#selkiefinalist

[moregraceful]

happy birthday!! i hope a kindly bird visits you and gifts you something mysterious but of great value that’s not immediately known but you carry it in your pocket for years just in case and one day the situation is upon you and the mysterious item proves its worthiness and you think back on this birthday and are like, “that was a great birthday.”

thank you so much my friend!!

my parents sent me a box of things I'd left behind that i finally opened today and among some pieces of small art, a lot of socks, a dish towel and a heavy statue of hanuman, there was also a bobblehead of jake middleton except his head broke off? wrapped in my dog's reusable diapers. unwrapping broken head jake middleton from my dog's diapers felt like a portent of some kind, but i'm not sure of what. i shall keep my eye out for birds.

[tulowitzki]

bold of you to mention ‘my jo in shorts fic’ and then not talk to me about it!! i am chin in my hands, at work, not doing work, dying to hear more

wellllllllllll

the basic premise is that when they were young, they were at a house party and nate ditched jo for a girl in short shorts, and since jo was in love with nate he bought a pair to see if he'd get the same result.... and now ten years later he can still put on a pair to cheer him up

it's half written, i just need to finish it!

[dearmrsawyer]

happy birthday jamila!! i hope you are being appreciated and that something wonderful happens for you <3

thank you angela!!!! 💜💜 sorry for reply to this sooo long after you sent it, i hope you are doing well and that your hockeys are winning, or that they are at least touching much more than necessary in a public capacity that you can consume 🙌

[nateslehky]

fic writer asks: 10 and 14 if you wanna

10) How do you feel about writing plot, setting/description, inner thoughts, dialogue?

plot: depends! i don't tend to really plan things so the plot kinda just happens as i write everything else haha.

setting/description: also depends! sometimes it comes really naturally and sometimes it's a bit of a slog. i don't really think it's a strength of mine so that's probably why. it tends to be what i have to edit/add/rearrange the most when revising.

inner thoughts: love! getting into the head of the character and showing their personality is one of my favorite parts of writing.

dialogue: also love! it's almost always the first thing i'll write for scenes. my most basic drafts are just dialogue, no/limited descriptions and then i build the scene out from there. it's definitely the easiest for me although sometimes a thorn in my side when i feel like i can't get it to sound natural.

14) What is something you wrote in a fic that you are hoping readers picked up on but you don't know if they did? And/or, what is something that you were excited that readers did pick up on?

there's definitely some stuff in my longer unfinished natelehky fic (that i so very desperately need to work on) that i wrote in purposefully as like foreshadowing bits and stuff but i won't point them out specifically cause that's unfinished haha. we'll see if people pick up on any of that.

in general, i've gotten a few comments where people point out how much they love how i write the love-interest and their emotions and interactions which makes me very :) :) :). even when i'm writing someone's pov (let's be honest, usually nate's) i still put a lot of thought into what the other half of the pairing is thinking/feeling (especially in my longer fics) and so people pointing that out always makes me :,)

ask me fic questions!

[outerbankies]

fic asks: 🕯️and 💞 please!!

omg ty so much for sending!!!!

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

writing hesitate was super hard and took forever!!! and it needed up really shaping everything that’s happened since then in new light so I’m glad I took my time with it

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

don’t get me wrong I love going off on description but at the end of the day the dialogue is so important! i really try to picture conversations in my head to type it out how it would most likely happen in real life

fic asks here if anyone else is interested!

[selkiefinalist]

if you are also playing the writers ask game -- what do you think should be the selkiefinalist introductory fic (or what do you think is the quintessential selkiefinalist fic)? -patrichornkissed

this is an impossible question! also me articulating anything: maybe possibly if when but uh probably yeah i guess? i don’t know what would compel someone to read something i’ve written and gave up trying to figure that out some time ago but:

if i have to pick one hockey fic i’d pick heel for the reasons of the pairing being so important (to me) but also it was something i wrote purely for myself, before i was riddled with so much doubt about my own writing ability, and so it’s super self-indulgent and perfect for the intended audience (me). plus i wrote it so fast, the words just were there when i wanted them, which doesn’t happen often. i definitely have better constructed stuff, and a lot more inventive ‘make up a pairing’ stuff, and things that are more ambitious or more deliberately executed, and i think i’m always subject to recency effect in terms of emotional attachment to fics i’ve written (looking at you shork fic), but heel is like the thing written on the inside of my skull.

[claraxbarton]

@droumack @dinosaurpizza @squidsquadlove @stxrs07 @matdrai @fannyyann @gaybroons @sharklemonss @mekana47 @blue-line-baby @jules-in-deep @noxnthea @jamesmccann @cataroo @nonachan9 @theisleofapples @woodcider @gooses-chaos-demon @thisonecassie @sharp-edges @eleni-ah-blog @fellowshipofthegay @selkiefinalist @wyattjohnston @ryangravytrain @intricatepuckrituals @lovethygoalie @saekokato @renchanters @rouzys @our-o-boros @moomiman42069 @puckthisshift @puckingdisaster @keyshui @kitnita @kingcameacallin @offside-the-lines @yammz @dijkstraspath @capsvsducks @loulucifer @dwisp @loviess @kairos44 @square-opossums @justchristina @nightshadehasblorbos @olivette-branch @rattkachuk

It's April!

Time for Moodboards!

Give us your favorite idiots, your best enemies to lovers takes, your bros5eva, your attempts to bait writers into creating fic based on YOUR moodboard, a moodboard of your favorite fic(contact writer)!

All through April we will promote your moodboards (which means you gotta tag us or message us)!

Add your moodboards to the AO3 Collection!

(Help us promote and tag all your friends and PLEASE reblog)

Happy LAST MONTH OF THE REGULAR SEASON!!

[mariosferraro]

fic asks: 🏅🧠

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

I honestly am really pleased with my ability to structure/build narratives, especially w/ the incorporation of subplots/things that aren't solely going on with the main characters? Really fleshing shit out, if you will.

🧠 What’s an idea you have that you can’t quite call a WIP yet?

i mean. ok how are we operationalizing idea vs wip. i think i'm gonna operationalize idea as like something where i don't at least have a clear idea of character/plot arcs & the ending vs a wip where i, if not an outline, have at least a clear idea of what it's supposed to be & mean & how it's supposed to go, if not every plot point/subplot/etc or is something that i doubt is going to get off the ground besides being a fun little thing i toy with in dms.

anyway a lot of these r heavier bc of who i am (someone who enjoys pain) but i actually would simply like to toss out my pens/flyers slow burn claude/sid rival marching band verse, loosely and affectionately titled after mt. joy's bigfoot's opening lyrics, "white kids don't dance (they just follow commands)". it might never get off the ground because i don't really write hs aus and i was not in marching band so much as tenuously allowed to play the triangle while hanging out w/ the marching band at games. i did do too much work in the verse so like, it might show up in dumb snippets across my tumblr some time. anyway senior year of hs rival marching bands rival drum majors sid / claude. sid is morally conflicted over his crush on his rival (no one cares about the rivalry anymore except geno and tanger and flower, who only care because it's funny to work sid up about the time he furiously & drunkenly made out with his Storied Rival at a band party last year as a betrayal to their school, not because they care or know about rivalries) and incredibly dramatic about it. truly romeo and juliet but no one dies or really cares. beezer inherits the drum major title after giroux is traded goes to college and he and frosty get so so stressed about it before band camp that summer they get super stoned and show up an hour late to cam york having a conniption. the caps are theater kids. nicke/ovi are truly the spielberg/capshaw of kinda shitty high school theater. the burton/boham carter. the apatow/mann. this all sounds like bullshit but ok. i don't like how much i've thought about this.

[cactusandfir]

oooh, 1 and 20 for the one you rebaggled from me? please???

1. is writing cathartic or stressful for you?

definitely cathartic, i wouldn't do it if it ever got to stressful i think, i have enough of that on my writing at my day job!

20. fic that you put the most and least work into

the one i put the most work into is probably "a little heads up," i did a TON of research about tk and lawson for that one, which took a lot of time, and that was the longest fic per shortest timeline so the most concentrated amount of work i've done

least work is probably..."innocence and fucking gucci" which i wrote in like an hour after everyone was tagging things mitch/harry styles and i couldn't let it go

[perditious]

@selkiefinalist this is so beautiful. to me.

I do not feel the spark of divine inspiration but I do feel the need to create something before I blow up, you know how it goes sometimes

[nateslehky]

fic asks: 4, please?

4. Is there anything in the fic you're unsure about including?

oh literally always lol.

there's one wip that has a character i just can't quite pinpoint. he's not superrrrrr relevant to the story but i still really like him? he just started as an OC but then switched to being a player but he still just doesn't feel quite right. idk.

i feel like once i figure him out that wip might go a lot smoother (i haven't really written anything for it for like a month lol). idk if that means just pulling him from the story or changing him up a bit or what and it might mean i have to rework a decent amount of stuff, but such drafting lol.

ask me unwritten/unpublished fics asks <3

[st-louis]

if you could pick anyone for the flyers or the habs, and cap space were not an issue, and you wouldn’t have to sacrifice any of your faves, who would you add to each team’s roster?

honestly i don’t know. i think for the flyers i’d have to say any solid right-handed veteran defenseman. no one’s really available. i’ve seen mattias ekholm’s name floated around and even though he’s not a righty he’s played on his offside before and i think i like what he could bring to the team. if realism wasn’t an issue i just want matt niskanen back... baby, come back...........

and honestly to the habs, i don’t know. someone who has a scoring touch? but i don’t want to fuck up the roster as it is right now either when cole caufield is on the way and i wanna see how he works. i guess maybe montreal could use a good speedy puck-moving defenseman that isn’t victor mete but... i also hate to say it, a lot of the guys who are considered puck moving defenseman aren’t anyone i’d want on the habs.

[bigbrotherlouis]

4, 8, 20 and/or a number of your choice if you don’t like these options!!

4. what does it take for you to be proud of something you’ve written?

OH this is a QUESTION. hmmm i think there has to be a lot of emotional payoff while writing it! if i’ve put in the work, then i feel proud of it. also if people like it lol

(i did 8 here so this is) 9. what are you best and worst at when writing?

i think i’m pretty good at dialogue but i am always worried about pacing (and characterisation!) 

20. where do you begin a WIP? ex: a mood, a scene, a certain character dynamic, etc. does this differ per project?

hmm it really depends but usually it all ends up boiling down to character dynamics or character studies. i like to examine relationships people have to each other and to themselves so whatever gets me there fastest or best. USUALLY i don’t like writing super plot-heavy things, which makes summaries very very hard lmao

writing questions!

[selkiefinalist]

11, 13, 21, 23?

11. give three songs or images that fit [WIP].

this is for fader: punisher (song); a nighttime winter city - all dirty snow, empty sidewalks filmed with salt and ice; that Roadtrip Feeling, someone’s bare feet up on the dash, wind in hair, cornfields speeding by.

13. describe your writing style.

oh, god. i spent most of last year trying to write stories that felt different from each other. i was really focused on this idea that i didn’t always want someone to open a fic i’d written and be like, “this is such an angela fic” etc. HOWEVER I have since come to terms with that being inevitable. in terms of readers, i’ve gotten a lot of comments about my stuff being ~atmospheric~ which i think is a nice way of saying it’s detailed/dense but there’s not a lot happening and u know what, that’s fair. i’d call my style: quiet. i try to create space for myself to really be in a scene when i’m writing it and i want that for a reader, too.

21. what are the most important facets of creating a character, to you?

i am 1million% about the tiny details, canon or not, and then i usually pick a word or do some meta that helps guide the characterization (and write tiny details to support that meta!!). and for rpf, listening to/reading interviews to try to create a realistic voice/dialogue. even for very minor/incidental characters, giving them one extra thing to make them real is so important to me.

23. what do you do to engage with your projects which isn’t actually writing? ex: playlists, pinterest boards, etc. how much do they play a role in the development of your work?

i rarely make an entire playlist but having 1-3 songs that really encompass the ~vibe~ of the fic and then playing those songs on repeat is how i live ahahahahahahaha. i eventually put all my fic inspo songs in the same playlist and then when i listen to it, it’s like seeing old friends again, i should really do that soon!! that’s about it, though, unless ‘thinking about it but not actually writing it’ counts as a way of engaging the fic, lol

fic asks

[perditious]

@selkiefinalist

disgusting 😑

snow gets an awful lot of hate that should really be directed at Wintry Mix.

[moregraceful]

#7 for trans brandon crawford secret pregnancy and also i have also experienced the i-80, which i think transcends language or at least i lack the language to/for, some day let me tell you all about when i sometimes lived in des moines, which is not the sea but could be

it took me 9 hours to get from omaha to chicago today, because i-80 in iowa is so expansive -- i stopped at like 5 different rest-stops just to observe the green corn stalk seas around me. as a coastal elite it was really eye-opening i gotta say. this whole road trip has been fascinating but where the first leg of the trip was like, Here's Some Beautiful Natural Landscape With Bonus Fucked Up Weather, iowa was like, what if we created a 6th ocean made of CORN. and the sounds of the waves were CICADAS

anon also asked:

Knowing you’re a librarian and as a library employee myself, I have to ask for number 7. What display is trans brandon crawford secret pregnancy a part of?

If a librarian were trying to promote your WIP to patrons, what themed display would they put it on to draw readers and/or what themed IG reel would they list it on? (For ex: Book Riot's library display ideas; maistorybooklibrary's IG themed book recommendations.)

anyway i love this question i do not feel like a clever librarian atm but i will attempt.

definitely a father's day display, definitely a pride display, but i think i would also do a display called: It's A Boy, It's A Girl, It's Neither! framed like a gender reveal, where all the books are about transitioning, transitions, gender exploration, and all the different ways people experience gender with or without passing. this would be the one (1) story on it that would not be a biography or autobiography of some blowhard academic.

[fic wip panopticon ask game]