#overall fic will be around 22k

[vicsy]

subterfuge

Daniel/Max | 4,7k | explicit | ongoing (chapter 1/2)

Max was an uncomfortable revelation, a sticky situation, an unnecessary distraction. Daniel had been fine and dandy before Max crash landed into his life and threw the course of it out of whack. All there was left for Daniel to do was fish for excuses: he’s seventeen, he’s your teammate, he’s not seventeen anymore but he’s still your teammate, he’s definitely not a virgin but he ruined your career; he’s a guy and you’re dating a woman. He’s everything you could ever want but you’re a coward and he’s still a guy. Or: at the breaking point in his career Daniel decides to stop perpetually hitting the brakes on certain aspects of his life. And on Max. Surely, it's easier said than done. Good thing being a late breaker has always been Daniel's shtick.

second (and last) chapter coming to you in a week <3

[punkslovepoints]

✨2024 Steddie Fic Recommendations

template from Steddie Support Podcast on twitter

Summaries and links below the cut

Born Under a Bad Sign by @pinkie-quinns [27k E]

Eddie Munson lived. He lived. So why does he still feel very, very dead?

No Loose Ends by @thisapplepielife [7k E]

"Ocean air is healing, you know," Eddie says as if he's serious, and Steve smiles. "Is the gulf considered an ocean?" Steve asks. And Eddie just shrugs and grins back, shaking another pack of cigarettes out of the fresh carton Steve brought him. Steve feels like a pack mule, hauling food and smokes and beer, back and forth across several states. "Closest thing I've ever seen to one, at least," Eddie says, and Steve has the fleeting thought that someday, Steve will change that. Or: Waiting out the shitstorm back in Indiana.

Big Talk by @occasionaloverboy [29k E]

The first time Eddie flirts with him is a surprise. The second time is a fluke. After that, it gets a little hard to keep track.

Sports Performance by @entanglednow [18k E]

Steve discovers something unexpected while waiting alone in Eddie's room, and struggles to be a supportive friend.

i got your name stuck to my tongue (only call me when you're drunk) by GhostEnthusiast [22k E]

5 times Steve fools around with Eddie Munson at parties, and 1 time he invites him to one himself.

Exactly What It Looks Like by @bilbosmom-belladonna [31k E]

Steve makes a face at Eddie. “You've imagined doing stuff with a guy?” “Yeah, man,” Eddie replies, spreading his hands wide. “Doesn't everyone?” Steve tilts his head to the side as he thinks. Maybe not very often, but his freshman year when Davey Riggs had been swim team captain? Yeah, he had definitely imagined some stuff that had made trips to the locker room kinda awkward. “Yeah, that's true,” Steve answers, nodding. “I wonder why everybody acts like it's so gross, though.” In the summer of 1986, Steve and Eddie have some perfectly normal fun between a couple of perfectly normal dudes.

Path to the Rainbow's End by gayhandshake [17k M]

Eddie always believed he was getting out of Hawkins. He knew he was meant for something else, even when he thought he only had two options: a bus to the state penitentiary like his father and his father’s father before him or a plane to Los Angeles, paid for by a record executive with a fat bank account and a vision. Turns out, there was a third path, and when he left town, it was in the driver’s seat on I-90, trailing behind a brown BMW carrying the Wonder Twins, with most of their shared possessions shoved into the back of his van. The van survived the drive to Rochester, but just barely. He coaxed her along with soothing words and stroking hands until she rolled to a stop two houses down from their new place, like Flipper dying in her trainer’s arms. He didn’t cry then, because they’d done this song and dance before. He did throw a very mature, contained temper tantrum at the mechanic the next day. -- Eddie knows exactly who he is. Definitely. Probably. Maybe.

Somewhere it Hides a Well by @teddywesworl [8k E]

Eddie ducks his head briefly, a gesture that doesn’t quite fit with the guy’s overall image: buzz cut, obvious ink, scars on his jaw. A bunch of his shirt buttons are undone, and Steve can see a white tank and a gold chain underneath. “Yeah,” Eddie says. “I’m at a shop in Uptown.” It’s rote, sounds sort of disinterested. Steve might think he’s being dismissed if Eddie Munson’s eyes weren’t raking over him, lingering at his jawline, his throat, his hands when he adjusts his cuffs. Or: At Lumax’s wedding in 2003, slutty bisexual physical therapist Steve sets his eye on inked up tough guy mechanic Eddie and peels away his mask.

You Could Call Me Nancy by @pinkie-quinns [5k T]

Steve and Nancy get back together. And Eddie, well. He does what any respectable person would do in that situation. He drinks about it.

Restorative Violence by @anniebass [30k E]

Unlike his uncle, Eddie still dreamt of bigger things, the fame of a musician, good cars, big-ass mansions, talked about it in the hospital bed, as with the trailer’s ruin came hope of relocation, the first step toward betterment, maybe a house a touch less vehicular, one maybe not so weiner-shaped. Still, his new room failed to convey a fulfilled dream; the unpacked boxes stood in unstable towers, dust covered the guitar, only the dirty dishes seemed to be a movable component of a life sustained, not lived. It didn’t seem like Eddie was fine at all.

Late Bloomers by @arimakes and @mojowitchcraft [65l E]

Two men walk into a gay bar. One thinks he’s straight, one thinks he’s vanilla. Both of them are idiots.

Steve & Robin by @audacityofbird [120k M]

It's 1995. Two sets of best friends find themselves in Chicago and in each other's orbit as they try to figure out how to best navigate the world, work, relationships, family, and friendships in their mid-twenties. Chrissy is starting a new job in a new city with only an old friend to help tether her. Eddie tries to help his band find their big break. Steve tries to get his matchmaking family off his back and Robin hatches a plan to help him do that in an unconventional and seemingly logical way. They're all finding themselves and their way to each other. So, who cares if they stumble along the way? At least they have each other.

Don't Hate The Player by orphan_account [6k M]

Steve Harrington doesn't really play video games. Not his thing. Somehow, however, he's ended up in an utterly delusional, one-sided relationship with an NPC.

The Fire And The Flood by @entanglednow [6k E]

Steve's already spent half a day dealing with the kids misbehaving, he really doesn't need Eddie making his life harder.

would you be my friend? by @their-we-go [8k M]

"Honourable Justice Harrington, I have perjured myself on this stand today, and I would like to recant.”"Honourable Justice Harrington, I have perjured myself on this stand today, and I would like to recant.” “Dude, what are you—” “I lied, man. I fibbed. I told a story. I—” “Alright, okay. I get it.” “I don’t read, uh. Gay porn for the articles.” “Okay.” “I more read it for the, you know.” He scrubs a hand over his face. Wishes he could hide. “Gay porn.” (Or: scenes from Eddie's life after the world doesn't end.)

let's exchange the experience by @jamiethegardener55 [22k E]

"I propose a game," Eddie announced. Steve zipped his coat back up, wincing. "I'm not playing your dungeon game." "Not," Eddie said, "a tabletop game, thank you, Steven. A challenge. A bet." He felt his eyes gleam. Steve gave him a wary look. "What kind of challenge?" "I," Eddie said, clapping his palms together, "will be Steve Harrington. For a whoooole day. And you will be Eddie Munson." -- Eddie and Steve play a game. They have to do whatever the other says for the day. Neither of them has ever heard of BDSM. Things go really well.

Big wheel keep on turning by prufrocks [28k E]

A few months after Starcourt, Steve moves out of his parents' house and into a friend of a friend's empty RV. What follows is a long six months of unintentional minimalism, scraping by on two bucks an hour, and staring at the specter that haunts the other side of the trailer park. Meanwhile, Robin gets a song stuck in her head. A season four rewrite.

--------------------

Then mine from this year:

Pebble [5.4k words, Rated: T]

“Right, well when the male finds a female penguin he likes, he brings her a pebble. It shows the female that he wants to build a nest with her, that he wants to have her as a mate. So I thought -” Steve raised an eyebrow, “You want me to be your mate?”

flood water (a series) [17k words, Rated: E]

“Nothing says last day on earth like trying to fuck your straight friend before disappearing the next day.” Eddie skips town a month after he gets out of the hospital.

how to wake a dead boy (with art work by @bleedingoptimism) [33.4k words, Rated: M]

Steve’s been able to bring dead people back to life since he was a child. It’s a secret he’s managed to keep from everyone, hiding his power under a layer of detachment from the world around him. Then Eddie dies and Steve has a decision to make. A Stranger Things canon-compliant story based on Pushing Daisies lore.

Queer Lodgings [WIP, Rated: E]

After almost dying in the Upside Down, Eddie wakes to a high school diploma, a place at community college, and - yet another surprise in this new sunshine and rainbows existence that is somehow his life - Steve Harrington as a roommate. It's a double bi awakening!

[dashka12]

🪐 Bodies In Space by @ladysisyphus

My second bind for Binderary and my first Quatro!

This fic was only 22k words so perfect for a quatro format. Its roughly 4in x 5in and fits in the palm of my hand plus its very cute to look at.

I still need to play around with the font sizing and margins that i want but overall this little guy turned out very well.

The typeset was pretty simple, with some foil detailing for one of the title pages.

[fruti2flutie]

Hi! I’m sorry to bother you but I’ve been reading your seungbin fic what could be the answer and I was wondering if you had any news on future updates? Hope you are doing well and enjoy your summer!

no bother at all!!!!! ur totally valid to wonder abt updates esp since i haven't updated since....... wow, april 2023!!!!

while it's not super monumental news, i actually started dabbling in that writing doc again ☺️ i've been adding to the outline here & there, working on scenes & all that jazz. i miss writing this fic, and i made a goal to finish it this year!!!! tho i think it's more realistic for me to get one more chapter uploaded if that 😅 not much has changed since i went on hiatus (i.e. Life Things, writing motivations, etc.) but i'm a little less stressed than i was last year, if that's anything???

anyways ch7 is currently around 22k & is expected to be the longest chapter of the fic!!! after that, ch8 is gonna include lots more changbin & the soft ending. ch9 is more of an overall epilogue, with self-indulgent writing & lots more smut lol

i hope u have a fun summer as well!!!! i remembered why i don't like going outside (sunburn & 20 mosquito bites)

and for ur troubles, here is a ch7 excerpt i literally wrote last year:

[fanficwritersinterviewed]

MCM, furiosophie

<<This post is a part of a longer conversation about fanfic writers, how they view fanfic, and their writing process. All views are the fanfic writers’ own, and whatever fanfic they choose to write is entirely their own decision. No judgement value will be placed on fic content. These conversations are meant to provide insight for other fanfic writers in whatever stage they are at in their writing life>>

Meet-Cute Monday (with furiosophie, @furiosophie)

AO3 Stats:

Pseud: furiosophie Pronouns: she/her (currently) Current fandoms: Star Wars Current pairings: Dinluke (Din/Luke), Dopeyluke (Din/Poe/Luke) How many total fic: 6 How many fandoms: 1 Total word count: 202,988 Longest fic word count: 103,615 Shortest: 2,148 Highest kudo count: 2,928 Lowest: 107

What's the story behind your pseud? It's a dumb pun I have with myself - my name is Sophie, I easily get furious about fandom shit and I'm dyslexic thus "furios sophie" with one s and no u.

You get furious? I am actually really surprised, I don't think I’ve ever noticed you getting furious before. Hahaha well I'm working on it. It's less furious, more very, very passionate. Like talking a mile a minute, forgetting to regulate my tone of voice, gesturing wildly, the whole deal.

How long have you been reading and writing fanfic? I'm not fully sure how long it's actually been but I remember asking my mom to print out fanfic at work that I copy and pasted into a doc so I could read it up in my room because we only had one pc at home, so I'd say probably 17 years or so? And I wrote my first fanfic at nine, I remember that very vividly because I wrote it in a notebook with some company logo on it and spent more time drawing the Star Wars logo on top than actually writing. Plus I had my mom proofread it so it would count as me doing my spelling homework.

It was set just before the beginning of Empire Strikes Back on the rebel base on Hoth and it was basically just a conversation between Leia, Han, Luke and the OC (original character) I created who used to be Vader's apprentice but had a change of heart and came to warn them about the imminent attack. Which I am aware is not super exciting but apparently my nine-year-old self really needed to write a fix-it.

No no! That's actually surprisingly involved for a nine-year-old kid, I'm impressed. Well my OC also rode a space skateboard and wore turquoise overalls so I feel that balances it out.

Ha!! Spectacular! Okay, so this furiosophie incarnation is your newest writing self, though you've been a few other people before this, right? I've had two other pseuds before this, yes. Kind of one for every phase of my writing: one for back when I was still writing in German during high school and one for when I first switched to writing in English during uni.

What was the inciting incident that led to the creation of this pseud?Honestly? I saw the Mandalorian season 2 finale, absolutely lost my mind when Luke showed up, went on tumblr to soak up any crumb I could get, got hit with a dinluke meme and thought "hahaha what a fucking dumb idea" and then three days later I found out that my note program apparently has a character limit because I had typed out the first 7k of “oh the things we left behind” on my phone. So I just resigned myself to my fate and created the new pseud. I had no idea what it would end up being. “ottwlb” was supposed to be three chapters, max maybe 30k. To put that into perspective - it had been roughly ten years since I had written anything at that point and the most I had written in one go was around 22k.

And it ended up being nearly 104k words. So what happened, exactly? What was it about this story that needed to come out of you and why? It started with the simple line of "Din thinks of the Jedi often. More specifically, he thinks of Grogu." That was the first thing I wrote down, and for a long while it was very much just an exploration of that thought I had since I first watched the movies which was something along the lines of "the Force and post-Return of the Jedi Luke must seem terrifying to others" until that turned into "if the Force and post-ROTJ Luke seems terrifying to others, how terrifying must that feel for him?" and I think that is where it clicked for me suddenly that I was processing a lot of my own complicated emotions around mental illness with some of this fic, that simple truth of "part of your mind is no longer your own.”

It’s funny to think, looking back, that I wasn't really aware I was processing anything with the story until I was in the thick of it. Like I knew I needed to process some shit-- I was one and a half years into recovery from severe burnout when I started writing-- but I didn't set out to do any of that processing through writing, it just happened. So this fic kind of became about accepting that sometimes the darkest parts of yourself just won't go away, that there is no absolution and no easy fix and that the only way through that is choosing to move forward. Or it's simply about two idiots taking 80k to kiss, you decide, haha!

If it’s not too invasive, do you mind talking a bit about what “severe burnout” means? Because before I met you I’d heard of burnout but it was always just a term tossed around when people got tired. I didn’t realize what it actually meant from a mental health perspective. Oh yeah sure! Though I'd like to preface this with simply saying that everyone's journey is different and this is just my personal experience. In retrospect it is not that surprising that I burned out eventually–  I had been struggling for a while in my twenties because I had a very intensive job, moved countries multiple times, tried to maintain relationships with friends, etc., but burnout is something that creeps up on you slowly and is often very hard to catch in time. It started with insomnia, then came the constant health issues, then the irritability, then I lost all interest in things I used to love, was unable to write at first, then draw, then hang out with friends, then watch TV, eventually I stopped making dinner because it was too much of an effort to make and then, right in the thick of it, I was unable to take care of myself at all.

But that whole process happened over the span of nearly two years, and in my case really probably my whole life because my specific type of burnout was brought on by the fact that I grew up undiagnosed autistic. So it wasn't one big thing, it was me continuously over-exerting myself from a very young age. There is this concept of disabled/neurodivergent kids being "twice exceptional"  which basically means that to excel you have to work twice as hard as your peers, once to bridge the gap of the base requirement of function and then once to actually thrive at school, or university, etc. and that ultimately led to me burning out. I actually had several unrelated burnouts throughout my life, the most severe ones after high school and university which, since I was seemingly functioning, were all treated as "you're just a little tired".

When you had that “a ha!” moment that your first fic was really about you processing what you’d just gone through, how did that inform your writing? I think the biggest plot point that was informed by that "a ha" moment was the choice to write chapter seven from Luke's perspective. Once I knew what I was doing it seemed impossible not to tell the story from his POV. I also kind of doubled down on the "being force-sensitive is a metaphor for being neurodivergent" thing because that analogy was just very comforting to me.

And “go and get your hands dirty”? Lmao. Very, very different vibe. I think dinluke kink week was going on back then and myomikan was drawing something for it so my idiot brain thought "you are incapable of writing smut why don't you also participate?" Which ended with me writing the first scene of that fic and then it just...I honestly don't know what happened, it was supposed to be max 10k. I had it all planned out, but apparently I am not only incapable of writing smut but also incapable of writing anything other than a slow burn. There really are no deep thoughts in that fic, which is probably why it was fighting me in the beginning, but it did end up being very helpful as a kind of sandbox where I could try out different pacing and character conflict that I struggle writing. I am still very on the fence about that fic, I know it had somewhat good reception but it is the one fic where I honestly can't tell if it works or not.

What's something in that one that you were intentionally trying out all the while knowing it wasn't your strong suit? The physical elements of it mostly. I am not joking when I say I am very bad at that, as well as the conflict based on miscommunication/a secret rather than outside factors, and the tension that comes with that. In “ottwlb” there is conflict but they are always a unit, while in “gagyhd” their turmoil is to some degree self-inflicted. Also parts of their relationship are genuinely unhealthy but in a sort of helpless way that stems from their trauma and upbringing which I really enjoyed exploring because trauma does not absolve you from being an asshole so my challenge was kind of to walk that line of "they are very dysfunctional but aware of it and trying to work towards being better."

Dysfunctional but aware. I think there’s a lot of us that can relate to that, lol!

[sitp-recs]

Hello! I love your blog and the way you organize all these fics is so helpful. 💕 I was just wondering if you had any Drarry fic recs where Draco is maybe more soft around the edges, they’re still students at Hogwarts, low stakes, and it’s overall pretty fluffy and cute? Bonus points if it’s M or E rating. 👀 If you’ve already seen this sort of request a million times tho please feel free to ignore it! Thank you eitherway. ❤️

Thanks so much anon! I’m so happy you enjoy the recs ❤️ here are a few suggestions for the glorious soft Draco + 8th year + low stakes combo! You can also check my other 8th year recs here and here :)

Thermodynamic Equilibrium by @dorthyanndrarry (2017, T, 5k)

Harry's far too hot. Draco's always cold. And somehow against all odds, together they create a perfect equilibrium.

(Un)Calculated Risk by @l0vegl0wsinthedark (2017, E, 7k)

He thought about the way Harry looked at him, smiled at him; about the way Draco’s head was nearly always full of him, all day every day, and about the way Draco sometimes deliberately went to bed still smelling of him, refusing to acknowledge what it meant – because he already fucking knew what it meant. What all of it meant.

Find The Balance by lauren3210 and Obliviate_Amores (2015, M, 15k)

After Harry gives Draco his wand and goes back to using his own, they both start having trouble making them work. Finding out why is a lot simpler than fixing the problem.

Said and Unsaid (or, The Value of Knowing When to Stop Talking) by bryoneybrynn (2015, T, 15k)

When the Interrogator asked if he had anything to say on his own behalf, Draco shook his head, his lips pressed tight in a thin line. There was nothing to say that wouldn’t sound like an excuse.

Nice Things by aideomai (2020, M, 22k)

The first thing that happened was Theodore Nott came back from France.

On Our Way by dynamic (2016, E, 30k)

Draco is trying to spend the summer keeping his head down, but a repair project and a certain snowy owl have other plans for him.

Inside Your Mind by @lazywonderlvnd (2020, E, 36k)

Goyle's taken it upon himself to act as Malfoy's personal, one-man guard and Harry can't help but feel like it's only making the bullying worse.

Like Lightning at your Fingertips by potterwatch (2019, T, 43k)

The problem with living with another insomniac is, eventually, they find out you’re an insomniac, too.

Right Hand Red by @lqtraintracks (2015, E, 73k)

Harry felt Malfoy's breath on his lips as they came together over the bottle, hands firmly planted on the floor as though they each needed their familiar soil, refusing to cross into enemy territory. Except that Malfoy no longer felt like his enemy. Malfoy felt inevitable.

Helix by Saras_Girl (2015, E, 92k)

Seven months after the end of the war, Harry is feeling lost. Fortunately, he is about to be offered an unexpected and sparkling chance to find himself again.

[skepticbeliever-bookclub]

Know of any fanfics based off the forest fenn episode of buzzfeed unsolved, particularly that moment when Shane sees Ryan in his outfit

here they are!

I’ve Kissed You Before, but I Didn’t Do It Right (Can I Try Again) - beethechange | E, 22k, Complete

Ryan grabs for Shane’s banana and takes a bite out of it. In his head it was supposed to be sexy, but he realizes as he’s chewing that it might hit a little close to home. Shane must be remembering the same thing, because he blanches and looks away.

“Sorry, too soon?”

“I’m having a Pavlovian response to the flash of your teeth around a phallic object,” Shane says, “and now my balls are trying to crawl back inside my body. Something tells me that’s not what you were going for.”

“No,” Ryan agrees, still chewing.

***After months of mooning around each other, forces (read: alcohol, nerves, gravity, tender feelings) conspire to ruin Ryan and Shane’s first night together. With a little help from their friends, dramatic training montages set to 80’s rock anthems, and the early filmography of Harrison Ford, can our heroes get things back on track?

theft by finding - varnes | E, 26k, Complete

Shane looks down at the medallion in his hand. He doesn’t know why he’s kept it, all these years. He doesn’t know why he’s kept it so close, always on hand. He should have sold it years and years ago, but he never quite managed to get around to it, and now here he is, in the burning building that is his whole life, with nothing else.

Over the groaning of collapsing wood, he hears Ryan’s voice: “Shane? Shane? Shane!”

He sounds breathless, like he’s been running. Shane kicks down the cracking front door and exits to the street, tucking the medallion into his back pocket. Ryan is standing right in front of the door, as if he had been about to run inside.

“Tell you what, Ryan, you really know how to make an entrance,” he says, brushing ash off the front of his shirt and hoping that he’s managed to keep most of the bitterness out of his voice. “So was ruining my life once just like, not enough for you?”

OR: don't lie to me, you wanted an Indiana Jones AU.

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered Am I - colazitron | E, 17k, Complete

Look, just because Ryan looks good dressed as Indiana Jones, or dressed in various other things, and just because Shane maybe has a feeling or two about it, doesn't mean it's a thing, okay? Shane's got this.

Or: 5 times Shane had a feeling about Ryan's outfit, +1 time he did something about it

Indiana Bergara And The Lost Shirt Buttons - drunkkenobi | E, 1.8k, Complete

“Just think, when they take our picture for the paper, this is what we’re going to be wearing.”

You’re going to be wearing that forever if I have anything to say about it, Shane thought to himself as they loaded up into their rental SUV to become treasure millionaires.

wanna be felled by you - middlecyclone | E, 2.1k, Complete

The thing is, unfortunately, that Ryan's fucking hat and his leather jacket and the overall Young Harrison Ford of it all are, well, kind of really working for him.

Indiana Bergara and the Treasure of Shane Madej - hkafterdark | E, 3.2k, Complete

Two men walk into a forest. "We're looking for buried treasure," they say. There's no answer, so they go back to their rooms and have sex about it.

Fortune And Glory - orphan_account | E, 3.4k, Complete

Ryan looks too fucking good in that Indiana Jones outfit, okay?

LOST A FIC? CHECK OUT OUR FIC FOUND TAG, AND IF YOU STILL CAN’T FIND IT, SEND US AN ASK!

[jlf23tumble]

hii!! how are you? happy holidays, i hope you’re doing ok!! i wanted to ask u for a fic rec, bc ur taste is!! so good! do u know any good hot larry girl fics? as in louis and harry are both girls? thank u!!

Oh my god, okay, so I started this last night, then the power cut, I lost it all, and now I’m doing it again, sigh, but rest assured, I have a TON of faves, there are so many greats, but I’ll try to keep it somewhat normal sized, ha, and put it under a cut. Hope you find some fics you love, quite a few are recent, but there is some old gold, too! Pouring one out for Phoenix’s OUTSTANDING genre-defining girl direction fics, and if you want those, she has them, you just have to contact her directly. Anyway, here we go! Girl direction ahoy, bb!

Let’s being with the larger places to start, no. 1 being @girldirectionsource, your place for fic, art, and everything else girl direction, especially if it’s recent--there’s an older fic rec source called @hlgirldirectionfics, but it hasn’t updated in a while. Two fic fests might help, too (and I want to say there were others, but I’ll be damned if I can think of/find them right now, so if anyone wants to send them my way, I can add on here): the Girl Direction Winter Fic Fest and the Girl Direction Fic Fest. @star55 is an amazingly prolific fic writer who writes hl girl direction exclusively, ao3 link here. 

There are other writers who have written multiple hl girl direction fics, so I’m going to group them with my two fave girl direction stories they’ve written, but definitely check out their other works, too (they’ve written tons of both hl girl and boy direction, fwiw):

momentofclarity/ @gaycousinlarry:

daydreams are made of this, 19k, series.  Mannnn, one of my fave writers, and god this series! Is! So! Good! The pining! Help!!! 

still feel the same around you, 13k. I’m addicted to the way Eli writes older larry, doesn’t matter if it’s f/f or m/m, gimme gimme!

disgruntledkittenface/ @disgruntledkittenface:

dream lover, 5k. Why aren’t there MORE reimaginings of Real Housewives in the girl direction universe? Sweet dreams are made of these, etc.!

pink like the paradise found, 18k. I’m always complete trash for the tag “louis tomlinson calls harry styles pet names,” but trust me on the rest of this fic, simply too much to love!

LoadedGunn:

Riding Comfortable, 8.9k. I’m always gonna side-eye a 25YO CEO, but yeah, LoadedGunn wrote girl direction back in the day, and yeah, nailed it!

Lips Won’t Let Me Go, 5.5k. Why does this read so real, regardless of whether it’s boy direction or girl direction?? (this being limo sex and award shows)

homosociallyyours/ @homosociallyyours:

Sour/Sharp/Salty/Sweet, 5.7k. Megan is such a POWERHOUSE writer, but the way Megan writes girl direction? Next level, way too hard to pick two, but c’mon, gotta go with the pubefest entry!

Don’t Have to Be Good to Be My Girl, 12k. HoooooBOY, this fic is so great, gotta love a good daddy kink and kink negotiation, exploration, and fallout.

Blake/ @newleafover: 

Something in the way she mooooooves, 11k. I’m gonna list three by Blake here because I can, god, I love 'em all so much! This one’s set in Davis, too, woo hoo!

Ballet Direction, 22k, series. JESUS, I love everything about this fic so much (so many easter eggs, true, but also the idea of this ballet class, disaster ballerina Harry, we love to see it).

Harriet and Louise, 28k. This one lived in my head rent free for a good long time, and it didn’t disappoint, the perfect Jane Austen story.

Okay, NOW let’s get into some one-off stories, and yes, the authors might have written other girl direction fics, but these are a great place to start...and yes, I know these don’t include EVERY single girl direction fic ever written, but these are some of my faves, most of ‘em recent:

Needy, SelinOriginal, 3.3k. This fic, just wow--give me some Princess Park, some daddy kink, some insecure period sex vibes, and some body worship, and I”m alllll set.

You Saw Me Standing Alone, yeah_alright, 4k. Why does this work so well? OF COURSE, this includes the pairing Harry Styles/the moon, but my god, it works.

Hoist the Colours High, @kerasines, 5.2k. The story Kim was born to write, I sooooo want to see at least 10k more, Pirates of the Caribbean AU.

all down your shoulders and back, eleadore, 5.3k. This focus on Harry’s hair and cutting it was so far ahead of its time, yet absolute canon? In 2014?? Yeah!

let me be yours, louhearted, 6.6k. Come for the daddy kink and Louis calling Harry baby, but stay for the overall softness and canon vibes of it all, yeah!

Got Me an Appetite, zedi, 8k. Honestly, everything in the gaybo fest is MUST READ, but this one fits into what you want to see in girl direction for sure (plus these tags, whew).

Make the Yuletide Gay, @flowercrownfemme, 9.7k. This is literally a Hallmark movie come to life, well, a Christmas in Connecticut AU come to life, but I adore the way Chloe made it come to life.

lend me your thoughts, HappyPrincess, 9.9k. I have (and will) read anything Nin writes, and this one, big WHEW vibes, me as all the comments (canon spanking and kink exploration and exhibitionism, ahoy!).

when half spent was the night, @juliusschmidt, 14k. This advent fic owned me when it came out, and I hold out eternal hope for a sequel (Louis’s pregnant, Harry’s the doula, and that doesn’t even BEGIN to express how much ground this one covers).

Tell Me This Is Paradise, QuickedWeen/ @becomeawendybird, 14k. If you read NOTHING else on this list, this series right here is the one you absolutely have to pick, every installment is hotter than the last, plus the characterization is just so good! But everything else? VER VER GOOD!

Lesbian!Alphas series, bottomlinsons, 20k. I’ll admit it’s been a while since I read this one, but I think the world of fic could use more lesbian alphas (Taylor Swift even sang about it, c’mon!) 

[burningdarkfire]

also in the WIP wednesday spirit - i’ve gotten really into writing trackers the past few months! here’s what i’ve been up to in january:

wrote 6k words for the arcane jayvik “bearing it” fic

wrote 3.5k words for the critrole blood moon au. it’s now about 22k words total, which is exciting, and i also started on a oneshot in the same universe that’s sitting at around 1k currently

finished and published two oneshots carried over from last year (the beaujes college AU and the blumendrei “body fix” fic)

wrote and published two other oneshots (the vikvel battlecast fic and the jayvik early divorce era fic)

chipped away at my modern critrole astrid/wulf/fjord/jester sedoretu fic

started two other oneshots not yet mentioned: a jayvik battlecast fic (done, will be uploaded soontm) and a league jayvik modern AU where they’re both retired esports pros (also mostly done)

no progress on my critrole university AU, the shadowgast polymorph fic, or the critrole amnesia fic, but i’m coming to terms with the idea that i’m unlikely to finish some of these and will probably just polish up what i have and post them eventually

remembered that i wrote a few thousand words of a hogwarts AU that i could also tidy up and post?? haven’t done that yet though

overall i started the month with 10 WIPs and ended the month with 11 WIPs (sigh). i wrote about 18.5k words over 31 days, which i’m perfectly content with. i published a fic on 4/5 sundays, which is great, although i’m sure i won’t be able to keep that pace once i’ve cleaned up my existing stash of half-finished oneshots. i would love to finish the arcane jayvik “bearing it” fic as my main project for february - we’ll see how that goes!

[the-resurrection-3d]

@fanboysstillexsist

youre really cool, i have no idea how you write so much! how do you do all that? youre so productive its inspirational!

Before I get into actual practical advice (because you activated my writing tutor trap card), I should note that I include all discursive types in my big ole wordcount spreadsheet— so essays for class, feedback letters for work (just passed 22k on that!), all that goes in alongside “proper” creative writing. The real bespoke take is that the hard lines we’ve constructed around these different genres of writing actually make us worse writers because it inhibits us from understanding how our skills can transfer from one genre to the next (even though getting traditionally published does require you to write in multiple genres— not just the book itself, but the cover letter, the query letter, the synopsis, the proposal, the pitch tweet…) 

A lot of my spike in productivity has been caused not only by getting more comfortable with failure, but getting more comfortable with all my discursive types. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like anything but the actual act of writing new prose is productive, you know? But that’s not true.

Sitting down and writing some reflections on my writing process or on a story or even just a character I like is productive and meaningful work, and so is sitting down and writing bullshit one-offs with my characters that I know aren’t going to make it into the final product, and so is sitting down and writing a shitty vent poem in my Notes app that no one else will ever read. I know I talk about The Channel Quote a lot but it’s just so fucking true. 

Failure, too, ties into this. You write more when you’re comfortable with sucking. It’s just facts. I’m not going to act like I never feel anxiety about my work’s quality on a first draft, or I never cringe while I’m writing, or I never avoid a project because I feel bad about it (kicks my mermaid story under a rug), but overall, once you give yourself permission to write bullshit, the world is your oyster. 

This is where we get into more actionable tips: 

Zero drafting is a good method for this—I don’t even use quotation marks in most of my drafts anymore because it slows me down, and if I have two different ways I want to phrase a sentence, I’ll literally just use slashes and parentheses to include both rather than spend time mulling over which one I like better. 

Summarizing an idea you’re having and then letting that naturally transition (or not!) into actual actions, descriptions, and dialogue is also a good way to get yourself started— a lot of my brainstorming sessions begin with “thinking of [short sentence of two describing the scene]” before spiraling out into an actual outline/zero draft of the scene.

Alternatively, I’ll just focus on whatever it is I find interesting— a lot of my drafts are pretty much exclusively dialogue (“dialogue spines,” as I’ve seen them called), with maybe a few tags or gestures thrown in here and there so help me visualize the scene later. 

The other method I use, if I’m having a block, is to just write out something that could never be “good.” “Penis Inspection Day” and “Why The Fuck Can’t I Drink In The Hospital?” are two recent examples of this — I mean let’s be fucking real, no one actually expects a fic about sea monsters having weird spiked vacuum girlcocks or Ricky from Trailer Park Boys causing someone to miscarry because he drank her amniotic fluid to be “well-written.” The concepts are so weird and extreme that the actual quality of the content becomes secondary, allowing me to focus on having fun with the dialogue and character interactions. If I can’t be a good writer, I can at least be an amazingly bad one. 

The point of all these tips is to make yourself as comfortable coming to the page as possible. Even if you’re never as “productive” as me (again, keeping in mind that my ‘creative’ output is just one fraction of my actual writing), if you’re having fun and being gentle with yourself when you start writing, then writing will get a lot easier. It’s like a muscle; you’ve gotta exercise it. (This is where that “write every day” advice can be useful, if you’re someone who needs help just building up the habit of sitting down to write, although I much prefer the “I won’t go [x] days without writing” method.) 

The only other thing I want to mention here is freeing yourself from the idea of “completion.” @bettsfic has a good write-up of reframing the idea of a creative “project” over here on her newsletter, and it gave me some vocab to what I’ve been seeing in my own writing over the last couple of years. As betts writes,

i used to see publication as the birth of the project, and writing it akin to a long gestation period. then i saw publication as the death of the project, and its life was lived in its drafting. now, publication seems irrelevant to the project. the confines of a story and its many revisions are also irrelevant to the project. the beginning of a story is not the start of the project and the end of the story is not the end of the project. the project is larger than the story, its revisions, its publication, and its eventual readership.

So as an example, my “grammar of violence” series of Luca fics fit into a larger project about intrusive thoughts, about how to handle these intense, obsessive thoughts about hurting the ones we love, about what, if anything, these thoughts say about us as people. This project, of course, is a direct continuation of the themes of “but I am home,” and BIAH itself fits into a larger project about how the narratives I’ve grown up using to try and make sense of my reality have continuously failed me, and how I find myself deeply troubled by my own ways of writing pain. 

The EddTord fic I mentioned in my Ao3 tag game is the final work in the trilogy that “but I a home” is the second part to, and that fic took me three years to write— it began as a response to the “beach” prompt for BaconCola Week 2018, spiraledspiraledspiraled into a 16k monstrosity I never finished even as I finished the rest of Eddtord Finale, and then in the last weeks of 2020 I had a fucking meltdown and cranked out a 3k hybrid memoir-fanfiction all in one night. Every sentence that wasn’t a direct quotation from another author needed some kind of revision. There are still sentences in it that I think are kinda iffy. It’s still one of the best things I’ve ever written. 

To return to betts,

[. . .] now that i know what the project is, i have more patience with myself. it doesn’t bother me to rewrite a novel from the beginning, or to scrap novels altogether, because the story isn’t the project. the project cannot be diminished by cutting words, sentences, paragraphs, entire chapters. the project does not have a product. the project cannot be published. the project is in the practice, in dragging the impossibly large into clear, acute existence, so you can see it. so you can see the very center of what you thought was an unknowable thing.

I hope that’s helpful! 

[thebestbooksaround]

i don't suppose you have any new steter recs for us?

Well, I mean...who am I to disappoint? 

Steter fics coming up!

Foreshock by twothumbsandnostakeincanon (somanyofthekids)

22k | Explicit

The day Stiles’ mom died, he almost leveled his house.

Not on purpose. Not even by mistake, really. More by instinct.

Since then he's dug his fingers into everything he has left, holding on with desperation.

Desperation never stopped an earthquake.

Keeping him (It's all about intent) by sittinginmytincan

120k | Mature

A spell fucks up, meaning Stiles finds himself in a strange time and place - and somehow married to Peter Hale.

Lydia's disappeared under less-than-awesome circumstances, and finding her is the key to getting Stiles back home. Annoyingly, Peter feels compelled, for husbandly reasons, to tag along and help him. Only, as it turns out, Peter's not so annoying. And getting back is a lot harder than Stiles anticipates. Maybe having Peter around isn't so bad after all.

Despoiled by Bunnywest

11k | Teen

Peter Hale is objectively gorgeous, and Stiles has been pining after him for years, so when Peter asks him out it's a dream come true. It's only when they've been courting for months and on the brink of getting engaged that Stiles hears the rumors - the story of the omega that Peter proposed to, ruined, and then abandoned. It can't be true. Can it?

The Distant Sun by Green

5k | Teen

"You must be Peter," the boy says. He says it simply, but something resonates in the words, something Peter can't put his finger on.

"You have me at a disadvantage," Peter says.

All's Fair in Love and Videogames by taylorpotato

22k | Explicit

Neither of them is aware of it, but Peter and Stiles play the same MMORPG. After Stiles moves away from Beacon Hills and goes to college, he and Peter start raiding together by accident.

Backstage is Full of Parasites by Falln_Grce

61k | Explicit

A little tweak to the Teen Wolf universe where Stiles learned to take care of himself from a young age. And despite going through trauma as a child, he's 17 now and has adjusted to the new normal as well as he can. With a soulmate-AU just to keep things interesting.

What if the Sheriff didn't turn to alcohol when his wife died... What if he focused all of his attention on helping a seven year old, recently removed from an abusive home, Isaac get settled into the Stilinski household... Where would Stiles fit into that world?

Roommate Wanted: No Supernatural Creatures Allowed by veterization

38k | Explicit

Stiles is in college, living in a pleasant apartment, and absolutely does not need a roommate. He ends up getting one anyway, and as luck would have it, his roommate turns out to be Peter.

Don’t Forget to Breathe by cywscross

11k | Teen

The fire destroys every last reason Peter has to continue living. Stiles gives him a new one.

The Unexpected Marriage of Peter Hale by moonstalker24

9k | General

This is the story of how Peter gets married without technically dating anyone.

“You can bring your boyfriend with you,” Talia says. Peter stops giving Henry more bits of dried fruit to stare at his sister “Boyfriend?” “Of course!” Talia gestures at Stiles who looks around behind him with wide eyes. “I’m sure the whole family would be interested in meeting your young man.”

And this gem, which I haven’t read yet, but is opened in a tab just waiting for me to have time!

A Curious Magic by Triangulum

25k | Explicit

Overall, Stiles is very well-known in the supernatural community. It’d be hard not to be, not with how his reputation has grown like wildfire. He knows and is on good terms with nearly all the fae that reside in the preserve, the asrai that live deep in the lake, the Ito pack, the vampire couple that lives over in Beacon Valley (they buy an ethically-sourced food supply from Stiles), as well as almost every other supernatural entity in the area. But Talia Hale doesn’t like him, and a werewolf pack tends to do what their alpha tells them to.

So it’s a definite surprise when the wards at the edge of his property trip, the tingling down his spine telling him it’s a werewolf, the lack of burning sensation letting him know there’s no hostile intent. Stiles, in his office in the second floor turret, sets down the amulet he’s packing up for Marin and moves to the large window overlooking the front of his property. He’s expecting to see an Ito packmember, even though they nearly always call in advance, and is surprised to see a man that he recognizes as Talia’s brother, Peter.

[fencer-x]

Belated end-of-year fic meme

So, it’s already 2020, but I couldn’t technically post this meme until Erised reveals went up, so I’m posting it now! These are just some comments and discussions about the writing that I did this year. High word count, low fic output--that’s pretty normal for me!

GENERAL STATS

List of Fics Posted:

Fandom: Harry Potter Every New Beginning (141k, explicit; Eighth Year fic + time traveling) Pensieve For Your Thoughts (22k, explicit; pinch hit for HD Erised 2010, Eighth Year fic w/a fair bit of dubious consent going on)

Fandom: Promare spend some time with me (i really like your company) (73k, explicit [to be on the safe side]; canon re-write)

Total number: 3 Total word count: 236,239

Ship/character breakdown: Ship breakdown: [Harry Potter] Drarry, Hermione/Ron, Pansy/Parvati, and little tiny hints of other ships; [Promare] GaloLio, background implied Gueira/Meis

Characters that had the main focus: I'm happy to report I wrote from Draco's POV for the first time! My HP fics so far have all been Harry POV, so it was actually fun writing from Draco's POV, though I think most of my fics work better from Harry POV. Promare fic was from Lio's POV mostly because that's what the fic called for, and it was interesting--not sure if I'd go for that POV on the usual (update since I drafted this post: I think, strangely enough, I prefer Lio’s POV, as I’m well into fic #2 from his perspective). Promare fics focused, also, on Mad Burnish, which I really enjoyed writing (I'm much more of a Mad Burnish fan than Burning Rescue, so perhaps that's why XD)

Details

Best/worst title?

Best title: This is gonna be very subjective. I'm actually happy with all three of the titles?? I think Every New Beginning, though; because it's only after you finish the fic that you realize it's a (SPOILER ALERT) spoiler for the entire story. I like that little detail :D

Worst title: maybe spend some time with me (i really like your company)? I actually like the title, but it's a little bit OF a cop-out, just lifitng a line from lyrics, and it's difficult to google XD (update since I drafted this post: YOU FOOL, YOU’RE DOING IT AGAIN FOR YOUR NEW FIC NOW, WHY??? YOU CAN’T TRACK THAT)

Best/worst first line?

Best: I am far less comfortable with opening lines than closing ones. But I guess my favorite of these three is, /Kray Foresight liked to think himself a patient man./ The others are kind of generic, and it was interesting writing this bit from Kray's POV. Not a fun headspace.

Worst: /In retrospect, he should never have trusted a book that came from Pansy./ Not a terrible opener. Not an amazing one. In my defense, I was pressed for time when I wrote it, and I probably would've stewed over it a little longer to pick something with a bit more hook, but it did the job.

Best/worst last line?

Best: I'm satisfied with all of them, but I liked the entire epilogue of ENB, so the final line is probably my favorite: /He devoured his breakfast in record time, then Banished his tray and dishes back to the kitchen before tossing aside the duvet and padding into the bathroom to deliver his complaints about the turkey bacon to the chef in person./

Worst: It was tough finding a place to end the Promare fic that felt satisfying, so probably this one: /The distant whir of chopper blades whistling through the air grew louder and louder, and Lio leaned in to press his lips against Galo’s, lingering as long as he possibly could before whispering, “…Why don’t you start by teaching me how to ride a motorcycle?”/

General questions:

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

More! Because if I'd gone by my original plan, I'd have completed precisely one (1) fic this year in Every New Beginning. I was well into drafting my next fic after that when I tripped headlong into the Promare fandom, and I was eager to get that fic out before fandom died down, so I poured myself into it. Then the Erised fic was a pinch-hit, so I wasn't expecting to write it at all.

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

Well. Promare didn't exist last year, so 8D I also probably wouldn't have predicted I'd write any Pansy/Parvati and find it cute.

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

SSTWM, I think! I've had SO much fun with Promare so far, and getting to explore a slight twist on the canon, building out the Burnish society and delving into relationships I wished I'd seen explored further in the canon was really satisfying. I'm glad I wrote it.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

...And it's also my most popular story this year, too, by pretty much every metric AO3 can give me: hits, kudos, and bookmarks (ENB has more comments, but it's also been out rather a lot longer). The Promare fandom is hot hot hot right now (no pun intended), so I expect that contributed.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Probably my pinch-hit right now, if only because I wasn't able to show it off when it got posted because of the Erised rules. It's also a one-shot, whereas ENB is a multi-chapter monster.

Story that could have been better?

Wish I'd had a bit more time to play with my Erised submission, but them's the breaks with pinch-hitting! I'm satisfied with how it came out, but me being me, I love writing longfic and would've wanted to make something more of it.

Sexiest story?

Pensieve For Your Thoughts, very much so :D

Saddest story?

Every New Beginning, definitely. It's not a sad fic, per se, but it's quite sad in places, and the overall plot is not a happy one. It has a happy ending, but you'll want to read the tags carefully before checking it out.

Most fun?

SSTWM, getting to flesh out the Burnish colony--LOTS of fun. Gueira and Galo's rivalry in particular was a hoot XD

Story with single sweetest moment?

I think this bit from SSTWM:

“But maybe I can do something a little more my style?”

“Your style?” Lio repeated, dubious, and Thymos brought a hand up, resting it just over his heart. Lio tried not to let his eye linger on the spangling of scars covering his bare arm—was he not freezing, nearly naked as he was?

“When I was recovering in the hospital after the fire Kray rescued me from, he used to come and visit me. Sometimes he’d bring food, or toys, or games—but this one time he brought me a book. It was about firefighters—firefighters from all over the globe, way back before the Great World Blaze, even. That’s where I learned about the ones from that Asian country, see. But there was this one chapter about firefighters from this huge city—looked a lot like Promepolis, actually—and it was so huge, there used to be thousands of these firefighters who worked day and night to keep it safe. And when someone wanted to join their ranks, they had to get up in front of all their peers and speak an oath.”

Lio held his breath, though he wasn’t quite sure why, and tuned every nerve in his body to Thymos in that moment.

Thymos closed his eyes, his hand still splayed over his heart. “‘I promise concern for others, and a willingness to help all those in need. I promise courage: Courage to face and conquer my fears. Courage to share and endure the ordeal of those who need me. I promise strength of heart to bear whatever burdens might be placed upon me, and strength of body to deliver to safety all those placed within my care. I promise the wisdom to lead, the compassion to comfort, and the love to serve unselfishly whenever I am called.’” He opened his eyes, fixing Lio in place. “I promise. All of it.”

Lio’s heart was thudding mercilessly in his chest, and he worried that if he opened his mouth to speak, it might just leap right out. He swallowed thickly to keep it in place and then rasped, “...Grand words for a glorified member of a bucket brigade.”

“Was hoping you’d be impressed I remembered it, after all these years.”

“I am,” Lio said, taking great pains to ensure his sincerity came through.

Hardest story to write?

Pensieve For Your Thoughts; I dislike anything resembling noncon, and while I'm satisfied with what I did, if I'd had more time, I would've found a workaround so the consent wasn't nearly as dubious. I think my recipient liked it, though, so all's well! I also find writing porn difficult, and that story was like 70% porn XD Why I did that to myself, we'll never know.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

Every New Beginning, especially all the bits of Harry and Draco getting closer; I love writing their banter, LOVE IT. I wish I could write a story that's nothing but banter. Someone pay me to do that please.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

I love Lio, but we don't get too much characterization in the film; it was therefore kind of eye-opening writing from his POV. Of course no fan's characterization is going to be quite the same as what the creators might have imagined, but I still enjoyed what came out of it.

Most overdue story?

Eh, two of them weren't on any sort of deadline whatsoever, and I'm pretty sure I got my Erised piece in before the deadline! So we were good this year :)

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

I used NaNoWriMo as a 'goal' for finishing my Promare fic--I not only finished the fic, I also completed 50k of it during November, so I technically beat NaNoWriMo too! I learned that if I really want to hit a goal and feel like I have to, I have the complete and total capacity to do that. It's just a matter of will for me.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

To finish my next Drarry fic, aka the one that was supposed to come after Every New Beginning but got pushed to the back-burner by the sudden insistent arrival of Promare in my life. I also want to write for Erised PROPERLY this year and organize a Promare fanwork event around the one-year anniversary :D

[littlejeanniebean]

Thank you so much for tagging me @holy-shit-its-wolfstar!! Congrats on your year!! xx

Your total word count:

329,358

Top five fics by word count:

The Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee (73K) - post-war golden trio

Dancing Around You (59K) - Jily Hogwarts era

I’ll Go the Distance (32K) - Jily Modern AU Texting fic

Up to No Good / Mischief Managed (28K) - Jily/Wolfstar Band AU

Amy’s Progress Vlogs (22K) - Little Women Modern AU

Top five fics by kudos:

Up to No Good / Mischief Managed

I’ll Go the Distance

Dancing Around You

Not Throwing Away My (One-)Shot

Amy’s Progress Vlogs

Top fic overall:

Dancing Around You (by hits & comments) 

I’ll Go the Distance (by bookmarks & subscriptions)

Tagging @magic-girl-in-a-muggle-world @blitheringmcgonagall @solstilla @midnightelite​ @inakindofdaydream​ @pareidolian​ @authorsmberry​ @alrightginger​ @women-inthe-sequel​ @elanev91​ @jamesandthedog​ @charmingwillow​ @lizardcookie​ @tumbledfreckles​ ❤️

2020 Ao3 Wrapped Tag

Thank you @of-stars-and-moon for tagging me :D

Rules: This isn’t about comparing yourself to other authors, it’s about seeing how far you’ve come as a writer, and remember - numbers don’t mean anything as long as you’re enjoying yourself. Just go through your 2020 Ao3 statistics (there should be an option to see only 2020 stats), and post:

Your total word count:

45538 (I’m sorry w h a t)

Top five fics by word count:

Stupid with Love (23k) - Wolfstar AU

Mortal Once More (11k) - Regulus’ story

Orpheus (6k) - Wolfstar AU

April Fool’s (1.5k) - Wolfstar

First Hanukkah (1.2k) - Wolfstar AU

Top five fics by kudos:

Stupid with Love

April Fool’s

Mortal Once More

Orpheus

First Hanukkah

Top Fic Overall: (just list the fic that’s highest in all/most categories)

Stupid with Love

Tagging: @withrewings @e-of-west-glendia @sirrriusblack @littlejeanniebean @mollymarymarie

[daily-yoificrec]

5/28/17 recs

Note: My exams are over but it will take a few days to get back into the rhythm of things. Sorry for short rec lists in the meantime.

1. Eight Days A Week by Mhalachai || rated G, 6.9k

okay but a nanny!AU where Viktor has somehow acquired a bushel of children and needs a nanny to help care for his screaming brood - enter Yuuri, freshly retired from what he thinks was a failed figure skating career, and in desperate need of money to help pay off his student loans.

Comment: OH MY GOD I- IT’S SO GOOD. щ(゜ロ゜щ) EVEN THOUGH IT’S NOT LIKE A COMPLETE FIC IT’S SO ENJOYABLE AND JUST. HELL. READ IT. Nanny AU is like such a fucking fandom classic and Mhalachai presents this perfect perfect thing I wish it was a massive longfic but I’ll take this because it’s wonderful and the dynamics are everything and //lies down it’s such a joy to read.

YOU SHOULD READ IT 

2. Gentlemen and Businessmen by Theladyofravenclaw || Rated T, 22k

Yuuri Katsuki is a businessman in desperate need of a date for the week and instructions around L.A. Victor Nikiforov is a prostitute just doing his best to find some work to help pay the rent. When these two cross paths Victor and Yuuri are set up for a whirlwind of events as Victor finds himself thrown into the world of first-class society and Yuuri starts to question whether what his company does is right or wrong as they both find themselves falling more and more in love with each other. But as they fall in love with one another they become more aware of the fact that they only have one week together.

And it's almost over.

(Or in simpler terms my excuse to write a Pretty Woman AU)

Comment: I’ve never actually watched Pretty Woman, so I kinda went into this blind. But it was nice. a a little confusing at points and sometimes trite, but overall enjoyable. Also complete!!! 

3. On the Run/True Freedom by mean_whale || Rated M, 13.5k

Viktor has gotten accustomed to his life on the streets, when he's suddenly abducted by two unknown people who take him away.

Yuuri has a condition that has prevented him from ever having a proper relationship with an omega.

When Viktor, who doesn't trust alphas, meets Yuuri, who doesn't trust himself, will their lives change for better or for worse?

Comment: an a/b/o au that has me very curious and very looking forward to how it goes on. I want to know more about Victor’s past and Yuuri’s situation soon.

[jlf23tumble]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, I don't recall if you read mythology/magic/fantasy fics. I read Secrets of Eden and Black With Autumn Rain and they are some of my favorites. But I'm in this vibe and I want more fics that has this dark edge, like those two, but the ones I found are cute and adorable - which I love but not what I'm looking for this second. And I thought maybe you could know some other fics or authors to rec? Please?

Awwww, you’re never bothering me! I gotta say, though, I’m not the hugest fan of dark (or of mythological/magic/fantasy, for that matter), but I *do* have a few in the supernatural category that might interest you! Hope these work for ya, even if half of them aren’t really all that “dark” lol...I think the longer ones toward the end might fit the bill!

Snakes and Stones, by objectlesson/ @alienfuckeronmain, Eleanor/Taylor, 1.4k, M. If you call a girl a snake enough, sometimes she becomes one. Her legs lengthen and fuse, her pupils shrink to slits. She gets colder and colder, until she has to spread herself on the warm cement beside the pool, soaking in heat, sipping gin and tonics to warm her blood so she does not turn to ice and shatter to bits. (This is mysterious and spooky and I would read more of it, tbh)

One Touch Is Never Enough, by @kingsofeverything, louis/harry, 3k, E. It’s been a rough year for Louis. First, he was turned into a werewolf, which hasn't been so bad, except that he didn't anticipate how it would affect his love life. (A crack werewolf fic that involves massage shouldn’t be this good, and yet, here we are!)

We’ll Never Be Lonely in the Dark, by QuickedWeen, louis/harry, 6.8k, E. Detective Louis Tomlinson keeps getting blocked when he tries to use his psychic gift to locate a missing child. One late night he manages to get through but instead of finding who he's looking for he lands in the bedroom of a mysterious man. (Sexy psychic exchange during a tense police investigation)

One day to believe in you, by Mediaville, louis/harry, 7k, E. Harry blinks and has the nerve to look surprised. "You think about me when you get off?" "Yes," Louis says. He wonders how hard he'd need to punch himself in the face to knock himself out."Often?" "Yes, Christ, Harry," Louis groans. "Probably eight times a week for going on six years now. On average, you know. More when we were touring, less when I've been visiting family. Anything else you'd like to know?" (Eternally on my rec list, a cursed souvenir makes Louis tell the truth for 24 hours)

let me outshine the moon, by sarcasticfluentry, louis/harry, 9.8k, E. Boarding school students Niall and Harry chance a trip to the local vampire bar. (this entire series is FIRE, but here’s where it starts)

Maybe One Day, by @vondrostes, louis/harry, 11k, E. Louis has a strange encounter with a long-haired stranger one night and can't get it out of his head. (I’ve read it twice, and I still couldn’t perfectly describe it? The tags help: Psychic abilities! Supernatural elements!)

Take Me Under the Blue, by objectlesson/ @alienfuckeronmain, louis/harry, 19k, E. Louis hasn’t even seen his legs yet. He doesn’t know how they work or how long they’ll be. Maybe they won’t suit the rest of Harry at all, and he’ll have to grow into them or something. It doesn’t matter; Louis has loved Harry for a year with scales, so he can’t imagine wonky legs putting a damper on his attraction (Not a fish dick in sight, but some magical goings on in general)

Sing You Butterflies, by objectlesson/ @alienfuckeronmain, louis/harry, 22k, E. Harry’s a clumsy unicorn who accidentally stomps on a witch’s garden and is turned into a human as punishment, so he wanders into a nearby village covered in glitter, still figuring out how to walk on two feet, and meets the fairy-tale-fine Louis, who has to teach him how to live as a human and stop him from eating soap. (A cursed unicorn, and it could have gone dark (it’s a bit dark) but overall sweet)

Soul of the Sea, by Vurdoc, louis/harry, 32k, E. Louis lives a nomadic lifestyle. Never settling down in one place for long, he finds himself caught in a storm, as he’s passing through a small Scottish seaside town. Everywhere is full, except the old B&B perched up on an isolated hill near the coastline, where the recluse owner isn’t what he seems. (A magical mysterious secret keeps Harry tied to his home by the sea)

Purer Than the Water (like we were), by feelsforbreakfast, louis/harry, 33k, E. Louis wants the boy to wade deeper, deep enough that Louis can go under and wrap his fingers around his ankles for just a moment. Pull him under. Just touch skin, for a second. (Just thinking about this fic makes me feel physically cold, but it’s an amazing read)

knives don’t have your back, by @turnyourankle, louis/harry, 51k, E. The lone survivor of an on campus massacre that claimed the lives of his four housemates, Harry is urged to take a sabbatical or transfer. Instead, he chooses to stay in school, move into the dorms, and overcome his fears. (This one doesn’t have magic, but it is DARK and spooky on every level)

The Woods Are Lovely, Dark and Deep, by @helloamhere, louis/harry, 65k, E. For all its complexity, Louis sometimes reminded himself, life could always be simplified into a series of forks in the road. Even overwhelmingly big things were survivable when you broke them down to their choice. One path or the other, left or right. (This is a series that I think is still a WIP, but it’s mysterious and pulls you right in)

Say Hallelujah, Say Goodnight, by @alivingfire, louis/harry, 110k, E. Louis is an angel who is just a little too bad to be good, Harry is a demon who is just a little too good to be bad, and they're both a little too in love to be impartial when angels and demons go to war. (I feel like everyone has probably read or skimmed it, but a LOT is happening (I own the paperback, woo hoo!!))

[trisscar368]

Shea’s got the big ones.  Especially the relationship/networking thing, friends who reblog your art will do more for you than a big follower count (*good* interaction is around 10% of your follower count, most of the time it’s lower than that, that’s just old tumblr lore stats at this point)

If you do have specific questions or concerns about your style and popularity/appeal, I’d get peer feedback from people (which might be easier to do in a discord community than on tumblr).  There are artist channels in a lot of general fandom or ship discord servers, there’s a destiel artist-specific server (over at @destielartistsunited), and there’s places like @weekendartmarathon​ for general art. 

Commissions aren’t *huge* in this fandom, outside of the bnfs people struggle to get traction and work.  Those individuals who get traction often are professionals, working in the industry and coming over to fandom for fun.  Kofi sketches (buy me a coffee, get a rough sketch) seem to have a slightly higher rate of interaction right now (though it is basically highway robbery in terms of content-to-pricetag).

I’d recommend trying out some art challenges, things like Suptober that run monthly or challenges like Femslash February or other themed challenges (advent calendars for example).  Do art for fics (bangs tend to be slow-burn interaction and they’re not as big for artists as they are for authors, but they will get your name out there), interact in Draw This In Your Style challenges.  All of those will allow you to access a slightly larger audience, both in people looking for that type of content and in the form of other artists who are participating.

Being prolific will absolutely help people link your name to your art (there’s a threshold where art is just art on a theme, to where art is *this person’s art*, and recognition tends to come with more exposure.)

Palette memes, clothing memes, ship memes, etc all work once you have an interactive audience, which takes it’s own time and work to build if you don’t stumble into one naturally (there’s feedback cycles to the whole process).

On the other hand, I’m going to blabber stats* really quick**

Most art in fandom has a natural half-life of about two weeks.  The vast majority of the notes you’re going to get are probably going to happen in that window, though every once in a while the right person will reblog things months down the line and you’ll add an extra 500-2k notes.

Old popular art will circulate with notes up in the 50-100k range, and those are always from s8-10 fandom - bigger fandom, fandom crossover during superwholock, and seven years to collect notes.  Don’t let those numbers get you down.

Bnfs art will circulate longer, but that’s a lot to do with people knowing the art (see something five times and you’ll remember it more than you will something you saw once) and hunting back for the artist through their or other individual’s blogs.  Holiday themed art will also resurface during holidays, which is why 10 year old destiel art circulates at christmas (Lettiebobettie).  Otherwise, the art that gains the most traction has to do with *incredibly* intangible elements; emotion that the piece evokes, fandom zeitgeist when it was posted that makes it iconic.

There’s also just fandom rot going on that messes with the numbers.  Bnf artwork gets the notes it does because people who *are no longer active in the fandom* come out of the woodwork to reblog it and like it.  Bnf art will hit 4-8k, and historically 20k+ where it’s someone who is multifandom or hits the tumblr radar.  (This piece hit the radar three years ago and got 22k-ish notes in that one day from people outside of the fandom.  I’d encourage you to look through the notes that artist got overall during their span in fandom - the normal range for a “good” popular artist still goes between 8k and less than 1k depending on the piece, and it’s *utterly* random.)

And with fandom rot, people who used to be hitting 1.4k on a piece are getting notes in the range of 600 or less.  Fandom *shrunk*, and the new influx of fans from 15.18 aren’t integrated to our networks quite yet (nor do some of them seem to care to do so, they came into a fandom bubble with other new people and they’re happy there for now.)

“Good” popular art right now is hitting 1.8-3k, medium grade artists will cap out at less than 1k, and beginners at 200 or below.  Those numbers are a lot lower than they were three years ago when I started tracking stats in the back of my head.

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*source - I handle a ridiculous amount of art.

**okay that was not quick...

I'm feeling like I kind of hit a plateau with this blog, I just can't seem to get higher than 500 followers and my artwork usually hardly gets any reblogs two days after posting. People don't seem to be interested in sending me prompts or commission art.

I would think there is not much demand in destiel artwork but my dashboard says otherwise. So, I'm doing something wrong and I'm hoping to get some insight by asking you guys about my artwork.

I have some theories

a) people aren't fond of my style, it looks "off"

b) my art needs more exposure, no one sees it

c) the topic of my artwork doesn't fit with what the fandom wants to see right now

I would be really thankful for any answers, suggestions, thoughts, anything.

Thank you ❤️