch,” he told her, “I feel…”

She waited. He saw his want as a fire, but could not bring that fire to a spark. He settled on “interesting.”

“Interesting?” She repeated, mildly amused. “Cullen.”

“I want to discover every little piece of you,” he said, damn it all if it was too much. “I want you in my arms…all the time, except sometimes we have clothes on but most of the times we don’t…”

Want continued to burn. He never really felt it like his before. He had small instances of infatuation in his time, the only notable one being Neria when he still lived in the Circle at Kinloch. He imagined himself taking her to a field of flowers, holding her hand and kissing her. Boyish fantasies, but ones that were his. Yes, sometimes he thought lewder things, but the shame of it all—she was one of his charges—prevented any daydreams from growing wilder.

His daydreamed wildly about Lydia. He was on fire at night when she stirred next to him, and he imagined what she would feel like sans clothes with bodies pressed together, imagined what she would taste like, and what she would say if he kissed her everywhere. He touched himself previously of course, though he hadn’t since he was home, but if there ever was a time where he wanted…

He didn’t. He waited, leaving himself cold at night, though still burning. It was torture.

Well. Judging by her conversation, he wasn’t going to have to wait for long.

“I wonder when you’ll kiss me,” Lydia muttered, and Cullen sensed her fire, burning brightly as his.

“You know,” he saw fit to point out, “you can just as easily kiss me.”

“True enough.”

He waited. He fully expected it then, but she indulged him with only the briefest of kisses against the corner of his mouth, but not his quite mouth. He tried not to completely sink into the earth, too defeated. The feeling of her lips however, though too brief, was divine.

“Today,” she said, a delicate and smooth finger caressing the line of his jaw, “you’ve satisfied me by saying you want us together naked, eventually anyway. I can wait.”

She kissed his cheek before propping him up so his mother could see his new battle scar.

Analysis: It’s the theatre in me, I like to tell stories through dialogue. In fact, I remember starting my red dead fic with the intent of improving my storytelling without so much of it, as I really wanted to focus on description. (Another story because there’s still a lot of dialogue in that fic, lol.) But I picked these two dialogues to talk about together because I have since learned dialogue scenes should be a gradual unraveling. It’s more apparent in the second scene, where the build is gradual. there’s also description and thoughts mixed in more tactfully, with the first scene escalating with no build. And sometimes that happens in real life, but I feel the dialogue isn’t as natural. I think though it is important to mention that the first scene is a drama while the second is more romantic comedy, which even veers to the screwball romantic comedy territory. 

let’s not even get started on much better my smut is now.

[kazliin]

That coffeshop AU and the actors AU are GOLDEN. I NEED that in my life now ;(

I can’t really write much for the coffee shop AU because I don’t have any inspiration for it but here are some extracts and concept writing for what the Actors Au would look like

Disclaimer - this is a fake au fic from the Rivals series. In universe it would be written by a Viktuuri fan and so is based on how that fans see umfb!viktor and Yuuri not as they actually are. It was also written as a joke on my phone in half an hour so please don’t take this as serious writing!

Original concept - no.5 of the ‘15 most popular fics in the Rivals universe alternate AO3’ - Original post here

Title: Before theCamera, Behind the Screen

Rating:  Explicit

Archive Warning: NoArchive Warnings Apply

Category: M/M

Fandom: Figure SkatingRPF

Relationships: KatsukiYuuri/Viktor Nikiforov

Characters: KatsukiYuuri, Viktor Nikiforov, Phichit Chulanont, Christophe Giacometti, CelestinoCialdini, Yakov Feltsman

Additional tags:Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe – Actors, Enemies to Friends to Lovers,Eventual Smut, they’re actors playing figure skaters for a big Hollywood movie,and they hate each other, at first at least, why do they not use body doublesfor their sex scenes?, plot reasons that’s why

Summary:

Sweat-slicked skingleamed under the lights, two bodies moving as one as gasps of pleasure filledthe quiet room. Katsuki had his head thrown back, eyes glazed as he rode outthe sensation, thighs clamped tight around the warm body beneath him and handsfisted into silver hair…

“Cut.” Came the harshvoice of the director as the studio lights snapped back on, flooding the scenewith a glaring brightness. “Take five everyone.”

“And you two.” heturned to the two actors who were both blinking in the sudden light and wipingthe fake sweat from where it was lying stickily across their skin. “You need toget it together soon or this whole movie is going to be a disaster. You’resupposed to be in love for Christ’s sake! Katsuki, you look like you’recounting down the minutes until you can finish this scene and go and get lunchand Nikiforov, you’re just looking bored. You’re supposed to be actors! I don’tcare how much you hate each other, you better act like you don’t or you’re bothgetting fired.”

Katsuki glared down atNikiforov who was still lying beneath him, looking annoyed.

“You better step upyour game.” Nikiforov drawled, looking disparagingly up at the man stillstraddling him. “I have a reputation to uphold and I’m not going to lose it toa bad movie because of one amateur, one-hit-wonder actor who can’t do his jobproperly.”

“Maybe it would beeasier to do my job if you weren’t such an arrogant ass who can’t admit to hisown mistakes.” Katsuki shot back, glare intensifying. “And stop acting likeyou’re such a big deal. You might be famous but you’re not that impressive.”

“I don’t know, I’vebeen reliably informed by a lot of people that I’m very impressive.”

Nikiforov flicked hiseyes to where their bodies were joined, only the smallest pieces of fabricseparating them, eyebrow raised suggestively. Katsuki snorted in disgust, thenrolled his hips in an unexpected movement that made a certain part of Nikiforovperk up in unintentional interest.

“I’ve seen better.”

Random snippet 1 - Characterprofiles

 Name - Viktor Nikiforov

Age - 26

Occupation - Actor

One of the most famous actors in Hollywood and in constanthigh demand. He moved to America from Russia after being scouted aged 10 by hisagent Yakov Feltsman. His first big breakthrough role was at age 15 and he isnow one of the highest paid and most well-known actors worldwide.

After nearly ten years of filmmaking Viktor began to growbored - constantly being typecast as the dashing hero and playboy in big budgetaction or sci-fi films. After seeing the quality of Viktor’s acting fall due tohis disinterest in his work, his agent Yakov signed him up to a role in anindependent film directed by his friend Celestino about figure skating, hopingthe change in scenery and character would help Viktor find his inspirationagain.

Name: Yuuri Katsuki

Age: 22

Occupation: Actor

A relatively new and unknown actor. Moved to America at 15with his parents and sister when their onsen in Japan went bankrupt. Performedin a variety of small films and stage productions for money before having abreakthrough role a few months previously that put him on the radar of a lot ofbig film companies. The breakthrough role was in a previous film ofCelestino’s, who scouted him when he was performing a minor role in a TV dramato pay the bills, and he signed on for Celestino’s next film out of gratitude.He’s generally considered to be a rising star and has the potential to be theNext Big Thing

Name: Phichit Chulanont

Age: 19

Occupation: Trainee Makeup Artist

Yuuri’s best friend and a trainee makeup artist. Had hisfirst big job hired as a makeup artist for Celestino’s next film starring Yuuriand Viktor.

Name: Christophe  Giacometti

Age: 24

Occupation: Model

Viktor’s best friend who is doing a modelling shoot near thefilm set and spends more time hanging about there than in his own studio

The film:

Love On Ice, a romantic drama about a workaholic ice skater(played by Viktor) who has no life outside of his job despite being the best inthe world. He is injured in a freak skating accident and forced to retire andbecome a coach to a younger skater (played by Yuuri) with a lot of potentialwho is yet to win gold. Despite a rocky start the two end up falling in loveand the main character finds the meaning of love and life both on and off theice.

The plot of the film in the actors AU fanfic is taken fromone of the other very popular Viktuuri fanfics in the Rivals universe versionof AO3 by the same name. The in-universe authors who write the fics are datingand make constant references to each other’s fics in their own writing aseaster eggs.

Random snippet 2 –extract from chapter 1 of 12

Viktor swept into the meeting room for the read-through,ignoring the glare his agent Yakov shot him for his lateness. He was one ofHollywood’s top actors, he could afford to be five, ok maybe twenty-five,minutes late for a rehearsal.  The filmwasn’t even that important anyway, some low budget production he was only participatingin because Yakov insisted he needed a change of scenery, filled with secondrate actors and a mediocre script he had barely glanced at.

Swiping the coffee off the cute looking intern standingstaring at him from the door he took a sip before promptly spitting it back outagain, levelling a glare at the man who was still gazing at him, lookingaffronted.

“I called ahead and asked for a caramel macchiato notwhatever kind of crap this is. Can’t you do your job properly, is that too muchto ask?” he snapped at the intern who’s affronted look turn swiftly into a fullout glare.

“Viktor. Maybe it tastes wrong because that isn’t yourcoffee.” Chris told him with a smirk, laughter dancing in his eyes as he triedto hold back his mirth. “Not everything in the world revolves around you mon cher.”

Glancing down at the cup in his hand Viktor realised thatChris was right. The name ‘Yuuri’ was written across the cup in loopinghandwriting and as he looked a blushing woman scuttled over and handed himanother coffee cup, this one filled with his order.

Turning back to the man whose coffee he had just taken,Viktor frowned, trying to remember where he had heard that name before. ‘Yuuri’. It sounded familiar but Viktorhad reputation for being scatter-brained and the context that he had heard it inbefore escaped him.

Yakov had walked to stand beside the dark-haired man, whowas still glaring at Viktor like he hoped he dropped dead on the spot.Presumably he was Yuuri and now that Viktor looked at him closer he didn’t seemmuch like the intern that Viktor had initially mistaken him for. Hopefully hewould be some minor part of the crew or an extra since Viktor didn’t reallywant to have to deal with working with a man he had accidentally insulted.

“Viktor, meet Yuuri Katsuki.” Yakov told him, lookingunimpressed. “He’s your new co-star for the duration of this film.”

Well.

Shit.

Random snippet 3 –extract from chapter 4 of 12

“The bulk of the ice skating we’ll leave up to theprofessional skaters.” Celestino called across to them where they were bothbalanced on the ice, trying to look cool and composed while avoiding fallingflat on their faces in the unfamiliar skates. “But we need a few shots of yourfaces during the routines so you’ll have to learn at least a few basic moves ifwe want this to work. Nikiforov, you’ll be doing the lifts because you’retaller.”

Katsuki shot Celestino an incredulous look and then turnedback to Viktor, looking disgusted.

“Try not to drop me. Since you’re already carrying theweight of your own ego I’m not sure if you’re strong enough to carry anythingelse on top of that.”

“I’ve been carrying this whole movie so far, I think I’ll befine.”

Random snippet 4 –extract from chapter 6 of 12

Katsuki continued to sob, even after the cameras had finallystopped rolling. The take had been fantastic, the other actor perfectlymimicking a high achiever with impossible standards finally cracking, believingthat he would never be good enough.

But even after the take had finished Katsuki continued tocry, great heaving sobs that wracked his whole frame. Viktor wasn’t sure whatto do. He had met method actors before, people who got so into their role itwas hard to tell where the character ended and they began. But Katsuki hadnever acted like that before and it was very strange to see him still so caughtup in the character, unable to stop crying even when there were no more camerastrained on him. And there was something honest about the emotions, more honestthat Viktor had ever seen from him before.

He opened his mouth to speak but Katsuki beat him to it,glancing up and noticing the way that Viktor was staring. Angrily he wiped athis eyes, brushing away the tears that were still trickling down his face andtaking a few deep breaths.

“What are you looking at?” he snapped angrily and Viktortook a few steps back at the fury in his tone and the crack in his voice.Katsuki pushed past him, knocking his shoulder into Viktor’s as he went andleaving Viktor staring after him, curiosity flaring in his heart.

Much as it pained him to admit after so much time insultingit, the other man’s acting was actually very good, raw and open and honest. Butsomehow, Viktor wasn’t sure if he had been acting in that last scene at all.

Random snippet 5 –extract from chapter 8 of 12

Katsuki moved above him, hips rocking and hands braced onViktor’s shoulder, fingers gripping almost painfully tight. It was verydifferent from the last time they had tried to film the same scene so manymonths ago. This time Katsuki’s eyes were dark and entirely focused on Viktor,gaze intense. The movements were making certain parts of Viktor respond on avery base level and he was very glad of the equipment all the actors wererequired to wear for all their more intimate scenes that prevented the manabove him from noticing it.

After their first couple of disastrous attempts at filmingthe same scene Celestino had pushed it far back on the schedule but thedeadlines were slowly creeping up and they had had no choice but to finally tryit again.

“I don’t care what youthink about when you act it Viktor.” Yakov had told him, sounding exasperated.“Pretend he’s one of the random models you love so much if you have to. But ifyou can’t act like you’re actually in love with him this film will end indisaster and trust me when I say you need it to succeed.”

But when Celestino finally called a cut, praising them bothfor a scene well filmed at last, Viktor realised he had thought of nothing elseduring the entire process but Yuuri.

Random snippet 6 –extract from chapter 9 of 12

Katsuki looked at him from across the table, laughtersparking in his eyes and Viktor marvelled at how well the new expression suitedhim. Maybe Celestino’s idea for them to share a dinner together to try and getthem in the headspace of a real couple for the more emotional scenes of filmingthat were due the next day wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

“You really want me to list all your faults?” he asked,eyebrows raised playfully.

“Well since we’re both always pointing them out in front ofthe cast and crew it might be a better idea to just let it all out now beforeYakov fires us both.” Viktor pointed out. “You say one of mine and then I’llsay one of yours and we’ll keep going until we’re done.”

“That might take a while.” Katsuki smirked but he compliedanyway.

“You’re arrogant.”

“You’re touchy.”

“You’re insensitive.”

“You’re too sensitive.”

“You have the emotional range of a five year old.”

“You have no idea how to have fun.”

“You’re immature and unprofessional.”

“You’re too serious and you were terrible at giving fakehead during that last scene.”

Katsuki turned bright red and spluttered in indignation fora few seconds, his cheeks flaming before he finally shot back a reply.

“Yeah, well you’re a terrible kisser.”

“I am not!” This time is was Viktor turn to splutter inindignation and he felt almost personally insulted at the jab. He was not aterrible kisser!

“You are.” Katsuki sat back, looking triumphant. “Honestlyfilming kisses with you have been some of the worst kisses of my life.”

For some reason the insult stung much more than any of theprevious had and Viktor could feel his face contorting into a petulant look ofmock hurt to cover up the very real emotions beneath.

“Why is my kissing so bad then, since you seem to consideryourself the expert?”

“You kiss for the camera.” Yuuri replied. “I’ve seen yourmovies before and they’re all big, dramatic, rushed kisses with explosions inthe background. You still kiss like that even though that isn’t what this movieis about. We’re supposed to be in love, it’s supposed to be tender. Intimate.Real. Not any of that overdramatic crap.”

“I hate to break it to you Katsuki but we’re supposed tokiss for the camera. It’s kind of in our job descriptions.” Viktor shot back.“And we’re actors. It’s not supposed to be real.”

“No.” Katsuki agreed. “But we’re supposed to make peoplebelieve it is.”

Viktor found he had no response to that but he was stillhurt by the other man’s previous comment. He wasn’t a terrible kisser, he hadkissed hundreds of people both on camera and off and he had never had anycomplaints. Katsuki was still smirking at him and it grated at him, made moreannoying by the fact that he cared at all.

“I’m not a terrible kisser.” He finally settled on, tryingnot to let any of the hurt show on his face and knowing he sounded a littlepetulant. “And I am perfectly capable of kissing like it’s real.”

“Oh really?” Katsuki raised his eyebrow and there was achallenge in his expression. “Why don’t you kiss me then, and prove it?”