#sometimes I think about posting it even unfinished but it's for a dead fandom and I'd hate to disappoint my One Last Reader

[itstimeforstarwars]

Some of my favorite stories are the unfinished wips in my drafts folders. One day I'd like to share them with people. Probably not today tho.

[killerandhealerqueen]

✨ weekend wip exposure club ✨

rules: post 7 sentences/a snippet of an unfinished work

@hyperbolicgrinch and @theotherwhybietoldmeso (happy Sunday my loves!)

So, I'm back on my Killer and Healer bullshit (god how I've missed writing for them) so here is a snippet from Die Trying (I've finally picked her back up again and god I've really missed writing for this fandom)

         “Father, if I may…can I offer you some advice when dealing with subordinates who need to be kept in place?” he asked.  Bai Jinbo and the rest of the villagers looked at him warily.          “What sort of advice?” he inquired.  Zhao Jingming hummed.          “Well, I find people can lose sight of the stakes and sometimes need a gentle reminder of just how those with power deal with those without” he explained before he walked over to one of his men in the metal masks and grabbed the staff they were holding before he walked back over to Jin Dacheng and stood before him, making everyone extremely nervous.          “Admiral—” Bai Jinbo started when Zhao Jingming looked over at him.          “It’s fine” he assured before he looked back at Jin Dacheng, who looked at him in fear, and tightened his grip on his staff.          “Let me show you what I mean” he declared before he suddenly turned and smashed the head of the staff into the side of Bai Jinbo’s head, causing all of the villagers to gasp and scream in horror as he fell to the ground, dead.          “No” Jin Dacheng whispered, just as Zhao Jingming began to beat him repeatedly over and over with the staff, even though it really wasn’t necessary, as the single blow to the head had killed him instantly.  Once he had finished beating him, he took a step back, just as Bai Yanli let out a scream and ran towards Bai Jinbo’s body, only to be cut down by one of the soldier’s krypteian blades.  As she fell to the ground, blood pooling around both of them, all of the villagers stared at the massacre in horror as Jin Dacheng looked at Zhao Jingming in confusion.          “Why would you do that?!” he demanded.  Zhao Jingming, however, didn’t answer and instead just looked him straight in the eyes, his own eyes cold and unfeeling.          “When can I expect my harvest?” he inquired.  Jin Dacheng blinked in shock; how could he think about his harvest when he had just killed, no, murdered two people?!  He then quickly shook his head.          “I…I don’t…” he started when Zhao Jingming suddenly pressed the staff against his throat, making him look up at him with wide eyes.          “I said, tell me partner, when I can expect my harvest” he growled.  Jin Dacheng blinked rapidly, all of his neurons firing off at once, before he gulped.          “Nine…nine weeks” he stammered.  Zhao Jingming nodded and lowered the staff from his neck.          “Very well.  In ten weeks, I shall return and you will have my 10,000 bushels prepared for my ship” he declared, making Jin Dacheng look at him in shock.          “10…” he started before he shook his head.          “We…we barely produce 12,000 bushels.  We’ll starve to death!  I don’t understand what it is you want!” he exclaimed.  Zhao Jingming looked at him calmly.          “What I want…is everything” he declared before he walked over to one of his masked men and took his cap from him, placing it back on his head before he turned and headed out of the Longhouse, all of his men following behind.  As they left the building, all of the villagers remained behind and stared at Bai Jinbo and Bai Yanli’s bodies in shock before Jin Dacheng took a deep shuddering breath.          “Call…Call Chen Yuzhi” he instructed.  However, no one moved, causing him to growl as he looked at them.          “CALL CHEN YUZHI!” he roared. 

When I say this fic is rated M...I ain't fucking kidding

Tagging: anyone who wants to join, this is open for all!

[terresdebrume]

Fic writer interview

Merci pour le tag, @almost-a-class-act ! :D

How many works do you have on AO3?

372 :D

Most are fics, but I do have a little under 30 fic covers hanging around there 😊

What's your total AO3 word count?

988 968 words! My goal this year is to crack the million xD

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Fun fact, this top has not changed in years and my more recent writing habits mean it's unlikely to ever change at this point xD

S.O.S. Ecrits Avec De L’Air (aka SEADLA) an unfinished Tony Stark/Loki fic in which everything starts because Loki stops Tony from commiting suicide.

 We Shall Have Peace, a fic in which Steve Rogers comes out of an 80+ years long captivity to discover Loki turned the earth into a utopia.

Dots: 2-4, 1-2-3, 1-3-6. A fic in which Tony Stark is a university student, and Loki is his blind teacher, and they fall in love.

Wooer Wooed. A fic in which Tony Stark tries to teach Loki how to woo someone and ends up surprised by the results.

Corny Lines For Thanksgiving A fic in which Tony Stark sees Loki iand Thor interact from his office window and mistakes them for a couple.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I like showing my appreciation and it feels more polite :D

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Say it three times and it will be done, in which Loki sends Tony Stark a very sad letter to tell him he's giving up on him and their not-relationship.

What the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Oh shit, I've written so many of these xD But I guess I'll go with a top 3:

Clark Kent, of Krypton because it's one of the ones where the protagonist's situation changes the most drastically.

Once more, with kissing because the protag ends in what would probably be my dream configuration for any kind of romantic relationship.

All on my own because it's probably one of the more hopeful endings I have.

Honorable mention to A summer evening in Philly. for being the most recent :P

Do you write crossovers?

Rarely. I did write a Battlestar Galactica x The Walking Dead crossover once for a friend, but that's about it. When I mix fandom, I gravitate more towards fusions :P

The fic is called Killing zombies (and other fun activities), if you're curious.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I think I got maybe...three angry comments on AO3 so far? One was pissed because the protag hated his stepmother, another was angry that I'd posted negative meta on a ship, and iirc the last one accused me of making a character stupid because they didn't understand a word as a little kid who was communicating in a language that wasn't his first language.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I try my hand at it on occasion x) It's probably not the greatest but so far no one told me it sucked so we'll see how it goes in the future xD

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

If I rememeber correctly there were projects of translation into Chinese and Russian for some of my fics, but I can't recall if they were completed or not xD

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I toyed at the idea but it fizzled out, mostly because of me.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

I honestly have never thought of it that way tbh xD

But my two oldest ships are Taichi/Yamato from Digimon Adventure and Hyoga/Shun from Saint Seiya. I've liked those since I was a kid. As in, I first discovered Hyoga/Shun when I was under 10 so.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I'm not going to answer that one, I don't want to jinx it xD

What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm good at dialogue and worldbuilding.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle a little more with description, and also The Doing Of The Sex. Also I sometimes worry that I do the writing equivalent of same-facing my characters, but I guess it might also be because I have A Type.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

More often than not, saying "[x] said in German" or "[x] switched to Italian" is more than enough. It's clear, concise and avoids the two main risks of foreign dialogues: losing the readers who don't understand the target language and (if you're not fluent yourself) making a grammar mistake that takes readers who are more fluent than you out of the story. (Example: I've recently stumbled across a Band of Brothers fic where Liebgott used Sie to address Webster. Sie is a formal form of address, which I guarantee Lieb wouldn't use for his fellow soldiers, especially not Web, and so seeing it made be tick hard even if I didn't spontaneously understand the rest of the sentence.)

That being said! All rules are made to be broken, and I've written a fic that was intentionally in 3 different languages and another where a significant chunk of the dialogue is just em dashes with footnotes. In the first case, I used the script format and the language juxtaposition to mimick the sort of humor you'd get from a more fast-pace, visual medium like a movie or show (and also because I enjoyed the idea of a fic that was a bit of an in-joke with readers who mostly understood all three languages).

In the second case, I used the em-dashes (intersped with the few words the POV character understands) to force the reader into the protagonist' shoes, because the whole plot revolves around her distress and frustration about being unable to understand the language her family speak.

So, you know. Do what you want x)

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

It was a very, very intense plagiaristic fic for Lord of the Rings but with Harry Potter style wizards. I don't think it was very good, but I rememeber having fun with it.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

For a long time, that fandom was Digimon Adventure but I've done it now so... non, for now, I think x)

What's your favorite fic you've written?

... I'm gonna cheat and link you to my AO3 porfolio for my top 11 :P

Tagging : @takingoffmyshoes, @kyttwrites, @nemainofthewater, @ghostinthelibrarywrites, @liesmyth and @talysalankil :)

[productofaritual]

(INTRO BEGINS UNDER THE DIVIDER) Tumblr doesn't let u pin multiple posts, so here's some posts I would pin too if I could :D

Watch me go insane in real time

Crazy? I was crazy once

More about asks

More about me but in the form of a bad joke

Art (and not just art) resources

Intro? Intro. I've decided to actually engage with OTHER HUMAN BEINGS. Sometimes. Occasionally. To talk about my silly little thoughts and silly little writing.

Agender, any pronouns/terms (neutral preferred), Aroace

I'm working on an original book called "Bound By Name". It has its own tag and if you want to know about it, be sure to check out #Bound By Name (intro post about it here) (I don't post much about it but I am in the process of writing!)

Author/fanfic writer

Bilingual (English/Czech)

My ao3

Askbox always open! Speak to me! Also if you have fic prompts or ideas you think I'd like/want me to write, throw them in there too!

DMs always open but say what you want right in the first message because I might not answer or panic block

Spam liking/reblogging/commenting is A-OK. I love to see people enjoying my silly little posts

Moot = can interact anytime all the time as much as they like I literally can't say how much I appreciate all of them

I mainly write SBI and beeduo (yes, in 2024) and talk about random stuff

All of my fics are strictly about the characters! All of them! Every single one!

Way more WIPs than completed works

Expect me talking about discontinued works, unfinished works, or those on hiatus, but I'll only be posting the finished ones on ao3! That's why they're taking so long

I only write for the DSMP fandom but some of my other interests include: Dead Boy Detectives, D&D, Detroit: Become Human, EPIC: The Musical, Project SEKAI, Wuthering Waves, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, The Magnus Archives and maybe getting into the life series

CRINGE IS FUCKING DEAD DO WHAT YOU WANT

DNI: Basic DNI, just don't be weirdchamp and we'll probably get along. I really don't think I mind anyone with basic human decency. If I dislike something you do I'll just block

Not siding with anyone on any cc drama ever. All I'll say is do your research and base your opinions on concrete proof and verified facts. I might have my own opinion, but I will not be voicing it.

Blinkies and tag sorting under cut!

Tag sorting (started 22.05.2024 so anything earlier isn't gonna have them. Also I just forget to add them sometimes)

#textpost.bzzt - generic post that I made. Includes asks because I don't get enough of them to justify making a separate tag

#rbees.bzzt - reblogs. Can you tell I'm proud of that pun?

#artbees.bzzt - specifically art reblogs. Can you tell I'm even more proud of that pun? (I tend to reblog art multiple times, only one will be tagged)

#fandom.bzzt - fandom related posts. Can be any fandom. Reblogs won't have it, mainly because I'm lazy

#mootsies.bzzt - anything related to my mutuals

#personal.bzzt - stuff that might be a bit more personal/talking about my personal life. No I'm not doxxing myself, just talking about my pets or experiences or whatever

#writing.bzzt - anything writing related

#onceinafullmoonramble.bzzt - my once in a full moon rambles. They're longer than my usual posts and can be about literally anything

#horizonverse.bzzt - anything related to the fanfic series "Event Horizon" by Hellenite on ao3. Will not be tagged with fandom or fic tags most of the time because I don't wanna spam them. I didn't have any part in the creation of it, it's just my special interest

#genshin dsmp fusion - a random au I post about that features the DSMP as a new genshin region and the members as playable characters! It's not a fic and I don't plan on writing it into one, I'm just rambling about my ideas for it. Also mind this when reading about it!

(Made w https://blinkies.cafe, divider by cafekitsune)

[leggywillow]

Fic Writer Interview

I was tagged by @feralkwe

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

10 🙈

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

170,541

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

He Thought Her Unsinkable (50)

Never Free (41)

Failed Attempts at Simpler Lives (24)

Ashes (12)

Torture Of Your Own Design (10)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! I really can’t overstate how much I love and value every comment and how they make my day and really keep me going when I worry that no one’s interested, lol. I want the commenters to know that, even if sometimes all I can say is “thanks!” Because I can’t grab them by the shoulders and just shriek right in their face.

People engaging with my characters and ships and little situations is like… the point for me. It’s the DREAM, for real.

5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Technically it’s the short Ashes, since that ends with Hawke dead and Anders and Justice gone. The one that makes me the saddest, though, is Strange Bedfellows. That fic spends more time getting to know the characters before destroying them.

6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Never Free ends the most hopefully, I feel.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Nah.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, which is the good part of focusing on niche content with OCs, lol. I may not rack up numbers but I also don’t get attention from the meanies.

9. Do you write smut?

Not really, but god I want to. I’ve put a grand total of like 2.3 smut-esque scenes in my stories, because I just chicken the hell out. I get SO self-conscious, and it just feels so bad lmao. No idea how to overcome this.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, and I can’t imagine anyone has. Another benefit of creating niche content.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I’m aware of. That would be pretty cool though.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but it’s something I’d be open to if the right circumstances came up. It seems pretty unlikely at this point in my fandom life, but you never know.

13. What's your all-time favorite ship?

I feel like the Simpsons’ “SAY THE LINE, BART!” meme right now because it’s obviously Carver Hawke/my Surana. You know, the only ship I ever write and talk about.

The only other ship I’ve been both feral and inspired enough to write about is Hawke/Alistair, so that ship gets second place.

Mind you, this is strictly from a “writing fanfic” perspective. I love lots of different ships, including multishipping for the above characters.

14. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I don’t post many things so the only unfinished WIP (besides the one I’m currently working on) is my Hawkistair fic, He Thought Her Unsinkable, that I last updated in 2016. Two years ago I would have said it would stay unfinished forever, but now I DO have intentions of coming back to it. (I got thoroughly stuck with progressing both the plot and the ship and I’ve since thought up solutions for both.)

I’ll probably rewrite the whole thing though. There was a lot of room for improvement, and I cringe looking back.

15. What are your writing strengths?

This is hard for me because I’m so riddled with imposter syndrome and anxiety, but I think I do character dialogue well. I can hear voices very clearly in my head and it’s one of the few things my memory holds onto, so I fiddle with my lines until I can hear the character saying them in their cadence.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle with descriptions for sure. Knowing how much or little to include, yes, but I also find myself just blanking out on descriptive words when I need them.

Me, desperately, to my own brain: We’ve seen a house before! I need words to describe a house!

Brain: I have never seen one of those before in my life.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

This is something where I try to stay pretty firmly in my lane, because I know it can be done poorly if you don’t know what you’re doing. And I do not, lol. If a character is speaking in another language, I just say that. I try to keep my usage of other languages to exclamations and terms of endearment if they come up naturally.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I wrote Animorphs fanfic on an old typewriter at my dad’s office when I had to be there after school as a kid and then later on some little word processor software for kids that looked like you were typing in a little book. (I’ve been desperately trying to figure out what 1990s software this could have been to no avail, for nostalgia’s sake.) I made some kind of human/Hork-Bajir hybrid OC that was basically like Wolverine with the badass retracting blades in her skin.

19. What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I only like writing fic when I have BIG AND SPECIFIC IDEAS that grab me, and that only comes with being incredibly hyperfixated on the source material until I’m comfortable with the setting… so basically I’m very content in my Dragon Age sandbox and don’t have much desire to branch out. That said, I do love my Dark Urge from Baldur’s Gate 3 and am very tempted to write about her someday.

20. What's your favorite fic you've written?

I think I’ll have to go with Never Free. Failed Attempts at Simpler Lives has more character interactions that I deeply enjoyed writing, but I’m really proud of the plot I wove together in Never Free.

Tagging @theluckywizard @rakshadow @inquisimer @nirikeehan and anybody who thinks it looks fun!

[kenobster]

3, 18 and 29 please <3333

From AO3 Wrapped [Writers' Edition]

Thank you for the ask, anon! ^_^

#3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

I hate to be a cliche of myself again, but Five Peggats Each. (And this includes all things I've ever written in my life actually :D). There's a few reasons for it, I think. One, it's like HUGELY within my comfort zone. The limited setting, the noncon, the tropes of the characters themselves. This is the type of story I have the most practice with, so it naturally comes easier and in better quality I think? Two, how, despite it being a comfort zone, I've used this fic as kind of a sandbox to experiment a lot of different writing techniques. For example, this is the most POVs I've ever written in a single fandom, let alone a single story (which usually stays around 1-2). For other examples, like, I've tried to be really mindful about metaphors/prose and how they can twist reality (like that time I spent like 8 hours researching in-universe Star Wars bands & instruments just so I could write one paragraph lmao)... or even how I recently tried to use second person POV to give the reader the same disassociation/discomfort/dysphoria that Anakin was feeling after regaining use of the Force. These experiments were all really hard to pull off, and I'm proud of myself for attempting them. And three, how I've allowed 5PE to be a project that can take as long as I want it to take to finish, so long as I do finish it. So on one hand, it's been a really good exercise in self-discipline & practice in maintaining my passion for the story, despite the constant barrage of shiny new plot bunnies. And on the other hand, the lack of a time pressure allows me to really spend time on the quality of every single line (excepting human mistakes & typos of course lmfao), while also not letting that perfectionism stand in the way of progress. It's really helped me become more confident in storycrafting from beginning to end, in a way I've never really felt in my old fandom or writing. On top of all that, it's the only fic that I can actually read after posting updates without feeling like it's exfoliating my entire body to do so lol. I actually enjoy reading it sometimes. So that's nice.

#18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Answered here. :)

#29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year

Really hard one omg. If I have to choose something I've already posted on ao3, then it'd probably be one of these three: (1) in Five Peggats Each, the passage I also described above regarding Anakin's fever as it relates to the jizz band & cantina in chapter 6; the passage I put in the fic summary for Every Shadow, but the full version of it as written in chapter 2, not the abridged version in the summary; and (3) the opening paragraph of What Dead Things See.

But but but imo -trembles with excitement (I've been dying to show this, folks, what a good opportunity)- none of those passages even hold a candle to this thing that poured out of my brain one sleepless night at 2am for some unposted/unfinished oneshot:

For a moment, when he was nine years old, Anakin thought himself to be a whore. In an effort to scrub the slave out of him, the temple healers had pumped him full of vaccines and medications and water and food. He'd been lying on a brand new bed in a brand new room and counting the speeders whose lights flashed across the wall. That's when the memory burned. If they want you for your strength, his anma said, then they won't squander a second of it. Your back will ache and your feet will throb before the very first sunset. But Anakin's back wasn't aching and his feet didn’t throb. If they want you for your mind, they'll test your skills and put you to work, and they'd tested him, yes, but not his ability to steer the yoke of a podracer at the drop of a pin, nor his ability to disassemble and reassemble any gadget known to sentient life. They'd only studied the gaps in his knowledge and he'd had none of the answers and he'd seen the pity in their gazes. And if they feed you, said his anma, if they let you rest in a bed and say they'll take care of you, then the first chance you get, you must run. As fast as you can, as hard as you can, even if they activate your bomb. Because some fates, my love, are worse than death. You must always be wise enough to know that.  And Anakin, well fed and well rested, hadn't wanted to run fast or run hard or detonate his bomb. Anakin hadn't wanted to escape this new place that sang of plenty and of love and of home. So he pushed himself to his feet and stumbled through the darkened shared quarters until he found his new master's bed. Clammy, feverish, and half-asleep, Anakin crawled under the covers and felt around for his master's trousers. Obi-Wan awoke in an instant.  That night, they found no rest at all—rather, hours of conversation while Anakin shivered on the couch huddled in afghans and quilts and comforters and tried to explain that, yes, he knew he was free and he knew he was safe and he knew all he had to say was a word and he'd be taken wherever else he wanted by whomever else he wanted and that, no, Obi-Wan had never said or done anything to suggest such a thing was wanted and that if he ever did going forward, Anakin would tell him straight away, and that, yes, he understood the difference between a master and a Master and that, no, he didn't need to use a different word—because Obi-Wan didn't yet know that there are some things you learn with your mind but other things you learn with your body, and that there's no actual function in the branding of a slave because the brand is already burnt into a slave's mind, as crisply and as permanently, as a molten pattern pressed to flesh. As he kneels before his Master, Anakin decides that Palpatine would have liked the gift of a nine-year-old groping beneath the bed sheets better. It would have saved them all a lot of time.

I will finish this one day... Have about 3 scenes written, and just need to write 1.5 scenes more. But the above part stands pretty well on its own so hopefully you all enjoyed! ^_^

[metamercury]

I was tagged by @darksidekelz

Thank you!

Rules: look back on your works, both past and present, finished and unfinished. What are five to ten narrative elements or tropes that continuously pop up in your work? Give a list of these things!

---

Hmm, this is hard for me because how are we defining narrative elements? But I've been thinking it over. Idk if these all classify as elements, but they're themes I guess?

It's about the Yearning I've noticed for sure that I don't write a lot about tropes or physicality. I can probably count on one hand the number I've times I've written kissing or anything like that. It's not about the kissing here, it's not about if things are requited or unrequited, complicated or simple, absolute and engulfing in the case of dcrampage -- it could be any one of those things. There is always the yearning, and that tends to be what I focus on in one way or another. But it does leave me feeling quite often that I've written yet another fic where nothing really happens hahaha

Two guys fighting Nothing much to say about this. Probably 50% of what I write can be boiled down to two guys fighting. I just like to write people who want to fight each other. I like to write fights. Even when I write Ironwasp they're usually competing (or it's post-stockades angst and they're still fighting. I really write fighting a lot). Sometimes it gets out of hand and I can't get the characters to stop fighting long enough to actually do anything else (see: anything maxwil i've ever written)

Jokes that other people hate hearing One of my favourite things to do when writing fic is to make references to things in the series (or a related series) that the character Doesn't Know, but the reader does. I especially like to do this when it foreshadows bad things that are definitely going to happen. When Alia would read these jokes she'd shout at me, but when I read them back in my own fic I think I'm hilarious. I do it all the time in a lot of fics, but I do it the most with Wasp. Obviously.

The Character Study Not sure if this counts as a narrative element? But I really like to write fic that are essentially just character studies maybe with a ship wrapped up in it for engagement lol. I do have some that are just straight character studies. It can also feel like I'm writing a fic about nothing when I do these, because the focus is on the person, not the plot (generally, for oneshots at least). But I really enjoy reading them back, so it's probably fine. I just love getting in there with a character.

If I'm gonna write smut it better be fucked up I don't think I've ever written smut that wasn't dub/noncon or at least had something shady and weird going on underneath the surface. Now, you'll say "well of course, you only ever wrote shockblurr porn" but i'd like to remind you of Fit Like A Glove and then also direct you to my wip folder where I've been sitting on a dino2/megs fic (d2 pov so you know it's fucked), a tfa swindle/starscream where the feature is necro, and a snuff film fic for a fandom that will not be named at this time, for about 6-8 years. One day I'll get around to these I hope.

If it's not about the Yearning, then it's about Denial Unreliable narrators are fun, as are characters whose thoughts don't match their actions. I mean a lot of the time this writes out as anger, which leads to two guys fighting, but Not Always (and here's where I'd link that shitty two-part vampire au if I had the want to do that). (Mnemonic is a much more angsty example). Also, for wips, I have a dcrampage wip that is just about this element from start to finish, because it's dc pov. Here's the handwritten note I have for myself about the concept of this one, basically word for word: What's it about? Obsession, always. Instincts. DC is a protector, it's in his coding. And Rampage is unlucky and tortured -- that's the truth no matter how much he'd love to forget it. Anger? Disgust? Dead dedication to the vengeance he's owed? Always. Until that slagger is offline for good. But for as much as DC has thrown away his humanity, it's not as easy to throw away his nature (plus gay) I really want to pick that one back up. Anyways, if the Denial let's you play with a bunch of fun emotions in a way that works with the character. Pride, Jealousy, Insecurity, Depression, and of course Being a Shell of the Mech You Once Were. It's fun!

Five Senses This one I think I do to my own detriment sometimes. But at some point while I was learning to write better over the last 10/15 years I started to really try to lock scenes within the senses. To have the narrative focus on not just sights, but smells, texture, ambient sounds to really try to ground the characters within their environments, put us within the head of the pov character. I think, doing so can really help to make things more graphic, which is good. But i also think sometimes it slogs down the narrative and actually takes us out of the pov to more of like a 3rd camera perspective so to speak? I dunno, i like the way things read back in the end but during writing it can really feel like it stalls the flow of the narrative. I was talking to alia about this not to long ago, her narratives are always so fluid, and i think I get in my own way trying to ground things sometimes. Sometimes. I'm not sure if this one counts as a narrative element either. But its something that's definitely a thing about the way I write that I notice.

Anyways! That's all I can think of that's worth pointing out. I want to write more, and remembering to appreciate my writing as a craft I think is part of that.

I tag @neuropraxia. Do this.

[emmithar-blog]

I was tagged by ,@whyyouacknsocraycray

How many works do you have on AO3?

81 currently. 77 completed, which means I have a lot more WIP than previously thought...

2. What is your AO3 wordcount?

987,989 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Red Dead Redemption. I don't have many obsessions...

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Forsaken (730)

Tears of Ice (372)

Silver and Gold (347)

Brotherhood (340)

Evanescence (328)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I do! Though sometimes I've been late on replying (Currently have 14 I haven't responded to yet, but plan on getting to them eventually...)

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

I have a entire series of Whumptober fics that have some not so happy endings. Though I think Balancing the Scales might take that award.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Happy? What is this 'Happy' you speak of?

In all seriousness, there's a couple I feel that end on a higher note. Forsaken, Silver and Gold both come to mind. I have a few one shots floating around that lighter in humor as well.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't think I have on Ao3, no.

9. Do you write smut? If so, which kind?

That's a hard no, seeing as I'm ace. Sorry folks.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest crossover you’ve ever written?

I haven't no. I'm not a huge fan of them.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not on Ao3 no, but back on FF I have. Woke up one morning to a flood of emails from concerned readers flagging a fic that matched one of mine word for word in some areas. Issue was resolved quite quickly though. Bless my readers who kept an eye out for that.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had some older Robin Hood fic that were translated into Finnish actually! That was a pretty cool experience. So long ago now I don't remember where it was posted (FF I think, and one other site), but it was big thing at that time, esp since I was still in high school.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Several times yes! It can be quite a bit of fun, esp when working to match styles of the other writer(s).

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Once again – Ace, so I'm not too invested in such a thing. That being said, for RDR2, other than canon ships, I do see the appeal of Sadie/Arthur as well as Charles/Arthur, though I write (nor read) either really.

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

We're not going to talk about my four unfinished fics, because I'm going to finish them eventually.

When I have time.

And brain power.

And zero other distractions...

Moving on....

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I tend to capture the likeness of certain characters, including dialogue and inner thoughts. I feel like I keep good pacing over longer stories, and that I have the ability to paint vivid scenes to help readers immerse themselves in the story.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I have the inability to write a short fic. Anytime I tell myself 'Oh yeah, that'll only be x words/chapters, it nearly triples in length. Looking at you, Silver and Gold, (aka minibang fic)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've done this before with some Spanish when characters were in appropriate situations, where they weren't supposed to know/understand what was being said. I think I've done it once with German, but I could be wrong. I feel it add flavor when done a sparse amount, and not have it be too overbearing for the reader to muddle through.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Lord of the Rings was the first fandom I wrote and actually posted for, though Jedi Apprentice from Star Wars was what got the fanfic train rolling. I rewrote an ending to something that really annoyed me and I felt like I could write it better so I did. That was in the pre-internet era though, so it never made it online. (FF didn't even exist yet!)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I'm fairly partial to Learning Hurts. It has a mix of what I enjoy (Hurt, comfort, reassurance, growth) and I love the play of the title. Several characters end up learning something over the course of the story, and as implied, those lessons all come with a bit of hurting.

I'm tagging @darling-jack @sentanixiv @danger-r-98-5 . Share if you feel up to it!

[cosmic-navel-gazin]

"About the Blogger" Meme by @razielim

Haven't seen one of these in forever; I'm being the change I want to see. (You're encouraged to adapt/remove questions or add new ones to better suit yourself.)

Favorite Pseud: Cosmic is the new hotness but my indecisive ass has had a billion! Alas-poor-yorick! is an old one I'm still fond of because my child self really went and saw Hamlet and thought: "YES! THE SKULL OF THE DEAD JESTER! THAT'S WHO I WANNA BE!"

Time Zone: GMT

Star Sign(s): the one that's a COSMIC RAM! 🐏🌠✨

Favorite Holidays: every holiday is always tinged with just a tad of existential dread, a pang reminding me of the time that's already gone by, that I'm one day closer to death , I guess the ones during Spring and Summer, just because of the weather and that the days are longer

Last Meal: Soup and a piece of bread with olive oil (and olives)

Current Favorite Musician: my dear friend who plays the piano^^ (whom I hope never finds out about this blog and reads this or I'll never hear the end of it). Not sure if current, but I've listened to a lot of it regularly so, shout-out to Jordi Savall and his Hespèrion XXI group *gnaws on their many variations of the spanish Folías*

Last Music Listened To: Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In) · Kenny Rogers & The First Edition

Last Movie Watched: Saw X and The Lobster

Last TV Show Watched: The Bear

Last Book/Fic Finished: Can't remember what was the last book so I'm going with: One of only two in existence A Field In England fics on AO3 😳

Last Book/Fic Abandoned: Kafka's The Trial (not abandoned, I just wanted to finish the ones I had started first before continuing because I know this one's gonna hurt for sure)

Currently Reading: Solaris by Stanisław Lem

Books/Shows/Movies/etc. You Want to Get Around To: For Films I have some listed on this ask. For books I got some Strugatskys to get to, some Terry Pratchett, some Kafka, some Horus Heresy, my sister got me Foundation *looks at bookshelf and ignores the dozens of others that have been sitting there for years, waiting for me*

Last Thing Researched for Art/Writing/Hyperfixation: Wild boars! Boarzinhos if you will.

Last Eureka, Breakthrough, or Neat Fact/Concept Learned: Have learned nothing and remain a fool.

Favorite Online Fandom Memory: I don't think I've ever been in a Fandom™ per se. It's usually just, sitting in my dark lair and enjoying a thing with a handful of other people. But, if it counts since it's the closest to interacting with Fandom I've had: these past (4?) years on tumblr in general. From the months-long (sometimes years-long) discussions about this or that piece of media and the insightful observations traded, the juicy meta, the joy and privilege of people sending you unfinished pieces of their art and writing through DMs (the trust and intimacy of it all!!!), sending each other memes and posts we think the other might enjoy, the nice messages, etc... all of it really.

Favorite Old Fandom You Wish Would Drag You Back In/Have A Resurgence: Am baby and haven't really experienced this yet.

Favorite Thing You Enjoy That Never Had an Active or Big "Fandom" but You Wish It Did: I literally can't choose because almost everything I love is some flavour of weird-ass-obscure thing! But uhmmm, *flips through enormous tome of interests* : Here! Rule of Rose ! I was starving for psychological horror games after the Silent Hill series and this is the closest I've ever seen to them while also not being just a rip off/clone of SH, and telling its own beautifully tragic story (the combat is broken and there's other issues but everything else, maaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn).

Tempting Project You're Trying to Rein In/Don't Have Time For: I will draw Rumata and Budach's Conversation™ from chapter 8 in full, in comic form, skill to pull it off and do it justice or not, EVEN IF IT KILLS ME!

Tempting Project You're 100% Going to Undertake: It involves sandcastles and the joys of creation... but it needs to *gasp!* actually be written and not just daydreamed about.

Tagging: AAAAAA I DUNNO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO!

[werewolf1903s]

A little about my work on the series Lonely Darkness

Hello again Ashes1903 known as the creator of the series "Lonely Darkness"

I decided to talk a little about how I work on the project and what it’s like to play the roles of several characters at once

The first task for me was probably to film the project itself. I remember how unsure I was about this. My first thoughts were: could I even do something worthwhile without just making faces on camera?The answer came by itself when I saw other people’s projects and still created a channel and even shot the first video

The second task for me was to formulate the plot of the series itself. Honestly it was difficult. The story of the story changed, the characters and their personalities changed, and there was a lot more. And after just a few pointless videos,the plot finally began to take shape into something interesting. I understand that people watching the series still don’t fully understand the whole plot, but I’m trying to explain it all

The third task always remains relevant. What should I show in the new series and, most importantly, how should I edit the footage to show it to the audience?I agree that most of my videos look either unfinished or completely incomprehensible. All this is complicated by the surrounding environment, the location of filming and the fact that it is not always possible to carry out our plans. The CupCut program in which I edit videos does not always provide a large selection of actions

And perhaps the last thing. Promoting my creativity on the Internet. Mostly I make posts with drawings, edits, funny videos on TikTok. Sometimes i have to use Tumblr and Twitter(X). But the promotion of content is also hampered by the fact that there are not many of people in the Slenderverse fandom. Many people simply think that Slenderverse is dead and that's sad. It's becoming harder for content creators like me to promote their work. You have to give your best to get noticed

Perhaps this is all I wanted to say about my work on the series

[nonbinaryezrabridger]

thanks to @judgeverse for tagging me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

177 total! I'm still astonished at that amount tbh

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

480,869

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently: Sg1, sga, and sgu mainly. Star trek but not new trek. Star wars rebels. Mad max, mainly fury road. Pacific rim occasionally. The thing 1982. I've written a ton more fandoms than that but I'm not active in those routinely

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

My highest is an old x men fic at 167 kudos. Only one of my top five is a fandom I'm still in, and that's stargate atlantis at 166.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

As much as possible. Sometimes I'm simply too drained by real life to answer every comment, but I try to answer all of them if I can. I feel it's important to let my readers know the comments really do impact me, they're really important to keep me motivated and I want other fans to know that. There's been times a single comment convinced me to finish a fic, or write a whole new concept.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

definitely this she ra fic, posted while the show was coming out, where scorpia tries to reach out to catra, her attempt to help is rejected, and she lets herself be willingly consumed by the world ending magic. Most of my angst always has a happy ending, so this one is perhaps my only 100% angsty fic

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably this the thing 1982 fic, where I take characters from a horror movie where they all die horribly, and instead have them live a happy gay domestic life with no alien monster.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

one fic from a fandom I shall not name got so much hate I deleted it for my own health. Otherwise, I got one angry comment on a she ra fic once

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

no, i've dabbled in it once or twice, but don't like it much. I doubt i'd ever write anything more explicit than suggestive content or sex based jokes

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I wrote a fic with the get down characters in the mad max universe, but without any crossover of mad max characters. It's just the get down characters in the universe. that's definitely not my most popular fic, but I enjoyed writing it nonetheless

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope, but the idea scares me. fortunately I like weird things no one else does, so I think the chances of someone stealing my content is low

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

yes! it was a great experience, would totally do it again as long as I was close with the other person cowriting

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

My top relationships are both from the get down, my first being thizzee. However, my top ship for a fandom that isn't dead is teal'c/daniel/sam from stargate sg1

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

pretty much all my unfinished get down fanfics. I love them all and want to finish them, but it's painful to think about the show with the cancellation and how it canonically ended, and also I don't know if anyone would even read them, so very low priority at this point

16. What are your writing strengths?

internal monologue of characters

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

anything sexy or overly romantic. Kissing is really hard for me

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'm not comfortable with messing it up. I deleted a very popular fic of mine because I wasn't happy with the writing of the asl in it. I'm still working on editing it to be better and still hope to post it and finish it this time. However, I'd rather not write something at all than portray it in a harmful way. If it's something I can research and do well, I'll do that, but I feel some things are just not for me to write about and that's fine

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First posted was the lord of the rings movies. First ever written was probably teen titans. Funnily enough, neither of those are still posted and I've never written for those fandoms since. Of my actual posted work, my first fandom was dc's legends of tomorrow, which I no longer write for either, but I left the fics up

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I couldn't choose just one.

So, of my longest fics:

This sga fic, with team sheppard as a queerplatonic quartet raising torren together. They get pulled into an alternate universe and have to save the world (again)

Of my shortest fics:

This space sweepers fic about bub's trans identity. Ends happily with her successful transition

tagging @campgender, if you'd like to! Feel free to ignore if not

[appletreeduty]

Tagged by @dragonsoftheeast! Thank you for thinking of me!

How many works do you have on AO3?

4, but more on the way!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

17,043

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Only HOTD so far! I have a bunch of unfinished Black Sails, Yellowjackets, Good Omens, OFMD, etc, though....

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

first two are tied: splendor in the grass, you are the angel that I couldn't kill then it's seasons don't fear the reaper, then farewell, my mortal son

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to almost all comments, because seeing people read my work and responding enough to it encourages me to continue writing out the stories in my head, to continue actually finishing them, to continue posting. I'm a pretty small creator so I have the luxury to respond to basically every single comment right now since I don't get many, and I want those who read my fics to know that seeing their comments makes my day!!!!!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

This one's a tough one. Anyone who knows me knows I'm pretty much incapable of writing a happy ending - even the happiest endings I write are bittersweet. I think my angstiest based on just how heartwrenching (with not even half of a bright side, not even a slice of the smallest most cynical comfort) is "farewell, my mortal son", in which faerie AU Alicent Hightower has to give up her favorite, only pure son Daeron as a changeling and is powerless to protect him against what his life is about to become despite how hard she fights.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Again, a tough one since I am just the worst at happy endings, but probably "seasons don't fear the reaper", where Helaena is able to reunite with a dead Aemond in death (even though she dies)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Honestly. I'm not a big enough writer to get public outrage, I don't think. However I'm sure there are people who have read my fics and have left with a sour taste in their mouth. I write about pretty nasty stuff, I write in the POV of quite deranged characters, and I do not tread lightly or mince words when I do so.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Pretty much every single one of my fics is smut. The dove is not just dead, it's decomposed; read the tags please.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I haven't written one, but I'm sure I might sometime in the future.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Honestly, not sure. If it had been, nobody has informed me and I have not seen it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I would love for someone to enjoy my fics enough to translate them to other languages!

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Was in the process of cowriting a fic, but separated from the other writer for personal reasons. Still wishing it could've been completely cowritten, since the AU I created is such a big universe!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Too many to count! I am admittedly a ship-jumper

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

"under the blackthorn tree" - it's a HOTD canonverse epic fic and I have the whole outline and a lot of chapters written but it's so perfect in my head that I get discouraged every time I write something out and it's not how I pictured it would go.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I have a sick writing style/voice (I work really hard on it) and I think I'm really good at portraying character voice in POV. I also am good at finding just the thing to really stab the reader in the guts in terms of drama/angst.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

It takes me 847589347589374895734 years to write anything because I overthink and then procrastinate overthinking and then overthink more. I really struggle to write the quiet, conflict-free moments that are necessary to properly pace my stories, though I recognize that they're needed, which makes it worse when I struggle to write them.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Dialogue in another language for a fic is cool, but I think it's important to keep the medium in mind. On film, you can have entire scenes where characters are speaking a different language and just put subtitles so the audience can understand what they're saying; this is frustrating when the concept is translated directly to fic, because as a reader I feel like I'm skipping over entire paragraphs just to read the meaning and am not appreciating the purpose of the characters speaking a different language. In the case of the purpose being for a POV character to not understand the language, then they surely wouldn't be able to understand all the separate words, so it's more effective to just write that the character does not understand the language. Personally, I like to use short phrases that require no translation due to context, and that's personally my favorite use of a second language in fic.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

................. It was an All-American Rejects bandfic on Mibba/Quizilla/whichever one of those early-2000s quiz sites. I was 10 please don't judge lmao

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Tie between splendor in the grass and seasons don't fear the reaper right now!

No pressure tags: @catnico @spooky-risley @cinemassance

[stellarspecter]

yeah, honestly I've never really found juke compelling, and being in the fandom and seeing how other people talk about them has made me like them even less. there's plenty of reasons, but mostly the reason why I feel like jatp would have been a better show if juke wasn't endgame or even canon at all is because of the way it works to split the narrative. every moment that Julie has with Luke does more to weaken the relationship between her and Alex and Reggie, splitting the band into "great big star-crossed soulmate love interest romance" and "two guys on the sidelines who are kind of just there". they try to tell us that the band is a family, but all they do is show us the complete opposite. there's a great post about it here that talks more in depth about how juke isn't great for the bands relationship as a whole (also these two) (i swear i saw more posts on this but i cannot for the life of me find them, so if anyone has them feel free to add them on)

and on the boys coming back to life thing... yeah, I've never really liked that either. I think it's fine in fics or whatever, but in the actual show? I don't think it's really a strong thematic message to send. I think the story would be much stronger if it were about learning to accept that some things are temporary, and that sometimes it's better to lay your loved ones to rest and move on. like, it's a kids show, and kids watching this are gonna have to deal with grief, and they're never gonna get the option to bring their loved ones back from the dead. it would also dovetail nicely with the fact that this is a high school story -- a lot of things that feel like the most important thing in the world to a teen aren't really, and it's okay that some things are temporary. you aren't going to be with your high school sweetheart forever, and that might be sad, but isn't it great that it happened?

i understand that the writers probably just wanted to give the kids a happy ending, so ending with the boys completing their unfinished business and crossing over would be more of a cleaner ending in that regard. but also if the boys come to life, what does that say about Julie's mom? that she could have come back to life, but she just didn't care enough? not a great message. they probably would've said she didn't have any unfinished business so she crossed over, but like. still. idk I just don't think it's a very good ending

and the last thing I'll gripe about in this post is how I HATE when people feel like they have to give their characters a perfect happily paired up 2.5 kids white picket fence life in order to have a happy ending. obviously as an aro I take issue with this, but like oftentimes it's just not relevant to the story?? like with jatp it's like. the story ends when they defeat Caleb and the boys cross over (or they don't), and that's that. we don't need to see how they're doing twenty years down the line, first of all because it's just not really relevant or satisfying, but also because it erases any ambiguity or space for the audience to imagine how their own happily ever after. we don't need everything spelled out for us, especially after everything else in the story is resolved. I understand that this is a kids show and so these kind of things are more excusable I guess, but like. please don't lol I just don't want or need to see that.

Wait wtf happened what did Kenny say why is everyone talking about j*ke

[theminecraftbee]

alright, it’s late enough that people aren’t necessarily looking, right?

so. uh. dsmp fans who still follow me. i once wrote this fic. it’s mildly popular. it’s called the inner mechanism of a black box. it’s about techno being stuck in prison and i’m pretty sure it’s the first fic of that genre to have gotten big; i distinctly remember writing it at a time where “good techno angst fic” was like, not a category that existed nearly so much. ah, the late 2020 dsmp fandom...

it’s... an interesting relic to me in a lot of ways. there are parts of this fic i’m extremely proud of. there are parts that i’m eehhh about. there are parts that also just... date it very specifically. when i call it an interesting relic, i mean “i wrote this pre-prison reveal; i distinctly remember kind of rushing to finish it around christmas because i was pretty dead certain the bedrock bros arc would end with the prison somehow” (i... wasn’t entirely wrong?).

it’s also a fic that it’s officially been more than a year since i’ve promised the sequel for... and almost more than a year since i typed real, meaningful words in that sequel document. however, someone in my inbox suggested to me at one point that i could just... post that unfinished google doc.

warnings: it’s not edited. it’s not done; several major plot beats i had planned never get hit. (i could add a bit of outlining at the end explaining what they were, though, and may do that.) it’s approximately 19 pages of poorly-paced, incomplete writing. it would also be a google doc i post on tumblr and link in the original fic because i refuse to post a half-finished fic to ao3. i’m sort of nervous about the idea of sharing it in general; it’s NOT DONE, and not done in several fairly big ways. plus, there are parts of it that... part of why it’s not done and will never be done is that there are big parts of it that still live in that december 2020 state, rather than the current state of the dsmp, which is like, totally fine, but it also means that there are characterizations i don’t really still stand by and decisions i wouldn’t make today and etc etc black box sometimes occupies a weird place in my head and its sequel a weirder one.

but... it would free me of this albatross on my back, to just post the unfinished document, admit to myself that i’m not gonna finish it, and... move on. plus for the people who like the fic, maybe the unfinished continuation is better than nothing? (black box stands pretty damn well on its own, i personally think, mind you, but, y’know, i told people at one point i’d write this.)

so i ask you all. is that something you’d be interested in seeing? unfinished fic and then my outline of what plans i did still have for the fic, and maybe also my more complete reasons for why i don’t think i want to finish it anymore. even if you didn’t read black box, maybe it’d be interesting to see? and if you did, maybe it’d be... not closure you see the fic doesn’t get to that part and the outline probably won’t help much but it’d be closure for ME. on the other hand, if you think “unfinished fic would hurt the ending of black box/would make me feel less closure/i don’t want to see your incomplete writing”, i want to hear that too? before i post this.

anyway this is a rant and a half for “would people be interested if i put half-finished black box sequel google doc on tumblr yay or nay”

[ardate]

4, 8, 9, 30 :]

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

Honestly? Humans as a whole, still. I started art a long time ago, originally mostly focusing on animals and creatures, til I started drawing humans sometime in middle school - and I never stopped drawing them since! But yet, somehow, even though by now I probably have drawn more humans and human-adjacent characters than not with all those years, beasts are still much easier and come more naturally to me. Maybe those very early years wired my brain this way hbghb

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

Oh holy fukc so many of those uuuuuuuh,, right now the one that comes to mind is this old story I had made up in middle/highschool - something about a kind of death land, a sort of limbo, and the ghost lords that 'ran' it; and the main character having to go through it to bring his love back from the dead (orpheus and eurydice inspired). And though even then I wasn't particularly optimistic about my chances of going through with it, I really wanted to make a comic of it! Obviously, never happened. I should redraw those old OCs one of these days hgbghb

Have a sneak peek of what my art (and one of my ghost lords) looked like back then. Not the full pic cuz even just sharing this lil tidbit is hurting my ego

9. What are your file name conventions

I've been meaning to change it cuz it's no longer organized enough for my taste! My file themselves don't have any fancy names, they're usually just named after their subject (like 'demoman_sketch' or 'pernelle_portrait' or 'morribel_reference' etc). Of course, no accent in the file names since that renders them unstable and makes it easier for them to get corrupted, same (to a lesser extent) with spaces, so I always use an underscore instead.

So rather than by name, my organization goes by folders: • First off I have a folder per art program (one for Photoshop, After Effects, Corel Painter, Krita, etc), each of which have two folders, 'Unfinished' and 'Finished'. The latter usually only has the PNG renders, while the Unfinished folder houses the PSD (or other) files. Sometimes I'll have a 'Done' subfolder there for the files of pieces that i've finished, but most of the time they'll hang in there in the middle of WIP files forever • And in those Un/Finished folders, I have subfolders for the subject of the art piece (one folder per fandom (like TF2, Rayman, etc), a folder for commissions, one folder per original story, etc) so I can easily find what I'm looking for.

I plan on changing my naming conventions though, keep my folders but name my files with dates at the beginning (year/month/day), then theme (fandom/story/commission, etc), and then the piece's name.

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

I'm... Not sure? 🤔 To be honest I post my art to share it but I don't really have expectations regarding its reception from the public... I used to! Back when I was on deviantArt. And honestly it sucked, getting legitimately upset when an art piece didn't get enough digital attention, not enough internet points. But I've grown past it years ago, so I don't really have many feelings if a piece does badly anymore. I've had OC pics get like 2 likes and nothing else and I felt fine with it ghbgh

Don't get me wrong I still want them to do well, I still want people to reblog my art, and nothing brings me more joy than comments in the tags because that's a direct reaction to my art, which always feels very personal and legitimately touches me. But not having expectations means I don't really feel disappointed as much

The last time I've had the thought 'oh i expected this to do better' was for my HLVRAI zine piece, but that's about it!

[essayofthoughts]

Ohohoho! en guarde!

7, 42, 51, 55 (especially for words/expressions!), 68, 75?

7. Post a snippet from a wip.

You asked for Tiefling AU and/or Cass focussed when I PM'd you so:

"It is me," he promises her. "I- I don't know when exactly I changed, but I remember here, I remember everything. I remember you helping me escape-"

"Do you remember leaving me?" He can't blame Cass for how accusatory her tone is. In her shoes he thinks he'd be the exact same way.

"I saw you shot down," he says. "I saw-" He swallows. "Three arrows, one right through your chest, I saw you fall and cough blood and I thought... I thought there was no way you'd survive, even if I managed to carry you to safety. I thought you were dead."

The laugh Cassandra gives is bitter and thin. "Yes," she says. "I can believe that."

"I'm sorry," he says, because he is. "I'm sorry. If I'd known- I didn't know. I didn't even know that this-" he gestures at himself "-wasn't Ripley's doing - I wasn't there for two years, and when I came back to myself all I could think was yet another thing they've taken from me - that they wouldn't even leave me my humanity."

He pauses, looks at the ashy tint of his fingers, the too-long, too-sharp fingernails. He feels his tail wanting to lash side-to-side behind him, anxiety desperate to be let out, and refuses to allow it.

"Sometimes," he admits, "I- I'm sure I'm Percival. I'm sure of that. Even if I don't look it, I am myself at the very least. I remember chasing you around my lab, I remember Whitney nagging me downstairs, I remember Julius teasing me. But sometimes..." He draws a deep breath because he doesn't want to admit this but he needs Cass to understand, needs her to grasp it if they're to mend this rift between them, "Sometimes I don't feel like myself anymore."

There's a stretch of silence. He swallows; when he looks up, Cass is watching him, her mouth a little open before she swallows too.

"I don't feel like I'm me all the time either," Cass admits. "Not after- not after everything. After they-" and it's half-spat and half-fond and he can't really blame her, can he? "-tried make me a Briarwood and- and there was a part of me that wanted it. Wanted a family that wouldn't leave me behind."

That hurts but he can't blame her for that either. How else would it have felt to be bleeding out and gasping for breath, watching your one remaining family member flee across the snow?

"It's like," she says, pausing and stuttering, free hand flexing where it's not tightly grasping a mug of tea. "It's like they reached inside my head and mixed me all up so they could put the pieces back how they liked. I don't feel like Cassandra. I don't feel like your sister. I feel like... like a thing they made."

"You're not," he says, because that much he's sure of. That much he's had to learn to survive becoming what he now is. "You're not, Cass. They've shaped you but... you're not theirs. You're you. You're whoever you decide to make now."

You get both.

42. What’s your favorite title that you’ve come up with?

Uh...

So probably the collective titles for all of the Ghost Cass AU, because I've got the titles planned for all eight parts and there's an Easter Egg hidden in how they fit together.

But I'm not gonna tell you what the Easter Egg is yet.

51. Does what you like to write differ from what you like to read?

Not hugely these days? There's a chunk of things I wrote mostly because I wasn't finding them in fandom, because a lot of the seemingly well-regarded fics that touched on it just... did not feel true to my experiences and the ones that did were really short or were unfinished and there's only so many times you can reread things, you know?

I do sometimes like going for a crackfic, which I can't write for shit, but I am incredibly picky about the crackfics I like because I like the crack balanced with accurate characterisation. But otherwise... yeah I do enjoy reading fics with worldbuilding, canon-compliant but dense stories, which dig into trauma, which are compelling, self-contained AUs - or some combination of the above.

55. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics?  Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

There's a lot of phrases I see when I read over chapters before upload where I'm like "That's a me-ism" "That's just something embedded in my head that doesn't fit this character" "Aich, that sentence construction only makes sense to you". I can't recall any off the top of my head, but rest assured I notice them during the pre-upload read-over and I try to edit them out when they get too much.

As for themes - trauma and codependency are big ones, obviously. As for settings... idk, HP is my forever fandom even as JKR's become an ever bigger piece of shit and that's probably why my brain really likes the idea of castles and magical schools to this day.

Also just the fact that those concepts are both just really cool.

68. Are there any fics that influenced you to write the way you do?

Sacrifices Arc. It was one of the first absurd-length fics I ever really encountered that deeply dug into and portrayed trauma and the struggle of healing in a way I felt was accurate. It also has just... some of the most gorgeous, poetic language at times, it's depiction of the Wild Dark, or Last Time Pays For All, how it weaves worldbuilding into the narration, its characterisation...

It's one of a few fics that taught me that if you drop information in just right it doesn't feel like an infodump, it just feels like character knowledge you're meant to have. That if you just, refer to something, a reader can just infer from that that it's a known thing and you can fill it out more as it becomes relevant. It's a story which showed me that you don't have to infodump all the complex nuances of a complex, nuanced concept at once - you can slowly dole it out piecemeal, explaining how the rigid lawfulness of the Light nonetheless also means freedom in the sense of free will, while the wild freedom of the Dark also carries the freedom to be cruel and just.

God. I love this fic. I love it so much.

75. Is there a particular fic that readers gravitated towards that you didn’t expect?

Good question. In truth, I do not know. I have a reasonable readership and I know how to tag things so for the most part most of my fics get at least a couple of comments and kudos even if it's weird and niche, and I think I have a reasonable handle on what things are more or less popular in a fandom: i know when to temper my expectations. I don't think I've ever had a fic that really blew up where I didn't expect it? Most of my fics got about the level of attention I expected - even if those expectations shifted as I went?

Like... Questions is a Star Wars fic set in @fialleril's excellent Double Agent Vader 'verse, and I asked them for permission to write it as a gift to a friend. As I recall, they reblogged my post about it, and when that happened, I knew that I'd get a sudden influx of readers, because not only is it now inspired by a pretty popular AU, the AU’s creator has shared it on their blog, meaning people who might have passed it by once are seeing it again and might pick it up this time. Something similar with finds and shall find me unafraid - @sparxwrites reblogged the post I made because it's based on a fic of theirs and I asked them for permission, and when that happened I got an additional few people reading the fic, because it was clearly marked as adjacent to their interests.

So like... sometimes my expectations have shifted, but I don't think I've ever had a fic break my expectations without warning.