#this will be one of those fics that I won't publish to public because the randomness

[tuliharja]

I feel like that Picard meme when I'm trying to desperate write Star Wars Rebel's fanfic to my friend and my knowledge of Star Wars as a whole topic is based on that one series (and not even all seasons!) and some very shaky memories of the movies.

Like, I've so many questions related to the fact, how things are addressed in Star Wars.

Like, what are droid's wrench-like hands called? Are those just hands?

Do imperial troops shoot lasers? Bullets? Like whut?

Also, those white stormtroopers...does the rebels call them stormtroopers or bucket heads?

Hows do the Force work apart from the fact Jedis and Padawans can use light sabers and make things float?

Is there cussing in Star Wars? I want to Zeb have potty mouth.

What are the ships called? Like, imperial ships? Enemy ships? How I should refer to those from the rebels' point of view?

And all the other little details keep coming to my mind, even though I'm pretty sure my friend won't mind as long as I'll make enough 'kaboom' and 'boom' scenes. Or, they'll laugh their butt off for all the 'mistakes' I make or be super impressed I could actually write a Star Wars fic, despite the fact my knowledge of it is very...very...bad.

But hey. It's fiction! So, I get to make my own rules!

(Not really, because I'll dread all the 'mistakes' I might make, even though I'm sure they won't notice those.)

Haha, I forgot how fun writing fanfiction can be, but at the same time stressing.

Watch me writing A + Star Wars fanfiction, while circling around all the little details masterfully~.

[miloformula123fan]

Could you do fic for James Vowles with wife reader? Tom Brady was at the Williams garage during the FP1. James wondered what took his wife's attention from him. There, Tom Brady and her chatting up and he feels jealous because she was not spending time with him. Maybe he did something to gain her attention. Just something fluff and PDA. Thanks!!! :))

i'm going to be honest, I finished this a while ago and then just never published it, partially because then James started doing questionable things - like Logan! wtf man! and I feel bad for Franco cause he's doing amazing, outqualifying his teammate and he doesn't have a seat for next year! and zak's run out of funding for f2, like bestie, you have a wholeass f1 team backing you? basically Williams is fucked, and maybe I'm going to become a full time ferrari fan

i suppose they both made q3 tho so??? i won't jinx them for tonight

Please keep requesting - y'all have awesome ideas we agree on a lot of stuff :) - my guidelines are here, and if you want some prompts, they are here.

also feel free to come in and start chatting to me in my asks, would love to get to know y'all better

and if you want to be added to my taglist lmk :)

james vowles x wife!reader

---

James cracked his neck as he stretched taking the headphones off. It hadn’t been the worst FP1 from the entire season and it being Logan’s home race it was important for them to try and get some points on the board for the team.

But for now he was not thinking about that. He was just planning on finding his wife, and maybe curling up on a beanbag with her. He just needed to find her first.

He started asking around the garage, asking if anyone had seen her. Not many had, but a few PR people mentioned that they’d seen her heading towards hospitality.

So James headed towards hospitality. He remembered the PR people mentioning some celebrities coming to the grand prix. But he didn’t really care about any of the so-called ‘celebrities’ that came to Miami and considering he always had the excuse of work to have to do, he barely had to tolerate them.

But all those thoughts exited his head as he entered hospitality and saw Tom Brady sitting at a table, eating lunch. He was attempting not to fanboy at the sight of one of his favourite football players. And it was very easy to stop fanboying when he saw who Tom was eating lunch with.

Y/N was sitting on the table opposite Tom, looking heavily interested in whatever he was saying and nodding along as she ate her lunch. Some of the shy smiles she was showing, James rarely saw, solely because he was unable to surprise his wife a lot. She was unsurprised now when he kissed her or told her how beautiful she was. She appreciated it, of course, but he hadn’t seen this smile since he surprised her with a birthday party.

And then there was Tom Brady, a famous football player, seemingly flirting with his wife.

James was not someone who was very into public displays of affection, or PDA, but he genuinely saw no other option as he watched Y/N laugh again as Tom Brady said something. 

He walked over to the table, throwing his arm behind Y/N’s chair as he leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek.

“Hello Darling. Did you see the end of FP1?”

“Oh, hello James. Yeah we did, we watched the final few minutes here. Sorry I didn’t wait, but I wanted to beat the mechanic rush and I was a little bit hungry. Oh and by the way, this is Tom Brady, y’know, he won the superbowl a few times.”

He laughed and James had to clench his teeth to not spit at him “Only a few times, closer to 7. Sorry, I’m Tom, and you are?”

“James. I’m the team principal for Williams.”

“Oh, well lovely to meet you. Would you like to join us? I’m sure we could pull up another seat, and you could join us?”

“Yes, well I would love to join my wife for lunch, however I have a meeting. If you don’t mind darling, can I join you for afternoon tea?”

“Oh, of course.”

Y/N sat down in the booth waiting for her husband to slide in opposite her. She was not expecting her husband to lay another kiss on her cheek before sliding into the chair opposite, handing over the food.

“Are you okay James?”

“You mean other than whatever is going on with my team, yeah I am, why do you ask?”

“You seem a little tense.”

“I’m not tense darling.”

“Yes you are, now tell me why.”

“I’m not tense.”

“James, I married you 5 years ago. I know when you are tense.”

“Okay. Fine. I was jealous.”

“Jealous? When would you… oh. James,” she took his hands, leaning to try and look at him “James. Were you jealous of Tom Brady?”

“...no.”

“James, it’s okay if you are. But you have to know that I much prefer the sexy, nerdy British team principals than the hot American football players.”

“You… do.”

“Of course. That’s why I married one. I know I’m attractive James. And I know I could marry whoever I want. And I want to marry my sexy, nerdy British husband.”

“I love you too Darling.”

---

taglist: @leosxrealm, @tallrock35, @wolf-knights, @janeholt3, @pear-1206

[buckets-and-trees]

Game: match the character with the trope & give a little explanation why you paired them/how you would go about writing that type of fic 🩷

Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Ransom Drysdale, Ari Levinson & Nick Fowler

Forced proximity, forbidden love, fake dating, hidden identity & arranged marriage

Okay, this was fun, Em! And at least this time I didn't get TOO carried away...

ARI LEVINSON - FORCED PROXIMITY - I don't know... maybe this 2500-imagine-ish pitch that spilled out of my fingers this weekend? Hahaha

BUCKY BARNES - HIDDEN IDENTITY - I think this could happen over many different period of Bucky's life, but I'm especially interested in Bucky on the run after Winter Soldier and before Civil War. I love reading fics that take place during this time, and I've got a fic that I started and need to go back to (and maybe rewrite so I can complete it) that would be him hiding for short periods of time in cabins/rentals/vacation homes as he makes his way out of the DC Metro area those first months after CA:WS and while he's crashed at one particular place, Reader shows up, and they spend a few days or maybe a week together before moving on to the next place (and the next and the next until he eventually ends up in Romania).

RANSOM DRYSDALE - FAKE DATING - When a petition citing some extenuating circumstances/technicalities/the manner in which his confession was coerced/etc, a judge is willing to review it due to Ransom's good behavior (read: MONEY) while he's been serving time, and he gets him out of jail. You are immediately hired to be his Cinderella-image of a girlfriend so he can become the public's wronged and misunderstood Prince Charming because Linda won't have any more bad press - it's affecting all of the family businesses. Why are you willing to take the deal? You came up in an initial pool of suitable eligible females in the local area and it just so happens that one of the editor's at Harlan's publishing house (still overseen by Walt) has been considering one of your novels for publication, and this presents an opportunity for them to sweeten a proposal for this PR relationship by offering you a six-novel publishing deal as long as you maintain the relationship with Ransom for at least 18 months.

NICK FOWLER - FORBIDDEN LOVE - You're a detective working for Interpol. You know the trouble he's caused. Even though he was able to cover up his deeds initially with the CIA, once the Chinese/MSS took him into custody, it all came out. But he's managed to escape. He's managed to find his way to Romania, which is where you just so happen to be stationed now. You worked a case closely with him six years ago in Portugal, and...though you both kept it professional, his charm was undeniable. He had no idea you were in Romania, but he's not mad about that in the slightest now that he's spotted you. He could have some fun with this. Are you ready to play with fire?

STEVE ROGERS - ARRANGED MARRIAGE - In a Steve Stays scenario, if he's going to refuse to be Cap, he's being lobbied to still use his influence and power to help bring some order to this post-Blip society. He went tried to retreat and fade into the background, but things are escalating, and Pepper - who had also tried to stay in the background - is concerned that there are things happening maybe because of their inaction. She's got an idea. She wants to get Steve into political office, and she's going to appeal to his sense of duty (which she can do because it's the guilt she's also feeling). He'll agree because he trusts her judgement. For the best image, he's going to need a wife - this is a harder sell, but - again - he trusts Pepper Potts, he doesn't even need to vet the candidates, because if he's all in on this idea, he'll be all in, and he knows Pepper will pick someone who will fit the bill as his suitable trophy wife. You.

would... well would anyone be interested in any of these if I thought about actually writing them?

[bettsfic]

Hi Betts,

Thanks for continuously posting helpful advice.

I just wanted to know— how does someone go about getting to the point in their writing where they are not so precious with words in hopes of taking off the pressure when drafting?(in reference to a previous post)

i remember a few years ago, there was this very well known and popular fanartist whose name i won't give because they're no longer on tumblr or even going by their handle anymore. they received an ask much like this one in which they said something to the effect of, they could spend hundreds of hours on a piece of art and be willing to throw it away, because (and this is from memory because i can't find the original post) there will always be more art.

i remember being aghast about that. how could you spend so much time working on something and just...not do anything with it? scrap it and start over? maybe even delete the file?

and more importantly, i remember wondering how an artist could even reach that point.

maybe everyone gets there in a different way, but for me it was the emergence of a bigger picture, that i don't write to be read or seen or understood, but so i can explore things that can't otherwise be explored, and live experiences that can't be lived. for me, the value is in the process, not the product. and, to the artist's point, there will always be more words.

more concretely, it was also spending an entire year working on a novel, only to realize that what i wanted it to be was not what fit in the market, and that to make it marketable i would've had to have made revisions that would've changed the thing i wanted it to be. so i realized publication isn't endgame; it's happenstance. a few things i write may be marketable, but probably only a fraction of them, and only if what i write overlaps with what is being sold. a venn diagram of "stories that will be published" and "stories that i enjoy writing" are often two circles about a mile apart. whether or not a story is marketable doesn't affect my personal opinion of it.

the same is true for fanfic. if i finish a fic, i post it for the sake of archiving it. i don't pay much attention to traffic (but i do read comments), and it's been a long time since i've written consistently in a popular fandom. in fact the last fic i posted only had one other fic in the ship tag. the point of writing fic, for me, is to get it out of my brain and onto a page, and if someone eventually comes upon it and enjoys it, great.

i'm definitely not at the point where i can just straight-up delete work, but i can write something for a very long time and be satisfied even if no one ever looks at it. it does bum me out when i care about something so much and nobody else does or will, but that's the nature of writing, and art in general. nobody cares as much as you do, and even if you write something that's wildly successful, read and loved by millions, award-winning, adapted to screen--still, all those people will have their individual, private relationship with the thing you wrote, will perceive it in their own unique way, and even if it changes their life, the story can never give them what it gave you.

i don't mean for that to be depressing or deterring. what i hope you take from it is that your feelings toward your work are more important than anyone else's feelings toward it, and not everything has to be seen and admired in order to be worthy enough to exist. sometimes you have to take the risk of being unseen to create your best work.

[cyren-myadd]

But recently I realized that your stories are no longer visible to anyone in AO3 and it makes me sad because I can't read them... so I wanted to ask you if ¿you could make them visible again to everyone in AO3?… ¿And not only for those who have accounts there are? Please

I locked my fics a little while ago because I saw a post on tumblr warning AO3 authors that bots were copypasting public works to feed into AI algorithms for churning out artificial fanfic. The idea of my work getting fed into a soulless AI really pissed me off so I locked my fics. I hated to make my fics inaccessible to readers who don't have AO3 accounts, but I felt like I had to.

However, I've been thinking about it more lately and I've realized that there's so many millions of public works out there for bots to access that my work is only just another drop in the bucket. Whether or not they get fed into the AI algorithms won't make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. The AI will still learn how to write a story with or without my writing.

But you know what the AI will never have? Human creativity. The programmers can teach the AI to be perfect at story structure and grammar and word choice and all that jazz, but you can't teach an AI originality because all it can do is regurgitate stuff it's been fed. Sure, an AI might have a better writing quality than me, but an AI wouldn't be able to come up with all the unique ideas I've enjoyed writing about and my readers have enjoyed reading.

So long story short, I've decided to unlock my fics so everyone can read them. I don't care if a bot steals them to feed to an AI. They can steal my writing style, but not my humanity.

Also, I didn't know people still read my fics! I don't care how old a fic is, if you're rereading it and enjoying it, don't be shy, leave a comment to let me know 💙💙💙

and on another note, I really hope that one day legislators will make laws concerning copyright and AI. At the end of the day, if somebody uses AI to create a shitty X-reader fic or whatever for themselves, I don't care. But if somebody actually published an AI generated work and was making money off of something they didn't actually write? That would bother me. Same thing for art and animation. I don't want people to get paid for work they told a machine to make for them, especially since it will ruin the job market for writers, artists, and animators. Hopefully one day we'll have laws saying AI-generated material cannot be copyrighted, so creative jobs will be protected from getting replaced by machines that regurgitate stolen work.

[alexanderwales]

The Current WIP List

Inspired by this post by @a-memory-a-distant-echo, this is a list of ongoing works-in-progress, where "in progress" I will define as "I have added at least one sentence in the last year as an indicator of actual mental load being used". This does not include worldbuilding or planning documents, which spring up like weeds. I am also including the ones that I get paid for via Patreon or publication deals or whatever.

Thresholder is my currently ongoing web serial, publishing two chapters a week (in theory ...). It's about a guy who travels between worlds and fights other people who travel between worlds, with each world being a relatively contained book. Currently about 750K words.

Doomsday Pivot! is, in theory, the follow-up to Thresholder, about a start-up that has to make a sudden change in plans when the end of the world gives everyone a character class. First book is rough draft complete but needs some responses to developmental editing, sitting at 104K words. (You can read a noncanonical first chapter here, which I had previously made public on my discord.)

Millennial Scarlet is a webcomic I write about a gig-economy demon hunter. Writing comics is awesome, mostly because I get to see my words come to life. In word count ... I'm not sure right now, but probably not all that much. In the middle of writing the fourth issue right now.

Glimwarden was a web serial that I abandoned, a black mark on my record. I intend to go back to it at some point, because it was my wife's favorite. You can read it up to the point where it was abandoned here. There are currently ~3 unreleased chapters, but most of the effort put into it has been rewriting it and bringing it up to snuff, as well as fixing some problems with it. Will get a relaunch at some point, probably, when I'm ready to commit to that. No idea on the word count.

Untitled Dance Magic story is probably a short story, currently ~5K words. It's based around a magic system where people do ballroom dance to create architecture, and is a somewhat traditional romance and/or coming of age story. I started writing it on a whim after a conversation with @etirabys at LessOnline, and hopefully they haven't started their own story, and hopefully if they have, hopefully their story doesn't overlap mine. I'll check before posting, hoping to get this one finished and out there.

Kensuke Fucks the World is an existentialist horror erotic novel, which I describe as being "like the Erogamer, but sad". Currently 75K words, and might never see the light of day. I think I can wrap it up in another 25K words, but I think it needs a lot of work.

Long Stairs will probably be novella length in its finished form, and will probably not be finished. It's an old story, which predates Worth the Candle by a few months, and is about a military fireteam making a routine delve into an endless shifting dungeon that the US military has already pulled a lot of magic out of. Medics with clerical healing, wands and firearms, high fantasy and military. There's unfortunately some stuff in there that I cannibalized for WtC that needs to be changed so it's not a repeat, but nothing structural, and there are a lot of plot beats that I enjoy in both the 15K words that are already written and what's in the notes. I did not put a bunch of work into this one, but it was one of those cases where I was reading through old stuff and got enough of a head of steam that it latched onto me again. (I also don't know enough about the military or how to write that kind of stuff, which is one of the reasons that this fic never got my full attention.)

The Lot is a story that's basically just "the backrooms, but with cars". It think it was inspired by a tumblr post, but probably won't be finished, since it's probably novella length. Currently 9K words, more a character study than it is about people stuck in an infinite parking lot and scrounging off what they can find in glove compartments.

Kitchen Sink is a bureauporn/bureaupunk novel about the agency created to deal with the rise of mutants circa 1977. Currently a mere 9K words, but the plan was for each successive part of the book to focus on another genre being discovered by the department, so you'd get a book with wizards, with vampires, with aliens, etc., mostly with a focus on how these are handled on an administrative level. No way I would ever be able to sell it, unfortunately.

Robot Team Isekai (not its real title) is about a van full of kids on their way to a robotics team meet that get transported to another world where their individual specialties grant them awesome abilities in a "your hyperfixation makes you perfectly adapted to the fantasy world" kind of way, but for five people with different hyperfixations. 2K words, probably will never see the light of day.

Full Meta vol. 2 is a novel about a group of high school students who get metafiction powers, so like ... one girl gets the ability to read the text of the novel they're in whenever someone is engaging in exposition, one guy can read the flashbacks, someone can read all the romance scenes or whatever, and they have a dysfunctional time dealing with each other through college and into adulthood. I fully recognize that calling it "Full Meta vol. 2" when no first volume exists is a gimmick title and would be confusing enough to immediately turn people away.

Dark Wizard of Donkerk was an old NaNo novel, but got halfway dev edited before my dev editor on that one flaked. I think it's a good story, just a matter of getting into the guts of it and making it great, but that takes time. 173K words, but this is old old. If you like rough, unpolished creative output, you can read it on my website.

Untitled Hermione/Draco fanfic is, uh ... I guess according to the logs was something that I put effort into in late 2023. I have read vanishingly little HP fanfic, and I'm sure there's a ton of this stuff, and that some of it is even good. This one doesn't adhere too much to canon or fanon, and is mostly about trying to write a realistic racist who falls in love with someone he's racist against. 14K words, I cannot believe I added anything to this recently, but apparently I have.

Technically by the criteria set out, I should count all seven of the NaNo test chapters I wrote. Of those, the only ones that have retained any brain space are "The Inevitable Return of Nathaniel Greene" and "Dungeon Core".

There are a few more that are technically outside the arbitrary time limit of one year, but I'm going to include them because I have thought about them in the last year (and will not include the ones that I have not thought about).

Of Witches and Wizards is what I thought was a romance but was told does not fit the apparently pretty exacting mold of a "romance novel". It's about a widowed witch whose two sons have left for college and a wizard who travels the world writing about places for a travel guide. They fall in love. Tons of worldbuilding stuff as they visit different cities and see the breadth and beauty of magic in the world. 15K words right now, was going to be a nice and slender novel.

Eager Readers in Your Area was a short story I wrote a year and a half ago. The WIP is a novel-length version of that about ... art, artists, AI art, dealing with people online, and a bunch of other stuff. I wrote an outline I thought was quite good, but if the short story is the first chapter, then I want an equally good and tight second chapter, and that's hard to do.

Slaver Slayer (not final title) was about a slave who assassinates a high-ranking member of the kingdom and through an oversight gets a magical artifact that might possibly let her kill her way through the monarchy in an attempt to end the institution of slavery. The other protagonist is a detective who's grappling with his complicity in the system and is trying to stop her. Made it to 13K words. Another one of those that was outlined to be a nice tight novel.

[olderthannetfic]

Wait I’m genuinely curious about the mechanisms of this - so I know about ao3 and copyright law, but what about zines? I think the earliest are from the 1970s but how have they, as a media form, survived for so long if they’re also technically breaking the law by profiting off an IP? I get a lot are for charity and companies would be reluctant to sue projects for charity but I’ve seen some being sold that aren’t?

And also what about authors who post early updates on patreon or have patreon exclusive fics? That surely has to break copyright law?

Possibly answering my own question but maybe it’s because companies don’t care about this but I also did live through Nintendo viciously taking down let’s plays because they thought it breached their copyright by disincentivising people from playing the games?

Companies can be really strict about their IPs, so I’m really curious as to how this is happening and how people are protecting their works.

--

Getting away with shit and shit being legal are two very different things. ;)

And, to be fair, shit being illegal and companies threatening you with legal action are also very different things.

The oldschool ones were not for charity. You could make a fair use argument, but most zines survive simply because rights holders don't bother to go after them. Small print runs of physical objects are often not seen as significant enough to bother with. Zine makers often argue that they're only charging because they need to cover the printer's bill. Some prices on old zines bear this out; others don't.

Plenty of zines did get shut down by rights holders, however, from big-for-sff-publishing names like Chelsea Quinn Yarbro to Hollywood types like George Lucas. The reasons ranged from "My historical figure vampire is super original and your random-ass zine is endangering my copyright" (Fuck you, CQY. I'm never reading a page of your crap!) to "I just don't like Luke/Leia for some reason but won't tell you why" (LOL). I hear Lucas went after horny zines in general too. I wasn't around for any of this, obviously, but there are writeups online, including on Fanlore.

I presume modern zines benefit from the greater awareness around fair use and around bad press from suppressing fanworks, but they could still be in danger from big rights holders. Being legal or illegal is less important than who has the money for lawyers. Sometimes, a fan can get a big corp to back off by brazening it out, but you have to tell them your legal name and go "Come at me, bro!" Who wants to do that?

Fic Patreons are not only on shaky legal ground, but Patreon does not allow that use of the site. It's a private company, not a public service, and it can pretty much do as it pleases. Here are the guidelines in part:

Restrictions We don’t allow creations and benefits that violate our terms or policies. You can learn more by visiting our Community Guidelines and Benefit Guidelines. A high level summary of those rules is that we don’t allow:

illegal creations or benefits;

creations or benefits that are abusive towards other people;

creations or benefits that use others’ intellectual property, unless you have written permission to use it, or your use is protected as fair use;

or creations or benefits with real people engaging in sexual acts.

If your fans include people under the age of 18, then please remind them that they need their parent’s or legal guardian’s permission to purchase an offering or membership subscription on Patreon, and that those under the age of 13 cannot use Patreon. We are not required to allow any particular person or group of persons to be a patron or otherwise access Patreon services.

Now, yes, they do make an exception for fair use, but I doubt they'll side with the majority of fanworks creators on their particular Patreon works counting as fair use. (Actually, they might be more lenient on RPF. That "real people" rule is about porn starring live actors, not about RPF.) They might rule in favor of the person selling their fic on there, but they very well might not, and even if you were willing to fight it out in court, you probably couldn't since Patreon would be denying you service on their site, not suing you. They can deny service to whomever they want any time they want.

I don't advocate tattling to Patreon simply because I don't think there's any social contract around respecting Patreon's wishes, nor are Patreons I don't back super visible and in my face. Patreon is built by people who get paid to do that; the extra ethical issues present on AO3 are not present here. I don't really approve, but I'm also not going to go out of my way to rat on people. However, I'm sure that fandom enemies of BNFs with Patreons do tattle. I'd advise anyone monetizing this way to have other contact info for their patrons in case they suddenly get kicked off.

--

Basically, people are flying under the radar, and then periodically, there's a big drama where a rights holder or hosting site destroys everything.

[dragonagitator]

Like House MD, time travel, radical canon divergence, and author-self-insert isekai fanfics? Beta readers wanted!

Welp it seems the brainrot I contracted from @acrownforaking is compelling me to write my own House MD isekai fanfic featuring an author-self-insert who unexpectedly reality shifts / time travels from January 2024 in our universe to January 2004 in the Houseverse, then immediately decides to seize this opportunity to unfuck the shitshow that is Greg House's life while simultaneously rewriting 20 years of history with nothing but her shitty memory and her hubris to guide her.

Unfortunately, while I've spent the past 30+ years reading 100+ million words of fanfic in various fandoms, my only previous experience in writing fanfic has consisted of starting and then abandoning a few Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate 3 fics. I wrote thousands of words, but I wrote the scenes out of order as the ideas came to me. I never published even a single chapter of those fics on AO3 because my writing process failed to produce a coherent Chapter 1 before getting hopelessly bogged down in obsessively researching the lore of the games' settings.

I've learned from my mistakes and this time I'm going to force myself to write my story in chronological order so I can begin publishing chapters while it's still a WIP. I've heard that those sweet sweet dopamine hits from AO3's email notifications can be a great incentive to keep writing. Plus the Houseverse being nearly identical to our own universe means there's very little setting-specific lore for me to research.

I'm seeking beta readers both for the usual reasons (motivation, accountability, and general writing feedback) and to help me untangle the messes I'll be making every time my OC uses her foreknowledge to force a radical deviation from show canon and/or IRL recent history. So, if you're the sort of person who enjoys pointing out a plan's fatal flaws or rooting out logical inconsistencies, then oh boy would I love for you to rip my drafts apart. Make both my OC and me cry. Please.

Warning: This fic will be dark. The source material is already pretty fucking dark -- House MD canon includes all four of the major archive warnings -- and my story will likely include even more potential triggers than in canon because one of the major themes will be how quickly things can spiral horribly out of control when you think you can predict the future.

So, if you have any triggers that you avoid reading about for the sake of your mental health, you probably shouldn't volunteer to beta read my fic because I won't be working on the trigger warnings until the final polishing for publication. It would be safer to wait until I've posted on AO3 to read it because I plan to break the chapters up so that triggering content is quarantined in its own separate chapters that can be briefly summarized and skipped.

Please let me know if you're interested in beta reading chapters before they're published on AO3. Any level of involvement welcome -- I am fully aware that most people don't have the time or interest to volunteer as a copyeditor or developmental editor! Quick feedback like "he would not fucking say that" or "yo there's a giant plot hole over here" would be super helpful to me too. Thanks in advance!

[princesscolumbia]

So a small sidebar to all the everything I'm doing, I'm kinda using "Code of Ethics" to function as a bit of a warm-up for producing original fiction that will sell under the 'self-publishing' model. I'd eventually like to be able to get a full publishing deal for something, but that won't happen until I can show off my writing chops in a non-fanfic level of writing.

(Just to reassure my fans of my Ranmafics and Horsefics, no, I have not abandoned writing any of those)

With that in mind, I've had a few projects that aren't fanfic based sitting in my "to write" pile that I haven't gotten to because I was operating under the notion that nobody would read my stuff if I wasn't writing fanfics. Well, CoE is damn near the closest to fully original fanfic I've ever written. Sure, I use QuietVallerie's framework and foundation for it, but I've got completely original characters (I've MENTIONED some names in the other Troubleverse books, but if I were to swap those out this would be a fully 'ties-cut' original fic from the character standpoint), a VRMMO setting that I'm stitching together from whole cloth and a lot of inspiration from a game QuietVallerie doesn't even play, and the ending isn't dependent on anything QuietValerie's doing whatsoever. She's even acknowledged that most of her work is blatantly 'inspired' by other sci-fi works, so even if all I did was change a few names it'd be a wholly original fic that simply drew from the same inspirational sources for Troubleverse.

That said, I want to keep CoE a firmly Troubleverse fic. Not only would I like to someday (hopefully, wishful thinking, please-please-please-please-please!!!) be granted 'canon' status by QV, I dislike the notion that I should divorce MY stuff from its origin just to make a little cash. The people that are reading CoE are doing so because I set it up as a Troubleverse fic, attempting to divorce my work from that franchise after I've gained a following would be disingenuous at best.

So all that brings me to my first (public) foray into original fiction. I've decided I'll be posting to the following with a 1-week gap when I publish a chapter, and I'll be aiming for 1 chapter per week:

Patreon

Scribblehub

Archive of Our Own

And what, you may ask, will be my first project? I put the choice to my most important audience in all the multiverse; my daughter. From the available options I gave her, she picked...

Goldrush, CO

Over a century after its establishment as a 'company town' for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, the town of Goldrush, Colorado was finally sold off "at cost" to the town citizens, fully separating them from the agency that jumped the shark during the union busting of the 1900s. The town has secrets, starting with the biggest one of all; Goldrush was founded as a 'dumping grounds' for the weird and unwelcome. From dumb artifacts that can control the weather (and corrupt the user) to steampunk androids to a pod of selkies, if the Pinkertons were hired to investigate and dispose of it and it was in some way 'supernatural,' then it went to Goldrush. Now that the town's independent, they still have an entire warehouse district of artifacts and paraphernalia that doesn't officially exist that needs to be stored and managed, so the town hires a logistics specialist. Lois is a woman who's just looking to start over after a nasty divorce that was followed by the tragic death of her ex-wife. So she packed her bags and moved to Goldrush from San Diego in hopes of immersing herself in the history of the unusual town to forget her own tragic history. If only she could do her job without bumping heads with the (unreasonably attractive, built like a Valkyrie from myth and legend, frustratingly stubborn) town sheriff the new job would be perfect.

If you're picking up shades of "Warehouse 13" and (more subtly) "Mystic Bayou," I've done my job in selling this right.

June will be all about finishing CoE as quickly as possible (while still maintaining the quality I demand of myself) so I can clear the decks and focus on doing as much with Goldrush, CO during July as I can before I start releasing on Patreon in August.

I'm excited about this, I hope you are, too!

[stygiusfic]

u cant spell sword without words thats what i always say. with that in mind pls 19, 20, 22 and 23 :D

you are RIGHT and you should say it!! those five letters don't lie!! <3

19. the most interesting topic you've researched for a fic

traditionally I've been allergic to writing anything that requires extensive research. either I won't have the patience for it, or worse, I'll get sucked into the research and never actually start writing. this is why I don't do modern AUs, I prefer to write fictional settings where I can make up the rules.

i did fall down a research hole of flower language when i was writing the hanahaki fic, and that was a lot of fun! (I did waste weeks of bigbang drafting time on that, though...)

20. in what year did you publish your first fic?

trying to count the rings on my tree trunk, i see... my earliest fic posted to ao3 on my first account is dated May 2008, but I was definitely posting elsewhere online for quite a few years before that. I think the very first may have been around 2003 on a forum for my first fandom, but I've lost track of the post so idk for sure. 

22. do you ever worry about public reaction to what you're writing? how do you get past that?

let me tell you a story. I wrote that cursed skelly/zagreus fic (my proud masterpiece Hard to Port) in half a day in january of 2021 to mess with all-star hades writer thepleiades, and I was half-expecting I would be chased out of the fandom with torches and pitchforks for it, so I waited until April Fool's to post it, for plausible deniability.

then after posting it I gained 3 whole subscribers on ao3. the following day i posted a perfectly normal thanzag fic and I lost 4 subscribers

the lesson from the universe here is to always write for the sake of trolling your friends and having fun, and also that trying to predict anyone else's reactions is probably pointless. 

(it still gives me weird anxiety to post now and then, especially if it's something i worked hard on, but slowly I'm getting better at turning my brain off after I hit post. my days of vibrating out of my skin hoping my latest fic will be well-received are certainly coming to a middle. maybe even three-quarters!)

23. pick three words that describe your writing

i answered this one here so i will trade you for the next!

24. how do you recharge when you're not feeling creative?

brain's a sponge so sometimes you just have to walk away if there isn't enough water to squeeze out. I like to read and watch new media for a change of pace, and usually that helps get me out of a rut! other times I'm stuck because the story has a problem I haven't figured out how to fix yet, and when that happens I talk about it to my pet bunny and he just stares or lies down because he enjoys hearing voices. and then very often my problem is magically fixed!

(wip ask meme)

[exhuastedpigeon]

hi! kind of a random ask.

i'm really impressed with your writing and fics and i wondered if you had any other writing experience before you wrote in fandoms?(like working/studying in a field that has to do with writing for example) you're very talented!

i'm kind of an aspiring fanfic writer myself and i'm curious about what experience other authors have

i hope you have a great day!

Hi Anon! Wow this is such a nice ask to get! Thank you <3

There isn't really a clean answer to your question because I've been writing my entire life. Like my 'diary' as a kid was mostly just me making up stories.

I was a newspaper and school radio kid in junior high and high school, so I wrote articles and scripts for the radio show, which was my first experience writing for an audience. I also wrote short stories and poetry that were submitted for publication in high school and won some awards (idk honestly, I've kind of forgotten since they didn't really matter to me at the time).

I went to university for political science and communication (both require a ton of writing, but none of that was creative writing. I often got feedback from professors that my research papers were engaging and in retrospect I think that meant they weren't just a report out of facts - I always added some flair because I was trying to reach a word count).

In my career I've almost always had to do a lot of writing, I was in marketing for a bit, then grant writing, then I worked for a few tech start ups that lived and died by written plans. Now I'm in sales and project management - neither require the kind of writing I've had to do in the past for jobs but I think that's actually been helpful for my creative writing work because now I have more brain power to write the creative things I'm actually interested in.

I also got my master's in communication somewhere in there and I focused a lot on interpersonal communication (though mostly through the lens of workplace interpersonal communication). That required a ton of writing, but none of it was fiction or creative.

I guess at one point in my early 20s I also wrote a 120,000 word original story that has been lost to time and destroyed laptops (always back up your work folks!!!!). I'd love to get back to writing original stories again and I'm in the process of trying to.

A word of advice for you as an aspiring fic writer - Write. Write it even if you think something like it has been written before. Write it even if you think it's bad. Write it because you want to. You will get better with every thing you write. Try to find a few friends to read your work and give you honest feedback (if you want it).

When I look back at my earliest published fics (published in places like ff. net and *shudders* myspace) those weren't great, but I wrote them and I got better with each one. My stories got more nuanced, my characters had more depth. I liked writing more and more. And when I look back at my earlier fics on Ao3 I'm really proud of how much better I've gotten at writing over the years.

Like any art form, you probably won't be great the first time you do it, but that's okay! All you have to do is start.

[nontoxic-writes]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

thanks so much @cha-melodius and @stereopticons for the tags! i am very late on this but also i mostly use tumblr on mobile and they make it impossible to copy & paste these things lol

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

18! it feels like it should be less though, i swear ive only written like five

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

288,090. Let's not talk about the word count of my wip folder.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, Red, White and Royal Blue. I have a couple Top Gun wips I still hope to publish and I used to write for Schitt's Creek.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I'd Swing With You for the Fences (Schitt's Creek, E, 87k; celeb/baseball AU)

Even If it's Just Pretend (RWRB, E, ongoing; exes-to-fake-dating-to-lovers canon divergence)

You and My Hometown (Schitt's Creek, E, 38k, holiday exes/fwb AU)

I'll Keep Your Brittle Heart Warm (Schitt's Creek, E, 13k, sequel oneshot to ISWYFTF)

A Simple Complication (Schitt's Creek, E, 8k, fwb singles week AU)

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

Yep! I am behind from a couple fics but I've been responding on my current multichap and i WILL one day catch up, even if it'll be two years late.

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

I haven't written a single angsty ending lol

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

Currently, I'd say You and My Hometown just because it's the angstiest complete fic I have and the end goes a few years ahead in their happily ever after.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Yeah sometimes. A couple backhanded compliments, too. Sometimes I wish people would just stop reading it, and if they feel like they have to finish, at least stop commenting if they're not liking it.

Also like... authors can see your public bookmarks. If you're gonna be even vaguely disparaging in there... maybe click the "private bookmark" checkbox.

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

I don't consider myself a smut writer, because I tend to think of smut as a separate genre, if that makes sense? I definitely write some smutty scenes, but I don't write pwp or smut for smut's sake (thank you to those of you who do, truly doing the lord's work).

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

I don't, but there is a Descendants AU in my Schitt's WIP folder lmfao.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, thank god.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but that would be so lovely!

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

No, but I have written as part of a group project where we each wrote a chapter: The Blouse Barn Divorce Ranch.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

It honestly is probably firstprince. I've been so in love with them for four years, the book truly changed my life.

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

The Schitt's Creek superhero AU. When I tell you that the plot twist I had planned for that was gonna be so good... RIP.

Also my Schitt's Creek apocalypse AU that I had written the beginning and ending for and could never get the middle right ugh.

Also also my Top Gun wrong number sexting WIP.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Working in canon elements. Which, maybe I should focus on plot and characters instead if I ever want to publish original work whoops.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Descriptions. I don't visualize when I read, so I never really bother with mundane descriptions when I write. I need to remember some readers do need those details when reading, even if I don't.

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

I won't do it unless it's something I can run by a native speaker.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

I honestly don't even know. Maybe Buffy?

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Even If it's Just Pretend. It's been such a labor of love and some of my absolute favorite lines are in it.

But also the Schitt's Creek Penelope AU, The Rumors Are Terrible and Cruel. I love Penelope so much and weaving that in with some of my favorite characters was such a blast. I wish more people had read it lol.

Okay like I said, I'm super late to this, so no idea who has done this yet. Tagging @lilythesilly, @maxbegone, @roseapothecary and @kiwiana-writes just in case any of yall haven't done it!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Ahoy Steph 🙌, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and what kind of tropes and stories you enjoy? Wanna get to know a little more about who is behind the blog if you don't mind🤸

Hey Nonny!

Sorry for the delay in a reply... just haven't "felt it" the past couple months, and after a nice 2 week break (and now a slow day at work), I feel more up to answering a long-form ask today, LOL.

So, I won't reveal too much about myself that isn't already public, since I try to keep my online and personal lives separate (and I come from an age where people usually DID do this because no one needs to know every little bit about you). The basics are that I'm a 41-year-old Canadian dork who loves video games, animation, movies, drawing, writing, and making music. I'm a graphic designer by trade, and have been for nearly 20 years, and I love it (if you need something designed or laid out, hit me up, I freelance on the side for extra spending money). I love dragons and puppies and kitties. I've been in fandom spaces for as long as I can remember, even before the internet. First major fandom I was a part of was Sonic the Hedgehog in my teen years, used to be a pretty popular writer back then. I moved on to Darkwing Duck in my 20s, then TMNT and then Sherlock (I'm a fan of a TONNE more things, but these were the active fanbases I had a presence in). These days I'm more of a lurker than actively participating, though Sherlock has been the longest one I haven't really moved on from. I like the casualness of what I've built here, and I think that's been a huge benefit for my mental health.

Hmm... my fave food is mac and cheese, but had to cut back on it a lot, so these days it's mostly chicken, lol. Fave dessert is cheesecake. Again, not supposed to eat it because of the dairy and sugar, so if I make it, I use lactose-free cheese. I treat myself once-a-year on my birthday, usually.

My current dream is to own a home. I've been trying to make it happen for almost 10 years now, and every time I get close, the goal-post gets shifted as housing prices skyrocket. It makes me very sad.

My dream holiday is a Disney cruise OR somewhere tropical; wanted to do these since I was 20. Secondary dream WAS going back to Disney World for my 40th, but now it's for my 45th or 50th, hopefully with SOMEONE (no one wants to go with me, hence the back-burner on this one). Listen, I know how awful Disney is. I just... really loved being there. It's easy to forget a lot of things when you're there. Third dream is a cross-country LITERAL nostalgia road trip with my sister. We used to go on 2-week-long, cross-Canada road trips when we were kids, and I just... want to kind of relive those, y'know? Lots of fond memories. Again, something that's just a dream because while my sister wants to do it, she doesn't want to be an alternate driver, so. Yeah, I can't do the driving alone.

Uh... Hmm. Not sure what else I should talk about here, if there's something specific y'all want to know, just ask :)

As for fave tropes, I love fake relationship fics the most, I think, followed by pining and movie rewrites with characters... I'm actually pretty easy-going when it comes to tropes, really. Willing to read any trope at least once to see if I like it.

Oddly, though, I prefer stories that are SUPER in-character (to how I read them, anyway) AND focus a lot on character studies and relationships with other characters. Novel-length stories are usually the best for it, but shorter ones can be too. I prefer fanfics more these days because I don't have to think about how these characters SHOULD be and focus more on the world that the author created. When I do read published novels, though, they're usually fantasy books. One of my fave series ever is the Inkheart Trilogy. Just an easy read from book one.

Yeah, so that's a little bit about me, to start off 2023 AND for any newbies that have just recently found me.

Thanks again for your curiosity :) Again, if you have anything you want more elaboration on, I can at my discretion.

[fitzrove]

Writer Asks

Tagged by @yallemagne (thank you<3) ages and ages ago... Inspired to answer because I just published a fic and feel good about it hjejejfjj

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Undisclosed amount xD I've put a bunch on anon, especially from fandoms I'm not active in anymore (lbr, mostly Endeavour). Publically, it's 26 rn.

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

212040!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Elisabeth, hopefully in the future Tanz der Vampire (I've been thinking about it for like five years), in the past Endeavour (TV).

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

They're all Endeavour because those are older and in a (slightly) bigger fandom... Unfortunately I think they're not the best ones I've written, a lot of them were when I was 18 (no offense to 18 year olds) and had just started writing fanfic ajajjjd. Which is why the top 5 are on anon except for one LOL. I really do think kudos doesn't tend to accumulate "correctly" xD People like familiar tropes and time of posting also affects it, there are many fics of mine I consider "underrated"

My top five kudosed Elisabeth fics are: black as the earth (shortened title), Flights of Angels (todolf longfic), Dominion, Midnight Man & Starwalk. tbh deserved...

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

Yes, I try to respond to every single one of them so people will hopefully comment in the future too, especially if they're kind, funny or thought-provoking!!! However, I delete them if I don't like them or they're weird, boundary-crossing or TMI ahdjfjjf (has happened a handful of times - the joys of writing explicit stuff lol. PSA: do not tell fic authors about your sexual activities in the comments, i do not consent...)

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

I often do bittersweet, or "sweet but also has Implications" >:] Oh and I guess there's a lot of them where Rudolf dies at the end... I think the actual angstiest might be No Forevers (Endeavour fic) even though nobody dies in that one. Though I ruined it by writing a sequel to it, after the showrunner wrote one of the characters back into the show after like 10 years xD In my defense, this wasn't my idea!!!

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

Beams of Morning (Endeavour). I retconned one of my own DIY bittersweet endings whoops... 🤣🤣😭 It's sappy, even, but maybe that's allowed. For elisabeth it's Flights of Angels because the happiest happy endings are ones that feel deserved.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No - I've gotten hate for my headcanons/meta and my video essays though (never to my face ;D) which can be fic adjacent. I guess it's because there's a better tagging system with fic, like, people won't be exposed to stuff they don't want to see as readily as with tumblr and youtube etc. And people also know how to leave other ppl alone!! Ajdjjfjf

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

Yes. The unpleasantly sexy kind 👀

10. Do you write crossovers?

Noooo, I don't really read them either. The kinds of crossovers I like are the ones that are crossovers "in name only"; ie. setting or tropes lifted from one work, characters/cast from another. Wildly incongruent characters showing up in each other's universes and interacting etc doesn't fit into my suspension of disbelief most of the time 😭

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Luckily no!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I once helped someone translate theirs into English, which was cool. Oh, and recently I've been asked for permission to translate at least one of my fics - I hope it happens because it's always an honor!! >:]

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

I've collaborated on series, but I haven't co-written stuff on a deeper level. I think I'm too much of a control freak to get into it ajsdjjf, I can do stuff inspired by other people and am happy if my stuff inspires other people, but if I need to agree on plot/characterisation with someone consistently I don't think it'd work out, since no two people have identical takes and preferences with stories and characters.

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

For around 2.5 years it's been todolf, it captures a lot of stuff I've liked in fiction for a longer time already >:D I can't really say whether it will be the Ship of a Lifetime for me... I mean it did make me move countries (as one reason of a few) but if someone asked me in the summer of 2016 I would've probably said [checks ao3 reading history] um. h*milton x j*fferson... so like. IT CHANGES A LOT OK ajajsjdj

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but don't think you ever will?

I don't want to doom any of my current wips to the graveyard!!!!!! I am having worries about the fate of my todolf swan lake modern ballet au fic though. The original draft outline is complete but it doesn't really fit my character interpretations for tod or rudolf anymore, it's from january 2022... Idk maybe I can one day rework it somehow with different characterisations ajsjdjf but yeah mostly it's interesting concepts haphazardly tied together but no coherent plot

16. What are your writing strengths?

Imagination/coming up with ideas, metaphors, descriptions (usually), grammar and syntax, writing crown prince rudolf really well (XDD), rhythm/pacing (usually), the way it Sounds (my brain sometimes fixates on phonetics randomly because after all, English is not my first language, and sometimes there'll be like, a really pleasing/satisfying combination of sounds in smth I think to write and I think I'm good at picking up on that, like how it flows and sounds. Idk if those preferences are universal though or if it's just me writing what I think sounds pleasing)

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing varied characters, writing varied speech patterns/"character voice" also in narration, vocabulary.... I am but a humble English as a second technically third language speaker,,,, (i'm doing an english language grad school degree rn lol so i think i'm no worse than natives, not humble abt this actually, but i'm on the level of like. a not so well-read native speaker. Because most actual fiction literature I've read in my life has been in Finnish, in English I've just read academic literature, fanfic and like 10 books max! I need to read more and become a better writer ahhdhhdhf)

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

No... Dialogue is a big no from me, it often feels cringe ngl ajsjdjdj. My personal philosophy is "if you need a translator's note for people to understand what's going on, don't put it in" 😅 A lot of the time different languages are also used in fic in nonsensical ways where it will look ok to a lot of people but bother the hell out of native speakers/ppl who speak the language. This is smth that can technically be done well but it's usually not aksldlldd. I think pet names and individual words can be fine but it needs to be done in moderation... I also obsess a lot over research, like, the nuances of the word need to actually mean what the author thinks it means :'D

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First published for Endeavour, first wrote for H*rry P*tter... (never-to-be-published fan comics and little stories as a young kid, like 8 years old).

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Right now it's vers l'onde souterraine... ;) I think I'm constantly improving as a writer and hopefully every fic will be better than the last!!

[onwriting-hrarby]

privated works in ao3

dear all,

long time no see! i've been busy at work, at home, writing a lot for myself, and reading even more. but here i am to address what's been happening at @transformativeworks about AI possibly given permission to scrape our fics to learn/train the intelligence.

since they made the newsletter public (two days ago) i am privating all my fics except for liquid confidence. this was not a decision that i just took on the spur of the moment—it had been brewing a lot of time, considering the fear of plagiarism i have, the harassment i had been getting from anonymous commenters, etc. however, i never did until now because i wanted everyone to enjoy it—i, myself, was not an account on ao3 before i started uploading my fic.

however, on light of recent events, i do think there's no way i can leave my works unprivate: the disgusting timing of OTW to inform about this decision (in the middle of the WGA strike, after their donation), the blatant inability of the board to give a profound apologetic statement after the ratio, and the insecurity i have about my fanfics not being "sold" for anything else than the enjoyment of readers have pulled me to this.

back when wattpad announced that they were collaborating with paramount to look for "fictions" to "gather inspiration to bring up new ideas at studios" (i wanted to attach a link to the news, but worringly... the net is clear? yet i did not dream of it) i deleted all my works from wattpad. why? because i didn't want my fictions to be read by some rich higher-ups producers, to be given the idea to some other people to write.

as you know, i want to be a published author. fanfiction allows me to experiment with plots, characters and form before allowing myself to create something more narrative, a fully-fledged work in my native (minorized) language, which is very difficult to publish.

so, most of all, i write for myself. not for readers, not for anyone else: i write and publish fanfiction because i am experimenting. i have been writing 16 years of my life, as a constant thing. i am young. i don't know if i have talent but i do have persistence and crafting. this effort is impossible to replicate in a machine. this passion is impossible for an AI to feel. all of this is what makes me human, and a human writer—the contradiction in between pursuing and achieving, the deception, the sadness, the joy, the excitement: my comments, your comments.

and even though i am human by default—not by permission—what i craft is not.

i do not give my permission to train a machine that is not being regulated in any ways because i fear for a future where jobs, passion, art and what i know and love disappear: we live in such horrible capitalism that i do not see any way in which robots can help people at their jobs without entering this productivity system we're all sucked in. redistribution of richness when ai takes over won't happen—the system is too greedy for that. so, while i acknowledge the good things it has and the potential to change humanity's life for the better, i have seen too many examples of algorithms going wrong, spying on people, taking people as mere products, raging about politicians—effectively changing democracy. far too many right-wing presidents have won presidencies because of the inability (or unwillingness) of tech ceo's to stop getting millions. the largest shop that destroys your neighbour's little corner business is own by one of those ceo's. the platform you used to get informed about feminism is now owned by one of those ceo's, who's putting a female in his stance to clear up the shit he's made.

it is not a fair world we live in, so the applications of AI—as of now—can't be fair. so, because AI becomes dangerously misused, i will not be partaking in any form of sharing, contributing, or exalting AI. the possibilities of AI are endless—but the greed is not. going against AI as of now, for me, is standing for the world i have always advocated: one that doesn't turn their back on little crafters, one that acknowledges intelligence, brilliance and difference of opinions in the people who contribute, the freedom of writing what we want—and the freedom to read it.

if @transformativeworks doesn't make clear that our works won't be scraped by AI, i will also be eliminating my account permanently.

i am sorry for any inconvenience. my works will be available to those with accounts.

(also: if you're a reader that supports AI because you want your fanfictions to be delivered to you at the speed of light, just like you want it, good luck to you. i hope all your favourite works get taken down and you drown in the little, pea-sized, influenced brain you have.)

—hera

[massharp1971]

🦋 and 🎀 for the fic ask!

Thanks for the ask @hero-in-waiting :)

🦋what are you most insecure about when you post a fic?

Oooh it's a toss-up. The easy answer would be when I go a little further down the kinky path and then have a "can I really say these things out loud?" freak out before I publish (thank god for kink-positive beta readers, I love you all).

But then there are the fics that tumble out of my brain because I'm working through something difficult and it takes a long time to get a handle on what I'm saying and why I'm saying it and sometimes those are the fics that saved my life, but I agonise about what needs to be shared with the rest of the world, and it can feel a little like getting undressed in public. And then there are the fics like Atlantis Pride that are a bit of both of those things, because I went through a very difficult emotional process writing that fic, because I had to confront all of my "don't be too deviant or you won't be seen as one of the respectable queers" internalised queer/kinkphobia and boy, that stuff goes deep. I'm pleased with the result, though, sometimes the painful fics to write are the best and I think it works on so many levels and all of them, including the smut, are equally important.

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

I own the power there is in writing and am a safe, responsible pair of hands for my reader and my marginalised characters.