#plus some of this is in my wheelhouse. ive been reading and writing fics years ago abt this stuff

[clowningaroundmars]

this lil story i'm workin on about miles42 has gotten out of CONTROL

my first draft is already well over 15k words long now?? 😭😭

this was just supposed to be a quick lil story? bang it out, be done with it?!?!

what is wrong with me

[spockandawe]

hello! i came across your wips button and i wonder if youll ever go do them? the transformers ones sound super good!!

That.... is an excellent question and one I'm not super equipped to answer! The boring downer angle is that I've been horribly, immovably blocked on art and writing for a long while now, and it drives me nuts trying to shake that AND i rarely have any luck. I know i can write pretty darn well, and I can do it FAST, there was a hot minute where i successfully held myself to uploading at least one piece of art or writing per day. That pace was never going to last, my art got better and my fics got longer, plus i went from languishing in the falling action of grad school to having an actual job, which was both a less flexible schedule and also more money to explore other hobbies. But that period of my life really drove home how important that rhythm and periodicity is to me, and i haven't been able to recapture that in years.

As it is right now, if i manage to finish anything, it's only going to happen with either a fandom at the VERY very forefront of my mind (svsss or the raksura core au right now), or with an idea too fresh and good and crunchy to resist, independent of fandom (there's a dungeon meshi idea lightly haunting me). Transformers is a remarkably good playground, I love it SO much, but it's been years since I reread any significant part of it, so the ideas aren't flowing. I trust my old ideas, but if the canon isn't fresh, or I'm not actively talking about it, the spark is unlikely to catch. There's an off-chance of me reacting to an idea in some other fic via a medium of transformers smut, but I'm also struggling to read right now too 🥲

But! But!!!! A thing ive noticed and that drives me bananas is that when i move, the shape of my hobbies changes. I vibed really well with writing in NJ and MA, and COMPLETELY lost the ball when i relocated to VA. I cross-stitched in NJ, faded in MA, and lost it in VA. I bookbound like nuts in VA, but i just did a local move, and I'm no longer getting the reaction of 'I'm idle, I should make a book.' I don't know where things will go, first was a rush to unpack my boxes, then was a rush to learn to paint a room, and now my home is full of jumbled furniture and objects and I'm so overwhelmed that all I want to do is lie in bed and level grind in video james.

Teal deer, i can't tell what hobby is going to take center stage now, and it's driving me nuts. But it could be writing! I'm much more confident about my writing than lots of other creative endeavors. I also want to revisit canon for a lot of old fandoms. I think the wip list predates my cnovel phase, but i have two beefy svsss wips, and at least two short ones, and two aus I'd love to flesh out. I have raksura core writing. I have a tf bookbinding project that's been languishing for. 1.5 years. But if i can find my momentum, I'll be diving back into canon. And i really think 5-10k of hard weird emotional smut really is my wheelhouse. I wish so hard i could recapture that energy! This is a response much longer than it needed to be, but just imagine me as the WHY ARE YOU CLOSED meme at my own brain, and much more confused and frustrated than anyone else that I don't write anymore 🤣

[rokurookajima]

thank you so much for the tag kat!!! also to you AND nightmare - i am so honored and grateful to make the favorites list!! i can die happy if metalbanders and ratatouille style are my LEGACY (and thank god for the ratatouille style emojis 🫡)

Words Written:

ok so i actually calculated a ton of variations on my annual words written yesterday JUST because …idk i have OCD? so i have several answers for this i was unexpectedly prepared

so as far as what’s made it to ao3 - 30,768 (39311 counting the fic i finished NEW YEAR’S EVE but didn’t get the chance to final proofread and post)

published + wips that may or may not eventually make it to ao3 (including the rest of claw machine plus a bunch of other stuff and yes it’s all waava): 66,092

work on my original novel (bitter tooth): something around 58,000 (i couldn’t quite remember all the scenes i wrote specifically in 2024, plus i’m constantly adding or subtracting from older scenes so that’s the best estimate i got)

TOTAL: 127,436 (which is.. insanely.. a bit longer than where everything i’ve ever written officially in the bitter tooth canon including actual canon timeline + post canon i b writing for fun)

Smut Scenes:

this is honestly impossible for me to count LMAO let’s assume like .. maybe half of that total word count look i’m not right in the head okay!!!

New Things I Tried:

canon waava!! i mean still “canon” since human form raava and all, but stillll ! back in the day i only ever wrote a couple scenes that never went anywhere taking place during/post beginnings, everything that saw the light of day was metalbanders! writing any type of fantasy or non-modern anything is not rlly my wheelhouse, so i’m excited to finally feel like i cracked writing CANON waava, there’s always been ideas i’ve wanted to do (and y’know…. not naming names but one of them came to fruition in a big way… let’s say it has something to do with a certain rat…..)

Fic I spent the most time on:

definitely claw machine 🙏🏻 which is the longest multi chapter fic i’ve ever written, i’m much more a one shot fanfic guy usually. also insane and worth noting.. i wrote the first 4 chapters and a good maybe 3rd of the 5th in the span of one (1) single week which ive REALLY never cranked out anything that fast. but ive stalled on that mainly bc of getting distracted by other ideas, but also it’s a natural part of the process innit

Fic I spent the least time on:

NO IDEA HOW but i literally wrote and although i was burning in like… an hour? 2 hours tops? i for real feel like i opened google docs, blacked out, and when i came to i had written that whole thing

Favorite Thing I Wrote:

much like kat’s answer, i really am so happy with everything i’ve written this year and tho it is hard to choose favorites…

in reguards to fanfiction, it’s definitely claw machine. metalbanders au is my BABY and i’m sooooo so happy to finally be writing the Big Fic i really wanted to give it 10 years ago but didn’t quite have the skills or drive yet. i’m glad it sat on the back burner til now bc it wouldn’t at all have been what i’ve been able to make it today

as far as bitter tooth (which ik i can only give a super vague answer bc no one even knows what it’s about here lmao), i wrote a lot more for the second half that i’m especially happy with. a scene that sticks out to me is a conversation the main boy (his name is simon he’s very unwell bc unfortunately i gave all my worst qualities to him hehe) has with a girl he meets in the psych ward .. while i was writing that, i the author felt like i was finally putting together some plot points i’d never quite answered for myself to the point it felt like i was actually HAVING this conversation with him and not the one writing it out

Favorite thing I read:

i actually didn’t read much fanfiction until this fall when i deep dived straight back into waava hell so i only have a few but!!

bonded by @katkastrofa - what an absolute masterpiece… i said so much already in a long ass review that lead to me and kat becoming friends which i mean what a blessing first of all. but a fic hasn’t left me in shambles like this in SO long, it made me fully cry in the bathtub while reading it, and just hit so so many things i want in a fic

the darkest sun and the brightest star by @shadelorde - i’m so excited to see where this goes!! it’s off to such an interesting start with a fun mix of serious and humor (vaatu is just such a delightful trip), and it’s the first sunstar i’ve ever read (idk if you invented sunstar fr nightmare but to me, you did) ! and likewise, i’m so happy we met! even if technically it was before i read this, even stillll

nothing lasts forever by queenpersephoneofhades - this was from waava week 2014 which was the first waava week and also the only one i participated in before this year!! i remember reading a few chapters from it back then, but re-found it and reading it start to finish is…. 😮‍💨 oof. a doozy, an absolute gut punch ending. SO good

all of alice’s (@ebonynightwriter) waava week drabbles!! i always enjoy her submissions every year, they’re such good little glimpses into their relationship during & post canon, and sometimes AU

ok also i haven’t read yet but i am VERY excited to deep dive into all of kat & nia’s multiverse fics in the future 🙏🏻

Writing goals for next year:

number 1 .. probably obvious. finish claw machine - there are 3 chapters to go & the next one is just barely shy of being done.

but also i have been spinning so many ideas with kat for various canon waava shenanigans that i’ve already written so many little snippets of, i really would love to turn all of those into something complete. it’s far away, but also i hope to participate in waava week 2025 again! whether writing or drawing. i’m also very very tempted to rewrite my two original metalbanders fics from 2013/2014 (because again.. the ocd…..) - i love them for what they were but ykno ofc my 17/18 year old writing is uhhh pretty different from 28, and especially since they contain a lot of important lore to the au / a lot of references to them in claw machine, there are somethings that don’t quite fit what i’ve decided is officially canon now (and some tones that are off, just y’know they’re 10 years old……)

and ofc…. i wanna keep working on bitter tooth. that is my truest baby, those characters are my literal children, and if i could get it to a point where it can be read from tentative start to tentative finish (i write out of order, so i have scenes written from every plot point through the whole narrative, but as it stands, i don’t think someone else could remotely read through what exists … MAYBE they could follow the plot from what there is, but i don’t think there would be enough gradual build in between to make anyone INVESTED enough y’know). that said… i write bitter tooth all for me babe, i genuinely don’t know if i’d ever publish it if i were to finish it, and idk if i’d ever even let anyone read it all?? BUT FOR ME. and inevitably i’m sure i’ll let friends read it. i want it to be readable which feels potentially feasible for 2025. i’d love to see it COMPLETE but…..i think that’s a 2026 issue. at least

the whole 🗑️🔥 gang is all here, so anyone reading that wants to do this, pls tell ‘em sydney sent you! but also my girly pop… @fenharel-is-so-swell if you wanna talk about your novel!!!!

Year-End Writer's Roundup: 2024 Edition!

thanks so much for the tag @sweetorangepoptart!! i had to wait to actually do this until i finished the last fic i wanted to post for the year, so now it's time for the roundup!

i'm honestly not sure who to tag, so if you see this and you wrote anything this year, feel free to do it and say i tagged you!!

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!!):

let's not even get into my WIPs there's so many lol. going by just published works, i wrote 73,234 words!! honestly crazy to think about!

Smut scenes:

three! all in their own standalone works. doing the math, that means my smut fics alone take up about 1/3 of my words written this year haha

New things I tried:

i've written for lots of ships for the first time this year! in fact, i believe all the ships i wrote for are the first-time ships for me, which is always very exciting

as well, i tried a slightly different writing style than usual in my fic i'm glad i get forever to see where you went. i really enjoyed writing like this, and i can definitely see myself doing it again in the future!

Fic I spent the most time on:

i think that title has to go to my fic Likewise, as it sat half-finished in my drafts for... honestly most of this year i think

Fic I spent the least time on:

i can't say 100% for sure, but i think my fic Something Nice. it was written for yangvik week, and it was quite literally written the same day it was published. i did that several times during the week, but as this one's word count is a bit lower than the others, i think it's most likely the one i spent the least time on

Favorite thing I wrote:

ughhhhh this is like asking me to pick my favorite child. i love them all!! but if i had to choose, i think i need to go with The Push. i am honestly so proud of this fic, and i actually go back and reread it quite frequently. it also became popular beyond my wildest belief, and was sort of my jumpstart into the yangvik ship/fandom. the response to it helped give me the confidence to write seven (and counting!) more yangvik fics!!

Favorite thing I read:

actually this is like having to pick a favorite child. how can i possibly choose when i read not only lots of fic, but lots of good fic?? i've gotta choose multiple lol

anything by my lovely mutual @katkastrofa, i legitimately can't choose any specific one to focus on because they're all so incredibly written! Ruby by KingWuko; i love all your wuko fics but this one in particular gets me every time! and outside of the atla fandom, i've been really enjoying this owl house fic on ao3!

Writing goals for next year:

honestly? just keep writing! writing fanfiction has honestly been incredibly helpful for me while i'm in college. seriously, my mental health is always so much worse when i'm not writing. even if i don't publish it, writing is so good for my brain. so i want to keep up with it as i go into the new year!

i've also worked on a loose writing schedule for the upcoming year - i'm not holding myself to it super strongly but i really am going to try and follow it! it's just a way to help me focus more on individual fics and know when i want to try and finish them. that way i can do things like publishing fics for friends' birthdays and participating in more fandom events!

and last but not least, a semi-writing goal that i have is to host another wonderful yangvik week! the 2024 event was amazing, and since it ended even more people have found it and expressed interest, so i 100% would like to do it again. and if i do it again, this time i'm going to try and write for all seven days! considering i wrote for six last time, it seems pretty manageable lol

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thanks again for the tag! this has been a great writing year for me, and i can't wait to see what 2025 holds!